St. George

Another email making the rounds:

President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Methodist Church outside Washington as part of his campaign. Karl Rove made a visit to the Bishop and said to him, "We've been getting a lot of bad publicity among Methodists because of Bush's position on stem cell research, the war, and such. I'll gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if, during your sermon, you'd say the President is a saint."

The Bishop thinks it over for a few moments and says, "The Church is in desperate need of funds. I will do it."

Bush pompously shows up that following Sunday, looking especially smug, sneering for his photo ops, while strutting his way, cowboy-style, into the church.

As the sermon starts, the Bishop begins his homily:

"George Bush is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite as well as a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat, probably still a drunk, and a low-intelligence sneaky weasel. He has lied about his military record, and then had the gall to put himself in uniform on a military jet, landing on a carrier, and then posing before a banner stating 'Mission Accomplished.' He invaded a country for oil and money, all the while lying to the American people about the war, with nary a care for the thousands of lives it has taken and continues to take. He is destroying our Constitutional rights, spying on US citizens and surrounds himself with cronies. He is the worst example of a Methodist I've ever personally known or known of.

"But compared to Dick Cheney, George Bush is a saint."

But we mustn't censure him because it would make us look bad

Reuters via Americablog:

A majority of Americans, 56 percent, believe Bush is "out of touch," the poll found. When asked for a one-word description of Bush, the most frequent response was "incompetent," followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." In February 2005, the most frequent reply was "honest."

At this point, any person claiming to think "good" when he hears Bush's name is either an idiot or a liar.

I guess enough time has gone by to laugh about it

Ex-Fighting Dem Paul Hackett gives a good-natured interview to The Daily Show, where he and reporter Ed Helms dissect "winning matrices," "The Dukakis Method," "Al Gore's 837 Steps to Campaign Victory," and other hot Democratic electioneering tips. C&L has the video.

On losing well

Digby invokes Sun Tzu to explain why opposition is our only path.

Let's help Russ

firedoglake is tracking senators on Feingold's censure Bush proposal. All she needs from us is one phone call and one email.

Koufax time

The first round of voting on the 2005 Koufax awards ends tonight at midnight. Drop in for some great reading, let your voice be heard, and be sure to kick in a few bucks to help Wampum defray the costs of hosting the awards.

The categories are:

Best Blog (non-pro)
Best Commenter
Best Single Issue
Best Series
Best Blog (pro/sponsor)
Best Expert Blog
Most Humorous Blog
Most Humorous Post
Best Post
Best Group Blog
Best Blog Community
Best Writing
Best state and local Blogs
Wider Recognition Blogs
Best New Blogs

Sanity makes an appearance

Leonard Pitts nails the moral hypocrisy of biblical literalists. And DarkSyde interviews Barbara Forrest, the woman whose decades-long debunking of creationism, intelligent design, and the "wedge strategy" of the Discovery Institute folks helped bring about last year's court victory in Dover, PA.

DarkSyde: So, is there even a theory of Intelligent Design?

Dr. Forrest: No. A scientific theory is a well-established scientific explanation of natural phenomena using abundant data acquired through rigorous scientific testing and research. ID proponents have produced absolutely nothing except a spate of books aimed at the popular audience. They have produced not one scintilla of scientific data because they have no scientific research program. ID is nothing more than a slightly repackaged extension of pre-Edwards creationism, advanced through the Discovery Institute's political connections, lucrative donor funding, Religious Right allies, and a slick public relations program. The Discovery Institute recently hired Creative Response Concepts, the same PR firm that represented Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Which is reminiscent of the larger Republican strategy for victory, no?

I was a bit surprised to find their analysis as compelling as I do, given that I'm no far left ideologue. But when you think things through and realize that the Selfish Right Wing spent more than 40 years after the 1964 Goldwater debacle building up its infrastructure, it becomes a lot clearer how the GOP can keep winning---not only elections but arguments.

Let me offer an example. If you wanted to prove the world was flat, and you sent some shill to MIT for five years to help him come up with a compelling, syllogistic theory as to why the world is flat and give him a PhD in WorldIsFlatology, and then put him in a televised debate against me, he'd probably win. But he'd still be flat out wrong.

That's about what has happened. The Left became complacent, and the Right, well-funded but shut out of power for most of the 20th century, was hungry.

The latter quote is from a review of Crashing the Gates, by the way. Highly recommended. (Read the reviews here but don't buy from Amazon if you can help it.)

Putting it very succinctly, I think

Must-see webTV, in case you missed it.

A veteran writes the president

This came in via email, so no links:

Dear Mr. President:

As a young man I was honored to serve our nation as a commissioned officer and helicopter pilot in the U. S. Navy. Before me in WWII, my father defended the country spending two years in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-14). We were patriots sworn "to protect and defend". Today I conclude that you have dishonored our service and the Constitution and principles of our oath. My dad was buried with full military honors so I cannot act for him. But for myself, I return enclosed the symbols of my years of service: the shoulder boards of my rank and my Naval Aviator's wings.

Until your administration, I believed it was inconceivable that the United States would ever initiate an aggressive and preemptive war against a country that posed no threat to us. Until your administration, I thought it was impossible for our nation to take hundreds of persons into custody without provable charges of any kind, and to "disappear" them into holes like Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. Until your administration, in my wildest legal fantasy I could not imagine a U.S. Attorney General seeking to justify torture or a President first stating his intent to veto an anti-torture law, and then adding a "signing statement" that he intends to ignore such law as he sees fit. I do not want these things done in my name.

As a citizen, a patriot, a parent and grandparent, a lawyer and law teacher I am left with such a feeling of loss and helplessness. I think of myself as a good American and I ask myself what can I do when I see the face of evil? Illegal and immoral war, torture and confinement for life without trial have never been part of our Constitutional tradition.

But my vote has become meaningless because I live in a safe district drawn by your political party. My congressman is unresponsive to my concerns because his time is filled with lobbyists' largess. Protests are limited to your "free speech zones", out of sight of the parade. Even speaking openly is to risk being labeled un-American, pro-terrorist or anti-troops. And I am a disciplined pacifist, so any violent act is out of the question.

Nevertheless, to remain silent is to let you think I approve or support your actions. I do not. So, I am saddened to give up my wings and bars. They were hard won and my parents and wife were as proud as I was when I earned them over forty years ago. But I hate the torture and death you have caused more than I value their symbolism. Giving them up makes me cry for my beloved country.

Joseph W. DuRocher

[Joseph DuRocher was for 20 years the elected Public Defender of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, covering Orange and Osceola counties. Since retirement, he's been writing and teaching law at the University of Central Florida and the Barry University School of Law. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, serving as a Naval Aviator in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. On Monday, Mr. DuRocher returned his Lieutenant's shoulder bars and Navy wings to President Bush, and enclosed this letter.]

NSA/FISA post mortem

Long and thorough post mortem over at Unclaimed Territory, with a dig or two at the pretend-moderate Republicans:

[I]t is almost unfathomable how little personal dignity these compliant GOP Senators have. Sens. Snowe and Hagel issued a statement in December pompously expressing their "profound concern" over the eavesdropping program and proclaiming that it is "critical" that the Senate hold hearings in order to learn what the Administration did when spying outside of FISA and without warrants on Americans.

After standing up and publicly making those statements and issuing those demands, they completely reverse themselves a few weeks later when the White House decrees that they do so. …

Recommended reading.

Our gutless, cowardly, craven...

...chickenshit, spineless, weak, timid, lily-livered, faint-hearted, pathetic, nervous, Bush-enabling, Frist-abetting, Rove-fearing Senator Snowe caves on the FISA investigation.

UPDATE: "Useless." I forgot "useless."

Prescience

Asked in 1944 about the possibility of an American fascist movement, Vice President Henry Wallace had this to say:

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power. …

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

And of course we all know what Sinclair Lewis had to say on the same subject.

Come on, Senator Snowe

Call Snowe. She hasn't issued a statement yet on how she intends on the issue of NSA hearings, and she's sending mixed signals. The vote is on for tomorrow at 2:30 pm, and it's going to be close.

Lalalalala

Holland is particularly good today:

Then there's the conservative way of dealing with poverty, which amounts to covering your ears, closing your eyes and repeating: "Lalalalala, I can't hear you." You move into a gated community, you consume only media that tells you the economy is going gangbusters for everyone and then, when some dirty poor people do manage to worm their way into your well-guarded consciousness -- for example, by dying in a flood -- you indulge in wild intellectual contortions to convince yourself that they deserve it. Hell, maybe they're even happier that way.

If you take the latter course, it's best to keep pesky facts from intruding on your capitalist utopia. That's Bushenomics....

On another note, we Mainers have been given an assignment as part of the Roots Project. We're going after Snowe on the FISA vote. Check FireDogLake for details.

Knock, knock

Made any overseas phone calls or emails lately? Ever said anything unpleasant about the Bush Administration? Might you have employed dangerous words or phrases like "Second Amendment," "CIA," "drycleaning," "ashes," "baseball," or "oyster stew"?

You might belong to the ranks of the great overheard. Hop over to People for the American Way, file a FOIA request, and find out. It's your right.