Dispatches from the Culture Wars

52% of Republicans Think Obama Not Really Elected

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:30:15 -0500

Just when you think things can't get any more loopy on the right, a new poll has found that a majority of Republicans actually believe that Obama is not the real president because ACORN stole the election for him. TPM Muckraker reports:

The poll asked this question: "Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole it for him?" The overall top-line is legitimately won 62%, ACORN stole it 26%.
Among Republicans, however, only 27% say Obama actually won the race, with 52% -- an outright majority -- saying that ACORN stole it, and 21% are undecided. Among McCain voters, the breakdown is 31%-49%-20%. By comparison, independents weigh in at 72%-18%-10%, and Democrats are 86%-9%-4%.

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USCIRF Blasts Defamation of Religion Resolutions

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:23:47 -0500

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a strongly worded policy document (PDF) blasting the various defamation of religion resolutions that have been passed by the United Nations over the last few years. It begins:

Although these resolutions purport to seek protection for religions in general, the only religion and religious adherents that are specifically mentioned are Islam and Muslims. Aside from Islam, the resolutions do not specify which religions are deserving of protection, or explain how or by whom this would be determined.
The resolutions also do not define what would make a statement defamatory to religions or explain who decides this question. For its part, the OIC appears to consider any speech that the organization, or even a cleric or individual, deems critical of or offensive to Islam or Muslims to automatically constitute religiously defamatory speech. This view goes far beyond the existing domestic legal concept of defamation, which protects individuals against false statements of fact that damage their reputation and livelihood. Implementing this approach would violate provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and various human rights treaties that protect, with only narrow exceptions, every individual's right to receive and impart information and speak out.

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Dumbass Quote of the Day

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:16:01 -0500

From Sen. Jeff Sessions, promising to filibuster Obama's judicial nominees after screaming bloody murder at the horrible injustice of filibuster nominations by Democrats:

I cannot and will not allow the easy confirmation of an individual who seeks a lifetime appointment to use that power of office to advance their own social or political agenda.

Right. Because other people have a "political agenda" but we have only a brave and virtuous fight for truth and justice. As if conservative judges don't have an agenda. As if the virulently racist Jeff Sessions doesn't have an agenda.

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Another School Mangles the First Amendment

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:09:54 -0500

Here's yet another example of a school administration completely missing the point of the First Amendment and violating the free speech rights of students because they don't understand either the free speech clause or the establishment clause. A student in Bridgeport, New Jersey is suing the schools there for not allowing her to participate in a one-day anti-abortion protest.

Oct. 20th was the date of the Pro Life Day of Silent Solidarity, a protest by students that is identical in form to the Day of Silence that seeks to speak out in favor of equal rights for gays and lesbians. The students who wish to participate remain silent during the day except when called upon in class. Some of them wear tape over their mouths. They also hand out pamphlets advocating their views.

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Gingrich Warns GOP

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:02:34 -0500

Even Newt Gingrich is recognizing the danger of purging the Republican party of all but the most hardcore right-wing candidates running for office. In an interview with Politico, he says:

"If we get into a cycle where there are tea parties and there are conservative third-party candidates, we will make [Nancy] Pelosi speaker for life," Gingrich told POLITICO in an interview Thursday, calling the practice "totally destructive."

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Radio Show Preview 11-19-09

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:37:00 -0500

On tonight's Declaring Independence:

Spencer Ackerman will be on discussing Afghanistan and other foreign policy challenges facing the Obama administration.

Nat Hentoff will be on for the second time, but this time we'll be mostly discussing jazz history.

As always, you can listen to the show live between 6 and 7 pm EST by clicking here.

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The Weekly Standard's Standard Absurdity

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:30:11 -0500

Neo-con rag The Weekly Standard has one of the most ridiculous and intellectually dishonest screeds against the ACLU that you will ever read. They are mad as hell that the ACLU released that video of former Guantanamo inmates detailing their mistreatment and abuse. That video was "anti-American propaganda," says Thomas Joscelyn, after inventing yet another quasi-clever alternative ACLU acronym:

Al Qaeda's Civil Liberties Union

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Palin the Creationist

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:23:34 -0500

It turns out that those rumors from an Alaskan activist about Palin being a creationist were true. Not that anyone should be shocked by this; given Palin's religious views it would be extremely shocking if she was not a creationist. But a CBN reporter cites more evidence from her book.

According to a review published Sunday in The New York Times, Palin knocks evolution in her new book.
Elsewhere in this volume, she talks about creationism, saying she "didn't believe in the theory that human beings -- thinking, loving beings -- originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea" or from "monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees." In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: "My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over."

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Dumbass Quote of the Day

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:16:55 -0500

From our old friend Joseph Farah:

Further, I would suggest to you the big "take-away" from any biblical study of the death penalty would suggest that it is the very basis of God's rules for governance on Earth. It's the very foundation. Take it away and you take away the very underpinning of a Judeo-Christian civilization.

Sounds like another good reason to get rid of the death penalty.

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Disagreeing with Kuznicki

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:09:04 -0500

I have to disagree with this post by my friend and co-blogger Jason Kuznicki. This is not something I do lightly because I have such enormous respect for Jason, but I really think he's wrong on this. And he is directly addressing an argument I've made many times in the past:

Supporters of same-sex marriage like to say that opponents should enjoy their moment now -- because it's not going to last. Polls routinely show that older Americans oppose same-sex marriage, while younger ones support it. A cohort replacement effect will soon usher in solid majorities for same-sex marriage, the argument goes.
This strikes me as both sloppy and complacent.

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National Organization for Marriage Drops Prejean

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:02:05 -0500

My CIM colleague John Tomasic notes that the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage has quietly dropped Carrie Prejean after so famously promoting her in the wake of her fake martyrdom in the Miss USA pageant.

Carrie Prejean, the decrowned Miss California and darling of the Christian right, appears to have been scrubbed from the National Organization for Marriage website. The move comes in the wake of a TMZ interview with the man whom Prejean reportedly met through MySpace and had a four-day hotel fling with in 2007. He alleges Prejean sent a series of sex tapes to him over the next couple of years. It's the latest chapter in the story of Prejean's partygirl past, which keeps leaking into the public sphere, ruining what had been her budding career as a Christian-values conservative politics spokesperson.

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Barber Worried About "Gay Jihad"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:30:52 -0500

Matt Barber has his typically hysterical screed about how evil those infernal gays are and how Christians are truly the persecuted minority in this country. Referring to comments left on the JoeMyGod blog, he writes:

Blog poster "ColdCountry" wrote: "Will someone please give me a gun?" Poster "Fritz" warned: "What I fear is that once gay and lesbian people give up hope of achieving equality through nonviolent means, there will be radicals who will begin to hunt down haters... All it will take is a small group of radical zealots who are willing to kill for their cause."
In reply to Fritz, "tex" posted: "Fritz....you say this like it's a bad thing? Maybe a bit of well organized terrorism is just what we need."

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Here's Your Script, Cue the Cameras

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:23:26 -0500

Marcy Wheeler does a brilliant job of mining the transcripts of the healthcare reform debate to show that Republican legislators were literally reading from a script written for them by lobbyists from Genentech. One after another they took to the podium to parrot the exact same phrases Genentech wanted them to parrot. From a post entitled What a Roomful of Republican Biotech-Paid Whores Looks Like, here's the first example:

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Punking the Tea Partiers

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:16:06 -0500

Here's a hilarious video from an anti-illegal immigration rally in Minnesota last Saturday called the Tea Party Against Amnesty. A young man calling himself Robert Erickson got up to the podium and began a righteous rant about the evils of immigration, how waves of immigrants had brought diseases to America and taken jobs from Americans. "Are you with me?" he asked the cheering crowd as he yelled that it was time to send the immigrants back where they came from: Europe. It took a while before a few of the gathered crowd caught on that they were being punked, right about the time a bunch of counter-protestors began changing "Columbus go home." Video below the fold.

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Georgia Man Held Without Trial for 4 Years

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:09:23 -0500

Here's an astonishing story out of Georgia, where a man accused of murder has sat in prison for four years without a trial because the state can't afford to pay for his legal defense.

An accused killer from Pike County has sat in jail for nearly four years without a trial -- not because of any problems with the evidence but because the state is seeking the death penalty and cannot pay for the man's defense.
The case, argued Tuesday before the Georgia Supreme Court, could determine whether Georgia can afford the death penalty.

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