Sen. Joseph Lieberman spoke at the Hagee "summit" yesterday, as Think Progress notes:
Lieberman again drew a parallel between Hagee and biblical figures, this time saying biblical heroes, unlike the demigods of Greek mythology, "are humans — great humans, but with human failings." Lieberman said that Moses had his shortcomings, too.
"Dear friends, I can only imagine what the bloggers of today would have had to say about Moses and Miriam."
Funny you should ask:
Markos Moulitsas: "He promised us snakes would lead to our liberation. Well, Pharaoh's still in charge. We need More and Better Hebrews!"
Atrios: "Moses said we'd be out of Egypt after one plague. We're already Nine Plague Units into this with no end in sight."
Mike Stark: "I am going to go to Pharaoh's house with a big roll of papyrus to confront him about his former slaves."
Chris Bowers: "The last three polls all say that Pharaoh's vulnerable, so I believe Moses can take a more aggressive stand. Praise Joshua and let him know."
FDL: "Take a look at these stones Miriam just inscribed for us that detail her journey -- it's not getting enough attention. She'll be here to answer questions in our Tablet Club after sunrise on Sunday."
Howie Klein: "I'm already running pro-Aaron hieroglyphs in Moses' camp."
Matt Stoller: "If Moses doesn't beseech Hashem to deliver us something other than manna to eat, he should be primaried."
Big Tent Democrat: "Jethro has too much influence over Moses' judicial appointments."
Jeffrey Feldman: "If I'm Aaron, I'd be using this Golden Calf symbol everywhere I could. It's the icon that coalesces the needs of the Hebrews in the wilderness."
FiveThirtyEight.com: "I've checked out the demographics; look for the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to make real gains in Moses' new census."
And from across the Red Sea:
NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez: "A totally crazy Shabbas thought: Wouldn't Ramses make an awesome high-school government teacher?"
Enough is enough. McCain surrogate Joe Lieberman appeared on Tuesday at Pastor John Hagee's Citizens United For Israel (CUFI) conference and made a disgraceful, pandering speech. You'll recall that Hagee's endorsement of McSame provoked outrage until McCain rejected it. But, even without all of that, Lieberman's appearance was an utter disgrace worthy of condemnation.
It was not so long ago, that John Hagee was at the pinnacle of his power. Last year Sen. Joe Lieberman publicly compared him to Moses at the annual conference of his Christians United for Israel (CUFI); and John McCain was in the middle of his long courtship of Hagee’s support for his presidential campaign. McCain eventually secured Hagee's endorsement, but it only took a few months for the the relationship to end in a mutual renunciation tht sent shock waves throughout American public life.
Since then, bloggers, reporters and interest groups have been taking a closer look at the world according to Hagee. And as Bruce Wilson (whose video showing that Hagee says God sent Hitler to drive the Jews to Israel, sparking McCain's disavowal of Hagee) among others have shown, Hagee's fanatical views and demagoguery have been out in the open in his books and sermons for all to see for a long time. It has too often been the case, that leaders of the Religious Right have not received the scrutiny they merit over the course of their careers. But times have changed a bit. There are now more reporters, bloggers and interest groups who are paying attention than ever before. And the entire Hagee episode is an excellent case example that merits more detailed study.
From tomorrow, Monday, July 21 through Thursday, July 24, Pastor John Hagee will be in Washington, D.C. to lead the national gathering of his infamous Christians United For Israel. The CUFI conference is studded with rightwing zealots and features workshops like "Radical Islam: In Their Own Words," led by neo-conservative Daniel Pipes and former right-wing Senator Rick Santorum; and "The Basics of The Arab Israeli Conflict," led by representatives of the pro-occupation David Project and StandWithUS and Gary Bauer, president of anti-choice, homophobic American Values.
Unbelievably, the Anti Defamation League (ADL), the supposed bigotry watchdog, has not condemned Hagee for his anti semitic, anti gay, anti Muslim rhetoric.
So, here I am at Netroots Nation, courtesy of a DFA scholarship [for which I'm extremely grateful] and I'd like to preface everything I'm going to say here with the point that it's a privilege to be here, and an invaluable opportunity to meet people I've only interacted with via text, blogging and email. Meeting humans in the flesh has no substitute.
And yet, for all the excitement of being here, the privilege, I find myself frustrated because the field I've been studying for the last several years doesn't officially exist here at Netroots Nation and that's bizarre to me given that I just created a 3-4 minute video that shifted the dynamics of the current presidential election, last May, by forcing John McCain to renounce the political endorsement of pastor John Hagee.
At Netroots Nation 2008, the elephant in the living room is the effect of religion on US politics. Privately, every single person I have to talked to so far has acknowledged that, yes, the effect of religion on US politics is anywhere from large to enormous...
I didn't really know that the Gramm comment was THAT damaging to the McCain campaign, but from their subsequent actions I can see that they are all up in arms and panicking about this Gramm thing.
Oh, also Pastor Hagee has thrown a legal tantrum at Youtube and Youtube has agreed to temporarily purge Hagee videos, including this Max Blumenthal classic "Rapture Ready"
You have probably heard of Pastor John Hagee. Senator McCain, after seeking Hagee's endorsement, rejected it: "McCain told CNN's Brian Todd that he rejected Hagee's endorsement after Todd brought to his attention Hagee's comments that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God's will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy," CNNreported on May 22.
But you might not be aware that unlike Senator McCain, Washington's right-wing "Israel Lobby" has not put any daylight between themselves and their close comrade John Hagee, or his "Christians United for Israel." When you say "Israel Lobby," people tend to think "AIPAC." Many people don't realize that a key component of the "Israel Lobby" consists of people who call themselves Christian.
Fellow Americans, here’s an honest look at our two choices for president. Tonight, McCain. Tomorrow night, Obama. Let’s pretend it’s a front porch discussion, over lemonade. Hear me out, then make yourself heard!
Early in July, producers of 120+ videos were informed, as reported by Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, that their videos had been removed from the YouTube website for alleged copyright infringement, for containing John Hagee sermon video footage. With the immanent kickoff of Pastor John Hagee's 2008 Christians United For Israel summit, at which Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is due to deliver a July 22nd capstone speech, the prevailing assumption is that Pastor Hagee and his ministry launched preemptive attacks against YouTube videos critical of his ministry in order to temporarily repress the critical reports during mainstream media coverage of CUFI 2008 expected to ensue in little more than a week. [Digg this story! - 1, 2, 3]
Last week, on July the 1st, I received notice from YouTube that eight of my videos on YouTube's website had been taken down, allegedly for copyright violations. The videos included the notorious "God Sent Hitler" video which caused sufficient scandal, because it got shown widely on American and international TV, to force John McCain to renounce the political endorsement of Pastor John Hagee. JHM Ministries also targeted videos from Max Blumenthal, from People For The American Way and even from a Christian fundamentalist ministry critical of Hagee's "Prosperity Gospel" teaching - maybe videos from other parties too. But overall the hit was very selective.
This still needs work... I'm sure you recall the mock schedule that was being circulated in 2004. I made a few edits, omissions, updates... but I'm sure it can be improved.
Any contributions would be appreciated.
The Bush Administration and Israel are moving from saber rattling rhetoric to waging war in earnest against Iran. One would think that war would be our last resort given the fact that our ground forces are stretched to the breaking point, our economy is in shambles and the American people are worn and weary of Middle East wars that never end.
Surely, I thought the Democratic controlled Congress would quickly put an end to this insanity. After all, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) recently presented their articles of impeachment against George Bush. The thirty five articles of impeachment include compelling evidence of the many abuses and crimes committed.
Iran is mentioned in impeachment Article XXI – "Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government."
Pastor John Hagee and his "Christians United For Israel" group claim to support Israel and Jews but Hagee and leaders of his group have been, for decades now, mass-marketing anti-Jewish propaganda - and leaders of Hagee's group are on public record stating their expectation of a coming future "Holocaust" they expect to engulf Jews.
When I saw the news, Congress Set To Approve Iran Resolution and saw the appalling number of Congressional co-sponsors, both Republicans and Democrats, itching to push the US into what almost certainly would be a disastrous war with Iran I reacted the way one might in the moments before a car crash, or similar possibly deadly accident in-process, as the brain speeds up relative to the body, because...
Every second counts. And, paradoxically I got very, very mad - in a slow, deep way.
War with Iran ?
Kiss meaningful action on Global Warming goodbye.
Kiss pulling out of Iraq goodbye.
Kiss avoiding an economic depression the likes of which you've probably never seen in your lifetime unless you're over 80 year old goodbye.
Kiss dealing with the Federal deficit goodbye
Kiss universal health care goodbye
Kissthe increasing entrainment of the Democratic Party with a progressive agenda goodbye.
Why have I chosen to write, with such intensity over the last two years, about Pastor John Hagee and his developing political machine, CUFI ? Why should you care ? - see the second blockquote box of this post for a quick summary of why John Hagee matters.
Below is the explanation for that which I put on my application for a DFA/Netroots Nation scholarship and I'm writing this to ask for your help in promoting a story I've just put up on the Huffington Post, which concerns the push to politically rehabilitate John Hagee.
The ADL just accepted, last Friday, a so-called "apology" from Pastor Hagee but Hagee's apology letter to the ADL cited a 1999 sermon as the source of the "God sent Hitler" controversy and that's flatly wrong:
[below: the video in question, with Pastor John Hagee's "god sent Hitler" /"Jews aren't spiritually alive" statements, from a sermon Hagee gave in late 2005]
Late last week, John McCain's former political endorser, likened by Senator Joseph Lieberman to Moses, Pastor John Hagee "apologized" to the Jewish Anti Defamation League [apology accepted] by claiming that the source of the controversy at hand was a 1999 sermon and issuing his regrets at hurt feelings the sermon may have caused but that's deceptive in the extreme.
Let's not beat around the bush. John Hagee may portray himself as the most zealously pro-Israel televangelist in the nation (at least among the big-time televangelists), but he's really an anti-Semite. I'm sorry, but when you start throwing around terms like "international finance," you've gone over the line. It's "polite" anti-Semitism, but anti-Semitic nonetheless.
