The lords giveth: "The state Senate gave final approval Wednesday to increasing the limit on alcohol in North Carolina beers and other malt beverages from 6 percent to 15 percent." And the lords taketh away: the budget that state legislative czars have been working on in total secrecy is bound to continue the historic redistribution of the tax burden onto North Carolina's working people.
Enjoy yours suds!
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Howard, You Da Man!
It was pretty clear even before the e-mail message from Howard Dean yesterday afternoon that the Paul Hackett race in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District was a test, a probing of enemy lines looking for weaknesses. You've got to hand it to Howard Dean that he would decide to probe those enemy lines where they were habitually said to be their strongest. But what had looked like oak -- Ohio's most Republican district -- turned out to be punky wood. Howard Dean has every right to brag:
"The formula is simple. Paul Hackett didn't apologize for being a Democrat, didn't hold back from criticizing a president who has failed to lead in Iraq and at home, and took a strong Democratic message into the heart of a Republican stronghold."
Dean had been saying it over and over. We have to show up. If we show up and have the courage of our convictions, amazing things begin to happen.
"The formula is simple. Paul Hackett didn't apologize for being a Democrat, didn't hold back from criticizing a president who has failed to lead in Iraq and at home, and took a strong Democratic message into the heart of a Republican stronghold."
Dean had been saying it over and over. We have to show up. If we show up and have the courage of our convictions, amazing things begin to happen.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Frist's Invitation, Lost In the Mail
Tony Perkins, mullah of the Family Research Council, has failed to invite the most powerful Republican in the U.S. Senate to "Justice Sunday II," even though Tennessee Senator (& Majority Leader) Bill Frist prominently spoke at Tony Perkins' first "Justice Sunday" back in April. The social snubbing! That's got to cut to the quick. Not to mention the salt in the wound: "Justice Sunday II" will be held smack-dab in the middle of Frist's own state, in Nashville, on August 14.
At the first "Justice Sunday" last April, organized as a mass protest against an abortion-allowin', gay-lovin' Supreme Court, Frist in effect gave his imprimatur to a hair-raising movement, a movement of dangerous rhetoric and hot emotions against "liberal judges." It's the sort of angry movement that repeatedly in American history spawns civic violence. You'll recall that the charge was made that Democrats opposed to Bush's judges were making war on "people of faith." Participation by Frist in this hoe-down, in effect his blessing, clearly appeared to ratify the argument "that people of one viewpoint have God on their side and all others are faithless" (as Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a jew, succinctly put it).
That was Frist as bad cop ... never far removed, actually, from Ole Fristy, the good cop. That is to say, it wasn't much of a speech Frist gave. He phoned it in, literally. That is, he appeared via videotape, a nice antiseptic distance away (though he caught that cold anyway). In fact, much about Frist's speech to the first Justice Sunday clearly signaled to the mullahs that Frist wasn't comfortable. Alluding to the Christian Right's talk of punishing judges whose decisions they strongly dislike, Frist said: "The balance of power among all three branches requires respect, not retaliation. I won't go along with that." That pronouncement, in that context, was like flatulence in the second pew during the offetory.
So when Frist broke last week on the subject of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, Tony Perkins and the other organizers of "Gig a Liberal Judge Near You" (a.k.a., Justice Sunday II) were probably more than happy to drop Frist from the invitation list. According to the AP, Tony Perkins posted yesterday on his group's Web site that Frist's recently announced stem cell stance "reflects an unwise and unnecessary choice both for public policy and for respecting the dignity of human life." The AP reporter added, "Perkins also has been annoyed with Frist for allowing a compromise on President Bush's judicial nominations."
In other words, Frist has ripped the sheet with the Religious Right. There wasn't a pundit in sight last Sunday who wasn't writing his political obituary, at least his ambition to be president. Only Sen. Arlen Spector was taking a contrarian viewpoint ... that Frist had helped himself. Why, Senator? "Because the majority of Americans favor embryonic stem-cell research." The "majority of Americans" would have to include at least a large minority of the Republican Party, you'd think, but many of those moderate Republicans don't routinely vote in primaries, leaving the choosing of candidates to the most extreme elements. To even get the attention of moderate, majoritarian Republicans, Frist would have to make a huge issue out of breaking with extremist Christian Right Republicans. Something he isn't likely to do. At the moment, in fact, he's showing every symptom of the battered child syndrome. But thus goes Frist. And there goes -- eventually -- John McCain?
Hell of a fix for a political party, destroying its most admirable men.
At the first "Justice Sunday" last April, organized as a mass protest against an abortion-allowin', gay-lovin' Supreme Court, Frist in effect gave his imprimatur to a hair-raising movement, a movement of dangerous rhetoric and hot emotions against "liberal judges." It's the sort of angry movement that repeatedly in American history spawns civic violence. You'll recall that the charge was made that Democrats opposed to Bush's judges were making war on "people of faith." Participation by Frist in this hoe-down, in effect his blessing, clearly appeared to ratify the argument "that people of one viewpoint have God on their side and all others are faithless" (as Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a jew, succinctly put it).
That was Frist as bad cop ... never far removed, actually, from Ole Fristy, the good cop. That is to say, it wasn't much of a speech Frist gave. He phoned it in, literally. That is, he appeared via videotape, a nice antiseptic distance away (though he caught that cold anyway). In fact, much about Frist's speech to the first Justice Sunday clearly signaled to the mullahs that Frist wasn't comfortable. Alluding to the Christian Right's talk of punishing judges whose decisions they strongly dislike, Frist said: "The balance of power among all three branches requires respect, not retaliation. I won't go along with that." That pronouncement, in that context, was like flatulence in the second pew during the offetory.
So when Frist broke last week on the subject of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, Tony Perkins and the other organizers of "Gig a Liberal Judge Near You" (a.k.a., Justice Sunday II) were probably more than happy to drop Frist from the invitation list. According to the AP, Tony Perkins posted yesterday on his group's Web site that Frist's recently announced stem cell stance "reflects an unwise and unnecessary choice both for public policy and for respecting the dignity of human life." The AP reporter added, "Perkins also has been annoyed with Frist for allowing a compromise on President Bush's judicial nominations."
In other words, Frist has ripped the sheet with the Religious Right. There wasn't a pundit in sight last Sunday who wasn't writing his political obituary, at least his ambition to be president. Only Sen. Arlen Spector was taking a contrarian viewpoint ... that Frist had helped himself. Why, Senator? "Because the majority of Americans favor embryonic stem-cell research." The "majority of Americans" would have to include at least a large minority of the Republican Party, you'd think, but many of those moderate Republicans don't routinely vote in primaries, leaving the choosing of candidates to the most extreme elements. To even get the attention of moderate, majoritarian Republicans, Frist would have to make a huge issue out of breaking with extremist Christian Right Republicans. Something he isn't likely to do. At the moment, in fact, he's showing every symptom of the battered child syndrome. But thus goes Frist. And there goes -- eventually -- John McCain?
Hell of a fix for a political party, destroying its most admirable men.
Bush to Scientists: "Eat My Shorts"
Another blow struck for making sure American school children are as dim as our president, and as fearful of facts, as superstitious, as walled in by doctrine, as hidebound by religious orthodoxy.
They Call It "GI Improvisation"
We got so sick of our American image in the cascading new revelations of American torture in Afghanistan and Iraq that we simply stopped posting anything about it months ago ... but sometimes the truth of what we've wrought in the name of "freedom" demands an airing. Take a look at this morning's WashPost, and remember this when you next hear El Presidente getting all rhetorical about the glorious benefits of American-style democracy.
And about how it's those Others who hate liberty.
And about how it's those Others who hate liberty.
Ohio Results
Paul Hackett carried the most rural counties in the Ohio 2nd Congressional District -- winning Brown, Adams, Scioto, and Pike counties easily. Where Schmidt beat him was in the affluent Cincinnati suburbs of Clermont County. The final tally was 52% - 48%. The actual vote tallies were roughly 59,000 to 55,000.
What needs to be studied -- and will be -- is the candidacy of a rough-talking Marine who called El Presidente a "son-of-a-bitch" and increased Democratic performance by 15% ... in very Republican Ohio.
And what's up with rural voters? Doesn't look like a particularly good sign for the Rovians, now does it?
What needs to be studied -- and will be -- is the candidacy of a rough-talking Marine who called El Presidente a "son-of-a-bitch" and increased Democratic performance by 15% ... in very Republican Ohio.
And what's up with rural voters? Doesn't look like a particularly good sign for the Rovians, now does it?
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Today's Special Election in Ohio
The contest between Paul Hackett, the Marine Corps Democrat, and Jean Schmidt, the all-abortion-is-murder Republican, in the special election today in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District has more variables than a quadratic equation. But check this one out: a conservative anti-tax group, Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, is running radio spots urging Republican voters to stay home today and not vote, because Schmidt isn't as anti-tax as she is anti-abortion. Best part? The ad is paid for by a liberal political action committee in Oregon.
On Sunday, Hackett seemed to catch Schmidt in a lie. She claimed that she had "never met" and "wouldn't recognize" Thomas Noe, the Republican campaign contributor at the heart of the state GOP's "Coingate" scandal (about which I've heard plenty at a distance but about which I know nothing specific). Hackett produced minutes of a March 2002 Ohio Board of Regents meeting that indicates that then-state representative Schmidt had met with the regents, whose membership at the time included Noe. Hackett made this revelation in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse. "When reporters asked for copies of the minutes, Hackett and an aide raced two blocks down Court Street to his law office in the Kroger building to run off copies."
I like that in a candidate ... somebody willing to make his own copies.
What I can't find is any polling numbers. But if it's true that Schmidt is relying on TV ads and Hackett on shoe-leather -- old-fashioned one-on-one contact by thousands of volunteers, not to mention his running to the Xerox -- then Hackett might just pull off the upset of the year. Especially if a lot of Republicans stay home.
Now, wouldn't that be something!
LATE UPDATE: Going on 9:30 p.m., & Hackett is leading -- last I looked -- 52% to Schmidt's 49%. Still many precincts uncounted.
On Sunday, Hackett seemed to catch Schmidt in a lie. She claimed that she had "never met" and "wouldn't recognize" Thomas Noe, the Republican campaign contributor at the heart of the state GOP's "Coingate" scandal (about which I've heard plenty at a distance but about which I know nothing specific). Hackett produced minutes of a March 2002 Ohio Board of Regents meeting that indicates that then-state representative Schmidt had met with the regents, whose membership at the time included Noe. Hackett made this revelation in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse. "When reporters asked for copies of the minutes, Hackett and an aide raced two blocks down Court Street to his law office in the Kroger building to run off copies."
I like that in a candidate ... somebody willing to make his own copies.
What I can't find is any polling numbers. But if it's true that Schmidt is relying on TV ads and Hackett on shoe-leather -- old-fashioned one-on-one contact by thousands of volunteers, not to mention his running to the Xerox -- then Hackett might just pull off the upset of the year. Especially if a lot of Republicans stay home.
Now, wouldn't that be something!
LATE UPDATE: Going on 9:30 p.m., & Hackett is leading -- last I looked -- 52% to Schmidt's 49%. Still many precincts uncounted.
Billboard Nepotism
State Representative Jim Harrell III (D-Surry) is trying to do away with a ten-year-old law banning billboards from Hwy 52 in Surry County. He appears to be pulling this string on behalf of his father, the Jim Harrell who ran against Virginia Foxx last fall and who is also a Surry County Commissioner.
It's the kind of thing that makes politicians look bad.
It's the kind of thing that makes politicians look bad.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Bible-Reading, Different From Bible-Thumping
My youth was NOT mis-spent. I was in Sunday School every week, and I studied the Bible much as I've studied everything else in my life -- with an avidity that passeth understanding. I memorized long passages, including the entire second chapter of Acts. When I got to college, I knew every biblical allusion in every piece of literature laid before me, and I've been eternally grateful for that grounding ... especially in these latter days of the Suit-and-Tie Pharisees, who intend to shove theocracy down our American throats.
So it's with some special interest that I've been finding out about a Christian Right group headquartered in Greensboro, something grandly calling itself the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, which has been busy since 1993 sneaking Right Wing propaganda into public school curriculums under the guise of teaching non-sectarian Bible history. But even a cursory glance at its web site reveals some true colors (a web site not to be missed for its grand trumpet-and-drum "resistance-is-futile" signature music). The NCBCPS founder, a real estate broker named Elizabeth Ridenour, says she launched her crusade to offer Bible history classes in public schools when she discovered that "the separation of church and state" was an impious "myth" promoted by the A.C.L.U.
Elizabeth Ridenour runs with some notorious fellow yappers. She brags about her pals on the web site: Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Robertson, Focus on the Family, etc. According to People for the American Way, Ridenour's outfit won't share its curriculum with the public and keeps secret the school districts that are offering her course. Such hush-hush behavior is apparently an operational necessity. If citizens found out what their children were being taught -- for example, that there's incontrovertible proof FROM NASA (no less) that the earth DID stand still when Joshua "fit the battle of Jericho" -- there might be a bit of a peep let out in protest.
I delved a little into this outfit because of its North Carolina connection and because of a front page article in this a.m.'s NYTimes about a fight over this very group's Bible curriculum in Odessa, Texas, where I still have a feel relatives, most of whom can tell a stalking horse when they stare one in the mouth.
So it's with some special interest that I've been finding out about a Christian Right group headquartered in Greensboro, something grandly calling itself the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, which has been busy since 1993 sneaking Right Wing propaganda into public school curriculums under the guise of teaching non-sectarian Bible history. But even a cursory glance at its web site reveals some true colors (a web site not to be missed for its grand trumpet-and-drum "resistance-is-futile" signature music). The NCBCPS founder, a real estate broker named Elizabeth Ridenour, says she launched her crusade to offer Bible history classes in public schools when she discovered that "the separation of church and state" was an impious "myth" promoted by the A.C.L.U.
Elizabeth Ridenour runs with some notorious fellow yappers. She brags about her pals on the web site: Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Robertson, Focus on the Family, etc. According to People for the American Way, Ridenour's outfit won't share its curriculum with the public and keeps secret the school districts that are offering her course. Such hush-hush behavior is apparently an operational necessity. If citizens found out what their children were being taught -- for example, that there's incontrovertible proof FROM NASA (no less) that the earth DID stand still when Joshua "fit the battle of Jericho" -- there might be a bit of a peep let out in protest.
I delved a little into this outfit because of its North Carolina connection and because of a front page article in this a.m.'s NYTimes about a fight over this very group's Bible curriculum in Odessa, Texas, where I still have a feel relatives, most of whom can tell a stalking horse when they stare one in the mouth.
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