art's blog

Today I saw a message on BuyBlue.org from a conservative who said that she was happily using BuyBlue to buy red. Here's an excerpt of her note:

This site (and others like this one) have proven to be more useful than
you could have ever dreamed. My husband and I just bought our first
house through a RED realtor and are furnishing it through RED furniture
stores. We figure that at least 90% of our money is going to RED
businesses. We love knowing where our money is going.... Thanks for showing that
liberals really can do something useful!!

Here was my reply:  Read More »

Despite the fact that the heroes of the Harry Potter series are portrayed as having distinctly progressive values while the villains seem generally in tune with the conservative mindset, a new poll asserts that members of the two major U.S. political parties are equally likely to read the latest installment in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The poll by Zogby International, a polling firm known for its political polls and (sometimes incorrect) election predictions, reports:  Read More »

Paul Hackett, the marine reserve major who returned from serving in Iraq to run for congress in his home state of Ohio, narrowly lost to Republican Jean Schmidt yesterday in an unexpectedly close race.

Hackett ran as a Democrat in the heavily Republican district near Cincinnati. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 3 to 1 in the district, and Republicans have controlled the seat for over 20 years. Despite those hurdles, Hackett came within 4000 votes of wining the seat.

Hackett became an overnight sensation when he decided to run for the seat vacated by Rob Portman, who resigned this year to move to a Bush administration post. He raised over $400,000 on the internet, with small donations pouring in from around the country.  Read More »

In a move that observers are calling a 'gross abuse of power,' President Bush today used what is know as a 'recess appointment' to install John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Senate Democrats and Republicans alike had criticized the nomination of Bolton, and Bolton failed to receive confirmation from the Senate.

During Senate confirmation hearings people who knew Bolton described him as a bully, and Republican Senator George Voinovich called Bolton "the poster
child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be."

Reaction to the installation of Bolton was almost uniformly negative:  Read More »

There is a good discussion going on over at CampusProgress regarding how to define "progressive." Here are a few good ideas from their blog:

When I think of what being a progressive means, I
believe that it means you are not necessarily
aligned with any one political party. Instead, you
advocate and believe in policies that will raise
up and help all people, regardless of race,
socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation,
etc. Being a progressive means that you take
consideration of others’ situation, not just
your own when formulating a policy. Similarly, a
progressive believes in policies that enhance the
collective good, rather than the good of a few
individuals.

Jerilyn Libby, Wellesly College  Read More »

Here are a few things I'd like to see people blog about on ProgressiveU.org. Some of these are things that have already gotten a fair amount of attention, both here and in the blogosphere. Others are articles I've come across, which may be interesting to some progressive bloggers, but which I haven't had time to comment on yet myself:  Read More »

• The whole Grand Theft Auto thing. I'm not a gamer, so I'm not really qualified to comment. But I know a lot of people out there are.
• 'Ghetto Fights' videos. These are DVDs featuring home video of street fights. One producer said they've sold over half a million copies of their title, at $20 a pop. Some rappers are even promoting the videos, but lots of other people say they perpetuate unfair stereotypes of minorities and people from low-income neighborhoods. What do you think?
• Can the new Harry Potter help stop racism? Some of you probably think you're too old for Harry Potter books, but my daughter got me started on them and now I can't stop reading them. The new book, about Harry and 'half-blood prince,' set sales records on its first day. Any thoughts on how the book might affect people's views on racism?
• Speaking of racists and other crazy people: Rick Santorum, a well-known senator from Pennsylvania, recently came out with a book. Santorum basically says that women should stay at home, and that college is a waste of money for single mothers. Can anyone explain where conservatives come up with these ideas?
• I recently posted a review of a book called 100 People Who are Screwing Up America. It's by a nutty conservative named Bernard Goldberg, so most of the people he writes about are not really screwing up America, and in fact some of them are really good people (in my opinion). If you have ideas on people who really are screwing up America, or conversely people who are really helping America, that would make great posting material.
• If you're from California, it would be great to see some commentary on the initiatives that are on the ballot for the November special election.  If you're not from California, educate us about stuff that's on your ballot.
  

We seem to review almost as many bad books on this site as good ones. I hope we are not putting money into the pockets of wingnuts by giving these authors added exposure, but if nothing else, these postings often generate good discussion and expose some of the lunacy that we need to calmly debunk.

This week's addition to the 'not recommended' stack is 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37), by Bernard Goldberg. I flipped through this in the bookstore last weekend, and then saw an interview with Goldberg on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  Read More »

I sent this letter to the editors of Time after reading an essay in the latest issue entitled When Denial Can Kill:

As I read Irshad Manji's essay, with the subtitle "We Muslims must admit that our religion might be motivating the bombers," it struck me that you could easily substitute the word "Christians" or even "Jews" in the phrase without losing any accuracy. Would George W. Bush have invaded Iraq if not for his religious views, and those of the millions of fundamentalist Christians he hoped to win votes from by becoming a "war president" who promised to rid the world of evil fundamentalist Muslims? Would Bush's neocon advisors, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, and Richard Perle have been as likely to devise a plan to invade Iraq even before Bush was elected (and long before 9/11), if not for the influence of their religious beliefs? Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have all made wonderfully positive contributions to the world, but blame for the increase in global violence in recent years must be shared by ideologues from all sides.