Church and Politics

Recently, a church was investigated by the IRS for what it deemed “political activity”. This stemmed from a sermon given that was critical of President Bush. In the end the church did not lose its non-profit status (which was at stake).

I don’t understand how this is any different than any church that invites a political candidate to speak to its congregation. That is a political event, no matter what it is called. Both Democratic and conservative candidates speak in churches. I guess the problem here was that the pastor of this particular church had the audacity to have an opinion. And a liberal one at that.

Now, you and I both know that this happens all the time in conservative leaning churches. If you watch a televangelist channel, sermons and politics are virtually inseparable. I guess our administration and the IRS only have a problem if you are Liberal, otherwise you are good to go.

Social Security Reform

The Bush administration has just released a report saying that in order to save Social Security we will either have to increase taxes or cut benefits. There is no other way, and we have to do it now.

There is nothing new in these findings. We have known all this for decades. My problem is with the Bush administration telling me this. An administration that is gung-ho on privatizing. My problem is that a President that has wasted over a half trillion dollars on a preemptive war based on false information, and that has directly caused thousands of preemptive deaths, is telling me that we don’t have enough money for something. It just sounds ridiculous.

Now, I understand that we really don’t have the money. Especially now, thanks to a liberally spending President and his conservative cohorts. The people who have hated Social Security since its inception and want to get rid of it because they can’t stand the idea of someone, who is not them, getting a goddamn penny of their money. At least in the Democratic ideology, America is still a society, and society is best when moved forward together. The conservative notion of society is 300 million little islands fighting the best they can to get what they can, which is Darwinian in nature, but this is a party that believes in creation so I guess we should call it, “God wants you to suffer, except of course if you’re rich, and that’s the very essence of the drive to become rich, so become rich and you won’t suffer.” I’m sure most would simply put it, “You’re on your own.”

I just want to say that I’m no Democrat apologist. Both ideologies are flawed, and I believe there should be a return on our nation’s investment. But I do think there should be an investment.

If the move toward reform were just simply to correct the problem, I could probably get behind it, but there is so much money to be made by companies if privatization were to happen, that it makes me opposed to such a move. It is really a cash cow to financial companies it’s not even funny. It makes me kind of angry at the notion that there would be people who become rich because of privatization, while people’s benefits shrink because of service fees and the like. We already know how much interest we don’t get from our bank accounts.

Moveon.org ad

Apparently this Moveon.org ad story is getting bigger. Why, I have no idea. Conservatives are smiling ear-to-ear because the New York Times allegedly violated their own rules of conduct. They allowed an attack ad and they discounted the price on the ad. All I can say is, “so the fuck what?”

The last time I checked the New York Times was a private company, which means they pretty much can conduct themselves how they see fit. If they wanted to run the ad, it was their business. If they wanted to give a discount, it was their business. Who cares?

The answer is conservatives. It gives them more left-wing media fodder for the faithful, but that’s all it gives. It has no real meaning to anyone except them. It is just something to rally the troops.

The thing that pisses me off most is the cowering way the Times conducts itself. Just say, “yes, we did it, what’s it to you? Our company, our rules.”

I hate campaign season.

Cabarrus County, North Carolina Commissioner Reverend Coy Privette reads letters calling for his resignation on September 17. Privette, a Baptist pastor and conservative activist, resigned after being charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution. (Photo and caption by Greg Mills)

Just saying…

Return on Success

Hi, I’m Senator Larry Craig…

I’m not gay, I just like getting blow jobs in Airport men’s rooms.

I think I’m being judgmental again, but I don’t think a publicly vocal anti-gay politician should be doing this sort of thing, do you?

Romney Speaks in Code

I know I said I don’t like political blogs, but this is just a political item in a wider blog, so cut me some slack.

In a recent radio ad (shown below) Mitt Romney criticizes what he called ’sanctuary cities’. Three cities were mentioned in the commercial: New York, San Francisco, and Newark, NJ. He criticized the cities for allowing illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses, seek medical attention, and report crimes. Now there are a lot of things I can say about these cities coping with a situation they can’t control and trying to maintain a bit of humanity in the process. But the thing I want to comment about is, why mention those cities specifically? Simply put, they are hated cities anyway. At least hated by the conservative Christian right. If we leave out Newark, NJ, we get New York and San Francisco. Are there two cities in this country hated as much as these two?

The benefit of criticizing these is that your intended audience is ready to agree with you. Of course those God-less cities are helping illegal immigrants and ruining America, it’s what they do. Why Newark is included among these two could be just as a little diversionary tactic to keep you off the scent. Though New Jersey is not very popular anyway, so I guess it couldn’t hurt to throw it in.

So, basically, Romney gets to lob bombs at cities that are already despised by the target demographic.