Category — Wingnuts

Ellen of the 10th has a nice post about “The Speech“, Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America“ address at the George Bush Presidential Library on Decmber 6th. I agree with Ellen. The speech was disturbing.

Romney identifies religious liberty as the topic of his address and then sets out to pledge fealty to the establishmentarians of the Christian right while trying to channel John Kennedy in the hopes of appearing statesman-like.

Romney insists that “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone”, and further “Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government”. Religious liberty for Romney is not liberty at all. And our Constitution, which explicitly prohibits an established religion is of no consequence to him.

If it weren’t bad enough that Republicans like Romney are trying to establish their religion, the religion they want to establish is just so creepy. Basically it amounts to just toeing the line regarding abortion and homosexuality and institutionalizing Christian observances to remind ourselves what a great godly nation we are. Then they’re justified and can go out and invade sovereign nations in the name of God and Freedom and maim and kill their people. And they can ignore all the inconvenient parts of Jesus’ message and engage in their main project of making the rich richer at expense of the poor.

A news flash today from the web site of Peter Roskam: ROSKAM INTRODUCES HISTORIC LEGISLATION HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF CONGRESSMAN HENRY J. HYDE.

Please. This is liable to put me off my feed.

Henry Hyde was born. He became a politician of some talent. He occasionally used that talent to benefit humanity. And then he died.

Along the way, Henry used all of his powers to cover-up the real corruption of a President of his own party, Saint Ronald Ray-gun, aiding and abetting his waging of a campaign of terrorism against the people of Nicaragua, financed by illegal arms sales to Iran (Iran!!!) and CIA-assisted drug trafficking in the U.S. And did I mention, they sold arms to friggin’ Iran!

He later used all his powers to persecute another President of the opposing party based upon some phony charges invented out of thin air by Richard Mellon-Scaithe and his cronies, all the while moralizing about that President’s extramarital adventures, despite Hyde’s own history as a serial adulterer.

He became an extremist in the cause of restricting the right of women to control their own reproductive systems, even to the point, as Bridget in the 6th has helpfully pointed out, of legislating against freedom of spech and of the press.

And he found time to become embroiled in a major Savings and Loan Scandal.

During his twilight years he worked unceasingly in Congress to enable the many wonderful blessings that the George W. Bush administration has brought to us. Boy, have we been blessed.

And now we’re being asked to beatify Henry. Well I’m sorry, but I find very little to celebrate in Henry’s legacy.

I learned from reading Illinois Review that Peter Roskam’s one-time boss Tom Delay had been in Lombard recently to “celebrate Jesus” and to help kick off a kooky website that Jesus has apparently recently established in Wheaton.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting and I wonder if Tom explained how Jesus, working through the prophet Jack Abramoff, led him to make it possible for garment workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas Islands to legally work in horrendous sweatshop conditions, free from interference by the Congress or U.S. labor regulators. Delay reportedly described the situation on the Islands as a “a perfect petri dish of capitalism”. Apparently Delay and Jesus hoped to eventually phase in these types of working conditions here on the mainland.

Now don’t get me wrong. As much as I disagree with Peter Roskam, he seems to be a person of honesty and integrity and worthy of respect. I don’t wish to smear him by association with someone he worked for a long time ago. What I am hoping for, what I want in my Congressman, is for him to stand up to the kind of intolerance being promoted by folks like the Culture Campaign and to temper his insistence on market-only solutions and to work to protect those who are vulnerable in society, like those workers in the Northern Marianas. The only aim of a post like this is to goad him in that direction. When I see that kind of movement maybe I’ll change the name of this site to “Re-elect RubberStampRoskam”

So Peter Roskam has endorsed John McCain, war hero and everybody’s favorite kooky Grandpa, for the Republican nomination. I have to admit that I think Peter made the right call on this one. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t really want to see John McCain anywhere near the oval office but I think he’s a person of substance, unlike the front-runners, and I can’t help but wonder if we wouldn’t be much better off as a nation if McCain and not Bush had won in 2000. I disagree with him more often than not but I like his independence. He’s way too much of a hawk for me, but then so is Hillary Clinton. There are two other Republican candidates I like and respect: Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, but I’m neither a Baptist nor a Libertarian and I find their views too extreme. So, as much as it pains me to admit it, I think Peter chose wisely. McCain seems the least bad of the Republican contenders. Maybe he’s just less scary because he’s a known quantity. It kind of warms my heart too, to know that James Dobson would never vote for him.

On November 5th, President Bush bestowed on former Congressman Henry Hyde of the Sixth Congressional District the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award that the President can confer. In awarding the medal, the President remarked:

“He used his persuasive powers for noble causes. He stood for a strong and purposeful America — confident in freedom’s advance, and firm in freedom’s defense. He stood for limited, accountable government, and the equality of every person before the law. He was a gallant champion of the weak and forgotten, and a fearless defender of life in all its seasons.”

Pardon me a moment while I dry my eyes…

Hyde is in fine company. Others who have received this award from President Bush include:

• Noted neoconservative crackpots Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz, godfathers of the faction that promoted our glorious and freedom producing invasion, occupation, and destruction of Iraq and is presently lobbying for our upcoming glorious and fredom producing bombing and destruction of Iran, and possibly the world as we know it.
• George Tenet, the man responsible for our crack prewar intelligence regarding Iraq, the many weapons of mass destruction that we recovered there, and the subsequently proven links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
• Tommy Franks, military genius and architect of Operation Iraqi Freedom, who brought the war to a rapid conclusion and is in no small measure responsible for the peace and freedom enjoyed by the people of Iraq today.
• L. Paul Bremer, the 2nd Viceroy of Iraq, the brilliant administrator who presided over the reconstruction, virtually overnight, of Iraq after the war and the establishment of its highly successful constitutional democracy, all the while ensuring that the war was profitable for American contractors and other looters.

Are you noticing a pattern here? It’s really a shame the poor bastard can’t award a freedom medal to himself.

But I digress. We’re here to honor Henry Hyde’s unflagging efforts in the cause of Freedom.

Freedom has been on the march for the past several years and through it all, Henry Hyde, has stood by our President, unprotesting and obedient, as he has advanced the cause of freedom through his program of preemptive war, torture and rendition, endless extra-judicial detention, domestic spying, and extra-constitutional enhancement of presidential power. Yes, Henry Hyde did his part to ensure that the Congress never stood in the way of the President in his quest. And when it came time for him to step aside, he hand-picked our own Peter Roskam to carry on the fight for freedom in his stead.

Had I more time, I’d tell of Henry’s efforts for freedom during the Reagan years but, alas, I have homework. Perhaps later.

In the meantime, thank you Henry, and get well soon.