Posts by Bruce Wilson

Bruce Wilson writes for Talk To Action, a blog specializing in faith and politics.

Clinton, The 'Nuclear Umbrella' & The NeoCons
Posted by Bruce Wilson, Talk To Action on April 23, 2008 at 10:03 AM.

On "Meet The Press" last Sunday April 20th, with David Brooks, E.J. Dionne and Michelle Norris, host Tim Russert brought up the "nuclear umbrella" idea that Hillary Clinton floated in her April 16th debate in Philadelphia with Barack Obama and DAVID BROOKS of all people, replied, "I’m amazed, I think like you, maybe,that it didn’t become a bigger issue. Because what it says, I think, to a lot of Americans, two Arab countries or two Middle Eastern countries get in a war and we’re going to get in the middle of it?... I don’t know why she would’ve said it, what policy thinking behind it was. It seems to me extremely perilous." E.J. Dionne concurred, "the term massive retaliation is a pretty strong term that she used in the course of that debate."

"Massive retaliation" is indeed a 'pretty strong term', to put it MILDLY and I've consulted with nuclear deterrence theory George E. Lowe, [link to Buzzflash.com interview with Lowe] who wrote the 1964 book "The Age of Deterrence" ( Little, Brown) and has won awards for his writing on nuclear deterrence as well, about WHY "massive [nuclear] retaliation" is such a loaded term and WHY the "Meet The Press" folks may have been taken aback by Clinton's "nuclear umbrella" idea.

As Lowe described it, Clinton's "nuclear umbrella" idea seems to have taken her adviser former NATO commander General Wes Clark, who as NATO head was in charge of a "nuclear umbrella" himself - it seemed to make Clark's head spin. He appeared blindsided by Clinton's talk of a US "nuclear umbrella" over Asia and George Lowe, who has studied nuclear deterrence for decades and also has written a book and award-winning articles on the subject, was quite taken aback.

NeoCons say such things, and there's a straight line, in such thinking, back to Herman Kahn, Curtis LeMay, and the SAC / RAND lunatics of the 1950's who envisioned fighting and WINNING "limited nuclear war".

Lowe, working as witnessed in the our close brush, 1960-1965, with nuclear incineration during those days, says his Naval "cabal" (O5D) group helped put the "Military Industrial Complex" warning in Ike's Farewell Address speech, says he worked with McCain's father in the Pentagon, and as a speechwriter in the Reagan Administration, thinks Clinton's "nuclear umbrella" idea is INSANE on the same order of madness.

The idea of a US "nuclear umbrella" is positively Strangelovian, even semantically. "Nuclear umbrella" ? What does that amount to ? Fallout settling to Earth during a nuclear winter ?

That would be an "umbrella" of sorts but not an especially pleasant one, and there are lots of wonkish reasons why Clinton's "nuclear umbrella" concept is insane but her apparent intention of flexing US nuclear throw-weight doesn't, as George Lowe told me, doesn't intellectually "track".

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Not Wright: Black Man Damns US and Gets Vilified, White Man Calls for Nuking Cities and Gets Applauded
Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet on March 26, 2008 at 2:13 PM.

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has received copious criticism for the sermons of Obama's long-time (now former) pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Frank Schaeffer, son of seminal Christian right leader and author Francis Schaeffer, suggests there's a double standard at play which is both hypocritical and racist. But beyond Schaeffer's point is the sheer extremity of hate speech from the American right and religious right; at an October 2006 conference held by the Family Research Council in Washington DC, to thunderous applause, I heard Former US Secretary of Education William Bennett call for the incineration of entire Iraqi cities, for the crimes of a few. There were major religious and political figures present and no one, to my knowledge, objected in the slightest. If pastor Jeremiah Wright had called for the collective punishment of US municipalities in which racially-motivated murders had occurred, by incinerating their populations with tactical nuclear weapons or napalm, it is highly likely Barack Obama would have withdrawn his current presidential bid and might even have stepped down from his Senate seat. That is the state of American discourse, circa 2008. Hate speech is OK for whites, not blacks, and not Wright.

Frank Schaeffer is uniquely placed to level the following critique concerning the American's right's, and the mainstream media's, excoriation of Barack Obama because of condemnation of America from Obama's ex-pastor Wright. As Schaeffer wrote in an March 16, 2008 op-ed, "When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr." Frank Schaeffer walks right up to the accusation - that it is hypocritical and it is racist.

Frank's father Francis Schaeffer thought "humanism always leads to chaos" and, as a  seminal Christian thinker who studied under the Presuppositionalist theologian Cornelius Van Til along with R. J. Rushdoony, Schaeffer went on to write works in the 1970's such as The Christian Manifesto that helped inspire a radical politicization on the American Christian right which has transformed American politics. But Schaeffer's son Frank, groomed to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually took a different path, as suggested by the title of his latest book Crazy For God: How I Helped Found the Religious Right and Ruin America. As Frank Schaeffer writes,

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McCain Pursued Hagee Like a Dog In Heat
Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet on March 23, 2008 at 4:53 PM.

As someone who was over a year ago covering McCain's snuffling after the power that issues from John Hagee & his fundament I feel a special glee that pastor Hagee has opted to reopen the controversy, over his endorsement of McCain, by getting interviewed by a New York Times Magazine reporter concerning Hagee's views on gays, the Catholic Church and other hot-button positions. It's like watching nude mud wrestling, while a mob tries to catch a greased pig, at a monster truck rally.

The under appreciated Greg Mitchell, of Editor and Publisher Magazine, has just reported on an interview Pastor John Hagee has granted, due to show up this Sunday in the New York Times Magazine, that will confirm the obvious - that John McCain pursued John Hagee's political endorsement like Hagee was a bitch in heat called politicized apocalyptic fundamentalism. As readers would have picked up last year, in February, had they read my Talk To Action post on the McCain-Hagee tie. Mitchell showcased one critical point: Barack Obama didn't call a national press conference to trumpet a political endorsement from his ex-pastor, Reverend Wright. McCain chose to splash Hagee's endorsement across the national media landscape and therein lies all the difference. Vive le difference, and one day our mainstream media may just get up the jeuvos to underline that point.

Recently, I interviewed George E. Lowe [short video with audio clip of interview], a man who worked with John McCain's father, Admiral John McCain who, Lowe told me, "would be turning over in his grave" at his son's pursuit of political endorsements from men like John Hagee. Lowe says he and Admiral McCain were in a secret navy intelligence "cabal" which fought would-be fascists of the day, both religious and secular, and this does not mean that Admiral McCain was somehow a liberal. Far from it. It's simply that he would have been appalled, Lowe tells me, at his son's courtyard of people like Hagee (whose "thrilling worldview" I've covered at length). John McCain's father was, among other things, a man of this century and would have been sorely disappointed, it seems, at his son's apparent choice to regress, politically and culturally speaking, hundreds of years - back to the Sixteenth Century.

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According to McCain, By Choosing John Hagee, He's Choosing the 16th Century
Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet on March 7, 2008 at 10:12 AM.

In the 2000 Presidential election primaries, Senator John McCain accused Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson of being "agents of intolerance", and McCain called George W. Bush anti-Catholic for courting the political support of evangelist Bob Jones and for visiting Bob Jones University - which up until Bush's visit had prohibited interracial dating. Bob Jones called the pope the "anti-Christ" and the Catholic Church a satanic cult.

Senator McCain said that if he were invited to Bob Jones University he would have told Jones to "get out of the Sixteenth Century and into the 21st Century. What you're doing is racist and cruel." Now, in the 2008 presidential election, John McCain has aggressively courted, and enthusiastically accepted, the political support of John Hagee, who calls the Catholic Church "the great whore" and a "false cult system" and McCain's accusation, in the 2000 election, has come back to haunt him ; by his own measure, John McCain has chosen the Sixteenth Century.

Also see, McCain Reneges on Pledge To Never Seek anti-Catholic Support and, for general Hagee Background, McCain-backer Hagee's CUFI Worldview: "Thrilling" Rapture, Then "Holocaust"

UPDATE: Pelosi speaks out against McCain's embrace of McCain (from Steve Benen @ The Carpetbagger Report)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the highest ranking Roman Catholic official in the federal government, and not surprisingly, she finds John Hagee's anti-Catholic rhetoric offensive. Yesterday, to her credit, she pressed John McCain on why he refuses to denounce Hagee's bigotry. Nico Pitney has the story.

"That behavior is outside the circle of civilized debate in our democracy," Pelosi said during a Thursday conference call. "I certainly think John McCain should reject his endorsement and I'm sure it won't be long before he does."

McCain has come under heavy fire from Catholic groups across the political spectrum for appearing with Hagee last week and declaring he was "proud" of the endorsement. Subsequently, McCain told reporters that Hagee's backing "does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for and believes," but added, "I am very proud of the Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership to thousands of people."

But several Catholic groups insist that McCain should specifically condemn Hagee's "hate speech" about Catholicism. Bill Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League, charged in a statement that McCain "has shown horrendous judgment in buddying up to this bigot and spin doctor." The progressive group Catholics United yesterday circulated remarks from McCain in 2000 condemning the "strong anti-Catholic statements" of Bob Jones.

Pelosi apparently didn't realize that McCain had actively sought out Hagee's support, and when told about his on the conference call, Pelosi was surprised. She said that she "certainly" thinks that McCain should reject Hagee's support, and then added, "I can't imagine that he wouldn't reject it."

I can.

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Treason is Not Old News, Mainstream Media Wants to Trivialize McClellan Story
Posted by Valerie Plame Wilson, Joe Wilson, Huffington Post on November 22, 2007 at 2:02 PM.

This post, written by Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

"I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors." George Herbert Walker Bush, CIA dedication ceremony, April 26, 1999.

When Bush administration officials I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Karl Rove, Richard Armitage and Ari Fleischer betrayed Valerie Plame Wilson's identity as a covert CIA operations officer, they fell into the category of "the most insidious of traitors." Now we learn from the president's former press secretary, Scott McClellan, that the president himself "was involved" in sending him out to lie to the American public about the betrayal. If his direction to McClellan was deliberate and knowing, then the president was party to a conspiracy by senior administration officials to defraud the public. If that isn't a high crime and misdemeanor then we don't know what is. And if the president was merely an unwitting accomplice, then who lied to him? What is he doing to punish the person who misled the president to abuse his office? And why is that person still working in the executive branch? Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald made clear his suspicions about the culprit when he said "a cloud remains over the office of the vice president." But we may never know exactly what happened because President Bush thwarted justice and guaranteed the success of the cover-up when he commuted Scooter Libby's felony sentence on four counts of lying, perjury and obstruction of justice.

With the exception of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, and the intrepid David Shuster, the mainstream media would have you believe that McClellan's revelation is old news. "Now back to Aruba and the two-year old disappearance of a blond teenager." But treason is not old news. The Washington press corps, whose pretension is to report and interpret events objectively, has been compromised in this matter as evidence presented in the courtroom demonstrated. Prominent journalists acted as witting agents of Rove, Libby and Armitage and covered up this serious breach of U.S. national security rather than doing their duty as journalists to report it to the public.

So far there is no apparent desire for redemption driving the press to report on the treachery of senior officials. Instead, the mainstream press has compounded its complicity by giving the Bush administration yet another free pass and shifting blame. The New York Times failed to publish an article on McClellan's revelation and The Washington Post buried it at the end of a column deep on page A-15 in the newspaper. Earlier in the week, Newsweek magazine, owned by the Washington Post Company, proudly announced the identity of its new star columnist -- Karl Rove, one of the key actors in this collective treason. Robert Novak, who willfully disclosed Valerie's identity, having been twice warned not to do so by the CIA, and who transmitted his column to Rove before it was published, remains a regularly featured columnist in The Washington Post.

With nearly 70 percent of the public now believing that our country is on the wrong track, it is no wonder that many feel let down by major institutions, including the Washington press establishment that increasingly resembles the corrupt Soviet propaganda mill. One reporter from a major news organization even asked whether McClellan's statement wasn't just "another Wilson publicity stunt." Try following this tortuous logic: Dick Cheney runs an operation involving senior White House officials designed to betray the identity of a covert CIA officer and the press responds by trying to prove that the Wilsons are publicity seekers. What ever happened to reporting the news? Welcome to Through the Looking Glass.

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New Army Head of Chaplains Thinks He's "Chosen By God", Predicts Apocalyptic Religious War
Posted by Bruce Wilson on August 9, 2007 at 11:00 AM.

Douglas L. Carver seems to believe he's been he's been chosen by God to lead in an Apocalyptic end-time war between good and evil that will last decades and began, as foreshadowed in prophecy, with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Meet the US Army's new (apocalyptic) Head of Chaplains.

Douglas L. Carver, on a mission from God?

As president George W. Bush said via satellite, on June 13, 2007 to Southern Baptist Convention members gathered for the Southern Baptist Convention's 2007 annual meeting  in San Antonio, Texas, "Just like our troops, you have the gratitude of the Commander-in-Chief as we do the hard work necessary to defend our country, and at the same time, lay the foundation of peace.".

The SBC's new Army Head Of Chaplains, Douglas L. Carver, no doubt believes he is laying the foundation of peace too, but Carver may feel that foundation will be laid via the Apocalypse and Armageddon.

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New Evidence Challenges Pentagon Testimony In "Christian Embassy" Scandal
Posted by Bruce Wilson on August 6, 2007 at 8:18 PM.

On Monday, researchers working for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation ( MRFF ) uncovered evidence calling into question the veracity of the testimony given to the Pentagon Inspector General in the investigation in the wake of MRFF's lawsuit concerning top Pentagon officials and US military officers who appeared in a promotional video, made for fundraising purposes, of an organization called "Christian Embassy", an offshoot of Campus Crusade For Christ, that evangelizes Pentagon members, foreign diplomats, and White House employees.

Last Thursday, July 26th 2007, as I subsequently reported, the Christian Embassy video scandal broke open again in the form of a Pentagon Inspector General's report [see Truthout story linked for full PDF of report] which concluded that Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Army Brig. Gen. Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, and two other officers whose names were redacted "improperly endorsed and participated with a non-Federal entity while in uniform".

The Pentagon officials who participated in the Christian Embassy video told the Pentagon Inspector General that they were confused about the status of "Christian Embassy" because the organization had been given free reign in the Pentagon for 25 years. Christian Embassy members had badges to enter the Pentagon un-escorted, with guests, and one Pentagon official who appeared in Christian Embassy's video claimed he was under the impression that Christian Embassy was a "quasi governmental" agency.

But, here is Christian Embassy's description of its mission, from its fund raising video :

“There are over 25,000 Department of Defense leaders working in the rings and corridors of the Pentagon. Through Bible studies, discipleship, prayer breakfasts, and outreach evens, Christian Embassy is mustering these men and women into an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ.”

If those Pentagon members might have been tempted to claim they never actually watched the video they appeared in, claims they might make about being unaware of Christian Embassy's organizational goals have now become untenable.

MRFF determined the following, from schedules that were advertised on Christian Embassy's own website:

Bob Caslen, Lucius Morton, Cynthia Islin, along with dozens of other high ranking Pentagon officials, have led Christian Embassy’s “Weekly Discipleship Study Groups”, teaching out of Christian Embassy’s lesson plans that have printed right at the top “Our Mission: To win, build, and send Department of Defense leaders to live for Jesus Christ.”

Jack Catton and Pete Sutton have both given Prayer Breakfast talks co-sponsored by Christian Embassy and the Pentagon Chaplain, and Catton’s October 22, 2003 talk was entitled “Leadership For Christ in the Pentagon”.

Meet your new Christian theocratic military leadership...

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DOD Report : Top Military Officials Endorsed Evangelizing In The Pentagon
Posted by Bruce Wilson on August 5, 2007 at 6:33 AM.

Note: the notorious Christian Embassy video controversy was covered earlier on Alternet, December 12, 2006 by Evan Derkacz.

"In the course of defending himself to the Inspector General's office, one of the generals asserted his belief that the Christian Embassy had become a "quasi-federal entity." This seems to support assertions by Weinstein that there is real confusion in high ranks of the military regarding armed service's secular status." - Dave Van Biema, for Time Magazine, on the newly released Pentagon Inspector General's report

Legal pressure from Mikey Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), has led to a report, from the Pentagon Inspector General, confirming that top Pentagon military officers violated DOD regulations by appearing in a promotional video made by the Washington DC based "Christian Embassy", a group with right wing political views that evangelizes in the Pentagon. "Christian Embassy" members have long been given carte blanche within the Pentagon, liberty to enter the Pentagon unescorted and with guests, and some of the military officers accused of violation DOD regulations in the report defended themselves by claiming that "Christian Embassy" had become a "quasi governmental" agency.

Military Officers appearing in the "Christian Embassy" video have been promoted further up the command chain since the video was filmed. One, Bob Caslen, is the Commandant of Cadets at West Point. Pete Geren, was appointed July 16, 2007, by George W. Bush, to be Secretary of the United States Army. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, who played a role in the falsification of the Jessica Lynch story, has been promoted from a 2 star to a 3 star general and is now the Deputy Director for the War On Terrorism

The vindication of many of MRFF's allegations helps substantiate the foundation's claims of extensive Christian right influence, threatening possible compromises in the command chain, within the United States Armed Forces.

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FBI Investigates Alleged White Supremacist Death Threats From Former Washington Times Writer
Posted by Bruce Wilson on June 21, 2007 at 5:00 PM.

Unification Church head Sun Myung Moon has been a deep-pocketed funder of Bush family members, and Moon largesse has backed world-ranging Moon empire affiliated groups ostensibly promoting World Peace and racial harmony. Meanwhile, Moon's questionably earned millions have also subsidized the Washington Times, a newspaper that is apparently not a real business given that it seems to have never turned a profit. Moon's expensive Washington D.C. megaphone also has a history tinged with what Max Blumenthal, writing for The Nation in October 2006, characterized as "racial animus" :

A nasty succession battle is now heating up at the paper, punctuated by allegations of racism, sexism and unprofessional conduct, that has implications far beyond its fractious newsroom. According to several reliable inside sources, Preston Moon, the youngest son of Korean Unification Church leader and Times financier Sun Myung Moon, has initiated a search committee to find a replacement for editor in chief Wesley Pruden--a replacement who is not Pruden's handpicked successor, managing editor Francis Coombs....

Preston Moon wants to wrest control of the paper from Pruden and Coombs, according to a Times senior staffer, in order to shift the paper away from their brand of conservatism, which is characterized by extreme racial animus and connections to nativist and neo-Confederate organizations.

Now, investigative Journalist John Gorenfeld shines more light on the Washington Times' dubious associations:

Quite a number of African-American community leaders have welcomed the Rev. Sun Myung Moon as a modern-day Martin Luther King, Jr. One commentator has called him a role model for black fatherhood, even hailing his mass weddings as an antidote to "the imagined lure of thug life."....

Then there the father's other work--pouring $3 billion since 1982 into the Washington Times, which has become a veritable employment agency for racist loons....

A former Times-man now reports that the man who is whipping up a racial harassment campaign against Leonard Pitts, Jr., syndicated columnist, is a good friend and likely soulmate of Times editors.

His name is Bill White and he enjoys wearing Nazi uniforms. He has written four pieces for the Times....

White runs the Web site Overthrow.com, whose members are now facing FBI investigation for having printed Pitts's street address and whipping up hatred....

Bill White also claims to know the wife of Times editor Francis Coombs through some of the same up-with-white-people conferences they attend. Mrs. Kester's contributions to the Times, comparing Mexican immigrants to filthy orc hordes have drawn the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has reportedly told White that the paper's management won't let her attack Jews the way she wants.

Massachusetts Gay Marriage Foes Back Fake American History Advocate
Posted by Bruce Wilson on June 14, 2007 at 12:12 AM.

"We can look at those places where same-sex marriage has been legalized to see what the future looks like" - Ron Crews, President of The Massachusetts Family Institute, as quoted in the Washington Times, March 10, 2004

In Massachusetts, going into the state's 3rd year of legal gay marriage, the societal apocalypse that MFI head Ron Crews warned of, in the event gay marriage were made legal, never happened.

Legal gay marriage in Massachusetts is going into its 3rd year and the sky has not fallen. But, for the Massachusetts Family Institute, ideology may well trump facts; the MFI has repeatedly, in recent years, hosted public speaking visits by arch-historical falsifacationist David Barton.  

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Public Broadcasting Showcases Christian Right's Fake American History
Posted by Bruce Wilson on June 12, 2007 at 5:40 PM.

If key Democratic Party political advisers buy into junk science based public health policies, and Democratic politicians support such policies, why shouldn't the Public Broadcasting System air a documentary, on church-state separation with junk, falsified American history ?

How does the Christian right advance its ideology and agenda, through electoral cycles and even when the movement's political influence, in Washington, appears (on the surface at least) to be on the wane ?

Well, covertly of course.

Or in some cases, when few are paying much attention, quite overtly.

But, we're not living in the old Soviet Union. It's not OK to use American taxpayer dollars to promote ideologically tendentious junk science, nor is it OK for taxpayer money to promote falsified versions of American history. But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts". Falsified history, or falsified science, are just that: fake, and conservative evangelical Christians cannot in good faith support fake history or fake science, nor can PBS officials get away, in the end, with underwriting fake history.

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Bush, Democrats, & Iraq : Flushing Our Future Down The Toilet
Posted by Bruce Wilson on May 24, 2007 at 6:15 AM.

I don't get mad easily.

I'm mad now. Not on my behalf but on behalf of all human life, and all the wonderful, beautiful life of all sorts on the planet, Earth, we call home.

We've been betrayed.

But, the "Clash Of Civilizations" is neither inevitable nor natural. It's being manufactured. This post concerns political elements on the American side of the equation who are pushing, hard, for apocalyptic war in the Middle East.

Why have the Democrats been, so far, unable to exert sufficient force to begin a US withdrawal from Iraq ? Well, the last year has seen the rise of a powerful new lobbying group, uniting far right apocalyptic American Christians with moderate American Jews.....

Crooks and Liars has the skinny on Keith's latest broadside, in which Olberman accuses President Bush, and the Democrats as well, of betraying the interests of American voters. Betrayal from George W. Bush is expected, but the Democrats have much to answer for, and their spinelessness may have terrible historic consequences :

As the circles of fighting in the Mideast, now expanding into Lebannon and Gaza, widen and intensify, we're seeing the implementation of a plan cooked up in deepest hell, a vision for maximal war in the Middle East that's been hatched by neoconservatives and apocalyptic Christians.

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