Month: February 2006

We Are Winning the War On Christians

Buck Banks

Wagers of sin: We’ve got ’em on the run and we are winning the war on Christians! Actually, I did not know we were waging a war on the God-jockeys until I received an e-mail from Rick Scarborough of a group called Vision America. These folks are so afraid of us lefties that they are holding a conference in the holy city of Washington, D.C., March 27-28.

Here’s what Scarborough gives as proof there’s a battle a-wagin’:

A war on Christians rages across the America. By attacking Christians, the left intends to destroy the remnants of Judeo-Christian morality.

Here’s what I mean by a war on Christians:

  • Christmas symbols and greetings are purged
  • A federal judge bans “One Nation Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance recited by school children
  • A Navy chaplain is told he can’t publicly pray in Jesus’ name
  • Removal of Ten Commandments monuments
  • Move to stifle religious expression at the Air Force Academy
  • Christians arrested for peacefully praying at a “gay pride” rally in Philadelphia
  • Federal appeals court says parental rights stop at the schoolhouse door
  • Homosexual “marriage” established by judicial decree in Massachusetts
  • Blasphemous “Da Vinci Code” movie comes out in May
  • Churches are burned down in Alabama

So I’ve been invited to attend Vision America’s The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006 conference, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington. There, I’ll supposedly be given “the knowledge and strategies to fight back effectively.”

The left intends to eliminate God-based morality from our government to achieve its goal of cultural Marxism in a secular state.

They’ve certainly lined up an impressive array of Christian soldiers and wingnuts for the conference, including Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kansas), Sen. John Cornyn (R, Texas), Congressman Tom DeLay (R, Texas), Gary Bauer (failed 2000 presidential candidate and president of American Values), Alan Keyes (failed serial candidate), con-columnist Phyllis Schlafly, radio wingnut Janet Parshall, Christian activist and radio talker Janet Folger, rightwing radio talker William Greene, and TV preachers Ron Luce and Rod Parsley.

As if that lineup wasn’t enough, there are panels addressing different aspects of the war with titles that are just hilarious:

Christian Persecution: Reports from the Frontlines

The Gay Agenda: America Won’t Be Happy

The ACLU and Radical Secularism: Driving God From The Public Square

Hollywood: Christians Through A Distorted Lens

The Judiciary: Overruling God

The Media: Megaphone for Anti-Faith Values

Jews Confront The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006

Taking Our Faith To The Ballot Box

The left intends to eliminate God-based morality from our government to achieve its goal of cultural Marxism in a secular state.

They get extra credit for cleverness. Anyway, it’s relatively inexpensive to go, and there’s actually a marriage benefit. Registration for individuals is $149; for married couples, $259; and for students (without meals), only $50.

If you go, tell me how it went. I’m curious about the War on Christians, but I don’t want to get too close and end up as collateral damage ….

Credit Where It’s Due: Bush Says Osama Helped Him Win in 2004

Trish

Loyal to the end: A new book says Bush credited Osama bin Laden for helping him win the 2004 election, but stops just short of saying Bush asked his old family pal to do it. CNN reports that Bush felt like the tape, released the Friday before Election Day Tuesday, was a little slice of serendipity for himself and his handlers.

“I thought it was going to help,” Bush said

Bush said there were “enormous amounts of discussion” inside his campaign about the 15-minute tape, which he called “an interesting entry by our enemy” into the presidential race.

Bush’s comments in the Washington newspaper were excerpts from the new book “Strategery” by Bill Sammon, a longtime White House correspondent.

“What does it mean? Is it going to help? Is it going to hurt?” Bush told Sammon of the bin Laden tapes…

“I thought it was going to help,” Bush said.

“I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush.”

Not that anyone would attempt to manipulate the voters by tugging on those fear strings, or by issuing a deluge of elevated threat level warnings as the election approached about acts and people that never proved to have any substance.

Pensito Review: Off the Wires

Buck Banks

Saudis Say 4 Militants Killed in Raids
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi authorities announced Tuesday that four of the five militants killed during police raids a day earlier in the Saudi capital included the kingdom’s top terrorist and three other members of the al-Qaida terror group. Nice shooting, guys. Okay, now you can take over our seaports.

Prosecutors: Saddam OK’d Shiite Executions
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein’s trial resumed Tuesday with the former leader’s defense attorneys ending a month-long boycott of the proceedings. When they asked the judge if they’d missed anything he replied, “Opening arguments, presentation of evidence and closing arguments, but you’re just in time for the sentencing and execution.”

Iran Says It Opposes Nuclear Weapons
TOKYO – A report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency shows there is no proof Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, Iran’s foreign minister said Tuesday in Japan. Right, and didn’t you guys recently say the Holocaust didn’t happen, either?

Rio’s Carnival Parade Pays Homage to Women
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Thousands of plumed dancers kicked off a second night of parading Monday in Rio’s pre-Lenten carnival. The Porto da Pedra group opened the festivities with 3,720 dancers who delighted the 70,000 people packed into the Sambadrome stadium. Interesting homage — nothing like putting women in huge feathered headdresses, pasties, sequined thongs and high heels, and watching them jiggle all over to demonstrate your appreciation.

Poll: 72% in Military Favor ‘Cut and Run’

Jon Ponder
Almost 90 percent of the military believes the Bush lie that Saddam was behind 9/11

According to the new Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll, just one in five troops — 72 percent — agrees with President Bush that the United States should stay “as long as they are needed” in Iraq.

There is a terrifying number in the poll however: Almost 90 percent think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, most don’t blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks.

Happy Birthday, Jack Abramoff — Republican Icon

Jon Ponder

Some people might make the case that the person who most embodies the modern Republican Party — dishonest, fear-mongering and in the pocket of corporate interests — is President George Bush. I would propose that the real GOP icon of our time is Jack Abramoff, a man who put his self-interests above those of everything else, including his country and even the political party that welcomed, encouraged and enabled his corrupt activities.

Here is his record of achievement, which you will agree is emblematic for today’s GOP:

  • Conspiracy Washington, DC (2005), pled guilty 3-Jan-2006
  • Mail Fraud Washington, DC (2005), pled guilty 3-Jan-2006
  • Tax Evasion Washington, DC (2005), pled guilty 3-Jan-2006
  • Wire Fraud Washington, DC (2005), charge dropped
  • Conspiracy Miami, FL (11-Aug-2005), pled guilty 4-Jan-2006
  • Fraud Miami, FL (11-Aug-2005), pled guilty 4-Jan-2006

Abramoff turns 48 today. If he is ever sentenced for these crimes, he’ll like get out of prison around his 78th birthday.

Panel: GAO Underestimated Cost of DoD’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy by Almost Half

Buck Banks

Queer accounting: A University of California commission whose members include a former Defense secretary has challenged the methodology used by the Government Accountability Office to calculate the cost of the Defense Department’s homosexual conduct policy, reports GovExec.com.

The UC-Santa Barbara commission accused GAO of underestimating the cost of replacing military service members discharged under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. The widely criticized policy allows homosexuals to serve in the military so long as they do not disclose their sexual orientation and bars the military from asking.

The February 2005 GAO report found that the overall cost to recruit and train replacements for the 9,488 service members separated from fiscal 1994, the year the policy was implemented, through fiscal 2003, was $190.5 million. But the California commission reported that the actual cost was $363.8 million.

Aaron Belkin, chairman of the commission and an associate professor of political science at the University of California, called the figures used by GAO “loopy.” More specifically, they were too low and inconsistent with previous figures used, he said.

‘In assessing the cost of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, we shouldn’t shortchange the taxpayers or the brave service members who are directly affected by this failed policy.’

The 29-page report from the UC commission, which included former Defense Secretary William Perry, now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, six professors and five military experts, said that GAO relied on “unrealistically low estimates” provided by the service branches.

Using publicly available figures on the cost of basic training and initial skills training, the commission estimated the cost to train replacements at $252.4 million, $157.3 million more than the $95.1 million figure reported by GAO.

Not surprisingly, the GAO is standing by its numbers despite the fact that the commission’s cost estimate is nearly twice the GAO’s. What is even less surprising coming from a Bush administration official, is the tack taken by Derek Stewart, director of GAO’s Defense Capabilities and Management division. He downplays the cost of DADT as being a drop in the bucket of the overal defense budget.
[…]

Poll: Bush’s Approval Drops to New Low

Pensito Editors

Ports Deal and Katrina Bungling Cause 8 Point Drop

Is President Bush in a race with himself to the bottom:

GOP voters oppose the ports deal by 58%

The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high.

Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they’re opposed to the agreement…

In a separate poll, two out of three Americans said they do not think President Bush has responded adequately to the needs of Katrina victims. Only 32 percent approve of the way President Bush is responding to those needs, a drop of 12 points from last September’s poll, taken just two weeks after the storm made landfall.

Mr. Bush’s overall job rating has fallen to 34 percent, down from 42 percent last month. Fifty-nine percent disapprove of the job the president is doing.

Ban GOP Marriage

Jon Ponder

Ohio Democratic state Senator Robert Hagan’s proposal to ban GOP adoption is a great idea. Hagan says “credible research” shows that adopted children raised in GOP households are more at risk for developing “emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.”

The main threat to the institution of marriage comes from the political right because so many GOP men and women cheat on their partners and have diseases. They are also prone to alcoholism and often die young.

If banning GOP adoption will prevent one more kid from having a miserable life, I’m for it. But why not nip the problem in the bud by eliminating the root cause of all our society’s ills: GOP marriage.

Over half of GOP marriages in the United States end in divorce. Half! That means that millions of marriages are destroyed by Republicans every year. (By contrast, the number of gay marriages that end in divorce in the United States is miniscule.)

Yes, the main threat to the institution of marriage comes from the political right because so many GOP men and women cheat on their partners and have diseases. They are also prone to alcoholism and often die young.

While GOP households are often unstable and cause a strain on the social fabric, fighting GOP marriage is first and foremost a moral issue. Adultery is the leading cause of divorce in mixed gender marriage — despite the fact that the Bible clearly states, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Why is it that GOP people cannot seem to understand that this is a Commandment, not a suggestion?)

Conversely, the Bible’s injunctions against gay sex are found only in a couple of obliquely worded passages among hundreds in the class of sins with eating pork, women wearing pants and improperly covering your poop whilst caravaning in the desert.

Please call or write your representatives and tell them that this country needs a constitutional amendment to save America from the iniquity of GOP marriage.

Stop GOP marriage now — before it’s too late.

Schwarzenegger Admits That His Inexperience Led to Failures

Jon Ponder

“Believe me, I expected it to go faster. In a way this is an on-the-job training. I mean I did not go to school to become a governor.”

— Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, addressing California Republican state convention

“[No one] can prepare for the job of being a governor until you’re there. And that’s when you all of a sudden see the kind of complexities.” — Schwarzenegger

In Washington, a “gaffe” is when someone accidentally speaks the truth. Gov. Schwarzenegger uttered this gaffe in front of a crowd of key constituents: the California Republican Party, at the statewide annual convention earlier this month.

Tim Russert replayed it when Schwarzenegger appeared on Meet the Press yesterday. When asked about the quote, Schwarzenegger appeared to dig his hole a bit deeper:

“[No one] can prepare for the job of being a governor until you’re there. And that’s when you all of a sudden see the kind of complexities.”

No one? Schwarzenegger’s principal advisor (and probably the source of volumes of bad advice) during the Recall campaign and his first year in office was former California governor Pete Wilson, a Republican who had spent a lifetime in public service, starting in the state Assembly, then as mayor of San Diego and as a U.S. Senator, before becoming governor.

As governor, Wilson led his party over a cliff by successfully using immigration as a wedge issue. He put the infamous Proposition 187 on the ballot to drive up rightwing votes in order to win reelection in 1994. It worked for Wilson, giving him another term in office but it moved millions of Latino voters into the Democratic Party, giving the Dems a decisive majority in the state and sending the California GOP into the wilderness.

As bad as Wilson was, his time in office now looks almost successful compared by the utter failure of his protege.

Or take the resume of Schwarzenegger’s immediate predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis: He served in the state Assembly, as chief of staff to Gov. Jerry Brown, as lieutenant governor under Wilson and then as governor.

Davis, who was also a Marine, proved to have wooden political instincts when it mattered — when he was under fire — and he was easily outgunned by Schwarzenegger’s end run around the state’s political system during the Recall campaign by limiting his interviews to national outlets like Entertainment Tonight and Oprah, where he was only asked softball questions.

After criticizing every action taken or proposed by Davis, once in office, Schwarzenegger’s approach to solving the state’s problems was fundamentally the same course Davis had charted.

Even with all their accumulated wisdom, California’s previous two governors were both left office with their reputations in tatters. Leave it to a movie star to think that he could do better than they did just by pretending to know what he’s doing.

Cheney Quietly, Belatedly Turns over Hundreds of Plame-Related Emails

Jon Ponder

The Associated Press buried the lede on this story in the fifteenth paragraph of its story on Saturday:

The defense was told that the White House had recently located and turned over about 250 pages of e-mails from the vice president’s office. Fitzgerald, in a letter last month to the defense, had cautioned Libby’s lawyers that some e-mails might be missing because the White House’s archiving system had failed.

As The Raw Story reminds us, the entire White House staff had been under orders to turn over all such documents over two years ago:

In October 2003, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales told all White House employees to turn in copies of numerous documents relating to the CIA leak investigation. It was sent after the Justice Department told the White House to hand over all records that could be relevant to investigators. According to an article at the time, the deadline was Oct. 10, 2003.

The newly-turned over emails could indicate that not all information had been divulged when the Justice Department first required the information be delivered. It could, however, also signify that Fitzgerald is seeking additional email correspondence based on information he obtained during the probe.

In a letter to Libby’s lawyers last month, Fitzgerald signaled that not all emails during the period in question were properly archived — indicating that some documents may have been lost.