Benediction [War Whupdates :: SIlber update] 23 June 2007

Don’t worry black massa, white massa is pleased…

Obama has given another one of those siren calls to the e-van-geli-cals.  And to remind supposed moderate Republicans, that they, only they, matter: 

Come on OVER!  Let’s made a Deal!  Open for Bidness!

Religion built the nation:

But my journey is part of a larger journey – one shared by all who’ve ever sought to apply the values of their faith to our society. It’s a journey that takes us back to our nation’s founding, when none other than a UCC church inspired the Boston Tea Party and helped bring an Empire to its knees. In the following century, men and women of faith waded into the battles over prison reform and temperance, public education and women’s rights – and above all, abolition. And when the Civil War was fought and our country dedicated itself to a new birth of freedom, they took on the problems of an industrializing nation – fighting the crimes against society and the sins against God that they felt were being committed in our factories and in our slums.

Oh and TD Jakes and Rick Warren:  they matter.  Jim Wallis too, all friends…. and, get this, SBC.  Yes Southern Baptist Convention.

That’s why pastors, friends of mine like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes and organizations like World Vision and Catholic Charities are wielding their enormous influence to confront poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the genocide in Darfur. Religious leaders like my friends Rev. Jim Wallis and Rabbi David Saperstein and Nathan Diament are working for justice and fighting for change. And all across the country, communities of faith are sponsoring day care programs, building senior centers, and in so many other ways, taking part in the project of American renewal.

Prattle prattle spit spit: moan for the poor.  Funny how the poor get less and less… the poor are sacrificed.  It is moral.  It is religious.  It’s politics.

I’m hearing from evangelicals who may not agree with progressives on every issue but agree that poverty has no place in a world of plenty; that hate has no place in the hearts of believers; and that we all have to be good stewards of God’s creations. From Willow Creek to the ‘emerging church,’ from the Southern Baptist Convention to the National Association of Evangelicals, folks are realizing that the four walls of the church are too small for a big God. God is still speaking.

I’m hearing from progressives who understand that if we want to communicate our hopes and values to Americans, we can’t abandon the field of religious discourse. That’s why organizations are rising up across the country to reclaim the language of faith to bring about change. God is still speaking.

More of that Jesus phoned me stuff. 

A white rubber ONE campaign bracelet and a religious, deep kiss with holy saliva relationship with Bono and Clooney (endorsed him) and Pitt and Damon and and and and and and … just ain’t enough.

Our conscience can’t rest so long as 37 million Americans are poor and forgotten by their leaders in Washington and by the media elites. We need to heed the biblical call to care for “the least of these” and lift the poor out of despair. That’s why I’ve been fighting to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and the minimum wage. If you’re working forty hours a week, you shouldn’t be living in poverty. But we also know that government initiatives are not enough. Each of us in our own lives needs to do what we can to help the poor. And until we do, our conscience cannot rest

That is where he delivered the political hook:   I am the light and the way.  Did no one learn from Bush?  And! the privatisation sneak.

Our conscience cannot rest so long as nearly 45 million Americans don’t have health insurance and the millions more who do are going bankrupt trying to pay for it.

I have made a solemn pledge that I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premiums by up to $2500 a year. That’s not simply a matter of policy or ideology – it’s a moral commitment.

A hook hanging from the cross.  But first vote for him.  Or just slobber for him. 

I checked to see how much was said about Iraq (this is a moral pound cake, remember) ONE LINE. 

OH Pardon ME, a line and a HOOK! And a security hook.

But we also know our conscience cannot rest so long as the war goes on in Iraq. It’s a war I’m proud I opposed from the start – a war that should never have been authorized and never been waged. I have a plan that would have already begun redeploying our troops with the goal of bringing all our combat brigades home by March 31st of next year. The President vetoed a similar plan, but he doesn’t have the last word, and we’re going to keep at it, until we bring this war to an end. Because the Iraq war is not just a security problem, it’s a moral problem.

 Darfur gets more.  I recently read that Darfur is getting less media attention than at any time since 2004… Well, time in the sun passes, even if you won the Global Lottery, to be the elevated charity story…

And until we stop the genocide that’s being carried out in Darfur as I speak, our conscience cannot rest. This is a problem that’s brought together churches and synagogues and mosques and people of all faiths as part of a grassroots movement. Universities and states, including Illinois, are taking part in a divestment campaign to pressure the Sudanese government to stop the killings. It’s not enough, but it’s helping. And it’s a testament to what we can achieve when good people with strong convictions stand up for their beliefs.

The country that needs to be the object of a divestment program is the United States of America. 

He met February 28th with BONO, hence the ONE campaign bracelet soon seen in NH.  I am sure they prayed together (yeah right, the slobber is GOTV) and discussed the Prada il papa wears.  And the custom Versace (not kidding, Donatella is a bud) Ratz-zinger’s constant companion wears. Oh, of course, he’s the secretary – an Opus Dei, Msgr. Ganswein.  [we are so skrewed]

Oops right, all about the poor. Someone tell Ratz-zinger.

Oh my.  But ”they” are dying all over.  So if the media sun moves on from Darfur, there is dying elsewhere. 

Ooops, but it’s not death and dying in the abattoir of Iraq. No rape, nor poverty, nor military that come in the night…   No:   al Qaeda is “on the run”, with 25 dead in 4 days and how many hundreds of Iraqis??  

Not. to. worry!

Darfur is different.  Sure it is, dying, desperate black people, caught in the cross fire, far away… they die so photogenically, wearing bright colors, against the red earth… they die for us so very beautifully.  It’s a sacrifice. The cross of sacrifice is once again appeased…  We are washed clean in their blood.

Can we get more fucked? 

Wait!  “God is still speaking”:

He’s still speaking to our Catholic friends – who are holding up a consistent ethic of life that goes beyond abortion – one that includes a respect for life and dignity whether it’s in Iraq, in poor neighborhoods, in African villages or even on death row. They’re telling me that their conversation about what it means to be Catholic continues. God is still speaking.

I would not vote for the Pharisees on Parade if it were the last election on earth.  No matter which one floats to the top of the porcelain bowl.  Or was that, blow.

Oh right! there was one graf, the big finger shake… but you see, he gathered in so many Lead Pharisees as his FRIENDS, first —  what’s a little teensy-weensy scold between deep kiss friends…

But somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it’s because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who’ve been all too eager to exploit what divides us. At every opportunity, they’ve told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design. There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich. I don’t know what Bible they’re reading, but it doesn’t jibe with my version.

Yeah.  Biiig finger shake.  This … speech … is one of the most homogenised things I have ever read.  No urgency, no spirit, no passion.  Don’t even think of Jesus at the Temple… throwing out the money changers.  Of course not, no politician will throw out the money changers.  Get real.

Moral?  No.  Simple slop:

At every opportunity, they’ve told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design.

Bene-DICK-tion.  Squeezing up against religion makes him happy.  Over and over he equates absence of religion with being alone.  (He has written very differently of his mother’s scepticism than in this speech.)   Fine.  Keep it away from the those of us who want real results and not Holy Water trickle. 

Did you notice what was missing * from his pabulum, massa’s white bread bullshit dressing on sliced bullshit?  Read it again.

So doing the Lord’s work is a thread that’s run through our politics since the very beginning. And it puts the lie to the notion that the separation of church and state in America means faith should have no role in public life. Imagine Lincoln’s Second Inaugural without its reference to “the judgments of the Lord.” Or King’s “I Have a Dream” speech without its reference to “all of God’s children.” Or President Kennedy’s Inaugural without the words, “here on Earth, God’s work must truly be our own.” At each of these junctures, by summoning a higher truth and embracing a universal faith, our leaders inspired ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things.

We’ve been trickled on, it does nothing but get us wet and mad.

Here is a little reality.  Sunglasses needed, against the bright light that has no jesus inside it –  as contrast to slobberification (from the lastest Gallup poll):

The Church or Organized Religion

The 46% confidence rating for the church/organized religion is within one percentage point of being the lowest in Gallup’s history:

Ratings for the church fell significantly in the wake of revelations surrounding the priest abuse scandal in 2002, and before that had dropped in the wake of the television evangelism scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Confidence in the church or organized religion is particularly low among Catholics compared to Protestants. Confidence in the church or organized religion among Catholics was at 53% in 2004, and has dropped to 39% today. Among Protestants, confidence went from 60% in 2004, to 63% in 2006, to 57% today.

I am so fucking tired of the religious sneezing on me.  They remind me of an elephant at the SF Zoo when I was a child, right, you guessed it, Sneezy.

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This tidbit on Melinda Henneberger of the controversial opinion piece in the NYT was just emailed to me (thanks):

Finally, back in the good old days of Terri Schiavo, we get the answer:

If it is above our pay grade to opt to terminate life in the womb—and, for the record, I think it is—then it is also wrong to decide when inconveniently comatose spouses or brutal murderers should be “terminated.’’ Either life and death is up to us or it is not. [emphasis added]

“inconveniently comatose”?  Spare me.  BTW, it was reported that JPII refused a feeding tube. In the last days… Gosh, he coulda lived longer.  How dare he decide. Did he think he was Gawwwd?

The dear lady is fully fully anti abortion.  But full of the fucked (and self-aggrandising) holy grace of Gawwd. Another Sneezy. Sneeze in reverse please.

In other religious news (Bene-DICK-tion):

Blair might, just might, dance closer to the pope.  My guess, it will come down to whose hymns he likes better.  He always struck me as one of the showy members of the choir.

Finally who gives a shit.  He has done his damage.  If there were a god, s/he/it would kick Blair in the teeth.  And kick him again, when he ws down.  And again.

At least I am honest, if there be a god, I want one that is utterly vengeful, to suit me.

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Madman sent me a fun, silly little diversion, you put in your blog url and it spits out a movie rating. 

My NC-17 rating ws based on:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

• abortion (10x)
• fucking (7x)
• sex (6x)
• shit (3x)
• ass (2x)
• dangerous (1x)

Think the last is the salient word. 

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*

Here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own… he quoted Jack Kennedy.  Shot and shot again.

“all of God’s children.”  He quoted Martin, a second, two man team was in Memphis that day.  Shot and shot again.

 “the judgments of the Lord.”   He quoted Lincoln in the Second Inaugural Address… Right, shot.

In a graf that opened:  So doing the Lord’s work is a thread that’s run through our politics since the very beginning. 

And was followed with this subversive line:

And it puts the lie to the notion that the separation of church and state in America means faith should have no role in public life.

He left out New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Katrina.  Entirely.

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UPDATE, 1:39 am Sunday

Resign your commission, refuse to return:

I’ll be honest – I think it was kind of like brainwashing. You start wanting to believe that you’re going there to help. When I was a kid, I was one of those guys that threw rocks at the Israelis, and I was really good at it. I became so good at it I became famous for it. Seriously, the only thing that got me out of trouble was my American passport.

In the summer of 2004, we were in the city of Haditha in Iraq, in a convoy tippy-toeing around. We were so scared, it wasn’t funny. I was shaking. As we passed the Haditha Middle School, we got a shower of rocks. They were flying off my flak jacket and my helmet. I felt so tiny, and so fogged-up with emotion. Because that kid throwing rocks used to be me. A rock hit me at the heart. I kept it.” (thanks Hichame)

Posted by As’ad at 8:41 AM 29 comments

Clicking thru to the bbc link to a blog (recollections of three Arab-Americans serving in Iraq), I found this:

Born to a Palestinian father and American mother, Mohammad Khaled joined the US Marines in 2000 to pay for his education. Three years later he found himself in Iraq. He left in 2006, after an incident in which he was left stranded while trying to save three children from incoming fire. He now works as a car salesman.

 

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UPDATE, 9:45 am — Sunday morning on the Pacific Coast

Oh I feel sure this was AQ, don’t you?  Or Iranians… or Syrian financed militias or or or…. whatever the fuck suits our need for a big bang Wargasm.

Four Spanish UN peacekeepers patrolling in southern Lebanon have been killed after their vehicle hit a mine or suspected booby trap.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Whatever the device, it was a trap. 

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  Somali fighters:  Somali Government Forces breat apart, clash in port city [McClatchy]

UPDATE, 10:13

Surprise surprise.  People want to live, they have seen our “feeding missions” (Somalia, Bush 1, Clinton 1):

Wapo:

North Africa Reluctant to Host U.S. Command
Algeria and Libya Reject Pentagon’s AFRICOM Proposal; Morocco Signals Its Lack of Enthusiasm

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 24, 2007; A16

RABAT, Morocco — A U.S. delegation seeking a home for a new military command in Africa got a chilly reception during a tour of the northern half of the continent this month, running into opposition even in countries that enjoy friendly relations with the Pentagon.

Algeria and Libya separately ruled out hosting the Defense Department‘s planned Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, and said they were firmly against any of their neighbors doing so either. U.S. diplomats said they were disappointed by the depth of opposition, given that the Bush administration has bolstered ties with both countries on security matters in recent years.

Morocco, which has been mentioned as a possible site for the new command and is one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region, didn’t roll out the welcome mat, either. After the U.S. delegation visited Rabat, the capital, on June 11, the Moroccan foreign ministry strongly denied a claim by an opposition political party that the kingdom had already offered to host AFRICOM. A ministry statement called the claim “baseless information.”  [snip]

Yes, I do believe now that the mil wrote the opinion piece from Bill Nelson (D-FL) in Monday’s Orlando Sentinel.

[E]ven worse, we face the challenges of poverty and starvation in Ethiopia, where millions of children are chronically malnourished. In addition, the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan has left hundreds of thousands of refugees homeless, and the violence is spilling across the border into Chad.

Against this backdrop, terrorist groups seek to expand. As we combat al-Qaeda’s support and sanctuary in the Middle East, its members must find other places to operate.

We cannot allow terrorism to fester in parts of Africa because of poverty and anarchy. We have to prevent that continent from becoming a fertile ground for terrorists.

But, but b-b-b-but… there is this in the WaPo piece:

People on the street assume their governments have already had too many dealings with the U.S. in the war on terror at the expense of the rule of law,” said Tlemcani, who is also a scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“The regimes realize the whole idea is very unpopular.”

And this:

As they search for a place to put a headquarters for the new command, U.S. officials have tried to allay concerns in Africa that the Pentagon has warlike designs in the region.

Ryan Henry, leader of the U.S. delegation and principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said the main mission for the command would be to stabilize weak or poor countries by training local security forces and doling out humanitarian aid.

“It’s mostly a headquarters and planning focus,” he said after meeting with Moroccan officials.

“AFRICOM doesn’t mean that there would be additional U.S. forces put on the continent.”

We have gone insane.  We think no one has seen us, that no one sees us in action.

The North African counterterrorism partnership is headed by the State Department and also includes economic and humanitarian aid programs delivered by civil affairs units. But Tlemcani, the Algerian political scientist, said the U.S. government needed to do much more on those fronts before taking a more prominent military role in Africa.

“The best way to build a strategic relationship is with socioeconomic programs, which haven’t been funded very well,” he said by telephone from Beirut.

We care so much. 

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UPDATE, 11:25 am Sunday 

Silber has a new one up:

The entire governing class, and virtually every national politician in both parties, believes in American world hegemony. Hegemony needs bases, baby!

So about the Democratic leadership of the House: either they don’t understand what this language means and what its effect will be, in which case they are too stupid to be on the city council of Flat Ass, Alabama — or they know exactly what it means, in which case they belong in jail.

I vote for jail.  Of course they know.

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UPDATE, 11:50 am

Does anyone say anything that means anything real, at all, in this country?  Any more? 

Is there no one coherent?

FORD: I think there’ is a concern, as well, that what we’re trying to do, which is win, we’re not achieving all that we want.

HANNITY: The war is lost?

FORD: No, no, no. That’s not the point. The point is I think we all want a stabilization of Iraq.

HANNITY: I’m not saying you said that, but Harry Reid said that.

FORD: Right. I mean, I don’t associate myself with…

HANNITY: I don’t blame you.

FORD: I think — I think the country has a right to be concerned. And almost equally repulsed when the president makes comments. And then you hear Democrats making comments.

As you know, I sat on your show after the South Carolina Democratic debate, asked the president to convene the leaders at Camp David, to pull them all away from the press and the spotlight and say…

HANNITY: Yes.

FORD: … “Look, I want this as much as you do. I want these kids to come home as much as you do. Let’s develop a new policy. Let’s develop a 21st century containment policy.”

Oh I am sure that is a transcription error.  You know, “clerical error”.  He meant to say:

21st century entertainment policy.

Gibberish, we gibber our way thru our insanity.

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