Bottom of the Ninth: Politics - 2, Christofascism - 1

2007's Values Voters Summit - God's Warriors

(psst! notice: the guy in front doesn't have a flag lapel pin! - he must be a secret Obama supporter!)

The Culture War Will Be Heating Up Again... After America's Evangelicals sees the new Pew Report on Religion and Politics:

Some Social Conservative Disillusionment

August 21, 2008

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center reveals that most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. Four years ago, just 30% of conservatives believed that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics. Today, 50% of conservatives express this view.

As a result, conservatives' views on this issue are much more in line with the views of moderates and liberals than was previously the case. Similarly, the sharp divisions between Republicans and Democrats that previously existed on this issue have disappeared.

The numbers above spell big worries for people like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and his spiritual owner James Dobson. My guess is that the exploits of people like Pat Robertson, Rod Parsley and John Hagee have been more detrimental to their cause than they thought possible. When you’re marketing religion (as well as hatred), you’d better take into account a global economy. Even Bush knew that when he went to the Olympics. But he stupidly tried to do several things at once: create a positive American presence and castigate the host country for human rights violations. Unfortunately, he’s so inept at doing even one thing at a time that he placed our diplomatic rating in China back down to zero.

The Fudds and the Gantrys will be angry about this new trend. It's significant: Christofascists don't have as much power as they had 4 years ago. But "be afwaid, be vewy, vewy afwaid. heheheheheh!" Like cornered animals, they will lash out with every means, reasonable or unreasonable, they can. Watch/read/imbue what they say at the "Values Voters Summit"

Check out People For The American Way Sept. 12-14 and what they report about the Submit, ah I mean "Summit."

This may yet be the Christofascist view of America:

Rich: When You Can't Tell How Many Homes You Own!

Terminator Plus Madame? Nah!
But Cindy Better Get Used To Being At The Wrong End Of Publicity!

Cindy McCain Should Have Answered The Question About
the Number of Houses They Own

Cindy McCain: very rich, very philanthropic and very volunteer-driven and ...very vulnerable.

So why isn't she being hunted down like Teresa Heinz Kerry? Or Michelle Obama? Or is she just a wealthy Pat Nixon? Has she even found her campaign personality yet? Obama found hers a while ago. Read the wikipedia.com bio of Mrs. McCain here. Apparently, except for a few "lapses in judgment" (my phrase), the only word for this woman is "paragon":

She has stated that the American public wants a First Lady of the United States who will tend toward a traditional role in that position. She would not attend Cabinet meetings, but would continue her involvement in overseas non-profit organizations and would urge Americans to do the same globally or locally; she envisions herself as a possible figurehead for humanitarian work, along the lines of Diana, Princess of Wales.

She's been on or is on the board of so many charities and causes that she seems positively surreal. She's even an amateur pilot and race car driver! (26 years in NASCAR!) She's the wealthy Mary Haines* of the 21st century!

Ironically, the image that she has built up for the last 30 years may be her biggest problem: the American public really loves to push people off pedestals. She's overdue for a National Enquirer expose. It may come in the form of prescription drug addiction (which she has admitted to, but if the image of "addict" clings to Rush Limbaugh, it will probably cling to her as well). It may come in the form of an "affair" to offset the fact that she was essentially McCain's "mistress." Or it may come in the fact that her money was involved directly in the "Keating Five" scandal.

As to the reason why she has been conspicuously absent in the last week? Is it REALLY carpal tunnel or something more sinister? Hey, the tabloids have to make a buck!

Seriously, she seems like a wonderful, wonderful woman. And sophisticated enough to make Laura Bush look positively dowdy (or does Cindy have a love affair with one-color pantsuits too?).

I wish her luck. She'll need it.

*The almost flawless Park Avenue wife and mother in Claire Booth Luce's The Women.

Rod Parsley's Xian Warriors

Xian Warriors
Originally uploaded by nickeeeast

Do you think that when Rod Parsley dies, he'll have clay models of all his "warriors" made so that they can be with his soul in the afterlife?

Just a thought.

Onward Christian (Only) Soldiers: Spirituality According to Gen. "Proslytizing" Petraeus

"When Soldiers Need Spiritual Energy."

Sounds like an ad for a caffeinated power drink.

August 20, 2008

Military.com, by Bryant Jordan

Gen. David Petraeus is used to controversy surrounding the war in Iraq, but his publicized thoughts on an Army chaplain's book for Soldiers put him squarely in the middle of the ongoing conflict over religious proselytizing in the U.S. military.

The book is "Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel," by Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William McCoy, and according to Petraeus' published endorsement of the work, "it should be in every rucksack for those times when soldiers need spiritual energy."

Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said it "strains credulity" that Petraeus never knew that his private written endorsement of the book was in the public domain since last year.

This latest brouhaha over religion and the military reminded me of a more audacious incident with one Lt. General William Boykin. Remember him? "My God was better than his god."

(AP, Aug. 19, 2004)

Islamic and religious freedom groups, as well as some members of Congress, criticized Boykin when news reports surfaced last October of remarks he made in several speeches at evangelical Christian churches. Boykin said the enemy in the terrorism fight was Satan and that God had put President Bush in the White House.

General Boykin (retired) is now a "professor" at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia (just what he teaches, I don't know - yet). Hampden-Sydney College's profile is that of the last all-male "make you into men" colleges. His April 8 speech to Epicenter 2008, a conference sponsored by Israel sounded like he had never left the battlefield:

One day, we're going to stand before the gates of Heaven. Some of us want to be able to walk up there in a white robe and we want to sing Abba Father and Amazing Grace and we want to say to the Lord, "I worshiped You." But I want you to think about this: Heres the way I want to enter the gates of Heaven. I want to come skidding in there on all fours. I want to be slipping and sliding and I want to hit the gates of heaven with a bang. And when I stand up and I stand before Christ, I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows. I want to be covered with mud. And I want to be standing there with a ragged breast plate of righteousness. And a spear in my hand. And I want to say, "Look at me, Jesus. I've been in the battle. I've been fighting for you." Ladies and gentlemen, put your armor on and get into battle. God bless you.

A "breast plate of righteousness"? "I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows" - notice he doesn't say whose blood. Why do I think that Jesus would have rebuked him? Or a least said, "Boy, you're a schmuck!"

And as to God having put George W. "lowest-approval-rating-ever" Bush in the White House?

If there is a Satan, he's doubling over in laughter right now.

"You're a Bush!" - The "W" Trailer Makes Bush's Life Look Wasted and Irrelevant

Which It Is.

Oh, well. I guess it's SOME form of "legacy."

Josh Brolin: "This is NOT a political movie! It's a biography!"

But it looks like a made-for-TV comedy special, especially when you see who's cast in it. Com'on, Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney? Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush? And Josh Brolin as a party-hearty young (and middle-aged) George Bush?

(Red State Update)

"Who's Josh Brolin?"
"He's Barbra Streisand's stepson."

But seriously, it takes balls for someone to make a movie about a bumbling idiot of a president - while he's still alive. Remember my phrase: "Fudd's the one with the gun." Oliver Stone might think he's Bugs Bunny having a rollicking good time at GWB's (Fudd's) expense, but if McSame becomes President, Oliver might realize that Bushes have thorns.

Even the ads for the trailer are ruinously funny. Read (if you can) the "teaser" poster for the trailer, then watch the trailer.

Is This the Portrait of the Most Effective Serial Killer in History?

elizabeth-bathory-tm
Originally uploaded by yehandhow

Countess Elizabeth Bathory had a terrible effect on young women: they always seemed to wind up being tortured and/or dying. She was charged with 80 murders, but legend had the number slightly higher: 650. So very many women went missing in areas of Slovakia, Hungary and Austria that it was rumored that she bathed in blood to keep her youth and beauty. After she was charged (there was no formal trial) she was imprisoned in her bedroom - actually walled up in it with only a small door to pass food. She died mysteriously four years later (there were days of untouched food in the room).

Her legacy was to become a kind of "Countess Dracula" because of the bathing legend. Below is the ironically named "Iron Maiden" - one of Elizabeth's (supposedly) favorite toys.

Fallout From Rick Warren's Faith Forum?

And What About Other Uber Christians?
Then Again, With Friends Like Ralph Reed,
Who Needs Enemies?

Last week, news broke that Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition director and crony of Jack Abramoff, would be helping to raise money for Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) fundraiser in Atlanta. Reed “touted himself as a member of McCain’s ‘Victory 2008 Team’ in an e-mail that solicited donations on McCain’s behalf,” and public watchdog organizations called on McCain to denounce Reed. The Wall Street Journal now reports that Reed was a no-show at tonight’s Atlanta fundraiser.

This now makes THREE prominant conservatives John McCain has had to distance himself from. Whose idea was it to invite Reed anyway? But is McCain distancing himself from Reed, or is Reed distancing himself from McCain? Maybe Reed is being paid NOT to have a relationship with John McCain. Hey, that would be pretty nifty - being paid NOT to endorse a candidate! Sort of like farmers who are paid NOT to grow things.

Who the hell would have requested the presence of Ralph Reed anyway? It shows that the McCain camp is slipping when it comes to endorsements and support. Reed's curriculum vitae is terrible:

• His religious experience was at a Washington bar when the Holy Ghost himself "demanded me to come to Jesus."
  
• His college activist group was supported by Jesse Helms
• He headed his own political consultant firm and had clients like Enron, Microsoft, eLottery and The People's Republic of China.
• He helmed The Christian Coalition and left underneath a shadow of scandal and investigating by the IRS and the Federal Election Commission.
• Then he got together with Jack Abramov.

The person who invited him to the Atlanta fundraiser obviously doesn't have a brain.

There will be other fallouts from the Faith Forum and John McCain's answers: evangelical leaders, for example.

“I don’t think it’s right for pastors to endorse [a political candidate] in the first place,” Warren said on a recent CNN interview when asked if he thinks McCain was right to disavow controversial pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley.

From Michelle Malkin (before the Forum):

Both candidates will uh and um and blather their way incoherently with vague platitudes about religion throughout this two-hour event.

That's how important religion is to Malkin. I think she was denegrated for her wildly spectulative view.

From TIW by fringe blogger Bruce Tyson:

Rick Warren: pathetic false teacher meddling in politics

Rick Warren is no longer “hip.” In fact, he never really was. Instrumental in building a mega-super church for the express purpose of damning souls to Hell in the name of religion, Warren is again sticking his nose into politics, offering to legitimize evil men (Barack ObamaBarry Soetoro Barry Dunham and Juan McCain) through his imprimatur.

In fact, you might just call Rick Warren the “Lindsey Graham” of false religion.

I'll see what kind of fallout there was on the Obama side tomorrow.