This sickens me: As for the role of race in the Tennessee contest: The poll suggests that a Republican ad mentioning that Ford attended a Super Bowl party attended by Playboy playmates and featuring a white woman telling Ford to “call me,” hurt Ford. A whopping 81 percent of likely voters saw the ad. While 67 percent said it would Continue Reading
More , continuing, daily evidence of the lack of credibility this administration continues to prove itself worthy of (that is, of having NO credibility). Joshua Marshall, on the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) that was “brought out” recently: Anybody in the White House press corps want to ask Tony Snow why he lied to you guys yesterday? Frances Townsend did the same Continue Reading
This commenter on a Will Sampson post about the steady stream of lies by the Bush administration being exposed on a regular basis, is a perfect example of the accommodation of worldly politics (combined with an unhealthy dose of denial of what’s being exposed) with theology, and thus lends credence to the fears of those who express misgivings about the Continue Reading
WP: Ties to GOP trumped skill on Iraq team – washingtonpost.com Highlights – MSNBC.com Like this is news. I suppose we can do with as much re-stating of the obvious as it takes to begin having hope that this will overcome the koolaid effect, and stress how this kind of thing is rampant and without exception across the board. Environment, Continue Reading
This from Salon.com , on “The Path to 9/11” which has half-aired on ABC (the 2nd half tonight). I happened upon it last night while surfing from the Football game during a commercial, and didn’t realize what it was — I had forgotten about it — but ended up staying there and watching, since I had read so many accounts Continue Reading
There is much more I want to blog about this book…..I’m almost done with it, and it has quite a few things which get me into a theo-political blogging mood. There were some comments of the author about John Foster Dulles, who was a man author Kinzer describes as “a man of profound faith”…..and yet the way he describes Dulle’s Continue Reading
The book I’m reading, Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer, which I just mentioned in my last post, is forefront in my mind again as I read yet further in Juan Cole’s post from today: Informed Comment Iran is no credible military threat to the United States, though US warmongers are always depicting it as such, rather as they manufactured ramshackle 4th-world Continue Reading
Stuff like this (hat tip to Bruce Prescott) is horrifying. It’s like a continued, intensified sequel to the book I’m in the process of reading, Overthrow by Stephen Kinser. NPR did an interview with him (On Terri Gross’s Fresh Air), which caused me to pick the book up a few times in the bookstore while browsing, and I eventually bought Continue Reading
I actually have a hard time believing this; I don’t believe that Bush has much of a theological depth or loyalty at all. I don’t sense that he is curious enough about any “system” other than how to posture one’s self politically (and here he needs constant coaching). Just my impressions. It fits with his lack of intellectual curiosity that Continue Reading
Charlie has an excellent post about the 4th: chuckp3 What’s sad is when Christians forget that freedom came on Easter and buy into the “freedom†imparted by the 4th. Ranging from mainstream churches to TBN millions of Christians took this week to celebrate the empire, not the Kingdom. The politics of the empire (specifically Republican politics) were touted as the Continue Reading
No state will keep itself limited, no constitution or ideology is sufficient to that task, unless there is a body of people separated from the nation that is willing to say “No” to the state’s claims on their loyalties. —Against The Nations, Stanley Hauerwas, p.123 The key phrase in this warning is “no constitution or ideology is sufficient to that Continue Reading
You may have noticed a recent return to “political blogging” the likes of which I haven’t done since mid 2004 to early 2005. Much of that was due to my motivation after the 2004 elections to scale way back on Bush and politics and do much more theological reading. In 2004, I read a mountain of books on the Bush Continue Reading
I find this idea about Woodward’s books on Bush unbelievable: Media Matters – Conservative media silent on prior publication of leaks favorable to White House Kuttner went on to note that while Woodward\’s book did cause \”mild embarrassment to lesser officials … [o]ne high official in particular comes across looking just terrific. And that is George W. Bush.\” That the Continue Reading
I’m on my last batch of DVD’s from NetFlix , having re-watched in the past couple of years the first 6 seasons. I’m really sad to see it go. Much of that sadness is that there is precious little remaining on TV worth watching. Even the post-Sorkin West Wing episodes, widely reviewed as “not near as good” are nevertheless miles Continue Reading
The other night I saw a Frontline piece, The Darkside: Investigating President Cheney’s role as chief architect of the war on terror and his internal war with George Tenet’s CIA for control over intelligence (you can watch the entire 90-minute show online here) At least one of the interview clips was with Ron Suskind, whose book the Price of Loyalty Continue Reading