Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2006A while ago, I posted about "The List", which was a list of gay Republicans being shopped around to various news media, of all political persuasions. I noted that this was going to get really ugly. Well, someone just outed Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. And if the allegations are true, then he lived a very pathetic, closeted life.
I knew this was going to happen. It's going to get really, really ugly. I don't think it's done yet, either.
And there are potential political ramifications too.
If the allegations prove true, Craig will probably still keep his Senate seat. But this…
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2006While there's been a lot of discussion about David Kuo's book Tempting Faith, the wee lil' Mad Biologist seems to be the only one who has viewed the intentional rejection of proposals from non-Christian religious organizations as religious discrimination ('no Jews need apply'). This discrimination is why funding faith-based organizations based on their religiosity and not on what they would to do advance the interest of the Republic is so odious.
At a personal level, it represents the failure of individual conservatives: certain people thought it was appropriate to discriminate against…
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2006Howard Friedman has a nice roundup of the Boston Globe series of articles, "Exporting Faith", which is all about how the intrusion of sectarian dogma is screwing up our foreign spending. It's a good read.
mikethemadbiologist | October 15, 2006Everything Paul the Spud says (italics mine):
We're actually starting to hear a lot of this lately. Republicans/"real" Conservatives are fed up with the out-of-control Bush administration, and they're ready to vote for the Dems, just to get them out of office. Well gee and gosh guys, that's all honorable and cool of you, but I just have one question for you. Where the hell were you guys during the last election?
This editorial, in particular, takes the cake. His finger wagging and scolding is just so much hot air, for the simple fact that the Bush Administration has been completely out of…
mikethemadbiologist | October 13, 2006...it's pretty clear the Republicans don't give a damn about America's children. There's growing evidence that the Republican political establishment doesn't believe in the Christian Right's lunacy. So all the hot air about putting intelligent design creationism into the classroom was crapola to placate the Christopath base. In other words, the Republicans were willing to degrade science education, waste time in the classroom, and divert teachers and scientists from doing their real jobs simply to maintain their grip on power.
Heckuva job, Bushists.
mikethemadbiologist | October 13, 2006
And don't forget TEH GAY!
(from oldamericancentury.org)
Because, you see, some conservatives 'discovered' that TEH GAY KONSPIRACIE is actually a covert op by the Democrats to infiltrate the Republican Party. Really. Even with top-notch pharmaceuticals, I couldn't make this lunacy up. Said lunacy belongs to the rightwing group Accuracy in Media:
The complex nature of the "dirty trick" against the Republicans over the Mark Foley scandal is beginning to emerge. It doesn't involve a George Soros-funded group or emails that had been in the possession of the media or shopped around by…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006Or maybe this post should have been titled "Faith-based initiatives = anti-Semitism." (I'll get to that) Keith Olbermann has a story about David Kuo's new book, Tempting Faith. Kuo worked in the Office of Faith Based initiatives in the White House and has impecable evangelical credentials. Essentially, Kuo's book details the White House's cynical use of the 'religious' right, supporting what Tucker Carlson previously claimed.
Watch the whole clip. But this quote jumped out at me:
Kuo says they tried to prove their political value by turning the once-bipartisan faith-based initiatives…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006I've stayed away from the whole religious organization tax breaks issue, mostly because others have dealt with it. But this NY Times article about the parsonage exemption pisses me off to no end (the parsonage exemption allows workers for religious organizations to deduct the cost of their housing). Here's why: I work for a secular non-profit so I don't get to deduct my rent (with the tax deduction, I would be refunded three months of rent). Quoth the Grey Lady:
He did not address the pastoral poverty argument in his court briefs, but in an interview, he noted that poorly paid inner-city…
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2006You know the wheels are coming off the Republican Wurlitzer when Republicans, as opposed to Democrats, are engaging in public 'soul-searching.' From MSNBC, by way of Atrios:
CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in...
MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?
CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has…
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2006There has been an argument by some liberal hawks that once we entered Iraq, it was our obligation to fix it (the whole "Pottery Barn" metaphor). This always honked me off because I knew from the get-go that this whole thing would go sideways. Nonetheless, there was a brief window after the fall of Saddam Hussein to get things to a stable enough point where we could declare Democracy and leave.
If we Bush had prevented the looting of Baghdad, restored some basic services, and held elections when Gen. Garner (ret.) had wanted (over a year before they were actually held), mabye this whole…
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2006I'm no fan of tax expenditures. I'm not even particularly fond of most tax deductions regardless of whether or not they're based on religion. Taxes should be about raising revenue, and a complex tax code just makes inserting more loopholes--as well as outright cheating--even more possible. If conservatives were actually serious about shrinking government, they would make the Treasury write checks rather than give tax rebates.
Anyway, the Republicans have decided how they will tackle the deficit: they're going to remove the NCAA's tax-exempt status. It's not clear that the NCAA should be…
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2006That's what GrrlScientist asks about the 26% who don't think Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert should resign and/or lose the Speakership over Foleygate. I think most of that 26% falls into a declarative mindset. In other words, once Hastert is defined as a Good Person, he can do no wrong. I'm actually pleasantly surprised the percentage isn't higher.
We see examples of this way of thinking (such as it is) all the time. As a White House staffer told a potential candidate for a position on the National Drug Abuse Council, when the candidate said he supported needle exchange:…
mikethemadbiologist | October 9, 2006One of the things about growing up a few decades ago as a Jewish liberal Democrat in Virginia is that I was forced to meet people who were very different from me (this is a good thing). Thus, I always find it astonishing, simply because it is so foreign to my own experience, how some people can have so little actual contact with those who are different from them.
Over at DailyKos, diarist Geiiga describes what happened while she was interviewing her fellow congregants at her Topeka, KS church--the subject was "what do you pray for?" (italics mine):
Yesterday, in the late morning, I was out…
mikethemadbiologist | October 8, 2006
(well they're cuter than rats...)
...impeachment? David Swanson thinks so:
Believe it or not, the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is perfectly possible, although a number of factors will have to come together for it to happen. The public will is already there, and this is quite remarkable given the lack of action in Congress or mention in the mainstream media. The polling that has been done on impeachment is dramatic. The Washington Post finds that a third of the country wants Bush not just impeached but also removed from office. Zogby finds that, by a margin of 53% to 42%,…
mikethemadbiologist | October 7, 2006I may get Mad, but then there's just out-and-out mean. The scandal involving former Rep. Foley could take a really nasty turn. Before I get started, let me make something clear: the Foley scandal has as much to do with homosexuality as pedophillia has to do with heterosexuality. Which is to say, nothing at all. Nonetheless, in the social conservative mindset, pedophillia and homosexuality are linked, and, in terms of the political dynamic, that idiocy does matter. It would be kinda like thinking Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, even though he didn't.
One of the dirty…
mikethemadbiologist | October 6, 2006Well, that's not what it was called. I had forgotten that, in 1999, the Republican leadership opposed legislation that would have outlawed ongoing sexual slavery in the American terrority of Saipan. And who led the charge? Dennis Hastert. For $20,000 in campaign donations. (But, but, but... Bill Clinton had consensual sex with Monica Lewinsky!)
What the Republicans did in Saipan was far worse than what Foley did--hard as that is to believe. These are awful, awful people. We are so far beyond honest debates about policy; instead, we must oppose a truly corrupt political apparatus…
mikethemadbiologist | October 6, 2006What's truly terrifying about the Bush phenomenon--at this point, it really can't be called a presidency like any other--is that the 36-40% that think he's doing a good job can vote and own firearms. Seriously, my conception--and I would argue most liberals, moderates, and some conservatives--of what a president should do fundamentally differs from the diehard Bush base. Take it away Jon Stewart (the part at 2:30 is brlliant):
mikethemadbiologist | October 1, 2006...Al-NAMBLA? (which refers to this) driftglass explains:
Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who was the pervert that solicited sex from this page? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated Republican organizations known as al NAMBLA. They are the same Republicans who stood by the Rotting Corpse of Tom DeLay; the same Republicans who stood by while Jack Abramoff looted and perverted the American government.
Al NAMBLA is to Republican Powerbrokering what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not merely making money; its goal is…
mikethemadbiologist | September 28, 2006...if for no other reason than Henry Fucking Kissinger is once again disastrously advising another president. From 60 Minutes (italics mine):
In [Mike] Wallace's interview with Woodward, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT, the reporter also claims that Henry Kissenger is among those advising Mr. Bush.
According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. "It's getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That's more than 100 a…
mikethemadbiologist | September 28, 2006
This transcends absurd: Republican Rep. John Boehner, the House Majority Leader, stated on national television that Al-Queda and Saddam Hussein were linked, even though President Bush himself has admitted no connection. Keep in mind, Boehner isn't some councilman in a podunk little town. He is one of the most influential members of Congress. And he is utterly delusional. On behalf of the Coalition of the Sane, I ask, can we please have our country back?