MWMB: God Goes to School

MWMB returns, now that I'm back from Vacation. This week we talk about why Minotaurs make the best pets for Republicans, touch on Michelle Bachmann, take a few pokes at Weiner and then settle in for a discussion of Separation of Church and State.... the Rutland Herald,of Vermont reported last week that the class valedictorian reported he was not allowed to deliver half of his speech because he was not able to publicly thank God for his academic success. He said that the Law and not the school was to blame. So I guess that casts me in the roll of Godless liberal...

Mouse Boobies! Did the Stimulus Work?

Did the Stimulus work? Who knows? What I do know is that I had a lot of fun recording last week's MWMB podcast. My Ex-Brother-In-Law Jim and I do a weekly podcast in which we masticate some of the issues of the day. Last week, we discussed the Stimulus plan ...and Jim pointed out that we spend 99 thousand dollars to study mouse boobies. If you like mindless talk radio...you'll be crazy about MWMB. If you DON'T like mindless talk radio, you might still like MWMB.

MWMB Episode03 by MWMB Podcast And More

A new Podcast....

I think that facebook may have just about killed Rip and Read...and that makes me sad, because I really enjoy writing this blog. Still, by the time I think about writing about it HERE, I've already yacked so much on facebook that I've run out of time to turn around and post to the blog.

But, I am having fun with my former brother-in-law, Jim with a new podcast. Jim and I have always had a lot of fun talking (and laughing about) politics, and for the longest time, we've promised ourselves that someday, we'd try our hand at producing a podcast.

Somewhat to my surprise, that day finally came last week. In our first episode, we covered the imposition of "financial martial law" in Michigan...
MWMB Episode01 by MWMB Podcast And More
This week, we talk about President Obama's reform of the Student Loan program. Jim sees it as yet another government take over, and I think that, since we the taxpayers have taking all the risk of guaranteeing student loans, it's high time we made the profit, too.

I hope you get a chance to check us out...and leave a comment!
http://soundcloud.com/mwmb-podcast-and-more

Taking the Democratic Party Survey: Why I am a Democrat and Why I'm Currently Discouraged.

I have been getting TONS of email from national Democrats, asking me for money, asking if I've seen the President's latest You-Tube video, asking me for money....

Today, I received a survey asking me to share my opinion on the current state of the Democratic Party...since there was a place for long answers, I filled them out...and then decided to post them here, because A) this was the one place that some random web surfer might read them (I know they won't get read at party headquarters) and, B) because heaven knows it's time for a blog post.

So here are my responses.


How would you describe the current political climate? (Optional):

As a Democrat, I feel demoralized. In his first days in office, President Obama appointed two tax cheats (a Democrat who cheats on his taxes is just as bad as a Republican "Family Values" man who cheats on his wife.) Timothy Geithner felt like part of the same Wall Street Gang of thugs who got us into this mess in the first place. Then, the President was a month overdue before responding in a major way to the Gulf Oil Spill. He has done a lousy job selling his program, and when Democrats point out the missteps taken by the White House and ask them to please try and do better, they are told to "Stop Whining" by Vice-President Biden. So, the current climate: Grim and Uninspiring.

What do you believe the Democratic Party stands for? (Optional):

I think that's in flux right now...but here's what I think the Democratic Party SHOULD stand for:

A strong America.
A debt-free America.
An America that MAKES things again.

The Democrats know that, with the proper oversight, Government need not be an enemy. Instead, as long as our government remains free and open, it can be a powerful tool. Allowing groups of ordinary people to band together to create something larger then themselves (examples: The Space Program, Victory in World War 2, the Interstate Highway System, the Transcontinental Railroad, etc.). Government, again, kept under proper restraint, and driven by groups of activists, is also the only tool that has achieved the civil rights of the American People (The end of Slavery, the Enfranchisement of Women, the end of segregation.)

In times of great need, Government has successfully served as the great engine which restarts the economy...getting us moving again following the Great Depression, providing the needed economic mobilization to triumph over fascism. While these are the large examples, this pattern has been repeated in smaller crises throughout the century.

The Democratic party knows that, in order to create the conditions of prosperity and stability, taxes are necessary. Democrats know that the upper class may occasionally meet with success solely by their own efforts, but are more often aided by the efforts of their workforce, the public education system, the public police system, the public transportation infrastructure, the national defense, and, often, by doing direct business with the government.

Because of this, Democrats know that these people deserve to pay more in taxes, to support the society that supports them so well.

Democrats know that money taken from the top, and reinvested in the bottom creates a rising tide that raises ALL boats, not just those of the few...and brings financial growth and benefit to a greater portion of society. (Their prosperity, in turn, allows them to be customers of the rich...helping them well from this too.)

Democrats value and respect the entrepreneur. They understand that his vision and energy are a key part of the driving force of our economy. At the same time, they know that he is not the God-Like Figure imagined by Ayn Rand and her supply-side disciples. True Entrepreneurs thrive in an environment laced with infrastructure: Transportation, Police, Education, Energy, workforce. Because this successful businessman achieves success in aworld which has been tamed for him through the efforts of his fellow citizens acting together as a government, it is also understood that that self-same business person must pay to support that infrastruture. Not being a god-like figure, the entrepreneur is not to be placated by deferments, and releases from his obligation to provide support for the infrastructure without which his success would not be possible. Unlike Ayn Rand and her modern followers, Democrats do not heap sacrifices from the public treasury in the form of tax breaks at his feet.

Democrats know and respect the worker's role in economic success. Democrats also know that, by keeping the working class prosperous, a larger customer base is established, and the seeds of further economic growth are put in place, seeds which the business owner will harvest.

Democrats understand that, human nature being what it is, those who have money will seek to keep as much of it as they can. They will share no more with their workforce than absolutely necessary. They will voluntarily contribute to the infrastructure that supports them almost nothing. They will favor short-term profit over long term growth. Democrats understand that, while free market capitalism is the best way to run a successfull society, that it has an Achillies Heal. Left to its own devices, the free market will tend to stagnate, concentrating success and wealth in the hands of a few. Left in it's natural state, the only way to bring change is through periodic catastrophic failure. To avoid both the stagnation and concentration of wealth, which leads to tyranny of the few over the many, and at the same time to avoid economic catastrophe and devastation which leads to periods of anarchy, terror and hardship, Government is needed to bring stabilty....while it does tend to remove the highest of the high points (enjoyed only by very few), it also reduces the lowest of lows...and that helps the population as a whole.

Democrats should know that they need to be fiscally responsible...keeping the national account square, paying as they go, breaking this rule only in economic emergencies (such as the present crisis), and returning to normalcy as soon as possible.

The Democrats know that people often need a helping hand to lift themselves up. That children need a good education to rise in the world. At the same time, Democrats have come to understand that welfare should be a hand, not a handout, and that while there are no limits to our desire to help, there are limits to the amount of help we will give to those who will not help themselves.

Democrats know that this country must become as self-sufficient as possible, and especially in the area of energy.

Knowing that there is no one magic bullet that will replace foreign oil as a source of power, Democrats are ready to apply the power of Government to fund R & D that is not yet attractive to the private sector in search of the short term sure profit.

Democrats understand that these efforts will pay off in a big way, giving America a commanding lead in the renewable energy field, providing us, once again, with a a product to sell to the world, reversing our negative balance of trade.

Democrats should never be ashamed to be America. Democrats should never shrink from defending her. At the same time, Democrats know that "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" and that a foreign policy that, while always serving to advance American interests, does so with fairness and a a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.

Why are you a Democrat? (Optional):

I am a Democrat because I believe in a strong America. I believe that this nation should offer both political and economic freedom to all. I believe that the Democratic Party's record on the economy for the last 80 years speaks for itself. Economics, practiced with a Keynesian bent, has created a wide-spread prosperity in all segments of this society. Supply-Side economics has concentrated wealth in top 1% of our society, during the years (from Reagan on) that supply-side economics have been in the drivers seat, we've seen this nation become a debtor to the world. We have seen our manufacturing jobs move overseas. We've seen government have to ride to the rescue of the Savings and Loan Industry and now the Financial Sector...all because we've removed the regulations in place that keep one company from growing so big that it crowds out the others, growing so big that it becomes "too big to fail".

I am a Democrat because I believe that,in the long run, the Democratic party has a better history of taking care of the nation as a whole (rather than of it's leading citizens). I believe the Democratic party, for all it's faults, and they are many, is a better steward of the economy and of our political freedom.

There are times when, as a Democrat, I become discouraged. There are times I become discouraged because the left wing of our party has seized control, forgetting that, while we believe in an active government with a strong role to play, we are NOT a socialist party. While we believe in a fair and level playing field, we are not a "leveling" party...we do not seek to enforce equality of outcome.

At the present time, I am discouraged for other reasons.

President Obama is a pragmatic centrist. He understands the need to use government to stabilize the economy and has done a fair job ending the free fall. The American Recovery and Reinvestment act has represented a strong investment, not only in jobs, but also in building for the future. Back in the day, people called the CCC "make work" - but today, as we enjoy our parks, roads, etc. we realize what a debit we owe to the men who worked in the program and the government who, not only saved them from starvation, but bequeathed a legacy to us. I strongly believe that some 20, 30 years hence, we will look back at the ARRA and realize that we made some good moves.

Obama's appointment of Geithner and the moves to bail out Wall Street are probably necessary, even though they leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Less excusable are Obama's constant early efforts to meet the Republicans more than half way. Screw Them....the new Radical Republican party of Bush, Gingrich, Limbaugh, Fox, Beck and Boehner have never shown the slightest consideration for us. Those of that ilk have never shown the slightest indication to wish to reason together, or compromise...they are radical fundamentalists. Their motto is "join us or die"....our motto in regard to the radicals should be: Cathago delenda est. To any others who wish to talk, then yes, we'll hold out the hand of friendship...but those kinds of Republicans are damn few and far between theses days (and the few that remain are being driven from their party by the Christine O'Donnells and Sarah Palins of the nation.)

Because of the President's need to play nice, there are those who have argued that the stimulus package was too SMALL- big enough to make Americans nervous about the debt, not big enough to create movement in the economy fast enough.

On the Gulf Oil Spill, the President was, quite frankly, on the wrong side...even before it happened. As a nation, to remain strong, we MUST break the addiction to fossil fuels. And yet the President was advocating offshore drilling off the most populated areas of our coastline.

A mere month later, the BP spill proved the folly of that approach in a major way. President Obama did reverse his drilling policy, but he remained silent on the spill for over a month, while the Gulf coast suffered.

From the stand point of policy, President Obama (far from being too far to the left, as his Tea Party critics paint him) has been, if anything, too much on the side of the establishment and big business. For the most part, I can live with this...especially since he heads a party who can tend to drift too far to the left if not properly skippered.

But in terms of shear political performance, the ability to sell your policies and vision to the people, President Obama has just not done a good job of staying out in front. His minions have even been bitter, when we, the foot solders of the party have criticized their approaches, they tell us to "quit whining"about their political ineptittude...and yet they still send me emails...up to three a day...asking me to give money to the DNC.

Well, sorry guys...but no. No little (but big to me) check for you this year. I will work with my local party to reelect my Congressman, Tim Walz. I'll work with my local Democratic party to make sure that we return our local legislators to the State's House and Senate....but as for you in Washington...no...no cash for you...not until you get your act together.

Who knows, an enemy Congress actually helped spur Bill Clinton on to great things (Welfare Reform, a Balanced Budget)...maybe having a bunch of nuts in the House will help put some hair on Obama's chest. He has great potential, but so far, he hasn't lived up to it.

HItting the Nail on the Head: How Liberals Have helped Right wingers

I have to admit, I'm not always a huge fan of Micheal Moore...from what I've seen, he tend to use cheap film making tricks to illicit emotion. Cold hard facts, a la PBS' Frontline, bring you to the same conclusions, but give you more of a leg to stand on.

Maybe it's because last night, I had to listen to a cousin, whom I'm very fond of, imply that ALL six hundred and fifty thousand of the people who've been put to work by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act this year are all welfare cheats and/or drug addicts....

In the face of such blind suspicion and anger, it's worth remembering what liberals have actually done, and this piece, posted on the website of lefty propagandist Micheal Moore actually does a pretty good job of that..

Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican

by John Gray

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.

Read the Rest...

Anarchy is Not the Same as Freedom

Some news from Vermont travels slowly to the United Kingdom, and it is only now- thanks to a LONG overdue trip to Green Mountain Daily- that I've read about the assault on Governor Jim Douglas at this year's 4th of July Parade in Barrie.

I've gone from having a lot of respect for Jim Douglas to disagreeing with most of his political agenda for the state of Vermont. I will be glad when the Democratic Party comes up with a viable candidate who can show the skill and savvy to retake the Governor's chair.

But this incident is, frankly, deplorable. It is, plain and simple, an assault.

More than that, it is a threat to one of the most precious things in our state: Vermont Democracy.

I've always been amazed at how accessible our Vermont public leaders are. If you want to talk to a U.S. Senator, Congressman, or a Governor on the street- it's pretty simple...you just walk up and say hello.

That's how Democracy SHOULD BE and Vermont seems to do it better than anywhere else. The only status a public servant has, or should have, is that they are Primus inter pares- First Among Equals- by virtue of the respect shown to them by those who choose them.

Failing to show respect for the office and the one who holds it is also a failure to show respect to the people who elected him.

In theory, even the President of the United States is nothing more than Primus inter pares- but security issues have long since removed his (or her) person from the comings and goings of day to day life.

So to, in the larger states...that kind of isolation (I suspect) breeds arrogance in the minds of leaders, and tends to generate a sense of overawe on the part of the public...this, of course, is NOT Democracy at work at all.

The sad part is that, in the United States as a whole, we have shown that we MUST accept some degree of separation between office holder and public...Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz,and Oswald gave us that bitter gift.

Think how different a Bush Presidency might have been (or even ask the question, would there ever HAVE been a Bush Presidency?) if the office had not become so shrouded by the needs of security.

In Vermont, however, we are fortunate enough to have avoided this paradigm, so far.
But, in choosing to express, physically, that which could far better be expressed verbally- Matthew Manning, the Pie Thrower, has put our democracy at risk.

While there are some who seem to see him as a champion of freedom, I can't help but see him as a foe to democracy- some who wants to live in a world where you fight by throwing things rather than throwing words and ideas...

Democracy only works when we act like adults...a world in which things are thrown rather than ideas rapidly becomes a world in which everything is reduced, not to a question of right or wrong, but to a question of strong, or weak...

That is not Democracy, it is not even civilization- it is brutal, bloody jungle law- in which the only freedom enjoyed by those of us with average strength is the freedom to try and hide from predators. Not the world I would choose.


One Final Note:

Last but not least, it was politically stupid. Who winds up looking credible here: the Santa Claus clad Pie-Throwing maniac, pursued and thrown to the ground - or the Governor, who "calmly wiped the pie from his face" and kept marching in the parade...whom do you think most Vermonters cheered most?

All this action showed was that, no matter what you may think of his policies, Jim Douglas is, as a person, a class act- and that is part of the reason he keeps winning elections.

Climate Change and National Security

The debate about Global Warming has often been presented as a fight between hard-headed, profit seeking business types and fuzzy minded bunny hugging hippies.

It is time however, that America woke up and started confronting some of the REAL issues which may arise from a massive change in our climate. These go far beyond the loss of habit for small furry creatures...and may include famine, flooding, terrorism and war.

The US intelligence community has released a secret report to Congress, The National Security Implications of Global Climate Changes to 2030, which outlines to the nation's law makers the potential for global instability arising from massive migrations, failure in food supply, and opportunities for extremists to exploit political failures and up the tension levels.

As NPR's Tom Gelton puts the case: "With this report, the National Intelligence Council, coordinating the analysis of all US intelligence agencies, puts climate change in the same category as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and radical Islam: it's officially a security threat."

Listen to the story at National Public Radio. (Where you are there, check out their story about off-shore drilling as well, another story Rip and Read has been squawking about.)

Put That Fire Out: Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright

I love my grandmother's politics. She is one of the last of a vanishing breed- a White Southern Evangelical Christian who, nevertheless, has stayed passionately true to her New Deal roots and the Democratic party. This, despite having watched her family and her friends become seduced by the empty promises of Reagan, and conned by the false promises of Bush for an easy victory in a war we didn't need to fight.

So, when she told me that she was probably not going to bother vote for President this year...I was alarmed. This, I thought, is not good. Why not, I asked?

And it was then that I heard for the first time about the Barack Obama/Jeremiah Wright controversy.

"It's been all over the news, " she said, "his preacher's been on the news shouting out: 'We don't say God Bless America- We say GOD DAMN AMERICA!'

"Now," my grandmother went on, "Obama says he didn't hear this, he didn't know, and he wasn't there when that preacher said that. But Alex? How can a man be your pastor for twenty years, and you not know what he thinks? How can you be friends with the man, the man preforms your wedding, baptizes your children, and you don't know what he thinks? It's just not possible."

"I can't vote for somebody like that, I can't vote for somebody who hates this country," my grandmother said. "And I can't much stand Hillary either. So I think I'm just going to stay home this year."

Our talk drifted to other subjects, but this stayed with me. Here in secular Europe, it was easy for me to miss the story...but I'm sure that CNN and FOX are having a field day with it at home.

And, before I had a chance to start catching up, I found myself wondering- could I vote for Barack Obama after this? If this were true, that Barack Obama's paster of twenty years could think this way, what inferences would I be justified in drawing about the candidate himself?

The subject of patriotism has always been tricky for those of us who stand anywhere from the center to the left.

On the one hand we feel contempt for the shallow, meaningless displays of patriotism adopted by right-wing charlatans: the cheap "made in China" American Flag lapel pin sported by Bush leaps to mind.

Even more, we truly despise the kind of "patriotism" that is used to cover up, excuse, or rationalize the acts of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. These are not the acts of patriots, but of thugs, killers, and villains.

But on the other hand, many of us are still proud of the history of the United States. We know that our country has held out the hope that all of mankind is created equal, and that people have a right to a free and open Government. We look back with pride on our nation's struggles to rid itself of the evils of slavery, we know that we have been constantly redefining and enlarging the definition of what it means to be a participating citizen of our Republic. We can look back with honor at our fight, alongside our gallant allies, against fascism. We can marvel at our ability to overcome those voices who clamored for "America First" and "Isolationism" to engage with the world and to push back, over the course of several decades, the long shadow of the iron curtain- and to do so in a way that did NOT bring about global conflagration.

I'm proud of all of that. I'm proud to be a citizen of a nation that has produced Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Martin Luther King Junior.

Our country has engaged in great wrongs, both past and present, but our nation has also consistently worked to redress those same wrongs...and I have no doubt that, if we continue to cherish what we have been at our best, we will continue to find ways to atone for what we have done at our worst.

If we give up on that ideal, however, then we will have nothing left to fight for- there will be no standards to which we can hold ourselves and our leaders accountable.

Reverend Wright seems to have given up on that ideal. He seems to be one of those on the left who seeks to blame America for every evil, both foreign and domestic. While I can share the anger of the Reverend at many of the evils that he points out, I cannot share in his condemnation of the country.

America was, after all, the first nation on the earth to consciously set itself against such evils- evils which have been perpetrated by every society on earth. It is no wonder that we have not been completely successful, this country, is, in many ways, a miracle simply in the fact that it has held together- the fact that it has won so much justice for it's citizens, in spite of history's trends, is all but beyond belief.

Those are my feelings and they run very deep.

But what of Obama? Does he share the opinions of his pastor? If not, then how could he remain in this man's church and not be culpable?

I don't have an answer, and I must admit, my support for Obama is not as strong today as it was before I heard the Reverend Wright's comments.

But, if there is one thing I know, it is "NEVER TRUST A SOUND BITE". The ethics of today's partisan and sensation seeking media will never allow it to give up a good controversy in search of a more complicated and nuanced truth.

So, it pays to dig a little deeper. Fortunately, the tools are at hand...a quick trip to You-Tube showed me another side of Pastor Wright. Here is a man who is shepherd to a flock which is sorely pressed by the world. The African American community suffers from economic destitution, from violence, from drugs, from disease, and yes, from prejudice...anyone who would deny that is just plain foolish (or worse).

Any leader of the African-American community is going to have to work hard to create an feeling of esprit de corps within that community. Because their problems are largely separate, their solutions and their rhetoric will have to be largely separate, too. Wright is preaching to his people that they are going to have to work hard, stay healthy, and stick together... I can at least follow him that far, and have no problem that Obama would follow as well.

I find it ironic to watch the clip of Sean Hannity castigating Jeremiah Wright on FOX: "This is on the website today....commitment to the black community, commitment to the black family, commitment to the black work ethic..." Here, by repeating the world black, Hannity is hinting that it is racist for Wright to be exhorting the black community to make these values their own.

Yet, the very next time someone brings up the poverty and destitution of the black community- exposed by Hurricane Katrina, for example- you'll hear the same old conservative song about how a community needs family values, thrift, and industry if they are to thrive. (Thereby implying that, since the African American community doesn't seem to possess these values, the rest of America has no obligation to help.) So, I give up, Mister Conservative, IS Wright supposed to help instill these virtues in his people or not?

Going back to You-Tube, we see another picture of Paster Wright. This time, he is telling his congregation about a free AIDS testing clinic at the Church. He is warning them of the dangers posed to the black community by AIDS, and he is showing, by example, how easy it is to be tested.

This doesn't look much like Church in my neighborhood, I have to admit, but I can respect it all the same. This is an involved and passionate Christianity, with a leader who is truly caring for his flock and leading by example. I can easily see how a political leader like Obama who wants to make things better in this country might take great inspiration from moments like this...




This video is long, four minutes and thirty seven seconds...exactly four minutes and seven seconds too long for a controversial sound bite.

Does it absolve Wright for his Anti-American comments? No. Does it go a long way to explaining why some, like Obama, might continue to attend his church despite disagreeing with what the Reverend says about our nation? Perhaps.

I've been so far unable to hear or read the context of the "God Damn America" sermon- but it can be noted that, if we go beyond the "God Damn" sound bite, we can hear that Wright is in some measure "damning" America for using the same violent tactics as Al Qaedia...he might be, in fact, urging his flock to do the Christian thing and turn the other cheek.

Still, this is a sentiment that could have been expressed in HUNDREDS of different ways...all of them would have been better...

...as one commenter on MyDD wrote: "Once you hear Reverend Wright, it makes it much more understandable as to why Michelle Obama has never been proud of this nation..."

I am still just as outraged at Wright's anti-American rhetoric as I was when I first heard it. I am still, like my grandmother, confused and angry about this. I'm sure that is true for many American voters.

Unlike my grandmother, however, I have yet to make the decision to stay home in November.

Senator Barack Obama is on probation with me...I am not going to dismiss him out of hand, he strikes me as worthy of more than that. But I will be very interested to listen to him for the duration of the primary fight and the campaign. I will not vote for a man (or woman) who does not share my vision of America, and who does not support my hopes for America.

I do not see the United States in the starkly negative terms of Reverend Wright. I do not see her as a rotten power structure that must be kicked over, attacked, and Damned. We have made mistakes, we need to recover from those mistakes. We have made promises...GOOD PROMISES both to our own people and to the world. We need to keep those promises.

As a nation, we are on a journey, and we are family...all of us, black, red, yellow, and white...anyone who doesn't share that vision of America, for whatever reason, cannot win my vote.

I had, and still have, high hopes for Barack Obama...but he MUST put this fire out.

Postscript

After finishing this, I wrote to a couple of Obama supporters I know. Neil of What's the Point? sent me back a link to an interesting article in the Washington Post.

It's definitely worth the read, and reminds us of the divides that separate us as Americans. It is here.
Here's a quote from the article:

"Things that might mean one thing in the church take on a new meaning when you don't see the full sermon, or understand the full context," said Dwight Howard, a theologian and a longtime Trinity member.

Said Cone: "There are moments for [Wright] when the anger, when the rage about what's happened to poor black people in the ghetto is so tough, so deeply painful, that he says things most whites would find off the charts and unpatriotic. But you don't preach in sound bites."

another quote that stood out:

If he were racist, Wright's friends ask, why would he arrange bus trips for predominantly white congregations to visit Trinity each Sunday? If he were racist, why would he have steadfastly maintained Trinity's relationship with the United Church of Christ, a denomination with only a handful of black churches?

"He's been a wonderful friend to white pastors, and he's gifted the organization financially," said UCC President John H. Thomas. "That charge is false."

So, as usual, the truth would appear to be, both from what I'm reading and what I'm seeing for myself on the You-Tube footage, more nuanced than the Headline Sound Bites make it out to be. Learning more is helping me settle down again.

But, of course, that's what scares me. The American people as a whole CAN learn- but we do NOT learn fast. If you doubt we can learn, look at Bush's approval ratings and attitudes toward Iraq. But it took us at least two years too long to absorb the truth that Saddam, while evil, had nothing to do with 9/11, that there were no WMDs, and that victory would be neither quick nor painless- and that Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech only marked the end of the beginning rather than the beginning of the end.

I fear that, while Obama will probably regain traction as more people hear more of the story, this may be another issue on which our learning curve is just too long.

At present, I'm waiting to see Obama's speech. I've heard, both from friends here in England, and email correspondents at home, that it is good. I'm hoping that it will be effective.

Terror in the UK: More Alarming News

A few days ago, the story broke in the British Press that radical Islamic tracts were being sold in 25% of the nation's mosques, including some categorized by HM Government as "mainstream". The literature called for the oppression of women, the killing of apostates and jihad against all unbelievers.

When we stop to consider that these are being directed, not toward the inhabitants of some far away land, but to the children of British Citizens right here in the islands, we might be pardoned for being more alarmed than we might have been if these tracts were found in, say, Pakistan.

Today, more bad news. According to the Times, John Evans, director of MI5, announced that:

“Terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country.

“They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism.”

In an address to the Society of Editors in Manchester, he said: “This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity.”

According to Evans, there is a "steady stream" of young BRITISH recruits to Al Qaida's efforts to bring violence and death to the West.

These reports indicate two important facts:

• 1) That there IS a "war on terror" to be fought. (Those on the fringes of the politically correct left will doubt this, but they do so at their peril.)


• 2) That the war on Terror, as it is currently being fought, is not a success.

If George W. Bush had gone after Bin Ladin and choked him in his lair when he had the chance, these young terrorists would have no rallying point around which to gather, and no force to exploit, and to coordinate their hatred and anger.

But of course, that is what begs the major question. WHAT is BREEDING this hate and anger in the first place. How is it that here, in the heart of the Western World, young people are being being bred who want to use flames and blood to bring us back to the 9th Century?

Make no mistake, there is a war going on...a struggle between the values of the Western Enlightenment and the forces of religious fundamentalism, prejudice, superstition and darkness.

We see these forces at work in the United States as we watch our Democracy fall prey to the machinations of the evangelical right wing.

We see these forces at work abroad in the world most obviously in the rising tide of Islamic Fundamentalism.

How then, is Western Civilization to triumph? By what combination of reason, justice (to ALL of our people- including the fundamentalists amongst us) and, yes, on occasion, shear force, are we to ensure that the world continues to move forward, and not fall back into the dark ages.

Is the Melting Pot Broken?

The cultural melting pot is, of course, an American idea...but it is not without relevance to the British situation. As I've pointed out, one of the most striking things about London, to me, is the the Amazing multi-cultural patchwork that makes up this city- so much so that it seems that the one language not heard very often is English.

That is why the headlines in this morning's Times were so unsettling:

Lessons in hate found at leading mosques

Books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain indoors and forbidding interfaith marriage are being sold inside some of Britain’s leading mosques, according to research seen by The Times...
Extremist literature, including passages supporting the stoning of adulterers and waging violent jihad, was also found on sale at many other mosques regarded as mainstream institutions.

One of the researchers pointed out that while most books didn't make explicit calls for violence, they served to foster "a climate of intolerance and contempt for nonMuslims that could be exploited by violent jihadists".

In a country which has suffered at the hands of British-Born jihadists, most notably in the London Tube Bombings of July 7, 2005 in which 52 innocent people were slaughtered while commuting across the city, this is a serious issue.

The fact that such killers have been bred here in the very heart of Western Civilization, and the evidence that this is not some subterranean phenomenon but rather something much closer to the mainstream of the culture, is something which must be discussed, diagnosed and reversed- this is important, not only to the United Kingdom, but also to us at home.

My worry is that, because of the demands of political correctness on the left and the vested interests of the Oil aristocracy on the right (not to mention a basic level of sheer incompetence on the part of the current American administration) this issue will remain unexamined and undiscussed except by those least qualified to do so.

Signs of Peace on the Market Place

For many years to come, September 12th will be a day dedicated to reviewing what happened the day before. It will be strewn with artifacts from September 11th far into the foreseeable future.

Today, the Church Street Market Place is strewn with leftovers from yesterday's demonstrations marking 9-11.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, given the political climate in Burlington, the most prominent leftovers are peace signs, hurriedly scribbled on the brick street.

While I don't disagree with the underlying symbolism, I was very sad to see that people found it necessary to deface public property in order to make their point about George W. Bush's war.

I was sitting near the top of Church Street this morning, drinking my coffee, and I watched a Marketplace employee pull up his cleaning cart, pour some water over one of the poorly executed peace symbols and scrub hard with a bristle brush for a few moments. It quickly became clear that this piece of graffiti would not wipe away easily.

As he was driving away, presumably to collect a heavier arsenal of cleaning products, I asked him what he was going to have to do to remove the peace sign. "Well, probably, I'm going to have to use acid," he said. "The chalk ain't so bad, but when they use crayons or paints, it just soaks right into these old bricks."

Acid! I thought. And then I imagined the barefoot toddlers who would be running in and out of the fountain and across those acid covered bricks once the sun had climbed higher in the sky.

And how long, I asked, will it take to clean these up? "Oh, let's see, I've been at it since around seven this morning...it's almost 10 now, and I still haven't got too far...so, well, at least longer than three hours."

I suppose someone could look at these peace signs and think: "Cool. No matter how hard THE MAN scrubs, the truth won't rub out."

But I can't see it that way. All I could think of was the money we as a city were paying for this labor...we could have put it toward a band, or housing subsidies, or urban renovation.

But why not let the message stand? Of course the answer to that seems easy to me- but I'll be obvious...if you have the right to scribble peace signs, what would prevent someone else from scribbling swastikas?

"With great power comes great responsibility." Sure, it's a line from a Spiderman movie, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Being right is pretty powerful stuff...but with that, of course, comes responsibility. Attempting to spread a message of truth by putting graffiti on public property doesn't add to that power...it only detracts.

To put it another way...Adults take a stand and do something...very little children write on walls.

Nature: Red in Tooth and Claw

When I'm bored, under worked, or as is the case today too overtired to work no matter how much stuff I have to do, I'm inclined to Google random images just to look at the pictures.

Today, I Googled "Jaws Movie" and came up with the image at right.

The article, in the Daily Mail, was about a BBC crew filming in South Africa.

But it was the comment string that made me think that I had stumbled on something worthy of a blog post.


A sampling:

I love wildlife but cant watch this programme its so bloodthirsty and sad. Why do they concentrate on the unpleasant aspects of nature?- Jm, surrey

Awsome, poor old seal, but hey thats nature. Swam with 11ft nurse sharks in Jamaica a few weeks ago, really swam, no cage, just snorkel and flippers. Would love to go to South Africa and go down in a cage with great whites.

- Sharon, Chelmsford

Well I for one have got fed up with wildlife programmes, however long it takes to film them. They always end up with something eating something else.

- Jennifer, Interlaken Switzerland

Quite what some people think animals should do for survival is beyond me! Perhaps the shark should have known better and picked up the phone to order a vegetarian take-away...?

- Cara, Surrey

People who are offended by nature have to understand that this is how the animal world is. Something is ALWAYS eating something else, and the animal world is an unpleasant place. Period. The law of the jungle dictates that everything gets eaten at some point.

- Steve, USA

Have we really lost touch of what life is? I mean seriously folks, like a previous post stated... it's nature. Raw and uncut. Oh, has the animal world rubbed your political correct world and sensibility the wrong way... poor sheeple. Why you get upset at what is an obviously natural thing is beyond me. Wildlife programs need to focus on human beings, show some of the dramatic victim/predator situations there, but no - some people can't even stand real animals, let alone there own kind.

Hah! Travel a little more and you'll see real life in all it's raw and uncut horrible beauty.

- ~Z~, Stow, USA

Wow... we have gotten so far away from Nature, and what it is. When I read some of the comments above, I finally am able to understand the rise of the radical right. A dynamic you can almost see playing itself out in this little coment string.

It underscores that those of us who are on the center and the left need to learn to keep a close grasp on reality at all times.

Impeachment is Back

Impeachment is Back…

I don’t have a lot of time to dwell on this, but I didn’t want the sun to go down tonight without mentioning that the impeachment issue is back on the table.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have Bush found guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors and removed from Office. I’ve posted about this before. I've also posted about events that I believe will lead us down that happy road.

It’s just that I don’t trust the VERMONT IMPEACHMENT CROWD to get it right.

Passions run so high among the Vermont Netroots, and pragmatism (common sense) is so absent that I fully expect that part of the netroots howling for “impeachment” will shoot itself, and the rest of the center-left coalition, right in the foot.

Sam Hemmingway of the Burlington Free Press posted a piece on the Freeps Blog yesterday about the impeachment movement, detailing the efforts the pro-impeachment wing of the Netroots to cast this all as some huge conspiracy to….to what? Who knows, it’s all a conspiracy, I guess. Everything is, ever since the grassy knoll and Roswell and…and….and the LINCOLN conspiracy, I guess.

Here’s the excerpt from Hemingway’s piece:

[following attempts to set up a meeting between Welch and the Impeachment Posse] impeachment leader James Leas wrote in a widely distributed e-mail Tuesday that … the group had caught Welch in a conspiracy to stick it to the impeachers. And only the righteous efforts of people like Leas kept Welch from getting away with it.

Good God. Peter Welch and Grover Norquist…in bed together...absolutely-- WHY DIDN'T I SEE IT BEFORE? It is so obvious that they MUST be on the same team. Damn it, next time, let's vote for Rainville. (This is heavy sarcasm, just in case you missed it.)

Who IS on the side of these righteous people? Nobody, of course…the entire center-left marching band is out of step but them. They are like the left-wing equivalent of Pentecostal snake handlers and you know what….they are going to make sure that the Democrats are eating their own before this is all said and done.

And Bush will steal another victory, one more time…. After all, I came across this article from 1998. It seems that Bill Clinton’s poll numbers actually ROSE after Republican’s voted to impeach him.

I kind of wish the impeachment crowd would ponder the implications of that fact…but somehow, I doubt they will.

Demonstrating Against Vermont's Congressional Delegation: Noise for the Sake of Making Noise?

Last week, a group of protesters staged a sit-in of Peter Welch’s office to protest his lack of willingness to end the Iraq war right this minute.

Yesterday a group of protesters did the same at Bernie Sanders’ office.

The demonstrators, irate that Sanders wasn't present and didn't join the telephone call, said they didn't understand why a war opponent would vote for funding. "The funding has got to stop," said Bunny Daubner, 75, of Bristol. "How can you say you're against a war and still give money to it?"

I understand the frustration; I share it, but good grief, what a USELESS way to focus one’s energy.

“I believe it would be counterproductive to take the position that some are advocating, namely to vote against anything that doesn't include an immediate or nearly immediate withdrawal from Iraq," Sanders said. "That would mean voting with the Bush administration and congressional Republicans and handing a victory to those who want to continue and perhaps expand the war into neighboring countries."-Burlington Free Press

Despite the ages of the protesters, it strikes me as immature grandstanding; I can’t help but think that they are secretly more than a little gratified to have gotten their names in the paper.

In fact, it’s worse than useless…

For one thing, in case these protesters have forgotten: many of us still have friends and relatives in Iraq. George W. Bush has made it quite clear that he is going to keep them there, and he has made it quite clear that he’s not all that concerned that they have the protection they need (body armor, for example) to be as safe as possible.

Would these protesters be willing to sacrifice the life of a young American Solider just to score a political point against Bush?

Also, by focusing their anger on strong potential allies like Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders, the protesters actually help to turn in the energy of the center-left coalition in on itself.

As George W. Bush has proved time and time again, he doesn’t NEED to maintain a majority to retain his hold on power; he simply needs to KEEP the majority divided against itself.

I am proud of the way Vermont’s Congressional Delegation is working to do the long, difficult and painstaking work necessary to knit the majority back together in order to accomplish the goals supposedly cherished by these protesters.

Between the growing scandals at Department of Justice, the recent revelations about Political Abuses at the GSA, and the growing dissatisfaction with the War held by the American public, this work is actually going faster than I would have dared to hope.

Given that, I think it is ironic that some have chosen to thank our delegation by trying to paint them as the enemy.

A Message to Vermont Kossacks:Stop Peeing in the Grill, This Going to be A Great Party!

Because of household repairs, my computer has been offline for about a week. This means I haven’t been blogging. But I have been reading the news, and I am having a great time.

Still, that’s not true of everyone. Certainly, Bush hasn’t been having a great time. But it seems like there is faction over at the very lefty Green Mountain Daily who are not having as much fun as they should be, either.

So I have a message for them: CHEER UP! …and stop peeing in the bar-B-Que pit! This is shaping up to be a great party that’s going to go on until 2008, and then we are REALLY going open up the “whup ass” and have some fun!

[Just in case you missed it, Vermont Daily Briefing has a great post about the clean new wind scouring the land.]


The firing of the U.S. Attorney generals is NOT going to lead directly to an impeachment. The president can hire and fire U.S. Attorney’s at will, for good reason, or bad reason, or no reason at all. They serve at his pleasure. There is an excellent article on the subject by ADAM LIPTAK in the New York Times, March 18th.

However, MOST Presidents don’t fire U.S Attorney’s just for political reasons. It makes them look like they are, to quote (ha!) Bush himself: “On a Partisan Witch Hunt”.

It’s a lot of fun to see Patrick Leahy out in front like (as one commenter on GMD put it) “a junk yard dog”.

And it’s going to make Bush appear even more the twisted, tiny, ineffectual little man than he does already.

Much more of this and the American people will finally say: F#%k you! Both to the President and to the Party he rode in on.

Everything that Democrats have been saying is finally being proven true and the Republican bastards are starting to feel the heat.

So, why is it that when you go to an ultra lefty site like Green Mountain Daily, the mood is often SOOO dark that you feel like George W. Bush just go elected to a third term?

Consider this comment from JDRyan- somebody I have a lot of respect for- attached to an essay begging for “impeachment” (again!):

Is it just me
or are some of you baffled at how our delegation is hardly paying attention to this? I'm particularly shocked about Bernie.. considering his anti-Bush rhetoric is par for the course, you'd figure at least he'd be on board

Seriously: Leahy, Bernie and others have finally got the Bushies on the ropes, and are making them look like crooks and morons every day and night on the evening news. Yet, the Daily Kos “Kossac” crowd is all but accusing our congressional delegation of participating in some deep dark conspiracy to keep the Impeachment talk out of the State House.

Maybe they are correct. Maybe this is a Conspiracy of Power. But maybe, just maybe, these seasoned old political infighters have just a bit more experience than we are giving them credit for.

Maybe tricky old foxes like Leahy and Sanders know what’s possible, and what’s not possible, and how to use reality to their credit to bring the Bush Blitzkrieg to a stop.

I’d love to see Bush be humiliated and removed from office, but much more importantly, I’d love to see the damage he has done be reversed.

Frankly, I’d say that Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders and most of the rest of the Democrats are off to a damn fine start.