Happy New Year all! It's been fun.



at long last my secret is revealed -- I'm Mahir!

Doxagara takes issue with Ann Coulter.

The Agonist says:

My point is that international affairs are never black-and-white like so many on the far Left and far Right would have you believe. There is a lot of gray area. And the gray area is usually dominated by diplomats. Something this administration is sorely lacking in.

I don't think the failure to comprehend this is a problem for the extremes - but rather for armchair pundits and warriors all across the ideological spectrum. Bush referred to the North Korean dictator as a pygmy, said he had a visceral hatred of the man, and put him into the "Axis of Evil." Such things do not help.

As any veteran Kauswatcher knows, his sole measure of the health and wellbeing of the economy, society, life, the universe, and everything is simply the number of people on welfare. That number is going up again, so someone had better up his prozac dose.

skippy notes the missing CNN poll plot thickens...

And the Fattest Right Wing Moralizer is....

Bill Bennett!

You don't send me flowers anymore...

Jeebus. Not every comparison is meant to convey a moral equivalence between the subjects compared. I feel sorry for Josh who will get 50 pieces of email telling him exactly why Ruby Ridge is *not* like North Korea.

If there's one thing I've learned about arguing with conservative assholes - never use analogies. never use comparisons.

Consumer Confidence Drops

Confidence plunges in December

Job worries push present situation index to 9-year low

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Consumer confidence unexpectedly plunged in December, the Conference Board saidvTuesday.

The board's monthly index sank to 80.3 from 84.9 in November, just above the nine-year low of 79.6vreached in October.

I was confident that would happen.

Dana's having some fun.

All of which raises various questions. With all the time the president has spent clearing brush, how is it possible that there is still any brush left on his ranch? And what is he doing about North Korea's nuclear shenanigans?

Bush's absence of public comment is no accident. In the two major stories of the last few weeks -- Lott's downfall and the North Korea controversy -- Bush aides calculated that opening the president to questions would only magnify stories the White House would rather keep quiet.

"Sometimes those factors come into play," a senior Bush aide said yesterday, explaining that sending Secretary of State Colin L. Powell out on Sunday to talk about Korea was less alarmist than a presidential appearance.

Bush "doesn't need to be out there every day on every development," the official said. When Congress returns and the standoff with Iraq heats up, expect Bush to return to more talkative ways.

Of course, Bush, even when hidden from view and clearing endless brush, continues to work the phones and do his day job. Still, his aides feel compelled to remind the public of this. "The president immediately engaged on this issue," Powell told Tim Russert on Sunday regarding North Korea. "President Bush has been engaged from the very beginning."

The administration has found it useful to provide such reminders, at regular intervals, that the president is paying attention to the issues of the day.

International environmental concerns? "The president has already been very engaged in these issues and plans to be engaged," Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs, said in August. The India-Pakistan standoff? "The president is fully engaged," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in June. The review of military resources? "The president has been engaged," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld attested last year. The China spy plane crisis? "He has been very engaged," said a senior Bush aide, briefing reporters.

This president, it would seem, has been engaged more often than Elizabeth Taylor.

Matthew Yglesias is right to condemn the apparent (if true) policy of the State Department's policy of not assigning Jewish Diplomats to Saudi Arabia.

However, this is an example of importing one country's bigotry in the name of good relations. Though I find it hideous, I find it less hideous than certain politicians' desire to export our own bigotry to Luxembourg in the case of James Hormel.

A note to any reporter providing coverage for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Here's a list of prominent members who are also members of explicitly racist/segregationist groups:

Executive Council
Charles McMichael, Chief of Staff (FM)
John Weaver, Chaplain-in-Chief (CCC)

General Staff
Charles Kelly Barrow, Historian-in-Chief (LOS)
John Killian, Aide-de-Camp (national director, CCC)
Charles McMichael, Chief of Staff (FM)
John Weaver, Chaplain in Chief (CCC)

National Committeemen
Charles Kelly Barrow, Historical, Bonnie Blue Society (LOS)
Edward Cailleteau, Time and Place (secretary of Louisiana state chapter, CCC)
Ron Casteel, Organ Transplant, Promotional Affairs, Public Affairs (chairman of Missouri state chapter, LOS)
Dave Holcombe, Monuments (FM)
Charles McMichael, International Headquarters (FM)
Charles Rand, Recruiting/Retention (LOS, FM)
William Shofner, Constitutional Review (LOS)
John Weaver, National Relief (CCC)

Army Leadership

Army of Northern Virginia
Charles McMichael, Chief of Staff (FM)

Army of Tennessee
Carl Ford, Inspector (attorney general of Mississippi state chapter, LOS)
John Killian, Chief of Staff (national director, CCC)
Charles McMichael, Chief of Staff (FM)
Leonard Wilson, Parliamentarian (national director, CCC)

Army of the Trans-Mississippi
Ed Cailleteau, Executive Councilman (CCC)
Ron Casteel, Public Relations (chairman of Missouri state chapter, LOS)
Dave Holcombe, Chief of Heritage Defense (FM)
Eugene Hough, Judge Advocate (CCC)
Charles McMichael, Color Sergeant (FM)
Charles Rand, Division Commander (LOS, FM)

State Leadership

Alabama
David Allen, 1st Lt. Commander (chairman of Tuscaloosa chapter, LOS)
Cecil Godwin, Special Projects Officer (LOS)
Leonard Wilson, Northwest Central Brigade Commander (national director, CCC)

Florida
Jeffrey Allen Hardy, 8th Brigade Commander (chairman of Central Florida regional chapter, LOS)
Jack B. Harris, 1st Brigade Commander (chairman of Florida Panhandle regional chapter, LOS)

Louisiana
Roger Busbice, Heritage Defense Chief/Aide de Camp (board member of Louisiana state chapter, CCC; 2000 heritage defense coordinator for Louisiana state chapter, LOS)
Ed Cailleteau, Editor/Parliamentarian (CCC)
Dave Holcombe, 2nd Lt. Commander (FM)
Charles McMichael, 1st Lt. Commander (FM)
Charles Rand, Commander (LOS, FM)

Mississippi
Bill Hinson, Historian (chairman of Greater Jackson chapter, CCC)
Greg Stewart, Parliamentarian (coordinator for Coahuma, Tunica and Quitman counties, FM)

Missouri
Ron Casteel, Commander (chairman of Missouri state chapter, LOS)

South Carolina
Bobby Eubanks, Division Chaplain (contact for South Carolina Low Country regional chapter, LOS)

Virginia
Michael Masters, Commander 5th Brigade/Web Editor (chair of Virginia state chapter, CCC)

Military Order of the Stars and Bars

National
John Killian, Chaplain General (national director, CCC)

Alabama
John Killian, Chaplain (national director, CCC)

Georgia
Charles Kelly Barrow, Commander (LOS)

Virginia
Timothy Manning, Chaplain (LOS)

LOS is the League of the South. CCC is the Council of Conservative Citizens. FM is Free Mississippi.

Oh Jeebus. It's been, what, about 3 days, and Rick "Heather" Berke has been reassigned from the "be bitchy about Gore" beat to the "be bitchy about Edwards" beat.

Snotty's got a couple new things up. Always good to read the other side - you don't get much of it in the liberal media.

Duh.

In fact, there is no evidence that the economy was in recession when President Bush took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2001. Yes, growth was slowing, and the longest expansion in American history was running out of steam. But the U.S. economy did not go into recession until Bush's presidency, according to both of the most accepted definitions.

Some Question U.S. Support For Israel

By Roger B. Fetcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 31, 2002; Page A01

WASHINGTON, DC Since the signing of the Camp David accords, billions in U.S. foreign aid have gone to Israel. There is growing outrage by some about continued financial support of Israel, given the alleged human rights abuses of the Israeli government against Palestinians by the Sharon government.

David Duke, president of Americans in Support of Palestinian Freedom, a D.C.-based human rights group, said "Since last year, we have gotten well over 200 complaints of human rights abuses. It's time our lawmakers recognize these injustices."

That was of course a fake news story. Everyone get the point?

Moonie Monday

I think I forgot last Monday's.

One of the things which always bugs the hell out of me is the tendency of many to label Louis Farrakhan a Leftist or Liberal or Whatever.. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it has something to do with the fact that he's black and sometimes says nasty things about white people. In any case, Mr. Farrakhan has pretty close ties with the Reverend Moon. The recent Million Family March was a joint Farrakhan/Moon production.

They also hung out in Korea and at a 1997 event (where Whitney Houston, for once, showed good judgment).

Good new Tom Tomorrow toon.

More on this later, but this SPLCenter analysis really is a must read. The press gives a lot of uncritical coverage of the views of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is really quite hard to stomach.

(link fixed)


"North Carolina SCV official Jim Pierce circulated this cartoon to other SCV members by e-mail."

Down. (flash).

Make sure you spend those holiday amazon gift certificates through the link to the left...

Time to invade Liberia AND CBN headquarters.

Dwight Meredith has more.

A Ban on Hate or Heritage?

Asks the Washington Post.

I'm not going to give an opinion on the particular issue - whether schools should be banning confederate flag wearing by students. My first reaction in all these types of things is generally "no" but the problem with this story is that it is highly sympathetic, and slanted towards, this current issue which is being drummed up by neoconfederates to further their agenda:

"Since last year, we have gotten well over 200 complaints about the banning of Confederate symbols in schools," said Kirk Lyons, lead counsel for the Southern Legal Resource Center, a North Carolina-based public-interest law firm that works to protect Confederate heritage and is in discussions with some families at Cherokee High School. He said the center is litigating six lawsuits and that dozens of others challenging Confederate clothing bans have been filed across the country.

Likely this story was fed to the reporter by Lyons who has an interest in this, which is fine. However, the reporter fails to tell us some important things about Lyons.

Kirk Lyons was once a member of the National Alliance. He married the daughter of the leader of the Aryan Nations at their compound. The best man at his wedding was one Louis Beam, former Grand Wizard of the Texas KKK. In addition to working to protect "confederate heritage" he's defended prominent white supremacists and neo-Nazis. In 1993 he participated in a protest of the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. In a speech to German Nationalists he said he was "honored to be in the country that has produced the world's most famous composers, artists and architects as well as the greatest führer of the 20th century" which he claims was just a stunt to tweak Germany's free speech laws. He is reported to have invited skinheads to his house to celebrate the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Some more:


In a 1992 speech to a gathering of the Populist Party, which had run David Duke for president four years earlier, Lyons summed up his views: "This is a global struggle that European people will not perish from the face of the earth, [and] if we are going to succeed in a worldwide movement, for that of white rights and a white future … we must encourage professionalism."



Email Michael Getler, and inform him that when the Post's reporters are writing sympathetic stories about children being denied their confederate heritage, they shouldn't ignore the relevant background of the some of the players they write about. Neo-confederates are encouraging their children to wear these things in order to get attention, stir up trouble, and further their cause. This kind of background is quite relevant to this story, and the reporter should have interviewed some more people on the "other side" to provide the key information about Lyons, his past, and his current agenda.

(sources include here and here and here). The first couple links detail his attempt to take over the Sons of Confederate Veterans. There's some more about that topic in this excellent analysis here.

Kos has some related comments. (and, thanks to Mac Diva for the heads up).

WampumBlog tells Instapundit not to run with scissors.

and, make sure to read the more personal news here.

Oh Lordy, I'd actually managed to block out the fact that we're going to have Senators Dole and Alexander to kick around...

Rummy, Rummy, Rummy...

So, what do you think would be a more offensively racist display to put on TV during prime time?

a) Showing a movie in which a white man wears a placard with the phrase "I hate Niggers" in a predominantly black neighorhood, and is subsequently attacked by a mob of young black men who were outraged by this display of deliberately anatgonistic racism.

b) Showing a movie in which a white man wears a placard with the phrase "I hate everyone" in a predominantly black neighborhood, and is subsequently attacked by a mob of young black men who were outraged by nothing more than this rather odd display of general misanthropy.


If you chose a), and proceeded to edit that scene so that it becomes as in b), you too could be an executive at Fox Television.

(the movie in question is Die Hard With a Vengeance )

A new level of irony, or something...

In Godley, Tex., a 20-year-old man was fatally shot as he was wrestling for a gun with a 21-year-old man. Police said the two had been aggressively debating which of the two was more likely to get to Heaven.

(from Roger Ailes).

Charles Dodgson says bring back the amateurs on foreign policy.

Apparently it's okay to be a gay Republican after all...

(sent in by Ann S.)

States' Rights! States' Rights! States' Rights!

Republicans, backed by many corporate executives, are making significant if little-noticed progress in their campaign to strike back at trial lawyers and shield U.S. companies from multimillion-dollar liability lawsuits. Now that the GOP controls both chambers of Congress, they plan deeper pushes in the months ahead.

President Bush and his congressional allies in the past two years have written into federal law new limits on the public's ability to sue airplane manufacturers, drug makers, builders of anti-terrorism devices and teachers for alleged misconduct or gross negligence. Republicans inserted many of the legal protections into legislation during last-minute negotiations with little fanfare or debate. ...

... When the GOP-controlled Congress convenes next month, Republicans plan to build on their success by pushing new federal protections for physicians, managed care firms, asbestos manufacturers, small businesses and major corporations hit with class-action suits, according to party officials. Most of the industries seeking legal protections are major GOP donors. ...

... congressional Republicans early next year will push for legislation proposed by the president that would dramatically limit the liability of physicians sued for medical malpractice. Under the plan, aggrieved patients could seek no more than $250,000 for pain and suffering, even if their state's law permitted a much higher award. There would be no federal limits on compensation for economic damages, such as lost wages and medical costs.

O. Dub notes the fiscal crises of the states is a big big problem.

I'm sure they're bad people..

The soldiers moving swiftly through Afghanistan a year ago swept up thousands of suspected terrorists, members of the Taliban or Al Qaeda who had reigned cruelly over Afghans and launched attacks against U.S. targets. Hundreds of suspects were flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they remain. But as often happens in the initial confusion of military assaults, some of those arrested were innocent. It's long past time for the Pentagon to determine which were guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and to free them.

Military sources told Times reporter Greg Miller that dozens of prisoners in the jail at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo have no meaningful links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban. In many cases, intelligence officers in Afghanistan recommended that the prisoners not be sent there in the first place. Their superiors overruled them.

The sources said operatives extensively questioned at least 59 detainees who they determined were of no further intelligence value. Questioners recommended that those prisoners be freed in Afghanistan or sent to their homes in Pakistan. The U.S. shipped them to Cuba.

Keeping innocent men in jail intensifies anti-Americanism in the prisoners' home countries. It also can push the guiltless into the arms of terrorists at Guantanamo. The problem is made worse by the Bush administration's decision to classify the prisoners as enemy combatants who can be held indefinitely without hearings or lawyers. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross monitor jail conditions, and the organization said in February that the captives were entitled under the Geneva Conventions to have a hearing before "a competent tribunal."

In March, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said some prisoners might be transferred to other countries and some might be released. Yet, nine months later, the U.S. has freed only five, including two men who appeared to be in their 70s and said they never helped the Taliban. Military sources suggest that many of the remaining 600 prisoners are caught up in a bureaucracy that is afraid to free them lest someone later prove they were terrorists after all.

Mark Kleiman notes that MWO had the goods on the Guilford County Republican Party's link to a hate site months ago.

Cute.

White House budget office thwarts EPA warning on asbestos-laced insulation

By Andrew Schneider, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last minute, the White House
intervened, and the warning has never been issued.

The agency's refusal to share its knowledge of what is believed to be a widespread health risk has been criticized by a former EPA administrator under two Republican presidents, a Democratic U.S. senator and physicians and scientists who
have treated victims of the contamination.

The announcement to warn the public was expected in April. It was to accompany a declaration by the EPA of a public health emergency in Libby, Mont. In that town near the Canadian border, ore from a vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families.(...)

Is Bush gassing his own people?

Go play with the nice doggie.

And the winner is...

Pete Hisey contributes a year-end award:

"And the Clueless Fascist Moron of the Year Award Goes to..."




Before I announce the winner, I just want to say that the competition this year was fierce. Every nominee, from Trent Lott to Don Rumsfeld to George Bush...what can I say, they were SPECTACULAR. Let's have a big hand for them.

OK, OK, I know you all want to know who won...could someone help Mr. Kissinger back to his table, please. Hank, we love ya, but you didn't quite make it this year. I know you'll be back.

Now remember, this award is not for the most dangerous fascist moron, which I am sure you will win handily, Mr. Ashcroft. Take a bow. It is for the single most clueless, moronic, idiotic, fascist jerkoff of the year. Someone who, as the kids say these days, just doesn't get it.

Well, the winner this year went way over the top, and we are just...humbled. He has formed a nonprofit agency to produce television shows to be broadcast throughout the Muslim world. And the first show they're working on? A new version of that classic on-the-road adventure Route 66, this time starring two hip young Arabic men, tooling around America and having adventures along the way. We personally think that each show should open with a close up of the grafitti in whatever small-town holding cell they've found themselves in this week, but maybe we just don't understand high art!

Give it up for former Reagan adviser and ambassador, Richard Fairbanks!

Roger Ailes notes that George Bush has committed 1.7 million acts of mail fraud in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. Sec. 503.

Marc Weisblott has the Worst Bloggers Awards for 2002. You have to go look just to see if you made the list! (phew!)

Just saw the new Almodovar movie Talk to Her. Was good.

Finally, my longtime guest commentator Snotglass has his own weblog! Go and check out..... Snotglass Speaks!

My post below regarding the Honest Republican test wasn't an attempt to brand the GOP as the party of Anti-Semites. Saying that they had failed the test was saying that they'd failed the test of honesty, not that they failed to be not anti-semitic. I personally think that the Republican party has purged itself of its anti-semitic demons much more successfully than it has its racist demons, though I'm amazed that people seem oblivious to some history on this issue. The John Birch society was strongly rooted in anti-semitism, and much of their core worldview revolved around the existence of a Vast Jewish Conspiracy - later somewhat repackaged in the religious right's "new world order" conspiracy theorizing of the late 80s/90s. The JBS was instrumental in helping get Reagan elected Governor of California, though he did later distance himself from them. From that time, words and phrases like "Hollywood elite" and "New York Liberals" and others were all code words for "Jews." As much as people seem to be blind about the history of racism in this country they seem doubly blind to its history of anti-Semitism. Legal housing discrimination in particular was a huge problem for a long time. And, no, I am not making this a simple partisan issue - just pointing out that these phrases do have a history of indeed being code words, whether or not those who use them today intend them to be.


I'm flabbergasted that anyone can defend Reagan's trip to Bitburg as a simple "PR blunder." To ascribe it any other motive than putting a stick in the eye of Jews everywhere baffles me, frankly, and if not anti-Semitism then what?

UPDATE: God I screwed up that post - never post on the way out the door. Couple typos fixed - in particular the first sentence in which was is changed to wasn't.

UPDATE 2: When Bonzo went to Bitburg:

About March of 1985, the Reagan White House announced that the old man would be paying a visit to West Germany. At a press conference, Reagan said he had no intention of visiting a concentration camp site. Doing so, he explained, would only guilt-trip a nation where there are "very few alive that remember even the war, and certainly none of them who were adults and participating in any way." (At the time of this statement, anyone over the age of 60 would have been an adult during part of World War II and the Holocaust.) Weeks later, the White House noted that Reagan intended to lay a wreath at a military cemetery in Germany which contained the graves of Nazi soldiers of the Waffen SS. This spurred an outcry from the American Jewish community and others. Defending the move, Reagan told reporters that the German soldiers "were victims, just as surely as the victims of the concentration camp." Holocaust chronicler Eli Wiesel urged Reagan to cancel the Bitburg stop. Inside the White House, [Pat] Buchanan, a communications (!) aide, advised Reagan to hold firm and not be pushed around by those you-know-who's. Egged on by Buchanan -- and probably others -- Reagan refused to yield. "There is no way I'll back down and run for cover," he wrote in his diary. His White House did hastily arrange a tour of the Bergen-Belsen death camp before Reagan dropped by the Bitburg cemetery for eight minutes. During the Bitburg ceremony, he cited a letter from a thirteen-year-old girl who, he claimed, had urged him to make the Bitburg stop. (In fact, she had asked him not to go there.)

For the record annoying conservatives:

Yes we know Dick Armey said he put in the Eli Lilly provision in the Homeland Security. The question is who asked and encouraged him to do so. Your failure to understand this simple point is ridiculous as always. Certain bloggers' willingness to be obtuse to kiss up to their senators is amusing, but, well, transparent.

UPDATE:

Okay, ONE MORE TIME. This news is not new, but peoples' willingness to play dumb, or lie, or god knows what, over this issue seems unending. I posted the Clift story because it was simply news that someone in the press was fingering Frist. Hesiod was all over this story weeks go. Here's Dick Armey himself fingering Frist and the White House on this:

ARMEY: I had listened for months to people worrying about whether or not we'd have vaccinations. So I researched it. And in1998, Teddy Kennedy brought a provision that would make it possible to get vaccines. The trial lawyers had been skirting around that. I worked with Senator Frist. I had the advice of the White House. And we worked out the...

CARVILLE: I understand. But did the White House put it in?

ARMEY: There were members of the White House that wanted it. Well, you know, you really have to say it was my bill, I wrote it, I put it in. But I put it out in consultation with Senator Frist, the most well-respected doctor in Congress and the White House

CARVILLE: But the White House put it in, though. Because when you said, "it was something the White House wanted," that was true?

ARMEY: Well, it is true.

CARVILLE: It is true? The White House wanted this provision? OK. But then you said no prodding from the pharmaceutical industry or the White House. They just wanted it but they didn't prod you?

ARMEY: Well, that's right. I mean they agreed that the proposition was necessary. Now this is very important. One of the criticisms of this thing that bothers me is that it has nothing to do with homeland security. It does, in fact, have to do with us having the vaccinations that we need to protect us from the kind of insidious forces that would be brought against us. And...

CARLSON: I'm just curious, and I don't want to spend the whole show on it. How did it get in there? Was it like the immaculate conception? Or you put it in or you dropped it in?

ARMEY: I put it in.

CARVILLE: All right. I just wanted to...

ARMEY: And I never said that's not. The point is, I have had no conversation with Eli Lilly.

CARVILLE: OK.

ARMEY: It was about the vaccinations. It was about getting...

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: OK, that's good.

ARMEY: And I consulted with the White House.

I suppose it depends on the meaning of "in consultation with Senator Frist." Or, whatever.

Eleanor Clift fingers Frist definitely as the Eli Lilly bandit.

Photographer Herb Ritts' pneumonia was likely at least indirectly a result of his HIV+ condition. It ain't over.

Cultural Santa and Traditional Santa.

Digby sez to John:

John -

Most people don't recoil in disgust at the sight of an intelligent civil rights leader like Wade Henderson following up on a pledge from Senator Frist who said in his acceptance speech:

"We must dedicate ourselves to healing those wounds of division that have been reopened so prominently in the last few weeks," Frist said in his acceptance speech.

"I committed to work with him [Daschle], to work with members of the Democratic caucus, and I should also add independents as well, to make this Congress . . . to be one that is positive, that brings people together and that is productive."

I saw Wade Henderson on the news today and he wasn't offensive in any way. He spoke in measured tones, merely setting forth his priorities and asking for a hearing. He had some very high praise for President Bush's remarks in Philadelphia in which he said:

We must also rise to a second challenge facing our country. This great and prosperous land must become a single nation of justice and opportunity. We must continue our advance toward full equality for every citizen, which demands that a guarantee of civil rights for all.
Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong. Recent comments by (Mississippi) Senator (Trent) Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. He has apologized, and rightly so. Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals.

And the founding ideals of our nation and, in fact, the founding ideals of the political party I represent, was and remains today the equal dignity and equal rights of every American.

And this is the principle that guides my administration: We will not and we must not rest until every person, of every race, believes in the promise of America because they see it in their own eyes, with their own eyes, and they live it and feel it in their own lives.

That you and others react with such extreme emotional (and rather obviously crude) rhetoric to something as innocuous as black leaders responding to these words in a serious way is the very reason that the Republicans are in deep shit on this issue. Wade Henderson doesn't sound like the shrill, unreasonable, mau-mauing overreactor. You do.

Interesting Times posts a scan of the missing (online) CNN-Time poll.

While searching for some other things I found this statement by League of the South president Michael Hill regarding 9/11:

"In part, these events sprang from an 'open borders' policy that has for the past four decades encouraged massive Third World immigration and thus cultural destabilization. ... This is America's wake-up call to forsake its idolatry and to return to its true Christian and Constitutional foundations."

The League of the South is the organization with which Washington Times Assistant National Editor Robert Stacy McCain is involved. I wonder if Andrew Sullivan, Moonie Times contributor, should say something about this.

Civil Rights Groups Press Frist

on..Civil Rights!

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of leading civil rights, religious and labor groups plans to ask the new Senate majority leader, Republican Bill Frist of Tennessee, to translate his party's pledges of inclusiveness into policy changes. That could trigger a backlash from Republicans who want the party to stay its conservative course.


[..]

The group wants Frist to:


* Oppose five of President Bush (news - web sites)'s 15 federal judicial nominees who were left in limbo when Congress adjourned in November: Charles Pickering of Mississippi, Priscilla Owen of Texas, Carolyn Kuhl of California, Terrence Boyle of North Carolina and Jeffrey Sutton of Ohio. They have ''records of deep hostility to core civil rights principles,'' the Leadership Conference contended. Supporters of the five say they are being opposed because they are conservative.


* Support legislation that would encourage federal investigations and prosecutions of hate crimes -- acts believed to have been prompted by race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or disability. Most Senate Republicans have opposed the hate-crimes legislation on the grounds that all violent crimes are heinous, regardless of the motivation.


* Support funds for election reform. In October, Bush signed legislation that requires states to improve their voting procedures. So far, however, none of the $3.8 billion needed has been approved. ''That's a real betrayal of a commitment,'' Henderson said.

Sounds about right to me.

Josh Marshall proposes the Honest Republican Anti-Semitism Substitution Test.

What Josh doesn't realize is that they were all failing that test for years. The CCC to which Lott and Ashcroft have links isn't tops on the ADL's list either, given their association with Christian Identity and other anti-semitists. Conservatives all ran for cover when Paul Weyrich made his "Jews Killed Jesus" comment, and lined up to join the metaphorical firing squad against Evan Gahr. Similarly, when John Ashcroft spoke at Bob Jones University and claimed that "we have no King but Jesus," he didn't stop there

“My mind thinking about that [phrase, “no king but Jesus”] once raced back a couple of thousand years when [Roman governor Pontius] Pilate stepped before the people of Jerusalem and said, ‘Whom would ye that I release unto you? Barabbas? Or Jesus, which is called the Christ?’ And when they said, ‘Barabbas,’ he [Pilate] said, ‘But what about Jesus? King of the Jews?’ And the outcry was, ‘We have no king but Caesar’.”

In the Bob Jones speech, Ashcroft then contrasted this supposed outcry of the Jews of Jerusalem with the supposed principle behind the American Revolution. Ashcroft said:

“There’s a difference between a culture that has no king but Caesar, no standard but the civil authority, and a culture that has no king but Jesus, no standard but the eternal authority. When you have no king but Caesar, you release Barabbas – criminality, destruction, thievery, the lowest and the least. When you have no king but Jesus, you release the eternal, you release the highest and the best.”

The anti-semitism in Bush's campaign was also widely ignored. Taped calls were made attacking Warren Rudman in ways he considered to be anti-Semitic. Marvin Olasky, a Bush regular, referred to Jewish journalists as followers of the "religion of Zeus" with "holes in their souls." Bush himself is reported to have quipped that upon arriving in Israel he would tell all the Jews they were going to hell. And, of course we cannot forget Reagan's laying of the wreath at a memorial for Nazi Soldiers at Bitburg.

Great, Faith-Based Medicine

and, why does it always seem to be "wimmen's problems" that require faith-based help...

WASHINGTON — A physician who has been criticized for his views on birth control was named to a Food and Drug Administration panel
on women's health policy.

Dr. W. David Hager, a University of Kentucky obstetrician-gynecologist, was among 11 physicians appointed Tuesday to the FDA's Advisory Committee for
Reproductive Health Drugs.

Hager has sought to reverse the panel's 1996 recommendation that led to approval of the abortion pill, RU-486, has condemned the birth-control pill and acknowledges he is anti-abortion.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America on Tuesday called the appointment of Hager and other doctors on the panel a "a frontal assault on reproductive rights that will imperil women's health."

It said Hager and his wife, Linda, have recommended "specific Scripture readings and prayers for such ailments as headaches and premenstrual syndrome."

More on this lunatic misogynist:

With his wife, Linda, he wrote "Stress and the Woman's Body," which puts "an emphasis on the restorative power of Jesus Christ in one's life" and recommends Scripture readings to treat headaches (Matthew 13:44-46); eating disorders (Corinthians II, 10:2-5) and premenstrual syndrome (Romans 5:1-11, "Tribulation worketh patience.")


To exorcise affairs, the Hagers suggest a spiritual exercise: "Picture Jesus coming into the room. He walks over to you and folds you gently into his arms. He tousles your hair and kisses you gently on the cheek. . . . Let this love begin to heal you from the inside out."

Grab a cup of coffee, and head over for the long-promised Top 20 most annoying conservatives list.

Sam Heldman on Marion Berry.

In those days in Alabama, and I would infer that the same was true in the state of Tennessee next door, Marion Barry was not a bad Mayor; he was a bad Black Mayor. There was a glee in white discussions of him that you simply won't find today in Alabama in a discussion of the white Mayor of Providence or the white Jim Traficant even if you can stir up a conversation about those guys. In the South in 1994 -- and to a large extent in the South today -- Marion Barry was joyfully exuberant code for "I told you so! Can't trust 'em! Whatchoo gonna say now, Mr. Liberal?" Anyone who tells you otherwise is either unfamiliar with the local dialect, or is trying to make excuses.

Yes. On a related note, just what do people think OJ mania was all about, anyway?

Cry me a river....

U.S. Fights Request by Former WorldCom Official to Move Trial

By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Prosecutors asked a federal judge in Manhattan not to transfer the securities-fraud trial of Scott D. Sullivan, the former chief financial officer of WorldCom, to another location, disputing his claim that he could not afford to defend himself in New York City.

Mr. Sullivan is accused of orchestrating a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud that drove WorldCom, the nation's second-largest long-distance company, into filing for bankruptcy protection. Prosecutors urged the judge to deny Mr. Sullivan's request to transfer the case to Washington. An assistant United States attorney, David Anders, disputed Mr. Sullivan's claim that a Manhattan trial would impose a financial hardship.

In court papers, he cited Mr. Sullivan's $19 million pay package in 1997 and $45.3 million that he received from selling shares of WorldCom.

"Sullivan's financial means are far from modest," Mr. Anders wrote in papers that contested a request to move the trial. He is building a $15 million, five-building compound, with a movie theater and swimming pool, in Boca Raton, Fla., Mr. Anders said.

Matthew Yglesias fisks the fiskers. Do they ever tire of looking foolish?

TAPPED says that it's wrong for the NAACP et. al to turn every issue they support into a civil rights issue. I say the Republicans mobilize opposition to all of these issues by covertly making them about race. If they're going to do that, now is a good time to call them on it. It's silly to pretend these things aren't about race when they are. Or, the CBC and NAACP can do their best to be invisible in an attempt to neutralize this element of the Southern Strategy.

No one's advocating screaming "racist" every time someone opposes the NAACP agenda. However, contrary to what TAPPED says, most of these issues are actually civil rights issues.

After a cup of coffee and reading what they wrote again - I think there's less actual distance between us. But, emphasis in these things matters. I find it absolutely maddening that in the wake of the Trent Lott affair so much ink is spilt on the issue of whether the NAACP, the CBC, and the Democrats in general are going to "overplay the race card." Screw that - it's time to point out the obvious - the Republicans have been overplaying the goddamn race card for years. The media has ignored it. Most Democrats have ignored it. It's time to yell it from the rooftops. Let's spend some time wondering when the Republicans are going to stop playing the race card. Let's spend some time wondering when any right wing politician or pundit is going to demonstrate even the slightest degree of moral and intellectual consistency and denounce John Ashcroft, whose record is far worse than Lott's. Let's stop pretending the confederate flag issue - and the entire neoconfederate movement behind it - isn't mostly about extending a giant middle finger to the African American community. Let's stop playing into the fake notion that Democrats are always exploiting race. Democrats are always desperately running from racial issues - and they should stop.

Avedon Carol discusses The Good Guys and the Rising.

Drudge says first clone has been born. And it's a girl. At least that rules out this:

War Liberal discovers the right flank of the fifth column.

Liberal Oasis notes there's been a big drop in W's approval numbers in an oddly ignored Time/CNN poll.

One of the reason I believe the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America is that the policy of our government has been to ask the Israelis, and demand it with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them.

-Senator Inhofe, March 2002

Zizka has a variety of interesting stuff up that I've neglected to link to.

I have to admit this is funny.

Justice, Ken Starr style.

She started out at the Faulkner County Jail in Conway, Ark., where she says the only book she was allowed was the King James Bible, she had to sleep on a mat on the floor, and the food was almost inedible -- but that was the best she would ever have it. Transferred to a federal medical prison in Fort Worth, she says, she was housed on a floor reserved for patients with mental illness. When she asked why, she writes, she was told that "the authorities apparently feared that if I was put in the prison camp, I would be more susceptible to a helicopter rescue!"

Then she went to the Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Los Angeles, where she was told she was getting assigned to the "high-profile" wing. She found herself on Murderers' Row, placed on lockdown status, which meant she was only allowed out of her cell for one hour a day. The explanation she says she was given? "It's for your own protection."

She was kept there for eight months, then moved to a Los Angeles County jail called Twin Towers. There, still on lockdown, she was kept in a plexiglass cell that was soundproof, so she could watch the other prisoners go about their lives, but could not hear anything except her own voice. She says she was let out for one hour a day, but not allowed to mingle with the other inmates. Guards sometimes forgot to bring her meals, she says, and ignored her when she pressed the buzzer that was her only way to contact the outside world. She remained there three weeks.

Take the Roger Ailes year in review quiz.

For me, the Patty Murray flap just adds a bunch more people to my "too stupid and/or dishonest to bother with" list. Tom Spencer has some comments.

But, isn't it interesting that Reynolds hasn't commented on the Tulia situation. For someone nominally opposed to the drug war, it's fascinating that google searches of his current and old websites for "tulia" found nothing. What can we conclude from this omission?*



*Deliberate Glennuendo.

Herbert Gives us a Tulia Update

Remember this story? Some shithead cop decided to frame a big chunk of a town's black residents? (over half of the black adult population were arrested)

Here's some background in case the 24/7 coverage of this by the afro-centric media didn't reach you.

More.




More.



But, work to do! Must write Fox News column on how individual gun ownership can prevent government tyrrany.

UPDATE: Charles Kuffner has more.

Talk Left has much to be annoyed about on Boxing Day.

Scheer pounds Dr. Laura

Merry Xmas All.

Well, at least she apologized..

KNOXVILLE (AP) -- The Tennessee Republican Party chairman says she has apologized to Buddhist and Hindu organizations for a piece of party campaign literature.

The mailer was intended as an attack on Governor-Elect Phil Bredesen and carried the headline, "What's Next? Sacred Cows?"

It criticized Bredesen for second-grade public school curriculum adopted when he was mayor of Nashville. The lessons include a mention of Hinduism and Buddhism. Bredesen represented Tennessee values.

Not from the Onion

MONTGOMERY Gov.-elect Bob Riley's inauguration festivities feature special events for women and children and pays homage to heroes of the civil rights movement and the Civil War.

(via War Liberal).

I made the post below when I was annoyed and on my way out the door. Not that I don't completely stand by the sentiment expressed therein, but it could use a bit of explanation.


The ideas expressed by Tapped and Hesiod to me represent the worst kind of paternalistic liberalism that Democrats are often accused of. They presume to tell an interest group when it should pursue its agenda and what that agenda should be. While good advice can be just that - good advice - in this case it sounds like the kind of advice some of our right-leaning friends regularly give democrats generally. You know, "if only the democrats would pursue *these* policies, in *this* way, then maybe I would like them."

In addition, I wonder if those dispensing the advice really have a clue what, say, the NAACP's agenda is. One of the big myths in politics - widely disseminated and believed by those on the left and right - is that all organizations such as the NAACP are concerned with are affirmative action type programs. This is the story our media peddles. In fact, if one looks at the NAACP legislative scorecard, the one referred to in the Washington Post article, to see why Senators such as Lott and First receive an 'F,' one realizes that the NAACP agenda is pretty much the agenda of most in the Democratic party. Votes the NAACP used to make the scorecard included the Ashcroft confirmation, Title I funding for poor schools, reducing class sizes by providing federal money to hire teachers, school construction money, forcing full Pell grant and Head Start funding, the Senate Patients Bill of Rights, the confirmation of Robert Gregory, the extension of unemployment benefits, various election reform proposals, and increases in global AIDS funding.

These issues aren't exactly on the fringes, and nor are most of them explicitly about race - and definitely not explicitly about race-based affirmative action or quotas or anything like that. But, how they are about race is that many of the issues are ones in which there are current racial imbalances in public policy and spending. If the moment when the Senate Majority Leader steps down due to his embrace of the racist segregationist Thurmond campaign isn't the time for black politicians and the NAACP to point out that minorities are getting shafted disproportionately by imbalances in education funding, by election shenanigans, by inequities in the health care system, and by recent increases in unemployment (up from about 7.6% to 11% among African-Americans compared to 6% average) - when exactly is that time?

Both due to actual racism and simply the diminished political power of the less economically advantaged generally, the interest group the NAACP represents is getting shafted. Part of the reason they're getting shafted is that certain politicians link support of those policies with support of giving handouts to African-Americans, while pushing the apocryphal notion that the federal government is taxing the hell out of Mississippians to pay for Head Start programs for black kids in Chicago. Ditto unemployment benefits. Ditto medicaid. These politicians are the ones who make these issues about race, not the NAACP or the CBC .

And, rather than hiding in the back waiting to be called up to the podium, they should stand up and fight without expecting to be tut-tutted by the liberal punditocracy.

TAPPED tells black politicians not to get too uppity.

Durable Goods Orders Fall

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. durable goods orders fell unexpectedly last month as demand weakened for a wide range of long-lasting manufactured goods, the government said on Tuesday in a report that underscored businesses' reluctance to spend.

Orders for durable goods -- costly items intended to last three years or more -- slid 1.4 percent in November after a revised 1.7 percent October rise, the Commerce Department said.

The report, which showed drops in orders for most categories of durable goods, was much weaker than expected on Wall Street, where economists were looking for a 0.7 percent gain. The dollar dropped on the data.

not good.

Dwight Meredith teaches about Republican tolerance.

Mark Kleiman has some further comments on Frist's book.

sigh

Politics in the Zeros has the latest on the INS shenanigans. They've hit Houston and Cleveland too. The ACLU is pretty panicked - and though I'm not surprised they're on "this side" you usually don't see them being quite this alarmist.

WASHINGTON – In a development that confirms the American Civil Liberties Union’s initial fears about a controversial immigrant fingerprinting and registration program, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is apparently using the program as a pretext for the mass detention of hundreds of Middle Eastern and Muslim men and boys.

"Given the evidence, there is no alarmism in saying this is a round-up," said Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. "Attorney General Ashcroft is using the immigrant registration program to lock up people who already have provided extensive information as part of their green card applications," he said. "Therefore the purpose is clearly not to get information but rather to selectively arrest, detain and deport Middle Eastern and Muslim men in the United States."

(via Talk Left.)

Interesting. Bill Schneider just said that Eli Lilly had purchased thousands of copies of Frist's book to distribute to their clients.

Mormons cut hundreds of jobs.

A table everyone should read.

From Newsmax's email:

NewsMax Washington correspondent Wes Vernon cites well-sourced information that movers and shakers in the GOP told Lott that if he resigns from the Senate in an act of petulance over losing his leadership post, he can forget about offers of cushy corporate jobs in private life.

Usually, a former United States senator can write his own ticket after he leaves. Some were determined to deny that option to Trent Lott if his departure resulted in a Democrat Senate.

Jeebus, even Newsmax thinks we're in a corporatist plutocracy.

Those bastards at Dell actualy sent me a new power supply pretty quickly...back to the 'ole laptop. Now my Blogs will be back at Full Strength.

And, yes I know they're an evil republican company, but I didn't buy the thing..

Wal-mart guilty.


good.

And JP Morgan has some problems...

In a potentially pivotal court ruling, a federal judge in Manhattan will allow the insurers to introduce into evidence a series of email messages in which a J.P. Morgan executive refers to its dealings with Enron as a "disguised loan."

The judge's decision is a major blow to J.P. Morgan, because the insurers' main contention has been that the bank deceived them into writing a $1 billion insurance policy for the transaction, which was the subject of a heated congressional hearing this summer.

The insurers have refused to honor the policy, contending a series of so-called prepay oil and gas transactions involving J.P. Morgan, Enron and offshore company called Mahonia were really "disguised" bank loans to Enron and not actual contracts to transfer energy shipments.

And the emails that U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff is going to permit the insurers to present to the jury -- which began hearing evidence in the case two weeks ago -- would seem to be devastating to J.P. Morgan's legal position.

"A reasonable juror could find these emails highly probative of the defendants' central contention that Chase knew the prepays here in issue, when coupled with other aspects allegedly not disclosed to the defendants ... were really loans that were being disguised," the judge said in a 10-page ruling, issued prior to the resumption of testimony in the trial.

In one of the emails, a bank executive writes: "Legal says don't list it as a loan." In another, the financing deals with Enron are described this way: "I have asked for a thorough review of disguised loans. I know Commodities, under the heading of'prepaid' has a whole bunch." The person writing the emails was Donald Layton, a senior bank executive, who may be called to testify if the emails are introduced into evidence.

Josh Marshall gives the Mickster a good spanking.

And they said chivalry was dead...

Lisa McNulty writes to the Rittenhouse Review.

Rove gets a Fineman

This bit is interesting, however:

Rove doesn’t need a picture to prove his ties to George W. Bush. He’s been at his boss’s side since 1973, the “boy genius” strategist who masterminded Bush’s rise to the top and whose job it is now to keep him there.

1973 is Bush's "lost year." He didn't enter politics until 1978.

Cleveland Plain Dealer on Christian Reconstructionist Ahmanson.

I wrote about this guy here.

Public Eye has some more.

Top 10 things the Sunday Shows ignored about Bill Frist.

Neo-Confederate secessionist supporting racist Robert Stacy McCain has an article in the Washington Times today.

Alas, A Blog gives us another INS roundup update. (I swear, I try to find these stories but only Ampersand seems to have them...) Short version is not that many men are left in detention, though there are still "conflicting reports"(lies) about how many had actually been arrested in the first place. The good news is, as Charles Dodgson points out, that INS seems to be acting a bit embarrassed by the whole thing.

Either Michael Medved Wrote This...

Or I've had a hell of a lot to drink tonight.

Meanwhile, Sean Hannity on his Fox News program reminded viewers: "We have back in October of this year, William Jefferson Clinton, in Arkansas saying wonderful things, what a remarkable man J. William Fulbright, former senator from Arkansas is, a known segregationist. He gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, a known segregationist, one of 19 senators who issued a statement entitled 'The Southern Manifesto,' condemning the '54 Supreme Court decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, defending segregation. Why hasn't anyone condemned Bill Clinton for doing far worse than what Trent Lott has done here?"

The answer to that question is easy – because Clinton's praise for his former mentor, Fulbright, never emphasized or even cited his segregationist record, but stressed his better known service as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No one objected to Clinton honoring Fulbright, just as no one protested Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond, the man. In fact, many Democratic senators offered their own fulsome tributes to their elderly colleague, and expressed overall respect for his long career. But only Trent Lott specifically endorsed Thurmond's disgraceful third-party presidential adventure, and expressed the wish that a segregationist had captured the White House.

Military Pay Hike Rollback

The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., recently asked the Defense Department to lower the 2004 pay raise from its expected 3.7 percent to 2 percent. Daniels also wants future raises tied to inflation, rather than basing boosts on what civilians doing comparable jobs in the private sector might make.

Slick Willie, come back...

I do not presume to speak for the military, but I am now speaking to them,” Cheney said. “To all of our men and women in uniform, and to their parents and families: Help is on the way!” - during the '00 campaign

Gary Farber's back after a semi-hiatus.

Brief movie reviews

Saw Star Trek Nemesis. You feel like if someone with half a brain had spent 15 minutes doing some script doctoring it would've actually been a really good movie. But, since we never really know why any of the characters do anything that they do, the whole thing feels pointless.

Two Towers was great - though the first 15 minutes were confusing and clumsy, but after that it was impressive. Never seen CGI/live interaction handled as well as they did with Gollum.

provide your own caption




(real one here)

Lott's a martyr.

Asked in an interview with The Associated Press whether he was disappointed in a lack of support from President Bush in keeping his post, Lott said:

"I don't think there's any use in trying to say I'm disappointed in anybody or anything. An inappropriate remark brought this down on my head."

However, he said there were those who had been gunning for his resignation.

"There are some people in Washington who have been trying to nail me for a long time," Lott said. "When you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian, there are a lot of people that don't like that. I fell into their trap and so I have only myself to blame."

He wouldn't say who those political enemies were.

Talking outside his home here, Lott again said his comments at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party were not malicious and he repeated his pledge to turn the experience into positive action as he finishes his term in the Senate.

"I feel very strongly about my faith. God has put this burden on me, I believe he'll show me a way to turn it into a good," Lott said.

David Broder thinks blowjob=advocating segregation. Ah, that liberal media.

I don't think I've made clear why the Frist/HCA/abortion issue is, well, an issue.

First, it's clear that Frist is no ideological anti-choicer, he's an opportunistic one. This is another way of saying he lies about it. Fair enough. As a pro-choice person that could be a good thing, but it also mean he's willing to play politics with women's health issues which is rather repugnant.

Second, to the extent that he's advocated for government restrictions on abortion (and he has adopted the morally unsound position that it's only okay in case of rape, incest, or the when the life of the mother is in danger), this is another example of public morality differing from private morality. It frankly isn't much different than advocating a legal anti-choice position, then driving your wife to the abortion clinic. For the First family business to be, partially, an abortion provider without him taking a public stand on the issue implies he puts profits over his morality. While I am glad that Columbia hospitals will do abortion procedures unlike, say, Catholic hospitals, this doesn't change the inherent moral cowardice, from Frist's supposed perspective.

On balance, I'd rather have a fake pro-life senate majority leader than a real one, but the anti-choice movement has had much success in recent years. In some states there are only one or two abortion providers - which means it is almost impossible for most women to obtain real health care. The rhetorical legitimization of this position, especially from someone who is essentially lying about their moral stance, is in itself damaging.

I notice many of you have been doing your holiday shopping at the last minute...naughty naughty... but, thanks for throwing a few nickles my way by using the amazon link.

Lovely.

There's no place on earth that Amina Budri would rather be than America.

Against the altered political landscapes of her Afghan homeland and that of her chosen land – and despite the uniform welcome that the rest of her family received here – federal immigration authorities in North Texas are poised to banish the 29-year-old to a nation long foreign to her and a culture hostile to solitary women.

Ms. Budri, alone among nine siblings in failing to secure political asylum in the United States or Canada, was granted a temporary delay Thursday from immediate deportation.

She remains under order to return to Afghanistan, however, unless she wins a new review of her case, including evidence of her family's Afghan political ties that apparently was never considered by an immigration court.

If someone sees the follow up to this, make sure you bring it to my attention please.

(via Alas, a Blog)

Where I used to live there were a large number of immigrants - legal - from Cape Verde. A problem was that some of the younger ones - who had been in the U.S. since they were small children and were now young adults - were being deported back to Cape Verde after committing minor crimes. Many of them spoke no Portugese.

Wartime speech codes have apparently been instituted by decree from Tennessee.

Whistleblowers "Man"of the Year

NEW YORK (AP) - The FBI agent who wrote a scathing memo on FBI intelligence failures and women who blew the whistle on corruption at corporate giants Enron and WorldCom were named Sunday as Time magazine's Persons of the Year.

The magazine's editors chose Coleen Rowley, Cynthia Cooper and Sherron Watkins "for believing - really believing - that the truth is one thing that must not be moved off the books, and for stepping in to make sure that it wasn't.

Time says:

Senator Bill Frist, M.D.— the only surgeon in the Senate — is about as far from pro-choice as you can get. That distinction added striking power to his announcement this week that he supports embryonic stem cell research, albeit within a strictly regulated framework.

Ailes notes that Peeger Nooner is speaking in code when she refers cryptically to the "school liberation movement."

I just want to say again that, snark aside, the fact that the Frist Family Business makes money providing abortions is no small bit of hypocrisy given his stated position and voting record on the subject. There is something truly odious about having the *private* power to affect something but abandoning that avenue, for money, and instead trying to implement your agenda with policy. Or, in reality, not trying to implement it but posturing about it.

And, yes, blahblah it's his brother's company not his, but he's made a lot of money off of it and as far as I know hasn't taken a stand on the company's policy.

This is BIG hypocrisy of the most disgusting kind.


more on this later...(time allowing)

To the Barricades has another post worth reading.


Just remember: It ain't just the South. It's in the mountains of Oregon and Idaho; it's in the sandhills of Nebraska; it's in the central valley of California. It's everywhere that change comes and frightens people and makes them yearn for days that never happened.


UPDATE: David Neiwert adds:

To the Barricades, who writes from Nebraska, certainly knows whereof he speaks.

It is becoming increasingly clear that among the voters to whom George W. Bush and the GOP make appeals are right-wing extremists. There have been a number of instances well outside the South (where the neo-Confederate appeal has been clear) in which leaders of various extreme right-wing factions, from militiamen to neo-Nazis, have indicated a clear identification with Bush.

This of course is not to say that Bush sympathizes with their philosophies. Rather it is simply clear that certain gestures and appeals that he makes are enough to persuade these voters that he is their kind of president.

The mass of these votes used to go to the Reform Party, until Pat Buchanan took over and ran with a black woman for a running mate. That, combined with the "dire threat" posed by Gore's selection of a Jew as a running mate, drove many of these voters to the GOP in 2000. Witness, for instance, the presence of Don Black's Stormfront folks protesting on Bush's behalf at the Florida recount fiascoes.

The significance of this is the way the increased traffic between the extremist and mainstream right wings is transforming each faction. And since the mainstream is by far the larger faction, one has to be concerned about the amount that the poisonous ideologies of the extreme right are seeping into the mainstream.

This trend began to emerge in the 1990s on two fronts: first, the white-supremacist movement was remaking itself as the "militia" movement as a way of gaining entree into the mainstream; and the mainstream right's excessive attacks on Bill Clinton, which often emerged from a radical-right echo chamber. The Bush-identification phenomenon means that the mainstream and extremist right have become even tighter in their associations.

This will become an important factor, I fear, if the Democrats pose any kind of serious threat to the Bush regime in 2004.

Note how Bush distances himself from the Anti-lott contigent:

No bigotry. Lott's withdrawal as Senate leader gives the president the opportunity to renew his campaign to prove he is a different kind of Republican, without the complication of working with a man tainted as a sometime defender of segregation. In the interview, Bush was eager, for the first time, to detail his views on America's continuing racial divide. But just 48 hours before Lott stepped down, Bush said Lott "shouldn't leave his position." The president did not want to give Lott the final public shove, even while his allies were working behind the scenes to force Lott out. "My attitude about race is that we ought to confront bigotry, all forms of bigotry," Bush said, "and I believe the American–I know the American people are good, honorable, decent people. And occasionally the bigot has his day. I don't think Trent Lott is a bigot. I find him to be a, you know, he's a friend. . . . My job is to continue to work for an America that welcomes all and that is nondiscriminatory, and I will do that."

A bit of justice perhaps...

Awhile back a Mississippi judge wrote this letter to the editor:


Dear Editor:

I got sick on my stomach today as I read the (AP) news story on the Dog attack on the front page of THE MISSISSIPPI PRESS and had to respond! AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE!

I never thought that we would see the day when such would be here in AMERICA.

The last verse of chapter one of the book of Romans in our HOLY BIBLE is my reason for responding and sounding the alarm to this. You need to know as I know that God in Heaven is not pleased with this, and I am sounding the alarm that I, for one, am against it and want our LORD to see and hear me say I am against it.

I am sorry that the California Legislature enacted a law granting gay partners the same right to sue as spouses or family members. Also, that Hawaii and Vermont have enacted such a law, too. In my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of a mental institute instead of having a law like this passed for them.

I don't know, but I believe if we vote for folks that are for this we have to stand in the judgment of GOD the same as them. I am thankful for our Legislators and pray for wisdom for them, on such unbelievable legislation as this. May GOD bless each one of them in JESUS CHRIST's name I pray!

Thank you for printing this.

Connie Glenn Wilkerson


Now that the country has purged itself of its last racist by deposing Trent Lott, perhaps we can move on to anti-gay bigotry. This bastard is a judge, you see - using his religion to justify his bigotry. Anyone wanna bet how much "justice" a gay man might actually get in his court?

There is at least this outcome:

(Atlanta, Friday, December 20, 2002) — A state commission on judicial conduct today recommended that the Mississippi Supreme Court penalize a local judge who publicly advocated that gays and lesbians should be institutionalized. The recommendation is in response to an ethics complaint Lambda Legal filed with the commission earlier this year, saying that the judge's comments clearly violated the state's Code of Judicial Conduct and indicated that he would not decide cases involving gays and lesbians fairly and impartially.

Today's recommendation marks only the second time that a judicial commission in the South has recommended penalizing a judge for anti-gay bias and is the first such recommendation in Mississippi. Mississippi and a growing number of states explicitly include sexual orientation in their codes of conduct that prohibit judges from demeaning people based on gender, race, religion and other factors.

"This is a significant step forward for Mississippi and for the South," said Greg Nevins, the staff attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office handling the ethics complaint on behalf of Equality Mississippi, a statewide gay civil rights group. "Judges are duty-bound to give a fair hearing to everyone, and these kinds of extremely homophobic statements make gays and lesbians, who often face an uphill battle for equality, feel that the justice system is closed off to them."

So, maybe there's some progress...

Nebraska Right to Life Director charged with Felony

good.

Liberal Desert goes for the trifecta on Lott, Noonan, and Kaus.

Get Your War On rocks. So, go buy the book. Not just because it rocks, but because all royalties are going to Mine Detection and Dog Center Team #5. These guys rock too.



Don't wanna buy the book? Go give some money to Adopt-A-Minefield instead.

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

ABC's "This Week" -- Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

------

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.; Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.

------

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- First lady Laura Bush; former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington.

------

CNN's "Late Edition" -- Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.; Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind.; Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal; former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal.

------

"Fox News Sunday" -- Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind.; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Alas, A Blog has a comprehensive update on the INS roundups including this from the ACLU.

...the agency recently failed to process more than 200,000 change of address forms and then unceremoniously dumped them in the largest underground records facility in the world – an abandoned mine near Kansas City – putting hundreds of thousands at risk of wrongful arrest and deportation for failing to report a change of address.

I know this is hard for many people to understand, but most violations of immigration law are actually no different than violations of traffic law. I don't mean violations of the "sneaking over the border" type, I'm talking about violations of the "line 17 on Form XV3-342-234-vv3-1 was incorrectly filled out" type or of the "the INS didn't send me my goddamn paperwork AGAIN" type. If the government wants to treat those things seriously, they have to first start doing their part.

Look, I've traveled and worked in other countries. And, when I did so at various times I was probably in violation of the equivalent types of things. Frankly, it's almost impossible to *not* be if some bureaucrat decides you are. I'm glad those governments didn't decide to arrest me.

John Pod talks about bloggers (and MEMEME) on On the Media. You can listen here.

and skippy writes a letter to the L.A. Times about Ms. Vincent.

Also, Larry Kestenbaum was on NPR yesterday talking about his website the Political Graveyard. Was a nice interview.

Mark Kleiman wrote a nice long post. And, you should go read it.

But, it's late, I'm grumpy, and frankly tired of this game, so let me sum it up for you: cut the crap, fools. Because, well, most of us aren't..

And, while I'm in this grumpy mode, go read Nathan Newman telling people who think that social security screws blacks to cut the crap, fools. Because, well, most of us aren't.


Then, go read Body and Soul tell us, in many parts, why the self-righteous condemnations of Lott don't mean squat unless you're also calling for Ashcroft's resignation. In other words, cut the crap, fools. Because, well, most of us aren't.

Senator Troll

TNR exposes the Senate's evil little troll. (and, yes, they do call him that up on the Hill...)

(via Josh Marshall)

Hello Guardian Readers. Here's the document the article was referring to. And make sure to check out the thoughts of American ex-pat-in-London Avedon Carol.

Throughout all this Lott mess something's been bothering me. I would say, roughly, that the difference between Left and Right on racial issues in this country isn't as some seem to think a policy difference but rather a difference in perception . Those on the Left generally think that racism is still a problem which adversely effects racial minorities enough that we should formulate a policy response to the problem, while those on the Right don''t. There are enough people on both sides who agree that there is a problem but debate about what should be done about it, but I do think the predominant difference is the perception issue.

However, soon after the Lott thing broke we heard plenty of Republicans screaming "look at all the Democrats who are racists too!"

Fine, fair enough. But if there are all those racists in the top levels of government, don't we have a problem?

The first step in the application process for permanent residency. Make sure you dot the i's or Ashcroft will take you away!

PLA has a must-read post about thimerosal, autism, and some other stuff he's too nice about.

From Whitehouse.org

Good afternoon. Please be seated. As you know, this morning Senator Trent Lott pretended to voluntarily relinquish the position of Senate Majority Leader. And while I was saddened to semi-violently force his hand in the matter, I was left with no other choice, what with the news media having suddenly awakened from a decades-long journalistic coma and started digging around in broad daylight for dirt on GOP racism. As such, much as I applaud Senator Lott's voting record on keeping the coloreds in their place and trying to nix that dumb Martin Lawrence King Day thing, unfortunately, the black cat's out of the body bag, and so Trent must go.

You know, in taking issue with Cass Ballenger's comments about McKinney, TAPPED doesn't exactly hit the, uh, right note when they admonish him for using the word "bitch" by telling him that this isn't a "rap video." WTF? I'm sure TAPPED could have said something like 'This is congress, not the locker room at Burning Tree' and made their point a bit better. No wonder Uppity Negro is starting to hate everyone...

Jesse's taking nominations for the year's 20 most annoying conservatives.

Only 20?...

Well, anyone who has followed the good Dr. Laura knows that in addition to her colorful past not matching her present moralizing, her present didn't either. Despite her insistence on the importance of family, and of honoring your father and mother in particular, it appears that she didn't communicate with her mother too often.

Bye bye Trent.


(phew...I told Mrs. Atrios he'd be gone be the weekend and she was starting to doubt my powers of prediction...)

Political Pulpit sends us this one.

Responding to Sen. Trent Lott's recent comments, Rep. Cass Ballenger told a newspaper he has had "segregationist feelings" himself after conflicts with a black colleague.

Ballenger, a North Carolina Republican, said former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., so provoked him that "I must I admit I had segregationist feelings."

"If I had to listen to her, I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling," Ballenger told The Charlotte Observer in Friday's editions. "But I think everybody can look at my life and what I've done and say that's not true. I mean, she was such a bitch."

Clueless on so many levels...

Due to losing my power supply until those bastards at Dell send me another one, the lemonade stand here might operate at less than peak efficiency, including answering emails (which I'm pretty bad about anyway..)

Charles Kuffner lets you vote on my secret identity.

Next week: guess the location of the bat-cave!

Charles Dodgson notes the joys of old-fashioned cheap drugs. Beg your doctor for them, they might save your life. Besides, they're cheaper.

Eric Alterman pokes some holes in the Augusta conspiracy:

The anger, moreover, is curious because Times coverage has hardly been out of whack with the rest of the nation's newspapers. As of December 3 it had published four fewer stories than the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's thirty-seven, where Augusta is a local story, and just slightly more than the Los Angeles Times (twenty-seven pieces), USA Today (twenty-four) and the Washington Post (twenty-two).

(insert obligatory Mickey Kaus joke here)

Talk Left has some more about the INS roundups.

"One attorney, who said he saw a 16-year- old boy pulled from the arms of his crying mother, called it madness to believe the registration requirements would catch terrorists. "

"His mother is 6 1/2 months pregnant. They told the mother he is never going to come home -- she is losing her mind," said attorney Soheila Jonoubi, who spent Wednesday amid the chaos of the downtown INS office attempting to determine the status of her clients. Jonoubi said the mother has permanent residence status and that her husband, the boy's stepfather, is a U.S. citizen. The teenager came to the country in July on a student visa and was on track to gain permanent residence, the lawyer said."

A 16 year old who entered this country lawfully is permanently separated from his parents who are legal residents? That makes us sick to even think about. What country is this? We don't recognize it as America. But we can tell you whose country it is: Bush and Ashcroft's.

I couldn't believe the last time I got in an airplane. I had to wait 15 extra minutes while I was searched, and the jackbooted thugs in airline security took my keychain ornament. Sure, it was in the shape of a miniature gun, but IS THIS AMERICA?!?!!

"Cat-Killer" Frist is a major shareholder in HCA.


Yeah, it's in blind trust yadda yadda yadda, but it's all HCA stock practically.

Oh, and they perform ABORTIONS there. Freepers are pissed. I mean, how can you be against legal abortion when the family business does them....

All links broken, so if you're linking here just link to the main site and tell people what to look for, and if I've linked to anyone and it isn't working just go to their main page..

eRiposte has some must-read comments about the INS roundups.

Look folks - imagine you're dealing with your DMV. Imagine Flunky #1 messes up your driver's license application and tells you to come down to the office. Then, when you do go down to the office as requested Flunky #2 notices you drove there AND you don't have your driver's license (because, well, they screwed up your application). Flunky #2's boss recently decided they now had a no-tolerance policy on such things and he has you arrested and thrown in jail.

Then, of course it doesn't stop there. The special DMV judge operates his own special DMV court which has its own rules. Speedy trial? Nah. You could be there awhile. Who will support your family? Who knows. Chances for appeal? Not really.

The DMV judge deports you back to a country you haven't lived in for 10-15 years. Your American children wave goodbye, as does your wife.


But, enough of that, I've got to go work on my next Tech Central Station column about the inconveniences of airline security for business travelers and my Fox News column about startling new evidence that Michael Bellesiles is a pedophile.

Mark Kleiman responds to the Volokh conspiracy over the Sheetheads.

Rittenhouse Review takes Norah to task.

Argh. Laptop power supply suicide.

Ward Connerly - lunatic?

I think Herbert's column makes that point pretty clear:


"Supporting segregation need not be racist," said Mr. Connerly. "One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races."

oh boy.

Now we know where David Frum is coming from when he says:

There isn’t a more inspiring political figure in America than Ward Connerly.

Look, Connerly's statement just doesn't fly in the face the view of any non-mouthbreathing people that "separate but equal" is Not Okay - it also completely goes against his own "colorblind California" initiative. It's unclear how the collection of statistics by race is "racism" while explicity support of segregation is not. Where do they get these people?


Jesse has more.


And, while we're on this, the number of African-Americans who have been given bonus points and been admitted to this list of elite schools can't possibly come close to the number of legacy admissions.

Princeton: 12.4%; 11.6% (different years)
Yale: 13.4%
U. of Penn.: 10%
Brown: 7%; "about 10%" (different years)
Columbia: 6%
Cornell: 13%
U. of Chicago: "just over 5 percent"
Bucknell: 5.6%
Boston College: 12.1%
Holy Cross: 10.7%
Wake Forest: "about 8%"
Johns Hopkins: 12.4%
Notre Dame: 23%; 22% (different years)
Ithaca College: 1.8%
U. of Virginia: 12.6%
U. of Rochester: 5.4%
Amherst: 10%
Middlebury: 5%
Colby: 4%
Villanova: 7%

These legacy admissions are, at least at the moment, strongly racist in *effect* if not intent, as past admissions and discrimination practices by these schools ensure that a disproportionate number of white applicants are "legacies." The racist policies of the past still have their legacy (ha ha!) today.