MAX BLUMENTHAL

Scalito = $$$
Fundraising is a major reason why the right wanted Miers yanked. Here is what Gary Bauer had to say about Samuel Alito in his daily email newsletter, the "End of Day Report:"

My friends, I really need you to step up to the plate today and support
our work. The radical Left is vowing a multimillion dollar campaign to
"Bork" this nominee, and we must be able to respond. This is our opportunity
to end the high court's hostility to the heartland values of most
Americans.

Campaign for Working Families will take the fight to liberal senators
who desperately want to use the courts to impose their radical agenda on
the American people by judicial fiat. We have a plan to stop them, but we
need your support today.

Our goal next year is to elect six more pro-family, pro-life
conservatives to the United States Senate. And one of the best reasons to do so is
to give President Bush a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in order
to confirm his conservative judicial nominations! If we succeed, we can
end judicial activism, stop abortion-on-demand, preserve normal marriage in
America, save "under God" in our Pledge, and keep our economy going
with pro-growth policies.

Please support Campaign for Working Families today with your most
generous contribution possible. To donate by credit card, you can visit our
website at https://www.cwfpac.com/cwf_contribution.htm or call our office at
(703) 671-8800. If you prefer, you can mail a check to the address below.

I haven't seen Bauer this excited about raising mon...I mean, preserving "heartland values" in a while.

Mini-Scalito Is Under Control
The White House has really battened down its hatches in advance of what will surely be an ugly nomination battle. Even Alito's fun-lovin' son has been reined in.

This morning, Phil Alito's bio was scrubbed from the editors' page of Colgate University's student newspaper, The Forum. Apparently the White House worried his comments about Gary Condit, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer wouldn't reflect well on his Christian right-vetted dad. From young Alito's former bio:

...I was born 9 months and 2 weeks later by a midwife/wolf named Janie Jean, who would prove very influential during my formative years. Shortly after, I became interested in politics and got involved with Gary Condit (not like that). I served as a parking aide to Nancy Pelosi (I won't even start on her) but was fired when Barbara Boxer came onto me.

Sounds like the stuff of a future Republican presidential nominee.

(The new-and-conservative-approved edition of The Forum, sans Alito, can be viewed here).

Spinning Scalito
The White House's planned rebuttals to "likely attacks" on Alito have been passed on to me by a source known only as "Official OW". Personally, I found PFAW and the Alliance for Justice's campaign against John Roberts too scattershot. Attacking Alito will work only if it is focused on one of his most odious characteristics, possibly his opposition to privacy rights or enabling of workplace discrimination (more later if I have time). Anyway, if you don't have the time to read the right's spin strategy here, just turn on any cable news channel and watch some lobotomized B-actor/actress-who-couldn't-get-his-or-her-SAG-card-and-went-into-broadcasting-instead unwittingly enact it:

Responses to Likely Attacks: Judge Samuel A. Alito

1) Attack: Alito upheld a Pennsylvania anti-abortion law that the Supreme Court overturned in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Response:

a) In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Judge Alito agreed with the Third Circuit majority that Pennsylvania’s informed consent, parental consent, and reporting and public disclosure requirements were constitutional. The Supreme Court upheld these holdings.

b) Judge Alito also concluded that the spousal notification requirement was constitutional, based on the “undue burden” standard articulated by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in Supreme Court cases (Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and Hodgson v. Minnesota) that had addressed the abortion issue following Roe v. Wade.

c) Judge Alito did not make up the spousal notification provision. The voters of Pennsylvania enacted it, and it contained four exceptions to the spousal notification requirement: (1) if the woman believed the husband was not the father, (2) if the husband could not be found after diligent effort, (3) the pregnancy was the result of a spousal sexual assault that was reported to authorities, and (4) the woman believed the notification was likely to result in the infliction of bodily injury on her. Judge Alito was merely called upon in his role as a judge to determine if the voters of Pennsylvania had violated the Constitution by enacting such a statute.

d) Judge Alito noted in his opinion in Casey that the Planned Parenthood plaintiffs challenging the Pennsylvania statute had made a facial challenge to the statute: that is, in order to strike it down, one would have to find that there was not a single circumstance in which the statute could be applied consistent with the Constitution. That he noted this in 1991 shows his attention to detail, precedent, and applicable legal standards: this term – 14 years later – the Supreme Court is finally attempting to clarify its own confusing precedents on the applicable standard of review question that Judge Alito identified.

e) Judge Alito has shown that he respects and follows Supreme Court precedent and does not automatically rule for or against abortion laws. Indeed, in Planned Parenthood v. Farmer, Judge Alito voted to strike down New Jersey’s ban on partial birth abortion. The Supreme Court previously had invalidated a similar Nebraska law, and Judge Alito emphasized the “responsibility” of judges “to follow and apply controlling Supreme Court precedent.”

2) Attack: Alito also subscribes to a states’ rights approach that undercuts the ability of federally elected representatives to enact laws that protect civil rights, an approach that leaves women vulnerable.

Response: Judge Alito’s federalism rulings faithfully applied settled Supreme Court precedents.

a) In United States v. Rybar, Judge Alito argued in dissent that Congress could not regulate wholly intrastate possession of machineguns. He simply applied the Supreme Court precedent United States v. Lopez, which struck down a nearly identical ban on possessing guns near schools. Judge Alito said explicitly that states can ban possession of machine guns and that Congress could reenact the law if it found that intrastate possession of machine guns substantially affected interstate commerce.

b) In Chittister v. Dep’t of Community and Econ. Dev., Judge Alito ruled that parts of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act violated states’ Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity. That ruling was unanimous, joined by two Democratic appointees. Scores of other Democratic appointees have agreed that parts of the law were unconstitutional. States and the Federal Government remained free to ensure adequate family leave, and Judge Alito noted that every state in the Third Circuit had already enacted generous family-leave policies.

3) Attack: Alito has a disturbing record in cases involving discrimination based on race, disability and gender. Under his judicial philosophy, victims would face near-impossible burdens to prove their discrimination.

Response: Judge Alito is even-handed and fair to employees and employers.

a) In Robinson v. City of Pittsburgh, Judge Alito reversed a trial judge’s decision to throw out the plaintiff police officer’s sexual-harassment claim. Judge Alito held explicitly that a plaintiff need not suffer monetary loss to show that she suffered an adverse employment action.

b) In Konstantopoulos v. Westvaco Corp., Judge Alito agreed that the plaintiff had not proved sexual harassment. Her only evidence of discrimination was that her co-workers had “squinted their eyes and shook their fists” at her, and that a colleague had once thrown her lunch away.

c) In Sheridan v. E.I. Dupont de Nemours & Co., Judge Alito argued that courts should not be required to rule automatically for employees whenever they show that an employer’s explanation is pretextual, but stressed that in practice employees should almost always win these cases.

4) Attack: Alito is a notorious foe of church-state separation.
Response: Judge Alito’s opinions stress the importance of neutrality, neither specially burdening religion nor granting it special benefits. He has resisted government efforts to impose discriminatory burdens, especially on religious minorities.

a) He struck down a police policy that required Sunni Muslim police officers to shave their beards, because they believed they had a religious duty to grow beards.

b) He struck down a school policy that allowed nonreligious student groups to distribute informational materials but forbade religious student groups to do the same.

c) He struck down a state permit requirement that made no exception for a Native American who wished to keep a wild bear, which his faith regards as sacred.
d) He has also ruled that a city could erect a holiday display that included not only a crèche and a menorah, but also a Christmas tree, Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, a sled, and Kwanzaa symbols. In doing so, Judge Alito simply applied the governing Supreme Court precedent, Lynch v. Donnelly.

Scooter's Bear-on-Girl Fetish
I can hardly bear to admit another neocon has topped the unintentional comedy of the cooking scenes from gormandizer Richard Perle's pulp novel. But Irving L. Libby has done it, and Lloyd Grove lays his literary prowess, or subsequent lack thereof, bare for all to see:

The last time I saw Scooter Libby, he was trying to persuade Maureen Dowd to join him in doing tequila shots at the celebstudded Bloomberg party after the 2003 White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

A few days later, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff sent me an inscribed copy of "The Apprentice," his 1996 novel of early 20th-century Japan. I never got past the second page.

Luckily, in the latest New Yorker, Lauren Collins summarizes the novel's sex scenes.

"The main female character, Yukiko, draws hair on the 'mound' of a little girl," Collins reports. "The brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter."

Meanwhile, "certain passages can better be described as reminiscent of Penthouse Forum," Collins writes. "Other sex scenes are less conventional."

Collins quotes from the indicted aide's novel: "At age 10 the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest."

And Across The Potomac...
Kilgore's woes confirmed by none other than the other guy from Powerline. No doubt the GOP at large is suffering collateral damage from Miers and the indictment(s).

Torture Time
David Addington to replace Libby. Who is Addington? From the Washington Post, October 11:

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.

Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy.

Harriet Miers' withdrawal certainly didn't help Jim Dobson any. The kingmaker has had a pretty bad year. More on that later.

It's All About Iraq
By the time you read this, there should have already been indictments, so there is little use in speculating. Still, it will be interesting to see how correct the speculation has been. One thing the major media organs -- the Times, AP, Wall Street Journal (go to any other blog for links) -- agree on at this point is that Libby will be indicted, possibly for charges more serious than perjury and obstruction.

From there on, the rumors sound stranger than I would have ever imagined. If they prove to be correct, this administration will find its next three years completely untenable. The climate at a certain newspaper will not improve much either. I would have given these rumors more credibility had I not bought a bottle of champagne after seeing the exit polls on November 2, 2004 which wound up collecting dust for months afterward. You know what I'm saying?

One of the most important discussions going on right now is about Fitzgerald's interest in the Niger forgeries. As I discussed earlier on this blog, Michael Ledeen was among a group of neocons including Larry Franklin and Harold Rhode who met with the head of the Italian CIA in 2001. Berlusconi's government soon passed info about Saddam's acquisition of yellowcake uranium from Niger to Cheney -- info which prompted Joe Wilson's fact-finding mission to Niger. Months after Wilson's trip, someone broke into the Niger embassy and stole nothing more than the letterhead the forgeries appeared on. As Josh Marshall pointed out, Berlusconi is now lying about passing on the bogus info to Cheney. Raw Story is following this, I hear, and should have something out before tomorrow evening. And I may have something to add, too.

Indictments related to the Niger forgeries would reveal the Cheney-engineered attack on Plame and Wilson as part and parcel of a broad conspiracy to deceive the American public into war. These indictments would therefore provide fodder for long overdue congressional hearings on pre-war deception. Earlier tonight, on Larry King Live, Bob Woodward remarked, referring to the leak investigation, "I don't see what any of this has to do with Iraq." Woodward and the rest of Washington's oblivious, white collar press corps may to have to change their tune very soon. Indeed, the notion that Fitzgerald is investigating the forgeries, which James Moore explored in his penetrating analysis of Plamegate, seems solid.

Doktor James Dobson on the "reasons boys are in trouble today:"

1. The negative content prevalent in most mass media.

2. The favoritism shown to girls in public schools.

3. The sexual revolution and radical feminism.

4. The absence of caring fathers.

5. The weakening of the family, which hurts boys the most.

No mention of the Vatican or Cardinal Bernard Law anywhere for some reason.

Bush ain't lookin' too tough:

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore has decided not to attend President Bush's appearance in Norfolk on Friday, saying it is not a campaign-related event and that he has other plans 11 days before the election

.

Is it Fitzmas yet? Send Richard Cohen a greeting card why don't you?

Once upon a time, the home of the Astros was Kenny Boy's playpen

It's the bottom of the 9th. Big Bobby Jenks (you know, the guy who looks like Spanky from the Little Rascals) is pitching, and the White Sox are on the verge of winning it all. I am pulling for them not only because half my family is from Chicago, but because George H.W. and Barbara "Let Them Eat Cake" Bush are seated behind home plate at the former Enron Park (now Minute Maid Park, because who doesn't like orange juice?), both clad in Astros jackets. Last night Babs was accompanied by Neil Bush of Silverado S&L scandal fame.

At Knicks games you get Spike Lee; at Lakers games, Jack Nicholson. At an Astros game, you get the woman Counterpunch has dubbed, "The Poster Gorgon of the Astros," along with the family that has been nothing less than a cancer on this nation. Go Fitz...I mean, Sox!

Hitler's Virginian Vacation
If you haven't heard about Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore's Hitler ad, then read all about it. From my latest:

Nearly two weeks after Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore ran two of the most controversial commercials in recent political history, his media consultant would not stand by their truthfulness. "I'd love to belabor that with you," Scott Howell told me when I asked him about the accuracy of his advertisements. "I just don't have the--I can't stand to talk to somebody in the media and be wrong." He then described his ads as "tasteful."

Who is Scott Howell?

Howell has played a critical but unheralded role in securing the Republican Party's recent domination of national politics. He was instrumental in shifting the Senate to the Republicans in 2002 by a one-member margin. In the Georgia senatorial race, he crafted the commercial for the draft-dodging Republican candidate Saxby Chambliss to vanquish Senator Max Cleland, a decorated war hero who lost three limbs in Vietnam, morphing Cleland's image with those of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Two years later, Howell's spots contributed to the defeat of both then-Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and Oklahoma Democratic senatorial candidate Brad Carson. Howell's ads on behalf of Daschle's opponent, John Thune, highlighted Thune's opposition to gay marriage. To undermine Carson, Howell created an image of welfare checks being passed to anonymous brown hands. Howell also set the stage for President George W. Bush's re-election victory with the ad called "Safer, Stronger," which appropriated the iconic image of firefighters emerging from the wreckage of Ground Zero with a flag-draped body, a production that used actors and was condemned as phony by the president of the International Association of Firefighters.

You can view Howell's Hitler ad, and his other death penalty spot, here. According to this poll, they flopped harder than Gigli.

Sorry for the light blogging. I'm working on a piece on the Virginia governor's race which will be out this week. Stay tuned.

Is there such a thing as black-on-black bigotry? And if so, why is a Jack Abramoff-linked think tank fomenting it.

A Christian street preacher is acquitted of outrageous criminal charges simply for sharing the Gospel in front of his own home. Yet not one single Christian right interest group will publicize the case. Mike Tidmus explains why.

Lies Make Baby Jesus Cry
Ralph Reed spins his massive contract with Jack Abramoff to stop anti-gambling legislation:

“The reason why we didn't know every detail was because we were a subcontractor. And, by definition, a subcontractor is told only what they need to do to do their job.”

Suddenly, Reed has become the landlord who thinks he's the janitor. And he's starting to look a little like Michael Jackson.

Jus' Fractionalizing
In case you've been wondering what's wrong with America's public universities, James Dobson has some insight:

As we have indicated, secular institutions have been almost obsessed with the concept of diversity in university life. What this means in practical terms is that people become fractionalized into competing self-interest groups. African-Americans are pitted against Hispanics who are at war with Asian-Americans who resent Native Americans who must compete with homosexuals and lesbians for status and territory.

In other words, secular institutions are full of black, brown and gay people. So send your kid to Bob Jones University, where African-Americans are "fractionalized" into three fifths of a man.

Is Michael Ledeen The Niger Forgery Author?
"Change -- above all violent change -- is the essence of human history."
--Michael Ledeen, "Machiavelli on Modern Leadership

As anyone who has been following the Plamegate investigation online probably knows, the lefty blogs and progressive/liberal electronic media have been scooping the hell out of the mainstream press. One site that deserves special recognition is Raw Story, for breaking the news that John Hannah and David Wurmser are cooperating with Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation. I recommend bookmarking Raw Story and continually hitting the refresh button until indictments are filed.

Until then, the rumor mill will be churning out names of shady figures we haven't heard since the run-up to invading Iraq. One I've been hearing a lot lately is Michael Ledeen, the Machiavellian Mussollini admirer, former Ollie North errand boy, and recent advisor to Karl Rove on Iran issues. The most salient fact about Ledeen -- a longtime associate of right-wing elements in the Italian intelligence service -- is that he was among a group of administration neocons who met with the Italian CIA in Rome just prior to the emergence of the Niger forgeries.

Writing on Huffington Post, "Bush's Brain" co-author Jim Moore probes Ledeen's possible role in authoring the forgeries. Moore also highlights Ledeen's relationship with accused Israeli spy Larry Franklin and Harold Rhode, Ledeen's protege and John Hannah's boss in the Pentagon, as well as a key source for Judy Miller's discredited reporting on Iraqi WMD's:

The federal grand jury has to at least consider whether Ledeen called Rove with an idea to use his contacts with the Italian CIA to hatch a plan to create the rationale for war. Ledeen told radio interviewer Ian Masters and his producer Louis Vandenberg, “I have absolutely no connection to the Niger documents, have never even seen them. I did not work on them, never handled them, know virtually nothing about them, don't think I ever wrote or said anything about the subject.” It is strictly coincidence then that some months after he and his neo-con consorts and Italian intelligence officers met in Rome that the Niger embassy was illegally entered and nothing was stolen other than letterhead and seals. And equally coincident that forged papers under those letterheads were slipped to Elisabetta Burba, a writer for an Italian glossy owned by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, and a backer of the Bush invasion scheme. Unfortunately for the pro-war neo-cons, even an Italian tabloid would not publish the fake documents and turned them over to the CIA and US government in Rome.

The other American attendees at Ledeen’s Roman Holiday are also worthy of scrutiny. Larry Franklin was recently arrested for leaking classified US government information to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Ledeen sprang quickly to his defense but Walker faces prosecution next year and is most probably cooperating with prosecutor Fitzgerald. Harold Rhode, the other American actor in this tragicomic affair, worked the Office of Special Plans (OSP) at the CIA for Vice President Dick Cheney. Characterized as a “counter-intelligence shop,” OSP simply interpreted intelligence in a manner that fit the need for evidence that Iraq had WMD. If the CIA gathered data that said otherwise, OSP analyzed it differently or ignored the facts and then reported to the vice president precisely what he wanted to hear. Rhode also was the liaison between Ahmed Chalabi, the convicted embezzler the Bush administration was using to feed information to them and Judy Miller about the distortions and lies required to fuel the rush to war.

No great extrapolation is necessary to assume that OSP, sitting inside the CIA, got early word that Joseph Wilson was being dispatched to Niger to investigate the sale of low-grade uranium to Iraq. Rhode needed only to pick up the phone and call the vice president’s chief of staff Scooter Libby, who would tell his boss and Karl Rove....

(Note: Moore must have been watching the Astros-Cardinals game, because he accidentally referred to Larry Franklin twice as "Larry Walker," the Cardinals' right-fielder. Which is better than calling him "Larry Flame.")
As Moore points out, Ian Masters has devoted exceptional attention to Ledeen's role in Plamegate (a testament to Masters' journalistic prowess; he is the best political radio host I've encountered, and you can and should listen to his weekly show here).

Earlier this year, Masters' suspicions about Ledeen were nearly confirmed by former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro. Here is an excerpt of their exchange:

MASTERS: Do we know who produced those documents [the Niger forgeries]? Because there’s some suspicion ...

CANNISTRARO: I think I do, but I’d rather not speak about it right now, because I don’t think it’s a proven case ...

MASTERS: If I said “Michael Ledeen"?

CANNISTRARO: You’d be very close . . .

I wonder if Cannistraro would speak more openly now that the case is so close to its conclusion. If I were covering Plamegate, I'd give Cannistraro a call. If I were Patrick Fitzgerald, I'd call Ledeen in to testify. I have a gut feeling this may have already happened.

Roe Reassurances?
John Fund reports that the Arlington Group was assured Miers would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade:

On Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, Mr. Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the nomination. One of the people on the call took extensive notes, which I have obtained. According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers's close friends--both sitting judges--said during the call that she would vote to overturn Roe.

If you read the comments I transcribed on this blog by Don Wildmon, who moderated that call, you might be led to believe something different. Or at least, it would be fair to say most of the call's participants didn't take Miers' friend's alleged promise very seriously. It's also worth considering Fund's possible motivation for reporting such a thing: he wants to save Bush's ass.

Jack's Back
Sunday's Washington Post published this weekend's other big story (Judy Miller's claim to have forgotten the source whom she went to jail to protect is, of course, the biggest), the tale of how Jack Abramoff torpedoed a congressional anti-gambling bill with the help of Christian right luminaries Ralph Reed and Lou Sheldon, who Abramoff referred to in emails as "Lucky Louie."

The following excerpt, which details how Reed and Grover Norquist funnelled Abramoff's cash through a Christian right group headed by a former Republican operative now in jail for sex crimes, merely scrapes the surface of the slime-pit these hucksters fished for fortunes in:

According to the e-mails, Reed provided the name and address where Norquist was supposed to send the money: to Robin Vanderwall at a location in Virginia Beach.

Vanderwall was director of the Faith and Family Alliance, a political advocacy group that was founded by two of Reed's colleagues and then turned over to Vanderwall, Vanderwall said and records show.

Vanderwall, a former Regent University Law School student and Republican operative, was later convicted of soliciting sex with minors via the Internet and is serving a seven-year term in Virginia state prison.

In a telephone interview, Vanderwall said that in July 2000 he was called by Reed's firm, Century Strategies, alerting him that he would be receiving a package. When it came, it contained a check payable to Vanderwall's group for $150,000 from Americans for Tax Reform, signed by Norquist. Vanderwall said he followed the instructions from Reed's firm -- depositing the money and then writing a check to Reed's firm for an identical amount.

"I was operating as a shell," Vanderwall said, adding that he was never told how the money was spent. He said: "I regret having had anything to do with it."

This piece is required reading for anyone who's even casually followed the Abramoff affair, in large part because it is so damn funny.

Cheney on the leak investigation:

But the issue is so sensitive that Cheney wouldn't talk about anything related to it. Bush himself has refused to comment much on the topic, saying it's his policy to not comment on any ongoing investigation.

"Brit, I'm simply not at liberty to discuss the issue," Cheney said in the FOX News interview.

You can't talk? Why? Because you're a target of the investigation? That's too bad.

Bush dispatches a Democrat to save Harriet Miers. Brilliant idea!

WASHINGTON -- Two former Texas Supreme Court chief justices are the White House's latest weapon in the fight to calm the conservative uproar over Harriet Miers' nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

John Hill and Thomas Phillips are due in Washington on Monday, bringing testimonials about Miers' qualifications based on their dealings with her in Texas.

Despite his longtime support for George W. Bush, Hill is a Democrat whose word may not be the right salve for those among the Republican right most nervous about Miers' judicial philosophy.

Deny, Deny, Smear
Oh, now I get it. The press is protecting Karl Rove.

"I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators; full disclosure and everything we know that the investigators will find out," Bush said during a Cabinet meeting.

But, he added, he has no idea what the investigation will produce or whether the leaker's identity will ever be discovered.

"I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is, partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers," he said. "You tell me: How many sources have you had that's leaked information that you've exposed or had been exposed? Probably none. I mean, this town is a town full of people who like to leak information."

Is Louis Farrakhan a Hal Turner Fan?
By posting this today, I have no intention of insinuating criticism of the Millions More March, which I consider to be a productive event. But this question has to be asked: what is Louis Farrakhan doing citing Hal Turner, an avowed neo-Nazi hate radio host, as a legitimate source for his levee conspiracy theory? Does Farrakhan regularly listen to neo-Nazi shortwave radio, or visit Hal Turner's insane website, and if so, why?

From CNN's Situation Room on Wednesday:

FOREMAN: You had to be very disturbed by what you saw out of New Orleans, as a great many Americans were disturbed by what they saw out of New Orleans. When you watched what happened there, the flooding, which happened largely in very poor neighborhoods, substantial numbers of people there who are black people, what did you think?

FARRAKHAN: Well, first, many of us saw race raise its ugly face again. The ugly specter of poverty and want in the midst of plenty was shown, not only to the American people, but to America's hurt. In foreign capitals, the news was negative against America.

FOREMAN: I want to interrupt you on this question of negative news here, because there has been the suggestion out there, people have written about this notion, that they say that you said at some point, you believe the levees were bombed or purposely breached to flood black neighborhoods. Is that true?

FARRAKHAN: Well, yes, I did say that, but I didn't say it in a vacuum.

FOREMAN: What do you mean? Explain it.

FARRAKHAN: I spoke along with members of the executive committee of the Millions More Movement to Mayor Nagin after he told us many things that he felt we could do to help. He did mention that there was a 25-foot crater under the levee.

Then we heard from the Hal Turner Show that someone under the rubric of anonymity said to Mr. Turner that he was a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, went down in his diving suit, and he saw burn marks on the concrete, and he spirited some of it away and sent it to his friend in the Army forensic laboratory. And they sent back to him saying that there were two types of explosives that they named, I can't recall, but let me just say this. Whether it is a rumor or truth, whenever there's a rumor that is believed by many, it becomes the duty and the obligation to take that rumor to those who have the knowledge to search the truth of it out.

FOREMAN: Do you believe this rumor? Do you believe the levees were bombed down there, or do you not believe that?

FARRAKHAN: I would like to know the truth of it. In John Barry's book "The Rising Tide," he said that in 1927, whites in New Orleans purposely bombed that levee. If it happened once, could it happen again? You know, we need to know the truth. The American people need to note truth.

And there are those who can search out the truth of this to either dispel it as nothing more than a rumor, or show that it is the truth.

For anyone not familiar with Hal Turner, here's what the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented:

Building up a substantial audience and paying for the five-nights-a-week, two-hour show with advertising and donations, he became a favorite of many on the radical right, including several in the neo-Nazi National Alliance*. After neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator* leader Matt Hale was arrested in late 2002 for allegedly soliciting the murder of a federal judge, Turner openly supported Hale.

"I don't think killing a federal judge in these circumstances would be wrong," he said, referring to the judge's ruling against Hale's group in a copyright dispute over its name. "It may be illegal, but it wouldn't be wrong."

Early in 2003, Turner told The Record, federal agents from the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service questioned him about statements made on the air. Also in early 2003, Turner joined a neo-Nazi rally held in front of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In June, he was at the Aryan Nations* World Congress in Idaho, where rainy weather prevented his planned outdoor on-site broadcasts.

Not only that, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Turner claimed he had gone down South on a killing-spree and
murdered 91 black looters:

...A similarly bloodthirsty rant came from Hal Turner, the rabidly racist shortwave host of "The Hal Turner Show." Turner, who has repeatedly advocated violence in recent months, claimed to have gone "down South," where he had "a killer of a time" and "personally scored 91, confirmed." "The first one was hard," Turner wrote, "wondering if I had done the right thing — even though he had the 'loot' — fearful about how I would explain what I had done to God."

Days later, Turner told his listeners that it was all a joke to confuse his enemies, that the "score" actually referred to a game. But for much of his audience, it was a joke only in that Turner didn't have the gumption to realize his own homicidal rhetoric.

Yet even after this broadcast, Farrakhan considered Turner a reliable source of information. And yet Farrakhan is befuddled as to why he's criticized for anti-Semitism. "That's been going on for 22 years, and no matter what I say, it never alters those words," he told the Washington Post yesterday, referring to criticism of anti-Semitic remarks he's made over the years. Whether Farrakhan is an anti-Semite or not -- accusing him of hostility to Jews is like beating a dead horse at this point -- he has to be called out for promoting neo-Nazis who incite violence against black people.

As I said earlier, I think the Millions More March is a positive and productive event. If only the mainstream media would offer face-time to someone who helped plan it other than Minister Mental-Case -- someone like hip-hop legend and free-speech activist DJ Davey D -- turnout today might have been higher.

A Christian Right Crack-Up?
Since I doubt anyone who reads this blog listens regularly to American Family Radio -- it isn't even available outside the South -- and since the media has devoted its undivided attention to James Dobson, despite the fact that AFA founder Don Wildmon commands considerable authority in the Christian right, I transcribed highlights of Tuesday's "AFA Report." Wildmon's comments during this broadcast offered far more insight than anything self-proclaimed kingmaker James Dobson has said about the Miers nomination. In fact, Wildmon and company could hardly contain their frustration with Dobson for supporting Miers, and by extension, cozying up to a White House they perceive as imperious and incompent -- and with good reason. At this point it seems the Christian right is fighting harder to maintain the unity it has spent the past two decades forging than it is for Miers' confirmation.

So here are highlights:

WILDMON: Jim [Dobson] has not only talked with the White House, but he
has talked to several others who know Harriet Miers.
And it was not based solely -- I don’t think his --
he’s come out in strong support of her, but I don’t think his
support was based solely on his discussions with the
White House.

I do know Jim has talked with people in the White
House and everywhere else. I don’t know their
motivation. Their motivation very well could have been
and probably was to get the confidence of Jim Dobson
and their belief would be that if Jim Dobson supports
this nominee, all the other evangelical Christians
would support his nominee also. But it doesn’t work
that way.

We’ve talked with several leaders in the
conservative movement as you well know. We have the
Arlington Group, which is the coalition of every major
conservative Christian organization in the country and
it just simply hasn’t happened that way. One of you
asked me where do you stand on Harriet Miers? I said I
don’t know. And Gary Bauer has come out strongly
against Harriet Miers, not because of the woman but
because of the process they went through. He said this
country was preparing for a real, genuine debate, that
will not get to take place now and maybe if they ask
Dobson to come testify before their committee, maybe
that will open up some debate. But I still say, if
they’re going to do that to Jim Dobson, they ought to
get the same thing from those who’ve talked with
Schumer and Leahy and say, "What was in the private
conversations you had?"

ED VITAGLIANO (Wildmon's sidekick): If this was a
strategy to get Jim Dobson involved in the nomination,
it’s backfired.

WILDMON: It did not work. It simply did not work...

VITAGLIANO: It’s revealed great division over this in the
conservative camp.

(…)

WILDMON: Everybody in the movement I know has the highest
respect for Jim Dobson. He’s the ten-ton gorilla or
whatever. But everybody in the movement really makes
their own decisions. We’ve managed to make our own
decisions without calling each other names or
splitting.

(...)

One of the things I said to the New York Times, and
everybody in the Christian conservative movement knows
it’s true, is that the White House doesn’t want to be
seen in public with us. What I mean is, they need our
vote, but they don’t want to be seen in public with
us.

VITAGLIANO: We’re the crazy aunt.

(...)

WILDMON: You know the real opposition to this has not come from
the Christian conservatives, but from the secular
conservatives. Like that guy, Rush, what’s his name? The big guy.
Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, and George Will, Pat Buchanan….

Here’s the man [Bush] that everybody went out and worked their
behinds off in the elections, got
him elected, added to his strength in the Senate… and
we were all expected to have this great debate about
the future of this country, and all of the sudden,
there’s no debate…. Let’s have the fight, let the
courts fall where they may, we may lose, but let’s
have it.

(...)

VITAGLIANO: What does Bush do? Does he appoint the first Hispanic
woman, black woman? No. he appoints Harriet Miers.
Like they say in new Orleans, 'Who dat?'

Did Lou Sheldon get paid off -- again?

Miers gained the support of at least one more leading evangelical activist Friday, the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of Anaheim, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition.

He said of Miers: "The more I read, the more I like."

Sheldon said he had been in frequent contact with White House officials about Miers, beginning with an early-morning call from White House evangelical liaison Tim Goeglein on Monday, the day Bush announced his pick. "He said, 'Lou, you're going to be thrilled,' " Sheldon said.

If Sheldon wasn't bribed somehow, then why won't explain his support for Miers?

Asked if his conversations with administration officials left him sure that Miers would help achieve evangelicals' goal of overturning Roe vs. Wade — the 1973 high court decision establishing a right to abortion — Sheldon was coy.

"I don't want to answer that question because I don't want to create a negative reaction among some Democrats who have already signed on to her," he said. "But I can only tell you that the more I'm hearing and making phone calls to friends who go to her church and know her, the more comfortable I'm feeling."

Jerry Sloan has documented GOP payments to Sheldon throughout the 1980's and early 90's.

Dobson vs. Dobson
To explain his support for the allegedly gay-friendly Harriet Miers (scroll down on this blog for my theories about why he's really backing her), James Dobson contradicts just about everything he's ever done to marginalize and demonize the gay community:

The noted Christian broadcaster answered several of the charges that have been raised against Miers, including one involving her position on gay rights.

In 1989, she answered "Yes" to a poll question by a gay rights organization that asked, "Do you believe that gay men and lesbians should have the same civil rights as non-gay men and women?"

"You know what? I do," Dobson said, affirming her response. "I don't believe that homosexuals should be denied a job. I don't believe that they should not be able to buy a house. I don't believe that they should not have the same rights everybody else does. I just don't believe that there should be special rights given to homosexuals that are not given to everybody else."

As for Dobson's attempt to contrast civil rights with "special rights," I defer to veteran Sacramento-based gay-rights activist Jerry Sloan, who emailed the following comments around yesterday:

Talk about chasing around the mulberry bush Dobson has once more proved he speaks: (1) from both sides of his face; (2) with forked tongue; (3) hypocritically; (4) doesn’t think about what he is saying before he says it; (5) won’t stand behind what he is saying.

Dobson has indeed made quite a conundrum for himself.

If the Queer Community could take the good psychologist at his word we would not hear one more word from him in opposition to our struggle for equality.

Dobson has clearly said that he doesn’t “believe that there should be special rights given to homosexuals that are not given to everybody else,” This means that if everyone else (heterosexuals) has the right to marry to then he believes homosexuals should also have that right.

It’s a pretty simple and understandable statement and Dobson should be held to it.

It would be interesting to see if we could get Dobson to explain what he meant by “special rights.” No one from the Radical Religious Right including Jerry Falwell, Louis P. Shelton, Pat Robertson or Lon Mabon has ever explained what “special rights” they are talking about. Dobson has clearly said, if everybody else has a right, any right, then any gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered person in America should be accorded that same right.

Twenty years ago Dobson defined “special rights” as holding a job because he opposed laws forbidding discrimination in the work place. It is progress that he now believes there should not be discrimination in the work place. The Queer Community should look forward to seeing Focus on the Family Action signing on to ENDA which is making its way through Congress.

Like his colleague Jerry Falwell, he has graciously accorded us the right to a job and housing, we must assume he includes the right to vote, to be safe in our person, to address our grievances to government, worship the god of our choice, or not, to assemble, and all of the other mired freedoms we enjoy as Americans.

So we must assume from this day forward, Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, confidant of the President of the United States, is a man of his word and will not oppose queers marrying, adopting children, or birthing them by any means available, or serving in the military of the United States military.

Oh Happy Day

Dobson on Halloween:

The traditional emphasis upon the occult, witches, devils, death, and evil sends messages to our kids that godly parents can only regard with alarm. There is clearly no place in the Christian community for this "darker side" of Halloween.

In lieu of flowers...

Sexual Hypocrisy
No big surprise here. Former Ralph Reed trainee Louis Beres is only the latest of many assorted self-loathing conservatives investigated
for sex-crimes or accused of sexual hypocrisy this year:

Law enforcement officials said Saturday they are investigating complaints that Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, molested three female family members when they were pre-teens.

"There is an investigation of allegations that have been made," Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk said Saturday.

The Oregonian talked to three of Beres' female relatives, including two who told reporters that he molested them. All three said they have been interviewed for several hours by detectives.

"I was molested," said one of the women, now in her early 50s. "I was victimized, and I've suffered all my life for it. I'm still afraid to be in the same room with (Beres)."

In Beres' case, I think he took the notion of being "pro-family" a little too far.

Beres, by the way, was one of the organizers of last year's "Student Protection Act" ballot initiative in Oregon. A brief description of the initiative is posted on the Oregon Citizen's Alliance website:

SALEM, OR - 80,000 petitions have been mailed out for three issues to be decided by the voters in November:

The Student Protection Act, which reads in part, "...the instruction of behaviors relating to homosexuality and bisexuality shall not be presented in a public school in a manner which encourages, promotes or sanctions such behaviors." It also calls for sanctions of withholding public funds from schools that do not comply...

What If Dobson Is Lying
So Karl Rove whispered something sweet in James Dobson's ear and made him a believer in Harriet Miers? It must have been a revelation of biblical proportions. But since Dobson won't tell us what it is, we can only guess.

Could Rove have told Dobson that Harriet Miers supports the teaching of intelligent design and the Bible in public schools, as Dobson does? Or could he have offered his assurance that Miers advocates banning gay teachers from public schools, as Dobson does? Perhaps Dobson was informed Miers agrees with him that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is "the most dangerous man in America" and should be impeached, along with all insufficiently right-wing judges, including Sandra Day O'Connor and the entire 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. Or maybe Rove told Dobson that Miers shares his belief that gay marriage will lead to "men marrying donkies" and "the destruction of this nation and many others."

If Miers holds to one of the positions, she would not satisfy Dobson. Only by affirming them all would she win his trust. Dobson has spent over 25 years working to transform America into a clerical authoritarian state more informed by biblical law than the Constitution and he will settle for nothing less. The departure of O'Connor, the Supreme Court's swing vote, was to have brought about the climax of his campaign. Bush would nominate a far-right jurist, the Democrats would be defeated in a rancorous confirmation battle, Roe v. Wade would be reversed, and the wall of separation would crumble. Praise the Lord!

But to the dismay of almost all of Dobson's allies, a corporate lawyer with no record of conservative views who is endorsed by Dallas gay-rights leaders and defended by Barbara Mikulski has scored a date with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Forgive me if I sound credulous, but I have a hard time believing that nice lady who timidly asked Pat Leahy about Vermont's fall foliage is harboring a dark, theocratic agenda. I therefore have an even harder time believing that Dobson is telling the truth about his conversation with Rove.

We need to consider the possibility that Rove revealed nothing to Dobson about Miers, and that Dobson is being disingenuous to obscure an even darker secret than anything Rove could have entrusted him with: his real motives for backing a lame horse.

Here are a few theories about Dobson's motives:

After pressuring Bush into declaring support for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in 2004, Dobson endorsed him for president. That means Dobson told millions of supporters on the over 3000 radio stations that broadcast his show that Bush would deliver the goods: a ban on abortion, gay marriage, etc. During the presidential campaign, Dobson's newly-formed 501 c-4, Focus on the Family Action, used the threat of Kerry victory as fodder to raise $8.8 million dollars in 5 months. When Bush won, FoF Action made the courts its priority, spending a whopping $1.2 million during last spring's Senate filibuster fight.

Dobson was nearly outdone by protege Tony Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, a Washington-based think tank Dobson founded. Perkins sent out an unrelenting stream of fundraising pitches in advance of Justice Sunday I (an elaborate rally addressed by Dobson at the height of the filibuster fight) and Justice Sunday II (a rally for the confirmation of John Roberts and a generally more right-wing SCOTUS, which was also addressed by Dobson). In one pitch, Perkins specifically asked supporters for contributions upwards of $1000 dollars "to strike a great blow against judicial activism."

America has stopped bracing for that great blow. Indeed, the "Gang of 14" centrist senators averted a crisis with a compromise that torpedoed a number of Dobson's favorite nominees and provoked one his most memorable on-air hissy fits. John Roberts' nomination was a success, but he's no more conservative than the judge he replaced. And now comes Miers. After soliciting millions from his supporters to finance an apocalyptic battle with liberalism and enticing them with visions of an imminent far-right judiciary, Dobson has very little to show.

By condemning Miers, however, Dobson would be treading into nettlesome territory. Any denunciation would sound like a concession of defeat, thus betraying the confidence Dobson inspired in his donors. It would also damage his cozy relationship with the White House, which he will depend on for the next three years, no matter what happens. So Dobson has taken a cue from Rove and declared victory in the midst of defeat. In supporting Miers, Dobson has essentially donned a flight-suit and declared "Mission Accomplished."

Yet unlike Bush, Dobson might have an exit strategy. Consider how he phrased his endorsement of John Roberts during Justice Sunday II: "It looks like John Roberts is, and we think so, a strict constructionist. For now, at least, he looks good." If, during his confirmation hearing, Roberts had convinced Dobson he was the next David Souter, Dobson would have yanked his endorsement. Though Dobson endorsed Miers in less uncertain terms, if her performance before the Judiciary Committee is a complete embarassment, which it likely will be, Dobson can always change his mind.

There is also the chance that Rove twisted Dobson's arm or even blackmailed him into supporting Miers. Perhaps Rove threatened to leak information to the press about a scandal within Focus on the Family. (Not that he has ever done anything like that before). Dobson is a self-help guru at the helm of a $120 million dollar organization. You think he doesn't have something to hide?

Of course, Dobson could always divulge the secret information about Miers which Rove provided him. That would put all my wild and crazy theories to rest. Until then, we must assume that Dobson has violated the commandment against bearing false witness.

And as Dobson knows, lies make Baby Jesus cry.

And finally, a really weird thing to say, from our Dear Leader:

The amazing thing is, is that sometimes it's hard to be a leader because you hear all kinds of voices.

Another dumb thing to say, about another Bush crony named Myers, from our old friend:

Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said he was not concerned that she [Julie Myers] had no experience with immigration. "We need people thinking out of the box," Mr. Coburn said, "and she is going to do that. She doesn't know what can't be done."

A Really Dumb Thing To Say
Why does Dan Coats think Americans are dumb? Does he consider the fact that he and a bunch of other Republicans were elected, and that Harriet Miers was subsequently nominated, proof of America's stupidity?

Ms. Miers's defenders have said she does not have to be a constitutional scholar to sit on the court, a sentiment that Dan Coats, the former Republican senator who has been asked by the White House to shepherd Ms. Miers through the Senate confirmation process, reiterated Friday, his first full day on the job.

"If great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole," Mr. Coats said in a CNN interview.

Mr. Specter, asked about that remark, laughed and wondered if it was "another Hruska quote" - a reference to an oft-quoted comment by the late Roman Hruska, a Republican senator from Nebraska, who defended G. Harrold Carswell, a Supreme Court nominee who was rejected by the Senate. "Even if he is mediocre," Mr. Hruska said, "there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance?"

A would-be tyrant projects:

Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision -- and they end up alienating decent people across the globe. Tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that regimented societies are strong and pure -- until those societies collapse in corruption and decay. Tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that free men and women are weak and decadent -- until the day that free men and women defeat them.

I wouldn't wager a dime on Bush withdrawing Harriet Miers' nomination, but it's worth considering the vague possibility that he might just do it. If Miers is yanked, I would wager a huge stack of cash (with a twenty on the outside, and a lot of ones on the inside, of course) that either Luttig, Rogers-Brown or Wilkinson are selected. That's why I'm going soft on her. And you should too.

If Bush weakened his base of support by nominating Miers, James Dobson has undoubtedly suffered for endorsing her. Yesterday, on his radio show, Dobson reaffirmed his support for Miers, but did so through obviously gritted teeth. I wonder if Karl Rove has something on Dobson? I know this is far-out, but what if Rove twisted Dobson's arm, or even blackmailed him? I mean, what self-help guru running a $120 million-a-year business doesn't have something to hide?

There's also the possibility that Rove offered Dobson the chance to deploy Focus on the Family-affiliated legal activists like Princeton professor Robbie George to coach Miers during her confirmation hearings, and even to instill an actual legal philophy in her. George is close to both the White House and Dobson, and was instrumental in rallying Christian right support for John Roberts. If I were a reporter covering this nomination fight, he would be the guy I'd want to talk to.

The most salient fact about Miers might be that she attended Southern Methodist University, the alma mater of Laura Bush. Miers is reportedly closer to Laura than George. Was this debacle the First Lady's doing?

By the way, Media Matters should have some of the latest additions to Dobson's greatest hits by this afternoon.

[Correction: Jenna Bush attended the University of Texas, Austin, not SMU, as I originally wrote. And last week, she rented out an entire floor of the preppy bar around the corner from my place. There is, after all, so much to celebrate these days.]

Are Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Ari Fleischer going to be indicted on Wednesday? And will Dick Cheney be an unindicted co-conspirator? In the words of Francis Urquhart, you might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment.

Miers picks up another curious endorsement.

Tapioca, or Chocolate?
Texas Christian right activist Mary Ann Markarian can cite all the bogus statistics on gay sexual habits she wants, but couldn't she spare us the pudding metaphors? Here's what she told the Texas Observer this month:

The proof is in the pudding. Ninety-two percent of all gay males engage in rimming, the process of licking the rim of the anus and ingesting various amounts of fecal matter. Forty-seven percent of all males engage in fisting, the act of placing their fist in their partner’s rectum for sexual pleasure. Twenty-nine percent of all homosexual males engage in golden showers—the practice of lying on the floor, typically nude, and allowing their partner to urinate on them. This is abnormal. These are things I’ve never read in the newspaper. This isn’t something you hear about on CNN. But this is something that is taking place.

I assume Markarian learned these bizarre non-facts from the work of discredited former psychologist Paul Cameron (Cameron claims to monitor gay AIDS death rates by clipping obituaries from the Advocate), but how did she become so familiar with the details of such arcane sexual practices? Participant observation, anyone?

From the White House Distraction Factory
Mike Bloomberg confessed today's dubious terror alert is based on "uncorroborated" information. He also said his administration had the information all week. So why did they hold it until 5:30 PM on Thursday afternoon -- the height of the week's news cycle? And why did budding neocon Rep. Peter King, who happens to be the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, do a media gaggle right before Bloomberg's press conference to hype the threats? Why did Bloomberg invoke 9/11 in the first sentence of his statement? Why did his press conference suppress coverage of Rove's possible indictment and the increasing right-wing backlash against Harriet Miers?

In May, in the wake of Bernard Kerik's fall from grace (imagine Kerik in charge of Katrina relief!) Tom Ridge offered a few possible answers:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled....

"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'"

Some Wingers DO Support Miers. Why?
So far, one of the media's favorite angles on the Harriet Miers nomination has been the right-wing animosity it has engendered. If you want to read a never-ending litany of conservative criticism of her, turn on CNN or go to any major blog and keep hitting refresh. But while wingers from William Kristol to David Frum denounce the White House for stabbing the conservative movement in the back (Frum's criticism was so over-the-top, he posthumously deleted a graf from one his most vitriolic blog posts), Miers has picked up tentative support from three of the Christian right's most influential figures.

James Dobson, World Magazine editor Marvin Olasky, and the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land have each come out in favor of Miers' nomination, though none have offered detailed explanations (and Olasky has tempered his running online commentary with some criticism). Since Dobson has demonstrated a penchant for assailing the Republican party whenever it strays from the road toward an authoritarian theocracy, I view his endorsement as the most significant of the three. In fact, Dobson endorsed Miers in less time than it took him to throw his support to John Roberts.

Miers has a negligible paper trail on social issues, but she seems to have burnished her reputation within the Christian right through her 25 year long membership to one of Texas' most influential fundamentalist churches, Dallas' Valley View Christian Church. On his blog, Olasky quoted an elder from Valley View declaring that Miers' views on abortion "are consistent with that of evangelical Christians... You can tell a lot about her from her decade of service in a conservative church."

Valley View's preaching minister is Barry McCarty, who, as Dr. Bruce Prescott and Baptist Ethics Daily astutely point out, has been the Southern Baptist Convention's chief parliamentarian since 1986. Thanks to the campaign McCarty and his fundamentalist allies waged to purge the SBC of moderates, America's largest non-Catholic denomination reversed its former support of the separation of church and state, endorsed the concept of "wifely submission," and introduced a resolution to "investigate homosexual influence in public schools." This year, the SBC even began mulling a mission to convert Jews to fundamentalist Christianity.

I doubt Miers' association with McCarty and the fundamentalists in his galaxy fully accounts for the support she has received from Dobson, Olasky and Land. And I have no idea how much McCarty's beliefs have rubbed off on her. But the significance of their relationship can't be understated. And for anyone who values the separation of church and state, it should be cause for concern.

You've Come A Long Way, Crazy!
10/02/05

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 /Christian Wire Service/ -- National Clergy Council president, the Reverend Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK), today attended the annual Red Mass that included President George Bush and newly appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as other prominent officials including Supreme Court associate justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.

"After today's service, it would be hard for anyone to argue that America doesn't have a strong Judeo-Christian heritage. You had the heads of the executive and judicial branches and representatives from the legislative branch fully participating in the prayers, hymn singing and even in a clear profession of Christian faith," said Reverend Schenck. "There was no separation of church and state today."

1992:

At the 1992 Democratic Convention, Schenck was arrested and detained by the Secret Service for rushing Bill Clinton with a dead fetus in his hands, screaming about abortion. He and his brother were the people who first invited Operation Rescue to Buffalo to picket Dr. Barnett Slepian, a local abortion provider. For years, they marched outside Slepian’s home and office with threatening signs, some of which called the doctor “pig.” In 1998, Slepian was shot dead at his home. His alleged murderer, James Kopp, was arrested in France in late March.

Reed Hundt tells a true story about Bill Bennett:

He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers, charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views.

Can someone explain what the hell a suicide bomber was doing in Oklahoma?

Word on the street is Tancredo has endorsed Jim Gilchrist for Congress. Gilchrist belongs to the American Independent Party, which George Wallace helped create and which is now affiliated with the Christian Reconstructionist-dominated Constitution Party. In other words, Tancredo is backing a third-party candidate against fellow Republicans. How does this guy still get pork projects funded?

Not again!