Telling.
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Text: Excerpts of an Interview With President Bush
Where's the whole one? From which this was excerpted?
August 2004 Archives
KOS puts it well:
Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.
I think I figured out the formula:
9-11
9-11
9-11
9-11
John Kerry sucks
John Kerry is a flip-flopper
Terrorism
Amen
No talk about domestic issues. No talk about jobs. Nothing on the economy.
Interesting, that. The war party peddles in fear, because that's all they have left to sell.
Political Wire: Michael Moore's Patriot Act
Rolling Stone has a must-read profile of filmmaker Michael Moore which includes this warning for Sen. John Kerry: "It doesn't do me any good to have him embrace me, because if he's elected, my camera will be on him." (Only an excerpt of the article is online.)
via Josh: Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 29, 2004 - September 04, 2004 Archives
A nice find by Andrew Sullivan on President Bush's Freudian slip about the Swift Boat Ads ...
I loved Bush's comment yesterday about the smear-ad: "I can understand why Senator Kerry is upset with us. I wasn't so pleased with the ads that were run about me. And my call is get rid of them all, now." "Us"?? I thought Bush had nothing to do with it.
Nice catch...
That is, the second part is true if you're a millionaire.
t r u t h o u t - Garrison Keillor | Flamingly Anti-Bush
This is a great country for people who earn a quarter-million a year or more, and the others are getting gypped. Democrats were put on earth to speak up for them. We believe in the energy and inventiveness and wild ambition of the young, the marginal, the outsider, the dispossessed -- that's where the genius and soul of this country resides, and we should not crush it underfoot.
MSNBC - GOP will showcase Bush's leadership
Buoyed by signs that an embattled President Bush has gained ground in the past two weeks, Republicans began gathering Saturday for a national convention designed to highlight Bush's leadership on terrorism, sketch out themes for a second term and continue a months-long effort to discredit Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
Showcase leadership. Yeah. W was presidenty when 9/11 happened, as he read My Pet Goat. After he ignored his anti-terrorism czar for 9 months, who desperately tied to get a hearing with him. And the president who was worried about Iraq within 24 hours after 9/11, taking orecious time away from going after the Al-Quieda group. Real good leadership. Clueless, actually.
From MyDD: MyDD :: Straight Outta the West Wing
Genocide is taking place in Sudan, and the American media gives more coverage to the Scott Peterson trial. Sudan is not a partisan issue, as prominent Democrats and Republicans have called for intervention in Sudan. Instead of ideology or party bias, this instead demonstrates how the "news" media in America is actually more interested in character driven, real-time, "reality" TV narratives than actually reporting news.
How can it ever be justifiable for an editor or news director to give more time to Scott Peterson than ongoing genocide? How is can it ever be justifiable to even give close to the same amount of time to these two stories? How can it ever be justifiable to focus on what a bunch of guys who hate John Kerry have to say / lie about his military record when the poverty rate is rising in America and overtime rights are being slashed?
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
This is right out of the Bush family playbook: have your people savage your opponent and once the damage is done try to take the high road.
But it's too late. As Max Cleland said a few days ago, President Bush's "moment of truth came and went."
After reading Ito's chapter (here) yesyerday, I wrote a dew things about how this got me thinking about the implications for the Church in all this exploration of new democracy; e-democracy; and the way that all this "participatory technology" can revive some of the public debate that needs to be happening (the kind of real debate that would have Bush's team counting the writing on the wall for sure --- since they could not survive the test of results, accuracy, and open discussion. They depend upon deception, unsubstantiated "facts" and ironically named "Programs", and attack politics -- since they quickly run out of things to say about their own policies and aims, and don't see much of a future in too deep of an analysis of those policies.)
I just started reading the second chapter by James F. Moore, The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head (PDF) , and it begins with this:
The beautiful but deeply agitated face of this second superpower is the worldwide peace campaign, but the body of the movement is made up of millions of people concerned with a broad agenda that includes social development, environmentalism, health, and human rights. This movement has a surprisingly agile and muscular body of citizen activists who identify their interests with world society as a whole—and who recognize that at a fundamental level we are all one. These are people who
are attempting to take into account the needs and dreams of all 6.3 billion
people in the world—and not just the members of one or another nation.
What is it about "peace" that riles the conservatives so much? What is it about cooperation that appears to them as somehow "sinister"? It's seemingly something to do with criticism; and to criticize the party and the administration that has been declared "the solution" by the appointed pundits is to be associated with efforts to "tear down" and to be associated with a conspiracy of destruction. They refuse to "check the facts" when their spokespersons relay deceptive information, or just plain wrong information. My conservative acquaintances ask me questions that are being framed and hammered over and over on the airwaves by such outfits as Fox News, and they are aghast ast the suggestion that Fox News just might be biased toward right-wing conservatism of their owner, Rupert Murdoch. After all, they report, we decide, right? It's the "NO Spin Zone".
(I have ended up with a really long stream of thought here, and I was looking at breaking it up into smaller postings, but will go ahead and post it as is, and cut it into sections later as I continue and some semblance of organization emerges).....so on we go
Continue reading Open Source Theology.
The YouthSpecialties site has an archive of Yaconelli's favorite Back Door articles, the column he used to write when the Door was published by Youth Specialties. I've hardly looked at it since they sold it to some Texas Publisher. It's not near as good since then. THere seems to be a definite lack of theological depth; it's more a completely satirical mag now; like they really don't take ANYTHING seriously anymore. When they do, it's not quite of the quality they used to have. Anyway, these 12 articles should make for good reading.
articles : The Back Door : Youthworker Journal
Dangerous Wonder Columns (in YouthWorker magazine)
Our nation is once again at a critical juncture. In the name of national security, the executive branch has assumed unprecedented new powers that it is exercising largely in secret. It is incumbent upon us to stand as a check against the abuse of these powers to preserve our democracy.
Just read chapter one of Extreme Democracy by Ito, and it started me on a process of thinking about something akin to "Open Source Theology"; theology, for me, is deeply participatory. It is the nature of God's revelation. The fact that the Christian tradition is founded on the incarnation in human flesh; and that the representative-embodiment of that was Jesus, and that he pointed outward from himself to the activity of God "in our midst" as he spoke of the Kingdom of God. "Where two or three are gathered, there will I be also" is resonant with the idea of Participatory Democracy, as opposed to the top down, authoritrarian, self proclaimed "orthodoxy" from some specially endowed figure.
It seems to be the modus operandi of the Bush admknistration to do this to our democracy, flying in the face of the deep seated ideals such as "By the people, for the people". For theology, that same sentiment or truth should be lifted up: that God's activity is most powerful and manifest in the "relationships" and the "communion" that ensues as people share stories that communicate their journey, and illuminate points of collaboration between complimentary gifts for performing some mission, for which thye Church exists as a community that births and supports mission.
Continue reading Participatory Democracy/Theology.
I have looked briefly, but never really saw an explanation of why Dave Winer left Harvard. Was it just a one-year contract or something? I never saw an explanation. When I read of Winer's travels, I wonder what happened there.
via Josh Marshall:
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 22, 2004 - August 28, 2004 Archives
You'll want to link through to this one -- it's a video clip of Ben Barnes, the former Speaker of the House in Texas, the guy who got President Bush into the Texas Air National Guard.
Marshall refers to an upcoming article I'll be delighted to see:
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 22, 2004 - August 28, 2004 Archives
It's understood as a given in Washington -- among Republicans as much as among Democrats -- that Karl Rove is behind these ads. But publicly we have to go with the ludicrous notion that he has no connection with them -- a willing suspension of disbelief that allows the president some room to express mock sympathy over the results of his own acts.
A friend of mine has a magazine article coming out in a few weeks which I'm told gets some of the goods on Rove's history of political bad acts. So we'll see if that moves the bar for him at all.
Council of Bishops
The United Methodist Church
Resolution on the War in Iraq
May 11, 2004
the continuing loss of Iraqi civilian lives, especially children, and the increasing death toll among United States, coalition military and civilian personnel in Iraq grieves the heart of God
Re; my previous post below, I found this article feature from NYTimes
Iraqi Crisis Increases Activity on Peace Network
When Vincent Romano of the pacifist group Foundation of Reconciliation started planning a rally at St. Patrick's Cathedral on New York's Fifth Avenue for this Wednesday, he made his usual checklist of "to do's." One of the first things to be taken care of was a call to his webmaster, Martin Kelley, in Philadelphia, to have him post the details on his group's Web site.
The Nonviolence.org Story (Nonviolence.org)
As the years have gone by and I've found the strength to continue it, I've realized more and more that this is a ministry. As a member of the Religious Society of Friends I'm committed to spreading the good news that war is unnecessary. In my personal life this is a matter of faith in the "power that takes away occassion for all war." In my work with Nonviolence.org I also draw on all the practical and pragmatic reasons why war is wrong.
Seekers Church Peace Witness Group
Seekers Church Peace Witness
Seekers Church is an inter-generational, welcoming family of faith of approximately 100 people of all ages, many of whom come from various Christian and other faith traditions. We were born out of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC in 1976. The life of Seekers Church is based on the belief that God calls each person to minister to some place of need in God's Creation.
On September 22, a group of 11 Seekers gathered after worship to discuss a witness concerning the possible war against Iraq. There was unanimous agreement in the group that we needed to witness to our faith and to the Seekers commitment to work to end all war, public and private.
Understanding that there was a diversity of opinion and belief within the Seekers Church community, we chose to act in the name of the Seekers Church Peace Witness, a group that we formed during the meeting. At present, the group comprises 28 Seekers.
After the first organizing meeting, SCPW created a banner that reads "Seekers Church Peace Witness" and that has been carried in three anti-war demonstrations including the January 18 national march on Washington. SCPW and Learners and Teachers, a Seekers mission group that oversees our School of Christian Living, sponsored three classes during Advent to explore Seekers' stated commitment to work to end all war public and private. Each class was attended by more than 20 Seekers. Also in Advent, SCPW participated in a national weekend of peace prayer by hosting an hour of prayer on Saturday, December 7 at the home of a Seekers family.
A core group of six has been formed to guide the larger group in discerning the particular ways in which SCPW might witness to peace. We recently began hosting monthly "Peaceluck" dinners - potlucks or pizza feasts - during which conversation and explorations begun in the Advent classes can continue.
Peacelucks likely will include prayer, occasional outside speakers, possible preparation for direct action or contact with policy makers, follow-up conversations on peace/justice-related sermons as well as other activities as interest develops. Once the Peacelucks are launched, SCPW anticipates opening them to interested people outside of the community.
Questions? Please e-mail contact@peaceprayer.org.
The 9/11 Commission, leaders in Congress -- even the government's top secret-keeper -- all agree that Washington's penchant for keeping information under wraps has grown out of control. Now, a coalition of watchdog groups has documented just how much it's costing to keep all those records away from the public eye.
Wired News: All That Secrecy Is Expensive
Stanley Hauerwas says something that people hear and scratch their heads; they are confused because they've bolught into the basic premise that violence can be fought with violence.
Education: No, This War Would Not Be Moral
..who in the world is against eliminating evil? Well, I am, if war is the means for its elimination. I am an advocate of Christian nonviolence, but I don't think that means I have nothing to say about the war fever gripping much of America. I believe that Christians, of all people, should worry when the President of the United States uses the word evil to justify war.
Online Resources By Stanley Hauerwas:
Stanley Hauerwas On the Internet - A Personal Archive
Read this article by Garrsion Keillor (I saw it via The Gutless Pacifist. A choice quote below, but quite the panoramic view of BushWorld.
The Union is what needs defending this year. Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists is not the same as what Lincoln spoke of. This gang of Pithecanthropus Republicanii has humbugged us to death on terrorism and tax cuts for the comfy and school prayer and flag burning and claimed the right to know what books we read and to dump their sewage upstream from the town and clear-cut the forests and gut the IRS and mark up the constitution on behalf of intolerance and promote the corporate takeover of the public airwaves and to hell with anybody who opposes them.
via KOS: MSNBC - The Missing Medal
A Vietnam-era Bronze Star citation discovered by NEWSWEEK documents Kerry's version of wartime events
Wired 12.09: The Dean Machine Marches On
The Doctor is out, but his tactics are driving campaigns from Florida to Alaska.
Weapons of Mass Mobilization
A quiet couple in Berkeley got sick of being ignored by the system. So they built a new one. How MoveOn changed the face of fundraising, brought P2P to political advertising, and reinvented grassroots activism
When comedians become better journalists than ...uh....journalists.....(ie Jon Stewart and Al Franken)...we're in a world of trouble. But thank God for these guys who have begun to see thatthey can help stem the tide of misinfomation and slant.
The most telling comment on that front may well have come from the unlikely duo of Jon Stewart and Ted Koppel, who shared a telecast during the Democratic convention. Koppel, by way of introducing his own viewers to Stewart, complained that "a lot of television viewers -- more, quite frankly, than I'm comfortable with" -- get their news from Stewart's "Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Stewart, almost as if trying to reassure Koppel, responded that his fans were watching him not for news per se, but rather for a "comedic interpretation" of the news. Koppel was unmoved. People watch Stewart "to be informed," Koppel insisted gloomily. "They actually think they're coming closer to the truth with your show."
Campaign Desk has written many times about the perils of "he said/she said" journalism, the practice of reporters parroting competing rhetoric instead of measuring it for veracity against known facts. In the wake of the first SBVFT spot early this month, cable news programs for the most part offered viewers two talking heads, one on each side of the issue, to debate the merits of the claims. Verifiable facts were rarely offered to viewers -- despite the fact that military records supporting Kerry's version of events were readily available. Instead of acting as filters for the truth, reporters nodded and attentively transcribed both sides of the story, invariably failing to provide context, background, or any sense of which claims held up and which were misleading. And sometimes even that was asking too much. According to Media Matters, the Aug. 4th editions of FOX News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" and MSNBC's "Scarborough Country" both reported and aired the ad without mentioning (1) that despite the ad's claims, those featured in it did not serve on Kerry's boat, (2) that the SBVFT was wrapped in Republican ties, dating all the way back to former Nixon protege John O'Neill, or (3) the fact that the doctor who claims to have treated Kerry in the ad was not the medical official who signed his medical records.
Capitol Hill Blue: SBVT: Sinking in Their Own Sea of Lies
O’Neill co-authored the anti-Kerry diatribe called Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, with Harvard PhD Jerome Corsi, a virulent, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, homophobic right-wing author who posts venom-filled attacks on conservative bulletin boards, calling Kerry “John Fucking Commie Kerry” and Senator Hillary Clinton a “fat hog.”
They based their book, and an accompanying attack television ad, on accounts by Swift Boat vets who did not serve directly with Kerry and several of whom have changed their stories or been caught in lies of their own.
For example:
Larry Thurlow, commander of another Swift Boat at the same time as Kerry who claims the Presidential nominee lied about being “under fire” when he earned a Bronze Star for rescuing a Green Beret. Turns out Thurlow also received a Bronze Star for the same action and his citation talks about being “under heavy small arms fire.” Turlow claims he never read the citation and it was wrong. The Green Beret Kerry rescued tells a different story, saying he was under fire and sure he was gonna die.
George Elliott, a former Navy Lt. Commander who claimed Kerry lied about his Vietnam activities, then recanted that story in an interview with the Boston Globe, then recanted his recent.
JOho points to this report on Swift Boat spam. Why not? They spam the airwaves. Scum.
Joho the Blog: Swiftboat Veterans for BlogSpam
Meta-Roj got comment-spammed by the Swiftboat Veterans for Big Lies and is pissed. He retaliates by posting bunches of links, info about their domain, and a link to their Form 8872 finance report that lists the group's email address as "no@email."
Probably not, even though it should. Fox News is the best 527 Bush could imagine.
President Bush, responding to criticism that he should act against groups attacking John Kerry's war record, will pursue legal action against all "shadowy" outside groups on both sides of the campaign's fence that use unregulated funds to finance political advertising, the White House announced today.
"The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.... are neither swift nor truthful" ...
Jon Stewart on Comedy Central (see the 5 minute video here)
I thought he did just fine. I was entertained, and encouraged.
John Kerry on Comedy Central Part 1 (opens in New window)
John Kerry on Comedy Central Part 2 (opens in New window)
Also, Bill Clinton, too
JUst gotta point to one more pointed set of questions from Jim Wallis at Sojourners:
Take Back the Faith, Sojourners Magazine/September 2004
The loss of religion's prophetic vocation is terribly dangerous for any society. Who will uphold the dignity of economic and political outcasts? Who will question the self-righteousness of nations and their leaders? Who will question the recourse to violence and the rush to wars long before any last resort has been unequivocally proven? Who will not allow God's name to be used to simply justify ourselves, instead of calling us to accountability?
So well said/written. Read the whole thing if the quotations below grab you, or go read it anyway, to find something else or something additional that speaks to you. I have been so lifted out of many a duldrum and frustration with life in the world by the Biblical and faithful witness and celebration of the Sojourners community. Their magazine is so often a God-send, and so often deeply relevant, like they are now with their issue on "Talking Politics in Church". Evangelical. Progressive. Biblical.
Take Back the Faith, Sojourners Magazine/September 2004
It's time to take back our faith in the public square, especially in a time when a more authentic social witness is desperately needed.
When we do, we discover that faith challenges the powers that be to do justice for the poor, instead of preaching a "prosperity gospel" and supporting politicians that further enrich the wealthy. We remember that faith hates violence and tries to reduce it, and exerts a fundamental presumption against war, instead of justifying it in God's name. We see that faith creates community from racial, class, and gender divisions and prefers international community over nationalist religion, and we see that "God bless America" is found nowhere in the Bible. And we are reminded that faith regards matters such as the sacredness of life and family bonds as so important that they should never be used as ideological symbols or mere political pawns in partisan warfare.
It is precisely because religion takes the problem of evil so seriously that it must always be suspicious of concentrated power—politically and economically—either in totalitarian regimes or in huge multinational corporations, which now have more wealth and power than many governments. It is indeed our theology of evil that makes us strong proponents of both political and economic democracy—not because people are so good, but because they often are not and need clear safeguards and strong systems of checks and balances to avoid the dangerous accumulations of power and wealth.
I have long sought to integrate a healthy theology of environment into my faith. I am drwan to the natural spectacles and wonderments of our created order. As with many things long cherished that are now under assault by the Bush administration, the environment is something we shoul be emphasizing all the more, even as a form of protest; as gifts of life come under attack, we can discover newfound appreciation and recognize the "fabric" of life and deepen a "Pro-Life" ethic that is wholistic to the core. I found this group through an article in this month's Sojourners(SUV, You're Fired!
You are what you drive. by Jim Ball , available in the print issue, or in a month or so in the Online issue).
An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation: Evangelical Environmental Network
On the Care of Creation
An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation
After all that McCain suffered at the hands of Rove/Bush, and now Rove/Bush is doing all this SBV crap, he should see the writing on the wall that says: These guys are slimeballs; get out while you have a reputation.
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Lawyer for Bush Quits Over Links to Kerry's Foes
Mr. McCain said that he was taking the president at his word that he was not responsible for the ads, which were initially largely financed by Texas Republicans, but that he did not think Mr. Bush had gone far enough in condemning them. He also said he wanted the Kerry campaign to stop using images of his own 2000 primary fight against Mr. Bush in its advertising
Either that, or he's just dense (I dount he's THAT dense, but apparently feels that most people are, including the press.) When , oh , when, wil the press get some balls or gumption and stand up for some accuracy?
President Bush has a new favorite line. In several recent speeches, he has asserted that his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, said that even in light of the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he still supports the President's decision to go to war there. But that is in fact not what Kerry said. The Massachusetts Senator stated that, knowing what he knows now, he still would have voted to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq.
It's a subtle but important distinction. Just because Bush had the authority to go to war doesn't mean he had to invade Iraq at the time and in the manner that he did, or at all. And Senator Kerry has repeatedly criticized President Bush for the way in which he decided to invade Iraq and has handled the war.
Here's what John Kerry said at the Grand Canyon on August 9 when asked if he still would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing war in Iraq, according to the Associated Press: "I'll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively."
President Bush has repeatedly twisted this statement into the suggestion that Kerry would have invaded Iraq. On August 12 at an appearance before the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of Americat an appearance before the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Bush said, "The other day [Kerry] said that knowing what we know today, he agreed that the use of force in Iraq was necessary."
Tony Campolo said "What good does it do to say you believe the Bible if you don't do what it says?" Never has this been more important for us to realize today; more important for the people in the Churches to wake up and realize: The Bible PLAINLY orders us to be concerned with "the least of these". The Bush administration looks completely the other way, to those who hold the rest of the "commoners world" at arms length and says "Stay away from me". Our democracy and our earth are scared trusts, and these are being forsaken with alarming speed and regression by these who would call upon the Churches for their blessing. Sadly, most (or many, way too many) of them are doing just that.
For Kerry, as for most Democrats, the more effective way to close the religion gap isn't by pandering to churchgoers with quotes from the Bible; it's by addressing issues--poverty, social justice, the environment--that many people of faith care about, while pointing out that Republicans do not, in fact, have a monopoly on values.
Ron Sider had a few comments in the previous post......I would privately or in Church folks company, use the phrase "Biblical Evangelicals", as a way of confronting the hihacking of the concept of Biblical by narrow, culturally captive Christians who flock to the candidate who mouths the "litmus test words" and that "he is a man of prayer" and declares he is God's man, without applying the ultimate litmus test of actual predidential responsibility to work for the people. This president, while he mouths pious platitudes, sells off the leadership of the agencies charged with protecting the public, and appoints the biggest transgressors of those protectors to "self-regulate". It is a "Capitalism Worship; but a capitalism devoid of democratic principles. It is a worship of the "Almighty Dollar"; Al Franken calls this "Supply Side Jesus". Ron Sider provided some pointed quotes:
I spoke with Ron Sider, a born-again Christian who heads the group Evangelicals for Social Action. Like most evangelicals, Sider opposes gay marriage and is passionately antiabortion. But he also opposes Bush's tax cuts and is passionate about fighting poverty, arguing that the Bible compels Christians to care about "both the family and the poor." During a panel discussion suffused with references to biblical passages--Luke 1, Amos 5, Isaiah 58--Sider called for expanding the earned-income tax credit, more generous food stamps, a living wage and "an end to the scandal of 42 million Americans without healthcare." Said Sider in explaining the basis for his beliefs, "I don't think God is a Marxist, but frequently the Bible suggests that people get rich by oppression or are rich and don't share what they have--and in both cases, God is furious."
Great stats about the "Progressive Evangelicals", the religious group that see a dire need to get Bush out of the White House.
The big mouth guys aren't too popular:
A recent survey by Religion & Ethics Newsweekly found that evangelical Christians on the whole gave Falwell a marginally unfavorable rating. It also found that many evangelicals (in particular, those who are African-American or Hispanic) care more about jobs and the economy than issues like gay marriage and abortion. Secular liberals may shudder when informed that roughly 40 percent of Americans are born-again Christians; few are aware that, of this total, roughly one-third are "freestyle evangelicals" whose political views are eclectic, and that another 15-20 percent are members of minority groups that tend to vote Democratic.
A balanced Biblical scorecard, to counter the narrow-issued Christian Coalition "voting guides" which use that "American Bible" plus a few talking points from the GOP. The Bible, on the other hand, IS indeed concerned about issues of equality, justice, economics, environment, reconcilation, and making peace....all as opposed to the heretical hawkishness of the Religious Right ("What Woud Jesus Do? They don;t give a rip. They think it an irrelevant question when applied to most of life. Hypocrites!)
Durbin examined the voting records of his colleagues on an array of moral issues of concern to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops--not only abortion but the death penalty, the minimum wage, the concentration of media ownership. On the whole, he discovered, Democrats in the Senate ranked better than Republicans. The highest ranking of all went to the candidate some conservatives have been tarring as antireligious: John Kerry.
Other highlights of the article:
Continue reading A Biblical Justice Agenda.
Sojourners with an animated video on the Religious Right
SpinSanity, a site which offers contradicting figures to spin spun form both sides of the campaign, illustrates Bush's willful deception on his "everymans's tax cut"
Bush repeatedly suggested that many or most small businesses would benefit from reducing the top marginal income tax rate - when in fact, according to the Tax Policy Center, only 1.4 percent of small businesses with positive incomes paid at that rate. The President has now come full circle, going from selling his own tax plan with deceptive statistics to denigrating his opponents' with the same misleading spin.
Just a reminder, of what Kerry actually said , that Bush mangled so he could do his "Flip Flopper" refrain again. This post on the 15th pointed to a post from Joshua Marshall explaining the super complictaed "nuances" that Bush people pretend not to understand for their own enjoyment, and to the bewildered amazement of onlookers who see the statement and say "he didn't say that". The Bush World mantra: "repeat something enough, and keep on twisting clear "explanations" into something entirely different , and soon the media, and the dittoheads will repeat it. People who deny that they are, in fact, dittoheads, constantly reveal that they are by continuing to echo the lies endlessly. The recent polls showing Kerry's lead narrowing sickens me, because we know its the Swift Boat Veterans doing it, even though their FLIP FLOPS are many, they've been exposed by the NY Times and the Washington Post and numerous sources as spreading stories that the actual military records expose as untrue, and yet their chorus lingers on, and News Stations country wide simply fail to pick up the more credible news sources which are doing what reporters are supposed to do: Check the FACTS (something Bush supporters are apt to avoid, since their crew are masters of darkness and deception.
via The Gutless Pacifist:
San Mateo County Times Online - Local & Regional News
The real flip-floppers? The Swift Boat Veterans
Here's a link to an article that RFK Jr. did for Rolling Stone , Dec 2003, and is the subject of his book, by that name, that was recently released.
The environment is yet another domain of human life being absolutely raped and pillaged by the buy-out of the Bush administration's policy auction. The highest bidder gets unprecedented sway, and in many cases, top regulator post in those areas. For me, a Christian, the stewardship of the creation is one of our inheritances as children of God. And, once again, the Religious Right throws its lightweight American Bible at the problem.
Crimes Against Nature
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas.
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Rambo Coalition
on the second anniversary of 9/11, I predicted "an ugly, bitter campaign - probably the nastiest of modern American history." The reasons I gave then still apply. President Bush has no positive achievements to run on. Yet his inner circle cannot afford to see him lose: if he does, the shroud of secrecy will be lifted, and the public will learn the truth about cooked intelligence, profiteering, politicization of homeland security and more.
I saw O'Reilly just non-stop blast and bully Krugman, who is O'Reilly's opposite in so many ways. Krugman is no wild-eyed, conspiracy cooking crazy. He's an economist, and one in whom I see plenty of sense for the human as affected by economics. For the types that appreciate the no-facts, yell louder, obnoxious ones like O'Reilly , they revel in O'Reilly's boasting afterwards that he destroyed Krugman. Krugman did seem a bit shll shocked by O'Reilly, but all the more reason for those of us who saw that to know that this is symbolic of the Bush strategy. Loud (media) , fact-omitting/ignoring accusations , and quick pithy bumper sticker slogans for everything. This is exactly the reason for Kerry's calls for "sensitivite wars". An actual attention to the human and international relationships involved, as opposed to the Rambo, macho, brainless, hollywood "he-man"; the base values to which the embarassingly adolescent speeches of the Bush world.
WIRED's September issue is focused on Political campaigns and technology, with articles on MoveOn.org, The Dean campaign, and one on Arnold S. (Haven't looked much on that one yet -- it basically talks about the ways in which his support is garnered and massaged; a "radical centrism" is the tem used in the article).
I am encouraged by the media attention to the use of Blogs and RSS in Political maobilization. JOe Trippi's book got me going on seeing all this in terms of the ways in which the Church can use the blog and RSS medium to be a real enabler of story, and to hook up people to others passionate about similar things; this seems to me to hit real close to the idea of the Church being a breeding ground for mission; helping one another discover our calling, and finding ways to bring the visions of a few together into a structure that enables the work to be done. The very idea itself, as it has taken shape in the life and work of The Church of the Saviour in Washington , D.C. over the past 57 years, could greatly benefit from the use of the channels (blog and RSS) for putting this model out there among the populace, and particularly for the seekers who are constantly battling to find a model for Church that works in our time.
I was expecting to see some of the articles online at wired.com, but they're not up there as of now.
via mycountryrightorwrong: MyCountryRightOrWrong.net Questioning September 11th by Mark Elsis
The greatest purveyor of violence on the planet,
my own government.
A time comes when silence is betrayal.
Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.
Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.
from The Inner Truth
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Riverside Church, New York City, April 4th, 1967
This is a bumper sticker I saw as I was leaving the Church we've been attending over the past 4 weeks. Since we have a Carry-in picnic kind of deal happening tonight, maybe I can find out who that is. I thought as I sat today, that I don't know how much longer I can NOT turn to the Church for a "sure-fire" source of theological and moral dissent from the madness of war and justifying war. I read Brian McLaren's article in Sojounrners this month about how to speak to your Church during elections.
McLaren relates this (after using any or all of the first 3 options over the years, 1. Ignore the election completely 2. Remind people to vote as their Christian civic duty, and leave it at that
3. Preach on the moral issues related to the election about which my congregation is already in agreement.)
This year, compelled by what’s going on in our country and world, I hope to try a fourth option:
4. Preach and educate on the moral issues related to the election about which my congregation is not already in agreement.
I absolutely do not envy the task of pastors who feel that they are a bit more convinced than their parishioners that the options for peace and the stance of Jesus against violence as a solution is getting far less "play time" than is healthy.
I know of the fine balance between teaching and clubbing (as in overzealous, low on patience immediate condemnation; while this certainly has its merits, as in, it is apparent that Churches need to hear somethign like "wake up American Christians , while several of your deepest beliefs about the role of democracy in the life of a Christian are under siege", I honestly don't know what "would work". I can safely say that the answer lies somewhere in my bloggish rants and concerns thus expresed, and a more patient but determined set of goals to "preach it". Not near as far, however, as the scenario McLaren sets forth as the "wait till society itself changes"
(McLaren descibes it:Another option: Avoid the subject of racism for 30 or 40 years, until other larger forces have already brought a change in the thinking of my people. Then I could preach about it with gusto)
For one thing, I'm not sure this kind of issue will ever "finally dawn on us" like that of blatant institutional racism. War and the tendency toward complicity and overt, tacit, or silent approval, and on the other end, silent disapproval, will always be with us. This is a much larger myth that is hidden from us (or from society at large) by powerful media forces, and the buffer of national borders which shield us from the impact of the actions being carried out. The fact that this time, we were witness to somethign on our soil, makes the impact even greater, but I'm also concerned that the "responses" fall into the same "shielded" category, on which we depend upon a media that is usualy suspect in its willingness or ability to tell all we really need to know.
The Churches have a double whammy placed on them. The Religious Right has more or less succeeded in aligning the Church with the empire (and that too, is an age old problem). Among people who attend Church regularly, I think it's something like 70% that vote Republican. That percentage is lower among mainline denominations (other than the Southern Baptists, who skew the numbers up to that 70% by virtue of their sheer size and ultra-conservative bent over the past 25 years). The denominational heirarchies , an even larger percentage are less "pro-American" and voicing more concern over the direction the US has taken since 9/11.
The reason why is rather simple. The mainline denominations study theology, ethics, and the Biblical message. The Southern Baptists, who still had seminiaries teaching a well-rounded curriculum in 1978-81, and the other large denominations, had among its leadership a wide exposure to many approaches to what "heeding the Biblical message" really means for us today. The Southern Baptists have completely abandoned that approach and capitulated to a highly dogmatic and narrow interpretation of the Bible, and have required its employees and seminiaries to tow the line; and applied litmus tests to "weed out" the infidels. Most of those have joind the ranks of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who remain in the Baptist Wold Alliance, from which the Southern Baptist withdrew this past year as criticism from other Baptists in the world upset their nationalistic theology sensibilities. They accused the BWA of being "too-Anti-American" (it was actually first on their list of grievances).
I read people like Tony Campolo, Ron Sider, Walter Wink, Robert McAfee Brown, Gordon Cosby and Elizabeth O'Connor (who spoke out of their experiences with the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, and have been active for years in Peace Emphasizing Church Missions), Jim Wallis and Sojourners, John Alexander of The Other Side, Martin Luther King, Jr. , and many many others. Their message has been rather plainspoken about what they see as the very CLEAR call to the people of God to peacemakers, and this moves WAY beyond simply leaving that up to the militaristic solutions of Empire.
Walter Wink has written several books in a Series that describe "The Powers" (the one I have "Engaging the Powers" is a fascinating Biblical exploration of the "Principalities and Powers" of Scripture), and I have pulled it off the bookshelf to sit in the "to be re-examined" pile of books. I also have "Violence Unveiled" by Gil Bailie , which I bought at the Potter's House Bookstore when I visited Washington DC in 1996 , and attended the ecumencial service of The Church of the Saviour, and then had lunch a few days later at The Potter's House and sat and talked with a half dozen people including Gordon Cosby. Violence Unveiled is another "must revisit".
I also will be checking out the bookshelves at Borders a little later here , looking for some Stanley Hauweras books (Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe professor of theological ethics at Duke Divinity School and the author of many books including The Peaceable Kingdom, After Christendom, and most recently With the Grain of the Universe......bio line from Sojourners mag
It's about time to do that now, so I'll be back later.
From DailyKOS: Daily Kos || Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.
while Kerry was being wounded and awarded medals for courage under fire, Bush checked the box not to go to Vietnam although he was an ardent supporter of the war (i.e., of other people's going over there to get killed); furthermore, he was grounded for failing to show up for his physical, and then was AWOL for at least eight months while working on a family friends' political campaign in Alabama (several former Alabama Air National Guardsmen could appear saying, "I didn't serve with George Bush in the Alabama Air National Guard because I never saw him."
A Jewish God-Fearer in a room full of Christians
Brad found my blog via searching on Church of the Saviour, has just redone theirs from livejournal to Blogger, with some quotes from Gordon Cosby and Elizabeth O'Connor among the initial postings
FactCheck.org Radio Ads Accuse Kerry Of Not Helping Blacks
Emphasis mine
The newly established group People of Color United (PCU) began running a series of radio ads August 2 that challenges John Kerry's record on "helping and hiring Blacks."
Some of the content is misleading. One ad blames Kerry for ensuring that jobless workers won't be eligible for an extra 13 weeks of unemployment benefits. It's true Kerry missed a crucial vote in which an extension of benefits fell just one vote short of Senate passage, but the measure was defeated mainly because Republicans voted overwhelmingly against it.
The group's name is misleading, too. "People of Color United" says about half its funds have come from Republican insurance-company owner J. Patrick Rooney, who is white.
on the aformentioned FactCheck,org, this was just one of the many inconsistencies and apparent misrepresentations given by the Kerry accusers:
FactCheck.org Republican-funded Group Attacks Kerry's War Record
A serious discrepancy in the account of Kerry's accusers came to light Aug. 19, when the Washington Post reported that Navy records describe Thurlow himself as dodging enemy bullets during the same incident, for which Thurlow also was awarded the Bronze Star.
FactCheck.org analyzes information desseminate din poliotical ads, and compares claims with facts.....on both sides.
including the SwiftBoat Ad
Ad features vets who claim Kerry "lied" to get Vietnam medals. But other witnesses disagree -- and so do Navy records.
via DailyKOS: Daily Kos || Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.
Republicans said they would seek to turn any disruptions to their advantage, by portraying protests by even independent activists as Democratic-sanctioned displays of disrespect for a sitting president
I would say that this woulod be an accurate assesment of the aim of the protests. They WILL BE exactly that: displays of disrespect (even disgust and accusations of CORRUPT, EVIL, and DANGEROUS) and they will be sanctioned by the Democrats, because these are exactly the things that people in this country need to know about Bush. Of course, people in what Maureen Dowd calls "Bush World" will lap up every word, and chher every accusati on made in those tough-talkin' , bumpersticker, keep-it-REALLY simple speeches so eleoquently delivered by W. You know the kind.
I read the post at MyDD about Nader's numbers
The breakdowns really puzzle me, to be honest. The puzzling piece is how there are as many as 1% or more that can convince themselves that voting for Nader is going to aid any of the causes I perceive to be that of the Green party. Consumer advocacy? Environment? Is the "libertartian" so much more important to this group that they could shove aside the very clear CHOICE that we have right now? Is not the economic and environmental record of the Bush administration appalling enough to know that ANY of their interests lie in getting Bush out of the White House? Apparently they care more for naive ideology than for a rather clear short-term accomplishment: stop the evil. Yes, EVIL. Greed, corruption, militarism, profit-over-people, gone haywire. This is why I vote Democratic, now more than ever. It is to stop the slide of "people and groups falling through the cracks". The cracks become potholes and gaping caverns when the Republicans of the past 20 years are in power. Double or Triple or 10-fold that fear and you have the Bush administration.
For the sake of our country, Nader people, if you love our country, you HAVE to be against Bush. Your own views will NEVER gain traction under an adminstration who clearly looks out for no vision other than lining it's coffers and those of their supporters. I don't really care about the arguments for who Nader is helping or hindering, but only that all of these people ought to know better; that Bush must be out, and voting for Nader will take away votes for no-Bush.
The idea that the "Green Party" can even fathom helping Bush is puzzling, and if there's so much argument about who's losing more votes to Nader, why not jump on the "Show Bush the Door in 2004" bandwagon? It's pretty clear that that will get us back into a position to level the debate, and get sanity on the table.
What ya think, Karl? Scumbag.
washingtonpost.com: Records Counter a Critic of Kerry
Newly obtained military records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry's most vocal critics, who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of events.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 15, 2004 - August 21, 2004 Archives
Kerry quote from his reply to the Swift Boat Book:
Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: "Bring it on."
I have heard Al Franken talk about this (in his audio version of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"). I may just have to get the paperback book so I can use the references he uses, for which he provides all the bibliographic info, even in the audio version. What impresses me so much about Franken is his research. I knew he was a pretty intelligent guy, but he has written the absolute best book I've come across yet on the two-faced nature of contemporary Republican politics (as represented by what SEEMS to be just about everybody, but I'm sure there are exceptions.....namely, probably most of the people who buy the lies, hook line and sinker, because they want so desperately to be right--- after all, many of them say that Bush is "God's man", and so that seems like a rather lofty responsibility. I would not want to be responsible for handing over authority to someone who disgusises himself as an "angel of light", and ends up deceiving thousands. Especially since a poular notion among the Religious Right is the end-times scenarios, which include the rise of the Anti-Christ.)
Anyway, Franken points out how neither Donald Evans nor Bush seem to be really ready to "talk Bible" when they have questions put to them. This interview describes that encounter, and also how Bush became a little miffed when a reporter asked him what Bible passage he'd read that day, and didn't answer the question.
So I'm sort of fascinated by the extent to which he really is born again, and how much a part of his life this really is. It's possible he thinks it is.
With the religous right's almost pathological emphasis on personal piety (pathological, becuase it is almost always to an almost complete exclusion of any sense of social and political responsibility), it is not at all out of character to "narrow" their "born again status" down to some almost secretive "personal relationship" which can seem almost divorced from their actual social, op=political, and work lives. Their rise in the