Jon Stewart was on Oprah’s show yesterday, and, today, the first lady of daytime TV tweeted about the big October 30 rally. While she’s yet to order the house fraus of middle America to put down their copies of the latest book club selection and join the caravan of mini-vans to the nation’s capital, I suspect that could be on the horizon, and I wonder how it might change the dynamic on the mall, if we’re surrounded by people who don’t appreciate satire. On the positive side of the equation, if Oprah got behind this, it could not only draw a ton of new people to an event that’s already outpacing the Glenn Beck rally it was created in response to, but it could totally change the dynamic going into the November elections. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this could be a real game changer. Maybe we should all write to Oprah, and encourage her to attend. I’m sure she could convince John Travolta to fly her a a few hundred friends over from Chicago.
Tonight, I will be signing a petition and calling the offices of my Senators in order to weigh in on two very important initiatives, and I would like to ask that you do the same.
The first is called the DISCLOSE Act, and it’s being championed by Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Schumer. The bill, which would require corporations to report all election expenditures, passed the House in June, and it’s up for a re-vote in the Senate tomorrow. If you have an opportunity, please consider calling your Senators and asking them to support the legislation. Here, in hopes of convincing you, is a letter from Leahy and Schumer.
We need your help right now.
When the DISCLOSE Act came up just short of passing in late July, we knew we’d get another chance to control corporate spending to influence elections by voting on it in September — and due to some late changes in the legislative calendar, that vote is tomorrow.
Click here and call your senators to ask if they plan to vote for the DISCLOSE Act — and let us know what they say.
Your calls and your report will help us determine who we still need to convince to support the DISCLOSE Act when it comes up for a vote.
Corporations and special interests are already pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into elections around the country, so this will almost certainly be our last chance to pass this critical legislation before the corporate-funded candidates from this election cycle reach Washington.
Please, call your senators now and find out if we still need to sway them!
So, if you do have a moment, please click here and join us in this attempt to at least somewhat mitigate the fallout from the unfortunate Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which, for the first time, gave both domestic and foreign corporations free reign to influence American elections.
And, once you’ve done that, I’d like to ask that you also weigh in on Net Neutrality. The folks at Daily Kos have joined up with the communications company Credo to launch a new initiative directed at Julius Genachowski, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. Here’s the note I just received, announcing the initiative, and explaining why Net Neutrality is so vitally important tot he future of our nation.
Net neutrality is one of the bedrock principles of the Internet. It means that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must treat all websites equally. They cannot make it easier load some websites, and more difficult to load others. It’s what ensures your ISP can’t privilege Fox News over Daily Kos.
But net neutrality is not the law of the land, so ISPs can abandon it at any time. In fact, Google and Verizon have proposed that net neutrality be abandoned for the mobile web. And they have proposed other violations of net neutrality which would end the Internet as we know it. We cannot allow this to happen.
Nothing good is likely to make its way through Congress anytime soon, so Daily Kos is joining with CREDO to urge Julius Genachowski, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to take action.
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of Chairman Genachowski’s first major speech as head of the FCC, in which he committed to protecting net neutrality. However, despite having the votes on the FCC to pass strong net neutrality rules, Genachowski has avoided taking the necessary action to do so. There’s no good excuse for his dithering.
The regulatory vacuum his inaction has created set the stage for the Google and Verizon proposal, in which they are attempting to write the rules that would govern their behavior. To see what happens when large corporations write their own rules, we just need look at Wall Street, or the Gulf of Mexico. We can’t let that to happen to the Internet, too. We must push Chairman Genachowski to act before it’s too late.
As Rick Snyder’s lead in Michigan’s gubernatorial race grows, and with the election just 40-some days away, his Democratic challenger, Virg Bernero, is beginning to hammer away at the one point where he seems to have an advantage – abortion.
According to the Detroit Free Press, “Bernero narrowly (42%-39%) leads Snyder among voters who support a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion.” And, Bernero is doing his best to capitalize on that fact, and widen the gap, with a series of television and radio spots that highlight the contrast between the two on the subject of abortion. Here’s his most recent television ad.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but my guess is that Snyder would not, as the ad suggests, seek a “government ban” on abortions. Furthermore, I don’t think that he’d seek to arrest doctors who perform abortions, as the Bernero campaign says. In fact, my guess is that Snyder only came out with a statement about his “right to life” position late in the primary campaign because his Republican competitors had forced him into a corner, having suggested to the fundamentalists of Michigan that he didn’t share their values. But, Snyder does say the following on his website:
…As a strong pro-life and pro-family candidate for governor, I am strongly committed to the rights of the unborn. I fundamentally disagree with the passage of the recent federal health care reform for many reasons, one of which is that it fails to protect the sanctity of life. Contrary to much of what has been reported about President Obama’s executive order, it does not prohibit tax dollars from subsidizing insurance plans that cover abortions. It is shameful that tax dollars earned by the hardworking residents of Michigan could be used to pay for abortions…
Of course, he also suggests that, if the economy were to turn around under his leadership, the number of the abortions in the state would likely fall. And, I suspect, if he does believe, as he states, in the sanctity of life, he’d rather see it dealt with economically than legislatively. Here, on that subject, is a statement by Snyder:
…What is still missing from today’s discussion is the vital role that the economy plays in strengthening the social fabric of our great state. It is no secret that Michigan’s economy is a shell of its former self. People and businesses are leaving the state in droves. A poor economy leads to increased rates of divorce, high school dropout, and drug abuse. Additionally, studies have illustrated that high levels of poverty and unemployment are directly related to the abortion rate. As a candidate for governor, I believe that the most effective approach to the challenge of protecting life, as well as other key social issues, is to maintain a laser-like focus on the economy…
So, while I can certainly see why some would gravitate toward Bernero on account of Snyder’s “pro life” statements, I feel relatively certain that, should Snyder become governor, he would not seek to change the status quo relative to abortion. And, furthermore, as he has stated publicly that he supports stem cell research, I doubt we’d even hear about the so-called rights of the unborn in that context.
So, would you be willing to vote for Rick Snyder in spite of his comments on a woman’s right to choose? And, if so, why? Is it that you think the economy is more important of an issue at this time, or do you, like me, just attribute his statements to the reality of Michigan politics, which is to say that a Republican cannot win a general election without the support of the fundamentalists on the west side of the state?
[note: Among abortion opponents, according to the Free Press, Snyder leads Bernero, 67% to 14%.]
By now, you’ve no doubt heard that Delaware’s Republican candidate for the Senate, Christine O’Donnell, is taking a lot of heat for having backed out of a number of network interviews that she’d agreed to do in the wake of her surprise primary victory over the favorite of the Republican establishment, Congressman Mike Castle. It seems as though Bill Maher’s untimely release of video footage of O’Donnell in the 1990’s, admitting to having dabbled in witchcraft made her rethink her press strategy… Anyway, for the past few days, those of us on the left side of the political spectrum have been having a field day, pointing our fingers and laughing at the Tea Party dopes in Delaware who were stupid enough to push a corrupt, uptightwitch into the national spotlight, and into a battle for Senate that the Republicans likely would have won against the Democratic challenger with Castle. And I, just like everyone else, have enjoyed the spectacle. But, I think the time has probably come to step back a bit and state the obvious – that Chrstine O’Donnell, regardless of what she may have said in the 90’s, was likely never in the presence of a blood-soaked Satanic alter. I know. I know. It’s not nearly as much fun to poke fun of a liar, who just pretends to have dabbled in witchcraft, but I think that’s pretty clearly the case here. The truth of the matter, I’m almost certain, is that she made the whole thing up in order to make a name for herself if the competitive world of professional Christian fear mongering.
As you’ll recall, there was a lot of that going on at around the same time – Christians stepping forward to give graphic testimony about having seen or participated in all kinds of unspeakable acts in honor of Satan. A friend of mine that I was discussing this with yesterday, reminded me that Christian comedian Mike Warnke made similar claims in the 90’s, which were later proven to be untrue. Warnke made a good living before the bottom fell out, traveling around the country, and warning concerned Christian parents about the dangers facing their beloved children. And, then there was Ruth Bailey, the rehabilitated Satanist who published under the name Rebecca Brown. She too had escaped demonic powers, to expose a worldwide network of Satanic training camps. And then there was Lauren Stratford, who wrote the book Satan’s Underground. Like Warnke, though, both of these women were eventually exposed as charlatans.
To my knowledge, and I’ve spent my past few evenings looking around the internet for related news stories, there’s never been a so-called reformed Satanist who hasn’t proven over time to be full of shit. And, for all the panic in the 90’s about the ritual killings of babies on Satanic altars, I don’t believe any evidence of such things actually having happened have ever surfaced. There was, of course, the case of the three goths in West Memphis, Arkansas who were arrested for the murder of three young boys in 1993. It was speculated at the time that they killed the children as a tribute to Satan, but most folks now seem to think that they’re innocent of the crime, and were just targeted for the way they looked.
So, while I suppose I could be wrong – and that O’Donnell may have once been near something that she was told was a Satanic altar – I think it’s far, far more likely that she made the whole damned thing up, which, personally, I find a lot more troubling. And, I find it odd that no one in the press is questioning her claim. Everyone seems content to just take her for her word that she dabbled in witchcraft, without even suggesting that it could have been a lie meant to further advance her career as a Christian activist.
The bottom line is that O’Donnell saw an opportunity to make a name for herself nationally when she was young, and she took it. And she built a little business catering to the fears of Christians. And, now, fifteen years later, she’s doing the same thing all over again, on a much bigger scale, with the Tea Party movement. She saw an opportunity to make a quick buck at the expense of some frightened people, and she took it.
Not only did the criminally misinformed voters of Delaware choose the non-masturbating former witch, Christine O’Donnell, to be their Republican candidate for Senate, but they selected her fellow tea bagger, Glen Urquhart, as their candidate to fill the seat of U.S. Representative Mike Castle, who had announced his intention to leave the House in order to run against O’Donnell for Senate. (Castle, in case it’s not clear here, lost to O’Donnell in last week’s Senate primary.) And, I’m sure it won’t shock you to hear that Urquhart, like O’Donnell, has some rather unique, not quite reality-based, ideas of his own. Here’s a little video, in which he shares his understanding of the genesis of the Separation of Church and State.
That’s right – he attributes the Separation of Church and State not to Thomas Jefferson, but to Adolph Hitler. Here, for those of you unwilling to watch the video, for fear that it might cause you to vomit, is a bit of the transcript, by way of Below the Beltway:
“Do you know, where does this phrase ’separation of church and state’ come from?” Urquhart asked at a campaign event last April. “It was not in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists… The exact phrase ’separation of Church and State’ came out of Adolph Hitler’s mouth, that’s where it comes from. So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of Church and State ask them why they’re Nazis.”
That’s right – if you believe in the Separation of Church and State, you’re a Nazi… And this man might very well find himself in Congress.
I would have thought that the right would stop once Jefferson had been erased from American history. But, I guess that wasn’t enough. They have to go one step further, and attribute his beliefs to the Nazis.
