September, 2010 archive

Trudy Rubin, writing at the Philadelphia Inquirer, argues against those who monger the fear of Muslims. A nugget:

I know we’ve had religious prejudice in this country before. But this is something different. In the age of talk radio and the blogosphere, when many Americans are fearful about economic and social changes, receptivity to demagoguery is increasing. When times are tough, it is tempting to seek a scapegoat. Gingrich recognizes that as readily as does Ayatollah Khamenei.

Yet it is vital that Americans distinguish between the real threat – radical Islamic groups and movements in many Muslim countries – and the hyped-up threat promoted here.

For one thing, the fearmongering helps radical Islamists. Gen. David Petraeus just warned that videos of Quran burning could endanger our troops overseas. What would be even more dangerous is if the Islamaphobes provoke a war of civilizations within the United States – the very outcome the jihadists seek.

We are a nation of immigrants, in which Muslims of Arab, South Asian, and African descent have flourished. This is why Muslims in America are so well-integrated, unlike in Europe, where many Muslim immigrants have failed to assimilate.

The right-wing’s politics of hate has nothing to do with security and everything to do with fomenting fear, for they know that fear clouds thought and that thought is inimical to their cause.

Well, not exactly.

The candidates for Virginia Beach City Council forumed participated in a forum on Thursday.

Each candidate had five minutes for an introduction. Then there was time for two questions selected from questions submitted to the moderator via Facebook, one on light rail and one on the City Council’s use of school board funds for the general fund in the current budget.

At the end, each candidate got a minute for a final statement.

I attended primarily to support Andrew Jackson, who made these major points.

He opened by saying that this election should be a defining moment, that Virginia Beach must decide where it wants to go and what it wants to accomplish; only by defining that can the city then decide what it must do to get there. He promised that voters would know him by his actions, “not by advertising,” and committed to represent and work for the people of Virginia Beach.

He pointed out that this is one of the most diverse cities in the Commonwealth and that that diversity should be embraced in unity of purpose for the city as a whole.

(Having spent the last three decades in the Philadephia/Wilmington area and traveled for work throughout the country, I can testify that day-to-day life in Virginia Beach is far more diverse than day-to-day life in a big Northern city.)

In response to the question about light rail, all the candidates referred to a study that is due next year. Some complained that light rail would require subsidies; several supported putting light rail to referendum once again. No one supported it outright.*

Andrew pointed out that one thing is definitely true: The area needs improved transportation infrastructure and that any transportation improvements would have to be subsidized in some way. The issue is not subsidies; the issue is the most effective use of the subsidy dollars in terms of the big picture.

As regard the school budget issue, most of the candidates, except the incumbents who voted for moving school board reserves into the city general funds, expressed concerns about the level of communication and cooperation between the school board and city council.

I’m no expert at estimating crowds, but I would guess that between 100 and 150 persons were present. It’s the first event of this nature that I have attended anywhere, but I was told that it was a pretty good turnout for this type of event for a local election.

_________________

*Having lived in and visited metropolitan areas with adequate public transportation, I’ve seen how important it can be to an area.

I support public transportation outright.

At the same time, the management of this project so far seems to have left a lot to be desired. But I haven’t stopped liking baseball because Roger Clemens might be a jerk.

An earlier version of this post was published here.

Dick Polman explores the expulsion of moderate Republicans from the Republican Party, tracing it back to the Nixon’s odious Southern Strategy. A nugget:

Some conservative commentators have been smart enough to spot the absurdity of weeding out the impure; after all, politics is about the art of the possible, and it’s tough to get anything done if everybody is hunkered in an ideological bunker. Nearly a year ago, for instance, the columnist Kathleen Parker (no friend of the Obama administration) argued that the right-wing purists were “pandering to America’s inner simpleton,” that Republican politicians should have the right to take nuanced positions and engage in nuanced thought. Indeed, she wondered, “When did thinking go out of style?”

The title of the piece is

Demise of the Republican dodo

In counterpoint, one Delaware resident I know referred to teabagger favorite Christine O’Donnell as Christine O’Dodo.

Wankery, that is.