American Taliban

The National Jewish Democratic Council has assembled this fact sheet on John McCain's right wing extremism. It is enough to make any moderate shudder:

FORMER MAVERICK
MCCAIN’S EMBRACE OF EXTREMISM

“ … the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican Party.”
- John McCain [New York Times, 4/3/06]

DESPITE HIS CLAIMS TO BE INDEPENDENT, MCCAIN TAKES EXTREME POSITIONS ON SOCIAL ISSUES; HE SAYS AMERICA IS A “CHRISTIAN NATION”

McCain stated that a candidate’s Christian faith is “an important characteristic”
for a president, that he would prefer a Christian president and that the "Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." Furthermore, despite criticism, a statement from his official campaign spokeswoman defended the comments and said again, "America is a Christian nation, and it is hardly a controversial claim." The New York Sun, October 1, 2007.

McCain has voted two-thirds of the time against bills supported by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. [Project Vote Smart]

For some time I have been writing about the fact that Bush has lost the war on terrorism and has, in fact, pretty much been enabling the rise of a new, extremist Caliphate that aims to control lands from Africa to Pakistan (and hence to have a nuclear capability). Some of my writings even came to the attention of BBC radio some time back.

Well, now even Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is admitting that the Republicans have lost the war against terrorism. From Salon.com:

Frist: Taliban Should Be in Afghan Gov't

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By JIM KRANE Associated Press Writer

October 02,2006 | QALAT, Afghanistan -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Islamic militia and its supporters into the Afghan government.

The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

Planned Parenthood is fighting the South Dakota ban on abortion and they are asking you to host or attend a potluck fundraiser for choice.

Potluck House Parties will be held across the country to raise money and build awareness for the campaign to defeat the abortion ban in South Dakota.

Sign up to host a Potluck for South Dakota with your friends and family!

Use their online tools to create, manage and promote your potluck.

The host whose potluck raises the most money will win a Newman’s Own gift basket and a trip to New York City to meet Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards!

Or you can find a potluck near you to attend.

I don't know about you, but I am damned sick of the right wing nuts exploiting 9/11 for their own benefit. This year they plan to do it again and ABC is hosting it. From Truthout:

Clinton, 9/11 and the Facts
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 30 August 2006

The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks is less than two weeks away...ABC intends to mark the occasion in far more grand a fashion. Starting September 10th and ending September 11th, the network will show a miniseries titled "The Path to 9/11." According to reports from early screenings, the writer/producer of the miniseries, Cyrus Nowrasteh, has crafted a television polemic intended to blame the entire event on President Clinton.

Nowrasteh, an outspoken conservative...spoke last year at the Liberty Film Festival, described by its founders as Hollywood's first conservative film festival. Govindini Murty, actress, writer, and co-director of the Liberty Film Festival, wrote a review of "The Path to 9/11" for the right-wing online news page FrontPageMag.com.

In the review, Murty states, "'The Path to 9/11' is one of the best, most intelligent, most pro-American miniseries I've ever seen on TV, and conservatives should support it and promote it as vigorously as possible. This is the first Hollywood production I've seen that honestly depicts how the Clinton administration repeatedly bungled the capture of Osama bin Laden."

The (presumably small) Republican Jewish Coalition is apparantly suggesting that Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, join the Repub party in protest of Lieberman's defeat.

The National Jewish Democratic Council has this to say regarding orthodox Jews defecting to the Republican Party because of Lieberman's defeat:

"I'm absolutely astonished by the RJC ad campaign. American Jews need to know that the Republican Jewish Coalition is no friend of Joe Lieberman, and it certainly isn't an advocate for the issues of importance to the mainstream of the Jewish community.

"For years, the RJC has criticized Joe Lieberman. Now they want to use his good name for their own political purposes. These guys have no shame.

"The Connecticut Senate primary was not about Israel or the Jewish community. Joe Lieberman's record on Israel is impeccable. Ned Lamont's pro-Israel position is commendable. Connecticut will have a pro-Israel senator if either Democrat is elected. Any suggestion otherwise is a distortion of the truth."

In America today, torture is considered acceptable. Detention without due process is considered acceptable. Republican politicians are calling America a "Christian Nation." Mainstream media talk show hosts are telling Jews to "move to Israel" if they don't consider America a Christian nation. In Indiana Republican politicians are telling Jews they don't matter because they only make up 2% of the population. In Seattle a man shoots up the Jewish Federation because he is "mad at Israel." In Delaware a town considers Jews and Muslims unimportant because they are a small minority and when Jews and Muslims complain about (un-Constitutional) Christian prayer in schools and government meetings they are forced to flee the town by threats of mob violence.

Forget Mel Gibson's drunken, anti-Semitic rants. Throughout America anti-Semitism is rampant. In fact, hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, Hispanics, etc. are rampant. Mix this new Culture of Intolerance, routinely fed and encouraged by the Republican Party and its media lapdogs, with the acceptance of torture and detention without due process and you get an America that is walking the path that Germany walked in the 1930's.

Once again, I find myself marveling at the ability of the right to repeat the same talking points in every media channel known to man. What we're presently seeing is a repeat of the practice of swiftboating, which I'd define as the rendering unacceptable of any serious challenge to rightist power by a concerted mud-slinging campaign. It's been done before, for example, to Michael Moore, derided as a 'radical' for accurately pointing out the Bush administration's failures in confronting terrorism, and that the Iraq war was based on lies; to Richard Clarke, a dedicated civil servant and counter-terrorism expert in four administrations, who morphed into a greedy hack interested only in notoriety and book sales; to Paul O'Neill, the former Treasury Secretary, over his exposé of the inner workings of the Bush administration; and most consequentially, to John Kerry, who was turned in a matter of weeks from a war hero into a craven traitor. There are more examples, of course, including attempts that failed, such as the one on Eliot Spitzer.

Today, a similar effort is directed at the most powerful and consequential challenge to the right to emerge in decades: the Progressive blogosphere.

Last week I discussed the Delaware Pogrom and how it was merely a mob of right wing fanatics acting out precisely what Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly advocate on national television. I confirmed with the Anti-Defamation League that the pogrom actually took place. Although the ADL has not as far as I am aware made any public statements regarding the pogrom, they are helping the families forced out of town by Christian extremists with lawsuits. We need to continue the pressure on the media and politicians, particularly Republican politicians, to condemn the pogrom and to realize the link with the advocacy of violence by extremists like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. I also, at the end of this article, will indicate that Republicans may well already be getting fed up with Ann Coulter's advocacy of terrorism because she is suddenly proving to be an absolute dismal flop when it comes to helping Republicans raise money.

Hate Crimes have been on the rise in America since 9/11, and, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate groups in America have increased by 33% in the past five years. A peak in attacks on Muslims after 9/11 was rapidly followed by an increase in anti-Semitism in the US and worldwide. There was a slight decline in anti-Semetic incidents in 2005, but incidents are still at disturbingly high levels.