I organized a debate between Chuck Pennacchio and Jim Clymer. I'm sure everyone here knows who Chuck Pennacchio is. Jim Clymer is a local conservative. He is the national chairman of the Constitution Party and was their candidate for U.S. Senate against Arlen Specter last year. The topic of the evening was whether or not there is a Constitutional right to privacy. We had a great turnout for the event. A friend of mine who is strongly Libertarian said that he felt that both speakers were good but Chuck was clearly the winner. I have to say myself that I went from being an undecided voter to a Pennachio supporter.
You can hear the audio of the debate here. I have a couple photos below.
I suppose I should begin this post by saying that while I am not an atheist I am also not a very religious person. I have not attended church regularly in very many years. The only time that I went to church because I wanted to in the last ten years was for my wedding. Yet I am strangely drawn to questions of religion and the role it should play in American political life. Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun, makes some very good arguments in this article on why there should be a spiritual/religious movement on the left and how it can engage in politics.
The point that I find most interesting (and that I have thought myself many times before reading this article) is how the free market ethos has had a negative influence on our culture and how conservatives (especially those of the paleo-Santorum brand) don't seem to recognize this fact. Here the essential passage, and more thoughts of my own, is below the fold.
Faux journalist Matt Drudge has a new banner headline expressing shock on behalf of the Republican establishment at Howard Dean's newest "gaffe". It appears that Dean said of the GOP "They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party..." If he hadn't pointed that out I would have never noticed.
I apologize if someone already posted a diary on this but I have a few things to say about this and similar incidents over the last week or so.
I have an e-mail exchange going with a list of people who are both friends and strangers. It appears that one of the strangers falls under the category of dittohead. So I would like some advice from the Kos community. What do you say to a person like this? I have gotten to the point where it seems completely pointless because no matter what I say he will continue to give the same response. I will put the exchange below the fold with his words in grey. Any advice would be appreciated.
This started when someone sent out an e-mail about Pat Robertson saying that "activist judges" are a greater threat to America than terrorism. Here is what ensued.
Who the hell is Reg Keys? Reg Keys was the independent candidate who ran for MP in the constituency of Sedgefield in England. I suppose the next question would be why should anyone who doesn't live in Sedgefield, England care about Reg Keys? The reason it matters is because Keys was running for MP against Tony Blair and he got to do what millions of people around the world would love to be able to do. He got to give Tony Blair a piece of his mind on the BBC, not to mention C-Span.
I have come to the conclusion that the rank and file of the conservative movement is absolutely nuts. Now, I mean that with all due respect. Conveniently there is not much respect due to them. The reason I am writing this is because I have been struggling with my worldview over the last couple weeks. It's not about what I believe so much as how I believe it. That is to say that I have always believed that you should respect everyone's point of view no matter how ridiculous you feel their ideas are. I am not sure if I believe that anymore.
I am a strong nothing. I have no real religious beliefs. I am not an atheist. I'm not a Christian, Jew, Muslim or anything else. If there was a term that meant you're so sick of the whole question of whether or not there is a god that would define me. It has become especially irritating after the Schaivo brouhaha. Yet I somehow get sucked into listening to people argue about this topic.
Despite my political leanings I have to give credit where credit is due. The modern conservative movement has done a good job getting their message out and winning elections. The dishonesty of their claims not withstanding, they have been very successful at making people believe that they have a better vision for America. Their claims have infiltrated the public psyche and in many cases has become accepted as common wisdom no matter how farfetched those claims may be.
The public has over the years become convinced of the existence of a liberal media bias that just simply is not there. The conservative demonizing of the legal system has lead many people to believe that corporations and negligent doctors should be above accountability. The conservative movement has an echo chamber in the modern media that will require many years of liberal activism to match. I can handle the truth stretching and straw man tactics of the right wing on many things. However, I am growing concerned about the rising (although not new) attacks that the right is leveling against academia.
Someone sent me this link. There is obviously no possible way it is real. It appears to be on the CNN web site. I looked at it pretty closely and I have not found anything that looks suspicious. That is aside from the fact that the story is ridiculous. If it really is on the CNN web site the person pulling the prank went all out. They even put up an ad for Lou Dobbs.
It's a pretty funny hoax if it is actually on the CNN web site. I looked around and haven't seen anything mentioned about it anywhere else. I would like to hear from someone who is more computer savvy than myself on the possibility of hacking CNN's web site and putting up something like this.
In a previous diary there was a lot of talk about the BoSox victory being a sign for the impending Kerry victory. Here's another sports predictor. Every time the Washington Redskins win their last home game before a presidential election the presidential candidate of the incumbent party wins teh White House. When the Skins lose the incumbent party loses the White House. I have a little history below.
I know this is a couple days late. A friend just sent these pictures to me. They're great photos and I thought people would like them. They were taken by the president of a local high school Democrats club.
This is a very Republican town. So it's really admirable for a group of high school students to even start a young Democrats club in their school. It's great that they're motivated enough to drive an hour and a half to Philly for a rally. It makes me feel good to know that in a few years these kids will be coming into the party at a local level and hopefully even higher.
As on every other morning I walked out to my front yard and picked up my copy of my local newspaper the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. Imagine my surprise and disgust when I found a pro-Bush political flyer wrapped inside my paper. This town is very Republican, but nevertheless I felt disappointed that the newspaper would be willing to allow the local Bushies to put their vile propaganda in their newspaper.
We're two thirds of the way through this thing I haven't seen a big hit from either side. It's pretty much the same as the first debate:
Kerry looks great but hasn't knocked the ball out of the park yet.
Bush looks arrogant and creepy. What was up with starting to say something about the press and then "...well never mind."?
I'm waiting for one of them to get that sound bite that will be played over and over again in the next week. I want to hear the "you're no Jack Kennedy" line. I haven't heard it yet. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Can anyone find a picture of John Edwards and Dick Cheney together that was taken before tonight? Cheney's claim that tonight was the first time he had met Edwards sounds like nonsense.
Well...I shouldn't say "dirty" tricks advice. I do need some advice on how to handle local Rethuglicans who think that local Dems don't have any right to run for office and should be treated accordingly. Just for a little background, I live in an area of PA that has been nothing but Republican for as long as can be remembered. The last Democrat to represent my town in congress was James Buchanan (the guy who was president before Lincoln).
Philadelphia isn't the first city to do this but they are thinking about offering wireless internet access to everyone in the city. According ot the AP "For about $10 million, city officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot."
The article says the city would offer the service for free or significantly less than what commercial service providers are charging. This would almost be enough to get me to move back to Philly.
Cable and high speed Internet service are two examples that show how a free market does not work. I'm so sick of paying Comcast ridiculous amounts of money every month. Maybe a threat like this will make them reconsider ho wmuch they charge.
For those of you who don't know anything about Lancaster I'll do some set up. We're one of the top five Republican counties in the nation. I think we may be second only to Orange County, CA. GOopers outnumber us 2.5 to 1. Numerous Dems register Repub because they believe the only way they can have an influence on things is by voting for the "moderate" Repub in their primary.
