Replies to post #151284 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

I Want My America Back -- not the Tea Party's America

Judge H. Lee Sarokin [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judge-h-lee-sarokin ]
Retired in 1996 after 17 years on the federal bench
Posted: 8/7/11 05:49 PM ET

When I was a kid and we were deciding what games to play and how to play them, our slogan was "the majority rules." That constant and lofty principle ranked right up there with "loser walks" after a touchdown in sandlot football. The bullies and the brats who stamped their feet to get their way did not make the rules. We carried the concept of majority rule into our adult lives and assumed it applied to government as well, but apparently that is no longer the case. Some of our elected representatives would bring down this country in pursuit of their own jihad. The majority no longer rules, and we are all losers as a result. When have we ever had a statute enacted when so many legislators voted their approval and simultaneously voiced their disapproval? The country is in a state of despair -- and for good reason. The stock market has obviously given the debt-ceiling "compromise" and the debate leading up to it a flunking grade as has Standard & Poor's.

Wiser voices have spoken about the consequences of the legislation saving the country from its credit default. I am interested and concerned with the process. The undisputed fact is that a minority of the country has taken over its control. Although the cabal may not share blood oaths or secret handshakes, they have their intractable pledges and fanaticism that makes them willing to destroy this country's and possibly the world's economy to achieve their ends. By holding up a vote on what had been a traditional rubber stamp for decades by both political parties to raise the debt limit, they sought to extort compliance with their own demands irrespective of the destruction that might ensue if their demands were not met. This conduct strikes at the very foundations of our democracy and the future of our country.

The same is true of the use, or rather the abuse, of the filibuster rule and need for a super-majority. The filibuster rule was enacted and reserved for those rare occasions when the minority was so incensed or outraged by legislation or appointments proposed by the majority or the president that it used this rule to defeat them. For years, an actual filibuster was required. Now, no one need stand in the well of the Senate and actually filibuster, the mere threat is sufficient, and the rule is used in a trivial manner to defeat or delay virtually all important legislation or appointments proposed by the majority. (I have previously expressed my ambivalence over the survival of 60 vote rule.)

Who can quarrel with noble and popular goals of less government taxes and spending, the reduction of the deficit and the elimination of waste? They are the "Mom and apple pie" of politics. But there is certain hypocrisy in suggesting that this pact not to raise taxes, end or reduce subsidies, loopholes or deductions for the very wealthy is the result of some "grassroots" movement by the public at large. In resisting efforts to raise taxes on the rich and eliminate their deductions, subsidies and loopholes, the argument is made by conservatives that the rich already pay most of the country's taxes. They argue that a large portion of the nation pays little or no taxes. Therefore, by their own admission, this intractable resistance to raising revenues from the wealthy is not some uprising of the people, but rather for the benefit of those that have rather than those who have not.

Apart from the early, classic Tea Party slogan, "Keep the Government out of Our Medicare," the cry was, "I Want My America Back". Well, I want MY America back too. Yes, the deficit must be reduced, waste eliminated, spending curtailed, and entitlements reviewed and probably reduced, but we need a government that operates by compromise not coercion. I want an America that builds bridges and hires workers to build them. I want an America that educates its children, feeds its poor, helps the unemployed, cares for its veterans, provides for the elderly and treats the sick who cannot afford it. I want an America that protects its environment, its food supply, its consumers and its borrowers. I want an America that is more concerned about the civil rights of its citizens rather the mythical invasion of Sharia law. What I don't want is to deny any or all of the foregoing in order to protect the wealth of the wealthiest among us. I want an America that cares as much about its people as it does about its corporations. I want an America that reflects the will of the majority in the decisions it makes and not some small, fringe group that threatens the country and its people in order to achieve its goals. I want an America that is not governed by bullies and brats who insist on making the rules. I want an America in which the rules that governed my childhood playground govern the country as well.

Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judge-h-lee-sarokin/i-want-my-america-back-no_b_920497.html [with comments]

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[StephanieVanbryce]

* Perry will take back America from the godless hordes: Mike Allen has an amazing excerpt of the announcement speech Perry will deliver tomorrow:

“The change we seek will never emanate out of Washington. It will come from the windswept prairies of middle America; the farms and factories across this great land; the hearts and minds of God-fearing Americans — who will not accept a future that is less than our past, who will not be consigned a fate of LESS freedom in exchange for MORE government. We do not have to accept our current circumstances. We will change them. We’re Americans. That’s what we do. WE roll up our sleeves, WE get to work, WE make things better.”

Oh, to be a fly on the wall while Romney and his advisers, who have struggled mightly to reinvent him as a real conservative, ponder what to do about this.

NEW SHERIFF: RICK PERRY RUNNING ON CHANGE - Announces Sat. -
http://www.politico.com/playbook/


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum/2011/03/03/gIQAmstjAJ_blog.html

[F6]

Rick Perry’s Unanswered Prayers


Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke at a day long prayer and fast rally on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011, at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

By TIMOTHY EGAN [ http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/timothy-egan/ ]
August 11, 2011, 8:30 pm

A few months ago, with Texas aflame from more than 8,000 wildfires brought on by extreme drought, a man who hopes to be the next president took pen in hand and went to work:

“Now, therefore, I, Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas.”

Then the governor prayed, publicly and often. Alas, a rainless spring was followed by a rainless summer. July was the hottest month in recorded Texas history. Day after pitiless day, from Amarillo to Laredo, from Toadsuck to Twitty, folks were greeted by a hot, white bowl overhead, triple-digit temperatures, and a slow death on the land.

In the four months since Perry’s request for divine intervention, his state has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Nearly all of Texas is now in “extreme or exceptional” drought, as classified by federal meteorologists, the worst in Texas history.

Lakes have disappeared. Creeks are phantoms, the caked bottoms littered with rotting, dead fish. Farmers cannot coax a kernel of grain from ground that looks like the skin of an aging elephant.

Is this Rick Perry’s fault, a slap to a man who doesn’t believe that humans can alter the earth’s climate — God messin’ with Texas? No, of course not. God is too busy with the upcoming Cowboys football season and solving the problems that Tony Romo has reading a blitz.

But Perry’s tendency to use prayer as public policy demonstrates, in the midst of a truly painful, wide-ranging and potentially catastrophic crisis in the nation’s second most-populous state, how he would govern if he became president.

“I think it’s time for us to just hand it over to God, and say, ‘God: You’re going to have to fix this,’” he said in a speech in May, explaining how some of the nation’s most serious problems could be solved.

That was a warm-up of sorts for his prayer-fest, 30,000 evangelicals in Houston’s Reliant Stadium on Saturday. From this gathering came a very specific prayer for economic recovery. On the following Monday, the first day God could do anything about it, Wall Street suffered its worst one-day collapse since the 2008 crisis. The Dow sunk by 635 points.

Prayer can be meditative, healing, and humbling. It can also be magical thinking. Given how Perry has said he would govern by outsourcing to the supernatural, it’s worth asking if God is ignoring him.

Though Perry will not officially announce his candidacy until Saturday, he loomed large over the Republican debate Thursday night. With their denial of climate change, basic budget math, and the indisputable fact that most of the nation’s gains have gone overwhelmingly to a wealthy few in the last decade, the candidates form a Crazy Eight caucus. You could power a hay ride on their nutty ideas.

After the worst week of his presidency (and the weakest Oval Office speech since Gerald Ford unveiled buttons to whip inflation), the best thing Barack Obama has going for him is this Republican field. He still beats all of them in most polling match-ups.

Perry is supposed to be the savior. When he joins the campaign in the next few days, expect him to show off his boots; they are emblazoned with the slogan dating to the 1835 Texas Revolution: “Come and Take It.” He once explained the logo this way: “Come and take it — that’s what it’s all about.” This is not a man one would expect to show humility in prayer.

Perry revels in a muscular brand of ignorance (Rush Limbaugh is a personal hero), one that extends to the ever-fascinating history of the Lone Star State. Twice in the last two years he’s broached the subject of Texas seceding from the union.

“When we came into the nation in 1845 we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation,” says Perry in a 2009 video that has just surfaced. “And one of the deals was, we can leave any time we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.”

He can dream all he wants about the good old days when Texas left the nation to fight for the slave-holding states of the breakaway confederacy. But the law will not get him there. There is no such language in the Texas or United States’ constitutions allowing Texas to unilaterally “leave any time we want.”

But Texas is special. By many measures, it is the nation’s most polluted state. Dirty air and water do not seem to bother Perry. He is, however, extremely perturbed by the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement of laws designed to clean the world around him. In a recent interview [ http://blogs.cbn.com/beltwaybuzz/archive/2011/08/05/rick-perry-i-pray-for-the-president-everyday.aspx (last item in the post to which this is a reply)], he wished for the president to pray away the E.P.A.

To Jews, Muslims, non-believers and even many Christians, the Biblical bully that is Rick Perry must sound downright menacing, particularly when he gets into religious absolutism. “As a nation, we must call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles,” he said last week.

As a lone citizen, he’s free to advocate Jesus-driven public policy imperatives. But coming from someone who wants to govern this great mess of a country with all its beliefs, Perry’s language is an insult to the founding principles of the republic. Substitute Allah or a Hindu God for Jesus and see how that polls.

Perry is from Paint Creek, an unincorporated hamlet in the infinity of the northwest Texas plains. I’ve been there. In wet years, it’s pretty, the birds clacking on Lake Stamford, the cotton high. This year, it’s another sad moonscape in the Lone Star State.

Over the last 15 years, taxpayers have shelled out $232 million in farm subsidies to Haskell County, which includes Paint Creek — a handout to more than 2,500 recipients, better than one out every three residents. God may not always be reliable, but in Perry’s home county, the federal government certainly is.

© 2011 The New York Times Company

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/rick-perrys-unanswered-prayers/ [with comments]


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Michele Bachmann is worried about the Renaissance



Culture Monster
August 9, 2011 | 9:52 am

It's the Renaissance, stupid.

The economy is not what ails us today. No, what ails Americans is what Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and their artistic spawn have wrought in the culture, starting 500 years ago. The Renaissance has dragged us all down.

Tea party queen and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is convinced that America is sinking into tyranny. Why? In a remarkable profile of the candidate appearing in the Aug. 15 issue of the New Yorker [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/15/110815fa_fact_lizza (seven posts back at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66033564 )] magazine, the artistic flowering of the Italian Renaissance takes a beating for having done away with the god-fearing Dark Ages.

Bachmann "belongs to a generation of Christian conservatives whose views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians," writes Ryan Lizza, who spent four days on the campaign trail talking with the candidate and her husband. He chronicles Bachmann's enthusiasm for the extreme evangelical teachings of the late Presbyterian Pastor Francis Schaeffer, commonly regarded as having sparked the 1970s rise of the Christian Right. Schaeffer loved visiting Florence, Italy, where his idea of Renaissance ruin is on full display.

Bachmann also adores Schaeffer follower Nancy Pearcey, a prominent creationist whose recent book is "Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning." That's Leonardo as in "da Vinci," whose famous drawing of "Vitruvian Man" shows a human being inscribed within a perfect circle and a perfect square. The artist made the ungodly error of putting humanity at the center of time and space.

Not that Pearcey wants you to be mad at Leo, though -- a political error in the culture wars that she has said conservative Christians have repeatedly made over the last 30-plus years. Like Schaeffer, Pearcey instead counsels hearty admiration for creative skill, coupled with deep compassion for misguided artistic conceptions.

Hate the art, in other words, not the artist.



This art-historical drivel first saw print in Pearcey's 2004 book, "Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity." The title is plucked from Schaeffer, who, Lizza writes in the New Yorker, "instructed his followers [that] the Bible was not just a book but 'the total truth.'" The cover of Pearcey's kooky cultural treatise features a gay reproduction of Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting, "Sower With Setting Sun." Van Gogh, himself a failed preacher, turned to art as an ecstatic secular expression of spiritual joy.
Pearcey's book lauds Schaeffer's empathy for artists who are "caught in the trap of false and harmful worldviews" -- specifically, those that have trickled down from wicked Renaissance humanism. "As the medieval period merged into the Renaissance (beginning roughly in the 1300s)," she wrote, "a drumbeat began to sound for the complete emancipation of reason from revelation -- a crescendo that burst into full force in the Enlightenment (beginning in the 1700s)."

Darn that Enlightenment! Next thing you know it will be birthing truly dangerous ideas, like secular democracy.

Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, first got on board Schaeffer's crazy train in 1977, when they watched -- and were wowed by -- the evangelist's 10-part film series, "How Should We Then Live?" (Apparently conversational English is also Satan's work.) Schaeffer's son Frank, who produced the film series before later repudiating his father's evangelical labors in his own 2007 book, "Crazy for God," described the recurring cinematic set-up: "Dad would stand in front of great artworks, from Michelangelo's 'David' to Marcel Duchamp's '[Nude] Descending a Staircase,' and proclaim our answers to modern culture."



Protestant Schaeffer laid considerable blame for humanist developments at the feet of Michelangelo, the Renaissance sculptor (and -- ahem -- devout Catholic). His close-up camera hid David's nudity, lest it offend tender, Bachmannesque sensibilities. The future King David's mortal victory over Goliath's paganism was a worthwhile subject, since it prefigured Christian triumph. But the elder Schaeffer couldn't imagine that Christ's dual nature -- as both deity and human being -- could be embodied by fusing the exquisite sculpture's unearthly perfection with forthright nakedness.

"The first five installments of the [film] series are something of an art-history and philosophy course," Lizza writes. "The iconic image from the early episodes is Schaeffer standing on a raised platform next to Michelangelo’s 'David'" -- the raised platform allowing for the nudity to be cut out of the frame, when it's not bathed in dark shadow -- "and explaining why, for all its beauty, Renaissance art represented a dangerous turn away from a God-centered world and toward a blasphemous, human-centered world."

Of course, American culture has had trouble with art (not to mention nudity) ever since the Pilgrims bumped into Plymouth Rock in 1620. The Pilgrims arrived carrying "the Word," while all those graven images essential to the visual arts were seductive examples of the devil's work.

How should we then live? Francis Schaeffer died in 1984 -- a year that is surely coincidental. But Bachmann, an ideologue of the Christian-conservative movement, can't get enough of the art-junk he peddled. Lizza quotes her as having called Pearcey's earlier book "wonderful," while she and Marcus find the late filmmaker to be "a tremendous philosopher."

I'm guessing that Michelangelo and Leonardo would disagree. (Incidentally, the Bachmanns' Christian counseling center in Minnesota would surely recommend sexual-orientation conversion therapy [ http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/michele-bachmann-exclusive-pray-gay-candidates-clinic/story?id=14048691 ] for both artists.) As the saying goes: Hate the philosophy, but not the philosopher.

[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqrQpsNqWXE (embedded)]

Copyright 2011 Los Angeles Times

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/08/michele-bachmann-is-worried-about-the-renaissance.html [with comments]


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