New on the Blogroll: The Great Divide
Go say howdy.
What Happened to My Sidebar?
Well, I messed up a tag. Blogger didn't let me know that the tag was messed up the last time I changed the templete. And for some reason, Safari (my browser of choice right now) actually fixed the tag, so I didn't see anything wrong.
But just a few minutes ago, I had IE open and swung by the site...OH, NO! A headline tag end was missing and it sent the formatting all the way down! It looked awful.
And so all my recent new visitors saw the site look nuts. This is the story of my life. Well, the problem's fixed now.
(Note to self: Always check the new templete in all the browsers I have.)
On edit: whoops. Saw that my recent addition to the blogroll, Ungodly Politics, wasn't showing up. Another stinky tab end missing. Sorry, Lazarus.
Bush or the Texas Air National Guard: Who Was The Bitch?
I brought up the AWOL issue on a Republican Air Force Reservist's blog recently and was chewed out one way and the other for it. I resolved then and there to get some more info about this issue:
1. People in the Guard get and got a lot more leeway on the attendance issue than people in the active military. Bush was very lackadaisical about his attendance, especially in the last two years of his service, but he was honorably discharged from the Guard. Whatever his lapses, he made up for the lost time.
2. Bush took advantage of the system. Of this, there can be no doubt. He applied to a unit that would not require attendance so that he could work for William Blount's failed Senate campaign in Alabama (for $900 a week, in 1972 Alabama! How much Dixie homegrown will that get you?). Before this transfer was approved, he left for Alabama, a definite no-no. When that transfer was denied, he pulled together the paperwork to transfer to an Alabama unit, at which the aforementioned Col. Turnipseed recalls that he never attended. This transfer was approved.
3. The Bush campaign produced a mangled copy of points earned by Bush in this time period (Bush was on a May to May year in the Guard). This was covered by George Magazine. Here's a link to an archive of George's coverage. Their conclusion: "Bush may have received favorable treatment to get into the Guard, served irregularly after the spring of 1972 and got an expedited discharge, but he did accumulate the days of service required of him for his ultimate honorable discharge."
3. The paper is badly damaged, but it's got just barely enough to show that Bush first reported for duty on Thanksgiving weekend, when Col. Turnipseed may not have been aware of his presence. The paper further establishes that Bush crunched in his points by attending two drills a day to make up his missing points, one protracted period in December, and twice in January.
4. Bush flat out grounded himself. After completing training for his aircraft, Bush actually volunteered to go to Vietnam. He was not allowed to, because the plane was being phased out anyway, and he didn't have enough hours flying the plane to be allowed to volunteer. It's this rejection that is the key to Bush's subsequent performance in the Guard to my mind. I honestly believe he wanted to go to Vietnam. I believe this is evidence of Bush getting one break after another from his family connections, breaks that he resented. After all, Poppy was a big WWII ace (chortle), and now W was being kept out of action. I think that he failed to attend his next physical (which invalidated his pilot's license) out of spite. Never mind the money it took to train him as a pilot, he was pissed at Daddy and Daddy's interference in his life, and blew off the Guard from that point on.
5. Until someone lit a fire under his ass again, and again. The paperwork made available to George Magazine is open to at least two ass-chewing for First Lt. George W. Bush. The first was in November, when his Alabama vacation finally caught up with him. It's easy to get yourself lost in the paperwork for a while, but it finally turned on him. He made up some Alabama time in late November, and then did some time in early December somewhere, and then again in early January (two different segments) and then again, I believe, in February. The December through February times must have been in Texas (Bush has an old girlfriend in Alabama who verifies the late November time he made up, but not the December time on.). For now, Lt. Bush was back on course.
6. Then he stopped going again. Through other paper work, George verified that Bush was ordered to attend drill work May 1-3 and May 8-10. But by the mangled paperwork, it's clear that Bush didn't attend from early February until the first of May: a two and one-half month gap in service. Furthermore, the May 1-3 and May 8-10 service time is recorded as active duty points, whereas all the other points were inactive duty points. This is clearly punitive in nature. Why else would someone be ordered to do something that they were obligated to do?
7. Bush applied for and recieved an early discharge later in 1973 to attend Harvard Business School. It's noteworthy that his transfer to another non-attendance-required unit was accompanied by an order to add six months to his discharge time. This is because Bush skipped out again before all the paperwork was done. It was a toothless punishment, but it was a punishment noted on the paperwork for anyone to see.
8. Not that this mattered to Lt. Bush. Bush had long ago moved on from the Guard. When absolutely required to do so, he made up his time and got his honorable discharge. But after his attempt to volunteer for Vietnam failed, the Guard was in Bush's rear view mirror, and except for a couple of disciplinary actions for egregious abuses of the system, Bush's familial contacts helped make that vision a reality.
And that's where I'm at on this issue. Was Bush ever AWOL from his military commitment? The word AWOL may prove too stringent a case to prove. But there was certainly a contest for who was going to be the bitch in that relationship, Bush or the Guard, and in the end, the Guard proved to be surprisingly compliant.
Somebody Bumped A Chimp Thread...
...and I got a lot of traffic because of it. Yay!
Unfortunately, it was during my hiatus. Awww.
Maybe some of those people will come back! Yay!
Thanks for stopping by in the first place. I hope I've got something to say that you'd like to listen to/engage/excoriate me for/laugh at.
Paw Paw Died This Morning
My uncle Malcolm was down for the weekend. He was moving some things out of storage, and Paw Paw helped a bit. He didn't say anything about feeling bad, but Paw Paw went into the house, the one he designed and built himself on an IBEW organizer's salary, laid down, and passed on.
I won't be updating until Thursday. Tell people you love them.
Speaking of Folks I met at DU...
2003-04 Goobergunch Political Report
Here's the latest from Goobergunch.
Say Hello to Ungodly Politics
Ungodly Politics
Just met the proprietor over at Democratic Underground. Excellent fellow and excellent blog. You should find him over in the blogroll now...
Coulter's Current Crap: The Jesus thing
Townhall.com
We must stop noticing this person. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. But sometimes the urge to go look at what she's written is overwhelming, like rubbernecking an accident. You just can't look away.
Ann Coulter continues her self-anointed quest to take up the slack that Barbara Olson left off with this statement:
The only Democrats who go to church regularly are the ones who plan to run for president someday and are preparing in advance to fake a belief in God.How do you argue with something like that? Is it enough to introduce Ann to a few Christians who are members of the Democratic Party? Is it enought to point out websites like Liberals Like Christ? No. There will be no persuading someone like Coulter. The best solution is just to leave the poor woman peddling her filth alone. Which I now resolve, once again, to do.
Cal On Robertson
Cal Thomas: Pat Robertson's 'Burning Bush'
As I said, Cal jumps on Republican or Democrat when they cross the religious line.
The idea that God would reach down and prophesy an election outcome to one man, who then says President Bush could even do wrong and God would keep him in office, offers joke material to Leno and Letterman and brings the Christian Gospel into further disrepute before unbelievers. It could also put a lot of pundits out of work!Cal does manage to justify a Republican outlook before God, and smacks Dean for thinking Job was in the New Testament.
Could we please return to the issues and put everyone back in the camp with which he is most familiar? Otherwise, politicians and religious leaders are asking for jokes like the one from Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who said, "Maybe Pat (Robertson) got a message from (Bush political advisor) Karl Rove and thought it was from God."It's amazing how much more sensible a person sounds when you agree with what he says.
The best political joke of the season (so far) comes from Mark Russell, who observed that Saddam Hussein emerged from his hole and saw his shadow, which means we will have four more years of George Bush. That is a far more believable and defensible "prophecy" than Pat Robertson's dial-a-prayer "answer" from the Lord.
Wild and Crazy Searches That Led Here, Part 2
tacobell dog quicktime
Umm, not here.
Millwaukee Association of Jewish Education
That's not here, either.
moveon.org bush hitler download quicktime
Wrong, not here. Plus those two ads aren't going to be shown anywhere. They didn't make the cut. Get over it.
Gay pictures of Wesley Clark's feet
doubletake: WHAT THE HELL? Get off my property...
The Bible as Literature in CA Schools
Bibles would be given to every public school student in California unless parents objected under a proposed ballot measure by an Orange County man.The official website for this ballot initiative is here.
The secretary of state's office gave the go-ahead Monday to Matt McLaughlin who will begin collecting signatures for the ballot initiative that would allow the use of the Bible as a textbook in literature classes.
McLaughlin must collect 598,105 valid signatures by May 24, according to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's office.
Voters would then decide whether to amend the state's constitution authorizing the voluntary use of the Authorized or King James Version Bibles for classes in elementary, middle and high schools.
The actual text of the initiative is enlightening. The Bible (KJV only, without apocrypha, footnotes, commentary or margin notes) shall be provided to every CA student, from first graders to seniors. The KJV must also be "conformable in spelling, capitalization, and typeface to modern text." Now doesn't that change the literary achievement of the sixteenth-century translators? We had to read Beowulf in the original, and actually memorized a section of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. I vote that the KJV has to be the original translation, approved by King James himself. Hehehe. I know, Shakespeare is updated and he wrote in the same time period. But we don't make kids read Shakespeare until at least the ninth grade, so maybe we shouldn't pass out the Bibles until the kids get to the proper reading level with it.
The Bible "is commendable in the study of such secular disciplines as history, literature, culture, poetry, law, language, ethics, science, and philosophy," says the initiative. Hey, I thought this was only going to be studied as literature. The initiative is trying to get it into history and science classes? Oh, brother.
You can "opt-out" of this furnishing of the KJV, but otherwise, your child will get a Bible. Imagine the fun as your child reminds the teacher that their parents have opted out of the Bible giveaway. Watch the child be ostracized for not getting the Bible. And will this giveaway be every year? Or will every student get a Bible the first year, and then only first graders and transfer students? I'm confused.
Finally, the "reading and study of the book shall be voluntary." A textbook that's voluntary to study. Boy, I wish I had assignments like that when I was going to school.
Hey, would this give science teachers the right to open up their class with an examination of why the Bible isn't scientific at all? "Now, class, this is what people thought about the origins of life before careful observation proved these words wrong. It's still a great story, though, right?"
Personally, I can't think of any better way to make kids disdain the Bible than to pass it out with their other textbooks. But hey! At least we've gotten the Bible back into public schools. That ought to be worth something.
The best way to get the Bible back into the public schools is to teach it to your children before they start going. This initiative is a sad joke. Of course, so is the new governor of California. Watch this initiative pass.
Dean Campaign's Attack-Clark Strategy Revealed by Conference Call
Arizona Republic
I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that this kind of thing is going on...
Right. Well, politics is politics, and the Dean campaign just hung its own behind out in the wind:
Another staffer indicated that in a survey of voters Monday by telephone, people expressed concern that "this guy (Dean) is indecisive" and Bradley, a former Hall of Fame player in the National Basketball Association and a three-term senator from New Jersey, could help counter that.So it's good to know that these specious attack memes on Clark have the full support, approval, and instigation of the Dean campaign. Wasn't Dean complaining about reining in these kind of attacks recently? This is regretable and lame.
"The Bradley message could be, like, (Dean) knew where he stood on the war, is still a Democrat, takes . . . positions, blah, blah, blah," the staffer said.
The next day, the speaker said, "surrogates" for Dean, both local and national, could "then hit Clark on the flip side of the argument: that he's indecisive, didn't know what party he's with, doesn't know his position on the war," she said.
The strategists ended their conversation when another reporter joined the conference, telling him, "I think you may have the wrong call-in number. This isn't a press call."
Arizona Republic | Dean called "new Democrat"
More on David Brooks and Neoconservatives.
Uggabugga > The Era of Distortion
Uggabugga's got a great chart to examine before you read the Brooks article, and then links to the Howler and Josh Marshall. Go read those and then come back.
---
Okay, my turn. Back on Dec. 30, Josh Marshall linked to this great summary of tensions between Republican "realists" vs. the neoconservatives. Brook's article can then be seen as a way of taking down the neoconservatives a notch while also obscuring the Bush administration's previous reliance on neoconservative policy. The neoconservatives are now seen as a vunerability, and by minimizing their influence while associating criticism with anti-Semitism and conspiracy thinking, Brooks is setting up a two-front rhetorical defense.
He also uses a Dean quote as an example of a "dark accusation" concocted by an insular clique. This is a insidious way of associating Dean with anti-Semitism, which is riduculous.
His final line? "Welcome to election year 2004." This article stands as a clear sign of how much the dominant conservative media is willing to lie and distort the records. The ideological battle for America has begun.
Cal Thomas Goes After Dean's Religion
Dean's religious accent
Skipping over the gratuitous shot at Clinton and Monica (oh, yeah), we move on to this incredible paragraph:
In the Globe interview, he said Southerners understand religious talk better than his fellow New Englanders. Yes, that "vast Unitarian wasteland of the Northeast," as Charles Colson has jokingly called it, is the latest target of Dean's regional stereotyping.Dean is guilty of regional stereotyping, but Colson is just joking. Colson's remark is actually a lot more offensive, isn't it? I guess you can't call this hypocrisy on Cal's part - it's more like ignorance.
The first "victim" of Dean's "regional stereotyping" was the South. "That's the land of Confederate battle flags and pickup trucks that Dean so recently disparaged," says Cal. But actually, it's Cal that's making this remark apply to a region. Dean's remark was about a segment of voters. There certainly is a demographic that Dean wished to appeal to, and so disparagement is the last thing to take out of that remark. Cal wants Dean to be offensive, and so he contributes to the meme of Dean's disparagement. Crude, Cal, very crude.
He goes on to coldly knock an entire Christian demonination, because they hold doctrines like the priesthood of the believer to be important. Next, Cal knocks an entire religion (Judaism). And then Cal proposes to discern Dean's entire view of Christology from a single soundbite.
"Christ was someone who sought out people who were disenfranchised," he told the Globe, "people who were left behind." Dean makes it sound as if Jesus might have been a Democrat.Jesus a Democrat? Well, that would mean his kingdom was of this world, wouldn't it? Cal seems to believe that Jesus would have been a Republican. In fact, from what I see in the Christian scriptures, Jesus told every political faction in Israel to go hang. Jesus wasn't concerned with it.
"He fought against self-righteousness of people who had everything," the candidate continued. "He was a person who set an extraordinary example that has lasted 2,000 years, which is pretty inspiring when you think about it."
But you'd better believe that a prophet who exalted the poor and railed against institutional hypocrisy would have no love for the Republicans In Charge.
To be fair, Cal firmly dislikes what he views as religious pandering, and will take on Republican and Democrat alike when he sees it happening. I just wish that he would have approached this critique of Dean a little less politically. Don't judge in a way that condemns yourself, Cal. Jesus had a little to say on that as well.
Remember This? Bush White House Knows Importance of Classified Info
Probe of Hill Leaks On 9/11 Is Intensified.
FBI Seeks Records From 17 Senators
Somebody leaked some information from a Senate subcommittee, and Bush's FBI swarmed the Senate. These bastards know what they did when they leaked Plame's name to Novak and the other six. Screw 'em.
Evidently I've Built My Own Hell
Parents who bring squalling brats to R-rated movies
Circle I Limbo
Creationists
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind
Scientologists
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow
Republicans
Circle IV Rolling Weights
George Bush
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled
River Styx
Rush Limbaugh
Circle VI Buried for Eternity
River Phlegyas
Saddam Hussein
Circle VII Burning Sands
Osama bin Laden
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement
NAMBLA Members
Circle IX Frozen in Ice
I've no idea what this is going to look like.
Rick Santorum's Worst Nightmare???
Dogs For Joe
Lieberman is going after an entirely new demographic. I don't know whether this is cute or pathetic.
Dean Interview on Civil Unions: Does This Issue Mean He's Unelectable?
Democratic Underground > Dean on Civil Unions : The OITM Interview
(The following is my reproduced post from DU. This article was posted there decrying Dean's political calculations during Vermont's passage of civil unions.)
Read the whole article, please.
It's an open and honest look into the political and ethical thinking of Howard Dean. And it's not as bad as those few passages indicate, although I appreciate ZW's points. And I'm speaking as a Clark/ABB supporter.
There are no pictures of Gov. Dean signing civil unions legislation to appear in Republican advertisements. The Repukes can of course grab any picture of a signing Dean to use in its stead. But the political calculation in this approach is obvious.
Likewise, the statement about the Tom Lawson soccer tournament. If it had been a Enron official wanting to open a captive insurance company in Vermont, a staffer would have been sent to the games with a camera.
But let's consider the entire paragraph of the "uncomfortable" remark:
The truth is that it is the politics that made me uncomfortable. (Personally) I’m sure that I have the same hang-ups that lots of people have on the issue. But it is a matter of equity. I remain convinced that of the 50 percent of people who are opposed to this, that half of those are fundamentally decent human beings and this is just a vast change for them that they’ve never considered before. I consider those people people who will ultimately accept the equality of gays and lesbians and stop marginalizing them. Those are the people that I have to speak to.The Dean/civil unions issue is supposed to make Dean "unelectable" because Americans by and large are uncomfortable with gay marriage. But I think Dean is correct here - many have never considered such a vast change. They would do just as he says they would; they hold the potential to stop marginalizing gays and lesbians. The question is this: Can Dean articulate his position on civil unions to the "half" of the opposed 50% that will listen? Can he speak to them?
OITM: What role, if any, do you think homophobia played in the civil union debate?This is the crux of his message to that segment of the opposition who will listen. You can be a homophobe (fear of homosexuals) without being a bigot (someone who deliberately manifests mean-spirited unequal treatment of people because of who they are). There are a few levels to homophobia - it's not a light switch. People who have a slight degree of homophobia can have their fears allayed by knowledge.
Dean: I hesitate to use the word because many people confuse homophobia with bigotry. A bigot is someone who deliberately manifests mean-spirited unequal treatment of people because of who they are. It is very difficult to deal with bigotry except with the law. We live in a culture that is somewhat homophobic. Homosexuals become a lightning rod for all kinds of fears for things that have nothing to do with homosexuals. The reason for that is that, especially in men, sexuality is a terrible struggle. It takes some insight to understand that your own projections on a group of people have to do with your concerns about sexuality. Homophobia is widespread; bigotry is not. There are a lot of people who are homophobic but are not bigots. Those people can be brought into an understanding that everybody is a member of this community regardless of their sexual orientation.
And most homophobes view themselves like this. They don't beat up gay people, they live and let live, as long as they're not living too close. Dean knows his audience and he can appeal to that part of their nature - live and let live. He made the journey this audience needs to make, and he can lead them on it.
This is important to realize: the Dean candidacy will be a referendum on the current state of gay rights in this country. Do we view Dean as unelectable because we fear what America will say to us on this issue? That's the fear we would be projecting onto Dean, wouldn't it?
This article actually makes me feel better about this issue for Dean. I think he can handle himself on it. May the best man win the nomination!
PS: Howard firmly places the onus of homophobia on the homophobe - it's projecting fears about your own sexuality onto a group of people. And he did sign the legislation, cameras or not.
Robertson's God and Bush's 2004 landslide
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My New Years resolution for the blog is to focus on the intersection of religion and politics. And so the Robertson story is a natural.
Pat's been deflecting hurricanes since 1985. His aim isn't so great, though. But being able to wrestle the mighty wind storms around seems to have gone to his head, and now the Almighty has let Pat in on a secret: It's Bush in 2004, by a landslide. Pat and W have had their disagreements in the past, especially when Robertson's illegal business deals are concerned. So it's good to see that Robertson has ended up on the side of the angels on this affair.
But Robertson has lied before. He claimed to be a "combat Marine" in his presidential campaign, a lie shot down by his fellow soldiers. He's lied about the separation of church and state in the Constitution, which he somehow never managed to read in law school. He's also advocated nuclear terrorism against the United States State Department.
So one more anti-American multi-millionare is stumping for Bush with his media empire. What vast right wing conspiracy? They're doing it out in the open for everyone to see!
"Delivering Turkeys In the Middle of the Night"
Boston.com / News / Politics / Clark: Bush burning valuable military resources in Iraq
"George Bush thinks Americas best days are behind us. He has duplicated his father's war against Saddam Hussein and Ronald Reagan's tax cuts," Clark said. "He's even talking about John Kennedy's space program."Bang...zoom!
..."When I am President, I will go over to Iraq," Clark said. "And it won't be to deliver turkeys in the middle of the night."
No Further Leaks Until Plame Indictment?
Democratic Underground Forums - I just spoke to Joseph Wilson about the special prosecutor
At this thread, William Pitt talks about Joseph Wilson's reaction to the special prosecutor. Lancdem points out that we might not hear anything more about this "until something is going to break, like an indictment." It's a very good point.
Ashcroft Recuses Himself From Leak Investigation
WaPo
Special proscecutors. More investigators. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
Dean predicts backers may stay home if he doesn't win the nomination
Howard Dean said Sunday that the hundreds of thousands of people drawn to politics by his campaign may stay home if he doesn't win the Democratic presidential nomination, dooming the Democratic Party in the fall campaign against President Bush.He's dead on here. Debra DeShong rejects this, saying Dem primary battles are all like this. Bull. The infamous Osama-Dean commercial comes to mind. There's been nothing in Democratic primary politics as publicly foul as that.
"If I don't win the nomination, where do you think those million and a half people, half a million on the Internet, where do you think they're going to go?" he said during a meeting with reporters. "I don't know where they're going to go. They're certainly not going to vote for a conventional Washington politician."
..."I think eventually the nomination is going to be won by somebody with a positive agenda," Dean said. "What's happening is, in their desperation, those guys have thrown their positive agenda out the window. I can't imagine it's going to help them. It might hurt us but it can't help them."
He added: "If we had strong leadership in the Democratic Party, it would be calling the other candidates and saying somebody has to win here. If (former Democratic National Committee head) Ron Brown were chairman, this wouldn't be happening."
Yes, I'm a strong Clark supporter, and I'm pulling for him, and I hope Clark gets the nod. But if it's Dean, then I'll be working for Dean in the general, and these whiny little insider candidates had better get used to the idea. I'm beginning to wonder whether or not the DNP will just roll over and hand the election to Bush if Dean gets the nod from the voters.
On edit: JMM at Talking Points Memo has his take on this, and he has some good points to make. Dean's open talk is encouraging a split of the Democratic ticket, but it's a split that's coming from the other side of the party in my mind. Dean shouldn't feel entitled to the Democratic Party's full support right now, but the party leadership should do a better job of showing he'll get that support if he gets the nomination. Right now, I don't see that happening.
Wesley Clark on the Issues
General Wesley Clark for President - Official Campaign Web Site
The Clark website has redesigned its issues page, and it looks fantastic. You can choose your state from a map and see how Clark's plans will affect your region. You can download policy papers in PDF, or you can browse the various speeches and papers online. It's also tailored to specific American communities. Check it out.
Now It's a Scandal - New evidence that a House GOP leader offered a bribe
Timothy Noah, Slate
Let's just think about the number of criminal investigations surrounding the Republicans-In-Charge. The steadfast way in which they maintain the circled wagons seems incredible to me. It's as if with one single breach, their entire criminal enterprise will crash to the ground.
The House bribery scandal has DeLay written all over it, don't you think?
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