Blogs

This coming weekend in New York at the Bush Crimes Commission, www.bushcommission.org , the annual Sam Adams Associates for Integrity In Intelligence Award will be presented to Craig Murray, the former United Kingdom's Ambassador to Uzbekistan who publicly criticised the human rights situation there, and privately criticised the UK government for committing torture by proxy and "selling our souls for dross". Last year's recipient was Katharine Gun.

Duck and cover!  Bill's got a Bible in his hand...!!

So what to make of our party's seeming inability to connect with voters on the issue of religion?  Why are we so timid about citing the Good Book?  Why do we seem uncomfortable professing our faith?  Why are we getting our clocks cleaned by a bunch of sanctimonious Republican hypocrites who use the same pair of lips to praise Jesus Christ one moment and kiss Jack Abramoff's hairy ass the next?  Because, up 'til now, we've been chicken, that's why.

Exhibit A: You remember, during the 2004 campaign, when the RNC mailer that was sent to residents in Arkansas and West Virginia warning that Democrats wanted to ban the Bible?  More important, do you remember how our side responded?  The blogs exploded, of course.  But all the Kerry campaign could muster was a "written statement."  Ooooh!!

Why do I bring this up?  Because James Carville and Paul Begala have a sensational new book out called Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future.  On page 80, they imagine how Bill Clinton might have rapidly responded to the above smear:

Can't you just see him in Morgantown, waving his family Bible over his head, biting that lower lip:  "I couldn't make it one day without this good book," he might say.  "I read it every day.  And Lord knows every day I fall short of the glory of God.  But this book has a happy ending.  It says we don't have to be perfect; just forgiven.  But Lord, I'm having a hard time forgiving our Republican brothers and sisters for accusing us of bannin' the Bible.  Haven't they read the Ninth Commandment?  Let me read it to them.  It's right here: Exodus 20:16, `Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.'  Before God Almighty, and with the Bible in my hand, I swear to you we will never let anyone ban the Bible.  And let me warn you: If we get four more years of Republican economic policies; four more years of plant closings; four more years of jobs going overseas; four more years of tax cuts for the idle rich and more burden for the forgotten middle class, you're going to need that Bible more than ever.  Because we're all going to be praying for deliverance from these economic policies.  We're all going to be praying for food to eat, a roof over our heads, and health care for our kids.  So I will never ever allow anyone to ban this Bible."

I'm not (necessarily) criticizing Kerry's response as much as I'm screaming at any future Democratic candidate running for the Senate, the House, the Oval Office or the Bureau of Weights and Measures:  Fear not the progressive lessons of wisdom, compassion and common sense in the Good Book.  When the knuckledragger wing of the Republican party comes after you over God, guns and gays, grab a mike, grab a Bible, and smite their hypocritical asses.  As is evident above, it's not that hard...but it can be that powerful.

P.S. As good as Carville & Begala's book is, we're betting dollars to doughnuts that Kos & Jerome's will be even better. Pre-order the special edition here.  We hear it comes with a free pony.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!]  RIGHTNOW!  [Gong!!]

Word Version

A thread with family and friends. That sure as hell wasn't in the brochure.

Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Michigan, 14th District, Ranking Member, U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Dean, Congressional Black Caucus
www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/index.html
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressmen John Conyers, Jr., Bobby Scott and Chris Van Hollen and other Members to hold a Democratic Hearing to consider the legal ramifications of President Bush's warrantless surveillance.

Congressional Progressive Caucus
“62 Strong and Growing”
[Note: 5 new Members added raising total Caucus Membership to 62, just 4 short of equaling 1/3 of the entire Democratic Caucus and by far the most diverse Caucus in the 109th Congress.]

By Ron Kovic, www.Truthdig.com
Thirty-eight years ago, on Jan. 20, 1968, I was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down during my second tour of duty in Vietnam. It is a date that I can never forget, a day that was to change my life forever. Each year as the anniversary of my wounding in the war approached I would become extremely restless, experiencing terrible bouts of insomnia, depression, anxiety attacks and horrifying nightmares. I dreaded that day and what it represented, always fearing that the terrible trauma of my wounding might repeat itself all over again. It was a difficult day for me for decades and it remained that way until the anxieties and nightmares finally began to subside.

By Brad Blog
Last November, The Daily Mirror published details of a "top secret" U.K. memo revealing that President Bush wanted to bomb headquarters for the al-Jazeera news... READ MORE

So when do we destroy the thread already?

Leaked memo reveals strategy to deny knowledge of detention centres
By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian (UK)
The government is secretly trying to stifle attempts by MPs to find out what it knows about CIA "torture flights" and privately admits that people captured by British forces could have been sent illegally to interrogation centres, the Guardian can reveal. A hidden strategy aimed at suppressing a debate about rendition - the US practice of transporting detainees to secret centres where they are at risk of being tortured - is revealed in a briefing paper sent by the Foreign Office to No 10.

By Patrick Doherty, www.tompaine.com
The first time I met Richard Clarke, I was role-playing the president of the United States during a weekend war game hosted by the Security Studies Program at the Fletcher School. That game, held annually and dubbed "SIMULEX," is staffed by members of the nation's military graduate schools, such as the National War College and the Arm War College. This particular year, 1997, Clarke was observing the progress of the game, as he had a special interest in the scenario.

By the Institute for Policy Studies, http://www.ips-dc.org
mp3 (Right click and select Save to disk to download in Windows. Warning- 55 meg file)
Listen Now! With Windows Media Player

On Wednesday, January 18 th, Cindy Sheehan was hosted by the Rome Province in their Sala della Pace. Sheehan is on tour in Italy with her organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, calling for the removal of troops from Iraq. At the same time, she is sharing her personal story about the loss of her son Casey in the war and her subsequent efforts to speak with President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas in August 2005. READ MORE

By Dan Eggen, The Washington Post
The Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to congressional leaders, according to a memo from Congress's research arm released yesterday.

Larry Wilkerson Attacked the Iraq War. In the Process, He Lost the Friendship of Colin Powell.
By Richard Leiby, Washington Post
In an overheated old schoolroom in Washington, Larry Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel, is doing his best to impose military discipline on 25 pupils as they prepare to attack a mountain of pizza, cupcakes and cookies. It is the year-end party for Macfarland Middle School's Colin L. Powell Leadership Club, a tutoring and mentoring program that Wilkerson oversees as a volunteer. Striding before his charges in smart burgundy suspenders, the colonel -- everybody here calls him the colonel -- makes a point about duty:

By BBC
Tony Blair is facing calls to make a full statement on how much he knew about the US using UK airports to transport terror suspects.
Downing Street says all such cases have now been made public after a leaked memo said "there could be more".

By Max Obuszewski
Some twenty antiwar activists held a demonstration on a rainy Wednesday morning outside U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia at 3rd & Constitution Ave. The demonstration preceded the third trial resulting from more than 370 arrests at the White House on September 26, 2005, when activists gathered to seek a meeting to discuss an end to the war in Iraq.

The CT primary is around six-and-a-half months from now - Aug. 9th. In October of 2003, also about 6 to 7 months out from the PA primary, Quinnipiac [...] did a poll on the senate race in that state. This time, I just want to look at Dem voters in CT and GOP voters in PA (forget about tags like "liberal" or "conservative").

Job Approval
Specter among Republicans: 57-30
Lieberman among Democrats: 55-29

Favorability (favorable-unfavorable-mixed)
Specter among Republicans: 49-18-25
Lieberman among Democrats: 50-15-28

Six months out, Specter was looking pretty comfortable. But as Adam notes, the race tightened considerably in a very short amount of time, and Specter came within a hair's breadth of an early retirement. Lieberman's numbers are virtually identical.

David gets into the similarities and differences between the two contests. There are a bunch of both. But bottom line, Lieberman is beatable.

January 19 - 21, 2006
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE in Washington, DC: The RNC will hold its
annual winter meeting. [ABCNews.com, 1/18/06]
Thursday, January 19, 2006
NEW* BUSH in Sterling, VA: President Bush will give a speech on the