A Headline of the Day That Boggles The Mind

Rove: Obama ‘let a cowboy president…violate a fundamental principle of the Constitution.’

He's talking about Honduras, but he's very familiar with the concept from eight years of enabling it.

Headline of the Day

Following up on Fixer's post:

Conservatives Who Demanded We ‘Listen To’ And ‘Stand Behind’ Gen. Petraeus Now Disregard Him

The worms turn on their hero when he's right and doesn't agree with them.

Racism is linked to Religious dogmatism

A post you should read at Center For Inquiry.

This study finds that a denomination's demand for devout allegiance to its Christian creed overrides any humanistic message. By demanding such devotion to one specific and dogmatic Christianity, a denomination only encourages its members to view outsiders as less worthy.

--- Let's read that conclusion again: "Only religious agnostics were racially tolerant." Why would religious agnostics be more humanistic and less racist?

Religious agnostics would be people who combine a religious/spiritual attitude in living life with a humble admission that they don't know if their approach is the only right way. Religious agnostics are pluralistic -- they have no problem admiring how different people can enjoy different religious paths. And it is precisely this lack of dogmatism which permits humanistic values to shine through. Religious exclusivism defeats humanistic universalism, but religious pluralism enhances humanistic universalism.

[...] Revere your own religious path, but also respect and revere others' ability to devote themselves to a higher good in their own way. It is precisely that kind of universal respect for all paths which can reduce prejudice.

I do not think the results of that study conflict in any way with what we've been saying around here for going on six years except that we have absolutely no respect at all for religionists whose credo is "my way or the highway".

Finally ...

It looks as if the climate is right for this country to examine the relationship we have with Israel objectively. Greenwald:

... It's rather difficult to maintain the fiction that only fringe Israel-haters see the connection between our support for Israel and Muslim hatred toward the U.S. when two of America's most respected military officials (responsible for U.S. troops in the region) are making that case explicitly ...

I wonder if the conservatives are gonna start calling him "Betrayus" now?

Taint?

Howard Kurtz has an interesting piece today about how some Fox News employees seem to think Glenn Beck taints their brand. Isn't this sort of like the madam in a brothel worrying about her reputation for virtue? The real shock in this story is that there are people at Fox News who still consider themselves "journalists" - funny, considering how they must already work within the ideological confines of Roger Ailes' famous daily memos ... [my em]

No shit. 3 words: Bed. Made. Lie.

Quote of the Day

Alan Grayson. Become a fan at Facebook.

‘Alaskan chillbilly’ smartest GOP leader since W.

He unloads on Moosebreath pretty good, the snarky bastid! Gotta love him!

Texas Legislature Votes To Rewrite Bible

Expanding on my blurb in an earlier post.

CLG. Hey lady, this is good and we plugged you. Leave us alone.

"The good Lord has smiled on us," said Carlton Bolton, the president and CEO of Hallelujah Press, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which received an exclusive no-bid contract to manufacture the new Bibles.

AUSTIN, Texas - (PTSD News) - Fresh from their recent success in passing laws to rewrite school history textbooks to drop discussions of FDR and unions in favor of what they called conservative intellectuals such as George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber, the Texas Legislature passed a law that all Bibles in the state must be updated.

"The Bible was obviously written by Jewish liberals from New York," said Candace Sue Burnham (R-Plano). "So it's time we Christians take our Bible back to stress true family values such as hating gays, illegal Mexicans, Muslims and especially hating illegal gay Mexican Muslims."

"The current version of the Bible is riddled with communist propaganda about Jesus helping the poor," said Wayne Plugg (R-San Angelo)."That's obviously hogwash because if Jesus loved those poor people so much, he would have made them rich."

"Everyone knows that the gay agenda was to make sure the Bible left out all the gospels that our merciful Lord's greatest pleasure was to smite homosexuals," said Reverend Chuck Amer of the First Church of the Exploding Pentecost of Palestine, Texas. "So we're putting all that stuff back in."

The newly approved Bible, 'Bible: King James Dobson Version,' named after the founder of the popular Focus on the Family broadcasts, also adds the following passages: Anyone voting for Democrats must be stoned to death, global warming is Satan's favorite lie, greediness is next to godliness, people who don't speak English should be banished from the kingdom, and that slavery is not so bad if it can keep those people off the streets.

The hollowed out Bible also comes with a handgun inside.

Jesus weeps.

Headline of the Day

Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl: "Isn't It Time To Euthanize Reid's Wife?"

A new low for wingnut gasbags, and that takes some doing. The guy needs his lights punched out. Go do it, Harry. No jury in the land would convict you.

A right-wing earthquake in the making?

Pretty good short read by P.M. Carpenter:

By 1960 he was insisting that conservatism's traditionalist and libertarian camps were indeed in fundamental agreement, yet each -- and this is the relevant key -- was so self-righteously cocksure of what it alone postured as philosophically "decisive," a self-destructive "distortion" set in; which is to say, each side took its dogma to exclusive extremes, refusing necessary compromise and accommodation -- necessary, that is, if ultraconservatives were ever to gain electoral dominance.

Thus, wrote Meyer, "Conservatism, to continue to develop today, must embrace both: reason [libertarianism] operating within tradition [old-school Burkeanism] ... It can only be achieved by a hard-fought dialectic ... in which both sides recognize not only that they have a common enemy" -- that being modern liberalism, glibly conflated by Meyer with communism -- "but also that, despite all differences, they hold a common heritage."

And achieve it they did; [...]

And now, it's all unraveling -- the primordial fault line between, loosely, conservative traditionalists and economic libertarians has reemerged. A half-century of conservative unification appears shaky at best.

As Politico reported last week, "the evangelical Christian right ... [has] begun to express concern that tea party leaders don’t care about their issues" -- and that, friends, is a colossal understatement. More than "concern," they're at each other's throat, just like the good old days of a half-century past, those conservatively disunified days of self-righteous cocksuredness which denied accommodation's admission.

The right's reemerging divisions range from the delicately stated to the deliciously ugly: "There’s a libertarian streak in the tea party movement that concerns me as a cultural conservative," said Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association; said another social conservative leader, "As far as I can tell [the libertarian tea party movement] has a politics that’s irreligious. I can’t see how some of my fellow conservatives identify with it" as well as their "incivility" and "name-calling"; and said the ubiquitous Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, "They’re free to do it, but [the libertarians] can’t say [their economic platform] represents America. If they do it they’re lying."

What's more, there now runs a kind of tributary fault line among evangelical Christians, as much a generational as philosophical rift: "I don’t think younger Christians are all that interested in the tea party movement," wrote a "younger evangelical" leader to Politico. Yet he framed his dissent in a most curious way -- one that expresses even greater discontent with his evangelical elders: His generation, he said, is "increasingly dissatisfied by a myopic Republican party that seems unwilling to tackle important social justice issues" (my emphasis). And that's an in-house argument less with the 15-minute-stardom of Glenn Beck than with Tony Perkins.

Can they regroup? [...]

I hope they tear each other's throats out.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Supreme Court Upholds “Under God” in Pledge of Allegiance
Drops “with liberty and justice for all.”

Conservatives on Texas School Board Approve New History Curriculum
Lone Star State third graders will soon learn about American heroes Father Coughlin, Joe McCarthy and present-day heroine Ann Coulter.

No, really. See "Texas Board of Education cuts Thomas Jefferson out of its textbooks". Musta been a damn commie. Or worse, a Liberal!

The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”

Except for theirs, of course.

BUSINESS

Toyota Luring Buyers Back With Incentives
Competitors complain offering Chinese “comfort women” goes too far.

Fed Official: Economy Won't Revive Until 2013
According to Mayan Calendar.

Poll: 82% Ask God for Advice Before Making Decision
Then place order for Paris Hilton sex tape.

Looting ...

The evaporation of American dollars into the sands of Mesopotamia (and into the hands of Bush allies) is astounding.

Investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions — involving banks, land deals, loan payments, casinos and even plastic surgery* — made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion program.

Some of the cases involve people who are suspected of having mailed tens of thousands of dollars to themselves from Iraq, or of having stuffed the money into duffel bags and suitcases when leaving the country, the federal investigators said. In other cases, millions of dollars were moved through wire transfers. Suspects then used cash to buy BMWs, Humvees and expensive jewelry, or to pay off enormous casino debts.

Some suspects also tried to conceal foreign bank accounts in Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain, the investigators said, while in other cases, cash was simply found stacked in home safes.

...

As our pal Montag says:

...

Another example of why the Republicans try so hard to remove regulation, oversight and enforcement. With those in place, none of their friends can make any money.

Indeed.

*I wonder how many new sets of fake tits are technically owned by the U.S. government.

Just look at Rome ...

And you'll see the same 'similarity of decline' here as you did in the waning years of the Empire:

...

Such questions are becoming common across the nation as water and sewer systems break down. Today, a significant water line bursts on average every two minutes somewhere in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data.

In Washington alone there is a pipe break every day, on average, and this weekend’s intense rains overwhelmed the city’s system, causing untreated sewage to flow into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.

State and federal studies indicate that thousands of water and sewer systems may be too old to function properly. [my em]

...

When a society can't fix its basic infrastructure, the fall is well on its way.

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

Military Wisdom*

*Musta been written by enlisted men.

Got these from my old school pal and retired Master Chief Steve. Some of them are hilarious. They're all true.

· "If the enemy is in range, so are you." — Infantry Journal.

· "It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." — US Air Force Manual.

· "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword, obviously never encountered automatic weapons." — General MacArthur .

· "You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me." — U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt.

· "Tracers work both ways." — U.S. Army Ordnance Manual.

· "Five second fuses only last three seconds." — Infantry Journal.

· The three most useless things in aviation are: Fuel in the bowser; Runway behind you; and Air above you. — Basic Flight Training Manual.

· "Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once." — Maritime Ops Manual.

· "Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." — Unknown Marine Recruit

· "If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him." — USAF Ammo Troop.

· "You've never been lost until you’ve been lost at Mach 3." — Paul F. Crickmore (SR71 test pilot).

· "The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire." —Unknown Author.

· "If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage it has to be a helicopter — and therefore, unsafe." — Fixed Wing Pilot.

· "When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash." — Multi-Engine Training Manual.

· "Without ammunition, the USAF is just an expensive flying club." — Unknown Author.

· "If you hear me yell; 'Eject, Eject, Eject!,' the last two will be echoes. If you stop to ask 'Why?' you’ll be talking to yourself, because you're the pilot." — Pre-flight Briefing from a 104 Pilot.

· "What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; but If ATC screws up, .... the pilot dies." — Sign over Control Tower Door.

· "Never trade luck for skill." — Author Unknown.

· "Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight." — Basic Flight Training Manual.

· "Mankind has a perfect record in aviation — we have never left one up there!" — Unknown Author.

· "Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it." — Emergency Checklist.

· "The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you." — Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot).

· "There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime." — Sign over Squadron Ops Desk at Davis-Montham AFB, AZ.

· "If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to." — Sign over Carrier Group Operations Desk.

· "You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal." — Lead-in Fighter Training Manual .

· As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives. The rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks, "What happened?" The pilot’s reply: "I don't know, I just got here myself!".

Driving Drunk in Jerusalem

Tom Friedman

I am a big Joe Biden fan. The vice president is an indefatigable defender of U.S. interests abroad. So it pains me to say that on his recent trip to Israel, when Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government rubbed his nose in some new housing plans for contested East Jerusalem, the vice president missed a chance to send a powerful public signal: He should have snapped his notebook shut, gotten right back on Air Force Two, flown home and left the following scribbled note behind: “Message from America to the Israeli government: Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. And right now, you’re driving drunk. You think you can embarrass your only true ally in the world, to satisfy some domestic political need, with no consequences? You have lost total contact with reality. Call us when you’re serious. We need to focus on building our country.”

Sometimes I agree with Friedman since he realized how wrong his stance was on Bush's criminal war in Iraq and wised up a little. Sometimes I don't.

Netanyahu said he was blindsided. It’s probably true in the narrow sense. The move seems to have been part of a competition between two of Netanyahu’s right-wing Sephardi ministers from the religious Shas Party over who can be the greater champion of building homes for Sephardi orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem. It is a measure of how much Israel takes our support for granted and how out of touch the Israeli religious right is with America’s strategic needs.

They don't give a (kosher) rat's ass about "what America needs". Blindsided? I don't think so. The Israelis don't play that shit. It was done absolutely on purpose. They make Machiavelli look like a two-bit con man.

They stuck their finger in our eye. As far as I am concerned, Israel can go get fucked. If I were President, they would be on their own for awhile until they realize that they can't get along without our support and come begging for it.

It's pretty obvious that they don't want peace with the Palestinians unless it's on their own terms, which doesn't involve 'peace with the Palestinians' at all, simply their continued subjugation.

Friedman said once, and I agree, that for Israel and the Palestinians to achieve peace, they have to want it more than we do, and so far they don't appear to.

If Israel doesn't climb down off its right-wing high horse, there won't be an Israel in forty years.

Kooky Kabuki

Set your drink out of reach and go read Will Durst.

This health care thing has driven people crazier than Johnny Depp in a Max Fleischer cartoon on acid. Pro or con, your rhetoric better be cranked up to eleven and soaring past the outer orbit of Neptune, or you're going to be as invisible as a tax collector with a soggy paper plate full of Swedish meatballs sitting next to the deceased at a wake.

Eric Massa, the New York Democrat who admitted grabbing a staffer's staff, embarked on a media based whining tour charging he was hounded out of office by the White House and smeared because of his opposition to health care reform. But even though he was willing to speak ill of the Administration, Glenn Beck washed his hands of Tickle- Me- Eric, after the former Congressman trotted out some intra- personal top bunk Naval snorkeling documentation. When a pissed off Democrat is too far gone for Glenn Beck, things truly have escalated into kooky Kabuki terrain.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Senator Orrin Hatch railed that if Democrats try to jam a health care bill through Congress it will destroy bipartisanship. Oh no. Not that! They're killing the dodo. Apparently this guy is more worried about a dead fantasy than sick Americans. Then Senator Mitch McConnell ratcheted up the exponential wackiness by warning Democrats they face Electoral Armageddon in the fall, which isn't fair; like regaling 6 year old girls with tales of the hairy spiders that live under their bed before saying "sleep tight."

Obama, his own self, can be found careening around the country like an over- caffeinated Chihuahua engaged in a last ditch effort to sell the bill to what you might call his hesitant posse. Yeah. Recalcitrant Democrats. What are the odds? Like calling a flash flood- irksome. Hell, at this point Obama would be happy to pass anything. Health care. The jobs bill. A hook pattern. Kidney stone. Toyota Prius.

The overwhelming discombobulating apprehension is the President isn't just piloting his own kamikaze fighter into the carrier of health care, he's sending vulnerable troops on the same suicide mission. One that will make Gallipoli look like a weekend pass at an Istanbul brothel. After all, its not his butt on the re- election line this fall, and the GOP strategy to stall proceedings has frothed Democratic incumbents into such a lather, the sweat dripping off their faces is shorting out microphones all across this great land of ours.

Go.

Sunday Psychobilly Redneck Music Blogging

I love this!

Johnny Cash ~ One Piece At A Time

Thanks to Edsell2009.

Justice Clarence Thomas' wife launches tea party group

To quote the headline at BuzzFlash: "So much for Justice Roberts complaining about SCOTUS members enduring partisanship."

The Political Carnival

She said it would accept donations from various sources -- including corporations -- as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

As the Church Lady would say, "how conveeeeenient."

Or is it...SATAN? Pretty close to it, I'd say.

Go read the rest.

The New Rove-Cheney Assault on Reality

Do not miss Daddy Frank's column today. Nothing we don't know, but tamped into a nice, neat brick.

Now the revisionist floodgates have opened with the simultaneous arrival of Karl Rove’s memoir and Keep America Safe, a new right-wing noise machine invented by Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz and the inevitable William Kristol. This gang’s rewriting of history knows few bounds. To hear them tell it, 9/11 was so completely Bill Clinton’s fault that it retroactively happened while he was still in office. The Bush White House is equally blameless for the post-9/11 resurgence of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Iran. Instead it’s President Obama who is endangering America by coddling terrorists and stopping torture.

Could any of this non-reality-based shtick stick? So far the answer is No. Rove’s book and Keep America Safe could be the best political news for the White House in some time. This new eruption of misinformation and rancor vividly reminds Americans why they couldn’t wait for Bush and Cheney to leave Washington.

I don't need to be reminded, thanks anyway, Pop.

But the old regime’s attack squads are relentless and shameless. The Obama administration, which put the brakes on any new investigations into Bush-Cheney national security malfeasance upon taking office, will sooner or later have to strike back. Once the Bush-Cheney failures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran again come home to roost, as they undoubtedly and explosively will, someone will have to remind our amnesia-prone nation who really enabled America’s enemies in the run-up to 9/11 and in its aftermath.

Much more. Last ¶:

If we are really to keep America safe, it’s essential we remember exactly which American politicians empowered Iran, Al Qaeda and the Taliban from 2001 to 2008, and why. History will be repeated not only if we forget it, but also if we let it be rewritten by those whose ideological zealotry and boneheaded decisions have made America less safe to this day.

For some reason, Pops left out "and spent us into the poorhouse to do it".

Higher species ...

That would be us. From our friend John Gall via email:

...

The study used a picture-based vocabulary test to estimate the IQ of participating teenagers. Seven years later, the same people were asked about their religious and political beliefs.

People who later admitted to being "not at all religious," and who classified themselves as "very liberal" politically had higher IQ scores as teenagers than those who were "very religious" and "very conservative."

...

Of course they had to use pictures, they were questioning conservatives. Heh ....

Quote of the Day

Larisa:

...

Yes, that pesky thing called the Constitution, which calls for a separation of church and state is a left-wing propaganda rag.

...