Parable of Our Times, Bill Moyers

From a Parable For Our Times, Bill Moyers, at TomPaine.common sense:

Ronald Reagan once described a particular man he knew who was good steward of resources in the biblical sense. “This is a man,” Reagan said, “who in his own business, before he entered politics, instituted a profit-sharing plan, before unions had ever thought of it. He put in health and medical insurance for all his employees. He took 50 percent of the profits before taxes and set up a retirement program, a pension plan for all his employees. He sent checks for life to an employee who was ill and couldn’t work. He provided nursing care for the children of mothers who worked in the stores.”

That man was Barry Goldwater, a businessman before he entered politics. It’s incredible how far we have deviated from even the most conservative understanding of social responsibility. For a generation now Goldwater’s children have done everything they could to destroy the social compact between workers and employers, and to discredit, defame, and even destroy anyone who said their course was wrong. Principled conservatism was turned into an ideological caricature whose cardinal tenet was of taxation as a form of theft, or, as the libertarian icon Robert Nozick called it, “force labor.” What has happened to us that such anti-democratic ideas could become a governing theory?

Newt Gingrich's Nation Under God

Yesterday, Fox News channel presented a special titled, One Nation Under God: Religion and History in Washington, D.C. It was hosted by Newt Gingrich, and poses the question, "Why are classrooms, courtrooms and even our government fighting to force God out of public life?"


Melissa Rogers suggests that quite the opposite has occurred, and in June 2004, she testified before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing, "Beyond the Pledge of Allegiance: hostility to religious expression in the public square". In her testimony she said that she believes,

"...religion can and should play a vital role in American public life...."

She adds that she also believes,

"...that the constitutional prohibition on governmental establishment of religion plays an equally important role in protecting religious freedom".

This is a link to that testimony.

From Ms. Rogers bio at her website, Melissa Rogers,Thoughts on and news about religion's intersection with public affairs

Rogers earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a member of the National Moot Court Team and a legal writing instructor. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University.

Melissa Rogers currently serves as visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School. She is the founder and director of Wake Forest’s Center for Religion and Public Affairs.

Rogers has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including NBC Nightly News, CNN, Court TV and NPR, and her opinion-editorials have been published in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Fort-Worth Star Telegram, Legal Times, Religion News Service and other publications.

Rogers earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a member of the National Moot Court Team and a legal writing instructor. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University.

Eric Kleefeld at TPM Cafe has the video promo for the special produced by Fox.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's reaction to Virgil Goode's comments

Transcript of remarks made by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham this morning on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me turn to a domestic issue, Senator Graham. A Republican congressman from Virginia this week, Virgil Goode of Virginia, raised a lot of controversy with a letter he wrote in response to the idea that the newly elected Democrat from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, was going to take the oath, the ceremonial oath, on the Koran.

He wrote to his constituents saying -- "If American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."

Now, Democrats have risen up and said that Republicans ought to denounce Congressman Goode. Do you find anything wrong with what he said, and will you denounce him?

GRAHAM: I don't think that's the appropriate line for a congressman to take when it comes time for another congressman to take the oath. Why would you swear allegiance to a document outside your faith? In our legal system, people can take the oath in a variety of ways.

Religious diversity is a strength, not a weakness in this country.

We need immigration reform, but not for the reasons that Mr. Goode cited. What would happen in this country if a Christian were elected in Lebanon and he had to swear allegiance to the Koran when it came time for them to take office? There would be an outcry in this country.

So I embrace religious diversity. I welcome this new member of Congress. I'm glad he's swearing allegiance to a document that is consistent with his faith.

And what I would like America to do in 2007 is understand that the war on terror is about intolerance, that Syria is a dictatorship that has no interest in seeing a representative democracy in Iraq, that Iran, the president of Iran hosted a conference denying the Holocaust in December 2006, has avowed to destroy the state of Israel. We don't need to be talking to these people. We need to be standing up to their agendas and bringing them in line with the world, a world of tolerance. And Iran and Syria are not tolerant states, and the statements by Virgil Goode do not represent the best of who we are as a nation.

Bush Will Back New Minimum Wage Increase (sort of)

Excerpts from an article on the proposed minimum wage increase that President Bush says he will support. From the Washington Post, December 21, 2006. Read the entire article.

George W. Bush: "I believe we should do it in a way that does not punish the millions of small businesses that are creating most of the new jobs in our country," Bush said during a news conference. "So I support pairing it with targeted tax and regulatory relief to help these small businesses stay competitive and to help keep our economy growing."

Bush cited his support of the proposed increase as proof of his intent to operate in a more bipartisan manner during the remaining two years of his presidency.

Democrats and their supporters in organized labor responded warily to Bush's proposal to link a minimum wage hike to tax breaks for business, saying the increase should be passed on its own merits. Democratic leaders have promised to make increasing the $5.15-per-hour minimum wage one of the first orders of business when the new Congress convenes Jan. 4....

"Let's be clear, given that nearly a decade has passed since the last minimum wage increase, no one can seriously believe that the proposed increase will harm the small-business sector," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. "A minimum wage increase should not and need not be conditional on other legislation or policy changes."

"America's workers deserve a clean vote on a $7.25 increase, with no strings attached," AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said. "Such an increase helps everyone and hurts no one."

White House officials, meanwhile, say they are still working to identify tax cuts they would like to see accompany a minimum wage increase.

When adjusted for inflation, the buying power of the minimum wage has dwindled to its lowest level since 1955, and raising the rate has become a popular issue among voters.

"Shut up about Ann Coulter, already!"

I know. You're right. I should move on and forget about Ann Coulter. I know that you takes pleasure in getting folks riled up. My wife said I'd make a good fish. I can't resist this one though. And it was a long time ago. And does it really matter? Of course not. Just a interesting glimpse into the character of Ms. Coulter.

Ms. Coulter was being interviewed in Canada, by Bob McKeown on the CBC's, "Sticks and Stones". . She had what I suppose would be called the audacity to argue with Mr. McKeown about whether or not Canada sent troops to Viet Nam or not. She asserted they did, and this ignorant Canadian journalist disagreed. He allowed as how Canada sent troops to WWII and Korea though.



Ms. Coulter, on C-Span re the CBC interview:

AC: Yes, 10,000 Canadian troops, at least, there is a War Memorial to them¦at least for most of that. The Canadian Government didn't send troops at the beginning, didn't send troops at the end, but most of that was not under the Canadian flag, they came and fought with the Americans. So I was wrong. It turns out there were 10,000 Americans who happened to be born in Canada.

Chris Matthews Hardball has a lot of bite

Chris Matthews (MSNBC, Hardball, 5:00 & 7 p.m. Eastern time) had Senator John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth as his guests last night. At one point, Mrs. Edwards made a comment about her husband not being good at telling jokes. A couple of sentences later Matthews said,
"Does she always bite your balls like that?"











The Edwards's were momentarily stunned by the remark. Somehow "bite" has more bite than "bust" which, I'm guessing Matthews meant to say, although I don't think asking John Edwards if his wife "busts" or "bites" his testicles was an appropriate question for him to pose.

I expected to see a comment or two about this somewhere today. I was only able to find one reference to it on a blog called the Kentucky Democrat. This was it:

Bonus Quote of the Day
"Does she always bite your
balls like that?"Chris Matthews, Hardball with Chris Matthews,
December 12, 2006

I read the transcript on the Hardball website, and they changed "bite" to "bust". Why? Come on. Let's play hardball!

E. EDWARDS: There are not that many politicians who are actually very
good
at jokes. John spoke one time and I said I wouldn‘t even go because
it
was—he was supposed to be funny and I didn‘t think he could carry it
off.

CROWD: (LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: I love it. You‘re great. Behind
every great man, there‘s a woman trying to kill him.

CROWD:
(LAUGHTER)

E. EDWARDS: He has great characteristics.

MATTHEWS:
What is it? Does she do this? Does she bust
your balls like this when you come home? When you get (INAUDIBLE), does she do that?

CROWD:
(APPLAUSE)

E. EDWARDS: My children are watching this.

CROWD:
(LAUGHTER)