Many Christian groups and their members don't believe in free speech and never thought freedom of association was enough.
It is somehow especially relevant to the case, now before the court, brought by Christian Legal Society who purport to espouse such values, as they seek to limit the well-formed, anti-discrimination policies that public Universities use, in a variety of ways.
To wit, in their own words, no less:
"Blasphemy is not free speech."
Monday, March 29, 2010
Note to Justice Roberts, et. al.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
FAIL: Arab League
They've failed to embrace the ONLY path forward, negotiations.
And, so we have the Israelis using the "excuse" of violence to carry out whatever in the name of security and at the "blame" of the "other side" and the Palestinians using the "excuse" to that "excuse", so that no one makes progress.
The American and EU taxpayers foot the bill for this, in many ways, so that everyone feels some comfort in going "home" with everything left undone.
Someone should turn the lights out in Ramallah until there is a negotiating position that there are no preconditions.
The Saddest Thing
The pathetic revival of his worst executive decision makes this the saddest photo in political news.
A bystander in his own career, at this point?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Losingest Fight
Apparently "the rich" so much don't want to pay for mandate healthcare that they've commandeered other people's money to fight it, in the form of taxpayer funded suits by various rightwing attorney generals.
So, what does the GOP get out of this?
I mean, most citizens are happy to drop the mandate. It sounds dramatic and terribly poor insurance design to do so, but in practice, the cost is not nearly as high as one might suppose.
In short, dropping the mandate just argues for a tax of a different kind, like an income tax or a tax penalty.
Besides, I don't understand why the Democrats play so nice. Should they offer amendments to allow State Governors, for instance, to opt out of accepting Washington-based funds? Personally, I want all my stimulus money back from Texas, who didn't suffer from the mortgage underwriting debacle and who are already getting a huge stimulus from Homeland Security spending.
The Indecent Right: Abusing Liberty to Insult Patriotism
The Floor has even seen murder, but to go on a national news program?Does Cindy Sheehan even rate, compared to "tea party rhetoric"?
So far, the rightwing rhetoric about Obama is unhinged, disembodied ressentiment.
So eager are they to concretize the sentiment, that Glen Beck, for instance, spent an entire show with Representative Massa, trolling - trolling - for facts.
Yelling "baby killer" at a piece of legislation, not a person?So eager are they to concretize the sentiment, that Glen Beck, for instance, spent an entire show with Representative Massa, trolling - trolling - for facts.
That is the kind of indecent, face-saving tactics reminiscent of Tom DeLay, who, like Beck channeling the OSS on Hitler, counsels that no one in the GOP should admit fault, but rather look for a way in which some issue, tangential or not, can be politicized.
The chief source of anti-Bush rancor on the Left was (a) lies or perceived lies, about nothing less than the moral equivalent of war and (b) the false tradeoffs that were offered up rhetorically in support for expansion of the 'security state'. General cheapening of the public discourse ("Gannon", "So what?", et. al.) set the tone. As time passes, all that was hidden under the rubric "National Security" will augment that.
So far, the rightwing rhetoric about Obama is unhinged, disembodied ressentiment. So eager are they to concretize the sentiment, that Glen Beck, for instance, spent an entire show with Representative Massa, trolling - trolling - for facts.
A general state of deliberate, unprincipled behavior - is that decent? Patriotic?
And one has to agree with Frank Schaeffer that the impact of much of the indecent stuff is to give tacit moral permissioning, to create a climate in which violence is not only possible, but likely. He says it is deliberate, pre-meditated. To the extent it isn't reigned in after someone like him puts them on notice, I'd agree.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The unlikely is possible in Iraq
IT'S SO CLOSE
The largely secularist party of Allawi has done so well that is is now possible, on the numbers, for his list to form a government with al-Maliki and shut out all the Kurds and Sadr and the more religious Shiite bloc.
Alternatively, if Allawi were able to cobble together support from the main Kurdish parties, he'd be just shy of having enough seats to form a majority. He'd need to convince just a few smaller players to be involved.
The flunkies and pure spirits
Via Kos, the 33 Democrats against insurance re-regulation, aka "health care reform".
Recalling the same for Financial Industry reform:
"The vote was a party-line 223-202. No Republicans voted for the bill; 27 Democrats voted against it."
Pass. The. Damn. B...
Oh, it's done.
I'm so glad I didn't pay attention to the Washington-style sturm und drang.
The phasing - the temporizing - in the bill gives the lie to Obama's statement about "courage".
Anyway, one can savor the moment, even knowing that the "fixing" will start immediately.
How long do you think it will take for the Senate to gut the Student Loan stuff?
After all, this is the same Senate who couldn't bring themselves to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage loans, during the middle of the largest mortgage crisis in the history of the country, probably.
Last week, Secretary Geithner was still lamenting that mortgage loan servicers had 'not done enough'. How many chances does one give them?
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Dove or Drone?
Fareed Zakaria brings the bam-bam:
Bibi Netanyahu makes bold speeches about protecting Israel but when it comes time to act, he has cobbled together a coalition of extreme parties, made concessions to them on crucial issues, given them free rein to undermine Israel's broader security, and pandered to his public's most populist instincts—all to ensure than he can sit in the prime minister's chair. Little that Netanyahu has done suggests he has prioritized the Iranian threat—or these deeper, long-term threats—and made difficult decisions to address them. Forget Winston Churchill, Bibi Netanyahu looks more like a local ward boss, concerned only with keeping himself in power while the dangers to Israel mount from all sides.
-Zakaria, Newsweek
-Zakaria, Newsweek
The Indispensable Biden Moment
Krauthammer calls it an "incident" of "timing". Of course, he's right. Without the Biden snub, no one would have noticed. Israel could have gone along, promising freezes yet building, even building illegally by Israeli standards of legal. (Someone recently decided that a gap between existing buildings was a security risk that needed to be plugged with more housing units ... that's how brazen it's gotten).
Face it, no one would have so publicly examined the ripeness of Netanyahu's coalition to the task we all want from it, had Biden not been there.
No way that a ground-breaking or a new apartment in Ramat Shlomo makes the headlines in America. Clinton's prior "denunciation" of the 80 units to be demolished in East Jerusalem was drown out, by the health care "debate". Most of Obama's tribulations with the Netanyahu government, last year, went by unseen, buried in his favorable/unfavorable polls.
We would not have gotten this (the long battle for Jerusalem) on the pages of the WSJ, perhaps laying plain why "final status" arrangements are always a step too far, for so many, for so long, now.
Nor would we have gotten this key insight, from the Knesset, a super-majority of whom are sending AIPAC a "terms sheet" for their lobbying, including something called "national areas of Jerusalem":
“we, the undersigned members of Knesset, who represent different approaches and world-views regarding the desirable permanent-status arrangement, are unified behind the policy of all Israeli governments to this day, regarding our attachment to the historical and national areas of Jerusalem and the right of the State of Israel to actualize our control in its Jewish neighborhoods in all parts of the city – neighborhoods that constitute an inseparable part of Jerusalem that will remain in our hands in any future permanent status arrangement.
“We support the continuation of building and development in all of the neighborhoods without any restriction or delay,”
“We support the continuation of building and development in all of the neighborhoods without any restriction or delay,”
So, Krauthammer can use the word "generous" all he wants, but any dispassionate observer, one who, say, knew little of the history of the conflict, would simply scratch their heads and conclude that Israel built - literally built - obstacles to a final agreement, at least insofar as it is unwilling to negotiate land based on these very settlements.
'67 or Bust
Clearing the space for another hole to open up?:
As a reporter who covered the Camp David summit hosted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, I wonder if we would ever have achieved a peace agreement had Egypt demanded the freezing of the settlements in Sinai and other preconditions for the final negotiations.
A freeze seems like a very small price to pay in 2010, if it gets talks going again, even though it seems like a contradiction to open negotiations when someone is acting in prejudice of them.
It would be helpful if Erekat ever published some maps of their own, rather than just stick to Arafat's old formulation of "'67 or bust".
It would be helpful if Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia got involved in drafting parts of a regional, post-settlement security-cooperation regime, that would keep a new Palestinian state from militarization and radicalization (by Hamas, etc.).
Follow the money?
Yes, but better yet, follow the legal history.
I can't make heads or tails of this, but it looks like an increase in authority to dispose of property in disputed lands.
The full legal history of land acquisition in the West Bank and Jerusalem is complex, but illuminating.
Now, the Afghanistan Fiasco: Whack-a-mole with Arrested Political Reconciliation
Pakistan's arrest of top Taliban leader? A former U.N. guy is now talking openly about it as having stalled tripartite talks among Taliban, Afghanistan, and U.N.
Why would a non-party to the talks do that?!
The Taliban gain territory, in what looks on the surface a little bit like whack-a-mole. It's in the North, Kunduz.
Sound great?
There's more.
Iran is reportedly taking an interest in arming the Taliban.
The only brightspot in today's news is something like an "awakening" among the frontier tribesman to oppose "militants". LOL.
photo: Dave Guttenfelder
Friday, March 19, 2010
"Moore Nominee Award"
Do you really want to use the word "colonize", Andrew?.
True or false: you cannot write clearly on the subject matter until you have a clear view of (a) how you want to approach the conflict theoretically and (b) what you want to achieve.
Even then, it is a constant struggle. One can make the best arguments and still lose a "debate".
Btw, if anyone thinks that a tongue lashing over antisemitism, one that doesn't even hold the day, is an "Irish-Catholic" tragedy (bleh!) or whatever, consider what happens to those who get targeted by the other side, too. I mean, I don't know Jeffrey from squat, but this has all the tenor of a smear job, no?
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Israeli Rightwing Power Grab?
I guess Jeff Goldberg has to publish rightwing material, even if it comes, thankfully, with a cute and funny header about Haredi sitcom.
Why pressure Livni? Why shouldn't Netanyahu join Livni's government, not the other way around?
Let's review:
- Kadima got more votes and seats, even though Likud picked up seats
- Both Netanyahu and Ehud Barak had a chance to join Livni in a coalition government before elections, but chose their own ends ahead of stability.
- After warnings from Olmert that non-cooperation with Kadima would all come to a mess, a string of aggressive statements and evocative moves has done just that, under the stewardship of Netanyahu.
This is why Shas party didn't join with Livni, i.e. she wasn't socialist and nationalist enough:
Shas' chairman added that "If Livni addresses the issue of a million hungry children and doesn't give away the country's assets – with an emphasis on Jerusalem – we'll be in her government. If not, we won't be."
So, again, why pressure Livni and not Netanyahu to join?
Because the rightwing pressure campaign is working, maybe, to get Livni to cave in to Likud, when it should be the other way.
Guilt the Americans, Part II
Judging by the comments, I don't think people realize how good a piece of propaganda this piece in the TNR really is.
More later - ... but take some time to dissect the facts offered in the piece and the new frameworks introduced to be persuasive and see if you don't come to the same conclusions.
[tb con'd]
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