That Didn't Take Long

The election was just a few weeks ago, but the Democrats have already ticked me off. They've allowed Joe Lieberman to retain his chair of the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee.

There were a lot of voices from the left calling for Lieberman to be punished for being a turncoat this past election cycle. That's not why I think Lieberman should have lost his chair. I've no desire for revenge on Lieberman for supporting John McCain and saying what he undoubtedly really thinks about Barack Obama. Lieberman is a zionist and a warmonger who happens to be liberal on social issues. Of course he supported John McCain. What I have a problem with is allowing a warmonger who supported the "war on terror" tactics of the Bush administration to continue to chair a committee on homeland security. What I have a problem with is allowing a man who failed to look into the governmental failure in handling Hurricane Katrina to continue to chair a committee on government oversight. Lieberman is very likely to lose his seat in 2012, so I really don't care about punishing him. The people fo Connecticutt will deal with him as they see fit. What I care about is having someone whose not crazy and incompetent running important committees.

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Mark Lilla's got it right

I recently tried to give Republicans some advice. Mark Lilla isn't advising, but he does give a great explanation of what the conservative movement seems to have done to itself. Check it out. Although, if he's right, then it's the Republican intelligentsia that caused this problem in the first place. According to Lilla, the intellectuals of the conservative movement are the ones who fanned the flames of anti-intellectualism that now haunt the Republican party.

If that's true - and I've no reason to question its historical veracity - then I am wrong to hope that the intelligentsia will turn away from this "populist chic" and toward making the conservative movement amenable to intellectuals rather than opposed to them. That's sad for them, but it's also very sad for the country as a whole.

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The Election Is Over. Now What?

At a few minutes past 11 here on the East Coast, the media called the election for Barack Obama. And I began to cry. I cried out of pride for my country. I cried out of relief that the extreme right wing of the Republican Party can no longer ruin this country. I cried out of happiness.

But now the dancing in the streets is over. The firecrackers have burned out. Now it's time to find out if the hopes that Barack Obama managed to bring to this cynic, and others around the country, will actually be fulfilled.

I'm not sure they will be. Recent news about the building of Obama's staff and cabinet have me worried. Rahm Emmanuel - the president-elect's new chief of staff - doesn't bother me all that much. Some are whining that Obama's selection of a Clinton administration veteran is a betrayal of the promise of change we heard from the Obama campaign. I don't see that. Emmanuel is known as an attack dog - the sort of man who bugs others until they do what he wants. That's just the sort of person you need as chief of staff. So while I'm not ecstatic or anything, I'm not unhappy about Rahm.

What I am very unhappy about is the rumors I'm hearing that Obama might appoint RFK Jr. to the head of the EPA and Lawrence Summers as Sec. of the Treasury. Why do I have a problem with this? Well, Lawrence Summers may be a great economist. I don't really know. What I do know is that he is well known for being a sexist. He's had no qualms about saying things like "girls can't do math". Appointing Summers to the Treasury despite his sexism would be a sign of tacit acceptance of his sexist positions. Would the Obama administration appoint him if his comments had been racist or anti-semitic? Of course not. But sexism, oh, that can be overlooked. Well, not by me.

RFK Jr. is even worse. He's an antivaccinationist and pusher of pseudoscience. No one who has so little respect for science should be anywhere near any bureaucratic agency that has to do with science. After 8 years of far right wing anti-science policies, the last thing we need is 8 more years of far left anti-science policies. If you want to learn more about why RFK Jr. shouldn't be near anything having to do with government involvement in science, see here. Why can't our bloody government support reason and evidence for once! Christ this makes me angry.

If it makes you as angry as it makes me, you can actually make your wishes known to the Office of the President-Elect here. It doesn't have to be about these particular appointments. This is at least one sign of change, that the president-elect has actually set up a way for you to give your opinion.

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How Messed Up Is This?

Via Pharyngula (like he needs me to link to him. Ha!)

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Pulpit political endorsements.

There have been murmurs for a while that the ADF was going to put together some pastors to risk their tax-exempt status by endorsing political candidates. Well, they've done it:




I love the guy at the end of the video who says that the pastor has the right to let them know that a candidate is not abiding by what the Bible says. I'm assuming your pastor already tells you what the Bible says, but are you really so intellectually inept that you can't find out what the candidates believe and do the comparison on your own?

I know, I know. He was talking about the pastor's right to say what he thinks. Well, the pastor does have that right - he has the right to say what he thinks about the political candidates. And he could endorse candidates all day long around your kitchen table. But a pulpit endorsement isn't a case of the pastor expressing his views as an individual. It's a case of him telling you what the church thinks. Tax exempt organizations cannot endorse political candidates. That's the law. It applies to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the local homeless shelter just as much as it does to churches. Now I personally don't have an opinion as to whether tax exempt organizations should be allowed to endorse political candidates or not. But I see no reason to claim an exception for churches. Either all tax exempt organizations should be able to endorse, or none should be able to.

Then again, I don't think that all churches should be tax-exempt anyway. Only non-profit organizations should be free from taxes, since the sole purpose of those organizations is already to put something back in the community. If you've ever seen a megachurch or read a listing of the holdings of the Vatican, you know that not all churches are non-profit. However, while I do hope that these guys lose their tax exempt status, I do feel a little bad. After all, I know the cost will be passed onto the consumer, I mean...uh...the congregation, when it comes time for that tithe. And if the congregations of these churches are so stupid that they can't figure out whether a political candidate is in line with their cherished holy book on their own, then it seems like they've already got enough problems.

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Sounds Like a Good Idea To Me

Rep. DeFazio has a suggestion on the bailout that would make Wall St. pay for its own bailout. I like it.

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I love Dennis Kucinich

I may not always agree with him, and FSM knows I'm horrified by the whole UFO thing, but I really wish that more politicians had his passion.

This is Rep. Kucinich addressing the DNC.

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McCain's Mansions

I've been finding it very difficult to understand how people could come to trust John McCain to do anything but make matters worse when it comes to our ailing (okay, let's face it, our seriously ill) economy. As a graduate student, I don't find it particularly troubling that I have to scrounge or ask Mommy and Daddy for a little help now and again. That's what graduate student life is like. But when regular Joe and his wife, who hold down decent paying jobs, suddenly can't make the bills anymore, I know that something is wrong.

Some people aren't having trouble though. John and Cindy McCain certainly aren't. And John McCain's big man on economics - Phil Graham - has made it clear that he thinks that the recession we are in at the moment is a figment of our imaginations. This is the same man, of course, who helped to drive gas prices up by creating the Enron loophole, and also was a main contributor to the mortgage business deregulation that led to the mortgage crisis. Now, I'm not saying that the Obama family is particularly hard off. They aren't. But Michelle Obama isn't a beer heiress worth upwards of 100 million dollars. And Barak Obama's top economic advisor isn't a man who thinks the American people are whiners. I simply can't understand why anyone who actually feels the pinch of high gas prices, or rising mortgage payments, or layoffs could possibly think that McCain either knows that the economy actually is in shambles or that he would give a damn if he did know. His pockets are well lined whether you can make your house payment or not. BraveNewFilms puts in into video much better than I could say it, though. Just watch:

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Go and read this...

Precisely what is wrong with this country.

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Do you want a creationist VP? How 'bout an exorcist?

This guy... Bobby Jindal, is not only a self-proclaimed exorcist, but also wants ID taught in schools. And he's on the short list of potential McCain running mates. Yikes!

There is a part of me, though, that really wished that this story hadn't broken until after he had been selected. That would have led to lots of election media fun. But, since it's out there, might as well spread it.

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Praying For Judges

The video below is of a prayer offered during the National Day of Prayer for right-wing, anti-abortion justices.

Two questions. First, do you think she really means all the manifestations of religious freedom? Does that include the freedom not to believe? And second, if this prayer isn't answered, and they don't get their right wing appointments, does that mean that it was God's will that the judiciary be stocked with pro-choicers and people who will uphold the separation of church and state enshrined in the constitution? Or will it just mean that prayer doesn't work?

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Thank You Keith Olbermann!

I should have known that good ol' Keith would call it like it is:

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Apparently, Atheists Don't Have Rights

Apparently, atheists don't have the right to try and protect the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. And people wonder why we're becoming so vocal? Because even Democrats are unwilling to stand up for us. The man you hear in the video is activist Rob Sherman, an atheist who was testifying about what looks to me to be a violation of the Establishment Clause. The woman you hear is Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago). PZ has more on the details of the situation over at Pharyngula. I have to say, I find it laughable that Rep. Davis insists that Sherman is trying to destroy the principles that this country is based on. I wonder, does she think free thought, free speech, separation of church and state, and public involvement in government (you know, self-rule - of the people, by the people and for the people) aren't among the principles this nation was founded on? The representative needs to take a high school government class. She also needs to learn the definition of atheism before she opens her mouth about how much she hates it. How many misconceptions about atheism (and reality) can you hear in what she says?

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McCain the Maverick? Not on Reproductive Rights.

There are a good number of people in this country that view John McCain as a bit of a maverick, a man who is willing to stand up to the Republican party has a whole, cross the isle in search of effective compromise, and stand behind his own beliefs even when they conflict with the dominant views of the party. This may very well be true with regard to some issues, but despite some public misconceptions to the contrary, reproductive rights certainly isn't one of them. There are some who have, due to McCain's image as a maverick, taken him to be pro-choice, or at least less anti-choice then the likes of far-righties like G.W. Bush, Mike Huckabee, etc. NARAL has started up a website where you can, according to them, meet the real McCain. And if you follow the links in search of info on McCain's record, you'll be led to a compilation of McCain's anti-choice votes and statements.

If you read through that list, you might be surprised to discover that:

*McCain is staunchly anti-choice, openly in favor of overturning Roe, and determined to nominate judges who will ignore the rights of women.

*McCain has voted to support abstinence-only education programs, which have been shown to be ineffective and often involve disseminating falsehoods to kids. He's also voted for substantial funding for such programs to be allocated from the fund for HIV/AIDS. That means that rather then putting our money toward effective means of reducing HIV/AIDS in areas of the world that are experiencing a devestating epidemic, the money is being wasted on ineffective, and dogmatically motivated, programs.

*McCain has voted to support the global gag rule, which precludes any openly pro-choice international organization from obtaining federal funds, even if they use non-federal money to provide abortion services or do not offer such services at all. This prevents these organizations from giving much needed family planning and women's health services to some of the poorest women in the world, and places a burden on other organizations which they may not be able to meet, thus leaving women out in the cold.

*McCain has voted against measures that would make birth control more accessible to women, and has actually voted for parental notification laws that would make it more difficult for teens to access birth control.

*McCain voted to end Title X, which provides women in need with all sorts of medical services, from birth control to vaccinations to cancer screenings.

Now, even if you're opposed to legal abortion, you've got to admit that McCain's record is not just anti-choice, but clearly unconcerned with the reproductive rights and reproductive health of women here in America and around the world. Unless your place on the ideological spectrum has you nestled between Dubya and Pat Robertson, some of McCain's record is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. After all, if you're interested in reducing abortions, increasing access to and knowledge about contraceptives should be at the top of your list. It's not at the top of McCain's. If you're worried about the AIDS crisis in Africa, then making sure that we are funding programs that have the greatest effectiveness in reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS should be one of your concerns. It's not one of McCain's. If securing the rights and improving the health of women in the US and around the world is something that is important to you, McCain may not be your candidate, because his record clearly demonstrates that it's not important to him.

McCain may have the image of an ideological maverick, but when it comes to reproductive rights and women's health he's right in line with the far right. We should all be aware of that fact when we enter the voting booth this November.

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Vote Obama and Lose the General Election

This is just another reason that I support Hillary Clinton. I’ve been warning my Obama supporting colleagues for a while now. On top of the fact that he’s all show and no substance, the man can’t pull off a win for the Democrats in the fall. Well, I’ve said it to my colleagues and I’ll say it here now – if Obama gets the nomination (which seems likely) and then loses the general election (which also looks likely), I’m blaming you.

I’m praying that I eat my words in November.

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Proposed Bill Makes CPCs Inform Patients That They Can Lie

This is good news. It’s about time that someone did something about these stupid Crisis Pregnancy Centers. What would be better if the bill actually made it the case that they have to tell the truth. But this is a start.

Joseph Bartlett, a Republican who opposes the bill, had this to say in defense of allowing to continue the centers to operate the way they have been:

The premise that we're going to require these organizations to disclaim that they don't have to tell the truth is just about the silliest thing I ever heard," he said. "We certainly don't do that in the case of politicians, do we?

Well, no, Joe, we don’t have a law that tells politicians that they have to admit that they don’t have to tell the truth. But as much as CPCs are more like politicians than they are like actual clinics, these places are falsely giving the impression that they are medical centers, which can be sued for lying to their patients. They aren’t medical centers, and as a result they are free to disseminate all the false information they want without penalty. And they do. Well, if we’re going to allow them to continue parading about like actual medical centers, we can at least make sure that women who go to them are aware of the stakes. What’s really silly here is the fact that you seem to think it’s okay for people to pretend to be offering medical services and then lie to the women who come to them for help.

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Surprise! The More Religious the Society, The Higher the Abortion Rate.

Given that many religious ideologies involve the condemnation of comprehensive sex-ed, or something like it, and various birth control methods, this actually isn't surprising at all. If you're really interested in reducing the number of abortions, taking a more liberal attitude toward human sexuality is definitely the way to go. Oh, and if that's the case, then John McCain is not your man.

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Colorado Has Lost It Too

On the heels of Georgia's proposed bill to define personhood as beginning at conception, Colorado now has a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would do the same. And Mike Huckabee has endorsed it.

I don't think it necessary to rehash the idiocy, from a practical standpoint, of legally defining a fertilized egg as a person. What really confuses me is that it seems as though the people of Colorado and Georgia haven't really thought about this - which is certainly something one ought to do before making something the law of the land.

Speaking of the people of Colorado and Georgia making something the law of the land, since when are facts determined by a popular vote? There is a fact of the matter as to whether or not a fertilized embryo is a person. This is something that certainly hasn't been determined. And without significant justification for the claim, which anti-choicers haven't provided (and I suspect can't provide), voting to recognize this "fact" seems both premature and arrogant.

I'm not saying that we can't possibily recognize a fact even when it's not completely settled. What I am saying is that before you can legally recognize a fact, you should have and provide evidence that it is a fact. Anti-choicers have not done this.

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Vote Pro-Choice and Sit With Satan

Joe Feuerherd is wondering whether voting for a pro-choice democrat will endanger his immortal soul. I've posted on this issue before, but I think it's important to continue dialogue about it. Feuerherd is pro-life, but takes other issues facing the country to be more important. As a result, he plans on voting for a democrat despite the fact that church leaders (in this case, the Vatican) have said that doing so may result in eternal damnation. Now, I certainly do laud Feuerherd's bravery and integrity. He's willing to risk it, presumably because he thinks that, on this issue, the church is wrong. But how many others will be frightened away from voting their conscience by the warnings of church leaders that if they vote for anyone who supports abortion rights they will have to spend eternity at Satan's place? Can we really expect a large portion of the "flock" to go their own way, under the threat of hellfire? I don't think so. And that's scary. This is one of those points where the organization of religion is more dangerous than religious belief itself (although, it is, of course, sustained by religious belief).

Religious leaders should be ashamed of themselves. Not only is there no real theological or biblical foundation for the idea that abortion is a sin, but even if there were, it is sheer arrogance on their part to assume that they know which issue is more important in any given election. And it is even worse for them to try to frighten people into voting one way rather than another. Religion may be motivated by fear, but that doesn't mean voting should be.

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Hmm... Maybe It's Because Obama Hasn't Accomplished Anything

This is precisely why I support Hillary over Obama.

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