Did Bush View the Missing CIA Tapes?

Harpers Magazine has published a story by Scott Horton entitled "Did Bush Watch the Torture Tapes?" that indicates President Bush may have personally viewed the missing tapes of CIA interrogations. If true, the allegation that their illegal destruction was ordered by the White House gains credibility. Here's a quote:

In this regards, the sequence of statements out of the White House is extremely revealing. It started with firm denials, then went silent and then pulled back rather sharply to a "President Bush has no present recollection of having seen the tapes." This is a formulation frequently used to avoid perjury charges, a sort of way of saying "no" without really saying "no." In between these statements, two more things unfolded that have a bearing on the question.

The New York Times squarely placed four White House lawyers in the middle of the decision about whether to destroy the tapes—Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, John Bellinger and Harriet Miers. It also reported that at least one of them was strongly advocating destruction. Suspicion immediately fell on the principle mover in support of torture, David Addington.

Second, John Kiriakou clarified his statements about the purpose for which the tapes were made. It was to brief higher ups about the process of the interrogation. Reports persist that one "higher-up" in particular had a special strong interest in knowing the details of the Abu Zubaydah case. His name is George W. Bush.

Are Bush's denials that he has seen the torture tapes really credible? I don't think so. And having seen them, the interest in their destruction would be equally fierce, which helps account for the involvement of the White House's four most senior lawyers in the process. No doubt about it. The White House desperately wants to scapegoat some CIA people over this.

Richardson Stands Out

Presidential candidate Bill Richardson, formerly the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, stands out in his response to the tragic and predictable assassination of Benazir Bhutto. He called for Musharraf to step down:

"Ms. Bhutto knew the dangers to her safety. But she would not be intimidated. We also must not be intimidated.

A leader has died, but democracy must live. The United States government cannot stand by and allow Pakistan's return to democracy to be derailed or delayed by violence.

We must use our diplomatic leverage and force the enemies of democracy to yield: President Bush should press Musharraf to step aside, and a broad-based coalition government, consisting of all the democratic parties, should be formed immediately. Until this happens, we should suspend military aid to the Pakistani government. Free and fair elections must also be held as soon as possible.

It is in the interests of the US that there be a democratic Pakistan that relentlessly hunts down terrorists. Musharraf has failed, and his attempts to cling to power are destabilizing his country. He must go."

By implication, the Bush administration and all the other candidates have been intimidated by an unpopular double-dealing Pakistani dictator.

Anyone who watched the early covereage of the assassination on CNN -- before they began spinning the news to coincide with the Bush administration's response -- could grasp the wisdom of Richardson's response.

Solar Power Now Cheaper than Coal Power

The New York Times has posted a report that indicates that solar power is about to be produced at a cost cheaper than power produced by coal. Here's a quote:

Nanosolar's founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal.

"With a $1-per-watt panel," he said, "it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems."

According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.

Gothard, Huckabee and the SBC

Ethics Daily has posted an insightful update on the relationship of Bill Gothard and the fundamentalists within the Southern Baptist Convention. Gothard recently attended a private fundraiser for Mike Huckabee with Paul Pressler, Rick Scarborough, and Christian Reconstructionist political organizer Steven Hotze.

Gothard's "chain-of-command" theology has been enshrined in the family statement of the Baptist Faith and Message adopted in 1998 and creedalized in 2000. Huckabee has publicly endorsed the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

Why the "War on Christmas" Should Stop

Donna Halper, a media historian and educator, has posted a helpful essay about the deep roots of the yearly "war on Christmas" campaign. Entitled "Why the 'War on Christmas' Won't Stop . . . and Why it Should" and posted at Op-Ed News, Halper traces the efforts of Christian Nationalists back to the 1790's. Here's her conclusion:

In this season of miracles, I am praying for some courageous politicians who will say "Enough" and refuse to let religion be a wedge issue. The Founders said we shouldn’t have a religion test, yet there are so many Republicans (and even a few Democrats) feeling they must prove to the voters how they love Jesus more than their opponents do. If politicians want to show me how much they love Jesus, they might begin by feeding the poor. Or ending homelessness. Or making sure people have medicines they can afford. Or better still... how about defending separation of church and state? It really doesn't deprive anyone of their rights, and somehow, I don't think Jesus would mind.

And as for my friends on the right, I really get the point that you believe you are being persecuted for your faith. But despite what the right wing talk hosts keep insisting, there's no proof of it, other than a few cherry-picked and anecdotal stories. So, I think it's time for all the lies and exaggeration and outrage to stop. A strategy that hasn't really succeeded since 1790 ought to be discarded, replaced by a willingness to work with even your political opponents. And who knows? If we put our energies into creating a more humane society, we might be able to achieve it. Imagine an end to the War on Christmas -- now, THAT would be be a genuine holiday miracle.

Shurden Discusses Hopes for the Future

Retiring Walter Shurden discusses his hopes for the Baptist future in the October issue of the Baptist Studies Bulletin. Here's a quote:

I hope for the spirit, not necessarily the structures, of ecumenism to prevail among Baptists. I hope that Baptist groups, where it is possible, will draw closer to each other, and I think that the best hope for that unity can be found in the Baptist World Alliance, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and the New Baptist Covenant Celebration. I also fervently hope that Baptists will draw much closer to our sisters and brothers in other Christian denominations. I have come to believe that so much that divides us, including baptism by immersion, is sheer shortsightedness, if not downright sinfulness.

In addition to an ecumenical spirit, I hope for Baptists an intense commitment to Baptist voluntarism and all that Baptist voluntarism entails: an experiential faith that sets the individual soul afire, a regenerate church pulsating with life and love and vitality, a conversion baptism that is hard, not easy, to walk away from, freedom of conscience for ALL people who heroically defy state and church intrusion, and an utter disdain for a theocracy that favors one religious group over another.

The Disaster Capital of America

In 2007 Oklahoma set the record for the number of Presidential disaster declarations for one state in a single year.

Since it is one of the most religiously and politically conservative states in the union, you can be sure that it will be overlooked whenever televangelists like Pat Robertson discuss disastrous acts-of-nature as signs of divine wrath.

Hedges on the Evangelical Rebellion

Chris Hedges, author of American Fascists, has written the most astute and foreboding essay on the significance of Mike Huckabee's presidential candidacy to date. Here's a quote:

The Christian right is the most potent and dangerous mass movement in American history. It has been controlled and led, until now, by those who submit to the demands of the corporate state. But the grass roots are tired of being taken for rubes. They are tired of candidates, like Bush or Bill Clinton, who roll out the same clichés about working men and women every four years and then spend their terms enriching their corporate backers. The majority of American citizens have spent the last two decades watching their government services and benefits vanish. They have seen their jobs go overseas and are watching as their communities crumble and their houses are foreclosed. It is their kids who are in Iraq and Afghanistan. The old guard in the Christian right, the Pat Robertsons, who used their pulpits to deliver the votes of naive followers to the corporatists, is a spent force. Huckabee’s Christian populism represents the maturation of the movement. It signals the rise of a truly radical, even revolutionary force in American politics, of which Huckabee may be one of the tamer and less frightening examples.

Is the World on the Brink of Financial Disaster?

The UK Daily Telegraph has published a story that says, "Crisis may make 1929 look 'a walk in the park'." The article reveals how America's sub-prime mortgage crisis is poised to push economies around the world into depression. Here's a quote:

As the credit paralysis stretches through its fifth month, a chorus of economists has begun to warn that the world's central banks are fighting the wrong war, and perhaps risk a policy error of epochal proportions.

"Liquidity doesn't do anything in this situation," says Anna Schwartz, the doyenne of US monetarism and life-time student (with Milton Friedman) of the Great Depression.

"It cannot deal with the underlying fear that lots of firms are going bankrupt. The banks and the hedge funds have not fully acknowledged who is in trouble. That is the critical issue," she adds.

Lenders are hoarding the cash, shunning peers as if all were sub-prime lepers. Spreads on three-month Euribor and Libor - the interbank rates used to price contracts and Club Med mortgages - are stuck at 80 basis points even after the latest blitz. The monetary screw has tightened by default.

York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, says the global authorities have just weeks to get this right, or trigger disaster.

"The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard," he says.

"They still have another couple of months before this starts imploding. Things are very unstable and can move incredibly fast. I don't think the central banks are going to make a major policy error, but if they do, this could make 1929 look like a walk in the park," he adds.

What Christmas is Not

Christmas is not an opportunity to flaunt your faith in the face of unbelievers.

Some American Christians have seized this day to bully people with in-your-face religiosity. Most simply condone it.

I'm convinced Jesus would oppose it because it is antithetical to the spirit of the gospel. American Christians are making the "good news" bad news.

Who can read Sally Quinn's editorial on "Congress's Bullying Pulpit" and not be ashamed? Here's a quote:

Among those voting for the resolution was a Jewish member of Congress who has asked me not to print his name. He was outraged and appalled by the bill, he told me. But he was also afraid. He thought it would hurt him with his mostly Christian constituency if he voted against it. He told some of his colleagues about his anguish. They advised him not to be stupid. It would be better for him politically if he voted for it.

Congressional Resolutions like H.R. 847 can neither defend nor advance the Christian faith. All they do is make hypocrites of us all.

Shame on all the Congressional leaders who voted for it. Shame on all the voters who condone Congress's bullying pulpit.

A Vision of Next Year's Car

Popular Mechanics has published a story about the Aptera Electric Car which goes into production next year. The gas-electric hybrid will get 300 miles per gallon.

Unfortunately, it will only be for sale in California. If they were available, I know some Okie's that would be interested in them.

Coultergeist Haunts Huckabee

The discontented apparition animating the persona of Ann Coulter has been busy hurling invectives against Mike Huckabee.

Her essay, "There's a Huckabee born every minute" is filled with the kind of brickbats that she usually reserves for liberals.

On Huckabee, Hotze and Hagee

Mike Huckabee has been demonstrating his distance from the mainstream lately. Last week, he attended a fundraiser for him at the home of Christian Reconstructionist Steven Hotze. Sunday, he preached at Christian Zionist John Hagee's church.

Hotze thinks Christians have to takeover civil government, set up a Christian theocracy and exercise dominion over all the world for a millenium before Jesus can come again.

Hagee has been encouraging President Bush to bomb Iran in order to usher in the battle of Armageddon and begin a train of events that will permit the imminent return of Jesus.

Subprime Mortgage Standards Loosened in 2004

The New York Times has published an article about the Federal Reserve's responsibility, particularly that of Chairman Alan Greenspan, for encouraging the sub-prime mortgage lending bubble that is bringing our economy to the brink of disaster.

Am I the only one who finds it more than coincidental that the worst offenses began in the midst of a national presidential election? Here's a quote:

The drop in lending standards became unmistakable in 2004, as lenders approved a flood of shaky new products: "stated-income" loans, which do not require borrowers to document their incomes; "piggyback" loans, which allow people to buy a home without making a down payment; and "option ARMs," which allowed people to make less than the minimum payment but added the unpaid amount to their total mortgage.

Fed officials noticed the drop in standards as well. The Fed's survey of bank lenders showed a steep plunge in standards that began in 2004 and continued until the housing boom fizzled in 2006.

Evidence for Impeachment Abounds says Former CIA Analyst

Ray McGovern, who once provided daily intelligence briefings to former presidents Reagan and Bush, told an audience in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that the evidence for impeachment of the president and vice president is overwhelming. Here's a quote:

Charges in the impeachment bill sponsored by Dennis Kucinich, are very detailed and "as good as any," McGovern said, and referenced the illegal eavesdropping of American citizens. He added that the President has "admitted" to this "demonstrably impeachable offense."

Daehnert to Lead BGCT in Interim

The Baptist Standard and the Fort Worth Star Telegram are reporting that William Daehnert, a retired employee at the Baptist Building in Dallas, has been appointed Interim Director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Goldberg on the GOP's Newfound Fear of Religion

Michelle Goldberg has published an enlightening essay about the fear being expressed by many GOP pundits that the emphasis on religion in their party is getting out of hand. Apparently, Huckabee's religiosity frightens them. Here's a quote:

Over the years Republicans worked hard to organise Christian conservatives, sending consultants and cash to help turn churches into thousands of little political machines. They embraced figures like home-schooling guru Michael Farris, whose tiny, fundamentalist Patrick Henry College has been a top source of White House interns and GOP congressional aids. Farris started a group called Generation Joshua, directed by former Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun, which pays for home-schooled kids to work on Republican campaigns.

Now he's in Huckabee's corner. "It was the endorsement by prominent national home-school advocate Michael Farris that helped propel Huckabee to a surprising second-place finish in the Iowa straw poll in August," wrote the Washington Post on Monday. Home-schoolers, it said, "could also prove to be a powerful force on caucus night".

As mainstream conservatives recoil from what they've created, their cynicism is revealed - to us, but also, perhaps, to themselves. Obviously, some right-wing leaders always saw the pious masses as dupes who would vote against their economic interests if they could be convinced they were protecting marriage and Christmas.

But there there's also a certain species of urbane Republican who live in liberal bastions and, feeling terribly oppressed by the mild contempt they face at cocktail parties, imagine a profound sympathy with the simple folk of the heartland. They're like alienated suburban kids in Che Guevara t-shirts who fantasize kinship with the authentic revolutionary souls in Chiapas or Cuba or Venezuela. Confronted with the actual individuals onto whom they've projected their political hallucinations, disillusionment is inevitable. Whatever their nostalgie de la boue, the privileged classes never really want to be ruled by the rabble. They want the rabble to help them rule.

The Hoax About Conservatives Being Persecuted

Conservatives love to present themselves as the victims of persecution. So much so that some will fabricate evidence to receive attention.

Max Blumenthal does a thorough job of reporting the pathetic tale about the hoax of conservatives being persecuted at Princeton University.

Video of Hollyn Hollman on Dan Rather Reports

Hollyn Hollman, General Counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, appeared as a guest last week in a panel discussion on Dan Rather Reports.

Here's a link to the video.

Great job, Holly!

Thistlethwaite Crosses Off Huckabee

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, President of Chicago Theological Seminary, has written a stinging critique of Mike Huckabee's "plausibly deniable" faith-based politics. Here's a quote:

Huckabee is trying to ride two horses, he wants to be seen by the Christian conservative "base" as the only Christian in the race for the President and he wants to be able to do so in a way that allows him to have a way to escape the criticism that running as "the Christian" violates the American value of separation of church and state.

Huckabee is managing to offend me both as a Christian and also as a citizen who thinks that separation of church and state protects the church as much as it does the secular sphere.

In the Christian faith perspective, Peter discovered to his shame what happens to you when you are asked a direct question about what you believe about Jesus and you deny him. In the political perspective, this is a page from the Nixon playbook. What we are seeing in Huckabee is "plausible deniability" applied to faith-based politics.

The "Christian deniability" of Mike Huckabee is becoming more and more obvious as his campaign strategy. It's just awful.

College Students Grow More Spiritual

For decades religious fundamentalists have complained that young people lose their faith when they go to college.

Now a UCLA study has shown that the fundamentalists are half right. The study shows that students become both increasingly spiritual and increasingly liberal as they go to college.

So, students don't lose their faith, just their fundamentalism.

How Conservatives are Ruling Congress by Filibuster

The Campaign for America's Future has just released a report entitled "Block and Blame: The Conservative Strategy of Obstruction in the 110th Congress."

The report reveals how conservative threats of filibuster have prevented legislation from being passed by the current congress. Filibuster threats are more than double that of previous sessions of Congress.

Who Benefitted from Sub-Prime Mortgages?

The American Prospect has posted a story about "The Conservative Origins of the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis" that identifies those who benefitted most from the deregulation of the financial industry. It explains how some of the conservative advocates of "free market" ideology made their fortunes. Here's a quote:

Mortgage brokers, who occupy an unregulated niche of the lending world, made a commission for every borrower they handed over to a mortgage lender. These brokers are like the drug dealers on the street corner. They are the smallest link in a lending chain that includes some of the largest and most respectable Wall Street firms.

Large mortgage finance companies and banks made big bucks on sub-prime loans. Last year, 10 lenders -- Countywide, New Century, Option One, Fremont, Washington Mutual, First Franklin, RFC, Lehman Brothers, WMC Mortgage, and Ameriquest -- accounted for 59 percent of all sub-prime loans, totaling $284 billion.

Wall Street investment firms set up special investment units, bought the sub-prime mortgages from the lenders, bundled them into "mortgage-backed securities," and for a fat fee sold them to wealthy investors around the world. According to The New York Times, China's second-largest bank, Bank of China Ltd, held almost $9.7 billion of securities backed by U.S. sub-prime loans. These investors, who bought the collateralized securities, were happy as long as they got paid their higher interest on the bonds or other investments.

With the bottom falling out of the sub-prime market, more than 80 mortgage companies went under in the past six months. Major Wall Street firms took billion-dollar losses as the crisis ripped into foreign money markets, from London to Shanghai. Lehman Brothers underwrote $51.8 billion in securities backed by sub-prime loans in 2006 alone; as of September, 20 percent of those loans were in default, the Times reported. Similarly, about one-fifth of the sub-prime loans packaged by Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, RBS, Countrywide, JP Morgan, and Citigroup are 60 or more days delinquent, in foreclosure, or involve homes that have already been repossessed.

The executives and officers of some mortgage finance companies cashed out before the market crashed. The poster boy is Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the largest sub-prime lender. He made more than $270 million in profits selling stocks and options from 2004 to the beginning of 2007. And the three founders of New Century Financial, the second largest sub-prime lender, together realized $40 million in stock-sale profits between 2004 and 2006. Paul Krugman reported in The New York Times that last year the chief executives of Merrill-Lynch and Citigroup were paid $48 million and $25.6 million, respectively.

On Teaching Democracy

Wendy Rochman, a public school teacher in Boulder, Colorado, has published an Op-Ed describing the dilemma of civics education under the current regime. Here's a quote:

No teacher wants to tell her students that their president is a liar and a criminal. And yet, our president is a liar and a criminal. As a teacher, should I tell children the truth, and act to uphold our Constitution and Bill of Rights?

I am charged to do just that through the legally binding state and local professional educator standard, requiring me to model the democratic ideal. My failure to do so could be grounds for my dismissal. But here's the catch: doing so could also be grounds for my dismissal! What's a conscientious teacher to do? Seize the teachable moment! Model the democratic ideal of participatory democracy by writing a guest opinion, a right all citizens have, thanks to the First Amendment. Kids, listen up. Here's the truth.

This president has led us into a disastrous war through lies and deceit. It is a "high crime and misdemeanor" to lead a country into war through lies and deceit. Everyone agrees that students should have consequences when caught lying or cheating on tests. Teachers would get fired if caught lying or cheating on professional documents. Should we let the president get away with lying and cheating the American people?

Catchy Title

I'm divided on my opinion of Frank Rich's editorializing. Sometimes I like what he has to say. Sometimes I don't.

Nevertheless, the title of his latest essay is the catchiest I've seen in a long time. "Latter-Day Republicans vs. the Church of Oprah" is an apt description of the current state of politics in the U.S.

On the Influence of John Tanton

Heidi Beirich has published a helpful article about the influence of John Tanton, the chief architect of the modern nativist movement in the U.S. Here's a quote:

At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, FAIR President Dan Stein sought "advice" from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.

. . .

None of this -- or any other material evidencing the bigotry and racism that courses through the group -- seems to have affected FAIR's media standing. In just the first 10 months of 2007, the group was quoted in mainstream media outlets nearly 500 times with virtually no mention of its more unsavory aspects. Stein was featured on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" at least 12 times in the same period, along with countless appearances on other television news shows. And, perhaps most remarkably of all, FAIR has been taken seriously by Congress, which has called upon its officials to testify on immigration more than 30 times since 2000.

On the Intolerance of Intelligent Design

The advocates of Intelligent Design often present themselves as advocates for open inquiry and free debate. "Just teach the controversy . . . present both sides of the debate over evolution," they say.

Christine Comer's forced resignation from the Texas Education Agency, however, clearly reveals the intolerant mindset that lurks under a thin veneer of civility in the hearts of many IDers.

Barbara Forrest's discussion on the Oxford University Press weblog provides some insightful responses regarding Comer's dismissal for forwarding an e-mail with information about a speech Forrest was giving in Austin. Here's a quote:

According to the TEA, "Ms. Comer's [FYI] e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral." My first reaction to this statement is that forwarding an e-mail with an "FYI" is not equivalent to an endorsement of either my appearance or my presentation topic, "Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse: A Closer Look at Intelligent Design." My next reaction is this question: even if Ms. Comer's forwarding the announcement were tantamount to endorsement, why should one of the largest departments of education in the country, whose responsibility is to ensure that children receive a twenty-first-century -- not a nineteenth-century -- education, decline to publicly support evolutionary theory, one of the soundest scientific theories ever constructed, plainly out of fear of irritating creationists and their political supporters?

I find it difficult to avoid concluding that Ms. Comer has become a casualty of the pro-ID political agenda.

McSwain Explains Implications of Grassley Investigation

Ethics Daily has published an essay by McAfee School of Theology ethicist Larry McSwain that underscores the significance and explains some of the implications of Charles Grassley's investigation into the finances of megachurch ministries. Here's a quote:

Grassley could influence the Finance committee to consider legislation requiring 990 reporting from churches and should he do so advocates of church-state separation should scream "NO!" It is none of the government's business to collect such information on houses of worship.

But the issue is different when you look at the industrialization of the church in post-modern America. Why should a non-profit ministry set up for the purpose of publishing books, tapes, educational materials or televising the preaching of a church pastor be exempt from such reporting? Many of the kinds of abuses Sen. Grassley is reviewing would be avoided if such were the case.

It would also eliminate the deception of the tap dance done by Baptist denominational leaders to avoid making public the levels of compensation of leaders of their ministries and agencies that are not specifically houses of worship. Shareholders of Coca-Cola can read the salary of its CEO. So should members of denominations.

Neo-Conservative Values and the Death of Democracy

Until I read James Mann's Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, I never gave much thought to political philosophy. Naively, I thought that most Americans believed in democracy. The only threat to democracy that I perceived was that posed by the increasing influence of Christian Dominionism within the Religious Right (-- a movement that seeks to return to the Christian theocratic politics of the first settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony). I assumed that disdain for democracy represented but a small segment within the American political spectrum. It never occurred to me that a large segment of America's self-proclaimed intelligentsia held democracy in contempt as well.

I was awakened from my dogmatic democratic slumbers by James Mann's book. I read it with a desire to understand the thinking of the men who were led us in the so-called "war against terrorism" and into war in Iraq. Contrary to what the mainstream media would like you to believe, before we invaded Iraq, there was ample evidence that the rationale for going to war was being fabricated. Anyone who looked for information on the internet could find incessant, insistent, and credible objections to the administration's interpretation of evidence like that of the Nigerian "yellow cake." Many of the most incessant objectors were people like Scott Ritter who had been presented by the media as an expert in the field of WMD's and intelligence during the first Gulf War. Suddenly, as the administration was promoting the second Gulf War, he and every other dissenting voice from Hans Blix to Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson were being smeared and discredited. I read Mann's book in an attempt to understand the mindset of the masterminds of George W. Bush's foreign policy.

From Mann I learned that Leo Strauss was the chief icon of the modern neo-conservative movement. I also learned the names and resumes of the major players within the movement and the positions of leadership that they then held within George W. Bush's administration. Today, as they have become involved in scandal after scandal, most of those names have become household words. Names like Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Richard Armitage, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Stephen Hadley, John Negroponte and Michael Hayden.

All it takes to realize that this administration is engage in a cover up is to learn the name and political ideology of the person being assigned to investigate a scandal or clean it up. If they are a neo-conservative, it is bound to be a cover-up. Most of these neo-conservatives have been working together since the Nixon-Ford administrations and the chief lesson they learned from Watergate was that they have to do a better job of covering up their illegal activities. That's why it is not a surprise to me to read that the CIA destroyed tapes of interrogations of suspected terrorists. Look who's in charge -- Michael Hayden. Another neo-con, another cover-up.

Anyone who thinks I'm overly cynical about this needs to do some research into the esoteric philosophy of Leo Strauss. Shadia Drury's Leo Strauss and the American Right would be a good place to start. Here's a brief synopsis of Strauss' thought:

Strauss was contemptuous of secular democracy. He blamed it for the rise of Adolf Hitler. He felt Nazism was a nihilistic reaction to the liberalism and separation of church and state that was imposed on Germany in the Weimar Republic. Strauss was a "secular" Jew who was forced to flee Nazi Germany after Hitler came to power. He came to the U.S. and taught the history of political philosophy at Columbia University and the Univerity of Chicago. He taught nearly all of the key intellectuals and leaders of the American political right and most of the rest have been deeply influenced by him.

Strauss felt secular democracy was the worst possible form of government because he said it led to individualism, liberalism and relativism. These are traits that promote dissent and dangerously weaken society's ability to cope with external threats.

Here are the basic principles that Strauss suggests should guide the governance of America's political elites:

1. Deception is necessary to lead the masses.
2. Religion is necessary to control the masses.
3. Conflict is necessary to unite the masses.

Holly Hollman to Apear on Dan Rather Reports

Holyn Hollman, General Counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, will be a guest on Dan Rather Reports tomorrow.

Here's a link to the BJC weblog with additional information.

On Turning Point Elections

Steve Faser has published an essay that briefly compares the 2008 presidential election to the turning point presidential election of 1932. He predicts a dramatic political shift in 2008. Here's a quote:

This perfect storm will be upon us just as the election season heats up. It will inevitably hasten the already well-advanced implosion of the Republican Party, which is the definitive reason 2008 will indeed qualify as a turning-point election. Reports of defections from the conservative ascendancy have been emerging from all points on the political compass. The Congressional elections of 2006 registered the first seismic shock of this change. Since then, independents and moderate Republicans continue to indicate, in growing numbers in the polls, that they are leaving the Grand Old Party. The Wall Street Journal reports on a growing loss of faith among important circles of business and finance. Hard core religious right-wingers are airing their doubts in public. Libertarians delight in the apostate candidacy of Ron Paul. Conservative populist resentment of immigration runs head on into corporate elite determination to enlarge a sizeable pool of cheap labor, while Hispanics head back to the Democratic Party in droves. Even the Republican Party’s own elected officials are engaged in a mass movement to retire.

All signs are ominous. The credibility and legitimacy of the old order operate now at a steep discount. Most telling and fatal perhaps is the paralysis spreading into the inner councils at the top. Faced with dire predicaments both at home and abroad, they essentially do nothing except rattle those sabers, captives of their own now-bankrupt ideology. Anything, many will decide, is better than this.

Or will they? What if the opposition is vacillating, incoherent, and weak-willed — labels critics have reasonably pinned on the Democrats? Bad as that undoubtedly is, I don’t think it will matter, not in the short run at least.

Take the presidential campaign of 1932 as an instructive example. The crisis of the Great Depression was systemic, but the response of the Democratic Party and its candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt — though few remember this now — was hardly daring. In many ways, it was not very different from that of Republican President Herbert Hoover; nor was there a great deal of militant opposition in the streets, not in 1932 anyway, hardly more than the woeful degree of organized mass resistance we see today despite all the Bush administration’s provocations.

Yet the New Deal followed. And not only the New Deal, but an era of social protest, including labor, racial, and farmer insurgencies, without which there would have been no New Deal or Great Society. May something analogous happen in the years ahead? No one can know. But a door is about to open.

Clueless Columnist Praises Romney's Religion Speech

Kathleen Parker, a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group, has written an Op-Ed lavishing high praise on Romney's pathetic speech on religion. Here's a quote:

Though nitpickers, atheists and unbudging evangelicals have found fodder for dissent, the speech generally set a tone not recently enjoyed in the public square and hit several notes not often sounded by Republicans. Romney appealed to our better angels and reminded Americans why they historically have had occasion to claim exceptionalism.

Was it perfect? Almost.

Yeah, Romeny's speech was perfect -- a perfect example of the cynical duplicity of political speech writing.

The most astute analysis of his speech was penned by Damon Linker, former editor of the Theocon journal First Things and author of the book The Theocons, who contends the speech reveals "Romney's Theoconservatism." Here's a quote:

Romney spoke as a theocon when he asserted, without evidence or argument, that "freedom requires religion" and that "freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." He spoke as a theocon when he claimed that the constitution (which makes no reference to God) rests on a "foundation of faith." He spoke as a theocon when he referred ominously to a conspiracy to establish "a new religion in America - a religion of secularism." And, finally, he spoke as a theocon when he praised America's "symphony of faith" while failing to utter a single word about the millions of American citizens who do not kneel "in prayer to the Almighty." This was no oversight, as some commentators have speculated; it was an expression of ideology. Mitt Romney's America - the America of the religious right -- is a country defined by its conservative Christian moralism and belief. It will tolerate non-believers, but at a price: the price of exclusion from the nation's fundamentally theological identity.

Here's a link to a podcast (19 MB MP3) of my 12-9-07 "Religious Talk" radio program where I discuss Romney's speech more fully.

Jonah Kule -- Courage and Compassion

ABC News is reporting the death of Dr. Jonah Kule who was treating the recent victims of the Ebola virus in Uganda. Here's a quote from this tragic story:

Kule, who grew up in Bundibugyo, had recently returned to this deprived rural district after completing medical school in the capital city of Kampala.

Kule passed up lucrative career opportunities in Kampala and other large Ugandan cities to work among his tribesmen in a place where few Ugandan doctors venture, and even then, venture only when assigned as part of government service.

Kule was one of the few from Bundibugyo to ever attend medical school.

"He refused to charge patients extra fees for his services, even though that is widely practiced in government hospitals," writes Jennifer Myhre. "He was completely trustworthy with his responsibilities and resources.

Thomas Fingar -- Intelligence and Integrity

The Guardian has posted a story about the "Intelligence expert who rewrote the book on Iran." More than anyone else, intelligence specialist Thomas Fingar appears to be the man who derailed the Neo-conservatives attempts to railroad the US into war with Iran. Here's a quote from a very important story:

But pivotal to the US investigation into Iran's suspect nuclear weapons programme was the work of a little-known intelligence specialist, Thomas Fingar. He was the principal author of an intelligence report published on Monday that concluded Iran, contrary to previous US claims, had halted its covert programme four years ago and had not restarted it. Almost single-handedly he has stopped - or, at the very least, postponed - any US military action against Iran.

On Being Subversive (Revised)

I was surprised to find my name linked with subversion on my good friend Dr. Randy Ridenour's weblog a few days ago.

Yesterday, Randy wrote an outstanding and succinct blog "In Defense of Subversiveness." Here's a quote:

If I remember correctly the word comes from the Latin subvertere, meaning literally “to turn from below.” In that sense, democracy is pure subversiveness.

All revolutionary social changes have had a subversive component. The Protestant Reformation, labor movements, the Civil Rights movement, and the fight against slavery are just a few. All of these were radical movements that, in the end, were good (I’ll have to beg forgiveness from my Roman Catholic colleagues in the chaplaincy about the first one…) So, this is not subversiveness as in attempting to overthrow, but rather to change. Those in power are not always right. (Ironically, I’m listening to The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” right now.)

Of course, the ultimate example of subversion is the Gospel: An almighty God who chooses to change the world not by compulsion, but by sacrifice. What could be more subversive than praying for one’s enemies?

Pray for peace…

Student Voters Being Disenfranchised (Revised Title)

The American Prospect has posted a story about Hilary Clinton's attempts to disenfranchise student voters in Iowa.

I'm really weary of politicians in both parties working to make it difficult for people to vote. These same politicians are accruing enormous public debts that these same college students will be paying for the rest of their lives. Students have a vested interest in the issues and outcome of the current elections.

Politicans should be making it easy, not hard, for students to cast their vote.

(Title revised from "Hilary Disenfranchising Student Voters" to the above title on 12/8/07 -- see comments below)

Melissa Rogers to Appear on Bill Moyers' Journal

Melissa Rogers, visiting professor on Religion and Public Policy at Wake Forest University, will be a guest on Bill Moyers' Journal tomorrow evening. She will be discussing the similarities and differences between Mitt Romney's speech on religion and JFK's speech on religion.

Nobody could do it better.

Brent Walker Critiques Romney's Speech

Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, has posted an essay contending "Romney Too Quick to Debunk Church-State Separation." Here's a quote:

Church-state separation actually ensures our vibrant religious landscape and in no way strips the public square of talk about religion and matters of faith. Church-state separation simply requires that official government action have a secular purpose and have the primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion.

Governor Romney should also understand that “secular” is not a bad word. While our culture need not be secular, our government must be – not in the sense of being hostile to religion, but being religiously neutral. Government must not be allowed to meddle in religion, for or against, or take sides in religious disputes, favoring one religion over another. As soon as it does, it denies someone’s religious liberty.

On JFK's Speech About Religion

Melissa Rogers has posted a link to video of John Kennedy's 1960 speech on religion before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. She's also found a link to the Q&A session that followed.

JFK's speech and answers could provide a useful point of comparison with Mitt Romney as he delivers his religion speech today.

Why the Collapse of the Dollar Matters

Germany's Der Spiegel has posted a story about "Why America's Currency is the World's Problem" that explains the problems the dollar's decline is causing around the world. Here's a quote:

And yet every dollar increase in the price of oil and, especially, every cent the dollar loses in value heightens fears of the seemingly inevitable consequences, and fears that global growth could slow and, in an extreme scenario, even come to a grinding halt.

The world depends on the dollar. It is the most important currency in global trade. Aircraft, oil, steel and most natural resources are priced in the US currency. Central banks around the world invest a substantial share of their currency reserves in dollars. The competitiveness of entire continents depends on changes in the value of the world's reserve currency. For these reasons, the dollar's decline has the potential to send the world economy into a crisis.

Innovating a Financial Crisis

Panic at high levels of the world banking system is starting to set in. Paul Krugman removes the veil of secrecy in a recent essay:

"What we are witnessing," says Bill Gross of the bond manager Pimco, "is essentially the breakdown of our modern-day banking system, a complex of leveraged lending so hard to understand that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke required a face-to-face refresher course from hedge fund managers in mid-August."

The freezing up of the financial markets will, if it goes on much longer, lead to a severe reduction in overall lending, causing business investment to go the way of home construction - and that will mean a recession, possibly a nasty one.

Behind the disappearance of liquidity lies a collapse of trust: market players don’t want to lend to each other, because they're not sure they'll be repaid.

He also tells us why:

Why was this allowed to happen? At a deep level, I believe that the problem was ideological: policy makers, committed to the view that the market is always right, simply ignored the warning signs. We know, in particular, that Alan Greenspan brushed aside warnings from Edward Gramlich, who was a member of the Federal Reserve Board, about a potential subprime crisis.

And free-market orthodoxy dies hard. Just a few weeks ago Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, admitted to Fortune magazine that financial innovation got ahead of regulation - but added, "I don't think we'd want it the other way around." Is that your final answer, Mr. Secretary?

Religious Indoctrination in Prisons Ruled Unlawful

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Federal Court ruling that Iowa's faith-based prison wing is unconstitutional.

Here'a a quote from an AU Press Release:

"This is an extremely important decision," said Lynn. "Government officials have no business paying for religious indoctrination and awarding special treatment and benefits to those willing to embrace one religious perspective.

"Government should not single out a particular religion for special treatment," Lynn continued. "You simply cannot give government funds to a religious group for its evangelism program."

Added AU Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser, "This ruling is a major setback for the White House’s 'Faith-Based Initiative.' It reaffirms that the government must ensure that public funds are not used for religious instruction, and that the government must not aid programs that discriminate based on religion.”

Chimps Beat Humans on Numeric Memory Test

An experiment right out of Ripley's "Believe it or not" has proven that young chimps outperform college students on a test of short-term numeric memory.

Here's a quote from a story about an experiment testing the ability to remember numeric sequences briefly flashed onto squares on a computer screen at Kyoto University in Japan:

"I just watched the video of that and I can tell you right now, there's no way I can do it," she said. "It's unbelievable. I can't even get the first two (squares)."

What's going on here? Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, Matsuzawa said in an e-mail.

Bill Underwood Interview

Dr. Bruce Prescott's 12-2-07 "Religious Talk" radio interview (27MB MP3) with Bill Underwood, President of Mercer University. We talk about Mercer University, McAfee School of Theology, the Center for Baptist Studies, and the Celebration for a New Baptist Covenant.

Food Banks Rationing Supplies

The New York Times is reporting that food banks around the country are facing a shortage of supplies and have been forced to ration their donations to the hungry. Here's a quote:

For two weeks this month, the New Hampshire Food Bank distributed supplies reserved for emergency relief. Demand for food here is up 40 percent over last year and supply is down 30 percent, which is striking in the state with the lowest reliance on food banks.

"It's the price of oil, gas, rents and foreclosures," said Melanie Gosselin, executive director of the New Hampshire Food Bank.

Ms. Gosselin said household budget squeezes had led to a drop in donations and greater demand. "This is not the old 'only the homeless are hungry,'" she said. "It's working people."

Working people going hungry? Instead of prosperity trickling down, we are seeing adversity bubbling up.

As a nation, we can do better than this, but it probably won't happen under the watch of any of the current crop of politicians, whether Democrat or Republican.

Native Americans Protest Oklahoma Centennial

The Cherokee Phoenix has published a story about the recent demonstration by Native Americans at the Oklahoma State Capital. The demonstration coincided with the centennial celebrations for Oklahoma's statehood.

The Native Americans were protesting celebrations over the illegal immigrations that took place before and after the Oklahoma land rush. Here's a quote:

Within an hour the crowd of nearly 200 adults, elders and children began moving north toward the Capitol shouting in unison and carrying signs reading, "This Land is Our Land," "The Land Run was Illegal Immigration," and "Stop Racial and Cultural Inequality." At the front of the procession several people bore a banner that read, "Why celebrate 100 years of theft?"

Muscogee Creek Nation citizen Brenda Golden, an organizer of the Oklahoma Indians Survival Walk and Remembrance Ceremony, said she wanted to make a statement that not all Oklahoma Indians feel like celebrating what they see as an affront to the true history of how Oklahoma was legislatively stolen from the people to whom it was promised.

Ironically, Oklahoma currently has the most restrictive legislation against illegal immigration in the country. A law that went into effect November 1, 2007 makes it a felony for anyone to hire, harbor, transport or associate with an undocumented immigrant.

Hat Tip to Nathaniel Batchelder for calling my attention to this article.

Podcast: George Young Interview

Will Prescott's 11-25-07 "Courageous Churches" profile of Holy Temple Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Will interviews pastor George Young (6MB MP3).

Have Astronomers Found Evidence for a Parallel Universe?

There is a fascinating blog about astronomers speculating about finding evidence for a parallel universe on a paternity testing weblog. On my browser the weblog's formatting is off, so you may have to scroll down the page to find the story.

Here's a link to the story. Here's a quote:

The idea of alternative, or parallel universes has been around for quite a while and has provided considerable inspiration for Sci-Fi literature and sparked endless philosophical debate, but although begin seriously considered within the scientific realm it never crossed the limits of speculative of purely theoretical grounds. Perhaps until now. If Mersini-Houghton is right, Eridanus’ giant hole would be the first experimental evidence for the existence of another universe. The implications of this possibility are obviously of huge importance for everybody, but it also has further relevance for the astrophysics community as it would bring support for the hotly debated string theory and other central debates.

On Unchecked Faith-Based Spending

Thomas Williams has posted an essay at Truthout about the federal government's lack of accountability for faith-based spending. Here's are the opening paragraphs:

For the past six years, President George W. Bush's administration has spent billions of dollars to largely aid Christian faith-based groups, in assisting prison inmates as well as the poor and less-fortunate persons here and worldwide. Yet many experts and investigators nationwide agree government controls auditing this spending, or checking into whether the religious groups are illegally using this federal funding to promote their faiths, are weak or nonexistent.

Federal funding of a host of non-faith-based social programs can be critical in child or adult health, housing and other subsistence aid to the poor or disadvantaged. However, with tight or even regular federal budgets, waste in one program can adversely impact others.

Several inquiries and complaints dug up a host of systemic dangers and violations of the rules and law resulting in questionable or wasted spending.

In just one instance, a 2006 US Government Accountability Office inquiry discovered: "Four of the 13 faith-based organizations that offered voluntary religious activities - such as prayer or worship - did not appear to understand the requirement to separate these activities in time or location from their program services funded with federal (dollars)." And, the GAO concluded: independent audits apply only to religious organizations spending $500,000 or more. As well, federal administration is costly. "Since fiscal year 2002, the five federal agency centers handling the funds estimated that they had cumulatively expended more than $24 million on administrative activities," the GAO concluded.

Bill Moyers on FDR

Bill Moyers recently spoke about his father's love for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was a sentiment that my grandparents shared with Moyer's father. Here's a quote from Moyer's talking about his father:

Henry Moyers was an ordinary man who dropped out of the fourth grade because his family needed him to pick cotton to help make ends meet. The Depression knocked him off the farm and flat on his back. When I was born he was making two dollars a day working on the highway to Oklahoma City. He never made over $100 a week in the whole of his working life, and he made that only when he joined the union on the last job he held. He voted for Franklin Roosevelt in four straight elections, and he would have gone on voting for him until kingdom come if both had lived that long. I once asked him why, and he said, "Because the President's my friend." Now, my father never met FDR. No politician ever paid him much note, but he was sure he had a friend in the White House during the worst years of his life. When by pure chance I wound up working there many years later, and my parents came for a visit, my father wanted to see the Roosevelt Room. I don't know quite how to explain it, except that my father knew who was on his side and who wasn't, and for twelve years he had no doubt where FDR stood. The first time I remember him with tears in his eyes was when Roosevelt died. He had lost his friend.

It's been a long time since a working man has had a friend in the White House. Too long.

Bankers Gone Wild

Paul Krugman has written an essay about the loose morals, i.e. lack of regulation, that we tolerate in our banking industry. He entitled it "Banks Gone Wild." Here's an excerpt:

Around 25 years ago, American business — and the American political system — bought into the idea that greed is good. Executives are lavishly rewarded if the companies they run seem successful: last year the chief executives of Merrill and Citigroup were paid $48 million and $25.6 million, respectively.

But if the success turns out to have been an illusion — well, they still get to keep the money. Heads they win, tails we lose.

Not only is this grossly unfair, it encourages bad risk-taking, and sometimes fraud. If an executive can create the appearance of success, even for a couple of years, he will walk away immensely wealthy. Meanwhile, the subsequent revelation that appearances were deceiving is someone else’s problem.

If all this sounds familiar, it should. The huge rewards executives receive if they can fake success are what led to the great corporate scandals of a few years back. There’s no indication that any laws were broken this time — but the public’s trust was nonetheless betrayed, once again.

The point is that the subprime crisis and the credit crunch are, in an important sense, the result of our failure to effectively reform corporate governance after the last set of scandals.

John Edwards recently came out with a corporate reform plan, but it didn’t receive a lot of attention. Corporate governance still isn’t regarded as a major political issue. But it should be.

Help Save the GOP from Socialized Medicine

Jim Hightower has some suggestions for how you can help those Republican congressional leaders who voted against SCHIP unburden their consciences over their own dependence on federalized medicine. Here's a link to a brief video:



In case you missed it. Here's the number Jim asks you to call to suggest that congressional leaders should get off the dole for their health insurance and rely on the free market like everyone else: Call the GOP Congressional Conference at (202) 225-5107.

Scott McClellan Reveals White House Lies

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a book that reveals some of the lies he knows he told while serving the Bush administration. Here's a quote from an article about the book published at the Editor & Publisher website:

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

"There was one problem. It was not true.

"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."

On Peak Oil and the Looming Energy Crisis

A podcast (27.4 MB MP3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 11-18-07 "Religious Talk" radio interview with petroleum geologist Bob Stephenson.

We discuss the recent report by the National Petroleum Council on "Facing the Hard Truths About Energy."

Memo to Barry Lynn

Barry Lynn knew that Richard John Neuhaus had bested him at a recent debate for the Economist magazine. At the Executive Board meeting last week he said it was a combination of Neuhaus' "silver-tongued oratory" and the extreme way the debate was framed -- "Religion and politics should always be kept separate."

Here's a link to what Neuhaus said about the debate.

Before Barry agrees to debate Neuhaus again, I suggest that he read Damon Linker's The Theocons: Secular America Under Seige. Linker was editor of Neuhaus' journal First Things. He exposes the "radical religious ideas" that Neuhaus and other theoconservatives have been injecting into American politics.

Anyone with comprehension of Linker's book would know that the debate was framed in a way that would put Barry at a disadvantage.

Americans United does not defend a one-sided secularist view of the Constitution. I'm one of a number of ministers and rabbis on the board of Americans United. We do not deny a voice for religion in politics -- there is room for all opinions in the public square. What we do is to separate the institutions of church and state -- that is how Americans have decided we ought to order our life together.

Rather than wage wars -- cultural or otherwise -- to determine which religion should exercise dominion over governmental policy, we make a distinction between the authority of religion and the authority of the government. We defend both the disestablishment clause and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. This protects minorities from the tyranny of the majority in matters of religion. We expect those who lead us to govern from an understanding of the common good that respects the constitutional distinction we have made between the authority of personal religious convictions and the authority of the policies that govern our common life.

Neuhaus does not respect that constitutional distinction. He strips the disestablishment clause of any meaning and interprets the first amendment entirely as a free exercise clause. Ultimately, he is defending the right of the majority to use governmental authority to impose their religious beliefs and values on all society.

How Dry Are We?

Tom Englehardt at TomDispatch.com has posted a thought-provoking article entitled "How Dry We Are: A Question No One Wants to Raise About Drought."

Is anyone around Atlanta asking these questions?

And then what exactly can we expect? If the southeastern drought is already off the charts in Georgia, then, whether it's 80 days or 800 days, isn't there a possibility that Atlanta may one day in the not-so-distant future be without water? And what then?

Okay, they're trucking water into waterless Orme, Tennessee, but the town's mayor, Tony Reames, put the matter well, worrying about Atlanta. "We can survive. We're 145 people but you've got 4.5 million there. What are they going to do?"

What indeed? Has water ever been trucked in to so many people before? And what about industry including, in the case of Atlanta, Coca Cola, which is, after all, a business based on water? What about restaurants that need to wash their plates or doctors in hospitals who need to wash their hands?

Let's face it, with water, you're down to the basics. And if, as some say, we've passed the point not of "peak oil," but of "peak water" (and cheap water) on significant parts of the planet… well, what then?

A New Day for North Carolina Baptists

ABP is reporting that North Carolina Baptists have cut funding for Women's Missionary Union, declared that retirement homes are no longer a ministry of the Convention, and severed ties with five Baptist schools.

It may be a new day for North Carolina Baptists. But it's certainly not a good day.

Governor Henry Where Are You?

AFP is reporting that Governors from nine Midwestern states have signed a climate accord. Governors from Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and South Dakota signed the accord.

Conspicuously absent was Cooperative Baptist and Democratic Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Baptists Oppose Immigration Law

A resolution passed at the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma gave notice that Baptists would continue to minister to undocumented immigrants despite a new law making it a felony to associate with them. Here's a quote from a news report:

The Southern Baptist Church said they don't "necessarily agree (with) or oppose the new law," but they will continue to minister to anyone inside their church.

"As Christians, that should be our No. 1 focus -- God first, government second. While we will obey the law to the best of our ability, when people come to our church to worship with us, we are not going to ask for proof of citizenship," said Baptist General Convention spokeswoman Heidi Wilburn.

More often than not I am a critic of the resolutions adopted by the BGCO. I commend them for passing this resolution -- timid, as it is, in opposing an unjust law.

Catholic Bishops: Voting Wrong Risks Salvation

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have revived their ultimate scare tactic for getting their congregants to follow directions on how to vote. Catholics who vote wrong risk losing their salvation.

Abuses of authority like this once led to the Reformation.

Is a God who designed a world in which billions of "unborn babies" are spontaneously aborted by natural causes and sends people to hell for voting for politicians who support access to contraception worthy of worship?

On Reagan and Racism

Editor & Publisher has posted a summary of the columnist war at the New York Times over Ronald Reagan and racism. Here's a quote:

The New York Times Op-Ed page hasn’t been this hot in a long time. Now we are experiencing Columnist Wars, with Bob Herbert this week joining in a rapidly escalating battle between Paul Krugman and David Brooks -- largely over an incident involving Ronald Reagan at a local fair over 27 years ago.

Read the article for more details.

Calling for a Moratorium on War

Bill Christofferson of the Madison Capital Times has issued a challenge for individuals to take personal responsibility to do something on the third Friday of each month to call for a moratorium on war in Iraq. Here's a quote:

The Iraq Moratorium asks people to pledge to take some action, either individually or collectively, on the third Friday of every month. That action can be as simple a gesture as wearing a black armband or button for the day, as big as participating in a large-scale protest, or a lot of things in between. The group's Web site, www.IraqMoratorium.org. has a list of suggestions, and information on upcoming actions.

Clarifying Mexican Immigration

The Cato Institute has published a very informative essay about Mexican immigration. Here's a quote with a link to some documentation:

Despite my appreciation for the cultural ramifications of Mexican immigration, I am a social scientist and ultimately believe that accurate understanding needs to be grounded in empirical reality. In 25 years of research on a variety of public policy issues, I have never seen so much misinformation as in the debate on Mexican immigration during 2006. Thanks to the media and political entrepreneurs, Mexican immigrants are routinely portrayed as a tidal wave of human beings fleeing an impoverished, disorganized nation who are desperate to settle in the United States, where they will overwhelm our culture, displace our language, mooch our social services, and undermine our national security.

This profile, however, bears no discernible relationship to the reality that I know as a social scientist. Since 1982 I have co-directed a large data-gathering effort known as the Mexican Migration Project. My collaborators and I have conducted representative surveys in communities all over Mexico and the United States, and over the years, we have surveyed 20,000 households and 120,000 individuals to gather detailed information from U.S. migrants about their experiences crossing the border, living in the United States, and returning to Mexico. My understanding of Mexican immigration rests on these data, and if anyone thinks I’ve got it all wrong, they are free to download the data, analyze it, and see for themselves.

Mexican immigration is not a tidal wave. The rate of undocumented migration has not increased in over two decades. Neither is Mexico a demographic time bomb; its fertility rate is only slightly above replacement. Although a variety of trans-border population movements have increased, this is to be expected in a North American economy that is increasingly integrated under the terms of a mutually-ratified trade agreement. Undocumented migration stems from the unwillingness of the United States to include labor within the broader framework governing trade and investment. Rates of migration between Mexico and the United States are entirely normal for two countries so closely integrated economically.

Breakthrough in Hydrogen Fuel

Fuel cell technology that produces clean and renewable energy from hydrogen has been available for a number of years. The chief difficulty in bringing fuel cells to market has been the expense involved in producing the hydrogen needed to fuel the cells.

AFP is reporting that "New technique creates cheap, abundant hydrogen." Here's a quote from a report about research at Pennsylvania State University:

In laboratory experiments, their reactor generated hydrogen gas at nearly 99 percent of the theoretical maximum yield using aetic acid, a common dead-end product of glucose fermentation.

"This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added in the process," said Bruce Logan, a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State.

The technology is economically viable now, which gives hydrogen an edge over another alternative biofuel which is grabbing more headlines, Logan said.

"The energy focus is currently on ethanol as a fuel, but economical ethanol from cellulose is 10 years down the road," said Logan.

Hydrogen as a fuel makes a lot more sense than ethanol.

Next, we need filling stations to retrofit to sell hydrogen. Then, General Motors can start selling the hydrogen fuel vehicles that they have been developing.

Memorial to the New Deal

I gave a powerpoint presentation on "Milestones in the Rise of the Religious Right" to the Hot Springs, Arkansas chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State last week. I took the scenic route on Highway 7 on my drive back to Oklahoma.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover a roadside park commemorating the work of the Hollis Camp of the Civilian Conservation Corp.

In an era when politicians are doing everything they can to erase the memory of FDR's New Deal, it's good to find a place where our collective responsibility to assist each other in times of need is still remembered and respected.

Leonardo's Music

An Italian musician and computer technician has found a hidden musical score in Leonardo DaVinci's painting of the Last Supper.

Here's a link to the story.

On the Legacy of Neo-Conservatism

Sidney Blumenthal, writing for Salon Magazine, has published an astute analysis of the legacy of the current administration's neo-conservatism. Here's a quote:

The neoconservative project is crashing. The "unipolar moment," the post-Cold War unilateralist utopia imagined by neocon pundit Charles Krauthammer; "hegemony," the ultimate goal projected by the September 2000 manifesto of the Project for the New American Century; an "empire" over lands that "today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets," fantasized by neocon Max Boot in the Weekly Standard a month after Sept. 11, have instead produced unintended consequences of chaos and decline. Dick Cheney's and Donald Rumsfeld's presumption that successful war would instill fear leading to absolute obedience and the suppression of potential rivalries and serious threats -- the "dangerous nation" thesis of neocon theorist Robert Kagan -- has proved to be the greatest foreign policy miscalculation in U.S. history.

The quest for absolute power has not forged an "empire" but provoked ever-widening chaos. The neocons have been present at the creation, all right. But this "creation" is not another American century, in emulation of the post-World War II order fashioned by the so-called wise men, such as Secretary of State Dean Acheson, a consummate realist, who Condoleezza Rice continues to insist is her model. Squandering the immense influence of the U.S. in such a short period has required monumental effort. Now the fog of war clears. On the ruin of the neocons' new world order emerges the old world disorder on steroids.

My Letter Didn't Get Left Behind

Ethics Daily is reporting that their certified letter to Gordon Katz was returned with a note that he had refused to accept it. Katz is the attorney for Left Behind Games.

I received the same form letter that Ethics Daily and a plethora of bloggers received. The letter advised us that we had "false and misleading statements" about the Left Behind game on our websites and blogs. The letter threatened to take legal action against us if we did not remove essays, blogs and comments about the game.

I sent a letter asking Katz to advise me in writing what is "false and misleading" regarding statements made about the game on my weblog.

Katz signed for the certified letter that I sent him. I have yet to receive a response to it.

Romney Candidacy a Boost for First Amendment

Whether he wins the GOP nomination for president on not, Mitt Romney's candidacy has been a boost for both the First Amendment and Article VI of the Constitution. Now even Republicans are learning that discussions of religious preference are out of place when weighing a candidate's qualifications for public office.

Before this year, who would have expected to see a headline for a GOP nominee like "Religion talk risks loss of faith in Romney"?

Yet Another Torture Memo Uncovered

Common Dreams is reporting that the ACLU has uncovered a third secret torture memo from Alberto Gonzales' Department of Justice. The Justice Department has previously failed to turn the memo over with other Freedom of Information Act requests.

This revelation comes as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann contends that "The presidency is now a criminal conspiracy" after Daniel Levin, formerly a top official at the Justice Department, disclosed that he had himself waterboarded before advising the President that waterboarding is indeed torture. Levin was subsequently railroaded out of his position at the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, Michael Mukasey -- the nominee to replace Gonzales as Attorney General who refuses to express an opinion as to whether waterboarding is torture, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee for a vote by the full Senate.

U.S. Economy on Verge of Serious Correction

Reuters is reporting that "Central Bankers see more pain for U.S. Economy."

George Soros says the "economy is on the verge of a serious correction."

William Greider uncovers the deep source of the problems that led us to this economic juncture in an essay entitled "Citigroup: Too Big to Fail?" Here's a quote:

Just as the GOP dreamed for decades of dismantling Social Security, investment bankers campaigned for thirty years to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking from its investment-house cousins. This was the New Deal achievement enacted in response to the double-dealing banking practices that contributed to the crash of 1929. Bankers pushed their depositors into buying the corporate stocks the bankers were hustling, among other malpractices. Wall Street hated the law but failed year after year to win repeal. The problem was always Democrats (since Republicans were sure supporters).

Bill Clinton delivered his "New Democrat" party, accompanied by lots of happy talk about magic words like "synergy" and how "modernization" would create a more stable (and profitable) financial system. It did the latter, for sure, but not the former.

Actually, the combination of insurance, investment banking and old-line commercial banks multiplied the conflicts of interest within banks, despite so-called "firewalls" supposed to keep these activities separate. Much like Enron, placing some deals in off-balance sheet entities did not insulate Citigroup from the losses in its swollen subprime housing lending. The bank has so far written off something like $15 billion and more to come.

It's the Clinton's stong connections to Wall Street tycoons like Robert Rubin (now trying to rescue Citigroup) that has economists like Paul Krugman worried about whether Hillary will be "wobbled by wealth."

Bob Guffey Revisits Jena

Bob Guffey, pastor at First Baptist Church of Conway, S.C., grew up near Jena, Louisiana and has relatives who live in the city. All of Bob's "light readings" are thoughtful, but his most recent blog especially caught my attention.

Here's a quote from "Tell and Show: Revisiting Jena"

And so the world is not quite so neat that one side can completely divide and demonstrate against the other. Indeed, the notion of "sides" betrays a lack of understanding of the complexities of human behavior and trust in the possibility God created within human beings to overcome their personal worst and the negative witness of the darker regions of human behavior within communities. In the midst of every intense situation, just as is needed in the midst of quiet conflict, grief, despair and times of hopelessness, the "creation waits with eager longing the revealing of the children of God" (Romans 8:19), those children who have heard the Good News of Christ and his cross, who have come to value each person as beloved of God, and who will wager the costly risk of living the Good News, as well as talking about it. In the congruence of this kind of living witness, the grace of God shows itself to be the hand of kindness which overcomes violence. So is the promise of God's word. So is the witness of God.

Pat Buchanan on the Decline of the Dollar

It is rare when I agree with Pat Buchanan. We are poles apart politically. But, his essay on "Sinking Currency, Sinking Country" is right on target. Here's a quote:

The oil-producing and exporting nations, with trade surpluses, like China, have also begun to take the stash of dollars they have and stuff them into sovereign wealth funds, and use these immense and growing funds to buy up real assets in the United States — investment banks and American companies.

Nor is there any end in sight to the sinking of the dollar. For, as foreigners demand more dollars for the oil and goods they sell us, the trade deficit will not fall. And as the U.S. government prints more and more dollars to cover the budget deficits that stretch out — with the coming retirement of the baby boomers — all the way to the horizon, the value of the dollar will fall. And as Ben Bernanke at the Fed tries to keep interest rates low, to keep the U.S. economy from sputtering out in the credit crunch, the value of the dollar will fall.

General Instructs Children about Need for Waterboarding

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that an Army General has instructed 900 middle school children in Atlanta about the need for waterboarding as an interrogation technique. Here's a quote:

"As long as we're responsible for hunting those SOBs down, finding them and preventing them from killing our sons and daughters," Honore said, "I think we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done."

When generals teach 13-year-olds that might makes right, there's little wonder why modern young people are growing up with cynical contempt toward the government.

How strong is a nation where jesters like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are viewed with more credibility than the nation's highest elected leaders and officers?

Kucinich to Press Congress to Impeach Cheney

Congressman Dennis Kucinich issued a statement today announcing that he intends to submit a resolution before Congress next week that will bring articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. His resolution has 21 co-sponsors. Here's a quote from his statement:

"Congress must hold the Vice President accountable. The American people need to let Members of Congress know how they feel about this. The Vice President continues to use his office to advocate for a continued occupation of Iraq and prod our nation into a belligerent stance against Iran. If the Vice President is successful, his actions will ensure decades of disastrous consequences."

David Lindorff, an investigative reporter and columnist, links Kucinich's resolution to allegations of a cover-up of the truth behind the Minot-Barksdale nuclear missile flight. Central to Lindorff's assertions is the Air Force investigative report's failure to explain how our nuclear arsenal's electonic anti-theft alarm system was disarmed in this incident. Here's a quote:

According to the Air Force report, some Air Force personnel mounted the warheads on the missiles (which are obsolete and slated for destruction), and another ground crew, allegedly not aware that the missiles were armed with nukes, moved them out and mounted them on a launch pylon on the B-52's wing for a flight to Barksdale and eventual dismantling. Only on the ground at Barksdale did ground crew personnel spot the nukes, according to the report. (Six other missiles with dummy warheads were mounted on a pylon on the other wing of the plane.)

The problem with this explanation for the first reported case of nukes being removed from a weapons bunker without authorization in 50 years of nuclear weapons, is that those warheads, and all nuclear warheads in the U.S. stockpile, are supposedly protected against unauthorized transport or removal from bunkers by electronic antitheft systems -- automated alarms similar to those used by department stores to prevent theft, and even anti-motion sensors that go off if a weapon is touched or approached without authorization.

While the Air Force report doesn't mention any of this, this means if weapons in a storage bunker are protected against unauthorized removal, someone -- and actually at least two people, since it's long been a basic part of nuclear security that every action involving a nuclear weapon has to be done by two people working in tandem -- had to deliberately and consciously disable those alarms.

The Air Force investigation resulted in the termination of 70 persons -- including the base commander. Here's another quote from Lindorff:

But a base commander does not have the authority to order nuclear weapons to be loaded on a plane and flown. So who issued that order and why has no one at a senior level in Washington been sacked? There is speculation that the order may have come via an alternate chain of command.

Lindorff speculates that Vice President Cheney may have been at the end of an "alternate chain of command." He says,

In a couple of weeks, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, is planning on calling for a Privilege of the House vote in Congress on moving his Cheney impeachment bill (H Res. 333) to a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, where it has been stalled by House Democratic leaders since being filed last April 24. Such a hearing should demand answers from the vice president and his staff about his treasonous efforts to push the country into yet another war in the Middle East. It should also grill Air Force personnel about the true nature of the Minot nuclear incident.

Kucinich is also in the running for the 2000 Democratic party's presidential nomination. If Lindorff's allegations are true and Kucinich has some evidence to prove it, I suspect that his presidential aspirations will improve.

If Kucinich has nothing to offer more than other well-documented examples of the Vice President's abuse of power, I suspect that his presidential aspirations will be rapidly coming to an end.