Christian-Republican alliance: Faustian bargain? – American Press Institute

Growing numbers of Christians are alarmed by the hijacking of their faith. In an editorial last week, Robert Parham of the moderate Baptist Center for Ethics vowed to “take on the religious right more forcefully — critiquing its false religion and anointment of the GOP as God’s Only Party.”

Meanwhile, emboldened by the perception that evangelicals decided the election, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and other evangelical leaders close to the White House are already lining up to claim the spoils. They expect to have the power to shape the Republican agenda on everything from constitutional amendments to Supreme Court appointments.

But before conservative Christians get too comfortable with this church-state alliance, they would do well to remember a bit of familiar wisdom: Those who seek power by riding the back of the tiger end up inside.

Colorado Luis

Rocky Mountain Progressive Network got hold of an e-mail from soon-to-be-ex-Colorado Senate President John Andrews (R-Centennial). It’s very revealing to see how Republicans deal with electoral disaster, so check it out. Andrews does not engage in any handwringing whatsoever about getting trounced at the polls for promoting an out-of-touch right wing social agenda. Instead, he’s getting a radio show and he’s going to promote that agenda tirelessly. I think there is a lesson for progressives here. It’s ridiculous to think we should retreat from what we stand for in order to win an election. What we need to do is get out there in the media and keep selling our own ideas. The advantage is more people agree with our values to begin with.

The Daily Outrage

Last weekend, The Washington Post reported that acute malnutrition among children in Iraq has doubled since before the US invasion in March of 2003. That is just one statistic, out of many, that paints a disturbing picture of the US occupation. After reading press dispatches, think-tank reports and public opinion polling, The Daily Outrage compiled this sampling of the facts on the ground. …

Infrastructure

** Of the $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds allocated last year by Congress, the US has spent only $1.7 billion.

** Nationwide electricity levels are down 25 percent since the prewar days, and 66 percent lower in Baghdad.

** The value of the Iraqi currency–the Dinar–dropped 25 percent compared to the US dollar in the past year (which didn’t have a great year itself!)

Iraqi Public Opinion

** Only 33 percent of Iraqis think they’re better off now than before the war, as a Gallup poll discovered.

** According to military statistics, the number of insurgents has quadrupled since last year, from 5,000 to 20,000. A British general places the insurgency at 40-50,000 fighters.

Honor The Fallen Memorial

The Honor the Fallen memorial is the only one of its kind in America. The memorial features a photograph and short biography of every American who has been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraq Freedom.

Rolling Back Women’s Rights NYTimes Editorial

Tucked into the $388 billion budget measure just approved by the House and Senate is a sweeping provision that has nothing to do with the task Congress had at hand – providing money for the government. In essence, it tells health care companies, hospitals and insurance companies they are free to ignore Roe v. Wade and state and local laws and regulations currently on the books to make certain that women’s access to reproductive health services includes access to abortion. …

This represents a vast expansion of the “conscience protection” that federal law currently gives to individual doctors who do not want to undergo abortion training.

The affront to women’s rights, moreover, should not obscure the serious threat to the First Amendment involved in enacting what is likely to evolve into a domestic “gag rule” as, one by one, health care providers order doctors they employ not to provide patients with information about the abortion option. This echoes the way Mr. Bush reimposed a blanket Reagan-era gag rule for providers of reproductive health services abroad on his first full day in office back in 2001.

Unfortunately, vocal opposition from Democrats and a handful of Republican moderates was not enough to stop the pernicious assault on the rights of millions of women from becoming law in the rush to pass the spending bill. … Americans, and American women in particular, are officially on notice that post-election, the Republican war on reproductive rights has entered an ominous new phase.