Year: 2007

More Evangelical Corruption – This Time It’s Oral Roberts’ Heirs

Jon Ponder

Via Digby who makes the point:

We really are getting to the point where it’s easier to assume that conservative religious leaders are crooks, perverts or liars. Sometimes all three. It’s amazing that the Christian right (to which I would add the Catholic Church’s moral teachings in light of the priest scandal) has thrived as long as it did.

One of my colleague Buck’s favorite moments in the annals of televangelism was Oral Roberts’ unique fundraising campaign in 1987 in which he told his sheeple that God had put a ransom on his head. The Big Guy was demanding that Roberts’ followers cough up $8 million or else He would smite Roberts dead.

Amazing it seems, this bizarre fundraising appeal worked. In fact, it wasn’t even considered much of a scandal at the time.

Now Roberts, who is 89, may be facing real scandals in the organizations he founded and in his family — scandals that include political skullduggery, Jim and Tammy Bakker-style lavish spending and purportedly “scores” of improper text messages sent by Oral’s middle-aged daughter-in-law to underaged males:

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as “underage males.”

According to Charity Navigator,Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association has negative net assets of $-12, 687,594. Richard Roberts, who is president and CEO, receives a salary of $105,000. Lindsay Roberts, executive vice president, receives salary of $77,000.

The Red Scare Lives: Rightwing Trots Out Socialized Medicine Scare

Jon Ponder

As Michael Moore points out in “Sicko,” his documentary on how corporate greed has destroyed the U.S. healthcare system, rightwingers never complain about the socialism of the U.S. military or local fire and police departments and libraries. It is only when discussing healthcare that the old socialist bogeyman is dredged up:

Nearly two decades after the West’s victory over communism, one might have thought it possible to discuss reform of the health-care system without invocations of the old saw “socialized medicine.” But no.

“At least Mr. Baucus isn’t disguising his socialist goal,” a Wall Street Journal editorial claimed about the Montana senator’s push to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. “In sum, SCHIP turns out to be socialized medicine for ‘kids,’ ” wrote Post columnist Robert Novak. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the “SCHIP bill is not a back door to get socialized medicine. They went straight to the front door.” Rudy Giuliani argued: “The American way is not single-payer, government-controlled anything. That’s a European way of doing something; that’s frankly a socialist way of doing something.”

The reason for this is clear: The insurance companies are major donors to the GOP. As was famously said in another horror movie: “Quid pro quo, Dr. Lector.”

Bush Bombshell: He Dislikes All the Candidates

Trish

Bush’s answer was so quick and so definitive that it was overlooked, coming two-thirds of the way through a long, rambling Q & A with a friendly group put together by the Lancaster County, Penn. Chamber of Commerce.

Question: Are you able at this point to support any of the presidential candidates coming up?

The President: No.

Q: After saying you’re still having fun, I have even more respect for you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q: But my question is a little bit lighter, I guess. Two things. One, are you able at this point to support any of the presidential candidates coming up?

THE PRESIDENT: No.

Q: All right. (Laughter.) Then my next question. I have recently watched the interviews with your daughters, and you have to be very proud of them.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)

Q: I’m proud of my daughter. My question is, would you rather see your daughters go into business or politics?

THE PRESIDENT: I’d rather them do whatever they want to do…

And that was that. Bush never backed up and explained why he doesn’t support any of his party’s candidates, or elaborated on the subject in any way.

We knew the Republican candidates were distancing themselves from Bush. We didn’t know the feeling was mutual.

It will be interesting to see if that changes after a nominee is selected. I find it very hard to imagine that Bush/Cheney will refrain from supporting the Republican. Surely they know that after they leave the White House, someone’s bound to trip over a body or two left behind by their administration. Surely they’d rather that someone be a Republican.

His answer also explains why the Bush cash machine hasn’t cranked up. The Rangers are so far hanging on to the millions they made available in the last two presidential cycles, leaving Republicans lagging.

Combined, the top three Democratic contenders — Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — have raised nearly $190 million compared to the $121 million Romney, Giuliani and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have raised.

Poll: 27% of GOP Would Bolt If Giuliani Were Nominee

Jon Ponder

Rasmussen:

If Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination and a third party campaign is backed by Christian conservative leaders, 27 percent of Republican voters say they’d vote for the third party option rather than Giuliani. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that a three-way race with Hillary Clinton would end up with the former First Lady getting 46 percent of the vote, Giuliani with 30 percent and the third-party option picking up 14 percent.

Atchison Suicide

Jon Ponder

The federal prosecutor from Florida who was arrested in a child-sex sting in Michigan last month has killed himself in prison:

J.D. Roy Atchison, 53, of Gulf Breeze was found unresponsive in his cell Friday morning in the special housing unit of the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Mich…

“His death appears to be the result of suicide,” Truman said. “A thorough investigation is under way.”

…He was arrested Sept. 16 at the Detroit Metropolitan International Airport after corresponding over the Internet with a Macomb County (Mich.) Sheriff’s Office detective who posed as a mother interested in allowing men to engage in sex with her fictitious 5-year-old daughter, authorities said.

NationalPornSunday – Oct. 7, 2007

Jon Ponder

It’s not what you think:

Over the last two years, almost 200 churches throughout the country have taken part in National PornSunday.
October 7, 2007…

… is your chance to bring hope to those who are struggling with pornography. For some, it is ludicrous to link three X’s with church. For others, it’s long overdue. The one undeniable truth that can’t be ignored is the blatant push for all things sexual in our society. PornSunday seeks to drive the conversation about pornography into our churches, families, and lives. PornSunday wants to bring healing and recovery to those struggling with pornography.

One day. One message. Your voice. Churches across the country have become the strength and hope for those struggling with this dirty little secret, and now it’s your church’s opportunity. PornSunday allows you to begin this conversation and then, be equipped to talk about pornography and be prepared for the events that follow after addressing your congregation.

XXXchurch.com has compiled some of the best resources dealing with pornography and put them all in one PornSunday kit, that equips your church to talk about pornography and prepares your church to deal with the issues after PornSunday is over.

Call me old fashioned but I think pornography ought to be kept out of church.

Two Saudi Men Sentenced to 7,000 Lashes for Being Gay

Jon Ponder

Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent declaration that there are no gay people in Iran brought attention to the fact gays in Iran who are discovered are sentenced to death, and that a pair of teenaged boys
were executed for being gay in 2005.

American conservatives, many of whom advocate re-criminalizing gay behavior, may have been able to distance themselves from the story because Iran is an enemy of the United States. But now comes word that a major U.S. ally has sentenced two men to be tortured by flogging, and that part of the sentence has already been carried out in public:

Prison authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun administering 7,000 lashes to each of two men convicted of committing “homosexual acts”, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The Okaz newspaper says that the sentence was being meted out in “phases” and was being conducted in a public square in the southwestern city of Al-Bahah.

Neither man has been named.

The floggings began on Tuesday. The men were dragged into the square, their shirts removed and they were whipped. They were then returned to prison. The process was repeated on Wednesday and will continue daily until all 7,000 lashes have been administered.

Islamic laws prohibiting gay sex are brutal:

Among the Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhahib), the Hanafi school mandates a severe beating for the first offense, and the death penalty for a repeat offender. The Shafi’i school calls for 100 lashes for an unmarried homosexual, death by stoning for a married one. The Hanbali school requires stoning across the board. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, directed his followers to kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him”(‘Umdat al-Salik, p17.3).

UPDATE:

Contact info:

Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037

Main Number: (202) 342-3800
Information/Press Office: (202) 337-4076
e-mail: info@saudiembassy.net

Romney’s Liberal Views Exposed in New Ad from Gay GOPers

Jon Ponder

Romney Has “Massachusetts Values”

The Log Cabin Club, a gay Republican organization, has an ad up in which they expose Mitt Romney’s egregious flipflops on social issues. Here’s the transcript:

Narrator: For years he’s fought conservatives and religious extremists — Mitt Romney.

Romney: “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country … I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it.” — Massachusetts Senate Debate, October 25, 1994, Boston, Faneuil Hall.

Narrator: Mitt Romney opposed the gun lobby…

Even Ronald Reagan…

Romney: I was independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush. — Massachusetts Senate Debate, October 25, 1994, Boston, Faneuil Hall.

Narrator: … a record fighting the religious right … a pro-choice record … Massachusetts values … Mitt Romney.

It’s hard to parse the thinking behind the fact that the LCC decided not to mention Romney’s former support of gay civil rights in the ad — but then it’s impossible to figure why any gay person would be a Republican. There can’t be a more friendless group in politics.

Blackwater Parasite: Contractor Recruits US Troops On Duty in War Zone

Jon Ponder

In addition to receiving an estimated $1 billion in fees from the U.S. government since the Iraq war began, Blackwater is also ripping off U.S. taxpayers by recruiting U.S. soldiers while they are on duty:

Blackwater contractors are allowed to recruit uniformed personnel while they are on duty in Iraq, and they have a powerful recruitment tool: Salaries that are six times what the military pays.

Astonishingly, contractors are free to approach those in uniform, offer them generous salaries to leave their service in wartime, then profit from the skills your tax dollars taught them.

This isn’t just about Navy SEALS or other special operators. In intelligence, for example, we train young soldiers for complex missions and expensively process their security clearances – then contractors bribe them to leave the military, raking in big bucks from your investment in their new employee.

Blackwater contractor salaries are six times military pay:

Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, “equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier,” [according to a congressional report].

And the $445,000 figure probably doesn’t include benefits, perks or bonuses to be awarded upon completion of service.

If the salary of a military security officer is $74,000 (one-sixth of $445,000), the government would save $371,000 in pay for each of the estimated 1,000 Blackwater contractors deployed in Iraq — a total savings of $371 million per year.

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is a major donor to the GOP and comes from a wealthy family that is highly connected in the Michigan Republican Party. It is unlikely Blackwater’s contracts will be terminated while the Bush regime is in power, but Congress should curtail the company’s practice of recruiting U.S. troops in the war zone.

Justice Thomas: Liberals Scarier Than Ku Klux Klan

Jon Ponder

In his new autobiography, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — who was under-qualified to serve on the Supreme Court when he was nominated by Pres. George Bush in 1991, and his performance in the interim has been lackluster, to put it politely — reveals himself as a shallow and vain man who is still nursing wounds over his contentious nomination hearings 16 long years ago.

But his comparison of his liberal critics to the Ku Klux Klan is over the top:

“I’d grown up fearing the lynch mobs of the Ku Klux Klan; as an adult, I was starting to wonder if I’d been afraid of the wrong white people all along. My worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony.”

Writing about Anita Hill, the woman who accused him during the hearings of making untoward remarks of a sexual nature, Thomas goes for petty:

In a somewhat pettier vein, he adds that she had “bad breath,” that the idea he might have wanted to date her was “laughable,” that nobody on his staff liked her and that “the first thing she did [when she went with Thomas to work at the EEOC] was claim the largest office in my suite.”