261. WAVING THE JESUS FISH FOR FUN AND PROFIT

From the Archives. (October 2006) Well well well, the sins of the Gross Old Pedophiles are certainly coming home to roost, aren’t they?

Now we have the Curt Weldon scandal on top of the Foley scandal on top of the Ralph Reed scandal on top of the Abramoff scandal on top of Who’s Next?

Meanwhile, I spent my lunch break re-reading the Times’s expose on special-interest handouts that the Republicans continue to extend to religious groups and lemmetellya if I’m ever accused of tax evasion, I plan to state that my actions were ecclesiastic decisions subject to special interest provisions.

I mean, who knows? Seems as if folks can avoid all sorts of legal ramifications simply by waving a little Jesus fish around.

(Which reminds me of the drug-dealing jeweler in my hometown who took to writing "Jesus Loves You" on his sign after getting busted for selling pot. His new-found faith didn't keep him from continuing to deal though.)

So. What separate and unequal benefits have our legislators adopted to subsidize religion (even as they work to deny equal benefits to those of us who worship at the labial font)?

Let’s start with legalized job discrimination. Secular businesses such as day care centers and hospitals are at a competitive disadvantage now as the fish-wearers reap more profits.

Fish-wearers are being awarded tax breaks for initiatives such as luxury communities, theme parks, and golf courses that have nothing to do with maintaining a house of worship. This deprives localities of tax revenues while forcing us all to subsidize groups whose principals we may oppose.

Yes, it seems that Bush&Co decided to take a slice of the Establishment Clause too when they set their eyes on the Constitution er that “just a goddamn piece of paper.”

•

Meanwhile, I finally connected with Jamie, who has, no doubt, been holed up reading the On Our Back issues that I pasted generic magazine covers on so that she can take them to her treatments.

(Those nurses have no idea what's inside her copy of Computer World. Hee!)

MOST OBNOXIOUS BUMPERSTICKER SEEN THIS WEEEK: A confederate flag with the caption Fighting Terrorists since 1864

COOLEST BUMPERSTICKER SEEN THIS WEEK: Just another godless atheist working for equality and world peace.

BEST OF SPAM: "Essential message. You must read" (which was delivered alongside "Significant letter. You require to read.")

179. LET THE DNA CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY

From the Archives

(4 January 2006) Julian day 2,453,740 and I am wondering if John and Yoko named their son after this measure.
It’s 12:02 AM and I am backing up my four-thousand-plus iTunes songs in anticipation of an upgrade to Creative Suite II tomorrow.

So lots to ponder these days. A Virginia coroner’s preserved blood samples were subjected to modern DNA tests, and they exonerated five inmates who spent a total of 90 years in prison on rape convictions. Gov. Warner has now ordered that the coroner’s other samples be tested and has vowed to “let the DNA chips fall where they may.”

Meanwhile, at a time when it’s well nigh impossible to avoid suggestions of Republican corruption, King Bush the Latter has announced his nominees for the Federal Election Commission. His choices, according to the New York Times., “would keep the policing of campaign abuses firmly in the hands of party wheel horses.”

Our would-be king waited till the Senate recessed to make his announcement in an effort to avoid confirmation hearings (which certainly makes me believe that there’s nothing, nothing at all, to worry about).

Even though one of his nominees “is reported to have been involved in the maneuvering to overrule the career specialists” at the Justice Department who “warned that the Texas gerrymandering orchestrated by Rep. Tom DeLay violated minority voting rights” and in “such voting rights abuses as the purging of voter rolls in Florida in the 2000 elections.”

It appears that big money has taken over our voting rights now too.

(An did I mention Shrub’s connections to the company that makes the popular [and untraceable] electronic voting equipment?)

I suppose I could have entitled this entry “Let the Republican Chips Fall Where They May,” since Ralph Reed (ha ha snort) and Tom DeLay (who will yet be found guilty of money-laundering and conspiracy yet) and Dennis Hastert and Sonny Bono’s widowed wife-turned-representative and Trent Lott and numerous other Republicans who accepted $4.4 million in funneled corporate funds plus lavish gifts from super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff have been squirming in their loafers ever since Abramoff agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the burgeoning corruption and bribery investigation of Washington lawmakers.
According to the Times, the soon-to-be-falling Republican chips could make Abscam and The Keating 5 look like small potatoes.

So let’s see, there’s CIA leaks and NSA wiretapping, and nd Michael Scanlon, former aid to Tom DeLay, pleading guilty to conspiring to bribe officials and now cooperating with prosecutors.

And Abramoff, who scammed $80 million from native-American tribes (my ancestors curse you, now cooperating with prosecutors.

It won’t take long, according to the Times, to follow the bouncing Abramoff ball to David H. Safavian (indicted former head of the White House procurement office), Karl Rove (whose former employer became Abramoff’s personal assistant), Tyco (whose executives funneld $2 million to Grassroots Interactive), Ralph Reed (demanded laundered tribal money from Abramofff), Tom DeLay (“Abramoff is one of my closest and dearest friends”), and Rep. Ney (R-Oh), who went to Scotland to golf on Abramoff’s dime.

And that’s just what we know right now.

Let’s say that out loud fast: law makers breaking laws. No ethics none.

This certainly explains the Democrats' strategy of fighting Republican culture of corruption in the next election, eh?

(And who knew that Ralph Reed was even a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia? Why Georgia? And is this a step to higher office à la Pat Robertson?

Reed is, after all, the strategist who came up with the idea of placing stealth Christianist candidates in public office. And gosh, don’t those untaxed Christian Coalition purse strings keep getting looped around every corrupt Republican thing?)

Meanwhile, Free Press has moved up the release date of James Risen’s State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration to Today, since the AP already exposed Risen’s major revelation that the US is secretly eavesdropping on US citizens.

This book outlines how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. In fact,

State of War provides an account of the origins and scope of the wiretap program that basically repeats the revelations contained in Risen and Lichtblau's stories in the Times. But the book also argues that the NSA's eavesdropping policy shows the extent to which the war on terrorism has spurred the intelligence community to flout legal conventions at home and abroad. Risen's chief target is the CIA, where, he argues, institutional dysfunction and feckless leadership after 9/11 led to intelligence breakdowns that continue to haunt the U.S. Though much of State of War covers ground that is broadly familiar, the book is punctuated with a wealth of previously unreported tidbits about covert meetings, aborted CIA operations and Oval Office outbursts. (Time magazine)

I am losing faith. (Not that I had much to begin with.)

When exactly will the impeachment procedures begin?