Torture has spread hatred of America, recruited terrorists, and placed our soldiers at risk. It has betrayed our values, damaged our credibility, frayed our alliances, and undermined our ability to promote freedom and democracy.
"Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove" by Paul Alexander.
Hmmm....I like that title, especially the second part.
Below is ..... live blog semi-verbatim transcription of a radio interview with the author. . . . . .
I tuned in and my ears perked up when they were talking about how much Newt Gingrich and other Republicans hate Karl Rove because his activities with Bush Administration have been such a disaster for the Republican Party's reputation that it is causing Republicans to lose elections around the country ....
Jeff Sharlet: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Jeff Sharlet is (Ishmael) on Daily Kos.
This diary is my effort to transcribe an interview with him today on WNYC radio's The Leonard Lopate Show, about his new book. I've added my own notes and some helpful links.
Action needed? Read up, get informed by yourself because the corporate media will surely NOT be covering this very powerful and secretive group in Washington, DC.
All-Purpose Action Links: The Nation action and media links for recommending the Jeff Sharlet's good work:
http://capwiz.com/... Talking Points? In their wisdom, The Founding Fathers enshrined separation of Church and State so that each may thrive, free from undue influence. This group called "The Family" is a threat to our democracy.
Cheers to Kossack Jeff Sharlet for doing this work.
Book Review:
"Just when we thought the Christian right was crumbling, Jeff Sharlet delivers a rude shock: One of its most powerful and cult-like core groups, the Family, has been thriving. . . .
The Sam Seder Show today drove me to write this diary.
#1. Why do we keep blogging about Clinton?
#2. We're going to get what we deserve if we don't devote our energy instead to fixing the bigger problems facing us. What do we need to do to fulfill the mission of getting Progressive Democrats elected around the country?
Election Fraud, for example:
Weyrich: "Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
Now that we have ample evidence that The Right is often wildly and dangerously wrong.......
How Conservative businessmen like the Bush Family actually feed the beasts who later come and bite us....from Nazis to bin Laden...to The Business Plot to overthrow FDR.....and now, Iraq.....
This diary illustrates with pictures and clear examples how wrong is Bush's claim that the Left have "foolish delusions" - If Chamberlain and Bush had only taken the Left's warnings seriously. . . .
I'm glad I met Obama twice in person shortly after he was elected to the Senate because it makes it easier to understand what he is saying, how he thinks, how he reacts. He is always rather slow and deliberate. If I hadn't met him in person I might have misunderstood how he pauses and reflects before answering.....
In 1990, the world hailed Nelson Mandela as a hero, but [McCain campaign advisor] Mr. Quinn went on the attack [writing:]
-- "After all, Mr. Mandela was put in jail 27 years ago -- not because of his humanitarian philosophy -- but because he was a terrorist who openly advocated (and personally committed) violence against the government."
-- "How many people out there across the face of America are well aware that Mandela is a bad egg, maybe even say so in the comfort and security of their homes, but are afraid to express their real opinions publicly?"
This a second diary in honor of Black History Month, which grew out of "Negro History Week" -- the invention of Harvard-educated historian and son of former slaves, Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926. Dr. Woodson chose the date for "Negro History Week" to mark the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
This year Black History Month interests me for three reasons:
a) Obama
b) I have a passion for history and need to use it in my work (responsibly, I hope)
c) I came of age at the height of The Civil Rights Movement. It was THE domestic issue of the time. Fraught with tension, misunderstanding, violence, assassinations, but very much a time for soul-searching, for hope, for cleaning out and rearranging the furniture of our national mind.
Perhaps you feel the same way and would like to follow me below the fold to hear what the eminent black historian, Professor John Hope Franklin, says about the uses of history.
On the Internet nobody knows I'm a dog, as the New Yorker Magazine caption says. And I rather like it that way since we meet here as equals, more-or-less.
Yes, I'm extremely happy that formerly excluded groups are honored with "Months" and the like, but I'll be even happier when we all manage to see each others as fellow human beings without labels or barriers or pre-conceived notions.
"I would rather have peace in the world than be President."
--Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Christmas Message, 24 Dec. 1948, Independence, Mo.
There is something about the Bush/Cheney Administration that propels me back into American history, to search for comparisons and contrasts, for inspiration and renewal. Cleansing, too!
Below the fold are quotations from some Presidential Christmas messages.
Some were made during times of war.
Many should remind us all of what Presidents of stature sounds like. Political themes do permeate the speeches but their efforts to unite, uplift, and guide us are admirable.
Subject: Religious Passion, Pluralism, and Youth. I'd like to recommend two websites related to radio and TV this week.
#1. Speaking of Faith
A 30-year-old, Indian-American Muslim and former Rhodes Scholar is setting out to change the way young people relate to their own religious traditions and those of others. Al-Quaeda is the most effective youth program in the world, he says, and we neglect this work at our peril.
[emphasis is mine]
#2. Bill Moyers Journal Interview with
Martin Marty
past president of The American Academy of Religion. Winner of the National Humanities Medal. Recipient of 72 honorary doctorates and admiral in the Nebraska Navy. Was one of the leaders of a project on the child in law, religion and society at Emory University in Georgia and that brings us to his book, THE MYSTERY OF THE CHILD, drawing on literature as new as today's poetry and as old as the Bible. Martin Marty encourages all of us to maintain the child's openness to wonder as we grow old.
Please do NOT let this URGENT ACTION ALERT scroll by, as an earlier alert did.
As heard today on Thom Hartmann's Air America Radio show.
Action Alert! Here's how you can just say "NO!" to HR 811 and why.
call Nancy Pelosi's office at (202) 225-4965
and demand that Pelosi amend the bill to include a ban on DRE voting systems or otherwise vote against the bill.
BradBlog asks people to call Speaker Pelosi's office to voice opposition to HR 811: People for the American Way (PFAW) Continues Dishonest Lobbying Campaign for Holt Election Bill
We shouldn't outsource our elections to private, for profit corporations which use secret, proprietary software. Period.
This diary gives you links to understand and to take action to defend democracy against the undue influence of big money and corporations.
Thom Hartmann, on Air America Radio today, was talking about the latest Supreme Court decisions.
What an irony that there is no free speech for the student at a public parade but a corporate entity in another decision does get free speech to influence elections.
Hartmann makes the excellent observation that The Supreme Court is setting the stage for the healthcare debate. Unless we citizens get active to level the playing field, the airwaves will be flooded with issue ads by deep-pocket corporations who want to keep healthcare in the private, corporate sector where their profits trump our healthcare needs and corporate money will drown out citizens' democratic debate.
More below the fold. ACTION LINKS are in bold at the bottom of the diary.
Edited from an e-mail I got from People for the American Way.
It's time to defeat another ideological extremist a.s.a.p.
Bush nominee Leslie Southwick has a very poor track record on Civil Rights. Ditto on workers' rights.
Call now and urge your senator to vote NO on Southwick.
Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Further contact info is at the bottom of the diary.
Bush has nominated former Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on his nomination.
All Democratic Senators must stand together to oppose Southwick.
Headline New today: "Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to Celebrate the 90th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy's Birth -- May 29, 2007" http://www.jfklibrary.org/
I don't see any JFK Birthday diaries here yet, so I will make a little one, with links.
Today I want to forget his death, and celebrate his life and legacy.
