Christianist Election Apocalypse

The Christofascists are becoming increasingly hysterical over the prospect that Barack Obama might just eke out a reelection win and thereby  throw a major wrench in their agenda of infusing more of their hate and fear based religious dogma into the nation's laws.  These extremist recognize that Mitt Romney would be a willing tool in implementing their theocratic agenda simply because he would want to avoid a Christianist primary challenge in 2016 were he to be elected next week.  Some of their hysteria might almost be funny were it not for the fact that these religious fanatics are completely serious in their desire to subvert the U. S. Constitution and end all abortion, re-criminalize gays and uphold white Christianist privilege.  A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at the hysteria and tactics the enemies of freedom for all citizens are emplying.  Here are some excerpts:

The final stretch of the presidential campaign is bringing out the last-minute scramble for a miracle, whether it be undecided voters in a swing state breaking your candidate’s way or prodding the apathetic to the voting booth on November 6th.

Or, to put a different spin on the phenomenon: we’re now seeing the dumbest of religious appeals, the most craven partisan tactics, a dramatic spike in proof-texting the Bible to score political points, and dire prophecies.

Focus on the Family’s political arm is sending Iowa voters a flyer claiming that President Obama thinks “we’re no longer a Christian nation” (read: we were once a Christian nation but bwwaaahahahahahaha, my evil Islamo-socialist plan has worked!).

Obama is an oppressor of Christianity, in the view of the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, who tweeted that “#Obamacare seems aimed squarely at dismantling and/or silencing the family and the Church.”

Billy Graham—or, as many suspect, someone speaking on the 94-year-old evangelist’s behalf—put his name on an advertisement that reads, “I strongly urge you to vote for candidates who support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and woman, protect the sanctity of life, and defend our religious freedoms.”

The Christian Post, the subject of an intense investigation by Christianity Today (which was founded by the elder Graham), was also the venue for a Romney endorsement by Richard Land, who serves as the magazine’s executive editor.

Land, disgraced from his position as the Southern Baptist Convention’s “ethics” guru after admitting to plagiarizing racist rants about the Trayvon Martin case, broke his pledge not to endorse a candidate because “America is at a fork in the road and must choose between a President Barack Obama who wants to remake America in the model of a European welfare state and a Governor Mitt Romney who wants to restore a more economically vibrant and traditionally moral America.”

Anti-marriage equality crusader Bishop Harry Jackson, who is African American, urges readers to vote for Romney “as a statement of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.” While King was sitting in the Birmingham jail, Romney was tormenting boys with long hair at Cranbrook, and his Church was still 15 years away from lifting its ban on black men serving in the priesthood.

Pastor Robert Jeffress, who just a year ago endorsed Rick Perry over Romney in the Republican Primary, and called Mormonism a cult, is now telling pastors in Florida—even though he still thinks Mormonism is a cult—that “It’s time to stand up and push back against all the evil in our country.” He suggested that failing to go out to vote for Romney would be like being a pastor in Germany in the 1930s and failing to try to stop the Holocaust.

Here’s the reality: white evangelicals are an ever-shrinking proportion of the electorate; according to a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll, they make up 30% of those 65 and older, but just 9% of 18- to 29-year-olds. A recent Pew poll found that now the “nones” make up the same segment of the population (19%) as white evangelicals. And the younger the cohort studied, the more likely that a “none” is an atheist or agnostic. There’s no convincing the evangelical partisans, though.

That the GOP and Romney/Ryan are so beholden to such religious extremists and outright nutcases ought to terrify rational, thinking Americans.   If these people are the ones supporting Mitt Romney and the GOP, there isn't a much stronger argument to be found for voting Democrat and for Obama.

Why Mitt Romney Is the Wrong Man for America

The list of reasons why Mitt Romney and the GOP need to be defeated next Tuesday is a long one and this blog has looked at many of these reasons which range from Romney's pathological lying, to his contempt for 47% of the population (perhaps the only true thing we have seen from the man) and to his reckless plan to slash taxes for the wealthy while going on a defense spending binge that would make the budget deficit explode.  A piece in The Daily Beast that includes the summary "The candidate lies to women, manipulates the truth about his taxes and his tax policy, and covers for racists"adds to the litany of why Romney is wrong for America.  Here are some excerpts:

Mitt Romney is a pimp. He’s pimping his base, lying every opportunity he gets with the hope that the uninformed—as well as those who are supporting him because they just want to get that black man out of the White House—will spread his ill will and surrender to his lack of compassion for those who have suffered because of what President Bush and corporate America have done to Americans. If I thought for one minute that Romney would be better for this country than President Obama, I would vote for him.

I’ve talked about, ranted about, and even tweeted regularly about just how racist this entire campaign season has been and how so many people either don’t see, or refuse to see, the real truth behind the Republicans and Mitt Romney.

From day one of the Obama administration, Republicans agreed not to support any legislation he proposed that would have improved the economy, especially the Jobs Bill, which would have created almost 2 million jobs.  .  .  .  .  They didn’t mind when Bush was spending trillions on wars, did they? In their quest to embarrass and humiliate the president, Republicans have harmed our country.

I’m so glad the Times, along with many other news organizations, is able to see through Mitt Romney as well as the B-movie performances he relies on to fool his base. Even a fifth-grader should be able to see clearly what those truths are: Mitt Romney is a phony, arrogant, dishonest, manipulative, pompous, elitist human being who lacks genuine compassion, and, as a result, is ill-equipped to run the United States of America.

He lies about things a presidential hopeful shouldn’t be lying about. Three of my favs: his bogus tax policy, Medicaid, and, the biggest of all: that he’s a magician and can create 12 million jobs in four years! 

There also is another major truth about Romney that no woman in her right mind should ignore. He seems downright excited about having the power to throw women off the bridge and setting us back 40 years. Mitt and his posse—Todd Akin, Paul Ryan, and now Richard Mourdock (along with 13 other white male senators and even two females)—have decided to use “big government” to impose their religious beliefs on us.  

Church and state are supposed to be separate. Elected officials should not be allowed to use the Senate, the House of Representatives, and especially the White House as a platform from which to impose their religious beliefs on women. Period. I’d really like to know why they are so preoccupied with what women do with their bodies.

In his willingness to “expose” his policies affecting women, Romney has made it clear that he wants to eliminate Planned Parenthood and repeal Roe v. Wade and yet he has not been as forthcoming when it comes to releasing his taxes. (Even a 3-year old would know he’s hiding something that would make us see how slick he really is.)

Republicans have done everything possible to pass laws to suppress the vote: they are losing their grip. This Club they’re obviously honorary members of is one where honesty, dignity, and fair play take a backseat to winning at all costs, and they feel not one ounce of shame when their tactics are exposed.

Many do not want to hear this truth - including neighbors on my street - that racism and a fear of a permanent loss of white privilege and entitlement is what motivates far too many in today's GOP.  It's all about maintaining power in the hands of white, heterosexual conservatives who believe that the rest of us should be forever subservient and be forced to live in accordance with their dictates.  This arrogant contemptuous attitude are personified in Mitt Romney who will engage in any and every lie and deception to further himself.  Personally, I think the man is amoral or perhaps even a sociopath.  The man scares me.

Australian Priest: State Must Act Against Catholic Church

It is refreshing to see someone within the Catholic Church clergy admitting that the Church hierarchy has engaged in criminal activity in the cover ups of sexual abuse of children and youths.  I suspect that Jesuit priest Frank Brennan may face repercussions for his honesty and underscoring of the fact that the Church cannot be left to police itself or properly deal with sexual predators because the hierarchy is part of the criminal conspiracy.  Hopefully, Australia will act against the Church contrary to what has occurred in the USA where no high clerics have been prosecuted.  Here are highlights from The Age:

THE Catholic Church will need state intervention to resolve the crisis surrounding sexual abuse of children by priests, according to noted jurist and Jesuit priest Frank Brennan.

''Where there is a social organisation within the democracy with a proven and self-admitted case of ongoing criminal activity, and it's related to very vulnerable children, the state should intervene,'' he said.

Delivering the annual Law and Justice Oration in Sydney's Parliament House on Wednesday night, Professor Brennan said: ''Clearly, the church itself cannot be left alone to get its house in order. That would be a wrongful invocation of freedom of religion in a pluralist, democratic society.''

His comments echo those made by RMIT professor and former priest Des Cahill to the state inquiry into the church handling of clergy sex abuse.

 

Professor Brennan said that as politicians decided how to proceed, they needed the help of ''lawyers committed to justice, not lawyers acting primarily to protect the church or to condemn it''.

Professor Brennan said in his oration that any problems in the Catholic Church needed to be identified for the good of all citizens, not just Catholics.

''At the moment, there is little more that any Catholic priest can credibly say on this issue in the public square. I make this plea to all lawyers having a commitment to justice. While putting aside any religious prejudice, please contribute fearlessly to the debate.''

 Would that we would see a single bishop or cardinal in America call out the Church for the criminal organization it is in fact.  No, instead they focus their efforts on depriving LGBT citizens of civil rights while coddling and protecting child rapists.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Hampton Roads from Chesapeake Avenue

As much as I complain about living in backwards Virginia, I will concede that our neighborhood known as Old Wythe in the City of Hampton is beautiful.  The scene above was taken by a neighbor down the street looking  across Hampton Roads harbor towards Norfolk and Portsmouth to the south.

Michael Bloomberg Endorses Obama

Four years ago Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, did not endorse either of the presidential candidates.  Many expected that Bloomberg would act similarly in 2012.  That expectation was shot down today when Bloomberg, in a well reasoned statement, endorsed Barack Obama on his political website.   What tipped the scales in Bloombergs mind?  The fact that one of the presidential candidates, Barack Obama, embraces science and the fact that the earth's climate is changing and the other, Mitt Romney, does not.  Adding to the motivation to endorse Obama Bloomberg also notes Romney's embrace of the frightening agenda of the Christofascists and others of the far right.  Here are excerpts from Bloomberg's endorsement of Obama:

The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast – in lost lives, lost homes and lost business – brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief.

Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be – given this week's devastation – should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.

Here in New York, our comprehensive sustainability plan – PlaNYC – has helped allow us to cut our carbon footprint by 16 percent in just five years, which is the equivalent of eliminating the carbon footprint of a city twice the size of Seattle. Through the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group – a partnership among many of the world’s largest cities – local governments are taking action where national governments are not.

But we can't do it alone. We need leadership from the White House – and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year. 

Mitt Romney, too, has a history of tackling climate change.  .  .  .  .  But since then, he has reversed course, abandoning the very cap-and-trade program he once supported. This issue is too important. We need determined leadership at the national level to move the nation and the world forward.

In the past he has also taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care. But he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the health-care model he signed into law in Massachusetts.  

His [Obama's] health-care law – for all its flaws - will provide insurance coverage to people who need it most and save lives..

When I step into the voting booth, I think about the world I want to leave my two daughters, and the values that are required to guide us there. The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America. 

One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision.

One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America’s march of freedom; one does not. I want our president to be on the right side of history.

One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics.

Presidnts Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan both found success while their parties were out of power in Congress – and President Obama can, too. If he listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future for my children and yours. And that's why I will be voting for him.  

I agree with Michael Bloomberg.  I'd go even further and state that one candidate, Barack Obama, is on the right side of history and morality and the other, Mitt Romney is not.  Romney could be the poster boy for why one should walk away from organized religion, the Mormon Church in particular.

Catholic Bishop of Peoria Tells Parishioers "Vote Democrat and Go to Hell"

Once again I have to ask myself, where in the Hell is the IRS?  Why?  Because the porcine (why are so many of the bishops grossly obese?) Roman Catholic bishop of Peoria has through his choice of words basically ordered Catholics in his diocese to vote Republican or go to Hell.  Moreover, exerting his feudal lord like powers over diocesan priests, bishop Daniel R. Jenky (pictured above) has ordered every priest to read his fiat to the laity in the pews.  One can only hope that as word of the bishop's arrogance and partisanship sinks in that at least some Peoria Catholics will say they've had enough and will vote with their feet.  As I've noted numerous times, both the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America offer wonderful, almost identical options to Catholics who seek to escape the moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church hierarchy.  Here are excerpts via the National Catholic Reporter from Jenky's batshitery filled letter to those he considers little better than ignorant, uneducated serfs:

By virtue of your vow of obedience to me as your Bishop, I require that this letter be personally read by each celebrating priest at each Weekend Mass, November 3/4. 

Dear Catholic Believers,

Since the foundation of the American Republic and the adoption of the Bill of Rights, I do not think there has ever been a time more threatening to our religious liberty than the present. .  .  .  .
This assault upon our religious freedom is simply without precedent in the American political and legal system. Contrary to the guarantees embedded in the First Amendment, the HHS mandates attempt to now narrowly define and thereby drastically limit our traditional religious works. They grossly and intentionally intrude upon the deeply held moral convictions that have always guided our Catholic schools, hospitals, and other apostolic ministries. 

Nearly two thousand years ago, after our Savior had been bound, beaten, scourged, mocked, and crowned with thorns, a pagan Roman Procurator displayed Jesus to a hostile crowd by sarcastically declaring: Behold your King. The mob roared back: We have no king but Caesar. Today, Catholic politicians, bureaucrats, and their electoral supporters who callously enable the destruction of innocent human life in the womb also thereby reject Jesus as their Lord. They are objectively guilty of grave sin.

For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life. God is not mocked, and as the Bible clearly teaches, after this passing instant of life on earth, God's great mercy in time will give way to God's perfect judgment in eternity.

I therefore call upon every practicing Catholic in this Diocese to vote. Be faithful to Christ and to your Catholic Faith. May God guide and protect his Holy Church, and may God bless America.

True, Jenky does expressly order members of the diocese to vote only for Republicans, but one need not be a rocket scientist to get the coded message.  I'd also note that today, I have not heard a peep out of Jenky on the need to rid the Church hierarchy of those who aided and abetted sexual predator priests.  But that, of course, would mean that he'd have to demand Benedict XVI relinquish his crown.  For those in the hierarchy who are motivated principally by a quest for power and privilege that act of moral courage and righteousness will never happen.

Delaware “Family Values” GOP Candidate Busted on Child Molestation Charges

For the third time in as many days we are seeing the true nature of the "family values" conservatives who oppose same sex marriage, claim to worship the "sanctity of marriage" - all of whom coincidentally are REPUBLICANS.   First it was the prostitute soliciting "Christian family company" business owner in Maine, and then there was the GOP Attorney General of Arizona who had his affair exposed following a hit and run accident.Now it is Republican candidate for the Delaware State Senate, Eric Bodenweiser (pictured at left) who has been arrested on child molestation charges.  And, if you haven't already guessed it, the victim was a young boy.  And as is par for the course, Bodenweiser was a member of the anti-gay Delaware Family Policy Council.  The Washington Blade has details.  Here are highlights:

A Republican candidate for the Delaware State Senate who boasted of being a member of the anti-gay Delaware Family Policy Council was indicted this week on multiple charges of engaging in unlawful sex acts with a 13-year-old boy.

The indictment came less than a week after Eric Bodenweiser, 53, abruptly dropped out of his race for a State Senate seat in a conservative-leaning district near Rehoboth Beach that includes the City of Georgetown.

The indictment includes 113 felony sex charges, including 39 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse — first-degree and 74 counts of unlawful sexual contact — second-degree. Although the indictment doesn’t identify the gender of the victim, the Gape Gazette identified the victim as a boy who allegedly was sexually abused by Bodenweiser between Oct. 1, 1987 and Aug. 31, 1990 when he was between the ages of 10 and 13.

Jason Miller, a spokesperson for the Delaware Attorney General’s office, which is prosecuting the case, said the victim, who is now in his 30s, has spoken to the media and revealed details not disclosed in the indictment but which are expected to surface at a trial.

Among those who had endorsed Bodenweiser in his State Senate race was Christine O’Donnell, the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Delaware.

Democratic candidate Jane Hovington, who was expected to lose to Bodenweiser by a wide margin, is now the only candidate on the ballot in the race for the 19th Senate district. She is being challenged by Republican former Georgetown Mayor Brian Pettyjohn, who is running as a write-in candidate.

Why is it that 99% of the time it is always the Republicans and "family values" crowd that are the child molesters and adulterers?

The Economist Endorses Obama - Math Does Still Matter

I continue to be amazed at the Republicans who keep saying the nation's budget deficit has exploded under Obama - obviously they have "romnesia" about the real budget busters: Chimperator George Bush and Emperor Palpatine Cheney.  Worse yet, the foam at the mouth about what will happen to the budget deficit if Obama is reelected.  Meanwhile, they have done nothing to check the impossible math of Mitt "I'm a Liar" Romney's proposals.  Between the promised tax cuts and huge increases in defense spending Romney has promised, the budget deficit would utterly explode.  One can only assume that they have imbibed far too much Kool-Aid laced with mind altering drugs or that they live in an alternate universe where simple math doesn't exist.  Well, the Economist HAS done the math and in large part because Romney would be a financial disaster deficit wise, the Economist has endorsed Barack Obama for reelection.  The entire endorsement is worth a read because it looks honestly - and critically - at Obama's record but nonetheless concludes that Romney/Ryan would be far worse.  Here are some excerpts:

[T]his choice turns on two questions: how good a president has Mr Obama been, especially on the main issues of the economy and foreign policy? And can America really trust the ever-changing Mitt Romney to do a better job? On that basis, the Democrat narrowly deserves to be re-elected.

Mr Obama’s first term has been patchy. On the economy, the most powerful argument in his favour is simply that he stopped it all being a lot worse. America was in a downward economic spiral when he took over, with its banks and carmakers in deep trouble and unemployment rising at the rate of 800,000 a month. His responses—an aggressive stimulus, bailing out General Motors and Chrysler, putting the banks through a sensible stress test and forcing them to raise capital (so that they are now in much better shape than their European peers)—helped avert a Depression. That is a hard message to sell on the doorstep when growth is sluggish and jobs scarce; but it will win Mr Obama some plaudits from history, and it does from us too.

Two other things count, on balance, in his favour. One is foreign policy, where he was also left with a daunting inheritance.  .  .  .  .  The other qualified achievement is health reform. Even to a newspaper with no love for big government, the fact that over 40m people had no health coverage in a country as rich as America was a scandal.

Mr Obama’s shortcomings have left ample room for a pragmatic Republican, especially one who could balance the books and overhaul government. Such a candidate briefly flickered across television screens in the first presidential debate. This newspaper would vote for that Mitt Romney, just as it would for the Romney who ran Democratic Massachusetts in a bipartisan way (even pioneering the blueprint for Obamacare). The problem is that there are a lot of Romneys and they have committed themselves to a lot of dangerous things.

Take foreign policy. In the debates Mr Romney stuck closely to the president on almost every issue. But elsewhere he has repeatedly taken a more bellicose line.   .  .  .  .  Mr Romney seems too ready to bomb Iran, too uncritically supportive of Israel and cruelly wrong in his belief in “the Palestinians not wanting to see peace”. The bellicosity could start on the first day of his presidency, when he has vowed to list China as a currency manipulator—a pointless provocation to its new leadership that could easily degenerate into a trade war.

[F]ar from being the voice of fiscal prudence, Mr Romney wants to start with huge tax cuts (which will disproportionately favour the wealthy), while dramatically increasing defence spending. Together those measures would add $7 trillion to the ten-year deficit. He would balance the books through eliminating loopholes (a good idea, but he will not specify which ones) and through savage cuts to programmes that help America’s poor (a bad idea, which will increase inequality still further). At least Mr Obama, although he distanced himself from Bowles-Simpson, has made it clear that any long-term solution has to involve both entitlement reform and tax rises. Mr Romney is still in the cloud-cuckoo-land of thinking you can do it entirely through spending cuts.

Mr Romney’s more sensible supporters explain his fiscal policies away as necessary rubbish, concocted to persuade the fanatics who vote in the Republican primaries . . . . However, even if you accept that Romneynomics may be more numerate in practice than it is in theory, it is far harder to imagine that he will reverse course entirely. . . . . Mr Romney, like Mr Hollande, will have his party at his back—and a long record of pandering to them.

Indeed, the extremism of his party is Mr Romney’s greatest handicap. The Democrats have their implacable fringe too: look at the teachers’ unions. But the Republicans have become a party of Torquemadas, forcing representatives to sign pledges never to raise taxes, to dump the chairman of the Federal Reserve and to embrace an ever more Southern-fried approach to social policy.

As a result, this election offers American voters an unedifying choice. Many of The Economist’s readers, especially those who run businesses in America, may well conclude that nothing could be worse than another four years of Mr Obama. We beg to differ. For all his businesslike intentions, Mr Romney has an economic plan that works only if you don’t believe most of what he says. That is not a convincing pitch for a chief executive. And for all his shortcomings, Mr Obama has dragged America’s economy back from the brink of disaster, and has made a decent fist of foreign policy. So this newspaper would stick with the devil it knows, and re-elect him.

Thursday Morning Male Beauty