600 Az National Guard met at ASU in Tempe yesterday and boarded buses for Fort Bragg to train, and then on to Afghanistan.
I thought that was the bush success story.
Oh well, onward Christian soldiers.
Posted by TIKI AL at January 7, 2007 04:53 AMIn the mid eighties, George W. Bush, then an artuculate and still sensible young political worker for his Daddy's campaign, was given the task of checking out the religious right as a source of support for the Bush Crime Empire. That's when he met a young, slimy hack named Karl, also working for Daddy.
We all know George had no sense of morality, responsibility or ethics, only a vast sense of entitlement. Hanging out with the Christian whackos, George, I humbly believe, was quite comfortable mouthing whatever they wanted him to say. He had found a political tool of significant power. Karl Rove, in a Bush scion, kind of like a young Corleone, also found a tool with great potential. The religious right/Dominionists, in young George, had found a great potential tool to break into the Washington insider set. The corporate masters, of which Poppy was a member in good standing, were delighted to find a tool they could use to win lots of elections and all they needed to do was support a few whack jobs and their funny obsessions with seperation of church & state and moral issues.
There was a virtual Home Depot full of apparent tools. Incurious George was intellectually lazy and increasingly, he used the brainless rhetoric of the Christianists to great effect. As his brain began to resemble the frying eggs of the famous commercial, due to the ong term effects of cocain abuse combined with gross alcoholism, the repeated, empty seeming religious mantras began to be very comfortable and comforting.
The Dominionists proved far more adept at manipulation than the corporatists had imagined. The creation of the Federalist Society was particularly powerful. Karl, imagined toolmaster in his own mind, was a supremely sharp chisel in political gamesmanship. As it turns out, though, a chisel, however sharp, has only one purpose. Poppy Bush proved a one trick wonder, but that was OK, he's still filthy rich and central to corporatist strategies. The agenda of the theocrats has continued to progress, almost without pause.
I believe, to paraphrase a famous joke, the tools are revolting. As W's mind continues to shut down, he's proving an alarmingly useful tool for infiltrating the military, legislative and especially, the judicial branches of goverenment. Since W is almost used up, new tools like Sam Brownback are waiting in the wings. When is comes to who's actually using which tool, I suspect the corporatists are having buyer's remorse. Whether we continue to slide toward theocracy or can avoid that fate is the most important challenge to our democracy. The danger is extreme. The forces of ignorance and intolerance have proved the better toolmasters so far. They have been working from the local level to the national for at least four decades, with obsessive determination. There are hundreds if not thousands of judges, Congress critters, Captains, Colonels and Generals now waving their bloody banner. It's a little late for a wake up call, but better late than never. Perhaps the coroprations can be our allies in this struggle. Politics, and religion, makes for very strange bedfellows.
Posted by DeminNewJ at January 7, 2007 04:56 AMTh prnd fntc lft hs lwys hd n vrsn fr Chrst, bng n drct rblln t Gd. ts mdrn xprssn hs tkn frm n th bld rgy f "Lbrt, Frtrnt, glt", Lnn/Stln dmcd, nd tdy's cmmnst nd llslmst prsctn f Chrst's chrch. n th S, th lft wld dny Chrstns th rght t prtcpt n th pltcl prcss whl dplctsly clkng thr pltcns n "chrstn" flc. n ll ths th lft hs mr n cmmn wth ntnl sclsm thn Chrstns vr wld.
[Editor: ignore=off]Actually, bendover, I kinda like Jesus. Don't think he's a god or anything, but he had some great ideas that most "christians" would rather ignore. I think "Christianists" is a good title for people like you, who throw the bible like a grenade, without a clue as to what's inside.
Jesus is just fine with me. You, and the pat robertsons of the world are antichrist christianist assholes. That's why it's funny as hell that another christianist - dubya - has used you like a dirty snotrag and is in the process of tossing your kind in the trash. Just thought you'd appreciate the distinction, benbot.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2007 06:27 AMBenditto, are you capable of stringing a sentence together? Apparently not.
Posted by tempus at January 7, 2007 06:59 AMBenito: consider this a warning. When the war crimes trials come -- and they will come -- you will be charged for your participation in the Goebbels-esque propaganda. Spewing lies and distortions in support of an aggressive war and torture of innocents are war crimes.
Posted by Nuremberg at January 7, 2007 07:50 AMThe paranoid fanatic left has always had an aversion for Christ,
Absolutely. That's why the Romans and Priests of the temple put jesus to death. Jesus was preaching about people being less accountable for their fellow man, the necessity for making 24/7 war, and how amassing wealth and power and feality to the government were the keys to heaven. Then those fucking liberals put him to death for it! Those bastards! The liberals killed jesus!
When you die, I suggest you avert your eyes. The shit storm coming to you courtesy of your jesus will be pretty terrible. And if your kids are following your ways...well, they were damned when they were born to you.
Its modern expression has taken form in the blood orgy of "Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite",
"Liberty, Brotherhood, Equality." I can see why this phrase scares you.
Posted by phidipides at January 7, 2007 08:20 AMCongratulations Bendito. Mission accomplished!
Posted by DeminNewJ at January 7, 2007 08:30 AMBenditto-head - I'll grow one for the occasion if you will suck it.
The Xianization is hand-in-glove with a southernization of the military. In the last 30 years, ROTC programs have shifted to the Bible Belt - the south has 40% of ROTC programs and produces 30% of the nations college students. Northeastern universities have lost their programs, and bases have been closed in the northeast while southern bases have seen missions expanded and added. This has led to a Republicanization as well, but this particular pig seems to be passing through the snake, as self-identified Republicans have decreased from 70% of the officer corps to 46% over a three year period.
Even the loyal ask questions when who is doing the dying becomes apparent.
(aka Global Citizen)
Posted by Blue Girl, Red State at January 7, 2007 09:29 AMChristian Right organizations have long managed to get military folks and their dependents on mailing lists. The probably buy the lists from service publications that are approved by the military--Stars & Stripes, off-duty magazine, etc. Instead of just wining, liberals should take this step. Liberals also need to assure that there is diversity in caplaincy, etc.
Posted by Rich at January 7, 2007 09:58 AMBen's analist is on our bowling team. We look forward each week to hearing about his client's latest nitesweats about the "left", which always end with poor Ben wetting his bed.
"The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies.."
I've suspected for quite a while (for personal reasons) that the problem is much broader than that to which this article refers, the military chaplaincies. I suspect, can't prove, that they have filled all sorts of Homeland Security openings, as well as the Selective Service boards, with applicants for these jobs with the same "qualifications" as mentioned above. Of course, those "qualification" looked for by this administration are worth shit, may as well be called the Barney Fife Hall of Fame of qualifications. I'm reminded of Bernard Kerick, Michael brown, Jeff Gannon, Harriet Miers.... Kind of scary, when we might be talking Air Marshalls, etc.
Posted by Julie at January 7, 2007 04:52 PMLet's see, how many of those Air Marshalls have experience in law enforcement, AND how many have the ~right~ religious qualifications?
Posted by Julie at January 7, 2007 05:12 PMThere is no doubt that Christianist thought and ideology is rapidly overtaking the military in BushAmerica, and that Christianist militias like Blackwater are being prepared and created for use against the godless lib'rul populace. There is disproportionate military recruitment from the most Fundamentalist states as well.
But no member of the Congress will even begin to talk about the issue, and hearings will never be held, as such an inquiry wold be deemed to "target" both fundamentalists AND the sainted military, both off limits for public criticism.
Only a progressive president can reverse this dangerous course. If another "conservative" Repub is elected presidident in 2008, then a Fascist America as Hedges envisions will very likely come into existence.
After Bushco, America will never be a united nation again, nor will its old constitutional values ever command a consensus again. It's now more a question of whether today's Right will permit the Left to survive.
Posted by euzoius at January 7, 2007 06:13 PMDo not allow anyone to divert the argument onto theological ground. None of the content of Christianity is at issue. The fact is that Christianity in this time and place is nothing but a pretext for civil war. Take religion off the table and another pretext would be found.
The way to de-Christianize the military--better said, to de-ruralize it--is to start a draft. That would flood the military with urban recruits, which is the only thing that might make a "hot" civil war impractical. Watch carefully to see who works against this.
Posted by Frank Wilhoit at January 7, 2007 07:46 PMI'm certain that there must be some Democratic-controlled congressional committee that will have some free time to investigate the quasi-Christians who have been subverting our military to their evil purposes.
Start with the Air Force Academy.
I served in the U.S. Air Force years ago. What the quasi-Christians have done there can only be described as totally un-American, thus, treasonous. These quasi-Christian traitors must be held accountable.
Hopefully, some Democratic committee chair will do the honors.
Posted by The Oracle at January 8, 2007 01:24 AMYou all know this by serving time in the military correct? I consider myself an atheist, and I did 30 years AD. Why are bases in the NE closing? How about the people that have bought houses near them complain to thier congressman about the jet noise, or the 100K acres needed for a live fire artillary range just isn't possible anymore. NE colleges have essential forced the ROTC units off campus, hell, they do not even want recruiters at job fairs. Do you think that the govt should spend money supporting a ROTC unit at a school that will not support it?
I really hope that the dems take control of the white house, congress and the senate in 2 years, that is the only way that this country as a whole will realize that there is a war going on, that radical muslims cannot be reasoned with, that they want to kill us all, remove Israel, put women in berkas, instill shia law thruout the land. Take off your blinders and be glad that there are people willing to just shake thier heads at your caterwalling and continue to carry a pack and put thier life on the line for all of us.
Posted by Gary at January 12, 2007 05:55 AM