Open thread

By the way, there's a rumor going around that needs to be dispelled. Far-right groups, mostly religious right types, are spreading the rumor that the Democrats are about to pass anti-lobbying legislation that will shut down all the conservative and liberal advocacy groups. Funny, therefore, that none of the liberal non-profits are very worried about the legislation shutting them down. That's because it won't shut anyone down. It's a lobbying disclosure bill, period. Yes, the ACLU has some qualms about it, but that's normal - they're a free speech group. But it should tell you something that the only groups who are concerned are the religious right and a few arch-conservative direct mail types like Richard Viguerie. Their latest ploy is claiming that bloggers will be regulated by this bill. Not true, according to folks I talk to on the Hill - well, unless the blogger in question accepts $25,000 to use their blog to lobby for some specific legislation.

We should be so lucky. Read More......

Michigan court says adulterers can get life in prison

This is the America that the religious right and the Republican party have given you. You wanted conservatives judges, America? You got conservative judges. You wanted "family values" and laws protecting the sanctity of marriage, you got it.

And you thought they were only coming for the gays. They're trying to outlaw divorce and throw adulterers in prison for life. Is this what you voted for? Read More......

While the FBI wasn't catching Osama...

The first thing I think about every time I get on a plane is whether the guy next to me is a gambler. Read More......

State Dept lawyer blogging

Over at Opinio Juris, a law blog to which professor (and AMERICAblog reader) Kevin Jon Heller contributes, there's a new guest blogger. Normally I wouldn't point that out . . . but the guest is John Bellinger, the head of the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time anyone at the State Department – particularly someone in such a critical position – has blogged in an official capacity, and in addition to being quite a coup for Opinio Juris, the postings have been fascinating. People with legal education will find it particularly interesting, but really anyone with an interest in the legal aspects of fighting terrorism, making international policy, or international law in general should check it out.

Belliger's first post is here, and he's done several additional posts, engaging to an impressive degree with commenters and other contributors to the blog. While I greatly disagree with some of his perspectives, it's really quite a milestone to have someone like this in the blogosphere.

He's writing well, but also getting some good challenges, and to a large degree, the people in the bureaucracy are the ones who direct and shape many of the most important government policies. Read More......

CNN/ABC Glenn Beck scandal grows

Eric Boehlert does a large write-up for Media Matters on ABC's troubling, and increasing, pandering to the far extremist right. This is a must-read. Among the tidbits Boehlert reveals about the CNN host and ABC new morning guy:

Glenn Beck can thank another corporate media giant, Time Warner, for getting him his new ABC gig. In January 2006, Time Warner's CNN Headline News signed Beck to produce a nightly hour-long talk show. Announcing the new hire, Headline News president Ken Jautz, trying to take the edge off Beck's fringe past, described the host as "cordial" and "not confrontational." Yet the previous year, when not fantasizing about killing film maker Michael Moore ("I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it"), Beck told his listeners that Hurricane Katrina survivors trapped in New Orleans were "scumbags," and that he "hate[d]" "9-11 victims' families." He also labeled Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) the "Antichrist," accused Al Gore of being like "Hitler," and congratulated a caller to his program who claimed to have tortured prisoners in U.S. custody by saying, "I've got to tell you, I appreciate your service. ... Good for you."

Read More......

Bush may soon meet with group that "cures" gays

That's what the anti-gay groups are claiming. Good. When Bush does the meeting, I hope the reporters ask Bush what he thinks of the "ex-gay" theory that slavery was a good thing for those savage Africans.

A lead anti-gay activist claimed today on his email list that he is working with a "very well know" (sic) US Senator to set up a private meeting between Bush and anti-civil-rights groups who think gays can be cured with prayer. Here's what the activist, who has worked with the men at the Concerned Women for America, had to say:

"I cannot give any more of the details as of this time, but SBM is coordinating a private meeting with President Bush and other FORMER homosexual men and women, along with their families to VETO this bill, should it come to that point. A very well know Senator who believes in our efforts is working directly with SBM to secure this meeting. Lord willing, this meeting will be taking place VERY soon and we need you to PRAY."

The bill in question is legislation that would amend current federal hates crimes law - we already have a federal hate crimes law in place that covers race, religion and national origin - and include gender, disability and sexual orientation. Well, as you can imagine, the religious right likes it special rights - the federal law already covers them, so they don't want anybody else included. These "God can pray away the gay" loons claim they're setting up a meeting with Bush to demand that he veto adding woman, people with disabilities, and gays to hate crimes legislation that already covers them. Nice.

Feel free to check out this lead "now straight" religious right activist's Web site, Muppet video and all (apparently there's no cure for camp). Read More......

Lead religious right 'scientist' says black Africans were fortunate to become slaves

Happy MLK's birthday to you too.

He also says the civil rights movement is "irrational." The man is on the advisory board of the lead "ex-gay" group, NARTH (the "ex-gays" are the gay-hating religious right activists who claim that you can pray-away-the-gay, or in the case of NARTH, that lots of gays are gay because they were abused as children or some other such nonsense). Well, it seems that they have a racism problem and they're not doing very much about it. The Southern Poverty Law Center - the organization that monitors the movements of hate groups - is now weighing in, and they're not happy. From SPLC:

A prominent member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is under fire for publishing an essay in which he argues that Africans were fortunate to have been sold into slavery, and that the civil rights movement was "irrational."

"There is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America," writes Gerald Schoenewolf, a member of NARTH's Science Advisory Committee. "Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle.... Life there was savage... and those brought to America, and other countries, were in many ways better off."....

Titled Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History (PDF) Schoenewolf's angry polemic was published on NARTH's webpage. In addition to his outrageous historical claims about the conditions of life in Africa, he writes that human rights proponents are intellectually stunted.

NARTH's response? They took the document down from their Web site, and then issued a lame non-apology apology:

[O]n Oct. 6, NARTH posted this statement to its website: "NARTH regrets the comments made by Dr. Schoenewolf about slavery which have been misconstrued by some of our readers.

Misconstrued? Oh, and NARTH is keeping Mr. Slavery-Can-Be-Fun on their board of advisers. No misconstruing that message.

To truly appreciate who the "ex-gays" are and who they're connected to:

The movement's leaders and their close allies at Christian Right powerhouses like James Dobson's Focus on the Family have failed to condemn Schoenewolf's inflammatory arguments.

Dobson, he'd be the guy that John McCain is looking to make amends with. I wonder what John McCain thinks of the advantages of slavery? (I'm sure some of his best friends are slaves.)

(Hat tip, Talk To Action.) Read More......

Diane Sawyer, Muslim-Americans, terrorists, and "common sense"

I've always liked ABC's Diane Sawyer. She has class. So does Barbara Walters. It's hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

That's why it's beyond bizarre that Diane Sawyer is reportedly the one who recruited CNN host and extreme conservative shock-jock Glenn Beck to appear regularly on ABC's Good Morning America. Beck, you will recall, thinks that Muslim-Americans need to prove to the rest of us that they're not rooting for the terrorists. Now, you would think that Beck's rather racist views (he also used the racial slur "Oreo Cookie" on the air the other day) wouldn't get an airing on a great network like CNN - though they do - and you'd think that an even older network like ABC wouldn't touch someone with Beck's mouth with a ten foot poll.

What you wouldn't expect is that Diane Sawyer would say that equating every Muslim-American - EVERY last one - with terrorists is somehow "common sense." What about calling Hurricane Katrina survivors "scumbags?" Fantasizing about murdering Michael Moore? Or what about hating the families of 9/11 victims?

Real common sense there.

There's a reason FOX's ratings are going down. It's the same reason that the Republicans lost the election. The conservative wave is over. And now the mainstream media decides it needs to look more like FOX? It's just sad. Read More......

Bush worried about messages, not the war

As the Senate prepares a non-binding resolution against Bush's escalation plan, the White House is gearing up to fight it. They're worried about the message. Here's an idea for the White House: worry less about the battle over a resolution in the Senate, worry more about the actual war in Iraq. If only the White House put as much time in to the war strategy as they did with the political strategy:

At the White House, officials were continuing to discuss the new plan with members of Congress, with an emphasis on lining up Republicans behind Mr. Bush’s approach. “We knew this was not going to be an easy policy to explain or one that was going to be met with open arms,” said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

That official said that the message to Congressional Republicans was similar to the one the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, conveyed Tuesday at his press briefing: that approval of any resolution critical of Mr. Bush’s approach, even if nonbinding, would send a damaging message.

“In an age of instant and global communication, what message does it send to the people who are fighting democracy in Iraq?” asked Mr. Snow. “And, also, what message does it send to the troops?”

If the White House had a real strategy, they wouldn't need to worry about the message. But, while we're at it, what message does it send to the world that the U.S. is pinned down in Iraq by an insurgency? What message does it send to the troops that the President sent them to war without a plan? And, that he still doesn't have one? Read More......

DoD collecting details of protesters - even more than previously known

Uh guys, the war is overseas. Maybe they should be spending more time focusing on Iraq instead of tracking Americans who are exercising their democractic right to protest. It's no wonder Rummy couldn't build a plan for success...he couldn't even locate the right region of the world.

The released memo, one of a series of Talon documents made public over the past year by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, said that the deleted reports did not meet a 2003 Defense Department requirement that they have some foreign terrorist connection or relate to what was believed to be "a force protection threat."

The number of deleted reports far exceeds the estimate provided to The Washington Post just over a year ago by senior officials of Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the Defense Department agency that manages the Talon program. At that time, then-CIFA Director David A. Burtt II said the review had disclosed that only 1 percent of the then 12,500 Talon reports appeared to be problematic.

The ACLU said in its own report that past disclosures about Talon "cried out for congressional oversight yet Congress was silent." It said the new memo indicated there "may be even more disturbing" information to discover and declared "it is time for Congress to act."

The ACLU noted the memo showed that Talon reports had a much wider circulation than previously disclosed, with about 28 organizations and 3,589 individuals authorized to submit reports or have access to the database. The organizations with access include various military agencies as well as state, federal and local law enforcement officials.

Great, so everyone right down to Barney Fife can get in on the act without any Congressional oversight. This better change quickly. Read More......

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

It's 40 degrees colder in DC than yesterday morning. 40 degrees. But no ice storm here.

Anyone see Hillary Clinton on the Today Show? Back from Iraq, she said "begging" the Iraqi government isn't a strategy. The game is on -- or almost on. I just realized the Iowa caucuses, scheduled for January 14, 2008, are less than a year away.

Maryland gets a Democratic Governor today. Martin O"Malley takes the oath. That blue state is blue again.

What else? Read More......

Scottish independence: Good? Bad? Crazy?

Any Brits out there who have thoughts on the issue? To some degree, I wonder how little that matters over time with the EU gaining more power and authority, but I also understand that emotions can run deep on issues like this. My in laws were heavily divided on the Quebec independence issue a few years back in Canada and in the UK I've always noticed some friction but could never get a good handle on whether on just how serious it was. Why independence and what would it mean? Read More......

Open thread

Off to bed. Read More......