McCain's Judgment - Im-Palin' His Own Campaign?

There's much buzz about Senator McCain's choice of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican Party's Vice Presidential candidate. She's a neophyte on the national (let alone international) stage, and looks like a pandering political choice by McCain.

What is the reaction in her home state to her elevation? According to an editorial in the Anchorage Daily News:

Her resume is as thin as the meat in a vending machine sandwich. I'm thinking being mayor of Wasilla doesn't qualify her. And she's less than two years into her first term as governor. Except for her high-profile gas pipeline legislation -- which I like a lot -- she doesn't have much to show. Oil taxes? Most of that work was done by the legislature. Ethics? Ditto. And her role in killing the much-touted Bridge to Nowhere? Talk about coming in after the battle is over and bayoneting the wounded.

And there's a growing sense that the government isn't running all that well, that all that's keeping the wheels from coming off is that 25,000 state employees show up for work every day.

The long and short of it is this: We're not sure she's a competent governor of Alaska. And yet McCain, who is no spring chicken, has decided she's the best choice to replace him as president if he should win and then fall afoul of the Grim Reaper.

Sarah Palin?

Really?

The Fairbanks, AK Daily News-Miner published an editorial which said this:

Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might fill it.

It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance. She’s a woman. She has fought corruption. She has fought the oil companies. She’s married to a union member. These are portrayals for campaign speeches; they are not policy positions.

These viewpoints come from the state that knows Sarah Palin best. Add to them her supposed Christian Dominionist leanings, her complete lack of knowledge in foreign affairs and national policy, and she's a very disturbing choice.

Perhaps she's just today's Dan Quayle, McCain's Hail Mary play in response to the realization that he can't win this election without rolling the dice. His selection of Palin can be viewed as a reckless gambit to draw male Independents, disenchanted Hillary Clinton supporters, and staunch social conservatives.

The question that I can't avoid: Is McCain's judgment so poor that he believes placing someone like Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency is the best choice, especially when he himself has stated that the most important qualification for a VP is that they be ready to assume the presidency?

UPDATE:
Frank Rich's op-ed column sums up the Democratic National Convention and McCain's rash choice of a running mate better than anything i've read thus far. And that's not just because i agree with him.

Wounded Warrior addresses the Democratic National Convention

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
-Arthur Schopenhauer

Navigating the polls

Political polling, especially during a presidential election year, reminds me of something my father once told me. "You can make statistics say anything you want." This from a man who taught Probability and Statistics for more than three decades.

FiveThirtyEight.com is a poll site that employs a painstaking methodology to analyze political polling. Though polling can be (and often is) misleading, and polls are at best doubtful prognosticators, FiveThirtyEight.com is a site that helps cut through some of the crap.

Gevald geshrign! Brian Williams just used the word 'mishegas' in his comments on MSNBC.

DNC Wednesday night: President Clinton's speech

President Clinton's much anticipated speech did not disappoint. My favorite passage:

Most important, Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.

Here's another gem:

Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.

That makes two of us.

Actually that makes 18 million of us - because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

The full transcript can be read here.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer Speaks at DNC

A great speech from yesterday evening at the Democratic National Convention. This guy really whipped up the crowd prior to Hillary Clinton's speech.

Part One:

Part Two:

Baby Rose Marie (1933)

Depending on when in 1933 this was filmed, Rose Marie was either 9 or 10 years old. Wow!

Iglesia de San Felipe de Neri

New Mexico is blessed with some beautiful old churches, many with histories that extend back into the Spanish Colonial Period. Over the next few weeks I hope to showcase a few of them, though i have to admit there are many I have yet to see in person. Today I'll cover the oldest extant building in the city of Albuquerque, the Roman Catholic Iglesia de San Felipe de Neri.


The present church building (pictured above), located on the north side of Old Town Plaza, is the second incarnation of the church. Construction of the first church, which was named Iglesia de San Francisco Xavier, was begun in 1706, under the direction of Fray Manuel Moreno, a Franciscan priest. During the annual summer monsoon in 1792 the building collapsed. Construction for the current adobe church building began the following year.


Today, in addition to being a scenic spot for the touristas, the church is an active parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and is presently undergoing a comprehensive restoration. Beside the church proper is the restored former convent (home to the Sisters of Charity until the late 1970s) which now houses the parish museum. Behind the church is the San Felipe de Neri school, started in the late 19th century. It was the first free school in Albuquerque, and still provides an education to children from kindergarten through the 8th grade.



My experience of the church is mostly quiet and reflective. When visiting the shops in Old Town I will sometimes duck into its cool interior to escape the tourists and say a prayer or two. The nave certainly evokes an older time, when the town church was the center of life for early Albuquerque residents.

A view of us from the outside

Paul Varnell writes a column for the Chicago Free Press and other gay newspapers. He recently published a column which provides an outsider's view of the Anglican tempest-in-a-teapot. Here's a teaser:

"The only reason to try to keep the Africans and Asians in the Communion would be the hope that eventually the liberals can bring them around on such issues as female priests and homosexuality. But the chances of that happening seem slim. After all, they have their reading of the bible on their side.

Alternatively, the North Americans could withdraw and say, You go your way and we'll go ours. That might rattle some of the Africans who need the American subsidies. And it would certainly rattle Williams, who seems to have given little thought to this possibility.

The Anglican church has a strong sense of history. What Williams is probably doing is trying to stave off any open schism, hoping that things will somehow change over time. In any case, he certainly does not want to enter the history books as the archbishop under whom a major schism occurred.

But after all, the Anglican church was founded in the 16th century by an act of schism. So schism is a venerable part of Anglican history. Who is to say it would be worse than a conflicted and specious "unity"?"

The entire article may be read at the Independent Gay Forum.

Staging consultant: Busby Berkeley?

Robert Towle on his prolific and informative blog, Towleroad, has posted a picture of the upcoming Democratic National Convention's stage. They are either living up to the aphorism "Presentation is important," or they're planning a production of Moulin Rouge. Either way, I suspect it will be one hell of a show!

McCain's Mansions

About halfway into the video, McCain's adviser on economic policy is seen...Phil Gramm. The man responsible for the "Enron Loophole" which allowed energy companies to artificially inflate their prices, has led to the 'dark market' (unregulated) speculation on oil prices which has drastically raised the cost of gas at the pumps, and allowed mortgages to be bundled and sold as securities - thus prompting the current mortgage crisis. That's the guy writing McCain's economic policies.

Discernment and leadership of one of those guys in the funny pointed hats

The Rt Revd Pierre W. Whalon, D.D., Bishop in Charge, Convocation of American Churches in Europe, responds to Bishop N.T. Wright in an essay entitled, "On polygamy, homosexuality, and generosity":

The bishops gathered at the 2008 Lambeth Conference re-discovered, through the Bible study groups and Ndaba process, that we hold the same faith, and use the Bible the same way, as the Conference Lambeth Indaba document makes clear.

This formed the basis for a renewal of trust in each other and in the desire to remain in communion with all the Anglican provinces and churches. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his concluding lecture of our retreat, pointed out that bishops are essentially leaders—but not in the usual sense that business seminars or military academies use the word. We lead, oddly enough, by following. Specifically, the bishop is to follow in the way that Jesus is opening up (cf. Hebrews 10), and lead others into that way.

The key element of episcopal leadership is therefore discernment, in order to find the way and follow Jesus. The Lambeth Conference 2008 can be said to have determined that what we are wrestling with is not a division over the faith itself. The American and Canadian churches have not wiped their feet on the Bible and blown their noses with the Creed, so to speak. The dividing issue is a question of morality. As the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, put it in one of the sessions, “Is homosexual practice adiaphorous or not?” Is it a church-dividing issue, in other words?

The heart of the dividing issue is therefore not in the realms of fundamental or systematic theology (dogma and doctrine), as has often been stated, but rather moral theology. If our disagreement were over a creedal issue, such as a province deciding explicitly to deny the virginal conception of Jesus, there would have to be an unequivocal action by this Conference and the other Instruments to declare that they are not in communion with this province. The faith is that which must be believed by all, everywhere, at all times (the so-called Vincentian canon).

However, moral reasoning rarely has such universal norms. Other than the commandments of to love God and neighbor, and the New Commandment of Jesus, moral reasoning is by nature contextual. Even those of the Ten Commandments that have to do with moral conduct have to have some relation to a specific case in order to be understood and applied. For instance, does “You shall do no murder” make self-defense a sin? If you steal food in order to survive, have you violated the commandment against stealing? If you lie to the Gestapo about the Jewish family hiding in your attic, is that bearing false witness?

On the other hand, “you shall have no other gods before me” is always applicable, everywhere, all the time.

The entirety of Bishop Whalon's essay may be read at Anglicans Online. I encourage you to do so.

One man's interpretation of liberalism

From Wayne Besen:

One of the great fallacies in modern lore is that liberalism stands for nothing and liberals have no core beliefs. The right wing, from the Pope to the President, has impugned the left by unfairly portraying it as a valueless movement mired in moral relativism.

This could not be further from the truth. Indeed, the left is the backbone of freedom, the defender of personal liberty, the guarantor of free speech and religious worship and the nurturer of democratic movements across the globe. Far from believing in nothing, wherever liberal democratic values prevail, civilizations flourish and free people thrive.

Read the rest on Wayne Besen's website.

Claiming the right to not abide by licensure standards

In July 14, 2008, the conservative organization Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in US District Court on behalf of Georgia-licensed Associate Professional Counselor Marcia Walden. Ms. Walden was employed by a company (CSC) contracted with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to counsel the CDC's employees who are struggling with stress, depression, grief, troubled relationships, and/or other issues.

In August 2007, a female employee (identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe) of the CDC met with Ms. Walden seeking counseling for her troubled same-sex relationship. Rather than abide by the requirements of her state issued licensure, Ms. Walden explained to Jane Doe that same-sex relationships were against Ms. Walden's Christian values, and that she therefore could not provide the requested counseling. Ms. Walden then referred Ms. Doe to a colleague for assistance.

Later that day, Ms. Doe lodged a complaint of discrimination against Ms. Walden. Three days later, Ms. Walden was placed on unpaid leave. On September 10, 2007, Ms. Walden's employment with the CDC through the contractor, Computer Service Corporation was terminated.

Now Ms. Walden, with the help of the ADF, has filed a suit with the US District Court, claiming she was the one discriminated against because of her religious beliefs in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Here's why I think her claim is a load of crap: the licensure she obtained from the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage & Family Therapists has a clearly stated Code of Ethics which requires that licensees adhere to the highest professional standards. The regulations then go on to define unprofessional conduct, which includes "discriminatory treatment to any person or group of persons."

The licensing standards do provide for referral if she were "faced with treatment, assessment or evaluation issues beyond the licensee's competence." Ms. Walden's lawsuit states that she has provided counseling to homosexuals previously, so I don't see any way she can honestly claim that she denied treatment to Jane Doe because she lacked the needed competence. Nor, in fact, does she ever claim that as the basis for her refusal to do her job.

There is no provision in the licensure standards which allow denial of treatment or referral of a client based upon the therapist's personal values or beliefs.

So, Ms. Walden failed to abide by the professional standards required by the counseling license which she holds. Her employer terminated her employment because she wouldn't do her job. And now she seeks to use religion as an excuse for not providing a needed service that she was being paid by taxpayer dollars to provide.

She admits in the court filing that her supervisors suggested to her that should she encounter such a situation again, she should not discuss her religiously based conflict with clients, but instead inform the client that she was not experienced in relationship counseling. This would allow her to decline providing same-sex relationship counseling while abiding by the standards of her professional licensure. Ms. Walden refused to do this, stating that it would violate her ethical obligations. Apparently, she conveniently forgot the actual Code of Ethics required by her Associated Professional Counselor license.

She further discloses in her lawsuit that she knows CSC's contract granted the CDC express authority to remove any CSC employee operating on its behalf.

Apparently, the ADF wants 'special rights' for the conservative Christians who subscribe to the ADF's agenda.

Something about McCain is in the dirt, but was it a cross?

During Saturday's Saddleback Forum with the two presidential candidates, Senator McCain told a tale of a Christmas he spent in the Hanoi Hilton. Besides the fact that the story bears an undeniable resemblance to a story told previously by Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn in a 1973 published US release, it's a story that was never related in the detailed account of his captivity which McCain published in 1973. While there's likely no way to prove that McCain's story, which seems to my ears to have been tailor-made pandering for the Saddleback audience, didn't happen, there are enough inconsistencies in it to raise doubts.
Andrew Sullivan's post on the 'Cross in the dirt"
And another one, from Dailykos

Neo-con nuclear meltdown

You aren't likely to see the US media exposing the total mindlessness of the neo-conservatives any time soon. But Paul Craig Roberts, formerly an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, an Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and a Contributing Editor of National Review doesn't shy away from calling them like he sees them:

Back during the Nixon years, my Ph.D. dissertation chairman, Warren Nutter, was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. One day in his Pentagon office I asked him how the US government got foreign governments to do what the US wanted. “Money,” he replied.

“You mean foreign aid?” I asked.

“No,” he replied, “we just buy the leaders with money.”

It wasn’t a policy he had implemented. He inherited it and, although the policy rankled with him, he could do nothing about it.

What are the neo-cons up to now?

The American-educated thug, Saakashkvili the War Criminal, who is president of Georgia, was installed by the US taxpayer funded National Endowment for Democracy, a neocon operation whose purpose is to ring Russia with US military bases, so that America can exert hegemony over Russia.

And:

The Republicans will get us into more wars. Indeed, they live for war. McCain is preaching war for 100 years. For these warmongers, it is like cheering for your home team. Win at all costs. They get a vicarious pleasure out of war. If the US has to tell lies in order to attack countries, what’s wrong with that? “If we don’t kill them over there, they will kill us over here.”

The mindlessness is total.

Nothing real issues from the American press, which is about demonizing Russia and Iran, about the vice presidential choices as if it matters, about whether Obama being on vacation let McCain score too many points.

The mindlessness of the news reflects the mindlessness of the government, for which it is a spokesperson.

The American media do not serve American democracy or American interests. They serve the few people who exercise power.

Read the whole article here (page down past the header).

Rachel Maddow to raise the IQ of the news media

Rachel Maddow is one frighteningly intelligent woman - and now she'll be anchoring the 9pm (ET) news hour on MSNBC. The first openly lesbian anchor of a major cable news show! Whoo-hoo!

A Diabolical game

DATELINE: Maryland—The lucky number for those playing Maryland’s state lottery last week was 666, much to the chagrin of the Maryland State Lottery Agency. The group described the number as “thought by many to be unlucky.” No comment was made on this specific combination in the Pick 3 draw, but state lottery director Buddy Roogow said that “When triples are drawn, we almost always pay out more than we brought in, which makes them very popular with our Pick 3 players.” The state of Maryland had to pay more than $1.6 million to “thousands of Maryland Lottery players” on just $458,953 in ticket sales.

George Carlin speaks the truth (NSFW)

Save Me Trailer

New Mexico is increasingly becoming host to new movie productions, and I'm not just talking about the classic Westerns that used to be filmed here. Thanks to a generous incentives developed by the state government (Yay Bill Richardson!) and the city of Albuquerque in cooperation with the existing local film industry and also the area schools offering training in film-making skills, production crews have become a common sight around the state.

"Save Me," a film that opened to packed houses and rave reviews at Sundance 2007, was shot in just 18 days, entirely in New Mexico. From the film's website:

Save Me is a deft exploration of the controversial ex-gay movement. The story follows Mark (Chad Allen), a drug-addicted young man who overdoses and finds himself at the mercy of his disapproving family. Their solution to Mark's problems is to check him into a Christian run ministry overseen by Gayle (Judith Light), who believes she can help cure young men of their 'gay affliction' through spiritual guidance. At first, Mark resists the efforts of Gayle and her loving husband Ted (Stephen Lang), but soon finds solace and brotherhood with several of the members, including Scott (Robert Gant), who is battling family demons of his own. When Mark and Scott begin to find their friendship developing into an unexpected romance, both are forced to confront the new attitudes they're beginning to accept, and Gayle finds the values she holds as an absolute truth to be threatened.

It has been picked up for theatrical distribution in the US, and is set to open in theaters in September.

The Sordid Lives of Del Shores

The Logo Channel (gay cable network) has recently begun showing Del Shores' latest product, a television series prequel to his 2000 cult favorite movie, Sordid Lives. Billed as "a black comedy about white trash" the movie which follows "a family in a small Texas town preparing for the funeral of the mother. Among the characters are the grandson trying to find his identity in West Hollywood, the son who has spent the past twenty-three years dressed as Tammy Wynette, the sister and her best friend (who live in delightfully kitschy homes), and the two daughters (one strait-laced and one quite a bit looser)."

In the new television series, several of the actors from the movie reprise their roles: Beth Adams as Sissy Hickie, Bonnie Bedelia as Latrelle Williamson, Ann Walker as LaVonda Dupree, Leslie Jordan as Earl 'Brother Boy' Ingram, Dale Dickey as Glyndora, Rosemary Alexander as Dr. Eve Bolinger, Lorna Scott as Vera Lisso and Olivia Newton-John as Bitsy Mae Harling. Joining the original movie cast for the series are Rue McClanahan as Peggy Ingram, Caroline Rhea as Noleta Nethercott and Jason Dottley as Ty Williamson.

By far my favorite character in both the movie and the series is Sissy Hickie (pictured below), the chain-smoking younger sister of the Ingram family's matriarch.

In Sissy's own words:

Hello, hon, it's me, Sissy. Sissy Hickey. And lately, I'm just so worried sick about everybody in my family. My big sister Peggy has been acting so wild and crazy that I don't even know who she is anymore. My niece Latrelle has been downing calmatives like they were Tic Tacs lately and I have no earthly idea why. I mean, I'm all for a few Valium every day, but I have never once lost consciousness before noon. That's when you know you have a problem. Maybe she's worried about her precious only child, Ty. He did lose his job on that soap opera and has been playing a bunch of gay roles, which Latrelle is none too happy about. And poor "Brother Boy" is just beside himself with the death of Tammy Wynette. Bless her heart. Tammy had more troubles than Christ on the cross. Oh, and speaking of troubles, my neighbor Noleta is just one big blubbering mess lately because her husband G.W. wants to make love to her without his wooden legs on and just the thought of the matter gives her the heebie-jeebies. I mean, who can blame her, but these are things I do not need to know! Why me, Lord, why???

In the following teaser clip, Sissy reluctantly tries to soothe her neice LaVonda's best friend Noleta, who lives in a trailer behind Sissy's house. Though Sissy would rather not hear her troubles, Noleta disgorges her feelings toward her husband, G.W., who wears prosthetic legs.


If you've never seen the movie, I highly recommend watching it, as it's a guaranteed laugh-riot. If you have access to the Logo Network, be sure to catch an episode of the series. Bye, y'all!

Surgery update

Heard from my mom a couple of hours ago. Dad's surgery went well; there was only one fracture, of the femur, just below the hip joint. The surgeon placed one pin and a rod, and doesn't foresee any problems with the recovery.

i hope he's right. My tendency for depression is inherited from my Dad, so my biggest worry is how he'll emotionally handle recuperation and physical therapy. When he broke his wrist a few months ago, it put him into a bit of a tailspin for a while. Mom assumes his PT will be painful, and she should know, considering how many times she's been through it herself.

Mom's commonsense advice to Dad was, "I told him he'll just have to get through it (the PT) if he wants to walk." She's a strong one, but not always the most comforting person. Tough love, all the way, but she keeps us all going.

Prayers requested for my family

Yesterday morning, my eighty year old father, who lives with advancing Parkinson's Disease, fell and broke a hip. This is his third serious fracture in as many years. As someone who works with the elderly, i know that with each successive fall and fracture the likelihood of another increases greatly. He is likely to have surgery today, but neither my mom (who's 76) nor my elder brother, who were in attendance to him in hospital yesterday, know much else.

Also, my mom's only remaining sibling, a woman i've always just simply called 'Auntie', remains under close medical care following an initial surgery to repair an aneurysm and then five successive surgeries to staunch continuing blood loss due to a post-surgery infection. All of this within the past six weeks. Surgeons have managed to stop the infection that was destroying blood vessels at the original surgical site, but now Auntie's left with a large, deep open wound which will require several more tissue graft surgeries to repair, and a high risk of additional infections. Auntie is also 80 years old.

Mum is holding up with her usual aplomb. When i asked her how she was doing, she said in her typical straightforwad way, "As I told one of my neighbors, everyone has something to deal with, and you either deal with it or you don't." My brother, confirms that she's doing pretty well, but believes she's close to 'tilt'. i trust his judgment.

Prayers for my Dad, Joseph, my Auntie, Jean Clare, and my mom, Martha, would be very appreciated. Prayers for my entire family are great, too. My partner and i want to fly back very soon to see all of them face to face, but are having a hard time making a cross-country trip happen quickly. i would be grateful for your prayers there as well.

Our hands are not tied

Jim Naughton has written a wonderful article for the Guardian. Please check it out.

As archbishop, [Rowan] Williams might feel that the proper execution of his office requires that he puts aside his personal convictions. Juggling numerous concerns and multiple constituencies, he may have reason not to speak out boldly on behalf of one marginalised audience for fear of alienating another. Equipped with a variety of subtle ways to move the Anglican Communion toward a fuller understanding of human sexuality, he can initiate imperceptible advances on one front while publicly taking a hard line on the other. There are wheels within wheels, and he can make them all spin. He is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But I am not. And neither are you. We can either speak our truth - which as it turns out is also his truth (and more important, we believe, His truth) and organize ourselves to reform the Churches we love, or we can sit back, beg our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to be patient, and hope that somehow the Communion will arrive at a new consensus on homosexuality without anyone seeming to have so much as nudged it in that direction.