Transition / Transformation (odds & ends)

I've been absent from this space since the end of September.  In the interim, the election has finally finished.  The lesser of two evils has prevailed.  There is a sense of cautious hope in the land.  We have a president-elect who talks about the "good war" in Afghanistan and throws around the Republican-created term "War on Terror" with alarming ease, but on the plus side seems to be living in the real world, believes in the Constitution, values competence over political loyalty and appears to make policy based on practical reality -- characteristics sadly missing for at least the last 8 years. 

My excuse for my silence here is "Technical Difficulties."  I've been back in Spain since Oct 2, and my internet connection didn't get connected until a few days ago. 

But the truth is that I haven't written anything here because I didn't know what to say.  I wanted to write something about Barack Obama during the lead-up to the national election, but the more I watched Team Obama in operation, the weaker my enthusiasm for his candidacy became -- to the point where when I finally cast my vote on September 29th, I found myself voting almost exclusively for Not-McCain-Palin, with the name of the Democratic candidate largely incidental to my decision.

I'm back here in Spain for another few weeks, then it's back to Champaign for the holidays with family and friends.  Before I return, I wanted to jot down some quick observations about the Spanish take on America in these interesting times.  I may even flesh some of them out over the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, here they are, in no particular order.

• Europeans are totally baffled by the American electoral process.  Actually, it might be more accurate to say that Europeans are baffled by America.  Period.  But the Bush fiasco has drawn more international attention to the 2008 elections than any American political campaign in memory, and has left observers scratching their heads.  From the length of time involved in the primary contests to the incredible sums of money involved to the fact that the person who gets the most votes isn't necessarily the winner, foreign observers have been watching and wondering if this isn't a hell of a way to run a democracy.
• Among those who have actually been paying attention to the candidates and positions, there is incredulity that the results weren't more like 90/10 or  85/15.  They viewed McCain as a threat to the future of the world and were totally befuddled by the selection of Sarah Palin.
  
• The European press seems to be paying more attention to the American auto industry than to any other aspect of the financial meltdown.  Perhaps this has something to do with GM and Ford both being major players in the European auto market?

There are others, but those are the main points.  Stay tuned for more on these and other odds and ends I've picked up in Spain during the 2008 American elections.

Required Viewing

If you watch no other clip before the election, watch this one:

John McCain's ads are LIES. Here's the video proof.

Do They Really Want To Go There?

Before calling it a day, I just had to post this:

In an absolutely brilliant post at Open Left, Paul Rosenberg (mentioned in the previous post) offers a devastating comparison of the presidential qualifications of governors as opposed to community organizers!

Click on the title of this post or click here to go see it. I guarantee you'll love it.

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself

I've been thinking a lot recently about the roll fear plays in American life and culture. I've been wanting to write about it, but haven't had quite the right angle I wanted until I came across two posts from two of my favorite bloggers that got me going on it:

The first was by Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings. (Click on her name to see the whole article.) In a posting titled "Oh Please" she quoted the great genius Senator James Inhofe as saying

"Regardless of what polls show, Inhofe said, voters will have to ask themselves a question once they get behind the curtain in the voting booth on Election Day.

"Do you really want to have a guy as commander in chief of this country when you can question whether or not he really loves his country?" he asked.

"That's the big question." (...)

She closes with this: "You'd think the voters of Oklahoma might get tired of having their Senator insult their intelligence. I hope so."

The problem is that it's the voters of Oklahoma (and it's not just OK, either) who insult their own intelligence by electing people like this time after time. And, personally, I don't think intelligence has that much to do with it.

After thinking about it for a bit, this is more or less what I wrote in the comments section of her post:
As it happens, I used to own some (worthless, inherited) farm land in northwest Oklahoma, and I know lots of wonderful, otherwise intelligent people out there who think very much like Inhofe when it comes to politics.

The thing that they have in common, and Inhofe articulates so stupefyingly, is an extreme form of xenophobia - in effing spades!

Fear of the unfamiliar. Fear of anything different from us and the way things have always been. Fear of the new and untried.

When you're hanging on by a thread - and huge numbers of rural Oklahomans have been just barely doing that for all their lives - any kind of change is terrifying. You've just barely got a handle on the life you know; you're acutely aware every day that with one slip you're down the tubes. If anything happens to change that life, you might not know how to deal with it, and zoop! there you go.

It doesn't matter that the change promises to do away with your very need for the thread with things like a functional economy - one that includes you, even - and a social security (small esses) system that will provide for your needs while you're gearing up to participate in that economy. All you know is your thread and holding on to it. What happens if you can't master the new ways? Or, more likely, what happens if the new way turns out to be an illusion, only now they've taken away your thread?

Oklahoma isn't the only place where decades centuries of economic uncertainty have left folks feeling this way - just perhaps the most prominent in our minds, thanks to the big, articulate mouth of their most prominent Senator.

West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the central and southern parts of my own state, Illinois, the rural South, and anywhere else where life has always been marginally viable have always been full of folks just hanging on by a thread. That's why they're full of nutcase religionists and send people like Inhofe to be their voices to speak to the great big outside world.

The second article, and the one that clarified my thoughts and got me moving to post something of my own on the matter, was by the brilliant, articulate Chris Bowers at Open Left, a web site that if it isn't already, ought to be daily reading for any progressive who still thinks there might be a chance to heal and take back America.

In an article titled How Far Should Obama Be Ahead? Chris ponders the causes for the statistical variances between the polls that ask how many Americans favor what are basically Obama's policy positions (~70%, based on their anti-Bush polling numbers, or ~53% based on the 2006 elections) and how many people plan to vote for Obama over McCain (~48% Obama vs ~43% for McCain).

Again, after some consideration I posted my thoughts, and because I'm a lazy bastard, all I've done is cut and paste them here (with a tiny bit of editing, 'cause who can't be more clear after having had time to think a bit more?) Here's what I said:

The limits of statistics
Chris: You and Paul [Rosenberg] are two of the most gifted statistical analysts the left has, and I can't say often enough how grateful (despite some of the shit I've occasionally given Paul) I am for your work for the progressive cause, but there are limits to how far statistical thinking can take us.

Sadly, rationality plays too small a part in deciding national elections. For as long as I can remember (and I'm in my 60s) elections, and especially presidential elections, have been determined by emotional, rather than rational responses to the candidates.

You can take all the polls you want that say that umpty percent of Americans agree with Obama on the issues, but you absolutely can't extrapolate that percentage into votes for the guy.

When a pollster asks "Who are you going to vote for?", what (s)he's really asking is who do you feel the most comfortable voting for? Who do you "like" the best? And in America, that can be distilled down further to "Which candidate scares you the least?"

Despite which fiscal/social/security policy they favor, for a good one-half of this nation, when it comes to politics their controlling emotion is fear - fear in the form of xenophobia: fear of the unfamiliar, the different, the new, the untried - fear of anybody or any thing not like us - not like the way it's always been.

That is the simple, obvious, and irrefutable explanation for the differences between the policy and election polls. Fear makes otherwise intelligent people vote against their own stated objectives time and time again.

FDR could have been talking about current times for the Democratic party and the progressive movement when he observed that "the only thing we have to fear is fear, itself." And until we recognize the fear in the electorate, and find "healing" ways of addressing it, we're going to be doomed to more and more years of GWB-type government, no matter what the polls say about universal health care or the economy or anything else, because the Republicans understand that fear.

The Republicans have absolutely no interest in healing the fear. They've mastered the art of irritating it and keeping it raw and using it to manipulate the electorate with bogus issues like "patriotism" and flag pins and gay marriage and other "scary" stuff.

Until progressives can stop ridiculing and complaining about the comments people make out of fear and start addressing the fear-based community with compassion, and understanding them as otherwise intelligent fellow humans who have been brutally and callously manipulated into an irrational state where they vote against their own best interests, all of our efforts are doomed to accomplishing nothing more than reinforcing their fears and their fear-based voting patterns further.

More on this subject in future posts - perhaps even before the weekend is over. I want to talk about some of the other ways that fear in general and xenophobia in particular impact our culture and maybe even offer up some thoughts on how to begin working to heal it.

Exclusive Footage From the Republican National Convention

h/t the always wonderful Joshua

The Most Spine-Chilling McCain Video You Will Ever See

Blackwater and Iraq

The AP published a story on Monday, based on interviews with top Blackwater executives, reporting that the soldiers-for-hire company is considering going out of the security business.  

That seems extremely unlikely to me, but it got me thinking about what this company that never does anything without a reason might be up to.  Here's what occurred to me as a possible interpretation:  

The U.N. mandate that makes the U.S. invasion and continued occupation of Iraq "legitimate" in terms of international law, if in no other, expires at the end of the year.

For months, the Iraqi parliament and U.S. negotiators have been working to try to hammer out an agreement or contract between the two governments for what happens at the end of that time -- a document that "legitimizes" continued U.S. presence there. (For anyone who's been following the story of that negotiation, Maliki's public statement about timed withdrawal of U.S. forces was very old news, indeed.)

After much posturing by both the Suni and Shiite members, including walkouts and threats of disbanding parliament and throwing the whole country back into the chaos that preceded the Iraqi election, it appears that there are two items which both major Iraqi factions agree are non-negotiable: 1) the timed (subject to conditions "on the ground") withdrawal of U.S. troops, and 2) under absolutely no circumstances will there be amnesty for actions (atrocities) committed by private contractors in Iraq.

The parliament and the U.S. are still miles apart on reaching a final agreement, and in fact may not, presenting an even more interesting set of circumstances for the U.S. administration, but it now appears clear that the two items above are set in stone from the Iraqi point of view.

If I were Blackwater and I knew that, I'd be making noises about getting out of the security business, too. I'd be setting the stage for telling the DOD that business considerations make it impossible for us to continue in that line of business; sorry, but the contract's canceled; here's a little of your money back; thanks for the good time -- and airlifting my guys out of there in the dark of night before they're all rounded up in some kind of war crimes proceeding.

No one (except Bushco) is more hated by the Iraqi people than the Blackwater mercenaries, and now that the end of the occupation appears near, they want their pound of flesh! And while I'd rather give them Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, et. al., (and I'd throw in Wm Kristol and some of the other neocon cheerleaders for free), it's hard to find fault with their sentiments.

Much has been said about where U.S. troops would be without Blackwater, and it's possible that the out-of-business noise is a threat to Bushco to harden U.S. dedication to an agreement that includes Blackwater amnesty.

Or not. Everything I've suggested here may be nothing more than me farting in the bathtub, but it seemed worth throwing the suggestion out there.      

All in your head

Pass it on!

Happy Fourth of July

The Government Versus The American People

U.S. News reports today on the apparently random seizing of laptops and cameras (and loose memory cards) by U.S. customs agents.As John Amato writes at Crooks & Liars:

A controversial customs practice creates a legal backlash:

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan’s luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? “Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop,” says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics.Shaken by the encounter, Hogan says he left the airport and examined his bags, finding that the agents had also removed and inspected the memory card from his digital camera. “It was fortunate that I didn’t use that machine for work or I would have had to call up all my sources and tell them that the government had just seized their information,” he said. When customs offered to return the machine nearly two weeks later, Hogan told them to ship it to his lawyer…read on

I don’t know why, but I thought of this movie as I read the article: “The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming. (h/t Mike Finnegan)

This is just one more example of the inexcusable excesses our customs agents perpetrate every day on American citizens. Here's the excerpt from the original article that I think represents most clearly the attitude that has permeated our government:

Now, businesses and other organizations are pushing back, Congress is investigating, and lawsuits have been filed challenging how the program selects travelers for inspection. The ninth circuit ruling was the result of more than 20 lawsuits involving electronics seized from travelers who were nearly all of Muslim, Middle Eastern, or South Asian descent.

Citing the lawsuits, customs officials decline to say how many computers, storage drives, cellphones, and BlackBerrys they have confiscated or what happens to them afterward. Officials declined to testify at a recent Senate hearing, although they wrote in a prepared statement that officers "have the responsibility to check items such as laptops and other personal electronic devices to ensure that any item brought into the country complies with applicable law and is not a threat to the American public." (emphasis mine)

If the Customs folks were a corporation or a private individual, this position would at least make sense.

Abraham Lincoln, revered by Democrats and Republicans alike, used these words to close his famous Gettysburg Address: "...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"

So if the government's (theoretically) ours, what's our interest in their refusing to answer a question about how frequently seizure occurs and the disposition of the seized items, whether there are pending lawsuits or not.

If nothing else, the incident clearly demonstrates how far we have come, from a government of the people, by the people, for the people, to the Cheny-Bush America where we now have the government versus the people.

O'Reilly In One Minute

George Carlin, 1937 - 2008 RIP

One of America's most brilliant and articulate social commentators, George Carlin, is dead at the tender age of 71. I'll miss him a lot.

Here's one of my favorite Carlin clips in which he riffs on America's war on Iraq:


(h/t Publius)

How I Learned Political Cynicism

In the summer of 1963, my best friend Chris and I were attending summer school at Springfield HS in Illinois to pick up some extra credit for graduation the following spring. (I took typing, one of the few things I learned in high school that actually turned out to be useful for the rest of my life.)

Chris's dad "knew somebody" in the state legislature and arranged for us to be "honorary pages" in the House of Representatives for a week, and for that week, after class we'd trot down to the nearby State House, clip on our badges, and earn a few bucks sitting on the pages' bench and running errands for various Democratic representatives.

The Dem's bench was in the front of the Illinois House chamber, right next to the desk of a rep from Chicago named Mike _______. I'm not being coy here, I simply have no idea what his last name was. I'm not sure I knew even then. Mike was the pages' buddy, tipped generously, and used us for everything from getting him a cocktail to picking up his laundry. But the thing that we all liked most about him was that he spent a fair amount of time away from his desk, and if he was going to be away for a vote, one of us lucky pages would get to sit in his chair and vote for him!

At that time, the Illinois House used an electro-mechanical voting system manufactured by the American Totalizator Company. Voting required flipping the electrical switch that sat on each member's desk to the right for "yea" or the left for "nay". Representatives who actually cared about a bill but were going to be away for the vote could vote by pressing the switch in the desired direction and sticking a toothpick in it to hold it there until the machine was turned on to record the vote. Giant "tote boards" with each rep's name and a red and green light were on the wall at the front of the house, Dems on one side and Republicans on the other.

Before Mike would leave the floor, his instructions to the lucky page always went something like this: "Watch the Democratic tote board, and when nearly everybody has voted, vote me with the majority. If the vote is pretty evenly divided, look at the Republican tote board and vote me with the minority. If their vote is evenly divided, don't do anything."

Ah, sweet! Democracy in action! Whenever I catch myself foolishly wondering how so many horribly stupid laws get passed, I remember Mike and the 1963 Illinois State Legislature, and my mind switches back into reality mode.

FISA Rage

I'm so angry with Barack Obama right now that if the alternatives weren't so horrible, I wouldn't vote for the sob. Obama is the Man in the Democratic party at the moment, and he could have stopped Steny Hoyer's FISA capitulation bill dead in its tracks if he had an ounce of political courage. Watch this:


The House passed this abomination this afternoon.

The New U.S. Border Patrol

My wonderful friend, Harry Hilton, sent me this photo. Finally, a solution to our nation's immigration problem!

I'm Voting Republican

It's all beginning to make sense now.


Learn more about the film here.

Senate Hearings Interrupted | American News Project

On two consecutive days, hearings conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee were suspended when Republicans invoked the rarely used "two hour rule" that states no hearing can run more than two hours.

ANP cameras were covering both hearings as part of ongoing stories and were able to capture the latest moves in the political chess match both parties are currently waging on Capitol Hill.

The $300 Billion Betrayal

The folks at American News Project have put together this report on waste in Pentagon procurement programs under the Bush administration:

Yes, that's right, they said that cost overruns under Bush are four times what they were under Clinton.

John Cusack Gives the Bush-McCain Challenge - 30 sec version

Powerful TV spot from Cusack and Move On.

Bill Moyers: 'Journalism in Profound Crisis' (Video) | MediaCulture | AlterNet

Bill Moyers addressed the National Conference for Media Reform today. If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth a watch.

Chris Hedges: Iraq War Now About Murder

As noted in the comments section of the post I'm about to refer you to, "[Chris] Hedges is the preeminent voice of the anti-war movement. His writings on the wars of our time will be the record that historians teach from generations from now. His speech at Rockford College in 2003 was one of the few acts of heroism and strength and truth spoken to power as the world went insane."

What Hedges has to say is, as another comment pointed out, nothing that human beings haven't known for thousands of years. But Hedges has a gift for outrage that we all need a good shot of now and then. If the rest of the book is like the excerpt, Hedges and Al-Arian have delivered.

Hedges piece in Salon originally appeared on TomDispatch.com and has been adapted from the newly released book Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians, which Chris Hedges coauthored with Laila Al-Arian. Here's a taste:

June 5, 2008 | Troops, when they battle insurgent forces, as in Iraq, or Gaza or Vietnam, are placed in "atrocity-producing situations." Being surrounded by a hostile population makes simple acts, such as going to a store to buy a can of Coke, dangerous. The fear and stress push troops to view everyone around them as the enemy. The hostility is compounded when the enemy, as in Iraq, is elusive, shadowy and hard to find. The rage soldiers feel after a roadside bomb explodes, killing or maiming their comrades, is one that is easily directed, over time, to innocent civilians who are seen to support the insurgents.

Civilians and combatants, in the eyes of the beleaguered troops, merge into one entity. These civilians, who rarely interact with soldiers or Marines, are to most of the occupation troops in Iraq nameless, faceless, and easily turned into abstractions of hate. They are dismissed as less than human. It is a short psychological leap, but a massive moral leap. It is a leap from killing -- the shooting of someone who has the capacity to do you harm -- to murder -- the deadly assault against someone who cannot harm you.

Read more . . . .

Or better yet, read the book. I'm planning on it, myself.

Froomkin On Significance Of McClellan's Revelations

WaPo's Dan Froomkin points out that despite the flawed nature of the messenger, Scott McClellan's revelations are a vindication of critics of the Bush administration:

But the significance of McClellan's book is that his detailed recounting of what he saw from the inside vindicates pretty much all the central pillars of the Bush critique that have been chronicled here and elsewhere for many years now. Among them:

* That Bush and his top aides manipulated the country into embarking upon an unnecessary war on false pretenses;

* That Bush is an incurious man, happily protected from dissenting views inside the White House's bubble of self-delusion;

* That Karl Rove's huge influence on the Bush White House erased any distinction between policy and politics, so governing became about achieving partisan goals, not the common good;

* That Vice President Cheney manipulates the levers of power;

* That all those people who denied White House involvement in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity were either lying or had been lied to;

* That the mainstream media were complicit enablers of the Bush White House and that its members didn't understand how badly they were being played.

By coming back again and again to the CIA leak story, McClellan also validates a key theme of the Bush critique: That the Plame case was a microcosm of much that was wrong with the way the Bush White House did business.

Read the whole post here.

Reform The DNC!

Mark Benjamin posts some interesting observations about the protests outside today's DNC rules committee meeting at Salon's War Room. (If you haven't been paying attention, the RC is meeting to figure out what to do about Florida and Michigan.)

Apparently, contrary to what the cable news is telling us, Hillary is not what most of the protests are about.

"We are here because we want every vote counted," said Wesley Taylor, who traveled by bus from Coral Springs, Florida to air his bad feelings. Taylor, who voted for John Edwards in the primary, served 14 years in the Army, including service in Bosnia. "I didn’t fight not to have my vote counted," he said.

"It is not democracy," complained Debbie Kubiak, 52, who traveled from Buffalo, N.Y. "It is worse than what they did back in 2000."

This sad state of affairs is nothing more nor less than our beloved DLC/DNC conducting business as usual. That Hillary represents this part of the Democratic party is why I can't support her. (Which is NHNT.)

They just don't get how dysfunctional the system has become. They talk about being "reality-based" to score cheap points off the ridiculous wing of the Republican party, but have no idea how much of their own realities they're blind to. As the 12-steppers like to say, denial is a great deal more than a river in Egypt.

The American political system no longer works. That's a huge statement. With the right company and setting, I can see talking about it on the front porch into the wee hours without ever getting beyond the meaning of "works." For now, I'm stating it as a given.

Hillary has no idea. She and her DLC/DNC pals believe in the system and believe that it can be repaired with a tweak here and a tweak there. And today's protests outside the rules committee meeting is an excellent example of what their finest efforts have wrought.

If we're ever going to create a progressive government that actually reflects the values we've been taught America was founded on, we've got to reform our party to reflect those same values. Beginning with dumping all of the present party leadership who place retaining their power above solving the problems of the day.

This is one of the reasons why I love Paul Rosenberg at Open Left and OL's Bush Dog Project. If you're not familiar with the Project, here's a good place to start: Matt Stoller's "What is a Blue Dog Democrat? And if you're not familiar with Paul's writing, here's the perfect place to start: There Is No 'They' Here

Enjoy!
,

David Sirota on Colbert

Our friend David Sirota was on "The Colbert Report" last night, hyping his new book, The Uprising


Way to go, David!

Rove Playbook?

Well, no. But this ~1950 educational film is eerily familiar


via Ralph Bernardo at disinformation.

The War Prayer

Mark Twain has always been my favorite philosopher, and his short story "The War Prayer", my favorite.

During the Vietnam War, I quoted it extensively and even did readings of it at anti-war gatherings. It is one of the most powerful statements against war and jingoism ever written, and it is as relevant today as it ever has been.

Now, thanks to the internet, Twain's magnificent work (relatively unknown before) is enjoying a much wider popularity than ever before, with a number of sites and pages dedicated to it. The newest of these, thewarprayer.com, put together by our friend Markos Kounalakis at the Washington Monthly is quite amazing:


(h/t Mike Finnigan at C&L)

Here's Kevin Drum's intro to the film from WM:

In 1904, disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short anti-war prose poem called "The War Prayer." His family begged him not to publish it, his friends advised him to bury it, and his publisher rejected it, thinking it too inflammatory for the times. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying famously:

None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.

"The War Prayer" was eventually published after World War I, when its message was more in tune with the times. Washington Monthly's publisher, Markos Kounalakis, who was affected by Twain's words when he covered the war in Yugoslavia in the early 90s, made "The War Prayer" into a short video for release last Memorial Day, and today we're reprising it. It features stunning illustrations by Akis Dimitrakopoulos and is narrated by Peter Coyote, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Erik Bauersfeld.

What To Do With Your Bush Rebate Check

Mr. Bush's solution to America's economic woes is a "bonus" rebate check, which we're all supposed to spend and thus stimulate the economy, creating more jobs and more opportunities so we can all live Happily Ever After and Mr. Bush will go down in history as The Man Who Saved America. Or something like that.

Here's one person's solution of how to put that money to better use:



You can follow Kenevan's example here.

Back In The U. S. of A.

Well, there's no mistaking it. I'm back in the US, getting my anti-depressant medication adjusted, and my head back in the world.

The actual trip was a breeze, and the dog arrived in Chicago no worse for the wear. The trip down from Chicago to Champaign was a stark reminder of how incredibly flat Illinois is. No sea, either.

I've done nothing much since I got back except sleep. I got the things I absolutely had to do taken care of while I was still buzzing from the energy of the trip (I had made the mistake of not completely finishing my packing before I enjoyed a couple of "good-bye" get-togethers with friends.), and then I collapsed and have pretty much stayed that way.

If you've never enjoyed the experience of full-blown clinical depression, I hope you never do. I see the shrink on Thursday, and with a little luck will begin feeling better again not too long thereafter.

Besides the flatness, another thing that has blown me away is that nobody seems to realize the Democratic primary's been over since last month. As far as my Spanish friends know, it was over a long time before that. But not many of them are paying much attention. The general attitude is that Bush has really screwed up America, and that he's out of there come next January when Mr. Obama will begin the long, hard job of trying to put things back together again. It is unimaginable to them that anything else could happen. They see little difference between Bush and McCain. They think Hillary would be an improvement, but they see her as being too enmeshed with the system and the ways of thinking that got us into the mess we're in.

I think they're pretty astute in appraising the candidates, but I'm afraid they don't realize how little a role this kind of logic plays in American elections. We'll see.

"The Science of Sexuality"

Greta Christina has an interesting, if somewhat pointless, post on science and sexuality over at Alternet.

When I first came out into the gay community, one of the most common party lines going around was, "Gay parents aren't any more likely to have gay kids than straight parents." Some of the big political battles being fought at the time had to do with gay parenting, and the community was trying to reassure/ convince the straight world that it was "safe" for gay people to have and raise kids, that our kids wouldn't be any more likely to be gay than anyone else's. (Of course, many of us personally thought, "So what if our kids turn out gay? There's nothing wrong with being gay, so why does it matter?" But we knew the straight world didn't feel that way. Hence, the line.) --Read more

As I responded in the comments section on Alternet: I have a few ideas myself about what causes sexuality, but I don't know, and personally, I hope they never do find out for sure. Because the minute they do, the battles will begin afresh over what to do with that information.

If there is a significant genetic factor that can be detected in utero, should a woman carrying an unwanted "queer" fetus be allowed/encouraged to have an abortion?

If it turns out to be primarily a "choice," does that make anti-gay sentiment and activities more socially acceptable?

If it turns out to be primarily genetic, will the haters feel any more compassion for queers as a result?

The whole discussion begs the even more important Big Question: What difference does it make?

I can't see one that matters much. What does matter is that all Americans be treated exactly the same, both under the law and in the larger society as well, regardless of sexual orientation or anything else.

If knowing the "answer" to the causes of sexuality contributes anything toward that end, I don't begrudge the money and energy spent finding it. But personally, I doubt it, and believe that both could be better spent.

Whether I'm queer because I chose to be, or because of genes I carry, I expect to be treated the same as anyone else.

Anything else is un-American.

Larry King Promotes Day of Silence

Today is the National Day of Silence, a day when hundreds of thousands of students across America pledge to be silent for the day, representing the silence forced upon their lesbian, gay, or transgendered friends by the rampant homophobia and hectoring on the majority of school campuses. Below is a statement from Larry King:

(h/t HRC Back Story)

Why Conservatives Are Always Wrong

Jefferson Smith has posted a wonderful piece entitled "Why Conservatives Are Always Wrong" that should be required reading at least once a week for every human being on earth. Please read the whole thing and pass it on to everybody you can think of.

Suppose you had a friend you had known for many years, one who was very opinionated, who always seemed absolutely certain about everything, and yet who was always turning out to be wrong. He got you to buy stock in Enron and swore it would just keep on rising. He bet on the Yankees to sweep the Red Sox in ’04. He said mobile phones were just a fad . . .

read more

O'Reilly/Fox Homophobia

"Neutral Sexual Orientation Employment Policy"

I may be on to something here that the whole rest of the civilized world already knew, but I was mildly blown away when a quick skim of the proxy statement for a company I own a few shares of stock in turned up the following:

ITEM 9—STOCKHOLDER PROPOSAL REGARDING A
NEUTRAL SEXUAL ORIENTATION EMPLOYMENT POLICY
Resolution
Whereas, our company seeks to hire the most qualified person and has never had a policy discriminating against any person, or groups of persons, for any reason.

Whereas, it would be inappropriate and possibly illegal to ask a job applicant or employee about their sexual interests, inclinations and activities.

Whereas, it is similarly inappropriate and legally problematic for employees to discuss personal sexual matters while on the job.

Whereas, unlike the issues of race, age, gender and certain physical disabilities, it would be impossible to discern a person’s sexual orientation from their appearance.

Whereas, unless an employee chooses to talk about their sexual interests or activities while working, the issue of sexual orientation is, essentially, moot.

Whereas, according to the website of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender political organization, “an inclusive non-discrimination policy (one that refers to sexual orientation) is a key facet of the rationale for extending domestic partner benefits.” The HRC adds, “Establishing a benefits policy that includes your company’s gay and lesbian employees is a logical outgrowth of your company’s own non-discrimination policy. . . .”

Whereas, domestic partner benefit policies pay employee benefits based on the employee engaging in unmarried, homosexual relations. These relations have been condemned by the major traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for a thousand years or more.

Whereas, the Armed Forces of the United States is one of the largest and most diverse organizations in the world. They protect the security of us all while adhering to a “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” regarding sexual interests.

Whereas, our company does not discriminate against tobacco users when they apply for a job even though they are not protected by any employment clause. It also does not pay tobacco users special benefits based on their engaging in this personally risky behavior.

Whereas, those who engage in homosexual sex are at a significantly higher risk for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Whereas, marriage between heterosexuals has been protected and encouraged by a wide range of societies, cultures and faiths for ages.

Resolved: the shareholders request that Wells Fargo form a committee to explore ways to formulate an equal employment opportunity policy which complies with all federal, state and local regulations but does not make reference to any matters related to sexual interests, activities or orientation.

Supporting Statement
While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a woman should be protected, the
sexual interests, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate
concern.

Position of the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors recommends a vote AGAINST this proposal, which is identified as Item 9 on the proxy card, for the following reasons:

• The Company believes diversity is fundamental to its success; and
• Opposing discrimination in all forms is one of the ways the Company makes its commitment to diversity a reality.

The Company believes that welcoming all people and opposing discrimination in all its forms, including discrimination based on sexual orientation, represents a commitment to fairness that Americans support. This belief is how we conduct our business successfully. Diversity is part of the Company’s “Vision and Values,” which makes it clear that we want to “respect differences among team members, customers and communities—earning mutual trust by supporting our corporate values for diversity, taking advantage of different perspectives, supporting the diversity of our team members, customers and communities, and leveraging diversity as a competitive advantage.”

The Company seeks to recruit and retain outstanding team members who reflect the diversity of a highly competitive marketplace. We do not publicly support or endorse any particular creed or lifestyle. We simply strive to build a culture in which all people are accepted and individual differences are respected among our team members, and we intend to continue our commitment to support the diversity of all our team members and customers.

Accordingly, the Board of Directors recommends that you vote AGAINST this proposal.

The statements and arguments are familiar. We've been hearing them from Fallwell and Dobson and Robertson and Wildmon and Hagee and company for over 30 years in one form or another. They're tired, and they're untrue, and not even the dwindling number of followers those folks puts much store in them any more.

No, the surprise was that this item was included in a statement from the Wells Fargo corporation, a pioneer and stalwart supporter not only of workplace diversity but a proud corporate sponsor of any number of lesbian and gay sporting events and other activities.

The proxy statement doesn't say which shareholder(s) submitted the proposal (I'm sure it's in there somewhere, but I'm lazy.), but my guess is that somebody like Don Wildmon at the "American Family Association" or James Dobson from "Focus on the Family" has bought themselves a share of Wells Fargo stock.

Their efforts are laughable, and the resolution won't receive enough votes to justify the ink to print it or the time spent responding to it. It's both revelatory of the American culture and somehow bizarrely personally reassuring to me that these guys are still able to make a buck out of this issue in 2008.

Amen

fake christians
by luvnews

Olberman: Bush = Fascism

This is absolutely brilliant:



I first suggested it was time to rehabilitate "fascism" in this post back in November. It's good to have one's more 'outrageous' thoughts affirmed by the King of Progressive Outrage.

Irrelevant But Amazing Video

I received this video clip from Natasha McDonald in today's mail. It's an amusing way to entertain yourself for a few minutes. Watch especially for the impossible ending.

Take This War Charge Off My Bill

I'm just back from 10 days in Malta, shivering and watching my first live snooker tournament. I plan to scribble a little about the experience when the coherent part of my brain catches up with my body. In the meantime, enjoy this: h/t Brave New Films

Justice Coming for "Justice"

For those of us wondering whether the Bush administration's abuse of the justice department for political ends would ever lead to any consequences for the abusers involved, this just in from Harpers Scott Horton: A Political Prosecution Goes Under the Microscope.

Priceless: Olberman on who else but Billy O'

This is eight minutes of MSNBC's Keith Olberman at his very finest:

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