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RELIGION News: 20090329 Corporate - Media - Politics - Marketing - Religion - Government - Law - History - Television "Rev. Moon Exemplifies Right Wing GOP Subsidy of Big Media to Frame Message." ... "[Reverend] Rev. Moon has adopted a relatively low-profile in recent years (if you don't count his bizarre "coronation" by elected officials in a Capitol Hill House of Representatives meeting room a couple years back), but that hasn't prevented the weird religious leader (and close ally of the Bush family) from pouring an estimated 1 - 2.5 billion dollars into subsidizing the Washington Times since 1982." ... "In 2002, Rev. Moon pronounced "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world." But the reality is that the Washington Times -- like the New York Post and Weekly Standard for Rupert Murdoch -- are investments in obtaining financial regulatory and other favors from Republican administrations in return for helping frame and market the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] talking points of tax cuts, cultural wars, and Wall Street gambling." ... "The Washington Times has only about 100,000 subscribers, but its newsboxes are next to the Washington Post throughout D.C. [America's capital], allowing it to appear as an equal -- and to have its banner headlines seen by tens of thousands of D.C. "influencers" every day.  Then, it also gives a byline and title for its writers to appear as D.C. pundits on television (just as Bill Kristol is identified as editor of the chronically money losing "Weekly Standard" during his ubiquitous "pundit" appearances on the tube) -- as well as all television reporters need to quote it to provide "balance."" ... "In short, Moon, in essence, shells out hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to use the Washington Times as a public relations vehicle for "framing" the GOP perspective." ... "Meanwhile, wealthy liberal Democrats don't buy up or create large media outlets; they just support efforts to criticize the corporate press and the likes of Rev. Moon." ... "You can win elections, but you can't make dramatic change unless you own part of the major media." ... "Rev. Moon understands that.  Why can't wealthy Democrats?" -By Mark Karlin -BuzzFlash.com 20090321 Israeli - Religious - Terrorism - Military - War Crimes - Politics - Land - Palestinian - Human - Rights - Investigation "Israelis told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza." ... "Many Israeli troops had the sense of fighting a "religious war" against Gentiles during the 22-day offensive in Gaza [Palestinian territory], according to a soldier who has highlighted the martial role of military rabbis during the operation." ... "The soldier testified that the "clear" message of literature distributed to troops by the rabbinate was: "We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."" ... "After the offensive, Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group called for the dismissal of the military's head chaplain, Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, a brigadier general. It said that he had distributed to troops a booklet saying that it was "terribly immoral" to show mercy to a "cruel enemy" and that the soldiers were fighting "murderers"." ... "The longer transcript conveys a fuller sense of the debate involving graduates from the Yitzhak Rabin military preparatory course." ... "The latest casualty figures published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights list the names of 1,434 dead of whom they say 926 were civilians, 236 fighters and 255 police officers." -By Donald Macintyre -Independent.co.uk Israeli - Religious - Terrorism - Military - Politics - Land - Palestinian - Noteworthy "Israeli Soldier Says Military Rabbis Framed Gaza Mission as Religious." ... "A soldier involved in Israel's recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip [Palestinian territory] said in published reports Friday that the military's rabbinical staff distributed material characterizing the operation as a religious mission to "get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land."" ... "In the second day of published accounts from soldiers critical of the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, the daily Maariv ran excerpts of an interview with a squad commander in Israel's Givati Brigade. He was identified only by his first name, given as Rahm." ... "The daily quoted him as saying that the Gaza operation from the beginning had "the feeling of almost a religious mission."" ... ""The military rabbinate brought many magazines and articles with a very clear message: 'We are the Jewish people, a miracle brought us to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, and now we have to struggle so as to get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land.' All the feeling throughout all this operation of many of the soldiers was of a war of religions," he said. "As a commander, I tried to explain that the war is not a war of Kiddush Hashem [the sanctification of God's name, including through martyrdom] but over the stopping of the launching of the Qassam rockets."" ... "The soldiers' accounts were elicited by the head of a training school for future military recruits. At a recent gathering, graduates of the school described how the realities of military life clashed with the values taught in the school's curriculum." ... "The school is named in honor Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli leader who signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians and who was assassinated by an Israeli who opposed the agreements. The school is secular in nature and its graduates would likely be sensitive to the intrusion of religious politics into the conduct of a military operation, said retired Brig. Gen. Meir Elran, a security analyst with the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University." ... "Given that one of Israel's chief struggles is against organizations, such as Hamas, that entwine religion and violence, the presence of similar material among Israeli soldiers is disturbing, Elran said. " -By Howard Schneider -WashingtonPost 20090211 Science - Education - Book - Religious - People - Poll "On Darwin’s Birthday, Only 4 in 10 Believe in Evolution: Belief drops to 24% among frequent church attenders." ... "On the eve of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, a new Gallup Poll shows that only 39% of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution," while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36% don't have an opinion either way. These attitudes are strongly related to education and, to an even greater degree, religiosity." ... "Darwin's theory has been at the forefront of religious debate since he published On the Origin of Species 150 years ago. Even to this day, highly religious individuals claim that the theory of evolution contradicts the story of creation as outlined in the book of Genesis in the Bible." ... "Implications" ... "As Darwin is being lauded as one of the most important scientists in history on the 200th anniversary of his birth (on Feb. 12, 1809), it is perhaps dismaying to scientists who study and respect his work to see that well less than half of Americans today say they believe in the theory of evolution, and that just 55% can associate the man with his theory." ... "Naturally, some of this is because of educational differences. Americans who have lower levels of formal education are significantly less likely than others to be able to identity Darwin with his theory, and to have an opinion on it either way. Still, the evidence is clear that even to this day, Americans' religious beliefs are a significant predictor of their attitudes toward Darwin's theory. Those who attend church most often are the least likely to believe in evolution, and most likely to say they do not believe in it." -By Frank Newport -Gallup.com 20090120 Barack Obama - John Roberts - Politics - Religion - Race - Civil Rights - Justice "Barack Hussein Obama: 44th president of the United States: Inauguration 2009." ... "A BIBLE WITH SIGNIFICANCE." ... "[Democratic President Elect] Barack Obama laid his hand on a Bible used in [Republican President Elect] Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 inauguration. The chief justice in 1861 was Roger Brooke Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision barring blacks from citizenship." ... "In his inaugural speech, Barack Obama said, “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.” There have been only 43 different men serve as president; [Democratic President] Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms." ... "At 47, Barack Obama is the nation’s fifth-youngest president. The youngest was [Republican President] Theodore Roosevelt (42), followed by [Democratic President] John F. Kennedy (43), [Democratic President] Bill Clinton (46) and [Republican President] Ulysses S. Grant (46)." ... "Barack Obama was one of 22 Senate Democrats to vote against Chief Justice John Roberts’ confirmation in 2005, so this was the first time a justice has sworn in a president who voted against him." -AJC 20081218 Barack Obama - Gay - Politics - Religion - Book - People - Children - Girls - Schools - US - Pakistan - Palestine - British - Soviet - Military - History "Three Cups of Tea for Rick Warren." ... "Rick Warren is providing the invocation for the [Democratic President Elect Barack Obama's] presidential inauguration. As a pastor whose books have been read by tens of millions of Americans and whose voice is respected by an equal or larger number, he has tremendous influence and power. And as an open homophobe who aggressively works to wound gay people in this country (as well as pretty much anybody else who doesn’t believe with his own particular and peculiar recently-invented version of Christian theology) he should be the guy with the bull’s-eye on his back for the progressive movement." ... "But consider that metaphor for a moment. In Pakistan there are entire regions filled with people who not only hate gays but hate Americans as well, regardless of religion. We've tried bombing them (as the Soviets did, and the British before them). Three consecutive Western empires have tried threatening them, starving them, poisoning them, infiltrating them, and overpowering them - all without success." ... "And then Greg Mortenson came to one of their villages, had three cups of tea with them (a metaphor for hospitality - they nursed him back to health after a mountain climbing injury - and the title of his best-selling book), and now in dozens of these formerly Taliban-controlled villages the people are rejecting the Taliban, embracing modernity, and openly proclaiming themselves as our friends." ... "His "weapon" for this conversion? He built schools for their children, particularly their previously-banned-from-school girls." ... "We pushed the Palestinians on the West Bank to have open and democratic elections, assuming that because they were using the tool of our culture (the secret ballot) they’d vote in people reflecting the values of our culture. Instead, they voted in Hamas, a group that is openly hostile to us and our allies. Hamas’ “weapon” for winning the hearts and minds of the Palestinians? They supported schools, hospitals, and fed and clothed people." ... "You’d think that we’d have learned from these experiences - particularly those of us who call ourselves “progressives” - that you get your desired results faster when you embrace, engage, and nurture your “enemies” than when you physically or rhetorically bomb them." ... "Barack Obama has learned that lesson, and is applying it in inviting Rick Warren to perform the invocation for his inauguration. In doing so, he is reaching out a hand to those who today are - out of fear and ignorance - pushing away gays the same way their intellectual ancestors pushed away African Americans when anti-miscegenation laws were supported by most of these same “fundamentalist” Christian churches in the 1950s and 1960s." -By Thom Hartmann -ThomHartmann.com 20081215 US - Iraq - Religious - Fashion "Bush shoe-ing worst Arab insult: Around the Arab world, if you want to escalate a situation, by saying for example "I'm going to thump you", add the words "with a shoe" and you're adding serious insult to the threat of possible injury." ... "It's that cultural significance that has added real sting to the assault by an Iraqi journalist against US [United States Republican] President George W Bush at a Baghdad [Iraq's capital] news conference." ... "In Arab culture it's considered rude even to display the sole of one's shoe to a fellow human being." ... "Certainly, crossing one's legs ankle-on-knee style should never be done in a public place for fear of offending the person next to you." ... "The sensitivity is related to the fact shoes are considered ritually unclean in the Muslim faith." ... "In addition to ritual ablutions before prayer, Muslims must take off their shoes to pray, and wearing shoes inside a mosque is forbidden." ... "Shoes should either be left at the door of the mosque, or carried (preferably in the left hand with the soles pressed together)." ... "But beyond the Islamic significance, the dirty and degrading implication of the sole of a shoe crosses all religious boundaries in the Middle East. " -By Martin Asser -BBC/News 20081210 Terrorism - Criminal - Political - History - Corporate - Religion - Prison - Pat Robertson - Abortion - Gay - Rights - Law - California - Texas - US - Iraq - Military "Bush Awards Presidential Citizen Medal To Watergate Crook Chuck Colson." ... "Established in 1969, the Presidential Citizens Medal is the second highest honor for a civilian, recognizing Americans “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation.”" ... "Today, [Republican] President Bush honored 24 recipients of this year’s award, including actor Gary Sinise and Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. Also included in that mix was Chuck Colson, “the first member of the [Republican President] Nixon administration to serve prison time for Watergate-related offenses.” Colson was President Nixon’s counsel from 1969-1973 and pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice. Colson received a one to three year sentence, but served just seven months. David Plotz at Slate described Colson’s role in the Nixon administration:" "As special counsel to the president, he [Chuck Colson] was [Republican President] Richard Nixon’s hard man, the “evil genius” of an evil administration. According to Watergate historian Stanley Kutler, Colson sought to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators, and he plotted to raid or firebomb the Brookings Institution. He eventually pleaded guilty to scheming to defame Daniel Ellsberg and interfering with his trial." "Since that time, Colson has become an evangelical prison reformer, running the nonprofit Prison Fellowship, which advocates for “privately run prisons and the delivery of all social services by faith-based groups.” However, according to author Allan Lichtman in “White Protestant Nation,” Colson has also remained involved in conservative politics:" "Colson brought together politically conservative Catholics and Protestands for a statement of common beliefs, advised conservative politicians including Texas [Republican] governor George W. Bush, and worked with Christian right leaders Pat Robertson and James Dobson on the development of political strategy. He disseminated conservative messages on sex roles, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, gay rights, and separation of church and state in his radio broadcasts and columns, reaching millions of Americans." "On October 3, 2002, Colson was also one of the co-signers of a letter from prominent evangelical leaders supporting an invasion of Iraq. More recently he has spoken out in favor of California’s Prop. 8, accusing the LGBT community of “anti-religious bigotry.”" -By Amanda Terkel -ThinkProgress.org 20081208 Stephen Johnson - Religion - Science - Corporate - Environmental - Politician - RI "EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson: There’s ‘not a clean-cut division’ between religion and science." ... "A Philadelphia Inquirer profile of [Republican President Bush's Environmetnal Protection Agency] EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson this weekend reveals that the chief steward of our environmental protection is unwilling — or unable — to separate religion from science. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson notes that, when questioned by reporters, Stephen Johnson admitted he does not see a “clean-cut division” between the two:" "It’s not a clean-cut division. If you have studied at all creationism vs. evolution, there’s theistic or God-controlled evolution and there’s variations on all those themes." "Johnson’s approach at EPA has been marked by putting his faith in corporate polluters. This past summer, [Rhode Island Democratic Senator] Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI [Democratic-Rhode Island]) called on him to resign. Read more at the Wonk Room [Stephen Johnson]." -By Faiz Shakir -ThinkProgress.org/Wonk Room 20081115 Gay - Religion - Politics- People - San Francisco - California - Salt Lake City - Utah "Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage." ... "Less than two weeks before [2008] Election Day, [Frank Schubert] the chief strategist behind a ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California called an emergency meeting here." ... "The campaign issued an urgent appeal, and in a matter of days, it raised more than $5 million, including a $1 million donation from Alan C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president [David McKay] of the Mormon Church." ... "The California measure, Proposition 8, was to many Mormons a kind of firewall to be held at all costs." ... "First approached by the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco [California] a few weeks after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in May, the Mormons were the last major religious group to join the campaign, and the final spice in an unusual stew that included Catholics, evangelical Christians, conservative black and Latino pastors, and myriad smaller ethnic groups with strong religious ties." ... "Shortly after receiving the invitation from the San Francisco Archdiocese, the Mormon leadership in Salt Lake City [Utah's capital] issued a four-paragraph decree to be read to congregations, saying “the formation of families is central to the Creator’s plan,” and urging members to become involved with the cause." ... "“And they sure did,” Mr. Schubert said." ... "Jeff Flint, another strategist with Protect Marriage, estimated that Mormons made up 80 percent to 90 percent of the early volunteers who walked door-to-door in election precincts." ... "In the end, Protect Marriage estimates, as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised on behalf of the measure was contributed by Mormons." (1, 2) -By Jesse McKinley and Kirk Johnson -NYTimes 20081112 Barack Obama - Race - Terrorism - Religion - Politics - Idaho "Idaho students chant 'assassinate Obama' on school bus: Report." ... "Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children allegedly started chanting "assassinate Obama" on the school bus." ... "According to an article which appeared in Salon in 2006, "You've heard of Jesusland, but Rexburg, Idaho, is something more. It's not just a small town in rural Eastern Idaho. It's a small town in rural Eastern Idaho completely dominated by a fast-growing Mormon college, Brigham Young University-Idaho."" ... "The full KIDK story can be read here." -By David Edwards and Muriel Kane -RawStory.com WATCH: Report by KIDK on Idaho elementary school children allegedly chanting "assassinate Obama." 20081111 Barack Obama - People - Politics - Illinois - Hawaii - US - Indonesia - Kenya "Obama's Fascinating Interview with Cathleen Falsani." ... "The most detailed and fascinating explication of [Democratic President-Elect] Barack Obama's faith came in a 2004 interview he gave Chicago Sun Times columnist Cathleen Falsani when he was running for U.S. Senate in Illinois." ... "Because of how controversial that interview became, Falsani has graciously allowed us [Beliefnet.com] to print the full conversation here." ... "FALSANI: What do you believe?" ... "OBAMA: I am a Christian." ... "So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith." ... "On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences." ... "I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10." ... "My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim." ... "And I'd say, probably, intellectually I've drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith." ... "So, I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived." -Beliefnet.com 20081108 Gay - Religion - Money - Salt Lake City - Utah - Tourism - California - Family - Law - 2008 Election "Utah Boycott Urged After Calif. Vote." ... "Utah's growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its aggressive promotion of California's ban on gay marriage." ... "Gay rights activist John Aravosis, whose well-trafficked AmericaBlog.com is urging the boycott, is unapologetic about targeting Utah rather than California, where voters defined marriage in the state Constitution as a heterosexual act." ... "Utah, Aravosis said, "is a hate state," and on this issue, "at a fundamental level, the Utah Mormons crossed the line. . . . They just took marriage away from 20,000 couples and made their children bastards. You don't do that and get away with it."" ... "The Mormon Church, based in Salt Lake City [Utah's capital], encouraged members to work for passage of the ballot measure. Thousands of Mormons worked as grass-roots volunteers and gave tens of millions of dollars to the campaign." ... "Proposition 8, the measure passed Tuesday, overrode a state Supreme Court ruling that briefly gave same-sex couples the right to wed." -By Brock Vergakis -WashingtonPost 20081025 Sarah Palin - Religious - Video - Kenya - Alaska - US - 2008 Election "YouTube Videos Draw Attention to Palin’s Faith." ... "[2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Ms. Palin’s faith has come under scrutiny after two videos taken in her former church surfaced on YouTube and became immediate sensations. The first showed a visiting preacher from Kenya praying fervently over Ms. Palin in a gravelly voice and asking God to favor her campaign for governor and protect her from “every form of witchcraft.”" ... "The second showed Ms. Palin at an event in June praising the African preacher’s prayer as “awesome” and “very, very powerful.” She is also seen nodding as her former pastor from Wasilla prays over her and declares that Alaska is “one of the refuge states in the Last Days,” a piece of prophecy popular in some prayer networks that predicts that as the “end times” approach, people will flock to Alaska for its abundant open space and natural resources." ... " ... Ms. Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as “spiritual warfare.”" ... "Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonize specific geographic areas and individuals, and that “spiritual warriors” must “battle” them to assert God’s control, using prayer and evangelism. The movement’s fixation on demons, its aggressiveness and its leaders’ claims to exalted spiritual authority have troubled even some Pentecostal Christians." ... "Bishop Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan preacher shown on the YouTube video anointing her as she ran for governor, is celebrated internationally as an effective spiritual warrior who led a prayer movement that drove a witch out of his town in Kenya." ... "Critics say the goal of the spiritual warfare movement is to create a theocracy. Bruce Wilson, a researcher for Talk2Action, a Web site that tracks religious groups, said: “One of the imperatives of the movement is to achieve worldly power, including political control. Then you can more effectively drive out the demons. The ultimate goal is to purify the earth.”" (1, 2) -By Laurie Goodstein -NYTimes Search Youtube videos: <Palin Church> Search Youtube videos: <Palin witch-hunter> Search Youtube videos: <Palin witchcraft> 20080925 Sarah Palin - Politics - 2008 Election - Alaska - US - Kenya "Palin once blessed to be free from 'witchcraft'." ... "A grainy YouTube video surfaced Wednesday showing Sarah Palin being blessed in her hometown church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from "witchcraft" as she prepared to seek higher office." ... "The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."" ... "Pentecostals are conservative in their reading of the Bible. Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in "baptism in the Holy Spirit." That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophesy and faith healing, which includes the laying on of hands." ... "The [Reverend] Rev. Zipporah Ndiritu, who studied under Muthee in the Kiambu, Kenya-based Word of Faith Church, said the bishop is revered among evangelicals there. In a phone interview from Mombasa, Kenya, she said church doctrine focuses on ridding the world of demons — and witches." -By Garance Burke -AP via -Google WATCH: Republican Palin's church's speaker Reverend Muthee lays hands on Sarah Palin to pray she be kept safe from "every form of witchcraft." Search: <Palin witch> in <Google> <YouTube> 20080924 Barack Obama - Christian - University - Oregon - Race - 2008 Election "Effigy of Obama found hanging from tree at George Fox University." ... "Officials at George Fox University say a life-size effigy of [2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was found hanging from a tree at the Christian school's Newberg [Oregon] campus." -KATU.com 20080915 John McCain - Sarah Palin - Federal- Money - Politics - Immigration - Religion - US - Alaska - Russia - Iraq - Military - 2008 Election "John McCain's Journey From Maverick to Liar." ... "When Jon Stewart asked [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain last year, "Are you going into crazy base world?" the celebrated maverick acknowledged, "I'm afraid so."" ... "McCain flip-flopped on the [Republican President] Bush tax cuts. He abandoned immigration reform. He reached out to Jerry Falwell and other religious conservatives." ... "It wasn't enough. And so, in a move that even one of his longtime advisers conceded (in a remark captured by an open microphone) was disturbingly "cynical," McCain gave the base [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin." ... "So far, the main "maverick" actions that McCain has promised as the next Republican president are to trim nonmilitary Democratic spending and continue the Iraq war. You can't get more conventional than that." ... "And even that message has been somewhat undermined by disclosures that Palin was a champion of those costly federal earmark projects she has lobbied for in Alaska—where, you know, you can see Russia." ... "At this point, McCain has taken the obvious way out—launching a series of distracting attacks on [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama, with slim regard for truth." ... "The ads have spurred a backlash, the consequences (or lack) of which may well decide the election." ... "For 18 months, Obama has wagered all his chips on the (quaint? idealistic? brilliant?) idea that the American people are tired of the same old sleazy and divisive politics. McCain has now chosen to bet against him." ... "And we are the cards." -By John Aloysius Farrell -usnews.com Sarah Palin - John McCain - Criminal - Politics - Women - Children - Safety - Law - Money - Religion - Alaska - 2008 Election "Critics Question Palin's Record on "Epidemic" Rape, Domestic Violence in Alaska: Effort to Tackle Sex Violence Stalled by [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin's Office, Sources Say." ... "Evangelicals and social conservatives have embraced [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain's vice presidential pick for what they call her "pro-family," "pro-woman" values. But in Alaska, critics say [Alaska Republican Governor] Gov. Sarah Palin has not addressed the rampant sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence and murder that make her state one of the most dangerous places in the country for women and children." ... "Alaska leads the nation in reported forcible rapes per capita, according to the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], with a rate two and a half times the national average – a ranking it has held for many years. Children are no safer: Public safety experts believe that the prevalence of rape and sexual assault of minors in Alaska makes the state's record one of the worst in the U.S. [United States] And while solid statistics on domestic violence are hard to come by, most – including Gov. Palin – agree it is an "epidemic."" ... "Despite the governor's pro-family image, public safety experts and advocates for women and children struggled when asked to explain how Palin's leadership has helped address the crisis. And current and former officials from Palin's administration confirmed that an ambitious plan to tackle the crisis has apparently sunk into doldrums after arriving at the governor's office." ... ""She's really done a lot of work on oil and gas, but when it comes to violence against women and children. . . we haven't been on her radar as a priority," said Peggy Brown, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. The Juneau[Alaska's capital]-based group is an umbrella organization for shelters and anti-violence programs around the state." ... "State troopers respond to most domestic violence calls outside of Alaska's major cities, but they're too short-staffed and under-funded to do it well, according to Robert Claus, a recently retired trooper." (1, 2, 3) -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com 20080904 Barack Obama - Sarah Palin - Giuliani - Religion - Politics - People - Workers - Poverty - Justice - Illinois - 2008 Election "What a Community Organizer Does." ... "This morning, I received a press release from a group called Catholic Democrats about the work--the mission, the witness--that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama performed after he got out of college. Here's the first paragraph:" "Catholic Democrats is expressing surprise and shock that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech tonight mocked her opponent's work in the 1980s for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  She belittled Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer in Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago, work he undertook instead of pursuing a lucrative career on Wall Street.  In her acceptance speech, Ms. Palin said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."  Community organizing is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching to end poverty and promote social justice." ... "So here is what [Republican Rudy] Giuliani and [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin didn't know: Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed--job training, help with housing and so forth--from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work--the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a "task from God.")" -By Joe Klein -Time-Blog.com 20080903 Sarah Palin - US - Iraq - Military - Politics - Alaska - Gas - Companies - 2008 Election "Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'." ... "Alaska [Republican Governor] Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."" ... "In an address last June, the [2008 Election] Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."" ... ""Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."" ... "Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets." ... ""God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said." -By Gene Johnson -AP via -Yahoo WATCH: "Sarah Palin: War in Iraq is "God's Plan"" WATCH: "Sarah Palin: Alaskan Pipeline is "God's Will"" 20080902 Sarah Palin - US - Iraq - Foreign - Military - Terrorism - Politics - Alaska - Massachusetts - 2004 Election - 2008 Election "Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview." ... "A review of recorded sermons by Ed Kalnins, the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God [Wasilla, Alaska] since 1999, offers a provocative and, for some, eyebrow-raising sketch of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin's longtime spiritual home." ... "In his sermons, Kalnins did not hide his affections for certain national politicians." ... "During the 2004 election season, he praised [Republican] President Bush's performance during a debate with [2004 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Massachusetts Senator] Sen. John Kerry, then offered a not-so-subtle message about his personal candidate preferences. "I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry." Kalnins added: "If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time."" ... "Months after hinting at possible damnation for Kerry supporters, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. "I hate criticisms towards the President," he said, "because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you."" ... "Much of his support for the current administration has come in the realm of foreign affairs. Kalnins has preached that the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq were part of a "world war" over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives." "What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war." ... "In his sermons, Pastor Kalnins has also expressed beliefs that, while not directly political, lie outside of mainstream Christian thought." ... "He preaches repeatedly about the "end times" or "last days," an apocalyptic prophesy held by a small but vocal group of Christian leaders. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."" ... "He also claims to have received direct "words of knowledge" from God, providing him information about past events in other people's lives." -By Nico Pitney and Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com 20080829 John McCain - Sarah Palin - Science - Education - Politics - Law - History - 2008 Election -Alaska - Tennessee "McCain's VP Wants Creationism Taught in School." ... "[2008 Election] Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin wants creationism taught in science classes." ... "In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, the soon-to-be governor of Alaska said of evolution and creation education, "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both."" ... "Asked by the Anchorage Daily News whether she believed in evolution, Palin declined to answer, but said that "I don't think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class."" ... ""I'm not going to pretend I know how all this came to be," she said." ... "The battle between evolution and creationism -- specifically, Christian creationism -- in U.S. classrooms dates back to the 1925 Scopes trial, when a Tennessee court banned the teaching of evolution. Since then, state and federal courts have repeatedly rejected so-called creation science in public schools, calling it religion rather than science." ... "The latest courtroom defeat came in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover case, when the superficially religion-neutral theory of intelligent design was classified as religious creationism. The Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that teaching creationism violated the separation of church and state." ... "Nevertheless, pro-creationism education initiatives driven by Christian conservatives have flourished, and defenders of evolution -- and, more broadly, scientific integrity -- worry that Palin's pick will give momentum to this church-over-state push." ... ""It's unfortunate McCain would pick someone who shares those particular anti-science views, but it's not a surprise," said Barbara Forrest, a Southeastern Lousiana University philosophy professor and prominent critic of creationist science. "She's a choice that pleases the religious right. And the religious right has been the chief force against teaching evolution."" -By Brandon Keim -Wired 20080818 John McCain - Ralph Reed - Jack Abramoff - Criminal Investigation - Religion - Politics -Georgia - 2008 Election "McCain nets $1.75 million at Reed-linked event." .. "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain raised more than $1.75 million for Republicans Monday at a fundraiser [in Georgia's capital Atlanta] clouded by confusion over the role of a political operative connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff." .. "The downtown event was promoted by Ralph Reed, a former head of the Christian Coalition. McCain's campaign said the event was organized by the Republican National Committee — not Reed, who was linked to the Abramoff scandal that McCain investigated in the Senate." .. "A House investigative committee in 2006 did not call Reed as a witness, but concluded that he interceded with the [Republican President] Bush White House to help some of Abramoff's clients. Reed's public relations firm also received $4.2 million from Abramoff to mobilize Christian voters to fight the opening of casinos that could compete with Abramoff's Indian tribe clients." .. "Abramoff went to prison for conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion." -By Philip Elliott -AP via -Yahoo John McCain - Ralph Reed - Jack Abramoff - Money - Religion - Georgia - 2006 Election - 2008 Election "Protesters mark McCain’s visit to Atlanta for fund-raiser." ... "More than 50 protesters marched in front of the Marriott Marquis [in Georgia's capital Atlanta] on Monday, shouting “Bush, McCain, same thing!”" ... "Across Peachtree Center Avenue, Georgia Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and state [Georgia Democratic state Senator] Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta) held a news conference to add a more official voice of protest." ... "Kidd blasted McCain for only coming to the state to raise money and not to meet with regular voters." ... "“Instead of listening to Georgians, John McCain chose to talk with people who have given him thousands of dollars,” she said." ... "That includes Ralph Reed, said Adelman." ... "Reed is the former head of the Christian Coalition who in 2006 [election] lost a bid for the Georgia GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] nomination as lieutenant governor after he was implicated, but not charged, in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in Washington." ... "Reed e-mailed supporters and friends to urge them to give to the [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain campaign. Reed also instructed potential donors to send contributions directly to him. Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he sent the e-mail at the request of the campaign and was given boilerplate language to use. He said he has no role in the campaign or in this event, something the McCain campaign confirmed." ... "But Reed’s involvement in raising money has been a source of ridicule and scorn from Democrats." ... "Reed, Adelman said, “has sold his influence with Christian conservative voters to the highest bidder.”" -By Aaron Gould Sheinin -AJC 20080728 Jim D Adkisson - Religious - Terrorism- Politics - Tennessee - Police -Law "Police: Killer targeted church for liberal views: 2 people killed, seven hurt, after man opens fire in Tennessee church." ... "An unemployed man accused of opening fire with a shotgun and killing two people at a Unitarian church apparently targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal social policies, police said Monday." ... "Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said a letter had been been recovered from the SUV of Jim D. Adkisson, 58, by investigators seeking clues about the motive behind the attack. Authorities said he was an apparent stranger to the Tennessee church where gunfire punctuated a children's performance based on the musical "Annie." Two people were killed and seven wounded Sunday." ... ""It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that and his stated hatred of the liberal movement," Owen said at a news conference." -AP via -Yahoo Jim David Adkisson - Terrorism - Media - Politics - Radio - TV/Channel - Tennessee - Religion - Law - Police "Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on accused shooter's reading list: 4-page letter outlines frustration, hatred of 'liberal movement'." ... "Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell [Tennessee] home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show." ... "Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical." ... "Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve Still requested the search warrant after interviewing Adkisson. who was subdued by several church members after firing three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into the congregation." ... "Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."" ... "Adkisson told Still that "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office."" ... "Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly [the latter two work for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp subsidiary Fox TV]." ... "The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of "the liberal movement," and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning." ... "Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his "hatred of the liberal movement," Owen said. "Liberals in general, as well as gays."" ... "Owen said Adkisson specifically targeted the church for its beliefs, rather than a particular member of the congregation." -By Hayes Hickman with contributions by Bob Fowler, J.J. Stambaugh, Frank Munger and Amy McRary -KnoxNews.com Jim Adkisson - Jobless - Politics - Police - Tennessee - Church - Gays - Women's - Rights - Desegregation- History "US church 'killer' wrote of hate: A man accused of shooting dead two people in a Tennessee church was motivated by hatred of liberals and anger at being jobless, US police say." ... "The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church describes itself on its website as working for social change since the 1950s, including desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women's rights and gay rights." -BBC/News Jim Adkisson - Terrorism- Politics - Tennessee - Church - Gays - Jobs - Government - Food - Money "Tennessee church shooter angry at "liberals"." ... "A man [Jim Adkisson] who opened fire inside a church, killing two people with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case, was frustrated at being unable to find a job and blamed liberals and gays, police said on Monday." ... ""It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred of the liberal movement," Knoxville [Tennessee] Police Chief Sterling Owen told reporters of Sunday's incident at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church." ... "Suspect Jim Adkisson...." ... "... described his violent plans in a four-page letter found at his home, which also explained that his age and "liberals and gays" taking jobs had worked against him." ... "Another recent setback was that Adkisson's allotment of government-issued food stamps had been reduced, Owen said." -By Andrew Stern with contributions by Michael Conlon and Jackie Frank -Reuters via -IHT.com Jim Adkisson - Terrorism - Politics - Tennessee - Church -Children "Timeline: Church service marred by gunfire." ... "A neighbor told 10News [suspected killer, Jim] Adkisson described himself as a "Confederate" and a "believer in the old South." She says Adkisson self-identified in this way to her on more than one occasion, but that she didn't know what he meant by it." ... "The shootings happened at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Kingston Pike." ... "A witness who spoke to 10 News said police had arrived and one person was being detained at the scene." ... "A children's production of "Annie" was taking place as part of the normal Sunday service at the time of the shooting, the witness, who is a member of the church, said. The gunman walked into a packed sanctuary and opened fire." -WBIR.com Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church - TVUUC.org Jim Adkisson - Political - Terrorism - Tennessee - Out-of-Work- Homeless - Food - Gay - Churchgoers - Women's - Rights - Children "Police: Man shot churchgoers over liberal views." ... "An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church [in Knoxville, Tennessee], killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday." ... "[Jim] Adkisson, a 58-year-old truck driver on the verge of losing his food stamps, had 76 rounds with him when he entered the church and pulled a shotgun from a guitar case during a children's performance of the musical "Annie."" ... "The Unitarian-Universalist church advocates for women's rights and gay rights and has provided sanctuary for political refugees. It also has fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its Web site." -By Duncan Mansfield -AP via -Yahoo Jim Adkisson - People - Emergency - Church - Terrorism - Politics -Police - Law - Tennessee "Witnesses recall Knoxville church shooting horror: ‘He had gun leveled in our direction,’ says man who helped stop rampage." ... "Jamie Parkey thought the blast that ripped through the sanctuary of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was part of the play his daughter and other children were putting on. Then he saw blood on another parishioner behind him and saw a man with a 12-gauge shotgun calmly firing away at the congregation." ... "“He had the gun leveled in our direction,” Parkey told TODAY’s Matt Lauer on Monday, one day after the gunman killed two church members and wounded six others before being wrestled to the ground by parishioners. “That’s when I pushed my mother and daughter to the floor and got under the pew. When I saw the men rushing him was when I got up to join them.”" ... "Parkey was one of the people who tackled 58-year-old Jim D. Adkisson, kicking the shotgun away and holding the gunman on the floor with an arm-bar hold. Parkey’s 16-year-old daughter was in the play, and he had been sitting in the front of the church with his mother and his 6-year-old daughter when the attack began." ... "“For the situation, everyone responded phenomenally,” Parkey said. “June and Kevin Spooner mobilized and got the kids out the back.” Vicki Masters, the director of the play the children had been rehearsing for all summer, yelled for people to get out of the building. Another woman ushered children to the Presbyterian church next door after the gunman was subdued." ... "“Everybody did exactly what they needed to do,” Broyles added. “There was very little panic, very little screaming or hysteria. It’s a remarkable congregation of people. I’ve never seen such a loving response to such an overwhelming tragedy.”" ... "Adkisson is being held in lieu of $1 million bail while local police, with the assistance of FBI agents, gather evidence and search his home in a neighboring town. Police say they found a letter in Adkisson’s car which said that he planned the attack, that he couldn’t find a job, and “stated his hatred for the liberal movement.”" -By Mike Celizic -TODAYShow.com -MSNBC 20080707 Barack Obama - Faith - Civil Liberties - Law - Economics - History - US_Debt - Iraq - Military - US- 2008 Election "Why some conservatives are backing Obama." ... "The "Obamacans" that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama used to joke about - Republican apostates who whispered their support for his candidacy - have morphed into a new phenomenon, or syndrome, as detractors like to call it: the Obamacons." ... "These are conservatives who have publicly endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee, dissidents from the brain trust of think tanks, ex-officials and policy magazines that have fueled the Republican Party since the 1960s." ... ""The untold story of the [Republican President] Bush administration is the deliberate annihilation of the Reaganite, small-government wing of the Republican Party," said Michael Greve, director of the Federalism Project at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "A lot of people are very bitter about it."" ... "Many conservatives are aghast at the rise in spending and debt under the Bush administration, its expansion of executive power, and what they see as a trampling of civil liberties and a taste for empire." ... "Douglas Kmiec is former chief of the Office of Legal Counsel in the [former Republican Presidents] Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, and now a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University and a devout Catholic. Kmiec endorsed Obama earlier this year, despite his conviction that Obama "believes in a pretty progressive agenda."" ... "Kmiec said his support deepened after meeting with Obama and other faith leaders last month, during which the busy candidate spent 2 1/2 in a freewheeling discussion with people who differed with him." ... ""I think he's the right person at the right time to re-establish principles of constitutional governance that have been ill treated by the current administration, and to free us from the tar paper that we know is Iraq," Kmiec said, adding that many Republicans privately agree. "I think he's a man in the market for every good idea he can find, and he doesn't care what label it comes with."" ... "David Friedman, the son of late conservative icon and Nobel economist Milton Friedman, has also endorsed Obama." ... "[Conservative Bruce Bartlett:] "People don't understand that there has always been a small but very significant element of conservatives who have been against the war from day one and who, like me, also hate George Bush and think he's the most incompetent president in American history," said Bruce Bartlett, a supply-side economist who coined the term Obamacons. "The few people who are slavishly pro-Republican, live or die, slavishly pro-Bush like the Weekly Standard crowd, have gotten lot more publicity than they deserve."" -By Carolyn Lochhead -SFGate.com 20080625 Faith - Politics - Justice - Obama - 2008 Election - "James Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me." ... "Dr. James Dobson recently attacked [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama for a 2006 speech that Obama gave on his Christian faith. Does he speak for you?" ... "James Dobson doesn't speak for me. He doesn't speak for me when he uses religion as a wedge to divide; He doesn't speak for me when he speaks as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible; James Dobson doesn't speak for me when he uses the beliefs of others as a line of attack; He doesn't speak for me when he denigrates his neighbor's views when they don't line up with his; He doesn't speak for me when he seeks to confine the values of my faith to two or three issues alone; What does speak for me is David's psalm celebrating how good and pleasant it is when we come together in unity; Micah speaks for me in reminding us that the Lord requires us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him; The prophet Isaiah speaks for me in his call for all to come and reason together and also to seek justice, encourage the oppressed and to defend the cause of the vulnerable; The book of Nehemiah speaks for me in its example to work with our neighbors, not against them, to restore what was broken in our communities; The book of Matthew speaks for me in saying to bless those that curse you and pray for those who persecute you; The words of the apostle Paul speak for me in saying that words spoken and deeds done without love amount to nothing. The apostle John speaks for me in reminding us of Jesus' command to love one another. The world will know His disciples by that love." ... "READ Barack Obama "Call to Renewal" Speech. [Barack Obama on Faith and Politics: WATCH: Barack Obama "Call To Renewal" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) ... Barack Obama: "10 Questions: Religion in America."]" -By Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell et al -JamesDobsonDoesntSpeakForMe.com "Call to Renewal" by Barack Obama 20080621 Barack Obama - Illinois - Politics - 2008 Election "Obama Making Christian Push." ... "With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, [2008 Eleciton Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics." ... ""I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama." ... ""To be running against a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, and to be reaching into the Christian community as wisely and knowledgeably as (Obama) is -- understanding their terms and their values -- is just remarkable."" ... "This month, the Illinois senator held a closed-door meeting in Chicago [Illinois] with almost 40 Christian leaders, including evangelical heavyweights such as the [Reverend] Rev. Franklin Graham, publishing magnate Steve Strang and megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes." ... "Obama's campaign is also launching a grass-roots effort, tentatively called Joshua Generation, with plans to hold concerts and house meetings targeted at young evangelicals and Catholics." ... "A political action committee set to launch this month, the Matthew 25 Network, plans to direct radio advertising and mailers to Christian communities while talking up Obama in the media. The group is not officially tied to the Obama campaign." ... "Obama's emphasis on faith outreach plays to his strengths, campaign observers say. The senator is at ease speaking about religion and preaches a message of forging common ground with disparate communities. " (1, 2) -By Daniel Burke -WashingtonPost

Buckham Edwin Buckham News. Republican Lobbyist Politician Evangelical Minister Edwin A Buckham News. Haggard Ted Haggard News. Republican Evangelical Politician Reverend Ted Haggard News. Hagee John Hagee News. Republican Televangelist Politician John C Hagee News. Parsley Rod Parsley News. Rod Parsley News. Republican Televangelist Politician Rodney Lee Rod Parsley News. Reed Ralph Reed News. Republican Evangelical Politician Ralph Reed News, formerly head of wealthy Republican media televangelist politician Pat Robertson's  political arm,  the Christian Coalition. Robertson Pat Robertson News. Republican Televangelist Politician Pat Robertson News. ~~~~~~~ "A Veterans Prayer For Eternal Peace." Des Moines , Iowa ~~~~~~~ UN NEWS Afghanistan News Australia News Canada News China News Colombia News Cuba News Djibouti News East Timor News France News Germany News India News Indonesia News Iraq News Iran News Israel News Italy News Ivory Coast News Japan News Jordan News Korea News:  _North & South Kuwait News Liberia News Libya News Mexico News Pakistan News Poland News Russia News Rwanda News Saudi Arabia News Senegal News Sierra Leone News Spain News Sudan News Syria News Taiwan News Turkey News United Kingdom  _News UK News United States News Vietnam News Yemen News Zimbabwe News

Religion News Sources HoustonChronicle KansasCityStar LATimes.com PewForum.org/news WashingtonPost Religion & Ethics News Sources via: AP BBC Religion TV PBS/Current Search Religion News: News Search <Religion> in: <AllTheWeb-[News]> <AltaVista-[News]> <Google-[News]> <MSN-[News]> Search: <Religion News> in: <Google> <MSN> <Yahoo> Search Religious News: News Search <Religious> in: <AllTheWeb-[News]> <AltaVista-[News]> <Google-[News]> <MSN-[News]> Search: <Religious News> in: <Google> <MSN> <Yahoo> Search Faith News: News Search <Faith> in: <AllTheWeb-[News]> <AltaVista-[News]> <Google-[News]> <MSN-[News]> Search: <Faith News> in: <Google> <MSN> <Yahoo> Religion Brought to you by the alphabet letter R R Religion News. Faith News. Religious News. Spiritual News.

20080618
Special Report - Noteworthy - US - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - Military- Intelligence - Torture - War Crimes - Prison - Investigation - Legal - Rights - Religious - Terrorism - School - Politics
"Guantanamo Bay detainees investigation." ... "An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the [September] Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the [United States] U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad."
• "We got the wrong guys."
• "'I guess you can call it torture'."
• "A school for Jihad."
• "'Due process is legal mumbo-jumbo'."
• "'You are the king of this prison'."
• +"Archive of investigation documents."
" -McClatchyDC.com

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20080617
Obama - 2008 Election - Internet - Media -Cable Networks - Politics - Religion - Women - "Jon Stewart Mocks Media For Peddling Insane Obama Rumors." ... "On Monday night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart mocked the media's willingness to peddle insane rumors about [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama — and their tendency to blame the rumor-mongering on internet sites. Calling it "Baracknophobia," Stewart showed clips of anchor and pundits from all three cable networks repeating baseless rumors (Muslim, plagiarist, sexist, etc.) about Barack Obama (and his wife Michelle)." -HuffingtonPost.com

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WATCH!-) Jon Stewart on "Baracknophobia" ... "The irrational fear of hope." 

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20080613
Tim Russert -Barack Obama - John McCain -Internet - EMail - Media - -Politics - Religion - Indiana - Illinois - US - Iraq - Iran - Military - Money - Social Security - 2008 Election
[NOTE: On the day MSNBC's Meet the Press television political journalist Tim Russert died, MSNBC published this interview with Tim Russert:]
"Vigilance needed on campaign claims: Big issues, not smears, need to be the focus." ... "Msnbc: Tim, www.fightthesmears.com is a web site launched by the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama campaign to combat potentially damaging rumor about the candidate and his wife, Michelle. Is this necessary?  How big of a problem is this really?" ... "Tim Russert: It’s amazing how much the Internet has changed our lives.  People get emails that make accusations without foundation and they are circulated around the country within seconds and suddenly become topics of conversations around water coolers or in lunchrooms." ... "I remember being in Indianapolis [Indiana's capital] covering the Indiana primary and a man came up to me and said he wasn’t going to vote for [Illinois] Senator Obama because he was very concerned about the comments made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor.  I said, “That’s interesting.  As a reporter, I’m curious what comments particularly bothered you?”  He said, “Well, I can’t think of any that come to mind, but I also read on the Internet that he’s a Muslim.”  And I said, “Now wait a minute.  You can’t have both.  You can’t be offended by his Christian minister and then say he’s a Muslim.  You’ve got to pick one.”" ... "But that just underscores what we’re dealing with in this modern era." ... "Now I’m told there’s a counter organization with a very similar name that is going to be positioned and posted to spread the rumors, so that people that go to the Internet to get clarification will go to the wrong web site and get confused." ... "It’s a virus.  You have bloggers on both sides, liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats all trying to utilize this vehicle without any kind of fact checking and without any kind of editorial control." ... "Msnbc:  Given the way people use the Internet, do you wonder if there are going to be some things said or done during the course of this campaign that will be very unsettling?" ... "Russert:  That’s what we have to be conscious of and vigilant against, particularly at the end of the campaign as things are put out there.  We’ve already had a few fake videos with different words dubbed in and people say, “This must be true because I saw it on the Internet.”" ... "What we hope to do in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security, taxes.  You don’t need to get into this other stuff.  If it does surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just instinctively put it out there without vetting it.  Or, if it is something that is manufactured as a virus, report on that – who did it and why.  But sometimes it’s very hard to trace it back to its original source." -MSNBC

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20080611
Religion - 2008 Election
"Southern Baptists target political arena." ... "America's largest evangelical denomination adopted a resolution on political engagement on Wednesday signaling its intention to flex its muscles in the November [2008] presidential election." ... ""Christians should seek to apply their spiritual and moral values to the political process," read the resolution, adopted on the second and final day of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting." ... "The 16 million-strong SBC is a bedrock of political and cultural conservatism and a key plank in the Republican Party's evangelical base which is credited with helping secure two White House terms for [Republican] President George W. Bush." ... "" (1, 2) -By Ed Stoddard with contributions by David Wiessler -Reuters

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20080609
J Robert Flores - Crime - Political -Federal - Sports - Religious - Juvenile - Justice
"Justice Department Official Awards $500,000 Grant to Golf Group: Former Staffer Tells ABC News Anti-Crime Funds Given to Programs With The "Right" Connections." ... "A senior Justice Department official says a $500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use of money designed to deal with juvenile crime in America." ... "The Justice Department, in a decision by [Republican President Bush's Department of Justice Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention J. Robert] Flores, gave the money to the World Golf Foundation's First Tee program, even though Justice Department staffers had rated the program 47th on a list of 104 applicants. The allegations were first reported earlier this year by the trade journal Youth Today." ... "Current and former Justice Department employees allege that Flores ignored the staff rankings in favor of programs that had political, social or religious connections to the [Republican President George W.] Bush White House." ... "The honorary chairman of the First Tee program is former [Republican] President George [H.W.] Bush [George W. Bush's father]." ... "A key witness will be a former employee of Flores' office, Scott Peterson, who says the grants were awarded based more on politics than merit." ... ""This is cronyism, this is waste, fraud and abuse," Peterson told ABC News in an interview aired on Nightline Monday night." ... "Many top-rated programs were denied federal grants." ... "Flores was appointed to the position by President Bush six years ago and has overseen about $1.5 billion dollars in grants during that time." ... "A Washington, D.C. program, Best Friends, that promotes abstinences was awarded $1.1 million by Flores even though it ranked 53rd on a list of 104 applicants." ... "Best Friends is run by Elayne Bennett, the wife of Bill Bennett, a former Republican cabinet member and now political commentator." (1, 2, 3) -By Brian Ross, Anna Schecter, and Murray Waas -ABCNEWS.com

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WATCH: "Does the White House favor social programs based on politics?"

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20080602
John Hagee - John McCain - Joseph Lieberman - Racist - Homosexual - Religious - Military -Politics - Arizona- Connecticut - New York - Indiana - History - Germany - Israel - Iraq - US - 2008 Election - "Pastor Hagee: The Antichrist Is Gay, "Partially Jewish, As Was Adolph Hitler" (Paging Joe Lieberman!)." ... "On March 16, 2003, on the eve of the United States' invasion of Iraq, [Republican Televangelist] Pastor John Hagee took to the pulpit to warn of the coming Antichrist. In his sermon, "The Final Dictator," Hagee described the Antichrist as a seductive figure with "fierce features." He will be "a blasphemer and a homosexual," the pastor announced. Then, Hagee boomed, "There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people. It suggests that this man [the Antichrist] is at least going to be partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx."" ... "This "fierce" gay Jew, according to Hagee, would "slaughter one-third of the Earth's population" and "make Adolph Hitler look like a choirboy."" ... "Exposed here for the first time, Hagee's comments identifying the Antichrist as a partly Jewish homosexual arrive in the wake of a furor the pastor provoked by describing the Holocaust as an act of God. Hagee's chilling sermon about the Holocaust prompted [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain to reject the preacher's support, an unexpected turnabout after McCain spent over a year soliciting his endorsement." ... "Days after McCain's rejection, I reported that a key McCain ally, [Connecticut Independent Senator] Sen. Joseph Lieberman, planned to deliver the keynote speech at Hagee's upcoming Christians United For Israel (CUFI) summit. As the story exploded into the mainstream press, pressure mounted on Lieberman to withdraw." ... "[New York Democratic Representative Eliot] Engel is slated to speak on CUFI's "Middle East Briefing" panel this July. He will be joined on the panel by Republican [Indiana Representative] Rep. Mike Pence, Weekly Standard editor and New York Times columnist [and Fox contributor] Bill Kristol, and Christian right activist Gary Bauer." -By Max Blumenthal -HuffingtonPost.com

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LISTEN to McCAIN endorser John HAGEE claim the Antichrist will be a Jewish homosexual.
WATCH McCAIN endorser John HAGEE relate a story of how Florida Jews "mysteriously" voted for Republican George W Bush and subsequently explain, "And I believe it is because that this nation is doing what God intended us to do from the day that Christopher Columbus discovered this nation.".

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20080529
• John McCain - Rod Parsley - John Hagee - Military - Terrorism - Religion - Politicians - Homosexuals - Racism - Television - Media - Ohio - Texas - 2008 Election - "In Rebuking Minister, McCain May Have Alienated Evangelicals." ... "The [Republican televangelist, Reverend] Rev. Rod Parsley paces the stage, wiping his forehead and shouting to his congregation in a taped sermon that marriage is under attack by "tortured and angry homosexuals."" ... "During another of his nationally broadcast television shows, he compares Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, saying that its goal is to "eliminate" blacks. And at another service at his 12,000-member World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio, he punches the air and calls Islam a "false religion" that God has told America to destroy." ... ""We were built for battle! We were created for conflict! We get off on warfare!" he adds." ... "Images of one of the nation's rising stars of television evangelism are widely available on DVDs and Web sites, with sermons that are almost certain to inflame some segment of the voting public. But in its quest to secure support from evangelical Christians, the campaign of presumptive [2008 Election] Republican presidential nominee John McCain did not note a long record of inflammatory statements by Parsley and the [Republican televangelist, Reverend] Rev. John Hagee of Texas, another TV evangelist, until long after McCain had accepted their endorsements." ... "The move backfired last week when clips of the ministers' sermons gained national attention, prompting McCain to reject their support. The candidate's abrupt turnabout brought criticism not only from secular viewers, who questioned why he had aligned himself with controversial religious voices, but also from evangelicals, who said he may have alienated a powerful bloc of potential Republican voters." ... "In February, McCain appeared with Parsley to accept his endorsement and called him a "spiritual guide."" ... "He [Parsley] and his family reside in a 7,462-square-foot house, valued at more than $1 million, on a 24-acre gated property." ... "In 2005, Parsley created a voter registration organization called Reformation Ohio, telling Christians that it was time to "lock and load" and to prepare for a "Holy Ghost invasion" of government." (1, 2) -By Kimberly Kindy with contributions by Alice Critics, Meg Smith, and Madonna Lebling -WashingtonPost

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  WATCH Rod Parsley, McCain's "Spiritual Guide" who claims God wants America to destroy Islam, and screamed, "We get off on warfare."

McCain Parsley McCain's "Spiritual Guide" Rod Parsley "We get off on warfare!"

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20080521
• John McCain - John Hagee - Terrorism - Racism - Politician - Military - Religion - History - Germany - Israel - Palestine - Book - Arizona - US - 2008 Election - "McCain Backer Hagee Said Hitler Was Fulfilling God's Will (AUDIO)." ... "[Republican televangelist] John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis [Germany] had operated on God's behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God's will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel." ... "Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: "'And they the hunters should hunt them,' that will be the Jews. 'From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can't see that."" ... "He goes on: "Theodore Herzl is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said 'I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.' So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust." ... ""Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." (Listen to the audio below.)" ... "The sermon, which was first posted by Bruce Wilson on his site, Talk To Action, adds another element to Hagee's controversial stance on the state and history of Israel." ... "Since McCain secured the endorsement, both his campaign and Hagee have been pressed to explain a series of derogatory remarks the Reverend made about the Catholic Church, including his reference to the institution as "the Great Whore."" ... "As Wilson notes, in his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown", Hagee proposed the theory that "anti-Semitism, and thus the Holocaust, was the fault of Jews themselves -- the result of an age old divine curse incurred by the ancient Hebrews through worshiping idols and passed, down the ages, to all Jews now alive." He also wrote that "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews."" -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com

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  (Audio) "McCain Endorser Hagee: God Sent Hitler, Jews Have Dead Souls"
McCain Hagee:
McCain's endorser Hagee, "They [Jews] are physically alive but they're not spiritually alive."

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20080503
• People - Health - Environment - Trees - Global - Earth - Science - Politics- Book - North Carolina - "Caring for planet increasingly tied to faith groups." ... "Abraham sits at the oaks. Deborah holds court under a palm tree. Moses speaks to a bush." ... ""I would say connecting this to the Bible is important for some people," said Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a former hospital chief of staff who couldn't shake the faces of patients with seemingly increasing environment-related illnesses. So he quit his job, gave away half his belongings and began spreading the word on the urgency of people paying more attention to the environment." ... "Pointing out the symbolism of trees in Scripture has helped Sleeth link faith with personal responsibility. His book, "Serve God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action," is in its seventh printing. Sleeth also has a prominent role in the publication of an upcoming "green Bible."" ... ""The change has come when people who are strong in their faith, who might be against it," Sleeth says of the deterioration of the Earth, "then go look at the Bible with this in mind and they see a different story."" ... "The statewide faith and environment conference that Sleeth will co-headline at Catawba College in Salisbury [North Carolina] this month grew out of a meeting among Greensboro [North Carolina] houses of worship at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Participants tried to broaden the conversation between the scientific and faith-based communities." ... ""When people realize that there is this direct tie between our own faith and being good stewards of this Earth," said John Wear, founding director of Catawba's Center for the Environment, "then it gives them a purpose that didn't exist before."" -By Nancy McLaughlin -News-Record.com

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  CenterForTheEnvironment.org

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20080429
• Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Media - Politics - Religion - 2008 Election - Maryland - "Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?" ... "The [Reverend] Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted." ... "Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds." ... "It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club "who organized" the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter." ... "On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton's presidency." ... "Wright has, unquestionably, been caricatured and vilified unfairly. The feeding programs, prison outreach and other social services he has built over more than 30 years are commendable, and his reading of the Judeo-Christian tradition as an epic story of people trying to escape slavery is far more right than wrong - and not something to be caricatured or compressed into a 10-second sound bite." ... "But Wright should have known - and his friend and ally Reynolds, a media professional, surely knew - that bickering with the press can only harm Wright and, by extension, Obama. " -By Errol Louis -NYDailyNews.com

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• Barack Obama - 2008 Election - Religion - Politics - "The Pastor Casts a Shadow." ... "The [Reverend] Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him." ... "Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the big-time news media — this reverend is never going away. He’s found himself a national platform, and he’s loving it." ... "It’s a twofer. Feeling dissed by Senator Obama, Mr. Wright gets revenge on his former follower while bathed in a spotlight brighter than any he could ever have imagined. He’s living a narcissist’s dream. At long last, his 15 minutes have arrived." ... "The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why — if he is so passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks — does he seem so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African-American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency." -By Bob Herbert -NYTimes 

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20080426
• Military - Religious - Freedom - Politics - Kansas - US - Iraq - "Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats." ... "When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending." ... "But minutes into the talk, the officer, [Major] Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Major Welborn said, according to the statement." ... "Major Welborn told the soldiers he might bar them from re-enlistment and bring charges against them, according to the statement." ... "Last month, Specialist Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, filed suit in federal court in Kansas, alleging that Specialist Hall’s right to be free from state endorsement of religion under the First Amendment had been violated and that he had faced retaliation for his views. In November, he was sent home early from Iraq because of threats from fellow soldiers." ... "Specialist Hall’s lawsuit is the latest incident to raise questions about the military’s religion guidelines. In 2005, the Air Force issued new regulations in response to complaints from cadets at the Air Force Academy that evangelical Christian officers used their positions to proselytize." ... "To Specialist Hall and other critics of the military, the guidelines have done little to change a culture they say tilts heavily toward evangelical Christianity. Controversies have continued to flare, largely over tactics used by evangelicals to promote their faith. Perhaps the most high-profile incident involved seven officers, including four generals, who appeared, in uniform and in violation of military regulations, in a 2006 fund-raising video for the Christian Embassy, an evangelical Bible study group." (1, 2) -By Neela Banerjee -NYTimes 

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20080424
• Military - Terrorism - Language - US - International - Politics - Religious - Vocabulary - "'Jihadist' booted from government lexicon." ... "Don't call them jihadists any more." ... "And don't call al-Qaida a movement." ... "Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as "jihadists" or "mujahedeen," according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Lingo like "Islamo-fascism" is out, too." ... "The reason: Such words may actually boost support for radicals among Arab and Muslim audiences by giving them a veneer of religious credibility or by causing offense to moderates." ... "For example, while Americans may understand "jihad" to mean "holy war," it is in fact a broader Islamic concept of the struggle to do good, says the guidance prepared for diplomats and other officials tasked with explaining the war on terror to the public. Similarly, "mujahedeen," which means those engaged in jihad, must be seen in its broader context." ... "U.S. [United States] officials may be "unintentionally portraying terrorists, who lack moral and religious legitimacy, as brave fighters, legitimate soldiers or spokesmen for ordinary Muslims," says a Homeland Security report. It's entitled "Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American Muslims."" ... ""Regarding 'jihad,' even if it is accurate to reference the term, it may not be strategic because it glamorizes terrorism, imbues terrorists with religious authority they do not have and damages relations with Muslims around the world," the report says." ... "Language is critical in the war on terror, says another document, an internal "official use only" memorandum circulating through Washington entitled "Words that Work and Words that Don't: A Guide for Counterterrorism Communication."" ... "The memo, originally prepared in March by the Extremist Messaging Branch at the National Counter Terrorism Center, was approved for diplomatic use this week by the State Department, which plans to distribute a version to all U.S. embassies, officials said." ... ""It's not what you say but what they hear," the memo says in bold italic lettering, listing 14 points about how to better present the war on terrorism." -By Matthew Lee -AP via -SeattleTimes

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20080423
• Tony Zirkle- Racism - Religion - Indiana - Illinois - South Carolina - 2008 Election - "House GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] Candidate Spoke At Hitler Event: [Indiana Republican Tony Zirkle 2008 Election] Candidate For Indiana District Defends Speech At American National Socialist Workers Party Event Celebrating Nazi's Birthday." ... "A congressional candidate is defending his speech to a group celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, saying he appeared simply because he was asked." ... "Tony Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in northern Indiana's 2nd District, stood in front of a painting of Hitler, next to people wearing swastika armbands and with a swastika flag in the background for the speech to the American National Socialist Workers Party in Chicago [Illinois] on Sunday." ... ""I'll speak before any group that invites me," Zirkle said Monday. "I've spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta."" ... "He compared his speech to other politicians appearing at Bob Jones University." ... "[Republican] George W. Bush, then a candidate for president, was criticized eight years ago for speaking at the South Carolina school, which teaches students that Catholicism is a cult. Also at the time of the speech, the school banned interracial dating, a policy that has since been dropped. " -AP via -CBSNews

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20080414
• China - Military - Police - Terrorism - Religious - Censorship - Oil - Sports - Human Rights - "As world watches Tibet, China's Muslim Uighurs face growing repression." ... "Almost unnoticed amid the wide-scale protests by Tibetans over the past month is the social unrest among the 8 million or so Muslim Uighurs in China's resource-rich far western territory." ... "Recently, hundreds of Muslim women in black veils gathered outside the market in this oasis city [Khotan, China] in an impromptu protest. Some carried signs demanding an independent state." ... ""I saw the demonstration myself. There were 500 to 700 women in black, waving placards for East Turkestan," said Wu Jiangliang, a hydroelectric company employee." ... "China handled the unrest forcefully, ensuring the stability of a region rich in oil, coal and minerals. Police moved quickly to quell the March 23 protest, arresting numerous women and shooing others away. It drew only minor notice." ... "China also has broken up what it said were two terrorist rings that intended to disrupt the Beijing [China's capital] Summer Olympic Games and thwarted what it said was a terrorist attempt last month on a commercial airliner." ... "But as state officials employed a firm hand against restive Uighurs, pronounced WEE-gers, they also publicly demonized those behind the social unrest. Critics now say that while the state has stabilized ethnic areas, the harsh language may exacerbate tensions." ... ""The problem is that China's policies are alienating," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group. "They are efficient in that political repression works. But they increase ethnic tensions."" -By Tim Johnson -McClatchyDC.com

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20080412
• John McCain - Corporate - Politics - Barack Obama - Labor - Justice - Churches - Illinois - Pennsylvania - 2008 Election - "It Takes Real Chutzpah for a Guy Who Owns Eight Houses (McCain) to Call Barack Obama an "Elitist"." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain doesn't lack "chutzpah." Yesterday his campaign actually accused [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama of being an "elitist" for saying that it's not surprising that people in small Midwestern towns are bitter after seeing their standard of living systematically destroyed over the last three decades." ... "Damn right they're bitter; they have good reasons to be. And most of those reasons are the economic and trade policies that have - and continue to be - championed by [Republicans] George Bush and John McCain." ... "The McCain campaign is managed by a cadre of Washington-insider special interest lobbyists. He and his current wife are estimated to be worth about $100 million. He reportedly owns eight houses. His let-them-eat-cake economic policies are based on George Bush's failed radical conservative "you're on your own buddy" philosophy. One after another he supported trade agreements that protect the rights of corporations, but ignore the rights of labor, and have devastated one Pennsylvania community after another. He gets most of his campaign cash from the wealthiest corporate interests around. And he has the gall to call Barack Obama an "elitist"?" ... "This is the same Barack Obama who spent years of his life organizing out-of-work steelworkers on the south side of Chicago [Illinois] - people just like those who live in Allentown [Pennsylvania] or Erie [Pennsylvania] or Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] or the Monongehela Valley in western Pennsylvania. He stood shoulder to shoulder with them, sat at their kitchen tables, spent hours in their church basements." ... "He didn't do those things as a famous candidate, but as a community organizer being paid $8,000 a year by a coalition of churches. You don't build a resume or a client list organizing unemployed steel workers. You do it because you respect the people and you care about justice." ... "In fact, the trademark of Barack Obama's campaign for president is the honest, respectful way he talks to everyone -- and stands up for everyday Americans." ... "If you want to talk about patronizing, or "elitism", you need look no farther than the way [Republicans] Bush and McCain attempt to use fear and division to divert the attention of middle class people from the economic policies that pick their pockets, lower their wages, destroy their unions, and outsource their jobs. And all the while they use our money to bail out Wall Street, and give giant tax breaks to the real "elitists" -- the economic elite." -By Robert Creamer -HuffingtonPost.com

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20080402
• John Hagee - John McCain - Politics - 2008 Election - Texas - US - Israel - "Jewish Leader Calls Hagee 'Extremist'." ... "The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism said Wednesday that synagogues in the movement shouldn't work with the [Reverend] Rev. John Hagee [who Republican President Presidential Candidate John McCain sought and accepted an endorsement from], a Christian Zionist, calling him an "extremist" on Israeli policy who disparages other faiths." ... "[Rabbi Eric] Yoffie also condemned Hagee's views on Roman Catholicism and Islam. The San Antonio [Texas] pastor has suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler, among other comments." -AP via -SFGate.com 

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20080401
• Girls - Fashion - Politics - Companies- North Carolina - Students - Faith- "Modesty is the new black for girls tired of racy clothes: Teen groups teach the value of covering up." ... "In Charlotte [North Carolina] and across the country, young girls, their mothers and even clothing companies are covering up." ... "Teens and parents fighting over what is appropriate is nothing new. But now, girl-centric groups are working to arm girls with the awareness and self-confidence to say no to the sexy." ... "And in Charlotte, more than 65 high-school students are participating in Pure Fashion, an international faith-based program that recognizes "true beauty."" ... "It was started in 1999 by a lay Catholic group, and has chapters in more than 25 cities, including Raleigh [North Carolina's capital]." -By Rachel Sutherland -Charlotte.com

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20080324
• John McCain - Foreign - Military - Intelligence - Economic - Religious - Torture - Media - Politician- Mitt Romney - John Hagee - US - 2008 Election - "McCAIN'S CRED." ... "Foreign policy cred lets him [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain] get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering [former 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. "Man of conviction" cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] does it." ... "Remind me again: where does all this cred come from? And what window do Democrats go to to get the same treatment the press gives McCain?" -By Kevin Drum -WashingtonMonthly.com 

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20080322
• US - China - Military - Government - Sports - Human Rights - Religious - History - California - India - "Bush Silent, but Others Speak Out on Tibet Crackdown." ... "China’s violent crackdown on protesters in Tibet is having powerful political reverberations in Washington, where the [Republican President Bush] White House is weighing how far to go in condemning the Chinese government, even as it defends President Bush’s decision to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing [China's capital]." ... "Mr. Bush has long said the United States and China have “a complex relationship,” and that complexity was on full display this week. While his administration has called for an end to the violence, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, phoned her Chinese counterpart to urge restraint, Mr. Bush himself has remained silent." ... "In the meantime, the presidential candidates are speaking out, as is the [California Democratic Representative and] speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. On Friday, Ms. Pelosi visited the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at his headquarters in Dharamsala, India — and poked a finger in the eye of Beijing." ... "Describing the clashes in the past week between Chinese security forces and Tibetan demonstrators as “a challenge to conscience of the world,” Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, said, “If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world.”" ... "If it seemed like a direct challenge to Mr. Bush, he did not take the bait." ... "The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when China crushed an uprising in Tibet, his homeland. He has been pressing, without success, to return to China to advocate for greater cultural and religious freedom for his followers." -By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Somini Sengupta -NYTimes 

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20080321
• John McCain - Rod Parsley - Racist - Politics - Government - Abortion - Law- Women - Parents - Health - Arizona - Ohio - 2008 Election - "McCain Spiritual Guide Accused Gov't Of Enabling 'Black Genocide'." ... "Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio -- whom [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain hails as a spiritual adviser -- has suggested on several occasions that the U.S. [United States] government was complicit in facilitating black genocide." ... "In speeches that have gone largely unnoticed, Parsley (who is white) compares Planned Parenthood, the reproductive care and family planning group, to the Klu Klux Klan and Nazis, and describes the American government as enablers of murder for supporting the organization." ... ""If I were call for the sterilization or the elimination of an entire segment of society, I'd be labeled a racists or a murderer, or at very best a Nazi," says Parsley. "That every single year, millions of our tax dollars are funding a national organization built upon that very goal -- their target: African Americans. That's right, the death toll: nearly fifteen hundred African Americans a day. The shocking truth of black genocide."" ... "He goes on." ... ""Right now our own government is allowing organizations like Planned Parenthood to legally take the innocent lives of precious baby girls and baby boys and even footing the bill for it all with our tax dollars, turning every single one of us into accessories to murder," he says. "You know who their biggest fans must be, that must be the Klu Klux Klan, because the woman who founded this organization detested black people.... African Americans were number one on Margaret Sanger's list. So this 'Lady MacDeath,' as I like to call her, studied the works of Englishman Thomas Robert Malthus, and embraced his plan of eugenics."" ... "However, there are issues with Parsley's stats. While black populations in America do have higher abortion rates than white populations, there are far more abortions among white mothers than among blacks." -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com

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• Barack Obama - Religion - Poll - Illinois - 2008 Election - "CBS Poll: Good Reviews For Obama Speech." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race this week, in which he discussed his relationship with [Reverend] Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his controversial longtime minister, has received largely positive reviews, according to a new CBS News poll." ... "But the percentage of voters who think Obama would unite the country as president has dropped since late February." ... "Sixty-nine percent of voters who have heard or read about Obama’s speech say he did a good job addressing the issue of race relations, and 63 percent of voters following the events say they agree with Obama's views on race relations. Seventy-one percent say he did a good job explaining his relationship with Wright." ... "[PDF] Read The Complete Poll Results" ... "When registered voters were asked if Obama would unite the country, however, 52 percent said yes - down from 67 percent last month." -CBSNews

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20080320
• John McCain - John Hagee - Religion - 2008 Election - "Hagee, in 'NYT' This Sunday, Says McCain Sought His Endorsement." ... "In an interview that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, controversial televangelist [Reverend] Rev. John Hagee declares, "It's true that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement."" ... "He also said that charges that he had bashed the Catholic Church ("false cult system," etc.) have been "grossly mischaracterized....I was referring to those Christians who ignore the Gospels." " -By Greg Mitchell -EditorAndPublisher.com 

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20080318
• Barack Obama - Christian - American - Race - Politics - History - 2008 Election - Israel - Military - Terrorism - Economy - Health-Care - Climate - Housing - Poor - People - Scholarships - Family - "A More Perfect Union." ... [Partial text of Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union". Read full text of speech or Watch speech.] "[Barack Obama:] I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed." ... "But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam." ... "As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all." ... "Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way[.]" ... "But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS." ... "In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:" ... ""People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."" ... "That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America." ... "And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years." -By BarackObama.com -read full text of Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union" via HavenWorks.com

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20080317
• John McCain - John Hagee - Rod Parsley - Rudy Giuliani - Pat Robertson - Terrorism - Politics - Military - Religion - Race - Obama - 2008 Election - Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans - Louisiana - Oklahoma - US - Israel - "The difference between Jeremiah Wright and radical, white evangelical ministers." ... "Ross Douthat and Ezra Klein are arguing about whether Jeremiah Wright's statements are comparable to those of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and John Hagee's." ... "The statement of Wright's which seems to be causing the most upset -- and it's one of two singled out by Douthat -- is his suggestion that there is a causal link between (a) America's constant bombings of and other interference with Middle Eastern countries and (b) the willingness of some Middle Eastern fanatics to attack the U.S. [United States] Ever since the 9/11 attacks, we've been told that positing any such causal connection is a sign of vicious anti-Americanism and that all decent people find such questions despicable. This week we learned that no respectable person would subject his children to a pastor who espouses such hateful ideas." ... "But the idea that America deserves terrorist attacks and other horrendous disasters has long been a frequently expressed view among the faction of white evangelical ministers to whom the Republican Party is most inextricably linked. Neither Jerry Falwell nor Pat Robertson ever retracted or denounced their view that America provoked the 9/11 attacks by doing things to anger God. John Hagee continues to believe that the City of New Orleans [Louisiana] got what it deserved when Katrina drowned its residents and devastated the lives of thousands of Americans. And [Oklahoma Republican Senator] James Inhofe -- who happens to still be a Republican U.S. Senator -- blamed America for the 9/11 attacks by arguing in a 2002 Senate floor speech that "the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America" because we pressured Israel to give away parts of the West Bank." ... "John Hagee privately visits with the highest level Middle East officials in the [Republican President Bush] White House and afterwards pronounces that they're in agreement. [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain shares a stage with Hagee and lavishes him with praise, as Rudy Giuliani did with Pat Robertson. James Inhofe remains a member in good standing in the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] Senate Caucus. The Republican Party has tied itself at the hip to a whole slew of "anti-American extremists" -- people who believe that the U.S. provoked the 9/11 attacks because God wants to punish us for the evil, wicked nation we've become -- and yet there is virtual silence about these associations." ... "Nor have the views of televangelist Rod Parsley, one of McCain's self-proclaimed "spiritual advisers," received a fraction of the attention generated by Wright. As both David Corn and Alan Colmes, among others, have documented, Parsley espouses views at least as extreme and radical as Wright, including his proclamation that "America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed." Unlike Wright and Obama -- for whom the former's controversial views are found nowhere near the latter's public or private conduct -- both George Bush and John McCain's Middle Eastern militarism are perfectly consonant with the most maniacal and crazed views of Christian Rapture enthusiasts such as Hagee, Parsley, Inhofe, and Robertson. Yet the controversy created over their close ties is virtually non-existent." ... "The Republican Party long ago adopted as a central strategy aligning itself with, and granting great influence to, the most radical, "America-hating" white evangelical Christian ministers in the country." -By Glenn Greenwald -Salon

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20080314
• Barack Obama - Religious - Justice - Homeless - Poor - Health - Illinois - Politics - 2008 Election - "On My Faith and My Church." [By Barack Obama, 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate:] ... "The pastor of my church, [Reverend] Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He's drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents." ... "Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue." ... "Because these particular statements by Rev. Wright are so contrary to my own life and beliefs, a number of people have legitimately raised questions about the nature of my relationship with Rev. Wright and my membership in the church. Let me therefore provide some context." ... "As I have written about in my books, I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago. I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago [Chicago, Illinois]. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It's a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS." ... "Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he's been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn." ... "The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church." ... "Let me repeat what I've said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country." -By Barack Obama -HuffingtonPost.com

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• Barack Obama - John McCain - John Hagee - Gay - 2008 Election - Religious - Politics - "Hagee, Wright, Parsley, Fallwell, Obama and McCain." ... "And, in truth, some associations are more meaningful than others. [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's close friendship with, his intellectual debt to, and the spiritual advice he's gotten from [Reverend] Rev. Jeremiah Wright almost pre-books that 60 Minutes interview you know he'll do in the fall explaining it." ... "But [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain needs be careful." ... "As J-Mart notes this morning, McCain's campaign included Ron Kessler's WSJ op-ed in its clips, which implies that they believe reporters should make a note of it." ... "Well, now McCain is part of that discussion. And it's a dangerous place for him to be, what with [Reverend] Rev. John Hagee's anti-gay remarks (curiously unremarked upon by anyone in the McCain campaign -- is the McCain campaign afraid to repudiate anti-gay remarks?), his anti-Catholic remarks (once condemned by McCain, but now McCain wants to give Hagee the benefit of the doubt)?, his millennialism (which means, as some honest McCain adviser must have explained to the candidate by now, the death of millions of innocent Muslims)... also: Jerry Falwell, and his casual association of 9/11 with the sins of homosexuality, and Rod Parsley, a man who McCain has called a "spiritual guide," a man who has also called Islam a "false religion" and has advocated war against it and various other bad things." ... "Why are these folks entitled to these opinions and Wright isn't entitled to his?" -Marc Ambinder -TheAtlantic.com

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• Barack Obama - Religion - 2008 Election - PA - "Obama addresses Pa.'s importance, pastor's remarks." ... "Q [David Brown]: I don't know if you've seen it, but it's all over the wire today (from an ABC News story), a statement that your pastor (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side) made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing "God Bless America," black people should sing a song essentially saying "God Damn America."" ... "A [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama]: I haven't seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements." ... "Q [David Brown]: What about this particular statement?" ... "A [Obama]: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe." -By David Brown -PittsburghLive.com

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20080312
• John McCain - Rod Parsley - Terrorism - Language - Military - Religious - Politician - Arizona - Ohio - Arkansas - Huckabee - 2008 Election - "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it." ... "On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati [Ohio] with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus [Ohio], a supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-seat sanctuary, a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly show), and a 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day, a week before the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a "strong, true, consistent conservative." The endorsement was important for McCain, who at the time was trying to put an end to the lingering challenge from [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite among Christian evangelicals. A politically influential figure in Ohio, Parsley could also play a key role in McCain's effort to win this bellwether state in the general election. McCain, with Parsley by his side at the Cincinnati rally, called the evangelical minister a "spiritual guide."" ... "In a chapter titled "Islam: The Deception of Allah," Parsley warns there is a "war between Islam and Christian civilization." He continues:"
    "I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."
"Parsley claims that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on "deception." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received revelations from demons and not from the true God." And he emphasizes this point: "Allah was a demon spirit." Parsley does not differentiate between violent Islamic extremists and other followers of the religion:"
    "There are some, of course, who will say that the violence I cite is the exception and not the rule. I beg to differ. I will counter, respectfully, that what some call "extremists" are instead mainstream believers who are drawing from the well at the very heart of Islam."
"The spirit of Islam, he maintains, is one of hostility. He asserts that the religion "inspired" the 9/11 attacks. He bemoans the fact that in the years after 9/11, 34,000 Americans "have become Muslim" and that there are "some 1,209 mosques" in America. Islam, he declares, is a "faith that fully intends to conquer the world" through violence. The United States, he insists, "has historically understood herself as a bastion against Islam," but "history is crashing in upon us."" ... "At the end of his chapter on Islam, Parsley asks, "Are we a Christian nation? I say yes." Without specifying what actions should be taken to eradicate the religion, he essentially calls for a new crusade." ... "Parsley, who refers to himself as a "Christocrat," is no stranger to controversy. In 2007, the grassroots organization he founded, the Center for Moral Clarity, called for prosecuting people who commit adultery. In January, he compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis. In the past Parsley's church has been accused of engaging in pro-Republican partisan activities in violation of its tax-exempt status." -By David Corn -MotherJones.com

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20080307
• Secretive - John McCain - John Hagee - Pat Robertson - Religious - Politicians - History - Arizona - 2008 Election - "McCain Courts Secret Radical Religious Conservative Group For Support In Presidential Bid." ... "Last month, hard-line conservative Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, announced his support for [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) candidacy for president. Despite Hagee’s numerous bigoted remarks — including his claim that the Catholic church is “the Great Whore” and a “false cult system” — McCain said that he was “very honored” by the endorsement." ... "McCain is continuing his tradition of courting the bigoted right-wing fringe. This afternoon, McCain addressed the Council for National Policy (CNP) in New Orleans in a “make-or-break pitch” for support from the secretive, ultra-conservative group that describes itself as a “self-selected, conservative counterweight” against “liberal domination of the American agenda.” McCain advisor Charlie Black said McCain “was anxious to appear” in front of the group." ... "CNP was founded in 1981 by [Reverend] Rev. Tim LaHaye, “an early Christian conservative organizer and the best-selling author of the ‘Left Behind’ novels about an apocalyptic Second Coming,” and fellow Christian conservative Paul Weyrich. Like Hagee, the group and its members have at times expressed and encouraged radical and intolerant views:"
"– LeHaye once said that Catholicism is a “false religion” and called popes “antichrists.”" ... "– Weyrich has claimed that CNP is a group of “radicals working to overturn the present power structure in this country.”" ... "– A speaker received a standing ovation at one CNP meeting when he suggested that AIDS was a sign from God that homosexuality was an “abomination.”"
"Because the group is shrouded in secrecy, its official roster is unknown. However, in 1998, the Institute for First Amendment Studies obtained a CNP member list, which contained many right-wing Christian leaders who have a history of extremist remarks, including Pat Roberton, James Dobson and the late Jerry Falwell." ... "McCain is no stranger to pandering to the extreme religious right when it suits his political needs. In a 2000 speech, he referred to Falwell and Robertson as “agents of intolerance.” Yet he repudiated that remark in 2006 and later delivered a commencement address at Falwell’s Liberty University." -ThinkProgress.org

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20080303
• Barack Obama - Tim Russert - John McCain - John Hagee - Religious - Homosexual - Woman - Politics - 2008 Election - Arizona - Illinois - Texas - "After repeatedly asking Obama about Farrakhan during debate, Russert ignored guest's reference to Hagee's endorsement of McCain on Meet the Press." ... "Summary: On Meet the Press, host Tim Russert ignored Republican strategist Mike Murphy's reference to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's acceptance of an endorsement by evangelist John Hagee. Russert did not identify Hagee by name or mention Hagee's statements denouncing or disparaging homosexuality, Islam, Catholics, and women. By contrast, during the last Democratic debate, Russert persisted with questions to [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama about Louis Farrakhan's support of Obama, despite Obama's repeated denunciations of Farrakhan's statements." ... "During the March 2 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert ignored a reference by guest commentator and Republican strategist Mike Murphy to Sen. John McCain's acceptance of an endorsement by evangelist John Hagee, founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas." ... "Nor did he [Tim Russert] mention Hagee's endorsement of McCain, the Catholic League's Bill Donohue's criticism of McCain over the endorsement, or Hagee's controversial statements about, among other topics, homosexuality, Islam, Catholicism, and women. Rather, Russert moved on to a different subject after Murphy finished speaking. By contrast, during the February 26 Democratic primary debate in which he was a moderator, Russert repeatedly asked Sen. Barack Obama about comments made by Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan despite Obama's saying in answer to Russert's first question on the topic: "I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments. I think that they are unacceptable and reprehensible" and despite repeating his "denunciation" in response to follow-up questions. Obama had also previously_denounced Farrakhan's statements." ... "On February 27, Hagee endorsed McCain at a press conference in which the two appeared together. Following Hagee's endorsement, McCain said, "All I can tell you is I'm very proud to have pastor Hagee's support." Subsequently, Donohue_criticized McCain for his failure to repudiate Hagee's support, issuing a statement in which he called Hagee "anti-Catholic" and a "bigot" and stated: "Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee."" -MediaMatters.org

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• John McCain - John Hagee - Politician - 2008 Election - Texas - "McCain endorsement by Hagee could alienate Catholics." ... "By accepting the endorsement of the Reverend John Hagee (HAYG'-ee), an influential Texas televangelist, [2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate John McCain risks alienating Catholic voters." ... "Hagee, the founder and national chairman of Christians United for Israel, has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as a "false cult" and "the apostate church."" -AP via -KXMA.com

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20080302
• John McCain - John Hagee - Religious- Politician - Terrorism - Women - Arizona - Texas - North Carolina - John Edwards - 2008 Election - Media - "NY Times' standards for Catholic League's Donohue: Three articles for criticism of Edwards, two paragraphs for criticism of McCain." ... "Summary: The New York Times has devoted only two paragraphs and 102 words thus far to Catholic League president Bill Donohue's criticism of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain for his failure to repudiate the support of evangelist John Hagee, who has made statements Donohue considers anti-Catholic, and McCain's ensuing response. By comparison, the Times published three separate articles on Donohue's criticism of former [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and North Carolina Senator] Sen. John Edwards' presidential campaign for hiring two bloggers who Donohue contended were "anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots," and the Edwards campaign's subsequent reaction." ... "In its March 1 article on a new Clinton campaign ad, the Times reported:"
"On the Republican side, Mr. McCain defended his endorsement from the Rev. John C. Hagee, an evangelical pastor in Texas. On Thursday, the president of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, released a statement calling on Mr. McCain to repudiate the endorsement for what Mr. Donohue said was Mr. Hagee's war on the Catholic Church in calling it the "anti-Christ" and "a false cult system."" ... "Mr. McCain responded that he was proud of Mr. Hagee's spiritual leadership and his commitment to Israel, and that "when he endorses me, it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for or believes in.""
"In addition to the comments about Catholicism highlighted by the Times, Hagee has also made controversial statements about homosexuality, Islam, and women. For instance, investigative journalist Sarah Posner reported in God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (PoliPointPress, January 2008) that in his book What Every Man Wants in a Woman (Charisma House, 2005), Hagee wrote: "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." -MediaMatters.org

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20080229 US - Religious - Newspaper - Politics - "US president's brother visits Paraguay president as guest of Moon-backed group." ... "[Republican] Neil Bush, younger brother of U.S. [Republican] President George W. Bush, called on Paraguay's president as the guest of a business federation allied with the Rev. [Reverend ] Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church." ... "A presidential press office source, who spoke on condition of not being named, confirmed the younger Bush met President Nicanor Duarte on Thursday along with a delegation from the Universal Peace Federation, a group associated with Moon." ... "Groups allied with Moon publish a newspaper, operate businesses and have large land holdings in Paraguay, South America's second-poorest country." -APvia -IHT.com

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20080228
• Barack Obama - Tim Russert - John McCain - John Hagee - Religious - Homosexual - Woman - Racist - Book - History - Media - Politics -  - 2008 Election - Illinois - Arizona - Arkansas - Texas - US - Israel - Germany - "Will MSNBC devote as much coverage to McCain's embrace of Hagee's support as it did to Obama's rejection of Farrakhan?" ... "Summary: On February 27, MSNBC devoted significant coverage to an exchange from the most recent Democratic presidential debate in which NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert repeatedly questioned [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama about praise he received from controversial minister Louis Farrakhan, whose statements Obama has denounced. The same day, Pastor John Hagee -- who has made controversial comments about homosexuality, Islam, Catholicism, and women -- endorsed [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain, who embraced Hagee's support. Hagee's endorsement and McCain's response to it raise the question of whether MSNBC will report on them as extensively as it did on Farrakhan's praise." ... "A March 7, 1996, article (accessed via the Nexis database) in the San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported:"
"Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church [in Texas], last week had announced a "slave sale" to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, "The Cluster."" ... "The item was introduced with the sentence "Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave.""
"A July 27, 2006, Wall Street Journal article about Hagee noted the incident:"

"To help students seeking odd jobs, his church newsletter, The Cluster, advertised a "slave" sale. "Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone," it said. "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." Mr. Hagee apologized but, in a radio interview, protested about pressure to be "politically correct" and joked that perhaps his pet dog should be called a "canine American.""

"A December 23, 2007, Reuters news article on former Arkansas [Republican Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Gov. Mike Huckabee's (R) visit to Hagee's church reported that "some Catholics were angry about the visit." The article noted:"
"In his recent book "Jerusalem Countdown," Hagee wrote: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.""
... "Investigative journalist Sara] Posner also noted that in another Hagee text, "Bible Positions on Political Issues," (John Hagee Ministries, 1992) Hagee wrote, "[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family."" -MediaMatters.org

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20080208
• Barack Obama - Tim Russert - John McCain - John C Hagee - Religious - Racist - Political - Journalist - 2008 Election - Hurricane Katrina - Homosexual - New Orleans - Louisiana- Texas - "Some hateful, radical ministers -- white evangelicals -- are acceptable." ... "One of this week's hysterical press scandals was that Minister Louis Farrakhan praised [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's candidacy even though Obama had previously denounced numerous Farrakhan remarks and the Obama campaign did nothing to seek out the Farrakhan praise. Nonetheless, [MSNBC TV political journalist] Tim Russert demanded that Obama jump through multiple hoops to prove that he has no connection to -- and, in fact, "rejects" -- the ideas espoused by Farrakhan deemed to be radical and hateful." ... "Yesterday, though, the equally fringe, radical and hateful (at least) [Reverend] Rev. John Hagee -- a white evangelical who is the pastor of a sprawling "mega-church" in Texas -- enthusiastically endorsed [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]] John McCain. Did McCain have to jump through the same hoops which Russert and others set up for Obama and "denounce" Hagee's extremism and "reject" his support? No; quite the opposite. McCain said he was "very honored" to receive this endorsement and, when asked about some of Hagee's more twisted views, responded: "all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support."" ... "McCain's sainted supporter, [Connecticut Independent Democrat Senator] Joe Lieberman, last year spoke to Hagee's group and lavished him with such obsequious praise that Lieberman actually compared Hagee, favorably, to Moses. Why is Louis Farrakhan deemed by our political establishment to be so radioactive as to not be fit for good company -- black candidates are required to repudiate his support even when they haven't sought it and denounce his views even when they've never advocated anything close to those views -- but John Hagee is a perfectly acceptable figure whom mainstream GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] politicians are free to court without any consequences or media objections?" ... "From an NPR interview Hagee gave to Terry Gross in 2006:"
"TG [Terry Gross]: If you use the Bible as the basis for policy, is there any room for compromise? And if you use the bible as the basis for policy, should Muslims use the Koran as the basis for their policy, and then again, what possible basis is there for compromise at that point?" ... "JH [John Hagee]: There is really no room for compromise between radical Islam --" ... "TG [Terry Gross]: I'm not talking about radical Islam. I'm just talking about Islam in general." ... "JH [John Hagee]: Well Islam in general -- those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews."
...
"JH [John Hagee]: All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans [Louisiana] had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." ... "The newspaper carried the story in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades." ... "So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the Day of Judgment, and I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans."
"In the framework of the Russert-led establishment press, white evangelical Christians are, by definition, entitled to great respect no matter how radical, extreme and hateful their professed views are." ... "The entire GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] establishment is permitted actively to lavish them with praise and court their support without the slightest backlash or controversy." ... "By contrast, black Muslim ministers like Farrakhan, or even black Christian ministers like [Reverend] Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are held with deep suspicion, even contempt." -By Glenn Greenwald -Salon

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• Barack Obama - Tim Russert - Hillary Clinton - John McCain - John C Hagee - Religious - Politician - Journalist - Texas - 2008 Election - "Farrakhan's Support For Obama? Hugely Controversial. Hagee's Backing Of McCain? No Problem." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama was questioned at Tuesday night's debate by [MSNBC TV political journalist] Tim Russert and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton about repudiating Louis Farrakhan's endorsement — which Obama said was unsolicited — in the strongest terms possible. He was repeatedly badgered by Russert, and was forced to disown Farrakhan over and over again." ... "The very next day, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain appeared onstage in Texas with Pastor John Hagee, an influential activist in the Christian Zionist movement. Hagee's comments about world affairs can make Farrakhan seem pedestrian at times: He eagerly awaits the Armageddon, considers the Catholic Church to be the Anti-Christ, and has said that Jews brought their own persecution upon themselves." ... "[WATCHMax Blumenthal's report at John Hagee's conference Christians United For Israel.]" ... "On the right, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League is objecting Hagee's extremist writings, particularly his denunciations of the Catholic Church. For example, Donohue pointed to instances in which Hagee has referred to the Catholic Church as, "The Great Whore," an "apostate church," the "anti-Christ," and a "false cult system."" ... "So here's the question: Will the same media outlets who have hammered Barack Obama about Louis Farrakhan's uninvited endorsement now ask John McCain to denounce and reject the support of John Hagee, which was actually sought and publicly accepted?" -By Eric Kleefeld -TalkingPointsMemo.com

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• John McCain - John C Hagee - Politician - Arizona - Texas - 2008 Election - "McCain Endorsement Angers Catholic League President." ... "The president of the Catholic League today blasted [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain for accepting the endorsement of Texas evangelicalist John Hagee, calling the controversial pastor a bigot who has "waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church."" ... "Catholics United, a national online group, also blasted McCain over the endorsement. "By receiving the endorsement of an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church, McCain once again demonstrates that he is willing to sell out his principles for a chance to win the Presidency," said Chris Korzen, Executive Director of Catholics United in a statement." -By Michael D. Shear -WashingtonPost

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• John McCain - Mike Huckabee - Political - Religion - Abortion - Gay_Marriage - Stem Cells - 2008 Election - Arizona - Arkansas - "Divided evangelicals key to election." ... "Widening political divisions in the once-united U.S. [United States] evangelical community as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Senator of] Arizona Sen. John McCain closes in on the Republican presidential nomination could hurt the party in the November White House race." ... "McCain is an abortion-rights foe but his failure to support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and backing of embryonic stem-cell research are among the political heresies that some conservative evangelicals cannot forgive him for." ... "With the influential James Dobson, the founder of the conservative advocacy group Focus on the Family, already saying he will not vote for McCain, analysts say evangelical turnout -- or lack thereof -- could be key on November 4 [2008 Election]." ... "Evangelicals comprise about a fifth of the U.S. population and according to Pew surveys account for at least a third of the Republican electorate, giving them serious clout in politics." ... "But the Republican evangelical vote remains divided, largely because of the continued presence in the race of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor." (1, 2, 3) -By Ed Stoddard with contributions by David Wiessler -Reuters

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• Secretive - Iraqi - Religious - Law - Terrorism - Women- Torture - Executions -  - Human Rights - Police - Politics - "Violations of 'Islamic teachings' take deadly toll on Iraqi women." ... "The images in the Basra [Iraq] police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture." ... "The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce." ... ""Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of."" ... "Her fear is justified. Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN [Integrated Regional Information Networks], the news branch of the U.N.'s [United Nation's] Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs." ... "Amnesty International has raised concern about the increasing violence toward women in Iraq, saying abductions, rapes and "honor killings" are on the rise." ... ""Politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders were increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists," Amnesty said in a 2007 report." -By Arwa Damon -CNN 

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20080205
• John McCain - Mitt Romney - Money - Immigration - Ethanol - Religious - Abortion - Law - Fla - 2008 Election - Media - "Dancing With GOP Stars: McCain, Romney Do Flip-Flop Waltz." ... "The record shows that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt] Romney and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain have both changed their positions on taxes, immigration and other issues that are important to GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] voters. Romney's changes have garnered more attention, raising questions about his core convictions, but McCain has changed his stances more often than he is usually prepared to admit." ... "Speaking in Jacksonville, Fla. [Florida], McCain sarcastically praised Romney: "He's consistently taken both sides of any major issue. He has consistently flip-flopped on every issue."" ... "Romney shot back that McCain was "against the Bush tax cuts" but "now he's for making them permanent." And "he was for McCain-Kennedy" immigration reform, Romney continued. "Now he's for a new program on immigration. He's changed his view on issue after issue. He was against ethanol, then for it, then against it again."" ... "Romney supporters argue that McCain's flip-flops have largely been under the public radar because they conflict with the "straight shooter" narrative that they say has been accepted and promoted by the media. McCain has altered his position on such issues as taxes, immigration, the religious right, Roe v. Wade [the Supreme Court case legalizing abortion] and ethanol." ... "The senator has sought to disguise his flip-flop on the [Republican President] Bush tax cuts by arguing that the main reason he opposed them was that they were not accompanied by cuts in government spending. This was not the explanation he gave at the time, however. In a May 2001 speech on the Senate floor, he said he could not "in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief."" -By Michael Dobbs -WashingtonPost

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• John McCain - Pat Robertson - Money - Religion - Immigrant - Workers - Women - Abortions - Illegal - Iowa - Ethanol - Air - Environment - US - Global - Climate - History - 2008 Election - "Top McCain Flip-Flops." ... "1. Taxes. [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain was one of two Republican senators to vote against [Republican] President Bush's tax cuts of 2001, saying that he could not support cuts that benefited the rich rather than the middle class. He now favors making the tax cuts permanent." ... "2. The religious right. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he attacked [Republican televangelists] Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." He withdrew that remark in a 2006 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying that the Christian right has a "major role to play in the Republican Party."" ... "3. Immigration. Last year, he sponsored a bill that would combine a temporary-worker program and a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants while also increasing border security. He now emphasizes securing the borders first." ... "4. Roe v. Wade. In August 1999, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would "not support repeal of Roe v. Wade" because it would force women to have illegal abortions. He has subsequently said that he was speaking about the need to change the "culture of America" and that he supports the repeal of Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide." ... "5. Ethanol. In 2003, he said that ethanol "does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality." Campaigning in Iowa in August 2006, he described ethanol as a "vital alternative energy source, not only because of our dependency on foreign oil, but its greenhouse-reduction effects."" -WashingtonPost

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