This is the kind of guy who probably actually likes George Bush.
Unfortunately, I guess there are enough people in Oklahoma who share James Inhofe’s points of view that the man is in office.
A day for outrage, it seems to be. And a day for being that much more ashamed of being an American. I think that will be the strongest legacy the Bush administration leaves this country–that of making us the worst of the bad guys in the world.
Not only for their amazing coverage of everythin the US is doing to royally fuck up the world, but for coining the term fundagelicals.
The word “fundagelism” has never appeared in the columns of this newspaper. The term is, however, current in the blogosphere – that cyberforum which nowadays carries the most interestingly paranoid political debate. “Fundagelism” is not a word that trips easily off the tongue. It’s a crunching together of the even more mouth-boggling compound “fundamentalist evangelism”.
You know, back when I worked for Planned Parenthood, the national organization used the incomparable Celinda Lake as their pollster, and I got to meet her several times. She coined for us the term “religious political extremist” after her polling showed some horribly huge swath of American considered itself “religious,” “right,” or both. The phrase provoked the negatives it deserved, but in practice is was really hard to say in an interview (almost as hard as “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities”). “Fundagelical” is just a brilliant alternative. Do read the article, though it might well make you cry.
This is a weird article in Salon. Well, not so much the first two-thirds about a high-level EPA official deciding she just couldn’t take being a party to Bush’s rape and pillage approach to the environment, but the last page about organized Christianity’s disgust at just that.
Specifically, I was intrigued by the description of an Earth Day letter from a group of ministers claiming to represent 2 million Christians:
Citing the Bible’s directive to “defend the poor and the orphan; do justice to the afflicted and the needy (Psalms 82:3),” the letter sings the gospel of environmental justice, noting that clean-air policy changes have the greatest impact on “those least able to defend themselves” — namely, “[p]oor people, who have limited access to health care; senior citizens, who may have compromised immune systems; and children, who pound for pound breathe 50 percent more air pollution than adults.”
What’s notable about the effort is not just its attention to policy detail, but its direct assault on what Bush’s supporters (and Bush himself) frequently cite as his core strength: an unswerving moral rectitude derived from Christian faith.
NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar put it this way: “President Bush has said that moral values are the cornerstone of his administration. But as a person of faith, I question whether the president fully understands his moral commitment. I’m concerned that he is failing to protect God’s children.”
I was afraid maybe it was going to wind up being middle of the country Christians against pretty much everyone else, but maybe that’s still an audience that could be won. I’m hoping Kerry works this one well. It seems like it might be a good wedge.
This article on Bush’s religious beliefs is so full of good targets, I’m not going to comment further. Just let it speak for itself.
So tell me why an article like “Bush’s flight from the guard,” published in Salon today doesn’t get the same kind of front-page hullabaloo that Kerry’s supposed protest tossing of his service ribbons (and not his medals) from Vietnam made yesterday.
Please, someone tell me why, with the mounting evidence that Bush lied about about his Guard service, and had people toss the evidence of it, the Washington Post can’t even get up the backbone to call a spade a spade and instead takes the wishy washy approach of asking if the story has legs?
Can people tell me why the people of this country were clamoring for every detail about Bill Clinton’s personal indiscretions and yet no one seems overly angered that we can’t even find out whether the president served out his term in the military or why he was grounded as a pilot?
Or why it was more important to know who helped set up rendezvous between Bill and Monica than it is for any of us to know anything about the development of the president’s energy policy and expert advice?
In today’s Post, :
Ok, fine. My points are kind of all over the place today. But that’s because there are so many good targets, and the stupid mainstream media doesn’t care. They seem to think there is something inconsistent in John Kerry symbolically protesting a war by throwing away an award from it, while keeping a personal memento he earned and had every right to keep, but that the president lied (I’ll say it in bigger letters) THE PRESIDENT LIED about his own military service record, is not such a big deal.
From Salon again today:
According to Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, who was a strategic planning officer for the Texas National Guard during Bush’s gubernatorial administration, James ordered a cleanup of the Bush Guard files in 1997. Burkett said he was waiting outside James’ office when he heard a speakerphone conversation between the commander of the Texas Guard and Joe Allbaugh, Bush’s chief of staff in Texas. Recounting the conversation, Burkett said he heard Allbaugh tell James to “clean up the governor’s files and remove any embarrassments in case he wants to run for reelection or something higher.”
Sigh. I want ABC, CBS and NBC news to devote the entirety of their broadcast to this tonight. But I don’t see anything on their front pages indicating that they have any intention of discussing this.
Just for the record, I’ll be working on John Kerry’s campaign at some point this year. Hell, I’m even considering taking a leave from work in the fall to do something full time for a month or two. I’m not sure in what capacity, but if there’s one thing I do believe at this point, it’s the responsibility of any citizen who values what this country stands for to do everything they can to get that putz out of the oval office.
MoveOn PAC, which has been running amazing ads and pulled together the bake sale Pam told us about last weekend, is really a thorn in the administration’s side. David can’t, as a damn furner, contribute to PACs or candidates, but we both agree this is a great organization to support.
To that end, I ponied up for their “50 for the Future” drive which aims to raise $50 million from 500,000 Americans (translating to $100 each). According to their site, these funds would be spent as follows:
Good causes all. Incidentally, Bush campaign director Ken Mehlman was quoted Monday as saying “MoveOn.org is a huge threat and has hurt the President.” Awwww. Of course don’t feel too bad for W–unless Dick or Carl told him how badly it was hurting him, we know he hasn’t read about it in the paper. If ignorance is indeed bliss, Bush must be a very, very happy man.
If you decide to take part, please let me know… I’d like to get a sense of how effectively we can use the site to raise awareness about different efforts. Also, look out soon for an invitation to a very special Swallow Don’t Spit evening. In honor of supposedly “French-looking” John Kerry, we’ll be sampling French wines and gathering donations for his campaign. We will win this election one sip at a time, my friends!
I love Slate. They can take the most boring government report, filled with all kinds of opaque facts and figures, and turn into something snappy and easy to follow. While we’re at, let’s all bless my own company’s PowerPoint for sparing us from those distracting details.
Mr. Nobody is a very interesting site… a tad oblique, but obviously a well done “viral game” intended to teach us a few things about Bush. Even more interesting is the content of the links section, espcially this site–a devastating 3-minute road movie (complete with a little Bing Crosby) of America’s creation of Saddam Hussein, almost from whole cloth.
I think there will be more to come from this site. I’ll keep you posted.
Driving Votes is a great idea… little Oregon (or Nevada or Arizona) road trip, anyone?
Now we just need to worry about getting out the vote on Election Day. I’ve joked with friends about starting a movement to make sure that everyone with a “I voted!” sticker gets a little sumpin-sumpin the evening of 11/2. They almost got Clinton out of office for a blowjob… using them to make sure Bush gets defeated (well, defeated again) seems like a pretty good idea.
Some folks are already thinking along these lines, but I don’t think it’s fair just to tittilate would-be Democratic voters. We really should just make Election Day a legal holiday… but short of that, I think the average voter deserves a little love. And it’s the perfect promotional idea for us libertines–I mean liberals–because we all know that the religious right is far too saintly to be swayed by something so obscene.
I’m hearted to see more articles pointing out the Emporer’s new clothes in relation to Bush’s campaign strategies, and I’m hoping that more mainstream press than even salon will make a point of reminding us that Bush has been most successful at making us all fear the consequences of not going along with his plans, as opposed to actually doing anything positive in reducing the threat of terrorism, but I particularly enjoyed this little bit today:
Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism, is more blunt: “I call the color-coded system the ‘terrorism mood ring,'” he says. “Security isn’t green, yellow and purple. This is a public relations ploy, run by people who are making decisions on security who don’t really know what they’re doing. They make statements that aren’t backed up by any real data or empirical evidence. It’s faith-based security.”
I think he’s right on the mark. And it comes a little close to bringing up the questions that have been dogging me for the last few years about how much of Bush’s answer to fanatical Islamic jihad is a good old-fashioned Christian crusade.
