Obama's recent push toward the Christian community, especially as it comes to a White House connection to something resembling Bush's policies, has me a little edgy. The recent poll revelation that roughly 92% of Americans are believers in some form of religion (with Christians by far in the lead) puts me in a shaky 8% that misses the true separation of church and state that Jefferson enjoyed.

While riding in to work this morning and listening to public radio do a story on the Middle East, they gave up the statistic that over 80% of Arabs are convinced that the US's position in the Iraqi and Afghanistani campaigns is to replace Islam with Christianity, therefor giving Al Quaeda it's strongest recruiting message.

An article on Huffington Post this morning talked about Franklin Graham (Billy Graham's heir apparent) questioning Obama in public on whether or not he was a Muslim and trying to bring him to Christ in front of a group of clerics Obama was meeting with.

All of this is making me feel so far to the outside that I fear the worst happening both in the US and in the World.

Atheists rarely stand up proudly to declare their non-belief. More likely, they wish to be ignored by believers... left alone and unbothered. The organizations which have formed around atheism (The Brights, The Humanists, etc.) seem like they are competing more for membership and money than for the freedom from believing that everything is God-created and that we are doomed to hell for not taking part in the Jesus chorus.

It doesn't matter, it seems, whether you support a Democrat or a Republican. Both sides want to tie themselves to pastors and priests who advocate the most outlandish things... and who, when these things don't happen on schedule (you can look back for centuries and see the Rapture as having been expected and missed several times), simply revise the due-date.  At all political levels we are seeing this stuff happening (the Governor of Louisiana, for instance, just signed into law a bill making creationism ... excuse me, "intelligent design"... a subject being taught to the youngest of schoolchildren) and it is getting worse.

When I was younger I thought we were getting farther from religion as a culture, but we have actually swung the other way. I fear that my grandchildren's grandchildren will never see a religion-free cultural climate. Perhaps they will be able to finally disengage at least elective politics from this bugaboo.

Under The LobsterScope

The press is only beginning to pay attention to Sy Hersh's articles in the New Yorker detailing the secret moves against Iran being carried out by the Bush Administration, and, more specifically, by the Cheney office's influence over that Administration.

Yale Professor David Bromwich wrote in the Huffington Post:

In late 2007, after winning an election whose central issue was a more prudent and rational policy in the Middle East, congressional Democrats, obedient to the wishes of a Presidential Finding, signed away $400 million for secret operations against Iran. A more craven act of submission would be hard to imagine; and they did this in the glow of victory, in direct contradiction of their mandate. What were they signing for? Sabotage, assassination, covert support for political clients and "destabilization" generally are predictable parts of such a design; but the Democrats, in the months between their capitulation and Hersh's article, made no mention of dissatisfactions at having been cut off from oversight. The truth seems to be that in this area, as in so many others, only the Office of the Vice President oversees the Office of the President.

There was a really nice essay by Cenk Uygar in the Huffington Post this morning. You can read it here.

I sent him this comment:

Cenk's argument is crystal clear and 100% valid...and not likely to change anything with the Conservative Republicans. Too bad.

The Fourth Amendment, which gives us the right of Habeas Corpus and hearkens back to the Magna Carta, is the deepest of American philosophies and, I daresay, if any of the Founding Fathers had to pick and choose among the first 10 entries that make up the Bill of Rights, it is the one they would be least likely to change.

I'm hauling out my flintlock musket, however, to protect my home and property (and wait for the general Militia call). I only hope I don't shoot anyone by accident (my vision is faltering with old age.)

Under The LobsterScope

On Thursday, the United State Senate voted overwhelmingly to advance a legislative compromise on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, marking the beginning of the end of a fierce battle over civil liberties and national security that has been waged in the halls of Congress for more than three years.

In the end, only 15 U.S. Senators were willing to resort to procedural tactics as a last ditch effort to hold up the legislation. The list of those who voted against cloture included:

   Joseph Biden, DE
    Barbara Boxer, CA
    Sherrod Brown, OH
    Maria Cantwell, WA
    Chris Dodd, CT
    Dick Durbin, IL
    Russ Feingold, WI
    Tom Harkin, IA
    John Kerry, MA
    Frank Lautenberg, NJ
    Patrick Leahy, VT
    Robert Menendez, NJ
    Bernie Sanders, VT
    Chuck Schumer, NY
    Ron Wyden, OR
"It's the most embarrassing failure of the Democrats I've seen since 2006, other than the failure to vote to end the Iraq war," said Russ Feingold. And as a Democrat I find this unbelievable as well. I've seen the list of Representatives who got big payouts from the telecom industry. The list of Senators will likely be forthcoming.

What this really proves is that no matter who is elected, liberal or conservative, it is up to the people to hold their feet to the fire and not forget what they have burdened us with when elections roll around. Unfortunately we have to bite our tongues and hold on to get the Republicans out... but we must still remember this vote and be aware of what we are going to do in the future.

Under The LobsterScope

I stumbled onto an article by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic which discussed one of the places in the West Virginia Panhandle, where I live, that I have shopped at: the local Wal-Mart.

Or, as he put it, the "crappiest Wal-Mart in America".  An exerpt:

If you want to see the underside of the unregulated capitalist economy, the people who can't find the non-existent escape ladder from poverty and its pathologies, visit the Martinsburg, West Virginia Wal-Mart. Morbid obesity; spontaneous, public bouts of corporal punishment directed against dirty children; ten-year girls dressed as whores; tattoos running up necks and down legs; smoking like you only see these days in Baku; it's all here.

The Panhandle is considered one of the more liberal places in the Appalachian economy that is West Virginia. But even here we have higher than average unemployment, lower than average annual incomes, a devastated population which, going back to Reagan, was convinced that Republican de-regulation was in everyone's best interest as they all slid further down the slippery slope.

Wal-Mart, being the cheap source for breakable Chinese goods, is the catchall at the bottom that gets most of the clothing, school supply, home appliance and gardening business around here. Goldberg's view of the people he sees here is not unreasonable... in fact it is frighteningly accurate.

Elly and I moved to the Panhandle, and, in particular, to the small college town of Shepherdstown (home of Shepherd University and some of the most expensive houses in the area) to get away from the Hagerstown, MD, area where we work. Shepherdstown was our initial view of the Panhandle... and it was a little off-putting when we drove out of town for shopping... towards Martinsburg about 8 miles away... and found another world. When I got involved with the Obama campaign in the WV Primary (which Hillary Clinton won, as you will recall, by catering to the rifle-toting "bitter" folk of white Appalachia), I became even more aware of this economy that had been kept down by decades of deregulating administrations that removed their opportunities by offering them unkept promises.

In my county, Jefferson County, the major income provider is Horse Racing and Slot Machines in the County Seat at Charles Town. Oh... there is some nearby Government employment (the IRS is in Martinsburg - I used to commute up here from Washington DC when I worked for CSC who had the IRS as a client; Shepherdstown has the Forest Service's main training facility (which is rumored to be THE training facility for the CIA), and a good deal of small, private farms. But the downtowns in Martinsburg, Charles Town and other places nearby are dilapidated and victims of Mall surroundings. Shepherdstown's 2 block downtown has saved itself by becoming a tourist attraction... shops and restaurants, mostly, operating at full tilt for 9 months of the year.

Goldberg looks at the results he sees at the Martinsburg Wal-Mart as the dregs of unregulated capitalism, and I think he is right. Easily one of the best things that could happen with a Democratic Presidency and a stronger Democratic Congress could be a return to the kind of regulation which would have protected us from the oil crisis, the housing/mortgage debacle and the increasing costs of food, clothing and just about everything else we need for basic survival.

And if you are ever in Martinsburg, WV, follow his warning and stay out of Wal-Mart's men's room.

Under The LobsterScope

I don't believe that any African=American who grew up in the America that I experienced in the fifties and sixties (and even later) should necessarily have been as proud of this country then than they are now when Barack Obama has climbed to the top of the Democratic Party. So when Michelle Obama is attacked for her comment last February, taken out of context, that she has never been as proud of America as she is now, she is being unfairly accused of everything from UnAmericanism to social evil.

Dan Abrams on MSNBC last night had a great section where he revealed quotes by John McCain where he clearly states that he didn't love America until he was a prisoner of war and was deprived of his country. Abrams pointed out that this could just as easily be taken out of context if Democrats were to do what Republicans like Cindy McCain were doing... and this would be just as unfair.

here's the section of The Verdict where he raises this issue with a mixed panel:

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Perhaps we can return to debating the actual issues and get away from personality attacks. There is an awful lot to really discuss which has nothing to do with depicting a candidate's spouse in such a manner.

One could hope.

Under The LobsterScope

This from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The administration opened the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to hold enemy combatants, people suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The Guantanamo prison has been harshly criticized at home and abroad for the detentions themselves and the aggressive interrogations that were conducted there.

The court said not only that the detainees have rights under the Constitution, but that the system the administration has put in place to classify them as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.

Well... he doesn't know Shi'ites from Sunnis, and he thinks Iran shelters Al Qaida... now the old man mixes up his European leaders. And he wants us to know about his experience as a world leader?

I bet the Germans are thrilled.

Under The LobsterScope