Required reading: the NRCC gets realistic
May 22

The NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) sounds positively depressed about their prospects this Fall. That Politico article mentions a 20-page memo, though not how it got out. Don't let the length deter you, it's fascinating reading. There's no link in the article, so follow this link. I got it from a Tim Walz fundraising e-mail. One Democrats had going for us in 2006 was most Republicans were in denial about the impending catastrophe: witness Karl Rove's "the math" comment. Not so this year. The memo was written after the loss of the special elections in Illinois and Louisiana, but before Mississippi, when the demoralized state became public. OK, it's not completely realistic. They refer to people in college towns not just as liberal, which tends to be true, but characterizes them as "...slackers and hangers-on, the virtual protestors, the health food store owner..". I don't know that "health food store owner" is an insult, but as for the other terms, it's hard to get people to vote for you when you insult them (by the way fellow Democrats, no more excusing Democratic electoral defeats in some areas by insulting Republican voters --- those of you who said such things about West Virginians and Kentuckians after recent primaries know who I mean).

Not that the GOP is completely realistic. They still think terrorism and FISA works for them. They still think railing against cultural liberals works for them (bad news guys: the new name for liberals is "the majority"). The memo mentions that Kerry did better in areas closer to cities, worse as voters are farther from cities, and continued urbanization has been good for the Democrats. That might be true in the East. In the Midwest, the GOP is in danger of being reduced to a suburban party. We can argue about the accuracy of their statement or mine, but one thing that is not inarguable is that they concede the cities to the Democrats, and it sounds like they concede inner tier suburbs too. Call it the 50 partial-state strategy.

Though I don't know how the memo got out, it appears genuine. Much of it can be gleaned from the media, but the points to bear in mind are that much of it is accurate, and it's an inside glimpse into what they're thinking. They're welcome to run from the "Republican brand" (once a party, now a marketing campaign). That's a losing strategy whenever Democrats do it, so Republicans, feel free.

Now will McCain's pastors get attention?
May 10

If you can think way back to life before the Jeremiah Wright controversy, you might recall how Wright received no attention before the video of some sermons was played on TV. Obama's church was mentioned in blogs, usually it appeared by Clinton supporters warning (correctly, it turns out) that Obama's church would be a problem. It appears it took video played on TV to make Wright an issue.

It appears the same will be true of McCain's pastors. Their sociopathic statements have been out in blogs for a long time, but have gotten precious little TV coverage outside of Bill Moyers and Countdown. People relying on the TV networks and news channels might have no idea these lunatics exist, or that they're anybody but mainstream white pastors. Maybe that will soon come to an end. Mother Jones and Brave New films put together some of Rod Parsely's greatest hits. He saying exactly the same things he said in print, except this time, he's on camera. It shouldn't make a difference, but it sure seems to.

Take the Red Pill Award for Spiritual Water
May 10

This Take the Red Pill Award goes to Spiritual Water, which is selling bottled water, the same stuff that comes out of a tap in one place, poured into a bottle, and shipped off some other place to be sold for more than gasoline. With Jesus on it. Yes, Spiritual Water slaps a northern European-looking Jesus on a bottle instead of "Aquafina". One of the owners, Elicko Taieb, sounds serious when he says, "The ingredients are the image and the prayer, which is for your body and soul. It's water from God. It purifies your soul and helps you to think positive." Water from God ---- and from a faucet in Santa Ana, CA. But be careful sinners, because it comes with a warning: "Warning to sinners: if you are a sinner or evil in nature, this product may cause burning, intense heat, sweating, skin irritation, rashes, itchiness, vomiting, bloodshot and watery eyes, pale skin color and oral irritations." Now if you've actually read the bible, you've learned that we're all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, he who is without sin let him throw the first bottle, remember? So I guess this is meant for rehydrating after a Church Lady superiority dance. Of course, the owners might not really deserve the award, since they may just be shysters taking advantage of the people who buy useless crap as long as it has a cross or angel on it. So buyers, in a special offer good only until the resurrection, your bottle comes with your own Take the Red Pill Award.

Why conservatives assume the nuns were Democrats
May 7

Conservatives were angry that the nuns turned away in Indiana planned to vote Democratic. Only in an update did it occur to Kathryn Lopez that the nuns might have planned to vote Republican. That link came from Glenn Greenwald, who found other examples. What did they have to go on to assume the nuns were Democrats? Only that they were turned away by the photo ID law. This indicates that Republicans know, on a high subconscious level if not consciously, that the law was intended to disenfranchise Democrats. Uh oh, Republicans weren't supposed to be stopped from voting --- so they must have been Democrats! Don't they know Catholics aren't allowed to vote Democratic?!

We obviously don't know who the nuns would have voted for, but the real difference between Republicans and Democrats on this is Democrats try to protect the voting rights of people targeted by these laws, while Republicans do the targeting. Republicans assume the targeted voters are Democrats, while Democrats don't care. I'll accept the premise that the nuns, being nuns, are almost surely religious conservatives with intentions of voting Republican. It would still be difficult to find a Democrat who wouldn't protect their voting rights. Yes, poor elderly women tend to vote Democratic, as do the other groups disenfranchised by these ID laws. Hasn't it occurred to Republicans that maybe their targeting of suspected Democrats is why those suspected Democrats vote Democratic?

Dead Polar Bear Award for "the conference to nowhere"
May 5

You assume when you hold a scientific conference that you invite experts in their field and see what their research came up with. According to some Republican state legislators in Alaska, you would be wrong. They propose a conference to highlight climate change deniers. Yes, before finding scientists, they've come up with the conclusion, and now they're looking for scientists to fit. House Speaker John Harris showed he doesn't quite get the idea when he said, "You know as well as I do that scientists are like lawyers." Apparently he comes from the Richard Viguerie school of conservatism, which holds that in journalism there's no such thing as fact, just opinion. Harris must think this applies to science too.

"This truly is the conference to nowhere," said University of Alaska researcher Rick Steiner. Steiner told the reporter that he has been trying to get the Palin administration to reveal this sound science they claim to have. Surprise surprise, they won't release it. If they have anything, they're holding onto it tightly. Likewise, they are free to hold tightly to their Dead Polar Bear Award.

Isn't this the smoking gun?
May 1

Recently, the acting president told ABC reporter Martha Raddatz, "Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people." Hmm, protecting the American people ... was he talking about finally fixing our neglected roads and bridges? No. Perhaps he meant finally protecting us from bankruptcy and needless suffering from lousy or absent medical insurance. Maybe he was referring to restoring lapsed consumer protections, or workplace safety laws to reduce workplace deaths. No. The rest of the quote is, "And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

"This issue" is the news that his top national security officials, including Cheney, Rice, Ashcroft, Powell, and Tenant directly approved the use of torture, including methods for individual detainees. If someone had told me two years ago, when the acting president was less than halfway through his second term and a Democratic Congress was just a good possibility, that he would admit approving torture and a Democratic Congress wouldn't jump to impeach, I'd have thought that person crazy. On second thought, no I wouldn't, since one can never be too cynical where Bush is concerned, but it should have been crazy. Crazy or not, Bush's admission was hardly a blip. Other than maybe Countdown, I don't know if a single national TV news program has mentioned it. Must have been busy waiting for Obama to go bowling again (fortunately Obama figured out he needs to let the cameras show him playing basketball, where he passed out of a doubleteam by much younger and bigger players, and this is what parentheses were invented for). Of course, again besides Countdown, no TV has covered the revelation that former military officers acting as TV analysts since the sales campaign for Iraq started have been working for contractors who benefitted from the war, meaning these former officers made money too besides their network fees, and they knowing followed Pentagon talking points. Of course, neither the "analysts", the news channels, nor the Pentagon saw fit to tell the public these shills weren't objective. Nor did the networks see fit to put anti-war voices on TV except Phil Donohue, who was fired for it, and Bill Moyers, who was nearly run of TV for it. Though mainstream media thinks anyone who has a minor criticism of how the invasion was done qualifies as a critic, the real critics were saying "DON'T DO THIS", and took to the streets to try to get the media to listen. They didn't. Other than Phil Donohue and Bill Moyers, who were fired and nearly fired for it, no one on TV included war opponents.