Fox News: Anti-Christmas

Ken AshfordGodstuffLeave a Comment

Well, the "War on Christmas" trumpters have a new enemy: Fox News.  Here’s why:

Fox News, the media company whose hosts have staunchly defended the public use of the word "Christmas," is raising eyebrows after posting a story on its website with the headline, "Holiday Trees Arrive at Capitol, White House."

The story written by FoxNews.com starts off with its lead sentence reading: "Two of the nation’s three branches of government were adorning themselves with more branches Monday as holiday trees were delivered to the Capitol and the White House."

It was originally posted with a headline reading, "Government Branches Out for Holidays," before being changed to the one noting "Holiday Trees."

I expect Fox will cave before the day is out.

RELATED:   Other evangelical Christians, after taking a close look at Yales’s Skull & Bones Society, are beginning to worry about Bush’s soul.

RELATED:  Laura Bush may be next.  Here’s what she said at the Christmas Holiday Tree ceremonies at the White House:

Well, all things bright and beautiful is the theme this year. I think it will be really bright and beautiful with this fabulous tree. But thank you all very much. Happy holidays. I know this is the real start of the season, the Monday after Thanksgiving, and so I want to wish everybody happy holidays. And we’ll see you later this week with the White House decorations.

She even talked about Santa’s elves decorating the White House.  But did she say a word about the birth of Christ?  Nope.  Now she’s in for it.

Whither Damon?

Ken AshfordRed Sox & Other SportsLeave a Comment

I’m no armchair general office guy, but it seems to me that Johnny Damon has been the key to Red Sox success.  At the top of the lineup, he gets on base, and that helps when the #3 and #4 slots come in.  He may be more important that Manny or Ortiz (although, of course, not both of them combined).

But is he really worth the price?  The smarter-than-me people at Over The Monster weigh the options.

Love Lasts A Year

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

Italian scientists (and really, what else would they study?) have proved it:

Some couples may disagree, but romantic love lasts little more than a year, Italian scientists believe.

The University of Pavia found a brain chemical was likely to be responsible for the first flush of love.

Researchers said raised levels of a protein was linked to feelings of euphoria and dependence experienced at the start of a relationship.

But after studying people in long and short relationships and single people, they found the levels receded in time.

The Dysfunctional White House

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

From the New York Daily News:

For the moment, Bush has dismissed discreetly offered advice from friends and loyalists to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and bring back longtime confidant Karen Hughes from the State Department to shore up his personal White House staff.

"He thinks that would be an admission he’s screwed up, and he can’t bring himself to do that," a former senior staffer lamented.

BushpretzelDoesn’t Step One of the "Twelve Steps" require you to admit that you have a problem?  It seems to me that Bush, a (supposedly) recovered alcoholic, should be able to admit failure now and then.  The fact that he can’t admit mistakes — nay, the fact that he goes to extremes to avoid having to admit mistakes — gives me pause. 

And while I don’t necessarily agree with them, others are seriously wondering if things are even worse than we’ve imagined.  Here’s the excerpt that makes everyone’s skin scrawl (from the printed page of The New Yorker, in a column by Sy Hirsch):

Bush’s closest advisors have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments. In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush’s first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President’s religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that "God put me here" to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that "he’s the man," the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reelection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.

If the Republican sweep of congressional elections in 2002 fortified Bush’s belief that he was the arm of God, we can only hope that he gets the message in 2006, when (hopefully) the sweep goes the other way.

Knee Jerk Punditry – A Comedy In Three Acts

Ken AshfordIraq, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

ACT ONE (The Setup):  Prominent Democrat Joseph Biden writes an op-ed in the Washington Post suggesting a broad outline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq:

"Over the next six months, we must forge a sustainable political compromise between Iraqi factions, strengthen the Iraqi government and bolster reconstruction efforts, and accelerate the training of Iraqi forces."

ACT TWO (The Knee-Jerk Reaction):  Right-wing pundits automatically attack the prominent Democrat’s ideas.

Scene One:  Powerline calls it "a reminder of why Democrats are unfit to direct this country’s foreign policy".

Scene Two:  Glenn Reynolds quotes Captain’s Quarters, which claims Biden "gets the entire war on terror fundamentally wrong—and demonstrates why the Democrats have entirely failed to provide any leadership on Iraq and the wider war."

ACT THREE (The Denouement): The White House comes out and says Senator Biden’s article was "remarkably similar to the Administration’s plan to fight and win the war on terror." Unsurprisingly, those same right wing critics have not bothered to explain why the Bush Administration is "unfit to direct this country’s foreign policy".

[Ende]

In truth, neither Biden nor the Bush Administration have actually provided a PLAN for withdrawal from Iraq.  They BOTH say things like "we must strengthen our counterinsurgency efforts" and "We must transfer security authority to Iraqi forces" .  Those items, however, state GOALS, and do not individually or collectively constitute a PLAN.  There is only an expression of pre-conditions to withdrawal — nothing about actual strategy to obtain those objectives.   

In fact, the dirty truth underlining these so-called "plans" is that there can be no plan at this point.  Saddam is gone, there never were WMDs, and Iraqis have held elections.  There’s nothing more to do other than mopping up, and as anyone who cleans house knows, you can do that indefinitely.  We’re just futzing about there, and we’ll only leave when the death toll becomes so intolerable that the only people elected will be those calling for immediate withdrawal.

About Time

Ken AshfordGodstuffLeave a Comment

Ever wonder how James Dobson’s Focus On The Family can get away with all the politicking they do, yet still remain a tax-exempt as a not-for-profit institution?

Well, the truth is, they can’t get away with it.  Not legally, anyway.

Which is why this was inevitable:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today filed an Internal Revenue Services (IRS) complaint against Focus on the Family, a conservative, non-profit organization led by its Founder and Chairman James C. Dobson. The complaint asks for the IRS to investigate activities by the group which may violate IRS regulations and require a revocation of its tax-exempt status.

Although barred from electioneering, Mr. Dobson has endorsed candidates for political office several times. In early April, 2004, Mr. Dobson endorsed Republican Representative Patrick J. Toomey in his race for Senate in Pennsylvania. In addition, it was reported that Mr. Dobson actively campaigned during a rally for Rep. Toomey. Other candidates that Mr. Dobson reportedly endorsed in 2004 include North Carolina Republican candidate Pat Ballentine for Govenor and Oklahoma Republican candidate Tom Coburn for Senate.

“Mr. Dobson’s egregious violations of IRS code demand an investigation into his improper activities that break both the spirit and the letter of IRS law,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today.

Whack-A-Democrat

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

Ezra Klein (via another) makes an interesting observation:

John Dickerson makes a good point on the laughably bungled attempt to mar Murtha:

This is what happens when a party goes into campaign mode without a single opponent. With no specific person to target, the Bush administration ends up taking on all members of the opposition at once. The White House plugged Murtha into an indiscriminate and undifferentiated rapid-response machine and it didn’t work. Finally, Democrats have reason to be happy that they have no clear leader.

That’s quite right. The GOP has perfected the art of eviscerating individual critics. As soon as a Democratic head peeks above a trench, they snipe him out. War heroes like Kerry are no safer than governors like Dean. Celebrities like Moore are used to smear representatives like Murtha. It’s all very efficient and deadly. What we’ve seen recently, however, is a Democratic Party without a putative leader. Reid is quiet and unassuming, you can’t launch an assault on an unknown. Pelosi is rarely on camera, I’ve forgotten what Howard Dean’s face looks like, no one has patience for Kerry, Hillary’s uninterested in tying herself to current debates, and so forth.

All of which has left the devolution of Iraq coinciding with a troubling lack of prominent liberals to pin it on. And, as the Bush administration has shown, without someone to smear, they can’t change the focus. Recently, they’ve tried tarring everybody whole parties in place of individuals, a move that created so much backlash that each official speech now merits a disclaimer on the courage, bravery, honor and patriotism of the war critics.

On the one hand, it’s comical, the Democratic Party is so weak and faceless that they no longer serve as a worthy target. On the other, it’s turned out to be the Bush administration’s worst nightmare: with no one to campaign against, all they can do is campaign against no one. And watching them vigorously punch air while their policies continue to rip apart real people has proven the worst media moment imaginable.

I, too, have noticed this.  I mean, the attempt to tag Murtha as a "Michael Moore Democrat" wreaked of sheer desparation.  Michael Moore?!?  Isn’t he soooo 2003?  This shows a chink in the armor of the "politics of personal attacks".  When the thing attacking you is an idea, and indeed, a rather widespread idea, you simply cannot fight back by hitting the messenger.  Sadly, this does not bode well for elections, when Democrats actually have to put up a candidate.

The Suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

Ted_westhusingCol. Ted Westhusing, 44, . . .

was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army’s leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor.

In June, this military ethicist, who once wrote a 352-page dissertation on military honor, committed suicide in his trailer on a Baghdad military base.  He remains the highest-ranking U.S. casualty to date in the Iraq Warn (although his death lists in the "non-hostile" category).

A note found in his trailer seemed to offer clues. Written in what the Army determined was his handwriting, the colonel appeared to be struggling with a final question.

How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq?

Indeed.  Read the whole story.  It’s a compellingly allegorical footnote to the Iraq War.

Kiss Of Death

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

This is the kind of news story that I’m embarrassed to blog about, but I do anyway:

A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday.

Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.

Actually, I kind of feel sorry for the boy, too.  Talk about guilt.

That Word Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

Ken AshfordIraq, Right Wing Punditry/Idiocy1 Comment

Redstate asks a stupid question — well, two of them.

When the history of the decision to go to war in Iraq is written, there’s one fact that I have to believe will get more attention than it does today: the fact that Saddam Hussein hired terrorists to murder George H.W. Bush….

Put yourself in Bush’s shoes: if you were asked to decide whether Saddam Hussein would ever get involved with terrorism, wouldn’t it affect the way you looked at the evidence that Saddam had already attempted a terrorist attack designed to kill a member of your family? And isn’t that, in fact, an entirely logical and natural way to approach such a question?

No and no. 

If I were in Bush’s shoes (i.e., President), I would understand that difference between "assassination" and "terrorism".  The difference between the two is vast: the former is conducted on political leaders; the latter on civilians.

And while I certainly cannot condone assassination, I doubt that there has ever been a sitting President in modern times who has enjoyed freedom from such a threat.  The thing is, they don’t elect to go to war over that.

The Duke Is Done

Ken AshfordCongress, Crime, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleads guilty to tax evasion, and taking bribes from defense contractors in order to secure lucrative defense contracts.  Josh Marshall, who kept on this story from Day One, is happy, but notes that Cunningham is still on the Appropriations Committee.  Not for long, I’m guessing.

Where Would Jesus Shop?

Ken AshfordGodstuffLeave a Comment

Window_macys2Christians Underground, a website for all of the oppressed Christians who make up the vast majority of this country, weighs in on the "War on Christmas" with this observation:

On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving 2005 I visited Manhattan to go to Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and to see the displays in the front windows of two famous Fifth Avenue department stores, Lord & Taylor and Sax Fifth Avenue.

The windows were artistically decorated, but certainly not for Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, not children’s fairy tales or general concepts.

Window_lt_nameSo I suppose CU wants a creche in every window up and down Fifth Avenue?

The writer goes on:

The Lord & Taylor windows were dedicated to fairy tales, like Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and the Pea, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Snow White was there, but not the Virgin Mary. There were a few decorated trees in some of the windows, but no Jesus, not even the word Christmas.

192987_fpx This does not surprise me one bit.  Of course, the point is silly.  I can understand being upset if, for example, religious institutions went commercial over Christmas.  But what exactly is wrong with commercial places of business being commercial about Christmas? 

I can even understand why many bemoan the general public’s indifference to the religious nature of Christmas.  Yes, the crass commercialization of the Birth of Christ is bad, but it is hardly new.  But this is not what the writer is talking about.  He’s talking about an actual war on Christ, being conducted by retailers and "secular extremists".

But all this is prologue.  The main thing I wanted to focus on was the writer’s funniest line of his rant:

It was the same at Sax, where the windows focused on concepts like unity, harmony and beauty. Nothing about Christmas.

And there you have it, straight from the religious right: Christmas has nothing to do with unity, harmony, and beauty.  "Peace on Earth and good will toward men"?  Yeah, fuck that — Christmas is about Christ, not that bullshit!

And yes, it’s "Sacks Fifth Avenue", not "Sax Fifth Avenue".

NOTE:  The photos here are from this season’s windows at Macy’s (above) and Lord & Taylor’s (middle).  This last photo is a picture of a creche, available at Macy’s.

Iraq: The Movie

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

Bruce Willis wants to make a pro-Iraq war movie, and the right wing blogosphere is all excited because there hasn’t been a good realistic war-is-fuckin’-awesome movie since the "Rambo" series.

Sadly for the wingers, there’s been much technological innovation since the "Rambo" series, and it seems that anybody can make a war movie these days, downloadable from the Internet:

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad.

Killing civilians — fuck yah!! (Video is here. [Warning: It’s very disturbing])

RELATED:  Ayad Allawi, the former leader of the U.S. backed Iraqi government says Iraq was better under Saddam:

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country’s first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam’s regime.

‘People are doing the same as [in] Saddam’s time and worse,’ Ayad Allawi told The Observer. ‘It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.’