At Random, 7/1/06

The "Faith" Argument:

Here's a post by Michelle Goldberg that pinpoints a few things that have been bothering me about Barack Obama's famous "faith" speech:

Unfortunately, Obama's rhetoric ends up reinforcing Republican myths about liberal Godlessness instead of challenging them. . . .

Obama recognizes this, but he errs in taking Republican propaganda as fact, or, to put it in Lakoff's terms, in accepting the GOP frame. He perpetuates the fantasy that there really is a liberal war on faith.

The speech is here.


Courage:

Here's a post by Digby that I think captures a lot of what the Hamdan decision was all about:

What the Supreme Court said is you have the trial first, you use the procedures that are set up under international law, and then you decide whether they‘re a thug. You don‘t make the thug determination going in.

That's Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, Hamdan's attorney. This has destroyed his career in the Navy (I think a letter to my senators is in order on that) by doing the job he was supposed to do. That's really the saddest commentary on what our government has become.

Digby goes on:

Why is this so hard to understand? We already know they picked up a whole lot of innocent and low level nobodies in Afghanistan and shipped them off to Gitmo. In the early days, the US was paying the Northern Alliance $5,000 per head and the NA was handing over their tribal rivals and anybody else they wanted to get rid of. I'm sure Kato and her barely repressed racist allies on the right don't think it matters if some poor innocent wog gets tortured and locked up forever, but civilized people have come to recognise that show trials, kangaroo courts and lynching are immoral --- and counterproductive. If you want to stress liberal values, the rule of law and democracy as the way forward in these fundamentalist religious cultures, you can't behave this way. It doesn't make you look tough or strong; it makes you look like you don't believe in your own system --- and that makes you weak.


The Loyal Opposition

I wish we had one. Y'know, one of the most frequent comments I see in the left blogosphere is "If the Democrats would only pick up on this and run with it." They don't. I honestly don't know who I'm going to vote for this fall.


Malkin Watch

No, I'm not starting a new feature. But Jane Hamsher came up with a phrase that I adore: "racist mall rats."


Every Sword. . .

has two edges.

After meeting with MPAA officials, Blunt and a handful of other House members said they remain concerned about the subjective native of the ratings process.

Quite aside from the fact that Blunt should not be involved in this at all, nor should any other member of Congress. It is not their place to be defenders of Christianity. I suppose it's beyond hope that Blunt's constituents will point out to him how completely inappropriate it is for him to use his office to further the Christianist agenda.

The irony, of course, is the immense pressure the right wing brought on the movie industry to toughen ratings.


Hamdan Update:

Christy Hardin Smith has a good round-up at firedoglake.


The Ultimate Summation:

As usual, Fafnir says it all.