Open thread

Watching 24 (have it TIVOd). Great show. Though I can understand why the Muslim groups are upset about it. (Bottom line: Evil Muslim-American family is really a terrorist cell hell-bent on killing 8 million Americans.) It's just like the gay thing. Yes, some Muslims are terrorists (some gays are pedophiles), and some Muslims living in the US are terrorists. But making a TV show about terrorist Muslim families (gay pedophiles, whatever) highlights the stereotype and helps deepend it - so the argument goes.

Thoughts on this? Read More......

Catholic Church Attacks Freedom of Religion

Hey, who misses the Inquisition? Apparently the Catholic Church, which has never been comfortable with genuine democracies. They're now joining with the Mormons, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Orthodox Jews to attack freedom of religion in Canada and make the practices of major religions they hate illegal under the law.

I'm talking of course about gay marriage. Eighty five percent of Canadians already live in areas where marriage rights are extended to all people and the valid marriages of the Episcopalians, Reform Jews, MCC, Unitarians and other mainstream religions are respected and treated as valid. But the Church is waging an unholy war against a bil coming to Parliament in early February that would legalize same sex marriage -- and therefore treat the practices of all major religions equally rather than singling some out as invalid.

This is not about same sex marriage. That is a fact of life and it will never go away -- neither will marriages between people of different races, different religions or marriages between adults who are 40 years apart in age and anything else some might find distasteful that many religions would bless. So don't let them make this an argument about gay people. It's an argument about freedom of religion. Why should the tenets of the Catholic Church become the law of the land while the tenets of the Unitarians should be made illegal? Why are Orthodox Jews good people of faith while Reform Jews are leading to the end of civilization? Why are Mormons godly people and MCCers attacking the very pillars of society? Why doesn't the Catholic Church oppose every politican who keeps divorce legal? Why am I still surprised and angry -- as a practicing Catholic -- at how much the Church and its tactics have changed in the past ten years?
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Sept. 4, 1967: US Encouraged by Vietnam vote

Officials cite 83% turnout despite Vietcong terror.

Anyone know if this is for real? Read More......

GOP Social Security strategy doc online

RawStory.com got its hands on an entire 100+ page Republican strategy document on the Social Security battle.

Josh Marshall has already pulled something interesting from the document. Have and look and post anything of interest you find. Read More......

The Democrats in Congress and the Governors are afraid of the liberal bloggers

Good. This is actually pretty exciting. If the blogs have influence, YOU have influence via your participation in the blogs. And with the creation of BlogPac last October, we're already in the process of tying the leftie blogs toegether in a more tighly knit community, which will make all of us all the more effective. Read More......

Four US Marines killed in Iraq

Well, glad to see those elections clearly made a big difference. So NOW what's the exit strategy? Read More......

Afternoon open thread

Yes, the elections in Iraq are great. But was it worth hundreds of billions of dollars of OUR money and an ongoing costs of billions per week? Was it worth 1500 American lives, and counting? I'm not so sure, and I doubt the US public is so sure. It's cute for politicians like Bush to play the "isn't it sweet that they can vote" game, and try to deflect us from the cost. But politics, like life, is about costs. If you asked the American public if they'd pay $500 billion and 3,000 American lives and put the country into a massive deficit for the US to go it alone and free some third world country from dictatorship so they could vote in free elections, I'm not so sure folks would be so quick to say yes.

This was a war of choice, and Bush spent our money to do it. It is grotesque that he could find hundreds of billions of dollars at the drop of a hat to do this, while so many unaddressed problems remain at home. Either we have the money or we don't. But to claim that we have to slash the budget for domestic programs when we always seem to find the money for military programs, that is grotesque. I am all for a strong military, and am rather hawkish on war (when I'm not being lied to), but someone needs to ask Bush sometime "if deficits aren't necessarily bad, and if there really IS more money out there provided we think the cause is important enough, then why don't we go into more of a deficit to address some of our domestic needs?" I simply don't like this "there is no money" garbage when they then turn around and find it. What that means is that the problem isn't a lack of money, it's a lack of concern. Read More......

Bob Novak votes NO on Howard Dean as DNC chair

Gee, Novakula and his sources say Dean will be a disaster for the Democratic party because major funders will leave the party forever. Uh huh. Novak has discovered that Dean's elevation to party chair will be a disaster for the Dems, and Novak has a few options how to respond:

1. Sit tight and do not write an article alerting the Dems to the fact that a Dean chairmanship will destroy their party.

or

2. Write a big syndicated article that might just help doom Dean's chances, and thus "save" the Democratic party.

You guessed it. Bob Novak, Doucehbag of Justice, when presented with the option of aiding and abeting the destruction of the Democratic party, chose instead to spread the word across the land that the Democratic party must be saved and here's how you do it.

Yeah, Novak to the rescue of the Democratic party. Give me a break. The fact that Bob Novak is now trying to kill Dean's candidacy should make clear what a threat Dean is to the GOP. Read More......

Democracy in Iraq? Gimme A Break

Bob Herbert of the New York Times nods politely towards my opinion that the voting yesterday was a heartening, even historic moment. Then he embraces the opinions of most of this blog's readers and details the many ways in which Iraq is still a disaster getting worse and far, far from a democracy as we understand it. That right-wing bastion the editorial board of the New York Times also weighs in, acknowledging the heavy work ahead and massive obstacles to success but leaning more towards my positive spin. And while Bush and his people thump their chests and crow about the elections, let's remember that they initially wanted to put off elections far into the future but it was an Iraqi figure -- Grand Ayatollah Sistani -- who insisted they be held as soon as possible. Bush embraced that because he had no choice.
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Morning open thread

Blah blah. Read More......

The Dean backlash begins

AP:

A group of state party leaders slowed Howard Dean's fast-moving campaign to become Democratic Party chairman by backing rival candidate Donnie Fowler.

The executive committee of state party chairs voted Sunday to endorse the 37-year-old Fowler, who headed Sen. John Kerry's successful presidential nominating campaign in Michigan last year.

Another blog has posted the phone numbers for the Democratic party folks who will be voting on the new chair. I strongly recommend you call those party chairs from your own state - Dean recommended this step in the conference call we had with him. Read More......

What's $9Billion between friends?

It's not like anyone is really paying attention to spending anyway.
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