Bush, Hagee, Osteen, Copeland, Delay - Is It the Water in Texas?

And They Think California Is Wierd!

The state of Texas has tried to pass amendents to its constitution 342 times without success.

It was the last Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union after the Civil War (it never did conform to all the requirements).

It has given us President George W. Bush, Rep. Tom Delay, Pastors James Hagee, Joel Osteen and Ken Copeland. And let's not forget Karl Rove.

Now its 7300 Democratic delegates are battling it out on a decision between Sen Barak Obama and Sen Hillary Clinton.

(From UPI)

Early results tallied by The Associated Press showed that Obama had 839 delegates selected to go on to the state convention, compared with Clinton's 833 delegates. That's out of about 7,300 delegates expected to be selected at senate district meetings across the state. Because of the huge Democratic turnout in Texas' primary and caucuses on March 4, just registering delegates took hours at some conventions. ... Hundreds of increasingly irritable and bored delegates at the Senate District 23 convention in Dallas stood in lines snaking around four hallways as they waited to receive a delegate credential. Police kept people from jumping out of turn. Several called the process "chaos." "People are so confused," said Michelle Powell, 18, five hours after she arrived at the convention. "Nothing is organized." Jacqueline Bell, a precinct chair, said, "The democratic process is messy."

In the Old Days, fights would actually break out between delegates. And don't forget: practically everyone in Texas owns a gun! Will there be bloodshed? Hell, it's all in a good cause (I guess)

Nobody's civil anymore. Will Obama and McCain duke it out like these two Czech officials? No need to have a translation for what's happening here!

And Now a Tribute to a WONDERFUL Lady

Six years ago a truly unique lady passed out of our realm. She was born Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Glamis Castle in Scotland (featured in Shakespeare's Macbeth) a daughter of the Earl of Statford. We are referring, of course, to Her Majesty Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. But she'll always be known as "Queen Mum." She loved her family and her people and showed her love in extraordinary ways: during WWII when part of Buckingham Palace was hit by a bomb, her only reply: "Well now we can look the East End in the face." She never gave up her hope for the best under any circumstanes. She was a very great lady.

Parsley, Hagee and The Fellowship: "Obama, Clinton and McCain Can Stay - But The Rest of You UN-CHRISTIAN FOREIGNERS Have to GO!!"

DIVERSITY = PERVERSITY

OK, that's one talk show host's rant targeting gays and lesbians, but to some people it includes everyone who's been in this country less than 50 years. It was only 100 years ago that the U.S. seemed to have another serious immigration problem which the press labeled "The Yellow Peril!" The Chinese immigrant was reviled on an unprecidented scale: he took jobs that nobody else seemed to want (thousands of Chinese died building the Union Pacific Railroad), but his families grew at a faster rate than most of the country. And of course there was also his strange "sinister" culture and "heathen" religion.

Last year, NYT gave a great comparison of the candidate's views and actions on immigration, which, on the surface sounded pretty much alike.
There are some little sound bites, however...



Obama:

Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants; voted for fence along Mexican border.

Create system to verify employment eligibility. Supports guest worker programs but would like immigrant workers to be less dependent on employers to stay in the country. Supports granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

"[We] have to recognize that we've got 12 million undocumented workers who are already here. Many of them living their lives alongside other Americans. Their kids are going to school. Many of the kids, in fact, were born in this country and are citizens. And so, it's absolutely vital that we bring those families out of the shadows and that we give them the opportunity to travel a pathway to citizenship. It's not automatic citizenship. It's not amnesty. They would have to pay a fine. They would have to not have engaged in any criminal activity. They would have to learn English. They would have to go to the back of the line so that they did not get citizenship before those persons who had come here legally."

Clinton:

Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants; voted for fence along Mexican border.

Make it easier for immigrants to bring families. Supports agricultural jobs program; opposes guest worker program that can lower wages of American workers or exploit immigrants. Create new system to verify employment eligibility. Opposes driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.


"After 9/11, we've got to know who's in this country. And then giving them a chance to pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English and stand in line to be eligible for a legal status in this country."

McCain:

Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; voted for fence along Mexican border.

"We need to have a guest worker program. ... Our proposal is basically you can get a tamper-proof visa after your job has been proven that it cannot be filled by an American citizen. ... What do you do with the 11 million people that are already here? ... Make them earn citizenship because they have broken our laws. My friends, thats not amnesty. Amnesty is forgiveness. We're not forgiving anything."

Since the enormous flap over spiritual mentors, shouldn't we also take a look at what they, the mentors and endorsers think about immigration? Aren't there moral questions to be answered? Immigration reforms will effect not only Catholic Hispanics, but Asians and Arab and Pakistani Muslims as well.

Obama's Jeremiah Wright:


Even though there is little evidence of Wright's thoughts on immigration, my guess is that a look at his past sermons will reveal someone who supports "sanctuary cities" (like San Francisco). Today's black churches are struggling with diversity issues, trying to encompass people who are not necessarily in the black community.

McCain's Rod Parsley:

Rod Parsley is one of a group called the "Patriot Pastors". Firebrand Parsley's sermons are not only anti-gay, they're anti-everything - except prosperity. "Patriot Pastors" and its offshoot "Let Freedom Ring" have spawned another group called (overtly) WeNeedAFence.com. “Patriot Pastors”is considered a “vanguard” of a church-based political “awakening.” Can anyone here say the words white Christian theocracy?

Hillary Clinton's mentor, "The Fellowship" (aka "The Family" and "The Foundation")


According to Mother Jones, Clinton has been meeting regularly with The Foundation's women's bible study groups since 1993 and moving up through its ranks. Clinton herself has written in Living History about Doug Coe (the group's leader) and her first encounter with him at The Foundation's estate and how deeply he impressed her. According to one of Mother Jones' sources, a Coe supporter, Clinton "has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance." The article goes on to report that "These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast." But, despite the words she has written about Coe and the reports of her deepening involvement with the Fellowship, Clinton has refused requests by the press for interviews about Coe and her membership in The Fellowship. "But clearly, she is not as scrupulous about her association with religious figures in her life as she claimed when attacking Barack Obama for remaining in Pastor Jeremiah Wright's congregation."

Almost sounds like some kind of "vast Christian-wing conspiracy" to me. And being oddly secretive is not good.

So, which candidate do you think is going to support diversty the most? Ethnic diversity, racial diversity, sexual diversity, religious diversity, culural diversity. They're all in the mix. If you don't approve of just one of them, does that make you a hypocrit?

How easily they forget

Abu Graib - Iraqi Style: Even the Guards Have to Beg for Food!

What?! No Beer?!!

It's 9:45PM (PT) and I'm beat, but in my email was a release from Wikileaks Press. It hasn't been verified and I've scoured the news and blogosphere and haven't seen anything remotely related to it. Hell, maybe it happened several months ago, but I sure as hell didn't see anything about it, so here goes:

Wikileaks Press Release
Thu Mar 27 00:00:00 GMT 2008
SECRET MILITARY MEMO CONFIRMS "UNBELIEVABLE" FALLUJAH GULAG

Excerpts (my own editing) from a memo by Maj. Gen. John Kelly:

I spent the entire day inspecting the Fallujah city jail. I found the conditions there to be exactly (unbelivable over crowding, total lack of anything approaching even minimal levels of hygiene for human beings, no food, little water, no ventilation) to those described in the recent (18 February) FOX news artickle by Michael Totten entitled the "Dungeon of Fallujah".

...First, there is zero support from the government for any of the jails in Anbar. No funds, food or medical support has been provided from any ministry.

...Second, the police that run Anbar's jails are the same personnel responsable for investigating crimes. These jailer/investigators are undermanned and more often than not spend most of their time out begging and scavenging for food than investigating crimes. (It is unlik ely the prisoners will eat today).


... Third, Anbar lacks trained Iraqi correctional officers (ICOS) to run the jails in Anbar. The development and employment of trained ICOS would enable the IP to focus on criminal investigation rather then jail supervision. I believe the Iraqi police are doing the best they can, and they literally begged me on humanitarian, moral and religious grounds to help them help the prisoners by somehow moving the government to action.

No, it's not Abu Graib, but let's just say it's the Iraqi version. It smacks of the time those orphans were shown under abused circumstances, remember? No, it's not exactly torture, but it's quintessentially neglect. I wonder how the Iraqi government will react to this one. Will Al Jazeera have a conservative talk show host telling people that it's no moe than some wierd college initiation prank?

Remember Rush Limbaugh on Abu Graib:

"This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You [ever] heard of need to blow some steam off?"


Of course, starvation and neglect are not the kind of pranks you do to "blow off steam" unless it takes you a very very long time to party. Now here's a thought: will the Bush administration slap the wrists of the Iraqi government?

Doubt it. George needs a more diplomatic legacy.

Good night.

Send In Condi!!

11:45 update:

This jail has supposedly been "fixed". Check it out:

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/03/the-dungeon-of-1.php

Why didn't the military report it? (well, duh!)

More to the point: Why don't I believe it? And why did it (again) take a journalist to point it out?

Benedict XVI Is Being A Passive-Aggressive Crusader (Again)

And the Apocalypticists are having a Field Day!!

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor Reuters

PARIS: The Easter baptism of an Italian Muslim by Pope Benedict was a provocative act that raises questions about the Vatican's approach to Islam, a leading participant in Christian-Muslim dialogue said on Monday..."The whole spectacle... provokes genuine questions about the motives, intentions and plans of some of the pope's advisers on Islam," Nayed, who is director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, said in a statement.

There's something sinister behind those sunken eyes and wan smile. Yes, that's very disrespectful of me. But, like many people in the country, I'm a recovering Catholic. I had more than 12 years of very intense theology rammed down my throat - so much that my grandmother hoped I might beome a priest. Sorry grandmother, but the nuns of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Dominican Priests encouraged me not to be hypocritical. So I turned away from Catholicism alogether.

I've lived under Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul I, John-Paul II and now Benedict XVI. Three of them tried to bring the church to some semblance of relevancy, while the other three longed for the old days of the Dark Ages. The "progressive" period was way too short.

In the wake of the Easter baptism of a Muslim journalist who has excoriated militant Islamists, maybe we should question the motives of Benedict: Mike Tippit, in an editorial to Wake Up America probably said it best:

The Pope has kicked off the modern Crusades.That's right, you read it right. The Pope has given his blessings for it, the Holy Church is behind it.God wills it.

NEWSMAX (a conservative monthly magazine) has featured Benedict on its April issue cover under the title: "The Great Crusader"


The word "crusade" means many things to many people, but to the people with long memories, it means a time when Christians launched a full-scale attack against Muslims.


For the first decade, the Crusaders pursed a policy of terror against Muslims and Jews that included mass executions, the throwing of severed heads over besieged cities walls, exhibition and mutilation of naked cadavers, and even cannibalism, as was recorded after the Siege of Maarat. (Wikipedia)


These are the words of Pope Urban II which ignited the First Crusade:

"[...] this land which you inhabit, shut in on all sides by the seas and surrounded by the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; nor does it abound in wealth; and it furnishes scarcely food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder one another, that you wage war, and that frequently you perish by mutual wounds. Let therefore hatred depart from among you, let your quarrels end, let wars cease, and let all dissensions and controversies slumber. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. [...] God has conferred upon you above all nations great glory in arms. Accordingly undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven."


Or perhaps Benedict is more like Innoent III, who called for the fourth Crusade in order to enact the extermination of a Gnostic sect (who still considered itself Christian) as a result, setting off the first real genocide in Western civilization (100,000 dead)

Of course, if we want to be more to the point about Benedict XVI's character and motives we should keep in mind that he was the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Why should that matter to us? Because:


(CDF) (Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei), previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. Among the most active of these major Curial departments, it oversees Catholic doctrine. The CDF is the modern name for what used to be the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

In other words, Benedict decided who was a heretic and (as theologian Hans Kung can tell you fro first-hand experience) who could teach what within the Catholic Church.

"Nobody Expects the Inquisition"

The Religious Right and its pundits are, of course, gleefull about the commotion the baptism has caused. Parsley, Robertson, Limbaugh, Coultergeist must be dancing in the streets with the notion that this overt action will hasten the Apacalypse. Hagee may even stop calling the Catholic Church "The Great Whore".


Here's what Michelle Malkin had to say:

"Allam’s conversion will set off the usual promptings of apostasy fatwas from the Religion of Perpetual Outrage."

Ah, Christianity! The "love 'em or hate 'em" religion.

Did it originate in Isreal or ...Texas?

"We will avenge our God!"
This is based on the human tendency to attach spiritual meaning to world events and the use of religious rhetoric to justify violence. In March 2003 American forces attacked Iraq triggering one of the bloodiest wars of the modern age. Both sides of the war ascribe to opposing religious dogma and the situation is reminiscent of the Crusades that took place between the 11th and 13th centuries. The year also saw the planet Mars make its closest approach to earth in 60,000 years. Mars has long been associated as the god of war. (Shane Crotty's Fotostream, posted on Flikr)

Just a Quick Few Lines

TO ALL THE NEW READERS WE'VE HAD IN THE LAST THREE DAYS - THANK YOU!!

Please feel free to tell me what drove you to the site!

After all, Statfinder can't tell me everything.

Was it Obama?

Was it Michelle Malkin?

Was it Mel Gibson?

Was it the Easter Photo?

Thanks again! Remember: you CAN put us on your homepage for regular feed. We'll give you the VERY BEST posts involving religion and politics.

Dan Vojir

Happy Easter! Barack Obama's in St. Thomas & Michelle Malkin is Barbequing at Manzanar

... or at Mel Gibson's new "church"

While on the net for some research on the Japanese Internment Camps, I happened upon the site/blog of the nation’s official Japanese Internment Supporter, Michelle Malkin. She, like Ann Coultergeist, is a professional hater. She unequivocally adheres to racial profiling. She is the darling of Obama-bashers. So, this was the heading of her Mar. 22 post:

Where Will Obama Be For Easter?

There then followed an article that implied Obama was physically distancing himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, by planning to spend 3-4 days with his family in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

“Wonder if there are any black liberation theologians holding services on the islands this weekend?"


And since M is an equal opportunity professional hater, she hates everyone in the City of San Francisco:

“Maybe he can make a little room on his plane for those San Francisco America-haters. They need one-way tickets.” This was accompanied by an African-American woman holding a sign that said “Wright is Right!”

More SF bashing:

[On San Francisco’s stance opposing military recruitment] “Good job to the Navy, I say Go Navy Go. Don't stop and, ahh, I think that this should really be the first step in sending a strong message to San Francisco—that if you are going to dishonor the military—the military will not grace your hate filled city with its presence." (The O’Reilly Factor, Dec. 7, 2006)

Ms. M (definitely NOT the “Divine” one) is probably the only person to imply that that Sen. John Kerry’s Viet Nam wounds were self-inflicted:

Another guest on the program (O’Reilly Factor), former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, noted the absurdity of questioning Kerry's service. "He volunteered twice in Vietnam. He literally got shot. There's no question about any of those things. So what else is there to discuss? How much he got shot, how deep, how much shrapnel?"


"Well, yes," Malkin replied. Her inflection implied that this was not so much a "Well, yes," as a "Well, DUH!" She continued. "Why don't people ask him more specific questions about the shrapnel in his leg? There are legitimate questions about whether or not it was a self-inflicted wound."


Malkin’s idea of a great Easter might be a barbeque at Manzanar, the most infamous of the Japanese internment camps.

So where is the illustrious Malkin spending Easter? As a Catholic, is she a sedevacanist?* Is she spending Easter with Mel Gibson at his Malibu church? Will she get to see altar boys suffering through recitations in Latin they don’t understand?

M loves to see people suffer.

Some people have all the fun.



*Against the spirit of Vatican II, sedevacantists do not believe in the validity of succeeding popes and practice the Latin mass only. So, M might go so far as to hate Pope Ratzinger.


Below are some photos in memory of Manzanar and evidence that San Francisco has something that Malkin seems to lack: heart.

From top left: A Japanese family prepares to enter Manzanar, site of the old morgue, a memorial garland made up of hundreds of paper origami cranes festooning a fence, the gravesite of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich (who successfully sued the US Army for his discharge) and three of the dozens of "hearts" left in San Francisco.

This Easter Christ (and Hypocrits) Will Rise Again - CINO Style!

I will be taking some time off to devote a post to that darling of the poison pen, Michelle Malkin. Stay tuned for a very bumpy ride...