One Brave Dude

File Under: the 'religious' Right

HOUSTON - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.

Wait: Houston? There are Jews in Houston?

Now lots of folks throw around the 'Hitler thing' a bit too easily (like "Rush Limbaugh/Tom Delay/Don Rumsfeld/Dick Cheney/etc is a Nazi"), but the jews... the jews know Hitler and Rabbis don't tend say that lightly.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said "religious right" leaders believe "unless you attend my church, accept my God and study my sacred text you cannot be a moral person."

Stunning when someone calls them on their bullshit isn't it?

"What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God?" he said during the movement's national assembly in Houston, which runs through Sunday.

Hmmm, let's see... do you really want me to try or was it an empty threat?

Yoffie did not mention evangelical Christians directly, using the term "religious right" instead. In a separate interview, he said the phrase encompassed conservative activists of all faiths, including within the Jewish community.

Aww, I hate when folks start something and then back off. Come on, we know the names: Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, Graham, et al.,

He used particularly strong language to condemn conservative attitudes toward homosexuals. He said he understood that traditionalists have concluded gay marriage violates Scripture, but he said that did not justify denying legal protections to same-sex partners and their children.

"We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations," Yoffie said. "Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry."

Right. I mean come on, as long as you aren't being forced to marry another dude/chick (whichever applies) then really, what do you care? And why are they so obsessed with it?

Yoffie said liberals and conservatives share some concerns, such as the potential damage to children from violent or highly sexual TV shows and other popular media. But he said, overall, conservatives too narrowly define family values, making a "frozen embryo in a fertility clinic" more important than a child, and ignoring poverty and other social ills.

Well, personally, I could care less about 'violence on TV' 'cuz I think it is a HUGE step up from the sorts of public entertaiment we've see throughout history like gladiator games & public executions (sorry been catching up on HBO's Rome lately). That's up to parents, not TV folks, but he's right about the embryo thing: folks get all worked up about a few frozen cells, but once a kid is actually born then 'f@#k 'em: if their parents couldn't take care of them they shouldn't have had kids in the first place' seems to be the prevailing attitude.

Nice to see someone out there saying the obvious, but this guy should be careful: the "religious" Right has little to no use for jews (except to help start the 'end times' & armageddon because it is supposed to start in Isreal)... brave dude.

New Blog...

Got this from a friend who works on 'The Hill' hipped me to The Senate Majority Project Blog and if this post is any indication, we will be getting plenty of ammo from it:

Current Majority "Leader" Bill Frist says:
"Asbestos reform will be the first major piece of legislation that we consider in late January when we return,"

And Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter even said:
"Of all of the items which could provide an economic stimulus to the U.S. economy, I think asbestos reform would be the most important,"

Republicans … Making the world safe for Asbestos. Because if Asbestos is not reformed, the suiciders have really won.

Ha ha, hilarious and too true.

History & War

Sidney Blumenthal has an interesting bit of analysis over on Slate.com today ("Bush's betrayal of history") and it contains 2 really interesting paragraphs near the end:

The former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a member of the Defense Policy Board, always notable for his visions, has compared George W. Bush in his travails to Abraham Lincoln before Gettysburg. Gingrich, who has recently written a series of counterfactual novels depicting a Southern triumph in the Civil War, communicated his latest flight of fancy to a longtime former diplomat who has served under Republican and Democratic administrations alike. The diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous, recounted their conversation to me. "We are at war," insisted Gingrich. "With whom?" the diplomat asked. "The Democrats," Gingrich replied without hesitation. For Gingrich, ever the Republican guru, history is a plaything of the partisan present.

Now that is a current quote. This is how they describe it: war. From a Chickenhawk like Gingrich who knows nothing of violence or combat it would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

On to the next bit:

In Rome last week, a leading Italian political figure of the center-left told me he was opposed to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq -- contrary to the public stance of the left coalition. According to his reasoning, Iraq has become a magnet and training center for terrorists, and if the U.S. withdraws the terrorists might come to Europe. I later learned that this was a common analysis of European intelligence agencies as well.

What was it that Chalabit told Arianna? There are no friends only interests?

Rapture Me!

File Under: Religious Wish Fulfillment

It's a shame that this article in the new Vanity Fair isn't up on the web because it is completely worth it:

AMERICAN RAPTURE
Best-selling author and evangelical leader Tim LaHaye has contacts that extend to the White House. That could spell trouble, Craig Unger discovers, since his theology espouses a bloody apocalypse in Israel.

Yes, their's is a super kick-ass worrior Jesus who meets their wish fulfillment of crushing all us "secular humanists" till our blood fills the valleys of the middle east. EEEEW. Sickos

Much Taller In Person

Wee, Pat Buchanan comes out a swingin' at old Georgie boy & his Neo-con pals! Me loves a good old fashioned 'fight for the soul of the party'!

Indeed, since 9/11, the party has indulged in a willful self-delusion that it has become America's Party. The Bush triumph in 2004, talking heads brayed, settled the matter: Red State America has triumphed over Blue State America. The future belongs to us.

Yes, Republicans were 'America's Party' the same way that the Dallas Cowboys and/or the Atlanta Braves are 'America's Teams': it's a line from the marketing department that gets repeated until folks start to believe it (every marketers' dream)

This was always hyperbole. Where Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan rolled up 49-state landslides in re-election runs, Bush won 31 states, losing every state north of the Potomac and east of Ohio, two of the three great industrial states of the Midwest, Michigan and Illinois, and he was skunked on the Pacific rim. Had Kerry hammered him on trade and lost jobs in Ohio, Bush would be a one-term president.

Sounds like Pat has the same dreams I do!

What killed the first Bush presidency and is ruining the second is the abandonment of Reaganism and his embrace of the twin heresies of neoconservatism and Big Government Conservatism, as preached by the resident ideologues at The Weekly Standard and Wall Street Journal.

[snip]

Under Bush II, social spending has exploded to levels LBJ might envy, foreign aid has been doubled, pork-at-every-meal has become the GOP diet of choice, surpluses have vanished, and the deficit is soaring back toward 5% of GDP. Bill Clinton is starting to look like Barry Goldwater.

Oh, oh Pat: you do make a girl's head spin! More, more! Tell me more!!! There's plently more actually and Pat takes no prisoners... too bad I find Buchanan so loathesome.

Story: once ran into Pat at a 7-11 in McLean Virginia near my old office... and he's much, much taller than I would have ever thought. I was about to conclude it wasn't Pat when my co-worker, a Republican, asked me if I'd seen him.

(thanks to AmericaBlog for finding this!)

Will

I've been looking for the transcript, but since I can't find it I will report George Will's analysis of the troubles of the Republican party this weekend and it comes down to this: the Republican party is, like the Democratic, a coalition of various interests that do not always live perfectly side by side. It will, he said, "blow apart" when social conservatives make their real agenda known by attempting to implement it.

Like I've always said: Republicans have used the 'religious' Right as their shock troops... and now that payment is due (because the stars are aligned) things aren't working out so well and it seems the powers that be are gonna welch on payment.

Like the song says: "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding"

Love Or Punishment?

Seems Pope Benedict has come out in favor of the 'intelligent design' school of Creationism (and make no mistake: it is Creationism, and not science) but has taken a position more philosophical than Pat Robertson's petulant god-child who, apparently, we've been poking "in the eye" by trying to understand our world. But, let's face it: the Catholic church is always more philosophical (though no less silly) than Robertson and his ilk who never cease to demonstrate that they have the reasoning skills of 6 year olds.

Slate, however, asks the question they've both begged:

A core principle of modern science is that theories have to make predictions. A belief that doesn't make testable predictions isn't a theory and can't be taught in science classes.

Proponents of ID claim that complex systems found in nature—the cell, the bacterial flagellum, the immune system—are evidence of "intelligent activity" by a designer. But what kind of intelligence? Is the designer brutal or loving, jealous or forgiving? Look at the ancient crocodilelike predator we just dug up. Its mouth is a perfect killing machine. Does the same intelligence that designed us design our murderers?

Hmmm, that seems suspiciously like logic and fundamentalists, by definition do not do logic. Hopefully You, dear reader, do.

It's either that or we're talking about the Perfect Jesus Crocodile Killing Machine... thing.

What the?!?

"I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille..."

Okay, I'll be the first to say it: she's either finally gone around the bend or she's a vampire.

I'm going with vampire.