Month: April 2015

It’s Good Friday. Would Jesus agree with this?

by digby

That avatar of Christian charity, Ann Coulter:

“Where are the Christians? And where are the Republicans? I’m glad this Mike Pence isn’t running for president. They are falling like toy soldiers. The one thing every Christian should have is courage. The most important thing in your life, eternity, is already taken care of. Go out and fight. You’re afraid of being sneered at by the New York Times? That’s the one thing every Christian should have and most of them don’t.”

I don’t remember the “get out there and fight, dammit” Biblical homilies but then I’m no expert. It doesn’t sound like Jesus though. I thought he was big on forgiveness and turning the other cheek. Assuming that you’re all set for eternity so it’s time to start cracking some heads just doesn’t strike me as particularly Christian. But hey, maybe it’s one of those lost books in the Bible — the Book of Luca … Luca Brazzi.

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No, the religious right is not dead. They were just resting.


by digby

Remember when everyone told you (again) that the religious right was dead and buried? Yeah, it was yesterday. Anyway, the fact that Jeb Bush and the others all felt they had to immediately come to Mike Pence’s defense should show you that the GOP, at least, still feels its power, even if corporate America is exerting its influence because it’s bad for business.

But here’s a fine example of how the religious right is actually making a comeback. Media Matters caught up with the allegedly “independent” Megyn Kelly on Fox this week:

Megyn Kelly has been one of the principal defenders of the law on Fox , regularly dismissing concerns that the law could be used to discriminate against LGBT Hoosiers. She called the measure “not that controversial,” accusing LGBT activists of “exploiting” national concern about the law in order to “prove their bona fides on gay and lesbian rights issues.” She’s repeatedly hosted the leader of an anti-gay hate group to defend the measure and misleadingly suggested that the measure wouldn’t threaten LGBT non-discrimination protections. She also ignored the broad scope of Indiana’s RFRA to falsely compare the measure to “religious freedom” laws in other states.

During a segment on the April 1 edition of The Kelly File, Kelly invited Hume to discuss an anti-gay business that was targeted by activists after publicly stating that it would refuse to serve same-sex weddings. Rather than raise concerns about the law’s discriminatory intent — as she had done the last time she discussed a potentially discriminatory RFRA bill with Hume – Kelly asked “do you think there is room in today’s day and age for someone who does not believe in gay marriage to maintain that belief?”

And here’s that same Megyn Kelly in February of last year:

In February of 2014, one state was embroiled in a debate over a “religious freedom” law that had earned national attention. LGBT groups, the business community, and even sports organizations had spoken out against the law, warning that it could be used to discriminate against LGBT customers.

That state was Arizona, which had passed SB 1062, a measure that gave individuals and business owners a legal defense for refusing to serve LGBT customers if doing so violated their religious beliefs.

At the time, even Fox’s Megyn Kelly seemed uncomfortable with the measure, which was passed with the explicit purpose of allowing business to refuse to serve same-sex weddings. During the February 25 edition of The Kelly File, Kelly invited Fox senior political analyst Brit Hume on to her show to discuss the “controversial” law, which she called “an overreaction” and “potentially dangerous,” warning that it could be used to deny medical service to LGBT people

Why would she change her mind in such a short time? Well, it’s a sign that they are circling the wagons. Now, this does not mean they are winning the argument? Not at all. It means they are losing.  But they are not going away. They will be a factor in the GOP primaries though, clearly. And they’ll continue to be a huge factor in the states and in the Supreme Court. They aren’t going to abandon their beliefs or their sense of mission in inflicting them on everyone else. Say what you will about them but unlike Megyn Kelly and the other Fox News All-Stars,  they have principles.

Update: I’m watching MSNBC right now where a couple of the young kiddies are talking about this article and observing that we’ve never talked much about religion in politics before but it’s becoming important for politicians to talk about their faith and their “values.”

Yeah, that’s new.

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LGBT discrimination isn’t the only heinous result of these so-called “religious liberty” laws

by digby

I wrote a piece for Salon today about how heartening it is that so many people have fought back against Indiana’s “religious liberty” law to allow discrimination against gays and lesbians. I pointed out that this is part of a new doctrine being promulgated by the social conservatives as a way to protect their right to be intolerant, a doctrine given some substance by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case. Unfortunately, the specifics of that case did not provoke the kind of outcry the gay discrimination did, especially in Indiana where the religious right is now using the criminal law against pregnant women:

The case of Bei Bei Shuei, a Chinese immigrant living in Indiana came to international attention in 2011 when she was charged with murder under the states “feticide” law when she attempted suicide while pregnant. The law had been originally intended to be used against third parties who killed a fetus while intending harm against the mother but this shocking case was the first in the state to use the law to prosecute the pregnant woman herself. After years of legal fights Shuei, who served 435 days in jail pending trial, eventually accepted a plea bargain for time served. The prosecutor in the case insisted that they never intended to use the law to monitor the behavior of pregnant women.

That insistence is especially interesting in light of a similar Indiana case that unfolded under the radar as the whole country was up in arms over the new law allowing business owners to discriminate. A woman by the name of Purvi Patel was convicted of feticide and neglect of a dependent for what they called an illegal abortion. Irin Carmen at MSNBC reported on the case:

On Monday, Patel, a 33-year-old woman living with her parents near South Bend, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, of which 10 will be suspended. These prosecutors told msnbc that Patel had, in fact, been convicted of having an illegal abortion, which they said she had induced by pills ordered over the internet.

Ken Cotter, the prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph’s County, said one of Patel’s crimes had been flouting the state’s abortion laws.

“There are certain requirements that the legislature wants to make sure that you go through before an abortion is sanctified by society,” said Cotter. “If you don’t go through those procedures, then the legislature has determined that that’s a crime.”

In Indiana, failing to follow proper abortion procedures can get you 20 years behind bars. Indeed the prosecutor in this case told MSNBC that “[a] more accurate title [for “feticide”] would be ‘unlawful termination of pregnancy.’ He went on to fatuously declare that if the legislature didn’t intend for the feticide law to include “the mother or the person who is pregnant” they could have said so. (One wonders what other person he thinks might be pregnant than the mother.)

There’s a lot more about this problem at the link. There are literally hundreds of cases of women being persecuted by the courts for alleged criminal behavior against their fetuses. This includes refusing certain medical procedures, taking drugs and otherwise failing to take proper care of the gestation vessel (also known as “themselves”.) And it’s getting worse.

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Projecting the mullahs in the mirror

by digby

Am I the only one who finds it just a little bit odd that the American officials loudly claiming Iran cannot be trusted to fulfill any deal are simultaneously pledging that they will not fulfill any deal? Is it possible they have such little self-awareness?

Steve Benen reported on a couple of them:

HOST: You have said that you would cancel any Iranian deal the Obama administration makes. Now would you cancel that even if our trading partners did not want to re-impose the sanctions?

WALKER: Absolutely.

Marco Rubio recently made an identical vow, saying he would “absolutely” defy American allies by scrapping an Iran deal.

Jeb Bush said, “I cannot stand behind such a flawed agreement.”

They get very upset when you call social conservatives right wing Mullahs. But in this case these Republicans are literally acting like the Mullahs of their imaginations.

I’m sure the Iranians will have to be very closely watched. There’s a reason why this agreement is necessary in the first place. But bellowing about how untrustworthy they are while boldly asserting your own untrustworthiness doesn’t exactly set a good example.

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We’re in such good company

by digb

After China the largest number of executions were believed to have occurred in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the U.S.

You’ll notice that there is not one other western democracy listed there.

Everybody’s wise to Eddie except Eddie
by Tom Sullivan

For those growing up in the 1960s, Eddie Haskell from the sitcom “Leave It to Beaver” was our archetype for the conniving, two-faced schemer. Superficially polite — over-polite — when parents were present, he dropped the facade and became his true, devious self whenever the adults left the room. IIRC, at the end of one episode, Eddie gets his comeuppance. As he is led away, he is still working his Mr. Innocent routine, mystified that it seems not to be sparing him punishment. Wally Cleaver turns to his little brother and observes, “Everybody’s wise to Eddie except Eddie.”

It’s not a new observation that conservative politics often exhibits the same public/private, two-faced quality. This week’s sideshow in Indiana over its Religious Freedom Restoration Act bought Eddie to mind again. Protestations that the bill meant to protect religious practice rather than license discrimination were just as transparent.

In the sitcom, Ward and June Cleaver always play along with Eddie’s innocent act, never confronting him about being a fraud, and tacitly encouraging him to keep lying. In real life, don’t our Wards and Junes of the press do the same?

A radio newscast last night reported that RFRA supporters in Indiana complained that the changes made to the law yesterday under national pressure had stripped the law of its religious protections. That is, the right of business owners to use their religious belief to discriminate against customers.

Gov. Mike Pence’s public efforts over the weekend to deny it were damned near comedic, even as more privately, RFRA supporters revealed their true intentions:

But even this week, as Pence called for a fix to clarify that “this law does not give businesses a right to deny services to anyone,” conservative groups stuck to the message of same-sex marriage opposition to rally supporters.

A website post Monday by Advance America, led by Eric Miller, sought to set the record straight on “misinformation” about the law by listing purported examples of how Indiana’s RFRA could be used.

“Christian bakers, florists and photographers should not be forced by the government to participate in a homosexual wedding,” the post said. “Pastors should not be forced by the government to conduct a homosexual wedding at the church.”

And Wednesday, as lawmakers hashed out language to expressly prohibit using RFRA to discriminate, Micah Clark sent out a message to supporters to urge lawmakers to reject any changes.

Ed Kilgore reminds us that faced with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, conservatives across the country — “not all of them southerners” and certainly many of them Democrats — “executed a strategic retreat, accepting the demolition of de jure segregation but defending de facto segregation via private action.” That is, defending the notion that private business owners should be free in public accommodations to select whom they wish to serve. Kilgore quotes Barry Goldwater at length on the matter, concluding:

Like southern “Christian” segregationists in the recent past, today’s politicized conservative Christians are executing a strategic retreat into an allegedly private sphere where they are on stronger ground in resisting anti-discrimination policies. They intensely dislike the parallels on the grounds that hostility to gay rights and/or same-sex marriage in deeply entrenched in their faith, or in the case of conservative evangelicals, in the Bible.

That is exactly what the segregationists said as well, of course. It is not hard to foresee a day when the tortured efforts of religious leaders to stitch together a few culture-bound passages into an eternal condemnation of homosexuality (or for that matter, abortion, which is virtually invisible in Scripture) will look just as absurd and embarrassing as yesterday’s thundering sermons on black people being consigned to submission by the Curse of Ham. And then maybe the strategic retreat into efforts to hang onto discrimination via protestations of “religious liberty” will look less sympathetic as well.

But it is that Haskellish relflex on the right to deny the truth of what everyone can else see that’s more infuriating, as well as being more broadly applied than on just religious matters. It is as if they believe that by smiling broadly and speaking earnestly enough, observers will be duped as to their real intentions.

I’m talking about photo ID laws peddled as “election integrity” measures. Or the changes being made in the GOP-controlled North Carolina legislature to how cities and counties elect local leaders, rigging the game in their favor. Expanding some panels and shrinking others by legislative fiat, always claiming the effort is meant to improve representation and, wouldn’t you know, always tilting the playing field towards Republicans. As if no one is wise to what they’re really up to.

UPDATE: Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC blog this morning reinforces my point. Watch your backs, people:

Now, the flood gates have opened. Republicans all over the state want to assert their authority over the peons who hold local offices. As the state grows and becomes more urban and liberal, the GOP wants to ensure minority rule by rigging the system.

The Leon Test

by digby

So, according to this, the Iran deal is far better than expected. That’s also what the talking head on TV are saying (well, the one’s with any credibility — the Fox pundits’ heads are all spinning around on their shoulders and they’re spewing green bile in every direction.)

Like many observers, I doubted in recent months that Iran and world powers would ever reach this stage; the setbacks and delays had simply been too many. Now, here we are, and the terms are far better than expected. There are a number of details left to be worked out, including one very big unresolved issue that could potentially sink everything. This is not over. But if this framework does indeed become a full nuclear deal in July, it would be a huge success and a great deal.

So, good news and a lot of reason for hope.

But can we really know if it’s any good until we hear from Leon Panetta and are reassured that he told them years ago that this is exactly what should be done? He might not, you know. When he was last heard from he declared that “the Iranians can’t be trusted” and suggested that any deal was a bad idea. I sure hope someone’s reached out to him for the Sunday shows …

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My little patio garden must die so that rich people in other lands may eat almonds

by digby

It’s sad:

In Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order setting California’s mandatory water reductions in cities and towns, he called for 25 percent reductions in use that would save 1.5 million acre-feet of water1 over the next nine months.

By comparison, the city of Los Angeles uses 587,000 acre-feet in a year. In other words, L.A. would need to go completely dry for three years to cover Brown’s goals on its own.

California’s urban areas are responsible for only 10 percent of the state’s water use. Even as the cities have grown, urban per-capita consumption has declined, from 232 gallons per day in 1990 to 178 gallons per day in 2010. As a result, the cities’ total water use has been relatively stable.

Instead, the thirstiest sector of the state is the agricultural industry, which makes up 40 percent of water usage. If you set aside the 50 percent of California’s water that’s reserved for environmental use (maintaining wetlands, rivers, and other parts of the state’s ecosystem), agriculture uses 80 percent of the remaining water dedicated directly or indirectly for human uses.

I like almonds. But it takes a gallon of water to make one almond and California has decided that the almond growers (along with all the other Big Ag Corporations) cannot be expected to forego any of their profits due to this drought.

I don’t mind cutting back on water. I’ve been doing it for the past two years. We recycle all the water we can to water our (drought tolerant) plants and conserve as much as humanly possible. And I’m sure it’s a good idea to mandate rationing in this situation. But everyone should have to sacrifice a little bit in an epic drought like this one. Even yuppies who love their almond milk. (I love it too, but seriously  …)

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QOTD: Difi

by digby

Fergawdsakes:

I am particularly struck that the alleged bombers made use of online bombmaking guides like the Anarchist Cookbook and Inspire Magazine. These documents are not, in my view, protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the Internet.

Setting aside what Senator Feinstein believes should and shouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment, does she think it’s possible to just “erase” these documents from the internet and then nobody will be able to build a bomb? Does she think that people are so stupid they can’tuse some of the million other books in the world that contain information about how to build a bomb? Burning all those books would be quite a task.

But even if they were able to confiscate and erase all knowledge that could lead to someone making a bomb, all the would-be lone wolves would just fall back on the automatic weaponry and other military gear they can easily buy at one of our thousands of gun bazaars around the country. And don’t even think about trying to prevent that.

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The nuclear meltdown commences

by digby

Luke Brinker at Salon gathered some of the initial conservative reactions to the Iran deal. I’m sure they very thoughtfully and deliberately pored over the details before making these pronouncements:

Whatever you do don’t tell them that Pakistan, the home of al Qaeda, already has the bomb. They’ll foul their trousers on the spot.

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