A Few Words about Conservatives

I tend to use rather strong words in my descriptions of people who do not agree with my politics -- words like idiot, ignorant, evil. I have a reason for this.



For too long during the Bush administration, we failed to point things out for what they were. We tortured people and had a national debate, still ongoing, about whether it was OK. The administration lied to us before the Iraq War started, and we debated whether they did. President Bush wanted to call his illegal domestic spying program a terrorist surveillance program, and the press went along, etc.



We always hear that there are two sides to every story, but I do not believe there are two legitimate sides to every issue. I have never heard the argument in favor of the Holocaust, for example. Some people deny it happened, but arguing with a Holocaust denier would be frustrating. All they can do is say that they don't believe the overwhelming evidence. They are ignorant and have nothing to add to the conversation, so why talk to them at all?



A better analogy to current conservatives would be the issue of segregation in the South. A lot of people in this country, many of them intelligent and otherwise decent people, supported segregation. That does not mean that they had a legitimate point of view; in the end, to suggest that someone like Barack or Michelle Obama, Condoleezza Rice, or Colin Powell, should sit in the back of the bus and face discrimination in employment, housing, and education is just wrong. People who believed that were either ignorant, evil, or irrational, or some combination of the three.



So let's get a few things straight:

• Fox News is not unbiased. They are the only major "news" network whose reason for being is to support one political party. That's their job. If you don't realize this without my having to provide supporting evidence, you don't get it.


• Torture is a war crime, even if the United States does it. You cannot get around the crime by creating your own defintion of the word "torture."


• Bush and members of his administration decided first that they wanted to attack Iraq, then used intelligence to market a decision that was already made.


• Swift-boating John Kerry was un-American, unpatriotic, and disgusting.
• The Bush administration exposed a covert CIA agent for political purposes.


• Republicans are not fiscal conservatives. They had eight years in power, and they ran up big deficits and doubled the national debt, justifying their actions all the way. Their fiscal policy is complete and utter irresponsibility. That's what they did; that's who they are. To claim otherwise when they are finally booted out of power is ludicrous.
• Sarah Palin was not as qualified as Barack Obama to be President or Vice-President. Her time as a small-town mayor should count for approximately zero.
• The United States is not and was never meant to be a Christian country. And that's a really good thing.

We have debated all of these issues and more as a nation primarily because some people are paid to represent their parties, like Johnnie Cochran was paid to defend OJ Simpson, no matter what the facts may be. News outlets give these people airtime no matter how far they stretch the truth, no matter how ridiculous or strained their arguments.

I don't have to make the same allowances. I don't like arguing with Holocaust deniers. If you look at my list above and disagree with me, you do not know what you are talking about, and you have nothing to add to the conversation. Because reasonable people simply do not disagree on those things. So if you are one of those people who cannot be reasonable, I'm happy to point out your shortcomings in plain English.

A Few Words about George W. Bush

The little diatribe in my profile deserves some explanation.


I am not the type of person who routinely thinks that American presidents are evil. I was once a registered Republican, and I voted for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton at least once. I may have disagreed with other presidents, but I would not have called them despicable. Only George W. Bush.


It is my contention that something fundamentally changed in America during the Bush administration. Up until that time, we had two major parties that could at least make an argument that they were trying to do what was best for the country, but between the years 2000 and 2008 the Republican Party became a party that no decent, rational, and informed person could support. I write this advisedly and will emphasize it again: not one decent, rational, informed American currently supports the Republican Party, any more than any such Amercan supports the KKK or the American Nazi Party. If you support the current form of the party, you are either ignorant, irrational, morally lacking, or some combination of the three.



That's a strong statement, and I will make the case over time. I will say for now that I would not stick my neck out that far if I were not certain that a mountain of evidence supports the conclusion.



For a start, let's look at a few accomplishments of the Bush administration:

• Lied about the reasons to go to war with Iraq, resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 people and the maiming of many more.


• Condoned and conducted torture and created their own definition of the word "torture", which simply excluded the types of torture they wanted to perform. George Orwell would have been so proud.


• Deliberately misled the public into thinking that Iraq was responsible for 9/11.


• Exposed a covert CIA agent, then commuted the sentence of the man convicted of lying about it.


• Did precisely what the FISA law prohibits, spying on Americans without a warrant.


• Invented a new class of person, "enemy combatant", that it could then claim had no rights at all.


• Incarcerated people, some of them undoubtedly innocent or guilty of very little, for years without any legal recourse.


• Suspended habeas corpus.


• Used signing statements to indicate that the President did not intend to enforce laws as written.


• Used the Justice Department to try to consolidate Republican power.


• Attempted to limit the right to vote to keep Democrats off the voter rolls.


• Illegally hired government workers based on their political views.


• Claimed enormous unprecedented powers never imagined in the Constitution.
• Told staff not to honor subpoenas from Congress.
• Replaced scientific findings with religious views.
• Increased government secrecy and had a policy of stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests.
• Leaked false information to the press and then cited the resulting stories to bolster their own lies.

And there was much more. I can never make that list without forgetting some important things. And the list is limited to matters that are blatantly dishonest, unconstitutional, illegal, and/or punishable as war crimes. There were other matters of policy and partisanship that were really disgusting as well, but let's be clear: This President, and his administration, did not respect or follow the laws of the United States or the Constitution. Not just once or twice, or in extreme circumstances, but repeatedly and routinely.

I will address right now one item I know some people will quarrel with -- the President and his minions did not lie about Iraq; they were misled by faulty intelligence. This is absolutely, unquestionably, wrong. Incorrect, not true. On, I believe, August 26, 2002, Vice President Cheney said in a speech that we knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and after that other members of the administration, including the President, began to repeat it. Any third grader will tell you, if you know something, it has to be true. It turns out there were no WMDs, so they could not have known. Other people who knew about the intelligence available said that Cheney clearly overstated the case. That's a lie, and a big one, a huge one, and an undeniable one. If you just read that, and you still don't think Bush and members of his administration lied about the war, you aren't thinking rationally.

More on Bush and Republicans to come, but I think the list above is enough to support my disdain for Bush and what is left of the Republican Party.

A Couple of News Items

From Politico:

June 16, 2009Categories: Fox News
Obama slams Fox News
CNBC's John Harwood sat down with Barack Obama today and POLITICO's Josh Gerstein gives us a preview:
Asked by CNBC’s John Harwood about perceptions Obama has gotten an easy ride from the press, the president called the charge “very hard for him to swallow,” but then acknowledged “generally positive” coverage. Also took yet another shot at Fox News.
“I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration…That’s a pretty big megaphone. You’d be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front,” Obama said.

I love this. Keep pounding that drum. Fox is not like real news stations. Keep pounding that into the people's brains.

From BBC News:

Scientology on trial in France

The woman at the centre of this case says she was approached by church members in Paris more than 10 years ago, and offered a free personality test. But, she says, she ended up spending 21,000 euros ($29,400, £18,400) on lessons, books and medicines she was told would cure her poor mental state.

I had forgotten about this, but years ago Scientologists asked me to take a personality test, so I did. Then they got upset, and very snippy, when I did not want to meet them somewhere and have my test evaluated.

Anyway, I have been in church when the pastor said that if you give God 10% of your money, he will return it many times. No doubt many people have given, and God has not given back. Legally, I wondered how they differentiate. The answer is here:

France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion, and the organisation could be banned if it loses the case.

I'm not sure how France gets away with that -- seems a little dangerous to me. But Scientology is ludicrous, so I have no sympathy.

A Softening of the Last Post

The New Testament is not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over the viciousness of the Old Testament. It's really so different that it raises the question of how this could really be the same God.

My actual favorite part of the Bible is Ecclesiastes. Read the King James version; the language is terrific. "For every thing, there is a season..." comes from Ecclesiastes. One of my favorite parts is here, from Ecclesiastes 9:


9
¶ Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun.
10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
11
¶ I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

As a devout atheist, I have reread Ecclesiastes several times. It just has some great passages in it.

My favorite part of the Bible

Deuteronomy 15:68. This is what the God of Judaism and Christianity will do to his chosen people if they displease him. From God, to Moses, to you. Diseases, rape, slavery, madness, poverty, cannibalism (your own children!), starvation, blindness, terror, and it will please Him to do all this. It just goes on and on, and it's sickening, or laughable. I laughed. If you pray to God, this is who you pray to.

15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. [a] 21 The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34 The sights you see will drive you mad. 35 The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36 The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43 The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you.
53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God- 59 the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"-because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68 The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.