* Last Night's So-called "Compassion Forum" was Not So Compassionate

Democrats Wrangle Over Words and Religious Beliefs

By JOHN M. BRODER

Published: April 14, 2008

GRANTHAM, Pa. — A candidate forum devoted to issues of faith and justice became another flash point for Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to spar in their intensifying nominating fight, with the candidates exchanging frosty glances Sunday night as their paths briefly crossed on stage.

The Democratic contenders addressed the Compassion Forum at Messiah College here, one after the other. Their cold, quick encounter as they traded places on the stage reflected the hostility between them over the past two days as Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly hammered Mr. Obama for remarks he made at a fund-raiser suggesting that some voters turned to religion and guns as consolation for their bitterness about their economic hardship. Read more ...

More whining ... Why are Presidential candidates talking about "faith" issues in a public forum, anyway? Nothing new. What has happened to the so-called separation of religion and politics that our nation was founded on? ~ BlogHer

* Daniel Dennett, Thinker ~ Born on This Day in 1942

Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Dennett is also a noted atheist and advocate of the Brights movement. Wikipedia

“ . . . I've come to realize it's time to sound the alarm.

Whether we Brights are a minority or, as I am inclined to believe, a silent majority, our deepest convictions are increasingly dismissed, belittled and condemned by those in power -- by politicians who go out of their way to invoke God and to stand, self-righteously preening, on what they call 'the side of the angels.'

. . . Politicians don't think they even have to pay us lip service, and leaders who wouldn't be caught dead making religious or ethnic slurs don't hesitate to disparage the 'godless' among us.

From the White House down, Bright-bashing is seen as a low-risk vote-getter. And, of course, the assault isn't only rhetorical: the Bush administration has advocated changes in government rules and policies to increase the role of religious organizations in daily life, a serious subversion of the Constitution. It is time to halt this erosion and to take a stand: the United States is not a religious state, it is a secular state that tolerates all religions and--yes--all manner of nonreligious ethical beliefs as well.”

~ Daniel C. Dennett, "The Bright Stuff," The New York Times, July 12, 2003

* Uh oh, "A President Obama's Neoliberal Theocracy"

Here's the hub of matter.
In his speech to the Democrat convention in 2004,
then Candidate for the U.S. Senate Barack Obama said,

"It is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keep, I am my sister's keeper -- that makes this country work."

Full article at American Thinker

* James Madison, Deist ~ Against Religion in Politics

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect," Madison wrote William Bradford (April 1, 1774).

“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. . . .

Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion.”

~ James Madison, "Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785.

James Madison, Jr., (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American politician and the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817), and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Selected works of James Madison
Born this day, March 16

Angry Thoughts for Today ~ Needing to Vent

Laura & George Bush are so perfectly aligned to each other mentally that it's sickening. Laura just appeared live on CBS TV news. She was asked what she would like to see the next president accomplish. She answered, "that Iraq & Afghanistan become democracies." That's it! Nothing else! Nothing about the American people. Nothing. Shame on you, Laura & George Bush. There are 326 days too many until January 20, 2009, when a new President of the United States will take office and we're totally doomed if it's John McCain. ~ BlogHer

Top 10 'abuses' of religion on the campaign trail

baltimoresun.com

by Mark Silva
February 27, 2008

"In a regretable campaign for “pastor-in-chief,’’ the Interfaith Alliance has come up with a review of the “unholy use of religion in the presidential campaign.'' As in any good review, they have a Top 10 list – topped by Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama."

More, plus video ...

"I have witnessed more abuses of religion in this primary season than in any election in recent memory,’’ said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance. “Incidents like these demean the sanctity of religion by inferring that God has endorsed a certain candidate. Far be it for candidates to run for 'Commander-in-Chief' instead of 'Pastor-in-Chief.'"

"And the Top 10 are…

No. 10. Mitt Romney is asked if he believes "every word" of the Bible (CNN/You Tube debate (11-28-07).

No. 9 . CNN's Soledad O'Brien asks John Edwards to "name his greatest sin" (CNN/Sojourners town hall 6-26-07).

No. 8. James Dobson tells a reporter he does not think that Fred Thompson is a Christian (3-27-07).

No. 7. Barack Obama distributes a campaign flier describing himself as a "Committed Christian" (1-21-08).

No. 6. Hillary Clinton said we need to "inject faith into policy" (CNN/Sojourners town hall 6-26-07).

No 5. Mike Huckabee explains his rise in the polls by invoking the Biblical story of two fish and five loaves feeding a crowd of 5,000 people (11-28-07).

No. 4. Tim Russert asks all the Democratic candidates to "name their favorite Bible verse" (MSNBC 9-26-07).

No. 3. John McCain says the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation and that he would prefer a Christian president (9-27-07).

No. 2. Barack Obama asked a congregation to help him "become an instrument of God" and join him in creating "a Kingdom right here on Earth" (10-17-07).

No. 1. Mike Huckabee tells a crowd: "What we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards" (1-14-08).

The Interfaith Alliance is a nonpartisan organization "dedicated to promoting the positive and healing role of religion in the life of the nation and challenging those who manipulate religion to promote a narrow, divisive agenda." It claims more than 185,000 members drawn from more than 75 faith traditions and 47 local activist groups throughout America."

* Noam Chomsky on the Reactions to US Threats

We Own The World

Adapted from a Z Media Institute talk, June 2007

January, 01 2008 By Noam Chomsky

Chomsky's ZSpace page

Chomsky on US foreign policy and the reactions of other nations to US threats as understandable in light of the "we own the world" mentality.

For example, Chomsky writes,

"We can pay attention to the dissidents and the reformists in Iran who are struggling courageously to turn Iran into a more democratic society. And we know exactly what they are saying, they are very outspoken about it. They are pleading with the United States to withdraw the threats against Iran. The more we threaten Iran, the more we give a gift to the reactionary, religious fanatics in the government. You make threats, you strengthen them. That is exactly what is happening. The threats have lead to repression, predictably." Full article ...

A.N.S.W.E.R
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism

February 3, 2008 Newsletter. The Iraq war is the second longest in U.S. history. It has killed more than one million Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. troops. Hundreds of thousands more have been wounded. Nearly five million Iraqis have been made refugees by the war and occupation. Over a quarter of Iraq's population has been killed, wounded or displaced. While Bush and his partners in the Democratic Party talk endlessly about "supporting the troops," tens of thousands of returning soldiers have life-altering wounds — both physical and psychological — and totally inadequate medical care and benefits. Many are already homeless.

The cost of the war is now running at more than $400 million per day, nearly $5,000 per second. Military-industrial corporations and the big banks are reaping huge profits, while millions of people go without health care, decent housing and jobs. Much of the country's infrastructure — bridges, roads, water systems, schools — is falling apart. The same banks that are evicting millions of people from their homes are the ones profiting from the war.

A.N.S.W.E.R Newsletter
Sign Up

* Change the word of the living God?

C'mon, Huck, people change it everyday to suit themselves.


Posted on January 18, 2008

Huck to Constitution: Get Right With God

This past Monday, as most of America now knows, Mike Huckabee effectively told the Constitution that it had better get right with God. In so doing, he committed the single most egregious Faith and Values’ blunder of the 2008 campaign.

In a follow-up interview with Steven Waldman and Dan Gilgoff, the former governor of Arkansas conceded that he may have phrased it “awkwardly.” Yet his subsequent responses to their insightful questions did little to suggest he did not mean what he said.

I will get to that fascinating interview next week. But today I want to return to Huckabee’s original words--words which will haunt this relatively young politician throughout his career:

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do — is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family."

Continue reading »

See: Stephen Colbert Mans the Phone for Huck

Leaderless and Clueless ~ Vote Us Out of Peril

America Heads for the Trash Can of History

By Paul Craig Roberts

11/28/07 "ICH" --- -- In new books writers as disparate as Naomi Wolf and Pat Buchanan conclude that America as we know her is disappearing. Both writers hope, but are not confident, that enough Americans will catch on in time to find the leadership to pull America back from the brink.

If polls are reliable, a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with President Bush and Congress. However, Americans are far short of Wolf and Buchanan's grasp of our peril.

Americans are unable to connect their dissatisfaction with the current political leadership with their choice of new leaders. All polls show that Hillary Clinton is far in the lead for the Democratic presidential nomination and Rudy Giuliani is far in the lead for the Republican nomination These are the only two candidates guaranteed to be worse than Bush/Cheney.

Both Hillary and Rudy are committed to the war. Both refuse to rule out expanding the war to Iran and beyond. Both are totally in the pocket of the Israel Lobby. Indeed, practically every Giuliani advisor is a member of the Lobby. Both defend the police state measures that "protect us from terrorism." And neither gives a hoot for the US Constitution and the civil liberties it guarantees. The Republican Giuliani is likely to overturn the Second Amendment even quicker than the Democrat Hillary.

Both Hillary and Rudy are creatures of ambition, not of principle. Both are one up on Karl Marx. Marx said truth serves class interests. For Hillary and Rudy, truth is what serves their individual interests. They both wear black hats, and the horse they ride is called power.

Yet in November polls, Republicans prefer Giuliani by a margin of five or six to one over Ron Paul, the only principled Republican candidate and a person who without any doubt believes in the Constitution and would protect it.

Democrats prefer Hillary by a margin of twenty to one over Dennis Kucinich, the only member of Congress sufficiently concerned and courageous to introduce impeachment against the notorious war criminal Dick Cheney. By margins as much as forty-four to one, Democrats prefer Hillary to Senator Christopher Dodd, who promises to give America back its Constitution in the first hour of his administration. Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel does not even register in the polls.

Obviously, the American people haven't a clue. In November 2007 they show a distinct preference for leaders who are even worse than the ones with whom they are currently dissatisfied. What does this tell us about the American people and their commitment to be sufficiently informed for democracy to function?

It tells us that they are not up to the challenge. It is only a matter of time before America succumbs to the plutocracy, against which Warren Buffet recently warned Congress, or the fascist tyranny that Naomi Wolf sees in our future.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

*It is interesting to note that when this article was published almost two months ago Barack Obama was not mentioned. Is he up to the challenge? ~ BlogHer

*Religion & Politics Polls

A lengthy list of polls on the enmeshment of religion and politics reveals that Americans are not progressing very much regarding keeping religion and politics in separate realms. Not good. For example:

CBS News Poll. June 26-28, 2007. N=750 registered voters nationwide.

"Do you think it is appropriate for political candidates to talk about their religious beliefs as part of their political campaigns, or do you think this is not appropriate?"

50% of ALL reg. voters said it's appropriate.
65% of Republicans said it's appropriate.
41% of Democrats said it's appropriate.
48% of Independents said it's appropriate.

See also trends in American public opinion which include the current presidential race.

* Did You Know?

Bush banned from birthplace of Jesus Christ

"Their entry into the church will tarnish it as [Bush's] hands are covered in the blood of the innocent..."

The Spirit of Christmas consists in spreading Peace and Justice.

The Spirit of Christmas is when War Criminals are banned from the Birthplace of Jesus Christ.

In April 2003 at the height of the military campaign directed against Iraq, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem decided to ban President Bush and Prime Minister Blair from the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

"They are war criminals and murderers of children. Therefore the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access into the holy shrine for ever,"

"Their entry into the church will tarnish it as [Bush's] hands are covered in the blood of the innocent,”

The Church of the Nativity is under the authority of the Greek Orthodox church.

Of utmost significance, the US News media has not reported this story.

Spread the word to Church parishes in the US and around the World.

Unseat the War criminals.

Global Research, 24 December 2006

---

* Conservatives Attacking Academia: War on Good Education/ Roll Back Federal Police Powers Now!

Conservative War on Good Education

October 29, 2007

by Neal McCluskey

Neal McCluskey is a policy analyst at Cato's Center for Educational Freedom, and author of Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education.

Last month we marked one year since the U.S. Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education released a report castigating America's ivory tower and setting out a "national strategy" to overhaul it. Also in September, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI)—a conservative higher education watchdog—throttled some of America's best universities for their performance on a test that seemed designed to fail them. And in Congress right now, many Republicans are pushing for bill that would publicly shame colleges that raise their prices too fast. Conservatives, it appears, are at war with the one system of American education that actually works.

Let's start with ISI. This is the second year that it has given a U.S. history test to freshman and seniors at a sampling of American colleges and universities, and the results, by ISI's account, were both abysmal overall, and worst at prestigious institutions.

Read more...

Submitted by Prof. D. Showley

"NO END IN SIGHT"

Democrats are trying to find a way to end the occupation of Iraq, but George Bush wants to keep the occupation going... forever.

That's why it's essential for all of us to see No End in Sight, a remarkable and powerful film that will give you the facts you need to demolish Bush's latest lies.

Watch the Trailer

Recently in Salon, noted correspondent Sidney Blumenthal wrote that the film 'No End In Sight' "has the White House spooked" by the prospect of former high level officials like Colin Powell being inspired by the insiders in the film to speak out against the shortsightedness of the disastrous Iraq policy, destroying the last vestiges of the administration's credibility.

Time Magazine has called the film "Without a doubt the most important film you are likely to see this year," and it is possibly the best reviewed film of the entire year, as you can see from the selection of critic quotes below.

The film is playing in theatres in most major cities nationwide. For a list of dates and locations, visit www.noendinsightmovie.com. If you care about where we're headed as a country, you owe it to yourself to see, what the NY Times calls, "an absolutely vital" film.

"PREPARE TO BE RIVETED. NO END IN SIGHT IS WITHOUT QUESTION THE MOST IMPORTANT MOVIE YOU ARE LIKELY TO SEE THIS YEAR." - Richard Schickel,Time

"THIS POWERHOUSE OF A MOVIE SHOULD BE REQUIRED VIEWING FOR EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS. Lucid, without partisan rhetoric, and not to be missed." -David Ansen, Newsweek

"**** STAGGERING! A DAMNING POLITICAL THRILLER." - Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

* Putting to Rest the "Christian Nation" Myth

David R. Koepsell
Associate Editor of Free Inquiry

"The Council for Secular Humanism, its spokespersons, and Free Inquiry's editors and authors are often forced to respond to theists enraged over court decisions and legislation that aim to ensure the separation of church and state. Consistently, we have sought to uphold the establishment clause of the First Amendment in its most literal sense. Our arguments in favor of the clear separation of church and state are based upon sound constitutional and historical grounds. The opponents of separation have often focused on two claims: (1) that the United States is a "Christian nation" because it was "founded by Christians" and (2) that the United States is a Christian nation because its civil and criminal laws are "Judeo-Christian in origin." Both claims are illogical and historically inaccurate. Our Constitution only refers to religion where it seeks to actively exclude it from the government. The secular nature of the United States is clear. Continue ...

David R. Koepsell is the executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism and an associate editor of Free Inquiry. This Op-Ed is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 25, Number 3.

* Informed Voting ~ Track What the Candidates are Saying

FAITH 2008

"Will faith play the role in the 2008 election that it did in 2004? How will candidates articulate their personal beliefs? How will they relate them to public policy issues ranging from education and social policy to terrorism and the war in Iraq?

"The Faith 2008 database is designed to address these questions. It tracks references to religion in the speeches and statements of the major candidates of both parties. Users can filter results by party and topic, compare statements across candidates, and explore the evolution of controversies over time.

"The database is now in a start-up phase."

"Faith and..." topics: Church/State, Education, Foreign Affairs, Morality, Social Policy, Tolerance

Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

* An Atheist for President? by Jacques Berlinerblau

The God Vote

Jacques Berlinerblau is program director and associate professor of Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of "The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously" and the forthcoming "Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics." The God Vote is a critical look at the religious rhetoric, activity and theology behind the 2008 presidential campaign. Full bio »

The God Vote | Georgetown/On Faith Archives | On Faith Archives | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | Georgetown

Posted on September 20, 2007

An Atheist for President?

As a means of improving the political fortunes of American Nonbelief , permit me to make a helpful suggestion: I propose that the godless of our great nation nominate their own candidate for a 2008 presidential run. More ...

*Provided by Prof. D. Showley

* On George Bush from The Reagan Diaries

Quote of the Day: Ronald Reagan on Dubya

'A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.'

~ From the just published REAGAN DIARIES. The entry is dated May 17, 1986.

**Contributed by my friend Prof. D. Showley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ I did not vote for George Bush either time. ~ BlogHer

* Commitment 2008 ~ Presidential Candidates

Compare

* 2000 Marks the Beginning of the Post-American Era ~ The Bush Administration

Letter from France
August 27, 2007

The Human Bomb

LETTER FROM FRANCE about French president Nicolas Sarkozy. To understand Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been President of France for three months, it helps to know the story of the human bomb. In 1993, when Sarkozy was mayor of Neuilly, he went into a nursery school where a man strapped in…

by Adam Gopnik

Excerpt:

"He [Sarkozy] continued, “With America, he wants the normal relations we’ve always had. But he is capable of candor there, too. When Sarkozy met Condoleezza Rice, she said, ‘What can I do for you?’ And he said, bluntly, ‘Improve your image in the world. It’s difficult when the country that is the most powerful, the most successful—that is, of necessity, the leader of our side—is one of the most unpopular countries in the world. It presents overwhelming problems for you and overwhelming problems for your allies. So do everything you can to improve the way you’re perceived—that’s what you can do for me.’ I think it’s entirely possible; the reservoir of good will has been drained somewhat, but it is far from dry. Look how much the image of France has changed in the United States in eight weeks.”

"Sarkozy’s decision to spend his summer vacation in New Hampshire and have lunch with George W. Bush in Maine was widely regarded in France not as obsequiousness but as pure human-bombism: walk right up to the man considered dangerous and disarm him by talking calmly over a hot dog. The effect aimed for was not so much audacity as anomie: Sarkozy is trying to remove the drama from Franco-American relations by making them “normal.” I’m in the neighborhood—let’s have lunch. The larger, implicit point is that the threatening thing is not really that threatening.

"The catastrophe in Iraq has had an unlooked-for effect: not to stoke anti-Americanism in a new generation but to make America seem almost marginal. For almost two hundred years, Americanization in Europe has been synonymous with modernization—that’s why the Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor, as a gift of the Third French Republic, the fraught state that appeared after Louis-Napoleon’s Second Empire failed. It was a gift not from a complacent old world to a nascent new one but from a newborn republic to one that, after its civil war, was firm and coherent. The point wasn’t that Europe would not abandon us; it was that we would not abandon old Europe to the despots.

"Now, for the first time, it’s possible to imagine modernization as something independent of Americanization: when people in Paris talk about ambitious kids going to study abroad, they talk about London. (Americans have little idea of the damage done by the ordeal that a routine run through immigration at J.F.K. has become for Europeans, or by the suspicion and hostility that greet the most anodyne foreigners who come to study or teach at our scientific and educational institutions.) When people in Paris talk about manufacturing might, they talk about China; when they talk about tall buildings, they talk about Dubai; when they talk about troubling foreign takeovers, they talk about Gazprom. The Sarkozy-Gordon Brown-Merkel generation is not unsympathetic to America, but America is not so much the primary issue for them, as it was for Blair and Chirac, in the nineties, when America was powerful beyond words. To a new leadership class, it sometimes seems that America is no longer the human bomb you have to defuse but the nut you walk away from.

"What Brown, Merkel, and Sarkozy all have in common is that they do not want to be defined by their response to America—either unduly faithful, as with Blair, or unduly hostile, as Chirac became. Instead, as Levitte says, they all want to normalize relations with a great power that is no longer the only power. Its military weakness has been exposed in Iraq, its economic weakness by the rise of the euro, and its once great cultural magnetism has been diminished by post-9/11 paranoia and insularity. America has recovered from worse before, and may do so again. But it is also possible that the election of Nicolas Sarkozy may be seen not as the start of a new pro-American moment in Europe but as a marker of the beginning of the post-American era."