01-24-09
- Right-Wing Hypocrisy Watch:
- Can't Leave the Boys Alone: Disgraced religious right wacko and gay basher Ted Haggard had yet another long-term gay liaison--this one with a young church volunteer (yahoo/ap). How many more men are there who just haven't come forward yet? Haggard's church lied about it to the public and bought the young man off. Former head of the 30-million member National Evangelical Association, founder and former head pastor of the 14,000-member gay-bashing New Life Church, and sometimes credited with rallying evangelicals behind Bush during the 2004 election, Haggard pleads that he himself is the victim of his own gay experiences while growing up. Poor guy. Evangenitals blackballed the movie Kinsey and hate the Kinsey studies because they obliterate evangenital black-and-white, either-or thinking and show how widespread and natural same-sex attraction and contact actually are in the human species (wiki Kinsey Scale). However, since evangenitals are fantasy based and casually reject any science that conflicts with their fantasies, they can go on year after year raising money on the backs of the very gays they are persecuting, wildly claiming that homosexual behavior is merely a matter of improper 'lifestyle' choice, nothing inherent that can't be resolved by lifelong sexual abstinence, at the worst. Oh, is that all it takes? I suspect it is more nearly correct to say that evangenitalism is an improper 'lifestyle' choice that should be thoroughly repudiated and whose unfortunate victims should be reeducated as quickly as possible in the art of living in reality.
- Incessant Fear Mongering: The sky will fall - if we release any of them from Gitmo, they'll rejoin al Qaeda to kill us (americablog) - terrorists breaking out of local U.S. prisons will murder you in your beds - terrorists in local prisons will indoctrinate the prison populations and they will then murder you in your beds - if we don't torture them they will surely get us - after plundering the Treasury for 8 years, how could we ever afford more money for domestic recovery - Rumsfeld: Oh, Henny-Penny. Code Red. Code Red.
- Strategy Triangulate: Cozy up to popular Obama while criticizing the Democrat Congress. (washingtonindependent) They seem to forget that a large part of the reason voters rated Congress even lower than Bush was because of Republican obstructionism from 2006 to 2008. This transparent tactic will not obscure their real and continuing obstructionism.
- Economy - Politicians at Work: Look Out Below!!
- Stimulus Package Success or Failure could define Obama's term. (nytimes). Obama pandered to Republicans and sliced off 33% of the the stimulus package to provide tax cuts for working people and corporations, instead of using that money for mass transit infrastructure. I wouldn't predict this portends very well for the final outcome. $825 billion seems somewhat anemic compared to what would most likely be required to bring about the deep change this nation needs. Now Obama has trimmed that back to $550 billion and says it will provide the needed fiscal jolt within a year and a half.
- Chief Obama Adviser Larry Summers Hates Infrastructure (thinkprogress) - Sounds like a great recipe for diluting the whole infrastructure/stimulus/jobs idea and just throwing more money at the bankers who brought on the mess. Isn't broad inclusion wonderful?
- No New Oversight in TARP Round Two (washingtonindependent)
- Senate Prepared to Trust Obama on Bailout (washingtonindependent) Big mistake. Do we have another irresponsible Congress and a king in the making?
- Military-Industrial Complex: Israel/Palestinians - More of the Neocon Same
- President Obama made his first substantive comments on the Middle East conflict since Israel’s attack on Gaza. Obama first mentioned his commitment to Israel’s security, without affirming his commitment to Palestinian security. He condemned Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns, but did not criticize the US-backed Israeli bombings of densely populated Gaza. But in a departure from the Bush administration. He declared his sadness for the deaths on both sides--but without mentioning the fact that there were 1400 Palestinian deaths versus a dozen Israeli soldiers' deaths, 4 of which were from 'friendly fire'. Noam Chomsky, the 'father of modern linguistics,' calls Obama's remarks "deceitful" by claiming Israel had a right to use force to defend itself, when all Israel really had to do was cease its criminal behavior toward Palestinians and back off. Carter Center career diplomat calls Obama's stance a good first step. (democracynow). More change we can believe in. Not yet.
- The Bubble Nebula (apod)
