Pat Robertson Roundup (yes I've had links sitting around all week)

Pat Robertson's contradictory theology: God won't stop a tsunami -- but might respond to Gay Days with an earthquake

Responding to a question from ABC host George Stephanopoulos about why a God "so involved in our daily life" would allow a tsunami to kill hundreds of thousands of people, Rev. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America, replied: "I don't think He reverses the laws of nature." That statement, on the May 1 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, conflicts with other meteorological comments by Robertson, who has repeatedly linked natural disasters to the will of God.

After Orlando, Florida, city officials voted in 1998 to fly rainbow flags from city lampposts during the annual Gay Days event at Disney World, Robertson issued the city a warning: "I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you. ... [A] condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs, it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor."

Robertson: Judges worse than Al Qaeda

"Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings," Robertson said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"I think we have controlled Al Qaeda," the 700 Club host said, but warned of "erosion at home" and said judges were creating a "tyranny of oligarchy."

Confronted by Stephanopoulos on his claims that an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War - Robertson didn't back down.

"Yes, I really believe that," he said. "I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together."

[Emphasis Mine - not that it needed it]

- rob 5:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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slacktivist: Persecution

When protected, privileged and pampered American Christians claim to be facing persecution they spit on the wounds of their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world and in history who have known firsthand what religious persecution really is. They mock not only their fellow Christians in this great cloud of witnesses, but also those of other faiths who have suffered or are, now, today, suffering genuine persecution.

Such a person was recently interviewed on the PBS program "Now." He described both the real, physical suffering he experienced and how his faith in God gave him the strength to endure it:

... Nightmares come, because I stayed five days without food or water, with torture. I always have this feeling, like conscious dreams. Sometimes these scenes appear in front of my eyes, even while I am not asleep.

I put my faith in God. Our strength and our resistance come from our faith in God, especially a person who considers himself not guilty and he is the object of abuse and punishment. There were others who couldn't resist [the torture], and they gave up names of innocent people to trade for their release from prison. But God gave us the strength, and we believe in God. For a truly faithful man, God gives the person the great strength to be patient to endure the pain, abuse and insults that we were subjected to.

The man who described this persecution is named Haj Ali.

You may not recognize his name, but you've seen his picture.

- rob 5:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Others are thinking what I'm thinking

Daily Kos :: The Coming Christian Hate

"The [National Government] regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life." -- Hitler

The bulk May 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine is dedicated to an in-depth look at the Christian Right-Wing, surely one of the most frightening segments of modern American society. It is entitled Soldiers of Christ.

What you find in the articles by Chris Hedges, Gorden Bigelow and Jeff Sharlet is a picture of an increasingly powerful, very wealthy and very large Christian cult that is founded almost entirely on the belief that its members are righteous above all, persecuted by the state and trusted, by God, with a mission to conquer the world for Jesus and rid the world of those who do not hold those same values.

The authors estimate that there are maybe 150 million people (not all in the United States) who associate themselves with this cult.

It also seems the center of this cult is Colorado Springs, Colorado. Forty-five miles north of where I was born and raised.

One should not have the impression that this cult is all cohesive. There are a number of different sects spread throughout the county. But what ties them together is Dominionism, that is, a lust for political power.

Dominionists preach that Jesus has called them to build the kingdom of God in the here and now...
[snip]
America becomes, in this militant Biblicism, an agent of God, and all political and intellectual opponents of America's Christian leaders are viewed, quite simply, as agents of Satan.

Essentially, what Christian Dominionism wants is to take over the government, the social, educational and financial institutions of our country and rid the society of anyone they term as `deviant'. That is, anyone who disagrees with them.
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Our favorite Fundamentalist, Dr. James Robin of Focus on the Family, is by far the most influential leader of the Dominionists. But there are others like Pastor Ted who oversees 45,000 churches and 30 million believers, prays at for buildings and is a close confidant of President Bush.

"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good . . . Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism." - Randall Terry, Founder, Operation Rescue, 1993."

- rob 5:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Just a small news blurb

Religion and Politics Clash

Religion and politics clash over a local church's declaration that Democrats are not welcome.

East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn't support George Bush, they should resign or repent.

But it should make you sit up and take notice (and at the very least it should make the government remove East Waynesville Babtist's tax free status).

For more go to Democratic Church Purge Part II: Action

- rob 5:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Afraid to tell the truth
A secret memo publicized in Britain confirms the lies on which Bush based his Iraq policy. Why has it received so little notice in the U.S. press?

May 6, 2005 | Are Americans so jaded about the deceptions perpetrated by our own government to lead us into war in Iraq that we are no longer interested in fresh and damning evidence of those lies? Or are the editors and producers who oversee the American news industry simply too timid to report that proof on the evening broadcasts and front pages?

There is a "smoking memo" that confirms the worst assumptions about the Bush administration's Iraq policy, but although that memo generated huge pre-election headlines in Britain, its existence has hardly been mentioned here.

See Rep Conyers take on the Smoking Memo below (a couple of post below).

Despite much happy talk from Washington about the successes achieved in Iraq, recent polls show that Americans are more disenchanted than ever with the war. Nearly 60 percent now say the president made the wrong decision and that the outcome is not worth the price in lives and treasure. What would they say if the media dared to tell them the truth about how it all happened?

- rob 4:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Now I really don’t consider myself a Christian, I was raised Unitarian and though I belong to a local Episcopal church I think of it as my family’s religion, not mine personally. When my daughter was getting baptized the associate rector says to me “Rob – so good to actually see you here on a Sunday.” I take the kids to a lot of church activities and I think of them as Christians and I think that is great (how Unitarian of me).

So I am not against Christianity… but something is happening in America and has been happening for a while… many flavors of the evangelical version of Christianity has moved away from wanting to “share” and “teach” the love of Christ and move to “force” and “demand” fealty to their version of Christianity, all the while pretending (and believing) it is they themselves that are under attack. That isn’t the religion my family belongs to.

Growing up my friends were Jewish, Baptist (they had that great pancake supper I went to every year), Methodist, Catholics, Atheists, and what not. Some were “born again,” which in some cases meant that their “conversion” or “rebirth” really helped them turn their life around – more power to them. The faith aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous is the source of its strength for many of its members.

I had one friend who I’d call an Evangelical Christian. Besides an almost weekly mini-lecture from her about religion, she was fun to hang with in High School. When I complained about her lectures she told me “Look if I had a cure for cancer, you’d want me to tell you…right?” I still ignored her lectures after that, but I wasn’t as annoyed with them. How could that Love turned into the Hate?

When I moved to California my friend and I were looking for a place to rent. I was speaking with one woman who sounded friendly and the place sounded nice so I was telling the woman that I would check with my friend and see what time worked with her. The woman’s tone changed immediately, “I won’t rent to an unmarried couple.” “Oh, no problem, we’re just friends” I reply. Now the woman sounded angry “Look we’re a Christian family and I don’t know what that means to you but I won’t let my children be exposed to this.” I was stunned because my friend really was just my friend. So the conversation ended. The woman reacted as if she was under attack. I didn’t question her faith. I didn’t question her motives. She had been taught that she was under attack.

Like Yoda says Fear Leads to Anger, Anger Leads to Hate and Hate leads to the Dark Side which leads to lots of money at the box office. There is money and power here – it’s as lowly and petty as that. These Mega-churches are multi-million dollar operations. I wouldn’t be surprised if major corporations will soon be paying “insurance” money to influential church leaders. Pay us a tithe and we’ll see to it that you corporation isn’t found “immoral.”

ABC feels more comfortable not allowing a commercial saying the Christ represents Love while allowing an ad from Focus in the Family because getting on the extremist religious right’s bad side is bad business.

But why do people believe so easily that they are being attacked – that they are being persecuted. The majority of America is white and Christian. But what then makes you “special.” It seems being “saved” is not enough. That comes too easy. People need to feel like they “earn” what they get. People want to work for a living. There is pride in knowing that what you have came from your hard work. But if going to heaven is as easy as accepting Christ into your life… are they working for it? They are if they are constantly under attack – if their way of life is threatened.

TV ads and shows are too sleazy – sure, but that isn’t because you are Christian, it is because that is what makes the Corporate Media money.

Being persecuted means you are noble. You are special. You are doing work. You are earning your way into heaven.

I do not think of myself as a Democrat… or even the political definition of liberal. I am liberal – an open mind. I am (some what) logical. Logic dictates (so sayeth Spock) that people doing idiotic things that harm a country’s standing in the world, that harms a country’s fiscal and physical security should not be returned to power.

But belief isn’t logic. If these people are leading your country to a moral higher ground (despite all evidence to the contrary – but hey its what your minister is telling you so I’ll let that go), if they are promising to turn your nation into that shining city on the hill – you’ll forgive the unemployment, failing educational system, and the destruction of our military preparedness. Those are all temporary – and we’re talking about our souls here.

The dark period that is the Bush years is now treading on even more dangerous ground – they are taking this nation to places it should not go.

It is happening.

See the posts above.

- rob 4:52 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I guess you won’t be hearing “We are the Champions” at any football / baseball / basketball games in the future.

THE AGENCY OF MORAL CLEANSING

Andrew Sullivan noted that the "ban gay books" bill introduced by Alabama State Representative Gerald Allen actually has a much wider scope than it first appears. The bill could potentially extend far beyond Oscar Wilde books. Here is the actual language of the bill (via PolySciFi):

No public funds or public facilities shall be used by any state agency, public school, public library, or public college or university for the purchase, production, or promotion of printed or electronic materials or activities that, directly or indirectly, sanction, recognize, foster, or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of the state of Alabama.

a href=” http://polyscifi.blogspot.com/2005/04/gerald-allen-statesman-writer-imbecile.html”>PolySciFi explains just how potentially expansive this law could be. After reading it, I had another vision of the future:
…
Librarian: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I want to say how it’s absolutely tragic that Alabama’s students are going to be deprived of access to so many classics of literature. It will put them further behind when . . .

Chairman: Today’s hearing is not to debate the merits of the Moral Cleansing Act, but to address your specific complaints. You were told this many times. Now proceed.
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Librarian: The Agency has banned all articles and magazine stories about the Abu Ghraib torture.

Perkins: Mr. Chairman, those acts involved forced sodomy, naked man-pyramids, and other violations of our public morals. They are unfit for Alabama’s school children.

Chairman: Yes, this clearly falls within the text of the statute. Next.

Librarian: The Agency has prohibited the library from subscribing to the Congressional Record, which contains all the public testimony of our nation’s legislators. It is absolutely vital to the education of our children that –

Perkins: Mr. Chairman, as you probably know, Representative Barney Frank is an avowed homosexual. The Congressional Record often includes his testimony. Under the language of the statute, this clearly "directly or indirectly" recognizes a sinful lifestyle.

Librarian: What about editions that don’t refer to him? What about redaction? I am begging you to allow us to keep this resource.

Perkins: “Directly or indirectly” - the text don't lie.

Chairman: Good point Mr. Perkins, the Congressional Record is banned and must be dumped in the hole.

- rob 4:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Not that anyone in the corporate media noticed, but any reasonable doubt that Bush went to War because he wanted to, should really be gone now.

Luckily Rep. Conyers noticed and this is what he wrote:

88 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ANSWERS ABOUT SECRET BUSH/BLAIR PRE-WAR DEAL

Today, 88 Members of Congress, led by Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, wrote to President Bush to demand answers about confirmed reports of a pre THE AGENCY OF MORAL CLEANSING-war deal between Great Britain and the United States and unassailable corroboration that pre-war intelligence was intentionally manipulated.
…
Over the weekend, the British press uncovered classified minutes of a summer of 2002 secret meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his advisers about preparations to go to war with Iraq.
….
The minutes of this meeting contain the following stunning revelations:

• British officials offered an assessment of the case for war as “thin.” The British Foreign Secretary at the time also stated that “Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.”
• The Foreign Secretary indicated a plan was being hatched with Bush Administration officials to
  create justifications to go to war, where no legal basis currently existed. The United States and Great Britain “should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.”
• British officials indicated that Bush administration officials had already decided to go to war in the summer of 2002 despite contemporaneous, and apparently false, statements by Bush Administration officials that the President had not yet made such statement. One official stated that “[m]ilitary action was now seen as inevitable” and the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated that “Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided.” Yet, in August of 2002, within a month of this meeting, the President claimed he was still willing to “look at all options” and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld flatly stated that “[t]he president has made no such determination that we should go to war with Iraq.” (NYT, 8/22/02).
• A high ranking British official acknowledged the deliberate manipulation of intelligence, indicating that, while the President “wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD,” “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”
• The same official warned that the Bush Administration had no plan for post-war Iraq, stating that
  “[t]here was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.”

Congressman Conyers issued the following statement: “These allegations strike at the heart of our democracy and present the most troubling constitutional questions. Did the Administration lie to the American people about its intentions with respect to Iraq? Did the Administration engineer a confrontation with Saddam Hussein to justify the war? Did the Administration deliberately manipulate intelligence to deceive the American people about the strength of its case for war?”
“These allegations – that the Bush Administration had already decided to go to war with Iraq, during a time when it was publicly stating that it had not -- echo allegations by former Bush Administration officials, Paul O’Neill and Richard Clarke. When these officials brought these allegations forward they were slandered by Administration officials as lacking credibility. The source of these allegations – the British government itself – cannot be similarly assailed.”

Rep. Conyers has a diary posted over at Kos about this Press Release.

- rob 4:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Looks like TCS missed out on an interesting story back in 2003 - but I think this story's appeal won't fade for decades... much like the scars from the Iraqi war itself.

12/28/03: Revealed: how MI6 sold the Iraq war

THE Secret Intelligence Service has run an operation to gain public support for sanctions and the use of military force in Iraq. The government yesterday confirmed that MI6 had organised Operation Mass Appeal, a campaign to plant stories in the media about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
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A senior official admitted that MI6 had been at the heart of a campaign launched in the late 1990s to spread information about Saddam’s development of nerve agents and other weapons, but denied that it had planted misinformation.

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Somebody asked us about our Jefferson quote
(you know on the left side there - you do look at our site's left site - don't you? - we put over twenty minutes of thought into it - please don't say it was a waste)

Here's where it is from: Quotations on the Jefferson Memorial

Where you'll find such golden oldies as:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men."
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"No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively."

- rob 3:52 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Who took the money... Who took the money away? (a continuing series)

U.S. Officials Suspected of Embezzlement in Iraq
Nearly $100 million in reconstruction funds is unaccounted for, investigators say.

To pay for contract work in Iraq's cash-based economy, the U.S. appointed military personnel and civilians to physically hand out money to Iraqis. The U.S. officials were then supposed to reconcile those payments with receipts. But the auditors found that such receipts were lacking or incomplete for $96.6 million of $119.9 million in payments.

Okay if you're going to pocket cash don't you think pocketing 80% would be a tad obvious. Or did they just assume that was standard operating procedure... after all it was just a few million... You should see what those KBR folks are taking home.

- rob 3:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Freedom of religion is only for... you know... the right religions

Pandagon: You have the freedom to be Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, or Jewish (for now)

The witch who sued to have a chance to recite the invocation at county meetings in Virginia lost her case in front of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Via Paperwight.)

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism.
...
"The Judeo-Christian tradition is, after all, not a single faith but an umbrella covering many faiths," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in the opinion.

I could have sworn that the 1st Amendment said "freedom of religion", not "freedom of Judeo-Christian denomination".

It reminds me of the punchline: "I like every kind of music - Country and Western."

- rob 3:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

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For those who enjoy hopeless caustic humor (we do!) - get your war on has been updated.

- rob 3:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Speaking of the Iraqi War

Besides it being done almost completely wrong: Lessons from Iraq: Rand offers War 101 textbook

The Rand report puts the finger on what went wrong there and makes "a case for change, and even urgency" in fixing those problems in a brief and frank distillation of what its researchers found in more than 20 studies focused on the Iraq invasion and what has followed.
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The Rand researchers found that the "shock and awe" air attacks against the enemy leadership did not achieve the advertised objectives of "decapitating, isolating or breaking the will" of that leadership. They added that future operations should not be predicated on expectations of fast regime collapse through air attacks because of a host of limitations, some self-imposed to avoid civilian casualties.
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Again putting a finger on a major problem, the Rand study sharply criticized the Pentagon for failure to plan in detail for postwar stabilization and reconstruction "largely because of the prevailing view that the task would not be difficult."

It is endangering the security of America: Iraq, Afghan wars reportedly strain U.S. fighting ability

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued a report to Congress that said the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan could hamstring the U.S. ability to fight other wars, a senior military official told CNN.
...
In a news conference last week, President Bush said Myers told him that "we have plenty of capacity."

Bush said he asked the general, "Do you feel that we've limited our capacity to deal with other problems because of our troop levels in Iraq?

"And the answer is, no, he doesn't feel we're limited," Bush said.

It is articles like this, and about the stumbling economy, and about everything else that is falling around Bush that explain the GOP's strong move toward religious extremists.

When the goal is a "moral" country the actual state of the country is a very distant second.

- rob 3:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because it wasn't about Weapons of Mass Distruction

Because it wasn't about ties with Al Quieda

It was about Freedom?

Iraqi press under attack from authorities in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A photographer for a Baghdad newspaper says Iraqi police beat and detained him for snapping pictures of long lines at gas stations. A reporter for another local paper received an invitation from Iraqi police to cover their graduation ceremony and ended up receiving death threats from the recruits. A local TV reporter says she's lost count of how many times Iraqi authorities have confiscated her cameras and smashed her tapes.

- rob 2:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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We should be posting more shortly, but in the meantime, as we've been remiss in updating this site as frequently as normal this week, you may not have know this... but there was a Monday earlier this week: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 196 - Democratic Underground

This week all Ten are Bush (but they still had others):

The Best of the Rest

Our Great Leader has taken up the entire list this week, but there was plenty of other noteworthy conservative idiocy in the past seven days. Here's a quick rundown:

The National Republican Congressional Committee gave a 2004 Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal award to Ira Stern of Milford, NH - Stern was previously convicted of stealing more than $600,000 in a business loan scam ... Rush Limbaugh might be about to do the perp-walk for dealing OxyContin ... and Time magazine discovered Tom DeLay smoking a Cuban stogie. It probably wouldn't have been a big deal if DeLay hadn't once said, "Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty hands.... American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the cost of our national honor." Oops.

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Though I may be behind on posting - our young friend Greg (he being known as the "liberal penguin" in these here parts) has been posting and researching up a storm.

Check out his new improved site: Office Of The Independent Blogger

Sometime this week I'll even update this site to link to his excellent new site instead of his old one (alas another white on black blog lost to the siren call of readability).

- rob 4:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I'll be posting a lot later this week - promise
(I'll even have somethings worth while to say - maybe)

In the meantime an update to yesterday's post: Fla. Judge OKs Abortion for 13-Year-Old

Personally I think that an abortion is a tragedy - yes it should be legal - but it represents a last case scenario. This is good news though - sanity prevailed.

- rob 2:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A culture of Life

Florida version: make sure they're born, and then dump them in the streets.
(i.e. if they actually looked after this girl's welfare she wouldn't be pregnant!)

Girl, 13, argues right to abortion
Judge asked to reverse decision by state guardian

"Why can't I make my own decision?"

That was the blunt question to a judge from a pregnant 13-year-old girl ensnared in a Palm Beach County court fight over whether she can have an abortion.

"I don't know," Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez replied, according to a recording of the closed hearing obtained Friday.

"You don't know?" replied the girl, who is a ward of the state. "Aren't you the judge?"
...
"I think if I want to make the decision, it's my business and I can do that," she told the judge.

The DCF is the teen's legal guardian after she was taken away from her parents for abuse or neglect. State law allows minors to have abortions without notifying their guardians. Experts say the law extends to wards of the state, raising the question of why this girl's decision has ended up before a judge.
...
"The Department of Children and Families has the custodial responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the child," the department said.

That's what they say, but the girl points out they really don't have the best interest of the child in mind. They don't have anyone's interest in mind as far as I can tell.

DCF attorney Jeffrey Gillen said he was concerned L.G. was more likely to suffer "detrimental effects" if she underwent an abortion because she had psychiatric or behavioral problems in the past.

L.G., who told Alvarez she had run away at least five times from her youth shelter, maintained, "It would make no sense to have the baby."

"I don't think I should have the baby because I'm 13, I'm in a shelter and I can't get a job," the girl said as Alvarez and her guardian ad litem, assigned to shepherd her in the legal system, questioned her.

hmmm... "detrimental effects?" like being a mom at 13? If she's had behavioral or psychiatric issues in the past is a full term pregnancy and motherhood the recommended treatment? Is having a baby taken from you by the same idiots who made you have the baby in the first damn place in her best interests?

"Since you guys are supposedly here for the best interest of me, then wouldn't you all look at that fact that it'd be more dangerous for me to have the baby than to have an abortion?" she asked. Alvarez called that "a good point."

Dr. Ethelene Jones, an expert in obstetrics and gynecology, testified earlier in the hearing that abortions are "definitely" safer than full term pregnancies for girls L.G.'s age.

"At her age and at her stage of gestation ... her risk of death from an abortion procedure is about 1 in 34,000," said Jones, who has held positions at Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. "The risk of death in pregnancy is about 1 in 10,000."

She talks more sense then 99% of corporate news broadcasts.

J.G. is 14 weeks pregnant, witnesses testified, which would indicate she became pregnant after she ran away from a group home in late January and was missing for a month.

She had sex with "a boy" but refused to disclose his name to Alvarez saying: "That's not really necessary."

The judge blasted the DCF, saying the agency never asked the court to issue an order to take the child into custody after her most recent disappearance.

"To say that I am angry at that would be an understatement," Alvarez said. "To rush into this court on an emergency basis because this child is pregnant and wants an abortion, I don't know where our priorities in life are. The priority should have been to make certain that an order to take her into custody was issued as soon as possible, and that she was found and taken off of the streets or wherever she was. But nobody cared." [emphasis mine]

The state of Florida couldn't be bothered taking care of the girl and now that she's pregnant they want to force her to have a baby so they can ignore someone else?

"The Culture of Life" - is this somekind of Religious Right twist on Milton? "Better to suffer in the culture of life then serve in Heaven?"


A Culture of Life

Too Sad and painful for words version: Daily Kos :: THEY KILLED my first love.. those so-called "christians"

Over 20 years ago Saturday my first love slit his own throat in the closet of his bedroom. I found him, dying. He died in my arms minutes later.

We were both 17. We met at 15. It wasn't long before we were inseparable. For two years we did everything together. We fell in love. Perhaps it was teenage hormones, infatuation, but it was two years of secret bliss and I've only felt that kind of love once again since. He became my only refuge in a world of hate. We promised each other to live our lives together, forever.

Till that day. He broke our promise. His father had found out he was a 'fag', to this day I do not know how, called him a pervert and kicked him out of the home.

- rob 2:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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- Thomas Jefferson



"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.