Pulpit Freedom Sunday

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian Right advocacy group, is sponsoringPulpit Freedom Sunday, where at least 100 evangelical pastors will defy the law and endorse candiates from their pulpits. In 1954, at the request of then Senator Lyndon Johnson, the IRS rules prohibits any speech from a church pulpit favoring or opposing a political candidate. Churches whose preachers do endorse a candidate risk losing their tax-exempt status. During the last presidential campaign, ministers supporting John McCain did the same thing but the only one government investigation was dropped. The ADF is trying to provoke a court case so they can overturn the rule saying that "The IRS should not be used as a political tool to advance the agenda of racial groups bent on silencing the voice of the church.." Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention opposes this whole stunt.

The latest Smithsonian magazine has an excellent article on the history of religious intolerance in America and how and why the Founding Fathers really did create a secular Republic, contrary to the opinions of Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and David Barton. The piece documents anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon riots in 19th century America. Interesting new fact was that one of the reasons Benedict Arnold became a turncoat was his disgust with America being backed by Catholic France.

CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, is whipped up about the plot by Muslims to introduce sharia law and destroy American civilization, whatever is left of it. What was a very fringe idea has now moved into the mainstream with New Gingrich and Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes flogging this goofy notion.

This week will be Bob Woodward week with his book on the Obama Administration's internal debates on Afghanistan. From the early excerpts, the reader must really ask serious questions about General Petraeus and his strange view that our children will be fighting in Afghanistan and that the war is not one that can be won but must be fought continually. This represents how far the notion of the Long War has permeated the defense establishment. In an age where a computer-virus is knocking out Iran's nuclear program, the United States with its COIN strategy is re-living our Vietnam counter-insurgency plan. The massive disconnect between our embrace of certain 21st century technology and strategies, which were based on military losses in Vietnam, Algeria, and Malaysia is a bit bizarre and disconcerting.

Read an early memo against the war in Iraq yesterday that quoted a Pentagon paper on establishing an American empire, a document purportedly written in 2001. I would love to know where that is and will be trying to locate it. Other recently-released dcuments released tis past week show that Dick Cheney requested a contingency plan for an invasion of Iraq on January 9,2001, right before George W took the oath of office, and that other documents showed internal arguments for the invasion during the first few months of the Administration. What remains a mystery is that we know Al Qaeda had nothing to do with Iraq, despite video footage of George W. actually arguing at length this was so, and we know, except some of the extreme right, that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, so what was the invasion meant to do and what purpose was it to serve. Cheap psychologizing that son wanted to better Dad just doesn't fly.

Hopefully, some of the major participants after their self-defenses will reveal some of this in their memoirs. From Dick Cheney,we hope to hear his view of the energy empire, although I doubt whether this will be mentioned. Rather we will be treated to a sophisticated defense of rendition, torture and the wonders of defending America after 9/11 but not before. George W.'s memoirs due next month will probably drip some truths but inadvertantly. My money is on Donald Rumsfeld, whose memoir will be out next year. The reason I suggest this is that Douglas Feith's memoir was an honest attempt, in my opinion, to detail the origins of the war and the fights among the neo-cons. His boss is known to be much more blunt as we saw during the invasion. From the documents released this month, Rumsfeld argued that an invasion of Iraq would cement ties with Israel and strengthen America's position in the region as a whole. It's the last point I want to see elaborated on. Also, Rumsfeld was a major proponent of the 40-year war against Islamic fundamentalism, an idea whose time should never have come.

We will be dealing with the aftermath of this past Administration for decades. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has been defending the worst national security laws and winning in our courts. There are areas of our civil liberties now, which appear to be gone for good. Paul Craig Roberts, a former assistant secretary of Treasury during President Reagan, just wrote a piece "It's Official--the United States is a Police State!". A conservative libertarian type of guy, this article is not an Obama-bashing piece but a critique of the continuation of the Bush suppression of civil liberties under this Administration. It's a good summary of the insanity of the Patriot Act and all the noxious laws that were generated from it. Only this week, the FBI raided war protestors homes and offices in Minneapolis and Chicago with the view of determining whether the groups gave "material assistance to terrorist groups." Apparently , the group was more focused on Colombia than Afghanistan. But Roberts shows that the all-expansive definitions of the anti-terrroism laws are a direct and present danger to dissent.

Meanwhile the mid-terms, Congressman DeFazio from Oregon did a great it--accompanied by video cameras he decided to find the group Concerned Taxpayers, who are running smear ads against him. He found a Washington townhouse with office equipment and only one person home--a person who identified himself as with the conservative Jamestown Foundation, which was first funded to assist Soviet defectors and later branched out into defense strategy policy. But DeFazio had the address right and the phone had a answering machine for Concerned Taxpayers. Why Defazio was p.o-ed was that the ads against him ties him to Nancy Pelosi, whom he is frequently on record as wanting to replace a Speaker of the House. He succeded in getting the group to pull their ads but still no one knows whose behind them.

Think Progress continues to detail the Koch-funded groups trying to engage in election fraud in Wisconsin. Maybe if enough of these incidents can be documented, advocacy groups might want to press for the RICO act being used against the Koch industries--seizing them on the suspicion of corruption. No shareholders would be hurt.

Will Mitt Romney be hurt if his dear friend from Bain, Queen Meg Whitman loses. Apparently, Whitman spokespeople are trying to get people to accept the Field Poll showing a tied race instead of the couple this week that shows Governor Brown with a five-six point lead. On the Senate side, a large majority of Californians want their Senator to support Obama agenda. Obama still rides high in California, which puts a damper on the Republican challenges.

Democrats are engaged in a two-prong strategy for mid-terms--one a national thrust of emphasizing the positive and the second one, a local strategy of hammering specific Republican candidates as unworthy of any elected office. Blue Dog Democrats got Nancy Pelosi's permission to distance themselves from her because their competition was composed on people fleeing bill collectors, tax evaders, a couple who are under investigation for business fraud. The issue in these races is to create the big Ick factor--"this guy is too sleazy to represent you." Given the roster of Republican candidates, who can blame them. If you are Nita Lowey running in Westchester, New York, even though you are liberal, don't you think you should hammer on the fact that the Republican in suburban New York is an anti-semite, a white separatist and writes positively about eugenics? Forget Obamacare and the Pledge, it's obvious your opponent shouldn't be allowed near any public office.

Dana Milbank got in a good line against Tom Kaine. Tom Kaine appeared on CNN and said that the Republicans merging with the Tea Party had become the Danner Party." Milbank said this remark insulted cannibals everywhere.

In Kentucky, recent polls have Jack Conway with the momentum against Rand Paul. Conway has pulled within 3 points. The last Senate race here proved to be a cliff-hanger, only decided in the early morning. Mike Huckabee is in Kentucky campaigning for Paul today. But Paul shot himself in the foot again by saving that seniors should pay more for Medicare. And his Hitler remark this past week may signal to voters "Not Ready for Prime Time."

Florida papers, after several investigative reports into Marco Rubio's AMEX use and his role in various boondoogle projects, are demanding he come clean on his financial dealings. This may have come too late as Rubio seems to have a commanding lead against Crist and Meeks.

The New York Times covers Karl Rove's parallel secret GOP. Democrats go nuts every time Rove's name is mentioned because of his swiftboating techniques and other dirty tricks over the years. But remember he lost the 2000 election, barely won in 2004 because of voter suppression efforts in Ohio and lost massively in 2006. This is not a great mastermind. I just wonder whether his billionaire's Club provides for him to return the money if he fails.

Believe it or not a Fox News contributor has written a piece in the Daily Beast, which documents why this year is not 1994. She says that last time Clinton and Tom Foley, the speaker of the House, did not see the Republican wave coming and that Republicans had not been in charge of the House in 40 years so Americans did not know what to expect. She also said that all the seats lost by Democrats existed in districts won by the Republican presidential candidate. This year only half the seats projected for a Democratic lose are in districts won by McCain.

Remember the first teabagger fight in NY-25, the huge congressional district that stretches across the state? Well, teabagger millionaire Hoffman has lost the Republican line this year and will be running as a Conservative. This was the seat the Republicans have held since the Civil War and lost last year. Well, it looks like they will lose it again. It's seats like these where Republicans need to pick up steam to take over the House.

I thought about Nate Silver's projection that Republicans would win with a 12-seat majority. From just the rumor mill, there are at least 12 Republicans with serious ethics issues. Before they even get to conduct all their investigations, first we will have a foodfight over leadership and then you could have the revelations about these cases. Any resignations or timely retirements would then throw the House open again.