Finally, some FUN remodeling at In This Moment!

I am pleased to post a new nameplate for In this Moment. This nifty new design was created by the extremely talented Amanda Warren. Thank you, Amanda, for capturing the spirit of the place.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring to all.

The newest political sport: Counting the generals who are calling for Rumsfeld’s head

Until this week, my favorite political sport was watching and rooting on the rapid decline of George W. Bush’s approval ratings. Bush is now descending through the 30s. Anyone want to take bets that he can make it to the 20s? This week, though, my favorite sport is counting generals – that’s the angry, retired kind, the ones calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s head. This would be fun if the situation in Iraq wasn’t so serious. People are dying and being tortured because of this administration’s incompetence and arrogance.

The latest count is six generals with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius thrown in to add a little spice. This morning Google News reported that it had found 738 stories in the mainstream media on this topic. I haven’t checked to see how many folks a blogging on this, but I suspect it’s many more than seven hundred and something.

From Newsweek:

Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq until last November, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to reiterate criticisms he leveled earlier this week.

Batiste said Rumsfeld had “failed to build the peace” in Iraq, and criticized “a leadership style which is intimidating, abusive. There was not a two-way street of respect.”

The New York Times has the best roundup I’ve seen so far on the generals' comments. (You have to register, but it’s free.)

AP’s story is here.

Los Angeles Times reports:

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq shortly after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, became the fifth general involved in Iraq policy to call for Rumsfeld to resign, citing his handling of the war.

Swannack, like the other generals, criticized Rumsfeld's management style.

The Defense secretary "has micromanaged the generals" commanding troops in Iraq, Swannack said.

He added that Rumsfeld had "culpability" for the detainee abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and that he had failed to acknowledge his mistakes.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that young officers -- the future generals -- are leaving the Army at a frightening rate. This includes those who graduated from West Point, and would presumably have once thought they wanted a 20-year career in the military.

The Times gives a multitude of reasons for this trend. None touch on the incompetence of the Bush Administration. However, you do have to wonder if the anger of the generals and the unhappiness of captains are related.

Alternet provides background on why it's so significant that retired generals are speaking out. The military has a different code than us loose-lipped civilians. This chorus of anger may well be unprecedented.

Kudos to Kansas’ Johnson County Community College for valuing fairness

Kudos to the Board of Trustees of the 34,000-student Johnson County Community College for voting to treat all their employees and students fairly, regardless of their sexual orientation. The college is in the richest suburban county of Kansas City.

The Kansas City Star reports:

Five months after racist and anti-gay graffiti appeared in restrooms at Johnson County Community College, the college’s trustees quietly added sexual orientation to the institution’s nondiscrimination policy.

The action at a hastily called special board meeting Monday night surprised even proponents of the change and drew criticism from a trustee who opposed the revision.

Trustees approved the policy change during the open portion of the meeting, though it was also discussed in a closed-door executive session.

“The meeting was a surprise,” said Kami Day, an associate professor at the college who had advocated that the policy be changed to protect gender identity.

“It’s a step, and a huge improvement.”

The Johnson County Sun reports that the vote was 4-1.

It probably would have been better for all concerned if the vote hadn't been hurried, but you can’t fault any organization for voting against discrimination.

Hooray for the college’s Board of Trustees for understanding the importance of treating all people fairly. The only true surprise is that it took a college until the 2006 to pass such a policy.

The anti-fairness, "un-Brokeback spirit" of Kentucky

A hearty round of applause for the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader, which came out with guns blazing today to ask for nothing less than basic fairness for the state's LGBT citizens.

In the first of two separate editorials, the newspaper first implored Kentucky’s Republican governor to veto $11 million in state appropriations for the private, religious college, the University of the Cumberlands.

Leaving aside, for the moment, the fact that no state Legislature should be in the business of appropriating money for private, religious schools, this university made a name for itself this week for expelling a student whose only crime was to be gay.

There is a slim hope that Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who still has line-item veto power over the budget, could preserve the Constitution and some shred of moral and fiscal sanity by simply cutting the school out of the budget.

The University of the Cumberlands has the right to deny an education or even employment on the basis of sexual orientation.

The state of Kentucky doesn't.

Fletcher must veto the appropriation.

In the second editorial, the newspaper took Fletcher to task for removing a anti-discrimination protection for gays from the state’s employment policy. The editorial is so good, I’m going to quote most of it.

Fletcher, who has sunk in the polls as his administration has foundered on almost every front, may have simply been pandering to his conservative base.

One Republican conservative called it "a good political move."

Whether Fletcher's motivation was political opportunism or another effort to spread a personal religious agenda, his action is a step back in every possible way. It can only made it harder to attract and keep exceptional people and institutions.

And it sends a message that some Kentuckians aren't quite as valuable as others.

No unbridled spirit in Kentucky for them.

It suggests a change to the state slogan. How about "un-Brokeback spirit?"

The Herald-Leader is also doing a good job of covering the college’s dismissal of the gay student. The small Baptist school kicked him out three weeks before the end of the semester, AND gave the honor student all F’s, now that’s Christian charity for you.

Here’s some of the coverage.

Ousted Student Tells His Story

Gays Challenge Schools Funding

Truth vs. lies and a lack of faith in the Kansas sex-ed wars

Is the real issue that the ultra-conservative majority on the Kansas Board of Education is afraid of truth?

Josh at Thoughts From Kansas has an interesting, although fairly snarky post on the sex-education brouhaha.

Among other things, he does a good job of pointing out a problem in the story in today's Kansas City Star about the State Board meeting.

On a sidenote of media criticism, this paragraph from the Star's story bugs me:

"The difference between the two groups seems to be the degree to which sex ed stresses abstinence. Abstinence-only sex education would talk about contraceptives in relation to their flaws and rates of failure; abstinence-plus classes would include information about the proper use of contraceptives."

Both approaches stress abstinence. One gives children accurate information, the other keeps information away. As far as abstinence, all approaches give the same information.

Looking at this with an editor's eye, it's clear the Star paragraph is nonsense. I can't believe I missed this before. This issue isn't how much to discuss abstinence, but what information to give about birth control.

Truth and accurate information are only a few of the issues raised by the ultra-conservative's actions.

These folks present themselves as the most moral, religious and family oriented of all Kansans, yet they appear to be acting out of fear. Don't they believe their own PR?

Could it be that they're frightened about their own parenting skills; about their children's honesty, integrity and self control? Could it be they don't trust their churches to teach morality? If they get their way, these folks will be relying on the sheer repression of information to keep their children from getting involved sexually before they're emotionally mature enough to do it, to keep them becoming pregnant, and to even keep them from having sex before marriage.

I may well be wrong. And as a mother, I know how easy it is to be frightened about what your kids might do, but there is an oddness to their logic. There is an intensity to their fear of, well, the truth that seems to be a tad unreasonable.

Perhaps, I'm wrong, and these so very conservative board members are merely parroting a philosophy. Maybe they're simply playing their brand of politics. Honestly, I hope I'm wrong. Because otherwise, what does that say about them and their children and the children of their churches? Do they have so little faith?

Bush & GOP Watch: Keeping track of the R's effort to undermine elections

TPM Muckraker is doing a good job of digging up the dirt on the story I noted in "Promoting democracy in Iraq and undermining it in New Hampshire."

Remember, this story doesn't involve the mere allegation of election tampering. Republican campaign operative James Tobin has already been convicted of it.

What's really going on: The sex education odyssey in Kansas

First, the good news: The Kansas Board of Education yesterday postponed action on requiring abstinence-only sex education.

Now, the bad news: Most folks appear to be missing the central issue – an ultra-conservative attempt to overthrow 20-years of public policy in Kansas.

Earlier reports, including one in this blog, suggested that the board intended to tie this most limited form of sex education to school accreditation. That could well have been disastrous for Kansas’ kids.

If that happened, local school districts would either have to comply with the state mandate, or risk having official approval yanked from their schools. Among other thing, this could mean that colleges might discount diplomas from these out-of-favor schools.

The Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle have fairly comprehensive reports on Tuesday’s board meeting. It appears that our anti-evolution board got a tad confused about how much sex they wanted in their sex education. The Star reports that the discussion devolved into a wrangle over what’s sex vs. what’s abstinence. Everyone seemed to agree that intercourse = sex = bad, but after that the definitions got murky. Apparently, no one could come up with a good definition of abstinence (no jokes, please) and so, they postponed further discussion and action to next month.

What’s missing in the news reports is context. I haven’t had a chance to check this out as much as I’d like, so please correct me if I’m wrong, oh great and wise blogospherians.

With that said…

What is really going on here may well be the opposite of what seems to be happening. In other words, the ultra-conservatives are not trying to preserve the past and take us back to the good old days. They appear to be attempting to overturn 20-years worth of public policy. This policy may well be effective. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Missouri reports that teen pregnancy has declined 20 percent in Kansas during that period.

This fight is being played out as a struggle between the State Board and the Kansas Legislature, or at least, the state Senate.

Here’s the timeline.

July 2005 --> The State Board allows the old – and some would argue – successful sex education guidelines to lapse.

Feb 25, 2006 -->The Kansas Senate passed SB 508, which appears to largely continue standards that have been in place since 1987. The bill is sent to the more conservative House where the bill gets stuck in committee. Efforts are still being made to pass the bill. Any movement would have to come during the wrap-up legislative session later this month.

March 16, 2006 --> The State Board of Education ultra-conservative majority votes 6-4 to make Kansas one of only four states that requires parents to sign permission slips for their adolescents to take sex education. This is known as the “opt-in” policy. Up to this point, Kansas has had an “opt-out” policy that allowed parents to take their children out of sex education classes, if they wished.

Planned Parenthood has some good resources on this and other issues here and here.

Promoting democracy in Iraq & undermining it in New Hampshire?

Has King George struck again? Our beloved president claims to be promoting democracy in Iraq. Even though there is some question about whether he is actually doing that or simply putting on a show, I will give him some benefit of the doubt in that area.

However, it looks like he and/or his minions might have been working hard to undermine the most basic tools of American democracy -- fair elections.

AP reports today on phone calls the White House received from a GOP operative who ran an operation designed to keep Democrats from voting. Note who's paying for this operative's legal bills.

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

Preposterous?

Perhaps.

Not just marching in big cities: Thousands of immigrants rally in Kansas

I have to admit that I have not been paying much attention to the Congressional debate over dueling proposals that would either help or slam illegal immigrants. One approach appears aimed at providing them with a path into citizenship, while the other wants to declare them and anyone who helps them to be felons.

I must say, though, the increasingly large demonstrations have finally caught my eye. What really grabbed my attention this morning was a front page story in my local newspaper, noting that there was a march in Lawrence, Kansas.

I hadn’t expected that, so I wondered what had happened in the rest of Kansas, and surprise! Immigration isn’t just a big-city issue.

The Wichita Eagle reported:

Thousands of marchers also took to the streets in Liberal, Garden City, Dodge City, Emporia and Topeka.

Across the state, Hispanic businesses closed, students skipped classes and workers walked away from jobs to join the rallies.

In Emporia, 1,500 people marched through the streets and past Tyson Meats, where many are employed, heckling some workers who declined to join the protest.

The Emporia school district reported a 23 percent absentee rate for the day, contrasting with 5 percent on an average day.

More than 3,000 people turned out in Garden City for a rally sponsored jointly by Hispanic unity organizations, religious leaders and the Tyson Workers' Council, supporters of a union organization effort at the company's beef-packing plant at Holcomb.

In Arkansas City, Creekstone Farms, a meatpacking plant, gave workers the day off to join rallies of their choice. Hispanics and their supporters gathered at Wilson Park on Monday afternoon for a march to City Hall.

Rusty Wright, human resources director for Creekstone, said about 75 percent of Creekstone's 750 workers are Hispanic.

Wichita-based Cargill Meat Solutions, which employs about 14,700 workers in five states, said there was a noticeable slowdown in production at its largest plant, in Dodge City.

See other reports on Garden City, Salina and Topeka. While none of those places qualifies as a small town by Kansas standards (think 50 up to 1,000), none of them is a metropolis. Arkansas City (mentioned in the Eagle report above) is the smallest at around 11,700 people. Garden City and Salina both have around 25,000 people. Topeka has about 122,000. Wichita is the largest city in the state with about 345,000 people.

Meanwhile, The Eagle and Wichita TV station, KWCH, sponsored a four-question SurveyUSA poll, that found only 31 percent of Kansans support a guest worker program. Those surveyed were almost evenly split on whether immigrants take jobs away from Americans or do jobs we won’t do. Overwhelming majorities said the U.S. should increase border security to keep illegal immigrants out and should deport those already here.

The Eagle has a special section on the issue with both Kansas and national perspective here.

Blasts from the recent past

What’s it like to be a lesbian and live in a state that’s been taken over by anti-gay, anti-evolution, anti-everything-but-them Christian dominationists? It’s like Living with a Target on your back.

How does it feel to mix it up with Fred Phelps and his clan when you live only 30 minutes from his house? Take a look at the Fred Phelps Quartet.

*Love and Fred Phelps

*Nancy Jane fights back, and We Learn about Theology

*I have arrived: The Phelps Family Takes Notice

*Yet another Fred Phelps Commentary

What happens to a lesbian Mom when her son turns 18? Find out in Winning the Lesbian Parent Marathon.

Can we ever really Take Back Kansas from the thecons and theocrats?

You've got to be kidding: Kansas Board of Education once again attempts to undercut kids

There are a couple of online reports about the Kansas Board of Education's new plan to punish schools that stray from the abstinance-only path in sex education. The board is going to vote on the plan tomorrow.

The Wichita Eagle reports:

Under a proposal to be considered at the board's meeting Tuesday in Wichita, districts that teach more than abstinence could risk losing their accreditation.

Red State Rabble notes:

While the board would be wise to just say no to abstinence only sex education, which has proven ineffective in case after case, the right-wing majority on the board will undoubtedly vote to approve, once again placing their own narrow sectarian religious beliefs ahead of sound public policy and the welfare of Kansas students.

Normally, I'd urge people to call their state board representatives and urge them to vote "no," but in this case, there is no reasoning with these folks. The best thing to do? Vote a resounding "no" on the state board's conservative majority in November.

Western Kansas gets a chance to "Take Back Kansas" on April 19

Red State Rabble is reporting that another Take Back Kansas rally has been scheduled by the MAINstream Coalition and Alliance for Education in Hays.

Set for Wednesday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Hays High School auditorium, the event is entitled, “Take Back Kansas: How We Can Move Kansas Back to the Middle, and Why It Matters.”

RSR's report is the only one I can find online about this, so far.

This is a rally you folks out around Hays won't want to miss. Take a look at my report on the first rally in the series.

The "great challenge" of the 21st Century: Working out of love, instead of fear

There's a powerful post up on Andrew Sullivan's blog. I wish he'd identified the author, but this comment provides clear-eyed overview of the Bush Administration's policy in Afganistan and Iraq. What really struck me was what this poster identified as the central battle of our time. I happen to think this person is right, although I disagree slightly on one point. See more on that below.

This person wrote:

But there is one great dividing line here, between you and me on one side, and Bush and his cohort (and the Christianists and the Islamists and the scientific reductionists, and all the other -ists) on the other: the humility of a faith based on love, with its attendant qualities of acceptance, inclusion and non-violence, and the arrogance of a faith based on fear, with its attendant qualities of judgment, exclusion and, inevitably, violence. You have written of this division in your own way when you wrote of the "conservatism of doubt" vs "conservatism of faith". I truly believe this division marks the great spiritual, social and political challenge before us in the 21st century: the shift from a faith - and a world - based on the fear of God to one based on the love of God. That is an evolutionary challenge. And a global challenge. And I think that some day it will be recognized as the great theme being played out at the center of the Bush Presidency, and the American tragedy in Iraq. Fear and lies, or love and truth. It's just that simple.

I agree with everything here, except for the implication that this central struggle is only occurring within communities of faith/or only has relevance to people of faith.

I think this IS the supreme struggle of our time. Much more than any fight over abortion or same-sex marriage, I think this is the true culture war. However, it's not just a shift within faiths from one mode of believing to another. If we do not move in the secular world from acting out of fear to acting out of respect, we will be equally in danger.

The secular path with all of its amazing strength and idealism is walked by human beings, who are prone to the failings that trip up all of us flawed humans. Secularists, just like people of faith, can act out of fear and arrogance and absolute certainty.

The real danger we all face is neither a particular religion, nor lack of religion, nor a particular philosophy. It's the fear that can make us all, at times, act as if we must fight to the death to survive.