Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2559

Why Petraeus Spoke

Earlier this week, Weigel suggested that the press ignore Pastor Terry Jones' Quran burning stunt. Justin Elliott explains why this wasn't possible:

[O:]ne has to understand the context in which Petraeus decided to weighin: At that time, the Quran burning had already been treated as a majorstory in the media in the Muslim world for several weeks. In otherwords, since at least late July, when it started to get attention insome Muslim-majority countries, the story has been doing untold damageto...

The Untamed Prince, Ctd

Adam Serwer an optimistic note:

While the Obama administration's embrace of the
Presidency in terms of actual policy has been near total, there
important legal technicalities that leave the whole
vulnerable. Namely, that the Obama administration has said that
powers stem from Congress, they're not inherent to the
branch. They come from Congress passing legislation like the Authorization to Use Military

That seems like a...

Christianist Watch: The Fire Next Time

And a deeply serious one:

[T:]his past Tuesday, the FBI arrested 26-year old Christian radical Justin Carl Moosein Concord, NC for "providing information to create explosives" to"blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic." Through his conversationswith an FBI informant and his Facebook page, Moose expressed virulent"anger at abortion doctors, President Barack Obama's health care plan,and plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York city." He goeson to describe himself as "the Christian...

"Celebutards"

A neologism for Pastor Jones and his ilk.
















Neologism - Business - United States - BBC - Feminism

DADT Still Needs To Be Repealed

Jim Burroway lectures the Senate.

Senate - United States - Jim Burroway - Government - Sea turtle

The View From Your Window

Wickford, Rhode Island, 6 pm

Rhode Island - United States - Politics - Recreation and Sports - Travel and Tourism

An Email From Senator Barack Obama

A reader retrieves it from her in-tray of April 11, 2008:

Thank you for advising me of your concern about the Bush
Administration's use of Executive power. I share your frustration that
Congress has acquiesced too much in the President's use of his Executive
authority and agree this must change if we are going to get the country
back on the right track ...

Barack Obama - President of the United States - President - United States Congress - Presidency of George W. Bush

...

Conservatives For Equality vs The Obama Administration

The Log Cabin Republicans score a major victory against DADT:

U.S. district judge Virginia A. Phillips wrote in the 85-pageopinion handed down late Thursday that the DADT statute violates theFifth and First amendments. Log Cabin Republicans are entitled to a"permanent injunction barring its enforcement," Phillips wrote. "The evidence at trial demonstrated that [DADT:] does not furthersignificantly the Government's important interests in militaryreadiness or unit cohesion, nor is it necessary...

Yglesias Award Nominee

The group is an affiliate of NOM.

Business - Don't Ask Don't Tell - United States - Directories - United States armed forces

The Leverage Over Park51

Is there not something ever more grotesque about this spectacle? In Afghanistan, unrest is spreading directly undermining the counter-insurgency strategy, however flawed, of the US military:

In Afghanistan, at least 11 people were injured Friday in protests.Police in the northern province of Badakhshan said several hundred demonstrators ran toward a NATO compound where four attackers and five police were injured in clashes. Protesters also burned an American flag at a mosque after Friday...