Posts by Mustang Bobby

Mustang Bobby is a regular blogger for Shakesville.

Christian Group to Burn Children's Book at the Stake
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on June 16, 2009 at 11:40 AM.

A so-called "Christian" group in Wisconsin has some hot plans for a book in a local library.

Francesca Lia Block, an award-winning author of young-adult books (the "Weetzie Bat" series among them), has known for a while now that one of her novels, "Baby Be-Bop" is at the center of a controversy in West Bend, Wis.

A few days ago, she found out that it might be burned at the stake. "Baby Be-Bop" is on a list of titles that a local group calling itself the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries objects to seeing in the public library. In February, the group asked the library's board to remove a page of recommended titles about gay and lesbian issues for young people (including "Baby Be-Bop") from the library's Web site. Then they demanded that the books be moved from the youth section of the library and placed with the adult collection, "to protect children from accessing them without their parents' knowledge and supervision."

[...]

Now an outfit called the Christian Civil Liberties Union has gotten in on the act, suing the library for, according to the West Bend Daily News, "damaging" the "mental and emotional well-being" of several individuals by displaying "Baby Be-Bop" in the library. Since attempts to label the novel as "pornographic" have failed, the (somewhat shadowy) CCLU hopes to brand it as hate speech, in part because it contains the word "nigger." The complainants, described as "elderly" by the newspaper, claim that Block's novel is "explicitly vulgar, racial [sic] and anti-Christian." They want the library's copy not only removed but publicly burned.

"Baby Be-Bop," a title from the Weetzie Bat series that describes the youth of Weetzie's best friend, Dirk, is, in Block's words, "a very sweet, simple, coming-of-age story about a young man's discovery that he's gay." Dirk is beaten by gay bashers but steadfastly clings to the possibility of finding love. Block finds the disingenuous charges of racism particularly distressing. "Obviously I use those words, including 'faggot,' which is also in the book, to expose racism and homophobia, not promote it," she said. "It's a tiny little book," she added, "but they want to burn it like a witch."

I wouldn't question the CCLU in the area of "hate speech;" they seem to be experts in that field.

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Twenty Years Ago Today: Tiananmen Square
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on June 4, 2009 at 12:56 PM.

June 4, 1989 -- twenty years ago today.

Obama Picks Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on May 26, 2009 at 6:28 AM.

This is from MSNBC:

President Barack Obama tapped federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court on Tuesday, officials said, making her the first Hispanic in history picked to wear the robes of a justice.

If confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor, 54, would succeed retiring Justice David Souter. Two officials described Obama's decision on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement had been made.

Administration officials say Sotomayor would bring more judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice confirmed in the past 70 years.

A formal announcement is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. ET in the East Room of the White House.

Obama had said publicly he wanted a justice who combined intellect and empathy — the ability to understand the troubles of everyday Americans.

Democrats hold a large majority in the Senate, and barring the unexpected, Sotomayor's confirmation should be assured.

If approved, she would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman on the current court.

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Dick Says Talking Gitmo Enables Terrorists ... So Shouldn't He STFU?
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on May 21, 2009 at 10:02 AM.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says just talking about Gitmo enables the terrorists:

And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

Okay; then shut up, Dick.

NYT's Maureen Dowd Plagiarizes TPM's Josh Marshall
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on May 18, 2009 at 9:35 AM.

Via thejoshuablog, Maureen Dowd's column in today's New York Times contains a paragraph that, with the exception of four words, looks to be a direct and uncredited lift from Josh Marshall at TPM. See for yourself.

Ms. Dowd:

"More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the Bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq."

Josh Marshall on

:

"More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq."

The difference is "the Bush crowd was" in Ms. Dowd's column and "we were" in Josh's.

Coincidence? Two writers coming up with the exact same thought and phrasing right down to the punctuation? Possible, but the odds are astronomical. Subconscious? Ms. Dowd read Josh's piece, liked it, and when she wrote her piece, recalled it word for word but forgot where she read it or thought it was so brilliant it just

to be hers. Accidental? She meant to credit Josh and just forgot to do it? Possible, and probably the excuse she or the editors will use when they're asked about it.

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Why Are Boy Scouts Being Trained to Fight Terrorists?
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on May 14, 2009 at 11:43 AM.

Scouting sure has changed since I met with my fellow Cub Scouts in the basement of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

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The Latest Ridiculous Right-Wing Attack on Obama
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on March 25, 2009 at 3:31 AM.

The right-wing's latest meme against President Obama is that he can't do a thing without a teleprompter.

Everyone knows that Barack Obama is lost without his teleprompter, but his latest blunder, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via the Corner, suggests that the teleprompter may not be enough unless it includes phonetic spellings. Obama was speaking at a White House roundtable on clean energy systems, and repeatedly saluted Orion Energy Systems, whose CEO, Neal Verfuerth, was present at the event. So Obama referred to "Orion" a number of times. Only problem was, he appeared to be unfamiliar with the word [...] Unbelievable. Orion is one of the best-known constellations, mostly because it actually looks like its namesake. So evidently we have to add astronomy to history and economics as subjects of which Obama is remarkably ignorant. I'm beginning to fear that our President has below-average knowledge of the world. Not for a President, but for a middle-aged American.

This, after eight years of George W. Bush's projectile stream of malapropisms, mispronunciations, sentence fragments, and the cottage industry that made a fortune out of calendars, posters, and t-shirts that displayed the latest Bushisms, is hilarious. And for the conservatives to question whether or not Barack Obama is smart enough to be president elevates the premise of the pot calling the kettle black to the level of the surreal.

Lack of Faith: Why Evangelicals Are Losing Their Religion
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on March 11, 2009 at 9:31 AM.

According to a recent poll published in the Washington Post, the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christians has fallen in recent years. And in an opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor, Michael Spencer, who describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality," predicts that evangelical Christianity is going the way of the passenger pigeon: once overwhelmingly plentiful but now bound for extinction.

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

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'Wah!' The Religious Right Want a Name Change
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on February 13, 2009 at 8:31 AM.

The Religious Right doesn't want to be called that any more.

The term "Religious Right" pops up every election cycle, but leaders often identified with the political movement say that while their constituencies remain strong, the catchphrase deserves a proper burial.

[...]

[S]everal politically conservative evangelicals said in interviews that they do not want to be identified with the "Religious Right," "Christian Right," "Moral Majority," or other phrases still thrown around in journalism and academia.

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Florida Gay Adoption Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on November 25, 2008 at 7:48 AM.

Following up on this post, here is some great news:

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman Tuesday declared that Forida's 50-year-old ban on gay adoptions unconstitutional -- a ruling that state lawyers immediately said they would challenge.

The ruling sets the stage Frank Gill, a gay man from North Miami, to adopt two foster children he has raised since 2004.

In a 53-page ruling, Judge Lederman said, ''It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent.''

Two lawyers from the Florida Attorney General's Office said they would file an appeal Tuesday.

''We respect the court's decision,'' said Assistant Attorney General Valerie Martin. ''Based upon the wishes of our client, the Department of Children & Families, we will file an appeal.''

Gill, who is raising the half-brothers, ages 4 and 8, said he was ''elated'' by the ruling and ''I cried tears of joy for the first time in my life.''

'Hockey Moms For Truth' Wage Swift Boat Campaign Against Palin
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on September 16, 2008 at 3:27 AM.

Remember the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads from the 2004 campaign? Well, okay, it's time to put the skates on the ice. This is for all the real hockey moms out there ... or the older brothers who had to drag their ass out of bed at 6:00 a.m. on cold winter Saturday mornings to take his little brother to hockey practice in a scary part of town ...

More Spying, Fewer Results
Posted by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville on May 13, 2008 at 4:46 AM.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, spying is up in the United States. But what have we got to show for it? Not much.

The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.

The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it.

Law enforcement officials say the additional surveillance powers have been critically important in ways the public does not always see. Threats can be mitigated, they say, by deporting suspicious people or letting them know that authorities are watching them.

"The fact that the prosecutions are down doesn't mean that the utility of these investigations is down. It suggests that these investigations may be leading to other forms of prevention and protection," said Thomas Newcomb, a former Bush White House national security aide. He said there were half a dozen actions outside of the criminal courts that the government could take to snuff out potential threats, including using diplomatic or military channels.

[...]

The emphasis on spy programs also is starting to give pause to some members of Congress who fear the government is investing too much in anti-terrorism programs at the expense of traditional crime-fighting. Other lawmakers are raising questions about how well the FBI is performing its counter-terrorism mission.

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CIA Told Bush There Were No WMD In Iraq In 2002
Posted by Mustang Bobby on September 6, 2007 at 5:57 AM.

This post, written by Mustang Bobby, originally appeared on Shakesville

Remember that joke film clip that President Bush made for the Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner in 2004 wherein he made a mockery of the search for WMD's...looking under a chair in the Oval Office and so forth? Well, it turns out that that was about as seriously as he took the CIA and their intelligence that there were no WMD's in Iraq before he sent us to war. This is according to an exclusive in Salon.com by Sidney Blumenthal.

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.

Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which stated categorically that Iraq possessed WMD. No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq. The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD.

On April 23, 2006, CBS's "60 Minutes" interviewed Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief of clandestine operations for Europe, who disclosed that the agency had received documentary intelligence from Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister, that Saddam did not have WMD. "We continued to validate him the whole way through," said Drumheller. "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."

Now two former senior CIA officers have confirmed Drumheller's account to me and provided the background to the story of how the information that might have stopped the invasion of Iraq was twisted in order to justify it. They described what Tenet said to Bush about the lack of WMD, and how Bush responded, and noted that Tenet never shared Sabri's intelligence with then Secretary of State Colin Powell. According to the former officers, the intelligence was also never shared with the senior military planning the invasion, which required U.S. soldiers to receive medical shots against the ill effects of WMD and to wear protective uniforms in the desert.

Instead, said the former officials, the information was distorted in a report written to fit the preconception that Saddam did have WMD programs.

"The president had no interest in the intelligence," said the CIA officer. The other officer said, "Bush didn't give a fuck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up."

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