Feds Train Clergy To "Quell Dissent" During Martial Law

From AlterNet:

The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13, the often taken out of context bible passage that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in order to teach them to "obey the government" when martial law is declared.

Pastors were told that they would be backed up by law enforcement in controlling uncooperative individuals and that they would even lead SWAT teams in attempting to quell resistance.

Though some doubted the accuracy of this report at the time due to its fundamentally disturbing implications, the story has now been confirmed by a KSLA 12 news report, in which participating clergy and officials admit to the existence of the program.

Click here for the rest.

Ahem.

The only possible reason for such a program's existence is that there are plans to declare martial law. Needless to say, if martial law were declared at the national level, without any real emergency or disaster so devastating that it would incapacitate all local and state governments, America effectively ends. I've been wondering for some time how Cheney was going to maintain power after the 2008 elections: he'll simply call them off until the "emergency" ends.

Any minister, priest, or rabbi who participates in this program will be a fair target for resistance fighters.

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KPFT Targeted: Bullet Pierces Studio Window of Pacifica's Houston Station

From Democracy Now!:

A drive-by shooting targeted Pacifica Radio station KPFT in Houston early Monday morning. A single bullet blasted through a Plexiglas window into the station's studio at 1:00 a.m. No one was injured in the shooting, but the bullet came within eighteen inches of Mary Thomas. She was hosting a Zydeco music program at the time.

KPFT’s station manager Duane Bradley said the shooting might have been political. If so, it would not be the first politically motivated attack on KPFT. More than thirty-five years ago, the Ku Klux Klan blew up the station's transmitters twice within the Houston station’s first year of operation. In October of 1970, five months after the first bombing, KPFT's transmitter was bombed for a second time, just as the station was broadcasting folk legend Arlo Guthrie's song “Alice's Restaurant.”

Click here to watch, listen to, or read the rest--if you watch or listen, you'll get to hear the cool Cajun accent spoken by Mary Thomas.

This could be a case of mistaken identity, or simple street crime, but I seriously doubt it. The house from which KPFT broadcasts is on one of the swankier streets in Montrose. There aren't usually drive-by shootings there. Further, the interview later shows that the shooter spent some time casing out the area: this was deliberate; they were gunning for KPFT. And how could it not be politically motivated? Again, I suppose it's possible that it was a disgruntled worker, or a jealous lover, or some weird loony or something, but KPFT, probably the least inflammatory of Pacifica's five or six stations, definitely broadcasts content that would make a conservative's blood boil. And Houston has waaay more conservatives than any other Pacifica cities.

This was a deliberate, politically motivated act of violence designed to intimidate both the station, and the left in general. And the shooter didn't give a rat's ass whether he killed anyone.

Every now and then I get this creepy sense that there are people out there, who don't even know me, that want me dead because of my political beliefs. I usually dismiss the feeling as paranoia, which I suppose it is, but there is some truth to it. Conservatives, who generally support violence as a legitimate means for furthering political ends, are becoming desperate given the political and cultural shift to the left that appears to be happening in the US. After years and years of violence-filled, hateful, anti-liberal rhetoric from the likes of radio dunderhead Michael Savage and television transsexual Ann Coulter, it is no surprise that the extremists among their fans would seek to turn the rhetoric into reality.

Fucking bastards.

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FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Reine



Phil



Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging!

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CIA, FBI computers used for Wikipedia edits

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.

Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.

Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.

CIA spokesman George Little said he could not confirm whether CIA computers were used in the changes, adding that "the agency always expects its computer systems to be used responsibly."

The FBI did not have an immediate response.

More here.

So, yeah, this definitely violates Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest policy. I know that because I studied the policy pretty heavily when I was violating it myself at my university job in Baton Rouge. That's not what really troubles me. As the article observes, Wikipedia is, in the long run, self-correcting; their tens of thousands of volunteer editors will eventually catch any mistakes and correct them. What troubles me is that these moves by the two major US spook agencies essentially amount to psychological warfare waged on their own people. I mean, okay, every institution has to engage in some kind of public relations, especially given the media saturated environment in which we live, but this is very disturbing. Both the CIA and FBI have long histories of fucking with, even murdering, law abiding American citizens. This stealth-propaganda just comes too close to that shit.

I shouldn't be surprised. Sleaze is standard procedure for these two agencies. It's also worth noting that FOX News is pulling the same shit.

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FAREWELL MAX ROACH

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Jazz Master Max Roach Dies at 83

By his 30th birthday, Max Roach was already considered the greatest jazz drummer ever by his peers. By the time he died this week, the 83-year-old master percussionist was known worldwide as much more: innovator, activist, teacher, genius.

Roach, whose rhythmic innovations and improvisations defined bebop jazz during a career marked by expectations defied and musical boundaries ignored, died late Wednesday in a Manhattan hospital after a long illness.

No additional details were available, said Cem Kurosman, spokesman for Blue Note Records, where Roach played on seminal recordings with Thelonius Monk, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Roach was elected to the Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Grammy Hall of Fame 15 years later.

"Max was one of the founders and original members of the A-Team of bebop," said fellow music legend Quincy Jones. "Outside of losing a giant and an innovator, I've lost a great, great friend. Thank God he left a piece of his soul on his recordings so that we'll always have a part of him with us."

And

Roach re-emerged in the free jazz era with a new political consciousness, becoming one of jazz's loudest voices for civil rights. Albums like "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite," released in 1960 to celebrate the upcoming centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, reflected his support of black activism.

Click here for the rest.

Years ago I got into an argument with a big sweaty fat guy on coke about who the greatest drummer of all time is. He was a Rush fan and was heavily pushing Neil Peart. I was like, "Surely there are some jazz drummers who are better than Peart." But big fat sweaty coke-head wouldn't hear any of it. After going back and forth for a couple of minutes, he became menacing, so I backed off.

Lesson: never argue with drunk, crazy, or drug addicted people; also, never argue with Rush fans.

Of course, big fat sweaty coke-guy was wrong. Peart's really good, which goes without saying, but drummers like Roach, or Elvin Jones, or Art Blakey were doing things with a five piece kit years before he was born that Peart couldn't do with his scores of drums and gongs and bangles and beads. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, Peart eventually studied jazz drumming himself in his own pursuit of excellence. He would do well to scrutinize everything Max Roach ever recorded.

I came to love Roach's work by way of Miles Davis. Roach was the drummer on Lisa Simpson's favorite album Birth of the Cool, which is definitely in my own top five. I later discovered his playing on some other Davis albums, and on the great Money Jungle record, where he was joined by Duke Ellington on piano, and Charles Mingus on bass. I've also got a couple of his own projects, M'Boom and Percussion Bitter Sweet.

That last album, which features the Roach composition "Garvey's Ghost" introduced me to Roach's political persona. The title is a reference to the Afrocentric pre-civil rights era philosopher and leader Marcus Garvey, who was an enormous influence on Malcolm X's father, and consequently, Malcom X himself. There are no words to the song, but the title invokes quite enough, especially when you consider the fact that the song was originally recorded at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

In short, in addition to being in contention for that aforementioned "greatest drummer of all time" title, Roach was a practitioner of Real Art, that is, art which consciously seeks political change.

He was a great man.

Here is a bit of documentary on Roach via YouTube.

Here is one of his drum solos, also via YouTube.



Farewell Max Roach.

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NEW ORLEANS FEDERAL FUCKOVER CONTINUES

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

GO Zone bond money flowing, but not in N.O.

Projects in New Orleans are getting only a tiny fraction of the low-interest bond money aimed at jump-starting Louisiana's post-Katrina economy, and officials plan to ask for a larger share, commensurate with the city's massive flood damage, recovery director Ed Blakely recently told a City Council panel.

Blakely's beef relies on the numbers: Just one New Orleans GO Zone project has gotten off the ground. That project, listed on State Bond Commission records as "Carrollton Revitalization," has a price tag of $4.5 million. That amounts to 0.1 percent of the $4.5 billion in projects that have received final approval from the commission.

The Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone Act aims to spur private projects that provide housing or jobs by offering developers low interest rates, courtesy of the government. Though the money benefits primarily private developers, the bonds must be issued by a "conduit issuer," a public agency such as the city's Industrial Development Board.

And

The biggest roadblock, he said, has been the acquisition of property insurance at reasonable rates, the lack of which can call into question credit for the project, Kling said.

More here.

This insurance obstacle is just red tape, which the Feds could clear up with a few finger snaps. But they're not. And that really pisses me off. I mean, of course, there continue to be problems at the state and local level, as well, but Bush's agencies have treated NOLA like, well, black people under Jim Crow.

I think that's a rather appropriate comparison.

Especially because of who's actually getting GO Zone money.

From the AP via the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Katrina Aid Goes Toward Football Condos

With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.

About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and 'Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.

And

The GO Zone was drawn to include the Tuscaloosa area even though it is about 200 miles from the coast and got only heavy rain and scattered wind damage from Katrina.

Click here for the rest.

What the fuck?!? Why the fuck is 'Bama getting this break while the Big Easy continues to get the big fuckover? You know, Louisiana's got a longstanding reputation as a corrupt state, but it seems to me that the only reason that's the case is due to incompetent corruption. That is, corruption appears to be all over the place, but in Louisiana they don't have it together enough to write such grand larceny into law, legalizing the criminals.

When NOLA was so fucked up during the week after Katrina, when FEMA sat on its ass doing nothing, I never imagined the nausea I was feeling then would still be biting me two years later.

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Iraqi officials: Truck bombings killed at least 500

From CNN:

The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.

Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.

The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.

Click here for the rest.

I'm not at all surprised that the US is trying to pin this on al Qaeda, which bolsters the crazed notion that the Iraq occupation is all about ending terrorism, but as of late Wednesday evening, CNN was reporting that nobody really knew who was behind the attacks. Well, whether it's "foreign fighters" working for "al Qaeda in Iraq" or simply homegrown extremists makes no difference in this one respect: the "surge" failed to prevent it. Indeed, the "surge" is a total failure, which anybody with half a brain knew months ago when Bush first announced it. The sectarian violence in Iraq is obviously beyond our military's abilities. I mean, okay, we could firebomb the whole damned country, get into some severe genocide, and that would probably work. Eventually. If that's what you really want, the old "destroy the village in order to save it" Vietnam philosophy. But I assume most Americans have some sense of morality which would rule out genocide as US policy for Iraq. So we're screwed. If we pull out, the violence will get worse. While we stay, the violence is getting worse, and Americans are dying, too.

Time to go. Like now. There's nothing the US can do on the ground over there.

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Baptist pastor under scrutiny

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The Rev. Jerry Sutton, a prominent Southern Baptist pastor who lost a bid to become president of the denomination, is now facing an upheaval in the megachurch he leads, including complaints that he spent church money on his daughter's wedding.

For nearly 21 years, Sutton has served as leader of Nashville's Two Rivers Baptist Church, which sits just across the highway from the Grand Ole Opry. The church hosted the "Justice Sunday II" rally in 2005, where then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others criticized judicial activism via satellite to a national audience of evangelical Christians.

But now, some Two Rivers members are accusing Sutton of failing to abide by church rules and punishing those who question his authority.

"We have a fractured fellowship. Somehow, with the Lord's help, we need to put this church back together," Harry Jester, who's been in the congregation for 32 years, said at a church meeting July 28.

One of Sutton's former administrative assistants has also said Sutton looked at pornography on his church computer and had an affair with a church staff member — charges that the church denies. The church's executive pastor, Scott Hutchings, said human resource officials at the church investigated those charges and found no evidence that Sutton had looked at porn or had an affair.

Click here for more.

This may turn out to be nothing more than hardball internal Southern Baptist church politics. That is, the article later observes that church staffers are spinning these allegations as coming from some sort of disgruntled faction within the congregation.

Whatever.

One way or the other, this is yet another example coming out of what now appears to be a veritable avalanche of gross right-wing moral hypocrisy. If the allegations are true, then Brother Sutton is a porn-consuming, embezzling, dictatorial tyrant, totally unlike their LORD Jesus Christ. If the allegations are false, then a sizable percentage of the Two Rivers congregation is willing to lie and smear in order to get their way. No matter how you look at it, traditional Christian values are being stomped on here.

Goddamned conservative church fuckers.

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES
Means "Who Polices the Police?"

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Sheriff's deputy pulls over his wife on DUI charge

Charlotte Moore, 36, a jail deputy and 11-year veteran, was driving her 2004 Pontiac Grand Am when she was pulled over by her husband, Elko County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Moore, a police report said.

She allegedly left before being administered a portable breathalyzer test, the Elko Daily Free Press reported.

Mike Moore pulled her over again and called the Elko Police Department for backup. He left shortly after officer Shane Daz arrived. Elko Police Department Sgt. Mark Butterfield also was on scene.

More here.

So usually I use these Quis Custodiet posts to rail away on police misconduct and how cops protect each other from the law they're supposed to enforce, but I've got to give credit where it's due. How many times have you seen a cop turn on his rolling flashers in order to run a red light, only to turn them off once he's through the intersection, obviously not headed to bust some crime in progress? Well, here's one moving violation that the cop didn't get away with. Good work. Although something tells me it all probably has more to do with this couple's domestic situation than it does with doing the right thing.

But what the hell, I'll take it.

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ROVE'S RESIGNATION CAUSES BLOGGER AND JOURNALIST FRENZY!

And it's got me pretty excited, too. Rove, with his brutal, scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners style of politics has probably done more than any one individual in American history to destroy the public discourse on which democracy desperately depends. He's total scum. I'm glad he's out. But why's he going? He says he's leaving to spend more time with his family, but then that's what Jeff Skilling said, too, just a few weeks before Enron went belly-up.

What's the real reason?

Most people's first reaction, myself included, is spelled out in this Washington Post article, courtesy of AlterNet:

Democrats Continue to Seek Testimony From Rove

Rove's retirement announcement came 11 days after he refused to testify before the Judiciary Committee. While his actions figure in two other investigations on Capitol Hill, the Senate panel is the only committee that has subpoenaed Rove.

Aides to Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said he is considering whether to assert that a White House claim of immunity is not valid, which could lead to a committee vote next month holding Rove in contempt of Congress.

More here.

Like Skilling and Enron, Rove may very well be getting out before the heat gets turned up, either to protect himself somehow, or to keep from further embarrassing the White House. And it may not even be about any looming disaster of which we are aware. Maybe some shit we've never even heard about is about to hit the fan.

Or maybe not.

Monday morning's Democracy Now! offers a much more sober and rational understanding of Rove's skedaddle than any I've heard so far:

"The Media Dissector" Danny Schechter on Karl Rove's Resignation

I mean, this is rats deserting a ship. You know, the ship is sinking, clearly. His comment -- President Bush's comment the other day -- he doesn't speak English -- is indicative of an administration that doesn't know what it's doing or where it’s going. Bush's top adviser leaving is certainly not going to make it any easier for him. We're going to see more and more crises.

Click here to watch, listen to, or read the rest.

In other words, despite his undeniably effective campaign work, Rove's tenure in the White House, in terms of advancing successful policy, has been a spectacular failure. The best guess here is that he's expecting things to get even worse, and is getting the hell out before that happens, maybe salvaging his reputation, maybe ducking some hardcore mud.

Still, this abrupt departure fuels the conspiracy theorist in many, I'm sure. Like with this guy over at AlterNet:

Rove's off White House Payroll -- Will
That Free Him to Play Even Dirtier Tricks?

The smart money says Rove is quitting ahead of one or more indictments, and here's hoping. There is, however, precedent for speculating that he's not really "leaving" at all.

The precedent, as is so often in this administration, is Nixonian. In the Nixon Library's newly released tape of the President's phone conversations shortly before, on, and after Election Day 1972, the longest is Nixon and Chuck Colson riffing out their second term plans -- most especially for a new "information and counterattack capacity in the White House" that would be more durable, and better deniable, than the one that got them in trouble with Watergate.

The idea is for Charles Colson to leave the White House with great fanfare, as if riding off into the sunset after a job well done. He will establish a law firm that will actually be a political front working for Nixon: "I wouldn't call it 'Colson,' something like that," Nixon says; "I would just say, "Washington Associates," or something..a good, high-sounding name." It would serve as a base the usual Nixonian work of manipulating and intimidating the media; and, intriguingly, a new idea, establishing a new polling firm, scrubbed of its origins in the White House: "I mean, the point is, let's just get the polling done our way."

Click here for more.

As far as conspiracy theories go, this one isn't all that bad. I mean, the Nixon/Bush parallels have been just inescapable for years now, and Rove is probably the most Nixonian of the whole gang of thugs occupying the White House--okay, Cheney comes pretty close himself to being "most Nixonian," but Rove is supreme in terms of "dirty tricks," which is why I give the nod to him.

At any rate, even though Rove is going to be out of the spotlight for a while, his influence will most definitely be felt for years to come, as this New York Times hatchet piece, courtesy of AlterNet, observes:

Legacy Laden With Protégés

Whatever history makes of Karl Rove’s role in the White House, his legacy as a political strategist can be measured in a presidential campaign that has already begun without him. A look at the roster of every Republican presidential candidate finds people who have worked with him, and they have brought some of his methods to this race.

Click here for the rest.

I'm sure we'll know more about what's really going on here soon.

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SO I TOOK MONDAY OFF...

...or, rather, I took Sunday off, but because I usually post late at night, I assume anybody who comes in here regularly sees it the next day. Anyway, I had to take the day off because I needlessly decided to reinstall my operating system to get rid of what I thought was a virus. Turns out it was an electrical issue, which I fixed, but I ended up being caught in crazy software hell--I really am out of my element when it comes to major stuff like this. Topping things off, I lost internet access for about fifteen hours or so, making it impossible to post. Anyway, I've got it all figured out now, and my computer is running waaaay faster than usual. We'll see how long that lasts once I'm loaded down with junk and spyware after a few weeks.

In the meantime, Karl Rove, son of Satan, and Bush's brain, suddenly resigned.

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TO FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANS, LOVE EQUALS HATE

From the AP via the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Church Cancels Memorial for Gay Navy Vet

The church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men "engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing."

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

"We did decline to host the service _ not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle," Simons told The Associated Press. "Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it _ yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family."

And

Wright called the church's claim about the pictures "a bold-faced lie." She said she provided numerous family pictures of Sinclair, including some with his partner, but said none showed men kissing or hugging.

More here.

Full disclosure: I met Simmons' wife, April, who is Joel Osteen's younger sister, years ago when I was a Southern Baptist youth; some church friends brought her to visit a Bible study group I attended. The Osteen family lived in Kingwood, but she didn't go to school with me because her devout parents had her in a private Christian academy. And that's about it. I noted that she was very sweet and utterly beautiful, and never saw her again.

Now I know she's married to a total asshole.

What ever happened to loving the sinner? This really blows my mind. Jesus, supposedly these people's LORD, consistently associated with the dregs of society, tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, lepers, Democrats, you name it. Shunning this guy because he was gay is decidedly not what "Jesus would do." The hugging and kissing pictures just don't cut it as an excuse: they could have easily cut the offending images and continued with the service as planned. Clearly, they freaked because he was gay.

So they're liars, too. Fucking bastards.

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

2 arrested in alleged dragging of girl behind van at boot camp

The director of a Christian boot camp and an employee were arrested Friday for allegedly dragging a 15-year-old girl behind a van after she fell behind the group during a morning run, authorities said.

And

A call to Love Demonstrated Ministries was not immediately returned Friday. No listing was found for Bassitt. An answering machine at a listing for Flowers cut off during an attempt to leave a message Friday.

Flowers, the camp's director, allegedly ordered Bassitt to run alongside the girl after she fell behind, the affidavit said. When the girl stopped running, Bassitt allegedly yelled at her and pinned her to the ground while Flowers tied the rope to her, according to the affidavit.

Click here for the rest.

I love how the organization running this outfit is called "Love Demonstrated Ministries." Yet another off the scale right-wing irony in this age of countless right-wing ironies. Obviously, love is not demonstrated by dragging a fifteen year old girl down the road from a van. For that matter, teen boot camps in general, which are brutal, fucked-up institutions of humiliation, violence, and mind-control, aren't a good way of demonstrating love, either. What the fuck kind of people show their love in this way?

Bottom line: fundamentalist Christians are psychotic, violence-loving monsters. Just like the genocidal god-the-father they prefer over the peace-loving god-the-son to whom they only pay lip service. If one of these sociopaths ever tells you that he loves you, run for the fucking hills.

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EVERYONE HATES MCCAIN!

From Crooks and Liars, some news on how Republican presidential candidates are doing in Iowa:

UI political scientists note that McCain has been passed in popularity not only by former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who earned 5.2 percent support, but also by a Democratic challenger, Obama, who is supported by 6.7 percent of Republicans.

More here.

You know, I always used to like McCain. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's conservative as all get-out, but I liked the guy. I liked his "straight talk." I liked how he told the fundamentalists to go to hell back during the 2000 campaign. I even liked how he broke ranks with other Capitol Hill Republicans during the US Yugoslavia intervention to support Clinton. Clearly, McCain's maverick image was well deserved; a conservative, yes, but not one of those lock-step right-wing pigs that have been all over the place for the last fifteen years or so, a guy a liberal could negotiate with.

I even felt sorry for him when his election hopes against Bush finally faltered due to a Karl Rove engineered "black love-child" whispering campaign during the Southern primaries--if he'd remembered that the reason he lost is because Rove successfully smeared him, he might actually be a front runner right now. Instead, he decided that "straight talk" wasn't what voters wanted, and turned himself into a GOP clone, supporting a war he knows is bullshit, reaching out to the right-wing Christian lunatics he hates.

Apparently, absolutely nobody buys it. He's now polling below a Democrat. Among Republicans. He should just quit now. I bet the only reason he hasn't is that he hopes to continue fund raising in order to pay off campaign debt.

This is all just sad.

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FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Sammy and Frankie



Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging!

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Democratic Party is growing more liberal

From McClatchy courtesy of AlterNet:

The Democratic Party is growing more liberal for the first time in a generation.

It's more antiwar than at any time since 1972. Support is growing for such traditionally liberal values as using the federal government to help the poor. And 40 percent of Democrats now call themselves liberal, the highest in more than three decades and twice the low-water mark recorded as the conservative Reagan revolution swept the country in the early 1980s.

While politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama shun the liberal label, they're rushing to court new power brokers who wear it proudly and constituencies that could barely win a nod from party leaders just a few years ago. For example, the top Democratic presidential candidates all planned to attend the YearlyKos convention of liberal bloggers in Chicago this weekend and a Human Rights Campaign debate this week in Los Angeles on gay, lesbian and transgender issues.

They all skipped an annual gathering of the Democratic Leadership Council last week in Nashville, Tenn. The DLC is the centrist group that pushed for welfare overhaul and a pro-business agenda in the 1990s, helped launch Bill Clinton to the presidency and stood by centrist Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., when liberals attacked him for supporting the Iraq war and he effectively was drummed out of the party in a primary last year.

Click here for the rest.

It may very well be that the so-called pendulum of American politics is starting to swing in the other direction--this Democratic shift is an extraordinarily good sign. Of course, I really have come to hate the pendulum metaphor because it strongly suggests that political change is something that just happens. The truth couldn't be further away from that.

Going back to the early 90s, well after "liberalism" had been discredited during the Reagan years, the right wing went into hyperdrive in its attacks on the left, all of which culminated in the impeachment of a popular Democratic President for a crime which any reasonable person wouldn't define as being "high." Compounding matters is the fact that Clinton wasn't even all that liberal. I think the US public started getting heartburn from all this conservative agitation. Meanwhile, elected Democrats, scared shitless of the conservative liberal hate-machine, started moving to the right themselves. This, too, put a bad taste in Americans' mouths. Then, both at around the same time, Nader decided to start agitating from the left, running for President in 2000, and the liberal blogs hit the ground running, doing essentially the same thing as Nader.

Throw in the obviously stolen election, and Americans were starting to realize something was fishy about conservatism. Then Bush took the Oval Office, 9/11 happened, and the rest is history.

This is all just armchair historical analysis, but I think that conservatives overplaying their hand combined with liberal agitation now has the country at a point such that it's ready to move to the left again. That is, if the country ever actually moved to the right in the first place. Certainly, the word "liberal" was successfully demonized long ago, but, as Chomsky has observed repeatedly, issue polling has consistently showed the US population to be well to the left of the ruling class for years and years. Conservative America may very well have always been something of a propaganda induced illusion.

Maybe the re-liberalization of the Democratic Party signals not a change in pendulum direction, but rather an unmasking of where the country's actually been for decades.

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Authorities not amused by Texas Redneck Games

From the San Antonio Express-News via the Houston Chronicle:

Don't make plans quite yet to visit Athens for the next edition of the rowdy outdoor party known as the Texas Redneck Games.

Describing the four-day event that ended Sunday as a bloated bacchanal of disorder, drunkenness and debauchery, Henderson County officials say they might charge the promoter under a state crowd control law.

"There was a lot of nudity, rowdiness, intoxication, people running wild on their four-wheelers and underage drinking," said Lt. Pat McWilliams of the county Sheriff's Department. "There was also fights and assaults, and some serious injuries."

Over the weekend, nearly 100 people were either arrested or cited for offenses that included speeding, underage possession of alcohol, driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana.

That aside, McWilliams said the county's biggest gripe with promoter Oscar Still is that he promised that no more than 2,500 would attend.

Authorities said upwards of 8,000 people — some who traveled hundreds of miles — jammed the 300-acre Pool Ranch to run all-terrain vehicles on muddy trails and watch contests featuring everything from Spam-eating to wet T-shirts.

More here.

Take away the references to ATVs and wet t-shirts and this could be a description of Woodstock. I mean, all the partying, the anti-authority attitudes, the naked people. Are these hicks or hippies?

I was watching Easy Rider a few days ago on Bravo or AMC and I noted a couple of times how appearance seemed to count for everything in those days. Captain America and Billy pick up a hitch-hiker on the road and they know he's okay because he's dressed like a freak, just like them. Later, asshole cajun rednecks mock their appearance in a hick diner in Louisiana. Today, however, appearance means nothing. Long hair, short hair, it's all meaningless. Right-wing rocker and xenophobic racist Ted Nugent has hippie-long hair; punker and former Black Flag front man Henry Rollins sports a conservative looking short haircut.

I could get into how I believe that much of this is about how the mass media co-opt all styles and movements, filters them through a white-bread machine, and then sells it all back to the people as consumer products, but there's no need to go down that road.

I'll just leave it with this observation: the counter-culture ain't what it used to be.

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China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales

From the UK Telegraph courtesy of AlterNet:

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.

"Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order," he added.

Click here for the rest.

So, the two or three people with whom I've had arguments about this issue, and who know enough about economics to even know what I'm talking about here, have utterly poo-poo'ed my fears about how much of our debt China owns. "They'll never sell 'em off," they've said. "It's totally against their interests to do so. It would wreak havoc with the global, and therefore their own, economy."

Well, there's probably something to all that, but it's not really Chinese irrationality that's got me scared: it's American irrationality. Remember, nobody really believes in all that free market crap, except for maybe the ideologues on TV and their devoted viewers. Politicians and businesses, however, are totally happy to use government to further their economic ends, and China is increasingly becoming economically influential in ways that our wealthy elites don't like. Throw in a little American nationalist arrogance, and we have a recipe for some dangerous trade policy that could conceivably force the Chinese's hand.

Then we're fucked. I mean, the Chinese would be fucked, too, but much less so than us. The only way out of this situation is to get off the dammed deficit teat and start paying down our massive national debt. Until then, they've got our balls in their tight Mandarin grip.

And that's just something we're going to have to get used to for now.

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Young Republican National Federation Chair
Accused of Sexually Assaulting Sleeping Man

From AlterNet:

Glenn Murphy, Jr., the recently elected chairman of the Young Republican National Federation (also the RNC Chair for Clark County, Indiana and formerly the YRNF Secretary) has been accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping man. Immediately following the accusation, he came up with an unrelated reason to resign, and the YRNF cleansed their website of his name.

Allegedly, Murphy and another YR were drunk and crashing at Murphy's sister's house. The other man apparently awoke in the morning to find Murphy giving him a non-consensual blow job. The Clark County (Indiana) Sheriff's Department is charging Murphy with "criminal deviate conduct", a Class B felony.

More here.

Because I'm not really sure what Murphy's stated views on sexuality are, this story isn't technically along the lines of the high profile right-wing hypocrites I've been posting on lately, but it is worth a mention, if only because the right wing seems to be producing so many sex weirdos these days. I mean, okay, the boob-grabbing Governer Schwarzenegger and porn star Mary Carey are Republicans, too, but they're out in California, which blows the curve, or something to that effect. Generally, Republicans stand for so-called "family values," that is, neo-puritanism, and Murphy has sought and won a leadership role under these circumstances.

So what the hell does he think he's doing? I mean, sure, if gay blowjobs are your thing, no problem from me, but this sounds like date rape, totally non-consensual, and anyway...aren't Republicans supposed to be against that sort of thing, consensual or not?

You know, I wonder if it's always been like this, lots of GOP perverts on the down-low, with only the age of hyper mass media making it all visible, or if there's something in the water that's making them turn weird. Who am I kidding? It's always been like this: anti-sex attitudes breed perversion; the denial of human nature can only result in bizarro behavior. Okay, this is something we can definitely thank the hyper mass media for.

One of the few things, actually.

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"MARKET DISCIPLINE IS GOOD FOR YOU BUT NOT FOR ME"

That is, as Noam Chomsky says, "you" is the consumer or worker, and "me" is big business.

From Money via CNN courtesy of This Modern World:

"The chance of government intervention in the marketplace in response to current events has increased significantly," said Andy Chow, portfolio manager at SCM Advisors LLC, a $14 billion San Francisco-based investment firm specializing in fixed-income and structured-finance markets.

Mike Perry, chief executive of mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp (IMB) said on Thursday that he got a phone call this week from U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D- Conn., who asked whether Congress can help the U.S. mortgage industry in any way.

At a hearing in Washington D.C. on Thursday, Dodd said that he'd spoken this week with several mortgage bankers "to solicit their opinions as to what they thought was happening and what solutions may lay out there to try to deal with this seizing up of credit that is really getting rather dramatic."

Indymac's Perry said he'd also talked to the chairman of Fannie Mae on Thursday and had traded calls with the chairman of Freddie Mac.

"Fannie Mae's Chairman (is) telling me that they are 'prepared to step up and help the industry'," Perry wrote on the company's blog.

Click here for the rest.

Well at least I'm able to get a laugh out of this. The "free market" got the mortgage industry into this subprime mess, but it's starting to look like the nanny state may very well swoop in to save the day, just as it did with the savings and loan crisis in the 80s.

Here's the lesson.

The right-wing notion that government interference in the market always leads to bad consequences is bullshit. Certainly, some regulations are stupid, but just as certainly, some regulations are the only thing keeping the entire market from collapse. Further, it is impossible to remove the government from the market; indeed, the government is that which allows the market to exist by creating the circumstances under which it can flourish. Capitalists, real capitalists, the people with the money, not the ideological cheerleaders on TV and in the papers, know this, which is why they're always going to the government with lobbyists and gifts in order to work this system to their advantage.

Most everybody's heard about the laws of supply and demand. Here's a new economic law: government and business are so intertwined that there is no way of separating them. We might as well get used to that fact and adjust our political conversation accordingly. Hopefully, this will end up with nanny state help for regular people like you and me not being demonized all the time.

You know, just like the way it is with nanny state help for big business.

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State GOP forms loyalty committee

What is the matter with Kansas?

From the AP via the Wichita Eagle courtesy of Alternet:

"The motive behind this is, 'Let's make sure Republicans are supporting Republicans,' " said Christian Morgan, the state GOP's executive director. "If you want to hold a party post, you should at least be supporting Republican candidates."

The state committee's actions struck a sour note for some Republicans, particularly moderates on issues such as abortion. Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist, suggested the loyalty committee could prove a "public relations disaster."

"Ironically, it smacks most of the Communist Party," Beatty said Monday. "That's the kind of public irony that most parties try to avoid -- the party of freedom telling people they have no freedom."

Kobach and his allies contend they're attempting to strengthen the party's state organization and the loyalty committee is a way to promote unity.

While the GOP enjoys a significant advantage in the number of registered voters in Kansas, dissension has allowed Democrats to peel away disaffected moderates. Sebelius and Morrison are perhaps the best examples.

Click here for the rest.

"The party of freedom."

Oh, that's fucking hysterical! Only in the twisted, fun house mirror of GOP logic is the Republican Party "the party of freedom." Really, this Kansas Republican loyalty committee is probably one of the most honest moves the party's made in years and years. That is, since the Republicans took Congress back in '94, dissension in the ranks has not been tolerated. After 9/11, they made some serious attempts to bring Democrats and liberals under the boot, as well, achieving short term success, which resonates a bit even today, diluted only by conservative incompetence and adherence to ideology and philosophy that do not work in the real world.

Sure, words and phrases like "loyalty committee" ring with a Stalinist melody, but no sane person should be worried. This is simply a sign of desperate right wingers showing their true colors. Nothing has actually changed.

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