MAX BLUMENTHAL

The Dust-Up Continues
For those of you who haven't been following all the drama over at Huffington Post (which would be those of you who actually have a life), I'll recap my dust-up with Hitchens, Horowitz, and Marc Cooper (of all people).

First, I weighed in on Horowitz's enabling of a neo-Nazi and Hitchens enabling of Holocaust deniers -- and how they were supposed to tour London together (the tour was cancelled, for some odd reason).

Horowitz responded by calling me a "McCarthyite liar."

Hitchens called me "cowardly" and claimed he would have sued me if only I hadn't invited him to my Bar Mitzvah.

I responded to Hitchens by detailing his entire history of dalliances with Holocaust deniers.

Hitchens's press secretary, Marc Cooper, called me a whole heap of bad names -- "Baby Blumenthal" -- without attempting to refute any of my charges against Hitchens. (Cooper's permalinks don't work, so scroll down past his pathetically self-aggrandizing post about getting drunk with Oliver Stone).

I dared Cooper to try to debunk my charges. Since the charges are true, Cooper can only re-respond with some weird line about how my motives "have some Oedipal rather than political explanation." Yeah, that makes sense!

Just returning from a literary festival in England where he responded to a skeptical questioner with, "Fuck you," Hitchens compared me to Henry Kissinger and called me "a young skunk who hasn't learned to piss yet." I'm still waiting for him to deal with the facts or at least answer a few of my questions.

To Hitchens and Cooper, I say, "You got served!" Horowitz, you're still a mark.

By they way, I'll be hanging out at the Campaign for America's Future conference here in DC for the next few days. And I have a piece due to appear later this week in the Nation about a figure from Sean Hannity's past he'd probably like to forget.

The Congressman From Columbine Waxes Conspiratorial, Blasts Bush
Okay, everyone knows Tom Tancredo is the most rabidly anti-immigrant member of congress and, as such, has deep disdain for Bush's plans for immigration reform. Tancredo's criticized Bush harshly in the past, but his latest attack (scroll down) is beyond the pale. Basically, the congressman from Columbine has adopted archaic, conspiratorial Liberty Lobby rhetoric -- "globalist" -- to attack the leader of his party. I hope the Republican National Committee takes notice next time Tancredo comes up for re-election.

From the American Family Association's daily news service, Agape Press:

...Tom Tancredo, a Republican Congressman who has led the charge for immigration reform on Capitol Hill, says Americans need to understand that President George W. Bush is a globalist; therefore, the conservative lawmaker asserts, no one should be surprised that Bush continually opposes efforts to secure U.S. borders. Tancredo recently blasted a bill proposed by Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy that called for granting legal status to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. The Colorado Republican says President Bush supports these kinds of amnesty proposals because he truly believes in a future unified "new world order."

Son of Scalia
Can't these people stop thinking about sex for a second? You'd think the son of a Supreme Court justice could find something better to do with his time...

A priest who helps people overcome same-sex attractions says high schools should not encourage students to declare themselves as homosexual. Rev. Paul Scalia -- son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia -- says adolescents who self-identify as homosexual through "gay-lesbian" student clubs may find it is "a label that's very hard to get rid of." He believes many teens who might otherwise outgrow such attractions may be led into behaviors that impede realization of what he calls "their true identity as a child of God." Scalia heads the Arlington, Virginia, chapter of "Courage" -- a Roman Catholic ministry whose goal is "to help persons with same-sex attractions develop an interior life of chastity and move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity to a more complete identity in Christ."

The Bad Cop
Check out my latest. It's a tale of corruption, betrayal and pseudo-populism that could only come out of today's Bayou. (Where are you when we need you, Huey Long?) Here's an excerpt:

Time and again, Perkins, the president of the Christian right lobbying powerhouse the Family Research Council, hits the theme that it is Democrats, liberals and judges who are out of step with the law. Meanwhile, Perkins plays up his former career as a cop to buttress his authority: "A former police officer," his Family Research Council biography states, "Mr. Perkins brings a unique perspective to the public policy process." But an incident from Perkins's past sheds light on his real record when it comes to the law--an episode that Perkins has conspicuously omitted from his biography.

More than a decade ago, Tony Perkins pledged to uphold an oath as a reserve officer in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police force. He violated this oath in 1992 when, according to a witness, he failed to report an illegal conspiracy by antiabortion activists to his superiors, then publicly criticized police tactics designed to stop the activists from restricting access to a local abortion clinic. As a result of these actions, he was suspended from duty and subsequently quit.

The Right Gets Really Sad
I kind of sold out on blogging today, but check me out tomorrow night. I promise it will be worth the minor finger movements you will make to enter my url. In the meantime, I transcribed a few of the hottest lines from yesterday's Focus on the Family radio broadcast, in which James Dobson, Tom Minnery, Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer vented their frustration with the judicial compromise. Check it out:

DOBSON: This one hit me personally harder than anything that has ever come out of Washington. I literally went home and hugged Shirley and just pulled over the covers and went to bed.

(....)

PERKINS: I wanted to cry. So much is riding on this... I think we all share that, that the wind was taken out of our sails.

(....)

BAUER: I felt like somebody had punched me in the stomach.

(....)

DOBSON: I don't understand what's gone haywire with Lindsey Graham.

(...)

DOBSON LATER: The culture war's been going on for 25 years and this is the climax. This is the decisive battle. That's why we're all being hit. (Dobson goes on to promote his 501 c-4 political action fund.)

I should have more excepts from this joyous broadcast tomorrow -- and a little more. Either way, I think this should give you a sense of who the winners and losers of the compromise were. The Christian right was clearly angling for at least two more Scalias on the Supreme Court before Bush's term ends. With the filibuster preserved, they must continue to push the persecution button until it breaks.

When cross-burning is banned, try this:

FOREST CITY, N.C. -- A Baptist minister refuses to apologize for a church sign saying the Muslim holy book should be flushed.

"I believe that it is a statement supporting the word of God and that it (the Bible) is above all and that any other religious book that does not teach Christ as savior and lord as the 66 books of the Bible teaches it, is wrong," said the Rev. Creighton Lovelace of Danieltown Baptist Church. "I knew that whenever we decided to put that sign up that there would be people who wouldn't agree with it, and there would be some that would, and so we just have to stand up for what's right."

The Right Gets Really Mad
As even someone with Paula Zahn's mental capacity could have predicted, last night's compromise has sent the right off the deep end. I transcribed a few of the most hysterical diatribes I heard on the right-wing radio circuit today.
Here's Jan LaRue, that esteemed "pornography lawyer" from Concerned Women for America, on William Bennett's "Morning in America:"

JAN LARUE: Last night seven Republicans cut a deal that only [Neville] Chamberlain would have fallen for.

(....)

My only disappointment with Frist thus far is his statement is too weak in too many places. It should be like John Cornyn, more sharp... Frist was smiling too much and was saying things like, 'it has some good points and some bad points.' John McCain played a high stakes poker game with him and he won. I think there are going to be many conservatives who will hold him accountable when he runs for president.

BENNETT: Two things happened to John McCain last night. He will become the toast of the media. Many press dinners, he’ll be honored as a maverick and independent and many movies will be made about him. But he certainly lost any chance at the nomination for President.

LARUE: That’s certainly the word out of Iowa from people who vote in the caucus there.

(...)

BENNETT: We [Republicans] always want to extend a hand and be nice and they always want to bite it off.

Yeah, the Republicans always want to be nice. And under the leadership of Tom DeLay, they've ushered in a new era of bi-partisanship. Now, the latest blow-up from Tom Minnery, Vice President of James Dobson's Focus on the Family, which was broadcast during Family News In Focus:

MINNERY: It’s a sellout of the first magnitude. A small cabal of Democrats and Republicans who could not stomach the idea of voting for the president’s nominees have arranged a deal where only three of the President's current seven appellate court nominees will even be given a vote, an up or down vote. And the Democrats preserve the filibuster in their arsenal of weapons to use against the President’s future nominees. Particularly the Supreme Court nominees.

Without question, we will be back into this debate when the first Supreme Court vacancy opens up and the Democrats will be dumping loads of garbage on conservative nominees for the supreme court. Nothing has been accomplished to solve the rank partisanship of the liberals in the senate.

HOST BOB DITMER: Of the Republicans involved in the compromise, Minnery says, "They’ve simply stepped back from the precipice of a major decision because they were scared to make it."

Finally, I caught a few minutes of Dennis Prager's show today. He's more like the token Jewish apologist for the Christian right than a hardcore movement member. And he incredulously refers to himself as "an old Kennedy liberal" and compares himself to Zell Miller. So while his reaction to the compromise was a little more tempered than some of his peers, I found this exchange with a caller emblematic of the kind of demagogic language the right has used to push its judges:

CALLER: I’m disgusted with the wimps again. The minority has won again. And the reason that I say that is they should have taken this battle to the end using Janice Rogers Brown. They will never have a better opportunity to promote a black female and make it around. The reason the Democrats don’t want a black or a female is they want to maintain control over blacks.

PRAGER: Absolutely right. I’ve always said that.

(….)

I’m not thrilled. I’m not jubilant. I’m saying that I accept this. And the battle has to continue.

So was the caller suggesting that with Rogers-Brown on the DC appeals court, conservatives would regain the control over blacks they lost when slavery ended? Just asking.

Puffing Santorum
What an awful profile of Santorum in the Times magazine today. He's just a poor victim of vitriolic Democrats who, when he's not plating vegetables with his children, is helping the poor -- especially poor blacks. And his bible is always close by. The only problem is, he doesn't read it. Here's a Santorum quote from the article that was pretty revealing:

"I've never read the Bible cover to cover; maybe I should have."

Instead he reads First Things, a magazine published by the right-wing Catholic operative Richard John Neuhaus, identified in the article as only a "minister." Nevermind his membership in the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a think tank funded by Richard Mellon Scaife and Howard Ahmanson Jr. which campaigns to foment schisms in mainline Protestant denominations.

As far as omissions are concerned, that's only the tip of the iceberg.

In Bed: Hitchens, Horowitz, and a Few Neo-Nazis
I picked up where I left off here last week with this entry for Huffington Post:

Jacques Pluss was a history professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In his spare time, he affiliated with the National Socialist Movement, which bills itself as "America's Nazi Party." As a result, he was fired. Afterwards, Pluss went on the NSM's radio show, "White Viewpoint," to denouce FDU as a "Jewish plutocratic university." While he was at it, he called the school's basketball team, "nigger to the core."

Now, David Horowitz has taken up his cause.

On Moonbat Central, the blog of Horowitz's "Discover the Network," one of Horowitz's sycophants writes,

What do we learn from this? We learn that it's not enough to be a socialist to remain a college professor; one must also be the right (i.e., left) flavor of socialist.

If only Pluss had remained the kind of socialist who preaches hatred and violence based on class -- e.g., kill the Jews because they are rich, or because they were "little Eichmans" serving capitalism who deserved to die in the World Trade Center on 9-11 -- he would still have his job and be getting promotions and invitations to speak as a celebrity at other universities.

Pluss is as much of a "socialist" as french fries are French cuisine. Only a post-op lobotomy patient would believe otherwise. But this is the type of sophistry that Horowitz and his cadres rely on time and again to defend the indefensible. All they have to do is allege some double-standard foisted on American society by left-wing elitists -- who are invariably portrayed as closet anti-Semites or self-hating Jews -- and suddenly, they sound more like eager, young "conservatives" vying for a place at the grown-ups table than insidious Nazi apologists.

Moonbat Central contributor Debbie Schlussel recently used this technique to smear the heroic humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka as a "treasonatrix barbie" whose death from a roadside bomb in Iraq was "poetic justice." (A quick glance at the webpage of Schlussel's fan-club, where she describes herself as the "latest and greatest sexy, blonde, and beautiful commentator," reveals what a sad projection her smear was.) Schlussel's angle was that the liberal media had covered Ruzicka's death at the expense of "young American men and women Ruzicka’s age and younger who’ve been brutalized or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan." Just when Ted Koppel was about to spend an entire episode of Nightline reading the names of America's war dead, this treasonatrix comes along and ruins everything!

Horowitz has made a career out of promoting perverse views like those of Schlussel. Sactioning the defense of a neo-Nazi, however, has got to be a novel endeavor for the former White Panther. So perhaps it makes sense that Horowitz has hooked up with Christopher Hitchens. In a 1996 Vanity Fair article, Hitchens defended David Irving, a Holocaust denier who once said, "The holocaust of Germans in Dresden really happened. That of the Jews in the gas chambers of Auschwitz is an invention." In his Vanity Fair piece, Hitchens wrote, "And, incidentally, [Irving] has never and not once described the Holocaust as a 'hoax'." That might have seemed true during happy hour.

Next month, Horowitz and Hitchens will tour England together. With Horowitz at his side, Hitchens will "give lectures drawing on his expansive knowledge of Britain and America." It is only the latest leg in their permanent vacation from reality.

Sleaze and Sleazier
Norm Coleman wasn't the only sleazebag who got clowned by George Galloway yesterday:

Before the hearing began, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow even had some scorn left over to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway in formed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead. "And you're a drink-soaked ..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away.

Hitchens will be headed Galloway's way soon. He's doing a lecture tour this June in London with another Trotskyist popinjay -- David Horowitz.

Worse Than Ward Churchhill?
Wait. I thought our universities were hotbeds of commie pinko, Saddam-lovin' liberalism. This makes no sense!

TEANECK, N.J. - Jordan Ingram always thought his history professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University was a little quirky. Jacques Pluss certainly had an unusual style, Ingram recalled. But Ingram, who is black, never thought his professor was a racist - until after Pluss was fired.

Pluss said he was dismissed in March because university officials learned of his involvement in the National Socialist Movement, which bills itself "America's Nazi Party." School officials said he was let go for missing too many classes.

The 51-year-old professor bristles when he is called a white supremacist or racist.

"The world is made up of different cultures, all of which have a place, all of which have a direction and all of which should have a say in determining their own futures," he said.

University officials declined to elaborate on Pluss' ouster. It was unclear what role - if any - Pluss' political views played in the decision.

Pluss, who had taught at the university since 2002, said he joined the neo-Nazi group in February but kept his views a secret on campus.

Just after dismissal, Pluss went on "White Viewpoint," a radio show on the National Socialist Movement Web site. He talked about FDU as a "Jewish plutocratic university" and described the school's men's basketball team as "nigger to the core."

"They (the players) have absolutely no right to be in that classroom because they do not possess either the merit or the enhanced intelligence to be there," Pluss said on the show.

I guess Horowitz will have to stay silent on this one.

Is Yoga the Devils Subterfuge?
According to an article in the March/April edition of Christian Woman Magazine entitled, "The Truth About Yoga," yes. The article tells the tale of Laurette Willis, whose 22 year long involvement in a "New Age lifestyle" turned her into a depressed alcoholic prone to wanton acts of carnality. And if you don't get out of that lotus position right away, the article suggests, it can happen to you, too.

Willis removed herself from the Devil's yoga mat when she was born-again. Now, she spends her time warning bible-believing Christians about the dangers of yoga, including the seemingly harmless kind offered at shopping mall health clubs. Here are a few of her scariest revelations:

"Yoga’s breathing techniques (pranayama) may seem stress-relieving, yet they can be an open door to psychic influences..."

"The relaxation and visualization session at the end of yoga classes is skillfully designed to “empty the mind” and can open one up to unwholesome spiritual influences."

"Many words commonly used in yoga pay homage to Hindu deities."

Frightened yet? If so, you might want to check out Willis's website, PraiseMoves.com, where she promotes "a Christian alternative to yoga." There, you'll learn moves like "The Eagle," which is certainly not a warmed-over yoga move, but rather, a position explicitly prescribed by the bible verse, Isaiah 40:31: "But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles."

To see a demonstration of Willis's exercises, just send her $10 for a book, $19.95 for a video, or $24.95 for a DVD. There is a $100 minimum for wholesale orders. All major credit cards accepted.

Because even a failed New Ager's gotta eat.

(Cross-posted at Huffington Post, which I'm writing for, and will be writing about once I get a chance.)

God hates AT&T (and how MCI runs a "hardcore child pornography site based in Montreal"):

A CHRISTIAN TELCO in Oklahoma, has been drumming up business by smearing its rivals on moral affairs.

United American Technologies has been billing itself as "the only carrier that is taking an active stand against same sex marriages and hardcore child pornography...."

The sales person made the outrageous suggestion that MCI has "a paedophile Web site for men who love boys" based in Montréal. Verzon, said United American Technology, trains its employees to accept the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

Without a trace of irony, the salesman agrees with the caller that, "God hates AT&T, MCI, and Verizon".

You can hear Eugene Mirman having some fun with the professional gay bashers at United American Technologies here and here.

Reporters Without Borders: Another Weapon of Soft Power
Given the nature of their coverage of Cuba and Venezuela (see here and here), and the fact that their reports are routinely plugged by the State Department, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Reporters Without Borders is being bankrolled by the National Endowment for Democracy (the following excerpt is an English translation). What is surprising, though, is how little reporting there is -- from both the mainstream and alternative media -- on supposedly non-partisan NGO's being used as instruments of US soft power.

The strong suspicions that have surrounded the dubious and tendentious
activities of Reporters without Borders (RSF) have not been without
merit. For many years, various critics have denounced the largely
political propagandistic actions of the Parisian entity, particularly
with regards to Cuba and Venezuela. The RSF's positions against the
governments of Havana and Caracas coincide perfectly with the political
and media war that Washington carries out against the Cuban and
Venezuelan revolutionaries.

Finally the truth has come to light. Mr. Robert Ménard, secretary
general of the RSF for twenty years, has confessed to receiving
financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an
organization that depends on the U.S. Department of State, whose
principal role is to promote the agenda of the White House for the
entire world. Ménard was clear: “We indeed receive money from the NED.
And that hasn’t posed any problem.”

(....)

For example, the NED financed and continues financing the Venezuelan
opposition, responsible for the coup d’état against President Chávez,
April 2002. Since then,with Washington's help, the Venezuelan oligarchy
has organized several unsuccessful destabilization attempts. Since the
failure of the recall referendum, Mr. Chávez' popular legitimacy has
only been reinforced. In 2004, thirteen groups opposed to the
Bolivarian government received 874,384 dollars from the NED. In 2003, 15 splinter
groups opposed to the Venezuelan presidents benefited from subsidies
from the NED for a total of 1,046,323 dollars.

Harvest of Death
This is what John Tierney is urging journalists not to report:

Haban, Iraq - The explosion enveloped the armored vehicle in flames, sending orange balls of fire bubbling above the trees along the Euphrates River near the Syrian border.

Marines in surrounding vehicles threw open their hatches and took off running across the plowed fields, toward the already blackening metal of the destroyed vehicle. Shouting, they pulled to safety those they could, as the flames ignited the bullets, mortar rounds, flares and grenades inside, rocketing them into the sky and across pastures.

Gunnery Sgt. Chuck Hurley emerged from the smoke and turmoil around the vehicle, circling toward the spot where helicopters would later land to pick up casualties. As he passed one group of Marines, he uttered one sentence: "That was the same squad."

Among the four Marines killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device erupted under their Amtrac on Wednesday were the last battle-ready members of a squad that four days earlier had battled foreign fighters holed up in a house in the town of Ubaydi. In that fight, two squad members were killed and five were wounded.

In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq the squad had ceased to be.

...echoes of another war not so long ago.

I might go tonight:

About 900 conservative luminaries have tickets to tonight's tribute to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, which begins at 7:00 pm ET. (Cocktails, fellas and dames, are at 6:00.)

Highlights include:

—- a slew of video testimonials to DeLay during dinner (from, we are told, Reps. Hastert, Blunt, Reynolds, Cox and Pence; Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Dr. James Dobson, and Sen. Jesse Helms.)
—- an eight-minute video right before DeLay speaks, focused on his Texas ties and accomplishments.
—- short speeches from Bob Livingston, Phyllis Schlafly, Morton Blackwell, L. Brent Bozell, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, and others.


DeLay is scheduled to come to the mic around 8:40 pm ET.

Behind the scenes, organizers are telling guests to use the occasion NOT solely as a celebration of DeLay but as a celebration of the conservative movement —- the triumph of pushing the judicial nominees forward, the Bolton vote, etc.

And that's what DeLay intends to speak about: he'll trace the conservative movement as he sees it from 1994 to the present, with specific references to what he believes he and his colleagues have accomplished. There'll be plenty of red meat, too.

And so there will be protests outside the Capital Hilton, and the United States Capitol Police will augment a perimeter with armed patrols and barricades. Democrats have already begun to use the occasion to press DeLay and Republicans on ethics matters. They'll drop research today showing what they consider to be questionable activities of several of the banquet's founders.

We expect RNC chairman Ken Mehlman and whip Roy Blunt to attend. Look for many Friday stories about who DIDN'T attend, though, at $250 a pop, it ain't cheap.

You might be a hypocrite if you said this before the Lawrence County Christian Coalition....

For American society is engaged in a civil war, a Kulturekampf, against the forces who would destroy it; who have destroyed it. This Cultural Struggle won't be won if your champions only act to protect themselves. A series of Dunkirks, of withdrawals, won't win this war. You need someone who will counter-attack, then fight hard for your legitimate interests of civil peace and prosperity.

....then you were accused of doing this:

NEOSHO, Mo. - An unsuccessful candidate for various political offices
including governor and the U.S. Senate has been charged with statutory
sodomy.

Martin Lindstedt, 48, of Granby, was arrested Tuesday and he was being
held in the Newton County Jail on $100,000 bond. Lindstedt, who uses the
nickname "Mad Dog," is accused of deviant sexual intercourse with a child in March
2003.

He was charged with one count of first-degree statutory sodomy, which
means the victim was under the age of 12, said Bill Dobbs, assistant
prosecutor for Newton County.

Wrong Numbers for DeLay
I received a message the other night from "Boyd" of the American Conservative Union inviting me to a dinner tommorow evening at the Capitol Hilton where Tom DeLay will be defended against "these spurious charges." Unfortunately for Boyd, I was not the "recognizable conservative" he was trying to reach. I've uploaded the message here for your listening enjoyment and added a sountrack so bangin', even if you're not in Jack Abramoff's pocket, you'll be ready to stand up and say, "Hooray for DeLay!"

(Thanks to Oliver Willis and DJ Thermos -- "keeping it hot" -- for the technical help.)

Cross-posted at The Huffington Post

A Real Lady-Killer

Yet as he’s risen steadily in his profession, Taranto has remained, by his friends’ account, much the same geek he was back in his L.A. adolescence. “I imagine he must be very lonely, as are many talented writers I’ve come across,” says Laurel Touby of Mediabistro. “Regular people have trouble relating to him. I recall hosting parties, and women would later ask me, ‘Who is that guy?’ because he was so intense. He’s a force, a bigger-than-life brain at a party. People are used to idle chitchat, and he would be in there with serious issues. Girls can’t wait to get out of there.”

SeeingtheForest has transcribed excerpts of Chris Hedges' piece in Harpers on Dominionism. Check it out.

Here is one of the most articulate responses I've found to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon yesterday, and to the notion that grace and Constitutional law are necessarily exclusive:

By emphasizing God's grace over free will, right wing Evangelicals also grant themselves permission to dictate what everyone else's moral decisions should be. It also allows them to grant themselves permission to use immoral means to accomplish their ends and bear false witness against those who disagree with them. Since God's grace does not depend on good works, being born again gives them the freedom to impose theocracy through duplicitous, deceitful and sinful actions.

There is no contradiction in the dichotomy that their religious freedom depends on depriving everyone who disagrees with them of their religious freedom, because God's law supercedes the Constitution

Live from Colorado Springs, Part Two
The second installment is from Salem Communications' Dr. Michael Youssef, who delivered a sermon today entitled, "There Is Freedom In Submission." If you think this sermon might me directed at uppity women, well, you guessed right. Here's the crux of Youssef's biscuit:

Yet now it is trendy on the average university campus for women to scorn anyone who would call them women or ladies. I got into that trouble myself once or twice. And they’re quick to remind you that there are persons, part of their misleading is this: that when women seek their rights, and put their rights ahead of the will of god, whenever we put our feelings ahead of the blueprints that were given to us by the designer of the universe, we will find that our peace is shattered as it is today. You see when Eve saw the fruit and she disobeyed God, she was claiming her rights. And some of you think the women’s liberation movement is modern, it started in the garden of Eden... Happiness does not come when you get all your rights...


(....)

The word of God says wives must submit to their husbands. That means that wives, you don’t try to compete with your husband. But rather, that you encourage him, and you help him along in his proper place ahead of the wife. And that means that you don’t put him down all the time, but lift him up....

Live from Colorado Springs, Part One
I've been spending my day listening to, and transcribing, some of the wonderful programming coming out of Colorado Springs. Dobson had Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer on today to rally their base's support for the upcoming filibuster fight. Predictably, the discussion veered from domestic politics to -- themselves. Dobson and company (the Three Amigos? The Three Stooges?) spent most of the show complaining that they are being attacked by the other side. Here are some highlights, which I think make for an entertaining read:

DOBSON: It goes back to November when they (the Democrats) surprisingly lost the House and the Senate and the White House and the majority of gubernatorial seats and legislatures in the country and they are furious. The Hollywood crowd and those that come from the far-left are absolutely furious and that now is being vomited out, pardon my language, against people like us. I have never in 30 years of public life, I have never been subjected to what’s going on right now. And it’s not on the issues. They have run out of intellectual ideas. And so they are name calling. It reminds me of elementary school children saying, 'You're a dummy. And the other one says, "You’re stupid.' And the other one says, 'I’m rubber and you’re glue and what you say bounces off me and sticks to you.'

PERKINS: I’ll have to remember that one.

(....)

BAUER: I think what they’re doing is they’re demonizing Christian Americans. They’re comparing us to the Taliban, to Nazism, to fascism, to extremism, to racists, etcetera, and they’re doing it over and over and over again. And really the attack -- even though it’s on your name Jim and your name Tony -- it’s an attack on all your listeners, Jim. It’s an attack on anyone who believes in Judeo-Christian values and it could lead in this country to some very serious consequences.

DOBSON: I’m being called every name under the sun. I’ve never been subjected to this before.
(Dobson plays a clip of Don Imus calling him names and challenging him to a fist-fight)
BAUER: On the issues the American people are with us across the board. What they’re trying to do is intimidate us out of this battle, make it inappropriate, unacceptable, even unconstitutional for a conservative Christian to be in the public square.

PERKINS: They want to drive us underground.

BAUER: these are the same elitists that have invited every oddball movement out of the closet and they’re telling us to get in the closet.
(Dobson plays a clip of Sen. Ken Salazar calling Focus on the Family "the Anti-Christ of the world.")

PERKINS: What we need to do, to be fair to these, in the spirit of bi-partisanship, is to create a dictionary of religious terms so these guys know how to use them. I mean, the anti-Christ of the world? You hear these terms thrown about and it shows these guys have no idea what they’re talking about. But there is, as you said earlier, a complete lack of discussion on the issues, they simply go to attacking and calling names it shows that they’re desperate.

(....)

DOBSON: The reason for the anger is that we have touched the last playground of the far-left. And that’s the courts. And it has been absolutely dominant. And we have taken a position that threatens the predominance of that liberal court.

BAUER: There are two tactics being used here. One of them is that: comparing people, Christian leaders to being germs, it’s unbelievable. The other one is comparing them to the Taliban, comparing us to people that hijacked planes, comparing us to people who hijacked planes and flew them into the twin towers. It’s unbelievable. I went to a website, Democratic Underground, where the leftists talk about these things, you falwell, Robertson, me, are all compared to these murderous terrorists.

DOBSON: Well, the LA Times did that not too long ago... The playing field is just not level.... Isn’t it interesting that he (John Bolton) is being held up because 20 years ago, he almost fired someone. But Hillary Clinton fired the entire travel department of the White House without provocation. Do you remember that? Nobody remembers that. (Bauer and Perkins mumble that they don't remember)

(....)

BAUER: Look at our men in Iraq who are trying to save Iraqi children. They’re routinely called by the radical left baby killers. So the left, which fashions itself as tolerant, in fact the way it treats dissent or anyone that argues with it, is one of the most intolerant movements in America.

DOBSON TO PERKINS, (Ostensibly referring to my article in the Nation on Perkins's ties to David Duke and the Council of Conservative Citizens): You have been called a racist. When they really want to get you, that’s where they’re going to go.

PERKINS: It’s amazing that as much work as we do in the African American community, in the Hispanic community, they’re going to try to drive a wedge between us and those that care deeply between the family and the future of this country.

Welcome, James Taranto!
I want to formally welcome the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto to my blog. According to his "Best of the Web," he's a new reader. Here's what he had to say today:

Left-Wing Rag or Right-Wing Gag?--II
Last week we refuted hysterical left-wing fears that the "religious right" will transform America into a "theocracy." As evidence we cited an article in The Nation, written by Max Blumenthal, which described the ragtag group of religious figures that had come together for "Justice Sunday," last month's antifilibuster rally. Blumenthal also has a blog, and on Friday he responded by citing the following quote, which he says is from the "founding document" of the now-defunct Moral Majority:

There is no false unity based on papering over doctrinal differences. . . . Our very right to worship as we choose, to bring up families in some kind of moral order, to educate our children free from the interference of the state, to follow the commands of Holy Scripture and the church is at stake. These leaders have concluded that it is better to argue about denominational differences at another time. Right now, it is the agenda of those opposed to the Scriptures and the church which has brought us together.

Blumenthal claims this shows the Moral Majority was a theocratic movement, but in fact it reinforces our argument about the religious right: that it is "a highly ecumenical group, united on some issues of morality and politics but deeply divided on matters of faith. The thought that they could ever agree enough to impose a theocracy is laughable."

In 2002, pointing to a series of similar missteps by writers for The Nation, we asked: "Is it possible that The Nation, that venerable left-wing magazine, has been infiltrated by right-wing moles who are acting like idiots in an effort to discredit the left?" The question seems as pertinent as ever.

I want to refute what Taranto wrote but I can't figure out what he's saying. Call me an "idiot," but his argument just doesn't make any sense. I expected so much more from the Wall Street Journal's opinion page, the same outlet that, in a March 18, 1993 editorial called "No Guardrails," blamed the assassination of Dr. David Gunn by an anti-abortion fanatic on...the New Left.

I hope Taranto will continue practicing Marxist-Leninist tactics of denunciation while he bores within the right, posing as the Christian right's house apologist. Because I've got much more coming, and I'm going to need him around.

Jack Abramoff Owns the GOP
This is who will lead the House ethics committee review of Tom Delay:

CENTER TWP. - U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart derided the national media for its unrelenting coverage of congressional ethics Friday, during a Beaver County Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

Hart, R-4, Bradford Woods, used most of her time to explain the need for Social Security reform.

But in her opening remarks, Hart referred to the "media, sort of, hyping of the ethics issue" that has dogged House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas...

"The national media have not done justice to the American people," Hart said.

Hart has also had her ethics questioned by Democratic groups that have said she should not oversee any investigation because she accepted $15,000 from DeLay's political action committee and had a fund-raiser at a Washington, D.C., restaurant owned by Abramoff.

Hart has said the donation from a House leader is not unusual.

On Friday, she said Abramoff's restaurant, which was paid $1,600, was chosen simply because it was a good location. The event, Hart said, was handled ethically and legally.

"It is a (media) feeding frenzy," she said of the intense scrutiny. "We just get used to it."

I don't think any comment here could quite capture the cynicism of Jack Abramoff's GOP. They are like some Third World junta.

It's weird how the story about the "flee-ancee" totally went off the radar after this story appeared:

May 6, 2005 -- Bolting bride Jennifer Wilbanks was chaste away — by her fiancé's insistence on abstinence, friends of the sex-deprived couple claim. "She told people the fact that she and [husband-to-be John Mason] were not having sex was upsetting," a friend of Wilbanks' told People magazine, which hits newsstands today. Mason was once a "wild" guy who "dated a lot," his running pal Ted King said.

But he became a born-again virgin — eschewing premarital sex — five years ago after pledging himself to his Baptist faith, friends said. "He's been saving himself for the right woman," Mason's friend Andy Parsons told the magazine.

If it's true, it clearly adds an enticing twist to a tale the ever-tawdry media should want to dish. So does the sudden lack of interest in the story reflect the MSM's fear of engendering the Christian right's wrath?

Update: The cable news is going crazy with this. And the flee-ancee is a total meshuganeh, too. Now I'm the one who's going to ignore this story.

Are David Brooks and John Tierney really the same person, or are they just getting their talkng-poins from the same off-the-record conservative caucus with Paul Weyrich?

Brooks today: "Democrats have been hectoring the president in the manner of an overripe Fourth of July orator... Over the past few weeks, the president has called their bluff."

Tierney, April 30: "Democrats have good reason to be aghast at President Bush's new proposal for Social Security. Someone has finally called their bluff."

Brooks, April 24: "People who work out, eat responsibly and deserve to live are more likely to be culled by the Thin Reaper. I can't tell you how happy this makes me."

Tierney, April 23: "For those of us lacking six-pack abs, this week's report that the overweight live longer is the greatest medical news in history."

Brooks, Nov 6 2004: "If you want to understand why Democrats keep losing elections, just listen to some coastal and university town liberals talk about how conformist and intolerant people in Red America are. It makes you wonder: why is it that people who are completely closed-minded talk endlessly about how open-minded they are?"

Tierney, May 3, 2005: "If you live in a blue-state stronghold, a coastal city where you can go 24 hours without meeting any Republicans, it's consoling to think of the red staters as an alien bunch of strait-laced Bible thumpers. The favorite Democratic explanation is that the red staters are hicks who have been blinded by righteousness."

Thanks to Joe Conason for compiling these quotes.

Just wanted to apologize to my readers for the previous post which suggested Bush had plagiarized Joe McCarthy. I was emailed Bush's quote by a reader who later sent me a "correct version." Unfortunately, I carelessly posted the "incorrect" version of Bush's speech without double-checking. In a year of blogging, this is the first time this has ever happened. And I will make sure it will be the last.

Bush Channels Joe McCarthy in Riga (Edited)
Bush at the Small Guild Hall, Riga, Latvia , 5:09 PM 5/7/05:

The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable. Yet this attempt to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability left a continent divided and unstable. The captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history.

Joe McCarthy, 2/50

In February 1950, a senator from Wisconsin made his mark in Cold War history with the following speech. As the Cold War was beginning, Joseph McCarthy warned America about the communist threat from within the government.

In the following excerpt, McCarthy names several people working within the State Department and describes their crimes in detail. Those he accused lost their jobs and were branded communist -- but McCarthy never proved their guilt.

Ladies and gentlemen, can there be anyone here tonight who is so blind as to say that the war is not on? Can there be anyone who fails to realize that the communist world has said, "The time is now" -- that this is the time for the showdown between the democratic Christian world and the communist atheistic world? Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long.

Six years ago, at the time of the first conference to map out peace -- Dumbarton Oaks -- there was within the Soviet orbit 180 million people. Lined up on the anti-totalitarian side there were in the world at that time roughly 1.625 billion people. Today, only six years later, there are 800 million people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia -- an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500 million. In other words, in less than six years the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of communist victories and American defeats in the Cold War. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, "When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without but rather because of enemies from within." The truth of this statement is becoming terrifyingly clear as we see this country each day losing on every front.

At war's end we were physically the strongest nation on Earth and, at least potentially, the most powerful intellectually and morally. Ours could have been the honor of being a beacon in the desert of destruction, a shining, living proof that civilization was not yet ready to destroy itself. Unfortunately, we have failed miserably and tragically to arise to the opportunity.

The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful, potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this nation. It has not been the less fortunate or members of minority groups who have been selling this nation out, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer -- the finest homes, the finest college education, and the finest jobs in government we can give.

This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been worst....

I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy....

If time permitted, it might be well to go into detail about the fact that Hiss was Roosevelt's chief adviser at Yalta when Roosevelt was admittedly in ill health and tired physically and mentally... and when, according to the secretary of state, Hiss and Gromyko drafted the report on the conference....

As you hear this story of high treason, I know that you are saying to yourself, "Well, why doesn't the Congress do something about it?" Actually, ladies and gentlemen, one of the important reasons for the graft, the corruption, the dishonesty, the disloyalty, the treason in high government positions -- one of the most important reasons why this continues -- is a lack of moral uprising on the part of the 140 million American people. In the light of history, however, this is not hard to explain.

It is the result of an emotional hangover and a temporary moral lapse which follows every war. It is the apathy to evil which people who have been subjected to the tremendous evils of war feel. As the people of the world see mass murder, the destruction of defenseless and innocent people, and all of the crime and lack of morals which go with war, they become numb and apathetic. It has always been thus after war. However, the morals of our people have not been destroyed. They still exist. This cloak of numbness and apathy has only needed a spark to rekindle them. Happily, this spark has finally been supplied.

Correction: I was originally led to believe Bush had "plagiarized" McCarthy by a version of his speech sent to me by a reader which included a section lifted directly from McCarthy's address in 1950. After a second look at Bush's speech, I realized that section wasn't there. The speeches are still notable for their thematic similarity, though.

Funny how Jim West's Gay.com profile is currently juxtaposed with headlines including, "Wash. mayor involved in gay sex scandal."

The Willful Ignorance of James Taranto
In a typically disingenuous, but extremely revealing, editorial yesterday, James Taranto confirmed my theory about his support for the Christian right: he sees them as little more than a political utility to the top-heavy, pro-big business wing of the Republican party which he represents. Indeed, while Bush's most controversial judicial picks espouse all kinds of obscurantist views on social issues, they are also corporate tools who would eliminate any regulations they could. Taranto is really interested in the "business friendly" aspect of Bush's judges, however, by defending a group of supposedly persecuted Christians, he can preach from the moral high ground. Check it out:

I am not a Christian, or even a religious believer, and my opinions on social issues are decidedly middle-of-the-road. So why do I find myself rooting for the "religious right"? I suppose it is because I am put off by self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and contempt for democracy and pluralism--all of which characterize the opposition to the religious right....

In the past three elections, the religious right has helped to elect a conservative Republican president and a bigger, and increasingly conservative, Republican Senate majority. This should make it possible to move the courts in a conservative direction. But Senate Democrats, taking their cue from liberal interest groups, have responded by subverting the democratic process, using the filibuster to impose an unprecedented supermajority requirement on the confirmation of judges.

Translation: "I am not religious, but those folks who call themselves the religious right got a bunch of Republicans elected. And I sure am Republican. Back in Goldwater's day, all we had we're rich geezers and conspiratorial Birchers. But thanks to abortion and homo-hate, we got poor people on our side. Thank you, Jesus!"

Taranto goes on to cite my article in the Nation over a week ago in his confusing attempt to debunk the notion that the Christian right is a theocratic movement:

Last week an article in The Nation, a left-wing weekly, described the motley collection of religious figures who gathered for Justice Sunday. A black minister stood next to a preacher with a six-degrees-of-separation connection to the Ku Klux Klan. A Catholic shared the stage with a Baptist theologian who had described Roman Catholicism as "a false church."

These folks may not be your cup of tea, but this was a highly ecumenical group, united on some issues of morality and politics but deeply divided on matters of faith. The thought that they could ever agree enough to impose a theocracy is laughable.

As a testament to Taranto's willful ignorance about the Christian right, he refers to career politician and current Family Research Council president Tony Perkins as a "preacher." That's about as accurate as calling him a used car salesman. Taranto also brushes off the fact that Perkins's signature is on the $82,500 check that purchased David Duke's phone bank list. Six degrees?

And I fail to see how the Christian right's inherent contradictions prove it's not a theocratic movement. Once again, I'll point Taranto to the Moral Majority's founding document:

There is no false unity based on papering over doctrinal differences.... Our very right to worship as we choose, to bring up families in some kind of moral order, to educate our children free from the interference of the state, to follow the commands of Holy Scripture and the church is at stake. These leaders have concluded that it is better to argue about denominational differences at another time. Right now, it is the agenda of those opposed to the Scriptures and the church which has brought us together.

As I said yesterday, true conservatives (if there are any left) ignore the Christian right's theocratic intentions at their own peril.

Shameless in Spokane
Huge story blowing up in the other Washington:

Spokane Mayor Jim West, who championed an anti-gay agenda during his tenure as one of the most powerful Republicans in the Legislature, yesterday admitted to using the trappings of his current office to entice what he thought was a young adult man but denied allegations that he molested two young boys more than 20 years ago.

West confirmed to The Spokesman-Review of Spokane that he offered gifts, favors and a City Hall internship during Internet chats with a man he believed was 18. The online pen pal was actually a forensic computer expert working for the newspaper. After the story hit the newsstands yesterday, West sent city staffers a remorseful e-mail.

"I want to sincerely apologize to you personally for the shame I have brought to the Mayor's office and the city," West wrote. "I stumbled and let you down."

The accusations of child molestation stem from The Spokesman-Review's three-year investigation and interviews with two felons who said West fondled them and forced them to perform sexual acts on him when they were Boy Scouts.

Maybe shameless is too weak a word for this cat. He's a sexual fascist, a Charles Graner in a three-piece suit:

In more than 20 years in the Legislature, West had initiated legislation to outlaw sexual contact between consenting teenagers; supported a bill that would have barred gays and lesbians from working for schools, day care centers and some state agencies; voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman; and, as Senate majority leader, allowed a bill that would ban discrimination against gays and lesbians to die in committee without a hearing.

As Spokane mayor, West threatened to veto a measure extending benefits to domestic partners of city employees.

Giorgio Marincola: Lembrar Il Partizano Negro

(AGI) - Rome, Italy, May 2 - He died for a country which didn't want him. Giorgio Marincola was one of the last partisans killed during the liberation war. He was killed in Alto Adige, still occupied by Nazi forces when Mussolini was taken to Piazzale Loreto and Hitler broke the cyanide capsule with his teeth. But he was not only one of the last to be killed in the second world war: he was one of the few, maybe the only, black partisan. A colour which had placed him at the margins of Fascist Italy.

Today, with some delay, he is commemorated with an exhibition at the Vittoriano, where usually the most important heroes of the Risorgimento are commemorated. He was born close to Mogadisco in 1923, recalls the last number of 'Nigrizia'. His father Giuseppe, infantry official, could not marry his Somali mother Ashkiro because of the racist laws. The Fascist manual is clear: "the half-caste is a morally and physically inferior individual, easy victim of serious diseases and inclined to reprehensive vices. The mixing of two races is damaging." Giorgio moved to Rome, where he met a famous anti-Fascist teacher, Pilo Alberelli, killed at the Fosse Ardeatine on March 24, 1944. Giorgio finished school in 1941 and started studying medicine, but the war was about to start, and he decided to fight with the partisans, participating at sabotages and nightly attacks against German troops.

On June 4, 1944, Rome was liberated, but Giorgio decided to continue the fight in the north with an allied British mission. Giorgio was arrested on January 7. He was sent to Turin and then transferred to a concentration camp in Bolzano. Forced to talk to the Fascist radio regarding the meaning of homeland, despite the torture, he said: "I feel the homeland as a culture and a feeling of freedom, not as a colour on the map. The homeland can not be identified with a Fascist dictatorship. Homeland means freedom and justice for the people of the world. This is why I fight the oppressors." On April 30, 1945, when the doors to the camp were finally opened, Giorgio and a companion decided to end their job. Trentino was still occupied by the Nazis. He died in Molina di Fiemme on May 4, 1945, during one of the last Nazi-Fascist massacres. (AGI) - 021250 MAG 05

The Real Struggle
Last week, Al Gore delivered his most timely, and perhaps most daring, speech for MoveOn. Alluding to the strain of warmed-over Calvinism that infused the Christian right with its will to power, Gore declared,

Our founders understood that the way you protect and defend people of faith is by preventing any one sect from dominating. Most people of faith I know in both parties have been getting a belly-full of this extremist push to cloak their political agenda in religiosity and mix up their version of religion with their version of right-wing politics and force it on everyone else.

They should learn that religious faith is a precious freedom and not a tool to divide and conquer.

I think it is truly important to expose the fundamental flaw in the arguments of these zealots. The unifying theme now being pushed by this coalition is actually an American heresy-a highly developed political philosophy that is fundamentally at odds with the founding principles of the United States of America.

We began as a nation with a clear formulation of the basic relationship between God, our rights as individuals, the government we created to secure those rights, and the prerequisites for any power exercised by our government.

Gore's speech was like salt in the Christian right's wounds. Gary Bauer was one the first to work himself into a petulant frenzy, writing in a mass email to his supporters last week,

And who are these Americans whom Gore hysterically screams at, Kerry
blames for his defeat, that the media compares to Nazis, and that Senator
Harry Reid imagines run the Republican Party? They are simply those of us who
think marriage is between a man and a woman and that “under God” ought to
remain in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Channeling Nixon, Bauer paints his supporters as the humble, silent majority, the "good people" terrorized by angry black radicals, Stonewall drag queens and the Weather Underground. All they want is for the nattering nabobs of negativism to shut-up while they slurp perpetually filled-up cups of weak coffee at Waffle House, Bauer suggests. But while Bauer claims to speak for Peoria, he might as well be speaking for Pretoria, because the tables have turned.

Let's recall the Terri Schiavo affair for a second. America was bombarded with interview after interview with the people trying to prolong the life of a woman with the mental capacity of a celery stalk. They included an unknown, baby-faced lawyer, David Gibbs, who called reporters "sir" during interviews. Then there was Randall Terry, the beleaguered, bankrupted leader of the defunct Operation Rescue. And finally, there were those weird Friar Tuck guys whose constituency consists of a mailing list of about 10 people. This freak-show had the audacity to claim it represented the sentiments of Main Street USA.

The American public rejected Schiavo's saviors as they did the Elian Gonzalez fanatics. As with Elian, most Americans saw Schiavo as more pathetic than martyr-like. And with the Republicans' ill-conceived special bill to save Schiavo, the GOP was reborn in the eyes of the public as the party of governmental tyranny. Rebuked by the majority they habitually claim to represent, the Christian right retreated. The moment was a little like the aftermath of the Scopes Monkey Trial, when evangelicals unfortunately became the laughingstock of a rapidly changing American mainstream.

In its momentary retreat, the Christian right's persecution complex swelled and its leadership grew increasingly extreme. I witnessed this phenomenon during the "Judicial War on Faith Conference" last month, where a bevy of speakers called for the "mass impeachment" of judges while some suggested judicial assassinations might also be apt. Imbued with a mixture of arrogance and spite, the Christian right went off the deep end.

In this month's Harpers, Chris Hedges says what many have been too afraid to declare in public: the Christian right is a fascist movement (Harpers has no web edition). Hedges is a veteran war reporter who has worked in numerous countries, most notably Serbia under Miloshevic and Israel post-Oslo, where violent right-wing extremists succesfully fomented chaos through domestic terror. Hedges explained his thesis on the Christian right to me long before I went to the "War on Faith" conference and I reacted with skepticism. After the conference, while I still quibbled with his use of the term "fascists," the overall theme of his argument began to resonate.

The National Review's Stanley Kurtz responded to Hedges with a column laced with ad hominem attacks on anyone daring to suggest the Christian right has theocratic intentions. Kurtz writes in an over-heated, satirical style, mimicking the language of academics who have discussed theocratic Dominionism, or Christian Reconstructionism, to make them seem like wild-eyed consiracy theorists. His thesis?

By quoting a pathetic Dominionist extremist’s desperate efforts to prove his own influence, clever liberals can now argue that the ultimate goal of all conservative Christians is the re-institution of slavery, and execution for blasphemers and witches.

I've never heard any "clever liberals" argue that. Though Christian Reconstructionists do advocate the death penalty for all sorts of heathens (Kurtz cleverly avoids mentioning abortion doctors, whom that "pathetic Dominionist" Sen. Tom Coburn wants executed), as I said before, in the real world, influential Dominionists like D. James Kennedy would be satisfied with a theocracy-lite in which gays and religious minorities are legally marginalized and churches are part and parcel of the state. This radical transformation of government is already coming about before our eyes.

What's so sad about Kurtz's apologia on behalf of the Christian right -- besides his refuses to marshal a single fact in his argument -- is that he is attempting an argument at all. Like my friend James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, Kurtz doesn't seem to view the Christian right as anything other than a convenient political utility to the once top-heavy GOP. But how would Kurtz react if the Christian right's agenda came to pass? Would he welcome book-banning in public libraries? How about a complete ban on abortion and on gays from teaching in public schools? Does Kurtz believe, like Pat Robertson, that the judiciary is more of a threat to America than Al Qaeda? Too many conservatives (are there any true conservatives left?) refuse to acknowledge the danger of their alliance with such an un-conservative political bloc.

As Karen Armstrong and many others explained at the "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far-Right" conference in New York last weekend (which Kurtz flippantly mocked), the battle between the Christian right and advocates of church/state separation is not necessarily a left/right ideological conflict. The conflict is, in fact, part of a worldwide battle between fundamentalism and rationalism. Thus, the Dominionist wing of the Christian right probably has more in common with Hamas than the staff of the National Review. But as conference speakers Frederick Clarkson and Chip Berlet correctly pointed out, the Democratic party has had trouble making this argument. Instead, it has substituted perjoratives like "the radical religious right" for actual ideas.

That seems to changing, though. Just listen to Al Gore's speech or read Hedges' article. Whether or not you agree with their choice of rhetoric, their central argument is indisputable: the struggle for America's future is not between two political parties, but between individual freedom and clerical authoritarianism. The Christian right's real agenda has been examined and declared unfit for democracy. True conservatives reject this diagnosis at their own peril.

ABC to Run Focus on the Family Ads During Prime Time , Rejected Ads from United Church of Christ Last Year
During today's season finale of ABC's schlocky reality show, "Supernanny," James Dobson's Focus on the Family will be running ads promoting its "Focus on Your Child" program, which advises parents on how to implement the parenting principles outlined in his best-seller, "Dare to Discipline." These include spanking with "sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely." Children have to be taught respect for authority at an early age, Dobson preaches, or they'll never develop respect for governmental authority or God.

Dobson's theory on corporal punishment reveals the political underside of his self-help work. The ads Focus on the Family will run are seemingly innocuous offerings of assistance to parents who, like the heroic nanny depicted in ABC's show, need techniques for pacifying "strong-willed" children. As Focus's president, Jim Daly said in Focus's newsletter,

"The show was all about Focus on the Family principles. It was boundaries and using the time-out chair, respect for authority and good parenting skills.”

Once parents bite Focus's bait and join up, they may learn some valuable techniques for improving their relationship with their children. At the same time, they will become immersed in the subculture of the Christian right, where they will meet Macho Jesus and the gay/pedophile deviants who are out to destroy the very fabric of their marriage. Family counseling is merely the net Dobson casts to bring folks on board with his political agenda.

Focus's ad buy is its first in prime time TV. It has ostensibly purchased the ads through its 501 c-3, the self-help component of its organization, so it can claim legally that the ads are not political. But they are, and it's absurd to say they're not. On his radio show, Dobson shamelessly begs for money for his 501 c-4, Focus on the Family Action, his organization's political arm. FOF Action is the entity which collaborated with the Family Research Council to bring us the memorable event known as "Justice Sunday," where Dobson blamed the Supreme Court for "the worst Holocaust in human history." Given that the political and family components of Dobson's empire are so indistinguishable, I think it would be appropriate and necessary to file a complaint with the FCC over Focus's insidious ad buy.

Furthermore, ABC's accomodation of Focus smacks of hypocrisy. Last winter, ABC's broadcast network refused to an ad by the United Church of Christ promoting its inclusive policy to gays and other groups explicity forbidden from belonging to churches under the ideological sway of Dobson and his ilk. According to the United Methodist News Network on 12/06/04,"ABC said it would air the advertisement on its ABC Family cable channel but not on its broadcast network." ABC stifled the speech of a group which promotes inclusiveness and diversity, while enabling an organization led by a man who told the Daily Oklahoman on 10/23/04, "Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth." What am I missing?

FCC Contact Information
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554


Phone: 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322)
TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322)
Fax: 1-866-418-0232
E-mail: fccinfo@fcc.gov
(FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was hand-picked by the National Religious Broadcasters, the Christian right's broadcast lobby to which Dobson belongs. “During my tenure as president of NRB, I have developed enormous respect for the intellect, character, integrity and clear-headed thinking of Mr. Martin," NRB chairman Frank Wright said of Martin after his selection.)
Correction: I had mistakenly referred to United Church of Christ as The National Council of Churches.