Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.
-- Jamie Raskin (attributed)
(Found as a result of Googling, thanks to @rightwingwatch, who appear(s) to be live-tweeting this debate, starting around here.)
[Added] If you forgot where you're supposed to go, check Vote411.org's Polling Place Finder.
Here is a very good diavlog between Michelle Goldberg and Jeff Sharlet.
You might remember my recommending an earlier diavlog with Jeff, in which he was interviewed by Will Wilkinson shortly after his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power came out, as well as his precursor article on the same subject, "Jesus plus nothing: Undercover among America's secret theocrats."
This diavlog touches, in part, on his follow-up book, C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. If "C Street" seems vaguely familiar to you only as a place where Republican politicians go to hide out after they get caught dipping the quill outside the company inkwell, be advised that it is considerably more sinister than that.
Other topics discussed in this diavlog include the relationship between certain US Senators and the problem in Uganda of homophobia run amok, criticism of Peter J. Boyer and The New Yorker for bad reporting on this situation, how much the tea party movement is either already driven by Christianist forces or will eventually be, and some observations on teabagger darlings like Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, and Joe Miller, all of whom have significant connections to those who would like to replace the US Constitution with the Book of Leviticus.
Is it easy to dismiss these matters as the excessive paranoia? You will have to judge for yourself -- me, I think a healthy amount of concern is definitely in order -- but I urge you to watch the above, and look into Jeff's reporting, before you make your final dismissal. I would note in particular his criticism of those who have a fetish for centrism, who are at least as dangerous as the fundies themselves in their wish to sweep all this stuff under the rug.
If you'd rather download audio or video of this diavlog, instead of sitting here watching it stream, watching the video embedded above stream, click the "alt. video link," where you'll find a variety of options.
Here is a headline about some "Democrat" who's been in the news lately, whining about people writing him angry letters:
Stupak dismisses nuns’ letter: I don’t listen to them, I listen to ‘leading bishops’ and Focus on the Family.
Think about that. A "Democrat" who takes his marching orders from a bunch of guys who cover up child molestation, and worse, James Dobson.
Yeah, he lives on C Street. Or (wink, wink) used to.
(h/t for the first link: John Cole)
The lede from TPM:
Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.
Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church.
In other good news of religious crackpots going down, the Washington Times train wreck continues. TPM reports in one post that "contributions to employee 401(k) accounts [have] been suspended," and in another that (erstwhile?) editorial page editor Richard Miniter is suing the WaTi for discrimination because he was forced to attend one of the Moonie mass weddings. TPM's complete coverage is gathered up here.
(h/t: Instaputz) ← worth visiting for backstory
Be advised that Bart Stupak, nominally a Democrat, lives in the infamous C Street House. Despite this, he denies being a member of The Family.
In related news, why, yes, I am interested in buying that bridge.
(Previously, and see also.)
(h/t: Jim Newell)
... the pillow. Or the dust. Or something.
Remember, Senator, the C Street House is only for moralizing Republican hypocrites who don't get caught.
See also.
At least, according to member of The Family Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Obvs.).
Reading something about Mark Sanford's connection with The Family (an organization which I've noted before), I was reminded of a time long ago, when I was a poster child for Impressionable Youth.
I had just finished The Matarese Circle, which, as you may or may not know, is an old Robert Ludlum thriller. The plot: a lone CIA agent and a beautiful woman, who it turns out is a rogue KGB agent (hard to believe, I know, but there it is), uncover a vast conspiracy (the Matarese Circle, obvs.) that is global in scope, has been in existence for decades, completely hidden from view by the sheeple, and has placed agents EVERYWHERE, up to and including such positions as US Secretary of Defense.
I forget exactly what I said to my father upon reading it -- no doubt it was along the lines of "What if something like this is Really True? It sure would explain a lot!" -- but I have never forgotten his answer: "If all these powerful people are actually controlling the whole world, why isn't it running better?"
On another occasion, he spent most of a weekend visit silently suffering a verbal tic I had picked up from a roommate before finally saying, "There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don't."
He also put the early kibosh on a trip I was taking down a wrong road by saying, "The chances of me winning the lottery are the same independent of my buying a ticket."
And I once heard him put an end to some excessive gushing with his own New Rule: "He can't be your hero if he's younger than you are."
Yeah, maybe not all of these adages were original to him (a few years ago, he quickly corrected me when I attributed the lottery line to him, saying he'd picked it up from Frannie Lebowitz, and I think Robert Benchley was the original bifurcator), but you get props for a well-timed riff, even if you're quoting an earlier master.
To the extent that I have become excessively cynical in the years since, that's on me. But to the extent that I have a membership card in the reality-based community, that's all due to him.
Thanks, Dad. Belated Happy Father's Day.
Watch the diavlog of Will Wilkinson interviewing Jeff Sharlet on BloggingHeads.tv. The topic: Sharlet's new book, The Family, subtitled The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
The Family looks at a politically active, yet below the radar, group that was founded in 1935 and has long had among its ranks members of Congress and other very powerful figures. The group adheres to a particularly twisted form of Christianity, to the point where they disavow the concept of charity and express reverence for Hitler. Oh, not his ends, mind you. Just his means.
I know this sounds like a classic conspiracy theory, but if you watch the diavlog, I'm pretty sure you'll be convinced that it's not. Sharlet spent a considerable amount of time with the group, many of whom, like Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), were happy to go on the record. Here's a clip from the beginning of the diavlog:
(Note that the embedded clip may not be visible if you're reading this via RSS.)
Watch the whole thing here. You can stream it, or download the video or audio files from the same page.
And while you're waiting for Sharlet's book to come out, you might like to read an article on The Family that he published in Harper's, in 2003.
Scary stuff indeed.
