“Underground” Group of Cadets Say Air Force Academy Controlled by Evangelicals

Thursday 30 September 2010

Mike Ludwig, Truthout: “An anonymous cadet at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) spoke out against alleged religious discrimination at the school last week, saying that some cadets must pretend to be evangelical Christians in order to maintain standing among their peers and superiors. In an email to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the whistleblower stated that he is part of an ‘underground group’ of about 100 cadets who cannot rely on proper channels to confront evangelical pressure. The email, published by Veterans Today, applauds the MRFF from the ‘underground’ and indicates that the academy is ‘literally overrun with Christian conservative fanatics.’”

cont; http://www.truth-out.org/underground-group-cadets-say-air-force-academy-controlled-evangelicals63726

Rove the Bogeyman Is Back

Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico
“‘Karl Rove is back – like an even worse sequel to a movie panned by the critics,’ Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote Wednesday.”
READ MORE

UN Fact-Finding Mission: Israeli Killing Of US Citizen Was “Execution”

Originally published in Truth-out

By Gareth Porter

The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.

The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.

The report says Dogan had apparently been “lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time” before being shot in his face.

The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is “tattooing around the wound in his face,” indicating that the shot was “delivered at point blank range.” The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that “the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back.”

First Posted: 09-29-10 01:47 PM  -  Updated: 09-30-10 04:08 PM

cont;   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/un-factfinding-mission-sa_n_743873.html

=-=-=-=-=-=

NOTE:

I FOUND THIS COMMENTER’S POST VERY INFORMATIVE:

AbuHamza 4 minutes ago (5:55 PM)

The questions is: Do we really need a fact-finding mission to tell us that the Israeli military commits war crimes?! They kill innocents all the time!!!

This (http://www.goldstone-report.org) was out too after the Gaza invasion and the killing of more than 1000 Palestinian civilians. What happened afterwards? NOTHING!!! How about Sabra and Shatila (http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-fisk180903.htm)?

Now you talking about 9 civilians in a peace flotilla? That’s like a drop in the ocean. I mean, they are not held accountable for killing an American citizens. What else do you want? The U.S. government has failed us all. After all, you and I have in fact paid for the weapon this American citizen got killed by.

If you want to do something, I suggest you visit:

- US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation: www.endtheoccupation.org/
- Jewish Voice for Peace: www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

Bible, The “bestseller” no one reads

PEW study credits nonbelievers with biblical literary

FFRF: Bible bestseller no one reads

September 30, 2010

A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released this week revealing that the people who scored highest on 32 simple questions about religion were atheists agnostics, and religious minorities (Jews and Mormons) did not surprise the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“As we’ve always said at FFRF, the bible is the bestseller than nobody reads,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation spokeswoman. “But we can attest that our membership is biblically literate,” she added.

“At least 5% our membership came to reject religion because they read the bible, not just those more palatable passages,” said Dan Barker, who directs FFRF with Gaylor.

Barker, an evangelical minister before “seeing the light,” has written two books about his rejection of fundamentalism and religion, Losing Faith in Faith and Godless.

Other typical reasons cited for rejecting religion by FFRF members include: Religion just doesn’t make sense (32%), lack of evidence (19%), science (17%), religious hypocrisy/bigotry (175) and reading skeptical authors (9%).

Since its inception in 1978, the Foundation has emphasized biblical literacy. Its first book, still an organizational bestseller, is Ruth Hurmence Green’s classic Born Again Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible, which takes off where Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason leaves off.

“We encourage the public to read the bible critically, like they would any other book, and predict those who judge its teachings like they would any other pronouncements will not want it invoked in government,” Barker added. FFRF offers a self-graded 50-question online quiz, “What do you really know about the bible?“

cont; http://ffrf.org/news/releases/ffrf-bible-bestseller-no-one-reads/

S.C. Man Indicted In Shooting, Dragging Death of Black Man – Aug 9th 2010

By Paul Shepard on Aug 9th 2010 11:33AM

A grand jury has indicted a white 19-year-old South Carolina man for killing a black friend and dragging his body behind his truck. Gregory Collins (pictured above) was indicted for murder, desecrating a body and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to prosecutors in Newberry S.C.

cont; http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/08/09/s-c-man-indicted-in-shooting-dragging-death-of-black-man

2 Men Accused Of Hate Crime For Beating White Teen For “Enslaving Our People”

Post by Casey Gane-McCalla in Nation on Sep 27, 2010 at 2:59 pm

The Seattle Post Intelligencier is reporting that an Asian man and a Black man were charged with a hate crime for beating a white teen.

Two men accused of beating a teenager and blaming it on white oppression were charged Tuesday with a hate crime and first-degree robbery.

Prosecutors allege Ahmed Mohamed, who is black, and Jonathan Baquiring, who is Asian, had blood on them when an officer stopped them shortly after the May 25 attack.

“During this time they beat him with their hands and feet, whipped him with his own belt, burned him with a lit cigarette, poured energy beer on him and urinated on him,” Moore wrote.

“Mr. Shane McClellan said during the assault both suspects made comments like, ‘the white man has kept us down’ and ‘this is for enslaving our people,’” Moore wrote.

cont;  http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/2-men-accused-of-hate-crime-for-beating-white-teen-for-enslaving-our-people/

Miss. Judge Frees 2 Men Wrongly Jailed 30 Years

(NOTE: Supreme Court Justice Scalia believes if you are found innocent after being found guilty, tough poop, you should be held accountable and live-out your sentence whether it be 30 years in jail or the death penalty. So lets make sure he is watched closely when he and his conservative Christian cohorts make decisions that effect many lives. Add insult to injury; George W Bush pushed his AG Gonzales to make it harder for people to appeal judicial decisions which included, putting people to death quicker, once sentenced to death. Another conservative Christian. Religion and Politics MUST remain separate because when it doesnt you get states like Texas that have the most death sentences played out in the USA in recent years.)

=-=-=

by Associated Press in Nation > Good News on Sep 16, 2010

A judge on Thursday freed two men, Bobby Ray Dixon and Phillip Bivens, who spent three decades in prison before DNA evidence showed they didn’t rape a woman and cut her throat in a grisly 1979 attack.

A crowded courtroom erupted in applause after Forrest County Circuit Judge Robert Helfrich’s ruled to set aside the men’s guilty pleas, ending what some described as a 30-year ordeal for the imprisoned men.

Helfrich said the case was marked by a series of tragic events — from the violent attack on the woman to the years the men spent in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.

“The common thread in this case is tragedy,” Helfrich said.

Helfrich ruled on a petition filed by the Innocence Project on behalf of Bobby Ray Dixon and Phillip Bivens. He’ll rule later on a posthumous petition for Larry Ruffin, who died in prison in 2002.

The three men were convicted in the 1979 rape and murder of Eva Gail Patterson, whose 4-year-old son watched her be killed.

cont; http://newsone.com/nation/good-news-nation/associatedpress4/miss-judge-frees-2-men-wrongly-jailed-30-years/

Haiti Still Waiting For $1 Billion In Aid Promised By U.S.

Post by Associated Press in World on Sep 28, 2010 at 5:05 pm

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived.

The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The U.S. has already spent more than $1.1 billion on post-quake relief, but without long-term funds, the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin.

With just a week to go before fiscal 2010 ends, the money is still tied up in Washington. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency, The Associated Press learned in interviews with officials in the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy. One senator has held up a key authorization bill because of a $5 million provision he says will be wasteful.

Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are mounting, as quake survivors scramble to live without shelter or food.

“There are truly lives at stake, and the idea that folks are spending more time finger-pointing than getting this solved is almost unbelievable,” said John Simon, a former U.S. ambassador to the African Union who is now with the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank.

cont;  http://newsone.com/world/associatedpress3/haiti-still-waiting-for-1-billion-in-aid-promised-by-u-s/

Top 5 Anti-Gay Ministers Accused Of Being Homosexual

Post by Casey Gane-McCalla in Nation on Sep 27, 2010 at 6:29 pm

Bishop Eddie Long is not the first preacher who ranted against homosexuality, who in turn was accused of being gay. There have been several others, all who have been accused of carrying out homosexual affairs in the bedroom, while raging against gays in the pulpit. Here are 5 ministers who preached against homosexuality in public yet were accused of indulging in homosexuality in private.

cont; http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/top-5-anti-gay-ministers-accused-of-being-homosexual/

Is Obama doing enough to curb the world’s most destructive mining practice?

“I Want to Make Sure I Have a Home To Go Back To”

By Kate Sheppard, Mon Sep. 27, 2010 6:28 AM PDT

Activists from across Appalachia are in Washington, DC, this week to call attention to mountaintop removal coal mining, the controversial practice of blowing up mountains to reach coal reserves. Appalachia Rising participants will march from the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters to the White House on Monday and hold a lobby day Tuesday to call attention to the practice they say is destroying their homes and communities.

“The region’s not going to survive much longer if we don’t do something soon,” says Dustin White of Charleston, W.Va., in town for this week’s events. White, a 27-year-old with a crew cut and glasses, is orginally from James Creek, a community of about 100 people on Cook Mountain in the southwestern part of West Virginia. The mountain was named for one of his ancestors, and many are buried nearby. Two months ago, Patriot Coal Corporation, one of the largest mining companies in the country, told White’s father, a former coal miner, that they would soon be blasting near his home.

White describes nearby towns that are no longer, as residents have been bought out by coal companies or simply abandoned due to the blasting and diminished quality of life. There’s Lindytown, which sits on the other side of Cook Mountain in the valley below a Massey MTR site, which he says went from 100 people a few years ago to just three today. White fears the same might happen to his town.

“I’m in limbo—I don’t know whether my hometown is going to exist in 20 years,” said White.

“Twenty? Try five!” chimed in Mary Love, an anti-mountaintop-removal activist from Kentucky.

cont;  http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/09/mountaintop-removal-mining-DC-appalachia

Conservative Christian Tea-Bagger Republicans….still love to play “victim”

(NOTE: “Right-wingers” LOVE to say “When are you gonna stop blaming Bush for everything?’, but it is them who blamed Clinton for everything when Bush was in office. I wish American’s were not so stupid, uneducated, uninterested, ADHD-like, (no fault of their own; conservatives have “dumbed down” public schools, FOX is thought of as “news”, and conservative Christians have infiltrated every aspect of life that effects history, science…basic common sense) and could realize that the “right” acts like spoiled brats when they do not have the power to demonize and bully a minority. Christianity was spread that way, as was Hitler’s power and all other powerful entities that snuff out those less powerful. If you don’t think this is the reason why American’s are a disaster, just break it down like I did above, and remind yourself that in a “Republic” the Majority DOES NOT snuff the Minority, but when Republicans have the Majority, that is exactly what they do, yet when in Minority, they whine when the Majority is not doing that, but they want to make everyone believe they are. Obama is an a-hole for many reasons….one is, for trying to “reach across the isle”. Being a from the “Left” whatever you want to call it; DOES NOT MEAN trying to prove we are “better: than them, so we don’t act like them. Give me a break, that is American Exceptionalism at its best, where we torture, but only say it is bad when others do it. There is a “war” going on in the USA, and either the conservative Christian “C Street” extremists are going to get the Theocracy they desire, or they will be stopped. Please support organizations that fight for the ‘Separation of Church and State’, like American’s United (http://www.au.org) and Freedom From Religion Foundation (http://www.ffrf.org), to name just two of the many.)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A Michele Bachmann/Bill Clinton Smackdown

“The liberal left loves Bill Clinton,” Minnesota Republican Michelle Bachmann, who heads the House Tea Party Caucus, maintains. And the conservative right still loves bashing him.

By David Corn, Mon Sep. 27, 2010 7:20 AM PDT

Michele Bachman seems particularly happy—now that she’s running for reelection against Bill Clinton.

The Minnesota Republican, who heads the House Tea Party Caucus, has been sending out fundraising emails to conservatives, asking them to help her “defend herself against Bill Clinton.” What’s Clinton got to do with it? In mid-September, he spoke at a Minneapolis fundraiser for state Sen. Tarryl Clark, who is challenging Bachmann. According to Bachmann, Clinton attacked her and the tea party movement by calling her “stupid.” Hitting up the right-wingers for campaign cash, she decries “the despicable Clinton attacks on my character,” and declares, “Clinton, Pelosi, Obama, and the rest of the liberal establishment are in panic mode as Tea Party candidates across the country rise up against their socialist government. We must continue to fight!”

Clinton sure did take a swipe at Bachmann at that fundraiser, but how tough was it? Journalist Joe Conason was there, and it’s his account that started the fuss. Here’s what the ex-president said, with Clark standing by him, according to Conason:

Your opponent is the ultimate example of putting ideology over evidence…I respect people with a conservative philosophy. This country has been well-served by having two broad traditions within which people can operate. If you have a philosophy, it means you’re generally inclined one way or the other but you’re open to evidence. If you have an ideology, it means everything is determined by dogma and you’re impervious to evidence. Evidence is irrelevant That’s how I see Rep. Bachmann. She’s very attractive in saying all these things she says, but it’s pretty stupid.

To parse Clinton’s words (!), he didn’t call Bachmann stupid, just the ideas she’s promoting. But that was enough for her to self-righteously portray herself as a Clinton victim–and to do so in melodramatic terms. “Bill Clinton will stop at nothing to raise money to defeat me,” she insists in one of the fundraising emails she sent out. And she claims that in the first five days of her anti-Clinton contributions-collecting effort, she bagged over $117,000 in online donations. “The liberal left loves Bill Clinton,” Bachmann maintains. And the conservative right still loves bashing him.

cont; http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/09/michele-bachmann-bill-clinton-smackdown

Wisconsin Republican Opposed Child Abuse Legislation Because It Would Hold Businesses Accountable

Posted by zaidjilani at 8:01 am
September 28, 2010

This post first appeared on Think Progress.

Wisconsin GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson often touts the fact that he comes from outside the political system and has spent his life building busineses in the private sector.

Yet before running for Senate, Johnson did have one prominent act of political participation. In January 2010, Johnson testified before the Wisconsin state legislature in opposition to the bipartisan Wisconsin Child Victims Act. The legislation, if passed, would alter Wisconsin law to eliminate the statute of limitations on civil suits for child abuse and allow a three-year window to bring suit for victims who were victimized before the bill. The legislation also specifies that the entities that can be sued would include not just individuals, but also a “corporation, business trust, limited liability company,” and other formal organizations that could be held accountable for the illegal behavior of their employees. As the bill’s authors write, “We believe that there should be no deadline on justice for child sexual abuse victims.”

cont; http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/28/wisconsin-republican-opposed-child-abuse-legislation-because-it-would-hold-businesses-accountable/

Tea Party: Old Whine in New Bottles

Memo to Obama: Bill Clinton, LBJ, and FDR know how you feel.

— By Kevin Drum

September/October 2010 Issue

[Editor's Note: Click here to see a related slideshow of tea party signs.]

IN A WIDELY READ essay about the tea party movement published earlier this year in the New York Review of Books, historian Mark Lilla provided a now-familiar explanation about what motivates the tea partiers. They are, he reckoned, angry about the recession; angry about health care reform; angry about President Obama; and angry about educated elites forever telling them what to do. “A new strain of populism is metastasizing before our eyes,” he said, and he described the movement this way:

It supports with worshipful intensity the Constitution of the United States; it places itself on the side of the individual and of liberty in opposition to an encroaching government bureaucracy; it respects the judgment of the founding fathers who had so wisely incorporated the separation of federal powers and the rights of the states into the great national document; it defends the American right to enjoy the sweat of one’s own labor and the rewards of one’s ability.

Actually, Lilla didn’t write that last bit. Another historian did. This passage comes from Frederick Rudolph, writing in 1950 about the American Liberty League, a group formed in 1934 in reaction to FDR’s New Deal. But it sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? All I did was change the verbs to the present tense, and it might as well have come from a portrait of the tea party written the day before yesterday.

cont; http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/history-of-the-tea-party

Anti-Government Tea Partier Sharron Angle Gets Health Care from the Federal Government

Posted by AlterNet at 11:49 am
September 28, 2010

Like many Tea Party candidates, Sharron Angle has called for a repeal of the health care act. Last week, Angle made headlines when she mocked mandated health coverage for autism treatment.

Politico reports today that Angle and her husband actually receive health care from the federal government:

Angle’s campaign acknowledged to Nevada journalist Jon Ralston Monday that both the candidate and her husband receive health care from the federal government. Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in a statement: “Mr. Ted Angle receives his pension through the (federal) Civil Service Retirement System. While it is not supplemented by the federal government, current civil servants pay into the program to pay the schedule of those already retired – much like how the Social Security Program works today. Mr. Angle does not qualify – nor does he receive Social Security benefits. His health insurance plan (the Federal Employee Health Program), which also covers Sharron, is a continuation of what he was receiving while he worked for the federal government.”

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/28/anti-government-tea-partier-sharron-angle-gets-health-care-from-the-federal-government/

Do Republicans Want to Bring Back Social Darwinism?

The economic policies Republicans promote could come from the mouths of heartless 19th century industrialists.

9-27-10

John Boehner, the Republican House leader who will become Speaker if Democrats lose control of the House in the upcoming midterms, recently offered his solution to the current economic crisis: “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmer, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. People will work harder, lead a more moral life.”

Actually, those weren’t Boehner’s words. They were uttered by Herbert Hoover’s treasury secretary, millionaire industrialist Andrew Mellon, after the Great Crash of 1929.

But they might as well have been Boehner’s because Hoover’s and Mellon’s means of purging the rottenness was by doing exactly what Boehner and his colleagues are now calling for: shrink government, cut the federal deficit, reduce the national debt, and balance the budget.

cont; http://www.alternet.org/story/148311/

The Hidden Water We Use

How much H2O is embedded in everyday life?  You might be surprised at how much water it takes to bring that hamburger to your plate or to make your t-shirt. Compare apples to oranges, beer to wine, wind power to coal – and see how your choices add up.

cont; http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/embedded-water/

Democrats Continue to Lash Out At Their Own Base

by melissamcewan on @ 11:20 am

This post first appeared on Shakesville.

After telling disillusioned progressives to “stop whining,” Vice President Joe Biden doubled-down on the scold-your-base strategy last night:

“And so those who — didn’t get everything they wanted, it’s time to just buck up here, understand that we can make things better, continue to move forward,” Biden said during an appearance on MSNBC, “but not yield the playing field to those folks who are against everything that we stand for in terms of the initiatives we put forward.”

Biden was asked by MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, in the debut of the host’s new program, “The Last Word,” whether he’d like to retract his admonition to liberals to stop complaining.

“There are some on the Democratic base, not the core of it, that are angry because we didn’t get every single thing they want,” the vice president said.

“They should stop that,” Biden explained. “These guys, if they win, the other team, they’re going to repeal healthcare [reform] and I want them to tell me why what we did wasn’t an incredibly significant move that’s progressive and helping people.”

The Obama voter who’s “angry because we didn’t get every single thing they want” is a damnable strawperson. Joe Biden is mistaking ideological purity for what, in reality, is consistent principles—and the expectation that the administration have them, too.

cont; http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/28/democrats-continue-to-lash-out-at-their-own-base/

Troubles Plague Top Job at Pentagon Office Overseeing Brain Injuries

by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Sep. 23, 1:28 p.m.

The director of the Pentagon’s program to oversee the treatment of troops with brain injuries has been transferred while under investigation for alleged sexual harassment.

Three months after a shakeup in leadership at the Pentagon center that oversees the treatment of troops with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders, the office’s new director is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office.

According to the Associated Press, the director, Army Col. Robert Saum, has been accused by an employee of making unwanted sexual advances and creating a hostile work environment.

cont;  http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/troubles-plague-top-job-at-pentagon-office-overseeing-brain-injuries

How the Bush Tax Cuts Made Us Poorer

Posted by David Sirota on @ 9:59 am

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Cay Johnston provides the data confirming what we all knew was true, but many were afraid to say out loud:

Total income was $2.74 trillion less during the eight Bush years than if incomes had stayed at 2000 levels.That much additional income would have more than made up for the lack of demand that keeps us mired in the Great Recession. That would mean no need for a stimulus, although it would not have affected the last administration’s interfering with market capitalism by bailing out irresponsible Wall Streeters instead of letting the market determine their fortunes.

In only two years was total income up, but even when those years are combined they exceed the declines in only one of the other six years…

Had incomes stayed at 2000 levels, the average taxpayer would have earned almost $21,000 more over those eight years. That’s almost $50 per week.

These numbers make Democrats’ decision not to even hold a vote on the Bush tax cuts all the more appalling. We know they aren’t good economic policy, and we know that most Americans want at least part of those tax cuts repealed. We also know that Democrats aren’t refusing to hold a vote because they want to let the tax cuts naturally expire – we know they are planning to potentially ram through an extension of those tax cuts for the long haul.

As these numbers show, that would be a huge mistake.

cont;  http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/28/how-the-bush-tax-cuts-made-us-poorer/

U.S. Decides Not to Revoke BP Probation Despite Safety Concerns

by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Today, 1:32 p.m

The Justice Department has decided not to revoke probation that the government had imposed on BP as part of an agreement to address safety violations at the company’s Texas City refinery, site of a deadly 2005 explosion. The decision comes despite a government warning earlier this year that it might revoke the company’s probation if BP failed to address the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s continuing concerns about safety at the refinery.

Since a blast at the refinery in 2005 killed 15 workers, BP has faced both criminal and civil actions for violations identified in investigations after the accident. As part of its plea agreement to resolve the criminal charges it faced after the 2005 blast, BP was given three years’ probation.

cont. http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/despite-safety-concerns-at-texas-refinery-u.s.-decides-not-to-revoke-bp-pro

The District of Columbia (US), the City (UK), the Vatican…three city states that wield unusual powers.

Money laundering Vatican-style

Last week, the Vatican was shocked when the Italian government announced it was investigating the head of the Vatican bank for
money laundering.

The Vatican may be shocked, but no one who knows their track record is.

A trip down memory lane.

Video: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/945.html

How conservative Christian congressmen travel the world to preach to dictators on the taxpayers’ dime

Junkets for Jesus

The C Street Family goes global: How congressmen travel the world to preach to dictators on the taxpayers’ dime.

By Jeff Sharlet, Mon Sep. 27, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

THE OLDEST AND MOST politically influential Christian conservative organization in Washington is known to the public, if at all, for one thing: adultery. In particular, that of three Republican politicians, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), and ex-Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.)—all caught last year in various states of moral undress, all linked to a Capitol Hill townhouse at 133 C Street SE, which the blogosphere promptly tagged “the Prayboy Mansion.” The organization behind the townhouse, which is used to provide subsidized housing for “brothers” in Congress, is known to outsiders as the Fellowship. But its leader, a quietly charismatic octogenarian named Doug Coe, calls it the Family.

Coe is only the second leader of the movement, which began as a fundamentalist anti-labor coalition of political and business elites in 1935. Coe’s mentor, Abraham Vereide, shared with him a revelation from God: For nearly 2,000 years, Christianity, with its emphasis on the down and out, had been getting it all wrong. Their focus would instead be on the “up and out,” the “key men” in positions of power who would be able to usher in the kingdom of God—which, to the Family, has always looked a lot like the country clubs where it conducts much of its soft-sell evangelism. The best way to help the weak, it teaches, is to help the strong. That required first building a ministry in the nation’s capital that would over the years become one of Washington’s most influential, and most secretive, institutions. Dozens of members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are involved in Family prayer groups (Hillary Clinton was a regular in the Senate group), and every president since Eisenhower has attended the organization’s only public event, the National Prayer Breakfast. [READ MOJO'S COVERAGE OF HILLARY CLINTON'S PRAYER GROUP.]

But while Coe’s Washington operation has drawn more scrutiny of late, what most news accounts have missed is that the Family has also exported its philosophy overseas—by dispatching US politicians to recruit leaders abroad. Members of Congress have traveled the globe, sometimes on the taxpayer dime. They’ve gone to Greece and Japan, Aruba and Hawaii. But much of the travel has been to international trouble spots—the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans—where the footprint of American power (and American aid) is vast, and a congressman complete with entourage and military escort is a VIP indeed.

Many of the “friends” targeted by these congressional missionaries are strongmen such as Omar al-Bashir, the president of oil-rich Sudan, who has been indicted for genocide in the International Criminal Court; and Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda. (The Family’s Ugandan friends also include David Bahati, the author of a murderous piece of legislation called the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which mandates the death penalty for some homosexual acts.)

cont;  http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/doug-coe-inhofe-siljander-c-street

Do Genetically Engineered Foods (Including Salmon) Cause More Allergies?

By Kiera Butler, Mon Sep. 27, 2010 2:30 AM PDT

You’ve probably heard that the FDA is considering whether to approve the AquAdvantage, a genetically engineered salmon. In theory, this could a good thing: AquAdvantage grows twice as fast as regular salmon, meaning more salmon for everyone, and less stress on wild stocks.

But a number of consumer, health, and environmental groups say there isn’t enough evidence to ensure the public that the fish is safe for people or the planet. And even though the company claims the fish isn’t more allergenic than regular salmon, experts disagree—one called the science behind that conclusion “woefully inadequate.”

So should people with food allergies be scared of Frankenfish? And are genetically engineered foods more likely to cause allergic reactions than regular food?

cont;  http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/09/genetically-engineered-salmon-allergies

Goddess worship persisted in Christian homes, dig finds

Source: USA Today (9-17-10)

Three centuries after the birth of Christianity, at least one wealthy family in the town on Sussita, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee, was still adorning its home with images of goddesses.

Archeologists from the University of Haifa in Israel and Concordia University in Minnesota discovered a wall painting of Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune.

They also found a figure of a maenad, one of the female companions of the wine and fertility god Dionysus.

cont;  http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/131610.html

When it comes to vaporizing Americans with Hellfire missiles, what’s the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration?

Obama, Bush, and the Judicious Use of Hellfire Missiles

By Nick Baumann, Sat Sep. 25, 2010 4:00 PM PDT

This article has been updated since it was originally published.

When it comes to vaporizing Americans with Hellfire missiles, what’s the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration? The Bush administration fretted about the legal implications.

One major revelation to come out of Bob Woodward’s new book, “The Obama Wars,” is the news that “many Westerners, including some U.S. passport holders,” were killed by a CIA-operated drone strike in Pakistan in November 2008. It remains unclear whether the victims were specifically targeted or collateral damage. (See the Washington Post‘s Jeff Stein for more.)

If Bush was having Americans killed in Pakistan in 2008, then it’s not surprising that President Barack Obama is ordering the CIA to kill American cleric and accused terrorist Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2010, right? Not really—the cases are pretty different. From Woodward’s account, it seems clear that the Bush administration was sincerely worried about the potential legal ramifications of killing Americans abroad—”the CIA would not reveal the particulars [of the attack] due to the implications under American law.”

cont; http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/09/anwar-al-awlaki-and-dead-americans-pakistan

Obama administration invokes “state secrets” doctrine to defend the assassination of US citizens

By Tom Carter, 27 September 2010

The Obama administration invoked the “state secrets” doctrine Friday in an effort to halt court proceedings that call into question its policy of “targeted killings” of individuals around the world, including US citizens.

In April of this year, President Barack Obama gave the order for the “targeted killing” of Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi. Al-Awlaqi, who was born in New Mexico and attended US universities, is a US citizen.

On orders from Obama, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fired a cruise missile at a meeting al-Awlaqi was attending in Yemen, but al-Awlaqi survived. While hundreds have been killed in Obama’s “targeted killing” missile attacks, the attempt on al-Awlaqi’s life marked the first time in US history that a president officially ordered the assassination of a US citizen.

The Obama administration claims that al-Awlaqi, now in hiding in Yemen, is a “senior recruiter for Al-Qaeda.” Al-Awlaqi’s father, who remains in the US, told CNN, “I am now afraid of what they will do with my son. He’s not Osama bin Laden, they want to make something out of him that he’s not.”

In July of this year, the Obama administration added al-Awlaqi’s name to the “Specifically Designated Global Terrorist” list. This list was created by the Bush White House via executive order in September 2001 and has been maintained by the Obama administration. Once an individual is designated a “terrorist,” his or her assets can be summarily frozen and seized, and it becomes a crime to render services to that person. Any person can be placed on this list simply on the say-so of the president.

Because Al-Awlaqi has been placed on the “Specifically Designated Global Terrorist” list, it is illegal for any lawyer to represent him without a special permit. According to new laws enacted as part of the so-called “war on terror,” a lawyer who provides legal services to someone on the “Specifically Designated Global Terrorist” list without a permit can be charged with the crime of “providing material support for terrorism.”

cont; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/awla-s27.shtml

FBI raids on antiwar activists: A frontal assault on democratic rights

“The role of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party in intensifying the buildup of police-state powers underscores the necessity for the independent mobilization of the working class against the entire political establishment and the capitalist system that it defends. This is the only basis for putting an end to war and defending democratic rights.”

Patrick Martin, 27 September 2010

Workers, youth and students who oppose the war policies of the Obama administration and all those who uphold democratic rights must defend the antiwar and pro-Palestinian activists whose homes were raided Friday morning by the FBI. These raids are an ominous warning that the US government, unable to convince the American people to support the imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a predatory foreign policy around the world, is moving to criminalize open political opposition.

At a press conference Saturday in Chicago, two of those targeted, Joe Iosbaker and Stephanie Weiner, gave details of the raid. Twenty FBI agents ransacked their home, taking away more than 30 boxes of papers, correspondence and personal items dating back over four decades. At several of the homes raided, FBI agents seized computers and cell phones.

While no one was arrested—a fact that in itself demonstrates there was no “terrorist” threat—many of those targeted were given subpoenas to appear before federal grand juries next month. They will apparently be questioned particularly about their personal travel to foreign countries where they met openly with political and labor groups.

Those targeted in the September 24 raids are not terrorists stockpiling bombs, but political activists whose “weapons” are leaflets, placards, newsletters and Internet postings. Most are members or supporters of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), which publishes the newsletter Fight Back.

cont;  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/pers-s27.shtml

US slaughter intensifies in Afghanistan

The US military claimed responsibility for killing scores of Afghan insurgents over the weekend as it unleashed its long-awaited offensive in Kandahar.

By Bill Van Auken, 27 September 2010

The US military claimed responsibility for killing scores of insurgents over the weekend as it unleashed its long-awaited offensive against Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO umbrella organization for the US-led occupation, reported the largest body counts in two eastern regions of the country.

In eastern Laghman Province, ISAF reported that a US-led air assault killed at least 30 in an “engagement with enemy fighters” in the Alishing district. The report claimed that there were no injuries to civilians in the area.

On Saturday, however, several hundred Afghans demonstrated in the streets of Mihtarlam, the provincial capital, to protest the slaughter of unarmed civilians in the raid. The protesters chanted slogans condemning the US-led occupation.

The Afghan news agency PAN quoted one of the demonstrators, Sharifulla, as saying that no militants had been killed in the operation and that all the victims were noncombatants. The New York Times also quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying there was no activity on the part of its fighters in the area and that all of those killed had been civilians.

cont; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/afgh-s27.shtml

FBI investigated Greenpeace for terror links after 9/11

Source: Telegraph (UK) (9-21-10)

The FBI improperly opened investigations into Greenpeace and other animal rights and anti-war groups after the September 11 attacks of 2001, the US government has admitted.

A US Department of Justice review found that FBI agents also put names of some Greenpeace members on terrorist watch lists based on evidence that turned out to be “factually weak”.

cont;  http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/131584.html

The tea party candidate accuses her foes of personal attacks, yet in 2007 she said Pelosi was a faux Christian. What could be more personal?

(NOTE: CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS MAKE THE BEST WHINERS, HYPOCRITES AND FUCT TARDS)

=-=-=-=-=

Christine O’Donnell: Nancy Pelosi Is Not a True Christian

By David Corn

Is Christine O’Donnell now complaining about the sort of attacks she once hurled?

On Tuesday night, the Delaware Republican Senate candidate and tea party star appeared on—where else?—Fox News and denounced her foes for relying on personal atacks to discredit her. Referring to Democratic criticism of O’Donnell, Fox host Sean Hannity asked, “Do you think this is an attack on religion? On your religious beliefs?” O’Donnell replied, “They’re trying to paint me as an extremist, so that people won’t pay attention to my message.”

During the segment, she also groused, “They’re attacking me personally…They’re not attacking me on my positions. They’re trying to attack me.”

But O’Donnell is no stranger to launching personal attacks. Three years ago, she appeared on—where else?—Fox News and assailed the religious views (and the morality) of a prominent politician: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

On January 25, 2007, O’Donnell, then the president of an outfit called the Faith and Flag Alliance, was a guest on the The O’Reilly Factor, according to a transcript of the show (which is not posted on the internet). The subject was supposed Christianity-bashing, and Bill O’Reilly had pegged the segment to the release of an HBO documentary on militant Christians. The film had been made by Alexandra Pelosi, a daughter of Nancy Pelosi. O’Reilly noted that he had “nothing against” Pelosi’s film, but he decried what he considered to be the mainstream media’s marginalization of Christians. He asked O’Donnell about the media’s exploitation of the “weird behavior” of militant Christians to undermine all Christians.

O’Donnell replied by questioning Nancy Pelosi’s faith:

First, let me say that Nancy Pelosi has—can benefit from making Christians look bad because she touts her Christianity when it’s politically expedient for her, yet she doesn’t follow any of the Christian moral principles.

O’Reilly interrupted O’Donnell to say, “I don’t think that’s fair…I don’t think you should be judging Nancy Pelosi.” But O’Donnell went on to criticize Pelosi for claiming that “she’s a Catholic woman whose Catholicism shapes her policy.” O’Donnell maintained that the House speaker was not truly a Catholic:

What I want to point out is that Christianity is not a set of beliefs that you can pick and choose from. It’s not a smorgasbord; it’s not a buffet. You either embrace it all and represent it all, or embrace a worldview that says you can do whatever you want.

O’Donnell was essentially contending that the only real Christian is a fundamentalist Christian—and saying that Pelosi was not a real Catholic because she did not adhere to O’Donnell’s definition of Catholicism. O’Reilly remained unconvinced and told O’Donnell, “People shouldn’t be judging people in a moral way unless they break the law.” He cut to another guest, and O’Donnell wasn’t heard from again that show.

cont; http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/09/christine-odonnell-nancy-pelosi-not-true-christian