MAX BLUMENTHAL

Race and the Theocratic Right
While many Southern whites fought desegregation tooth and nail throughout the 1960's, another group of more religiously committed conservatives decided to sidestep the issue altogether by creating "classical Christian schools," which were essentially all-white evangelical private schools. This movement helped lay the groundwork for the modern evangelical homeschooling movement.
Today, such schools are among the only educational institutions where racist, pro-Confederate views are openly taught. Case and point:

A classical Christian school in North Carolina is being questioned over its use of a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for southern slavery. At issue is a booklet being used at Cary Christian School titled "Southern Slavery As It Was." In it, authors Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins argue slavery was not a systemic evil, but rather a benign institution. Wilson is slated to speak at Cary Christian's graduation in May. Idaho Presbyterian pastor Jack Davidson, who has written a critique of the booklet, says it purports to be a biblical and historical treatment of slavery, but falls well short of that. "If, in fact, the Bible does not object to slavery, as this booklet wants us to believe, then we can have no argument against the establishment of a modern-day slave state," he says. "There could be no argument against it -- as Christians, biblically, we couldn't really object to it. If, after all, we believe the Bible doesn't object to it, what objection could we have to it? I think that is a serious issue." Wilson and Wilkins, according to Davidson, week to use anecdotal accounts of relationships between slaves and masters to discredit the traditional view of slavery in America. Davidson says the controversial material is a double indignity to black Americans. "What we're doing when we accept into our curriculum booklets like Wilson and Wilkins -- even though it sounds as if we're trying to speak in a conciliatory way -- is it basically robs the black American of his history. That's what it does," the pastor says. "It basically tells him and her there was really no problem; there was really no issue." Cary Christian School would not return phone calls seeking comment.

Steve Wilkins is actually the informal name of J. Steven Wilkins, a neo-Confederate revisionist historian who spearheads the classical Christian school movement and helps devise its classroom material. Wilkins is also an acolyte of the influential Christian Reconstructionist thinker RJ Rushdoony, who is credited with dreaming up the idea of all-white Christian schools in the late 1960's. Read Rushdoony's views on "the Negro":

...the white man is being systematically indoctrinated into believing that he is guilty of enslaving and abusing the Negro. Granted that some Negroes were mistreated as slaves, the fact still remains that nowhere in all history or in the world today has the Negro been better off. The life expectancy of the Negro increased when he was transported to America. He was not taken from freedom into slavery, but from a vicious slavery to degenerate chiefs to a generally benevolent slavery in the United States. There is not the slightest evidence that any American Negro had ever lived in a "free society" in Africa; even the idea did not exist in Africa. The move from Africa to America was a vast increase of freedom for the Negro, materially and spiritually as well as personally.

It's sort of like the vast increase of freedom Iraqis enjoy under American occupation, isn't it? Or am I just being shrill?
There are those who would like to dismiss Rushdoony as a fringe figure; these are usually people who tend to agree with his overall theocratic ideology but find his remarks on race embarassing -- whether they agree with them or not. I'm not going to spend all night illustrating Rushdoony's influence on the Christian Right, but what I can easily do is go up the theocratic chain, until it connects to the figurehead, Bush. From Rushdoony, the next major link is to Marvin Olasky, who is not an avowed Reconstructionist, but counts Rushdoony as a major influence on his thinking. Olasky, by the way, was the intellectual author of Bush Faith Based Initiative, and was Bush's welfare guru when he was governor of Texas. As Americans United's Joe Conn writes on Olasky (the link is dead so I pulled this from a saved article):

Although no one seems to have noticed, one clear source of Olasky’s thinking is Christian Reconstructionism, the most extreme fringe of the Religious Right ... In his 1988 book, ‘Prodigal Press: The Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media,’ Olasky praises Rushdoony’s analysis of the Ninth Commandment and says, ‘Rousas Rushdoony provides a useful discussion of the many aspects of that commandment in his important book “The Institutes of Biblical Law.”

There's not point in trying to call Olasky a racist since on matters of race, he habitually employs the neo-conservative tactic of couching his reactionary racial views in arguments against affirmative action, while boasting about his adopted black son. Here, he writes about his adopted son, Ben, for the American Enterprise Institute:

Sure, it would be nice to have more people whose skin looks like Ben's in responsible positions of all kinds. But thinking of my son's welfare has also made me toughen my position on quotas. Ben needs to learn the value of hard work and self-reliance, and anything that makes him think there is another path to success will harm him. People cannot be colorblind, but governments in their official actions should be.

Yes, Marvin, your son will learn the value of hard work while your right-wing think tank money smooths his path through private school and college. I guess those other black children not fortunate enough to get adopted by white, Scaife-subsidized propagandists and therefore wind up in prison just don't understand the value of work. Those lazy black folk!
Anyway, there you have it: the ugly, racist underbelly of the theocratic Christian right originating in the classical Christian schooling movement and emanating outwards, from right-wing think tanks all the way to the Office of Faith Based Initiatives.

Following up on my last post, here it is: the right's field day on the mentally diseased Ramsey Clark begins.

Did Ramsey Clark Forget To Take His Medication?
David Horowitz is going to have a field day with this this one:

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) _ Former U.S. Attorney Ramsey Clark has joined Saddam Hussein's legal team, the chief of the fallen dictator's defense lawyers said Wednesday.

Ziad al-Khasawneh said Clark joined the team after Saddam told his Iraqi lawyer, Khalil al-Duleimi, in a meeting last week to convey his regards to the former U.S. attorney. Clark interpreted the gesture as an attempt to enlist him, al-Khasawneh added.

For those unfamiliar with Clark, he is an icon of the left who uses his former title to lend legitimacy to causes ranging from anti-globalization to the Palestinian solidarity movement. Most recently, he testified on behalf of lawyer Lynne Stewart at her trial for abetting terrorism. If Clark takes on Hussein's case, it would be even more damaging to the marginalized left than when factions of the Old Left embraced Stalin. After all, when figures like Jack Reed cheered Stalinism on, they were at least protected by the fact that the full extent of Stalin's crimes were not fully known in America.
I'm sure this story will erupt of the pages of NewsMax and FrontPageMag tomorrow. And like clockwork, equally yellow mainstream coverage will follow.

Just How Stingy?
Sometimes I wonder if there really is a method to Bush's madness. His latest display of simultaneous incompetence and inhumanity foreshadows what is absolutely certain to be the worst second term of any president ever. From the Post:

The Bush administration more than doubled its financial commitment yesterday to provide relief to nations suffering from the Indian Ocean tsunami, amid complaints that the vacationing President Bush has been insensitive to a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.

As the death toll surpassed 50,000 with no sign of abating, the U.S. Agency for International Development added $20 million to an earlier pledge of $15 million to provide relief, and the Pentagon dispatched an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the region. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in morning television appearances, chafed at a top U.N. aid official's comment on Monday that wealthy countries were being stingy with aid. "The United States is not stingy," Powell said on CNN.

Before proceeding, let's consider just how stingy the Bush administration's pledge is to the region affected by the tsunamis, which encompasses most of the Indian Ocean rim. Bush's initial pledge of $15 million would cover about one-sixth of the cost for a F-15A fighter jet (Israel spent $86 million in 1995 for F-15A's), would pay for exactly 15 of the Tomahawk cruise missiles lobbed at Iraq during "shock and awe" or could provide about 5 Longbow radar systems for the AH-64 Apache helicopters that routinely strafe Palestinian refugee camps (that price tag doesn't include the helicopter itself). The additional $20 the Bush administration has pledged would replace the air cooling systems of four M1A1 Abrams tanks. We've basically give the entire rim of the Indian Ocean what the average arms dealer sells in two hours.

Plus, Bush has only made pledges. As with his Africa AIDS initiative and his "No Child Left Behind" program, little of the aid money has been actually released.

Perhaps Bush could have created a smokescreen for his stinginess by actually addressing the crisis in person with some religion-laden statement of sorrow and solidarity with the people of Southeast Asia. Perhaps he could have explained where Americans could donate or volunteer to help the relief effort. But instead, he delegates a mouthpiece, Trent Duffy -- could his name be any WASPier? -- to attack Clinton.

Earlier yesterday, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president was confident he could monitor events effectively without returning to Washington or making public statements in Crawford, where he spent part of the day clearing brush and bicycling. Explaining the about-face, a White House official said: "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.' "

Many Bush aides believe Clinton was too quick to head for the cameras to hold forth on tragedies with his trademark empathy. "Actions speak louder than words," a top Bush aide said, describing the president's view of his appropriate role.

"Actions speak louder than words???" Come on. That John Wayne shit is so played out.

Call me cynical, but I doubt Bush's response to a far-away disaster will impact his domestic prestige in any significant way. He seems to always hit the floor at about 45% thanks to the unwavering support of re-born automotons. But this is just one more episode that virtually guarantees that if and when the US is attacked by terrorists, the world will shed no tears.

There was an international outpouring of support after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and even some administration officials familiar with relief efforts said they were surprised that Bush had not appeared personally to comment on the tsunami tragedy. "It's kind of freaky," a senior career official said.

My only theory on why Bush hasn't addressed the tsunamis in public is that he's plotting something big, something like forcing the transparently senile Rumsfeld to resign. Maybe he's sketching out the political landscape when he introduces his contentious guest worker plan. Perhaps he's just fixated on hitting the right note on inauguration day. Or he could have relapsed into alcoholism. Whatever the case, it's increasingly obvious this administration can only handle one crisis at a time, and only when it's self-manufactured.

Galloway:

Now, suddenly, the voice of the neo-conservative movement, William Kristol, editor of The Standard, suggests that Rumsfeld has fouled up everything in Iraq and ought to be fired for his failures. Ditto, writes Tom Donnelly of the right-thinking American Enterprise Institute.

Rumsfeld himself was never a neo-conservative. He just found them useful as he took over the Pentagon for the second time. Clearly the neo-cons found Rumsfeld useful as well as they pushed their ideas on transforming the Middle East.

So what happened? Why is Rumsfeld being stabbed in the back by those he trusted the most to back his play? By the very people who have argued for years in favor of taking out Saddam Hussein, installing democracy and creating a bully pulpit, and the military bases, from which the Middle East would be weaned from dictatorship and an implacable hatred of Israel and the United States.

Simple. They want someone else to be blamed besides them for fouling up their marvelous plans and schemes - someone who is a handy lightning rod and who is NOT a card-carrying neo-conservative. So who better than Rumsfeld?

The Hypocrisy Factor
Every year, evangelical pollster George Barna and his Barna Group interview thousands of religious Americans (generally re-born evangelicals and Catholics) on their cultural attitudes, personal backgrounds and lifestyle choices. And each year, without fail, Barna churns out the facts the Christian right wishes it could ignore. But since Barna counts himself as an ideological soulmate of Falwell, Dobson and their ilk, however much his data strips away their veneer of moral piety, it can't be disputed.
I've highlighted some of Barna's most disquieting findings on the culture of re-born America.
First and foremost, born-agains just as likely to divorce as liberal, latte-sipping elites:

Recent legislation, lawsuits and public demonstrations over the legality of gay marriage are just one battlefront regarding the institution of marriage. A new study released by The Barna Group, of Ventura, California, shows that the likelihood of married adults getting divorced is identical among born again Christians and those who are not born again. The study also cited attitudinal data showing that most Americans reject the notion that divorce is a sin.

Furthermore, Jesus has little impact on marriage-stability:

Born again adults who have been married are just as likely as non-born-again adults who have been married to eventually become divorced. Because the vast majority of born again marriages occurred after the partners had accepted Christ as their savior, it appears that their connection to Christ makes less difference in the durability of people’s marriages than many people might expect.

Protestant leadership is not monolithic, and certainly is not conservative:

Just half of all Protestant Senior Pastors (51%) meet the criteria for having a biblical worldview.

Born-agains don't adhere to biblical teachings on gambling, usury or otherwise. This is probably a socio-economic phenomenon, though, since the lotto is more popular among the economically marginalized and under-educated:

Born again Christians and adults who attend Christian churches are more likely than atheists, agnostics, and adherents of non-Christian faiths to buy lottery tickets.

Contrary to the bluster of conservative Christian leaders, the ranks of the moral-values crowd are thinning. Yet from my vantage point, there is little effort from the so-called "reality-based community" to reach disillusioned re-borns.

There seems to be a consistent degree of attrition of men from the Christian faith.... The number of unchurched adults in the United States has doubled since 1991. That growth has been especially pronounced among men, people under 40, singles, and people living in coastal states.
The numbers of men who are unchurched is rising, while the numbers of men who are “deeply spiritual” and those who possess an active faith (attend church, pray and read the Bible during the week) is declining.

"Spiritual warfare," a central tenet of the Christian right's political ideology, is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Americans:

Most Americans do not accept the notion that they are engaged in a spiritual battle. This is fueled by the widespread rejection of the notion that Satan is real...

Wonder why conservative churches are so hostile to female pastors? Here's a window into that attitude:

Female pastors... tend to be much more liberal in their views, are less likely to have a biblical worldview, are less likely to be born again, and more likely to have been divorced.

You go girls! Another troubling trend for the Christian right is the Asian demographic timebomb, which helps explain why I've witnessed so much hostility to Buddha in the sermons of evangelical leaders from Billy Graham to D. James Kennedy:

Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S. They are also the ethnic group least likely to possess biblical perspectives, to be Christian, and to engage in religious activity related to Christianity.

The massive gulf between the moral-values crowd's rhetoric and its culture is further illustrated by the Washington Post's Terry Neal, who demostrates both the appeal of pornography in the "Red States" and the nexus between porn and the GOP's money-machine. Neal writes,

In 2001, under pressure from an influential local antiporn group, Citizens for Community Values, prosecutors filed obscenity charges against two local video stores for selling adult videos. The Cincinnati Enquirer launched an investigation of community standards and found that:

"Last year, more than 21,000 Hamilton County residents purchased 26,000 explicit videos from one of the nation's largest mail-order companies. A company spokeswoman described those sales as typical for a community of this size. . . . In January of this year, 182,000 Greater Cincinnati residents -- an estimated 70,000 from Hamilton County -- visited an adult Web site at least once. Nielsen - NetRatings found that 21.8 percent of all residents here who went online visited an adult site. The national average for January was 21.4 percent. In recent months, Hamilton County residents bought adult movies on pay-per-view TV at about the same rate as viewers did in other mid-sized TV markets. The numbers suggest county residents are quiet contributors to the adult industry's rapid growth. And with every purchase, they change Hamilton County's long-held notion of a community standard."

Again, the community standard in Hamilton County -- which favored Bush over Kerry 53-47 percent -- was pretty much what it was everywhere else....

What Barna hasn't explored, and what I doubt he would be able to, is the extent to which re-borns consume pornography. All we have from Neal's reporting is that hotbeds of religious conservatism are lucrative markets for porn, and that porn-marketeers establish deniability by cozying up to overtly religious Republicans, a la Rupert Murdoch's role as adminstrator of Bush's propaganda machine or Sumner Redstone's endorsement of Bush.
I've searched around the web for the Christian right's response to this deluge of myth-shattering data and I've found only one. It comes from a guest columnist for Agape Press, which I understand to be a news division of the American Family Association -- an advocacy powerhouse that makes a fortune marketing computer porn-filters. Here is his response to Barna's data:

Ours is not a depressed church. We know the data Barna unveils and we don't doubt his numbers. But we also remember the old soldier who reminded us that the whiners, the complainers, the fearful and the despondent are rarely on the front lines of the battlefield. At the point of engagement, there is too much purposeful activity to wonder overly-much what is wrong with evangelicals in this nation. Our church is under orders. We march on. And, it is remarkable what action can do for the other maladies that Barna indicates plague the Church.

It is a pathetic response, an acknowledgement of vulnerability made in what the author must have thought was a private forum, or at least, one scarcely visited by the secular opposition. Given that the Christian right has no ostensible means to counter all of Barna's data, perhaps liberals might consider incorporating these facts into their arguments instead of simply labeling Christian conservatives as "radicals." Highlighting the Christian right's hypocrisy factor seems to be the best tactic to deprive it of its post-election moral platform.

Commanding Heights No More?
At this point, corporate America should join up with Internation ANSWER to launch a full-bore, pull-the-troops-out-now PR campaign. Why? According to GMI/WorldPoll, the war has cost America's most widely-recognized companies considerable crediblity among European and Canadian consumers. I think lifetime Republican Lee Iacocca saw this coming when he endorsed John Kerry.

American multinational companies will need to mount a valiant effort to distance themselves from the image of the U.S. federal government and its unpopular foreign policies in the New Year or risk continued brand erosion and ongoing boycotting by European and Canadian consumers, according to independent market research solutions company GMI, Inc.

...The study found that 1/3 of the 8,000 international consumers stated that American foreign policy, including the war on terror and the war in Iraq, most influenced their image of America; only 17% indicated that American movies and music most influenced their image. Furthermore, 79% of European and Canadian consumers distrust the American government, 50% distrust American companies, and 39% distrust the American people.

Ten Commandments Politics
Among Bush's monster squad of federal court nominees, perhaps no one is as outspoken about his desire to smash the so-called "wall" between church and state as Alabama's William Pryor. (Janice Rogers-Brown, a Federalist society cadre who believes in a "Constitution in exile" might be a close second). Yet there is tension between Pryor and a faction of the Christian right over his treatment of Judge Roy Moore during Moore's trial for refusing to de-install the Ten Commandments monument at the state supreme court.
Witness Pastor Chuck Baldwin, a popular pundit on the Christian right's pro-Eric Rudolph, Dominionist fringes who has created an entire anti-Pryor section on his website, commenting on Pryor's cross-examination of Moore:

Does any reader of this exchange not see what Bill Pryor was demanding? He was demanding that Chief Justice Roy Moore not acknowledge God! Pryor did not even refer to the Ten Commandments. He repeatedly asked Moore if he would continue to acknowledge God. To acknowledge God was deemed an impermissible activity and for this Roy Moore was removed as Alabama Chief Justice.

Watching Bill Pryor examine Roy Moore in such a fashion reminded me of the movie "Luther." It was shockingly similar to the moment when the great reformer stood in front of the Roman council and heard the inquisitor shout, "Will you recant? Will you recant? Will you recant?"

It is more than interesting that Bill Pryor asked Chief Justice Moore three times whether he would continue to acknowledge God, because Satan asked the Lord Jesus three times to fall down and worship him, and Simon Peter denied Christ three times. There does seem to be a pattern!

I wonder if Pryor's tiff with Moore will color the extent to which Christian right groups like Focus on the Family support him during his confirmation hearings. I expect that since most Christian right leaders find Pryor's views on abortion and homosexuality so appealing, they'll be willing to see past this episode.

In a related story, Roy Moore's lawyers may
file suit against Alabama if the state takes action against Moore's non-union stunt-double, Ashey McCathan, a judge who wears the Ten Commandments embroidered on his robe.

ALABAMA (AP) Another Alabama judge could be at the center of the next Ten Commandments battle. Covington County
Circuit Judge Ashley McCathan wears a robe in court embroidered with the Biblical rules.

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore lost his job over a fight to keep a Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Judicial building.

Now Judge McCathan's decision could bring another court challenge to the southern state.

I could be wrong, but I've done some background research on McCathan and don't find him to be as overtly political or self-aggrandizing as Moore. Certainly he is something of a fundamentalist, but that doesn't preclude his symbolic membership in the Christian right. In fact, I think he's a typical Southern Democrat. However, given that the fight over displays of the Ten Commandments on public property has been manufactured by the Christian right to keep its foot soldiers angry at the secular state and permanently howling in the street, it's almost certain a gaggle of advocacy groups will try to may legal hay out of this one while evangelical propaganda outlets churn out yellow headlines about "Christian persecution."

The good news is my relatives were staying on the coast opposite of Phuket. The bad news is like 23,000 other people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily, Bush is closely monitoring the situation from his ranch in Crawford.
Check me out later today for some eye-opening polling on Red State secrets.

Here's something that's been on my mind for quite a while: is it okay for Christians -- I mean real, bible-believing Christians -- to have foot fetishes? Steve and Kathy of Pure Life Ministries actually have the answer:

A. A foot fetish is simply a form of abnormal sexual lust. Like any other kind of immorality, it is built upon a foundation of carnal desire. In my book, Counseling the Sexual Addict, I wrote about homosexual lust. The same basic principles apply to both situations:

Homosexual sex is a form of perversion that can become ingrained in a person’s mind. Earlier, I stated the following: “The more this burgeoning homosexual lust is entertained and acted upon, the deeper it takes hold in the young man’s psyche.....

In other words, foot fetishes aren't only "abnormal," they're somehow gay. Why? According to Steve, both foot fetishes and homosexuality are "built on a foundation of carnal desire." Now I see the connection!

More Dispatches from Cupertino
The LA Times follows the controversy in Cupertino, CA, though rather poorly. This could have been such a colorful story if only its author had allowed its subjects to speak for themselves, particularly Stephen Williams, the fundamentalist 5th grade teacher who, according to one student, "talks about Jesus 100 times a day."
Perhaps the most valuable element of this article is its illustration of how the controversy was almost entirely manufactured by the Alliance Defense Fund, a right-wing evangelical advocacy group that stoked its campaign by disseminating a lie: that the Cupertino Union School District had banned displays of the Declaration of Independence from schools.
Since Cupertino is a suburb of San Jose and near the Bay Area, the school district suddenly appeared as a hotbed of the commie pinko, blame-America-firsters of the middle-American imagination. Suddenly, a lawsuit was filed, Hannity and Colmes were filming on scene and the little town was bombarded with evangelical vitriol from across the country.
What is missing from this coverage is the suggestion that this sort of manufactured controversy might not be about a teacher's free speech at all. It's in fact a means to keep the Christian right's foot-soldiers active after a hard-fought election season and sustain the permanent campaign. The controversy also gives the Alliance Defense Fund, which is essentially an arm of James Dobson's Focus on the Family and D. James Kennedy's political empire, a platform in the heart of so-called Blue America. So even if they lose their court case (which they should), they still win. That's the nature of backlash politics.

The turmoil began when fifth-grade teacher Stephen Williams brought a federal civil rights lawsuit Nov. 22, accusing the Cupertino Union School District of illegally forbidding him to instruct students on the religious context of America's founding.

A self-described orthodox Christian, Williams claims he is being discriminated against because of his faith.

Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence are among the materials he is not allowed to teach, according to the suit.

District officials have denied the charges. Their formal response to the suit is due in court Jan. 14.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group representing Williams, announced the suit with a news release headlined, "Declaration of Independence Banned From Classroom."

Looks like the LA Times beat me to a profile on Concerned Women for America, though I have to say, for the LA Times, it's a decent article. Apart from the article's section on CWFA's increased political muscle and its virulent opposition to anything that remotely has to do with homosexuality, I found two parts particularly interesting. First,

"The power comes from the lobbying presence on the Hill and the women who come to Washington every month," says Michael Schwartz, who recently left the group to work as chief of staff for Sen.-elect Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

I had no idea Schwartz had been hired by Coburn, though of course, I assumed Coburn's office would be a nest for emerging activists of the Christian right.
Second, I had only a vague understanding of CWFA's genesis. Here, founder Beverly Lahaye explains:

As LaHaye tells the story, when Friedan said that she spoke for America's women, LaHaye stood up in her living room and declared, "She's not speaking for me."

LaHaye's husband has written more than 50 books, including the "Left Behind" series and a sex manual he coauthored with her called "The Act of Marriage," which sold more than 2 million copies. He also was a pastor at a church in San Diego and helped found a group of Christian schools.

Prior to founding Concerned Women for America, Beverly LaHaye had little to no personal involvement in conservative Christian causes.

After seeing Friedan, however, she called together eight friends. Then she rented a hall in San Diego and put an ad in the newspaper inviting women to a meeting opposing the Equal Rights Amendment. LaHaye said she came up with "Concerned Women for America" because she couldn't rent the hall without a name.

She says she was stunned when 1,200 women showed up, and she literally trembled when she got up to speak.

But her message struck a chord and the organization took root.

Is Roy Moore Jr. Constitutionally Protected?
FindLaw has a really interesting piece on the legality of Alabama judge Ashley McKathan's robe, which is emblazoned with symbols of the Ten Commandments. In analyzing McKathan's contention that his robe is protected under the First Amendment, author Marci Hamilton compares his case to that of a cop who starred in his self-produced pornos while in uniform. Both McKathan and the cop claimed constitutional protection for actions that violated their official codes of conduct. According to Hamilton, neither man's claim is valid.

Are the judge's constitutional rights violated by the requirement that he wear an unadorned robe? Of course not. He can express his message - and worship as he chooses - on his own time, wearing his off-duty clothing. Neither his Free Exercise rights, nor his Free Speech rights are infringed by that distinction. All that is asked is that he refrain from using his public position to foster his personal views. As in the case of the porn-selling police officer, the point is that public office and personal speech and religion should not mix.

Indeed, when it comes to religion, an independent Constitutional mandate makes that crystal clear. The Establishment Clause is violated if the government' action has the purpose or effect of furthering or hindering religion, or if the government has endorsed a particular religious (or anti-religious) viewpoint.

The Floods
What a nightmare. Some family members were vacationing by the beach in Thailand. I'm waiting...

This is who the Gaza settlers are: selfish fanatics exploiting the Holocaust to dramatize their own treasonous campaign and in turn, casting the Holocaust as a mere inconvenience born out of democratic consensus. Why should anyone feel any sympathy for them?

Dramatizing their cause, settler activists in Gaza, including some children of Holocaust survivors, launched a campaign to persuade Israelis to wear an orange Star of David, thus linking their cause to the yellow patch which Nazi soldiers forced doomed Jews to wear during World War II.

12/26/04

A third exit poll, by Frank Luntz, a pollster for the U.S. Republican Party, and Douglas Schoen, of the Washington-based market research company Penn, Schoen & Berland, showed Yushchenko winning with 56 to Yanukovych's 41 percent, Schoen said. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.

8/19/04

CARACAS, Venezuela Aug. 19, 2004 — A U.S. firm's exit poll that said President Hugo Chavez would lose a recall referendum has landed in the center of a controversy following his resounding victory.

"Exit Poll Results Show Major Defeat for Chavez," the survey, conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, asserted even as Sunday's voting was still on. But in fact, the opposite was true Chavez ended up trouncing his enemies and capturing 59 percent of the vote....

Critics of the exit poll have questioned how it was conducted because officials have said Penn, Schoen & Berland worked with a U.S.-funded Venezuela group that the Chavez government considers hostile.

Penn, Schoen & Berland had members of Sumate, a Venezuelan group that helped organize the recall initiative, do the fieldwork for the poll, election observers said.

Looking for some holiday reading? Check out David Neiwert's "The Rise of the Pseudo-Fascist Movement," an intellectually ambitious series of essays attempting to explain the fascist underpinnings of the conservative movement. It's ambitious because in order to assert that the American right has roots in fascism, one not only has to show organizational links to the classical fascist movement -- ie. America First, the Klan, the Liberty Lobby, etc. -- one must clearly define what fascism is. Needless to say, I think Neiwert pulls this off rather nicely.

Does Max Blumenthal Hate America (or Just Whitey?)
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog entry defending white nationalist author Sam Francis' intellectual freedom. To sum up my argument briefly, Media Matters had demanded that Creators' Syndicate stop publishing Francis' columns; recently, Francis had used the tiff over the Monday Night Football Terrell Owens/Nicole Sheridan locker-room embrace to contend that racial miscegenation was destroying American society. While I agreed with Media Matters that Francis' views on race are abhorrent, I argued in favor of his intellectual freedom for a variety of reasons. If you want to understand my reasoning, check out my post.

My aim now is simply to showcase some of the responses to my post from Francis' fans who came across it by way of Jared Taylor's American Renaissance magazine. Jared Taylor, by the way, is an incredibly articulate, friendly fellow -- we had a long discussion a few months ago -- who also happens to be avowed white supremacist. Besides being a fairly popular platform for the views of Taylor and his ilk, American Renaissance publishes pieces on race and immigration from across the ideological spectrum for its readers to debate, including mine. Here are some of my favorite responses from its readers to my post:

What an article! The author basically hates our guts but is dedicated to intellectual integrity.

True, though I don't exactly hate your guts. What I really hate is these annoying pop-up ads for Botox that keep appearing on my screen and make me resent ever upgrading to broadband.

I called him on his own "peoples" bigotry on his website- with a link to their "holiest" rabbi's website and what he thinks of inter-marrying.

I never knew there was a "holiest rabbi." All I know is Moses' wife was Ethiopian. Actually, me and "peoples" in Tel Aviv and Hollywood are too busy secretly manipulating the international monetary system to care about who we marry.

Dr. Francis' candor in speaking
about racial issues has cost him so much income that he's
forced to live in a racially-mixed area.

Meanwhile, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, et al are rewarded for
their lack of candor on these issues with incomes that enable
to live light-years away from such a neighborhood!

Indeed, you can't play ball on the New Right without cloaking your white supremacist views in codes and insinuations. I wonder if Francis brought his black neighbors a fruitcake for Christmas.

When one race invades another, they take away their wealth and their women. You can see evidence of white suppression and persecution by blacks and even Mexicans in the stores where the white women are being taken away by the invaders and the oppressors. When will the whites wake up and stop the ethnic cleansing against them?

"In the stores where the white women are being taken away???" Where are these white women stores? And how much do the white women cost? Will blondes be marked-down after Christmas?

I hope Max was staring into a mirror as he penned this article.

No, my handsome, semitic features would have been too distracting. Instead, I stared at an image of my dream-woman, Star Jones.

Mr. Blumenthal does not live in the same political universe that most of us do. He lives physically in the US, but he does not live there mentally or spiritually. To him the USA is what he can get out of it. Any defence of the country or its people to him is "reactionary" and deserves to be burried.

Why does he not care? Because he does not identitify with the people of the country he lives in - at least most of them. What else could it be?

You can sit there and ask yourself over and over - why does this man defend such outrageous positions as mass immigration, demographic replacement of the native population, culture death, and ethnic aggressions. The answer is that he defends them because it suits his purpose - not because it is illogical...

You're right, and in fact, I'm on my way to one of those white women stores to get my ethnic aggressions out. I'm going to put your sister on lay-away.

Are you Jewish?
I wonder sometimes just who conservatives are talking about when they bash the "secular humanists" or the "liberal Hollywood elite." Not everyone is as honest as William Donahue. Case in point, this response to John Gorenfeld's piece on Sun Myung Moon's "Tear Down the Cross" campaign from someone with a name straight out of some Vaudeville roadshow, Hannelore G. Brunt:

From: Hannelore G Brunt [mailto:elvahanne@juno.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 2:39 PM
To: editor@gadflyer.com
Subject: John Gorenfeld

I am deeply disturbed by your article
Tear Down the Cross
Why is President Bush supporting a group trying to convince African-American churches to literally throw their crosses in the trash?

It is divisive misinformation intended to slander the President and turn people who don't take the time to read the whole article against him and other Christians. There is no way a true Christian would consent to throwing the cross from within their church into the dumpster. You should be writing for the Enquirer or Star or one of those smut papers lined up at the check-out counters in our stores. You are also way off base with your statements regarding the President's religious practices.

If pitting people against each other is your life's ambition, you are doing a great job. I prefer to find peaceful ways to reach common ground with people of opposing opinions. By the way, the United States of America in general and evangelical Christians inparticular are the greatest, most passionate supporters of Israel. Is your name telling me that you are Jewish?

Blessings,

Hannelore Brunt

I think it bears mentioning that the attack on Mosul not only killed a substantial number of troops, it wounded 69 people including 44 US servicemembers, seven US contractors, five Defense Department civilians, two Iraqi civilians, 10 contractors of other nationalities and one of unknown nationality.
Anthony Cordesman estimates if the US stays in Iraq as long as Rumsfeld says it will, until about 2008, the total number of dead servicemembers will exceed 5,000. Jack Beatty cites that figure in his Atlantic Monthly piece, "The Butcher's Bill," which makes one of the best cases I've read for getting the hell out of Iraq now. (Unfortunately, to read it in its entirety you need a subscription.)
In another sign of how dangerous Iraq has become, the first major US contractor is pulling out.

Meanwhile a big US contractor has pulled out of the $20bn (£12bn) reconstruction effort. According to The Los Angeles Times, Contrack International, which heads a partnership that won a $325m contract, one of 12 major reconstruction contracts awarded this year, has stopped work on the project because of "prohibitive" security costs.

The deal is the largest so far in Iraq to fall victim to the insurgency. The fear is that other companies may follow Contrack's example, or decline to tender for work, further imperilling the prospects for reconstruction.

That's $325 million down the toilet for Contrack just to escape the sheer hell Iraq has become.

I wonder if this kind of racist conjecture would be admissible in a post-Jim Crow American courtroom:

"The Arab mentality is made of "a sense of being a victim," "pathological anti-Semitism," and "a tendency to live in a world of illusions," said Prof. Rafi Israeli, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Hebrew University, on the witness stand Wednesday, adding that the Arabs neglect sanitation in their communities. "Most of the Arab villages are dirtier, physically - it's a fact," he said.

Professor Israeli is the last of the prosecution's witnesses in the case against five Islamic Movement members accused of security and financial offenses.

The defense initially requested that Israeli's testimony be rejected, claiming the professor is identified with the extreme right - but his testimony was heard.

Still, somehow, Prof. Israeli has carved out a niche for himself in Israel's far-right academic circles and has mingled with some of America's most influential ultra-Zionist conservatives. Just last month, he rubbed shoulders with Daniel Pipes, radio host Dennis Prager and British Tory historian David Pryce-Jones at the Jerusalem Summit, an in-gathering of right-wing Western and Israeli intellectual types. There, he presented "A Strategy for Israel's Campaign in the International Arena," which I can only assume did not advocate a soft-sell.

Will Bush's swearing-in ceremony be highlighted by a nod to the Christian right? Certainly his address will be full of evangelical codes and insinuation but rapture-ready Mike Evans has something specific in mind:

The Jerusalem Prayer Team, founded by Mike Evans, says Bush should follow the example of President Reagan, who had his family Bible opened to II Chronicles 7:14 when he was inaugurated Jan. 20, 1981.

"America needs God's blessing and protection more than ever," Evans said. "The truth is, we have a God-fearing President, but he cannot save this nation if God does not 'heal our land.' We elected George Bush for another term; now, we must appeal to him to lead our great nation into a 'Great Awakening' by seeking God's sovereign intervention...."

Evans has asked more than 300 national leaders, including James Dobson, T. D. Jakes and Tim LaHaye, to back a petition asking Bush to declare a II Chronicles 7:14 National Day of Prayer, Repentance, and Fasting.....

Evans said he is asking Bush to use his family Bible, opened to II Chronicles 7:14, because for his first inauguration in 2001, the president requested the use of George Washington's Masonic Bible.

It will be interesting to see whether Washington's press corps even notices if Bush accedes to Evans' wishes.

The new makeup of the Senate Judiciary Committee has Gary Bauer jumping for joy:

"I am thrilled by their appointment," Bauer says in his daily newsletter. "Dr. Coburn [an obstetrician] is one of the most effective advocates for the sanctity of life, and Sam Brownback has been a tireless leader on many issues on concern to pro-family conservatives."

And Concerned Women for America's legal counsel Jan LaRue:

“Concerned Women for America has vowed to hold Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) accountable to his promise not to impose a litmus test on nominees and to conduct fair and timely hearings after he was forced to back-track from what was widely perceived as a message to the president about pro-life candidates,” said LaRue. “It is likely that there will be a Supreme Court vacancy next year. With the additions of Brownback and Coburn to the committee, there will be more watchful eyes and ears on Specter.”

But before a vacancy opens, it's likely Brownback will introduce some ambitious anti-abortion legislation to test the Senate's waters. From USA Today:

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., will reintroduce a bill that would require those who perform abortions after 20 weeks to tell mothers that their fetus feels pain and to offer it anesthesia. The Bush administration has not declared a position but argued during last year's successful effort to ban late-term or "partial birth" abortions that fetuses feel pain. "This was a very clear election cycle. ... The country has shifted. You've got a pro-life electorate," Brownback says.

That's Stenography!
I saw this Crutsinger character on C-Span last week (before the rat bastards at Adelphia cut my stolen cable) and I swear when I heard the terminology he used to characterize Bush's economic agenda I thought he was a White House official or some crotchety conservative thinktanker. My heart sank when I realized Crutsinger was AP's econ guy.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s campaign to make the tax code simpler, fairer and more pro-growth is likely to involve incremental changes to the current system rather than a sweeping effort to scrap the venerable income tax for a radically new approach, such as a national sales tax....

Definition of a Brilliant Wedge Strategy
Major props to my friend John Gorenfeld for his brilliant wedge strategy. Gorenfeld's article linking Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church to a campaign to "tear down the cross" (Moon fancies himself the true Messiah and therefore sees the cross as a symbol of a false God) to the Bush family was published in the Gadflyer and promoted by Joseph Farah's far-right-wing rag, WorldNetDaily. By simultaneously pushing the Christian right's persecution button while piling on Bush and the Moonies, Gorenfeld kills three birds with one stone. It's an entertaining read, so check it out:

Rather than the traditional egg hunt, this group, calling itself the American Clergy Leadership Conference, sponsored a nationwide "Tear Down The Cross" day for Easter, 2003. Last week, leaders in this radical cause presided over a Washington prayer breakfast featuring messages of thanks from the presidents. Former Senator Bob Dole came in person.

Mostly African-American, pastors who joined in 2003's ACLC-sponsored "Tear Down The Cross" won gold watches from the wealthy group, which unabashedly claims in its publications to have stripped churches of over a hundred crosses over the Easter holiday alone. This, movement leaders said, cleared the way for a new age and second messiah.

Speaking of messiahs, make a quick stop at the web site of the ACLC, and it's clear there's more to it than the “rapidly growing movement of clergy committed to the endeavor of making this nation the best that it can be," as the ACLC described itself in a December 8 Washington Times op-ed. It's actually a vehicle for Sun Myung Moon, the billionaire conservative donor who calls himself the True Father...

Now for the right-wing version, which makes the impact of Gorenfeld's wedge strategy pretty clear:

WorldNetDaily.com

Both President Bush and his father have expressed their support for a group of mostly black church leaders that endorses the practice of throwing the cross into the trash – literally.

According to an online column by John Gorenfeld, the American Clergy Leadership Conference sponsored a nationwide "Tear Down The Cross" day for Easter 2003 during which pastors led ceremonies where traditional sanctuary crosses were tossed into dumpsters. Over 100 crosses reportedly were trashed.

Writes Gorenfeld, "This [cross removal], movement leaders said, cleared the way for a new age and second messiah."

Last week, the movement's leaders presided over a Washington prayer breakfast featuring messages of thanks from both Bush presidents.

Though ACLC's website says part of its purpose is to "promote through fellowship the unity of the body of Christ," it also aims to "foster cooperation and understanding among all religions." That cooperation is evidenced by the involvement of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church who was dubbed the king of peace at a coronation ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building earlier this year.

The organization also works closely with both Muslim and Jewish clergy.

More on the grassroots right's favorite tactic, incessant whining, which is being employed by conservative activists to intimidate insufficiently pro-Bush university professors:

Leading the movement is the group Students for Academic Freedom, with chapters on 135 campuses and close ties to David Horowitz, a one-time liberal campus activist turned conservative agitator. The group posts student complaints on its Web site about alleged episodes of grading bias and unbalanced, anti-American propaganda by professors -- often in classes, such as literature, in which it's off-topic.

Instructors "need to make students aware of the spectrum of scholarly opinion," Horowitz said. "You can't get a good education if you're only getting half the story."

Conservatives claim they are discouraged from expressing their views in class, and are even blackballed from graduate school slots and jobs.

"I feel like (faculty) are so disconnected from students that they do these things and they can just get away with them," said Kris Wampler, who recently publicly identified himself as one of the students who sued the University of North Carolina. Now a junior, he objected when all incoming students were assigned to read a book about the Quran before they got to campus.

"A lot of students feel like they're being discriminated against," he said.

So far, his and other efforts are having mixed results. At UNC, the students lost their legal case, but the university no longer uses the word "required" in describing the reading program for incoming students (the plaintiffs' main objection)....

It would take quite a bit of intellectual agility to explain just how requiring incoming freshman to read a book about the Quran qualifies as discrimination. That may be why Wampler and the rest of Horowitz's cadres seem to prefer accusation to explanation.

The Culture War claims Cupertino, CA (and more on why Nat Hentoff's off his rocker)
Democrats for Life national co-chair and veteran Kerry-basher Nat Hentoff continues down the road to wingnuttery, this time taking up the cause of an evangelical 5th grade teacher in the Cupertino, California public school system who's become the Christian right's latest martyr; he was rebuked by a principal after devising a curriculum focused on essentially proving that the founding fathers intended America to be a Christian theocracy.
The teacher is now represented in a lawsuit against the school district by the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal foundation founded by James Dobson, D. James Kennedy and their ilk which is also spearheading the Christian right's battle to save Christmas from the secular humanists. Here's part of Hentoff's column in the Washington Times, in all its Orwellian glory:

At the Stevens Creek public school in Cupertino, California, fifth-grade teacher Steve Williams, an evangelical Christian, has had his American history lesson plans — and supplementary original documents that led to the forming of the Constitution — rejected by the principal, lest he "proselytize" his students to become Christians. The documents mention God.

As a history teacher, Mr. Williams — like other teachers in the school district — gives his students curriculum-related handouts to supplement the district's fifth-grade history textbook, "A New Nation: Adventures in Time and Place." Among the handouts are excerpts of original documents from the years during which our Constitution was being formed, as we became a free, independent nation....

However, at the Stevens Creek Elementary School, Mr. Williams is the only teacher required by the principal, Patricia Vidmar, to submit, in advance, all his lesson plans and supplemental handouts for review so the principal can see if they contain any religious content. (AccordingtoMr. Williams, only about 5 percent of his handouts have references to God or to Christianity.) Since May 19, 2004, Ms. Vidmar has rejected all of Mr. Williams' proposed lesson plans and original founding documents where God or Christianity are mentioned in them....

Now Steve Williams has become the latest casualty of what Hentoff likes to call "the war on freedom" while the secular humanists have joined Hentoff's favorite target, John Ashcroft, (who, ironically, seems more and more like his ideological soulmate) as the enemies of the Constitution.
To play devil's advocate for a moment, all Williams did was innocently mention God in the classroom, right? What's wrong with him asserting his First Amendment rights? On the other hand, perhaps Hentoff sees through the glass darkly, or perhaps he doesn't see at all; it's not clear his nest in the West Village is really an ideal vantage point for assessing a controversy on the opposite coast. So why don't we go to scene and hear what a Stevens Elementary School mother has to say about what's going on her child's school? This email was forwarded to me the day Hentoff's column was published by a friend who is friends with the mother:

this is about our neighborhood elementary school, where (Max's note: I deleted the student's name)
attends 6th grade!!! Hentoff has it all wrong - the declaration of
independence was never banned - these guys are basically lying. The teacher
is a fundamantalist nut who has hooked up with a right wing evangelical
group that is trying to make new case law on the separation between
church and case and has zeroed in on our school!! Any ideas on how to get
in touch with Hentoff? Anyway, needless to say, I am in the middle of
all this trying to organize parent response and have not had time to get
out my Christmas cards yet!
Hope all is well - let me know if you have any ideas or even a phone
number where I can reach hentoff.

Two days later, the Christian right's grassroots base had focused its wrath on Cupertino. This is the next update I received by email:

This experience has been sickening - there have been thousands of vile phone calls, e-mails
to our school, entirely from outside our community, since this story
broke with lovely holiday messages such as "burn in hell". One teacher
was awakened at 1 am by a caller who said "we know where you live and we
know that you teach at that godforsaken school." We now have county
sherrifs who patrol to ensure the safety of kids and staff. Nice, huh?
Hannity and colmes, limbaugh, all the conservative gurus just bought into
this hook, line and sinker and have spread the bald face lie around the
world that our school banned the declaration of independence. I thought
Hentoff was at least respectable - has that changed? Is the only real
journalist left Sy Hersch? He seems to be the only one to seriously
question anything anymore.

The election was sooo depressing, at least I could take comfort that I
live in the heart of blue America. Now these a-holes are coming here!
Hannity and colmes did a show on 12/9 in cupertino at the local junior
college, calling it "take back america". They had the teacher on along
with his lawyer and ollie north. There was no one from the school
district (their lawyers are telling them not to talk to the media, which
does not help!), no parents or other teachers. Instead representing the
"other side" was michael nudow, the idiot who sued to take God out of
the pledge of allegiance, and the president of the atheist society of
silicon valley! Like they represent anyone!They bussed in people from God
knows where to fill the auditorium - none from our community except for
a few brave parents like me who sat meekly just watching these insane
people who were whooping and yelling. It was like nuremberg in 1939 - we
were waiting for the book burning to start!

All I can say is Yarab Burham! How is this country going to survive the
next four years?

Stay tuned. I'll be following this story as it progresses.
Oh yeah, to contact Nat Hentoff, though I'm not sure if it's out of date: hentoff@nejazz.org

Hear Me
I'll be on Sirius Talk Left with the Young Turks in about a half an hour, that's 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT, to discuss some of my work.
If you miss that one, which is very likely, I'll be on Esther Kaplan's Jewish culture and politics show on New York City's WBAI at 12:30pm ET on Sunday. Both shows stream on the web, I think.

Nineteen US soldiers have been killed in an explosion at a US military base in Mosul, making it the worst single incident for the US military in Iraq....
Speaking at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, he [Bush] said the violence should not affect elections scheduled for January.

"I'm confident democracy will prevail in Iraq," he said.

A reader, Susan from Berlin, says: "Merry Christmas to you, Mr. President -- but don`t back off. Have that election to prove you`re a man!"

Like the John Thune campaign in South Dakota, which secretly employed bloggers at the state's two largest newspapers, the Pentagon and White House have discovered blogging as a covert propaganda tool:

After hearing that an oil pipeline had been blown up while he was driving toward Basra, Omar wrote that the majority of people in that area "make money from carjacking, kidnapping people for ransoms, smuggling drugs and weapons and even prostitution. In general they have no moral, religious or social values. What I can't understand is why the government hasn't done anything to stop those thugs from destroying the country's economy till now!"

Working with Spirit of America, a nonprofit group supporting projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Fadhil brothers are raising money for an Arabic-language blogging tool for their countrymen. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who has worked with the group, suggested to presidential aides that the two men "had interesting and inspiring stories and the president might be interested in hearing them," says White House spokesman Sean McCormack.

These characters have been around for a while, and while it's hard to gauge their effectiveness, after witnessing the shrill style style in which they write -- and their venomous hatred for regular Iraqis -- it's hard to imagine how they could make an impact.
You'll see what I mean if you check out Iraq the Model, one of the Fadhil brothers' blogs, which seems to concentrate exclusively on attacking Juan Cole and Riverbend, who is one of the best voices coming out of Iraq right now.

I just found Chris Mooney's October article, "Research and Destroy," an insightful look into the Christian right's efforts to advance their Calvinistic social agenda with scientific-sounding arguments. One of the most influential figures in strengthening the nexus between moralizing and pseudo-science is Dr. Joe McIlhaney, who figures prominently in Mooney's narrative:

When I pressed McIlhaney to tell me whether or not he thought--as nearly every other person in the field does--condoms lower the risk of pregnancy or the transmission of disease, he demurred, chuckling softly. "It's just this simple sort of little latex device, and we're talking about the futures of young people," he said.

In an interview, McIlhaney, a self-identified Christian, strenuously protested being characterized as a scientist motivated by religion. "We're a medical, scientific organization," he insisted. But when it comes to his own pro abstinence positions, McIlhaney's claims are more a matter of faith than science: There is as yet no evidence that abstinence-only education actually prevents kids from having sex. "There are no studies meeting reasonable criteria that show that any program has delayed the initiation of sex," notes Kirby.

Still, the Bush administration has humored McIlhaney and other critics of "comprehensive" sex education. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have abolished an initiative called "Programs that Work," which in 2002 listed five "comprehensive" sex-education programs and no "abstinence only" ones. And both the CDC and the State Department's Agency for International Development have altered informational materials on condoms to downplay evidence of their effectiveness. McIlhaney himself serves on both the advisory committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the President's Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS.

Why Lifestyle Liberals Make Me Blue
I don't know about this new "buy blue" campaign. It seems to me if one really wants to vote with their pocketbook, they should divorce themselves from the consumer culture altogether rather than patronizing predatory companies that just happen to donate to Democrats for transparently practical reasons (the financial industry lavishes Joe Biden because it's centered in Delaware).

Shouldn't there be other standards "blue" companies should be held to? Under "buy blue" logic, a company like Costco that retails garments stitched in Burmese sweatshops by famished girls is politically correct; Starbucks, on an eternal mission to seek and destroy independently owned coffee-shops like a cancer, is safe to patronize; and Shell oil suddenly becomes the friendly fil-er-up place for Deaniacs to take their Volvo 240's. Forget about Shell's relentless bid for Iraqi oil contracts or their history with South Africa's apartheid government. They're "blue."

The "buy blue" campaign is basically a well-intentioned stunt by and for lifestyle liberals who seem to think they can do good without sacrificing the same excesses most middle-class Americans enjoy. Nothing will change (at least, not for the better) if this campaign achieves its apparently dubious goal of pressuring "red" companies like Walmart into donating to Democrats.

So in place of the "buy blue" campaign, I propose a truly revolutionary movement: it's called turn off the TV, stop buying things and talk to each other.

A sarcastic congratulations to Democrats for Life for escaping the moldy pages of right-wing clerical rags and making the Boston Globe. Run by Capitol Hill nebishes, defeated right-wing southern Dem relics like Charlie Stenholm -- who was just redistricted to death by Tom Delay -- and co-chaired by Nat Hentoff, who is in a class of his own, it's hard to imagine a world in which Democrats for Life is taken seriously. So when they become the media-appointed voice of moderation in the Democratic party, that's how you know the party is in a state of crisis -- one which seems to be largely self-created.

Kristin Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, said that during this year's campaign, she was frustrated by her inability to persuade the DNC to list the Internet link for her group on the DNC's website. But now, staffers for potential DNC candidates have been calling her to discuss including antiabortion Democrats in the party mix, she said.

"We're very encouraged. I think people are starting to wake up and say we can't alienate this whole wing of our party," she said. The group points to a Zogby poll indicating 43 percent of Democrats surveyed said they think abortion is manslaughter, a finding Day said shows the Democratic party leadership is out of synch with its members.

My question is, how much access has Dems for Life had to Reid and Pelosi? Both of them would apparently like the next DNC chair to be Tim Roemer, who has a 95% National Right to Life rating.

Major props to washed-up country singer Chely Wright for resurrecting her career with what the Tennessean calls, "A campaign of deception," which in the record industry is known as a good promotional strategy.

Without the backing of a major label, Wright turned a suburban country schlock-anthem, "The Bumper of my SUV," into a major hit by exploiting middle America's reflexive sentimentalism for "the troops," whomever they are.

Seventeen members of a handpicked team of fans contacted radio stations around the country asking for more airplay for Wright's pro-military ballad, The Bumper of My SUV. It was all part of an organized campaign by leaders of the fan club who encouraged the team to do such things as ''tell 'em your husband is a marine — whatever it takes.''

Check out one of the emails Wright's promo team sent out. It's not only a hell of a con-job, it's a brilliant mockery of America's militaristic illusions.

Sally Vincent

aka Major Craig's Wife

I heard that Bumper Sticker on my SUV song. Well, let me tell you it stopped me in my tracks! My husband is over in Iraq right now and he is a Marine. Half way through the song my tears were flowing. I brought a sense of pride and a longing for him to come home. The words were so true. How lucky are we! We drive safe on our streets and no one wants war but this is their job.

I hope you can play this again so more people can hear and during this holiday season when we are missing our loved ones it gives us a sense of pride that someone gets why they are away and are doing what they are doing.

Thank you, Thank Chely Wright and Gold Bless this great nation of ours!

Sally Craig

Can anyone really blame Wright? Is there any pop music act -- even within the world of Christian pop -- that doesn't exploit consumers with disingenuous sentimentalism?

I wonder if the White House will try to manufacture some divisive domestic debate, a la Social Security "reform," to distract from the inevitable disaster on January 30th. Iraqi elections will define the occupation more than any event since Bush declared mission accomplished. When they fail to generate the administration's desired result -- whether through a surge in violence on election day or a Shi'ite sweep establishing an theocracy covertly influenced by Iran -- domestic support for the war is likely to plunge even further. But don't believe me, believe the US's entire intelligence apparatus:

WASHINGTON - The CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department have warned President Bush that the United States and its Iraqi allies are not winning the battle against Iraqi insurgents who are trying to derail the country's Jan. 30 elections, according to administration officials...

I think one way to gauge the administration's confidence in the elections is to monitor the frequency it mentions them. They may continue their psy-ops-style strategy of information denial, by which they treat they work to minimize the frequency of stories that reflect badly on their agenda, thus treating the American public like an enemy populace. As retired psy-ops specialist Lt. Col. Sam Gardiner wrote,

...Denying information to adversaries is one way of maintaining information dominance. (According to the Army Field Manual, this dimension involves "withholding information that adversaries need for effective decision-making.") In the case of Iraq, this has meant eliminating press releases and press briefings. Since the hand-over of power, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq has issued only six releases, including one on the new Iraqi environment minister's visit to a landfill project. The most recent press release, on Aug. 12, was about a boxer on Iraq's Olympics team. The last press briefing by the Multi-National Force in Iraq was June 25. The interim Iraqi government does not hold press conferences.

The White House Web site also reflects the strategy of withholding information. It used to actively provide content on Operation Iraqi Freedom (or as the Web site now says, "Renewal in Iraq"), but the last new entry is dated Aug. 5...

I've been trying to keep a tighter focus on culture war politics recently, but this one can't be allowed to slip away:

Dec. 20 issue - In an effort to crack down on one of the world's most notorious international criminals, President George W. Bush last summer signed an order barring U.S. citizens from doing business with Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout. But not long afterward, U.S. officials discovered Bout's tentacles were wider than anticipated: for much of this year, NEWSWEEK has learned, a Texas charter firm allegedly controlled by Bout was making repeated flights to Iraq—courtesy of a Pentagon contract allowing it to refuel at U.S. military bases. One reason for the flights, sources say, was that the firm was flying on behalf of Kellogg Brown & Root, the division of Halliburton hired to rebuild Iraq's oilfields.

Word is that Michael Mann has signed on to direct a feature on Bout due out in 2005. Hope the KR&B contracts are prominent in Mann's narrative.

The Politics of Shame
Ever wonder why the Christian right and the conservative movement in general hates experts so much? Perhaps because their agenda is constantly impeded and rebuked by facts. Case in point:

Two laws in Texas that limit teenagers' ability to confidentially obtain reproductive health care cost $44 million a year largely because of additional pregnancies, local researchers have found.

The laws were passed by the Texas Legislature in 1999 but only recently enforced.

In this case, though, the activists behind these laws acknowledge the veracity of the research but remain unapologetic.

"Whatever the cost, if these laws force even a few teenagers to talk to their parents about these issues, then they're worth it," said James Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, an anti-abortion group.

"If a young girl is afraid to talk to her parents about using contraceptives, then she knows she's doing something wrong."

Shaming teenage girls into a life of shame and sexual secrecy -- that's what they call a "sexual health" program in Texas. Forgive me if I sound sanctimonious, but it should be called child abuse.

What is a House Hebrew?

Well, I guess my fundraising pitch didn't work. Maybe I should have dropped the whole birthday crap and said something like, "SUPPORT THE TRUTH! SEND DOLLARS FOR DEMOCRACY AND LET THE REPUBLICANS KNOW WE WON'T..." You get the idea.
I'll leave you today with warm holiday words from Hillary Clinton, who is all getting all right-wing and stuff:

"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants."

I doubt even Pat Buchanan thinks he could say he's against a group of people and not expect some backlash. Usually, if you're a Democrat and you have any core beliefs at all, you attack problems, not people.
Now I'm off to see some friends who entered this country illegally years ago and were granted amnesty by Ronald Reagan. They are having a going-away party for their daughter, who will be starting graduate school next month.

In two hours, I will turn 27. If you've enjoyed reading this blog, or reading my articles, how about sending me a birthday present? Paypal makes it easy; just click the donate icon on the lower left-hand of the screen.
Whether you can or can't donate, thanks for continuing to visit my blog. And merry... no, happy holidays.
Max

Good piece in the Miami Herald on D. James Kennedy, perhaps the most prominent Dominionist minister in the world:

''My interest is not in politics,'' said Kennedy, dressed in a navy suit, his slate-gray hair combed neatly to one side. ``My interest is in the kingdom of God and the eternal salvation of human beings. And government can become a great obstacle to preaching the gospel.''

From his headquarters at his church -- which had 45 congregants when he founded it in 1959 -- Kennedy, 74, has challenged those obstacles by building a $37 million evangelical empire that includes:

• A 10,000-member church.

• A multimedia arm that broadcasts Kennedy's message to 165 countries.

• A political center that lobbies members of Congress, distributes voter guides and registers voters.

• An institute that promotes teaching creationism, the doctrine that God established all that exists.

• An office on Capitol Hill to convert lawmakers to evangelical Christianity.

''God, in his providence, has given us a Christian nation, and it behooves us as Christians to prefer and select Christians to rule over us,'' Kennedy said. He was borrowing from John Jay, the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

''I do believe that Christian rulers are more likely to rule in the fear of God and not ride roughshod over God's commandments,'' he added.

Does the Kerik debacle get any deeper? Yes.

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik dated an attorney in the early 1990s who was indicted in a multimillion-dollar, mob-run gambling ring.

Kerik, a Paterson native, and Hackensack attorney Linda George split shortly before George and her estranged husband were indicted by a Passaic County grand jury on allegations they owned a Paterson cafe used from 1988 until 1993 as a video gaming den.

Prosecutors described the storefront as part of a $26 million-a-year organized-crime gambling ring. Kerik and George lived together in an East Rutherford town house bought by Kerik in 1994 after the pair had dated for several years, according to people familiar with the situation...

I respect Nat Hentoff as much as anyone, but I was taken aback somewhat when I learned that he's on the national advisory board of Democrats for Life.
I found an article of Hentoff's explaining his views on abortion. It's far more articulate than what I'm used to, though it paints just as distorted a picture of the left's views on reproductive rights as any right-wing screed.
I'm not questioning Hentoff's liberal credentials; plenty of decent people are anti-abortion. I'm just surprised that his ultimate foe, John Ashcroft, is not necessarily his ideological foil.

It's late again, and I've been wondering:

Is Allen Colmes okay? I mean, is he sick or something?

Does anybody take Mickey "Mouse" Kaus seriously anymore or can't Slate find another blogger? I just skimmed through his blog and wondered if I was reading a brilliant satire of the very concept of blogging itself. Like, for instance, how does anybody come up with the idea that if Democrats support gay marriage, they can't win the hearts and minds of the homophobic Islamic world? I'm not going to brook an argument here, I'm just saying, what kind of a meshugenah idea is that? How do you think of stuff like that?
And what does the Mick believe in, anyway? Well, I guess he fits right in at Slate with Hitchens.

Does anybody other than me get internet service from their cable company? I've been experiencing massive problems, including hideous pop-up ads every 3-5 seconds if I have service at all, so I called the technical service line. The tech told me, "Yeah, our service sucks, and I have no idea why we rented 250,000 defective modems out."

Now that the election's over, have we stopped paying attention to Bush's approval ratings? For a guy with a mandate, he seems to have taken quite a tumble since November 2nd. I can only imagine the Kerik debacle won't help him any.

Oh, that reminds me. I hear from a friend working on the periphery of the Bloomberg administration that the rumor in the mayor's office is that Kerik's headed for the slammer. I doubt it, but it would make a hell of a conclusion to his ignominious tale.

What is nougat made out of? And who came up with that word? "Nougat." Try saying it twenty times in a row. It loses all the meaning you thought it had, even though you never really knew what it was in the first place.

Here's a poll on attitudes toward "Christian social action" from the website of Chalcedon, the official thinktank/ministry of the Christian Reconstructionist/Dominionist movement. I think it might have been a more valuable poll if it didn't consist almost entirely of mindless, leading questions. It's still interesting, though.

Poll Results
What is the foremost purpose served by Christian education?
Protect children from the social engineering of the public schools.
9.7% (11)
Train a generation of leaders for the Kingdom work ahead.
79.6% (90)
Inculcate mindless doctrine and insulate kids from the truth.
10.6% (12)

What attitude toward social action should we embrace?
Social action is worldly and unspiritual.
2.9% (3)
Social action trumps dogma and doctrine.
8.6% (9)
Social action, as framed by Scripture, is mandated.
88.6% (93)

Some equate the words "social action" with a radical leftist agenda.
This proves that Christ would endorse the left's agenda.
12.4% (13)
This is why Christians should shun "social action."
1.0% (1)
Reconstruct "social action" along truly Biblical lines.
86.7% (91)

What is the proper mechanism for implementing social action?
The state has the moral obligation to heal social ills.
7.4% (8)
Social action legitimately proceeds from individuals & groups.
84.3% (91)
As long as people are helped, the mechanism doesn't matter.
8.3% (9)

When social action is a matter of state action...
The state fulfills a legitimate and needed function.
18.1% (19)
The state has become the true god of that nation.
64.8% (68)
[other position not listed]
17.1% (18)

The state uses taxpayer money to implement social action.
This is the only way needy people will ever get help.
16.2% (17)
This is a false generosity based, in effect, on theft.
83.8% (88)

Is it legitimate for the state to redistribute wealth to help the needy?
Yes, the state transfers wealth from the guilty to the needy.
16.2% (17)
No, the state in this case is the one that's guilty -- of theft.
83.8% (88)

Wealth redistribution by state force is not sanctioned in Scripture.
We must go beyond the Scripture to be truly compassionate.
8.6% (9)
We must reject the Scriptures as inadequate to our needs.
4.8% (5)
We must follow the Biblical pattern without exception.
86.7% (91)

God has outlined many non-statist provisions for social action.
It's not realistic to count on these; the state alone can be trusted.
12.4% (13)
Biblical social action can shrink the state to proper size.
87.6% (92)

Non-statist Biblical social action exhibits smaller scales than statist agendas.
This proves the moral superiority of state-sponsored social action.
11.4% (12)
It's more important to pursue godliness than utopia.
88.6% (93)

Walken as Giuliani, Jesse the Body Ventura as Kerik -- perfect!
So who should play the waste of flesh who hooked up Bernie's love shack two years after he ran a homeless woman over in his SUV?

You might be disgusted by what evangelical Dominionists believe, but they deserve commendations for being more frank than their mainstream consservative counterparts about some uncomfortable issues.

Take this guy Al Cronkite, for instance (no known relation to Walter). He believes that if we're going to put Jesus in charge of America, that's going to mean following Biblical law. And following Biblical law means that, hey, homosexuals, abortion doctors, pagans, adulterers and about 26 other groups are going to have to be executed.

I have written extensively on this subject and there are always those who mock these precious Statues. They point out that God required death for the desecration of His Sabbath, for homosexuality, and for some thirty other crimes. They write and speak about these requirements as if their own estimation of justice is superior to God’s. They fail to consider the arbitrary extinquishment of human life that has characterized every governmental structure that has usurped the Kingship of God and the untold millions of citizens that have been murdered by these governments during the Twentieth Century alone.

Yes, God’s Laws require death for over a score and ten infractions. But not only are these infractions written and simple enough for every citizen to understand, but if obeyed they promise a peace and prosperity that has not been know on planet earth for hundreds of years, if then.

What's interesting is that the mainstream Christian right has yet to identify which punishments would be meted out upon transgressors if abortion were ever banned. How would the abortion doctor be punished? How about the patient? What about the nurse? And the landlord of the backalley clinic, too? Try asking one of your anti-abortion friends what they think the penalty should be in an abortion case and who should be punished. If they're not a Dominionist, I bet they'll go into contortions.