Liberty University bans College Democrats

Liberty University, the ultra-conservative university founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell (the guy who pointed out that one of the Teletubbies was gay), has drawn a lot of ire in their recent decision to ban the College Democrats on campus as CNN reports.

According to the Lynchburg News & Advance, the school decided a week ago the organization "stood against the moral principles" held by the school and therefore could no longer be sanctioned.

Maria Childress, the staff adviser to the club, told the paper the school — which opposes abortion rights and gay marriage — had issues with the Democratic Party platform.

Childress says she was told by Mark Hine, the vice president of student affairs, that "'You can't be a Democrat and be a Christian and be a university representative.'"

In a conference call with reporters Friday, Terry McAuliffe — the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee who is running for governor of Virginia — sharply criticized the move.

While I want to be outraged, the thing to remember is that Liberty is a private university, and they're well within their rights to ban groups that stand in stark opposition to the school's principles. If it were a public university, this would be unacceptable. But it isn't. It's a privately-funded institution.

And while I applaud the Liberty Dems for fighting it, I just can't agree with those claiming that this is unfair or unjust. The right to free speech is not guaranteed at a private university.

McGovern Day back on, SDDP gears up

In my inbox today

Have you made your reservations for McGovern Day yet?

Not only are good things happening in the Sioux Empire for Democrats - GREAT things are happening at the South Dakota State Party. Join us May 30th, at the Aberdeen Ramada Convention Center to find out what all is 'New' for the New South Dakota Democratic Party. This years McGovern Day is a chance for us to showcase our support and determination to WIN the Governor's seat in 2010. Make plans to attend today!

McGovern Day 2009
May 30, 2009
Lunch at Noon: $25.00
Dinner at 7pm: $50.00

Ramada Convention Center
2727 6th Ave SE
Aberdeen, SD 57401 US
Phone: 605-225-3600
http://www.ramada-aberdeen.com/

RSVP to erinmccarrick at gmail.com, 605-393-7658. Pay at the door with check, credit card or cash

I'm glad to know that the party at least has the appearance of having it's feet under it again. With a round of lay offs, a few departures, and a talented but young new Executive Director, I was a little nervous. Sadly, I'm working and won't be able to attend.

America is not a Christian nation

My friend Sibby posted a delightful rant on how Christians are such an abused minority in this country. Yes, all those poor white folks - such a plight they have. I know that as a white male who grew up in a religious, middle class household, I had it so rough. Damn the man. The world is so hard on white men.

Anyhow, Sibby goes on to link this clip of President Obama in Turkey explaining that we are not a Christian nation:


But what he fails to note is Obama's actual, full quote: "Although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

And that's worth noting. This is not a theocracy. We are not a Christian nation - never have been and hopefully never will be. The First Amendment explicitly states that "Congress shall make no act respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In that, it's important to further note that though we are a nation that is predominately Christian, we are also a nation that is predominantly white. Are we then to assume by Steve's logic that whites in America should have more rights than others? Democratically speaking, that makes sense - and a lot of neocons and regressive conservatives probably wouldn't mind that.

But thankfully, we have the Bill of Rights. As I've noted previously, the Bill of Rights is one of the most undemocratic documents in the world. It's a list of things the majority cannot do. And it keeps us safe from fascist ideologues like Sibby, like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the zealots who would like to see this become a "Christian nation." Should that ever happen, it would be an insult to the Founding Fathers - who knew the danger of religion, who explicitly outlined a wall of separation between church and state - and it would be antithetical to the principles of freedom that America was founded upon.

If you really love America, embrace the fact that our government is secular. Celebrate the diversity that has and always will make this country great. If you truly love and understand this country, you'd easily understand that we are, as President Obama put it, not a Christian nation. But I guess that's just lost on some people. Don't listen to me, though. Let the Founders explain it to you:

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)

Every man "ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience." - George Washington (Letter to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia in May, 1789)

"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson (letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787)

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of... Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."- Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison (Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, 1785.)

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." - (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797 - signed by President John Adams.)

All this talk about Communism...

It's gotten me thinking, thinking about people who were wrongly killed because of misguided political ideology.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, one of the great advocates for human rights in Latin America, said it best:

"When I give the poor food, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."

Taken by an assassin's bullet while leading Mass, his death is a chilling example of how reactionaries will do anything to keep power and silence strong voices for progress and change. I really think the time has come in America for an honest discussion about improving our nation and lifting our people up.

It's not about socialism, it's not about Communism, and it certainly has nothing to do with fascism. This is America. The country that was founded upon principles of equality, egalitarianism, and most of all - free will and the ability to believe as you should. It's time to retire antiquated Cold War ideologies and open our minds to greater possibilities. The marketplace of ideas, as Mill put it, will allow free societies the opportunity for open forums and civil discourses and naturally, the best ideas will evolve out of that marketplace and take hold.

Sibby's almost got it!

Steve Sibson got a little bit closer to understanding the difference between fascism and socialism today. In referencing a recent Rush Limbaugh tirade (oh, boy!) he notes

I need to correct Rush Limbaugh. What he calls fascism (indirect government control over the private sector) may in fact be socialism (direct government control over the private sector)

I'm so proud of him. Maybe my ranting and raging are starting to have an effect. It was, however, a tragic case of close, but no cigar. I'll break this down just one more time in hopes that our dear friend might understand.

Socialism - the workers control the means of production and profits are distributed equally, government oversight and regulation are inherent, but the government does not control the private sector. While it may influence and indirectly control aspects of a society, the workers and the proletariat still control the means of production.

Fascism - the government controls absolutely everything. Everything. Direct control.

Steve was so close, he just had the two confused. I'll give him an A for effort, though. Perhaps now that he's got an understanding of basic governmental philosophies, we can have an enlightened, intelligent debate and stop all this spooky conservative rhetoric.

Why we need a national moratorium on the death penalty

In yet another astonishing case of how flawed the death penalty is, a man was cleared of all of the charges against him after spending 22 years on death row.

CNN reported that Paul House who was convicted of murder in 1985 and sentenced to death was recently exonerated after repeated doubts from the Supreme Court about his guilt and new DNA evidence was introduced.

What I want to make clear is that this is not a partisan issue. Being anti-death penalty doesn't mean you're soft on crime or that you don't believe in punishing criminals. What it does mean is that you understand that a human judicial system is run by humans who are liable to make a mistake every now and then. Nobody is perfect. That's all you have to admit and you'll easily understand that the death penalty is too flawed to fix.

Paul House was wrongly convicted by 12 honest people. Because people make mistakes. And with the advances in DNA technology, over 100 people have been exonerated and released from death row for crimes they didn't commit. Our tax dollars should be spent wisely, and murdering 100 innocent people would have been an abomination - a sin against justice, and ultimately, anti-American to the core.

But that's just in recent history. Who's to say how many innocent people have been murdered by our government in the name of justice?

Furthermore, if anything, life in prison is a much harsher sentence than death. In a way, the guilty are still condemned to die. The costly appeals process would be removed and taxpayers would save money. The guilty would be forced to contemplate their crimes, deprived of their freedom. And if evidence was introduced at a later date, innocent people could be freed. While it is unfortunate that House was robbed of 22 years of his life, at least he wasn't robbed of his life.

We are the only Western nation that still inflicts a barbaric, outdated system of false justice. Until recently, we were one of only three countries in the world that executed juveniles - Iran and the Democratic Republic of the Congo being the other two. That's terrific company to keep, no? Somalia and the United States are also the only two nations in the world that have refused to ratify the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits capital punishment for juveniles - Somalia because they don't have a central government, and the United States because of pressure from right-of-center "family" organizations against certain provisions in the Declaration.

If anything, though, House's case should serve as a prime example as to why we need a national moratorium on the death penalty. How many more innocent people have to die as we barbarically pursue justice? How many more innocent people have to be killed in our name before we realize that we're not infallible?

Sibby confuses fascism with crippled people

In a beautiful example of how common sense is not a conservative value, Steve Sibson saw this news story that I had thought about posting over the weekend, but decided not too because well, there's really nothing there, and went on a delightfully deluded tirade about socialism and fascism again. And we all know how well those turn out.

Anyhow, the story reports

The Justice Department has filed a civil lawsuit against the developers of six multifamily housing developments in Sioux Falls, claiming housing discrimination.

According to the complaint, defendants include Equity Homes Inc., PBR LLC, BBR LLC, Shane Hartung, Scott Snoozy, Myron Van Buskirk, Wayne Hansen, Martin McGee and Sertoma Hills Villas Association Inc.

The six complexes are East Briar Apartments, West Briar Apartments, Kensington Apartments, Beverly Gardens Apartments, Sertoma Hills Apartments and Sertoma Hills Villas.

The lawsuit alleges that the developers violated the Fair Housing Act by designing and building units that didn't accommodate the special needs of elderly and disabled tenants.

You see, not a whole lot there? Just some landlords who didn't feel like accommodating for elderly people and people with disabilities. This, and I'm assuming here, probably has a lot to do with staircases and those cool automatic door buttons. Not a big deal, nothing too hard to fix.

But Steve automatically sees this as the gigantic Federal government coming in and taking ownership of these buildings I guess. He called it "Communism." I think dear Steve is just very confused. A lawsuit is different than a bailout or a buyout.

He then goes on to cite this story from the Argus about how local developers are having a difficult time getting lines of credit for projects. Well, who isn't? Times are tough. And though we are on the road to recovery, we're not there yet. This isn't the 1990's, Steve. Remember those days? Clinton was in office and times were good.

Anyhow, Steve's rant doesn't include much analysis - just a lot of copying and pasting and misguided political understanding of governmental systems. If he had gone on to read the rest of the story, he might have heard William Baker, President of First National Bank explain

For a typical residential development loan, that can be tough these days, even in Sioux Falls. Such loans are commonly structured with a developer borrowing money to buy a piece of land and a credit line to build houses. The developer pays off the credit line and original loan as he sells houses.

If houses aren't selling, the bank doesn't get paid back.

"They want to see projects that are capable of servicing the related debt," Baker said. "I just think that's good banking."

If anything, the article talks about how capitalism has failed and left us with things the way they are and how banks are doing what they can with what they have.

Nothing about fascism, nothing about Communism or socialism. Just an article about how times are tough and banks have trouble lending to anyone, even developers, because there's no guarantee that they'll sell the houses or fill the apartments and have the money to pay the bank back. Steve claims that government intervention is the problem here, but without government intervention, these banks would have gone under and wouldn't have been able to offer credit to well, anyone. Steve should be thanking Barack Obama if anything.

This is just one example of the logically-unsound scare tactics the Republicans have had to resort to as they see their grasp on power (and reality it would seem) slip away.

By the way, Steve, if you'd be so kind as to send me your address, I have a few Political Science textbooks from college I'd be more than happy to send you. That should help clear up the confusion between capitalism and socialism for you. I know it's a toughy.

Vandel Johnson, Senator Johnson's father, passes away

Kelo reported this morning that Senator Tim Johnson's father, Vandel Charles Johnson, passed away at his home in Michigan. He was 95.

Vandel Charles Johnson was a Naval officer in the Pacific during World War II.

He began his career as a teacher and coach at Centerville, and went on to be principal in Canton, and superintendent in Flandreau.

Van Johnson then became the dean of students at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, and retired in 1982 as chairman of the program for higher education administration at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan.

A memorial service will be held in South Dakota at a later date.

Senator Johnson said he was at his father's side when he died. His mother, Ruth Johnson, died in February at age 88.

Deepest sympathies and best wishes to Senator Johnson and his family at this time.

Kelo: Assuaging my swine flu fears

Kelo ran a story on the swine flu noting that health officials for the State of South Dakota are telling us not to worry.

It's about friggin' time.

As I noted in an earlier post, perhaps much of this paranoia was media-created. After all, the regular flu still kills more people each year in America than swine flu ever will - 36,000 in total. For you math geeks out there, that's 100 people per day dying of the flu. I don't see a media frenzy over that factoid, so perhaps we can admit now that we blew things out of proportion?

And what's more, like a good liberal, I was watching Bill Maher the other night. Bill had some great thoughts on swine flu, people who don't believe in evolution, and faith-based initiatives:

And finally, New Rule: Since viruses, like swine flu, get to be potentially deadly because they "evolved," if you don't believe in evolution and you get it, you have to pray it away.

You can't crap all over Darwin and stem cell research and global warming and then come crawling back to science when you want Tamiflu. That's for us sinners.

Sibby and Pat Powers: Republican paranoia at it's finest

In what might be two of the funniest things I read this morning, Sibby goes off on a rant titled "Obama's Marxist religion of fascism" and Pat Powers went on an anti-drug logic-free tirade about medicinal marijuana.

I won't get into any more of Sibby's post than the title - because that's about all I could stomach to read (it was rather painful and devoid of coherent, logical understanding of basic philosophy). I'ma break this down real slow:

1. Marxism and fascism are not religions.
2. Marxism and fascism are separate, opposing political ideologies.
3. Marxism holds that class struggle is the primary catalyst for social change.
4. Fascism holds that complete state control is the best course of action.
4.1 I understand how this may be confused with socialism, but in socialism (which is different than Marxism altogether, but is the base philosophy), the workers control the means of production. In a fascist state, the government controls all means of production - not the workers. Thus, fascism is effectively not socialism.
5. Fascists hate Marxists philosophically for exploiting the state.
6. Marxists hate fascists for exploiting the proletariat.

I could go on, but it just goes to show how jingoism and talking points can strip away any sense of logical, rational argumentation and allow ignorant, fact-devoid, fear-based rhetoric to become acceptable. Maybe turn off the Fox News, put Rush on mute, and go pick up a high school philosophy text book before you rant.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the conservative teeter-totter, Pat Powers goes on to lament the potential passage of new medical marijuana legislation and would simply contend that if this passes, well, all Hell will break loose. Pat must have missed the word "medical" the numerous times it was repeated and confuses "addicts" with cancer patients and "drug dealers" with doctors.

He goes on:

Grade school teachers who teach kids during the day could legally be growing and distributing pot by night - now that’s an example to set for the kiddies

Growing marijuana would still be illegal for personal use. The sheer level of paranoia and avoidance of factual argumentation is appalling. Meanwhile, in the comments of the post, Republican State Senator Lee Schoenbeck shows why serious, educated discussions on this subject escape us - one of our senior statesmen and a potential gubernatorial candidate are content to make jokes on par with a Beavis and Butthead episode while a legitimate, medically prescribed solution for cancer patients, people suffering from debilitating arthritis, glaucoma, AIDs, and many other degenerative diseases and disorders is on the table.

It's a shame to see otherwise intelligent people be so ignorant about a topic. I could go on and on about why marijuana shouldn't be classified as a level one narcotic or why the war on drugs has allowed stigmatization of a plant that's as natural as potatoes and could have serious medical implications. I could go on about the hypocrisy of a society that celebrates alcohol and tacitly condones alcoholism while simultaneously shunning a plant that's safer, less habit forming, and ultimately not as dangerous as the Ward Cleavers of our society would have you believe.

I could, but then again, I'm just a left-wing hack who doesn't know anything.