The direction we're heading: NY Times

NIcholas Kristoff lays it out in this op-ed in the NY Times.

With Tea Party conservatives and many Republicans balking at raising the debt ceiling, let me offer them an example of a nation that lives up to their ideals. It has among the lowest tax burdens of any major country: fewer than 2 percent of the people pay any taxes. Government is limited, so that burdensome regulations never kill jobs. This society embraces traditional religious values and a conservative sensibility. Nobody minds school prayer, same-sex marriage isn’t imaginable, and criminals are never coddled...

So what is this Republican Eden, this Utopia? Why, it’s Pakistan....

I’ve always made fun of these countries, but now I see echoes of that pattern of privatization of public services in America. Police budgets are being cut, but the wealthy take refuge in gated communities with private security guards. Their children are spared the impact of budget cuts at public schools and state universities because they attend private institutions....

I think that is a rather sobering reminder. Given how corporate elites now run government for themselves in the US, including the courts, and how money buys anything.... perhaps we should ask Grover Norquist and the Koch Brothers what they really see as the USA's future?

Religious Freedom and Military Chaplains

We've heard a lot of complaints from conservatives that repealing DADT is somehow unfair to military chaplains, as it will prevent them from speaking their beliefs. As the Advocate tells us,

Last week an attorney with the conservative legal group Alliance Defense Fund threatened legal action if Congress does not expressly prohibit same-sex weddings at military chapels or other Defense Department facilities. The legal group has also demanded that military chaplains be barred from performing such ceremonies in their official capacities; allowing them to officiate at same-sex weddings would violate the Defense of Marriage Act, they argue.

But Capt. John F. Gundlach, a retired Navy chaplain and member of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, has taken them on.

Chaplains have always had the right to preach according to the tenets of the religious bodies that endorse them — and they still will. Will anti-gay chaplains be forced to conduct same-sex weddings in military chapels? Of course not. They will continue to conduct rites and sacraments as allowed by their religious bodies. And the same principle applies to conducting religious education and pastoral counseling. The one thing that every chaplain is required to do, regardless of their religious perspectives, is care for everyone. If these chaplains can’t minister to gay and lesbian service members themselves, they are obligated to refer them to another chaplain who can.

So where is the threat to religious freedom? And where could their right to free speech be limited? It will no longer be acceptable to speak about fellow gay and lesbian service members in demeaning ways in the workplace and other public settings. The fact that this has ever been acceptable by anyone anywhere, but especially by chaplains, is regrettable. And chaplains from the religious groups who are now demanding protection from discrimination have been some of the worst offenders. They, and others who agree with them, may continue to think and believe what they want, but outside of those areas where their religious speech is protected, they may now have to keep their bigotry to themselves.

I agree that religious freedom is a precious right that we must hold inviolate. It is a right that all service members serve to defend, and which all should be able to enjoy. By all, I mean those who are religiously liberal as well as those who are conservative, and by those who are gay as well as straight. Are ADF and the religious groups they represent as willing to defend the same rights and protections for others they claim for themselves? Are they as willing to acknowledge the right of chaplains from gay-friendly denominations to perform gay weddings in military chapels? And are they as willing to speak up for those who suffer discrimination because they are gay? If not, their pleas for special protection from discrimination for themselves are self-serving and unworthy of consideration.

Incidentally, as you may or may not know, in April the Presiding Bishop joined with a group of retired chaplains and other churches in a Friends of the Court (amicus) brief in the ongoing DADT case, which argued that continuing DADT infringes on the religious liberty of those who are supportive of LGBT people. The Presiding Bishop said the Episcopal Church

“has a long history of supporting the inclusion and fair treatment of gay and lesbian persons within the Church and in society. That position extends to the right of such persons to serve this country, openly and with pride, in all of its many offices and positions, including service in our Armed Forces. The Church’s interest in [this case] stems in significant part from the Church’s extensive experience with endorsing male and female members of the Church’s ordained clergy for service as chaplains to members of the Armed Forces in this country and abroad, in peace-time and in conflict, in battle and behind the lines.”

The Republican Hostage Crisis

There's a tendency these days to ignore the posturing in Washington DC and treat it as so much background noise. Rational people can't really take seriously "death panels" and "birthers" and even Michelle Bachman. But in a terrible recession with millions out of work, what are we doing? Cutting spending, and putting more people out of work. Taxes are at their lowest rate since 1958. And massive deficit is due in substantial part to Bush-era tax cuts. Even the inventor of the "Trickle Down Theory" of tax cuts, David Stockman, now admits is false.

"(Extending the Bush tax cuts is) rank demagoguery. We should call it for what it is. If these people were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn't come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion. So, to stand before the public and rub raw this anti-tax sentiment, the Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves."

We grew up in an era where the role of government was to govern, and where Congress did its job, which is to Do Stuff. And to do stuff, you need to compromise with the other guys. That was the history of Congress. But those who knew how to legislate, the giants you might say, are gone now.

The infrastructure is collapsing. The economy is perilous. And what do the Republicans do? They hold the entire country hostage for more spending cuts, particularly to destroy Medicare, by threatening not to increase the debt ceiling. Their only interest, which was nakedly admitted by Sen. Mitch McConnell, is to defeat President Obama in 2012. They don't give a damn how they do it, or at what cost. Steve Benen:

With a potential debt default by the U.S. government just two months off, and a continued standoff between the White House and GOP congressional leaders on how to move forward in boosting that limit, Republican lawmakers say publicly and privately that they believe Obama will be the one who has to cave.

To be sure, the hostage-strategy dynamic isn’t new, but it’s uncommon for Republican members of Congress to be this candid about their plan out loud. One leading GOP lawmaker acknowledged that the Republican plan is “dangerous,” but the party doesn’t care. Another conceded that the GOP is inviting a “sovereign debt crisis,” but figures Obama would get the blame, so Republicans don’t care about that, either.

The key to an effective hostage strategy is creating a credible threat. When the hostage taker has a gun to the head of hostage, those expected to pay the ransom have to genuinely believe the bad guy really will pull the trigger. Yesterday, the Republican message to the president wasn’t subtle: we really will pull the trigger and then blame you for not paying the ransom.

This, of course, makes the prospect of compromise that much more ridiculous. As far as Republicans are concerned, there’s no need to compromise — they’re the ones with the gun and the hostage. Why strike a deal? If Obama caves, they get what they want. If Obama stands firm, and the GOP deliberately destroys the economy, Republicans will blame the president and destroy his chances of re-election. As far as the GOP leadership is concerned, all they have to do is wait.

In the abstract, this is arguably one of the great political scandals of recent American history. There is no modern precedent for a political party acting like an organized crime family this shamelessly. The American public isn’t hearing much about these tactics, but I can’t help but wonder what the mainstream would think if someone were to tell them that the Republican Party intends to cause a recession, on purpose, unless Democrats drastically cut Medicare and other popular domestic programs.

This is an unprecedented crisis. It is not just an economic crisis, but very nearly a political collapse. Where are the Republicans? We need honest, sensible fiscal conservatives to come back and get rid of this zombie tea party, the modern Know-Nothings.

If something doesn't change, we're all looking at President Palin.

Driving the US into irrelevancy

EJ Dionne:

While the United States remains utterly frozen in a debate about budget deficits and all the things that government shouldn’t do, other countries are marrying public and private resources to make themselves stronger and more competitive.

While the United States is not even sure we should have gone halfway toward providing health insurance to all of our citizens, other democratic countries long ago began using government to cover all their citizens — and have health costs far lower than ours.

While Americans pay less in taxes than the citizens of other rich countries — and currently pay the smallest share of their incomes for taxes since 1958 — one house of Congress thinks the only thing that can be done to help the country is to cut taxes even more.

While other countries have jumped ahead of us in green economics, we have backed away from any effort to put a price on carbon to battle climate change and promote new technologies. In the Republican Party, politicians have to apologize for even thinking about global warming.

And while other countries invest in their basic facilities, we are letting our broadband access, roads and bridges, and rail and water systems go to seed. We created the interstate highway system, and now we can’t maintain our sewers.

Oh, yes, and nearly 14 million of our fellow citizens are unemployed.

Okay, now you can go back to the dreary deficit debate if you wish, but this catalogue is offered to suggest the irrelevance of Washington’s conversation to the problems the country faces.

Businesses are doing great. Wall Street is making record profits. Other countries are investing in the future. The Republicans are trying to eliminate government. And you are paying for it.

last week I had a conversation with a Roman Catholic woman, a member of BP's choir at her former church, who complained vociferously that she was paying too much in taxes to support "welfare cheats". Not only was it a crashingly odd experience discovering a tea party type, it was a cognitive dissonance moment. Even in the RC church, I don't think you can sit through a service and not be aware of the exhortations to care for the poor. Or maybe you can.

I really don't know what to do. I feel helpless at this absolutely batshit crazy people rejecting science, economics, and modern thought trying to drive the US into the national equivalent of living "off the grid" in Montana with a shotgun.