Past Lessons Remembered

“…we know without a doubt that Republican ideas of more freedom and less taxes — while sounding good and repeated by any and all candidates – are in fact, worth no more than the paper that they are written on.”

These are words written by 13 life-long members of the Maine Republican Party… officials within the party… as they resigned that membership and walked away from the former Grand Old Party.

In the letter (full text below) dated August 18, 2013, the former Republicans outline many of the same grievances expressed over the past several years by this writer. The defectors feel that the party of their fathers has lost sight of the goal; that there is an element within the modern GOP that has forsaken the true meaning of conservatism and steered the party into the netherworld of bigotry, divisiveness, social engineering, irrational spending and blatant unconstitutional actions. 

That last sentence at one time described Southern Democrats… The Party of Jackson... but those roles reversed shortly after Jack and Bobby Kennedy went to Washington.

The campaign for the Presidency in the waning years of the Eisenhower Administration illustrated all to well a schism within the Democrat Party… with much of the divisive rhetoric emanating from Southern Democrats. Jack Kennedy was Catholic, and there had never been a Catholic elected to high office. The last one to try was Al Smith in 1928. Fear mongers mindlessly and endlessly promoting the trope that the Pope would be running the White House if Smith won proved effective. Southern Democrats sat out the election and Smith was crushed… Hoover took the White House and the nation sunk into the Great Depression. The only winner in that election was bigotry.

32 years later another Catholic found himself fighting the very battles that sunk Al Smith. The dirty tricks weren’t as effective this time and Mr. Kennedy went on to win the Presidency in the closest election in history. Mr. Kennedy won 49.7% of the popular vote to Nixon's 49.5% with Kennedy polling only about 100,000 more votes than Nixon out of over 68 million votes cast. Nixon won more states than Kennedy but the Electoral College awarded the election to Kennedy by a 303-219 margin. The only southern states not called for Nixon were Mississippi and Florida. Anti-Catholic bigotry is blamed for a million and a half lost votes.

Three assassinations, two paradigm changing bills, an impeachment leading to the only resignation of a sitting president and a whole bunch of cross burnings later finds the freedom loving folks of the U.S.A. still fighting the battles of social injustice and fiscal conservatism. The political party names and the memes spouted haven’t changed, but the demographic certainly has. The once fiscally conservative GOP still proudly wears the mantle of conservatism, but has forgotten what that word really means. Many of those calling themselves Democrat still shout for social justice, but their actions seem more inclined toward social control.

Where once the southern bigots were the tail wagging the Democrat’s dog, following a decade of country-shaking events they abandoned the Democrats for the GOP. The Party of Eisenhower became infested with the parasites of the Party of George Gordon and John Clinton Porter.

Those of us in the middle… moderates yearning for a day when the search for social consciousness, constitutional justice and conservative fiscal policy can be balanced by compromise… find ourselves politically homeless.

Of the two available options, some choose simply to check None of the Above, but is that a logical option? The pragmatist’s answer is a resounding NO! Opting out and wasting a vote may make a valiant statement, but it solves no problem. The only real solution is to hold nose, vote for a candidate with whom one cannot 100% agree because that candidate represents a less oppressive path, and then work from within to weed out blind partisanship and taking a stand against hatred, bigotry and divisiveness.

The promise of Eisenhower conservatism has been lost in the swill of religio-political rhetoric, as the modern GOP has become the spend-spend-spend party of no compromise tirelessly struggling to elevate the almighty corporation to the tyrannical level we see today. Damn near every major Republican effort since the McCarthy/Nixon era has concentrated on things and people of which we should be afraid, why we should hate certain elements within our own house, constantly starting wars justifying the need to give more money to the defense industry corporatists.

Every Republican Administration from Reagan through George W. Bush has dramatically increased the war budget, increased the deficit and pushed the country into further debtor status, yet the echo machine perpetuates the myth that the Democrats are the party of tax & spend and the meme that the deficits created by their own party are actually the responsibility for the Democrats. Facts prove this to be a lie, but corporate puppets never let facts get in the way of a good myth while blinder-wearing sheep wag tail and follow.

Last month a Pew study found 54% of self-identified Republicans believed that the GOP should “move in a more conservative direction” and 35% feel that Republicans compromise “too much” with Democrats. Less than half of GOP voters, 40%, say they feel the GOP should become more moderate and 27% felt their party hadn’t compromised with Democrats enough.

The reason we are seeing high profile defections from the GOP is represented by that poll. No reasonable human can fail to notice the blinders of a demographic a third of which believes Republicans compromise “too much”.

Further evidence of the blindness endemic in the GOP herd was evidenced in the results of a Public Policy Poll of Louisiana residents in which a greater number of respondents blamed Barak Obama for the poor response to the hurricane Katrina disaster than blamed George W. Bush.

The full text of the letter referenced above follows. Emphasis I've added it to illustrate where I find agreement. My more liberal friends will likely take issue with the fact that I agree with them on the gun legislation and that the FDA sometimes oversteps, but if so you need to understand that being a moderate means supporting our Constitution, regardless of emotion. 

August 18, 2013

To Maine State GOP Secretary Chuck Mahaleris:

There are times in your life when you must choose between two paths.

The first path, if taken, would require us to remain within the Republican Party despite the fact that we know without a doubt that Republican ideas of more freedom and less taxes — while sounding good and repeated by any and all candidates – are in fact, worth no more than the paper that they are written on.

The second path leads to a principled preservation of our individual integrity, helping out our fellow citizens at the local level, and doing our level best for our Creator, our families, and our friends.

We have therefore chosen to follow the path of the latter.

Effective immediately, we the undersigned are unenrolling from the Maine Republican Party. Furthermore, those of us who hold official Party positions, be they at the Republican National, State, County or even Town Committees, hereby resign. Our reasons for doing so are as follows:

The RNC:

At the RNC, we have fought the good fight and kept the faith with regards to the rules. The Resolution that was passed in January 2013 by the Maine Republican State Committee put the RNC on notice that the grassroots were listening (and watching), leading to the rules battles which have taken place consistently since the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa. The duplicity and lack of political courage which has been on display in this matter has sealed the fate of this Party.

Furthermore, it has become clear to us now that the RNC has no intention of reforming and would rather fly under invalid rules than to right the wrongs of Tampa. We therefore cannot, in good faith, support or defend the actions of the RNC. To violate our consciences and support those actions would make us part of the problem – especially after we clearly provided and handed the RNC the solution which was flatly rejected. The RNC now owns their demise.

Congressional Republicans:

In the House of Representatives, the cowardly leadership of John Boehner reached a new low in December 2012 when he purged the most fiscally conservative GOP members from leadership positions, citing their “unwillingness to be team players.” Political punishment such as this from Speaker Boehner has garnered justifiable rage from conservative groups, and from us, as we expected better.

Furthermore, the House Republican leadership’s utter disdain for the United States Constitution, specifically the 4th Amendment, was on full display as they worked overtime to kill the Amash Amendment which would have gone a long way toward constraining the NSA to the boundaries of the Constitution and seriously curbed their ability to conduct mass surveillance of Americans. Be it known that we cannot and will not support nor defend these actions.

In the United States Senate, we see Republicans all too willing to pass unconstitutional bills related to subjects such as the Internet Sales Tax and Immigration. Whether through arrogance or ignorance, they fail to understand the simple fact any revenue generating legislation must originate in the House of Representatives.

Additionally, the Senate Republicans continue to support undeclared wars, meet in secret and supply arms to our “terrorist enemies” who we vowed to destroy after 911, and then tell us they love our troops – so long as it’s our kids and not theirs who have to go fight.

Lastly, all too many Senate Republicans are more than willing to pass new “feel good” gun control legislation that would do nothing to stop another Sandy Hook massacre, all the while restricting 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding American citizens. We cannot support nor defend these actions in good faith.

Maine Republican Legislators:

In Maine, the Republican legislators in the House and Senate failed to sustain the Governor’s veto on one of the most important pieces of legislation of the 126th. Maine Republicans were justifiably outraged, especially at those legislators who campaigned on lower taxes.

We have been told that many donors have refused to donate one more cent to the MEGOP due to this budget debacle, but nevertheless we are expected to ignore these facts and get out there and raise funds for the party. This we cannot do in good faith; the Republican Party has lost its way and the donors know it.

The LePage Administration:

Not to be outdone by the legislators, this Administration’s support for Common Core Education Standards, the Internet Sales Tax, the atypical meddling in the business of the Maine State Committee, as well as the vetoes of the Drone and Cell Phone bills left many of us incredulous.

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back for many of us was the veto of LD 1282 (the “Raw Milk Bill”) and those who voted to sustain it: a sad day indeed for the small farmers of Maine. We want our God-given rights to buy, sell and consume what we want protected by the law – not restricted by FDA or USDA directives. These actions we cannot explain nor defend in good faith – the Republican Party has lost it’s way.

Therefore, for the above-stated reasons, we can no longer allow ourselves to be called nor enrolled as Republicans; we can no longer associate ourselves with a political party that goes out of its way to continually restrict our freedoms and liberties as well as reaching deeper and deeper into our wallets.

We instead choose the path that focuses on ways to help our fellow Mainers outside of party politics.

Some of us may be town officers or board members. Some of us may leave all options on the table with regards to running for higher office as Independents.

Some of us may be small farmers and gardeners who desire to help feed their communities.

Others may simply want to just get part of their life back, catching up and spending more time with friends and neighbors.

Sincerely,

Republican National Committee Member:Mark Willis, Washington County

Maine Republican State Committee Members:Thomas Barry, Androscoggin County

Ann-Marie Grenier, Cumberland County

Gregory Hodge, Lincoln County

Olga LaPlante, Cumberland County

Russell Montgomery, Knox County

Violet Willis, Washington County

Maine Registered Republicans:

Sam Canders, Penobscot County

Bryan Daugherty, Penobscot County

Maria Hodge, Penobscot County

Randall J. Grenier, Cumberland County

L. Scott D’Amboise, Androscoggin County

Debbie D’Amboise, Androscoggin County

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Crimes against humanity

In the news...

Scott Lively gets his day in court

By Vince Warren

A man looks on December 11, 2012 at an advertising by campaign group Avaaz in the state-owned Ugandan newspaper The New Vision, protesting against an anti-homosexuality bill. Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the new bill proposes to introduce the death sentence for anyone caught engaging in homosexual acts for a second time, as well as for gay sex where one partner is a minor or has HIV. It would also criminalize the public promotion of homosexuality -- including discussions by rights groups -- with a sentence of up to seven years in prison for anyone convicted. (MICHELE SIBILONI - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Is there anything extremist right-wing preachers won’t blame on LGBT people? After the Newtown shooting, James Dobson listed tolerance of gay marriage as one of the reasons God’s punishment was directed at a bunch of first graders. And who can forget the classic Jerry Falwell moment, blaming 9/11 on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle….”

It’s easy to laugh at wingnuts, but they have millions of followers and their hate, in the name of some perverted concept of God, gives moral cover to the queer bashers and bullies everywhere.

On Monday, we’re going to be face to face with one of them, Scott Lively, in a courtroom in Springfield, MA. If that name isn’t familiar to you like Falwell’s or Dobson’s, that’s because Lively’s unique contribution to this anti-gay agenda is his persecution consulting in other countries, most notably Uganda, where he brags he is known as the “father” of the anti-gay movements.

Many Americans have heard of the infamous “Kill the Gays” bill inUganda, which has been introduced in several parliamentary sessions since it arose out of an anti-gay conference that Scott Lively headlined in 2009. But the day-to-day reality for LGBT Ugandans is already violence, death threats, severe discrimination and oppression. Meetings of LGBT activists are raided and shut down, and advocates have been arrested for exercising their rights to speech, assembly and association. LGBT Ugandans’ advocacy, indeed their existence, is already criminalized.

No one has done more to orchestrate this situation than Scott Lively. Since 2002, he has worked systematically to strip away human rights protections from LGBT people in Uganda and elsewhere around the world, to silence them and make it impossible for them to organize and defend their rights. While he peddles the usual, age-old lie that LGBT people are pedophiles in order to deliberately provoke the rage that feeds the growing repression and violence, he combines that myth with a new twist, that gays were also responsible for the Holocaust and that Hitler’s Germany is what can happen when a gay movement grows unchecked.

But this case isn’t simply about Lively’s “hate preach.” He long ago moved beyond “mere” hatemongering when he became a kind of persecution consultant, strategizing with influential leaders and cohorts in other countries about ways to further silence and remove LGBT people from basic protections of the law, in particular by criminalizing their advocacy. Persecution, defined as the “severe deprivation of fundamental rights” on the basis of identity, is a crime under international law; to be exact, it’s a “crime against humanity.” This deprivation of fundamental rights of LGBT communities is exactly what Lively aims to bring about. Under U.S. law, foreign citizens who are the victims of crimes against humanity can sue American perpetrators of such crimes. And so Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) is suing Scott Lively for persecuting them. Staff from SMUG and other LGBT advocates who have suffered persecution --arrests, raids, and other severe deprivations of basic rights --will be there on Monday, when the Center for Constitutional Rights will have the honor of representing them in court.

If you happen to be in the Springfield area on Monday, join us in court that day and at a press conference outside afterwards. Wherever you are, though, you can follow the day’s events on Twitter - @theCCR will be live tweeting the event using the hashtag #StoptheHate. Every queer person in America can help expose what Scott Lively is doing by retweeting the news from court and by letting their friends know about this case.

The theology of hate, which blames LGBT people for disasters, natural and man-made, for the destruction of the family and everything in between, has to stop. And it won’t stop if LGBT advocates continue to be denied their fundamental rights to express themselves, to associate and assemble, to defend and assert their basic human rights. It won’t stop if plans like Lively’s are allowed to proceed. Religion has often been misused as a justification for maintaining inequality and denying the humanity and dignity of others. Persecution by political forces using the Christian religion is not a new tactic, from the Inquisition to the Salem Witch Trials, but in the 21st Century we have laws against it and it’s time to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Vince Warren is the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

By Vince Warren  |  01:55 PM ET, 01/04/2013 

Baby on board

Fogg (writing on Libby Spencer's blog, ) takes aim at the overhype spewing from both poles of the political spectrum and very correctly notes that the foofaraw does nothing to solve any problems. As the good Capt. correctly observes, the quickest and easiest means of increasing the cost of anything is to whisper the word... "BAN".

Have all the miscellaneous and ballyhooed safety regulations done anything? Mandatory trigger locks, microstamping of firing pins, loaded chamber indicator and magazine disconnect regulations? No. Has there been an increase in the murder by firearm rate as is being said? No. It's lower than it was in the 1950's. The fear is oversold. Much of what is being proposed can be no more effective in protecting school children than those stupid, yellow Baby on Board signs people put on their cars in the '70s. It's just there for the "I hate guns" people.

The hyperbole of both sides represents just how frightened we are and how easily it is for fringe elements to take advantage of that fear. The left loonies are frightened of the right-wing radicals, and the right is frightened of the rest of the world. This isn't anything new. This kind of thinking harkens as far back as our second president and the implementation of the Alien & Sedition acts of 1798. 214 years later and we still find ourselves scampering about like headless chickens.

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Yet more insanity

More news items found...

A new fool rears its head. Welcome the Alabamadamna fool.

While Facebook claims yet another victim in Ohio...

Columbus Teacher’s Post-Election Facebook Post Leads To Investigation

Out in California we have the 22-year-old blindingly brilliant blond having a difficult time figuring it out.

A California woman seems genuinely surprised that calling the president by the n-word and wishing for his assassination might be, well, a big deal.

In Mississippi, the more things change the more they seem to stay the same.

Obama re-election protest escalates at Univ. of Mississippi; racial slurs, 2 arrests reported

This one represents the illogical dichotomy of modern Christianity. Since the vast majority of racist tweets posted following President Obama's reelection originated from Alabama (according to the demographers at Floating Sheep) it is perhaps unsurprising that this effigy was spotted on a porch in a small community not far from Dothan had apparently been sitting there since Halloween without any complaint from the neighbors.

Obama effigy with 'Pray 4 Assassin' sign removed from outside Alabama home

Certain business folks have doubled down upon learning that the Romneys wouldn't be adding yet another to an already long list of palatial mansions.

Coal executive explains layoffs with prayer lamenting Romney loss … Papa John's CEO John Schnatter: Obamacare likely to raise costs, employee's hours to be cut … Some Denny’s restaurants to bill customers 5 percent ‘Obamacare’ surcharge

By far the most bizarre overreaction is also the saddest… and occurred prior to the election. Responsibility for this hyped-up fear and hate-mongering falls squarely on the shoulders of the right-wing media and the plutocracy that funds them.

Virginia man kills family and himself over fear Obama would be re-elected

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A paucity of sanity

Kooks, buffoons and dangerous idiots.

Vote or die?

Police: Gilbert wife runs over husband with SUV after fighting about Obama's re-election

I'm sure this is only because it's deer season.
Gun store's sales up 400 percent after President Obama re-elected

No worries about this guy buying any guns.
Obama's re-election drives Key West man to suicide, cops say

There is a large disturbance in the force with these people.

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Gay marriage bans demolished

Object to gays? this won't be your cup of tea. Don't like Rachel Maddow? You won't want to watch this. It will just piss you off. It's 55 minutes long. Don't have the time or don't want to spend the time? Your loss. But if you give a shit about individual rights and are willing to open your mind, you should take the time. You may learn something new.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The day will come when humans accept that other humans are very likely different, and that being different isn't such a bad thing. In this 21'st century since the birth of some mythical "savior," we have had plenty of time to learn how not to hate, and how not to be afraid.

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This woman wants your kids

Barbara Cargill is running for State Board of Education place 8 seat. The Texas SBoE writes the curriculum that will be used for future textbook. She is Guv. Goodhair's hand picked successor to that whacky dentist, Don McLeroy.

Doesn't get out much, does she? Bless her pointed little head...

Dear Barbara and her cohorts are the product of decades of slow inflitration into the SBoE by dominionist xian zealots. For more information on the ongoing battle for the minds of Texas school children, read the TFN Timeline of textbook censorship.

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Leading Ourselves into Captivity – Part 1

Dominance is always the goal: How fear, hate mongering and greed set the stage for carnage.

Loud voices of late are screeching from on high… warning of the threat of radical Islamists. Muslims, they warn, are either moving en masse to violently overthrow western nations, slaughter infidels, dispense with secular, democratic governments, forcibly implement Sharia law… or standing passively by as their religious kin foment discontent and plan terroristic attacks.

No doubt these harpies have some facts correct, but on the whole much of what is being trumpeted is not much more than exaggerated, chicken littlesque fear mongering. For the past few decades we have indeed seen a marked growth in the number of world citizens preaching fear and loathing of the Great Satan, the United States of America, and the radical Islamists have found no shortage of ignorant suckers willing to swallow the religious mumbo jumbo and launch themselves into oblivion.

Poverty makes good fodder for revolution, especially when the haves are so willing to flaunt success and good fortune. Our corporations and our own government have done so very much to feed that hatred and the opportunity for advantage is not lost on the Islamists. The rise in fear mongering in poor Muslim areas has been on the increase for a century or more. Their success may be witnessed daily as poor slobs blow themselves up seeking respite from this world and salvation in the next.

Our very own Christians do little to help the situation… using almost identical language in describing Islam in very nearly the same fashion as Islamists describe the Christian west. We have two religious factions making almost identical or very similar claims while standing on either side of a divide chunking rocks at the other.

Religious extremists have succeeded in doing a good bit of damage to the opposing side. Islamists have managed to inflict damage on the western world both large and small. We in America remain focused on 09-11-2001, when a successful terrorist operation planned by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda killed some 3,000 humans a single stroke. In Madrid in 2004 the same group killed almost 200 and injured some 2,000. They were well-funded then, well-organized and intent upon killing infidel non-Muslims.

The Judeo-Christian west responded by launching wars in two countries and has since engaged in organized military and covert “black” operations in no fewer than a dozen others. The dead and injured cannot be counted, but conservative best guess estimates place the body count somewhere in the tens of thousands. We’re still there and we’re still killing them… guilty and innocent alike. It seems we are constantly seeking new places to stick our noses and toss a few bombs.

Shrill harpies like Pam Geller and Glenn Beck seek to focus hatred and dehumanize individuals, creating a sense that we really aren’t killing men and women and children… we’re killing demons and devils. It’s okay to kill demons and devils… just as its okay for an Islamist to kill an infidel. The reasoning is identical.

They hurl airplanes at large buildings and blow us up in suicide bombings while we take them out surgically and remotely with unmanned drones from 25,000 feet in the sky. The drones and their operators thousands of miles away don’t care who they kill. We pretend that we do, but a little collateral damage is to be expected and the more the enemy is shocked and awed the better. A little fear is good for maintaining order, and in the end we don’t care who we kill either.

The struggle is religious in nature, and the question must be asked… which religion is right in this bloody conflict? Well… It does not matter which side you are on, that side is always right. Such is the way of mythology.

So we mobilize our Christian/Mohammedan soldiers, send them off for some old-fashioned indoctrination military training, and then march them off to holy war with a Bible/Quran tucked in their pockets… selected verses conveniently bookmarked. We make certain our commanders remind them every day of their Christian/Muslim duties, and we weed out those not worthy of the Kingdom of God/Allah. Only the pure at heart can be trusted to slaughter other humans in the name of Jesus/Muhammad.

They are different than us and they must be destroyed for that reason… May the circle be unbroken.

###

The above is but a prelude to the goal of this article. It is written from the perspective of an atheist/skeptic/freethinker living in the Christian west but who has spent much time in Muslim areas of the globe. The author has witnessed the fanatics on both of the sides, and has made friendships with moderates following each of these belief systems as well as others and of none. This author is skeptical of the motives of the religionists, and is convinced that the real threat to freedom, in America and in every country, comes not from outside aggressors… but from dogmatic theocrats within.

The true threat to freedom comes when good people allow religion into positions of power or authority. In America Christianity is not the solution… it is the threat.

To be continued.

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Girl Scouts couldn't ask for better advertising

If you read it on the internet it's gotta be true... right?

“My family and I took a view and we’re sticking by it,” Morris said Tuesday, adding that his daughters were joining an alternative group for young girls run by conservative Christians. “My girls are no longer Girl Scouts. They’re now going to join American Heritage Girls.”

Morris’ comments were the butt of jokes inside the House on Tuesday, with Bosma spending much of the day handing out Thin Mints to lawmakers. He joked that Morris’ comments led him to buy hundreds of cases of the famous Girl Scout cookies.

Morris has ushered his spawn off to an indoctrination camp more suitable to his whacko politics. This exemplifies what the religious, "Conservative" shift in America has allowed to rise to the top. Like my daddy used to say about Republican politics... "It's like the old cesspool out there. The biggest chunks rise to the top."

Thank you, Tea Party. Nothing else needs be said.

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The death of a nation

So... my conservative friends, you think that the Tea Party movement is a good thing for the country… right?  Those of us closer to the center have a bit of a different view, and your favorite teabagger and mine, Melissa Brookstone, has been kind enough to illustrate our reasoning.

Brookstone and her band of merrymakers are advocating the total collapse of the American nation just to get Obama out of the White House…

Brookstone and her Tea Party Nation are urging small businesses to stop hiring, sabotaging the economy for the sole purpose of causing President Obama to fail. The final paragraph of the pledge Brookstone wants small business owners to sign reads…

“I, an American small business owner, part of the class that produces the vast majority of real, wealth producing jobs in this country, hereby resolve that I will not hire a single person until this war against business and my country is stopped.”

Obama's ability to fulfill his campaign promises tells the story both of his failure in leadership and of the problem this country faces due to the Party of "NO." 

As rated by Politifact.com, out of the some odd 500 campaign promises made by Obama only 151 have been fulfilled. While he has outright broken 52, a total of 303 of the remaining have been slowed, stalled, compromised or outright blocked by Republican foot dragging.

Considering the origins of the current fiscal woes and the apparent recalcitrance of the current right wing to do anything to help... please tell me, my friends… who exactly is responsible for the ongoing problems in this country? Is it all Obama, or is it the childish behavior of sore losers?

You don't like Obama, thats fine and dandy. I don't much care for his policies myself but feel like we are safer with a bumbling Democrat than with any of the clown college rejects bobbing at the top of the Republican apple barrel. If you think any of this band of win-at-any-cost right wingnuts offers a better solution you are kidding yourself.

###

So what else did your talking snake tell you?

From a couple weeks ago... Scientific American guest blogger Jessica Fostvedt, a Biology and Religious Studies graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, discusses Harold Camping and the reason humans fall for End of the World propheteers.

"Many neurologists have proposed the existence of a “God Spot”, a region of the brain linked to belief in the supernatural. Even though no such neural pathways were found that differed from those of non-believers, there is still much debate as to the origin of religion and its evolutionary significance."

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Everyboy has to hate somebody sometime...

Minnesota's teabaggin' Torgerson is back... this time running as a Republican... but still speading the same hate and discontent.

Torgerson says Rep. Ellison doesn’t see the U.S. Constitution as ‘supreme’

Incumbent Democrat Keith Ellison is one of two Muslims in the U.S. House. Torgerson accuses Ellison of being a “radical Islamist” who “fails to oppose banning Islamic Sharia law in the United States.” Responding to the hate mongering, Ellison eloquently responds:

I took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion for all Americans. Religious acceptance is a deeply rooted American value, and regardless of political persuasion, it’s a value we must protect.

It’s too bad that someone can obtain so much attention based on their intolerant rhetoric, especially when unemployment is above 9 percent. On the other hand, the nation will be able to see how extreme the rhetoric has become. I call on all Americans to reject religious intolerance and embrace our constitution which upholds the promise of liberty and justice for all people.

Justice for all people is a concept not understood by that element of society who spend so much time being afraid... and hating because of it.

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Xenophobia

The word is rooted in the ancient Greek for stranger. Ancient man likely had good reason to suspect and fear the stranger… and the unknown in general. In modern times, considering the degree of human progress, I have to wonder why this fear remains… and why we spend so much time and energy seeking people to fear.

In 1967, in response to a simple student question about the holocaust, a California history teacher developed an experiment. Ron Jones wanted to demonstrate for his students the means dictatorship could be accomplished with the cooperation of the very people affected. Mr. Jones got much more than he expected. In a period of under two weeks, Jones demonstrated just how easy it is to turn ordinary school kids into unthinking automatons intent upon forcing all others into a particular behavior. The results of this experiment are well documented [HERE] [HERE] and [HERE]… and quite frightening.

The day following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, third grade teacher Jane Elliott of Riceville, Iowa modified a lesson intended to teach about American Indians to incorporate racism and racial hatred. Elliott’s simple exercise became known as the Brown eyes/Blue eyes experiment, and received national notoriety. See [HERE] [HERE] and [HERE]. The results were far different than anyone expected.

Elliott divided the 8-year olds, all whites, according to eye color.  She purposely heaped praise on the blue-eyed children, while being more critical of those with brown eyes.  The children with blue eyes were dubbed superior, and those with brown eyes inferior. The browns were segregated from the blues in many of the same ways blacks had historically been segregated (i.e. sitting in the back of the class, different drinking fountains, etc.) Over a period of time the blue-eyed children became bossy, arrogant and abusive to the brown-eyed subclass.

As in the Ron Jones experiment just the year before, the results were startling. In both cases it proved surprisingly simple to turn one “class” of children against another based solely upon arbitrary, cosmetic variations and bogus, pseudoscientific fabrication. Both experiments demonstrated how easily class and racial divisions are fostered in the young mind.

These experiments parallel the formation of life-long prejudices. Jane Elliott tells of how she discovered previously held biases of her all white class against American Indians (which was the reason she planned her original lesson,) as she listened to the children describe Indians as lazy and untrustworthy. She discovered that the kids had similar views of blacks and Hispanics. We see the same fears and prejudices in adults to this very day resulting in speculation that such prejudices are very easily learned at a young age… with lifelong effect.

Although prejudice is far from an American exclusive, we’ve seen far more than our fair share of violence perpetrated in the name of fear or bias. When Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, early speculation caused blame to be cast upon Muslim terrorists. Even after McVeigh was identified as the bomber, the FBI arrested a homeless man by the name of Hussain Al-Hussaini, because he was alleged to have been seen with McVeigh prior to the bombing. Al-Hussaini, a Muslim, was later released without charge.

Rabid Muslim hater Pam Geller speculated at the time that McVeigh did the dastardly deed because he was a Muslim sympathizer… a charge that continues to circulate on ultra-right wing websites, in much the same way the Obama/Muslim conspiracy theories circles.

Fast forward to 2001. Two weeks following the Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Mesa, Arizona gas station attendant Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot to death at his work. His killer was found quickly and arrested. In explanation he claimed to be exacting revenge for the 9/11 attacks. As he was being arrested, the murderer shouted out, "I stand for America all the way." Sodhi was of the Sikh culture… wore a turban and was of south Asian ancestry. He was not Muslim…. But he was different. Sodhi was the first… but not the only victim of post-9/11 hate and hysteria.

Xenophobic fear, hatred and ignorance resulted in his death. Sodhi was every bit as much a victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as any of the 3,000 who died in the Trade Centers … the Pentagon… or on United flight 93, yet Arizona legislators introduced and passed a bill that would eliminate Sodhi’s name from a planned 9/11 memorial for the state. To her credit, AZ Governor Brewer vetoed that bill.

Memorial designer Matthew Salenger said, "I think we overestimated how much respect people would have for each other and their views." Deluxe understatement.

The focus of American xenophobia has changed over the years. At one time or another we’ve targeted Catholics, the Irish, Italians, Chinese, American Indians, blacks, Japanese, the French, Hispanics… and others I can’t think of at the moment. Now the Muslims have become our fear du jour.

Humans strive mightily to divide the world into a competition between "us" and "them." We do this so quickly and so easily that the drive to do so must come from some deep-seated, innate need to fear. Humans have evolved into a higher level than our tree-dwelling ancestors, yet we still possess the innate fear of falling from those trees and becoming easy prey. This need to be afraid of something seems to have survived our evolutionary progress.

Humans may rationally understand that not all of any particular sub-set of society is evil simply because of the behavior of a minority of that sub-set, but we seem to resist translating that rationality into reality.

Must it remain this way? Just as we have evolved to overcome so many other challenges to our progress, we certainly can do the same with xenophobia.  The amount of human resource and energy required to hate is simply too costly.

We can do better… and we must.

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This is for Bob

THE VOTER ID FLAP

Although there has been a persistent din alleging wide-spread voter fraud for many years, the most recent rendition has roots in the election meltdown of 2000 and the subsequent 2004 train wreck. You would  have though those two debacles would prompt real efforts toward reform of the election laws… clarifying all of the diverse uncertainties and inequities.

Seems to me that it would have been in the best interest of everyone for the states to hammer out some clear, concise and fair laws ensuring that we wouldn’t ever see another election by SCOTUS. Didn’t happen. 2008 has come and gone and we now find election reform mired in partisan politics. Instead of correcting anything we have a bigger mess now than ever before.

The lawyers are happy, because the current slate of proposed law changes actually increase the odds of litigation and repeat meltdowns. Case in point: voter-identification laws.

Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country have proffered a plethora of such bills. From the rhetoric you'd think that voter fraud was rampant and elections being stolen on a daily basis. Instead of true election reform, the states of Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina and South Dakota have passed some form of photo identification law. 18 other states have either proposed such a law or have current non-photo requirements. Georgia has twice passed such a law, and twice it has been knocked down under Section V of the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina’s in likely next, and the Justice Department has several of the others under review.

Republicans cite copious anecdotal evidence of fraud to defend these efforts but offer no hard evidence. Democrats and civil rights organizations view the laws as the right wing seeking partisan advantage; claiming that because the mostly Democrat voting poor have a more difficult time securing voter identification, such laws would suppress participation. The poor tend not to own cars, meaning they might not have a driver's license, and they may not have the means or money to secure certified copies of documents, such as the birth certificates necessary to obtain state-issued photo ID.

So far it has failed to become clear to me exactly what the nonpartisan object of all this might be. Beyond the precious few isolated cases of identified fraud (almost none of which would have been preventable by any of the ID laws,) and of course the pundit’s anecdotes, there simply is no evidence of the kind of voter fraud a voter ID requirement would have detered. Are there studies of which I am unaware revealing evidence of voters casting ballots under false names?

I don’t think so, and I have looked. What the Republicans do have is ACORN… to which I say “Smoke and Mirrors.”

In October of 2008 the New York Post ran a story by Jean MacIntosh, titled “How ACORN got me into vote scam”. This is the story that started the wildfire that eventually spelled the demise of ACORN… starting all the wild rhetoric of rampant voter fraud.

But there was no vote fraud… at least not that could be identified by the dozens of investigations that followed. What was identified was voter registration fraud; a very different animal. Vote fraud is a serious federal felony. An example of vote fraud would be someone casting absentee votes for the entire population of the local cemetery… or some election official stuffing a ballot box. Voter ID wouldn’t have stopped either.

Registration fraud is a misdemeanor and happens when someone places fictitious names on registration forms, or the same person registers multiple times. It results in inflated voter rolls, which is a serious problem, but there is no evidence that fictitious registrations produced fraudulent votes. The Post story didn’t even allege this.

ACORN, however, was quite guilty of this… it was likely intentional… and it is a serious problem. It resulted from paying by the name for “bounty hunters” to register as many people they could. These individuals falsified lots of registrations, and were encouraged to do so. However heinous the practice, come Election Day it failed to produce fraudulent votes. These “ghost” voters invariably neglected to show up at the polls.

Thus state laws requiring voter-ID do not deter voter fraud in any of the ways proponents claim. We have documented evidence of people voting in two or more states, but voter identification is not checked across states. Absentee ballot fraud is also well documented, but the voter ID laws do not require proof of identity when casting an absentee ballot, either. So all these laws are doing is stroking the partisan base while increasing docket loads at various courts. Lawyers are grinning all the way to the bank.

Georgia’s partisan-based attempts are a good example of the cost of these laws.  Republicans there carried an ID bill into law in spite of the ruckus created by Democrat opponents. Georgia is under Section V of the Voting Rights Act, which means they had to apply for approval from the Justice Department before the law could go into effect. The requirement was to prove that the law would have no discriminatory effect on minority voters.

Tenured, non-partisan, career lawyers at the DOJ found that Georgia offered no proof of a problem with fraud, and further ruled that the ID law was indeed discriminatory. Their recommendation that the law not be approved was overruled by Bush Administration political appointees in DOJ management. Someone leaked internal DOJ memos to the Washington Post and the excrement hit the fan.

Opponents challenged the law and the federal district courts enjoined the law… ruling that the cost of the identification made the requirement a de facto poll tax. The court agreed with the DOJ careerists that there was no evidence of voter fraud, except in the area of absentee ballots, which was an area where the law actually made no-ID voting easier.

Georgia Republicans retaliated by passing a revised law, supposedly easing the difficulties for the poor to obtain an ID. The DOJ and the courts again ruled the law to be discriminatory. A lot of lawyers made a lot of money in court actions financed by the taxpayers… to the benefit of noone.

The partisan efforts solve no problems and in fact exacerbate existing tensions, but does this mean that all voter-identification laws are bad? Not necessarily, and especially if such laws could be incorporated into an omnibus, bipartisan election reform package. We should consider such revisions as federal voter registration and government issued national voter ID cards. We need to study ways to eliminate absentee vote fraud… all the while ensuring that people voting absentee are guaranteed to be counted.

What we have now is partisan hypocrisy on both sides. Flip this argument with the gun control debates. With the voter ID argument the right is claiming the law to be necessary for preventative measures. With gun control the left uses the same argument. In gun control to positions flip… with the left claiming a need for prevention and the right resisting. There is no evidence that preventative measures are needed in either instance… or that such measures provide any real results.

Nothing is going to change, however, until both sides get serious about improving our society and cease being so foolishly concerned with partisan one-upsmanship. We are a long way from that.

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For a little light reading disproving the validity of state voter ID laws, may I suggest the following studies:

Overton, Spencer, Voter Identification. Michigan Law Review, 2006; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 210; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 210. http://ssrn.com/abstract=908371

Lott, John R., Evidence of Voter Fraud and the Impact that Regulations to Reduce Fraud have on Voter Participation Rates (August 18, 2006).  http://ssrn.com/abstract=925611

Alvarez, R. Michael Michael, Bailey, Delia and Katz, Jonathan N., The Effect of Voter Identification Laws on Turnout (January 1, 2008). California Institute of Technology Social Science Working Paper No. 1267R. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1084598

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The reactionary right never seems to tire of scaring itself

The chronic condition known as Bowels in an Uproar.

There is no better diagnosis for the astoundingly hair-raising chain emails perpetually circulating the reactionary right wing world. On the slimmest of evidence, it seems, the boogieman tales are swallowed... hook, line and sinker... and then faithfully forwarded on by the thousands.

Since my work regularly brings me in contact with military and public safety types, and since I own firearms and motorcycles, enjoy the shooting sports and riding, my circle of friends includes more than a few individuals from that side of the political spectrum – including some who take seriously the inevitable exhortation that they should “forward this to everyone you know,”

I find these scary messages in my inbox pretty regularly. 

Today I got a modern revision of an old, really tired, already debunked admonitory that first started its journey around the cybersphere almost four years ago. The reference was to a bill introduced in the 110th Congress by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), titled “Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2007.”

An early version of this particular scare missive was sent to me  by a biker/shooter friend/neighbor about the time the 2007 bill was introduced. This wasn’t the first time my buddy had done such, and asking this fellow to not fill my inbox with drivel does little good… when he gets excited he looses all perspective. At the time I scolded my excitable buddy to not take the mass mail garbage so seriously, and to PLEASE not inflict it on me.

Obviously that did little good, as today’s missive comes from the same excitable boy.

This is yet another of the urban myths that will not die. The original 2007 email was superseded in 2009 when Rep. Rush reintroduced the bill (I blogged about that at the time). None of the scary threats to our Second Amendment rights have materialized, yet to this very day the message continues to find its way into the inboxes of excitable wingers, who, like my little buddy, dutifully forward it on as if it were the newest and greatest socialist assault in the history of gun control.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the right wing is an easily frightened lot… is the same true for the left? If so, why do I not get those emails?

Anyway, in an effort to calm my little buddy we spent some time taking a look at this bill in particular, and similar bills in general. I'd hoped I could perhaps add some rational perspective to the legislative process and get him to understand that just because someone is shouting that the sky is falling, it does not obligate a knee-jerk reaction from him.

To some of the wingnuts, Rep. Rush’s bill is but the iceberg tip of gun control legislation yet to come, and that goose-stepping liberals will soon be waiting just outside our doors for the go-ahead to kick them down, confiscate all of our weapons and send our kids to FEMA reeducation camps.

Some other, more rational individuals, recognize the bill for what it is… a formerly DOA proposal dredged back up from the grave for another stab at success, yet still doomed to the same fate as in 2007. This kind of garbage legislation didn’t work in the 110th Congress... and it won't in the 111th.

There is just no stomach left in Congress for gun control, and for that reason the bill has failed to attract co-sponsors and faired no better this session than in 2007. At that time it died in committee without ever receiving a vote, and it faces the exact same fate today. 

This particular bill, while hailed by the right wing as evidence of leftist, faggot-loving, pinko-commie socialists determined to take our guns, but is really just another of the thousands of pieces of legislation offered up in every Congress, most of which never see the light of day. Some 94% of all introduced bills die in committee. Of the handful that pass, most are inconsequential. Only a comparative few of the bills passed into law are even mildly noteworthy.

So what is the moral of this story? Just because it is introduced does not mean that any given bill has  even the chance of a fart in a windstorm of becoming law. The right has no reason to continue the email fear-mongering... other than to perpetuate the fear they seem to require to ensure their base remains sufficiently motivated. For that reason alone, I'd bet it won't stop.

Donnie Shaw wrote an interesting piece just a few days ago, posted on the Open Congress blog, in which he addresses the scare-mail mania. The Blair Holt firearms bill is featured in the article.

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