Prop 8 Trailer Released

My friend Reed has been busy.

Here is the trailer:

Check out the full site here.

Time doesn’t change the nature of the crime

I am sick to death of the glitterati and their silly defenses of child rape.  Yes, Roman Polanski has made a great film or two (and a lot of mediocre crap).  That doesn’t change the fact he’s a child rapist.

Kate Harding calls it well.

The point is not to keep 76-year-old Polanski off the streets or help his victim feel safe. The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not — and at least in theory, does not — tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you’ve made.

*****

The reporting on Polanski’s arrest has been every bit as “bizarrely skewed,” if not more so. Roman Polanski may be a great director, an old man, a husband, a father, a friend to many powerful people, and even the target of some questionable legal shenanigans. He may very well be no threat to society at this point. He may even be a good person on balance, whatever that means. But none of that changes the basic, undisputed fact: Roman Polanski raped a child. And rushing past that point to focus on the reasons why we should forgive him, pity him, respect him, admire him, support him, whatever, is absolutely twisted.

Calling it out

Great piece at MyDD.  Money quote:

But while it is arrogant and dangerous to accuse the entire conservative movement or Republican Party of racism, it is equally dangerous to stick one’s head in the sand and claim it isn’t a factor. There is racism afoot in the modern conservative movement, we can prove it, and even if it is only relegated to the movement’s fringe, it only takes one nut to inspire another to commit what he sees as a necessary murder for the good of his country. It is wrong to accuse 46% of voters or 5 million Fox News viewers of racism, but it is equally wrong to look the other way when even just a few hundred racists speak up. I went to high school in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where the presence of a few bad apples (the Aryan Nations compound) taught a good community a hard lesson: silence is acceptance.

Jefferson’s whole thought

Prooftexting is as dangerous in the political arena as in the spiritual.  Exhibit one would be the wingnut fetish with a certain quote by Thomas Jefferson to the effect that the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots.

Not surprisingly, the full context take it in a different direction.  This great piece at Firedoglake provides an analysis.

I wonder how many of the misguided wingnuts who intimidate and strive to thuggishly silence their fellow citizens have read the whole passage? They may be comforted by what seems to be stirring phrase, when torn out of context, but they shouldn’t. They misunderstand its meaning, and misunderstand their fate if they give in to violence.

Jefferson told the rest of the citizenry what to do in the face of any such violent watering. Jefferson’s advice to the peaceful is much more arduous than striking out in ignorant violence, but we cannot shrink from his instructions. It is our duty as patriotic citizens to remember the words that surround that disturbing phrase, and act on them if necessary.

Reality vs. Glenn Beck

Priceless.

Hat tip:  MyDD

Falling for it

I suppose it isn’t surprising the birthers are so desperate to believe they’ll fall for an obvious hoax.  But it remains a sad spectacle of how little of substance the right wing has to say.  Ed Brayton discusses:

Dave Weigel, my Center for Independent Media colleague, has an article at the Washington Independent about the latest idiocy from Orly Taitz, the endlessly ridiculous leader of the birthers. It’s a fake Kenyan birth certificate. Naturally, it’s the Worldnutdaily credulously publishing about it and calling it real:

“The new document released by Taitz bears none of the obvious traits of a hoax.”Really? None of the obvious traits of a hoax? Take it away, Mr. Weigel:

Another one for the GOP duh files

Imagine that.  Children who aren’t taught about safe sex have unsafe sex.  Who’d have guessed that might happen.

Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush’s evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US’s major public health body.

In a report that will surprise few of Bush’s critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.

The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.

Hat tip to John Cole who observes, “At least the southern states get to lead the nation in something.”

Parsing the wife

FDL calls it:

The only thing missing from the statement is a fine Southern “Bless his heart” to tie it all up with a bow.

War on drugs = massive FAIL

Great quote:

“We’ve spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs,” Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. “What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It’s a dismal failure.”

More time in the wilderness

I’ve heard the assorted wingnut speak longingly about this type of thing, but to actually propose it in Congress?

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil, a move opposed by immigrant rights advocates.

Supporters of Deal’s proposal say “birthright citizenship” encourages illegal immigration and makes enforcement of immigration laws more difficult. Opponents say the proposed law wouldn’t solve the illegal immigration problem and goes against this country’s traditions of welcoming immigrants.

Automatic citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

A subtle shift toward reality

The GOP is making strides toward turning down the losing cultural warrior rhetoric.

When the National Council for a New America, the Republican rebranding initiative, unveiled a list of broad policy priorities last week, it left out cultural and social issues altogether. Nothing about abortion, gays, state-sponsored religion, etc. It suggested a subtle realization — the GOP won’t get back on track fighting the losing side of a culture war.

Naturally, their allies in the religious wrong are not pleased.

Too many Republicans leaders are running scared on the claims of the Left and the media that social conservatism is a dead-end for the GOP. If that were the case, why are pro-family leaders like Mike Huckabee creating such excitement in the conservative base? The Republican establishment doesn’t draw a crowd. Governor Sarah Palin does. Also, take a look at the recent Pew Research poll, which showed overall support for abortion in America has dropped eight percentage points in the last year and support for it among moderate and liberal Republicans has dropped a whopping 24%. Based on that, how can the GOP suggest that life is a losing issue? If there were a road sign for the GOP on this new journey, it would read: Welcome to the wilderness. You’re going to be there for awhile.

Beating the censors

How on earth did he do this with a straight face?

Sirota on selectivity

A good bit on CNN on the selectivity of right wing pundits when it comes to respecting democratic institutions:

The point here is that the Right really exhibits a nasty authoritarian streak that lets them, whenever they see fit, offer up selective interpretations of what is and isn’t “legitimate” in a democracy – and conservatives are most willing to do this on divisive issues like gay marriage.

As I told CNN, I really believe anyone gay or straight who says their marriage is threatened by someone else’s gay or straight marriage needs to seek marriage counseling. But an even bigger point than that is the fact that anyone who selectively indicts the legitimacy of different legitimate branches of our democracy isn’t interested in democracy – they are interested in authoritarianism.

Mitt flip flops

Again.  This time on immigration.

Analyzing the social contract

Interesting bit by Josh Marshall

We’ve been in the midst of the reporting on the AIG bonus story and related high-octane blow-ups over compensation and the behavior of key players in the finance sector. And we’ve seen a non-trivial number of complaints that we’re sensationalizing this or that story or engaging in ‘cheap’ populism. Beside the reporting innards of the story, though, what interests me about this meta-story is the way it shows the implicit social contract under deep strain and some people operating totally outside of it without realizing it at all.