Month: October 2009

Dan Savage has one of his occasional brilliant ideas:

A group of liberal pastors should announce that they're going to mount the pulpit in a particular church at particular time and preach a series of vile, hateful sermons—one right after the other—attacking people of various races and ethnicities, attacking men and women in turn, attacking people for being white, yellow, and brown, and attacking people of other faiths. The semons should rely on biblical passages that have been historically used to justify attacks on and discrimination against people of different faiths, races, ethnicities, genders, etc., though the ages. Alert the authorities and challenge them to come and arrest all these pastors for preaching hate against groups who are already covered by federal hate crime laws.

And YouTube them to maximize the impact.

Bruce Bartlett relays the tale of fellow economist who had the News Hour with Jim Lehrer cancel on him because "another economist [was] prepared to make his points in the form of rap." The juicy part of the cancellation e-mail:

We just learned that Russ Roberts, a professor of economics at George Mason University, who was our second choice for the anti-Keynes position, is shooting a rap video about Keynes and Hayek next week in New York. He has written the lyrics (they are quite good), hired rappers and musicians, and tapped professional music video producers — there will be bling, babes, limos, the works.

Jennifer Vanasco's write up of last weekend's march:

This wasn't about outsiders seeking visibility. It was about ordinary people wondering why we weren't being treated like everyone else.

Despite the sunny weather, men weren't marching with their shirts off. There was no lesbian fire eating. No boas. This wasn't about a celebration of individual flamboyance or the acknowledgement of sub-identities. This was about showing Washington and the world that we are serious about our rights. That we will not be silent. That we will not back down.

Today on the Dish, Andrew – with the help of Kaplan and Fallows – took two, long looks at the situation in Afghanistan. He also reiterated his rage against Solmonese. Jon Stewart showed us what real activism is, Dreher explained the cowardice on both sides, and Brian Montopoli reported the bigotry on one. Meanwhile, things look good in Maine, partly because of this great ad.

In other news, Ahmadi got sneaky, the Saudis got greedy, and the GOP got 1.0. Joe Klein tackled Krauthammer while Cottle sized up Liz Cheney. And we finally found confirmation that Petraeus is Republican, and aired input from Massie and readers.

Lastly, you should buy this book, watch this documentary, and check out these damn adorable dogs.

— C.B.

A reader writes:

I was an active duty Navy officer from 1990-95 stationed on a Ticonderoga Class cruiser based in Norfolk, and in spite of being fairly liberal and the son of hard-core Kennedy Democrats, I was a bit skeptical of gays in the military (military cohesion and all that) and thought DADT was a decent compromise.  That is, I was a supporter until I actually had to participate in a discharge hearing for one of my sailors. 

A hard working young Boatswain's Mate Seaman (E2) in my Division was arrested for underage drinking at a gay bar in Norfolk.  The authorities, as they are prone to do in military towns, turned him over to the base for disciplinary action.  At the time, I did not think much of the raid, as I was fairly fresh out of college where underage drinking raids occurred all the time.  In hind sight though, it was clearly a witch hunt as I never recall a straight bar being raided for underage drinking.  I assumed it would be the usual drinking related discipline we doled out all the time (restriction to the ship, classes on drinking, etc.) however once the base legal office got involved it turned into a hearing on his sexuality.

 The shipboard legal officer (not an attorney, but ostensibly his defense lawyer) started the process and it became very clear this policy was, in a word, stupid.  His entire chain of command from his Leading Petty Officer (E5) to his Chief Petty Officer (E7) to me, his Division Officer, gave him stellar reviews and testified to his hard work and excellent seamanship.  To see these salty, blue collar guys give impassioned defenses of this sailor was eye-opening to say the least.  They could not have cared less what he did or whom he spent time with on liberty, but they wanted him to stay part of our crew.  I cannot recall exactly how he defended himself, but I do recall that he essentially had no options – it was a done deal.  Our CO had no option either and I could tell it tore him up.  The sailor was discharged with an OTH (Other Than Honorable).  This was about 1994, and I can imagine these types of attitudes have become even more pervasive.  I fully understand this was not a ground combat unit in Iraq or Afghanistan, but Navy ships are obviously very close quarters and the deployments were all too real.  Based on this experience, I believe this policy should be repealed as soon as possible.  We simply cannot afford to lose quality members of our Armed Forces.

Ta-Nehisi hopes that the Cameron Todd Willingham controversy might generate … honesty:

The death penalty promotes our sense of order–it offers assurance that those who savagely violate our most cherished morals will be harshly penalized. The question, for me, is what will we tolerate to preserve that assurance? What I hope will come out of this case is a more honest debate about the death penalty. I strongly suspect that Rick Perry–at this point–knows that something went badly wrong in Willingham's execution, and yet still believes in the death penalty. What I hope will emerge is death penalty advocates honest enough to admit that no system of state-sponsored execution can be infallible, because people are fallible. I want them to come out and say what's clear–innocent people will be executed. I want them to stop treating us like children, and make the argument.

Good luck.

A deer bellows as it forages for food in the early morning sun as cooler temperatures bring on the autumn season at Dunham Massey on October 12, 2009, Altrincham, England. Shortening daylight hours and cooler weather brings on the rutting season for Red and Fallow deer herds and cooler temperatures bring on the Autumn foliage colours in Britain. By Christopher Furlong/Getty.

A reader writes:

"Because he is" is way too simple.  He is a self-described "Rockefeller Republican", from New Hampshire, no less.  So would he call himself a Republican today?  And the real question is, would Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the right-wing welcome him as a Republican if they look past his military service? Of note, I came across another person who had called himself a "Rockefeller Republican" – Jackie Robinson.  Guess what, he campaigned for Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

Another reader:

It would be as if Tommy Franks quit in 2004 and ran against Bush. He has no economic/domestic credentials at all (and if Obama in vulnerable in 2012, it will be on the economy, not foreign policy), and every criticism has an automatic retort: why didn't you work to fix this when you were inside the tent? If some of the fringes of the GOP are pining for Petraeus, I take more of a sign that those fringes really believe that the usual suspects of potential GOP nominees just cannot win against Obama and they're grasping at anything they can to find new blood.

Jason Zengerle follows up on his previous post and compares Petraeus to Wesley Clark:

Clark might have been famous with the sort of folks who find their heroes in Richard Holbrooke books, but he didn't have that much of a national profile, which no doubt contributed to his problems. And, of course, part of the big appeal of Petraeus at the moment is that he seems to be very much above politics. He'd have to sully himself just by entering the presidential race, and then once he was out on the stump, doing the things candidates have to do, I think a lot of his shine would come off.