"One of the things that concerns me is that in the United States there's a real talk of 'maybe we need to have this big tent and make sure that we just accommodate every view.' That's what will kill the conservative movement."
Wait...wasn't Huckabee pushed out of the "conservative movement"?
Josh Hafenbrack of the Orlando Sentinel reports on a group called "Personhood Florida" that is seeking to change Florida's constitution to define "personhood" as beginning with conception - in this case, when the sperm meets the egg.
But wait! There's more!
The amendment seeks to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Also criminalized: the morning-after pill and oral contraceptives taken by women, known as the pill. "There are some (birth control) methods that kill a child," said Pat McEwan, who is leading the Personhood Florida group.
A few questions immediately spring to mind. Are the backers of "personhood" initiative in Montana associated with the "national anti-abortion" group driving Florida's? And do Rick Jore's people also believe that oral contraceptives would be banned if their initiative passes?
And lest you still doubt that the primary goal of these folks is to control sexuality, and not to protect the "unborn," consider the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act, which would outlaw divorce in California.
I guess any woman in an abusive relationship can just go f*ck herself, right?
Reminds me of a comment I got in response to a post showing that the criminalization of abortion doesn't actually lead to fewer abortions, and suggested that, if the anti-abortion crowd really wanted to reduce abortions, they'd back things that work, like universal and affordable health care, subsidies of day care and higher education, and robust and realist sex ed. The response?
Do you really think that having a few less abortions happen is worth the increasing moral cesspool that we're tossing each new generation into? It's destroying souls (and society as a whole) to save a few bodies.
It's not about a "few bodies," stupid! It's about the morality!
We've heard that the Clinton health reform effort of the 90s was blocked in large part to thwart the political gain the Democratic party would gain by it, it seems conservatives are banging a similar drum now. Michael Cannon quotes Marxist Norman Markowitz:
After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party...
The best way to win over the the portion of the working class in the South or the West that supported McCain and the Republicans is to create important new public programs and improve the social safety net. National health care...will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition. That is how progress works.
Cannon: "I'm no student of British history, but that sounds about right...Republicans might want to take note."
Get it? Democratic health care reform is a danger to the Republican party...because it might work. Remember, for a lot of these folks, their own pet ideologies are more important than your health and well-being.
Remember when Nicholas Sarkozy was elected the president of France? You remember the giddy reaction from conservatives struggling with their own popularity at home: Sarkozy's election showed how popular the Bush administration was abroad, and the signal of a world-wide resurgance of free-market capitalism.
Speaking to an audience of some 4,000 supporters in Toulon, France, Mr Sarkozy said the financial turmoil had highlighted the need to re-invent capitalism with a strong dose of morality, as well as to put in place a better regulatory system.
"The idea of the all-powerful market that must not be constrained by any rules, by any political intervention, was mad. The idea that markets were always right was mad," Mr Sarkozy said.
"The present crisis must incite us to refound capitalism on the basis of ethics and work & Self-regulation as a way of solving all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished," he added.
It's a good reminder that the "conservatives" of Europe are well to the left of the US left. Which makes the accusations of Obama as "socialist" all the more ridiculous.
Way back in the Dark Ages of 2006, I wrote an op-ed for an online site called "Gather" about the increasingly negative rhetoric from the Republican party in that election, called the "Nattering Nabobs of Negativity." In it, I noted that the GOP and their allies were ratcheting up the rhetoric of divisiveness for that election, the basic gist of which was summed up ably by a New York Times editorial on President Bush's rhetorical tactics:
Since he can't defend the real world created by his policies and his decisions, Mr. Bush is inventing a fantasy world in which to campaign on phony issues against fake enemies....
...In Mr. Bush's world, there are only two kinds of Americans: those who are against terrorism, and those who somehow are all right with it. Some Americans want to win in Iraq and some don't. There are Americans who support the troops and Americans who don't support the troops. And at the root of it all is the hideously damaging fantasy that there is a gulf between Americans who love their country and those who question his leadership.
Me:
The danger in this rhetoric is that it leads to extremism. As the fantasy-world is challenged by reality, by a devolving situation in Iraq, by an increasingly despised President, and by the poor forecasts for the upcoming election, the unhinged fringe reacts to the suspect agents of change with vitriol and violence.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The man accused of shooting dead two people and wounding seven others at a church apparently selected the congregation because of its liberal social stance, the city's police chief said Monday.
Now I'm not arguing that there's a concerted and organized movement among righties to initiate a campaign of terror against the left. But what I am saying is that we ought to measure a pundit's or politician's character based on the use of this kind of rhetoric. It's not funny, and it has real consequences.
In his weekly Sunday post, Montana Headlines advocates buying locally grown and processed food, an idea that I agree with wholeheartedly for reasons I've explainedbefore.
MH's post is centered around the recently tainted food stemming from China and whether Country-of-origin labeling (COOL) would be an effective preventative for getting contaminated food. In the end, he does advocate for COOL, but there's some issues he missed.
It's almost tax day! For most folks, that probably means seeing a refund soon. I ended up owing taxes this year (the problem with running a small business on the side). Matt Stoller offers some thoughts on the day that I agree with. Sure, more spending money would be great, but taxes don't bother me -- because I know I have a great deal of say in how they get spent and great power to impact it. It's all the hidden BS fees used to line executives' pockets that torque me.
2008 is the year of liberal hope. Robert Kuttner, one of the smartest men on the left, outlines how the last two crash-and-burns of conservatism handed us economically conservative Democrats as Presidents, but notes that 2008 may be different, if only because Bush's crash-and-burn is notably different.
America = Democrats. Chris Bowers runs the data. The Democratic base is in virtual lockstep with the country on the big issues. Independents are, for all intents and purposes, Democrats these days. He misses one thing -- Americans do want bipartisanship and compromise. They just want it between two parties that are responsive to their concerns. That the Republican Party has decided not to play the "listen to what voters are actually saying" game is only lessened by the extent to which prominent Democrats play the same damn game.
The Republicans are Interesting. While the traditional media has largely played a Hillary-Obama game, the blogs are focused on the GOP field for '08. Soren Dayton, a strategist and technologist on the GOP side who I had the pleasure to meet in D.C., runs eyeon08.com. A gaggle of talented lefty bloggers run The Right's Field. When I cover the righty Presidential crowd for AOL, I rely on both sites pretty extensively. Definitely worth reading for anyone trying to understand the inside baseball in the right field.
