ShaneBertou.com

“[It's] a fraud, a racket. … I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. … What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. … Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’”

Can anyone tell me how this guy has managed to stay on the air as long as he has? Can anyone tell me how this guy manages to pull in an audience of 8 million listeners a day and is syndicated on over 350 radio stations across the country? And this isn’t even the most hateful, ignorant or ridiculous thing I’ve heard him say. Only the most recent!

Every time I come across his show on the radio I think to myself, “Nobody out there is buying this nonsense … are they? Everyone knows the joke is on them … right?” But alas, his radio show and books rake in the cash at a ridiculous level.

This guy spews this same venom all over liberals, gays, the ACLU, immigrants, feminists and anyone and everyone else on a regular basis. But attacking kids diagnosed with autism? Methinks Mr. Savage has hit an all-time low.

As part of a promotional effort for their recent youth camp, the Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City planned to give away an AR-15 assault rifle to one lucky camper.

Yes, you read that right. And it’s not the first time they’ve given guns away as prizes at the camp.

In watching KOCO’s coverage of this story I couldn’t help but think to myself how the typical reaction might be a wee bit different if they were doing a report on a different religious group.

What if that “praise music” playing on the computer was a Qawwali? What if the girls wore head coverings while they drew up the posters? What if the young boys being taught to fire automatic weapons and practicing combat maneuvers were wearing turbans? What if the screaming red-faced teacher was saying the exact same words - but in Arabic? What if the spiritual leader defending his right to arm children and extolling the virtues of the camp was called “Sheikh Ali” instead of “Pastor Bob?”

Wouldn’t middle America be in hysterics? Wouldn’t the feds have raided their compound by now?

I’m just sayin’.

Wow! I figure that anything that makes Jesse Jackson say something like that must be worth hearing!

So what did Obama do to make Jesse flip his lid? Well, can you believe he had the audacity to challenge fathers to get an education, strive for achievement, quit blaming others for their problems and to be a positive presence in the lives of their children? Scandalous!

Hear Obama’s comments for yourself.

Each month nearly 3,000 people do something those of us who were born in America never had to - take the citizenship test. It’s just one part of the 8 to 14 month process of becoming a United States citizen, but it might be the most difficult.

MSNBC posted a sampling of the test questions on their website. If you were to take the test today, would you be eligible for citizenship? Not if you score less than 80%.

So, how’d you do? Be honest!

It would appear as though Shane Claiborne’s Jesus for President tour has finally caught the attention of the mainstream media. CNN covered a recent stop in the politics section of their website today. Here are some quotes:

“This whole project is about the political imagination of what it means to follow after Jesus,” Claiborne said. “The language of Jesus as Lord and savior is just as radical as it would be to say ‘Jesus as our commander in chief’ today.”

“With the respectability and the power of the church comes the temptation to prostitute our identity for every political agenda.”

“We’ve profaned the blood at the foot of the cross and turned it into Kool-Aid and marketed it all over the world. We’ll make an art and a business out of taking the Lord’s name in vain.

“This is not about going left or right, this is about going deeper and trying to understand together. Rather than endorse candidates, we ask them to endorse what is at the heart of Jesus and that is the poor or the peacemakers and when we see that then we’ll get behind them.”

I haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet, but The Irresistible Revolution has been very influential to me since first reading it a couple years ago. Have any of you read it, or have you attended one of the tour stops?

In case you missed it, earlier this week Dr. James Dobson used the “Focus on the Family” broadcast to criticize Barack Obama’s understanding of the Christian faith and accuse him of “deliberately distorting the Bible,” “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter,” “willfully trying to confuse people,” and having a “fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”

Deliberately? Willfully? Fruitcake??? Those are more than strongly worded criticisms. I do believe thems fightin’ words!

My initial reaction was to leave it all well enough alone. In my opinion it was a bit of a non-story and I figured it wouldn’t get much attention from most folks. Boy was I wrong! I can’t believe the amount of chatter I’m seeing around the blogsphere about the good doctor’s remarks.

Rather than rehash all that here, I figured I’d offer up a few resources (available as comments) and let you folks make up your own minds about it all.

I’ve reaped the multitude of benefits from having a dad in my house who busted his back to make sure we had the best he could provide. Thanks dad. I’m eternally grateful for your sacrifice.

Now, I’ve got two boys dependent on me, and I hope I can be half the man to them that you were to me.

Happy Father’s Day. I love you.

News just broke that Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, died earlier today of an apparent heart attack. He was reading voice overs for this Sunday’s episode at NBC Studios when he collapsed suddenly and died.

This is pretty sad news for me. Most of my Sunday mornings for the past few years have been spent watching Russert on Meet the Press. I always enjoyed the tenacity with which he grilled candidates and other political figures, as well as the discussion panels he assembled to talk about the issues.

Thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family. He will no doubt be missed.

Perhaps no candidate in history has made better use of the vast resource potential of the internet than Barack Obama. Through the use of social networking, viral video, podcasting and online fund raising, Obama’s campaign has revolutionized the role of the web in American politics.

But the internet has also been a double-edged sword for the Obama camp. For every new donor he gains (1.5 million and counting) there seem to be fifty rumors about him circulating around the web; threatening to damage his campaign and his credibility. And with every “Sally 700 Club” forwarding these inflammatory emails to everyone in their address book as quickly as they come in (and we’ve all gotten dozens of them), rebutting these “smears” has become a pretty daunting task for Obama (and his supporters).

That’s why the Obama campaign has launched FightTheSmears.com. It’s an online resource where the various “smears” in circulation are logged, fact-checked and rebutted. In keeping with the social networking strength of Obama’s online presence, the site also has tools which enable users to enter the email addresses of up to ten people to send a reply about each “smear.” Better yet, you can even load the contacts from your address book (works with all major online email providers such as Yahoo, GMail, MSN, etc.)

So the next time you get the inevitable email accusing Obama of being a Muslim, refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, or claiming to have “secret video” of his wife using a racial slur - why not take a few moment to check the facts and send a reply?

(Hillary) is not taking this to the convention, and she’s not suing the DNC. I’ll put money on it. She’s going to keep running to try to get her campaign out of debt. She’ll tone down the venom to try temper the party’s divide and will end her campaign gracefully after all the primaries have been held. At which point Florida and Michigan will be meaningless - because Obama’s lead will remain too much to overcome (the margin grows wider with each round of primaries) and the superdelegate snowball effect will continue in his favor. Then the DNC will seat all the Florida and Michigan delegates at the convention so as not to alienate voters.

- Shane Bertou, commenting on the post “Is it over for Hillary?” on May 08, 2008.

Pretty much spot on thank you very much. Just eliminate the word “gracefully” and change “all the Florida and Michigan delegates” to “half” and I nailed it. (Although, I’m still holding out on FL and MI. I think that ultimately they’ll decide to seat them all.)

Now for the next round of predictions:

When she gives her speech on Saturday, she will put to rest the speculation regarding her and the VP slot. She’s going to get pressure from senior leadership in the party to stamp out that fire immediately. If that cloud is still looming over this process on Saturday it won’t do anything to help unite the party - it will only make things worse.

If she wants to continue to have a career in politics, she’ll be the ultimate team player now. She’ll tell her supporters that she and Obama spoke about the possibility, but she has decided she can best serve the party by fighting for New Yorkers and the best interests of the country by focusing her attention on her role in the Senate. And she looks forward to working with Sen. Obama in whatever capacity he asks of her during the election process and after he’s sworn in as President of the United States. (*cough* Cabinet position *cough*).

Obama won’t, and shouldn’t, select Hillary as his VP for the following reasons:

1) He’s running as the “Change” candidate. Having someone who has been working in Washington for the past 16 years - behind the scenes and as an elected official - as his running mate is a huge liability.

2) She will constantly try to upstage him. For example, her speech on Tuesday night. That was a historic night for Obama and America. That was his night, and his moment to shine. And yet, instead of conceding and being congratulatory, she instead was still carrying on like she had a shot at winning the nomination.

3) The last thing a first term President wants, especially having won on the platform of “Change,” is a former President sniffing around the White House. Especially when that ex-President is Bill Clinton. That would be a tremendous distraction.

4) The way she chose to run her campaign has made it nearly impossible for her to be on the ticket. How’s she going to be his running mate when she was so critical of his “lack of experience?” How will the Clintons put the race card back in the deck now that it’s been played so often by them? How does Bill take back all the damage he tried to do to Obama’s campaign and then go out and cheer lead for him?

In my opinion, Obama’s short-list should be (in no particular order):

1) Bill Richardson - A Hispanic border-state governor who could be a great asset in bridging the black/Hispanic divide. He would also fit the “Washington outsider” mold better than others.

2) John Edwards - Great on poverty, a Southern Democrat and blue-collar favorite. But he could be damaged goods after losing the VP bid four years ago as John Kerry’s running mate.

3) Kathleen Sebelius - Could be a bit too new to the national political arena, but another rising star in the Democratic party and a blue-collar fave. Her selection could diffuse the hostility Obama is facing from Hillary’s feminist supporters. Or it could enrage them.

The Associated Press is reporting that, according to their tally, Barack Obama has “effectively” clinched the Democratic nomination.

The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

On a related note.

If it holds true that Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination, his keynote speech at the Democrat National Convention is scheduled to take place on August 28th; the 45th anniversary of what is arguably the most famous speech in American history. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his immortal “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th, 1963.

So this video has been shown all over the place since Saturday. But it’s just too darn entertaining to pass up!

Racist? Crazy? A crazy racist? Either way … wow!

Well former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan sure has stirred up a shiz-storm with the release of his memoir titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.

Starting yesterday afternoon, and extending on into today’s morning talking head parade, it has been a non-stop deluge of White House surrogates chiding McClellan; painting him as a turncoat. They rolled out all the big guns too - including his predecessor Ari Fleischer, former Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett, and none other than Karl Rove himself!

I don’t think the White House has ordered an assault like this since Normandy!

While McClellan contends that he is answering to “a loyalty to the truth” by coming out with his side of the story (on Iraq, the Valerie Plame scandal, etc.), his critics insist it’s “total crap” and merely the vengeful aspirations of a scorned former White House employee trying to sell a few books.

So what do you think? Is McClellan a turncoat? Or does the all-out assault by White House surrogates indicate that he might be hitting a little too close to the nerve?

We may soon find out as Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) is calling for McClellan to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee.

On Memorial Day, in an effort to pay tribute to those soldiers who lost their lives fighting in Iraq, I posted a list of every U.S. casualty from the beginning of the war until now.

The list contained over 4,000 names, including the age, rank and city of origin of each soldier.

If you would like to view that list you can do so here.

Celebrity welcome for Obama in Oregon

It was a rock star’s welcome for US presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama on Sunday as he campaigned in Oregon, with a record crowd of 75,000 turning up to hear him speak.

Obama greeted the crowd, who had gathered on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland, with “Wow! Wow! Wow”, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said the Obama campaign’s previous biggest crowd was 35,000 when he spoke at the Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

A researcher in the U.K. is claiming that while parts of the brain which are associated with aggression are more active while children play video games, there is no conclusive evidence that this aggression translates to violent behavior in the real world.

In fact, he argues that despite a massive increase in the popularity of video games over the past decade, the incidents of violent crime involving children has actually dropped.

“Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use. … With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence.”

The debate over video game violence isn’t going away any time soon. Neither is the popularity of violent video games. Just last week sales of Grand Theft Auto IV topped the $500 million mark in its first week on the market.

So what do you think? Is there a connection between video game violence and violence in real life? Could it be possible that violent video games are actually making kids less violent?