Senator Shelby (R-Ala): Show Me the Money

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., had blocked more than 80 presidential nominations now before the Senate, but tonight he relented, saying he had simply been trying "to get the White House's attention" on two important national security issues related to his state. Johnathan Karl and Kristina Wong. ABC News.

It seems Sen Shelby wanted to throw some $40B in taxpayer funds to businesses in his home state.

Shelby is literally trying to undermine the federal government’s ability to do business effectively and have responsible, politically accountable leadership, in order to lobby on behalf of a foreign corporation, against an American corporation.

The Shelby affair has yet more layers of stunning hubris: the $40 billion project he is demanding action for is actually related to a bidding process in which a joint venture between Northrop Grumman and EADS —the European parent of Airbus— is competing against Boeing for a contract to build a new aerial refueling tanker. The Northrop/EADS venture plans to build the tanker in Mobile, Alabama, if it wins, but is threatening to withdraw its bid altogether unless the Air Force makes the conditions of bidding more favorable to its needs. Truth-First.com

Sen Shelby, like many of his fellow conservative legislators, decry wasteful federal spending at every opportunity. It would appear that Shelby has no reservations with spending billions on a project that benefits a foreign company that donated bags of money to Shelby's political slush fund. What a hypocrite.

It's Time to End Don't Ask - Don't Tell

To hear the voices of those predominately white, Christian-conservative politicians, you’d think the cold-steel discipline of our military barracks was about to be subverted by the degenerate onslaught of chintz curtains and over-stuffed throw pillows should we allow gay and lesbians to serve openly. They would have us believe that introducing homosexuals into the tight, close-quarters of military life would create an atmosphere charged with sexual tension. An atmosphere so heavy that our morally pure sons and daughters would be forced to sleep with eyes open lest their unguarded orifices be penetrated as they sleep.

It’s a rehash of the same dark prejudices used to attack gay and lesbian teachers. To these homophobes, to be homosexual is to be completely free from the burdens of sexual propriety at best and, at worst, to be driven solely by lust, unthinking, like an animal in rut. Neither the classroom nor the barracks should be a home for predators regardless of sexual persuasion.

Our deepest quarrel with fundamentalists in this country, then, is not about Iraq, health care, abortion, or gay rights. It’s about the very possibility of trying to be true without needing the truth. It’s about being able to commit to a truth while always remembering that this truth could be partial, incomplete, and provisional—a steppingstone forward, not an edifice of certitude.
Nick Bromell, Scooter and Me,(The American Scholar, Jan 2007)

Hannity is Keynote Speaker for NRCC

"Fox News anchor Sean Hannity will deliver the keynote address at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner next month. Officials said the television star would offer them insight into their quest to win back the House of Representatives this fall.

NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) hailed Hannity as fighting for conservative values when announcing his speaking slot for the March 23 dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington." TPM LiveWire

Hannity’s selection as the keynote speaker for the NRCC’s dinner illustrates the depths to which today’s GOP has fallen. Bill Buckley held some distasteful views but at least he had the intellectual heft to defend his views with coherent rebuttal. Hannity barely qualifies as an intellectual light-weight. His popularity on Faux News is clearly the result of his pandering to the racist, xenophobic, and anti-intellectual rabble only too willing to blame liberals and progressives for the abject failure of Neoconservative philosophy. Hannity is junk-food for the mind; no preparation required, easy to consume, and free of any nutritional content.

Faith Trumps Science. WTF?

Aside from the obvious irritation at people like Tebow who feel they have to shove their religiosity into the public domain 24/7, I have serious issues over the comments made by Tebow’s mother. She would have us believe that her doctor was an uncaring quack that nearly ended the life of her unborn son when he or she advised her to terminate the pregnancy for medical reasons. The cavalier attitude ascribed to her physician is a creation of her biased mind and not the behavior of a medical professional counseling a patient facing a serious ethical choice. The more troublesome issue presented in this carefully scripted passion play is the not so veiled suggestion that faith trumps science. When informed of the seriousness of her condition, she decided, on the strength of faith alone, to continue her pregnancy. With the gift of 20/20 hindsight, Mrs. Tebow presents her singular experience as a model for all women facing a similar diagnosis. Her commentary callously suggests that modern science and medicine are no more capable of ameliorating human suffering than are the incantations of a tribal witchdoctor chanted over the spilled entrails of a butchered goat.

Has a professional diagnosis of Trisomy 21, Tay-Sachs, Anencephaly, or any of the other tragic birth abnormalities intruded on your plans for motherhood? Mrs. Tebow would have women believe that faith alone will restructure that mortally scrambled life developing with them. What meaningless sympathies would Mrs.Tebow extend to those mothers who chose faith over science only to give birth to a child condemned to a short and painful existence? With tragic irony, the faith that only added to human suffering is now used to justify that suffering as God’s will. The cruelty behind that blind faith knows no limits.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

Mr. Johnson's Big Adventure

This short animation (SLYT) would make a great public service announcement. (NSFW)

Between Scylla and Charybdis

The loss of Ted Kennedy's senate seat to a republican was a wake-up call to progressive Americans that our long-awaited moment to address critical issues like health care, energy reform, education, infrastructure, banking reform, and the continuing demise of the middle-class, has been squandered by the inaction of the "No Nothing!" Republican and the "Know Nothing?" Democratic parties.

President Obama needs to take decisive action if his campaign promises, and the hopes of millions of caring Americans, are to become more than artfully-crafted rhetoric in the service of nothing but selfish ambition.

Deux ex Machina?