Posts Categorized Politics

Bloomberg Delivers Stirring Defense Of NYC Mosque

In Culture, Politics on Aug-3-2010 with
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I never thought a speech like this would come from the mayor of New York City, but Bloomberg just knocks it out of the park:

“In the mid-1650s, the small Jewish community living in lower Manhattan petitioned Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant for the right to build a synagogue, and they were turned down. In 1657, when Stuyvesant also prohibited Quakers from holding meetings, a group of non-Quakers in Queens signed the Flushing Remonstrance, a petition in defense of the right of Quakers and others to freely practice their religion. It was perhaps the first formal political petition for religious freedom in the American colonies, and the organizer was thrown in jail and then banished from New Amsterdam.

“In the 1700s, even as religious freedom took hold in America, Catholics in New York were effectively prohibited from practicing their religion, and priests could be arrested. Largely as a result, the first Catholic parish in New York City was not established until the 1780s, St. Peter’s on Barclay Street, which still stands just one block north of the World Trade Center site, and one block south of the proposed mosque and community center.

“This morning, the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously voted to extend—not to extend—landmark status to the building on Park Place where the mosque and community center are planned. The decision was based solely on the fact that there was little architectural significance to the building. But with or without landmark designation, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the owners from opening a mosque within the existing building.

“The simple fact is, this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship, and the government has no right whatsoever to deny that right. And if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here.

“This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.

Salon has much more on this topic as well as how silent Democrats have been on this topic.

Mark Kirk Just “Wasn’t Thinking”

In Politics on Jun-30-2010 with
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As an Illinois resident and political wonk I am watching the Senate race to fill Barack Obama’s former seat closely. It is a painful process to say the least. Yesterday Illinois’ Republican nominee  Mark Kirk has finally stopped running from the press and agreed to hold a press conference to explain away various statements he had made, such as:

Update: Via Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post:

In just the past 48 hours, the Illinois Senate race between state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R) has turned very nasty.

Kirk started the mudslinging with two ads that charge—among other things—that Giannoulias “made risky loans to convicted mobsters”. Giannoulias quickly struck back with a 60-second a detailing Kirk’s repeated misrepresentations of his own military record.(Watch these ads. They are brutal— in a good way.)

Obama: Branding vs. Performance

In Politics on Jun-14-2010 with
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I like Barack Obama. Voted for him. Contributed to his campaign. But I wouldn’t call myself a “raving fan,” cause well he isn’t liberal enough for me and he has in fact broken some campaign promises that might be considered pretty unimportant by a vast majority of the public, but they matter to me. With that said, three stories that have run about Obama in the last few days  got me a little panicked the administration is getting way off course.

The first is Tim Dickinson’s devastating Rolling Stone article laying out very specific problems with Obama’s response to the BP oil spill—from delays in cleaning up the Minerals Management Service, distrusting scientists who correctly reported the spill was much bigger than BP said, and waiting more than a week to declare the crisis “an Oil Spill of National Significance.”

The second is Roger Simon’s interview with Obama in which his self-defense about how he’s handled the BP oil disaster sounded more then a little whiny. IMHO it also raises some questions about whether he’s capable of fighting the battles he needs to move the country forward.

And finally a piece by Matt Bai’s Democrat in Chief? in the New York Times Magazine, which seems to highlight that Obama and his team seem more focused on protecting the “brand” that they believe galvanized millions of new voters in 2008, as a means to potentially realign American politics for a generation, than actually helping Democrats hold the House and Senate.

They are all worth a read. But pretty depressing if you are an Obama fan.

How About Some Point, Counterpoint

In Politics on Jun-12-2010 with
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David Brog at Foreign Policy trots out a something I’m getting sick of hearing :

The term “double standard” does not sufficiently capture this phenomenon. It’s not just that the Israelis are being held to a different—and immeasurably higher—standard than the rest of humanity. Israel is now being judged in the absence of any objective standard whatsoever. As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week, it seems that Israel is now “guilty until proven guilty.”

Well Daniel Larison at American Conservative is having none of this:

The flotilla was sailing under the flags of states that were not at war with Israel. Indeed, several of them sailed under the flag of an official military ally. The ships were in international waters bound for a territory under a blockade of very questionable legality. It is doubtful that Israel had any legal right to board the ships, and in any case the decision to do so resulted in nine civilian deaths. The standard to which Israel is being held right now is a pretty simple one, and it is not terribly high: do not attack civilians in international waters when they are on a relief mission. This shouldn’t be a hard standard to meet.

I mean this is pretty simple isn’t it?

Wow. George Bush Has A Facebook Page

In Politics, Social Media on Jun-2-2010 with
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Have you “liked” George W. Bush yet? Because 12,000 other people have on his new Facebook page that just launched. It is almost like he must have a book coming out soon or something.

Rand Paul Should Stop Talking

In Politics on May-21-2010 with
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First he gets himself into a ton of trouble by tell the Courier-Journal, NPR, and Rachel Maddow that he would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Hilarity ensued for a complete day as he tried to walk that statement back yesterday. Now today on Good Morning America he says Obama’s comments about BP were un-American. I see a lot of media outlets have picked up on that comment. But my favorite from the interview was, “sometimes accidents happen.”

Ben Nelson Is Just Clueless

In Politics on May-20-2010 with
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Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) has been unsuccessfully trying to get the Senate to vote on an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that would cap ATM fees at 50 cents. But he is having a hard time getting the support needed. Well according to the Omaha World Herald, that might be because many senators haven’t experienced coughing up a few dollars to withdraw money. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), while saying that “he’s no fan of unnecessary fees, he’s unfamiliar with the charges:”

“I’ve never used an ATM, so I don’t know what the fees are,” Nelson said, adding that he gets his cash from bank tellers, just not automatic ones. “It’s true, I don’t know how to use one.” “But I could learn how to do it just like I’ve [….] I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.”

By “holograms,” Nelson clarified that he meant the bar codes on products read by automatic scanners in the checkout lanes at stores such as Lowe’s and Menard’s. “I go and get my own seating assignment on an airplane,” Nelson said. “I mean, I’m not without some skills. I just haven’t had the need to use an ATM.”

Look my parents who are in their mid-60s have never used an ATM either. I understand more then a few people in this age bracket might not use them. However, they do know the difference between a hologram and a bar code.

They also know how to use a cell phone. DVR. The GPS system in their cars. They can buy something on eBay and send an email. Nelson, not so sure he could handle any of those things. Yet he is one vote in 100 on important topics that often require at least a basic understanding of the technology that is so much a part of our daily lives.

Update:  The War Room blog at Salon highlights Nelson is not alone:

Senator Mike Johanns, R-Neb, has used ATMs “five times or fewer in his life.” He is a member of the Senate Banking Committee!

And, asked if he ever used an ATM, crotchety old Chuck Grassley revealed that he doesn’t even know the basic principle behind them: “I’ve got a credit card, but I don’t use it for cash.”

When The Headline Says It All

In Humor, Politics on May-18-2010 with
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I mean I can’t even think of something to add to this:

A Conservative’s Case for Sarah Palin’s Genius …..

Millennials, Issues & Politics

In Infographic, Politics on May-12-2010 with
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Al Gore: The Crisis Comes Ashore

In Politics on May-10-2010 with
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Al Gore says ee need to use a little reason, logic, and maybe some science to understand that we are utterly destroying the planet. Not going to hold my breath any of that will happen. However, in a wonderful article written for the New Republican Gore has his great graph.

Just as the oil companies told us that deep-water drilling was safe, they tell us that it’s perfectly all right to dump 90 million tons of CO2 into the air of the world every 24 hours. Even as the oil spill continues to grow—even as BP warns that the flow could increase multi-fold, to 60,000 barrels per day, and that it may continue for months—the head of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, says, “Nothing has changed. When we get back to the politics of energy, oil and natural gas are essential to the economy and our way of life.” His reaction reminds me of the day Elvis Presley died. Upon hearing the tragic news, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, said, “This changes nothing.”

Is that a quote for the age or what? It certainly applies equally well to the economic crisis.