Kowtowing to right-wing unrest following Lawrence v. Texas, Senate Majority Leader Bill “Catkiller” Frist wants to write a gay marriage ban into the Constitution. Where are the true “conservatives” on this question? Surely, most would agree that the doctor and his cronies should not be scribbling their prejudicial rants upon our founding document, no?
Category: Politics (2002-2004)
Creeping Doubt.
This is a week old, but I didn’t see it until Meet the Press yesterday: Conservative columnist George Will tries to account for the missing WMD. “But unless America’s foreign policy is New Age therapy to make the public feel mellow, feeling good about the consequences of an action does not obviate the need to assess the original rationale for the action. Until WMD are found, or their absence accounted for, there is urgent explaining to be done.”
Sayonara, Cha-Cha.
Greetings from San Diego, where I’m on the last day of my west coast swing. Those of you located in SoCal, that sonic boom you heard was Dennis Miller screaming down the Murphometer after my reading this story. I knew he had a show coming out on FOX News, but I had wrongly assumed it was counterprogramming…I suppose I should’ve known better.
Ding Dong.
Well, it finally happened – Strom Thurmond died. I’m reminded of Hunter Thompson’s Nixon post-mortem. Never has a man more undeserving held sway over a state so long. Lest anyone forget what Strom stood for in these days of eulogy, the guy was a racist through and through – he still holds the filibuster record for his attempt to prevent civil rights. With his shadow finally gone, South Carolina can name a road or two after him and then embrace the future.
Dubya and the Hellfire Club.
“It seems a pretty sunny and conservative and confident moment, despite a hangover of vulnerability from 9/11 and the recently stalled economy…That’s precisely the time when antiheroes are needed and comprehensible.” How the Dubya era paved the way for Marvel’s movie ascendance. A bit goofy, but ok.
That explains it.
The perennial question: Is George W. Bush a liar or a moron? The answer: Yes, says Slate‘s Tim Noah.
Hey, Dubya, I’ve found a “revisionist historian” for ya…
You must be joking. She’s been nutty for years, of course, but now Ann Coulter has really lost it. According to excerpts of her new bile-filled book on Drudge, Coulter has now taken to defending McCarthyism. According to Coulter, the “myth of ‘McCarthyism’ is the greatest Orwellian fraud of our times…Liberals are fanatical liars, then as now. Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie…Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals.” Wow. It’s pointless to even waste time on this book, I know. Still, this is ignorant on so many levels. Were Eisenhower, the Army, and the Senate all “liberals”? My advice to anyone out there interested in McCarthyism: consult a real historian on the subject. You’ll find that, contrary to Coulter’s swill, McCarthy had enemies – and supporters – on both sides of the ideological spectrum. If the conservative press wants to maintain any credibility at all, they’re going to have to renounce this garbage and soon, ’cause this is just off the deep end.
Pac-Man, Lay off the Dots.
An Albany congressman proposes a “fat tax” on junk food, video games, and TV commercials to combat NY’s growing obesity rate. Thinking outside the box, I suppose, but where would this end? There are very few items in American life these days that don’t contribute to obesity, so it seems a bit harsh to pin the blame on Grand Theft Auto.
Willful Disbelief.
Salon examines the reasons for Dubya’s continued public support despite the WMD shenanigans. “Just imagine how much shock and complaining there would be if we learned that ‘American Idol’ had been rigged. But Bush and his comrades can use deceptive means to launch a war and to pass trillion-dollar tax cuts that bust the bank — and then skate away.” In related news, the New Republic offers a concise overview of the story to date.
Lie Down with Dogs…
Rejecting any attempt at rapprochement with Congress on the subject of judicial nominations, Dubya tries to ram a former Starr Chamber aide down the Democrats’ throats. To his credit, it sounds like this fellow Kavanaugh was against including salacious details in the Starr report, but he still comes off as yet another Clinton-hater on the IC’s payroll. And we really don’t need any more freak show conservative witch-hunters on the bench.