BRAZENLY LIBERAL — a fact-based initiative

What’s all the sturm und drang? Have half the liberal bloggers - and more than one rightwingblognut - on the internet lost their minds? Does anyone with an IQ over 90 look at this cover and think for a nanosecond the New Yorker is taking a cheap shot at Barack and Michelle Obama? Really? Do they honestly not see the cover mocks this year’s crop of swiftboaters in all their various sleazy permutations?

No, what a whole lot of people who normally make more sense than they’re making the past couple of days are actually worried about is that the troglodytes on the right will either think it’s a frame from a documentary or –worse– know it’s satire but use/abuse/misuse it anyway to make the very points the cartoon takes a swipe at.

Yes, the handwringers are correct on both points. Some people will deliberately misrepresent it for their own purposes. So what? Those people are going to misrepresent things for their own purposes no matter what. If it isn’t this cartoon, it will be some other damned thing. Are we to hide in our basements, unwilling to do anything that might be misinterpreted, misrepresented, misunderstood or mistaken?

And some people won’t get it. Again, so what? Some people don’t get the Brazilian joke. Some still can’t figure out why that damn chicken can’t stay on one side of the road. Are we now to dumb down every goddamned thing to the most brainless common denominator?

If there was a God up in the sky, I hope s/he would save me from a world in which nothing can be said or written that isn’t immediately understood and accepted by every moron from here to Mars.

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The incense aisle at Mary's Emporium

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To truly be successful, this initiative must utilize the unique resources and identity of the faith community, while at the same time recognizing the indispensible role that government and public policy must play in tackling the root causes of poverty. truthout

But at bottom, the faith-based initiative, no matter the clunky name Obama affixes to it (Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships), will amount to the same old government subsidy for religious groups. The Progressive

It’s nice that he’s specifically saying there will be restrictions, that the money can’t be used in programs that discriminate, and it must be for secular purposes, but he’s still propping up a religious middleman between government aid and the people, and that’s a tool that will be used to proselytize indirectly, even if they don’t simply flout the rules. This is a bad idea.  Pharyngula

The Office of Faith Based Initiatives was begun under Bill Clinton’s presidency. Only under Bush, which is to say Karl Rove, was it turned into a politically divisive campaign tool intentionally used to create hate between those of fundamentalist Christian faith and secular community service volunteers. Where is the love in that!  ChristianDemocrat.us

By all appearances, Obama’s vision is consistent with what Bush’s plan would have been, if Bush cared about constitutional law, the interests of taxpayers, the rights of families in need, and the integrity of religious institutions. From Obama’s speech  The Carpetbagger Report

…how could faith-based hiring and firing possibly be restricted to the non-taxpayer funded parts of these group’s activities? This does not seem feasible and would require far more oversight that I’d expect the federal government to actually enforce.  Atheist Revolution

Religion does best when left alone by the government. Ministries should be supported by private donations, not public funds. If religious charities seek public money, they need to be prepared to play by the same rules that everyone else does.  The Hill

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I had no illusions.  I didn’t kid myself that he was perfect.  From the start, there were things that bugged me.

He supports the death penalty even as he acknowledges it does little or nothing to deter crime.  (He’s credited with working to reform its application here in Illinois, but from my POV, this is a case where the only true reform is abolition.)

He supports civil unions for gays, but not marriage.  I’ll never understand how someone who has seen bigotry can practice it himself, but that’s what religion does to people, I guess.

I was willing to put these and a few smaller items aside given the fact that no viable candidate is on the right side of those issues, unfortunately.  But once Senator Clinton conceded, Senator Obama did the traditional General Election Slide to Center.  And it seems as though every damn thing that came up was a push farther and farther to the right.

I guess I can see his point (or, rather, what his supporters rumor to be his point) on the Fairness Doctrine - with more and more coverage actually on cable news where it wouldn’t apply, it seems pretty much a waste of time that should be spent coming up with new solutions that work for everyone.

His approval of the Supreme Court’s bizarre and frightening distortion of the Constitution ruling on gun ownership started the count.

His slap at General Wesley Clark was strike two.

But FISA?  Really?  Selling out the people for the telecom companies?  Is he serious?  Once again, the whispers say he’s on the side of the angels, that he’s very cleverly supporting a FISA bill that leaves Bush and his telecom cronies open to criminal prosecution.  Yeah, sure, I’m sorry, but I think I’m going to need to hear this one from the candidate himself before I swallow it.

And now this crap.

Courting evangelicals and other religious voters, Barack Obama today called for an expansion of President Bush’s initiative distributing federal aid to church-based groups that provide community services.

“The challenges we face today - from saving our planet to ending poverty - are simply too big for government to solve alone. We need an all hands on deck approach,” Obama said a few moments ago at a press conference outside a community ministry in Zanesville, Ohio.

Obama promised the faith-based initiative would be “central” to his administration if he is elected.

So this is it.  The most likely next President of the United States intends to take us one step closer to being an officially Christian Nation.  The founders would have been appalled at both the intertwining of church and state and the seeming inability of Mr. Obama - an obviously brilliant and well educated man - to come up with one of the many solutions that allow us to hold on to one of our most cherished freedoms.  We agree with them.

We have removed our endorsement of Senator Obama from the site.  While we cannot imagine voting for McCain, we are in a wait and see mode as to what action we will take.  The ball is in the Obama court.  I hope we are able to feel good about voting for him in November.  I’ve never sat out an election would hate for this to be the first.

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Good God, people! If the security guard at your office building did his job courageously, he’d be a hero. Give him a big fat bonus, throw him a party and get his picture in the paper. But would you then say he should run the company without additional evidence that he knew how to run a business? Erm, no.

John McCain is widely regarded as a war hero. Okay. Fine. No argument. But what does that qualify him for? He’s a little superannuated for the boots-on-the-ground thing. And when you think about it, all those years at the Hanoi Hilton taught him more about being a prisoner than being a soldier. So if he’s running for prison trustee, he gets my vote. But if he wants to be President, he’s going to need to move beyond what happened 40 years ago and give me a reason that is relevant. And that has a virgin’s chance at Mardi Gras of ever happening, babies!

So we come to Wesley Clark, who voiced similar thoughts - albeit more gracefully and without the debauchery reference - and is now being pounded for it. Please, people, he said nothing - NOTHING - the least bit derogatory about Senator McCain’s service, but merely put it in proper perspective:

Pressed on that quote by moderator Bob Schieffer, Clark said that “in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk, it’s a matter of gauging your opponents and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. … He hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. …”

Pressed further by Schieffer, Clark then delivered perhaps the day’s marquee quote:

“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

more

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• After a couple of atypical decisions the SCOTUS is right back on BushTrack with a decision that ignores the language of the Second Amendment - a No-No for these so-called “strict constructionists”, but then there’s nothing new about them going against their own supposed “legal philosophy” when an ultraconservative ideology needs to be confirmed - in order to affirm the right of every American to blow away his neighbor with an Uzi provided, of course, that said American can afford to buy one. (I’m waiting for the Court to order the govt to provide vouchers for Glocks so the poor can protect themselves from predators.) Fact-esque
• With it’s decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively took the gun issue out of the fall campaign. Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
• Unfortunately, Scalia is in the grips of an unusually limited form of originalism, unlike Randy Barnett’s (and Jack’s) far more sophisticated variety, and he is unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of judicially enforceable “fundamental values” (such as self-defense and the concomitant right to possess firearms in the home that are useful for self-defense). Balkinization
• Because of this Court decision, proposals such as Brady background checks on all gun sales, limiting bulk sales of handguns, restricting access to military-style assault weapons, and strengthening the power of law enforcement to shut down corrupt gun dealers can now be debated on their merits without them being seen as a “first step on the road to gun confiscation.” Paul Helmke/Huffington Post
• Had I spent more time diagraming sentences, then maybe I could make sense of the recent Supreme Court ruling on D.C.’s gun ban. Republic of T
• If words could be tortured, Supreme Court Antonin Scalia would be their Torquemada. For, indeed, Scalia can take the most obvious of phrases or words and place those poor bastards on the rack until their intestines are straightened, shove a red-hot poker up their asses until he can brand “Big Tony” on their colons, and give them a particularly nasty titty-twisting, and, by fuckin’ God, those words are gonna give up whatever their obvious and relevant definitions are and let Scalia say what they “really” mean. The Rude Pundit
• For his part, John McCain supported efforts in 2000 to close the gun show loophole. But in his quest for the presidency, McCain signed onto a brief challenging D.C.’s gun ban. Think Progress
• In knocking down the District of Columbia’s 32-year ban on handgun possession, the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court have shown again their willingness to abandon precedent in order to do whatever is necessary to further the agenda of the contemporary political right. truthdig
• They’ve been talking about it for a while, but the ACTIVIST judges of the Supreme Court today struck down Washington, D.C.’s ban on handgun ownership, voting along Ideological Lines. Wonkette

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Just sorting out some technical problems at technorati. Thanks for your understanding. HEY! Ruby, where’s that cute little construction sign thingy from 15 years ago? You know, the one everyone put on their Geocities homepage while they were looking for clever another grapevine border design? We need a little retro coolness here.

Technorati Profile

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As if we needed one more reason to love San Francisco, they may soon offer the chance to shit on the man who’s been shitting on us the past seven years:

From the International Herald Tribune

Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital, and a state, too. But President George W. Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water-treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

The plan - hatched, naturally, in a bar - would place a vote on the November ballot to provide “an appropriate honor for a truly unique president.”

Supporters say that they have plenty of signatures to qualify the initiative and that the renaming would fit in a long and proud American tradition of poking political figures in the eye.

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Oh yeah, baby! Finally! A Democratic candidate who doesn’t roll over and tremble at the appearance of the swiftboat assholes.

From Rolling Stone, via the New York Times:

It was not all about pop culture. When Mr. Wenner asked how Mr. Obama might respond to harsh attacks from Republicans, suggesting that Democrats have “cowered” in the past, Mr. Obama replied, “Yeah, I don’t do cowering.”

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Unfreakingbelievable.

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.

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Is there no end to it? Those who, just a couple of years ago, seemed to be the most paranoid of the far left are turning out not to be paranoid at all, but actually prescient. One by one, the parade of Bush administration crimes are coming to light. The sheer extent of it is flabbergasting.

Senior Justice Department officials violated federal law and internal guidelines by improperly using political considerations to make hiring decisions for two competitive employment programs, an internal investigation has found.

The review, conducted by the department’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility — both internal department watchdogs — has concluded that many graduates at the top of their classes from the nation’s best law schools were deselected from the highly competitive Justice Department Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program because of their political leanings or because of their affiliation with perceived liberal groups.

In one instance, a candidate who graduated at the top of his or her class at Harvard Law was denied a Justice Department job because of past work for the Council on American Islamic Relations.

the rest of this sad, sorry story

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I’ve never been able to muster much good feeling for the slimy, hateful puppy-beating, possibly pedophilic reprobate, but if he’s going to encourage his addlepated followers not to vote for John McCain and, in fact, not to vote at all for either candidate for President in November, that’s a James Dobson that works for me.
Here he is, working the crazyreligiousrightwingnut lies and innuendo against Barack Obama. Mostly, it’s the usual Dobson word vomit, but there’s that golden nugget (emphasis added):

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a ”fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization’s headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family…

…Dobson has not backed off his statement that he could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator’s conservative credentials. Dobson has said he will vote in November but has suggested he might not vote for president.

Yes, yes, yes, I know that as a liberal I’m supposed to be rocking the vote or standing on a corner, forcibly registering everyone who walks by or whatever. But, really, over the past seven years, haven’t we had more than enough of these morons contributing to public policy?  I’m not advocating ever denying anyone his right to vote, but if they choose to stay home, that’s fine by me.  Let’s not forget these morons gave the  worst President of my lifetime, very possibly the worst President EVER,  enough votes to make it possible for him to steal the election in 2000 and reinfest the Oval Office in 2004.

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It was so easy!  Go along to get along, vote for capitulation and call it compromise.  Piece of cake!  In fact, all that work involved in giving a rat’s ass and fighting the good fight and protecting and defending the Constitution seems silly in retrospect.  Just show up, vote whatever’s easy and then forget about it and hit the bar.  Collect that taxpayer-funded paycheck and tell said taxpayers to kiss their pampered asses.  “Man oh man,” one was heard to say, “why didn’t we think of this years ago????????”

And so  today - on your dime and mine, babies - the House of Representatives voted:

• To congratulate James Madison University in Harrisburg, Virginia, for 100 years of service to the region, the state, and the nation.     (H.R. 1051)
• To support the goals and ideals of Black Music Month and to honor the outstanding contributions that African American singers and musicians have made to the United States.  (Hasn’t anyone told them that black Americans do more than sing, dance and play basketball??) (H.Con.Res. 372)
• Honoring the life, musical accomplishments, and contributions of Louis Jordan on the 100th anniversary of his birth.   (One would think the eminently talented Mr. Jordan was covered by H Con Res 372, but apparently not.) (H.R. 1242)

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shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits

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Brilliant and brilliantly silly satirist. Staunch defender of free speech. Carlin died of heart failure in Los Angeles Sunday.

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