Religious Parties In American Politics

The Dallas Morning News has this tidbit about the Texas Republican Revival Convention:

Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the Republican convention. "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth native said to the cheers of the party faithful. For the 4,500 delegates at last week's biennial gathering, it was both an expression of conservative philosophy and religious faith, a melding of church and state.

At Saturday morning's prayer meeting, party leader Tina Benkiser assured them that God was watching over the two-day confab.

"He is the chairman of this party," she said against a backdrop of flags and a GOP seal with its red, white and blue logo.

The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."

"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.

Italics mine. God, this is fucking scary. I'm betting that there will be violence before this is all over. No matter which way it ends.

Brian Birdwell Tina Benkiser Dominionists Republicans

When will the Republicans Jump the Shark?

Apologies for the sporadic posting. My life outside of blogging has been busy. It will continue to be busy up until the beginning of July, at which point I will be going on vacation, sans laptop. Thought you might want to know.

But back to the subject at hand.

Think Progress reports (and has video) of Republican James Inhofe, Senator from Oklahoma, making an ass out of himself during the 'debate' about gay marriage:

INHOFE: As you see here, and I think this is maybe the most important prop we'll have during the entire debate, my wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I'’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we've never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship.

Ok, we get it. Your a man. Your penis works. And you don't really like gays. And you're hoping that it will keep getting you elected.

But let's get real here. This guy's just spouting bigotry on the floor of the Senate. What if JImmy Inhofe boasted about not having any African American blood in 'the recorded history of our family?'

Any time you can't substitute 'black' for 'gay' in your sentence, you're being bigoted. "I wouldn't mind black people so much if they didn't rub their blackness in our faces."

At what point do people see all this gay-baiting for what it is?

James Inhofe Bigotry Gay Marriage

The George Bush Economy

From the Washington Post:

The nation's economy generated 75,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department reported today, about half the growth anticipated by economists.

Job creation was revised downward in the survey for the months of March and April as well. For March, there were 175,000 new jobs created versus a previous figure of 200,000. The April jobs increase of 138,000 was downgraded to 126,000.

Unemployment, measured by a different survey, remained essentially unchanged at 4.6 percent, compared with 5.1 percent a year earlier. Unemployment is at the lowest level in five years.

Today's job creation figures suggested slowing economic activity, which could ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to continue raising key interest rates, except that other indicators, such as rising payrolls and the prices of energy and raw materials point in the other direction.

How long can gay baiting and xenophobia stand up against an unpopular war, multiple and expanding scandals and a lousy economy?

Under-employed people, workers who have jobs but haven't had a raise in years, and people dealing with rising energy costs are going to start feeling the pinch. Here's hoping the Republicans will be feeling it soon too.

New Bad News in Iraq

From the BBC:

The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians.

The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.

The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.

A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way.

This is really getting disgusting.

Haditha, Abu Ghraib, now Ishaqi. George Bush's war in Iraq has done more to damage the reputation of the United States than anything in living memory. Our reputation will not recover. The European generation that saw America as a liberator is dying - replaced by one that sees us as something far different.

Ishaqi War in Iraq George W. Bush