What Are They Thinking?

I honestly do not understand the concept of ignoring science when it conflicts with faith.

There was a recent poll that shows that only 42% of Americans accepted evolutionary theory, but 79% believed in miracles.

That is just depressing. Science, that has been tested and tested and tested again is doubted and denied(mostly by people of faith), but magic is perfectly acceptable. The people of this land do not understand that harm they are doing to the nation by refusing to accept the natural sciences and what the learn about this world.

To many of us cling to our perception of the universe that was implanted into us as children and are afraid to allow reveled scientific facts in. The path we are heading down doesn't hold much promise. We deny global warming and evolution. We allow people who claim the earth is only 6000 years old to teach this in schools and colleges. We refuse to allow research not because it is bad research, but because of religiously driven concepts of when live begins, or ensoulment occurs.

Without a willingness to embrace scientific discovery, the path of our nation is on may be depressingly similar to the path that this devoutly religious young man took.

A 14-year-old boy who refused blood transfusions in his fight against leukemia -- based on religious beliefs -- died Wednesday night in Seattle, hours after a Skagit County judge affirmed his right to reject the treatment.

Dennis Lindberg, of Mount Vernon, died around 6 p.m. at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle, according to KING-5 television. As a Jehovah's Witness, Lindberg objected to receiving blood. Doctors had said he needed it to survive his cancer treatment.

In court Wednesday, Superior Court Judge John Meyer said that Lindberg, though in the eighth grade, was old enough to know that refusing blood transfusions might amount to a "death sentence," and that he had the right to make that decision

This type of thinking leads to situations like this.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- Hundreds of protesters brandishing ceremonial swords and sticks gathered outside Khartoum's presidential palace Friday to vent their anger against a British teacher jailed for allowing children to name a teddy bear "Mohammed."

or this:

It is an ingrained ritual, and the villagers regard industrious labor to be a magical protection against being chosen, as indicated by the Old Man Warner, never selected during his 77 years. When Mrs. Adams tells Warner that some of the other villages have stopped holding the annual lotteries, he replies, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon."

I guess religious driven stupidity has no bounds.

Canadians Can Be Foolish Too

A school board in Canada has been forced into an action that sounds much more like something you would hear a South Carolina school board eagerly embracing. They have voted to remove a collection of children's books from the school library.

It appears that a, no doubt highly religious person, has filled a complaint about the books, and has forced the board to review them.

What is interesting is that the books in question are highly regarded award winners for young readers. In the past these books have not created great amount of highly notable controversy, but that has changed recently because: 1. The book is being released as a movie 2. The author is an atheist and 3. the Catholic church and the religious right is unhappy.

At least this is happening in Canada, where a review will take place. I fear that here in South Carolina we would move right on to the book burning.

Bush Has A Plan To Easy Holiday Air Traffic

If his plan for the airlines is as effective as the rest of his plans have been, I recommend limiting any travel you have to do to walking.

In The Climate Change Discussion

The B.B.C. has supplied some wonderful facts to counter the denialist.

Warming is unequivocal. Weather stations, ocean measurements, decreases in snow cover, reductions in Arctic sea ice, longer growing seasons, balloon measurements, boreholes and satellites all show results consistent with the surface record of warming.

They make 10 strong point to refute those who try to distort the truth on this issue.

You May NOT Wish Me A Merry Christmas

at least not yet.

We are still over a week away from Thanksgiving and the non-existent war on Christmas has again been declared to be on by America's biggest fool, Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the Faux news crew. I guess some stupidity is just to profitable to give up.

At least this year someone aside from Faux news is well placed to make some quick cash off of this foolishness. Just another confirmation that fools and their money can still be quite easily parted.

And, just a note about the Christmas and the liturgical calendar; This year Advent will start on December 1st, and Christmas will not arrive (as it does every year) until the 25th of December.

So, A Happy Holiday season to one and all (you know, Thanksgiving, Advent, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years and anything else I missed), and happy thanksgiving and safe travels over the next week or so.



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Why All The Rush To Embrace Inhumanity

The last couple of weeks has been quite fascinating. We have politicians of all types who appear eager to embrace inhumanity and what are quite likely highly illegal actions.

We have a flock Republican Presidential candidates who all want to be seen as the next Jack Bauer. One, Rudy Giuliani, going as far as to try to tie police questioning that he oversaw, with the torture our government is now employing. We have a confirmation mating dance in DC, where all parties are afraid to talk plainly about the subject, and instead chose to focus of what 'is' is. The President still foolishly parrots his false claim that the US doesn't torture. He apparently thinks that if he redefines torture to remove from the list all the acts of torture we want to use, we are not torturing.

Everyone is acting like the issue of the propriety and legality of waterboarding (and other unnamed forms of torture) is in question. Well, it is not. The US has viewed this act as illegal for over 100 years. In the past, the US has denounce other governments for using this, and other forms of torture. We have prosecuted war criminals who have used waterboarding to question captives.

And now we seem to be trying to claim that this act is no longer torture.

Another way to look at this is to consider the company you keep. Who else is known to have embraced the use of water boarding? Well, Japan during WWII, North Vietnam and the Vietcong , The Stalin's KGB, Pol Pot of Killing Fields fame, and now George Bush.

In the next day or two, more names can be added to the list of those who think torture is an acceptable way of doing business. Including a number of Democratic Senators and of couse both Senators from South Carolina. DeMint, who is a reliable vote for Bush, and Graham, who knows better, but lacks the courage to do the right thing. When Mukasey is approved as AG, those who vote to install him are also voting to approve the use of torture. In his confirmation it was made very clear the he is also willing to twist the law to allow us to try to redefine torture, and allow its continued use.

And, no matter what our politicians do, no matter how they justify it, how they redefine it, no matter how much makeup they apply, it is still torture. Keith Oberman again nails the truth, and the disgustingly viable reasons for Mukasey nomination, and acceptance.


Dispatches From The Culture Wars also touches upon this theme.

Americians May be Getting A Little Smarter

A new poll indicates that a solid majority of people now accept the distribution of birth control in school.

Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. About as many — 62 percent — said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies.

"Kids are kids," said Danielle Kessenger, 39, a mother of three young children from Jacksonville, Fla., who supports providing contraceptives to those who request them. "I was a teenager once and parents don't know everything, though we think we do."

There is still a vivid split of opinion as to if access to birth control will encourage sexual activity, but at least some are now wise enough to understand that the protection it affords outweighs this concern.

In addition, 49 percent say providing teens with birth control would not encourage sexual intercourse and a virtually identical 46 percent said it would.

What was very interesting about this poll, is the view women hold as to the likelihood that access to contraception will lead to more sexual activity.

Though men and women have similar views about whether to provide contraceptives to students, women are likelier than men to think it will not encourage sexual intercourse, 55 percent to 43 percent.

I suspect that the numbers in South Caroline would look much worse that the national view, but it is nice to seem progress is being made in some places.

Let's Ask The Tropps

How are things in Baghdad going?

The Political Parties May Change

But as long as we have corporations willing to pay, and politicians who are willing to take their money, the game will remain unchanged.

Executives at the two biggest phone companies contributed more than $42,000 in political donations to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV this year while seeking his support for legal immunity for businesses participating in National Security Agency eavesdropping.

There is nothing wrong and nothing new here, right? A politician needs money to get elected, and private citizens have to be allowed to contribute to these politicians, right?

Well, there are a few details that make the story a little more interesting.

It appears that all these politically minded folks from AT and T and Version came upon their passion for the political efforts of Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV) of late. From 2002 to 2006 the total contribution from the executives of these firms came to a bit less than $5,000.00. Then, like a rampaging infection of political activism and altruism, more than 50 senior executives independently decided in a period of about 3 months to fork over big money to Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV).

One is left to wonder what may have motivated this spontaneous generosity, and if there may have been any coordination of the efforts these phone company executives.

Naaa, a corporation would never do anything like compel political contributions from their staff.

I do have to admire this efforts as spin on behalf of AT and T.

“Many AT and T executives work with the leaders of both the House and Senate Commerce Committees on a daily basis and have come to know them over the years,” Ms. Jones said.

She added that although industry executives and politicians might not always agree, it is “commonplace for AT and T employees to regularly and voluntarily participate in the political process with their own funds.”

Of course, this participation, that has been totally lacking for years, may eventually come in massive torrents of cash but only when a Senator is in a position to do the company a huge favor.

And people still wonder what is wrong in DC. Only when we have a politicians who are not so eager to prostitute themselves to corporate interest can we hope to see improved governance.

Sadly, I have grown expect this type of behavior from both parties. While it is an obvious and historic principal of the republicans to protect business interest over everything else, it is also a trait that many Democrats embrace. One of they keys to long term improvement in Government, reducing corruption, development of a more equatable economic policy, improvement of heath care and countless other issues, is radically reducing the amount on influence that big business has in DC. Unfortunately, I see no path that will lead to this.

I Hate To Say I Told You So

well, not normally, but in this case being on the cusp of proven right is rather alarming.

One of the biggest reasons I gave for not invading Iraq was the potential to trigger a series of event that cascaded beyond any control and resulted in open warfare region wide. A few of the conflicts that were easy to spot were the Turks and Kurds, the Shiite and Sunni, the Shiite and Shiite, the Kurds and Iran, Iran and the Sunni and Syria.

Well, this last weekend clearly indicated that to many of these conflicts were warming up.

In the south of Iraq as the British draw down, the Shiite factions are making their moves.

Rival Shiite militias are engaged in grabs for power in the oil-rich south of the country, as British forces are drawing down.

What is interesting is we make it clear that we have taken sides in this conflict and are assisting one faction against the other.

In the north the Kurds are still pressing the Turkish forces. To date Turkey has displayed great restraint. This restraint will likely fade when Turkey finds a target inside Iraq that is juicy enough to warrant attack.

As an aside: One justification for attacking Iraq was Saddam's sheltering of terrorist. Since we now have effective responsibility for the lands that compose the nations of Iraq, and since the Kurdish 'terrorist' attacking Turkey are sheltering in Iraq; Are we now guilty of shelter terrorist, and if we are what punishment is appropriate for our leaders?

and in Syria the welcome mat has been pulled up.

Long the only welcoming country in the region for Iraqi refugees, Syria has closed its borders to all but a small group of Iraqis and imposed new visa rules that will legally require the 1.5 million Iraqis currently in Syria to return to Iraq.

The potential for an explosive response in the attempt to relocate 1,500,000 people who have no place it relocate is imposable to understate. If Syria follows through with this both Syria and Iraq will be at risk for massive unrest.

Of course, we also have the other areas of conflict that have existed for 4 years, but it is ominously clear that the effects of this unilateral attack by the US have not been contained, and the risk of a much wider conflict is as great as I feared.

We Are Winning In Iraq

Yes, we are winning. That is obvious because the Pentagon or the Pentagon on behalf of the Bush administration are leaking hints that we have 'crippled' Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Of course they fail to mention that Al-Qaeda in Iraq represents a total membership

from 850 – about 3 to 5 percent of the Sunni insurgency – to several thousand

Of course, when you read Pentagon press releases, or listen to the US media, just about everything that happens and everything we do involves Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Now we are expected to believe that in an insurgency of upwards of 100,000, weakening a single group that represents a few single percentage points of the total revolt, is a success.

Just more absurd spin from a desperate and dysfunctional administration and it's overly compliant military.

The Biggest Social Problem In The US

Is laid clear by this Wall Street Journal report.

The wealthiest 1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005, according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service.

.....

The bottom 50% earned 12.8% of all income

So if we had 100 people, representing the various income class groups, and they had to split up 1 million dollars.

Paris Hilton would get $212,000.00

The unknown people who work for a living, running day care centers, working at Target, putting out fires etc, well, they get 2,560 each.

Yet, Paris and her friends are the ones who need all the tax breaks, welcome to Bush land, where the rich get richer, and the poor are expendable.

Welcome to October

Today's high, 92.

Rush Linbaugh Lies

This should surprise no one (except an anonymous commenter in the last post), but it is funny just how often how blatantly and how badly he does this. How his followers can avoid noticing this constantly amazes me.

Ed Brayton at Dispatches From the Culture Wars exposes Rush's stupidity and takes apart a recent Rush lie about Thomas Jefferson and religious liberty.

Geese and Ganders

Our two towering paragons of virtue, Senators DeMint and Graham, were among those who were oh so eager to denounce Move On for a pun. They joined the whole of the Republican membership of the Senate (and a collection of weak willed Democrats) and participated in this absurd political Kabuki in an effort to score a few popularity points by pretending to defend the honor of our armed forces by passing a resolution that said in part:

2) to strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the United States Armed Forces;

Now we have the chance to see if they were really serious about this. For if they were it would mean that they would now have to aggressively lead an effort to pass a condemnation of Rush Limbaugh for his anti-armed forces rant.

On his radio show yesterday, right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked the “honor and integrity” of some members of the Armed Forces. Limbaugh attacked troops who hold a different viewpoint than his own as “phony soldiers.”

But,

I strongly recommend that you not hold your breath waiting for their action. Our Senators have shown a strong partisan streak that makes it clear that the actions of those on the left, if they are an effort to overturn their political goals must be condemned, but those exact same actions on the right (the questioning the impartiality and honesty of members of the armed forces) are just fine.

It goes back to the rule of ethics and political discourse that has existed for at least the last 10 years at least, IOALAYAAR. (It's OK as long as you are a Republican)

Well, It Appears That Our Mercenaries In Iraq

Are acting just how you should expect mercenaries to act.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization

You might be thinking that 'with friends like these, who needs enemies', but the fine folks at blackwater are not our friends. They are mercenaries, they are being paid, and paid quite well, to do a risky job.

The trouble is, as it has always been with mercenaries, they are there for the money, and in any group of mercenaries, there will be some that will continue to follow the money, no matter where it leads.

So, in addition to the various investigations into excessive use of force, we now have this.

Just two more benefits of outsourcing work that our armed forces should be doing.

Joy, Sorrow and Rage

CNN is following the story of a small boy from Baghdad that was badly burned in a sectarian attack. Recently they covered the family's arrival in LA for medical treatment. Having a 5 year old son, this hits close to home. There is an undeniable Joy in seeing this vibrant and innocent child be given health and hope.

This is the kind of heart warming human interest story that the American public loves. It reinforces their view of the kindness of our people, our nation, our government. I too am deeply touched by the profound difference that we are able to make in this one families life.

Then I step back.

I consider the fact that, at it's root, we are the cause of this boys current suffering. The US is Iraq's Pandora. We have taken the lid off of that nation and unleashed a riot of miseries upon that land. In time, one of those miseries landed on this boy. So when I read of the kindness we are extending to this boy, I am also fully aware that in large measure we are simply addressing a wrong that we are, in small part, responsible for. While we did not do this, we enabled the creation of an environment where this could occur.

And these events are not just happening to one small boy or just one family. While we are helping him there are thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who we can not aid. All of these people are suffering, and we can do little more that help a handful. Our nation will latch upon these stories to assuage any guilt we feel about the whole situation. By helping this one family, we are not responsible for the pain that our actions has caused tens of thousands of families. While we have created joy in one home, we have left a land overwhelmed in sorrow.

But there is more; Once you realize the whole truth about their trip to the US, rage starts burning. Even in our kindness there is also an amazing amount of self serving of cruelty.

We have plucked this boy, and his family from a 1 room home in the middle of a city that is the front line of a civil war that shows no sign of ending. We have moved them to a land of safety, prosperity and hope. We will repair the damage that has been done, and then we will drop them back into the disaster area that Iraq now is.

So when I read of the suffering of a child so like my own; when I read of the simple joy he experiences in pushing a luggage cart, when I hear of his pain, his joy, his fears, and his hope, I can not help but feel fear and anger about the fate that awaits him. For after we have repaired the damage, we will then place him back into the very environment that almost killed him.

I can also not forget the children, teens and adults whose misery and suffering, unlike Youssif's, has gone unnoticed by the US media and who will live and die in the hell on earth that our Pandora created for them.

America follows the story of one boy from Iraq, and allows themselves to bask in the warm glow of this humanitarian act. To many never consider the deeper meaning of the story, and what the final act of this play will mean. They are content to not consider how this happened, or where it leads, and simply want to continue their lives, reassured in the fact that we are kind and charitable, and that those who don't see it that way are just ill informed.

Republican Senators Having a Bad Week

Although Sen. Vitter (R-La) keeps deigning it, the working girl that claims he was a regular visitor is speaking out about his actions.

"I want the truth to be known," Ellis said. "It was a pure sexual relationship. He would come in and do his business."

In light of this latest development, one has to wonder his Vitter's wife still thinks the Bobbit option is best.

And on the non-hypocritical traditional corruption front, Sen. Stevens (R-Ak) has again been tied to by a collection of rather unsavory friends.

During a secret meeting to discuss what prosecutors say was a dirty deal to keep Alaska oil taxes low, two oil contractors said they had a powerful ally coming to town who could help build support for the plan: Sen. Ted Stevens.

Why The Surge Will Fail

and confirmation that billions of dollars were spent for nothing.

Those are the lessons to learn from the Independent Commission on Security Forces in Iraq

We have spent billions building the police forces in Iraq, and the result:

Iraq's Interior Ministry is regarded as "dysfunctional and sectarian," and the National Police should be "disbanded and reorganized,"

So, time to spend a few billion more.

And, what tells us that the surge will fail?

Iraq's armed forces won't be ready to perform independently during the next 18 months.

We have been promised a viable and effective Iraqi army was only a year a two away for 4 years now. It is very clear that at this time Iraq is unable to hold any of the gains the US forces make during the surge.

The end result for the people of Iraq; A period of improvement that last only as long as US troops are present. If troops move on there will be rapid decline into violence that the Iraqi army is unable to prevent.

It May Still Violate The Geneva Conventions But

I think I know a way we could close Guantanamo, and still torture those the Bush administration wants to torture.

Just make them fly around the nation on commercial flights in economy class.

They would spend the rest of their lives having to deal with faulty self check-in machines, endless lines, absurd security rules, inexplicable flight delays, bad pay as you go meals, and lost baggage.

This could be as effective as waterboarding.

And as a quick aside:

Is there any rule that mandates that the employees of Delta Air Lines are not allowed to smile? I have never seen as grim a collection of people as those manning the Delta service counters across the nation.

Some People I Just Do Not Understand

In this case it is the series of 'family values', meaning anti-gay or sexual behavior obsessed, Republican who have violated their own declared behavioral standards.

We have seen:

Mark Foley who spent his time chatting up almost and recently legal young men who had served as pages.

Glenn Murphy Jr., One time Chairman of the Young Republicans, who appears to have developed a habit of sexual assaulting other men in their sleep.

David Vitter, who sought 'professional help' for his diaper fetish.

We have a one time Bush administration spiritual advisor, Ted Haggard, who enjoyed the pleasures of male prostitutes and illegal drugs.

Coy C. Privette, one time Republican state legislator in North Carolina, and president of Christian Action League, caught with a pro in a N. Carolina hotel.

Rep. Bob Allen of Florida, who was caught offering to pay other men for the opportunity to preform fellatio on them in a public restroom.

And we add Sen. Larry Craig who, like Bob Allen, seems to have found the allure of public restrooms and other men irresistible.

While I do not understand these men, I do find them objectionable. It is not their sexual activity that I find that objectionable. It is their hypocrisy.

If they want to wear soiled diapers, or date young men (of legal age) or have paid or anonymous sexual liaisons, that is their business. If they are attracted to men, or women, or both, is no matter to me.

What does matter is the gross hypocrisy of trying to enact laws against the very behaviors that they are caught engaging in.

Folly promotes laws to make the Internet 'safe' then uses it to work his way into the lives of young pages. Craig, and Allen, and Haggard work to deny homosexuals civil rights, and then engage in homosexual activity.

If these men had embraced the view that every person's sexual lives is no ones business, I would argue that these are non stories. But each has made their name by insisting that a person should be defined, at least in part, by their sexual behavior or orientation. And if your orientation or desires ran counter to their view of normal, you must also then be denied rights to some civil protections.

In each case, they are now get to reap what they sow, and while I do not understand these fools, I can enjoy the absurd positions they have put themselves into.

Gonzales Quits?

If the rumors are true, I hope this clears the way for aggressive investigation and legal action against him for lying to Congress and other various questionable activity.

There are few things that can destroy a nation quicker than having legal system headed by people who wilfully break the law, and the are not punished for it.

Now He Brings Up Vietnam

For 4 years many on the left raised concerns that the brain dead leadership on the right were leading us into another Vietnam, an untenable quagmire that that will eat up men and machines without any significant overall change.

These statements were dismissed as not relevant and alarmist.

Now it appears that George Bush agrees. He is now admitting that, in his foolishness, he has led this nation into another Vietnam. But, staying true to the idiocy that made him believe that invading Iraq was a good idea, he is trying to sell that wrong idea about why we lost Vietnam.

He claims the lesson from that war is that we didn't stay long enough. He promotes the rather foolish notion that with more men, more weapons, more freedom of activity, we could have won.

He is wrong.

Iraq and Vietnam have this one simple fact in common, the overwhelming majority of the population do not want us in their nation. When this is the case, there is no amount of force, no real change of strategy, short of genocide, that can prevent the eventual defeat of the occupying force.

It is about hearts and minds, and if you can not win them, you have lost. In Vietnam we could not win them, and it is very clear that we have failed at this in Iraq. This is the lesson that we should have learned from Vietnam, and the one we need to remember when we consider out next steps in Iraq.

Yet, this deserter from service during the Vietnam war, is telling us that the failure in Vietnam was a lack of commitment ( a commitment that his desertion from the armed forces indicates the he also lacked ).

Iraq is lost. It was lost the day we decided to invade. The only, very slim, chance to win with the course we are on would be to insert 400,000 or more troops to end the game of Wack-a-mole that we are currently engaged in. Since there is no place to get 400,000 more troops, we have to admit it is over.

War Profiteering, S.C. Style

It appears that a couple of patriotic South Carolinian have been busy helping with the war effort.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina -- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled ``priority'' were usually paid automatically

.....

The scheme unraveled in September after a purchasing agent noticed a bill for shipping two more 19-cent washers: $969,000. That order was rejected and a review turned up the $998,798 payment earlier that month for shipping two 19-cent washers to Fort Bliss, Texas, Stroot said.

The Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency orders millions of parts a year. ``These shipping claims were processed automatically to streamline the re-supply of items to combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan,''

Lovely, just lovely

Punching Out

Karl Rove is running for the hills.

There probably was no better sign of how far this White House has fallen than at the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames this weekend, a gathering of probably the most committed Republicans in the country. This was where Mr. Rove displayed his political skills to the country in 1999, steering Mr. Bush to a victory in a nonbinding poll that nonetheless cemented his position as his party’s prohibitive favorite.

Mr. Bush’s name was barely mentioned in Ames on Saturday, much less Mr. Rove’s. The winner of the contest, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, offered a pretty grim verdict on the last seven years in Washington when he said, “If there has ever been a time that we needed to see change in Washington, it is now.”

While the US Media Tells Us Happy Tales

from Iraq, the Guardian brings us another view.

When the soldiers talk like this there is resignation. There is a corrosive anger, too, that bubbles out, like the words pouring unbidden from a chaplain's assistant who has come to bless a patrol. 'Why don't you tell the truth? Why don't you journalists write that this army is exhausted?'

Right-wing Authoritarian

Over at Orcinus, a great piece on the behavior and thinking of many on the right wing.

In fact, that naivete -- deceptively packaged as purity and innocence -- is one of the main things people are seeking when they're drawn into authoritarian systems. They join up because they feel overwhelmed by the complexity and nuance in the world. There's just too much to keep up with, too much responsibility, too much chaos. Often, they've been caught in the gears of the machinery of modernity, and have had large parts of their lives chewed up by the works. It all feels out of control. (Chris Hedges, in his new book American Fascism, describes how Christianist proselytizers are taught to seek out people going through hard times-- they're the hottest conversion prospects.)

This ties in quite nicely with the revelation that the Kansas Republican party is now considering some form of loyalty oath

The state committee's actions struck a sour note for some Republicans, particularly moderates on issues such as abortion. Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist, suggested the loyalty committee could prove a "public relations disaster."

"Ironically, it smacks most of the Communist Party," Beatty said Monday. "That's the kind of public irony that most parties try to avoid -- the party of freedom telling people they have no freedom."

What A Class Act Our Sen. Graham Is

It's at think progress

To Freaking Funny

Yet another closeted gay Republican leader has outed himself, details at Outside the Tent.

Escalation In Iraq

Based upon the tone of discussion that is developing about the surge, I think that either I, or those promoting the surge, must not understand what the goal of this mis-adventure is.

As I understand it, the plan is for the US to apply force to bring stability to a small region of the city of Baghdad, we then turn over the security of this area over to the Iraqi's to maintain, freeing US forces to more into a new region.

I have seen some claiming success because US forces have been able to bring stability to portions of Iraq.

General David Petraeus went out to show off a success story,

...

Haifa Street is an example of how the general's counter-insurgency plan is supposed to work.

Haifa Street used to be another way of saying utter chaos.

In January this year, it was the scene of the bitterest and bloodiest street fighting that Baghdad has experienced.

These days it's a good place not just for Iraqis but for the general to practice street politics and public relations.

The only trouble I see with this report it, this is only phase one, and phase one is the only phase anyone should expect could work. I think you would find few people who did not expect US forces to be able to impose peace and stability onto small areas of Baghdad.

The test of this escalation is phase two, where the Iraqi's maintain the security. Even this foolishly positive story about 'The Surge' can not ignore this and one additional unpleasant fact about this plan. The first is well stated here:

"As Americans stay here, there is safety,"

A true sign that the surge is failing. This is because it is the Iraqi forces that must provide the security, not the US troops, and the second issue:

The insurgents merely retreated across the Tigris River to infest another neighborhood that the U.S. military must clear and rebuild.

Without being able to form some degree of effective lockdown nationwide, we make no true gains.

So the key to the determining the success of the escalation is not performance of US forces, but the ability of the Iraqi forces to hold the areas the US has secured.

And no evidence has been provided that indicates any improvement in that area. In fact most evidence indicates that there is little likelihood of this working.

Hundreds of thousands of weapons that the US has delivered to the Iraqi forces are missing. They have no doubt been sold off for profit, or routed to some of the various insurgent groups. Reports of wide spread desertions continue to be common, and a good argument can be made that our efforts to train the Iraqi defense force is a total failure.

Now look at the test area for the current surge plan, an area Bush once declaired a success, Tal Afar. They have had another bombing in Tal Afar. We used US forces to clear the city, the turned it over to Iraqi forces to hold, a couple of time now. There is no reason to suspect that Haifa St, Baghdad or any other part of Iraq will be any different form Tal Afar.

The surge in Baghdad, and Iraq as a whole, can only work if there is a viable force in place to hold the territory the US forces have cleared. To declare this current plan a success, without seeing if any of the Iraqi troops have been able to hold any area, either indicates a failure to understand the objective or dishonesty.