In a desperate attempt to get Osama Bin Laden before election day, the Bush administration is abandoning its previous agreement to honor Pakistan's territorial integrity and is conducting cross-border raids into Pakistan.

They are also flying missile-equipped drones high above Pakistan and taking potshots at any gathering, apparently using a shotgun approach, regardless of the collateral damage. The rationale is that a few hundred dead women and children is a small price to pay for hanging onto the White House.

In the past few weeks, dozens, if not hundreds of Pakistani and Afghani civilians have been slaughtered in this shoot-first, sort 'em out later approach.

The leadership of both nations has expressed dismay and outrage at these attacks, which smack of terrorism in that civilian casualties are apparently acceptable.

If this pattern of attacking without substantial intelligence happens to succeed in taking out bin Laden, Bush/Cheny/MaCain/Palin will trumpet their success as terrorist hunters.

What about the innocent people who are being killed for the sake of Republican politics?

These people have no shame. How are they better than the enemy they hunt?

The U.S. Supreme Court today summarily informed George W. Bush that even though he is “Mr. President” and D*I*c*k* said it was OK; he cannot just toss people in a dungeon and throw away the key.

 

Just because the President says there’s a “war on terror” does not mean the Constitution is suspended.

 

This is a huge victory for the U.S. Constitution, and you and me, who don’t happen to be the President.

 

It’s also a victory for those who have been deprived of their basic human rights - including, undoubtedly, some prisoners who are guilty of very serious crimes. The keenness of the Bush administration to score political points by appearing tough, and frightening voters by exaggerating the threat of terrorism, has likely set these prisoners free because of the appalling abuses they have suffered.

 

In spite of the stream of legal subterfuges employed by the administration to circumvent habeas corpus, there was never any doubt that the Constitution does not allow the executive branch to deny the most basic rights of people it holds captive, regardless of their citizenship or the depravity of their acts.

 

The Court ruled – again – that they must be charged, they must be made aware of those charges, they must have the right to address those charges and confront their accusers, and they must be given a trial.

 

Justice Anthony Kennedy: "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law."

 

Thanks to the hubris of Bush and Cheney and their legal charlatans like Alberto Gonzales, a bunch of potentially violent people are very likely to be set free.

 

Once again, Bush has proven himself to be the best tool of the terrorists.

 

[New information] 

U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell (and McClellan) Lied Us into Attacking Iraq
Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan, a life-long Bush sycophant, confesses in his new book that he helped hustle us into an unnecessary invasion of Iraq. (Thanks for finding your backbone now that it doesn’t matter, Scott. Fortunately for you, it’s never too late to be called a traitor.)

Expensive Gasoline Discourages Unnecessary Driving
Compared with March a year ago, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less – that's 11 billion fewer miles. The Federal Highway Administration called it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month… since 1942".  (Raise the gas tax now - based on vehicle weight or volume purchased.)

Global Warming is Not a Figment of Al Gore’s Imagination
Under a court order and four years late, the White House produced its report of specific threats to the United States from man-made global warming, including increased heat deaths and deaths from climate-worsened smog, worsening water shortages for agriculture and urban users, more death and damage from wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters caused by extreme weather. "Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured." (Good news for Bush. Hell will be cooler than Texas.)

McCain = Bush
According to a Congressional Quarterly analysis of Senate votes on issues President Bush expressed “an explicit, stated opinion,” Sen. John McCain voted with President Bush 100 percent of the time in 2008 and 95 percent of the time in 2007. (Maverick my ass.)

I have refrained from writing about John McCain’s pastor problem.

I really resented the way so many people used Rev. Wright as an excuse to unleash their racism and guiltlessly attack Barack Obama for being black – and worse – attack the institution of the black church, which has provided hope and inspiration for African Americans during centuries of slavery and oppression.

Also, I think that mixing religion and politics is just a really bad idea.

Politicians should keep their religion to themselves. As always, Bush provides us a perfect example of how not to lead.

If, in fact, the President of the United States is a born again Christian, this means that he believes that for God’s will to be fulfilled, and for Jesus Christ to return, there needs first to be an Armageddon.

I have wondered if one the factors motivating George Bush, who claims such beliefs, and has also stated that he believes that God selected him to be president, to attack Iraq is that he believes it is his Biblical providence to lead us into the cataclysmic battle between God and Satan.

Personally, I don’t want to see a nuclear war so that the born-agains can get their reward of sitting at Jesus’ hand. Any more than I want to get blown apart by a Muslim fundamentalist so that he can get to his own version of heaven.

I think I’d rather have a clear-eyed atheist with his finger on the button, thank you.

John McCain, who has famously criticized leaders of the religious right as "agents of intolerance", nonetheless has spent the last year currying favor with these same televangelist preachers in order to pander to the religious right, a core constituency of the Republican Party since the days of Ronald Reagan.

Among those is the Pastor John Hagee, who is about as whacked out (or as prophetic) as a preacher can get.

Among his other bizarre statements, Hagee has excused Adolph Hitler for annihilating millions of Jews, claiming that Hitler was acting on God’s behalf, driving the Jews back to Israel so that Armageddon could occur and Christ could come back.

He blames the Jews for the Holocaust. And gays for Katrina. And your sins for 9-11.

John McCain has said that he is “proud” to have this sociopath as a spiritual advisor.

Today, McCain tossed Hagee under the bus. Like the four lobbyists who were his key advisors, but became a liability to his ambitions by being, well, lobbyists.

Considering the endless looping of a 5 second clip of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s most inflammatory remarks over a period of at least a month, and the inference that Barack Obama shared those sentiments, it will be interesting to see how long the media’s attention remains focused on the anti-Semitic rantings of Pastor Hagee.

My guess: one news cycle.

 

Here’s my problem with Christianity: Heaven.

 

Heaven is offered as the payoff for “being” a Christian. Heaven is your reward for believing in something that, in human terms, is quite unbelievable. 

 

As in its cousin religion, Islam, Christians see Heaven as more than mere immortality. No pain, no hunger, reunion with your ancestors. All good and harmless if you want to have faith.

 

Here’s where it all goes wrong.

 

Heaven is presented as nothing less than a place at the hand of God. The attainment of true self-righteousness.

 

Christian theology imposes no obligation on Christians to actually put the teachings of Christ into practice.

 

In fact, the Bible says specifically that “good works” are not the means by which God will judge you – but rather on your faith in church dogma. So someone like Mother Teresa has to privately agonize about going to Hell because her faith was inconsistent.

 

As a “believer”, then, you have implied permission to spread hate and commit any kind and number of foul and heinous acts against your brothers and sisters, and still receive the heavenly payoff.

 

Quite naturally, some people professing to be Christian freely use this technicality to act in the most appallingly un-Christian ways.

 

We see this in the racism that continues to stunt the lives of our citizens of color. We can see this in the anti-Muslim fervor that has swept the nation. We hear this in the nationalistic claim to the mantle of the “greatest country on Earth” and cries of “God bless America!”

 

We suffer this in the justification of war and the glorification of the military, and the utter lack of compassion for the victims of our violent impulses.

 

Politically, this fatal flaw in Christianity often manifests itself in a lack of ethical compulsion. Those most loudly proclaiming their Christianity, like those most stridently claiming the mantel of patriot, frequently one in the same, feel righteous in bearing false witness, preaching hate for their neighbor, not only justifying, but actively glorifying the mass killing of fellow human beings, all the while having faith that when they get to heaven, God will take them in his arms.

 

It is to the detriment of our world that so many see their faith in Christianity as a ticket to eternal righteousness and a license to flout the message of Christ.

 

Imagine there’s no Heaven.