tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239023462023-05-28T21:40:20.129-04:00BTL focuses on liberal political news, as well as minority rights and freedoms.Brian Varitekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.comBlogger351125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1165274894709752232006-12-04T18:27:00.000-05:002006-12-04T18:29:55.413-05:00

I've switched over to beta - the new site can be found at: http://simplyliberal.blogspot.com

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159447387760572172006-09-28T08:41:00.000-04:002006-09-28T08:45:55.730-04:00

• Reading the Times article about competitive Senate aces across the country leaves me some hope, though it’s a tainted hope. There are competitive races shaping up all across the country, but I’m still worried that Democrats won’t take control of anything this November. Perhaps the country will wake up a bit more in the next month-ish, but I’m losing faith fast. Still, this article is a good

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159407823777360392006-09-27T21:43:00.000-04:002006-09-27T21:43:43.780-04:00

Because I’m like mildly retarded, or something, I’ve been redesigning the site without realizing that Google has released a Blogger Beta with a lot of the features that I’ve been patching together.Eventually, I assume my blog will be given the option to move over to the Beta, which would make things a lot easier. I have no idea how long it will take for Google to move existing blogs over, but I

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159407441893452682006-09-27T21:37:00.000-04:002006-09-27T21:37:21.913-04:00

More information about Bush’s shitty Iraq handling has been released. (h/t Americablog)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An intelligence report showing an upsurge in Islamic militancy put the White House on the defensive on Wednesday in an election-year debate over whether President George W. Bush has made America safer.In a second blow to the president, a new U.N. report said the Iraq war was providing al

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159401182005972612006-09-27T19:52:00.000-04:002006-09-27T19:53:02.026-04:00

Now that a majority of Iraqis favor a US pullout within a year, what is our motivation to stay? The majority of respondents to the University of Maryland poll said that "they would like the Iraqi government to ask for U.S.-led forces to be withdrawn from Iraq within a year or less," according to the survey's summary."Given four options, 37 percent take the position that they would like U.S.-led

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159363313066304362006-09-27T09:20:00.000-04:002006-09-27T09:21:53.090-04:00

• Yes, even our intelligence agencies have some liberal bias (sorry about the link - really… see, I take the bullet by reading the loonies and highlighting the looniest here. All so you don’t have to.).Putting aside how the outdated portions still refers to Zarqawi in the present tense, the big thing that strikes me about the key judgements is that they reflect a dhimmi, historically ignorant

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159301269798495542006-09-26T16:07:00.000-04:002006-09-26T16:07:49.953-04:00

The weirdest thing about Bush’s news conference wasn’t him announcing the release of portions of that Iraq intelligence report - he really doesn’t have any other choice, now - , but was the following statement -"Somebody has taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes," Bush said.Well, no shit. But don’t overlook the fact that you kept this important

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159279047895201482006-09-26T09:56:00.000-04:002006-09-26T09:57:27.916-04:00

• Dana Milbank highlights a bad move by Democrats - Perhaps. But Democrats, while celebrating Batiste's criticism of the administration, exercised some selective listening at the hearing when Batiste and his colleagues offered their solution: more troops, more money and more time in Iraq."We must mobilize our country for a protracted challenge," Batiste warned."We better be planning for at least

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159233313537779012006-09-25T21:14:00.000-04:002006-09-25T21:15:13.560-04:00

We already knew that George Allen was some weird southern hick stereotype thingy with racist tendencies, but now we are finally getting confirmation that his racist tendencies are more, like, an entire lifestyle choice.WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 — Two acquaintances of Senator George Allen of Virginia said today that he had used racially inflammatory language in the 1970’s and 1980’s, compounding

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159219314644608142006-09-25T17:20:00.000-04:002006-09-25T17:21:54.676-04:00

It’s interesting that I take a few weeks off… and then come back to Specter still pretending he’s going to stand up to Bush.eading the charge was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is planning an effort to delete that provision from the bill, expected to be considered in both the Senate and the House this week.Specter refused to commit to voting for the bill should his

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1159192966679661542006-09-25T09:57:00.000-04:002006-09-25T10:02:46.716-04:00

I know it looks like I died... or something, but that isn't the case. I got slammed with 100004 things at once and, unfortunately this blog fell to the bottom of the list of important things. It's weird, but usually I have no obligations. I guess things work out in cycles, or some shit.Currently I'm working on ways to improve the blog. My, like, advanced computing skills are nonexistant, and

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1157205171997161292006-09-02T09:48:00.000-04:002006-09-02T09:53:06.903-04:00

So Jerry Falwell said something nice about a Democrat. While assuring his interviewer that he disagrees with Jim Webb on "social issues", he nonetheless gave Webb a thumbs up. Apparently hedging his bets - Webb has edged ahead of Allen in the latter's bid for re-election to the Senate, Falwell doesn't want to alienate a pol that might have some pull. Or perhaps he just wants to convince people

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852355805132276777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1156080415920840192006-08-20T09:08:00.000-04:002006-08-20T09:26:56.033-04:00

Over here we read about the evolving evangelical position on contraception, at least within marriage (the whole question of pre-marital, or perhaps non-marital, sex, is a post for another time). It seems that evangelicals are remembering that sex is a gift of a good God, and see contraception as part of the stewardship Christians are to practice. The writer, from the Wall Street Journal, notes

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852355805132276777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1155869686667734442006-08-17T22:44:00.000-04:002006-08-17T22:54:46.683-04:00

If you go to my blog and click on the link, "Poplar Grove United Methodist Church", then click the link there that says "UMC Website", you will read a story about a United Methodist lay person, harassed by our government, seeking sanctuary inside a Chicago church (personal note: my wife is a pastor in the same UM Conference, and is a good friend of the Chicago Northwest District Superintendent).

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852355805132276777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1155686046887927172006-08-15T19:44:00.000-04:002006-08-15T19:54:06.906-04:00

If you go here, you will find something that frustrates me more than Sen. Inhofe of Oklahoma or Sam Brownback of Kansas, that is, a news report that gives a larger, mainstream platform to Pat Robertson. Why? I think it safe to say that, outside the audience for his television program (in truth, I have no idea what that is, and I am quite sure it is impossible to guage with any accuracy; for the

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852355805132276777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1155477774437456882006-08-13T09:57:00.000-04:002006-08-13T10:02:54.463-04:00

As an antidote to the insanity of the world, may I recommend, for your listening pleasure, Rachmaninoff's "Vespers"? I am currently listening, and find them able to remove me, for a moment or two, from the chaos within which we currently find ourselves. There are many editions; mine is from the Musical Heritage Society, and is highly recommended.You do not have to be a Christian, or even

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852355805132276777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1155395160297958032006-08-12T10:53:00.000-04:002006-08-12T11:06:00.320-04:00

The folks over here repeat a report from the Center for American Progress on the workings of various groups of conservative Christians. They act like Capt. Renault in Casablanca, "shocked, shocked" that politicized Christian groups would lie to further certain political ends. They mourn the lack of integrity, what they call "sloppy research" (in fact, it was "research" only in the sense that the

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1155058987877843622006-08-08T13:31:00.000-04:002006-08-08T13:43:07.943-04:00

The letter was sent to my blog on a thread concerning an outrageous column by Alan Dershowitz that said, in essence, criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism. I criticized Dershowitz' position, and the very idea that an American cannot criticize Israel's actions, unless such criticism is rooted in hatred of Jews. Such an idea is illogical, let alone not based in anything close to reality.The letter

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852355805132276777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154799543835942672006-08-05T13:34:00.000-04:002006-08-05T13:39:03.850-04:00

If you go to my blog and scroll down to the thread entitled "I hate writing about Israel", and open the comment box, you will see the copy of a letter sent to the head of the UCC was posted there. Apparently, either ignorant or apathetic to what I wrote at the head of the thread concerning the equation of anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel, this letter writer wanted to call me names.I find it

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154739652930834212006-08-04T20:55:00.000-04:002006-08-04T21:00:52.943-04:00

Dateline, Ogle County, Illinois. This rural northern Illinois county recently paid for and received a statue for county property. It decided to name the statue "Demeter". Immediately, local residents wre up in arms because . . . the county was promoting pagan Greek religion by naming the statue after Demeter!After an uproar in the local papers, and several furious county board meetings, the

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154445913276478102006-08-01T11:24:00.000-04:002006-08-01T11:25:13.303-04:00

So just how nutty is the right side of the blogosphere?Apparently nutty enough to, once again, tell lies about their political enemies to further their weird claims that, like, the entire world hates Jews, except them (you know, the political games to get people to vote Republican based on lies, simply because the truth about the Republican platform pisses off America).Tags: Republican Lies•The

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154443865597456962006-08-01T10:50:00.000-04:002006-08-01T11:50:09.683-04:00

(Updated Below)Holy shit, I think Democrats finally got my emails.After months of struggling to forge a unified stance on the Iraq war, top congressional Democrats joined voices yesterday to call on President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by the end of the year and to "transition to a more limited mission" in the war-torn nation.With the midterm elections three months away, and Democrats

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154092203835052532006-07-28T09:08:00.000-04:002006-07-28T09:10:03.856-04:00

• Alright, so reading the WaPo article about the fear that American troops and officials could be charged for detainee abuse leads me to one conclusion. We do, in fact, abuse detainees (or, at least, used to).An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154059378621457612006-07-28T00:01:00.000-04:002006-07-28T00:03:45.206-04:00

• Another day, another alleged mass murder of Iraqis by American troops.For more than a month after the killings, Sgt. Lemuel Lemus stuck to his story.“Proper escalation of force was used,” he told an investigator, describing how members of his unit shot and killed three Iraqi prisoners who had lashed out at their captors and tried to escape after a raid northwest of Baghdad on May 9. Then, on

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361601966908913141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23902346.post-1154037019321141782006-07-27T17:49:00.000-04:002006-07-27T17:50:19.343-04:00

Chris Matthews has devoted most of an hour of Hardball to Ann Coulter’s nasty ass. Watch the repeat on MSNBC if you have the chance, it’s some funny stuff (she actually takes questions from an audience... of people that kind of hate her).The bitch is smart; too bad she uses her intelligence for eeeeevilllll.Tags: Ann Coulter•Hardball

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0