Motley Moose – Archive

I started this diary a couple months back when the ‘Prayer for Obama’ stickers first hit Rightwinger bumpers coast to coast.

Before I got anywhere near finished, the two online distributors I was railing against (Zazzle and CafePress) pulled the offensive merchandise from their virtual shelves. I no longer had windmills to joust at. What had originally started as a diary on Rightwing hatred soon morphed into a fairly random collection of bible verses.  I entertained myself for a while with it…then set it on the backburner as a rather discombobulated mess.

It was the theological discussion that broke out in the Haitian Earthquake diary that reminded me of it and prompted me to tinker with it a bit. Well, I tinkered with it….and it is still pretty much a discombobulated mess…but, here it is…do with it what you will.  

According to Congressional Quarterly, in terms of winning Congressional votes on issues he took a stand on, Obama had the most successful Presidential first year in generations (based upon more than five decades of CQ keeping records).

“His success was 96.7 percent on all the votes where we said he had a clear position in both the House and the Senate. That’s an extraordinary number,” Cranford says.

The previous high scores were held by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, with 93 percent, and Dwight Eisenhower, who scored 89 percent in 1953. Cranford notes that George W. Bush’s score hit the high 80s in 2001, the year of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. But Obama surpassed them all, Cranford says.

NPR

While the road gets tougher moving forward (due to members of Congress preparing for their own campaigns/re-election efforts in the 2010 mid-terms and the likely subsequent loss of seats in both House and Senate), Obama has made his first year historic by yet another measure.

In a calculated move that can be interpreted as no less than attempted genocide…Canada has declared war on Moose. With justifications that are tenuous at best, Canadian leaders have put forth a plan to establish their dominance over Moose. While the U.N. scrambles to review International Law in regards to interspecies warfare, Canada has already begun its campaign of terror against the Moose.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just want to wish all Moose (and Moose lurkers) a Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 brings you and yours health and happiness, love and and laughter…lots of laughter. Let us know your favorite memories from 2009…and the things from the past year that you will not be sad to leave behind. What are your family traditions? Resolutions or no? This is an Open Thread…the last of 2009! (and the first of 2010!)

New Year’s Moose Before:

It never ceases to frustrate me how ignorant so many of my fellow Americans are about the Muslim faith (or, really, about any faith beyond Christianity). There are over a BILLION Muslims on this silly planet of ours, and merely a fraction of a fraction of them are ‘terrorists’. Yet, the entire faith gets slapped with the broad brush whenever a follower of Muhammad wreaks havoc. Did the atrocities committed in Bosnia by Christians against Muslims (genocide!) represent all Christians? Does the attempt by Christian leaders in Uganda (with the possible backing of Christian leaders here in the States) to make being HIV positive and homosexual punishable by death represent all Christians? IMO, no single group of followers throughout history have been more ‘terrorizing’ than Christians; yet, for some reason, seldom do you hear Americans lashing out at the followers of Christ for the evils committed by a tiny fraction of their brethren. In both cases the blame is misplaced. It is evidence of ignorance and fear of the unknown and unfamiliar…of the need to blame ‘other’ and ‘different’ for the evils and ills of the world. And it has been used to manipulate the majority against the minority in countless ways since the beginning of time. It is such fear and hatred and ignorance that are to blame for terrorism, not any particular faith (or its followers).

I have noticed several conversations and comments about Muslims in recent threads on the Moose. While visiting family for Thanksgiving, something I read here reminded me of an email exchange from a few years back. A friend received a hateful forward in a mass email blast, and she asked me to help her pen a response to ‘reply to all’…. You will find the result below the fold.

Yesterday saw US voters going to the polls for several state elections and ballot measures. For weeks, the media and Republicans have been touting any Republican victories as indicators of voters rejecting Obama and his policies…spinning the results as some sort of a gauge of voters’ support for Obama’s first 9 months in Office.

What a crock.

Below, you will find some of my (not exactly well-informed) observations of yesterday’s day at the polls.

Have at it.

Kseniya Simonova, a sand artist, won Ukraine’s Got Talent and has become the star of the newest “must see” Youtube clip. Using an illuminated sand table, she presented a visual tale of the effects of WWII on the civilian population.

With Mark Sanford’s tearful admission yesterday, he became the latest addition to an ignoble list of politicians who found (placed) themselves in the midst of a sex scandal during the past decade (or so).

I was the 8th in line.

About 200 people were behind me when the polls opened at 6am.

I voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

For Mark Warner.

For Glenn Nye.

I voted for Change.

Lurkers, Find Your Polling Location Here – The Editors