Michael WaldmanDec 15, 2010 9:19 pm ET
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- These days, conservatives proudly proclaim their love for the Constitution. Yet many seem unsure whether to revere it or repeal it, plank by plank.
Such constitutional nihilism extends well beyond the drive to strike down the U.S. health-care law, a jarring move by those long opposed to judicial activism. It reflects a deep discomfort with the country’s growth toward a thriving, coast-to-coast democracy”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/12/fox_news_on_climate_ignorant_m.html
“Fox News on climate: Ignorant, manipulative -- or both?
By Stephen Stromberg
Media Matters says it has uncovered a directive that Bill Sammon, Fox News's Washington bureau chief, sent to the network's reporters, commanding them to "refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/15/AR2010121503154.html
Did someone say we're at war?
By Matt Miller
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
If we keep taxes low on America's high earners, the terrorists win.
Or at least they'll have a point.
The way we've compartmentalized our current tax debate - and kept it hermetically sealed from the fact that we're a nation at war - is evidence of the moral rot from which our enemies say America suffers.
Listen to the back-and-forth in Washington. Nothing would be different in the way this debate sounds if we were not borrowing $150 billion a year to fund more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/12/reid_kyl_and_the_ridiculous_wa.html
Posted at 9:52 AM ET, 12/16/2010
Reid, Kyl and the ridiculous 'war on Christmas'
By Jonathan Capehart
“Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Whinersville) complained that Reid's push to vote on the new START treaty before Christmas was "disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff."
Cassi Creek:
The forecast was quite accurate. We have been the recipients of sleet, rain, freezing rain, and combinations of the three at any given time since 2200 last night. The amount of ice varies, or course. I’ve been dealing with about 0.25-0.3 inches on flat surfaces. The rain falling atop the existing ice is extremely treacherous.
I got up and dragged the trashcan out to the road in hopes that the trash pickup would take place. The county office says it is going to happen.
We waited all yesterday for the chimney sweeps to arrive. They called at 1600 to tell us they’d be right over then again at 1700 to explain that they couldn’t get here in time to work safely. We’re supposed to be number two on the schedule today. So far, they are an hour late of their target time. If they get here at all, I’m going to be somewhat surprised. Just getting here will be hazardous to their well-being.
There was no newspaper at 0700 but it had appeared by 1045. Honestly, I’m surprised. While the paper is part of our morning routine, I would not have complained about not finding it this morning.
Today’s Washington Post contained a week’s worth of subject material.
The Bloomberg article is really frightening. The desire to undo all the social safety nets is a prelude to debtor’s prisons, workhouses for the poor and private police and fire services. The GOP/teavangelists are steadily pushing undeclared and unfunded war. Yet they are so ignorant of history that they fail to understand that the income tax was the key to building a military system that could beat failing colonial powers and warlords in battle. While demanding more military engagements they also demand a reduction in funding that will lead directly to the routine use of mercenary armies. As long as their cronies make money that must not matter to people who have no concern about returning the nation to a pre-civil war condition. Essentially, the GOP/teavangelists want to return the nation to a theocracy for and of white fundamentalist evangelicals. I want no part of that, nor should anyone who can read at third grade level.
Fox News contains no news, only GOP\teavangelist opinion and Beck, Limbaugh, Palin fomented lies. They reject any thing grounded in science and fact, using a twisted network of deconstructed logic worthy of Goebbels to convince Fox News viewers that what they broadcast is true. Fox News is the 2010 version of 1984’s Ministry of Truth; contracted out, of course, in order to meet with the underlying credo of the GOP\teavangelists that everything government does must enrich some group of private citizens who will hoard every penny of it lest it go to feed and house the poor.
I’m particularly pleased by the response uploaded by another Washington Post reader:
I think this guy should also tell him employees to refrain from asserting that Jesus is the Son of God and was born of the Virgin Mary without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theory is based upon data that critics have called into question.
Posted by: duhneese
December 15, 2010 3:48 PM
The article by Matt Miller is pathognomic of the true idiocy of the GOPers\teavangelists. They constantly trumpet fiscal responsibility, a balanced budget, and a reduction in government expenditures as planks in their platform. Yet for the last ten years, they have pursued an unfunded war costing nearly a trillion dollars over the course, which is yet to be finished in either country where our troops are fighting and dying. They not only refuse to fund this war by taxation, they block any attempt to involve the citizens in these wars. They insist upon using only volunteers and mercenaries. As ever, the mercenaries are owned and rented from cronies who have in effect built a private religion-based army. There is no justification for any of this. If we won’t call up our citizens to fight and won’t pay for the war, there should not be a war.
Senator Kyl has attempted to ignite a religious conflict in his effort to avoid debate and voting on the new START treaty. This treaty is not only in the best interest of the American people, it is in the best interest of the world’s inhabitants. Yet this misbegotten hatemonger rejects it, in large part, because the Obama administration brought it to the Senate. He would rather see nuclear weapons remain a continual threat because the U.S. refuses to cooperate with Russia than make the world a safer place and make it more difficult for terrorists to obtain fissile material. Rather than admit these flaws in his makeup, he tries to hide behind a non-existent “war on Christianity.” There is no such war, Mr. Kyl. Nor would there ever be if Evangelicals and fundamentalists would refrain from forming our own version of the Taliban, we are fighting in Afghanistan. But there should be a war on pseudo-Christians who try to foment class and culture warfare. And you belong in the list of targets for that war, Mr. Kyl. Fortunately, for you, the people you malign most of all don’t threaten elected officials with guns. Unlike the people who target health care professionals, the people who take exception with your bigotry and hatred will do so at the ballot box. Have a happy Christmas break, Mr. Kyl. You don’t deserve it.
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