President George W. Bush, right, and Prince Abduhllah held hands today at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. They were not seen skipping but who knows what went on when the cameras were turned off.
You gotta admit, this is pretty gay. Jon Stewart is going to have a field day with it.
So “Justice Sunday” has come and gone. The Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Bill Frist, right, played his part in the evangelical video conclave to help turn the Christian Right’s court-packing into a religious crusade. It just slays me how far these folks have strayed from the teachings of the leader they claim to follow.
For one thing, today’s religious Right would never have approved of the man Jesus. He was, in today’s political speak, a leftwing radical. If you believe the New Testament – or Mel Gibson – Jesus’ poltical actions, particularly clearing the moneychangers from the temple, were deliberately intended to outrage the corrupt conservatives who ran the temple and their allies, the Romans, who ran the government. Jesus knew that the punishment for political agitation was death. The cruxification of Jesus was the benchmark of political martyrdom in Western history.
If the man called Jesus were alive today, would he be a TV evangelist like Jerry Falwell who spreads hatred and fear to the ignorant masses? Would he ride in limos, fly in private jets and own diamond mines in South Africa like Pat Robertson? Would he bethrone himself at the Vatican, reigning over a religious empire that is mired in the past, subjugates women and incites the global population crisis?
Not bloody likely. Jesus would seek out the poor and downtrodden – not to fleece them but to offer them hope. He would see very little difference between the moneychangers in the temple 2000 years ago and religious leaders today who accumulate the trappings of wealth – whether they are TV evangelists or bishops of Rome.
Jesus had a message of love, but he also had moments when he was scornful and impatient (after all, he was only human!) especially toward the powerful few who used their position to oppress the powerless. Why would a current-day Jesus be any different?
Fortunately for those in the Christian Right who are hellbent on turning this country into a theocratic state and/or bringing about the Second Coming, there is no such thing as Judgment Day because if Jesus did come back, he’d be mighty pissed at folks who are engaging in McCarthyite politics in his name.
What’s the speck of light on Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s forehead that follows him wherever he goes these days? It’s the laser from the scope of the rifle of national Republicans, who are trying to sweep him up in the “Democrats hate people of faith” war they invented.
The Democrat is one of 20 senators targeted by [James] Dobson’s Colorado-based Focus on the Family, which is running newspaper ads bashing Democrats for holding up Bush’s most conservative judicial nominees…
”There is only one reason Sen. Nelson and fellow liberals are desperate to block these judges,” the ad reads. “They would easily be confirmed by a majority of the Senate, because they represent the president’s mainstream American values.”
Yeah, that’s it. It’s because their acceptance is a slam-dunk, not because they’re psycho nutcases. And since when does the president represent “mainstream American values?”
At the dog park the other day, the discussion around the bench was fear over the growing deficit and gas prices. One dog owner was Jewish, one Muslim, and the rest of us some brand of Christian. Our ages range from 20s to 60s. Not one of us supported any of the president’s policies – economic, military, or social.
But what I really object to is having another do-nothing, partisan halfwit like Mel Martinez forced on Florida by outsiders.
A spokesman for Nelson suggested Dobson is ”acting vindictively without regard to the facts.” Nelson, spokesman Dan McLaughlin noted, has voted for 206 of Bush’s 215 nominees – including Miguel Estrada, Bush’s nominee for a federal appeals court.
Nelson, acutely aware of the GOP’s desire to take his seat in 2006, joined fellow Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska in voting to end the filibuster against Estrada, who ultimately withdrew his nomination.
”This ad is completely without merit, based on Dobson’s partisan vindictiveness,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration rarely bothers with a strategy or plan,
Preferring to sow chaos and disruption whenever they can.
Every day they must come up with some,
New Epstein-file coverup diversion,
And that, Dear Reader, is why the United States is making war on Iran.
