Posted by Freddie on October 31, 2005 under Uncategorized | 
We have three branches of government:
The Executive
- where I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has just resigned as a result of being indicted on five counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice in an investigation into the leak of the name of an undercover CIA agent,
- Mike Brown recently resigned as director of FEMA after a disastrous federal response to the aftermath of Class 5 hurricane Katrina,
- David Safavian, former head of procurement policy for the White House, was arrested (and subsequently resigned) and accused of obstruction of justice in an investigation into the misdeeds of Jack Abramoff (see Legislative below),
- Lester Crawford abruptly resigned as the head of the FDA,
- Timothy Flanigan withdrew his name from consideration for appointment to Deputy Attorney General after it was revealed that he had a connection to — guess who — Jack Abramoff,
- and which uses the likes of Tom Noe, who was recently indicted for money laundering, as its fundraising Pioneers.
The Legislative
The Judicial
And, according to recent polls, the American people think that the Valerie Plame scandal is revelatory of broader ethical wrongdoing within the Bush administration.
Can we start over, or what? We had our accountability moment, and it sucked. The rest of the “movement” conservatives don’t seem to be faring so well, either.
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
Washington Post: “Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, demanding answers about intelligence that led to the Iraq war.” More…
UPDATE: Senator Rockefeller: “My colleagues and I have tried for two years to do our oversight work, and for two years we have been undermined, avoided, put off, and vilified by the other side. Any line of questioning that has brought us too close to the White House has been thwarted….the American people deserve to know not just whether this Administration committed crimes, but whether this Administration told the truth – the full truth, the straight story.”
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
During the 2000 election George Bush’s television commercials claimed that a Gore administration would squander the budget surplus through big spending, bringing back the days of high deficits.
Insert snarky comment here.
Watch the commercial here.
Posted by Mary Mancini on October 30, 2005 under Uncategorized |
Patrick Fitzgerald. Listen to his strong, clear voice, see his piercing blue eyes, and experience his manly whiff of integrity here. You can watch it all on “The Span.”
Hat tip: Crooks and Liars
Posted by Freddie on October 27, 2005 under Uncategorized |
With the recent withdrawal of the Harriet Miers nomination, the next step becomes ever more important for President Bush. He’s already suffered withering attacks from his former allies. What will the next nomination hold?
The antsy, anxious crowds gathered in nervous anticipation of nominees to the Supreme Court exist on both sides of the liberal/conservative spectrum. The fact that Bush has had two opportunities for nominating new justices has highlit one area of public policy like no other. There are those who view the entire liberal-conservative celebrity death match through the lens of the Supreme Court and its interpretation of a single, already long-ago decided case: Roe v. Wade. The major piece of domestic public policy affected, of course, is abortion, or rather, the right to have one.
This slugfest will be eternal because the entire debate turns on definitions. Examined from one extreme to the other, the debate moves from those who view the death of individual sperm and eggs as loss of life, through those who eschew (and would force others to do so as well) the use of contraception, through those who believe that life begins at conception (and see abortion as murder), through those who look for a bizarre middle ground requiring a case-by-case analysis of each fetus to examine when it might be viable beyond the womb (regardless of the opinion or health of the mother), through those that recognize that human female biology is a domain unto itself until natural birth or surgery sever the ties between mother and child (and see abortion as a feminist and/or privacy issue), through those who perversely view abortion as a legitimate means of birth control. These are certainly not all the players and positions, but they are the major, easily identifiable ones.
And yet from among all these forces, the definitions of how and when human life begins and should thus be eligible for human rights are the points that matter and demonstrate that the issue of abortion rights will forever be divisive. And this is because the abortion debate is a corner case where science and the scientific method cannot actually have an effective impact on public policy. Science can effectively talk about that case-by-case scenario of fetus viability, but that is not the heart of the issue. This debate is about the gap between conception and delivery, and science will never tell us whether a fertilized egg is a human or whether a pregnant woman is one or two people. And, thus, contention.
In terms of the grand arena of public policy at large, whether foreign or domestic, ideas can be turned loose and let to frolic. Then public policy analysts can examine the resultant human behavior, economic impact, etc. to be published later by think-tanks. Alas, the scientific method will only resolve for us what societies that condone abortion versus those that don’t have in terms of an overall statistical view (in the same way, for instance, that the scientific method can comment that cities that are more tolerant toward their homosexual communities are more economically vibrant without commenting in any way on the morality of homosexuality).
Even the most ardent pro-choice liberals and tough-on-crime (pro-capital-punishment), hawkish (pro-war) conservatives will stake a claim on arguably the most important human right of all: the right to life.
The question in my mind is, should the ideologues who have sought for a generation to fill the courts from appellate through Supreme with pro-life conservative judges, succeed in their ultimate aim — appointment of enough conservative Supreme Court justices that Roe v. Wade is overturned — what will be next? Actually, this should be easy to predict: a massive state-by-state effort to outlaw abortion.
If we consider that it is already the case that a majority of Americans are pro-choice*, would it not behoove all Americans, whether pro-life or pro-choice, to mount a similarly massive effort to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in the first place?
Clearly, this will not affect the voting habits of those conservatives who would never deign to vote for a pro-choice candidate because they view abortion as murder. But what a common ground coup it would be if these very same people, rather than (or even in addition to) vilifying the opposition for their immorality and creating large non-profit organizations and political action committees to elect a slate of pro-life candidates and appointments, could help to create a bipartisan, multicultural coalition that took a strong stand on domestic and sexual violence, produced rich and accurate sex education materials with an emphasis on outreach and planning (and even, liberals, *gasp*, an emphasis on (but, conservatives, not restricted to) abstinence as an extremely effective preventer of pregnancy and, bonus, STDs), and began a rigorous monitoring process of the number of abortions occurring annually in the United States each year with a shared goal of watching it drop. The best part? Such conservatives could join in such an effort without sacrificing any of their dearly held principles about the sanctity of life.
I will admit to being pro-choice when it comes to public policy because I believe that a woman is a woman until such time as woman and child coexist separately. And while I doubt that science will ever alter my definitions, I have yet to see a holy text that comments on this issue in explicit terms either. Regardless, I am shocked by the number of abortions that occur annually in the United States and would like to see the number drop.
After all, treating the causes rather than the symptoms is a methodology that is as effective in public policy as it is in medicine, especially for the doctors who make the difficult choice to practice in clinics that offer abortion.
* See item 14 in the referenced poll.
Posted by Mary Mancini on October 26, 2005 under Uncategorized |
A big, heartfelt, sincere thank you to all who voted for Mary(!) and Freddie(!) in the Best Talk Radio Host(s) category in this year’s Nashville Scene Reader’s Poll. The results are in and we are so pleased! Thanks again for your support and for listening to the show.
We’ve been on the air for just a little over a year and have been overwhelmed by the reception that our Liberal talk-radio show has received. Please stay tuned in ‘06 as we continue to develop the show with more guests and more airtime AND as we do our part to help knock Republicans out of Congress.
Also in the Reader’s Poll issue, WRVU-FM is named best radio station and Walter Bell is named best WRFN - Radio Free Nashville DJ by our favorite* Scene writer, Jim Ridley, who also refers to one Liberadio(!) host as a “liberal talk-radio diva-in-the-making.”
By the way, Steve “It’s unfortunately a moment that many on the left have been gleefully looking forward to” Gill is an ass.
*Tied with Young Spragens.
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
“Fitzmas.” The rest of us prefer “Fitztivus.” Can’t wait for the Airing of Grievances.
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
Dispelling the popular belief that the GOP is the party of “family values,” the Washington Post reports that “Republicans began targeting key programs for budget cuts yesterday, from student loans and health care to food stamps and foster care.”
Cuts to Foster care? Un-cared for children with nowhere to go? It appears that the Conservative formula for supporting family values and a healthy society goes something like this:
1) Do not allow the public schools to educate children about human sexuality, respect for their bodies, safe sex, and birth control. If you don’t talk about it, the kids won’t do it.
2) Legislate against a woman’s right to control her own medical care, including the right to terminate an unwanted/unplanned pregnancy
3) Cut funding to help raise the children that result from #1 and #2.
4) Implement massive tax cuts to ensure that their wealthy and well-cared for children stay wealthy and well-cared for.
Brilliant!
Posted by Mary Mancini on October 23, 2005 under Uncategorized |
WRVU-FM is undergoing station maintenance this morning so no Liberadio(!). You can, however, catch the show LIVE on Tuesday, 10/25, from 6 to 8 pm, streaming at RadioFreeNashville.org.
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
Listen to last week’s Liberadio(!) as a podcast. “Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes.” — Sam Seaborn. With our guest, Alan Coverstone (teacher of Government and Economics and the Academic Dean at Montgomery Bell Academy, father of two children, member of the PTO at a Nashville area public school, and currently on the Magnet Cluster board of the Parents Advisory Council) we worry about the state of public education. We worry a lot. Plus, conservatives call to withdraw the supreme court nomination of Harriet Miers, we’ll tell you why. Also, strange alliances are starting to grow between parties. Would you vote for a bipartisan ticket? And President Bush is no longer the MBA President, he’s the PR President! (1:52, 26 MB).
