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Saturday, October 14, 2006
Giuliani and Assault Weapons
14 Oct 2006 11:17 pm
As Jon Stewart said of John McCain, Giuliani has turned his straight talk express into a bus to bulls**t-town. The Stranger notices the U-turn.
Shilling or Reporting?
14 Oct 2006 09:08 pm
Fox News stars also pitch products on the radio. Are they journalists or salesmen? Paul Mulshine says that whatever the answer, they aren't conservatives.
Dean Barnett's Crush
14 Oct 2006 07:29 pm
Victor Davis Hanson has given Hugh Hewitt's stand-in, Dean Barnett, the vapors. Money quote:
"I would be by his side like a Spartan at Thermopylae."
Just so long as you're not right behind him, Dean. Barnett is even dreaming of sending fawning IMs to conservative students. I thought we needed a constitutional amendment to stamp out that kind of thing.
Seriously, of course, VDH has written some great stuff and, having debated him, I know what Barnett is talking about. But his defenses of this administration's Iraq war are getting thinner and thinner. We know the rationale; and we know the stakes; and many of us want to win. Instead of repeating why the war matters, why not use his great mind to explain what the Bush administration has gotten wrong and how to put it right? VDH wants to win this war. So why keep backing people who only know how to lose?
[In the first draft of this post, I didn't realize it was Dean Barnett who was writing on Hugh Hewitt's website, not Hewitt himself.]
An American Sentenced to Death
14 Oct 2006 07:25 pm
In Iraq, an American citizen who appears to have had no fair trial and is being frog-marched to the death penalty with the help and support of the U.S. military. He has no rights any more, of course. Scott Horton explains the facts and background of the case here. Money quote:
On Tuesday, the President intends to sign the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which purports to terminate the writ of habeas corpus for US detainees overseas. In so doing, he may well be confirming a death sentence for Mohammed Manaf. This case is shocking because it deals with an American citizen who is being stripped of his rights under a foreign legal process, including the right to a trial, at the insistence of US Forces. It provides strong grounds to question what US Forces are doing in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq. As a practitioner in that court, I can only say that none of the facts detailed in the Brennan Center's papers or described by the defendant's attorney strike me as surprising. They are consistent with things I observed with my own eyes in Baghdad in the spring of this year.
What passes for justice in Iraq right now - in a Baghad in sectarian meltdown - is a travesty. But it is merely a tiny glimpse of the threat to basic liberties that this president has advanced and pioneered.
YouTube of the Day
14 Oct 2006 06:23 pm
A boy sings about his two fathers - and how much he loves them. He was adopted when he was one.
Heads Up
14 Oct 2006 05:53 pm
Just a reminder that I'll be reading and signing books in Washington, D.C., tonight at 6 pm at Politics and Prose at 5015 Connectitcut Avenue; I'll be on CNN's Reliable Sources tomorrow morning at 10 am. And the C-SPAN interview with Brian Lamb is broadcast Sunday night at 8 pm and 11 pm. I just got back from Hartford, and need a nap. Later.
The Fizzling of A Gay Panic?
14 Oct 2006 04:15 pm
Anti-gay initiatives are not creating much excitement among the Christianist base of the GOP, according to this NYT piece. Why? Perhaps the more people see the non-event of marriage equality in Massachusetts and the benign impact of civil unions in several other states, they realize that the push against gay couples is less about saving civilization, and more about cynical partisan politics. Virginia's proposed draconian ban on any rights for gay or straight couples outside of heterosexual-only civil marriage may be the test case. If it loses, the tide may have surely turned. In New York State, a democratic Rubicon has also been crossed.
The View From Your Window
14 Oct 2006 03:17 pm
Arlington, Virginia, 11 am.
MySpace Politics
14 Oct 2006 02:31 pm
Will these politicians please leave the web alone?
YouTube Politics
14 Oct 2006 02:04 pm
In Britain, the hip young new Conservative leader, David Cameron, isn't merely in favor of a carbon tax and gays getting married, he's communicating with the public on his own YouTube vlog. The only trouble is: it's excruciatingly lame. Check it out:
Which led a naughty Labour Party politician to post a YouTube parody of populist Dave. We may have started a new wave of political warfare. Forget the ads. YouTube your message direct to the voters. I prefer the parody myself. Here it is:
Sex Sells
14 Oct 2006 11:00 am
So why not add some boobs to feminism? And sell some beefcake for wounded vets?
Am I wrong?
Oh, Brother
14 Oct 2006 02:25 am
I'm glad I'm not related to Jake Ford.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Christianism Watch
13 Oct 2006 11:17 pm
From Madison's Capital Times:
The main spokeswoman for a group supporting Wisconsin's proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions has little regard for the separation of church and state, which she calls a "fictitious wall."
"Speaking of it as if it has some kind of constitutional authority is completely bogus," said Julaine Appling, president of the Wisconsin Family Research Institute, at a debate Thursday at Edgewood High School.
First Amendment? What First Amendment?
State of Denial
13 Oct 2006 09:08 pm
Some Republicans think the president is out of touch with respect to the Congressional elections, and their potential aftermath. He is said to have no plan if things go awry. That's not like this president, is it? Just ask the troops risking and losing their lives because he had no plan for the post-invasion in Iraq.
Email of the Day
13 Oct 2006 07:50 pm
A reader writes:
My entire family is reading your book together, we're giving each other until Thanksgiving when we can all get together and talk about it. I'd list our nuanced and passionately held political affiliations just to show the incredible range of your appeal, but Bill Clinton beat us to the punch with the speech you linked. It doesn't matter anymore. If you're remotely sane, vote Democrat.
If Dick Armey (who has made my skin crawl for years) has suddenly become inspiring to me and Bill Clinton (who has made my father's skin crawl for years) can motivate disaffected old-school Republicans (and he is, believe me), then there truly is a tsunami on the way.
Jeb, Karl and Foley
13 Oct 2006 07:36 pm
Maybe the FBI needs to question the governor of Florida as well. And I'd put Karl Rove under scrutiny as well.
The View From Your Window
13 Oct 2006 07:22 pm
New York City, from the East Village, 6.30 pm.
Outed
13 Oct 2006 06:55 pm
They've done it to me now. What will my mother say?
The Weirdness of Cheney
13 Oct 2006 06:29 pm
A reader reminds me of Joan Didion's peerless dissection of the life, work and personality of the most powerful vice-president America has ever known. I read it a while back. If you haven't read it, here's the link. Money quote:
[Cheney's] every instinct is to withhold information, hide, let surrogates speak for him, as he did after the quail-shooting accident on the Armstrong ranch. His own official spoken remarks so defy syntactical analysis as to suggest that his only intention in speaking is to further obscure what he thinks. Possibly the most well-remembered statement he ever made (after "Big-time") was that he did not serve in the Vietnam War because he had "other priorities."
Bob Woodward, in Plan of Attack, describes an exchange that took place between Cheney and Colin Powell in September 2002, when Cheney was determined that the US not ask the UN for the resolution against Iraq that the Security Council, after much effort by Powell, passed in November:
Powell attempted to summarize the consequences of unilateral action.... He added a new dimension, saying that the international reaction would be so negative that he would have to close American embassies around the world if we went to war alone.
That is not the issue, Cheney said. Saddam and the clear threat is the issue.
Maybe it would not turn out as the vice president thinks, Powell said. War could trigger all kinds of unanticipated and unintended consequences....
Not the issue, Cheney said.In other words the Vice President had by then passed that point at which going to war was "not about our analysis." He had passed that point at which going to war was not about "finding a preponderance of evidence." At the point he had reached by September 2002, going to war was not even about the consequences. Not the issue, he had said.
Whatever else this is, it is not conservative. It is a kind of blind brutalism. When combined with the unfettered power of the executive he and his acolytes have constructed, it is deeply disturbing.
(Photo: Shawn Thew/AFP/Getty.)
Quote for the Day
13 Oct 2006 05:56 pm
"It was not an abstract question for me. I wondered: is the point of our life on earth to become like Jesus, or is it to maintain formal affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church? I honestly don't believe God will ask of me, in the day of judgment, "Were you an obedient Catholic? (Or Orthodox, or Presbyterian...)" He will ask me, "Did you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind? Did you love your neighbor as yourself?" I had made in my life till that point the fundamental error of conceiving of the Church as an end in itself, rather than a means to the end of becoming a saint in Christ," - Rod Dreher on why he has finally left the Roman Catholic Church for Orthodoxy.
There is much in his honest anguish that, to my mind, is symptomatic of true faith.
YouTube of the Day
13 Oct 2006 05:37 pm
Watch the federal drug tsar, John Walters, boast about spending federal money on stopping Nevadans from deciding their own policies on marijuana regulation. It's one more sign that this administration loathes states' rights if they get in the way of big government moralizing. It's a classic case of the GOP's attack on principled conservatism and states' rights. If you're a Nevadan, you have a chance to tell the federal government where to shove it. Vote yes on Question 7. If you're an American tax-payer, tell the feds not to spend your money interfering with state politics.
Heads Up
13 Oct 2006 04:25 pm
I'll be on C-SPAN's Q & A with Brian Lamb about "The Conservative Soul" this Sunday at 8 pm and 11 pm. It's a full hour of conversation about the book, politics, conservatism, faith and America. My interview for NPR's "All Things Considered" can be heard online here.
The Onion and North Korea
13 Oct 2006 04:23 pm
Prescient genius strikes again.
Conservatism and the Democrats
13 Oct 2006 03:48 pm
As usual, Bill Clinton isn't dumb:
"This is an election unlike any other I have ever participated in. For six years this country has been totally dominated - not by the Republican Party, this is not fair to the Republican Party - by a narrow sliver of the Republican Party, its more right-wing and its most ideological element. When the chips are down, this country has been jammed to the right, jammed into an ideological corner, alienated from its allies, and we're in a lot of trouble ... The Democratic Party has become the liberal and conservative party in America. If you want to be fiscally conservative, you've got to be for us. If you want to conserve natural resources, you've got to be for us," he said. "If you want a change of course in Iraq ... you've got to be for us."
Fiscal conservatives, limited government conservatives, libertarian conservatives: in this election, the Democrats are the only way to stop the abuse of power now dominant in the GOP leadership.
Malkin Award Nominee
13 Oct 2006 03:37 pm
"It's early in the probe, but we may be looking at emerging evidence of a homosexual recruitment ring that operated on Capitol Hill," - Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media. The column is one of the most disgusting smear pieces yet to emerge from the bigoted swamp that is the Republican far right.
Chris Shays ...
13 Oct 2006 03:20 pm
... has lost his mind.
Fighting for Conservatism IV
13 Oct 2006 03:08 pm
The last excerpt from the Cato debate. A woman finds it "appalling" that a conservative could support equality in marriage. I respond - or try to.
Vive La Resistance
13 Oct 2006 02:37 pm
Dick Armey unloads another barrage:
"Freedom is a gift from God Almighty, and we have a responsibility to protect it. Christians face a temptation to power when we are fortunate enough to have a majority of support in Congress. But government can never advance a faith that is freely given, and it is corrosive to even try. ... And so America's Christian conservative movement is confronted with this divide: small government advocates who want to practice their faith independent of heavy-handed government versus big government sympathizers who want to impose their version of 'righteousness' on others through the hammer of law."
It's great to see a Republican call it like it is - for the sake of politics, and for the sake of religion. I'm beginning to feel what may be a sea-change out there. I guess this election will either confirm or refute that.
Virtual Book-Signing
13 Oct 2006 02:09 pm
Several readers have asked me if there's a way to get a signed copy of the book without making it to 
one of the few book readings/signings. Well, I asked HarperCollins, and the answer is: yes, there is.
If you join the book club, and buy the book, you can email me your questions and criticisms (theconservativesoul@gmail.com) - but also, if you want a personalized signature in your copy, let me know and include your name and full mailing address in the email. Put the words "signed copy" in the content line of your email, so we can expedite things.
Harper Collins has "book-plates" - essentially adhesive, paper inserts for the first page - that I can dedicate to you or a friend or family member, sign, and send back by mail. They look like the inserts people once put in books to mark them as part of their own library. When you get it, just peel off the back and stick it into your copy of the book. It's as good as waiting in line at Barnes and Noble.
Please no lengthy dedications: just the name of the person you want the book dedicated to, or I'll develop carpal tunnel syndrome. But the general rule is: if you buy the book, I'll find a way to sign it, if that's your preference. It's one more way a blog can interact with a book. Reminder: the email address is theconservativesoul@gmail.com. And put "signed copy" in the content line. Join the virtual book club with a virtually personalized edition. More details here.
Yglesias Award Nominee
13 Oct 2006 01:37 pm
"I'm extremely troubled by the fact that the record tax revenue was offset by record spending, which increased 7.4 percent from a year ago. Even more depressing is that a supposedly conservative Congress and President allowed education spending to rise over 28 percent in one year, and Medicare to grow at a rate of 12 percent over the same time period.
Can there be any better evidence that you can't control the deficit until you get a handle on spending. Why do we have to explain this to a supposedly 'conservative' Congress and GOP, who have 'gone native' and utterly failed to grasp the necessity of actually cutting government? And they wonder why some conservatives are thinking of staying home on Election Day (I'm not one of them, but there are many who may do so). Memo to the GOP: Conservative anger isn't about Mark Foley - it's about spending like Democrats (as well as immigration).
But the real buzzkill on this news is the utter failure to rein in entitlement spending. If nothing is done about actually cutting Social Security and Medicare rather than reducing the size of its growth then all the prosperity and growth isn't going to matter one bit.
Quite simply, Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the United States. The GOP has done nothing to stop the train wreck and can only say 'Yeah, but the Democrats will be worse'. That's not comforting. It's like asking if you would rather die from a firing squad or lethal injection. Either way you're dead," - right-wing blogger, Bull Dog Pundit, exposing the fiscal insanity behind the Bush facade.
Republican Cognitive Dissonance
13 Oct 2006 12:34 pm
Earlier this week, secretary of state Condi Rice and First Lady Laura Bush attended a State Department ceremony for the new global AIDS coordinator. His name is Mark Dybul. Money quote from USA Today:
At a State Department ceremony this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly acknowledged the family members of Mark Dybul, whom she was swearing in as the nation's new global AIDS coordinator.
As first lady Laura Bush looked on, Rice singled out his partner, Jason Claire, and Claire's mother. Rice referred to her as Dybul's "mother-in-law."
There you have it. Among decent elite Republicans, there is often great acceptance of gay people as individuals, and of their families and spouses. "Mother-in-law" is itself an affirmation of marriage for gay couples; and the secretary of state just used those words. And yet her party officially regards gay unions as, in James Dobson's words, a prelude to the "destruction of the earth". So which is it, guys? Let us know some time, will you?
(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP.)
Muslims and Macs
13 Oct 2006 10:55 am
The debate continues. I might add that I've long felt that the Apple stores are almost sacred in their architecture. If only we designed new churches as imaginatively ...
The Foley Factor
13 Oct 2006 02:05 am
Gallup detects a meltdown in white religious support for Republicans. The Dems are now even with the GOP among frequent church-going whites. Money graph:
This poll doesn't look so good either.
The Abuse Continues?
13 Oct 2006 01:41 am
We have more evidence of serious detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay:
In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon Inspector General, Sgt. Cerveny says she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse.
"One sailor specifically said, 'I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door,'" Sgt. Cerveny tells ABC News in an exclusive interview.She says she was "shocked" to hear several guards from different parts of the camp speak openly of mistreating prisoners. "Everyone in the group laughed at all their stories of beating detainees," she recalled. "None of them looked like they cared. None of them looked shocked by it."
One of the guards "was telling his buddy, 'Yeah, this one detainee, you know, really pissed me off, irritated me. So I just, you know, punched him in the face.'"
I wonder why they didn't feel shocked. Gitmo is heavily monitored and staffed by professionals. It's certainly more closely monitored than many other detention centers. It couldn't be because abuse and torture are still Bush administration policy, could it?
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Join the Book Club
12 Oct 2006 11:45 pm
Just a reminder that this blog is inviting readers to participate in an online book club discussion of "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How To Get It Back." Buy the book, email me criticisms, I'll read as many as I can and have a third party (a Harvard smarty-pants) select the ten toughest critiques, and I'll respond to each one on the blog. You've got till the end of the month to buy and read the book. And then the fun begins. More details here. Don't forget Amazon's 40 percent off discount.
Quote for the Day II
12 Oct 2006 10:25 pm
"Frankly, I'm unsure what to conclude from this little debate. I will simply note how perplexing I find your own concluding remarks--about how my construal of the liberal bargain is dangerous because it might vindicate those "Christians and secularists alike" who have contended that there is a tension, sometimes requiring that a choice be made, "between Christ and the republic, between God and Caesar." Funny, I thought it was Christ himself who pointed to just such a tension at the core of the human condition.
Why is it that you, like the theocons I examine and criticize in my book, seem so terrified of the American republic falling short of Christ-like perfection? Why is it not enough that the United States be a good and decent country among good and decent countries? Why is it not enough for you and other pious Christians to enjoy the freedom to worship and pray and proselytize in peace? Why, despite your own better judgment, do you so steadfastly resist seeking your salvation outside of politics? Why do you insist on identifying the fate of your soul with the fate of your country?
You may well be right that, at least at this moment in our nation's history, you have more of our fellow citizens on your side of this dispute than I have on mine. But that is precisely the problem - for American religion no less than America's politics," - Damon Linker at TNR, debating Ross Douthat.
Linker nails it in these few paragraphs, but Douthat is, to my mind, easily the best defender of theoconservatism out there, and his arguments are worth reading as well.
The Brits Want Out
12 Oct 2006 09:36 pm
Britain's Chief of the General Staff says it's time to leave Iraq. Money quote:
"Let's face it, the military campaign we fought in 2003, effectively kicked the door in." Sir Richard Dannatt added that any initial tolerance "has largely turned to intolerance. That is a fact."
Sir Richard, who took on his role in August, also said planning for what happened after the initial successful war military offensive was "poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning".
That's putting it mildly.
Free John Tierney!
12 Oct 2006 08:36 pm
We should start a campaign. Release him from TimesSelect. Same with MoDo and TF, Brooks and ... well, they can keep Paul Krugman expensive. The evidence is in on online newspapers, and the economic case for keeping online news free is stronger than you might imagine.
Allen, Webb and Warner
12 Oct 2006 08:07 pm
A Virginia reader dissents:
1) The poll you reference is obviously an outlier. Its findings are neither close to nor compatible with the trend line established by other polls. As a Virginian, I can tell that it's pretty ridiculous to claim anything about this race at this point - the advertising has just ramped up and most people are just now paying attention.
2) Pundits don't choose Senators. Voters do. Before the last state election, polls placed Jerry Kilgore with leads through much of October. Kaine still won. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have built a powerful movement in Virginia - the Democrats have picked up seats in the last two statewide elections. Allen's ground game and plan haven't been successful since 2000. Jerry Kilgore played the Rove card and couldn't beat Tim Kaine, a classical liberal.
Virginia is NOT a "Red State" as many want to paint it - it's a very divided state where the population centers all vote Democratic. In the past rural votes have been more important, but as Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area get larger the importance of rural Virginia wanes. Allen can't win many votes in Northern Virginia because his entire image is tailored for the rural areas. 3) I've lived all over this beautiful Commonwealth and I know people all over the state. When Mark Warner starts campaigning for Jim (which should start real soon now that he's out of the presidential picture) his 70 percent approval rating will change this race.
Marijuana Vs. Alzheimers
12 Oct 2006 07:20 pm
Is there nothing that smoking pot cannot help? No wonder it's illegal. It could put some pharmaceutical companies out of business.
(Hat tip: JFL.)
Islam Vs. Apple II
12 Oct 2006 06:54 pm
A moderate Muslim disagrees - and says MEMRI has exaggerated one atypical Muslim's view.
Hillary on Torture
12 Oct 2006 06:42 pm
Is she back-sliding? That's one interpretation of her recent chat with the editors of the New York Daily News.
Media Whore Update
12 Oct 2006 06:31 pm
I'm scheduled on "All Things Considered" on NPR at 5.35 pm ET, on Larry King on CNN between 9 and 10 pm, and on the Colbert Report at 11.30 pm. I was on the Brian Lehrer show in New York City this morning. You can listen to the audio by clicking on the play button below.
Businessweek RIP
12 Oct 2006 06:26 pm
John Judis laments the end of some great journalism.
Rove and Foley
12 Oct 2006 06:25 pm
Turd-blossom apparently talked Foley out of retiring earlier this year. More genuis from Rove.
Malkin Award Nominee
12 Oct 2006 06:21 pm
"I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day. Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," - Republican congressman Chris Shays, on the Foley affair. The GOP establishment's avoidance and excuses are now close to clinical.
Gays, Republicans and Jon Stewart
12 Oct 2006 05:59 pm
The creepy predations of the closet-case Mark Foley may have some silver lining. They may force into the open a simple fact, reiterated by Tucker Carlson. Most Washington Republicans have no problems with openly gay people. Many of them have sons and daughters who are gay, including the epitome of conservative Republicanism, Dick Cheney. Dennis Hastert has gay staff. Rick Santorum had an openly gay staffer. They have no problems with gay people. And yet their party platform is vehemently opposed to treating gay people as equal citizens or as full members of their own families. This cognitive dissonance is only kept afloat by the closet, and the lies, eupemisms, and avoidance mechanisms that keep Republicans from facing this issue honestly. Maybe the revelation that Republican Capitol Hill is full of gay people may finally force them into a reckoning. The GOP has to respect gay people and grant us full equality, or they have to join the forces that regard us as anathema to stable society, a threat to the family and all potential child molesters. They cannot continue to have it both ways.
I know no better illustration of the contortions of the right than Jon Stewart's recent interview with Bill Bennett (YouTubed below). I've always had civil relations with Bennett; and he has never shown any personal animus. But when I read his writing, it is filled with fear and loathing of gay people as an alleged threat to the very families we love and belong to. So which is it, Bill? The same goes with someone like Pat Buchanan, who has always treated me with great affection and respect. And yet, in print, he regards my commitment and love for my fiance as a danger to civilization. At some point, these people are going to have to decide. And now is as good a time as any.
Islam Vs Apple?
12 Oct 2006 04:13 pm
This building is allegedly an insult to Muslims. I give up.
Fighting for Conservatism III
12 Oct 2006 03:02 pm
David Brooks and I debate what happened to conservatism under Republican rule. Both David and I agree that a coherent conservative governing philosophy has collapsed. But we deeply disagree about what to do about it. We have a big tussle over the legacy of Newt Gingrich and how to follow it.
Become part of the debate by joining the book club for "The Conservative Soul." Details here. Amazon is now offering an extra low discount of 40 percent off the retail price. If you're thinking of buying the book, you'd be nuts not to take their discount.
Warner
12 Oct 2006 02:33 pm
I can't say I'm surprised he has dropped out. His inexperience in foreign affairs made his candidacy a non-starter, to my mind. So now we have the big guns: Gore, Clinton, Edwards, Kerry.
In Amazon's Top Ten
12 Oct 2006 02:30 pm
On the non-fiction list, "The Conservative Soul" has now reached the top ten books. I'm sure the 40 percent discount helped. Thanks so much.
The View From Your Window
12 Oct 2006 02:28 pm
Colonial Beach, Virginia, 2 pm.
Quote for the Day
12 Oct 2006 02:15 pm
"Some impose upon the world beliefs they do not hold; others, more in number, impose beliefs upon themselves, not being able to penetrate into what it really is to believe," - Michel de Montaigne, "Apology for Raymond Sebond", and the epigram for the fifth chapter of "The Conservative Soul."
Allen Pulls Ahead
12 Oct 2006 01:21 pm
The Dems have misunderestimated the macaca-bashing macher. His lead is still measurable and he won the last debate with Webb.
Who Didn't Know?
12 Oct 2006 01:06 pm
The picture of Mark Foley's compulsive sexual harassment of pages is getting richer and deeper. Here's more:
A former House page said he witnessed inappropriate contact between former Republican Congressman Mark Foley and another page in the back of the House floor in early 2001. The page, Richard Nguyen, a first-year student at the University's Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, said he saw Foley pat a male page's behind... "I wasn't sure if it was a social norm I wasn't accustomed to," Nguyen said. "I mean, you see athletes patting each other's asses all the time on the field."
The Cynicism of Christianism
12 Oct 2006 12:33 pm
The use and abuse of religion is at the core of the corruption of the current Republican party. I know I've been saying this for a while now, but here's someone who knows it from the inside. David Kuo worked for the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives from 2001 to 2003. Like John DiIulio, he realized eventually that it was all about politics and using the faith of evangelicals to maintain the political power of Republicans. Money quote:
[Kuo] says some of the nation's most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as 'the nuts.'
"National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy,'" Kuo writes.
More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly 'nonpartisan' events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.
According to Kuo, "Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders." Among those marching orders, Kuo says, was Mehlman's mandate to conceal the true nature of the events.
Kuo quotes Mehlman as saying, "... [I]t can't come from the campaigns. That would make it look too political. It needs to come from the congressional offices. We'll take care of that by having our guys call the office [of faith-based initiatives] to request the visit."
Memo to faithful evangelicals: you get entangled with Caesar and you'll regret it. Conflate politics with religion and you do mortal damage to both.
(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty.)
Bushism of the Day
12 Oct 2006 11:58 am
"This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th," - George W. Bush. You couldn't make this up.
Libertarian Power
12 Oct 2006 11:14 am
Libertarians are the new swing vote, according to a new study from the Cato Institute. Here's the PDF. Money quote:
"Libertarians preferred George W. Bush over Al Gore by 72 percent to 20 percent, but Bush’s margin dropped in 2004 to 59-38 over John Kerry. Congressional voting showed a similar swing from 2002 to 2004," observe David Boaz and David Kirby. In House races, the libertarian vote for Republicans dropped from 73 percent in 2000 to 53 percent in 2004, while the libertarian vote for Democrats increased from 23 to 44 percent. There was a similar swing in Senate races.
"They are a larger share of the electorate than the fabled 'soccer moms' and 'NASCAR dads,'" they write... "Conservatives resist cultural change and personal liberation; liberals resist economic dynamism and globalization. Libertarians embrace both. The political party that comes to terms with than can win the next generation."
I guess I'm not so ronery after all.
Amazon Makes Good
12 Oct 2006 02:27 am
A glitch took my book off Amazon's availability list last night. Sorry for the inconvenience. But they've more than made up for it: the discount is now 40 percent off the retail price. Get the book to close to half the regular price. Here's the link. Buy now - while the offer lasts. It'll cost you a mere $15.57, compared to the retail price of $25.95.
The Humility of Atheists
12 Oct 2006 01:08 am
A reader complains:
What a nice Glenn Reynolds you pull as you approvingly post a message from a reader stating that "Real atheists lack the humility to understand what they don't understand." After all, isn't Glenn Reynolds the best example of linking to a post, and then claiming you don't support it?
You don't tolerate mindless and derogatory comments about most, so why do so about atheists? Do you honestly believe that "real atheists lack humility...?" This humanist atheist is a scientist quite comfortable and humble knowing that I don't understand most of existence. And yet, I have no problems seeing the universe in its sublime beauty - awe, devotion, and worship are possible, even without a god. The universe is too grandiose for any other reaction.
Yes, this atheist worships. The word's etymology is, basically, "to ascribe worth." I do that every moment I become aware of my breathing - awe, devotion, and worship and complete amazement as to how it all fits together. It simply is. And I believe there is no god, as well.
So stop it with the supportive post of an attack on atheists.
My only support for the post was by saying that I sense more understanding of the need for doubt and humility among evangelicals. I run plenty of emails with which I don't fully agree. That's the point.
And this atheist reader has a point. Take Sam Harris. "The End of Faith" is not an arrogant or dismissive book as a whole (although he has his moments). It ends with some quite remarkable thoughts about mystery and meditation. Harris is very attracted to Buddhism and has spent long periods in spiritual retreats. I'm a believer; but I profoundly respect non-believers, and even the spiritual experience of atheists. One of my most cherished writers is Albert Camus. In "The Plague" and in his notebooks, Camus shows how a man resigned to the non-existence of God can still love the earth and the universe, can relish its surprises and pleasures, and - more importantly - do good. Morality is not the exclusive preserve of the religious, and never has been. But Camus' treatment of Father Paneloux in the book is also full of the generosity that Camus had for true Christians. That mutual respect between believer and non-believer is critical. We need more of it.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Media Whore Update
11 Oct 2006 11:45 pm
Cable is fickle. Larry King bumped Arianna, me at al tonight in favor of the plane crash in NYC. Colbert bumped me onto tomorrow's show - for a very good reason. (If you read this in time, don't miss tonight's Colbert Report, which has a surprise mega-guest.) The Larry King round-table is scheduled for tomorrow night instead. Sorry for the confusion. I just found out myself. The looming book-signings are at Barnes and Noble at 82d Street and Broadway tomorrow night at 7 pm, and at Politics and Prose in DC (5015 Connecticut Avenue), at 6 pm this coming Saturday. I'll be having a debate/conversation with Bill Moyers at the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut, Friday night at 8 pm, as part of the Connecticut Forum series. I'm also going to be on Jack Cafferty's CNN show tomorrow afternoon, unless news happens. Which it often does. It's always great to meet readers of the blog, so maybe I'll see some of you on the road. More updates as the tour trundles along.
The View From Your Window
11 Oct 2006 08:04 pm
Jerusalem, Israel, 5.30 pm.
Reason for Hope
11 Oct 2006 07:24 pm
A reader writes:
Your reader writes:
"A strong, guiding faith - rather than a blind, unquestioning one - is something I appreciate and even envy, and for those of you who can reconcile reason with religion, I say more power to you."
This does not strike me as a person who could really be considered an atheist. Real atheists lack the humility to understand what they don't understand (see Sam Harris). So he/she appears more agnostic, perhaps. Clearly there is a spark of curiosity there, if not longing for something more sublime.
And that leads to the real and most important point, especially for those who think all religious souls are mindless followers: faith is not faith unless doubt exists. Light does not exist without the dark, positive without negative, yes without no. They are in relation to one another, necessary for each other. Fundamentalist certainty is something, but it isn't faith. And so doubt is essential to the true religious journey. And a journey it is. Doubt demands more information, more study, more reflection, more humility.
This dovetails nicely, I think, with your position on conservatism. And it may also explain the apparent synergy between both that makes conservatism as was formerly practiced, mostly in the GOP, so attractive to people of faith. The religious right hasn't so much hijacked the GOP as much as the religious right has been hijacked by the religious rightists. And I think this is coming to an end very soon. Most Catholics, for example, found allies with the evangelicals over abortion. And also over the disintegration of the family and ongoing coarsening of our culture. But most now are finding that the differences in how one influences policy versus controlling policy is driving them apart. Even more hopefully, I see evidence that it is also subdividing the evangelicals as well as they begin to find their own faith damaged by the corrupting influences of the political process. I see reason for hope.
Me too. I was on the Michael Medved show yesterday and all the callers seemed to agree with me.
A Smear Debunked
11 Oct 2006 07:05 pm
It is now and always has been the allegation that gays are all potential pedophiles or threats to minors. This kind of smear was once attributed to other despised minorities, esepcially Jews, and their alleged threat to Christian children. Over the last week, because of the gross behavior of Mark Foley, the Christianist right has resurrected this canard as a way of arguing that gay men should have no role in public life, and certainly not in the Republican party. Here's a serious and scholarly refutation of the libel by Mark Pietrzyk, an expose on how scientific data has been abused by the Christianist right. Money quote:
[T]he very scientists that are cited in support of the contention that gays are more likely to be molesters explicitly reject the idea that homosexuals pose a disproportionate threat to children. These scientists note that pedophilia is a separate orientation from homosexuality and that the vast majority of molesters who target boys have either no interest in mature males or are heterosexual men who are attracted to the feminine characteristics of pre-pubescent males.
As for the 'slippery slope' argument, the biggest mistake many social conservatives make is to assume that the contemporary taboo against sexual relations with children is a longstanding part of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is only now coming under assault by the left. In fact, the Judeo-Christian tradition and many other religious traditions tolerated and even affirmed pedophilic relationships for centuries. The contemporary taboo against such relationships developed only a little over one hundred years ago, as people became more enlightened about the potentially damaging aspects of sexual relations between persons of unequal maturity and power.
Conservatives Against Torture
11 Oct 2006 06:30 pm
Yes, they still exist. It's just a shame there are so few of them.
Debating The Theocons
11 Oct 2006 05:59 pm
Ross Douthat and Damon Linker are having a spirited debate at The New Republic. Linker's book on the radical ambitions of the theocons is extremely good. He once worked for and with them - until he saw the full consequences of their theological politics for a diverse, modern society. Now, like so many, he's fighting back - for faith unsullied by partisan politics and for a politics that can actually address social issues with reason, rather than theology.
Torturing an American
11 Oct 2006 05:38 pm
The U.S. Congress has approved this president's extraordinary powers to detain any one at will, without charges, keep them indefinitely, and torture them if the president wants to. Some have argued that this can only happen to non-citizens. That is untrue. Glenn Greenwald has new and important data on what was done to Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen and terror suspect, captured by the government, detained for almost three years in isolation with ever being formally charged, and, of course, tortured on the president's orders. Money quote from his lawyer's brief:
Mr. Padilla was often put in stress positions for hours at a time. He would be shackled and manacled, with a belly chain, for hours in his cell. Noxious fumes would be introduced to his room causing his eyes and nose to run. The temperature of his cell would be manipulated, making his cell extremely cold for long stretches of time. Mr. Padilla was denied even the smallest, and most personal shreds of human dignity by being deprived of showering for weeks at a time, yet having to endure forced grooming at the whim of his captors...
He was threatened with being cut with a knife and having alcohol poured on the wounds. He was also threatened with imminent execution. He was hooded and forced to stand in stress positions for long durations of time. He was forced to endure exceedingly long interrogation sessions, without adequate sleep, wherein he would be confronted with false information, scenarios, and documents to further disorient him. Often he had to endure multiple interrogators who would scream, shake, and otherwise assault Mr. Padilla.
Additionally, Mr. Padilla was given drugs against his will, believed to be some form of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or phencyclidine (PCP), to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations.
We live in a country where one man - the president - now has the power to detain any one at will, without being charged for years at a time, and tortured. This isn't an emergency provision, to be revoked when a conflict ends. Since this war has no fixed enemy and no fixed end, it is now our permanent reality. America as we have known it, is over. Al Qaeda never had the power to do this damage to constitutional liberties. We did it to ourselves.
Cruising
11 Oct 2006 05:16 pm
The latest on Foley's cruising the dorms in the evening from Brian Ross. Then there's this:
The former page, who spoke to ABC News on the condition he not be identified, said he then began receiving instant messages and e-mails from Foley which became sexually explicit immediately following his 18th birthday.
He said he has not retained any of the messages or e-mails.
"I would turn on my instant messenger, and he would be online at all hours of the day or night. The talk would quickly turn sexual," he said. He says Foley requested that he send photos of himself performing sexual acts.
A source who was a page back in the mid 1990s also recounted to me Foley's well-known cruising of pages almost from the day he got to Congress. One conversation had the congressman talking about the size of his own private parts within minutes of meeting a 17-year-old page. If the House leadership didn't know about any of this, then they should have known. This guy was given almost free rein for a decade.
Larry King Tonight
11 Oct 2006 05:02 pm
It's me, Arianna, Dennis Prager and Ed Schultz - debating the Republican crack-up. 9 pm. CNN. And Amazon seems to have come back online and able and willing to sell books. Their link is here. If you live in NYC, I'll also be on the Brian Lehrer radio WNYC show tomorrow morning in the 10 am slot, and reading and signing books at Barnes and Noble at 82d Street at 7 pm.
Seeing and Believing
11 Oct 2006 03:48 pm
A reader writes:
"When Not Seeing is Believing" was eloquently written. If you haven't yet, go see "Doubt", John Patrick Shanley's only play to make it to Broadway, subsequently sweeping the awards and receiving a Pulitzer. It asks what you so persuasively argue: Can anyone know with utter certainty what happened in a room besides those two people in the room? Can anyone know the mind of God, but God?
I too had an Irish grandmother (one of 12 children) who could rattle off the rosary with alarming alacrity; but her piety was never vehement. She was as humble about the church as she was about everything else. Was her faith a crutch at times? Sure. Better that than a sword.
I know it wasn't your intention, but your article reminded me of just how beautifully gentle the practice of Catholicism can be in the right hands; not the hand of a Sister Aloysius (Shanley's nun who is utterly certain that a priest molested a young boy) but the rosary rendering hands of grandmothers like ours, or the humble hands of most of the Christians living in the Middle East today, who cling not to certainty - knowing that it is an illusory trap - but, like you, embrace the fact that there can