OK, it's tacky, and not really funny (neither were those T-shirts proclaiming that GHW Bush had wished that his wife had had an abortion before the nationa had an abortion for president), but is it really a reason to throw out the Old Testament? Delawaredem thinks so , first noting that the significance of the Psalm is in Psalm 109:9--the next verse: “Religious” conservatives have a new slogan that they are putting on bumper stickers and t-shirts. “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8″ What does Psalm 109:8 say? “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” Well, that’s not bad. They are just praying for Obama to be replaced as President. Hey, I wanted Bush gone as President too, through his impeachment for war crimes. But let’s read the next verse that follows Psalm 109:8 which “religious” conservatives all so cleverly leave off the t-shirts and bumper stickers. “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” So, it is pretty obvious that anyone repeating, wearing, or usi...

... and both worth reading. Dave Burris . Donviti's The Wage Slave . Visit often. Comment. Cringe. I will.

You'd think he might have helped the CIA twig to the fact that most of the American-trained Afghan police force had, uh, been infiltrated by the Taliban : Following this morning’s incident, in which a long-serving Afghan policeman shot five British soldiers and then disappeared into the Helmand Province, the status of the nation’s police force in increasingly coming under question. Officials say the police have been successfully infiltrated “at every level” by the Taliban, meaning even seemingly loyal police, today’s attacker served without incident for three years for instance, could be ticking time bombs just waiting for the order to attack. Corruption and incompetence are long-standing issues with the nation’s police force – as one British soldier put it “we were literally training them how to point a gun on the ranges, and telling them why you should not stop cars and demand ‘taxes.’” Which is probably the reason why the CIA is so disappointed to be caught having paid of for ei...

... is what the headlines should read, instead of attempting manufacture phony outrage and comparison with the Cheney/Libby leaking of Valerie Plame's name a few years ago. Predictably, the two-bit press--both nationally and locally --attempts to make this a serious issue, ala Rasmussen : Well, last week, The New York Times again published on the front page the name of an alleged CIA-paid undercover asset. This time, it was none other than Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful brother of the Afghan president. The Times cited, on background, Obama administration "political officials," "senior administration officials" and others as its sources to the effect that Karzai has been secretly on the CIA payroll for eight years and has been helping the United States with intelligence, logistic and base support for our special forces, and recruiting and running an Afghan paramilitary force on the instruction of the CIA -- as well as being a major narcotics trafficker. This ma...

My friend Waldo first introduced me to the term Christianist , and--for a brief time--I thought it was a derogatory term for Christian. Then I realized that the definition was something more like this : one who advocates the reordering of society and government in accordance with fundamentalist Christian interpretations of the Bible. Which explains the following local reaction to the defeat of same-sex marriage in Maine yesterday: Now let’s get back to marriage. Praise GOD! We are still the USA and not the United States of Sodom. We understand that marriage is between a man and woman not some pc fiction. USA equals fundamentalist Biblical principles of the type espoused by evangelists like the late Carl McIntyre [ hero to the same commenter above ], described by First Things' TImothy George as having "a knack for gutter politics," and who was notable for such mainstream ideas as total abstinence from alcohol, a radical apocalyptic eschatology ("he had once spoke...

.... when I get a link--either positive or negative--from Delawareliberal I get a noticeable jump in my traffic reports--sometimes a couple hundred extra hits in a day. But when Delaware Politics notices me .... nothing. I wondered why. Here are the current Alexa rankings. Delawareliberal [rank] 742,247 [sites linking in] 160 Delaware Libertarian [rank] 1,305,533 [sites linking in] 90 Delaware Politics [rank] 4,193,377 [sites linking in] 34 That would seem to explain a lot.

Having remained silent on the continued drift of Delaware Politics toward loonie-land long enough, two recent David Anderson posts simply cannot be ignored. The mildest is his reportage on the attempt to roll back same-sex marriage in Maine, which is conspicuous by its absence of reporting the tactics being utiized by the proponents of reversing the legislature. Quoth David : The legislature foisted same sex marriage on the voters of Maine as part of the 6 for 6 campaign. PPP shows a majority of it’s voters are not enthused and the traditional marriage measure may have majority support. First, I loved the use of the word foisted . The anti-same-sex marriage crowd complains if the institution is supported by the courts [judicial activism], then whines when it is passed by the elected legislators [foisted on the voters], and then suddenly demands an Anschluss -like plebiscite. The Democratic process is only fair when it returns exactly the result they want. But here's the plank i...

Jason says in a thread about whether Beau Biden will challenge Mike Castle: For all the bluster by the tea party freaks on the right and the beard pulling concern about health care reform by liberals – most people simply don't care about politics. The average person knows more about Marvel comics characters and their powers than they know members of congress. That’s why the NJ and WDEL radio covers all politics as a long celebrity/personality story. There is no discussion of a Mike Castle’s conservative voting record (for example) because the market for that type of story does not exist. Important thing for all bloggers to remember: it is pretty well demonstrated that less than 2% of the electorate actually gives a shit about anything we say. And of that 2%, 98% are already strongly committed to one ideology or another and just want to scrap; they're not actually there to think about ever changing their minds. Which is what sometimes amuses me when people [including me] get a...

With reference to the Obama administration's continuing war against Fox News , specifically referring to the recent attempt to impose the exclusion of Fox from the White House press pool for an interview opportunity, I said, The State having the power to restrict the free--even partisan press--is a greater danger to the American republic than anything that press might ever say. To which Dana Garrett responded, And if the Nazi press wanted to be part of the press pool and attend White House News briefings, then as far as your concerned the White House is OBLIGATED to oblige them? You are the one who claims to be the constitutionalist. Please point out in the constitution where the President is obligated to recognize just any "news organization" as responsible purveyors of free speech. And, amazingly, Hube fell for this line: As often as I disagree with Dana, I must say he's on the money with the above. Did anybody notice Dana palm that card? Neither my statement nor a...

So two weeks ago Tyler Nixon announced here that Mike Castle was running for Congress and that he supports him. No surprise there. Then Delawaredem references that post in Around the Horn a couple days ago and throws off the comment that he'd like to know what I think. I answered and explained why I'm not supporting Castle (or Biden). Then Eric Dondero of Libertarian Republican drops by, sees my answer to DD's post, goes back to find Tyler's original post, and suddenly we have Delaware's Top Libertarian Endorses Republican Mike Castle of US Senate Political Stunner!!!! And in the process, Delawareliberal even gets a mention in passing at Libertarian Republican. I know they will be so proud. Several observations are important in this: 1) Despite Eric's connections to Delaware he somehow misses the fact that Tyler was a fusion Republican/Libertarian candidate in 2008, and that Tyler--while possessed of strong libertarian credentials--has been a registered Republi...

Here I am thinking about those voices currently without their own blogs, possibly because they really don't want the self-established pressure to write every day or every week, or because there have been some disagreements along the way: Rsmitty, Dana Garrett, Mike Matthews, donviti.... Or those who are plainly running a bit on fumes these days in their own blogs (because interest comes and goes, but real life intrudes without mercy): Shirley, Brian Shields.... And some of our regular commenting voices around the Delaware blogosphere who have never taken the plunge: Anonone, Perry, noman.... Not to mention other bloggers who occasionally have an idea or a perspective that just doesn't fit their regular gig.... I'm thinking of a different kind of blog, something I'd call Delaware Spectrum, that would be an ensemble of shared interest in political blogging rather than an ensemble of shared politics.... I don't actually know if something like this would have enough ...

Delaware is obediently preparing to bend over and accept the civil rights reaming that is Real ID [as quoth the WNJ ]: Those getting a Delaware driver’s license will soon face increased security measures. That could make life difficult for some – particularly immigrants who are not in this country legally and don’t have the necessary documents. The federal REAL ID Act of 2005, which came in response to the 9/11 Commission’s findings that 18 of the 19 hijackers had obtained driver’s licenses, requires states to revamp their licenses and licensing procedures to meet federal standards. The law was condemned by many states as a costly unfunded mandate – it would cost them an estimated $4 billion to implement it – and 24 states have refused to comply or passed laws limiting their participation. Delaware, which didn’t resist the federal Real ID mandate, is expected to be ready to meet the requirements of Real ID. If you want to read about the serious civil rights, personal privacy, and gover...

Locally, it was Hube who ran with the story of Obama advisor Anita Dunn praising the wisdom of Mao Zedong as one of her favorite political philosophers: Fox News is evil incarnate (IOW, they're an "arm" of the GOP) -- so says White House Communications Director Anita Dunn. But one of the greatest mass murderers of all-time [Mao]? Dunn thinks he's just terrific. Given that Hube often cites Newsbusters , I suspect he will be less than pleased [because he tries very hard to be intellectually consistent] to find this somewhat parallel instance of apparent Mao worship on that very prominent conservative media-watch website commenting on how to cure America's drug problems: First, drug addiction needs to be viewed as a choice, not an illness. Mao Zedong, the former leader of China, cured 20 million opium addicts over just one weekend by announcing that anyone still addicted would be shot on Monday. Yes, I realize that there is a large degree of difference between a web...

Maybe they'll leave this post up, unlike the previous one ["Donviti has been let go"] that was stripped down very very quickly. It's personal issues, not policy differences, Delawardem assures us--even though it's fairly clear that dv's last ride into the sunset involved a rather explicit airing of policy differences with his colleagues and a criticism of their failure to hold President Obama to similar standards of performance or ethics as they did President Bush. As noted in DD's piece about axing donviti, I have extended to him the same invitation I have sent Dana Garrett, Brian Shields, Anonone, and others: the opportunity to guest post here any time he'd like to do so. Yeah, this blog is named Delaware Libertarian , but any serious discussion of the issues of the day is welcome: the Delaware blogosphere seems intent upon self-implosion and a shake-out that will leave us with very few voices except those of extreme ideologues on all sides. Mea...

Donviti has challenged his fellow bloggers at Delawareliberal for not holding the Obama administration to the same standards they held the Bush administration. He says [in very small part]: I have learned theat both sides have hyper partisan people that are willing to attack and defend the messenger no matter who it is. It’s all fine when it is directed at the other side, but when you start questioning, honest questioning of people that are supposed to be on your “side” people can get very uptight. Down right angry and nasty. What I find the most amusing is that it exists on both sides, but both sides don’t see it that way. They are too busy pointing fingers to notice the plank in their own eye. We had it here and yesterday I was the victim of a few waves of incorrect assumptions. What I find amazing is the willingness to go on the offense and assume that questioning what someone has done is a direct attack on their record. Progressive Mom sums up the deflecting response of his c...

I don't often agree with Homegrown Boy or his colleagues at Resolute Determination, but today he's hit it dead on in reference to President Obama's continued waffling and vague promises on gay rights: If the GOP is smart they will nominate someone who maintains what you do in your bed is your business. Unfortunately, I think the sentence fails as prediction due to the first five words.

Because it seems obligatory to have an opinion on President Barack Obamais winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, I will tell you mine: I agree with Malia Obama that the news is slightly less significant than her three-day, school-free weekend. That said, here's my rather idiosyncratic round-up of the (a) most honest; (b) most Orwellian; (c) most ironically accurate; and (d) most humorously ironically accurate responses to this award from both Delaware and the world. The first items are comment rescues from Delawareliberal where pretty much everybody has either pointedly ignored Donviti's acid assessment, or--in the case of Delawaredem--engaged in exactly the kind of Orwellian rebranding of President Obama's increasingly militarist foreign policy into an enlightened approach to world peace that explains why very few Democrats have any moral authority of foreign affairs these days. First, Donviti : Indefinite detentions. Wants to extend sunsetting patriot act provisions Guantano...

For a lot of people the tragedy of Melanie Hain [controversial gun-toting mom at her child's soccer game last found dead in apparent murder-suicide at the hands of her husband] represents fodder rather than tragedy. Mike W. quotes one : "Her "constitutional right" put her six feet under....Why should we have respect? I have no respect for people who don't realize the danger of bringing a loaded gun to a kids' ball game. i have no respect for people who think they can get attention by pulling ridiculous stunts. I have no respect for people who think they have the right to intimidate others with threats of violence. By packing heat, you're implicitly saying "treat me with the respect I feel I deserve or I'll blow your brains out." People like that deserve no respect." Another appears in the local blogosphere: This was an Anon at Delawareliberal : When this story first came out about the mom who openly wore a gun to a youth soccer game, ...

He keeps doing shit like that to me. First, here's what the Federal Trade Commission has decided to shred the First Amendment : Bloggers who offer endorsements must disclose any payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews or face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. And here's what Tom Knapp says in reply : Dear Federal Trade Commission: Go f--k yourselves. This is my blog, not your blog. I will write whatever I choose to write, I'll write it for whatever reasons I choose to write it, and I'll disclose as much or as little about those reasons as I damn well please. If you think you can squeeze $11,000 out of me over it, feel free to try. You won't get a dime you don't take at gunpoint, and the only way you'll stop me from continuing to write as I please is to stick me in jail or kill me. Yours in liberty (hah!), KN@PPSTER Somehow it just doesn't have any impact to jump up and down shoutin...

Some of my (Delaware)Liberal friends think that the Kos-generated Teabagger Pledge is sort of the ultimate Gotcha for those who fervently believe in limited government. I'm not a Teabagger, but Libertarians are often attacked with the smug If you don't believe in government services, don't use them (asshole) [implied--unless donviti wrote it, in which case he is man enough to say what he's really thinking]. So cassandra, for example, appears to believe the following list is something like the final word [I have cut in my comments in bold : I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following: Note that this pledge says nothing of being able to avoid paying the taxes for those services I pledge not to use. So cassandra now wants to take my money AND argue that because I disagree with my money being taken I should deny myself acces...