GOP's Spooky Candidates

As Halloween draws near, ones thoughts turn to things scary, even bizarro.

Like demons.

But for some evangelical Christians, demons stalk us year-round. They believe demons have taken hold of parts of our country, especially Washington, D.C.

O.K… I can live with the D.C. part.

As the recent AP release “Election-year goals of fringe Christian group questioned” points out, some Christian religious leaders, like Lou Engle the leader of The Call prayer marathons, has warned that the tornado that decimated Joplin, Missouri this year was evidence of God’s judgment on the country over…. wait for it…. abortion. Demons are punishing women over choice, so they leveled Joplin.

Say what?

And, Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer, views the acceptance of same-sex marriage as a sign of the end times. The end times, the favorite theme of the follow-my-nutty-ideas-or-you’ll-burn-in-hell pulpit thumpers (pass the plate).

But here is the creepiest part, these apocalyptic doomsayers were the organizers of GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s Houston prayer rally in August, a week before he announced his candidacy. The end of the world is an intense focus of many of the religious leaders involved in the rally.

Now that’s scary.

Actually, Perry should be holding prayer meetings about God’s judgment on Texas, as large parts of that parched state burn like the portal to hell-fires.

But, it isn’t just Perry, as Karl Giberson and Randall Stephens reveal in today’s New York Times editorial, “The Evangelical Rejection of Reason… The Republican presidential field has become a showcase of evangelical anti-intellectualism. Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann deny that climate change is real and caused by humans.” Perry and Bachmann also dismiss evolution as an unproven theory.

Giberson and Stephens expose the anti-intellectual fundamentalist evangelicals who promote (and profit from) the idea that “their country has been overrun by a vast secular conspiracy.”

They point us to the earth-is-10,000-years-old leader, Ken Ham; the-founders-intended-America-to-be-a-Christian-nation, David Barton; and the really scary, gay-people-are-unnatural (and SpongeBob SquarePants promotes gayness), James C. Dobson. They left out the Rev. James Farwell who warned that Teletubby Tinky Winky might be gay. All of this would be funny…. if it wasn’t so relentlessly promoted.

These anti-intellectual scare-mongers want to take over our government…the Tea Party (useful dupes) is wrestling for control of the GOP, and intend to place the evangelical boogie-men’s hand-maiden, or man, in the White House.

Egads!

By the way, no Mormons, i.e., candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, need apply for evangelical political blessings... they're not real Christians.

“…when the faith of so many Americans becomes an occasion to embrace discredited, ridiculous and even dangerous ideas, we must not be afraid to speak out, even it it means criticizing fellow Christians.” Amen to that!!!

The GOP is Icing Up

This great illustration appeared with "The Ice Age Cometh" by right-leaning columnist, Mike Murphy in TIME this week. His op-ed is chock-full of good advice that the pooh-bahs in the GOP will likely ignore.

Murphy is facing facts, "Saving the GOP is not about diluting conservatism but about modernizing it to reflect the country it inhabits instead of an America that no longer exists."

Murphy is referring to demographics, the surge of Latino and under 30 voters who are turned off, and away, by pitchfork-waving mobs chasing gays through the GOP countryside. Ditto-heads... tribal GOPers whose "radio dials are stuck on AM"... who viciously scrabble at the constitutional bastion between their church and the state. The "all men are created equal" state.

We are a two-party nation. We need a strong GOP with sound values. To survive, they must tune-out the hairy mammoth's clarion-trumpet.... and yes, even the musty Reagan yesteryear's moldy oldies. Or, as Murphy warns.... "A GOP ice age is on the way."

Rove is Beached

There is something off about the out-of-the-blue announcement of the departure of Bush's "brain," Karl Rove.

Rove likes to cast himself as the GOP's "Moby Dick".... the favorite target of Democrats who he says are "after me." "Rove: Departure Unrelated to Investigations" (WaPo) is how he likes to frame his departure. He doesn't want to leave the impression that he was chased out of town with the posse on his heels.

Still, the announcement and hastily-called press conference today in front of the president's departing helicopter seemed awkward. As the joke goes about guests who have over-stayed their welcome, "here's your hat and coat, what's the rush." It felt like that.

When Rove departs the White House at the end of the month, the loudest sigh of relief won't come from Democrats who accuse him of many devious and untoward things, but from a GOP anxious to turn the page on the sullied record of this administration and its enablers.

Rove was Bush's political brain who engineered for his buddy two terms as the governor of Texas, and then two terms as president. But count the cost.

He wasn't able to engineer for Bush a shining legacy, or public approval above abysmal.... nor, to build a powerful Republican party which instead he now leaves in a shambles.

Will he join another campaign? Maybe. But probably not publicly.

In the end, Bush's "Turd Blossom" was harpooned by his own hand. Few will be sorry to see him go.

FOX Bites Obama

The power shift away from the GOP and the hotly-contested presidential campaign season bring out the scurrying and scurrilous truth-twisters.

The lie this time is about Barack Obama (D-IL). You surely heard or read the story more than once.... that a young Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa".... that he is a closet Wahhabist Muslim.

The conservative Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times and controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, citing "only unnamed sources," reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had leaked the information that Obama had attended a radical fundamentalist Islamic school.

FOX news, owned by Rupert Murdoch, on Friday picked up the Insight charge on two of its programs, playing up the Clinton angle.... "Fox and Friends" co-host-Gretchen Carlson even said the madrassa Muslims were "the kind that want to blow us up."

This deadly untruth, reported as fact, hit the bulls eye of the terrorist-fear gut of the country, smeared Clinton, and tried to scuttle Obama's presidential aspirations... the dirty tricksters were dancing.

Fox didn't bother to fact check. CNN and the Washington Post did.

As Howard Kurtz who hosts CNN's weekly media program "Reliable Sources" writes in WaPo, "Thus, in the first media controversy of the 2008 campaign, two of the leading candidates find themselves forced to respond to allegations lacking a single named source.

But, CNN did check, they sent a reporter to Jakarta, Indonesia to uncover the truth and reported.... "Allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate."

Obama spokesman, Robert Gibbs, sums it up.... "The allegations are completely false.... for FOX to repeat something so false, not once, but many times is appallingly irresponsible."

The fact that the GOP-leaning press brought out the big guns so early against Obama proves just one thing.... they want to torpedo his presidential bid.

But, the only thing that got blown out of the water was the FOX motto.... "Fair and Balanced."

Their motto should be.... "The Smear Starts Here!"

A Fine Mess

The new Democratic-controlled House plans to pass a number of popular measures in their first 100 hours. "Democrats To Start Without GOP Input,".... no honeymoon here, or even a quick hug at the altar. Hopefully this is the first sign that the new lawlords mean business.

Business that includes the war in Iraq, our broken borders, rampant illegal immigration, the crushing trade deficit and national debt, the loss of jobs and manufacturing infrastructure.... a steaming heap of do-do left by the outgoing Bush-enabling GOP Congress.

We used to laugh when Ollie said to Stan, "..here's another fine mess you've gotten me into."

But the mess made by the Decider isn't comedy. An unamused electorate is looking to the new Congress to make every hour in the next two years count.