Voting Rights Act

Do we need more evidence that the House Republicans are fascists?

Bush pledges vigilance in war on rain

In a statement made from the White House rose garden earlier today, President George W. Bush promised that he and his administration would exercise the full authority of the executive to defend the cause of liberty against the rising flood waters that have terrorized the east coast over the past two weeks. "The American people need to understand," said the President beneath a large umbrella bearing the seal of his office, "that whether these showers are coming from off-shore weather systems or home-grown thunderstorms, we will do whatever it takes to protect Americans from the threat of radical precipitation."

Asked whether or not he plans to use military action against this meteorological threat, Bush replied that, "All options are still on the table."

Denying rumors that federal agents have been checking the rain gauges of private citizens, he added that a recent New York Times expose on doplar radar could "only help out the bad low pressure systems." This as the administration, still reeling from last year's hurricane disasters on the gulf coast, tries to downplay what is seen as a long string of intelligence failures by NOAA and the Naitonal Weather Service.

The cloud cover began to break near the end of the press conference and the sun was momentarily visible from the soggy White House lawn, a development that Bush described as "a major turning point in the war on water."

More rain is expected through the end of the week.

Pregnant!!!

No, this is not a mistaken repetition regarding Brett's eccentric lady friend. But I would like to announce, on behalf of one of our own, that Traber 611 will soon be welcoming a new family member.

Abe Young's wife Gabe is 3 months pregnant! So in a short 6 months there will be another whistling, violin playing, curb-jumping-mountain-biking, classical music-loving T6er amongst us. Cheers and blessings to Abe and Gabes for their reproductory success :-)

To the Students at Wheaton College…

The June 23rd issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education has a very interesting article by Randall Balmer, who Coye mentioned last week in connection with his soon-to-be-issued book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament. The article is available here: Jesus Is Not a Republican. He begins the article by mentioning that his last visit to Wheaton, which happens to have been while we were students there (believe it or not, you can even listen to that chapel address at wetn's archive):

“In November 2002, 30 years after my previous visit to Wheaton College to hear George McGovern, I approached the podium in Edman Chapel to address the student body. At evangelical colleges like Wheaton, in Illinois, there are two kinds of required gatherings: chapel and convocation. The former is religious in nature, whereas a speaker at convocation has the license to be far more discursive, even secular — or political. The college's chaplain, however, had invited me to preach in chapel, not convocation, and so, despite temptation, I delivered a homily that was, as I recall, not overly long, appropriate to the occasion, and reasonably well received.

“I doubt very much that I will be invited back to Edman Chapel. One of the benefits of being reared within evangelicalism, I suppose, is that you understand the workings of the evangelical subculture. I know, for example, that when my new book on evangelicals appears, the minions of the religious right will seek to discredit me rather than engage the substance of my arguments. […]

“The evangelical subculture, which prizes conformity above all else, doesn't suffer rebels gladly, and it is especially intolerant of anyone with the temerity to challenge the shibboleths of the religious right. I understand that. Despite their putative claims to the faith, the leaders of the religious right are vicious toward anyone who refuses to kowtow to their version of orthodoxy, and their machinery of vilification strikes with ruthless, dispassionate efficiency. Longtime friends (and not a few family members) will shuffle uneasily around me and studiously avoid any sort of substantive conversation about the issues I raise — and then quietly strike my name from their Christmas-card lists. Circle the wagons. Brook no dissent.

“And so, since my chances of being invited back to Edman Chapel have dropped from slim to none, I offer here an outline of what I would like to say to the students at Wheaton and, by extension, to evangelicals everywhere.[…]”

Our Evangelical tradition and more Michael Gerson

Here's a piece about our evangelical tradition and the religious right that I think just about all of us here will find interesting. It's an interview with Randall Balmer, professor of religious history at Barnard College, about his new book Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament. He speaks a lot of my heart about the movement. It's often hard to see much that is Christian in the supposedly evangelical religious right, especially when we view it in persepective of evangelicalism's progressive origins (abolitionism, universal education, etc). I know I'm largely preaching to the choir here, so I'll just shut up now.

I also found this NPR interview with Michael Gerson. The web page also has transcripts of several important speeches that Gerson wrote and some non-broadcast portions of his Morning Edition interview (including his ideas about "compassionate conservatism" and the current direction of the evangelical movement). I found this really interesting because I had previously only heard Gerson's words coming out of Bush's mouth, and at that point it is difficult to determine whose words we are hearing. My opinion of Gerson rose considerably through listening to him here.

Some things never get old, and other rumors

I was glancing back over some of the archived posts today. We've written a lot in the last year and a half. Impressive. Anyways, I couldn't resist linking to this at least one more time from Dusty's name.

he he he.

Is this really my voice?


From "All Things Considered": June 20, 2006
According to a study published in Education Week, no more than 70% of current 9th graders will graduate from high school. Only 75% of white students, who have the highest rate of graduation, will receive a diplomma; black students graduate from high school at a rate closer to 50%, and latino/a students do slightly better than their African American peers. Graduation rates are lower for boys than for girls, and (of course) they are significanly lower for children from lower economic classes.

This is huge. We're not talking about "higher education" here; this is high school diplommas. What kind of work can a person get in the States without a high school diplomma? Not much. You can't even enlist in the army without a high school diplomma or GED. And they definitely won't have jobs that provide healthcare benefits, childcare, retirement. That means an increase in the problems we currently have with healthcare, education, and social security. Not to mention the increased difficulty of civic responsibility (voting etc) for a person without a basic educataion. Quoting the constitution of the State of Texas (1866): "A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of this State to make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of public schools. " The State of Texas, along with its 49 peers, is currently failing this task that is essential to the preservation of its citizens' rights and liberties.

Why isn't education a "moral issue" or a "family value"? Why are our legistatures spending their time debating same-sex marriage and flag burning? It's absurd. It's immoral. It's ineffective. If you want to protect families, educate their children. If you want to protect a country, educate its citizens.

Fresh Air, etc.

You really NEED to listen to this first-hand account of a 1930 Indiana lynching told by James Cameron, who was 16 at the time and was almost hanged along with his two friends. The story is amazing, and Cameron is an incredibly talented story teller. He was an author and founder of the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwakee, and he died last week at age 92. He tells one of the most powerful stories I've heard in a long time. WHYY


Also, the US national team is playing Italy on Saturday at 2.30 Eastern time, and don't forget to call your father on Sunday and tell him you love him.

Goodbye Michael

Bush's Favorite Author Leaving The White HouseTop Aide Michael Gerson Knew Just How to Address the President
By Peter BakerWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, June 15, 2006; A03
Michael J. Gerson, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and the author of nearly all of his most famous public words over the past seven years, plans to step down in the next couple of weeks in a decision that colleagues believe will leave a hole in the White House at a critical period.
Gerson said in an interview that he has been talking with Bush for many months about leaving for writing and other opportunities but waited until the White House political situation stabilized somewhat. "It seemed like a good time," he said. "Things are back on track a little. Some of the things I care about are on a good trajectory."
Since first joining the presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 1999, Gerson has evolved into one of the most central figures in Bush's inner circle, often considered among the three or four aides closest to the president. Beyond shaping the language of the Bush presidency, Gerson helped set its broader direction.
He was a formulator of the Bush doctrine making the spread of democracy the fundamental goal of U.S. foreign policy, a policy hailed as revolutionary by some and criticized as unrealistic by others. He led a personal crusade to make unprecedented multibillion-dollar investments in fighting AIDS, malaria and poverty around the globe. He became one of the few voices pressing for a more aggressive policy to stop genocide in Darfur, even as critics complained of U.S. inaction.
"He might have had more influence than any White House staffer who wasn't chief of staff or national security adviser" in modern times, said William Kristol, who was top aide to Vice President Dan Quayle and now edits the Weekly Standard. "Mike was substantively influential, not just a wordsmith, not just a crafter of language for other people's policies, but he influenced policy itself."
"He is the best and most influential presidential speechwriter since Ted Sorenson," said Peter H. Wehner, director of White House strategic initiatives, referring to the adviser to President John F. Kennedy. "Mike is one of the key intellectual architects of the Bush presidency, whether we're talking about compassionate conservatism at home or the freedom agenda abroad."
Gerson is the latest in a series of longtime Bush aides to leave, following White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. But newly installed Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said in an interview that the departure is not part of his broader shakeup of the president's operation. No one is being tapped to take Gerson's most recent assignment as senior adviser.
"He's one of the few people who is irreplaceable," Bolten said. "He's a policy provoker, a grand strategist and a conscience who in many cases has not only articulated but reflected the president's heart."
Gerson, 42, said he had originally planned to leave after Bush's 2004 reelection but decided to stay when he was asked to shift from chief speechwriter to senior adviser with an office a few doors from the Oval Office. He had a heart attack in December 2004 but said his health is now fine and was not an issue in his decision. "It was never my intention to stay to the end," Gerson said.
He plans to look at writing, speaking and think-tank opportunities, with help from Robert B. Barnett, the high-powered lawyer who represents major figures such as former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Gerson stood out in a White House known for swagger. A somewhat slight, pale, bespectacled and soft-spoken Midwesterner, he nonetheless forged a strong bond with the outgoing, backslapping Texan president, in part through their shared conservative Christian faith. He found a way to channel Bush's thoughts, colleagues said, transforming a sometimes inarticulate president into an occasionally memorable speaker.
Gerson wrote or co-wrote every major speech Bush gave since announcing his candidacy, including convention and inaugural addresses and State of the Union messages. He crafted the two speeches after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that will probably be recorded as Bush's signal moments of national leadership: the service at the Washington National Cathedral and the address to Congress.
He crafted the State of the Union language that labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil" and the inaugural address that committed the United States to "ending tyranny in our world." He came up with the phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" to focus on minority education problems.
Gerson believed strongly in the "compassionate" part of Bush's "compassionate conservatism," saying he wanted to pursue liberal goals through conservative means. To that end, he helped promote the president's No Child Left Behind education initiative, the Medicare prescription drug program and grants to faith-based charities. "It's a more activist approach," Gerson said. "That was a major change from what came before."
He also pushed for a $15 billion program to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide, telling Bush in the Oval Office that they would never be forgiven if they passed up the chance. Although he kept a hand in major speeches during the second term, he became increasingly focused on Africa and traveled there four times to see Darfur and other places firsthand, returning to describe searing scenes to his White House colleagues.
While toiling for an uncommonly polarizing president, he made few, if any, enemies, even finding admirers in circles often not friendly to Republicans.
"Mike Gerson has been an important voice," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a global anti-poverty organization.
Although groups have grievances about how some programs have been administered, it did not redound on Gerson, said David Gartner, policy director for the Global AIDS Alliance. "He's been committed and effective," Gartner said. "To get a moral issue the kind of attention it deserves, I'm sure is not easy to do."

My beloved public broadcasting

I've found another reason to hate this Congress. A House subcommittee just voted to eliminate an enormous chunk of public funding for PBS and NPR. Not only does this mean that our children won't have access to any educational programming without an incessant stream of advertisements aimed at corrupting them into mindless consumers before they can read, it also means no Fresh Air, no All Things Considered, no News Hour-- in general, no broadcast journalism that isn't an entertainment product sculpted by multinational corporations with vested political interests. There is a petition protesting this and asking the legislature to continue funding public broadcasting (it is providing an invaluable public service, after all). I will be happy to send you the petition in an email if you email me and/or ask me to send it to you in a comment (if you don't have my email, you can get it from Andy or Dave). Here is a link with more info about the issue ( http://www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting/ ). I don't understand how people can hate Grover and Jim Lehrer. They're both so huggable.

Tyler Thwarts Dallas

I don't know if I've ever said this before and really meant it, but Hurrah for the Feds! They have stepped in and overruled to great effect both state and local government in this fight near and dear to Tyler, and now we are going to have a national wildlife refuge!

Canoeing, anyone?

Mundial

In honor of the World Cup... the 611 national team of bygone days.

Games

I was just thinking... I'd love to play Hitman (the gateway drug that turned logemann into a raving game-aholic) again right about now. Or original battle mode mario! Oh yeah.

Anybody know of an online game we could all play together. Maybe something turn-based so we don't have to all be on at the same time. Maybe online Risk or something.

Cynical Questions

If they're so concerned about the sanctity of marriage, why don't they propose a Constitutional amendment banning no-fault divorce?

And if Canada's full of terrorists, why don't we build a giant fence along that border?

Pointless Poll Post (we needed a June entry)

On a scale of 1-10, where 1 equals having a fingerprint on your rearview mirror and 10 is being turned into a nosferatu by the un-dead, how much does it suck to get someone's voicemail the first time you call them to set up a date? You have to leave a message that sounds excited-but-not-desperate, and then you sit around wondering if she's going to call you back and how long you have to wait until you try calling again (excited-but-not-desperate, remember). How much does it suck? (The judges will aslo except answers in the form of "it's better than__ but worse than__.")

Yeah, I know. It's a terribly intellectual post, and it just oozes self-confidence.