This week's coffee & tea schedule has been a bit out of synch, but since I'm warming a virtual barstool this evening and I don't see anyone arriving to pour, I'm going to step in and put up a late coffee hour thread!

Thanks to Poli for filling in my Tea Time slot on Tuesday; we were lucky enough to score tickets to the last-minute Obama campaign stop here in Raleigh.  The good news:  we didn't get in the door!  Why is this "good" news?  Because sooooo many people showed up, the fire marshals shut down the building to any new entrants nearly an hour before start time.  Kidlet #2 had her audition for our local youth orchestra already scheduled for earlier that same evening, so instead of being in line at 2:00 pm for the 6:30 event, we got to the fair grounds closer to game time and the doors were already shut--even though limited tickets had been handed out ahead of time, apparently it was standing room only more than an hour before the event!  The venue was very kind to us though, and set up outdoor speakers and brought out chairs, and we joined +/- 100 other folks on the east side of the building and were collectively blown away by Barack Obama's message and ease of interaction and connectivity with his audience.

It was also one of the most upbeat, diverse crowds I have ever seen: old and young, black & white & asian & hispanic, some VERY well dressed and others very casual-- you name it, and there seemed to be someone representing it.  I saw no protestors or naysayers anywhere near the whole event.  It was a blast (once I got over the disappointment over not being inside) and very inspiring-- time to go do some canvassing, folks.

I missed most of school today-- Kidlet #1 had all 4 wisdom teeth removed earlier this morning and I'm on full parental duty today.  Mark will take over tomorrow, although at the rate the boy is recovering I almost expect him to be ready to roof the house tomorrow or something-- he's doing great-- very little discomfort, no side effects from the pain meds, and he's very happy to be not just allowed but encouraged to spend a whole day sucking down chocolate shakes and playing video games.

Hope your day has also had pleasant perqs!  And as always, what are you drinking, and what's for dinner?  This is an open thread.

52 percent of them want churches to keep out of politics, according to a survey just released by the Pew Forum. It's not just one group or another, either. 51% of Republicans and 52% Democrats agree, as do 50% of conservatives. That's a twenty-point jump in just four years.

There's plenty of juicy material in the survey, including that Democrats are perceived as being faith-friendly by more people, though they're still pretty far behind the Republicans on that score.

These bullet points are my favorites, though:

• While some social conservatives are expressing changed views about religion and politics, there is little indication that they are changing their voting preferences: John McCain has about as large a lead over Barack Obama among conservatives and white evangelicals as George W. Bush did at this stage in the campaign four years ago.
• Just 28% of white evangelical Protestants say they are strong backers of McCain. Four years ago, 57% of white evangelicals described themselves as strong backers of President Bush.
• As was the case in previous presidential elections, the voting inclinations of Catholic voters – especially white non-Hispanic Catholics – remain fluid. Four years ago at this time John Kerry held a slight edge over Bush among white non-Hispanic Catholics; but he lost that lead by the election. In the current poll, this group, which accounts for 18% of the electorate, is divided almost evenly: 45% support McCain, while 44% favor Obama.
• For the most part, the issues that are important to the public as a whole are also important to particular religious groups. However, social issues, especially gay marriage, continue to be more important for white evangelicals than for other registered voters. Currently, 46% of white evangelicals say gay marriage will be a very important voting issue, compared with 28% of all voters. That is only somewhat less than the percentage of white evangelical voters who viewed gay marriage as very important in October 2004 (49%).

I don't know how much clearer it could be that "faith outreach" doesn't work. The kinds of social divisions that reflect along religious lines are deep-seated and resistant to change. So are the voting patterns that go along with them. Evangelicals vote Republican because the GOP best matches their social and philosophical outlook on issues like same-sex marriage.

That's not going to change until the social structures underlaying it change. It's certainly not going to change because some consultants spend a couple of years reassuring these voters that Democrats aren't so radical after all.

Today's Meditation: thanks to poetseers.org

God, God, God!

From the depth of slumber,
As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness,
I whisper
God, God, God!

Thou art the food and when I break my fast
Of nightly separation from Thee
I taste thee and mentally say
God, God, God!

No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind
Ever keeps turning on Thee;
And in the battle dim of activity my silent war cry
Is ever;
God, God, God!

When boisterous storms of trials shriek
And worries howl at me,
I drown their noises, loudly chanting
God, God, God!

When my mind weaves dreams
With treads of memories,
Then on that magic cloth I do emboss;
God, God, God!

Ever night, in time of deepest sleep,
My peace dreams and calls; Joy! Joy! Joy!
And my Joy comes singing evermore;
God, God, God!

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,
Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,
My soul constantly hums, unheard by any;
God, God, God!

- Paramahansa Yogananda

There's more:

Look, it's no mystery why John McCain keeps mentioning Iran's lack of "Judeo-Christian values". He's so old the only thing that gets his little flyboy to stand to attention is that sweet, sweet war porn. He wants to get it on with Iran, bad, and this is his way of telling the Clash of Civilization folks that he's pretty sure they wouldn't mind hitting that either.

This also applies to his repeated references to Georgia's long history of Christianity or his equally repeated confusion about Shiite Iran's involvement with Sunni al Qaeda. McCain knows that his target demographic believes that they're locked in a religious battle for supremacy against the Islamic crescent and, well, apparently against the godless Rooskies too. Anyway, they want a justification for going to war, and he's all too happy to oblige, using religious reasons or whatever's handy.

More to the point, perhaps, it's McCain's way of giving a wink-wink to John Hagee's people. He may have had to drop their pastor like a bucket of warm spit, but by God, he'll never give up their cause.

And inasmuch as "their cause" works out to welcoming Armageddon by glassing Iran or whoever Likud tells them is today's threat to Israeli security, this may be the kind of thing our elite media gatekeepers may want to figure out between now and November. But since the media narrative declares that the only religious story worth covering this year is whether Democrats have done enough to appease the kind of people who want to take away a woman's ability to control her own body, I wouldn't hold my breath.

What, you were expecting Mrs. P or something?  The Pastorfam's still on vacation, you know.  Let the good times roll!

And boy are the times good:

(Bumped by brillig 'cause Coffee Hour belongs on the front page. Thanks, Thirst!!)

Proof that there is a God:  Rachel Maddow gets her own TV show!

Wanker of the Day: Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher for arguing that lesbian adoptions will inevitably lead to the legalization of adoptions by pedophiles.

Majority of middle class supports progressive policies.

I couldn't have said it better

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] early morning for me--see you later!

Today's Meditation:

   COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   When upon life's billows
   You are tempest tossed
   When you are discouraged
   Thinking all is lost
   Count your many blessings
   Name them one by one
   And it will surprise you
   What the Lord has done


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   Are you ever burdened
   With a load of care
   Does the cross seem heavy
   You are called to bear
   Count your many blessings
   Every doubt will fly
   And you will be singing
   As the days go by


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   When you look at others
   With their lands and gold
   Think that Christ has promised
   You His wealth untold
   Count your many blessings
   Money cannot buy
   Your reward in heaven
   Nor your home on high


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   So, amid the conflict
   Whether great or small
   Do not be discouraged
   God is over all
   Count your many blessings
   Angels will attend
   Help and comfort give you
   To your journey's end


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


~ Johnson Oatman, 1897

There's more....

I am filling in for Deb Brown--she and her family were lucky to get tickets to see Sen. Obama--can you imagine her leaving us for that?  Yup, me too.  I worked and then Mom and I went to Marshall's where I scored some really great looking lamps and end tables for the living room.  The end tables I have right now are about as old as I am--so they are pretty close to being antiques!  I have a pink lamp and 2 off white ones that look like pottery--very 1990s--time for a change!  I can hardly wait to get this all together.  

Some college presidents are calling for the drinking age to be lowered again.  It seems silly to consider at 18 you are an adult in every other way--and sometimes earlier.  The drinking age was 18 when I was that age--although the states could decide for themselves, so there was a patchwork of often odd laws across the country.  New Jersey allowed 18 year olds to vote, Pennsylvania stayed at 21.  I went to college in Pennsylvania!  Ohio allowed drinking over 20 and from 18-20 they could drink 3-2 beer as it was called--3.2% alcohol.  That was a difficult law to watch.  Drunk driving deaths increased, but some of that was due to the need to drive to neighboring states to drink.  It made it easier for younger kids to get alcohol since they were more likely to know an 18 year old rather than a 21 year old.  We drank our lunches during High School a few times--we got served at 17..... I wish we didn't make drinking such a forbidden fruit.  If it wasn't a big deal, I don't think we would see so much binge drinking.  It is a nightmare to deal with under-aged drinking in colleges across the country.  Students have no idea just how stupid they act and look when they drink too much.  There seem to be so many more predators today--we had great guy friends who took care of us, who would never take advantage.  

So, what are you up to?  What are you eating and drinking and thinking about?  Pull up a chair and chat for a while.

Markos Moulitsas: Taking On The System: Rules For Radical Change In A Digital Era

For reasons that should become clear, this will be necessarily a brief review.

Promoted by Rain

Do white men really travel to Indian reservations with the intent of raping Native American women?

Yes.

“(N)on-Native perpetrators often seek out a reservation place because they know they can inflict violence without much happening to them.”

From the Amnesty International report: Maze of injustice: The failure to protect indigenous women from violence (.pdf warning)

Doesn't this diary title overstate the problem?

No.

Data gathered by the United States Department of Justice shows Native American women are more than 2.5x likely to be sexually assaulted/raped than other women in the United States. 86% of Native American survivors report that the perpetrator was white.

Is there something I can do today - right now that will make a difference?

Yes. Keep reading.

I just finished reading the new book by Thurston Clarke, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days that Changed America.  I was literally unable to read more than ten pages at a time, alternatively weeping and cheering as I went.

Bobby Kennedy's last campaign, the 1968 campaign for the Presidency, was a marvel of the 19th-century campaign system.  He didn't really run on TV, except in the form of free (or "earned") media, he went from place to place, asking people for their votes in places like Kokomo, Indiana, and Pine Ridge, South Dakota.  He was positively reckless - described by Clarke and contemporaneous observers on numerous occasions as a "reverse demagogue" - someone who told people the opposite of what they wanted to hear.  Every time he said that there was violence in black communities that had to be stopped, he spoke out against the injustice that motivated the violence - at least one time calling the violence "a misguided and self-destructive attempt by blacks to announce their self-worth and dignity as human beings."

He was, in short, a modern-day Micah, refusing to comfort the afflicted because his intent was to afflict the comfortable until they realized their own responsibility to comfort the afflicted.

The scary thing, though, is that with Barack Obama's campaign we may be seeing what would have happened, had Bobby lived.  Obama, as you may recall if you haven't been asleep for the last year, was seen by some of his supporters as transformational, as being a prophet of progressivism, "A New Hope" if you will.  Now that he has won the nomination, he has suddenly become very different - seemingly more calculating, to some more "centrist," and in general avoiding statements that might lead some to think he's "dangerously liberal," although there are those (such as my uncle with whom I spent the last week) who would believe that Obama was dangerously liberal unless he became Zombie Ronald Reagan.

I can't help but wonder whether Bobby would have done the same.  Would he have "moved to the center?"  There's a strong sense of "maybe" to that.  There were times when Bobby's message emphasized the "law and order" side of his message - that violence had to stop.  There were other times when he emphasized the need for injustice to be redressed.

But ultimately, Bobby wasn't the sort of candidate in '68 who considered the politics of what he said.  He just said it, and said it so well and so convincingly that he brought along even his opponents.  My best guess is that he wouldn't have become "just another candidate" had he won the nomination.  

The lesson for Obama, I hope, is this: there was a reason that you were being treated like a rock star during the primaries.  There was a reason that you were drawing in the hopes of millions.  There was a reason that people thought they might be hearing a distant echo of gunfire when they watched you - they were hearing it echo from 1968.

Embrace that.  Accept that.  Decide that if you are to make an end on this campaign, let it be such an end as will be spoken of forever.  Be Bobby.  Be Barack.  Be our hope.

Welcome to Coffee Hour. Grab a glass of lemonade or iced tea (sweet or unsweetened, check the pitcher label!). If you're looking for a bit harder, there's margarita and mojito makings over on the side table. I've got some amazing roasted corn/jalapeno salsa left over this weekend, and Mr. Brillig whipped up a batch of guacamole, so grab some chips and a chair and tell us what's going on in your world today.

On Saturday Casa Brillig took our annual trip up to my friend Peter's house. His family's cabin on the lake, to be exact. He's been throwing a party there for 20+ years for his college friends. I met him at a friend's wedding in 1990 and thus get invited even though my undergrad was elsewhere. Over the years it's evolved from a weekend blowout with much alcohol, gaming and a trek into Boston to dance, to a heavy-on-the-bottled-water day party because the kids have to be in bed at a decent hour :-). We missed last year's because some conference was happening in Chicago and we decided to go :-),  so it was great to see all these people we never see otherwise.

I'm determined to be better about keeping contact with everyone during the year; I was reminded on Saturday just how nice they are. Finding smart, caring, sane, interesting friends with similar values is not easy, and to have them and not deepen those friendships, now that's just a waste. I have another interested party in this... Kid Brillig made friends with another of the Next Generation, and it would be nice to let them be in touch.

Do any of the friends of your youth have any sort of similar gathering? Can friendships be meaningful even if the contact is infrequent? And most importantly, what do you eat and drink at these sorts of things?!

Yup, it's an Open Thread, so feel free to chat about anything!