Carnival of the Liberals, Edition #67

Welcome to the June 18, 2008 edition of The Carnival of the Liberals, hosted by my blog, Situation Awareness. I think that you'll agree with me that there are some great entries this week.

I have also included, at the bottom of this entry, a Blog Talk Radio player featuring my March 29, 2008 interview of Leo Lincourt, founder of The Carnival of the Liberals.

Enjoy!

- Hans

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general interest

• Only Three Notes presents Congratulations Obama! posted at Business & Controversy of Technology by Arnab Tagore.
  
  
• Gbariela Baron presents posted at Internet Business Blog.
  
  
• Joe Bechtold presents The Importance of Religion in America posted at Joe Bechtold's Political Journal.
  
  
• Niharika presents The Top 100 Civil Liberties Advocacy Blogs posted at Criminal Justice Degrees Guide.

current events

• Allen in Fort Worth presents QUEERS AND DYKES ARE GONNA GET MARRIED ! ! ! so don't worry about anything else posted at The Whited Sepulchre, saying, "the YouTube video in this post makes me ill."
  
  
• Gracie Passette presents Republicans Suffer From Dementia & Can't Understand Satire posted at Cult Of Gracie, saying, "This post is rather a mish-mosh or current events, opinion, and frankly (or Franken lol) humor. :)"
  
  
• John presents McCain and Obama Court Pro-War AIPAC posted at The Largest Minority.
  
  
• Andrew Heath presents What the Hell Got into the President's Pet??? posted at Andy, saying, "Why did Scotty write that awful book about Bush when everyone thought he was Bush's biggest fan?"
  
  
• Keith Wick presents Signs of Barack Obama posted at Weith Kick.
  
  
• Jon Rochetti presents Photo of the Week - Hillary Tees…3 for $10 posted at The DC Traveler – Washington DC travel & tourism information, saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."
  
  
• Ian Welsh presents Clinton’s Legacy: Never Say Die posted at Firedoglake.
  
  
• Shan Siddiqi presents Howard Dean is the Light into Obama's Future posted at Globally Rational.
  
  
• Patrick Schwerdtfeger presents Check out my new Smart ForTwo Passion posted at Tactical Execution, saying, "The Smart Car is finally introduced in the USA! This post offers details about these tiny gas-powered fuel-efficient cars."
  
  
• Phil B. presents Why Demonstrations and Petitions Do Not Work posted at Phil for Humanity, saying, "If demonstrations and petitions work, then the 1960s would have seen a lot more political, social, and environmental changes."

liberalism

• Phil B. presents Global Warming is Ruining the Earth posted at Phil for Humanity, saying, "A list of how the world has changed so dramatically."
  
  
• Greta Christina presents Loading The Dice: Bisexuality And Choice posted at Greta Christina's Blog, saying, "This post is about bisexuality -- and how the gay political community's focus on the "It's not a choice" PR strategy about gay rights leaves bisexuals out in the cold."
  
  
• Greta Christina presents Greta Christina's Blog: The Amazing Mechanical Leftie: Reflexive Thinking in Alt Culture posted at Greta Christina's Blog, saying, "This piece is about the tendency alternative culture sometimes has to reflexively reject anything that's mainstream or conventional. It talks about how this tendency makes people just as controlled by the mainstream as they would be if they were going along with it. And more seriously, it talks about how it puts alt culture in common cause with the anti- intellectual, know- nothing strains of right wing American culture."
  

opinion

• Allen in Fort Worth presents Cal Thomas Says Barack Obama's Not A Christian posted at The Whited Sepulchre, saying, "here is an analysis of an idiotic Cal Thomas column."
  
  
• Andrew Heath presents How to Achieve Peace in the Middle East posted at Andy, saying, "An interesting and unconventional solution to our conflict in the Middle East."
  
  
• phil F. presents WEEKEND FEATURE: Globalization and the Small Business posted at E-News Daily: Articles Without Borders.
  
  
• Andrew Heath presents Why We Must Forgive President George W. Bush posted at Andy, saying, "There are some compelling reasons to forgive George W Bush, even if you currently hate him."
  
  
• Hans Meyer presents The Historically Challenged posted here at Situation Awareness, saying, "The right-wing noise machine tries to re-write history."
  
  
• Shan Siddiqi presents The Supreme Court has "legacies?" posted at Globally Rational.
  
  
• Phil B. presents A Plan to Destroy All Weapons of Mass Destruction posted at Phil for Humanity, saying, "No leader and therefore no country can be trusted enough to control weapons of mass destruction."

politics

• Ames presents Fox News: A Trifecta of Racism posted at Submitted to a Candid World, saying, "Fox News may be playing into our hand, by running a racist smear campaign against Barack Obama."
  
  
• Jon Swift presents McCain: Make Sure You Have the Right Change posted at Jon Swift, saying, "We don't need to take a risk on a President who could make things even worse than they already are. We need a President like McCain who, when the telephone rings at 3:00 in the afternoon, waking him up from his nap, would be ready to answer it and solve whatever crisis needed to be solved."
  
  
• Holly Ord presents John McCain Doesn’t Support the Troops posted at Menstrual Poetry.
  
  
• Jason presents 1962: Adolf Eichmann posted at Executed Today, saying, "Adolf Eichmann remembered on the anniversary of his execution: the competent company man blithely earning his promotions by engineering mass-murder."
  
  
• KevinBBG presents McBush posted at DAILY BBG, saying, "This is a clear and somewhat harsh statement as to whether or not to vote for McCain or Obama with reasons outlined."
  
  
• Ron Britton presents Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ! posted at Bay of Fundie.

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That concludes this 67th edition of Carnival of the Liberals.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of the Liberals using our Carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of the liberals, blog carnival.

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The Historically Challenged

There has been an obvious attempt of late by the right-wing noise machine to re-write (very current) history. Unfortunately for that noise machine, some of us have memories which go back further than 10 seconds ago. Let’s review some examples and how they illuminate this blatant attempt at historical revision.

First up, there’s the attempt to divorce conservative and Republican. This usually takes the form of “George Bush never was a conservative” proclamations from the pundits and mouthpieces on the right. For example, when Bush was at 60% approval in the polls (in November, 2003) Jonah Goldberg said “...Bush has proved that he's a Reaganite, not a "Bushie.” And when Bush plummeted to 32% (in May, 2007) what did he say? Goldberg said, “look at Bush from the right angle, he looks an awful lot like a liberal.” From “Reaganite” (in 2003) to looking like a “liberal” (in 2007)? Flip-flop.

Next, let’s look at the price of gasoline. The right-wingers want to blame the (just elected in November, 2006) Democratic Congress for the $4.00/gallon gasoline Americans are now facing. If they were honest with us and themselves (which they’re not), they would know that a stable Middle East equals lessened fears of potential shortages caused by the disruption of the world’s oil supplies, which in turn equals stable speculation on future oil prices. Instead, the Bush administration, in its foolish invasion of Iraq (and now saber-rattling over Iran), has caused oil speculators to raise the price of oil to astronomic levels. When Bush took office oil was around $30 a barrel and gasoline was around $1.20 a gallon. Now oil is $140 a barrel and gasoline is over $4.00 a gallon. Sorry right-wingers, this is not the result of action or inaction on the part of Democrats in Congress since January, 2007. This is a direct result of a destabilized Middle East, compliments of the Bush Administration’s war of choice/invasion of Iraq in 2003. And a destabilized Middle East equals fears of disruption of the world’s oil supplies, which equals higher prices driven by those fears of the speculators.

Finally, there’s the Iraq war itself. A few weeks ago Jonah Goldberg published a column on the surge and the Congressional vote last summer authorizing it, comparing John McCain’s vote for it to Barack Obama’s vote against it. Goldberg piously announced that had America followed Obama’s vote all the wonderful things in Iraq (since the surge began) would not have happened. What a perfect example of choosing a point in time which somehow proves your argument, while conveniently ignoring an earlier point in time which completely demolishes the point you’re trying to make. Sorry, Mr. Goldberg, but had you gone back just a little further in time to, say, 2002, and seen that McCain was in favor of the invasion in the first place, while Obama was against it, you might have been a little more circumspect in your judgment. Heroic efforts after the fact (in 2007) do not negate stupid choices in the first place (in 2002).

As I said at the beginning, some people have longer memories than the right-wing noise machine expects. Their attempts at revisionist history are all-too-easily spotted and refuted. Better luck next time.

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This article is also posted on OpEdNews.com (The Historically Challenged).

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What do you think?

I was recently watching Star Trek: Insurrection, and it struck me that Ad'har Ru'afo looks a lot like John McCain. What do you think?

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Why I'm a Liberal

Ken Quinell, my friend and Executive Director of the Florida Progressive Coalition, used to maintain a personal blog, T. Rex's Guide to Life. One of his regular features was "Why I'm a Liberal." It was usually just a picture highlighting the absurdities of the right wing in this country.

The top-of-the-fold story in today's Tallahassee Democrat reminded me exactly why I am a liberal:

Lawmakers attend Tallahassee screening of movie by Ben Stein
The caption from the accompanying picture ("Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" on Wednesday at the Challenger Learning Center) demonstrates that few people understand the concept of "irony."

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts

1. So, I was riding to work one morning and was stopped at a traffic light. Next to me, in the right-hand lane, was a school bus... a regular, yellow, elementary-middle-high school, public school bus. Nothing extraordinary about it at all.

Then I noticed a black grill near the bottom of the bus chassis. On that grill was a blue tag/label. I couldn't quite make out the wording on the label, but there appeared to be a penguin on it. A penguin?

As the light was changing and I started to move I was finally able to get a close enough view of the label and discovered that it was for an air conditioning company. School buses now have air conditioning! What is up with that?!

Now, I didn't walk to school as a child, uphill, both ways, barefooted, in the snow. But I never rode in an air conditioned school bus even though I attended elementary, junior (showing my age) and high school in Florida and rode public school busses throughout most of my primary and secondary education.

No wonder kids today are spoiled.

2. It is an un-nerving experience to see several (what appear to be used) cans of whipping cream by the side of the road. Especially a road with no normal pedestrian traffic.

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Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory on OpEdNews.com

February 10, 2008

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

Recently, while reading political opinions on Internet message boards I ran across this comment:

“Once again Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”

The author was commenting on the Democratic primary process, and the possibility that it will be the party’s Superdelegates who will ultimately decide the nominee at the convention in August. The assumption is that the Democrats will doom their nominee’s prospects in November by nominating the candidate who did not get a majority of the primary election votes.

While I don’t necessarily dispute the “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” part of this comment, considering the chances for the Democratic Party in this election, I did start to wonder about the “once again” part. Have Democrats “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” in presidential elections, time and again, therefore justifying the “once again” part of this comment?

(read the entire article)

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The Law of Unintended Consequences

Florida's Republican-majority legislature, with bipartisan support, passed a bill moving Florida's 2008 president primary from March 11th to January 29th. Florida's Republican governor signed the bill into law. The idea was to give Florida an earlier voice in deciding who would be the nominees for the two major political parties, rather than leaving that honor to Iowa and New Hampshire and other small states.

As it turns out Florida's 2008 primary will be mostly remembered for the implosion of the Giuliani campaign and, to a lesser degree, the end of the Edwards campaign. Rather than being a "king-maker" Florida was just another early state whose primary results ended up making little difference in picking the parties’ nominees.

So, January 29, 2008 is history, as is 2008's Super Tuesday, and there's still no Democratic or Republican presidential candidate with enough delegate votes to secure the nomination.

Which brings us to the Law of Unintended Consequences. If Florida's primary was upcoming on March 11th, the nation's eyes would be focused on Florida (and Texas, a week earlier) as the real tipping point for the nominees, the “king-maker.” Instead, Florida is just an also-ran.

The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

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"Pants-pisser" defined

It is said that a "pants-pisser" is someone so afraid of something that they urinate on themselves. You can easily spot them: They're the people who exaggerate easily identified and understood threats, elevating them to mythic status. They're like a child who overhears a frightening news story on the television and translates that into the boogeyman under the bed or in the closet.

An example of a "pants-pisser" in action will easily illustrate this point. Here's a post by "bowa," on the blog, The Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs:

"I beleive (sic) that Islamo-fascism is as great a threat to the US and the World as Nazism and Communism was last century." Posted by bowa at 2007-11-10 10:21 PM

Paul Krugman does an excellent job of dispelling the whole "Islamofascism" nonsense:

For one thing, there isn’t actually any such thing as Islamofascism — it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination. The term came into vogue only because it was a way for Iraq hawks to gloss over the awkward transition from pursuing Osama bin Laden, who attacked America, to Saddam Hussein, who didn’t. And Iran had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 — in fact, the Iranian regime was quite helpful to the United States when it went after Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan. (read the entire article)

But more importantly, in the same article Krugman sarcastically answers these "pants-pissers" directly:

Yep, a bunch of lightly armed terrorists ... pose a greater danger than Hitler’s panzers or the Soviet nuclear arsenal ever did. All of this would be funny if it weren’t so serious.

Do you suppose "pants-pissers" like "bowa" understand what Krugman is saying?

Or do they actually enjoy the feeling of urine in their pants?

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300 in 3

This post is number 300 on this blog... in 3 months!

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Hate Filtered Through a Smile Isn't Pretty on OpEdNews.com

October 12, 2007

Hate Filtered Through a Smile Isn't Pretty
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

So, Ann Coulter goes on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show "The Big Idea" this past Monday and proceeds to insult the host. In front of her Jewish host she declared that Jews need to be "perfected" by becoming Christians, and that America would be better off if everyone were Christian, (Deutsch: "We should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians?" Coulter: “Yeah.”) To top it off she even asked Deutsch to go to church with her ("Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?").

Is anyone really surprised at her vile and insulting comments?

(read the entire article)

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The Great American Walkout on OpEdNews.com

September 23, 2007
(originally submitted to OpEdNews.com on Thursday, September 20, 2007)

The Great American Walkout
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

Tomorrow, September 21st, I will be joining my fellow Free World Radio Network hosts in supporting the Great American Walkout. The concept is simple: through a grassroots effort Americans can show the world that we can become energy independent. For one day don’t drive to work, ride a bicycle. Don’t own a bicycle? Walk. Too far to walk? Carpool. No one to carpool with? Stay at home! I will be choosing the “stay at home” option, and will broadcast Situation Awareness that day instead of on Saturday.

(read the entire article)

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Harry Potter and the Taser on OpEdNews.com

September 18, 2007

Harry Potter and the Taser
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

From the article:

Monday evening I watched an interesting debate unfold in an on-line blog. The topic was the Tasering of a University of Florida student by the police at an open forum with Massachusetts US Senator John Kerry. The topic was so hot that the comments section easily swelled to over 500 posts in a matter of just a few hours...Originally I was going to title this piece, “The (Un)usual suspects,” as the participants in the aforementioned debate took some interesting sides in this story. (read the entire article)

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9/11 Did Not Change Everything! on OpEdNews.com

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

9/11 Did Not Change Everything!
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

September 11, 2001, is a date forever etched into the consciousness of America, just like December 7, 1941, and November 22, 1963. The terrorist attacks in 2001, like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the assassination of John Kennedy, are shared experiences for all Americans.

Yes: 9/11 was a shock to America, and an event (like Pearl Harbor and Kennedy’s assassination) which changed America. Americans are told that because of this shock, “9/11 changed everything.” But did it really “change everything”?

(read the entire article)

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The Failure of the Surge on OpEdNews.com

September 5, 2007

The Failure of the Surge
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

September is upon us and the much awaited (and anticipated) report from General Petraeus on the situation in Iraq is becoming due. Already there is a certain tug-of-war between the President and Congress over whether progress is really being made in Iraq (witness the study carried out by the White House in June), or whether little (if any) progress is being made (see the just-released GAO report).

In a perverse form of poetic justice, I see that any success of the so-called surge is really just further condemnation of the entire administration approach to the execution of the Iraqi invasion and its aftermath.

(read the entire article)

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The Orange Cone Theory

An automobile weighs in at 2,000-3,000+ pounds, with some coming in at two tons or more.

And the orange cone? Probably no more than 5-10 pounds.

Yet the lowly orange cone holds complete dominance over us and our behemoths. Allow me to illustrate:

You're driving around the crowded mall parking lot, looking for that elusive open parking spot. Turning the corner on yet another row full of cars you see an open spot...and it is right by the entrance! Anxiously, you speed up to get there before someone else grabs it ahead of you. You're almost there, there's definitely no car parked there when you see....

...the dreaded orange cone! Right in the middle of the coveted parking spot. No construction going on, no open man-hole, no freshly painted lines in the open spot. No evidence of any kind for the need to block this particular spot. Yet, there it sits, the orange cone.

And what do you do? Pull into the parking spot with your 3,000 pound automobile, crushing the orange cone? Of course not. Even with no consequences, no fine or threat to have your car towed, you accept the power that the orange cone exerts over you and your conveyance. Having surrendered to it you drive away, meekly continuing your frustrating search for an open parking spot.

Thus, the theory of the orange cone.

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The First Bluetooth Headset

When broadcasting Situation Awareness I use a Motorola Bluetooth headset. This past Saturday I was wondering: Who used the first Bluetooth headset?

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Irony on OpEdNews.com

August 23, 2007

Irony
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

I-ro-ny (noun): incongruity between what actually happens and what might be expected to happen, especially when this disparity seems absurd or laughable.

Last night I was tuned in to Netroot Radio's broadcast of ePluribus Radio (Don't Hijack My Thread!) on Blog Talk Radio. The first topic of discussion was "Not "mining" our business. Declining mine safety and lack of consequences under Bush administration." The hosts compared the declining mine safety in this country with the lack of safety (and environmental) regulations in Communist China.

(read the entire article)

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Flight Attendants are there to save your ass…

...not kiss it! *

(photo: AP)

The Today Show was reporting this morning on the explosion yesterday of China Airlines flight #: CI-120 (a Boeing 737-800) in Japan. The hosts were remarking on the incredible fact that all 165 people aboard (passengers and crew) escaped alive.

The next time you’re flying please remember that the primary responsibility of the flight crew is your safety. All of the passengers on flight CI-120 escaped because the flight attendants were doing their main job: Protecting the passengers!

* My wife, who has been a flight attendant for almost twenty years, received a pen from a passenger recently as a small thank you gift. The title of this post ("Flight Attendants are there to save your ass not kiss it") was imprinted on it.

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Fight them there... on OpEdNews.com

August 15, 2007

Fight them there...
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

Of all the reasons for being in Iraq one of the most ridiculous is that we "fight them there so we don't have to fight them here." While all of the ever-shifting “reasons” given so far have been somewhat disingenuous (“WMDs”, imminent threat, spreading “democracy” – at the point of a gun, etc.) this one seems the most dubious.

What does "fight them there so we don't have to fight them here" really mean? (read the entire article)

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Hypocrisy or Values? on OpEdNews.com

August 10, 2007 at 14:14:10

Hypocrisy or Values?
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

There is an interesting phenomenon in the anti-abortion arguments: Those who proclaim that they are “pro-life” but are also in favor of the death penalty. Doesn’t pro-life mean pro-life, whether it is a fetus or someone already born?

It interesting to watch as many of the so-called “pro-lifers” spin and spin when asked about their support for the death penalty. All of a sudden there are all sorts of rationalizations which come into play: ... (read the entire article)

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