Issue Wedgies on the Campaign Trail

You’d think we’d come a long ways from the days of “no Irish need apply,” and all the other exclusionary nonsense that passed for all-Americanism. Salam Al-Marayati and Steven B. Jacobs point out that if that’s what you think, you might be mistaken:

Life and Taxes

Time to contrast this Grover Norquist gem:

I want to shrink government down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

with this passage from my own denomination’s social statement on economic life:

Government is intended to serve God’s purposes by limiting or countering narrow economic interests and promoting the common good. Paying taxes to enable government to carry out these and other purposes is an appropriate expression of our stewardship in society, rather than something to be avoided. Government often falls short of these responsibilities. Its policies can harm the common good and especially the most vulnerable in society. Governing leaders are to be held accountable to God’s purposes: “May [they] judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. . . . May [they] defend the cause of the poor of the people” (Psalm 72:2).

A Question for All Presidential Candidates

Will you prosecute war criminals?

Well, When Your Commission’s Name is an Oxymoron…

What do you expect? As the Times Union reports, the Legislative Ethics Commission works in secret. Could it be the way it’s put together?

Heckuva Job There, Generals

Astounding quote:

“Although they were aware of the threat, Burma’s state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path,” [First Lady Laura] Bush said in an unusual appearance at theWhite House briefing room podium.  

May 4, 1970

Kent State Massacre.

The girl screaming over Jeffrey Miller’s body — the most famous photograph from the massacre — she was a local teenager. When her name became public, she was inundated with death threats from all over the country.

In 1970, we also had a president who thrived on, and promoted divisiveness and fear. The summary execution of four random students by the Ohio National Guard stands as testimony to the politics of divisiveness and fear, and their fruit, for my generation.

Where “Senior Moment” = Bold-Faced Lying

Remember this?

Labor Under Attack

(h/t MissLaura)

I was in D.C. a few years ago when Senator Ted Kennedy and Reps. George Miller and Peter King were introducing the most significant piece of labor legislation since — probably — Gerald Ford was president. I managed to get this snapshot.

“Take It Apart and Put It Together Again”

The Times Union reports another potential casualty of New York’s belt tightening:

Along with calling for a hiring freeze on all non-essential state positions to control state spending, Gov. David A. Paterson also said Monday that another target may be the popular school-tax-relief benefit known as STAR.

Al Qaeda Be What You Want It To Be

Glenn Greenwald peers into the implications of a story in the New York Times by Michael Cooper and Larry Rohter concerning –

As he campaigns with the weight of a deeply unpopular war on his shoulders, Senator John McCain of Arizona frequently uses the shorthand “Al Qaeda” to describe the enemy in Iraq in pressing to stay the course in the war there.