John McCandlish Phillips on Various Columnists

John McCandlish Phillips on Various Columnists

By the very title of John McCandlish Phillips' Washington Post column, "When Columnists Cry 'Jihad', I strongly sensed that he wished to rouse emotions of distrust and fear in the average conservative Christian. I am dismayed by this, because, for the sake of the strength of a democratic America, I hope to see reconciliation between the people who call themselves fundamentalists (or born-agains) and so many other Americans who do not share that particular belief. Look at how the 21st century began - with our nation being drawn into Islam’s civil war, which is a war between those who idolize a political and authoritarian religiously-based society and those who champion a traditional, civil, and peaceful Islam of many varied voices. Why do we not see that something similar could happen here in America when political leaders like Tom DeLay admit he believes God is training him in government by divine guidance and a Biblical worldview? That, my friends, is a theocrat who is the majority leader of the American ('small d' - and getting smaller) democratic House.

Mr. Phillips has used what seem to be carefully-selected words from various columnists, and has promoted the most negative version of the often-misunderstood term "jihad". Many Muslims (especially the Sufis) conceive of jihad as a personal rather than a political struggle and do not connect the term with violence against others at all. For example, withdrawal from the world to attend to mystical pursuits constitutes jihad. If monks are to retreat to a monastery to attend to all things mystical, does that mean they want to fly airplanes into buildings?

When Mr. Phillips said:

If [columnist Frank] Rich were to have the misfortune to live for one week in a genuine jihad, and the unlikely fortune to survive it, he would temper his categorization of the perceived President Bush-driven jihad by a minimum of 77 percent.

..his intellectual honesty, as far as I'm concerned, went flying out of the belfry. "Genuine" jihad? I know that Mr. Phillips is not an ignorant man. I understand the meaning of persuasive writing, yet I can't help but think this is a fear-based misleading, because I realize that the average American hears "Jihad" and automatically thinks of Mohammed Atta and Osama Bin Laden. I imagine John McCandlish Phillips knows that, too - very well. I wonder if Mr. Phillips, like so many conservative Christians today, are lashing out in pain, believing they are misunderstood?

This culture war continues to be waged by Conservative Far Right Religious Leaders against secular modernity, against the checks and balances protected by the U.S. Constitution, against the independent Judiciary, and against the American way. I know there are concerned and tolerant Americans who are becoming conscious of the futility of and the reasons for the ugly culture war, and they will look for real leaders who will not use or abuse their faith to manipulate them.

The narrow theological agenda that the theocratic right is imposing on our secular society will not stand. We won't stand for it. The movement values guns and the death penalty. It values the rich at the expense of the poor. It favors corporations at the expense of individuals. It seeks to eliminate virtually all regulations that protect the environment, worker safety, and public health. The political ramifications run against my own personal Christian faith.

I respect Mr. Phillips faith, but I surely cannot abide by his political stance.

Mr Phillips, still referring to columnist Frank Rich, raised the spectre of revolutionary visions of gay marriage. I can easily understand how, after reading Mr. Phillips' piece, that conservative Christian readers might believe the radical revolution is coming from gays (who have been with us from time immortal), rather than admitting that the real radicals are the conservative leaders of the Theocratic Far Right who have been, in truth, trying very hard - for a very long time - to perform a surgical reconstruction of the U.S. Constitution by their religious triumphalism, and worse, with the willing help of the GOP.

When Maureen Dowd wrote "Oh my God, we really are in a theocracy," most New York Times readers are savvy enough to know she was being wry. Mr. Phillips warned someone (just who's he warning, anyhow?) that Maureen shouldn't be taken "lightly". He's right, I think. Maureen has a good point, once you sort through her envelope-pushing satire. Mr. Phillips recognizes her heavy artillery and he is biting back - yet, his bark is worse than his bite if you read what he says about Maureen. It's toothless. He's gumming away at her reality-based snipe-fest, perhaps hoping for an angry or fearful reaction that could only come from red-meat Conservatives. (That answers my question about who he's "warning".)

Worst of all, Mr. Phillips has given the average American reader no credit at all for our belief in upholding the U.S. Constitution and supporting the Establishment Clause while still understanding and respecting all people of faith. I can hardly believe he felt he had to defend born-agains and Catholics in the way he chose (especially since I am a Catholic myself):

I have met hundreds of evangelicals and a good many practicing Catholics and have found them to be of reasonable temperament, often enough of impressive accomplishment, certainly not a menace to the republic, unless, of course, the very fact of faith seriously held is thought to make them just that.

I think to myself: How dare he presume that someone like myself would think any different about these people of faith? I am a Catholic American, many of my closest friends profess the born-again faith. How dare Mr. Phillips make them believe that someone like myself thinks my fellow Christians are raving lunatics? I certainly do not, and I am powerfully sorry for Mr. Phillips if he truly believes most Americans feel that way about people who call themselves conservative Christians.

Mr. Phillips ended his piece with a triumphal claim to theocracy-in-democratic-government by touting the national day of Thanksgiving as proof that God can mix with State and it's all hunky-dory. I recall the story of the first Thanksgiving which inspired the national day's declaration. The Native Americans were allegedly invited to celebrate with the Puritan immigrants after their first harvest in the New World. The Native Americans then had their land stolen and raped by 'Christians'. In 1779, ten years before the first Thanksgiving to God was proclaimed, Washington ordered Haudenosaunee villages burned to the ground in a post-Revolution punitive action. Later, Manifest Destiny made it perfectly acceptable to forget what was morally right or wrong. Expansion at all costs - and slavery - were acceptable to some men who claimed to live by 'Christian principles'. I'm not making any of this up. Read your American history books. The land was stolen. Thou shalt not steal.

What sins, today, will be acceptable to the Religious Far Right leaders in their electoral affinity with the Neocons and the GOP? This is something we need to carefully ask ourselves.

I wish Mr. Phillips, who I believe is a gifted writer, could have appealed less to fear and mistrust and could have, instead, simply written a piece with a tone similar to the one David Brooks wrote this week. I actually thought Brooks did a decent job on his piece titled Stuck In Lincoln's Land. All opinion columnists could do well in pushing the fear-and-division envelope less and giving us more fact-based opinion. Speak to and try to appeal to the "Middle faith", not the red meat; not the extremists. It's a huge turn-off, frankly.
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"Most people of faith in the U.S. are not right wing or left wing. The U.S. is made up of the religious middle, decent people who do what their doctor tells them and what their president tells them.”

-Rev. Bob Edgar

Andrew Sullivan on UK Election and NRO

Andrew Sullivan on UK Election and NRO

Andrew Sullivan says, that while he agrees with almost all of a recent NRO article on the British election,

it is weird to read in NRO the following sentence:

[The Tories] have the leisure, the time, and the stability to rethink their distinctly timid economic strategy and to invest in building and selling a new one rooted in limited government.

So NRO now supports limited government? So why have they not blasted consistently at George W. Bush's complete abandonment of limited government and fiscal balance? As I have written before, Tony Blair's incremental increase in government spending is pure Thatcherism compared to Bush's big government explosion. Wouldn't it be great if NRO actually used the same principles it deploys against Blair and Howard against Bush? And don't give me the excuse of occasional pathetic worries about Bush's spending. If a Democrat had Bush's record, NRO's assault on him would be daily and relentless. Draw your own conclusions.

It isn't hard to figure out, Andrew. Thanks for pointing out the hyposcrisy.

Frederick Clarkson On Dominionism and Democracy

Frederick Clarkson On Dominionism and Democracy

Frederick Clarkson talks about the success of last weekend's conference on Examining the Agenda of the Religious Far Right.



CUNY Conference - Clarkson is 2nd from the left
photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

He also talks about his new Talk2Action blog.

Mr. Clarkson also mentions the free pass Pat Robertson always seems to get. (Remember when he wanted to blow up Foggy Bottom?) This past Sunday, on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopolis, Pat Robertson, founder of The Christian Coalition, claimed that the threat posed by the federal judiciary is "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings." Robertson gets a roll of the eyes from us, but if Rev. Al Sharpton said something like that, Sean Hannity would be talking about it for three solid hyperbolic weeks.

Corrente lists Clarkson's, and some others' recent comments on "Christian Supremacist Watch".

Barbara has some current articles worth reading on this topic at her site.

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The lovely Dawn Xiana Moon reminds us of James 1:27:

"Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us."

Someone asks her a question about this passage and offers a declaratory statement at the end:

"If caring for the orphans and widows, etc. is the Christian responsibility and not the governmental responsibility (as I believe) then how is that supposed to work in a land offering welfare, Medicaid, and all manner of gov't assistance? I believe we're all called to go farther than we have already gone."

The person is missing the point. If we were to remove ourselves from politics and refuse to participate as citizens in our election process, we would be knowingly failing those for whom we are asked to be especially caring and responsible.

Individual people of faith who are charged, by their faith,to care about the widows, orphans, and those in poverty must be responsible for solemnly determining which politicians we select who would best carry that duty forward with what we believe is the most virtuous and effective public policy. The world can corrupt you by misleading you and allowing you to take your eye off the goal of James' Biblical prescription. If you were to closely examine how the elderly and those in poverty are suffering more because of the policies of the Bush administration, James just might remind you that you've allowed a false and misleading message to corrupt your honest aim to keep the promise necessary to hold pure faith and charity toward those in your communities who are in real need. Food banks are helpful, but look around you and understand that public policy can create better opportunity for the
poor than tithing could ever do. James isn't asking you, in that Bible passage, to abandon, hate or distrust your American government. He's asking you not to lose your soul and to stay awake in your faith. His words find you where you are - in the society into which you were born. You are Americans! Be responsible ones. Be patriotic and Christian at the same time. Thanks to our Founding Fathers, you are allowed to be both and there is little conscientious reconciliation required.

Democrats Excommunicated From NC Baptist Church

Democrats Excommunicated From NC Baptist Church

Scrutiny Hooligans, Anonymoses, and Daily Kos have a story about a Baptist Church in Western North Carolina which has excommunicated Democrats for not supporting George W. Bush in the last election! See the story HERE.

East Waynesville Baptist Church asked nine of its members to leave when Pastor Chan Chandler gave them an ultimatum, saying if they didn't support George Bush, they should resign or repent. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. The minister has declined interviews, but he has said that "the actions were not politically motivated."

Does he think we were born again yesterday?

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The People For the American Way has made the following statement:

Following the report that nine members of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in western North Carolina were excommunicated because they did not support President Bush in the election, Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the American Way Foundation, had the following statement:

“What have we come to when the doors of a church are closed to longtime members because of their political beliefs? When a pastor equates political support for the ‘wrong’ candidate with a sin before God?

“I would say to Senator Frist and Karl Rove that this is what comes of attempts to manipulate religion for political gain. Americans simply will not accept the claim that ‘unless you accept my political beliefs, you cannot be a good Christian.’

“This nation was founded on respect for religious belief, and tolerance for religious diversity. Men and women of faith have every right to advocate for their political beliefs. While churches, of course, can set their own membership standards, no one should punish people of faith for their political beliefs.

“This is terribly sad. I urge the President to express his opposition to all attempts to manipulate faith for political gain.”

UPDATE -
See: "Church boots 9 over politics - Politics divides Baptists in Waynesville"
By KRISTIN COLLINS, Staff Writer, News & Observer

Asheville Citizen-Times stories HEREand HERE

Edwards:"Americans, We're In This Together"

John Edwards:
"Americans, We're In This Together"

With insight and humor, David K. Beckwith recommends that John Edwards, being sincere about his vision and wanting to reduce the numbers in poverty, should

"...entertain the possibility that one might educate those who are not actually impoverished, that there is no wrong in having just enough, and that it can be argued that it may well be the preferred state. Aside from Taoists and Buddhists teachings, once can reach into Christianity, the sermons of Eckhart on Poverty, for example, to show that less is indeed more…in other words, isolate out those who truly need help, and focus on them first and foremost. Too often, the aid only goes to agencies and sinecures and amanuenses, whose condition, though banal, is far from dire.

Additionally, and similarly, he might apply the same sermons and principles to the billionaires of our day, who need money like they need a supererogatory cranial ingress, or more commonly, a hole in the head."

In a Salon article by Peter Dizikes, one of Edwards' unique political advantages is laid out:

Edwards is in the most unusual position of all the potential Democratic hopefuls: Outside of the formal structure of his own party, unable to burnish his political resumé by conventional means, and unable to use political office to gain media attention.

He describes Edwards' current approach to the social values and ethics-aspect of issues that he once blanketed simply as "moral causes":

"..instead of just dubbing certain issues moral causes, as Edwards did last year, he is now basing his claims on some first principles. Work, Edwards claims, is not just an economic abstraction but an inherently social activity. Work is how people provide for their families and, in many cases, define their civic participation."

In America, we cannot succeed unless we work together. A team falls apart when its members' individual interests override the greater good of the team's goal. When this occurs, you can believe that achieving a strong, free nation with a healthy democracy is easily forgotten. On any team, you must have a goal. True patriotism means staying involved as a team member, setting aside excessive self-interest for the good of the team, and having an open government which facilitates citizen participation. Without the team and consideration of all its members, you lose freedom, opportunity, legal protections, and worst of all - you lose sight of your goal. It seems we've lost sight of many of our goals in the past few years, and the slow-killing of social democracy and further enriching, through policy reform, of the already-wealthy by the Bush administration has clearly been a driving force in the loss of American achievement, opportunity, and equality.

"The truth is nobody earns his or her money alone," Edwards said at the New School. "They earn it thanks to America. They earn it because America protects private property, enforces contracts, and yes, punishes torts ... So nobody goes it alone, and everybody has a responsibility to help everybody get ahead." We are, Edwards wants Americans to remember, in this together. If you don't accept that point, Edwards claims, you do not understand American history....."

Dizikes quotes Edwards on the stereotypes that exist, used often by the Right to blur the lines and diminish support for government aid for those living in real and inescapable poverty. The recently passed Bankruptcy Bill was a glaring example of how Republicans (and a few from the Democratic party) have lost touch with the reality of the economic situation of many common American citizens.

Unlike [Former President Bill] Clinton, Edwards seems eager to combat age-old shibboleths abetting conservative ideology -- like the myth that poor people are lazy, and thus not morally worthy of help. At Harvard Edwards described a meeting with poor families where he was struck by "how hard people wanted to work and how much they wanted to take care of their families. I know there's a stereotype that exists out there, but a lot of people who live in poverty don't fit that model."

In the latest Harpers magazine, Gordon Bigelow discussed the evangelical roots of economics, describing economics, when channeled by media and politics, as the "cosmology and theodicy of our contemporary culture." He describes early "faith-based initiatives" in British economic policy, where evangelical Anglicans did not understand poverty as a problem to be fixed, but instead saw it as a spiritual condition. The workhouses of Dickens' day were not supposed to help children prepare for life - they were supposed to save their souls. When I read Edwards' quote from the Salon article, it reminded me of the old workhouse theory, which is frighteningly espoused, in nature, by the GOP's recent attempts to cut off the checks and balances necessary to maintain a balanced independent Judiciary and to sandwich religious intolerance into their reform policies:

"All of us know the Bible says the poor will always be with us, and some people use that as an excuse to do nothing,"

Downing Street Memo Reveals Truth About Intelligence Manipulation

Downing Street Memo Reveals Truth About Intelligence Manipulation

Semidi is reporting that the "secret Downing Street memo" is now posted online. Matthew Rycroft, who was a Downing Street foreign policy aide, wrote:

Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

I've heard nothing in the media about it. Only in Bushworld would citizens not be going crazy with anger after seeing, in black and white, that the Bush administration massaged the intelligence like you would push 500 pounds of bread dough into a sandwich-sized ziploc baggie.

Generation Engaged

Generation Engaged

At the One America website, Cate Edwards has blogged about a new organization which was started by Adrian and Devin Talbott after the last election. It's called Generation Engage, and it is a non-partisan group geared towards getting young people involved in the world of politics. Generation Engage allows its members to become a part of something bigger, a national movement of engaged young people committed to ensuring that their voices are heard. Young people have been unable to unite or coalesce behind a single issue or organization, as other age groups and demographics have. Generation Engage hopes to create a network that defines itself by inclusion, a community that welcomes and joins all young people in a national political discourse.

You may join the network HERE.

Thom Hartmann: The Frauds of the Clergy

Thom Hartmann: The Frauds of the Clergy

If you examine the Founding documents of this country, you will realize how the leaders of the GOP, in their electoral affinity with the Religious Far Right, would deliberately mislead American citizens in order to co-opt themselves and their corporate patrons in the destruction (by reconstruction) of the U.S. Constitution.

Thom Hartmann, whose article is well worth reading, says:

"The merger of corporatist Republicans and the new "frauds of the clergy" could bring this nation to an even more terrible crossroad, unless Americans of good conscience contact their members of the Senate to support Jefferson's and Madison's ideal of democracy.

The number to reach any member of the Senate is 202-224-3121."

One Soldier Shoots: By Faith or By Orders?

One Soldier Shoots: By Faith or By Orders?

I saw a column today in the New York Times written by Bob Herbert. It deals, in part, with a topic that is very, very hard for us to talk about. Yet, if we fail to talk about it, nothing will get better.

The column deals with a conscientious objector who raises some extremely disturbing charges about some things he saw happening, with his own eyes, in Iraq.

There was a statement, toward the end of the column, that seemed to have been added at the end to have maximum effect upon our faith consciousness.

It says:

Mr. Delgado, who eventually got conscientious objector status and was honorably discharged last January, recalled a disturbance that occurred while he was working in the Abu Ghraib motor pool. Detainees who had been demonstrating over a variety of grievances began throwing rocks at the guards. As the disturbance grew, the Army authorized lethal force. Four detainees were shot to death.

Mr. Delgado confronted a sergeant who, he said, had fired on the detainees. "I asked him," said Mr. Delgado, "if he was proud that he had shot unarmed men behind barbed wire for throwing stones. He didn't get mad at all. He was, like:

'Well, I saw them bloody my buddy's nose, so I knelt down. I said a prayer. I stood up, and I shot them down.'

Faith as Wedge:

Bob Herbert showcased the soldier's hearsay-statement, offered to him by the conscientious objector he'd interviewed, and I can see how the soldier's referral to prayer could easily be used as a wedge to politically divide people of faith. I'm not saying that Bob should not report what is told to him, that's not my point at all. I'm saying that the perceptions about the soldier and his faith, through the quoted statement about him, is how wedges are deepened by those who wish to use faith as a political weapon. (Unfortunately, I am aware that there are many political operatives who have this wish.)

Faith as Target:

When the conscientious objector points to the soldier's alleged statement about prayer and defense of a "buddy" as a direct reason for the killing of a detainee (rather than focusing on the fact that he was following Army orders), it seems that the conscientious objector is targeting the soldier's faith as the proximate reason for the killing. He takes the fact that there was a direct order to shoot nearly out of the picture. The statement is "put out there" with no deeper discussion of how many ways you could come to understand the soldier in question and his personal experience. Is that a fair way to lead others to understand the truth? I don't think so. That's why I've chosen to point this out to you.

Faith as Catalyst

Faith is being challenged as a catalyst for killing, if you read too many of your own fears and perceptions into the soldier's alleged statement. Did faith drive the soldier to kill - or was the order to fire upon the detainees the catalyst? I don't agree with our policy in Iraq, but if we infer that faith is a catalyst for killing, I believe we are making too heavy and unfair a judgement upon the soldier.


Faith as Personal Support

Have you considered that the soldier may have been personally struggling with the Army order to shoot, and stopped to pray God's forgiveness before killing as ordered, thus fulfilling a sworn duty? I don't think that would be too much of a strain on our empathetic imagination.

Faith as Maker of Enemies

You know, as sure as day follows night, that a person who already harbors anger for the soldiers will take the alleged statement from that soldier and consider it a Crusader's message. Faith makes enemies when we fail to talk openly and honestly about personal faith.


My personal thoughts? I believe the soldier was following orders. War makes you hard, or war makes you realize you cannot be hard. The conscientious objector could not be hard enough to allow what he perceived as gross violation of human rights to be forgotten. Through it all, there are soldiers who've followed orders and will be forever tortured by what they were ordered to do.

If a soldier stops to pray before he follows orders, I don't know if he's going to hell or heaven or San Luis Obispo when he dies. Neither do you, by science. You only believe by faith. The same faith that causes soldiers to pray.

Karen Kwiatkowski: The Libertarian '24'

"It is a great day when one of the most popular TV shows in America might be viewed with appreciation by Thomas Jefferson and H.L. Mencken."

Karen Kwiatkowski: The Libertarian '24'

One of my favorite writers, Karen Kwiatkowski, has written an article about the political overtones gleaned from the Fox show "24".


Dave wants Kim to come back

I admit that I'm a "24" junkie.
I just can't get enough of the show.

Bummer about Paul, isn't it? I wonder if this will permanently kill Jack's likelihood of keeping his gal pal Audrey?

John Edwards: The Contender

John Edwards: The Contender

Insiders call Edwards a contender - John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are the top two potential 2008 Presidential candidates being talked about by Washington insiders, according to this News & Observer article.

*Thanks to Seth Whitaker for the referral.

Who Is Patty Murray's Guest-Blogger?

Who Is Patty Murray's Guest-Blogger?

---
Patty..................................................Me

I've been told that Patty Murray and I look so much alike that we could be sisters.

The only reason I'm bringing that up is because John Edwards posted on Patty's blog today.

Check it out.

Gore Vidal: The Undoing of America

Gore Vidal: The Undoing of America
Gore Vidal on war for oil, politics-free elections, and the late, great U.S. Constitution by Steve Perry
LINK: City Pages

"...the old American republic is well and truly dead. The institutions that we thought were eternal proved not to be. And that goes for the three departments of government, and it also goes for the Bill of Rights. So we're in uncharted territory. We're governed by public relations. Very little information gets to the people, thanks to the corruption and/or ineptitude of the media....

...This is something new under the sun--that a president, just because he feels like it, can declare war on anybody. And Congress will go along with him, and the courts will support him. The founding fathers would be mortified if they saw what had happened to their handiwork, which wasn't very great to begin with but is now done for...

....All we do is hear about little cures for little pains. Nothing important gets said. There used to be all those talk shows back in the '50s and '60s, when I was on television a great deal. People would talk about many important things, and you had some very good talkers. They're not allowed on now. Or they're set loose in the Fox Zoo, in which you have a number of people who pretend to be journalists but are really like animals. Each one has his own noise--there's the donkey who brays, there's the pig who squeals. Each one is a different animal in a zoo, making a characteristic noise. The result is chaos, which is what is intended. They don't want the people to know anything, and the people don't..

...I've just been reading a report on Conyers's trip to Ohio with his subcommittee's experts. Ohio was stolen. The Republican Congress will never have a hearing on it. But I think attempts are being made to publish the details of what was done there, and elsewhere too in America. In other words, I put the case that Bush was never elected--not in 2000, and not in 2004. This is a new game in the world. Through the magic of electronic voting, particularly through Mr. Diebold and friends, you can take a non-president and make him president. But how to keep the people, including the opposition who should know better, so silent, this introduces us to a vast landscape of corruption which I dare not enter.."

To All Americans - Heal Our Land!

photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

To All Americans - Heal Our Land!

"We have been accused of arrogance. But what of the fantastic arrogance of our leaders? What of their crimes against the people, the poor and powerless?

Still no court will try them, no jail will receive them. They live in righteousness. They will die in honor.

For them we have one message. For those in whose manicured hands the power of the land lies, we say to them - "Lead us." Lead us in justice and there will be no need to break the law. Let the president do what his predecessors failed to do. Let him obey the rich less and the people more. Let him think less of the privileged and more of the poor. Less of America and more of the world. Let lawmakers, judges, and lawyers think less of the law, and more of justice; less of legal ritual, more of human rights.

To our bishops and superiors we say- Learn something about the gospel and something about illegitimate power. When you do, you will liquidate your investments, take a house in the slums, or even join us in jail."

- Philip Berrigan S.S.J., from the transcript of the court trial of the Catonsville Nine

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In the political campaign leading to the 2004 elections, I do not recall one American Catholic Bishop appearing in the media to say one word of condemnation against the sin of greed, which contributes directly to poverty and inequality in this nation. By their ommission, voters were induced to support candidates who would virtually strip away support for Americans living in poverty.

All I recall hearing about were the wedge issues of abortion and homosexuality.

When the Catholic Bishops and other religious leaders of Christian sects start to sound like Fox News pundits, it is high time we recognize their actions as political and treat them accordingly. When I heard the Bishops were attempting to set groundwork for a denial of Communion to John Kerry and other Democrats because of their political beliefs on one isue (when there are thousands upon thousands of faith issues and concerns), I was not only appalled - as a Catholic, I was nauseated by the targeting of one American political party for one issue by the Church.

Once we realize a boundary is being blurred between the State and our faith, we must speak to the political issue on a strictly political level with these faith leaders, for they have entered a dangerous area where Christianity, alone, cannot take precedence over the rule of civil law and pluralism. There are too many people of non-Christian faiths (and non-faith) who call themselves American. Do you know that the word 'God' does not even appear, not even once, in the U.S. Constitution?

We must continue to appeal to our political leaders for fairness and I repeat that we must begin to speak to our religious leaders on a political level. We did not ask for this struggle and dilemma, but when our religious leaders decide to divide the body of Christ (which is the church and its members) by politics, we must reconsider the words of Father Philip Berrigan in 1969.

Two hundred years from Adam Smith, it's clear that the market has unleashed an uncontrollable force. It is not a Holy force by any means. There is an unrestrained "self-interest" of individuals and of organized special-interest groups. In an economic-Darwinian style, the weak are punished while the strong are rewarded. If we are to believe that the current consensus of the American majority is that it is morally acceptable for them to socially exclude those who are unable to meet the demands of the market, then we might assume we are living in a soulless society.

I, for one, refuse to believe that Americans truly feel that it is morally, politically, or legally acceptable to have such an unjust distribution of wealth, work, and income which GOP policies have brought about (with the help of a concentrated group of special interests who call themselves "Christian" and prove themselves to be anything BUT).

If the lights suddenly "came on", and those Americans who profess to be Christians were to sit back and think about how the policies they've supported (through elections) are running against their faith-based beliefs and Bible-based lessons, I think they'd be reeling with confusion and anger. Talking points and carefully-framed issues have caused these voters to believe they have been doing the right thing. In reality, the results of the policies they've been persuaded to support are coming to the surface, and they are dark, they are non-compassionate, and they are ugly.

The United States is, unfortunately, the leader in widening the gap between the upper, middle, and under-classes at home and around the world. Other countries are following our lead with the help of our influence and cooperation in G8 activities. The middle class in this country has long ceased to protest the New World Order. Their political interests are basically limited to concerns about family, religion, taxes and government regulation of business. The larger issues escape them because they do not affect their private lives, especially those who live in rural and suburban communites and who are far away enough from the areas which take on the full impact of the new (and rapidly growing) American underclass.

For the sake of brevity, let me state that I believe we need to see a change soon, or expect to see the rapidly-increasing working underclasses (in America and other nations - perhaps in a cooperative effort) to stage a resistance that may not be as peaceful as that of people of faith and morality like Father Berrigan. I'm not saying it may happen anytime soon, but unless we turn public policy around, we are bound to see a growth in support for such a resistance movement. If Congressmen (and women) cannot find a way to work with each other and cast partisanship aside, they may lose their chance for conflict management and control when a crisis is reached. When it comes to the Poverty issue and conflict resolution between the worker and the government, I believe American Labor will become an important and prominent movement, and will probably be seen as the new American patriotic movement. Americans will find their way back to believing in their communities and working together with the powerful force of their faith when they focus on economic justice and compassion for the poorest among them. When too many have been relegated to a class within which they see no opportunity of movement because public policy has locked them in and removed their liberty, they will begin to see the faithless component to the policy they'd once supported as true believers.

The issues of alleviating the causes of poverty, reducing inequality, respecting pluralism, considering true compassion in public policy, and being determined to promote tolerance are more important today than they've ever been. They all run true to the cause of freedom and liberty while calling upon those of faith as well as those who practice no faith at all.

Our religious leaders need to awaken to the truth of what's happening in America. I believe they have all too often failed to lead and the result is an America that, paradoxically, claims to hold to Christian values and yet has produced a nation of greedy, selfish, and non-community-based policies. Americans are better than that, and I do not fault them because I understand that they have been misled. We are one America or we are not America at all. We need to work together or expect to destroy ourselves from within.

I invite every American to read this and consider it carefully, remembering that our Founding Fathers personally knew little of Catholicism (though some saw it in French influence), the Baptist movement, or the Pentecostals - nor did they know about a "born again" movement. (The closest any of them came was Madison, who attended a moderately evangelical Episcopal church later in life). They came from the churches in which they were raised and/or saw established in their colonies (Anglican, Congregationalist,etc) - and some were Deists. John Adams belonged to an anti-Great Awakening wing of Congregationalists (a predecessor of the Unitarians).

We cannot allow Religious Supremacists (who make up the shadow-leadership of a widespread-yet-quiet political movement in America) to hijack, pervert, or water-down our faith. We must not allow them to destroy the traditional civic fabric of our country, which by tradition requires respect for religious freedom and pluralism. When issues are triumphalistically supported in the name of one religion's God and is a detriment to fair and responsible public policy, we are not acting as Americans. Someone may argue with me that Jesus Christ called us to work within our diversity, but no one can argue that the Founding Fathers called upon us to do so as American citizens.

If our religious and political leaders continue to turn their backs on each other, my fellow Americans, it is up to us to mend our nation and return to the true nature of our faith, which is love and empathy for our fellow man. We should seek cooperation to reach a higher goal for our civil society based upon our common and shared values. It is equally important to join together to help each other and to mend the divisions which our immature and dangerous leaders have created because of their own greedy self-interests.

If you are faithful, I appeal to you to never lose your faith. If you are patriotic, I appeal to you to never lose your love for American democracy and to embrace a policy which ensures a freedom that does not have to encompass the immorality of greed, but instead calls citizens to welcome the poor to take a place beside us at the bountiful table.

"To our bishops and superiors we say - Learn something about the gospel and something about illegitimate power. When you do, you will liquidate your investments, take a house in the slums, or even join us in jail."

Jeff Sharlet: Jesus Plus Nothing

Jeff Sharlet: Jesus Plus Nothing

Who is "The Family"?

Are they "just" a bunch of guys hanging out?
Are they "just" like you and me?

What is "Ivanwald"?

Read Jeff Sharlet's "Jesus Plus Nothing", an article which has appeared in Harper's Magazine.

National Review Mischaracterizes Us

National Review Mischaracterizes Us

Stanley Kurtz of the National Review is mischaracterizing the recent focus on the Religious Extreme Right as "hatred" for Christians. So many of us are Christians or Jews who've stemmed from the same Judeao-Christian base! I am a Christian. I attended last weekend's conference at CUNY with a woman of the Jewish faith. We both heartily agreed, at the end of the day, that the facts presented at the CUNY conference proved what the National Review doesn't care to discuss. Instead, they go for a gut attack and hope for a gut reaction. This insult and error in Mr. Kurtz's opinion couldn't be more off the mark. I never heard a word of "hatred" or anger from any of the speakers at the CUNY conference last weekend. On the contrary. They urged an open mind and an patient understanding while never losing sight of the bare facts. Never - not once - did they categorize anyone as "evil". I sat next to a Catholic Sister at the conference's break-out afternoon session. Many speakers were Christians and Jews themselves. Kurtz is so far off the mark that he should post a retraction to the gross "hatefest" misinformation he's speading. He's wrong, wrong, wrong.....sinfully wrong.

These ugly mischaracterizations only serve to make Kurtz and his ilk at National Review look like the ranting and raving partisans they are. They're walking like ducks - so they're ducks, already. Mean, nasty little ducks, too. They are the symptom, and not the cure for what it's going to take to get Americans to understand one another.

Last winter, the National Review pulled the same crap on me, a meek and lowly blogger who gets a couple hundred hits a day.

What are they so afraid of?

I'll tell you - when you get too close to the truth, you get slammed!

When they don't like your message, they immediately bare the fangs.

There can be grace and dignity, even in politics. The National Reviewers know (or care) little about how to be dignified. Their soft affinity with the electoral politics of the extreme religious right is clearly the reason why.

Elizabeth Edwards Sets a Blogger Straight

Elizabeth Edwards Sets a Blogger Straight

Elizabeth Edwards has a lot of passion and intelligence, and that's what I admire about her. She wouldn't allow an untruth go by when blogger Chip Atkinson made a cheap shot about her husband on Ed Cone's blog today.

Here's how it went:

Ed blogged that John Edwards is working to raise the minimum wage.

Chip commented:

Now here's a guy who may seem to be working for minimum wage, but has a track record of working only for himself. Not an orginal idea in his head... he never paid his dues politically.
chip • 5/2/05; 6:28:51 AM #

To which Elizabeth replied, in John's defense:

Three points here. 1. "A track record of working only for himself"? John has spent his entire adult life working for others. For some of that work he was paid and often well, for some he was not paid at all. He has worked on homelessness issues, worked in our church, volunteered with sports programs at the Y, with city leagues for more than 12 years, worked (and in parge part paid) to establish free after-school programs in Raleigh and in Goldsboro, and he decided to try to replace Lauch Faircloth so our state could have a Senator who really knew and fought for North Carolina workers, which he did. 2. "Not an original idea in his head"? Maybe there is nothing new under the sun, but John has clearly not taken the path well-trodden in Washington. He spoke of "two Americas", giving an original voice to a long-standing (and worsening)immoral condition in this country, and since the election, he has continued his fight on a personal level. 3. And finally "he never paid his dues politically"? What in the world does that mean? I, for one, want someone who remembers life before politics, who has done manual labor (and honors it), who knows the menu at McDonald's, who has spent countless Saturday mornings coaching children, who has felt -- like most of us -- the highs and lows of life and doesn't forget any of it. (I suspect, Chip, that if he had spent decades in politics, you would say that he was too far from the people.)
Elizabeth Edwards • 5/2/05; 1:21:03 PM #

Lights Are Going On In America

Lights Are Going On In America

Barbara, who usually blogs about spirituality, writes about this past weekend's conference on Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right at CUNY and how it has caused her to think about the state of 'her America'.

I saw a funny quote at Barbara's site, and it ties in with the topic. Jerry Garcia said:

"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."

I laugh, and at the same time I remember that we were told on Friday night, by Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar (general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ and six-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives), that we are the prophets and the leaders we've been waiting for, just as Willam Rivers Pitt reminded us last year.

While we've been waiting, it's been us all along. We are the hope for America, and we must take the responsibility to act, each in the best and most effective way we know how.


Panel prepares for discussion
Left to right: Mark Crispin Miller, Jeff Sharlet, Ralph White, David Levine, Frederick Clarkson, Hugh Urban, and Chip Berlet
photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Barbara especially liked Katherine Yurica's conference speech. She can't get enough of YuricaReport.com. I agree. Katherine was a passionate speaker.

See her essay: "What did Mr. Bush's 2nd Inaugural Address Really Mean?"

Brian & Ruby: An Open Source Wedding

Brian & Ruby: An Open Source Wedding!

__Congratulations to Brian and Ruby!
This looks like it will be the first open-source wedding!

R. Crumb on Aging

R. Crumb on Aging

On NPR's Fresh Air, I heard underground comix-guru R.(Robert) Crumb say that he feels as if he was born an old man, and as the years have passed, he's become more and more like a child.

Photo

The Moon and New York City
photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Jim Wallis on the Hijacking of Christianity

Jim Wallis on the Hijacking of Christianity

An attempt to hijack Christianity
by Jim Wallis
From: Sojourners

"Last week, I wrote about the "Justice Sunday" event held at a Louisville, Kentucky, mega-church. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson, and Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler were joined by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on video in the event titled "Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith." Of course, I have no objection to Christian leaders expressing their faith in the public arena - it's a good thing that I do all the time. The question is not whether to do so, but how. As I heard more and more about "Justice Sunday," it felt to me like it was crossing an important line - saying that a political issue was a test of faith.


So, when I was invited to speak at an interfaith "Freedom and Faith" service at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, I agreed. On Sunday morning, I flew to Louisville, and that afternoon addressed more than 1,000 people who attended the rally. I didn't go to say that these leaders shouldn't bring their faith into politics; the issues concerning them - abortion and family values - are also important to me. But the way they were doing it was wrong. The clear implication of their message was that those who opposed them are not people of faith.


We can get some historical perspective by looking at how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did it - and he was the church leader who did it best. Once after he was arrested, he wrote a very famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," addressed to the white clergy who were opposing him on the issues of racial segregation and violence against black people. Never once did he say that they were not people of faith. He appealed to their faith, challenged their faith, asked them to go deeper with their faith, but he never said they were not real Christians. If Dr. King refused to attack the integrity and faith of his opponents over such a clear gospel issue, how can the Religious Right do it over presidential nominees and a Senate procedural issue known as the filibuster?


After the "Justice Sunday" event, and the controversy surrounding it, some of the sponsors are denying they ever claimed that those who oppose them are hostile to people of faith. Yet their words stand for themselves. In the letter announcing the event on the Family Research Council Web site, Tony Perkins wrote: "Many of these nominees to the all-important appellate court level are being blocked...because they are people of faith and moral convictions.... We must stop this unprecedented filibuster of people of faith."


So, I told the Louisville rally that when someone has stolen our faith in the public arena, it is time to take our faith back. "Justice Sunday" was an attempt to hijack Christianity for a partisan and ideological agenda. Those on the Religious Right are declaring a religious war to give their version of faith religious supremacy in America. And some members of the Republican Party seem ready almost to declare a Christian theocracy in America. It is time to take back both our faith and our Constitution.


It is now clear there are some who will fight this religious war by any means necessary. So we will fight, but not the way they do. We must never lie or misrepresent the facts or the truth. We must not demonize or vilify those who are our opponents. We must claim that those who disagree with our judgments are still real people of faith. We must not fight the way they do, but fight we must. A great deal is at stake in this battle for the heart and soul of faith in America and for the nation's future itself. We will not allow faith to be put into the service of one political agenda.


This is a call for the rest of the churches to wake up. This is a call for people of faith everywhere to stand up and let their faith be heard. This is not a call to be just concerned, or just a little worried, or even just alarmed. This is a call for clear speech and courageous action. This is a call to take back our faith, and in the words of the prophet Micah, "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God."

- Jim Wallis

Watch streaming video of Jim's message at the "Freedom and Faith" service:


RealPlayer


Windows Media Player

___________

Read more about "Justice Sunday" and Sojourners' efforts to offer an alternative view. Some sites may require registration.


Frist seeks Christian support to stop filibusters
+ The New York Times


Religion, politics intersect in 'Justice Sunday'
+ Lexington Herald-Leader


Christians square off over battle for judiciary
+ Chicago Tribune


Battle over benches spills across pews
+ Los Angeles Times


Religious conservatives speak out against Democrats' use of filibuster
+ The Kansas City Star


Foes attack event as intolerant
+ The Courier-Journal (Louisville)

____



What’s missing from the debate over values in America?

See this Mother Jones article by Garret Keizer.

Excerpt:

"Had Howard Dean been an evangelical Christian with an evangelical Christian base, would his followers have deserted him because his Iowa holler made him “unelectable”? Or would they have closed ranks behind him because his stand on the Iraq war made him right?"

Conference: Examining the Agenda of the Religious Far Right

"Until progressives come to understand what [fundamentalists] read, hear, are told and deeply believe, we cannot understand American politics, much less be effective."

- Joe Bageant

Conference: Examining the Agenda of the Religious Far Right
April 29-30

I will be in New York this weekend for a two-day conference co-sponsored by the NY Open Center and CUNY Graduate Center Public Programs, to be held at CUNY Graduate Center (Fifth Ave & 34th St, Manhattan).

The conference, called Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right, will include some of my favorite political activists.

Speakers: Karen Armstrong, Joan Bokaer, Chip Berlet, Katherine Yurica, John Sugg, Hugh Urban, Frederick Clarkson, Jeffrey Sharlet, Skipp Porteous, Charles Strozier, Robert W. Edgar, and Joseph C. Hough Jr.
(presenter bios here)

John Edwards Joins with Acorn

A Message From John Edwards


This message from John Edwards appeared on the One America website this afternoon. I am personally encouraged by this message, being a person who is passionate about progressive politics in Upstate New York, whose economy is one of the worst in the nation and whose taxes are among the highest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Dear Friend,

I want to let you know about an important new project I am starting as a part of our ongoing efforts to help lift people out of poverty. Today, I am joining with ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, labor unions, and other grassroots organizations to place minimum wage initiatives on the ballot in some states around the country.

As I have traveled across the country exploring ways to move people out of poverty and into the middle class, I have met many people who are working two or three jobs but are still struggling to get by. They are working hard, but it is impossible for them to survive financially on a minimum wage job.

In a country of our wealth, it is wrong for someone to work full time and still not be able to make ends meet. A job should be a bridge out of poverty - an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. But for America's minimum wage workers, especially those with families, it is not.

Minimum wage workers make just under $11,000 annually - about $5,000 below the poverty line for a single mother with two children. We must do better.

The last increase came in the mid 1990s and since then, inflation has completely wiped out its impact. Although the American people overwhelmingly support raising the federal minimum wage, the Bush Administration and Republican Congressional leaders continue to block attempts to increase the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. America's workers deserve better, and that's why I am proud to join ACORN to work for change in targeted states.

Together, ACORN, labor unions, other grassroots organizations, and I will work to create an America that rewards work, not wealth. ACORN has already begun working with community organizations and labor allies to place minimum wage increases on the ballot in some targeted states in 2006. Last year, ACORN led the successful campaign to raise the minimum wage in Florida by $1.00 an hour. I am honored to join ACORN in this important fight.

America is known as the land of opportunity. It is time for us to live up to that name. We need to raise the minimum wage so that working Americans are not living in poverty. They work hard for America. It is time for America to work for them.

- John Edwards

Workers Memorial Day is April 28th

Workers Memorial Day is April 28th

A Prayer for the Fallen

We remember those we have lost with great fondness.
They gave much to the world; as individuals, family members, friends and work colleagues.
We remember their families in their enormous sadness.
For those who have died at work building a better place for the rest of us.
Those who died while constructing our buildings and expressways, hospitals and schools.
For those who have died young and innocent, victims of avoidable accidents
May we learn from this loss, honour the memory of those lost
And work towards a safer work place for all people
Where the rights and dignity of all workers are upheld above all else

- Rev. Ian Lawton

The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job. Trade unionists around the world now mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning. A proclamation can be seen here (pdf).

You can honor the workers by checking the listings of events in your own city or town.

In my own city of Syracuse on April 28 at 4pm, there will be a press conference at Fireman's Memorial Park - Fayette and State Streets. (See Syracuse Progressive blog for details).


Here are some other ways that workers who have been killed or injured on the job have been honored:

* A Collection of Workers' Memorials and
* Workers Memorial Day poems and tributes.

Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

Who is a journalist?

• In a blogpiece which starts off by discussing the web killing newspapers in classified advertising, along with reference to Jay Rosen's recent interview with Bill Grueskin on PressThink, Josh Shear turns his thoughts back to the question on many minds lately: "Who is a journalist?" Josh writes:

"The discussion has taken a bit of a different turn..toward the question of whether newspapers are on their way to becoming buggies, and if journalism students are currently being trained to make buggy whips."

Josh says that there are "a couple of things that need to be ironed out, and soon", and they are the questions regarding:
1. Should information be free? (To which he says 'no')..and
2. What will be the roll of traditional media journalists? (to which he comments that "it's easy to self-publish and to sell advertising for revenue. If some traditional media outlet is just not cutting it, good journalists have a venue to point out the shortcomings of traditional media, and if they have strong enough support, they can turn their web-only publication into a traditional, ad- and reader-driven hardcopy publication that people can actually get their hands on."

I think about the new "101" web media created and designed by Roch Smith Jr. - which originated with Greensboro 101 and is beginning to spread to cities such as Charlotte and Nashville.



At Raw Story Today: Slim FBI File on Bush; New Revelations about Jeff Gannon

• At Raw Story, there is a developing story about requests from an activist blogger with the result of the FBI releasing a 'slim file' on President Bush.

• Also, at Raw Story, Secret Service records have raised new questions about discredited conservative reporter Jeff (Guckert) Gannon.



Nick Lewis Catches a CNN Viral Marketing Campaign

• Nick Lewis reports, in a story called "CNN: Guerillas in the Midst- A Viral Marketing Campaign is Exposed", that CNN has developed and is using viral marketing techniques which affect the blogosphere. The story is spreading like spam wildfire.



Medicaid Cuts Hurting the Poor

• From America, the Catholic weekly magazine: Editorial: Medicaid Cuts Hurt the Poor



Howie Takes the Subway

• Howard Dean practices what he preaches. He could take a limo, but he chooses the subway instead.



Bill Gates - Ralph Reed Connection

• Was Ralph Reed, in any way, involved with Microsoft's recent decision to abandon its decades-long support for gay civil rights in order to curry favor with anti-gay bigots of the radical right?



No WMDs - As if we hadn't figured that one out yet

• Final word from CIA: No WMDs. But we knew that already.



Thou Shalt Not Wal Mart

• Deliver Us From - Wal Mart? (Christianity Today)

"The devastating spiritual effect of unemployment is one reason the authors of Christian Ethics in the Workplace (Concordia Publishing House, 2001) argue that business owners have a moral responsibility to control expenses and to succeed. Raymond L. Hilgert, Philip H. Lochhaas, and James L. Truesdell (business professor, Lutheran minister, and businessman, respectively) add, however, that Christian ethics require employers to consider:

-- whether employees have options to work elsewhere (a "semblance of equal bargaining power");
-- whether the wage is significantly below the market for similar jobs of similar skills;
-- whether the employer regards workers as human beings or as tools;
-- whether the employer offers the employee a sense of partnership in the enterprise;
--whether the employer is treating the worker according to the Golden Rule."

CEO Pay Gushes at Obscene Rate

• From Nathan Newman's Labor blog: "You'd think post-Enron and post-WorldCom, corporate American would be toning down the excessive pay for its CEOs, but sadly the executive payoffs continues to gush at an obscene rate, as the newest update of the AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch shows."



Paleface Scalp

• Trouble staying awake during class? Here's what you need.



"Almost" Counts...

• "Almost" counts in catching al-Zarqawi and horseshoes.



Open Media Network Launches Today

• The Open Media Network, a free public service network, has launched its operations online. Known as OMN (www.omn.org), the site lets users easily access movies, music, video blogs, podcasts and public television and radio programming offered by producers for Internet distribution. The Open Media Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation founded in 2005 by Internet and media pioneers who believe Internet users deserve a better, simpler and free way to get video and music programs that are authorized by their producers for Internet distribution. It is powered by grid delivery technology from Kontiki. Open Media Network (OMN) was founded by Internet pioneer and Netscape veteran Mike Homer and includes Marc Andreessen as an advisor and board member.



FBI Protects Bin Laden's Right to Privacy?

• The Alpha Liberal reports that the FBI is protecting Osama bin Laden’s “Right to Privacy” in a document release from a Judicial Watch investigation, which uncovers FBI documents concerning the Bin Laden family and post 9/11 flights.



Karl Rove Interview

• There are many other current headlines at the Alpha Liberal blog, including an interview with Karl Rove, who says he expects that John Bolton will be confirmed as ambassador to the U.N. He also believes that Tom DeLay will continue, unscathed, as an effective and strong leader. I think Karl's whistling past the graveyard on that issue. DeLay may not lose his position because of President Bush's "I'll support you if you stroke me - no matter how irresponsible and criminal you are" attitude, but DeLay's taken on the shrapnel of revealed corruption, and the results of his political wounds are already showing.



C.S. Lewis on Death

• After his wife Joy's passing, C.S. Lewis talked about the scope of death's meaning.

"It is hard to have patience with people who say "There is no death" or "Death doesn't matter." There is death. And whatever is, matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn't matter. I look up at the night sky. Is anything more certain than that in all those vast times and spaces, if I were allowed to search them, I should nowhere find her face, her voice, her touch? She died. She is dead. Is the word so difficult to learn?"

~C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, Chapter 1 (1961)

Congressional Ethics in Disgrace

Congressional Ethics in Disgrace

This Washington Post story, while needing to be told, is just plain ugly and I, for one, am sick of seeing ethics rules [on gifts, travel, campaign activity and outside employment] being used as another excuse for partisan Congressional in-house fighting. This country is in big trouble, and I know that a large part of it is because of the base corruption that goes along with the territory of reciprocal political lobbying and pandering.

We know there are many Representatives appearing in the pages of the same dirty little book in which power-addict Tom DeLay is merely the pull-out centerfold. (I hear there are wicked track marks on his wallet).

These people seem to have completely forgotten how to get the work of the American people done. It's their sworn duty, and they are failing us. We are living in a world rife with hatred and violence; more and more Americans are sinking into poverty while economic policy favors the wealthiest; Republicans want to privatize everything - our Social Security - even the air we breathe - and all we get to hear about are the millions spent on their frivolous political whoring activities.

I'm so sick about it, and I would imagine most Americans feel the same way.

This story is a showcase for shame and disgrace.

Stalking the Filibuster: Trent Lott Uses Inflammatory Terrorist Jargon

Stalking the Filibuster: Trent Lott Uses Inflammatory Terrorist Jargon

"I'm for the nuclear option, absolutely," [Sen. Trent] Lott has said. "The filibuster of federal district and circuit judges cannot stand. ... It's bad for the institution. It's wrong. It's not supportable under the Constitution. And if they insist on persisting with these filibusters, I'm perfectly prepared to blow the place up. No problem."

____

I think it was in extremely poor taste for Senator Trent Lott to discuss Congress in terms of "blowing it up." There has been enough sorrow, fear, and death associated with words like this, especially since 9/11. What on earth could this man be thinking by using such language?

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - worse, to my way of viewing the essence of our Constitution, than to remove a parliamentary tool which ensures the checks and balances that are guarding against the tyranny of the majority.

It's sad to think about the narrow regard the GOP must have for the intellect of the American citizenry. I believe that they are banking on the ignorance of American citizens by thinking they can succeed in killing off the judicial filibuster by appealing to raw emotion - sticking their ugly claws into the heart of fundamental Christianity.


The Wizard of Baas hangeth out mit der sheep

This is a time to be true and loyal Americans by being "bigger" than the radical right. Citizens need to shame these ugly panderers with the strength of our intelligence and conviction. We must not allow theocratic interests to suck the rational life out of our Judicial Branch.

Write and/or call your Congressional representatives and tell them you are against this nuclear option.

Joe Gandelman has a story about a possible Frist-Reid justice-approval compromise. If that happens, I'll be surprised. I don't believe these people know how to work together anymore. I don't sense that that WANT to work together. We can only hope.

Hunter [a main-page contributor to Daily Kos] doesn't think it will happen, either.

UPDATE 5pm: Frist says he isn't interested. My, how shocking (not).

___

"I think the Republican leaders have promised leaders of the Christian right that, in return for their unflinching support, Bush will replace a Supreme Court justice who supports Roe with someone who will vote to reverse it, if he gets the opportunity. The Christian right may have even presented a list of acceptable replacements. The Republicans feel they must repay their political debt to the Christian right and they can only make it happen with the nuclear option, which Senator Robert Byrd has called "a legislative bomb that threatens the rights to dissent, to unlimited debate, and to freedom of speech." Dick Cheney, president of the Senate, has vowed to support the nuclear option in case of a 50-50 tie. The Republicans are willing to mortgage the future, if necessary, to repay this debt."

- Marjorie Cohn, professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. truthout

___

Jim Wallis appeared on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now show today and said:

"You know, I have looked through my Bible, and I can’t find filibuster anywhere. I really looked hard. But it's not there.

A bit of historical perspective, after he was arrested once, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a very famous letter from a Birmingham jail to white clergy who opposed him, and it was about racial segregation and violence against black people. Never once did he say they weren't people of faith. He challenged their faith. He wanted them to go deeper with their faith, but he never said my opponents are not people of faith. That's what they're saying. Now, if King wouldn't say his opponents weren't people of faith over racial segregation and violence, how can the right do this over a filibuster? There's something crossing a lot of boundaries here."

Huffington Invites Her Friends to Blog

Arianna Huffington Invites Her Friends to Blog

The lovely and witty Arianna Huffington is promoting the art of blogging, and I can't wait to hear what her friends have to say on her new group blog, The Huffington Post, scheduled to premiere on May 9. Some of the contributing bloggers will be Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman.

According to Arianna, the blog "won't be left wing or right wing; indeed, it will punch holes in that very stale way of looking at the world."

Here's to hole-punching.

Syracuse Common Council to Vote on Living Wage Bill

Syracuse Common Council to Vote on Living Wage Bill

In a recent letter to the Syracuse Post-Standard, a citizen asked:

School bus drivers, school monitors and parking attendants make poverty wages with no benefits. Why is it that the working poor of Syracuse have to suffer?

The Living Wage bill should have been passed two years ago. Other cities in New York state have done it already. Why not us? Our councilors are doing the right thing. This is our first step toward stopping poverty in Central New York.

Today in Syracuse, the Common Council has an opportunity to pass a Syracuse Living Wage bill. The vote will take place today at 1 PM at City Hall in the Common Council chambers. It would force companies who do business with the city to pay employees $10.08 an hour. It would also require them to provide health benefits and vacation in order to get city contracts.

What will they do?

What can you do?

UPDATE:

The Living Wage bill has not yet passed. There are matters of collective bargaining-related legalese that must be clarified and/or amended, and the Council will meet again in May (no date set yet) to reconsider the amended proposal.

Link to story here.


____________

U.S. Congressman James T. Walsh, R-Syracuse, will discuss transforming Upstate's economy at 6 p.m. Monday, April 25, in the Panasci Chapel at Le Moyne College.

The talk, sponsored by the Madden Institute for Business Education at Le Moyne, is free and open to the public.

Edwards Family Political Activism

Edwards Family Political Activism


Cate Edwards (left) helps to kick off 'Generation Engaged'
photo credit: WRAL-Raleigh

Cate Edwards, daughter of John and Elizabeth Edwards, is showing her enthusiasm for politics and is inviting other young people to join her. Cate and seven others are starting a new campaign called Generation Engage. She hosted an event last Saturday night at King’s in downtown Raleigh, N.C. to kick off the campaign. Generation Engage will encourage young people to become involved in politics on a regular basis, not just every four years when the nation elects the president.

John Edwards has issued a statement urging his former colleagues to reject federal Judge Terrence Boyle's nomination for the U.S. Court of Appeals, saying Boyle's decisions have been reversed at a disturbingly high rate. He has also said that Boyle's record on civil rights is troubling.

John Edwards made a phonecall to protesting student group in Missouri to say he supported them, according to Ojiugo Uzoma, a senior who had slept in a tent just outside the office on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The Student Worker Alliance (SWA) was conducting a sit-in protest, which included a six-day hunger strike, protesting the wages of university workers. According to Inside Higher Ed writer David Epstein, "the Washington University protests followed a hunger strike over similar issues at Georgetown University and marked a ratcheting up of activism on behalf of low-level employees in higher education. The protests here and elsewhere are attracting strong backing from organized labor, which sees student idealism as a powerful force."

Quote of the Day: Larry Dale Keeling

Quote of the Day: Larry Dale Keeling

"Only extremists would slobber so rabidly over the prospect of undoing 200 years of Senate tradition."

- Larry Dale Keeling, writer for the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader, who is embarrassed to admit that Kentucky will "play host to a well-scripted immorality play in which political and religious extremists pummel truth beyond recognition and twist Christianity into an ugly caricature of itself in their crusade to give Dubya the opportunity to perform an extreme makeover on the federal courts, packing their benches with enough "faith first, law last" judges to tilt our legal system dangerously toward the model of the Spanish Inquisition."

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After today, I will never trust Bill Frist to be someone who could unite America or Congress enough to be an effective or respected leader. By today's example, he not only divided Americans, but he also deliberately sunk a government-hatchet directly between conscientious followers of Christ. He's proved himself to be nothing more than a rabid panderer.

The Anchorage News editorial sums it up nicely:

"What would be refreshing to see among all the people of faith in the United States is not a Justice Sunday to crusade for the right, or a Social Justice Sunday in answer, but something more akin to Lincoln's national day of prayer and thanksgiving.

Crusading is much easier than Christianity. But it doesn't provide much time for taking that log out of our own eyes, that we might better see the mote in our brother's and sister's."

Audio Post-Whose Garden Was This?

Whose Garden Was This?
Words and Music by Tom Paxton

On January 31 2004, the Onondaga County Music Educators' Association held their Junior High All-County Music Festival. There were 125 voices in the chorus and my son's voice was one of them. I'd like you to hear a song that they performed that day. Being that this was the week of Earth Day, I thought you might think about the lyrics. Here it is:

photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Whose garden was this?
It must have been lovely.
Did it have flowers?
I've seen pictures of flowers,
And I'd love to have smelled one.

Whose river was this?
You say it ran freely?
Blue was its color?
I've seen blue in some pictures,
And I'd love to have been there.

Ah, tell me again I need to know:
The forest had trees, the meadows were green,
The oceans were blue and birds really flew,
Can you swear that is true?

Whose grey sky is this?
Or was it a blue one?
Nights, there were breezes?
I've heard records of breezes,
And you tell me you've felt one?

Ah, tell me again I need to know:
The forest had trees, the meadows were green,
The oceans were blue and birds really flew,
It is true - all too true.

Whose garden was this?
It must have been lovely.
Did it have flowers?
I've seen pictures of flowers,
And I'd love to have smelled one....

In Citizen's Media Today

Citizen's Media Today

"Define your own voice rather than imitating others. Cut against the forces of conformity. The forces of conformity are market-driven, driven by titillation and temptation, as opposed to decency and dignity."

- Cornel West

David Wharton writes about Cornel West's appearance at the Cone Ballroom at UNCG (Greensboro) this past Friday night.

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Israpundit would like to know how long Fox News will ignore the protests of American Jews regarding Ariel Sharon's plan for Gaza disengagement, especially the huge protest scheduled for Central Park. One commenter at Israpundit says: "Fox is, and has always been, the PR Dept. for the Bush Personality Cult....and their allies."

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The PR Machine is reporting that Dan Gillmor, the former longtime tech columnist with the San Jose Mercury News and founder of citizens-media project Grassroots Media, is starting a new column for the Financial Times.

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While wishing Dan the best of luck, I refer you to a story he's running on his blog about David Weinberger, who became a bit disgusted with an assignment that was given to him by MSNBC - so much that he decided he'd stop being one of those 'bloggers who get to be on TV'. It's fairly clear that it was about a clash of values. Jeff Jarvis is talking about it, too. I've put in my two cents' worth at Jeff's first post about the issue.

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I am finding Jay Rosen's post on Stand Alone journalists to be the most interesting topic to come up in quite some time. I am a completely homegrown citizen-journalist. I've spent most of my professional life in the business world, working in the personal lines Property and Casualty insurance field. Politics, writing and journalism have always been my passion, but not my professional calling. Yet, here I stand today, just as alone as the other bloggers, doing what I believe I'm meant to do - and what I believe I do well.

In the Press Think column, I was particularly attracted to Jay's reference to blogger Paul Conley, who has been blogging about trade journals and how stand alone journalism may affect competition between B2B press and "stand-aloners". Conley says:

"..maybe I should put more emphasis on the competitive threat of the citizen journalists. Perhaps that will get more folks to pay attention. By its very nature, the B2B press caters to a specialized audience of experts. The reader of your typical trade magazine tends to know an enormous amount about the subject at hand. That gives him a nearly instant credibility should he choose to start a blog and compete against you."

Conley warns and/or predicts, in a thought-provoking follow-up post:

"Traditional B2B publishers also face a "stand alone" threat from their own editors and reporters. The Web and blogging makes it much easier for someone to strike out on his own, using the sources he met while working for a trade publication, and cashing in on his own reputation as an expert. If you're a trade publisher, look across your newsroom now at that guy. You know the one. He's been there for 20 years. Before that he worked for your competitor. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. He speaks at trade shows, gets all the story tips. He has become, in a very real sense, synonymous with your brand. And ask yourself: what would happen if he left to start his own business?"

For a look at how certain publications have already addressed the changes in the media world, Conley uses the example of Variety's variety of blogs (pun intended).

NY State Libertarian Party Hosts Convention in Syracuse

NY State Libertarian Party Hosts Convention in Syracuse


Dr. Jennifer Daniels addresses the convention attendees


Matthew Maguire of Upstateblog.net and Director of Communications for NY State's Public Policy Institute, at the podium


Mark Bitz is an unlikely hero - an Upstate NY turkey farmer running a business that has been owned in his family since 1835 - and a new voice for political leadership. Mark wishes to persuade "the Republican and Democratic Party committees to nominate common, plain-speaking candidates with win-win philosophies, who are committed to restoring the democratic process." Mark appealed to the need for direct democracy in New York State, and he read a letter which he has recently written to NYS Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R) and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, making a plea for direct democracy and stating his belief that 19 million citizens are more important than their power. He asked, other than arrogance, what could be the reason citizens are not allowed direct voting on issues that have direct impact upon them? Mark also stressed the need for redistricting and Campaign Finance reform in NY State.



Matthew Maguire recommended that all Libertarians who care to get out their message should learn how to blog.



photo credit: JohnTaylorGatto.com

John Taylor Gatto was the keynote speaker on Saturday afternoon. He offered two 40-minute sessions on the topic which he referred to as "Weapons of Mass Instruction", offering up his ideas about education reform in the United States. He doesn't believe that bad teachers, bad administrators, or even bad parents are the problem with U.S. education. Rather, he says he believes it is is the design of the institution altogether - from its very inception. He blames leading industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie and John T. Rockefeller, who engineered public schooling to serve a modified command economy and an increasingly layered social order.

He spoke about a new project, a retreat center called Solitude to be created in Chenango County in Upstate New York. He believes that solitude is all-important to a person's character development and that schools are too big and too concerned with surveillance to allow for necessary solitude.



Thanks again to Bonnie Scott for extending the invitation.


*note: more to follow. This post is in progress.

Business Week Launches New Blog

Business Week Launches New Blog

Don't miss Blogspotting, which is Business Week's new blog. Launched on April 20, it is complemented by the cover story in the current publication, "Blogs Will Change Your Business". Stephen Baker and Heather Green will be talking about the place where the worlds of business, media, and blogs collide.

Today, Heather asks:

"..if bloggers don't strive to be accurate or aren't upfront about what they don't know, don't they lose credibility? And isn't credibility what people's reputations are based on online? Just a question."

In the debate regarding traditional journalistic ethics and whether they should apply to bloggers, I would think that, although there are no ironclad rules, if you expect to have a good reputation and credibility as a blogger, you'd best be honest and ethical in your writing. If you are representing something as factual, you'd best do your checking as any professional journalist would be required to do. You can't be "fired" as a blogger, but you can be seen, by the public, as unreliable and untrustworthy. I prefer to be a blogger people love to read - and to trust. If I offer opinion, I make it clear that it's opinion, and not fact.

*thanks to Trade Street Journal for turning me on to Blogspotting.