This social season led

us out a second night in a row, this time to the annual Bill of Rights Dinner for the ACLU in New

Mexico, for whom I am the webmaster.

A few hundred folks gathered in a large room at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town

(formerly the Old Town Sheraton). For many, it was a chance to see old friends seldom seen otherwise. The crowd was more old than young,

but less so than at a PBS fund-raising concert. It was a drastically white crowd, hovered over by a largely Spanish-speaking wait-crew.

Some may have been drawn specifically by Phil Donahue, whom we can blame for starting the whole day-time talk(back) show concept.

Like it or not, Phil’s love-child is Jerry Springer or, shudder, Tyra B(l)anks.

But, what do you know, an old white guy who

frequently references his Catholicism opposes the corporate takeover of America with the assistance of the Army of God, the Radical

Religious Right. A guy who must have enriched more than one corporation finds himself shutdown for speaking up. If the Right can revere a

spoiled, failed faux-Texan, it’s no worse that the Left might support a daytime talk show host. Only in AmeriCo.

I appreciated

hearing that his first guest 40 years ago was Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the atheist’s messiah (sorry, that would only

irritate her). It was good to be reminded that 50 years ago the ACLU supported Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to pledge allegiance to America. Between Supreme

Court decisions against and in favor of the abstainers, Jehovah’s Withnesses were beaten, scorned, and churches burned. Finally, the

Supreme Court decided that under the Federal Constitution, compulsion is not a permissible means of achieving “national unity.” These

days, Fox News does the job.

Court Decisions – West Virginia State Board of

Education v. Barnette

Symbolism is a primitive but effective way of communicating ideas. The use of an emblem or flag to

symbolize some system, idea, institution, or personality, is a short cut from mind to mind. Causes and nations, political parties, lodges

and ecclesiastical groups seek to knit the loyalty of their followings to a flag or banner, a color or design.

The State announces

rank, function, and authority through crowns and maces, uniforms and black robes; the church speaks through the Cross, the Crucifix, the

altar and shrine, and clerical raiment. Symbols of State often convey political ideas just as religious symbols come to convey

theological ones.

Associated with many of these symbols are appropriate gestures of acceptance or respect: a salute, a bowed or

bared head, a bended knee. A person gets from a symbol the meaning he puts into it, and what is one man’s comfort and

inspiration is another’s jest and scorn.

O, the times they keep a changin’.

I was particularly touched by Donahue’s observation that he used to wonder how we could have rounded up Japanese Americans for

internment but now understands how fear drives us to do our worst, drawing an apt parallel. I hope he was wrong in believing things will

get much worse — I take hope from seeing so many of BushCo’s excesses challenged by the left and right. mjh

Court Decisions – Religious Freedom Page

FIRST AMENDMENT CYBER-TRIBUNE

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a

goddamned piece of paper’

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could

further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the

Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr.

President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve

talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the

Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

Well,

millions like me have been branded “the worst elements in our culture” by the self-righteous Wm Donohue, a notorious bigot. And notice

Duhbya isn’t born-again enough to satisfy some. I hope the Radical Religious Right get so disgusted they don’t ever leave home again.

But, seriously, I’m delighted to have the festive season disturbed by these ogres. The louder they bray like asses the more they

undermine their efforts to establish the Christian Republic of America.

Happy Holidays, everyone! peace, mjh

‘Holiday’ Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes’ List By Alan Cooperman,

Washington Post Staff Writer

[S]ome conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings.

“This

clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in

our culture,” said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

Bush “claims to be a

born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn’t act like one,” said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site

WorldNetDaily.com. “I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it.” …

“Ninety-six percent of Americans celebrate

Christmas,” Donohue said. “Spare me the diversity lecture.”…

Mary Evans Seeley of Tampa, Fla., author of

“Season’s Greetings From the White House,” said the first president to send out true Christmas cards, as opposed to signed photographs

or handwritten letters, was Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Merry Christmas From the President and Mrs. Roosevelt,” said his first annual card,

in 1933. …

[mjh: Alert the Right: Roosevelt was the first to send out true Christmas cards! Time for all

conservatives to oppose the sending of Christmas cards!]

Seeley dates the politicization of the White House Christmas card

to Richard M. Nixon, who increased the number of recipients tenfold, to 40,000, in his first year. …

Ronald and Nancy Reagan,

similarly, began with a “Joyous Christmas” in 1981 and 1982 but doled out generic holiday wishes from 1983 to 1988.

mjh’s blog — Merry (insert

greeting here)

Of course,

no one can be shocked that BushCo pays for good news. However, it is getting harder to accept their claims that they are “shocked” by

behavior that is clearly inspired by the highest ranks. BushCo is full of PR and advertising flunkies. What’s shocking is how bad they

are at their jobs. mjh

Military Says It Paid Iraq Papers for News By Josh White and

Bradley Graham, Washington Post Staff Writers

The U.S. military command in Baghdad acknowledged for the first time yesterday that

it has paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, but officials characterized the payments as part of a

legitimate campaign to counter insurgents’ misinformation.

In a statement, the command said the program included efforts,

“customary in Iraq,” to purchase advertising and place clearly labeled opinion pieces in Iraqi newspapers. But the statement suggested

that the “information operations” program may have veered into a gray area where government contractors paid to have articles placed in

Iraqi newspapers without explaining that the material came from the U.S. military and that Iraqi journalists were paid to write positive

accounts. …

Officials said one unanswered question they have is whether the Lincoln Group intentionally misled newspapers by

presenting the articles as freelance journalism, obscuring the fact that the material came from U.S. armed forces.
—–

Press Briefing by

Scott McClellan

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we’ve seen the reports. We first learned about it when we saw the reports yesterday….

Q But this administration also has a history of having some questions made about paying columnists and having packaged news made

available.

MR. McCLELLAN: I think the President made very clear what his views were on those issues, and some of the practices

that had occurred were stopped, and steps were taken to prevent that from happening again.
—–

class="mine">Remember Armstrong Williams, one of many people paid by BushCo to sell the administration’s view? mjh

mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: Government Control of the Media

mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: Fox in the Chicken

Coop