The American Constitution Society: Sen. Santorum: Birth Control is “Harmful” to Women:

Thursday evening on Comcast CN8, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum explained on a talk show that he is “not a believer of birth control.”

From his point of view, he explained, “I think it’s harmful to women…and society.” Further, it has “harmful long-term consequences.”

Although Senator Santorum clarified that from a government perspective he has always voted in favor of birth control, he personally thinks it is detrimental. “It goes down the line of being able to do what you want to do without having the responsibility that comes with that,” he explained.

The conversation can be viewed here. Thanks to Echidne for the tip.

This witch hunt is going too far.

There are talks about banning The SIMS! Read about it at Gamespot.

A women has sued the makers of GTA.

And Hillary Clinton has already slid to the right in asking for $90 million of taxpayer dollars to study the effects video games on children – something that’s been done quite a bit already.

Like Rafe said, Steven Johnson’s op-ed in response to Hillary Clinton’s call for a $90 million study on the effects of video games on children is a must read.

I have this to say to Mrs. Clinton – You have identified yourself as this generation’s Tipper Gore. The metalheads reading this know exactly what I mean. Reaching out to the right with gestures this hollow and expensive play into the hands of those against you.

To divert resources that can be better used fighting known, real problems in this country – for a dubious endeavor at best – for what appears to be a middle-America vote advertisement – is wrong.

Call me naive but I expect Democratic leaders to represent working and poor Americans who keep this country running every day. To be the party of the American dream. This has NOTHING to do with that.

The New York Review of Books: What’s the Matter with Liberals?:

…The hallmark of a “backlash conservative” is that he or she approaches politics not as a defender of the existing order or as a genteel aristocrat but as an average working person offended by the arrogance of the (liberal) upper class. The sensibility was perfectly caught during the campaign by onetime Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who explained it to The New York Times like this: “Joe Six-Pack doesn’t understand why the world and his culture are changing and why he doesn’t have a say in it.”[3] These are powerful words, the sort of phrase that could once have been a slogan of the fighting, egalitarian left. Today, though, it was conservatives who claimed to be fighting for the little guy, assailing the powerful, and shrieking in outrage at the direction in which the world is irresistibly sliding.

…what Karl Rove called a “mobilization election” in which victory would go to the party that best rallied its faithful. What this meant in practice was backlash all the way: an appeal to class resentment and cultural dread that was unprecedented in its breadth; ingenious state-level ballot initiatives on “values” questions that would energize voters; massive church-based get-out-the-vote efforts; and paranoid suggestions from all sides inviting voters to believe the worst about those tyrannical liberal snobs.

Senator Sam Brownback’s activities at the Republican convention offer us a glimpse of this strategy in microcosm. In his speech before the assembled delegates and the eyes of the world, the godly Kansan came off as a thoughtful, caring Republican who wanted only to heal the sick and halt religious persecution overseas; when he spoke at a private meeting of evangelical Christians, however, he took on the tone of affronted middle-American victimhood, complaining to a roomful of Christian conservatives that “the press beats up on you like there’s something wrong with faith, family and freedom” and exhorting them to “win this culture war.”[4] For the conservative rank and file, this election was to be the culture-war Armageddon, and they were battling for the Lord.

Whenever Democrats play the Republican class-culture war game – it’s a win for Republicans. Democrats need to pursue policies – not cultural politics – that help give a leg up (not a hand-out) – this is the real moral that needs to be addressed – and that what I expect the Democratic party to represent.

From the article linked above:

…the most powerful evocation of the backlash spirit always comes from personal testimony, a tale of how one man came to realize that liberals weren’t the friends of common folks but just the opposite. In the past it was figures like George Wallace and Norman Podhoretz and Ronald Reagan who declared that they hadn’t left the Democratic Party, the party had left them; in 2004 that traditional role fell to Zell Miller, Democratic senator from Georgia, whose thunderous indictment of his liberal colleagues from the podium of the Republican convention caused such excitement in conservative circles. Here was Miller to assure Republicans that everything they’d ever suspected was true: that the real problem with American politics was that the Democrats had swerved too far to the left; that those same Democrats were led by self-hating people who think “America is the problem, not the solution”; that their presidential candidate was so beguiled by Frenchness—a classic stand-in for devitalized upper-classness—that he “would let Paris decide when America needs defending.”[9]

Oddly enough, this same Zell Miller had once been known as a fairly formidable class warrior on the left, blasting Bush’s father in a famous 1992 speech as a clueless “aristocrat” who knew nothing of hard work and then dropping this memorable zinger on Dan Quayle: “Not all of us can be born rich, handsome, and lucky, and that’s why we have a Democratic Party.”

“Not all of us can be born rich, handsome, and lucky, and that’s why we have a Democratic Party.”

I like to believe we still have a Democratic party. We need it now more than ever.

When all else fails, change the slogan! No seriously, the new slogan reflects thinking what right-wingers decried was unnecessary after 9-11, and what many on the left have always stressed – defeating terrorism requires social, economic, and political tracks along with military – and it requires a shared sacrifice by all – not just our soldiers and their families. So I say it’s about time the Administration has shifted its thinking. FOUR YEARS about time. I bet you will hear silence among the right-blogapunditry on this today. Not something they would like to admit.

New York Times: U.S. Officials Retool Slogan for Terror War:

The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the nation’s senior military officer have spoken of “a global struggle against violent extremism” rather than “the global war on terror,” which had been the catchphrase of choice. Administration officials say that phrase may have outlived its usefulness, because it focused attention solely, and incorrectly, on the military campaign.

…Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the National Press Club on Monday that he had “objected to the use of the term ‘war on terrorism’ before, because if you call it a war, then you think of people in uniform as being the solution.” He said the threat instead should be defined as violent extremists, with the recognition that “terror is the method they use.”

Although the military is heavily engaged in the mission now, he said, future efforts require “all instruments of our national power, all instruments of the international communities’ national power.” The solution is “more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military,” he concluded.

…Administration and Pentagon officials say the revamped campaign has grown out of meetings of President Bush’s senior national security advisers that began in January, and it reflects the evolution in Mr. Bush’s own thinking nearly four years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Rumsfeld spoke in the new terms on Friday when he addressed an audience in Annapolis, Md., for the retirement ceremony of Adm. Vern Clark as chief of naval operations. Mr. Rumsfeld described America’s efforts as it “wages the global struggle against the enemies of freedom, the enemies of civilization.”

The shifting language is one of the most public changes in the administration’s strategy to battle Al Qaeda and its affiliates, and it tracks closely with Mr. Bush’s recent speeches emphasizing freedom, democracy and the worldwide clash of ideas.

“It is more than just a military war on terror,” Steven J. Hadley, the national security adviser, said in a telephone interview. “It’s broader than that. It’s a global struggle against extremism. We need to dispute both the gloomy vision and offer a positive alternative.”

…Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy, said in an interview that if the nation’s efforts were limited to “protecting the homeland and attacking and disrupting terrorist networks, you’re on a treadmill that is likely to get faster and faster with time.” The key to “ultimately winning the war,” he said, “is addressing the ideological part of the war that deals with how the terrorists recruit and indoctrinate new terrorists.”

Global Voices Online posts links to Egyptian bloggers who attended a pro-peace/anti-terrorism rally.

Their voices are needed, as our ours, for peace. Especially in the face of radical fundamentalists like Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, an Islamic cleric in Britian. He said, after the London attacks, “I would like to see the Islamic flag fly, not only over number 10 Downing Street, but over the whole world” (Washington Post).

Please read this important post (with tips on how you can make a difference) by Thom at Philly Future on the Patriot Act and Philadelphia.

Yesterday the House voted to make provisions of what was to be temporary in the Patriot Act permenent.

Here is how local Pennsylvania representatives voted.

No matter what your views on the law, you should get educated as to what it means – for our safety yes, but more importantly in my eyes – for our freedom.

In America assault weapons are legal. Crazy question – but what if the terrorists in London had guns? What if the passengers did? What could have happened?

Matt has posted a roundup of our local reaction to this latest attack in “Philly Bloggers React to Today’s Bombings in London“.

My well wishes go out to London.

Now back to Rove… Top Aides Reportedly Set Sights on Wilson:

Top aides to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were intensely focused on discrediting former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV in the days after he wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times suggesting the administration manipulated intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq, federal investigators have been told.

Prosecutors investigating whether administration officials illegally leaked the identity of Wilson’s wife, a CIA officer who had worked undercover, have been told that Bush’s top political strategist, Karl Rove, and Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, were especially intent on undercutting Wilson’s credibility, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

Although lower-level White House staffers typically handle most contacts with the media, Rove and Libby began personally communicating with reporters about Wilson, prosecutors were told.

A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove’s interest was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House. When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: “He’s a Democrat.”

Right on cue to knock the Rove controversy out of the news, Bush makes his choice for the Supreme Court known.

CNN.com – Roberts’ nomination mobilizes advocacy groups – Jul 20, 2005:

..If confirmed by the Senate, the conservative Roberts would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who gained a reputation as a moderate swing voter in her 24 terms on the nation’s highest court.

The conservative group Progress for America rallied in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington on Tuesday night, carrying signs reading “Confirm.”

A liberal advocacy group, People for the American Way, sent out 400,000 e-mails to supporters after the announcement, according to the group’s president, Ralph Neas.

…A prominent liberal advocacy group — NARAL Pro-Choice America — opposed Roberts’ second nomination to the appeals court, saying he has worked to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that struck down state laws outlawing abortion.

Arguing a case for the first Bush administration in 1990 when he was deputy solicitor general, Roberts said Roe v. Wade “was wrongly decided and should be overruled.”

In his 2003 confirmation hearing, however, he told senators he was acting as an advocate for his client, rather than presenting his own positions.

He told senators Roe was “the settled law of the land” and said “there’s nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent.”

Roberts, a native of Buffalo, New York, who now lives in Maryland, is married and has two children. He is a Roman Catholic.

I hear, more and more, mainstream rightwing news organizations attacking blogs on the left, and indeed blogs in general. A whole bunch of generalizations that could apply to the left or the right. They are attempting to frame the word “blog” the way they framed the word “liberal”. Consider this a warning.

The Electoral-Based Community:

…Democratic party seems to be under the impression that bloggers are an enormous, important constituency–and that it must go to whatever lengths necessary to win the hearts and minds of this virtual community.

…This seems like a major miscalculation, because the politics of the left-wing blogs are far out of the American mainstream. Where most of the 120 million Americans who voted in the last election bear a benign indifference to political matters, the left half of the blogosphere seethes with hatred for George W. Bush and his supporters. What’s more, the blogs take numerous positions that would strike all but the most passionate Democratic partisans as patently preposterous. For example, several of the left-wing blogs recently ran an advertisement that referred to West Virginia Senator and former Ku Klux Klan Kleagle Robert Byrd as an “American Hero.”

Also, the level of discourse on the Daily Kos and other prominent liberal blogs is not something that would be attractive to the majority of the American public. The writings are often obscene and usually relentlessly hostile and negative. Crude personal attacks, whether aimed at right-wing bloggers or politicians, are the order of the day.

Support for Bin Laden, Violence Down Among Muslims, Poll Says:

Osama bin Laden’s standing has dropped significantly in some pivotal Muslim countries, while support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence has “declined dramatically,” according to a new survey released yesterday.

…The one exception is attitudes toward suicide bombings of U.S and Western targets in Iraq, a subject on which Muslims were divided. Roughly half of Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco said such attacks are justifiable, while sizable majorities in Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia disagreed. Yet, support for suicide bombings in Iraq still declined by as much as 20 percent compared with a poll taken last year.

The results, which also reveal widespread support for democracy, show how profoundly opinions have changed in parts of the Muslim world since Pew took similar surveys in recent years.

Army Times – Soldier survives attack; captures, medically treats sniper (Video):

During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents.

Tschiderer, with E Troop, 101st “Saber” Cavalry Division, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was knocked to the ground from the impact, but he popped right back up, took cover and located the enemy’s position.

After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who’d tried to kill him just minutes before.

Summary: GOP Ignored Warnings on Veterans – Yahoo! News:

…several House Republicans cautioned that not enough money was being budgeted this year for veterans health care given the number of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The House refused to provide more money. Two of the congressmen who sounded the alarm were pulled from their committee chairmanships.

The predictions of too few dollars for veterans care proved accurate. The Bush administration has now acknowledged a shortfall of at least $1.2 billion, and embarrassed Republican lawmakers are scrambling to provide it.

Weekend of slaughter propels Iraq towards all-out civil war – World – Times Online:

Iraq is slipping into all-out civil war, a Shia leader declared yesterday, as a devastating onslaught of suicide bombers slaughtered more than 150 people, most of them Shias, around the capital at the weekend.

One bomber killed almost 100 people when he blew up a fuel tanker south of Baghdad, an attack aimed at snapping Shia patience and triggering the full-blown sectarian war that al-Qaeda has been trying to foment for almost two years.

Iraq’s security forces have been overwhelmed by the scale of the suicide bombings — 11 on Friday alone and many more over the weekend — ordered by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

“What is truly happening, and what shall happen, is clear: a war against the Shias,” Sheikh Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a prominent Shia cleric and MP, told the Iraqi parliament.