David Sirota is angry that Lieberman consultant Dan Gerstein is spreading lies about him. I just want to say that Lieberman’s strategy of playing the religion card is so disgusting and dishonest that he should be thrown out of the Democratic Party on that basis alone. Opposition to Lieberman’s religion was never even a tiny part of why he became so unpopular. But, but by accusing other Jews of being disloyal and by suggesting that others are anti-Semitic, Lieberman is making his religion an issue. This is Jesse Helms-style politics and it should be condemned by every decent person.
Mark Schmitt looks into the support for Lamont and finds a lot more than just the netroots.
Here’s a list of the 33 members of the House that voted against reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. I have a sliver of sympathy for the argument that states should not be punished for prior racism in perpetuity. But as long as Georgia, for example, keeps trying to find innovative ways to disenfranchise black voters, they should stay on the list.
What do you do when your Secretary of Defense is a kidnapper? Call the FBI?
Congress has demanded that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hand over a raft of documents to Congress that could substantiate allegations that U.S. forces have tried to break terror suspects by kidnapping and mistreating their family members. Rumsfeld has until 5 p.m. Friday to comply.
I swear I saw Peter Coors on television telling me to use his products responsibly. Too bad, he couldn’t take his own advice. Blowing a 0.088 is not that bad, but running a stop sign is.
Here’s a good rundown of what is going on in Lebanon. My opinion is that picking a fight with the Shiites of Lebanon is not in the United States’ near-term interests. Our first priority needs to be Iraq. And if we find ourselves allied with Israel in a sustained attack against Lebanese Shiites, it will cause serious problems in Iraq where the Shiites hold all the power.
Can you actualy catch a buzz off of one of Pete Coors’ products?
I can’t. The stuff is undrinkable.
I’m not sure even Pete can drink enough of that stuff to get tipsy. . .yuck. Probably he was sampling some of his pal Seagrams stuff.
Here is where my thoughts and hopes for the world lay this morning as war threatens to engulf the entire middle east by plan or by ignorance…
World On Fire
From the New York Observer article:
The most prominent orthodox Jewish politician in American political history,…
Flame me if you must, but I am so fucking sick and tired of supposedly highly religious individuals who let their beliefs end at the synagogue/church doorway. How about applying some of your “beliefs” to actual real life issues, Joe? Or are they only appropriate for certain individuals? How about it?
Just so we’re clear, I’m Jewish, so there’s no antisemitism here. Just disgust.
It’s a shame that you have to qualify your remarks Boran2.
It is. But I’d rather not be the start of anything.
Just so we’re clear, I’m Jewish, so there’s no antisemitism here. Just disgust.
It comes as no surprise to see Gerstein pull the religion card. I argued with these folks on DK for, well, years now and the ‘you’re secretly anti-Semitic’ attack is/was a common one. It’s fairly bizarre that Gernstein is now chastising the (LOL) majority of Jews who don’t support Lieberman as people who don’t support Israel but also, I think,. fairly revealing.
I would also point out that Lieberman believes that the constitution grants us freedom of religion, not freedom from religion and that this is something I’ve never managed to get one of his operatives or supporters to talk about. Indeed, one characteristic of Lieb’s apologists is avoidance any substantive discussion.
Pulling the cards is a frequent tactic of the worst sort of Democratic operative. I’ve had them accuse me of racism for disliking Harold Ford and accuse me of a violent prejudice against the military for my dislike and distrust of (now) Fox news commentator, Wesley Clark.
I fear that the U.S. is supporting Israel’s aggression becuase it fits in with the neocon agenda of expanding the mid-east conflagration. Israel will do our dirty work against Iran and we will have to “assist” them.
We need to organize our opposition to blind support of zionism starting with a condemnation of Israeili aggresssion and moving to a call for Divestment as well as an end to our occupation in Iraq. The madness must end before it sweeps the region into chaos and pulls us deeper into it.
I agree that in some way this is all part of the neo-con strategy vis a vis Iran and Syria, too.
I think the administration realized the Iran nuke thing wasn’t catching on with the general populace, so I believe this maybe a back door approach.
This whole situation makes me sick.
Who is going to fight this new war? We can’t even recruit enough soldiers for the ones we’re currently waging.
Also, I’m sick to death of being told that if you don’t support Israel’s policies you are anti-semitic. I don’t buy the crap about if you don’t support Bush’s policies you are a traitor. It’s just a way to stifle dissent.
And by the way, I do think it is wrong for Palestine extremists to blow up civilians. But it is also wrong for organized armies to blithely write off “colataral damage.”
This is a truly disjointed rant. Sorry. I’m just so upset by all of this.
May be disjointed, but my thoughts exactly Kahli.
Except I hadn’t thought of the connection in this way before
… if you don’t support Israel’s policies you are anti-semitic. … if you don’t support Bush’s policies you are a traitor. It’s just a way to stifle dissent.
…so true.
I agree with both of you about this. I watched a bit of CNN coverage of the current situtation last night. It truly scared me to death – their “point of view” was to always look at it from Israel’s “point of view.” Why can’t we challenge that!!??
Why can’t we challenge that!!??
Partly because it’s emotional and scary for Jews to do so. (speaking as one.)
.
Another quote from your link to article on Joe Lieberman —
Certainly, some of Mr. Lieberman’s companions in the hawkish political universe see some deeper implications in his jarringly abrupt political decline.
“I’m concerned that Northeast liberals are trying to conflate the entire Iraq war with support for Israel and the failure of Middle East democratization into the same package,” said Edward Blum, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who added that if Mr. Lieberman were not an incumbent with a national profile, his tough foreign policy would disqualify him from running in the primary. “The power of those issues to keep Democratic primary voters in line may be waning.”
Mr. Gerstein says he has detected what he calls a “growing strain of anti-Semitism on the far left,” which he believes is in part fueling the strident opposition to Mr. Lieberman.
CT-Sen: Lieberman consultant freaks out over blogger ◊ by kos
≈ Cross-posted from BooMan’s diary — Lieberman Using the Anti-Semitism Card ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Isn’t it the current Neocon mindset that someone would, could and should vote for a candidate based on something as irrelevant as their religion? That’s like voting for someone beacause they are black, or white, or asian, or gay or female or male or any other of a number of descriptions, not because of their political stance and perceived abilities on issues. Makes no sense now any more than it ever has.
If the American public is really that stupid, then my IQ must be soaring beyond the heights.
My dislike of Lieberman stems from a reply I received from him last year in answer to a letter I had written him on an issue.
Of all the congresspeople I corresponded with in the past year, and there were many, none other told me that since I was not a constituent, they had no time for my opinion.
The quote below seems particularly apropos for those of Lieberman’s ilk.