The Republic of T.

I watched the Oscars last night, for what has to be at least the 30th time, because I’ve watched them every year since I was old enough to see movies and care about them. That would have been 1981. If I go back far enough, I can probably just remember the 12 year old, or nearly-12-year-old boy sitting in a darkened family room in Augusta, GA, watching as much as I could before it was time for me to go to bed.

Honestly, I don’t remember much about that 1981 Oscars broadcast. I don’t remember the speeches. I didn’t remember who Oscars won in 1981, until I looked it up. But I remember that 12-year-old boy, and more than that — much more, really — I remember his dreams.

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Stephen Tomkins over at the Guardian answers a question I’ve long pondered, and blogged about: How biblical literalism took hold.

The Bible is the word of God, Christians believe, but why should the fact it’s God’s mean it has to be read with naive absolutism? Many Christians call the church “the body of Christ” without considering it
anything like infallible, or refusing to see its rites as symbolic.

Part of the problem is historical. The deification of the Bible is a result of the Protestant reformation. Before then, the final authority, the ultimate arbiter and source of  information in religious matters was the church, with its ancient  traditions and living experts. When Luther and friends opposed the teaching of the Catholic hierarchy, they needed a superior authority to appeal to, which was provided by the Bible.

Fair enough. But in defending or reclaiming the Bible from papists and then liberals, evangelical Protestants made it the very heart of the faith. Hence the ludicrous situation where many evangelical organisations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, have statements of faith where the first point is the Bible, before any mention of, for example, God. Hence the celebrated idolatrous aphorism of William Chillingworth: “The BIBLE, I say, the BIBLE only, is the religion of Protestants!”.

One practical problem of this text mania is that the Bible, unlike the
church, can’t answer questions, clarify earlier statements, arbitrate disagreements or deal with new developments. So those in search of religious certainty have to find it all in the text: if it says the earth was created in six days, or that gay sex is an abomination, them’sthe facts, end of story. And if it forbids charging interest, well there’s always wriggle room.

It’s the “wriggle room” that leads to some interesting problems.

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In a post about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s bid to strip public employee unions of collective bargaining — the most important and effective tool for protecting workers — Van Jones wrote:

If a foreign power conspired to inflict this much damage on America’s first responders and essential infrastructure, we would see it as an act of war.

It is an act of war, a now all-but-openly-declared war — and not just against unions, but against American workers and against the middle class.

Americans are accustomed to denying even the existence of classes, let alone class conflict. This week America’s ongoing class war arrived on our doorstep with the subtlety of a daisy cutter — in the form of Walker’s union-busting politics, and the massive protests in Madison and beyond.

Now that the battle is joined, the big questions are what the outcome will be, and whether Democrats will take the opportunity to tell American workers unequivocally whose side they are on.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 21st through February 22nd:

• Class war in Wisconsin | Jeffrey Sommers –
• Washington Wrecks the Economy: More Evidence –
• Van Jones: Introducing The 'American Dream' Movement –
• The Republicans Are Coming, the Republicans Are Coming –
• Column: Wisconsin is about power, not money –
• Wisconsin – it’s about democracy –
• Op-Ed Columnist: At Grave Risk –
• Starving Wisconsin’s unions –
• PHOTOS: The Best Wisconsin Protest Signs –
• How biblical literalism took root | Stephen Tomkins –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 14th through February 21st:

• Mike Lux: Wisconsin and the Politics of Envy –
• Ted McCagg: Mad Libs: House GOP Budget –
• The 30-Years War Against Middle-Class America. –
• The Betrayal of Public Workers –
• Rights of workers important to everyone, including students –
• The Coming Shutdowns and Showdowns: What’s Really at Stake –
• What Gov. Walker Won’t Tell You –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Wisconsin Power Play –
• The Same Old GOP –
• Bil Browning: Are CPAC's White Supremacists OK With Gays? –

What is it with white, male conservatives and Michelle Obama.

File this under, “Not much room to talk.”

Rush Limbaugh called Michelle Obama a hypocrite on his Monday show, saying that, while the First Lady advocates healthy eating, she “doesn’t look like [she] follows her own…dietary advice” and would never be put on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.

Limbaugh was reacting to a report from Colorado which mentioned that Obama ate ribs at a restaurant during her skiing holiday there this past weekend. He said this was evidence of Obama’s hypocrisy around food.

Obama’s campaign to curb obesity and promote healthy eating has become a bête noire for many conservatives, who have cast it as an example of big government overreach. Last week, a controversial cartoon depicted Obama as overweight and binging on hamburgers even as she talked about eating healthy foods.

What follows is almost too easy, and to obvious. Still, it must be done.

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They’ll never get it.

This:

Mike Beard, a Republican state representative from Minnesota, recently argued that coal mining should resume in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, in part because he believes God has created an earth that will provide unlimited natural resources.

“God is not capricious. He’s given us a creation that is dynamically stable,” Beard told MinnPost. “We are not going to run out of anything.”

Beard is currently in the midst of drafting legislation that would overturn Minnesota’s moratorium on coal-fired power plants, an effort that he backs due to his religious belief that God will provide limitless resources while ensuring that humans don’t destroy the planet trying to get them.

Drawing on his family’s childhood property in Pennsylvania, Beard explained to MinnPost his belief that while resource extraction might cause temporary agitation to the landscape, the effects wouldn’t be longterm.

Made me think of this, again.

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• Welcome to photocastr!
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I’ll say it again. When progressives and conservatives talk about jobs, we are not talking about the same thing. Nor do we talk about jobs for the same reasons, it seems. The more I watch the ongoing floor debate in the House, over the nearly 600 amendments to Continuing Resolution (H.R.1) to fund the federal government through September — only one of which was explicitly concerned with jobs — the more obvious this seems.

When Republicans talk about jobs, it’s just another means of remaking our economy to more closely resemble the countries to which we export most of our jobs and from which we import most of our goods.

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With a turn of phrase that ranks right up there with "I’m alright, Jack," "We care about the small people," and "Let them eat cake," House Speaker John Boehner voiced the Republican response to concerns about the consequences the GOP’s budget cuts for millions of Americans, their families and their communities: "So be it."

If House Republicans succeed in cutting tens of billions of dollars in discretionary spending over the next six months, some of the most immediate victims will be federal employees, many of whose jobs will be slashed as their agencies pare back.

At a press conference in the lobby of RNC headquarters Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) shrugged this off as collateral damage.

"In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs," Boehner said. "If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We’re broke."

Some of those employees will no doubt collect unemployment insurance, so the government’s obligation to them won’t disappear with their jobs.

Boehner was responding to a specific question about the GOP’s job-killing budget cuts, but his answer also applies to the disastrous consequences of every conservative proposal from repealing health care reform, to abolishing the EPA and the Department of Education: "So be it." (Or, more succinctly,:"Drop dead.")

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Covering CPAC was like stepping through the looking glass.

It was like a lot of political conferences I’ve seen, just with the context flipped. Usually, these conferences are mix of pragmatists ans true believers. Ideally, that blend yields a message with broad appeal, but that’s firmly rooted in shared principles. That’s when everyone "gets it." CPAC’s reality was far short of that ideal. The conference was a mass exercise in not "getting it."

Two days at CPAC made the GOP’s big problem crystal clear. The conservative movement is split between two factions of "true believers," both wildly out of step with what most Americans want.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 13th through February 14th:

• CPAC turns up the ugliness –
• House Republican budget cuts would strangle innovation –
• The revenge of trickle-down economics | Richard Wolff –
• Debbie Hines: Dems to GOP: When Are the Jobs Coming? –
• Religious War Comes to CPAC –
• Tea Party Patriots Investigated: “They Use You and Abuse You” –
• Editorial: In Defense of Marriage, for All –
• Robert Kuttner: From Depression to Public Inspiration –
• The Ten Best Stories from CPAC –
• Right-Wing Disunity? Clashes at This Year’s Conservative Political Action Conference –

I spent most of my two-day sojourn through CPAC covering economic issues at the conference, but I was aware (as were lots of people) about the gay-related controversy around the conference, due to the presence of the gay conservative group GOProud at this year’s conference. (Not to mention their status at sponsors.)

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It’s Valentine’s day, and Gay.Com has posted a cute slideshow of 25 vintage photos of gay & lesbian couples.

Vintage_Gay_Couples Gays and lesbians have been around since the dawn of time, but many of us only think of same-gender couples in a post-Stonewall world. It’s almost as if they couldn’t possibly exist in public before that era and stayed hidden in the shadows—the two women "friends" who (sadly) never married so they lived together, or the rich man and his attaché who kept to themselves in that big house down the block. However, some mystery person is changing that concept. Buzzfeed found a number of photos from a Tumblr post that no longer exists. Fortunately, the Buzzfeed page does, so we were able to take the 25 fantastic shots and compile them for you in this incredible slide show.

It’s cute, and somewhat diverse. Not all of the couples pictured are white gay men. But, I got curious and started searching for other images.

I found a kind of treasure trove of vintage photos of black gay male couples.

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I expected a lot of things when I attended the Conservative Political Action Caucus (CPAC) last week. I was assigned to cover the conference for my day job. I’ll admit some trepidation. Let’s face it. I’m a lot of the things that I could reasonably expect most CPAC attendees to hate: a liberal, non-Christian, black, gay, legally married father of two.

I expected trouble, butI didn’t have any problems. I guess because I my badge said “Media” rather than all of the above.

What I didn’t expect at my first CPAC was meeting an openly gay Republican presidential candidate.

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I have to admit, I got a little excited during Mitt Romney’s speech at CPAC. It began so well, in a sense. I wrote yesterday that I heard (and saw) very little about jobs and job creation at CPAC. Then, Mitt Romney took to the stage and changed that. But, it turned out, only for a moment.

I was only half-listening to Romney until I heard the “J-Word” — the equivalent of a four-letter word at CPAC, it turns out, because it’s only mentioned in the context of criticizing the president and the Democratic congress for “failing” to create jobs. The problem is, there’s no follow through at CPAC.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 8th through February 10th:

• How the Affordable Care Act empowers states –
• Why the Republican Attack on “Job-Killing Regulations” is Dumb –
• The Patriot Act’s clock is ticking –
• Americans Pay Less in Taxes Under Obama Than Under Bush –
• Republican congressmen vote away scientific facts –
• House GOP comes up short on Patriot Act –
• Reagan’s Epoch Shatters in Egypt –

Believe it or not, the appearance of Donald Trump at CPAC was not the most surreal moment of my first day at the conference. That came later, but not by much.

In his second “surprise appearance” this week, the curiously coiffed real estate mogul, and “reality” TV star, was introduced as a “novelty speaker.” (Which is even more curious than his coif, if you ask me.) He wasn’t there to announce his candidacy, so much as to announce that he might announce in June.

Taking the stage to thunderous applause, Trump — without a hint of irony — to the rest of the world. (More applause.) He then proceeded to rattle off a number of obligatory-but-guaranteed-to-get-applause-from-the-Tea-Party lines. During which he made a promise that as president he would not raise taxes, but would raise tariffs on China instead. (Wish him luck on that, should he get the chance. The House passed a measure to do that in the last Congress, and it died in the Senate.)

No the most surreal moment came when Trump had the temerity to speak truth to the Tea Party concerning the father of its new favorite son: Ron Paul.

Donald Trump angered supporters of Rep. Ron Paul at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday when he said the Texas congressman, who is mulling another longshot presidential run, “honestly, he has just zero chance of getting elected.”

What the Washington Times blog post above doesn’t mention is that Trump was loudly booed by a sizeable part of the audience.

While Paul’s young fans booed, a large portion of the crowd – surely growing impatient with Paul’s continuing presence at CPAC (he won the straw poll last year) – rose to their feet and cheered Trump.

Trump was prompted to address Paul’s chances of winning after some in the audience began cheering for Paul during Trump’s speech.

(Another surreal moment came when both Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were booed by the younger set at CPAC. Rumsfeld was here to get and award, and Cheney to introduce him.)

It was surreal moment, yet one that — along with the GOP’s trouble keeping the Tea Party contingent in line on the Patriot Act — illustrated the reality the GOP is facing.

Within 24 hours this week, House Speaker John Boehner’s team had to pull a trade bill from the chamber floor, suffered an embarrassing setback on a USA Patriot Act vote, and failed to recoup money paid to the United Nations.

And in electoral politics, the tea party’s threat to Republican incumbents came more into focus. Three GOP senators up for re-election in 2012 could be looking at challenges for their party nominations. One of them, five-term Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, crossed town Tuesday to tell the tea party’s national town hall that he has supported its budget-balancing, smaller-government agenda for decades.

Democrats and Republicans said the events show that GOP leaders have yet to gauge the full extent of libertarianism and independence in their newly swollen ranks. Republicans gained control of the House thanks to sweeping victories last fall, many involving tea party loyalists.

“If they’re divided on an issue like the Patriot Act, it’s a bad omen for things to come regarding unity on their side,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “It’s only going to get tougher for them when it comes to budget issues.”

And, as Van Hollen said, they haven’t even gotten to budget issues yet. But, like that prototypical psycho ex-girlfriend from the movies, the Tea Party won’t be ignored. But they’ll continue making life difficult for the GOP establishment as long as they’re around

Surreal as the moment was, Trump was just being real. Winning a CPAC straw poll is a long way from winning the Republican nomination, let alone the presidency.

But can Trump win? We’ll have to wait until June to find out, because that’s when the latest season of “The Apprentice” to wind down.

Really.

Oh, and no mention of a plan to create jobs was made by Trump. Understandable, for a guy who’s most famous for saying “You’re fired.”

No, I’m not jumping ship or anything like that. I’m just at CPAC looking for something, anything about how conservatives plan to create jobs. Let’s just say I’m still looking.

Today, I’m attending (and covering) the Conservative Political Action Conference (a.k.a CPAC) for the first time, and so far it’s been interesting. I have to admit, I don’t spend an awful lot of time hanging out with conservatives. I’ve spend a lot of time reading what they’ve written, but not so much listening to what they have to say.

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Via Digby comes this latest bit of insanity from my home state: a Georgia state representative wants to do away with driver’s licenses.

A state lawmaker from Marietta is sponsoring a bill that seeks to do away with Georgia driver’s licenses.

State Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, has filed House Bill 7, calling it the "Right to Travel Act."

In his bill, Franklin states, "Free people have a common law and constitutional right to travel on the roads and highways that are provided by their government for that purpose. Licensing of drivers cannot be required of free people, because taking on the restrictions of a license requires the surrender of an inalienable right."

Franklin told CBS Atlanta News that driver’s licenses are a throw back to oppressive times. "Agents of the state demanding your papers," he said. "We’re getting that way here."

Oh boy, here we go.

Franklin is apparently part of a conservative-libertarian faction that’s become increasingly vocal with the advent of the Tea Party. What’s most interesting about this particular legislative effort is that Franklin invokes an "inalienable right," without mention any mention of responsibility. It’s more even more interesting that he does so here in conflict with his apparent ideology.

But what’s even more interesting — and frightening — are the implications of Franklin’s libertarian ideology for the rest of us.

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