Washington Times Needs a Mirror

The Washington Times, the unofficial mouth organ of the Republican Party, has led the way in comparing the Democratic Party's health reform legislation to Hitler's Nazi Party, but it seems they should be looking in the mirror.

Robert Parry at Consortium News has an article illustrating the connection between the Times' owner, Sun Myung Moon, with known Nazis and right-wing Latin American military dictators.

It's a fascinating read and well-researched, like all writing at Consortium News.

Here's a taste:

Indeed, the Washington Times founder and funder, Sun Myung Moon, built his international religious-business-media empire in collaboration with Japanese fascist war criminals and with operational assistance from ex-Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie, the so-called “Butcher of Lyon.”

The 89-year-old Moon also has had close ties to later generations of neo-Nazis and right-wing murderers, especially in Latin America where Moon-related organizations threw in their lot with brutal military dictators including some involved in cocaine trafficking.

Yet, in the 1970s and 1980s, Moon emerged as a major financier for the American Right. He sponsored lavish conservative conferences, slipped millions of dollars into the pockets of right-wing activists, supported prominent Republicans and – in 1982 – launched the Washington Times, which has been a prime propaganda vehicle for right-wing causes ever since.

Lou Dobbs Getting Nuttier By the Minute

I'm sure at one time in his long career Lou Dobbs made sense, but he just seems to be getting nuttier by the minute.

His latest? Calling Gov. Howard Dean a "bloodsucking lefist" and saying "you gotta put a stake through his heart to stop him."

Some will say he was only illustrating a point and not calling for the murder of Dr. Dean, but in the hate-filled political climate fostered by many conservatives, it is downright dangerous.

So much so, in fact, that Howard Dean's brother, Jim, chair of Democracy for America, is calling for Dobbs' firing from CNN and his radio program.

Can't say that I blame him.

Sebelius Speaks Out on Health Care Reform

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has written an op-ed piece to set the record straight on the administration's efforts at health care reform. The following is an excerpt:

Washington, DC — For decades, Washington has talked about fixing a broken health care system. And for decades Washington failed to act – allowing the special interests to stall reform while the cracks in the system turned into crevices, then craters.

But today, we are closer than ever to the change we need. Key committees in Congress have reached a striking degree of consensus about how to control costs, guarantee coverage, and provide more choices for every American. America’s doctors and nurses have announced their support. And even hospitals, drug and insurance companies have pledged to do their part to control costs.

Change is never easy and recently, some defenders of the status quo have made themselves heard.

One Republican Senator said, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” And a leading political strategist urged fellow Republicans to “resist the temptation” to be “constructive or, at least responsible,” and instead work to “kill” health care reform.

These opponents of change may understand how to score political points in Washington, but they don’t seem to understand the stakes for the country. The health care status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable for our families, our businesses, and our nation as a whole.

Evangelicals Invading New England

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Hallelujah religion is a-rising in Yankee country. As liberal congregations die in a secularizing region, conservative churches with roots outside New England are replacing them with a passionate brand of faith that emphasizes saving souls – even in a land where many think there's nothing to be saved from.

Is nothing sacred.

Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Due Date'

This just in from AFP:

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Oscar-nominee Robert Downey Jr. is to star opposite Zach Galifianakis in a comedy about an expectant father scrambling to get to the birth of his first child, it was reported Monday.

Downey, nominated for an Academy Award this year for his performance in "Tropic Thunder," will play the father in "Due Date," while Galifianakis ("The Hangover") will play his mismatched travel partner, Daily Variety reported.

The film, due to start production later this year, will be directed by "The Hangover's" Todd Phillips. Phillips told Variety the film was a "a buddy comedy without the buddies."

No doubt in our mind the Downey is among the finest actors of his generation. We haven't seen a movie of his in which he did not shine. Just hope he stays clean and sober.

Cuckolded Husband Narcs on Wife: She Goes to Prison

The husband of a woman who had an affair while living in Dubai, tipped the local police off to her indiscretion and she and her lover were sentenced to two months in prison for adultry.

The cases highlight the conservative legal code that governs Dubai, a city-state that has advertised itself as a tourist and business mecca in the heart of the Middle East. It caters heavily to Western tastes and lifestyles for its international allure, but its legal code is based on Islamic laws and tribal rules.

Sally Antia and her lover, Mark Hawkins, were arrested May 2 after leaving a Dubai luxury hotel in the early morning hours, according to court documents. Antia's husband, Vince, alerted the police to his wife's infidelity.

The couple should be happy they were only sentenced to prison. Here is what could have happened under a strict enforcement of Islamic law:

Adultery is the most serious of crimes. If the guilty party is married, he or she is sentenced to death by stoning, beheading, or shooting. Stoning is the usual method of punishment. Proof of this crime must be established by confession or by four witnesses to the act.

Debtor's Prisons Repackaged

I first learned of the concept of a debtor's prison from reading Charles Dickens in my youth. At the time I couldn't see the logic behind the concept because how could someone pay their debt if they were locked up?

At the federal level, the United States did away with this practice in the 1830's. The UK followed suit in 1869. Supposedly, no one can be jailed for failure to pay a debt, right? Sorry, Charlie, that ain't so.

Now this is an extreme case and may have merit, but check this out from AJC.com:

A former employee of Global Destiny Church has asked a Gwinnett judge to put Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III in jail for contempt of court because he failed to repay a debt to her.

A petition for contempt was filed Tuesday by Suzanne Ellis. The petition says that Weeks, and his church empire Global Destiny Inc. and TWIII Ministries Inc., never reimbursed Ellis for about $90,000 worth of items she was asked to buy as an employee.

Bishop Weeks might be going to jail for failing to pay a debt, but the justice system will call it contempt of court, kind of a repackaged debtor's prison.