Kay Brooks Tests Our Gullibility

Because Kay Brooks read in the mainstream media that Republicans told them that a custodian showed up with bags of neatly rolled American flags and said that Democrats had intended them for the trash and because she saw a picture of trash bags with American flags we are supposed to believe that Democrats were throwing away Old Glory and they hate America.

Yes, I can tell by the color and size of the trash bags (in this untraceable picture) that they are definitely Democratic grade trash bags. And I can tell by the way they are wrapped around the flags (in a photo that anybody with some flags and trash bags can pose and snap) that the Democrats, with malice of forethought, destined flags for the trash bin. They hate us for our freedom.

What I cannot quite make out is whether those flags are actually made in China by slave labor in order to cover America's indebtedness to the Communist country. I also cannot tell whether this is a ploy staged to pump up Chinese novelty sales by publicizing their product and putting slave-wage-friendly Republicans back in the White House again. However, if they are Chinese-sponsored American flags, perhaps true patriots like Kay Brooks should be a little more circumspect before asking us to be so gullible as to believe that Democrats are trying to bring America down because of a picture of novelty items in trash bags that could have been taken by anyone, anywhere, at any time.

It's not like Republicans don't make up stuff to make Democrats look bad. Chances are good that this is either a photo unrelated to the Democrats or the Republicans are just pulling something else out of their collective ass to torpedo the opponent. Chances are even better that Kay Brooks is up to her usual demonizing of liberals. What better way to do that to insinuate that they don't honor their country? But this ain't Iwo Jima, and Democrats aren't Hirohito's hoards swarming in to capture the flag. If you want to believe what a Republican told the mainstream media and lay blame, then blame rampant consumerism that reduces noble flags to cheap mass produced consumer items designed for convenient disposal to make room for acquistion of the next profit-bearing novelty.

There's some video of clean up after the Republican convention. I can't quite make out whether they picked up any flags and threw them in the trash, but they are throwing away novelty red, white, and blue confetti, which sure as hell doesn't represent the Canadian flag or the Belarusian flag. Maybe if Republicans loved their country more they would either use non-red, white, and blue confetti or dispose of it honorably, while singing Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue!, instead of ignobly throwing it into garbage bags. It's not like they are above doing other things that make me question their patriotism.

Palin Ridicules Poppy's "Thousand Points of Light"

An Enclave commenter makes an insightful observation about Sarah Palin's sneering and snide stabs at community organizers during her acceptance speech:

When Palin criticizes community organizers, she is in essence panning George H. W. Bush's '1,000 Points of Light' program, which awards community organizers for addressing community needs.

After McCain's speech last night, MSNBC cut away to Times Square to get "responses" from people watching it on the diamond vision. Coincidently, there just happened to be a couple of white shadow Republicans available, looking straight out of the Brooks Brothers Squadron and the French Manicure Auxillary. In what looked like an obvious dig at the profession, one had a McCain campaign pin that said "Community Organizer." Or maybe he just fancied himself the white preppy version of Cesar Chavez or Ernie Cortez. His privileged blue blazer lifestyle probably couldn't handle the long hours and low pay.

UPDATE:  GOPAC's Michael Steele, who was a guest on HBO's Bill Maher tonight, downplayed the attacks on community organizers by Palin et al.  He said that they were not so much attacking them as they were questioning whether the position of community organizer qualifies one to be President.  Then a few minutes later, during a discussion about Sarah Palin's small town experience, he argued that her being a mom and a PTA leader were experiences that were important to the job she could do as Vice President.  Geez.

Historically in Georgia, "Uppity" is Followed by the "N-word"

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (a McCain/Palin supporter) sent dubious racial code to his fellow conservative southerners today by calling Barack Obama "uppity."


UPDATE: Westmoreland has previously had trouble with other "uppity" people who desire to protect the voting rights of minorities:

More Like a Great White with Lipstick

McCain strategists are working on a campaign plan of attack that will cede the black vote and that will target white women and white working class. That is sad news for African Americans in the GOP, who will obviously lose more and more traction when it comes to influencing the direction of the party.

And have you noticed the conspicuous absence of references to immigration so far? Last night they declared culture war and the only reference to foreigners were a couple of attacks on Barack Obama's trip to Europe. It makes you wonder if McCain is worried about losing more Latino votes:

The look in the convention hall is similar to that of a typical McCain event. This summer, for instance, 67 people showed up for one of his town hall meetings in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. One of them was black.

The lack of diversity is out of sync with the demographic changes in the United States. The Census Bureau reported last month that racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the country's population by 2042 -- almost a decade earlier than what the bureau predicted just four years ago. Two-thirds of Americans are non-Hispanic whites, 12.4 percent are black and 14.8 percent are Hispanic, according to 2006 census numbers.

I fully expect that if the Palin "hockey mom" approach stops motivating the social conservative base, we'll see them turning to immigration to try to sustain white traction.

The Most Personally Painful Part of Tonight's GOP Convention

It really hurt me to be subjected to CNN's coverage of GOP floor delegates dancing to Earth, Wind, & Fire recordings. Describing what they were doing as "dancing" is charitable. It was painful to watch. Brooks Brothers suits stiffly stirring invisible cauldron paddles with tightly clinched fists. If there was ever a case against the urban myth that white guys (only 2% of the Republican delegates in Minneapolis are African American) can't dance, the GOP convention was not it. Funk deserved a better fate.

GOP Prone to Splinter Harder than Dems over Sexism Charges

Chris Matthews just posed a question to Mel Martinez that got me thinking about the conservative coalition. He asked Martinez whether it is really sexist to believe that women are better equipped to stay at home and "raise the kids." This question has the potential to drive wedges between the conservatives, especially the social conservatives, a huge number of whom are Christian conservatives.

Evangelical Christians carry with them some strong beliefs about traditional gender roles and the idea of women being better suited to raising children than men. Take, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention's "doctrinal accountability" document, which mandates that "a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ" and "to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation."

Establishment Republicans and the CEO's who drive the party need to be very careful about pressing the claims of sexism based on parental roles too far. The more they start pushing the idea that dads and moms are equally equipped to lead the family or to raise children, the more religious and social conservatives they will discourage.

Southcomm Blogger Overgeneralizes "the Left," Puts McCain in the White House

The same media blogger who ran with an overhyped tape of an Obama peck has now jumped on some liberal responses he's read to the out-of-wedlock pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol Palin. He uses what he sees to pen a grand theory on liberal conduct in the culture wars on the battlefield of sexuality. And he's got the conservatives nodding their heads in agreement, because it fits their "liberals are out of touch" assumptions.

As someone who is no novice to southern evangelical culture, I disagree with the extent of his generalizations, and with the focus of liberal attacks:

The Left simply misunderstands cultural war because they believe that social and religious conservative think they are perfect people. Rural, working class people know exactly who they are. The Left seems to think that they are somehow breaking the news to social conservatives that sometimes, even often, kids will have sex and get pregnant. Social conservatives know these things. They are not as divorced from reality as they sometimes get painted.

I have never believed that conservatives think that they are perfect people. In fact, evangelical conservatives point to the idea over and over that we are all fallen. Perfection has little to do with it.

In my experience, Christian conservatives tend to approach social issues as if they are, in the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, the children of light; and the rest of us who fail to see the light are children wandering in darkness. That's a far cry from a perfection vs. flawed position. Children are limited in ability, prone to error, and impulsive, but some have seen the light, and hence are in a better place than children of darkness, a.k.a, liberals and other transgressors. But all are vulnerable children who require care. This way of seeing the culture war has a liberal analogue in the notion that people are either enlightened by reason or blinded by ignorance. Perfection never enters the mix beyond those who are predisposed to think in terms of cultural purity.

The other hole in Southcomm blogger's argument is the assumption that the reactions either climax or stop with the social conservatives mobilizing to put McCain in the White House. He's so cock sure of himself that he arbitrarily ends the reactions with the social conservatives, and fails to acknowledge that the mobilization of social conservatives will likely galvanize previously foot-dragging liberals behind Obama. I sure as hell feel closer to Obama than I did before McCain picked Sarah Palin. Despite Obama's post-convention bounce in the polls (which is remarkable progress for an African American candidate in this generation's America), Post Politics has already written off a 50-50 electorate scenario and declared the election for McCain-Palin, even though liberals will likely cancel out social conservatives and bring us right back to a nation split in half.

So, it is in the middle rather than on these fringes where this election is going to be won or lost. Liberals supposedly "breaking news" to conservatives about assumed perfection has little to do with it. And just like liberals shouldn't over blow the Palin pregnancy, neither should Southcomm bloggers overestimate its impact. Moderates are more likely to see shades of gray rather than children of light and darkness. Their votes are more unpredictable and less swayed by lightning rod issues like teenage pregnancy. The moderates are going to wait out this latest battle in the protracted culture war campaign and see what the future holds. They are going to make their decisions based on their pocketbooks, their health, and their hopes for their own children.

Aboard the Double Standard Express

HT to the Southcomm blogger who broadcasted the salacious innuendo that a Knox County Republican blogger (among several wildly imaginative others) read into the botched peck on the cheek that Barack Obama gave Jill Biden on stage after her husband's acceptance speech. (Keep in mind that the Knox blogger is an avowed Southern Baptist, which may explain his Victorian knee-jerk. The genesis of the Southern Baptist Church was the defense of slavery, and it's explosion in the 20th Century is marred by a legacy of church support for segregation. Combine that with the Baptist obsession with abstinence, and you get the picture; but, I digress).

The space Southcomm wasted even paying attention to what is obviously an innocent miss of aim (when you give someone who has no record of hitting on women in large venues the benefit of the doubt) gives me the opportunity to underscore the double standard applied to black and white candidates.

There was a modest blogstorm on the right regarding the peck, and that virtual circle jerk was given credibility at some media sites like Southcomm. I believe that if Obama had been white, works-righteous bloggers and their media megaphones would not have posted like voyeuristic Puritans.

And yet, John McCain is not getting the same blog or media attention for eyes that seem to wander across his running mate's (or in his words, his "soulmate's") goods during her introduction speech in Ohio:

That's not ogling we can believe in. You can bet that if McCain were black, bloggers would be tearing up the prospect of a single glance at a white woman in a suggestive way.

Faith, Wealth, and the Presidency

Both Barack Obama and John McCain made unmitigated moves this time around to appeal to Christian faith-based voters. Yet, the hard questions about money and Christian teachings have not been addressed by either candidate, mostly because they haven't been asked.

Here's some great tough questions that one blogger on religion would ask:

If the church is going to measure today's candidates on such "faith and values" issues as abortion. gay marriage, war and the environment, shouldn't wealth (theirs and ours) also be part of that discussion?

I'd like to hear McCain's response to this question: "You are a rich man. You and your wife Cindy own seven homes, which you apparently use just for yourselves and your children. A number of years ago, you adopted a child from an orphanage in Bangladesh. How many more children could you save if you sold five or six of your homes and just used one or two for yourself. As a Christian, do you feel a responsibility to do that?"

I'd like to hear Obama's response to this question: "You are a rich man. A few years ago, you signed two book deals worth nearly $2.3 million. You and your wife Michelle made more than $4 million last year and you own a home worth more than $1 million. What have you done with that money to help "the least of these." I don't mean how many checks have you written to charity. Can you give us specific names of people you have helped?"

What politicians do with their own money says something about their character. It says even more about their faith.

Camels can be put through the eyes of needles more easily than wealthy politicians can address questions about the stewardship of their riches.

Obama's Challenge: Playing Catch-up to More Progressive America

While Obama's poll numbers have headed south the harder he runs to what his campaign assumes is the partisan center, a DMI study finds that middle class voters are ahead of the curve on which he lags:

Middle-class voters are split on the presidential race (about half leaning toward McCain and half to Obama) but there’s a lot of agreement around public policy with strong support for progressive measures. 75% of middle-class respondents think a universal national health insurance plan is an excellent or good idea. 71% want to see a law requiring employers to provide paid family and medical leave. 78% wish their representative in Congress had voted to expand SCHIP (health coverage for uninsured low- and middle-income kids). 68% say their rep should have voted to make it easier for people to organize labor unions. (the list goes on – check out the poll report itself).

While Democrats and folks planning to vote for Obama tended to support these policies most strongly, all the policies mentioned above get a majority of support from Republicans and McCain supporters as well.

DMI also discovers that Congress is able to vote against many progressive and popular initiatives because the elected representatives fail to communicate effectively with their constituents:

If these policies are so popular, why isn’t the nation moving in a more progressive direction? One problem is that most middle-class Americans don’t know how their members of Congress actually voted on the issues in question. While two-thirds of middle-class adults say they try to follow what Congress is doing at least somewhat closely, most get very few communications from their representatives. 72% cannot name a single piece of legislation passed by Congress in the past two years that has benefited them or their families. In part, this reflects a grim assessment of Congress’ efficacy. But it also says something about the lack of connection between the nation’s legislators and their middle-class constituents. 68% of middle-class adults would like their rep to support taxing hedge fund managers at the same rate as others in their income bracket. But 69% don’t know if that’s how their rep actually cast the vote. It’s hard to hold your representative accountable if you don’t know what they’re up to.

God Bless Those Atheists!

Atheists leverage themselves a discount for proof of their "non-belief" during "God & Country Day" at the Wilson County Fair and piss off some evangelical pastors in the process. I'd like to see this blow up into civil unrest between equal numbers of both devout and skeptics on Sunday, but my guess is that the atheists were probably spoiling more for a showdown with Wilson County officials and they probably won't show up in the same numbers as if they had been denied the discount.

Now if the Quakers and Mennonites and some disestablishment Baptists could just motivate Wilson County to keep God & Country separate and distinct rather than encouraging idolatry, then we'd have some potential for evangelical fireworks that I would pay the full entrance fee to watch.

Who's the Cat Who Won't Cop Out?

Funk icon and native Tennessean Isaac Hayes has passed (born in Covington, died in Memphis).

The "hot buttered soul" has gone on.

One of the Greater English Only Ironies

Last night in his defense of the English Only ballot initiative, CM Eric Crafton pointed to the irony of the fact that English is required language in many foreign countries and across international bodies, but it is not a requirement in America.

What is even more ironic to me is that so many countries respond to globalism by requiring English as a second language and that America does not require any second language, even as Spanish speaking immigrants increase in numbers. Don't Europeans have a competitive edge precisely because they engage and assimilate foreign languages rather than outlawing them? If we really want to follow the Europeans*, shouldn't learning a second language be compulsory in America?

__________
*Take CM Crafton's argument with a grain of salt; he tends to say contradictory things about following the international community.

Shoot the Liberals: They Hate Us for Our Freedom

On Sunday a viable candidate for TNGOP poster boy walked into a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist congregation and opened fire on the fellowship with a 12-gauge shotgun, killing two and injuring seven. His justification? He hates liberals, a claim supported by his stash of books by right wingers like O'Reilly, Savage, and Hannity. With so many conservatives priming the hate-pump, it was a matter of time before one of its nuts came loose, and innocent people, including children, were forced into the line of fire.

In the aftermath, the local community has rallied to the UUs side:

Monday night Second Presbyterian hosted a big community candlelight vigil service for us to help us recover and to comfort and console us. That building was totally packed! There were people of all churches and no churches, from mosques and synagogues. Everybody was packed in essentially putting their arms around us. Our minister, [the Rev.] Chris Buice, said that there was a power in that room, and we really felt that. When [UUA President] Bill Sinkford said that our religion is about standing on the side of love and we’re not going to give that up, we really felt that, too.

We sang some classic UU hymns, and at the end the kids sprang up into the center aisle of the church at the front and sang “Tomorrow.” “The sun will come [out], tomorrow,” with bright faces, bright voices. We will never forget that. That was literally like sunshine. That was like life coming back at us. Those were the moments when we started back. We’re not back, but we’ve started back.

At a service of comfort [Tuesday] night, one UU said, “I’ve never been so proud to be a Knoxvillean,” and I would echo that. Knoxville showed us that there are a lot more good people than bad people.

This is the expression of freedom: even in the face of death they refuse to stop loving and caring for those whom others loath and spurn. The more hatred is fired at them, the more their cause is justified, and the more good people will come from the shadows to rally to their aid.

When They Discover There's No Water, They'll Drink the Sand

University professors let go of education of the whole person a long time ago, and now some of them are bitching about the "misguided functionaries" in Student Life who have rushed in to fill the void they left.

Maybe the faculty should buck up and start participating more in the everyday residence life of students. The scholars issuing the complaint choose the cheap and easy solution: prodding administrators to maintain "fundamental ideals." Maybe they should choose a harder path of getting involved and modeling those ideals outside the classroom themselves.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

Court rules FCC fine against CBS for 2004 halftime wardrobe malfunction "arbitrary and capricious."

The Interest of a People of the Book

The next time evangelical Christians start their Bible-thumping pride about adhering to religious teachings, they need to pay heed to this Des Moines Muslim who risks his business and lays his modest profits on the line in order to remain faithful to the Qu'ran's prohibition against paying interest.  He is fighting an uphill battle in a country where usury is as holy and unquestionable as the very gates of heaven.  The Christian scriptures and church tradition prohibit paying interest, but those prohibitions are conveniently ignored by Protestants who claim that the Bible is literal and without error.

Church-State Forum Buzzes on Obama's Faith-Based Expansion

James Carroll's Boston Globe op-ed on the behalf of secular rules to protect faith-based organizations has got discussion at Tennessee's religious liberty/church & state forum going.  Charles Sumner comments:

It probably is true than many of the religious groups are in some respects better than their secular counterparts. Yet many others are not equipped as well or staffed with people as informed and educated as the government offices. In some cases secular offices are being more or less replaced by religious in a geographic area. Their locations may not be as easily available to folks who sometimes have no automobile. There are also some people who would not go to a religious facility not of their own faith.

I think we should let Barack Obama know of our attitude on Faith-Based Initiatives. We should compliment him on his desire to prevent discrimination and proselyting but show him that it has not been a success.

I agree that Obama should be cautious in extending the Bush embrace of religious non-profits. I don't have a problem with an office to coordinate faith-based initiatives. I have a problem with the length to which the Bush White House went to trade tax dollars for patronage from the faith-based organizations. The risk is no less real for an Obama Administration, especially given Obama's background with IAF, which sometimes reduces mainline denominational social-justice commitments to a utilitarian calculus of power, control, and influence, for better or worse.

Former Bush Administration member David Kuo outlined the use of values as pretexts for consolidation of control during his time in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives:

Given the fervor with which Obama is himself embracing faith-based initiatives we should be even more concerned about the potential for religion to become an instrument of control rather than a vehicle for curing social ills like poverty and homelessness.

Stealing Christ

The light blogging of the past week was due to our family vacation in Florida.  Between the beach and other diversions I tried to keep tabs on what was going on here, but Orlando news proved to be more fun.  Take for instance the troublemaking University of Central Florida student who decided to commit a faith-based faux pas.  I'm not Catholic, but I do know enough about Catholicism to know that non-Catholics should not mess with the Eucharist inside its performance.  If you don't like it, then just don't go.

"Small Urban Spaces" Doc Now on YouTube

A couple of years ago I attended a Nashville Civic Design Center screening of "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces," a documentary identifying qualities of the built environment that draw people to linger and socialize. I also wrote a series of articles on Nashville's small urban spaces--some of which can be read here--based on my viewing.

If you haven't seen that documentary, yet, I highly recommend it, and fortunately, it has been posted on YouTube:

HT: bzorch