Another Date That Will Live in Infamy

Let history show that on September 9, 2009, this country and everything it stands for was brutally and verbally attacked by radical terrorists whose visceral hate for Americans knows no bounds, and who have infiltrated every level of government. Although the hand of peace has been repeatedly offered to these people, they have now proven they have no sense of human decency and cannot be reasoned with. In order to prevent future attacks on our soil, we must not rest until they are rooted out and brought to justice, wherever we find them.

The Election Is Window Dressing

Nope, it's not an abyss, it's a canyon. An abyss implies that you can't see the bottom and with a canyon you can. An abyss is dark, whereas with a canyon you can see the details. And the details of the Iraq war, from the flawed and untruthful beginning to the no way out for the innocent and not so pretty end, have been revealed in frightening clarity for Americans to see. The rest of the world saw the current situation for what it really was. A McGuffin, designed to mislead the public until irrevocable damage had been done.

While the citizens of this country were distracted by the rah rah antics of the crew without a clue (or a conscience); their civil rights have been terminated; they were beguiled into spending money on homes they couldn't afford with the promises that the sun would always be shining and the value wold always go up; they were encouraged to buy goods to support the economy, unfortunately it just didn't happen to be ours; the education system was reduced to a shambles and most of their jobs were shipped to another country so that the corporations could continue to make obscene profits for those who already had more than they need.

The so-called ownership society isn't about you owning your own home, it's about you having to bear all responsibility for every action and reaction around the globe while your ability to do so is reduced incrementally. One paycheck at a time. Until you don't have one.

Health care is overly costly and preventative care is virtually nonexistent and they still want you to pay for insurance that looks for ways to deny you coverage when you need it because it is a corporation in the business of making money and not actually providing the health care that they supposedly sell.

Foreclosures are increasing and that was before the latest round of job layoffs. In another six months they will reach levels never seen, mainly due to the increase in population but nevertheless it will be damaging. Many more people will be hurt by the rise in gas prices and when you're unemployed, paying your Cobra premium out of your rapidly dwindling and poor interest paying savings or putting food on the table while you still have a roof over your head, becomes less important with every nickel rise in gas. So, you wait until medical problems become emergency room visits, which is what the President recommends.

As acres of McMansions become empty and food becomes scarce, due to either a rise in prices or the inability of truck drivers to drive to outlying areas, some hard choices will have to be made. As a nation. And the election isn't going to solve, or even mitigate, the ruinous path we have trod. None of their plans or rhetoric actually deal with, or will have any positive impact on, the majority of Americans.

Those people who have already been forced out of the system already know this. The decreasing graduation rate from high school and the increasing rate of incarceration are not good trends and have quite a bit to do with each other. Meanwhile outside of the US, the world is becoming more technical but we won't be graduating students capable of competing on the world stage. And we will have to compete on the world stage because almost everything we need, we have to get from somewhere else. Because we shipped the jobs there.

Is it any wonder that our troops don't have the equipment they need to do their jobs and be properly protected? We don't manufacture anything so after five years of steady confrontation, we still can't make appropriate body armor for our soldiers. And then when they get hurt and become damaged beyond usefulness, some people expect them to take care of themselves. How nice.

The candidates all talk a good game but each of them have drawbacks, all of which will prevent them from making the changes that are needed and wanted by the American people. Another round of tax cuts won't solve the problem and neither will mandating that people pay for something they can't afford. Our infrastructure is falling apart and taxes need to be directed toward the public good, not the corporate trough. Our roads, bridges, dams, hospitals and schools need the help first, not some shareholder who's gambling with his money and your kid's future.

BBB and Debsweb.

Man Up, Grow A Pair And Stop Sniveling

The first two articles on this morning's reading list reinforced just how little of the American spirit is left in its citizens. From the war that must not be mentioned, to trying to justify basing a world view based on fear, is to continue down a well trodden path. One that the world has traveled before but the lessons have been forgotten.

The WaPo has an article about the conservative Democrat, Dan Boren (D-OK) and the patriotic silence that his district suffers from. Even though fifteen of his constituents lives have been lost in the debacle that is Iraq, nobody wants to speak out because they don't want to be unpatriotic. The Republicans noise machine certainly did its job well. When people who have suffered the most, understand the least and are willing to continue suffering emotionally and spiritually, that isn't patriotism. It's brainwashing. While a person doesn't have the right to yell fire in a crowded theater, one does have the right to point out that the nation has lost its way, the compass is broken, the flashlight's batteries are dying and the guide has other goals besides the survival of the troops.

Then from the Guardian comes a story where the author (Andrew Anthony) offers up the specious assumption that many on the liberal left side of the political equation, got to be that way because we felt that America was always the culprit on the world stage. Excuse me? I'm a liberal because I care about people, not things and I certainly don't wallow in angst and self-pity trying to reassess my perspective because I'm scared. Which is what he is doing. One moment in time, albeit the most tragic and revenge inducing, should not be responsible for turning a grown man into a whiny, hormonal (he uses mid-life crisis as an excuse), defensive, mewling ball of quivering baby bleats.

He assumes quite a bit in his hit piece, not the least of which is how fast someone can put together a reasoned argument under pressure. He must have spent a long time on this article because he uses lots of big words to make his arguments sound logical but all they do is reveal a man who waited until his forties to see the world as it really is, not just as a foil for him to have a good time. Once he saw that reality includes the terror that millions have lived with on a daily basis, he wants us to believe that he has grown up and that the other side has the right view and that everything he believed before that point was wrong and we should listen to him because now he has wisdom on his side. What a crock.

In Chinese medicine terms he lost a lot of Kidney qi due to fear on September 11 and no longer has enough water to rise up and cool the Heart which can lead to cloudy or irrational thinking. In regards to Hugo, OK, the grief (Lung) has smothered their voice, leaving them unable to speak up and fearful of authority. If we had had a different leader on 9/11, one who was capable of seeing the larger picture, this country could have continued forward into the future instead of retreating into the darkness of the past.

Terror is the world's problem, not just white people being killed by brown skinned people. Germany had the Baader-Meinhof, the US had Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, Japan had the Aum Shinrikyo and now we all have a problem. One that needs to be addressed on an individual and global scale. Why can't governments all over the world coordinate their efforts and decide on a moment in time and use that moment to arrest suspected terrorists all over the world? Let the court system sort it out instead and at the very least the terrorist networks will have been disrupted and it might be possible for the Bauers, Bonds, Bournes and Plames of this world to infiltrate suspected groups. Law abiding citizens rights are being eliminated in a futile attempt to control terrorism, so it would have to a one-time only deal, leaders shouldn't have that much power on a daily basis, that leads to the bad examples (Stalin, Hitler, Pinochet) we've seen previously.

Instead what we have is the death and destruction of our military, forced to keep fighting the wrong target and ensuring that there will be an endless supply of people willing to die for what they believe in. And take others with them. At this point there are very few innocents left, because our silence has allowed the atrocities to continue.

Crossposted at Big Brass Blog and Debsweb.

I Have A Question

I had this idea that taking a day off to recharge my batteries, might give me a more positive perspective on things. And it did, even after I stepped on the hot barbecue coal and burnt one of my middle toes and the ball of my foot. Right up until this morning, when I stupidly started reading an article that would only confirm the accusations I made while the national shame that was Katrina, was occurring. Now I'm absolutely positive that the Bush administration never had any intention of ever helping the citizens of the Gulf Coast and every day that goes by it looks like they actively worked to prevent them from getting help. Even if it didn't cost this country a dime.

So, my question is this. Exactly what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors in this country? Even if we blow off the incompetence of preventing 9/11; the lack of pursuit of Osama bin Forgotten (by the crew without clue that is);, Abu Ghraib; Guantanamo; Pat Tillman and the cover-up; the varied and false premises for war with Iraq; the debacle of said war; the lack of a connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda; the abuse and lack of support for our troops (both during and after service); still no WMDs; deliberately outing a member of the CIA; the destruction of the Bill of Rights and the flagrant disregard of the Constitution; doesn't deliberately refusing while actively preventing to help the citizens of the country you supposedly are in charge of, deserve some type of formal charges? There are dictatorships that have been held to more accountability than these guys.

Crossposted at Debsweb.

Battle Cry Returns

Like a demented slasher in a cheesy sequel, they're back:

Pop culture faces a controversial assault in San Francisco this weekend when Ron Luce aims to bring 22,000 evangelical Christian teenagers closer to Jesus through a rock concert, City Hall rally and other events.

Background here, here, and here.

This time around the Chronicle has a pretty good story, with some good quotes from evangelicals in the Bay Area criticizing the militant rhetoric, the commercialism, and the superficiality of the event. It still doesn't cover Luce's extremist political agenda, but it does make clear that not everyone is on board with Luce's schtick.

It also has a quote that made me laugh out loud:

Some pastors said Luce is as guilty of promoting consumerism as the culture he criticizes because Teen Mania sells T-shirts and other merchandise. Luce said the difference between consumerism and Teen Mania's merchandising is that his products are being sold with a Christian intent. [emphasis added]

Yup...none of that godless secular consumerism here; just good righteous Christian consumerism.

This Luce clown has a sweet gig going, and we're going to be seeing a lot more of him. He's also the future face of evangelical wingnuts (just as Fred Phelps is a throwback), as they learn how to mask their bigotry with savvier marketing techniques. Which means we have to keep getting better at spotting them.

All Battle Cry, All the Time

Okay, okay--I know I'm starting to sound obsessed...but it's the blog gift that keeps on giving. And today's gift is an apparent scoop from the Chronicle's Leah Garchik:

And among those at last week's Christian youth rallies at the ballpark was Alexandra Pelosi, who's making a documentary on the movement for HBO.

This doesn't sound like great news to me. I never saw Journeys With George, but most of the people whose opinions I respect considered it pretty softball; its non-judgmental, let-the-subject-speak-for-himself approach would, for reasons I keep repeating, be disastrously wrong for Ron Luce and his organization. It will be interesting to see if she includes the creepy wingnut politics beneath the upbeat surface of Ron Luce, Inc. If not, I'm sure a lot of people will be happy to help correct the record.

[That's all, folks]

Stealth Wingnuts

Dobsonite theocrat Ron Luce takes great pains to project an image of good old non-political evangelism in his teen ministry; he seems to be succeeding. The Catholic Church sponsors a media campaign designed to project an image of moderation for the anti-choice side. Welcome to the future. Christian authoritarians are becoming less like Fred Phelps and more like Ron Luce and Monika Rodman. The public face is friendly and non-threatening; the reality is Vision America and Operation Rescue.

We need to keep up with them. We need to keep getting better about identifying these people, about making their hidden agendas public, about exposing them for the scary wingnuts they really are.

The other thing we need to do is to learn from them. We embrace values and ideas that should appeal to the broadest possible range of Americans, and yet most of our agenda isn't even on the table. Wingnuts are making their extreme ideas sound reasonable, and we can't even make moderate policies appeal to moderates. We need to get better and smarter about this. We need to transform public opinion from the ground up. This is the great project for liberals--bigger than any election or court nominee or legislation. This is the one we need to win.

[That's all, folks]

Battle Cry Revisited

In last week's post about the Battle Cry event in San Francisco, I described Ron Luce as a 'stealth wingnut' who hides his political agenda in order to broaden his program's appeal.

This worked on at least one reporter for the Chronicle, and it appears to have worked on the editorial board as well. (I missed this when it first appeared last Tuesday, but I think it's still worth writing about.) They proceeded to attack the big old meanies on the Board of Supervisors for condemning a harmless rally of nice clean-cut Christian kids:

The supervisors' reaction to the evangelical Christians was so boorishly over the top that only one word could describe it:

Intolerant.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, was quoted telling counterprotesters Friday that the gathering Christians were "loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting and they should get out of San Francisco." On Monday, however, Leno struck a more reasoned tone, acknowledging that his rally cry was "not one of my prouder moments." He said the youth group was "welcome in San Francisco," even though he does worry that its religious rhetoric could "under a cloak of love" feed a "fearful world's appetite for hate."

In fact, concern about heterosexual sex by unmarried youth gets equal treatment from the Battle Cry campaign. Its goal is to spread Christianity and to help young people recognize and resist the cultural influences of a "stealthy enemy" that includes "corporations, media conglomerates and purveyors of popular culture." Its Web site (www.battlecry.com) speaks of "casualties of war" that include drinking, drug use, teen sex, pornography, abortion, suicide and violence.

We may disagree with certain aspects of the Battle Cry agenda -- on issues such as abortion rights, religion in schools or acceptance of an individual's sexual orientation -- but the attempt by counterprotesters and some of the city's elected officials to call them "fascist" and "hateful" was totally at odds with the tone of the ballpark event and the approach of the Web site.

The gathering was not an "act of provocation," as the supervisors claimed. It was a get-together of young evangelicals whose lifestyles and religious views just happen to be in the minority here -- apparently making them open season for politicians to chastise. [emphasis added]

Not an 'act of provocation'? Tell that to Ron Luce. From the Bay Area Reporter:

"Please prayerfully consider coming early and gathering for this pre-event Battlecry rally at San Francisco's City Hall and have your teens participate as we pray for the northwest region, our nation, and this generation," an announcement from Battlecry founder Ron Luce said. "These are the very city hall steps where several months ago ***gay marriages*** [sic] were celebrated for the entire world to see."

Battlecry publicity materials also state...."Try to imagine a society that mocks the fact that 'under God' was ever even in our Pledge of Allegiance. Try to imagine the motto 'In God we trust' taken off our money. Imagine all references to Christ and His cross removed from all emblems and city logos. Try to imagine a world where a pastor can go to jail for saying homosexuality is wrong. Current news stories confirm that these unfortunate events are already happening here and in other nations around the world."

And of course, the ultimate irony of this editorial is that the day before it appeared Luce had spoken at the wingnut War on Christians conference. (More about Luce's political agenda and affilications here.)

But the Chronicle editorial board can't be expected to know all this. After all, it wasn't on the website.

Just to be clear, if they had been right about the nature of the rally--if it really had been just a religious thing, and not a deliberate political provocation--then it would have been wrong of the Supervisors to condemn it. As it is, I think the resolution and counter-demonstration were exactly what Luce was aiming for when he came here. (I fully expect this picture to be featured prominently in Vision America's future publicity materials.) The wisdom of the thing isn't what's at issue here, though. The editorial was about intolerance--and it was based on an incomplete and erroneous understanding of the group in question.

This is why people like Luce are dangerous. Too many people who should know better are way too easy to fool.

[That's all, folks]

Virtue Terrorists vs. the Fascist Mega-Pep Rally

San Francisco was invaded this weekend. From yesterday's Chronicle:

More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."

The organizer of the thing, Ron Luce, is something of a stealth wingnut. He soft-pedals the politics (his website doesn't even mention homosexuality, for example) in a calculated attempt to appeal to suburban audiences. It seems to have worked pretty well with Janine De Fao, who wrote a second, more softball story that ran today:

The teens were greeted Friday at a kick-off rally at City Hall by an official city condemnation and protesters who called them anti-gay, anti-choice and intolerant. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, suggested they "get out of San Francisco."

While youth did travel from throughout the Western United States for the two-day event, which cost $55, Leno may have been surprised how many live in the Bay Area, and even in the city itself.

No protesters were on hand Saturday, and the vibe was not one of condemnation, but of celebrating the fact that it can be cool to be Christian.

The rest of the story is about nice teens rocking out to good Christian music, with a whole slew of positive quotes from the kids. Gee, isn't that nice?

Make no mistake, though: Luce is cut from the same cloth as Ayatollah Dobson and his ilk. Luce was a featured speaker, for example, at last year's "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference, and will be at the upcoming Christian right whine-a-thon (both sponsored by VisionAmerica, one of the most active groups in the fundamentalist-political complex).

And however innocuous the presentation, there was no mistaking the real agenda here:

A Battle Cry invitation to teenagers made plain the symbolism of gathering in San Francisco for a pre-event rally at "the very City Hall steps where several months ago, gay marriages were celebrated for all the world to see."

And then, of course, there's the ubiquitous military imagery:

"Battle Cry for a Generation" is led by a 44-year-old Concord native [he actually lives in Garden Valley, Texas], Ron Luce....Luce wants to unleash a "blitz" of youth pastors into the communities.

"This is more than a spiritual war," Luce said. "It's a culture war."

Military metaphors abound in Luce's descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how "an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them." At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that "terrorists of a different kind" -- advertisers -- were targeting them and that they were "caught in the middle of the battle."

"Are you ready to go to battle for your generation?" he asked, and the young people roared "yes!" and some waved triangular red flags flown from long, medieval-looking poles.

I'm no expert on war, but as I understand it you kind of have to have an enemy. I'm guessing that's us.

People like Luce are arguably a lot more dangerous than their more obviously wingnutty brethren. A lot of anxious parents (and teens) who wouldn't fall for the explicit bigotry of Dobson could easily get sucked in by Luce's approach to the problems attendant on a morally complicated society. He certainly fooled the Chronicle reporter (I'd be willing to bet they ran the softball piece after getting wingnut complaints about Saturday's more critical article). His ends are the same as Dobson's, though...and we cannot allow ourselves to forget it.

[That's all, folks]