Friday, December 3, 2010

Pastor Truthiness and His Sermons of Hate

UPDATE: Pastor Truthiness likes to attribute horrible events to God's wrath for the treatment of Israel. So how will he explain this -- read The New York Times, After Its Worst Natural Disaster, Israel Seeks Help.


What do our Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) and the The Westboro Baptist Church (whose members believe the idea that God loves everyone is the "greatest lie ever told" and that all Americans are going to hell for condoning homosexuality, abortion and divorce, and frequently protest at military funerals, Catholic churches, and Jewish synagogues) have in common?

They both can find a link to almost any horrible event -- an oil spill, Hurricane Katrina, an earthquake -- and any idea, person, or group they hate.

Republi-CON Health Care Hypocrisy, Cont.

"Remember all the talk about pulling the plug on grandma? Well, look at what’s happening in Arizona." Read The New York Times, Arizona Strikes Again.

And lest ye forget, there is the Republi-con legislator who staunchly opposes the new health-care law and ran promising its repeal, who is upset that he has to wait a month for his government-funded health-care benefits to kick in.

Supporting Corruption

"American officials trying to build support for the Afghan government are dispirited by its corruption." Read The New York Times, Cables Depict Afghan Graft, Starting at Top.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does, Obama Style, Cont.

UPDATE: "After the pummeling in the midterm elections, has President Obama suffered a moral collapse?" Read The New York Times, Freezing Out Hope.

And "[w]hat is the Democratic Party's bottom line? Who knows?" Read the Washington Post, Democrats lost in the wilderness.

"At risk of overgeneralizing, the problem isn't that Dems aren't capable of winning an argument. It's that they don't think they're capable of winning a protracted political standoff, even on an issue where the public is on their side, once Republicans start going on the attack. They seem to set their goal early on at salvaging a compromise, rather than going for the win. As a result, they tend to telegraph weakness at the outset, sending a clear message that they'll essentially give Republicans what they want as long as they can figure out a way to call it a compromise. " Read the Washington Post, Dems too quick to internalize that losing feeling.

Palin-mania Begins (or Continues)

UPDATE III: The Palin election strategy -- American exceptionalism, and don't let the 'lamestream' media tell you otherwise. Read the Washington Post, American exceptionalism, an old idea and a new political battle and Sarah Palin, the "lamestream" media and its limits.


UPDATE II: Read CNN, Palin book lays out possible GOP battle plan; will she be the general?


UPDATE: "A who’s who and what’s what of the inner circle of the top G.O.P. shadow candidate." Read The New York Times, The Palin Network, in which Plain admits she's considering a run for president:

"'I am,' Sarah Palin told me the next day when I asked her if she was already weighing a run for president. 'I’m engaged in the internal deliberations candidly, and having that discussion with my family, because my family is the most important consideration here.' Palin went on to say that there weren’t meaningful differences in policy among the field of G.O.P. hopefuls 'but that in fact there’s more to the presidency than that' and that her decision would involve evaluating whether she could bring unique qualities to the table."

Palin's "economic musings are yet another sign she’s running" and she's no pro-business corporatist (favoring policies that subsidize favored companies, raise barriers to entry and otherwise entrenching the status quo) she a 'free-market populist' (believing "the role of government is to help markets function more fairly and efficiently for everyone, encouraging competition and 'creative destruction'"). Read Reuters, Why Wall Street should fear Sarah Palin.

Save Us, Sarah, Save Us!