Povertybarn

Fuckabee Rising

Fuckabee claims most of the Bible Belt, shocker. This wingnut wants Roe v. Wade to be overturned and also supports a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Hey, doesn't the Constitution guarantee our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Isn't marriage supposed to be part of that happiness?

He claims to have traveled the US and the World, seriously? How can he be so closed minded? Scary, very scary. If he does any better or worse becomes the vp nominee, then women and the LGBT community are screwed back to the Dark Ages.

I can't even bring myself to discuss his stance on immigration.

Got Caucus?

Unless you live in a cave, you know that the Iowa Caucus took place today. Barack Obama came in first, John Edwards picked up momentum by coming in second while Hillary came in third on the Democratic side. Dodd and Biden have now dropped out of the race. I am sorry to see them go.

On the Republican side, ultra conservative Mike Huckabee won. I was horrified to see his campaign headquarters featuring prayer circles as were some of the reporters. On the plus side, he is most likely beatable. If by some miracle he does win, women and the LGBT community are screwed.

One Iowa voter said that he voted for him because of his unabashed faith. It is his unabashed faith that makes me want to move to out of the US.

A Christmas Miracle

I heart the Concord Monitor.

Just go look.

If this guy gets any where, women and the LGBT community are screwed. Is he spending the next few days with all of his wives?

1 Republican Out, Too Many To Go

According to the NYTimes, Senator Sam Brownback is said to be dropping out of the race to be the Republican nominee. The poll numbers show him at 2% in Iowa. At least for now, Roe v. Wade is safe from this wingnut.

Mitt Romney's number flip, just like his stance on issues like Abortion and questions about his religion. I have a few questions for him.

This is all subject to change when the candidates hit Iowa hard before the Caucus that is scheduled for Monday, January 14, 2008.

Mitt's Mormon Meltdown

This interview goes on for twenty minutes and the interviewer, Jan Mickelson asks Mitt Romney about his Mormon faith and Romney didn't want to talk about it. In fact, he seemed irritated by the line of questioning. USAToday has some of the highlights in case you don't have time to watch the interview.

How does he think that he can belong to an odd religion that is mysterious and cult-like and think that it isn't a topic for discussion?

Holy Undergarments

Seeing as how religion plays a role in all elections these days, I have to confess that I am intrigued by the Mormon underwear thing. Wacky, sure, weird, definitely. They claim it is an act of devotion. Whatever happened to wearing a cross necklace?

Garments are underclothing that covers the body from the shoulders to the knees. There is a great amount of symbolism associated with the receiving and wearing of the garment.

In Exodus 28 a description is given of how Aaron and his sons are consecrated and anointed to be priests. In this chapter it also describes the priestly clothing; “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron they brother for glory and for beauty…And these are the garments they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.”¹ From these scriptures and further reading in chapter 29 of Exodus it becomes apparent that the garment is to help remind the priests and symbolize their consecration to God’s service.

The garment also symbolizes Christ’s atonement, which covers our sins. This symbolism can be understood from Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit they become aware of their nakedness and seek to hide themselves from God’s presence. This is much what we do when we sin; we are no longer worthy to be in God’s presence. When God learns from Adam what he has done, both Adam and Eve are chastised and told that they must leave the garden, but God also makes them clothes to cover their nakedness. “Unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”² This symbolizes how when we sin we must face the consequences, but if we rely on the Lord, he will help “cover” our sins just as He covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness. This same scripture can also be applied to the fact that garments are a reminder that we rely on God for all that we have. source: LDSpatriot

According to Wonkette, presidential candidate and famous Mormon, Mitt Romney refuses to say whether or not he wears the garments.  Does he or doesn't he? I don't see why he refuses to answer. Is he ashamed of his believes?

Turnout is Key

Well, it had been awhile since I have written about politics, but I have some two cents to share.

Yes, we have a REAL chance to get back the House and Senate. But, we aren't there, yet. Let's not spend the next two days prediciting victory.

Let's get out there and make it HAPPEN. How are we going to do that? by VOTING ON TUESDAY and making sure that all of our felllow liberals and moderates do the same.

Please VOTE on TUESDAY and take five friends with you. Otherwise, these articles won't matter.

Women, Katrina victims and LGBT community stands to lose the most.

Holy Liberal Media!

The liberal media strikes again. ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX have all declined to run an ad for the United Church of Christ. They have refused because they claim not to run advocacy ads -- huh? What would you call the ads about pollution? 

The ads feature Gay couples (oh, no!), ethnic minorites (scary) and unwed mothers being cast aside by an unspecified Church. How shocking and untrue true!

"They are saying, 'You can entertain on 'Will & Grace' and 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' but when it comes to showing you as whole people with the church, that is going to far," Buford said. Says the spokesman for the Church and he may be right.

What's the moral of the story? 1. God loves all people and 2. the liberal media is only as liberal as those who sensor what gets on television.

Kansas, Where "Ignorant" is the New "Educated"

(Don't worry, she's almost back from holiday!  In the meantime, here's another post from guest blogger, me -- SourKraut)

Voting 6-4 (all Republicans, coincidence?) the Kansas State Board of Ignorance approved a new set of "science" standards that specifically challenges the teaching evolution in it's schools. 

"This is a great day for education. This is one of the best things that we can do," said board chairman Steve Abrams, who is on record as saying evolutionary theory is incompatible with the Bible's version of God's creation of life on Earth.

Huh?  When did religious studies become a science subject?  Whether you believe in evolution or not (and the world is flat too!), creationism is not a subject matter for the science room.  The best commentary I've seen on the subject has been at Scientific American.

"...[the Kansas State Board of Education] don't think they are lowering the standards--to the contrary, they think they are raising them. That's how you can tell they are dimwits."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Update: Sanity breaks out in Pennsylvania; voters throw out local school board that promoted "intelligent-design"

tags: kansas, evolution, pennsylvania

The Opiate of the Masses?

[Agi T. Prop here, filling in for Catherine. This work is cross-posted at The Defeatists!]

In today's WAPO, Jennifer Moses makes the case that liberals are as much to blame for bible-thumping--using religion to further their political goals--as are the Christian Right. That's a fair statement. Both sides are guilty of perverting religion to their own ends. Christians typically invoke God and Jesus in the public sphere to bolster their policies and secure their power by invoking a "higher authority". I mean, if God says to vote for Mr. X, then by hell you better vote for Mr. X...you don't want to piss off God now, do you? Moses writes:

Given the human habit of unleashing violence in the name of God, perhaps I'm naive, but I tend to believe that the Christian religiosity that's the common currency of great swaths of our country generally does more good than harm, giving people a sense of purpose and community where they might not otherwise have either.

More harm than good? Christianity (and all religions for that matter) has probably done more to promote war, suffering, death, torture and poverty than it has to prevent these evils throughout history. But this is the 21st century; no one uses religion anymore to promote these evils. I don't think religion is innately bad--I just blame the people who USE religion as a means to a repressive end.

But I'm talking mainly about what I call the "good" Jesus -- the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, the one who, through his people, clothes the naked and feeds the hungry.

Oh, 'cos I was thinking about the "bad" Jesus. Okay, on with the "good" Jesus:

In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it's that Jesus who's been making the rounds, so much so that Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, came to Baton Rouge to praise the efforts of local churches. (Well he should, too, since the federal government has all but abandoned us to our own resources.) The local newspaper covered the visit in detail. What it failed to do was mention that there might be something suspect in having a White House office of faith-based anything.

Republicans don't like it when the government helps people, but that all changes when Jesus works for the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Okay, but her point is:

As far as I can tell, progressives and liberals of all stripes don't even begin to fathom the despair and confusion most ordinary Americans feel when they hear the latest violent rap song or see a billboard plastered with an image of a 16-year-old clad only in Calvin Klein underwear. The right wing of the Republican Party, on the other hand, has long understood that most Americans yearn for something nobler in our national life, but it doesn't care unless it can use frustration and despair to harvest rage, and rage to harvest votes.

What's the answer? I don't know, but it might help if our political leaders stopped spinning and, like the prophets of old, spoke the truth.

People turn to religion because religion contains "truth" whereas politics is filled with lies. Liberals might invoke the Sermon on the Mount to justify welfare programs, but they're certainly less candid than the Christian Right, who will shrewdly use religion to legitimize war and poverty. Instead of trying to come up with positive solutions for the public sphere, people turn to a mysterious deity in the sky to solve their everyday problems. Now I get it. Religion is not for the weak-minded, it's for the lazy.

Happy Día de Muertos!

Now that we've had our fill of candy from last night, it's time to think of the real holiday of the dead, Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. With all the tragic events of recent weeks and months, it's a good time to reflect on those lives that have been lost.  Over the next two days (November 1st for children, and November 2nd for adults) we take time to honor and celebrate the lives of the deceased.