Rep Giffords in a March 25th interview on violence: “Our democracy is a light of beacon around the world because we effect change at the ballot box and not because of these outbursts of violence and the yelling… For example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list and the way she has it depicted is having the cross hairs of gun sight over our district. When people do that they have to realize there’s consequences to their actions.
"Some generous-hearted pundits have theorized that this was just woman-to-woman goodness: Ginni Thomas was truly reaching out in the spirit of reconciliation. I’m skeptical. The 7:30 voice mail accusing one of lying for two decades and requesting that one finally stop lying isn’t in the top 50 dispute-resolution techniques I’ve researched."
McCarthism 2.0? The difference of course is that the Tea Baggers aren’t elected officials but TV celebrities on the payroll of a media oligarch. Tea Party and McCarthyism Mashup Quiz on Killing the Buddha
The missing joy factor is one of the reasons I am finding it hard to go to… [my] Quaker Meeting. I’m so hungry for joy these days, and we seem so hung up on the problems of the world, and seem to conceive of God mostly as a personal problemsolver or some sort of life coach who helps us with our attitude. I long to be with people who trust that God is working all things together for good, yes, that God works even after earthquakes and wars and heals people and transforms our hearts! I long to celebrate that even in the deepest, darkest places, God brings hope of better things to come.
This video pretty much says it all about the first year of Obama’s term.
Politician known for stance against gay-marriage announces he’s gay after being arrested for drunk driving outside a gay bar. Trying to explain the seeming-inconsistency of the voting record is Wayne Besen of truthwinsout.org:
“It’s a perfect mask for someone who’s trying to stay in the closet,” said Besen in a telephone interview. “They hope that people will think that they’re heterosexual. It’s quite common; we’ve seen it over and over again. … They’re already living a lie and this takes it to a new level.”
He added, “They’re willing to harm themselves to protect an image of who they’re not. It shows how extreme and harmful that homophobia is. The closet will force people to make decisions that will harm their own lives.”
Yes, it’s coated in a kind of diplomatic double-speak, but listen to it:
“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near term (next 12 months) — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible,” General McChrystal writes.
This is an eight year war and the US’s top general is saying he doesn’t think the other side can be defeated without an emergency influx of more troops.
"So it was no great surprise that Joe Wilson’s rebel yell was provoked by the first black president’s declaration that his health plans didn’t include government health care for illegal immigrants. It was an echo of the summer’s rowdy town halls all over America, for sure. But it was also an echo of those South Carolina statesmen, from John C. Calhoun to Strom Thurmond, who have forever specialized in one shouted word: “No!"
My state assemblyman is one of the NJ politicians in the news! I’m just learning now—it’s a very gerrymandered district and his office is two counties and an hour’s drive from here (so much for local representation). That’s him on the left. Must be a blustery day. Source.
Shatner Does Palin as Beat Poetry (ht to @davidinindy (of course))
I’m a big fan of anything Morris does but his reflections are particularly useful since he made a fascinating documentary on McNamara a few years ago:
“How should we remember Robert McNamara? As an engaged public servant who participated in some of the most important decisions of the 20th century? A hawk who served as the chief architect of the war in Vietnam? A technocrat who never fully understood the moral implications of his policies? A hero who steadfastly worked to prevent the escalation of conventional war into thermonuclear conflict? All of the above?”
From Philcooke.com:
The Wall Street Journal reports today on some massive new media buys for advertising causes from the Christian left. As it reports, “The religious left has a long tradition of activism on social issues, including the civil-rights movement.” Left-leaning Christian groups also have started to attract funding from secular donors who share their political goals — and who see Biblical appeals as a promising way to broaden public support.
Martin’s commentary:
Money trumps mission statements. If salaries and status is being paid for by secular donors then sooner or sooner-still the organization will do what it takes to keep them happy. I know plenty of pseduo-spiritual political organizations, both liberal and conservative, that randomly toss out Bible quote to “religiousfy” what’s really just a secular political message.
I’m not against lefty big media or religious media but it’s important to remember they’re rarely the same. Jesus wasn’t a Democrat or Republican and he never made a big media buy.
Via @emergentvillage
The NYTimes asked some religious pundits about Governor Mark Sanford’s repeated allusions to God and self-comparisons to King David. Some samples:
Chuck Colson:
When God created humans, His first act was to join the first man and woman as one flesh. Marriage is therefore a pre-political institution, the first of three institutions specifically ordained by God. It is therefore a sacred covenant between man, woman and God. Having read the governor’s latest statements about several prior dalliances (enough confessing already, please) I think he needs to go home, and get his own house in order before he can do much for the state of South Carolina.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach:
The paradox of American evangelicals is that they are Christian on the one hand and political conservatives on the other with utterly opposing views of redemption. Christians believe that no one is blameless and all must therefore ride the coattails of a perfect being into heaven. But conservatives espouse the gospel of personal accountability. The state cannot save them. Man must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and not by welfare alone.
Steven Waldman (Beliefnet):
The problem with this is that Jesus never suggested that being cleansed of spiritual sin meant you were exempted from temporal punishment. A murderer who accepts Christ might still get to heaven, but he doesn’t get sprung from Leavenworth.
Colleen Carroll Campbell (whose book Julie & I reviewed a few years ago)
A politician who publicly champions traditional values while failing to faithfully live his own marriage vows may be a moral weakling, and he certainly loses a good deal of credibility on those issues when he fails to live his professed values in his private life. But his personal failings do not automatically discredit the causes for which he was fighting or serve as irrefutable proof that he never believed in those causes in the first place.
"Mark was the self-righteous, Bible-thumping prig who pressed for Bill Clinton’s impeachment; Marco was the un-self-conscious Lothario, canoodling with Maria in Buenos Aires, throwing caution to the e-wind about their “soul-mate feel,” her tan lines, her curves. Mark is so frugal for the taxpayers that he made his staffers use both sides of Post-it notes. Marco is a sly scamp who found a sneaky way to make South Carolina taxpayers pay for a south-of-the-border romp with his mistress."
NYTimes Article:
Convicts do not have a right under the Constitution to obtain DNA testing to try to prove their innocence after being found guilty, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
Chief Justice Roberts:
“DNA testing has an unparalleled ability both to exonerate the wrongly convicted and to identify the guilty. The availability of new DNA testing, however, cannot mean that every criminal conviction, or even every conviction involving biological evidence, is suddenly in doubt.”
Justice John Paul Steven in dissent:
“The DNA test Osborne seeks is a simple one, its cost modest, and its results uniquely precise,” Justice Stevens said.
Martin’s Commentary: I think this shows just why we need Supreme Court justices that have real world experiences. Roberts thinks the courts don’t have a responsibility to make sure justice was carried out. A DNA test costs a few hundred dollars. It would be far cheaper to allow the test than to clock hundreds of hours of lawyers fees and Supreme Court time.
Just reading the story about William G. Osborne makes me doubt his innocent but why not inmates in his position the chance to definitively prove one way or another? Forty-six states have given defendants the right to DNA tests so today’s rulings only affect the four remaining states. The Times speculates that this factored into the decision, that the Court decided it didn’t have to intervene because 92% of state legislatures had decided on issue. But if so many states have indeed decided this is a right, that just seems like the mandate for the Supreme Court to acknowledge it.
Yes, Justice Roberts, DNA wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution, you’re certainly right about that. But the drafters of that document were practical men and wouldn’t have denied cheap and easy justice on pedantic grounds. A little more common sense and a little less States Right’ism would be refreshing.
In the meantime, those of you in Alaska, Alabama, Massachusetts and Oklahoma should start petitioning your legislators ASAP to make Justice Robert’s decision moot.
