Shameful New Stance from ‘Dr.’ Frist

Associated Press:

Echoing similar comments from
President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said “intelligent design” should be taught in public schools alongside evolution.

Frist, R-Tenn., spoke to a Rotary Club meeting Friday and told reporters afterward that students need to be exposed to different ideas, including intelligent design.

“I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of fact, of science, including faith,” Frist said.

Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design “doesn’t force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future.”

Congressional Dems Request Formal Investigation into Ashcroft’s Role in Bush CIA Leak Scandal

Raw Story:

Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) will be issuing a formal request for an immediate investigation with the US Inspector General’s office into John Ashcroft – former US Attorney General, Raw Story has learned.

The request – released to Raw Story – cites conflict of interest on the part of Ashcroft in his failure to promptly recuse himself during the initial investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Wilson. Ashcroft was US Attorney General at the time.

Investigation into GOP Lobbyists Snares Christianist Leaders

Montgomery Independent:

Sen. John McCain’s inquiry into the looting of nearly $100 million in American Indian gambling revenues by lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Michael Scanlon and Ralph Reed [has allegedly revealed] that millions of dollars from tribes with gambling facilities found their way into the hands of the Christian Coalition, the Coalition Against Gambling Expansion and others who were using the Indian funding, particularly money from the Mississippi Choctaws, to fight a lottery and video gaming in Alabama.

Beyond the question of illegalities, this presents an ethical problem for the Christian Coalition of Alabama because it’s president, John Giles, has been asked repeatedly – and under oath – over the years to disclose whether his organization took donations from gaming groups. Giles reportedly always answered that no gambling money, either directly or indirectly, had ever flowed to the Christian Coalition of Alabama in its six-year fight against the twin sins of a state lottery and video poker.

“I’d have to resign tomorrow,” Giles told one lawmaker in 2003, because while it might not be illegal to take gaming money, it would be unethical.