Bush tied with Kerry in latest poll

USA TODAY - Bush's ratings slip at crucial point of campaign: A Gallup Poll conducted Sunday through Tuesday showed that if the election were held now, Kerry and Bush would be tied at 47% each; independent candidate Ralph Nader would receive 3%. That's a six-point swing since mid-April, when Bush led Kerry 50%-44%.

The survey of 1,000 adults has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

What's hurting Bush: The public isn't convinced that the economy is getting better, and they're worried that Iraq is getting worse. By 62% to 36%, those polled said they were dissatisfied with the direction of the country, the most pessimistic reading since 1996.

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Because two wars isn't enough

NYT: Bush Proposes a Plan to Aid Opponents of Castro in Cuba: "President Bush announced a plan on Thursday to use military aircraft to help American broadcasters reach Cuba and to increase sharply the money for Cuban critics of the government of President Fidel Castro....

Other critics questioned the plan's expense. Officials said the administration would cover the costs by taking up to $59 million from other foreign spending accounts.

Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the ranking member of the Finance Committee, said the new plan amounted to a misuse of taxpayer money.

"At a time when the United States faces very real terrorist threats in the Middle East and elsewhere, the administration's absurd and increasingly bizarre obsession with Cuba is more than just a shame, it's a dangerous diversion from reality," Mr. Baucus said.

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"If he says anything arrogant, it's over."

As Rumsfeld prepares to appear before the Senate and House armed services committees on Friday to discuss the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, according to the Washington Post neither Republicans on the Hill nor administration officials (outside of the president - who's clearly no small supporter) are trying very hard to defend him. Rather, it sounds like all the unnamed officials are defending themselves.

Bremer's been reportedly "kicking and screaming" for months for the issue to be addressed, and a State Department official expressed "extreme frustration" to the Post that months of pressure couldn't get Rummy to do a thing about the problem. And to top it off, a Republican Hill staffer says that "if [Rumsfeld] says anything arrogant [at Friday's hearings], it's over."

Now Rumsfeld ain't exactly known for his contrition, and regardless, the Democrats will surely be out for the blood. The only remaining question is whether the Republicans read the tea leaves as requiring a sacrificial lamb at the altar of public opinion. If so, Rummy's toast. Read the rest of this post...

Homophobes using racist law to challenge gay marriage

A group of Massachusetts senators has moved to repeal an old state law that could be used to deny marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples, but Gov. Mitt Romney said Thursday he will stand in the way.

Senate Democrats have filed an amendment to the state budget that would eliminate the residency requirement for state marriage licenses, the Boston Globe reports. Established in 1913 and not currently enforced, the law sought to prevent an influx of mixed-race couples who could not legally marry in their home states....

Gov. Romney, a Republican, contends the 1913 law should be enforced in the case of same-sex couples, since their marriages are not recognized in the other 49 states. He said he will veto any attempt to repeal the statute." - PlanetOut

There's a certain poetic justice to homophobes using anti-miscegenation laws to thwart gay marriage. The funny part is that ten years ago when Romney was running against Ted Kennedy for US Senate, Romney was tripping over himself to woo the gay vote. Now he's tripping over himself to prove he's a bigger bigot than the next guy. Oh the things that make you popular with the Republican electorate nowadays... Read the rest of this post...

BushCheneyRobertsonFalwell want you barefoot and pregnant

The government rejected over-the-counter sales of morning-after birth control Thursday, citing concern about young teenagers' use of the pills.

Proponents immediately accused the Food and Drug Administration of bowing to conservative political pressure — noting that the agency had overruled its own scientific advisers, who had overwhelmingly called easier access to emergency contraception a safe way to prevent thousands of abortions. - Reuters

Only problem is, pretty much every medical expert says the concern is totally bogus. Last December, the FDA advisory committees with jurisdiction over this matter voted 23 to 4 to recommend that emergency contraceptives be made available over the counter. And virtually every major medical and health organization agreed. But, not one to let science get in the way of good politics, the Bush administration, at the behest of the religious right, put the kibosh on things.

- Here's Planned Parenthood's take on today's decision.
- Here's more background on the issue from the Washington Post.

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The anti-Muslim crusade continues

I had no intent for this to be "Hug a Muslim" day at AMERICAblog, but this growing religious right anti-Muslim bigotry really ticks me off. Particularly since these fundies are all in cahoots with the Bushies, yet no one asks the president how he can tell the Muslim world that we're they're friends, then his uber-Christian buddies here in the US slam American Muslims every chance they get.

The latest is yet another invective from the religious right new service, AgapePress, about Muslim-Americans in Michigan who want permission to broadcast a call to prayer from their local mosque. Now look, I've been to Muslim countries and have been shocked awake at 4:30AM by the call to prayer, so I get that this is an issue that needs to be thought through before just letting it happen. But having said that, the arguments coming from the opponents are some of the most bigoted things I've ever heard - not to mention, the fundies totally undercut their own efforts to impose a fundamentalist Christian theocracy on the rest of us.

To wit. Here are a few choice quotes from the latest article on this topic:

Jim Marquis is pastor of the New Covenant Worship Center in Wellston, Ohio. When he learned about the situation in Hamtramck, Michigan, where city council members were prepared to pass a new ordinance allowing mosques in the community to broadcast their calls to prayer, he decided to get involved. Last week Marquis took nine church members with him to speak on behalf of citizens in the community who felt passing an ordinance giving the mosques an exemption from the city's noise regulations would infringe on the rights of non-Muslim residents.

Ok, first observation. If this were simply an issue of not wanting excess "noise" in town, then why is a church getting involved? Or is there a specific problem with the faith of the people making the noise?

"There's no place that you can go. You're going to be able to hear it in your home; you're going to hear it in your automobile, on your lawn, wherever you are -- you have no choice.

Ok, so far, I'm with him.

Five times a day for up to five minutes at a time, you're going to have to hear this prayer recited to Allah, in whom we do not believe as Christians," Marquis says.

Ok, now we're getting to the real crux of the issue. The problem isn't loud noise five times a day. It's loud noise about a faith to which we don't adhere. Funny, but these Christians don't have that concern when it comes to prayer in school. Kids "have to hear this prayer" even if they "do not believe." But apparently, that's ok if the religion that's being forced on them is Christianity.

The anti-"call to prayer" residents continue:

"They've made sure that you understand what they're saying in this foreign language," Marquis explains, "being 'Allah is great' four times in the very beginning of it, and 'Come to prayer,' and 'We believe Mohammad to be his only prophet.' It's disgusting, and it's just absolutely intrusive upon everyone's rights that this takes place.... It's a prayer that's being offered to a false God."

It's a disgusting prayer being offered to a false God. Now we've cut through the crap. The same folks who want to put the Ten Commandments in every courthouse, and God in every school, have a problem when Muslim-Americans want to get their faith some civic attention as well. It's one thing to rightly argue that the noise might prove intrusive. It's quite another to argue that the real problem is that we don't like their view of God and it disgusts us to have to hear about it. If that were the standard for who has religious freedom in America, the fundies would have been told to shut the hell up long ago. Read the rest of this post...

It's more patriotic to let them die

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) says on ABC News tonight. "This policy has to be changed, we cannot prevail in this war as the policy is going today."

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) responds: "That is a very ugly thing to say, and gives great confidence to our enemies that they then therefore are winning."

Ok, I've had it with this "you're un-American if you criticize the president" crap. It's been over two years since September 11, and it's time for democracy to come back to America. It's not un-American to express concern about our soldiers' safety, or to ask why they don't seem to be getting the supplies and the medical attention and the manpower they need. It's not un-American to honor those who have died by publicly recognizing their sacrifice. And it's not un-American to demand that our leaders be held responsible for any malfeasance in getting us into this war, or in conducting it.

I'm not sure what Rep. Buyer thinks he was elected for, but it sure as hell wasn't to be a rubber-stamp Politburo for Premier Bush-akov. We elected these guys to a separate and equal branch of government. If Rep. Buyer wants to abdicate his oversight responsibilities regarding national security, then he should get out of Congress and make way for someone who understands what being an American congressman is really about. Read the rest of this post...

Kerry says Rummy should resign

Reuters. The sign to watch for is whether any Republicans now step forward and join the call for Rumsfeld to resign. If so, it's over for him. Read the rest of this post...

Surrender, Dorothy

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Bush speaks in Rose Garden about prisoner scandal

Ok, he said he's "sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their famliies." Good. He also pledged that the "wrongdoers will be brought to justice." Not clear whether that includes Rumsfeld.

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"Rumsfeld Must Go"

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial:

DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD should resign and take his top deputies with him. That includes Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary Douglas Feith.

It's not just Mr. Rumsfeld's latest fiasco, the botched handling of the investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.

It's not just that Mr. Rumsfeld seriously underestimated the number of U.S. troops required for the occupation of Iraq and the potential for American casualties.

It's not just that Mr. Rumsfeld seriously overestimated the threat from weapons of mass destruction.

It's not just that Mr. Rumsfeld ignored the State Department's plans for the occupation and relied on private security forces and private companies with no-bid contracts.

It's not just that U.S. policy in Iraq has devolved in dangerous ad hocery, with one day's decision reversed the next day.

It's not just that Mr. Rumsfeld had charged around the world insulting key allies.

It's the accumulation of all these miscalculations, misconceptions and missteps - and an arrogant inability to admit his mistakes - that require him to step down. If the Defense Department were a corporation, its CEO would be long gone..."

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Red Cross asked US to address Iraqi prisoner abuses months ago

"...the International Red Cross said that months before word of the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison became public, it had repeatedly asked U.S. authorities to take action over reported abuses. 'We were aware of what was going on, and based on our findings we have repeatedly requested the U.S. authorities to take corrective action,' said Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the organization in Geneva. " - AP

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Muslims excluded from National Day of Prayer

On the heels of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, President Bush is reportedly participating in National Day of Prayer events that explicitly exclude Muslims.

"[Vonette Bright, widow of Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright] made no apologies about the exclusion of Muslims and others outside of the 'Judeao-Christian tradition' from ceremonies planned by the task force on Capitol Hill and in state capitals across the country. 'They are free to have their own national day of prayer if they want to,' she said. 'We are a Christian task force'....

Organizers said some Jewish rabbis, Catholic clergy and mainline Protestants have been invited to the congressional and White House ceremonies. But the exclusion of religious minorities has led to protests in several cities. - Wash Post

So it's okay to invite Jews to the "Christian" task force event, but not Muslims - either way, once you invite non-Christian denominations to a supposedly Christian event, you've lost the authority to explain why other major faiths have been excluded. In addition, it's rather sickening that federal and state governments would participate in multi-denominational events at all, let alone one that bans a particular faith. (The article is unclear as to whether the White House event also excludes Muslims (though it does say that "religious minorities" were excluded), and it does make clear that the Capitol Hill and state capital events do exclude Muslims.)

Ah, but it all comes together when you read the fine print. The National Day of Prayer Task Force, the group organizing the event, "operates from the Colorado headquarters of the Christian organization Focus on the Family," according to the same Wash Post article. Focus on the Family, you'll recall, is the home of James Dobson, one of the most vile creatures of the religious right. The task force is being run by Dobson's wife. So this isn't the National Day of Prayer, and not even the National Day of Christian Prayer. It's the National Day of Fundamentalist Christian Prayer. Lovely, just lovely. Read the rest of this post...

Liars

In my earlier post, below, I quoted the religious right news service, AgapePress, running an incredibly racist story about homeowners in Hamtramck, Michigan who are upset that "the Muslims" have moved into their neighborhood. The article notes that all of this is happening "in a place where the Ten Commandments or other Christian displays are considered politically incorrect."

Well, observant reader Karin alerted me to the fact that Christian displays are hardly politically incorrect in Hamtramck. To wit, the town's big ole public statue of the Pope:



Ever heard of the 9th Commandment, guys? Read the rest of this post...

US soldiers put harness on elderly Iraqi woman, ride her like a donkey

Maureen Dowd mentions this report in her column today:

U.S. soldiers who detained an elderly Iraqi woman last year placed a harness on her, made her crawl on all fours and rode her like a donkey, Prime Minister Tony Blair's personal human rights envoy to Iraq said Wednesday.

The envoy, legislator Ann Clwyd, said she had investigated the claims of the woman in her 70s and believed they were true.

Read the entire story about the Iraqi woman here. Read the rest of this post...

Even more photos surface

See more photos here. And read the Wash Post article here. Read the rest of this post...