Yesterday in Denver, Matt Stoller caught an ad for a party given by AT&T for Blue Dog Congresspeople.

Recognizing a golden opportunity, a bunch of progressive bloggers led by Glenn Greenwald, with press credentials all, tried to attend the party to do interviews.  But the press was excluded, they were told, and they could not enter.  This was not exactly acceptable to a group of people who have all spoken up for Constitutional freedoms in the recent FISA controversies and who consider warrantless wiretapping to be a very serious issue.  Here was a wiretapping telecom courting Congresspeople with no press coverage whatsoever.  Interview they must.

So they stood outside and did the best they could to see who was attending and to speak with them as they entered the party.

From Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, Party Crashing AT&T and the Blue Dogs: The Best Government Money Can Buy:

Party's Over Edition!  

Oh, boy. Who could have predicted that right-wing activists claiming to speak for the Catholic faith would have a problem with Joe Biden?

Others in the hunt for Wanker of the Day nominations: Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and theo-con George Weigel.

I hope that the religious concern trolls and other, more sincere observers will understand that it didn't matter who Obama nominated. Whoever it was, was going to get attacked as being insufficiently religious by various members of the Religious Right machine. Inasmuch as their definition of "religious" works out to be "Republican" (and not even all of them), this was just another piece of the predictable hissy-fit that Republicans would throw over the Democratic ticket.

Yawn.

As something of a tangent, though, one of the good points raised by Amy Sullivan in The Party Faithful is that Democrats have let Catholic reactionaries scare them off religious outreach in general, not realizing that their criticisms were aimed specifically at other Catholics, such as Geraldine Ferraro. All the while, conservative pro-choice Catholics attract little or no attention.*

That says a couple of things to me. You can expect to hear a lot more from Abp. Chaput, Bill Donohue and the other usual cast of creeps in the coming days and weeks, and shame on the reporters who act as stenographers without looking into their partisan track record.

But also kudos to the Obama team for going with Biden. Rumor has it that Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Evan Bayh of Indiana were also in the running for the Veep slot; Kaine's Catholic, Bayh is Episcopalian. Both of would have been a safer choice on this issue than the outspoken Biden.

Thankfully, the Religious Right doesn't have the juice to bully Democrats into doing their bidding. They never did with Dems, and their advantage with Republicans seems to be slipping away moment by moment. Just wait until McCain picks Mittens Romney. Then you'll hear the predictable howls of outrage starting up. And it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

(Mostly) actual conversation at Casa Pastor this morning:

Me: Oh, goody. Shorter version of this event: if Democrats were only nicer to pro-life voters, they'd pick up oh-so-many votes.

Mrs P: Wait, isn't being pro-choice a core Democratic value?

Me: Well, that's what I keep saying.

(Pause)

Her: Not that there's not room for pro-lifers in the party, but are they really going to get them to vote for the Democrats? Aren't they pretty much single-issue voters?

Me: Again, that's what I keep saying, and I keep getting called an asshole for saying it.

Mrs P: You are an asshole. But of the many reasons you're an asshole, that's not one of them. And Amy Sullivan can quote me on that.

Excellent question "Does a bellicose Vietnam veteran who rushed to hitch his star to the self-immolating overreaches of Ahmad Chalabi, Pervez Musharraf and Mikheil Saakashvili have the judgment to keep America safe?"

Wanker of the Day  Shorter Halperin: If you're a Democrat, you really just better take it. Because the more you fight back, the worse it's gonna be for you.

Feist helps McCain count his homes

Today's Meditation:


Today, we bid farewell to my dear friend Jeannette's Daddy, Richard Lamy. Richard put up a gallant fight against cancer for many years.  His resilience, bravery and spirit were inspirational.  We pray for his wife, Gloria and his children and grandchildren.

What is Dying?


I am standing on the seashore,
A ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says:
"She is gone."
Gone! Where?
Gone from my sight that is all.
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me,
not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
"She is gone",
There are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout:
"There she comes"

• and that is dying. A horizon and just the limit of our sight.

Lift us up, Oh Lord, that we may see further.


~Bishop Brent
1862 - 1926

(As PD is still on vacation, I thought I'd take the liberty of opening the chapel* this Sunday evening. Hope nobody minds.)

As summer draws to a close, let us pray* for all those who will soon be returning to school, and in thanksgiving for the summer blessings we have received.

Yawn!  Boy, do I have to get moving.....anyway--what are you reactions to the choice of Biden as Obama's running mate?  I'm sure you've heard the pluses and minuses--in general, I like Biden, but I am still blaming him for the mishandling of the Clarence Thomas hearings--Thomas should not in anyway, shape or form be on our highest court.  Of course the right is angry because they didn't get Bork (thank you Lord for David Souter!)  I am amazed how quickly the attack creeps came out.  Who are all those blond Stepford McCain women?  They say HIDEOUS things while smiling inanely.  Amy Ptf..somethingorother was on CNN yesterday--wow, they sure indoctrinate them!  The Democrats just can't match the venom or the preparedness.  And every single one of them is exactly the same in their spiel and hatred.  The Democrats just sit there with their jaws on the floor or sputtering--we need to be better prepared folks!  No one ever challenges these robots or straightens out their lies.  If I hear about Obama and Rezko buying their house....all of it is a big lie--as are the commercials about Obama's tax policies.  The middle class will do BETTER under Obama than McSame!  Another issue that needs to be stressed is who will McCain bring into his administration--what always happens is all of the retreads come back.  We will have the same old incompetent Republicans in his administration!  They are his friends (him saying "my friends" will drive me NUTs yet!) and associates--there will be no change from the current administration!  When will people realize how bankrupt his ideas are--of course he has to smear Obama--the American people do not support his policies.  He can't run on his policies.  I suppose we will get Mr. Smarmney as his running mate--gah....I can't stand listening to that man lie and spew.  Opinions stated here are my own and do not constitute an endorsement by this blog.

So, what's up with you?  What are you doing?  Any plans for the week?  Grab some coffee, pancakes and some fruit and pull up a chair and chat for a while!

Portland has a little amusement park that is over a century old, Oaks Park.  I’ve written about it before but had only visited it in off-season when it was closed and empty of people.

Hi everyone!  Woo hoo!  It's Friday!  BUT, it's getting way too close to Labor Day! I hate to see the summer end! I hope next winter will be easier than the last one--gah!  

I have to take Mom for a haircut in a minute--God knows she has to look fabulous for the Casino on Monday (don't get me started....grrrr)  

My engine light was on--turns out the gas cap was too loose--can you believe it?  Boy did I feel dumb.  But they didn't charge me to find that out.  Whew.

so, what are you up to?  Any plans for the weekend?  Tonight?  There is a Craft Fair tomorrow, I need to do some stuff around the house, but probably won't get to it.  It looks like this is the Obama VP reveal weekend!  Oh my.  I am so sick of the McCain lies....still have a couple of months to go of this.  I do like PD's idea of jingling your keys at McCain events......

Help yourself to libations, munchies--whatever looks good!  Pull up a chair and chat for a while!

The man from Sojourners oozes patriarchy in response to his readers' questions about discouraging abortions:

Support for women caught up in difficult situations and tragic choices is a better path than coercion for really reducing the abortion rate. Yes, I agree there is never a "need" for abortion except in the case where the health of the mother is threatened. But until we can reach out to women who "feel" the need for abortion and support them in alternative choices, we will never change the shameful abortion rate that both sides seem content to live with while they just attack each other. It is time to move from symbols to solutions.

So that scared teenager who got pregnant with her sorta-kinda-maybe boyfriend who she doesn't know if she really wants to commit to for the rest of her life? Well, she doesn't really "need" an abortion. What she needs is for someone - perhaps a mid-fifties political player and father figure in Washington D.C. - to tell her how she should "feel."

Ditto the scared teenager who got pregnant because her cousin or her brother or her father has been sexually terrorizing her night after night. She doesn't really "need" an abortion. She just "feels" that she needs one. If only she had someone to steer her straight, maybe she'd make better choices.

Ditto the poor woman who already has mouths she doesn't know how to feed.

Ditto the woman whose husband or boyfriend beats her for any little reason or no reason at all.

Ditto the woman on the Pinewood Reservation who got raped by a stranger from another state just looking for a good time.

They don't really "need" an abortion. And they don't really know what they "feel."

At least, they don't until "we" reach out to them.

And pray tell who, Rev. Wallis, is "we"?

This is everything that's wrong with the argument that Democrats could reach untold numbers of voters if they'd only bend a little on abortion, or "change the conversation" as Wallis and his friends are so fond of saying, distilled down into a single little lump of stupid and arrogance.

It starts with the premise that the issue of abortion is a moral one. But what that means on a practical level is that Jim Wallis wants the political power to enforce his moral vision, whether he understands that or not. "Support them in alternative choices," nothing. Wallis wants to make it safe for Democrats to tell women what they're supposed to do with their bodies, and why.

There is no room here for women to be themselves moral agents, let alone make their own practical decisions. They need to coached to do the right thing according to Jim Wallis and his friends in Washington who will calibrate government policy precisely to "reach out" to their confused selves and bring to them the enlightened truth that they have no need to control their bodies or their destinies short a threat to their lives.

It is painfully obvious that Wallis believes that without a Big Daddy government, women will choose wrongly, and the "shameful abortion rate" will continue. It never seems to occur to him that that rate does not reflect mere convenience or women taking control of their bodies.

This is literally the most patronizing attempt to legislate morality that I have seen in a long long time, outside of the Bush administration. It is smug, elitist and condescending. There is no vision of social benefit, no argument about the values of one policy option over another. When it boils down to it, the purpose of this dubious proposal is to make the Democratic party safe for people like Wallis and other pro-lifers who want to act upon women in the guise of "reaching out to them."

I don't want to hear any more crap about how "we're all on the same team." Until Jim Wallis can start his discussion of abortion with the recognition that women are moral agents in their own right and don't need him to guide their decision-making, we're not on the same team at all.

(Cookies to Thurman.)

A common man of the people

An interesting tidbit from the end of a piece in the Politico on McCain's 8 homes. (They've decided it's eight.) From 2006 to 2007, the McCain's budget for household staff went up roughly 50% from $184,000 to $273,000 ...