May 2008: Context

It's the reason for reading independent reporters and bloggers; if it weren't for them, I'd be stuck with whatever stories the corporate media chooses to run, in whatever superficial and disconnected form they are presented.

Driftglass' posts are a good example. He provides this month's worth of context—with choice images, as well as choice words—here.

There's much on the dismal pre-convention Clinton camp maneuvers.

Joe Lieberman is smacked down for headlining the shindig of
anti-Catholic, anti-homo—not to mention anti-Semitic—Pastor John Hagee.

On "disgruntled employee" Scott McClellan and his memoir—

From former employees who rat out corrupt bosses, to the battered spouse who makes it out alive and at long last feels safe enough to talk about their abuser, to molested parishioners, to the child who finally can’t take another minute and spills the beans about drunken daddy, it's always the same.

First, the guilty go through great shows of public outrage.

Then comes the questioning of motives of their accusers.

Finally, broad hints and saccharine concerns about the unbalanced mental state of the whistle-blower.
...
Once 50 million pinheads and five Supreme Court Justices saw fit to stuff the business end of an electoral shotgun in Lady Liberty’s mouth, blow the back of her skull off, and hand the United State of America over to the dimwit dauphin and his reptilian regent, if a baby-faced lying stooge like McClellan hadn’t been available, the Bush Administration would have invented one.

So what do we now know about Scott McClellan?

That he sold out his country.

He lied about it.

And now he's cashing in on the misery he helped create.

The Driftglass Declaration: a 25 year statute of limitations on use of obsolete political terms—

...we can now officially stop calling these life forms "Reagan Democrats".

They are "Republicans".

Also cretins.

Mildred and Richard Loving
AP photo, 1965
Mildred Loving died on May 2. As much as she never sought public recognition, Mrs. Loving's was a life to be remembered and honored.

Driftglass observes of the history—

Why should you care?

Because the Loving Decision took place in 1967. Not 1867.
...

Because when you note the language of Loving v. Virginia, you cannot help but notice that for far too many, the essential message that God has personally conferred a mantle of superiority on Conservative White American Christian Heterosexual Male has remained virtually unchanged.

And the direct, cultural decedents of the preachers and politicians who delivered this bible-wrapped filth are still alive and well and leading the Republican Party under the same banner, but now it has a new coat of paint called "Same Sex Marriage"...

Because while it is true that things really have gotten more tolerant and more free since the days of the Loving Decision, the bad news is, a frighteningly large fraction of the American public thinks that's actually a bad thing.

Mrs. Loving saw the same connections. On the 40th anniversary of her Supreme Court case, she issued a statement recalling the background of her marriage and the couple's legal case, and concluding:

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God's plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
...

I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.