News and Politics

Via Kicking Ass:

“If Bush wins re-election you’re going to have a very conservative judiciary,” University of Houston political scientist Robert Carp said on Thursday. “An average president puts in about a third of the federal judiciary in two terms, so this really is a watershed year in terms of what happens.”

….

“George W. Bush is the most conservative president that we have data for,” Karp said. “In civil rights and liberties cases, his judges were 25 percent more conservative than those of other Republicans.” Supreme Court Justices sit on the bench for life – making decisions that affect our laws and the everyday lives of ordinary Americans for decades to come.

Never mind any of the other issues, the real danger if Bush gets re-elected is the potential of his supreme court appointments. A more conservative supreme court could wipe out 50 years of social progress in Civil rights, Women’s rights including reproductive freedom, Voting rights, Workers’ rights, Environmental protections, Privacy rights, and Disability rights.

See courtsave.org for a more detailed look at just what’s at stake.

Via Salon: The Log Cabin Republicans are opposing the GOP’s intolerant, homophobic platform and pleading for a return to center:

As our nation’s eyes are on New York City for the Republican National Convention, Log Cabin’s mission, our courageous delegates and our GOP allies are under intense attack from the radical right. The Republican Party Platform is an outrageous insult to all of us and our families. The platform not only calls for an anti-family Constitutional amendment, but it also opposes civil unions and domestic partnerships. While thousands of courageous gay and lesbian Americans are fighting to win the war on terror, the platform also says, “Homosexuality is incompatible with military service.”

Log Cabin has decided to respond immediately to this outrageous platform. We are launching an aggressive counter attack against the radical right which has hijacked the GOP.

Please take 30 seconds to watch Log Cabin’s newly produced television commercial which we launched this morning. And, if you agree with our message please help us immediately. We must broadcast this commercial in New York City this week so delegates can hear our message. We won’t have this chance again for 4 years.

When asked about tribal sovereignty, this was Bush’s answer. It sounds exactly like a student bull****ing his way through an essay question he knows nothing about.

1,000 Reasons to Vote Against George Bush. (Via metafilter.com)

#57 Democracy: Bush has little interest in democracy, jokingly says he prefers a dictatorship
Bush pushes for democracy abroad as part of his war on terror, but diminishes it at home. Critics believe he has no real interest in democracy, only getting rid of terrorists: George W. Bush says he wants to attack Iraq to install democracy. But as he explained on 2002-12-18: “If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” Common Dreams 2003-02-23 (link)

Via WiredOpinion – Jon’s Journal:

Has it ever occurred to you that conservative beliefs are all about mind control? Well, it just did to me, and it’s fascinating to think about. At its very core, conservatism is about preserving the values, traditions, and beliefs of times gone by, inherently deeming new ideas unacceptable. This is mind control. To strive for uniformity and stagnancy among all people is to strive for something contrary to the nature and will of humanity. This nihilism is the very foundation of Western social conservatism.

Our conservative contemporaries love to wage religious and political wars of words. The Right has used polarizing rhetoric, often oversimplified and spun to portray a party with differing beliefs as a moral enemy, for centuries as a tool for garnering support. Conservative rhetoric uses moral absolutes, “good,” “evil,” “right,” “wrong,” to demonize and dehumanize opponents without considering alternative views on the definitions of those terms. Flavoring nationwide political discourse to the advantage of conservatives by altering the common terminology is a favored tactic.

The American neoconservative revolution successfully stigmatized the terms “liberal” and “progressive” by associating them with high taxes, moral depravity, and general weakness, while the equivalent conservative terms were portrayed as badges of honor to be displayed proudly. The Right uses the term “pro-life” to define an anti-abortion stance, implying that the opposite stance is “pro-death,” a patently ridiculous assertion. Conservatives frequently accuse others of being “unpatriotic” simply because they disagree with the conservative position on anything. As social conservatives tend to be more nationalistic, this distortion is easy to make in the political arena, often fooling the electorate. The modern-day Right wages wars in other countries simply for the projection of American conservative ideals across the world. These crusades are no different in essence than the crusades of centuries past. An international “war for the hearts and minds” of people of differing ideologies is the ultimate manifestation of conservative mind control.

Domestically, conservative mind control has been used to hijack issues in the private sector for political purposes aimed towards enforcing a socially conservative agenda for the entire country. Today’s most evident example of this phenomenon is the issue of gay rights, which has served to effectively split the nation in two. Conservatives, using religious rhetoric condemning homosexuality, are attempting to convince mainstream America that gay marriage threatens society at its core. In the conservative mindset, allowing gays to marry would undermine the age-old institution of marriage, and that would be a failure to preserve the stagnant society conservatives desire. The Republican Party has bent this issue into a political one by trying to alarm the electorate. The push has sparked campaigns to amend state and federal constitutions to allow only men and women to marry in the United States. This is yet another attempt by conservatives to force a specific, individually-held belief into the minds of all Americans by law.

Barack Obama gave one of the greatest speeches of recent years at the Democratic National Convention.

There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

The Right-Wing Squares: “Media Matters for America launches an Internet ad that lets some of the nutjobs hang themselves in their own words. Worth viewing and passing along, especially to people who think the ‘liberal’ media is full of hate.” (Via Life and Deatherage.)

The senate voted 48-50 against proceeding with the Federal Marriage Amendment debate. 60 votes were needed to survive a procedural vote on cloture, which would prevent a filibuster. Bush is “deeply disappointed” with the vote, but considers it only a temporary setback.

Here is a complete rundown of the vote. As expected, the vote was divided pretty much along party lines, although 3 democrats – Byrd (WV), Miller (GA), and Nelson (NE) voted for the measure. I’m proud to say both Florida senators voted against it.

Maybe now the government can get back to more important business, like Iraq and the war on terrorism.

This country was founded on the principles of acceptance, tolerance, and religious freedom by people who left their old countries to find the freedom to worship as they please and escape a state-imposed religion. Now we have a group that’s trying to turn this country into exactly what it was meant to escape from.

I don’t care what anyone believes. We’re all free to follow any religion we want and live our lives according to our own religious and moral beliefs. However, no group has the right to impose their religion and morality on others who don’t share their beliefs. Haven’t we learned that it isn’t possible to legislate morality? It’s been attempted before and failed (remember prohibition?). Accept the fact that we’re human. Don’t preach abstinence – it’s just not realistic. Meanwhile, with abstinence-only education, teens are still getting pregnant and getting infected with STDs. Anyone who thinks it works needs to get back in touch with reality.

With the senate now debating whether to enshrine discrimination into the constitution, we’re at a very dangerous crossroad. The social conservatives are trying to frame it as “protecting against the attempt to redefine marriage”, which is just plain crap. It’s no such thing – marriage is defined by religious groups. We’re not forcing them to change or accept something they don’t want to accept. The word ‘marriage’ has always had two meanings: the religious meaning, which the government shouldn’t meddle with; and civil marriage, which is a contract between two people which gives them many special rights related to financial matters, medical care, and many other aspects. These rights should be available equally to everyone.

Furthermore, the religious meaning of marriage has changed drastically throughout history. In many societies bigamy has been accepted and encouraged, including the Mormons, who are now among those most strongly opposed to gay marriage. A lot of societies still have arranged marriages, in many cases to establish or strengthen business relationships between families.

The US Constitution is one of our most important documents, spelling out what rights and freedoms we have. The Constitution helped make the U.S. into a beacon of freedom for the rest of the world. Other than prohibition, which was repealed, it has always been used to guarantee rights, never to deny rights to any group of people. Adding a discriminatory definition of marriage to the constitution is one of the most disgusting abuses ever of our most important document. It also violates the principle of separation of church and state, since not all religious groups agree with the proposed definition.

We’re reaching a very dangerous point where the government no longer represents all of the people, only one select group. Also in the news, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is trying to determine how the vote can be delayed in case of a terrorist attack. It looks like the current administration will do everything they can to stay in power, whether or not they can win an honest election. They no longer care about the people, only about staying in power at any cost.

Brown Equals Terroist – the story of a photography student who refuses to provide his ID to a security officer, and is swiftly confronted by Homeland Security.

(Via metafilter.com.)