Rich Lowry of The National Review just posted this racist plea for help on TRO’s blog (via Matthew Yglesias):

HELP-CORRUPT AND CORRUPTING INDIANS
I’m going to try to do a column on what a rotten influence Indians are in our politics, pegged to California. If you have suggestions for stuff to read or people to talk to, I’d appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!

Every once in a while, I run into something that’s so racist that I’m too shocked to get angry. This is definitely one of those times. I keep wanting to give mainstream conservatives the benefit of the doubt when it comes to being racist, but then something like this pops up and I’m reminded why I don’t trust them.

Does Rich Lowry really think this is an appropriate thing to write about? I wonder if he’d write a column about what an awful idea it was to allow African-Americans to own land, or why Asians shouldn’t be allowed to vote, or why minimum wage laws shouldn’t apply to Hispanics. This is seriously twisted, especially considering that he’s already decided that Indians are a “rotten influence”, but he’s begging his readers for literature to justify his own racism. If you wanna email this dickhead, click here.

George W. Bush now has a site where his supporters can engage in faux-grassroots activism (also known as astroturf activism). Rather than let the media get overwhelmed with GOP bullshit, the guys at Not Geniuses are putting together a new Team Leader-style campaign :

George W. Bush has a new website up, and upon seeing it, you have to admit — this is a campaign that “gets” the web. Their website consolidates many of the tools that the senate challengers and their supporters have been experimenting with, and they are well implemented. Particularly impressive is their Action Center, which has one the the coolest, most useful tools I’ve ever seen:

If you scroll about halfway down the page, you’ll see a field where you can input your zip code — once you do, you’ll be given a large list of newspapers and radio shows in your area, complete with contact information for each of them. It’s mighty impressive.
. . .
So here is what we propose. We want to get a coalition together — every influential and non-influential lefty site with the ability to direct readers and members over to the Bush action tools. And every Friday, we want to use those tools to write letters and make calls highlighting a different part of the Bush disaster. This Friday will be fiscal irresponsibility day — where we blanket the media with calls and letters about Bush’s absurd fiscal policies. We’re even going to get you the info, for instance, behold the Bush Record (if you’re not a Dean supporter, just ignore the stuff about Dean).

There are already a number of bloggers on board. I urge you all to get involved and participate in this effort to inundate the media with the truth about George W. Bush. If you go to the Bush “Action Center”, you can enter your zip code and get contact information for your local talk radio and newspapers.

Al Franken is a genius :

Comedian and liberal activist Al Franken has written an apology letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft after asking him for his personal story about remaining abstinent before marriage.

Franken, a satirist and former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” admitted in a letter last month that he deliberately tried to mislead Ashcroft when he sought personal information from him.

“In the letter, I indicated that I wanted your story for a book about abstinence-only sex education entitled ‘Savin’ It!’ I claimed that I had already received testimonies from several conservative leaders, which I had not,” he wrote.

“The letter was sent as part of a satirical book I’m working on, which will contain only one or two chapters dealing with abstinence-only sex education.”

In June, Franken wrote to Ashcroft requesting his personal story, adding that he had already received testimonials from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and values guru William J. Bennett, among others.

In encouraging Ashcroft to submit his story, Franken asked the attorney general to reveal honest and personal details about his younger days.

“Don’t be afraid to share a moment when you were tempted to have sex, but were able to overcome your urges through willpower and strength of character. Be funny!” Franken wrote. “Did a young woman every think you were homosexual just because you wouldn’t have sex with her? Be serious! Were you ever taunted and made to feel bad or ‘uncool’ because of your choice? But most of all, be real. Kids can sense a phony a mile away.”

Now I really can’t wait to pick up his new book.

Here’s a museum exhibit I’m not going to visit :

The Smithsonian Institution unveiled a restored Enola Gay on Monday, making the B-29 bomber that helped end World War II the centerpiece of the new annex to the Air and Space Museum.

The restoration, the result of 300,000 hours of work over nearly 20 years, made the B-29 bomber look as it did on Aug. 6, 1945 when it dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
. . .
Museum officials avoided the controversy that grounded a 1995 exhibit, which discussed the effects of the bomb on the Japanese people.

Hideki Yui of Japan Broadcasting Corp., one of many Japanese media members attending Monday’s event, said there is a lot of interest in Japan in the new exhibit.

“Japanese survivors want to focus attention more to the damage of the atomic bomb,” he said.

The museum’s interest in avoiding the subject is understandable, he said, because the U.S. Military and Congress oppose it.

Wait a second. Are they saying that they’re going to display the plane, but they’re not going to discuss the the effects of the bomb on Hiroshima?? Shouldn’t any museum exhibit explain why it’s in the museum in the first place? If I had may way, I’d have the tour guides say things like :

“On Aug. 6, 1945, this plane was used to instantly kill and vaporize more than 140,000 civilians. Do you kids know what a civilian is? Yeah, that’s right….like the World Trade Center. Do you know how many World Trade Centers are in 140,000? Forty six!”

Inspired by a 1998 report by The Sexuality Information and Education Council on how to explain the Starr Report to children, Katrina vanden Heuvel has a list of tips on how to talk to your kids about Bush’s lies :

*1) Think about your values as they relate to this situation. What are your family’s values about telling the truth? What would you do if your child lied to you and when you scolded him or her, s/he replied: “I am not a fact-checker.” Or added, “Isn’t it time to move on?”

*2) Ask your children to tell you what words mean to them. Explain that words have consequences and lies can come in two, six or sixteen words.

*3) Clarify facts. Give short, age-appropriate answers. Explain that shifting strategies at damage control only lead to more unanswered questions. Make clear that even if facts are malleable for President Bush, they’re not malleable in your home. Explain that even though the White House strategy may be to say whatever is necessary, even if they have to admit later that what they said the first time wasn’t exactly true, you don’t do it that way yourself.

Kynn Bartlett of Shock and Awe has a great post about what her refers to as Christianism :

I strongly believe that the biggest threat to America at the current time is the increasing and unchecked power of nationalistic Christianity, one which conflates God and the American state, throwing in blind adoration for the Republican party’s leadership along with lack of respect for separation of church and state.
. . .
The association of Christian symbols with nationalistic American symbols came out of the closet and into the mainstream in the short, desperate hours after the 9/11 attack. “God Bless America” replaced the national anthem as the “patriotic” song of choice, and stickers with American flags and religious slogans appeared on the backs of countless cars. Currently in vogue around these parts is an American flag superimposed by a Christian fish.

The symbolism is unmistakable and direct: America is the chosen country of God, blessed beyond all others for our faith and belief in him, with our leaders directly empowered by deity himself to do good work. Any who oppose the will of God and his appointed spokespeople are not only traitors to our country, but are working against the very power of the Lord.
. . .
In the minds of the nationalistic Christianist, America is intended by God only for the true believers. Those who don’t believe simply aren’t part of God’s plan for America, and must be opposed.

To my non-Christian readers who may not be familiar with the internal schisms within contemporary American Christianity: By “true believers” they don’t mean people who go to church, who believe in God, who follow Jesus. Nearly all Catholics are not “true believers.” Jews certainly are not, despite the insistence that we come from a “Judeo-Christian heritage.” (The term itself is a cleverly crafted disguise for the fact that Christianist is inherently and virulently anti-Semitic in theology.) And mainline liberal Christians such as myself are excluded from the Christianist definition of Christian. I am not a “true believer” according to these people.

You should definitely go to his site and read the whole post. It’s pretty long, but Kynn touches on a couple examples that not only reinforce the whole “real Christians” myth that’s well examined by the book “Stealing Jesus” (and touched on in this post), but he also does a good job of showing how the emerging nationalistic Christianity movement has coopted many patriotic symbols for religious purposes.

Seeing this post by Kevin Drum made me ask myself, “How’s Gene Chapman doing?” For those of you who have been coming to the site for a while, you’ll remember Gene as the guy who’s (literally) made himself the Gandhi of the tax protester movement. On April 15th, he started a “death-fast” in order to get the IRS to tell him where in the law it says he has to pay his taxes. Of course since he started his fast the day taxes are due, I’d imagine the IRS was too busy doing their jobs to answer semi-rhetorical questions. On May 24th he ended his “death-fast” and decided to refocus his energies on a new crusade.

(A little side note here : since Gene Chapman isn’t dead, is it really appropriate to call it a death-fast? It sounds more like a regular fast to me.)

Gene’s new mission is probably even funnier than his last one :

Exodus 10:3 “And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.” - King James Version

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” - The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen united states of America.

In the spirit of these magnificently clear exhortations, on June 1, 2003 at 7:00 Am Gene Chapman began a people’s Tax March to Washington DC. This was 8 days after he ended a Deathfast on the 40th day which began on April 15th at 7:00 Am to seek an answer to a simple question from the IRS, DOJ and Congress: “Where is MY tax liability in the law?”

To date, the IRS, DOJ and Congress have failed to address this question in a way that would make reasonable persons maintain their confidence and trust in a system of popular sovereignty created by We The People through our consent. When the founding fathers of this great nation approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 and later signed the Constitution for the united states of America in 1787 - which was ratified in 1788 and then included the adoption of the Bill of Rights that was made effective in 1791 - they set into motion for the first time in the history of the world a foundation for future freedom and liberty that acknowledged an Almighty Creator’s Divine Providence and celebrated We The People as Caesar, transcending - ie. making null and void - the ancient Divine Right of Kings.

It’s good to know that Gene’s still okay and that he doesn’t have any weird delusions of grandeur.

Let’s ignore for a moment that the myriad of questions posed by tax protesters have been already addressed not only by the excellent Tax Protester FAQ, but also the IRS themselves :

All citizens must comply with the requirements of the tax law to file returns and pay taxes. Fortunately, the vast majority of Americans recognizes their civic duty and voluntarily complies with their tax-filing obligation. Taxpayers who fail to file income tax returns and pay taxes pose a serious threat to tax administration and the American economy. Their actions undermine public confidence in the Service’s ability to administer the tax laws fairly and effectively.
. . .
When the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified (February 3, 1913) giving Congress the power “to lay and collect taxes on incomes”, citizens began arguing that it was not properly ratified and income taxes are illegal. Unfortunately, some citizens continue to raise such arguments in spite of the fact that they have no basis in law and the courts have repeatedly rejected their arguments as frivolous.

Unscrupulous promoters and their followers have long employed frivolous arguments concerning the legality of the income tax as pretexts to enrich themselves or evade their taxes. Their motivation is usually monetary, not some legitimate purpose or belief. Anti-taxation groups have been around for a long time. They are small but vocal. Though the leadership of these movements used different arguments to gain followers, they all share one thing in common; they received substantial sentences in a federal prison for their activities. Their followers paid a steep price for following bad advice. Some were prosecuted, many more were involved in years of litigation and ultimately had to pay all taxes owed along with penalties and interest.

The thing that I really don’t understand about this whole movement is what they ultimately hope to accomplish. What will happen if they actually find a loophole in the tax law? It’s not like the government is going to come out and say “Whoops! You caught us! Okay, here’s your tax money back.” What will happen is that they’ll just close the loophole and move on.

Lemme get this straight. The pilgrims settled America because they were fleeing religious persecution. Later the founding fathers set up the country “building a wall of separation between Church and State” (Jefferson’s words) to ensure that there wouldn’t be a repeat of the theocratic rule of the British. If that’s the case, then why the heck is America more obsessed with religion than any other industrialized country? Nicholas Kristof scraped at the surface of this question last ween in a NY Times column :

Today marks the Roman Catholics’ Feast of the Assumption, honoring the moment that they believe God brought the Virgin Mary into Heaven. So here’s a fact appropriate for the day: Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).

So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental divide between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith. Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of no other industrialized country, with the possible exception of South Korea.

Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to believe in God to be moral. In contrast, other developed countries overwhelmingly believe that it is not necessary. In France, only 13 percent agree with the U.S. view.

The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time. The percentage of Americans who believe in the Virgin Birth actually rose five points in the latest poll.

As an atheist, I find the “needing God to be moral” thing especially offensive. I know a lot of people gain comfort in believing in something greater than themselves, but I can’t wrap my head around what would make people think that they need God to be moral. Does this mean that the only reason that these people are moral is because the Bible tells them to be? If they hadn’t read “thou shalt not kill” would they all be on killing sprees? Or is the real explanation that people are so self-centered and arrogant that they truly can’t understand how anyone who has blind faith in anything even slightly different than they do could be a moral and decent person?

What’s even more revealing about all this is Kristof’s explanation of where he got his data :

The comparisons with other countries come from a different source: ?Views of a Changing World, June 2003,? a multi-nation poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, www.people-press.org. Incidentally, the Pew survey finds that the American emphasis on the need to believe in God to be moral, while rare in the industrialized world, is common in developing countries like Nigeria and Pakistan.

Did you catch that? This belief is common in developing countries. He could have just said “This belief in common in backwards countries where people are so religious that they’re completely unable to deal with anyone who is different”. America is a melting pot, people! It’s time to start tolerating (since we’re obviously unable to celebrate) our differences.

One of my favorite online humor magazines is Ostrich Ink (think TheSpark.com back when they were funny). Among this month’s highlights are Kyle Buchanan explaining why he won’t vote for Arnold :

So Arnold Schwarzenegger is running for governor in the California recall. There are a lot of reasons that this is kind of fucked up: he’s an actor, he has no platform, and he thought Jingle All the Way was a good idea. Not the kind of qualifications you usually look for in your future leader. But as it happens, these are all things I could overlook, for they pale in comparison to the real reason I could never, ever elect Arnold (and it’s not just because he’s a Republican):

I’ve seen his wang.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have seen Little Arnold, and if you’ve read down this far, then you have too. I hope you didn’t scream too loud.

…and Matthew “Styles” Bauer lamenting the scarcity of theater seats in the post-9/11 era :

I?m one of few who, after 9/11, sneeringly proposed that this Hands Across America act was just a fad, destined to go the way of Urkel and jelly bracelets. And boy, did I catch shit for that. Well, who?s the asshole now? It?s bad enough that this country has fallen for shams as wide-ranging as Nickelback, Pearl Harbor, and that Jim Belushi TV show, but when we start jumping on the bandwagon of faux kindness? Come on! I?m asking you to be sketchy. No, I?m asking you to be discerning. Should that struggling store owner in New York have handed out countless pairs of shoes to September 11 victims? Yes. And should we be touched by that? Definitely. But there?s a world of difference between altruism and social politeness; Chicken-Soup-For-The-Soul-ifying such tales was a grave misstep, and now we?re back to the way we were - a bunch of zombiefied egocentrics droning in front of a flashing screen, greedily taking as much leg room as we can get.

The second anniversary of September 11 is just weeks away. If I were Bono, God forbid, I might urge you to do something kind for your fellow Americans. But fuck that, we don?t seem capable of such responsibility. So this September 11, I ask you to look back at our ridiculous behavior two years ago and to feel deep shame. If it took hundreds of casualties for you to become a self-proclaimed patriot, and now you?re cutting people off for good parking spaces, feel embarrassed. If you had an ?open discussion? in your yoga class, sobbing in front of strangers, and are now rudely ordering waiters around, kill yourself a little. If you?ve purposely ignored a phone call from a friend in need or stingily kept a seat from a theatergoer, take an objective look at yourself. For a nation of people who initially wanted to become incredibly close to one another, we certainly are asking for a lot of undeserved legroom.

It’s too bad we don’t have a president who had enough balls to actually capitalize on the post 9/11 goodwill. He could have pulled a “Don’t ask what your country can do for you…” moment, but I guess it was a lot easier to just tell everybody to go shopping. Sigh….

Well, everyone agrees that the power outage in the northeast should serve as a wake-up call, but what sort of wake up call should it be? The President seems to be adapting the Administration line that was used during the California Energy Crisis (ie. the best solution is to spend a lot more money on power plants) :

President Bush said he will order a review of why so many states were hit by a massive power blackout Thursday and said he suspects the nation’s electrical grid will have to be modernized.
. . .
Speaking to reporters at a downtown hotel during a two-day California trip, the president said the assessment would determine just what caused the problem and whether the U.S. electrical grid would need to be modernized as a result.

“I happen to think it does,” he said. “It’s a serious situation.”

Hmmm…I wonder if Bush knows anyone who could update those power plants?? Seriously though, saying the system needs to be modernized is a start. The power grid definitely needs to be updated, but just upgrading the equipment isn’t gonna do it.

The real wake-up call should be the lessons that lie below the surface of this problem. For one, this should finally disprove the myth that privatizing utilities will result in better performance. As Atrios put it :

Well, we don’t really know what caused it yet, but let me say one thing - no pure private market system will ever exist to give private companies, absent monopolies, any incentives to invest in a sufficient, and sufficiently reliable, general transmission infrastructure.

In other words, when a complicated system as vital as power, water, public transportation, telephone lines, etc. is put in the hands of a party whose only interest is making a profit, every bit of redundancy is a hit against the bottom line.

Privatization may look great on paper, but everyone with real world experience knows otherwise. How many of you have worked at a job where the failure of one piece of machinery, the crashing of one server, or the loss of one employee would cause the entire business to come to a screeching halt? It’s pretty damn common. And when a business cares about nothing but making money, investment in redundancy and cross training almost always takes a back seat.

The greater lesson that should be learned in this whole wake-up call is the fact that there clearly is a big problem with the way the energy grid is set up. Even if we took the minimal steps of upgrading all the equipment, we’ve still got a situation in which the entire northeastern part of our country has a single point of failure. Everyone was relieved when government officials assured us that this wasn’t related to terrorism, but shouldn’t that be the real wake-up call? If all the power in New York can be wiped out with a single lightning bolt (which is the most recent theory I’ve heard about the cause of the blackout), what’s going to happen when terrorists begin their next major attack by wiping out all the power, telephone service, water, etc. with a few well-placed truck bombs?