‘Where in the Bible…?’

Sigh. This is what it has come to: reporters asking ”where in the Bible…?” We have a Constitution with a Bill of Rights. We do not have a national bible; we do not have a national 10 Commandments. How is our nation strengthened by circumstances that lead to a press briefing that sounds like it should be in Arabic? Ayatollah Bush and his neo-con mullahs. Fundamentalism will destroy this nation, from within. mjh

Gay marriage a complex political, legal issue..

”After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization,” Bush said. ”Their action has created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.”

Excerpt: White House Press Briefing

QUESTION: What specifically would happen to society if same-sex couples were allowed to marry?

[Scott] MCCLELLAN, [Bush’s Press Secretary]: Well, that’s why I talked about the values that we should stand up and defend. The president made it very clear in his remarks that this is an enduring institution of our civilization. It goes to the very fabric of our society when he talks about this issue.

QUESTION: So the fabric of society would break down if men were allowed to marry other men and women other women?

MCCLELLAN: That’s why the president believes that this is an important value and an enduring institution to defend. …

QUESTION: Scott, following up on that, on the faith issue, the president has talked about this is intertwined with faith, but the Bible has been hotly contested on this issue. Some are saying that it’s not in the Bible; some are saying it is.

Where in the Bible has the president found…

MCCLELLAN: I think the president described it from his views about where his beliefs are and the principle of this decision.

QUESTION: He talks about faith a great deal, and he talks about how his foundation, his new foundation after 40 is based on faith.

Where in the Bible…

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‘the largest civil rights movement in a generation’

New York college town joins fray with 25 same-sex weddings

”I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution,” [Mayor Jason] West [of the New York state village of New Paltz] said, his voice booming through the outdoor public address system. ”What we’re witnessing in the village today is the flowering of the largest civil rights movement in a generation.”

Another nail in the coffin of personal rights by Regina Purcell, Staff Writer

The political ploy by President George W. Bush this week to gain a foothold in the religious zealots rank of voters is unnecessary. His support of a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages was softened by his next statement.

Bush said the proposed amendment would let states allow civil unions for same-sex couples. What’s the point?

The point is big business, such as insurance companies that don’t want the responsibility of covering a family that has two mothers or two fathers. …

As the election year is on us, it is the only opportunity to stop this administration before it’s too late. Can Americans, a huge majority living in poverty levels, afford to allow a president who misleads the public, has compensated big business to the expense of middle America, has slashed domestic programs to pieces, and continues to whittle away our personal freedoms?

It’s not just the “War on Terror.” It’s not just the personal freedoms being completely eroded through the Patriot Act. It’s our future, too.

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Duck Scalia!

Scalia, Lawyers Went Hunting While Cases Were Pending Los Angeles Times

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was the guest of a Kansas law school two years ago and went pheasant hunting on a trip arranged by the school’s dean, all within weeks of hearing two cases in which the dean was a lead attorney.

Scalia later sided with [his huntin’ buddies] in both cases. [mjh: good news for Dick Cheney!]

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported that Scalia had been a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney on Air Force Two when they went duck hunting in southern Louisiana. That trip came shortly after the Supreme Court had agreed to hear Cheney’s appeal seeking to keep secret his national energy policy task force.

Federal law says that ”any justice or judge shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might be questioned.” By tradition and court policy, justices are free to determine for themselves what constitutes a conflict. …

Scalia said that if Supreme Court justices were prohibited from taking such a trip, then they “would be permanently barred from social contact with all governors, since at any given point in time virtually all states have matters pending before us.” … [mjh: gosh, no one would ever want to be a supreme court justice!]

The Dishonorable Antonin Scalia“The controlled shooting part of the trip was good,” Graves said. “They plant birds, and that gives you a better attempt to get some birds.”

Added Bond of Scalia, “We stayed the night and had a delightful time. He was just charming to be around.” [mjh: awww, let’s not hang him afterall.]

Impeach Supreme Court Justice Scalia Petition

Whereas, by his actions, Justice Scalia has tarnished the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Be it resolved, the legislative branch of our government shall forthwith seek diligently to determine if there is cause for the impeachment of Justice Scalia.

I never sign online petions — until now. The petition’s list of Scalia’s unethical acts doesn’t include appointing Bush as President while Scalia’s wife worked on the transition team and his son sought a job in the administration. mjh

”The Constitution just sets minimums. Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires.”
— Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice, 03/18/03

Search blog for Scalia

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Ralph!

David S. Broder: How Nader could hurt Kerry’s game plan

Nader has claimed in interviews that his candidacy opens ”a second front” against Bush and would appeal greatly to disillusioned conservatives and Republicans. That is malarkey. Republican pollster Bill McInturff surveyed likely voters last month and found that the subgroups most prone to consider voting for Nader were ”younger white men, liberals and Democrats, particularly in the mid-Atlantic and Pacific regions,” the Democratic heartland. “This data makes it clear that Nader’s entry into the presidential race will have no impact on Republican or Bush voters,” he wrote.

If you assume, as most Republicans and Democrats I’ve interviewed do, that Bush prefers as few debates as possible this year, Nader’s candidacy gives Bush a great card to play. Whoever the sponsor, Bush as the incumbent can bargain for Nader’s inclusion — or use the issue of Nader’s role to delay negotiations and reduce the number of debates that can be scheduled.

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Christian coup d’état

Rich Lowry on Christians in America on National Review Online

America is in the midst of a new Great Awakening. …

[O]rthodox Christians have an enormous influence on national life through the Bush administration. What trial lawyers are to John Edwards, the orthodox are to Bush — his indispensable political base. According to Green, roughly 75 percent of evangelicals voted for Bush. White evangelicals accounted for as much as 40 percent of his total vote. Another 20 percent came from traditional Catholics and serious mainline Protestants. The Bush presidency should be stamped: “Brought to you by orthodox Christian believers.”

As Walter Russell Mead writes in his brilliant forthcoming book, Power, Terror, Peace, and War: “The rise in the number of evangelical Protestants, combined with their increasing levels of affluence, political participation and education, suggests that for the next generation at least, we will be witnessing the rise and consolidation of an evangelical establishment that will view America’s world role in a different way than the waning and dying mainstream Protestant establishment that once set the Wilsonian agenda.”

This dynamic is already evident. The divide with Europe is partly driven by faith, as secular Europeans cringe at American religiosity. America’s strong support for Israel is a product of a potent alliance between evangelicals and hawkish Jews. Evangelicals have supported an extraordinary amount of human-rights activism recently on issues from religious persecution to sex trafficking to AIDS. Bush has tapped into that idealism and made it an important aspect of his war on terror.

Domestically, the influence of Bush’s orthodox base can be seen in his faith-based initiative, his signing of a partial-birth-abortion ban and his opposition to gay marriage, among other things. The rap against evangelicals used to be that they were intolerant, but they have lately demonstrated their ability to work with conservative Jews and Catholics in a new, powerful traditionalist ecumenism.

The fervor over The Passion has taken many observers by surprise. It shouldn’t, and you ain’t seen nothing yet. [mjh: be afraid, be very afraid — oh, but that’s the Bush Doctrine, isn’t it?]

Dick Lowry proves we are, not just a Christian Nation, but an Orthodox Christian Nation.

Notice that line of Lowry’s proving the Radical Jihadist Christians are really tolerant: they form stategic alliances with other religious people. Guess atheists like me will just have to pray for tolerance, too.

Now that “Christians Rule!“, we can expect more commercial triumphs like the Jesus Action Figure. mjh

Hi, I'm Jesus and I love Dickhead Lowry!Jesus Action Figures

Biblical Action Figures are approximately 6 inches in height. Each figure includes background play scenery printed on laminated paperboard.

[mjh: They’re tax-deductible! Kidding… I think.]

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Too Late for the National Parks?

ABQjournal: Bush Plundering National ParksBy Richard B. Smith
Retired Parks Official

Wildfires get all the television air time and newspaper column inches when it comes to harm done to national parks, but there exists a much greater threat to parks: the Bush administration.

If that sounds like overheated hype and election-year politics, you can ignore my concerns as an individual, which are based on 31 years of experience as a park ranger or senior manager in various parks and regional offices of the National Park Service.

Instead, consider the unmistakable message that emerged from an October 2003 survey by the Campaign to Protect America’s Lands (CPAL) of nearly 1,400 National Park Service employees.

Nine out of 10 park rangers and other in-house experts responding to the survey are worried that Bush administration decisions affecting national parks are based more on politics and special-interest deals than on science and what is best for the parks. …

Every month seems to bring a new outrage aimed at decreasing protection for national parks and public lands in a way that means more profit for Bush campaign contributors. With this kind of unprecedented White House assault on national parks and other public lands, the pessimism of those entrusted to safeguard our national parks appears to be well founded.

The lack of optimism about the future of parks and lands is evident in the survey findings: 79 percent of respondents said that employee morale is lower than it was a couple of years ago. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed expressed a great deal of concern about “special interest influence on park policies/decisions.” Eighty-eight percent indicated a great deal of concern that “decisions are being influenced by politics rather than professional experience/science.”

The bottom line: More than four in five of surveyed National Park Service employees expressed a “great deal of concern” about being able to protect park resources. …

As a Parks Service employee responding to the survey put it: “Our parks are being threatened by special interest money and politics, which are serving to undermine a lot of our environmental protections. I think that if the American public really understood what was going on they would be outraged, but by the time the damage is realized it may be too late.”

——————————————————–
Richard B. Smith of Placitas retired in 1994 from his National Parks Service position as an associate regional director for resources management of the Southwest Regional Office. He previously served as superintendent of Carlsbad Caverns.
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Related, but a different group:

mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: American Taliban

More than 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, issued a statement yesterday asserting that the Bush administration had systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad.

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Trustworthy Voting

Commentary: Should International Monitors Observe U.S. Elections? By Debra Link

Electronic voting machines can easily be tampered with to affect the outcome. …

It is arguable that the office of the President of the U.S. was taken illegally. …

World hegemony through militaristic means (something this administration forthrightly claims) is on a heedless roll. This administration will not relinquish power easily.

I suggest a national petition drive calling for international monitoring of our Presidential election. This could be launched conceivably on the internet. If international media picked up on the fact that multitudes of Americans were so insecure with their eroding democracy that they were entreating the larger world community to observe their election process this November- well, it would be quite telling.

Everyone should be familiar with rising concerns over the trustworthiness of the election process in the US. Diebold is usually the subject of these discussions. In the full version of her commentary, Link mentions a company called ES&S (Election Systems & Software), as well. Her specific examples are alarming. This president, chosen by his father’s judges, believes he was chosen by Jesus. He is on a mission to change everything as fast as he can. What exactly is ”unimaginable” anymore? mjh

Two long, recent articles on this issue:

Politics: How Safe Is Your E-Vote?Elections go digital, but experts fear a crash
BY LEE NICHOLS, The Austin Chronicle

A Better Ballot Box? New electronic voting systems pose risks as well as solutions
By Rebecca Mercuri, Bryn Mawr College

Search this blog: Diebold

Google News Search: Diebold OR ES&S

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"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams