Thursday, June 16, 2005

The Lynching Resolution   As promised before, I now have a list of the current signatories to the Lynching Resolution.  The latest word to come to me is that 86 Senators are now either sponsors or cosponsors of the Lynching Resolution, which expresses regret for some of the most terrible moments in our collective pasts.  14 others have not.  The following Senators have so far in their lives never felt a moment of regret for America's dark history of lynching, or the United State Senate's historic failure to act against it:  Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama, John Kyl of Arizona, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Trent Lott of Mississippi, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, John Cornyn of Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Robert Bennett of Utah, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Michael Enzi of Wyoming, and Craig Thomas of Wyoming.  It is entirely possible some of these men and woman look on lynching with nostalgia, and desire a return to it. Their families must be so proud. 9:51:06 PM    comment []

Can't Get Enough of That Hard Core Porn   A Republican fund-raising event hosted by the President raised a near-record $23 million Tuesday night.  It also was the first major Republican fund-raiser where one of the attendees was a porn star, the 24-year-old Mary Carey, who first came into the public eye, other than for the obvious reasons, when she ran for governor of California in the recall that brought Arnold to power.  (No word on whether Clarence Thomas was in attendance.)  The President appears at many fund-raising events, most of which don't clear nearly that kind of money.  This was Mary Carey's first fund-raiser.  Coincidence?  You make the call. This suggests a couple of things.  One is that the family values the Republicans champion may not be the values you think they are, but may be more like those of…well, not Sodom, but probably Gomorrah.  The other is that the Republican party would outraise the Democrats by even more money if they just started running porn stars for office. They need look no further than the porn star they had in the room Tuesday night, Mary Carey, for candidates.  She was made to feel right at home.  She said she received so many offers for three ways with Republicans and their wives that she's "definitely" a Republican now.  10:16:16 AM    comment []

Quote for the Day, 6/16/2005   "The Greeks didn't write obituaries.  They only asked one question after a man died:  did he have passion?"   -Jeremy Piven, Serendipity 4:17:08 AM    comment []

The Devil's Disciple   I can't believe I missed this:  Ralph Reed announced he was running in next year's race for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia way back in February.  They say the Devil can quote Scripture to his own purposes, and when someone came up with that saying, he probably had Ralph Reed in mind.  Because of his remarkable political skills, Reed just might manage to overcome the enormous baggage he has as a candidate.  Lobbyists are somewhat less well-liked by the public than politicians, or even reporters, but that's been Ralph Reed's main gig for about a decade.  His primary way of making a living is exploiting his past evangelical connections in order to lobby on behalf of, well, absolutely anybody...including gambling interests in Mississippi, gambling interests in Louisiana, and Enron. From his days as the leader of the "Christian" Coalition, I have always thought he was a personable and remarkably skilled political operative.  He would look and sound reasonable even while he was saying things that were absolutely insane.  In recent years, for instance, he has persuaded countless Christian conservatives that it was the godly to protest the building of casinos where they might compete with the casinos paying Ralph Reed millions of dollars for his help in protecting their regional monopoly.  Doubtless Reed believed what he said; I imagine Ralph Reed believes that whatever is good for Ralph Reed is good for Jesus; but the evangelists who were snowed by him because of his past Christian movement associations have reason to feel deceived.  No one believes that Ralph Reed wants to be Lieutenant Governor; just as no one spends high school campaigning to be the recording secretary of the Science Club; similarly, no one spends their entire life in politics with dreams of one day becoming Lieutenant Governor of Georgia.  The high school politician wants to be student body president; he is Ralph Reed in miniature.  Ralph Reed has spent his entire adult life in politics, preparing for the day he'd tread this path.  He chose to first run for Lieutenant Governor carefully, purposefully, in hopes that the office is just unimportant enough that people might give him a chance, a foot in the door...forgetting that he is one of the most dangerous men alive.  He has spent his adult life twisting every issue into a religious issue, framing even the most immoral of causes (like cutting health care to the poor) as if it were a holy crusade. There's a Republican primary opponent to Reed, state Senator Casey Cagle.  I wish him all the luck in the world.  The time to stop Ralph Reed is now, just as he's starting. 2:08:26 AM    comment []