Posts by Evan Derkacz

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.

Religious Right Celebrates End of Interracial Marriage Ban
Posted by Evan Derkacz, Huffington Post on May 12, 2008 at 5:38 PM.

This post originally appeared on ReligionDispatches.

Tony Perkins' Family Research Council may be the brightest star in the Christian Right constellation, with deep ties to the unholy trinity of the Republican party, James Dobson's Focus on the Family and even Blackwater USA--the military contractor whose malfeasance is fast becoming the stuff of legend.

Their email alerts, which I receive daily, can be distressingly cloying, deploying middle-age dad puns and witticisms worthy of the uniquely middle-american craft of crochet-art. Recent subject headings read: "Ligers, Tigons, and Zonkeys, Oh My!" (warning against the dangers of genetic engineering) and "Meet the Robinsons" (warning against the dangers of certain high-ranking, gay Episcopalians getting married).

And, despite connections to white supremacist groups documented by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Nation's Max Blumenthal, the FRC throws in the occasional right wing black preacher like Bishop Harry Jackson, nods to a self-serving slice of the Dr. King legacy and, this past week, a tribute to the Rosa Parks of miscegenation, Mildred Loving, who died on May 2nd. (Note: the white supremacist connections don't end there by a long shot. One could--and one still may--devote a whole post or series of posts to these connections...)

The FRC devotes a significant portion of its tribute to Loving to caution readers: "Although homosexual activists are fond of portraying the Lovings' victory as a precedent for their cause, the Loving case didn't alter the definition of marriage but affirmed it by allowing any man to marry any woman. The nation is indebted to Mildred for a legacy that so aptly lives up to the couple's shared name."

There are at least two critical things to keep in mind while reading this. First, the embarrassing, then the meat. It's not just "homosexual activists" who see parallels in the Loving case--it's Mildred herself. On June 12, 2007, the 40th anniversary of the Loving case (a decision handed down just months before MLK was killed in Memphis, by the by), Mildred penned a public statement that included these liberal sentiments (full PDF here; italics mine):

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Conservative Christian Reserves Right to Preach Gay Bashing
Posted by Evan Derkacz on June 18, 2007 at 10:20 AM.

Running around like a chicken with its head cut off, the American Family Association's Don Wildmon is out to prove that America's most high profile religious voices are as archaic, bigoted and dumbed-down as "the new atheists" preach they are.

Wildmon may as well be on tour with Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and Dennett.

As James Watkins at Think Christian points out, Wildmon recently sent an ominous warning to supporters that "A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality," claiming that the new Hate Crime bill, which extends protection to the LGBT community, actually threatens free speech.

Err, not exactly. What H.R. 1592 DOES say is that if you bash a gay or transgendered person -- that is, if you physically assault them -- you are subject to a particular kind of prosecution because of the nature of the crime. In fact, while it should say that when a religious figure's expressed antipathy toward anyone in the LGBT community (or Muslims or women or anyone) can be directly tied to a violent crime, they can be held accountable -- but it doesn't.

It just says that if you cause bodily harm you're in trouble. Who could oppose that?

So you're left to ask yourself: is Wildmon's reading comprehension so poor? Probably not... it's more likely that Wildmon knows exactly what the bill says. But, as the conservative religious movement requires a surfeit of both fear and cash, any opportunity to misrepresent a bill that exactly ten people will read as the approach of the forces of doom will be taken and exploited. Case in point.

But these shenanigans are nothing new for the man whose reputation was solidified by a high-profile row with Three's Company, and its immoral message. This stuff just writes itself.

So, Mr. Wildmon, you can still preach the gospel of hatred to your heart's content, you just can't physically assault people. In today's marketplace, even this is controversial. And you can practically feel the whoosh of Hitchens' anti-religion screed flying from the shelves...

On the other hand, at this weekend's Pride parade in Sacramento, A Church for All came out to neutralize conservative evangelical protesters, commenting that:

"We believe God is a diverse God. He can meet all of us," said congregation member Christine Campbell of North Highlands. "When Jesus said, 'Whosoever believes in me shall have eternal life,' he wasn't making any distinctions."

Campbell said churches should welcome all types of people in an atmosphere of inclusiveness.

"If it's so important for gays and lesbians to hear and honor the word of God," posed Campbell, "if you want them to hear that message, why keep them out of church? Why segregate?"

Moyers on Media's War Pt 4 [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on May 4, 2007 at 11:36 AM.

Each day a new installment of the Bill Moyers special on how the press bought into the Bush Administration's war...

Part 1 is HERE.

Part 2 is HERE.

Part 3 is HERE.

Moyers on Media's War Pt 3 [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on May 3, 2007 at 7:41 AM.

Each day a new installment of the Bill Moyers special on how the press bought into the Bush Administration's war...

Part 1 is HERE.

Part 2 is HERE.

Moyers on Media's War Pt 2 [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on May 1, 2007 at 8:15 AM.

Each day a new installment of the Bill Moyers special on how the press bought into the Bush Administration's war...

Part 1 is HERE.

Flubya [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 30, 2007 at 10:24 AM.

Just when you were bored by Bush-isms the prez does an unscripted town hall meeting (in a heavily heavily republican district). Oh yeah. He talks about love, the longing for acceptance and... you know, chicken farmers.

Moyers on Media's War Pt 1 [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 29, 2007 at 10:50 PM.

Each day a new installment of the Bill Moyers special on how the press bought into the Bush Administration's war...

Part 1:

Moyers discusses "Selling the War" [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 27, 2007 at 11:20 AM.

This is the first two parts of Moyers' appearance on Democracy Now! discussing his latest special, Selling the War, for PBS.

We'll be featuring clips from that program next week on AlterNet...

The transcript is HERE...

Pat Robertson muses on Doctors "plow[ing] into" women [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 27, 2007 at 5:41 AM.

"Just think of having rocking waves while you're getting your insides plowed into by some doctor. That doesn't sound like fun to me..."

I'm sorry, I know it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but could Pat Robertson be more of a caricature of himself? Is it possible? If it weren't revered by millions as a not thoroughly insane voice he'd almost -- almost -- be bordering on that doddering old uncle (I'm blind in one eye and I can't see outta the other...) you know is repugnant but you forgive him because he's, well, not the figurehead of a large swath of your fellow Americans.

The newscaster says that the Women on Waves ship will make Mifepristone (aka RU 486) available to women off-shore of countries that do not currently allow women to make decisions for themselves.

A P-I-L-L. Is CBN so bad the good reverend doesn't even watch his own news agency?

Or perhaps the reverend does not care. He resorts to the domain of the impotent: fear and lies. He talks about women "getting [their] insides plowed into by some doctor."

That has to be one of the most repulsive uses of language I've heard in months. Jesus.

Okay, now forget about Robertson and read about the history of Women on Waves here...

***

In other news, doctors are pissed at the Supreme Court's recent ruling as it does not have, how you say, meaning...

McCain berserks on Daily Show [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 27, 2007 at 3:03 AM.

Jon Stewart gives John McCain the business. McCain comes back with IED humor. Heh. Heh heh.

McCain lies about Iraq (about his words about Iraq), Stewart confronts him more critically than the rest of the news media. But these things -- these things you know...

The highlight for my money:

*Asked about the fight them over there, so they don't... blah blah cough cough, McCain says (paraphrasing): just read the words of bin Laden and Zarqawi, they'll tell you.

Stewart replies (roughly): yeah, well, they also aim to draw the US into a war that depletes lives and treasure, so...

Giuliani Bin Laden [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 26, 2007 at 10:18 AM.

Keith Olbermann's latest special comment leaves Rudy Giuliani in ribbons for his comments that, in essence, voting for a Democrat in 2008 would be suicide.

Obama tore him a new one in a Dem politician running for president kind of way, too.

Partial transcript:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

The Scummiest Guys in the Room [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 26, 2007 at 8:49 AM.

From Alex Gibney, the maker of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and Sidney Blumenthal, comes Taxi to the Dark Side, an exploration of American torture since 9/11.

The gist, from today's Blumenthal column:

Through the film runs the story of an Afghan taxi driver, known only as Dilawar, completely innocent of any ties to terrorism, who was tortured to death by interrogators in the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. "Taxi to the Dark Side" traces the evolution of the Bush policy from Bagram (Dilawar's interrogators speak in the film) to Guantánamo (we filmed the official happy tour) to Abu Ghraib; its roots in sensory deprivation experiments decades ago that guided the CIA in understanding torture; the opposition within the administration from the military and other significant figures (the former general counsel of the Navy, Alberto Mora, and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, explain how that internal debate went, while John Yoo, one of its architects, defends it); the congressional battle to restore the standard of the Geneva Convention that forbids torture (centered on John McCain's tragic compromise); and the sudden popularity of the Fox TV show "24" in translating torture into entertainment by means of repetitious formulations of the bogus ticking-time-bomb scenario.

Yet "Taxi to the Dark Side" is more than an exposé of policy. Its irrefutable images are the counterpoint to the peculiar aesthetics propagated in the age of George W. Bush, in which, through the contradictory styles of softening nostalgia and hardening cruelty, the president and his followers seek to justify their actions not only to the public but also to themselves.

Bush '03 v. Bush '07 [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 25, 2007 at 11:44 AM.

The Daily Show unleashes "first term president Bush" against "second term president Bush" to reveal the evolving humorous vacuity of the Bush Administration's policies.

Ok, ok, much is taken out of context and rearranged for comedy's sake, but the whole thing is worth it for the Saddam portion...

Cheney impeachment introduced [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 25, 2007 at 8:06 AM.

As Joshua noted last week, Democratic presidential candidate and Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich has introduced articles of impeachment against VP Dick Cheney.

Specifically, there are three charges that the Vice President:

*Fabricated a threat of Iraqi WMD to justify a war of choice

*Fabricated the connection between al Qaeda and Saddam

*Is currently fabricating causes for war on Iran

You can download the complete text of the resolution offered to the House here, or a synopsis here.

The McCain bomb itself... [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on April 24, 2007 at 2:19 PM.

John McCain's unbelievably callous remark last week that we should "bomb bomb Iran" (to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann") were channeled into a MoveOn ad, posted HERE on Friday.

As affecting as that ad was, the raw footage, as someone pointed out to me, were even more outrageous. In the clip to the right, McCain is asked by a latter day know-nothing when we're going to send "an airmail message" to Iran, to which McCain, shamelessly pandering for votes, responds....