Holy Tomatoes! Detroit News' Nolan Finley Plays Catchup

In response to Nolan Finley and those on the right attempting to spin the story that it's supposedly President Obama and Dems not the GOP that has been using 'social issues' to gin up votes.

Sez Brother Finley in "Obama milks social issues" (Obama gave Romney an implied snuggy) on May 11, 2012:

"Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney again took the bait, allowing himself to be drawn into this discussion. So again the campaigns are debating divisive social issues instead of fiscal policy. That plays to Obama's strategy of painting Romney as an extremist and avoiding having to answer for the economy."

Catch up to reality, Nolan. This is exactly what Republican Svengalis have been so artfully doing for decades; beginning under the nefarious tutelage of Newt "the genius" Gingrich or so he was labeled by friendlies until Newt crossed that thin red line and was tossed.

Rich Men Ride while the Rest of Us Run: Corporatocracy
and Income Inequality is THE current 'social issue'.

No one, no party, no group, no clique, no organized political faction does a better job milking the essence of divisive issue politics than the Republican Party; so weakened that the GOP can be taken over by the wealthy elites like the the Koch Brothers, the Club for Growth, various Christian Dominionists, religious and racial bigots, and radical militia elements (gun nuts) until the once sensible and civic-minded Grand Old Party is no more. Poof! Think Ike.

Let Ted Nugent go on wallowing in hate and incitement to mayhem; as evil as he is, he 's only a "scare'jim'crow" archetype of a certain redneck gnarl of lawless tyranny that smirks across the nation. Nugent's part of a cohort of wild and reckless men, dark alley troublemakers, civic hoodlums. And don't they love the trouble they incite... the attention they get!

For decades Newt Gingrich's distraction & negativatization of language made useful for undermining civil discourse has prevailed in the dark hearts of the "Hard Right," as former President Gerald R. Ford labeled them during the Pat & Bay Buchanan dominated 1992 GOP National Convention. It was at Houston where Pat Buchanan declared religious and cultural war on the nation. As a direct result George H. W. Bush, the standing president, high right off the First Gulf War 100 hour victory, when down to stunning defeat to William Jefferson Clinton.

From "Ford tells Gingrich He'd Better Tone It Down" by AP reporter Lawrence L. Knutson:

Ford believed Gingrich should leave "partisan attacks" to others. "One thing that speakers have to understand is that the speaker is speaker for the House. You have to keep that high-level attitude and let the partisan attacks come from your majority leader.... The Speaker (Gingrich) is better advised to stand back." Ford went on to say that looking at the wider future, he believes that if the "extreme-right" partisans within the GOP control the party's policies and dictate who is the candidate... "the party will lose at the polls."

Note: This account also appeared in the Grand Rapids Press, June 2, 1998 and is still spot-on for the 2012 election cycle.

Social Issues Aside: Our National Troubles & the Great Bush Recession Have Created Vast New Opportunities for Unscrupulous Business Opportunists & Scammers

The aggressive CORPORATOCRACY (see the expanded definition from Wiki below) had better get out their act together and begin to restore the rule of law in financial and banking affairs. So far they haven't. The plague created by Citizens United will make this a very reprehensible election season; bar none.

Corporatists were quick to sense an opening, an "opportunity" and they seized it. They have profited immensely from the great disturbance in the economy brought on by the buffoonery of George W. Bush, the Lesser. (The man no Republican can bring themselves to mention in favorable light.) The Bush TARP and the bailouts have put stunning amounts of cash in the coffers of bankseters and Wall Street schemers and shysters'; amounts so large and so excessive as to be incomprehensible in light of in historic perspective. Are we angry? You bet we are!

War profiteering has egregiously enlarged the holdings/coffers of Dick Cheney and Neo-Con Cronies.

Things are still in need of repair and restitution.

Corporatocracy for Idiots

"A corporatocracy is a situation in which corporate bodies interact with sovereign power in an unhealthy alignment between business and political power. In a corporatocracy an elite upper-class, maintains ties between business and government, sometimes by lobbying efforts or funding political advertising campaigns, or providing bailouts when corporations are seen as too big to fail, for the purpose of controlling government and dictating policy to serve its financial interests.

"A corporatocracy is viewed as anti-democratic or opposed to democracy or used to describe situations in which democracy has been manipulated negatively, sometimes resulting in a passive citizenry and subservient media.

"A corporatocracy represents what some see as economic exploitation, and the concept has been used to explain bank bailouts, excessive pay for CEOs, as well as generalized complaints such as the plundering of national treasuries, people, and natural resources. The concept has also been used by critics of globalization, sometimes in conjunction with criticism of the World Bank or unfair lending practices, as well as criticism of free trade agreements which, according to these claims, move high-paying jobs overseas.

"The term corporatocracy is a negative term, likened pejoratively to cancer, fascism, and Orwellianism, perhaps because, according to this view, business-government ties are seen as secretive, lacking transparency and accountability. The elite engaging in corporatocracy is sometimes termed the 1 percent."

Source: Corporatocracy on Wiki (Be sure to click on all the footnotes to this piece. Go from ignorant to informed.)

So Nolan, fearless thought leader, it's time you play catch-up. Pocket your rotten tomatoes, stop our carping, and do something substantive, pro-active about saving Michigan and America. You can begin by restraining yourself from "milking social issues" and move toward a sound economy and a restructuring of taxes so as to save Michissippi's middle class. Put aside your poison pen, and take up your Habitat for Humanity hammer, rise early, move out to save the day for a family in need. It would be a start.

Dump the tomatoes. Catch-up Finley, catch-up!

On the Reader:
List of Responses to Nolan Finley on the Gazette (Topic DATE):

• High up in Jim Crow’s Nest: Constant Cawing Incites Civic Upheaval by the Detroit News - Michigan View (General Idiocy and use of Racial Undertones February 2012)
• Nolan Finley: Maniacal Warmonger? (General Idiocy and Violence September 2011)
• Dead End/Bad Trade Off: Profitazation or Abandonment of Detroit’s Public School Children (Education June 2011)
• No National Honor Given Finley: Taking Down Detroit’s Public Schools is a Civic Crime (Education May 2011)
• Snyder, the Socialist, Takes on Local Democracy Calling it a "Status Quo" That Needs to Be Radically Re-invented.(Ideology April 2004)
• Honest Abel “AWOL” in Michigan just as in Wisconsin (Ideology March 2011)
• A one nostril false grunt from Nolan: It’s not my pigs that stink (Ideology June 2011)
• The Detroit News is "Tapped Out" (Taxes and Ideology February 2011)
• Nolan Finley Rocks Local Detroit High School With His Decision to Teach English to Sophomores (Education December 2009)
• Raw Revenge Raises Its Ugly Head (Education December 2009)
• An Additional Dollar a Day... (State Budget and Ideology November 2009)
• The only place a teacher gets a fair shake in the Detroit News is on its obituary page (Education June 2009) 
• Finley's Right Wing anti-teacher Crusade: A man with a forked tongue and a flaying pen (Education October 2009)

Related Slates:
More on Corporatocracy and the Republican Party on the Gazette.


Original.

The Gizzi-Monster and the Raging Radical: Gingrich Gone John Bircher Rogue

Concerning the John Birch Society (JBS) John Gizzi writes braggadocioishly in support of the Newt's pledge to slog on to Tampa's GOP National Convention - counting down 46 more states. "Gingrich never formally conceded to Romney and reports were widespread that he did not call to congratulate the primary victor," on the heels of the trouncing The Newt took in Florida Tuesday.

Welcomed into the "fold" at the Michigan View is that old Bircher Gizzi, the salt and pepper maned-wolf with the Dirksenian-gravel voice, that wily codger represents the old, but still angry JBS. The ghost of John Birch is still at it. JBS never misses a good chance to wedge issues nearest and dearest to their fossilized hearts and their dunderhead mentality. THEY LIVE IN 60 YEARS OF HEMLOCKEN CASKS OF ANGST AND BITTER VENGEFULNESS stemming from their ongoing exile from polite and reasoned civility-due to their untoward behaviors and subversion of the political process for gnarled pleasure and the company it creates for them at gun shows and Tea Party beer halls.

Old Birchers are in their senior glory with Newt! Gingrich's our Guy!

Gizzi showed up, invited, at the Republican Mackinac Island Leadership Conference September of 2011 as a star presenter and has subsequently been comfortably settled into a feathered bed column at The Michigan View. Great. Gizzi joins with Saul Anuzis and a a"set of ardent stragglers" who have found a niche in Michigan GOP politics over the years. Saul is a disciple of Human Events and a close ally with and Newt the orfanatorio promoter. Saul is cloven to all things Extreme Far Right.

Following the rough and raw politics of insider insurgency and dark conspiracy, Saul Anuzis (Maven of HUMAN EVENTS) is at the tipping point of being so anti-government and anti-tax (as is his bosom buddy, Grover Norquist - whom Saul hosted at the GOP Mackinac Island Conference in 2009) as to have become a practical/activist anarchist.

Saul, a life-long political wonk and partisan advantage seeker, feels right at home with the grandiose/homicidal tendencies of Grover Norquist, who dreams of regicide, drowning an imperial government shrunk small enough to be "drown in a bathtub." If that isn't graphic enough, try viewing Grover as doggedly committed to a Pro-Death-to-Government-commitment and a pre-pubescent dreamer set out on a career of trying to achieve that end.

Saul has been chumming with and promoting Newt for a long time. He and Newt were together on Mackinac Island at the Bi-Annual Leadership Conference where Newt ginned up an overflow crowd at the Grand Hotel's Ballroom. Newt laid out a scheme for then GOP Legislative Leadership tailored to disrupt and obstruct former Gov. Granholm and make all things economic and tax-based more difficult; to bring Granholm and Democrats down. Senate Leader Mike Bishop did just as Newt had proposed (Bishop was hectored by Gingrich before that huge pro-Newt crowd in the Ballroom) and made obstruction the rule of the day- shutting down Michigan Government and pushing the state further into planned partisan failure.

Prophetic in his warnings, Reince Priebus, the GOP National Chairman, spoke to the insider crowd on the island September 2011 prophesying and exhorting them:

"National Republican Party chairman, Reince Priebus, urged party activists to rally behind the nominee - whoever it is: 'There is no such thing as an absolutely perfect candidate. Only one perfect person has walked the earth,' Mr. Priebus said. 'WE'RE GOING TO WIN THIS ELECTION BY ADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION, NOT DIVISION AND SUBTRACTION.' "

(emphasis added) 

Obviously Priebus did not understand the MO of the Birchers and the blood-lust style Newt has for a fierce, pitched, no-holds-barred battle and wild mythical mayhem; Newt sees himself right up there with Churchill and Gen. George Patton! Newt is way out there-as though as historian Connop Thrilwall noted "Alexander had appeared to him, armed for combat."

Gizzi and the Old Birchers love this sort of imbroglio; it's their favorite sandbox game. However, the "who can-be-the-most-radically- conservative (troupe of would be nominees in the GOP primaries) throwing sand in each other's faces will not restore Michigan or the Nation to sound policy and economic recovery.

Those who yearn for backroom power and subsequent elevation to prominence as Anuzis hankers, include: Gizzi himself, Clark Durant (son of Mr. Bullhorn, Rad Right heckler-Clark's father), and all those who serve the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity via its grip on Michigan and Wisconsin, Ohio and other states via The pre-packaged legislation piped into state bills under the radar via The American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.).

All those who slavishly serve the aggressive Corporatocracy and those politicos (who still hold to towing-along with JBS) are dangerous and offensive to our cherished traditions and civil rights.

"United we stand divided we fall."

Speaking of lack of unity and going it alone! What about Thomas Dean Sellers, Bloomfield Hills, owner Dean Ford, national John Bircher board member? Sellers has given Rep. Ron Paul a sizable contribution. What a subversive thing to do! Sellers wayward act makes it one "big stick" less-a-bundle for the JBS goal promotion of Gingrich or does it !/?

Ideological idiocy is just one Michigan primary victory away for Gingrich.


Original.

Selling out Jesus: When Politics Trump Eternal Truth

This is in response to an increasing number of Evangelical endorsements of Newt Gingrich.

The Failure of Rev. Dr. Bill Monroe, Florence, South Carolina Fails to Defend His Christian Faith's Moral Standards Against Newt's Sexual History of Repeated Sexual Indiscretions Is a Serious Denial of Fundamentalist Beliefs

South Carolina is home to 2,100 Southern Baptist Churches with 670,000 members. It has apparently lost its authority and hold on itself to the moral high ground.

The moral high ground (Character Counts) has been abandoned by one of the state's most well-known T.V. minister and denominational leader, Pastor Bill Monroe. Why?

-----

More and more Baptists/Evangelicals/Pentecostals are slipping out of the yoke of rigid fundamentalism and going for a new polity, a religion driven and based on a Marketplace, economic model, abandoning the prior commitment to the sterling principles found in the Holy Bible.

The Evidence of Change (God Hopping) is Everywhere
Their new churches look and act like humongous country clubs with clergy who aspire to become media celebrities. Many newly-erected buildings are festooned with boutique names to hide their actual doctrines and denominational affiliations. Now, more and more, these formerly Fundamentalist congregations are simply formed as non-denominational, inter-denominational, or free form.

Mega Churches are choreographed with hi-tech congregational karaoke-style singing "praise songs and choruses" steeped in adoration and praise, filled with scant theological content, infused with high calorie emotionalism and passion. Intimacy with Jesus, confession of personal failure, an outpouring of neediness, and a plaintive cries for comfort are palpable. It's a tough world out there!

Mega Churches play a role as platforms/stages for commercialism, business networking, hard-driving Entrepreneurs and MLM recruiters.

Millions of dollars of books, tapes, DVD's and other paraphernalia are hawked in the vestibules. Some churches publish a Christian Directory to their members to keep the flow of business inside the flock.

Attending church represents a ripe business opportunity!

So in Low Country a gigantic shift has eroded away the standards and faith of the forefathers of faith there. Doubtless, the rough ride taken having endorsed and backed "Cowboy Christian" G.W. Bush took much of the shine off the concept of Christian-in-chief once enthusiastically ascribed to W.

Foggy denial is a perfect place to hide from the momentous and terrible carnage and human suffering laid at the feet of a "war of choice" George W. Bush-the man who claimed God's blessing and guidance in his political debacles and warmongering.

The tragic consequences of the Bush failures and willful mayhem lie openly at the feet of South Carolinians who were the first block of "values voters" to propel Bush into the 2000 Presidential Race.

The "values voters" egregious mistake: Putting their full "righteous" faith and confidence behind George W. Bush, knowing his weaknesses, alcoholism, drug use, insincerity, intoxicated debauchery and loose/wild-living prior to his pronouncement of personal "salvation" succeeded in suckering many.

A good salvation/redemption story is always a big hit, especially if it is coupled with a celebrity. The mantra became, "He's 'born-again'- now he's one of us."

Christian South Carolinians this presidential primary season "seem more pragmatic about choosing a candidate than they have before." They are making an adjustment. TODAY, BEING 'BORN-AGAIN' TAKES BACK SEAT TO 'ELECTABLE.'

Beat Obama is more sacred than beat the Devil: Politics trumps "born again" salvation as the highest value.

They want a candidate who "will be best suited to defeat President Obama, fix the economy and promote Republican values according to interviews with dozens of voters, analysts , elected officials and religious leaders" interviewed and reported by Serge F. Kovaleski of the New York Times. 1.18.12.

Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on South Carolina; the impact their humongous mistake in endorsing G.W. Bush. Failure to carefully examine W morally and politically; Evangelicals thereby dismissed certain attributes and flaws that would have otherwise have been clear red flags for them as to the flawed quality of Bush's leadership abilities and his weak intellectual acumen. America and the whole world have paid an incalculable price for their omission!

-----

The use of the "born again" miracle, as a prime reason for a political endorsement, seems not to factor as much in their rush to embrace the sexually addicted Newt Gingrich here in 2012.

Some Fundamentalists seem to have chosen to accept the mode of redemption that Newt has adapted for his moral scrub-up.

Does Newt's use of the Roman Catholic system of long and expensive, legalized annulment(s) to enter the realm of the "redeemed" strike on authentic note with them? Newt's sins are now only "past history?" Newt's Catholic conversion, as described, is definitely not the Evangelical/Baptist equivalent of being "born again."

However, the compromise which "evangelicals" such as Dr. Bill Monroe have made by endorsing Newt, compounds their earlier compromised stance to overlook or ignore the glaring character flaws of W. Such sell-outs have now greased the rails, lowering the standards, to admit Gingrich to the place of religious acceptance and approval by "values voters" portends a tragic future and a nasty national election campaign and beyond. This process is taking a mighty toll on Fundamentalists' historic allegiance to the Bible and high moral standards.

"The Marketplace" has encroached upon the House of God and made it into a neo-pagan temple of commerce and politics.

The power and authority of the Ten Commandments has been abandoned - Commandment Number 7: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.

Newt Gingrich's fancy footwork mitigating his sexual addictions and divorces has been brought to the forefront. Southern Baptists in the Evangelical block, e.g. 60% of South Carolina's GOP primary voters are Fundamentalist Christians. Voting for Gingrich in large numbers, they have abandoned truth and biblical principles based on literal truth found in the Bible. This is a serious lapse, a tell-tail indicator of coming problems for the denomination and "values" movement impacting its moral authority going forward.

Most "frequent church attendees" are apparently woefully ignorant of the basics of the Southern Baptist trademark: literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments and Scripture. Charge this up to the shift of its pastors and leadership, who have become more interested in single issues and winning at politics than doing the gospel work of encouraging and securing confessions of faith and teaching the unchanging Biblical laws for human behavior via helping people become "born again."

-----

How did the South Carolina Baptist leader Rev. Dr. Bill Monroe defend his endorsement for Gingrich?

1.) Pastor Monroe states "after meeting with Newt Gingrich, I believe he not only holds conservative values, but HE WILL FIGHT for them. His broad knowledge and experience in both foreign and domestic affairs give him a distinct edge over other conservatives and HE IS FAR AND AWAY THE BEST DEBATER which will be a critical factor in the upcoming Presidential debates. While I like Gov. Perry and Rick Santorum's conservative views, I BELIEVE NEWT GINGRICH IS THE ONLY CONSERVATIVE WHO CAN WIN. I WANT TO GIVE HIM MY UNQUALIFIED ENDORSEMENT." (emphasis added) 
-- PRESS RELEASE from: Newt 2012, 1.18.12

2.) "Though Monroe has endorsed Newt Gingrich in the Republican presidential primary, he says the endorsement is personal and individual and does not represent an endorsement by his church as a whole."
-- WBTW News13


Original.

Disclaimer: This is in response to a number of recent evangelical endorsements of Newt Gingrich, and not meant to be an attack on Evangelicals or infringe on the right of any American to freely practice their own faith.

Plutonian Politics: Dionysian Newt v. Apollonian Barack

Newt's a clear victim of raging narcissism! Candidate Newt Gingrich is burdened with all the errors of unholy and now militant, aggressive, and angry hubris.

Newt is what Nietzsche scholars would label a “Dionysian”: Drawn from Greek mythology:  a man struggling with “his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate.”  “The Dionysian embraces the chaotic nature of … experience as all-important; not just on its own” subsequently and shrewdly utilizing and getting great pleasure derived from ordering about those around him.

Newt (portraying his struggle and envisioning his “heroic” attributes and special visions for himself as his” mission,”- to be the leader of the Free World-saving America and humanity from evils real and imagined)  is (in his own crazy private,  mythical world)  delusional.  It’s Newt’s world in which he truly believes he shares glory with Gen. George Patton and Winston Churchill!

Camille Paglia writes,

“The Dionysian is a force of chaos and destruction, which is the overpowering and alluring chaotic state of wild nature”…Writer Stephen King, “"I used the terms Apollonian (to suggest reason and the power of the mind) and Dionysian (to suggest emotion, sensuality, and chaotic action)” 

Source: Wiki on Apollonian and Dionysian.

America has no place for a Dionysian Wild Man in the White House.  None!

Barack, as an Apollonian leader, represents a man guided by “the wish to describe and create order, especially with unfamiliar information or new experience.”

Newt, the Dionysian, and Barack, the Apollonian, represent sharp conflict in the present political battle. The fact that the “Dionysian and the Apollonian form a dialectic,” highlights the understanding, “they are (sharply) contrasting” conflicting, and in an ageless struggle for raw aggressive power versus creating beneficial change and recovery.

------

As boldly cast in Gingrich’s new battlefield-campaign banner, Newt promotes himself to the nation and the world as: "Newt the Fighter. The only Conservative who can beat Obama."

Gingrich's newly unveiled slogan. That bodacious claim, I can "beat" Obama, holds a double meaning: Win over one's opponent , but also reek harm and hurt upon the President-even, if limited, due to social convention, to the metaphorical sense of an old fashion "beating." This appeals perfectly, in an appalling manner, to many of the "toughs" who are anti-government and anti-equality and want Newt to "take off the gloves."

Characterized like Nietzsche was during his lifetime, Gingrich is an "Atavist run amok who should gather tigers and panthers about his knees" as Newt is wont to do (being a self-proclaimed maven of the ZOO), but Newt isn’t licensed to rally the Bible Thumpers with guns-at-the-ready, the roaming and self-contained/activated cells of militias all across America, wild-eyed men inspired and prompted by Gingrichian rants, all to march out of the palmetto swamps and rid America of the "Kenyan"-the closet “Muslim”

To wit:: "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you piece together [his actions]?" -- Newt's Quip, September , 2010

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Like the strident Nietzsche, Gingrich denigrates the so-called "soft" approach to America’s challenges (Michael Borone: Hard America, Soft America), the nation's problems and civics. The issuance of "food stamps" hunger abatement to millions of Americans going hungry is but one example of the strict application of "harsh discipline" which Gingrich will mete out upon those who must work or not eat.

Newt's hard "disciplining model" of governance (select program eliminations) includes the adjunct-bashing "liberals" whom he despises. Those "soft" bleeding heart liberals are the nation's life guardians of men, women and children and their basic human needs and rights.

In turning a cold cheek away from human need and misery, Newt calls up with "increasing intensity" the "strong dark-side spirits" of the angry. Those of the disaffected filled with racial and economic angst. He speaks effectively to rally the disaffected to gather with him: "the Warrior."

"Join with me," Newt trumpets in a clarion call to mount a march, a crusade, against big government, elites, capitalists on Wall Street, and minorities who "refuse" to work, and a long list of other malefactious elements.

Knight Gingrich's militant march is built on his vain-glorious grandiosifying hope to become the "ubermensch." Gingrich aspires to become THE OVERMAN-who will mount the holy battle against the forces of evil.

This threatened political and cultural “war” includes the kinds of things Newt imagines are evilly engulfing America.

Now is a highly turbulent time, a period of economic depression in which Newt’s kind of  extremism appears to be "heroic" and erroneous ideology and misjudgments can seem like gospel. These "opportunities" Newt comprehends and relishes with a keen political predator's eye for prey.

Ruminate on this bold Newtonian utterance: "People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz." --The Atlanta Journal, 1994

Let’s not go thoughtlessly into the Plutonian Darkness of the 2012 Election unaware of the extreme nature of  the forces rallied by Gingrich and amassing against President Obama.


Original Part 1 and Part 2.

Newt's Crafty Ploy: Outfox the Values Voters In South Carolina

It's another sample of Newt Gingrich's crafty redefinition of his own soiled character: Being "scrubbed up" by his knelling confession to the great Dr. Dobson, and additionally (for good measure), Newt's subsequent bold decision to convent to Roman Catholicism.

"From a Catholic point of view, Newt's sins no longer exist-they've been absolved. He's made a fresh start in life. So Newt will continue to sin and confess but there aren't going to be a lot of Catholics who will hold that against him. They understand why being a Catholic makes a difference." 

Source: Reported by based on Max Blumenthal's conversation with Deal Hudson, a Catholic political adviser to President Bush and Karl Rove, founder of the seminal Catholic journal, Crisis magazine.

Newt's conversion was all "a cold hard calculation." It was Newt's choreographed attempt to enter the "sacred circle" of the "born again" which satisfies the soulful approval/acceptance by the far right religious base of the GOP. It's these folk who go "all out" in blind support for a high profile "redemption" testimony.

There it is: Gingrich's grandiose game plan - lay claim to the "open-armed" "welcoming willingness" of millions of Fundamentalist, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals to believe in, and accept the sexually addicted Gingrich into the company of the "saved"-all scrubbed up.

BUT is it real?

Is it morally transformative?

Is it believable?

Is it a calculated sham?
Will it work to win over Protestant Evangelicals?

Newt's 180 degree turn to Catholicism, is it a deceptive device to find favor and "redemptive acceptance" from the Religious Right voting base in spite of his life-long low-life sexual history?

Conservative students at Catholic University protested Newt's showy conversion:

"When Catholic University announced in January 2005 that Newt Gingrich would deliver a speech on campus, a group of students rose up in protest, accusing the twice-divorced, admitted philanderer of violating the Catholic values that their school was founded upon."
-- Max Blumenthal

Excerpt from Huffington Post, "Newt Gingrich Marriage Infidelities: Church Forgives, But Voters?":

"On the issue of him cheating on wife one with wife two, and on wife two with wife three, and the hypocrisy that comes along with Gingrich being a key figure in the Bill Clinton impeachment process, it's not going to be lost on many evangelicals, who do care about sexual morality," said Laura Olsen, a political science professor at Clemson University in South Carolina.

"BUT A BIG PART OF EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY IS THAT WE ARE A FALLEN HUMANITY AND WE ARE NEVER GOING TO LIVE UP TO PERFECT IDEAL. ... IT'S MORE OF A QUESTION OF SAYING 'I HAVE MADE A MISTAKE, I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MISTAKE AND I NEED TO TURN TO GOD,'" OLSEN SAID.

"Roman Catholics such as Gingrich -- he converted to the religion of his wife in 2010 and has fashioned himself as a Christian fighting an increasingly secular world -- differ substantially from evangelical Protestants in several ways, from their belief that bread and wine transform into the blood and body of Christ during Mass to the role of the pope and priesthood.

"But when it comes to forgiveness, there are similarities. While Catholics are required to confess their sins to priests in order to be absolved, they are also encouraged to pray and confess in private to God, as is common among evangelicals, who tend to identify with an experience of personal conversion, a strong personal relationship with God and a need to spread the gospel. Both strains of Christianity uphold the varied interpretations of the original sin, the idea that either humans or humanity lost innocence after the fall of Adam and Eve.

"In the Roman Catholic Church, where civil divorces aren't recognized, Gingrich also has needed to convince authorities that his previous marriages were not really marriages.

"Gingrich began the annulment process, which may take years, in 2002 with a request that the Archdiocese of Atlanta declare "null" his marriage to his second wife, Marianne Gingrich. Church observers believe he asked around the same time to annul his first marriage. Both requests presumably were successful, as Gingrich is now in good standing with the church.

"Church records on annulments are kept confidential and Gingrich's current priest, Msgr. Walter Rossi of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., declined to talk specifics about his parishioner. Experts in canon law, the internal rules of the church, say it's unlikely that a twice-divorced and twice-remarried man could join a Catholic church without his previous marriages being annulled."
(emphasis added)

Ask any of the 150 Texas Far Right Religious Leaders who endorsed Santorum how they stand on high moral principle. Some of that crowd still hold support for Newt rather than Santorum. They plan to promote an endorsement for Gingrich in spite of his past immoral sexual behaviors. He said that's past history, didn't he?

Where's the Moral Consistency in the behavior of these Gingrich supporting Texas 150; self-proclaimed religio-politicians and moral leaders?

What does it say about the "values voters" and their endangered commitment to God's 10 Commandments, when "winning at politics" undermines their moral principles and basic religious values?

See also:
Obama is the Anti-Christ & Dead Jerry Falwell has sent urgent word from Paradise “Vote Gingrich”
Let the government be the government & Let the church be the church.

Original.

Obama is the Anti-Christ & Dead Jerry Falwell has sent urgent word from Paradise “Vote Gingrich”

Trouble amid the "Jesus told Us All" Texas secret conclave deciding on their chosen one for "holy anointment" for "God's choice" in the 2012 GOP Nomination process.

Needing to have a voice in the GOP in order to save their billion dollar Christian Broadcasting and allied businesses, a secret group of 150 Rad Religious Rightists met in Texas at the ranch home of the man who promoted the tsunamic change in the Southern Baptist Convention from religiously moderate to hard-shell extreme Fundamentalists,one Judge Paul Pressler.

The following monologue from MSNBC News is most enlightening:

"One very specific point of light in the religious right pantheon has made his own endorsement today.

"Do you remember old Tim LaHaye?

"Tim LaHaye - the author of all of those books about the rapture, Mr. Left Behind, the Obama is the anti-Christ guy...Tim LaHaye, Mr. Rapture - today endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. He sent a letter to South Carolina religious leaders urging them to unite behind Newt Gingrich`s candidacy. Mr. LaHaye describing Newt Gingrich as having the best chance of beating President Barack Obama.

(LaHaye's) letter said, quote, 'IF WE DO NOT CHANGE OUR LEADERS IN THE NEXT ELECTION, WE WILL END UP BEING LIKE THE GODLESS SOCIALIST COUNTRIES OF EUROPE THAT WILL SO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY IN FOUR YEARS, THAT MANY EXPERTS BELIEVE WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO RECLAIM IT FOR MORAL AND PHYSICAL SANITY.'

(We may ask) "who the experts are who say I agree with him. But, (we) should also note that Tim LaHaye in his letter also says that Jerry Falwell is endorsing Newt Gingrich from beyond the grave.

"Jerry Falwell, of course, is dead.

"But Tim LaHaye says in this letter that before Jerry Falwell died, he told Tim LaHaye that, quote, 'Speaker Newt Gingrich is the most qualified man in America to run as president of the United States.' Mr. Gingrich for his part said today that he was very happy to receive the endorsement of Tim LaHaye.

"Mr. Gingrich did not comment on whether or not he was happy to receive the endorsement of dead Jerry Falwell." 

(Adapted & Emboldened for emphasis)

See Also: "Tim LaHaye, 'Left Behind' Author, Endorses Gingrich, Says Jerry Falwell Backs Newt From Grave" on Huff Post January 13, 2012.


This Endorsement of Gingrich by LaHaye et.al. is Desperate
THE ONE CLEAR MESSAGE in all the falderol is: The Rad Religious Right are far more interested in winning the election by:

1.) Backing their choice of candidates (however flawed) based on "perceived electability",

2.) Keeping an inside track to the hundreds of millions of taxpayer/handout dollars going to their so-called "faith-based" projects and initiatives,

3.) Renewing/having the "inside track" to the Oval Office as the Rad Religious Rightists did under George W. Bush.

These items are more important to the Rad Religious Right than is elevating/protecting moral purity (which Gingrich has not/does not possess) and defending the moral "high ground" so revered and sacred to their faithful followers who regularly vote as "a body of one" at the polls.

One wonders how this all plays in Heaven?


Original.

One Thing Social Conservatives Dislike as a Candidate for President: A Sex Addict

If Newt Gingrich is to pass muster with the "values voters"- strong convictions evangelical Christians - he will have to pass the morals test. The job of president is far beyond the biblical role of a Christian elder. The character history of a "elder" requires that person to pass a biblical minimal standards task: "one in whom no fault is found."

This is the scripture verse lining out the moral qualifications for a early Christian deacon:

"An Elder ought to be one in whom no fault is found and is the husband of one woman, is of a vigilant mind, sober, orderly, loves strangers and is a teacher."
-- I Timothy 3:12

If there is one thing that most social conservative Americans dislike in a candidate for president it's a sex addict. 

Fred Barnes wrote recently in THE WEEKLY STANDARD in "The History of Newt: Are Republicans ready to look past his transgressions?":

"... Gingrich has 'told friends he's like Richard Nixon, not particularly likable and hated by the press and the left.' And here we see Gingrich taking a page from Nixon's playbook. If there was one thing Americans disliked more than the not particularly likable Nixon, it was dirty hippies."

Newt must believe that if one has a new haircut, a clean, odorless body, and a filthy mind, that because that person is not "dirty," cleaning up should qualify that individual for the office of a church "elder"? What about Newt with a stylish haircut, crisp suits, and a long history of sexual indulgence, if not addictions to fornication and adultery? Does just cleaning himself up with a confession to Focus on the Family's James Dobson and subsequently becoming a a Roman Catholic convert overcome and expunge his immoral past?

If there is one thing that most Americans dislike in a candidate for president: Being a sex addict. Newt's history is that of a serial adulterer. He has a long, early, history of easy sex and lax, if non-existent restrain on his libido.

Writer Paul Wilkes in "THE GOOD ENOUGH CATHOLIC" penned:

"Not that we Catholics are better or stronger, or more or less sexed, than other Christians or non-Christians; but there is simply a Catholic way of looking at things. We know the ideal; Catholicism has never been a religious faith that has called for anything less than the best in people. There IS such a thing as a Catholic ethic of sexual morality " and it makes sense, because it is based on the firm foundation of true love of self and true love of others, inspired by God's love for all. It is an ethic worth pursuing, a way of respecting sexuality that can last a lifetime, a legacy worth passing on to children who need a true and steady beacon by which to guide their lives."

Do you want to see into the twisted mind of Gingrich?
Read for yourself Gingrich's co-authored novel, with the title "1945". The book "1945" is a 1995 alternate history novel, which included descriptive lewd sexual material. Here's what occupied Gingrich's characters in his novel as per the September 1996 issue of Locus (issue 428, Vol. 37 No. 3):

"Baen (publishing) has been running full-page ads for 1945 by Newt Gringrich and William R. Forstchen, saying, 'You've heard the noise, now read the book.' Well, I've read the book, and I'm going to save you the trouble.

"The quotes you've seen in print and heard read over the air, the stuff about the pouting sex kitten and all, come from the first three pages. That may be because that's as far as anyone could get in the Forstchenian awfulness, but I am made of sterner stuff... So this is the last time I'll mention that "noise" Baen is so concerned about, other than saying that it's a pity the paragraph dealing with the pouting sex kitten was disemboweled between the bound galley review stage and the printed book stage. Her kneeling athwart her lover's shoulders would have added entertainment value that this book sorely needed.

"Our story starts with John Mayhew, Chief of Staff to the President of the United States, wrapped in passionate embrace with his mistress who is, oh dear! a Nazi spy. He, poor fool, dazzled by her charms, reveals the US atomic bomb secrets to her.

"As befits the scene, the prose is some of the most turgid imaginable. Before we get to the bottom of page one we find such gems as an "initial gambit" (all gambits are openings -- it's what the word means). This should be a warning flag, telling us that we aren't quite in the presence of a master wordsmith.

"The pouting sex kitten's name is Erica, though we don't learn that until page 110, 109 pages after she's introduced. She's Erika by page 115 -- copy editing and proofreading weren't this book's high points, though I still have to give the copy editor points for making it through the book at all. The poor bugger needed a machete."

Remember, it was Newt that pushed the Clinton impeachment while having an adulterous affair with his now, but then future wife. Newt pushed forward with his attempts to "get" Clinton on morals grounds while pursuing his habitual sexual adventures at the same time.

What the nation paid for and what the youth of the world were exposed to was the printing of the papers (The Starr Report) which detailed the sexual activity of the president and his intern. The impact of the material on the here-to-fore sheltered Irish youths was said to be dynamic and debasing.

Restored to moral virginity by his Catholic conversion, Newt Gingrich need never be elevated to the role of an example -a "true and steady beacon by which to guide" the lives of youthful Americans. His tragic and twisted sexual history takes away Gingrich's right to national leadership, even if ultimately endorsed by James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, or Don Wildmod of the American Family Association or not. However, we all have seen what softies the Religious Right weakness is when it comes to stories of repentance and being "born again." They gave us that tragic and flawed cardboard Christian, George W. Bush, didn't they - just because he claimed to be "born again"? Bush was the man who said he answered to and took direction from a "higher father" - thus blaming God for his multiple failures as a president and commander-in-chief, and guardian of the national economy.

-----

Ultimately, it's important to focus on the Gingrichian MO: Toy with ideas, grand schemes, astonishing facts & figures, scenarios & proposals It's this skill set that most endears him to the rad right religious voters-whom he must woo in order to win the 2012 GOP nomination. These things endear Newt to his cultish followers and gin up their racialism.

Now Newt has accepted the role of uber-partisan "war dog"-a highly skilled predator/vicious attacker-who can "draw blood" and destroy. It's this ability of Gingrich to create, tear out, red meat and inflame ideological and racially-tinged carnage that voters, such as those Teapublicans in South Carolina, are raring to join forces with to defeat President Obama.

Gingrich is the most dangerous and amoral man in America, bar none! Newt must be denied the presidency.



Original.

See also previous pieces in this SERIES:

• Let the government be the government & Let the church be the church.
• "We Always Need a JESUS CANDIDATE"? - Just Who Will be God's People's Choice for President in 2012 
• Diehard Fundamentalist Evangelicals & Pentecostals have essentially a no-choice “choice” for GOP Candidate for President

"We Always Need a JESUS CANDIDATE"? - Just Who Will be God's People's Choice for President in 2012

WHO WILL THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT'S TEXAS CONCLAVE "CORONATE" AS THEIR CHOSEN CANDIDATE? IF ANYONE?

A pre-caucus Iowan called in to Rick Santorum:
"We don't need a Jesus candidate. We need an economic candidate..."

Rick Santorum:
"And my answer to that was, 'WE ALWAYS NEED A JESUS CANDIDATE, right?'"

-----

Let's explore. First from Bryan Fischer at the American Family Association:

"There is no perfect candidate," says Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis at the American Family Association. "JESUS CHRIST IS NOT ON THE BALLOT IN ANY OF THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS, SO THAT MEANS SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES HAVE TO DO TRIAGE."

"The mission of this 'emergency meeting' is to unite behind one true-blue religious conservative for the Republican nomination. Fischer says evangelicals are desperate to defeat President Obama. But he does not believe former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney - whom they distrust on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage - can generate the passion to do that."

(Break)

"It (GOP placing Romney on the ballot) probably won't be that bad, says Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. Polls suggest that given the choice between Romney and President Obama in a general election contest, 9 out of 10 evangelicals would vote for Romney."

Excerpted from "Evangelical Leaders Struggle To Crown A Candidate" by Barbara Hagerty from NPR.

"NOT THAT BAD" - WHO'S KIDDING WHO?
The only reason Richard Land would make this statement is out of sheer lust for political power and national influence. No way will Fundamentalist Southern Baptists vote for George Romney, a Mormon, unless Richard Land sends a dog whistle to them indicating; despite the stance of the denomination- the very critical and serious questions about Mormonism that have long been bone and sinew of that literal believing denomination- they are now to assume such a anti-Mormon stance is no longer valid, or more to the point; those doctrinaire principles were theologically wrong in their opposition to Mormonism as a non-Christian cult all along.

What is most clear is; race is still a major factor in the Southern Baptist mind. While Land's harsh condemnation of President Obama is spoken as in opposition to his stances and record on a long series of grievances and religiously biased assumptions, the most obvious point known to everyone in the predominately white southern denomination is that President Obama is Black. Dr. Land will strongly object to this assessment. Abortion is the key issue, Land would affirm. So how be it? Mitt Romney is a total chameleon on this issue. Romney's record and public statements and actions as regard so-called "Right-to-Life" is dubious and unreliable. How can that be acceptable? What Richard Land is saying essentially is: We Southern Baptists prefer a white Mormon Bishop over a Black Christian. This Land would do, knowing a sizable percentage of his denomination are birthers, who also believe Obama is a secret Muslim.

-----

Supporting Article "Ethicist Beware, Baptist birthers" August 25, 2009:

"Baptist ethicist Robert Parham has weighed in on the 'birthers' movement that continues to question whether President Obama was born in the U.S., warning Baptists should avoid getting caught in the fray. He points to a story in the Mohave Daily News, which reports that Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said at a town hall meeting he was considering suing Obama over the birth certificate issue.

"Parham notes that Franks, a member of a Southern Baptist megachurch, joins fellow Baptist and former House Majority Speaker Tom DeLay in questioning the place of the president's birth. DeLay called for Obama to produce his birth certificate on MSNBC's 'Hardball.'

"Says Parham: 'If Baptist Republicans walk and talk like birthers, does that make them racists? No. But as every Southern momma knows and warns her children, one is known by the company they keep. Let's hope our Baptist family starts keeping distance between themselves and the birthers.'''

Mormonism as a Cult: Mormonism as "non-Christian" - the Internal Southern Baptist Convention Problem

The Christian Post in "Different Understandings Confuse the Debate on Mormonism" on Oct. 12, 2011
reported:

"Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress made some controversial remarks over the weekend (as reported 10.12.11) when he described the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a 'cult.' The Southern Baptist understanding of the word 'cult' is different than popularly held notions, which confused the debate.

"[Richard] Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, explained what Jeffress meant in his remarks, in a Tuesday interview on CNN.

"'When we use the word 'cult,' that's a theological definition of a movement that claims to be within the confines of the Christian faith and clearly is not within the confines of the Christian faith. IT IS A NEW RELIGION,'" Land explained.

"The 'cult' comment was made by Jeffress in an interview with a reporter during the Values Voter Summit last week. Jeffress said that the LDS church is a 'cult' and Mormons are not Christians, as they claim."

(Break)

"The remarks caused a media firestorm. Many have denounced Jeffress' words. Huntsman called Jeffress a 'moron.' Presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on 'Face the Nation,' that the remarks were 'very unwise and very inappropriate.'"

And then there is this segment from "Your Morning Jolt: Mormonism is more like Islam say South Baptist President" - Mormonism is more like Islam, says Southern Baptist president: Rev. Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta and President of the Southern Baptist Convention, with 16 million-members, the nation's largest Protestant denomination:

QUESTION: Why not just call Latter Day Saints (Mormons) part of a larger Christian tent?

REV. WRIGHT:

"They're not a part of the big tent if you look at the founders. When you look at the life of Joseph Smith, he really had more in common with Mohammad than he did with Jesus Christ. Both men saw themselves as bringing a purification to what had been distorted in Judaism and Christianity [--a heretical position, Wright later declared]....

"Both of them were polygamists and taught polygamy and practiced polygamy. There's some really radical differences. Both brought into existence new books of authority " the Book of Mormon, the Koran, versus the Bible being our authority."

Who Can Dr. Land and the Southern Baptists Support?
In a coquettish, double entendre manner Dr. Land makes his marriage analogy to prove his stance on choosing a preferred Far Right Christian as the Southern Baptist choice, one that tickles the mind with a gay marriage twinge. Land says:

"Before we marry the guy next door, don't you think we ought to have a fling with a tall dark stranger and see if he can support us in the manner to which WE'D LIKE TO BE ACCUSTOMED? And if he can't, we can always marry the steady beau who lives next door." 

"WE'D LIKE TO BE ACCUSTOMED" that phrase encapsulates the real thrust of this weekend's Texas Meeting; Dobson, Bauer, Perkins, Land, Graham, Robertson and all those who may be in the cabal meeting there, love and cherish their direct access to the Presidency and the levels of Federal government which can be of both ideological and economic value to themselves.

-----

How many multi-million dollar religious operations (even billion dollar) empires, publishing houses, music and broadcast networks are under the Religio-Conservatives' control. They aggressively seek and/or enjoy federal government support and/or taxpayer funding. THINK: How many hundreds of millions of dollars were ladled out by George W. Bush to appease and reward his religious rightists under the guise of Faith-Based initiatives?

-----

These are, by in large the same principals (meeting in Texas currently) who blessed the placement of Sarah Palin on the John McCain ticket. This they did with Dr. James Dobson's approval, subsequent to Dobson's fit of obstinacy toward John McCain, whom (prior to McCain's acquiesce and acceptance of Palin on the McCain/Palin ticket) Dobson swore he would not vote for McCain or support in the 2008 election.

Summary Notes:

"Scores of politically influential evangelicals plan to attend the meeting, but the original dream of coalescing around one candidate of the religious right - Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum or Rick Perry - is unrealistic for now, several leaders said in interviews this week. If one of those candidates surges in South Carolina, or in the Florida primary on Jan. 31, pressure will grow on the others to step back, the leaders said.

"'Any talk of winnowing out the field is premature until after South Carolina,'" said Richard Land, the president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. "'The best thing that can happen for social conservatives is for one candidate to get a very clear mandate from South Carolina voters. If that happens, you might be able to get a consensus that makes a difference.'"

"Mr. Land, heeding the request of the meeting's conveners, said he would 'neither confirm nor deny' his plans to attend. The meeting, billed as a private discussion, has drawn intense national attention as Mr. Romney tries to sew up the Republican nomination. He (Romney) is opposed by many evangelicals who question the depth of his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage and his fidelity to fiscal conservatism.

"The gathering of religious leaders and their spouses is to convene Friday (1.13.12) afternoon at the ranch of Paul and Nancy Pressler, west of Houston, and is scheduled to end on Saturday afternoon. MR. PRESSLER, A RETIRED JUDGE, HAS LONG BEEN ACTIVE IN EVANGELICAL CAUSES AND HELPED ENGINEER THE CONSERVATIVE TAKEOVER OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION FROM THE LATE 1970S INTO THE 1990' s."
(emphasis added)

Source: The New York Times in "Evangelicals Hope South Carolina or Florida Winnows Republican Field" Jan 13, 2012.

Original.

Diehard Fundamentalist Evangelicals & Pentecostals have essentially a no-choice “choice” for GOP Candidate for President

1.) How do the Religious Rightist choose to endorse a passionate, if not fanatical, Knight of Malta and papist, supporter of Opus Dei, who pushes every Catholic doctorate limitation on human behavior based on sexual behavior?

- Rick Santorum's pro-Rome agenda threatens the intrusion of European Catholic control into the U.S. Presidency in direct opposition to the stance taken by John F. Kennedy America's first Catholic President?

- Santorum accused John F. Kennedy of "great religious harm" saying: "that the distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility, espoused by President John F. Kennedy, had caused "great harm in America." Santorum, Wikipedia "Rick Santorum, along with Karen and their children, regularly attend the weekly Solemn Mass in Latin at their local Catholic church, St Catherine of Siena, Great Falls VA - at which it seems that Gregorian chant is the norm. Santorum is also an active Knight of Malta. He was also present in Rome to mark the 100th anniversary of St Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer's birth at a special Opus Dei celebration. At that event nearly 10-years ago to the day, he told the well-known Catholic journalist, John Allen, that President Kennedy's distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility had caused "great harm in America". He went on to add: "All of us have heard people say, 'I privately am against abortion, homosexual marriage, stem cell research, cloning. But who am I to decide that it's not right for somebody else?' It sounds good, but it is the corruption of freedom of conscience." Now, there's a man who believes what he says, and says what he believes - a very rare politician indeed!"

See Related Source: Rick Santorum for President A Man of Faith and Conviction.


2.) How do the Religious Rightists choose to endorse between two Mormons whose religion is fantastic and non-Judeo/Christian; is said to be based in mythical claims of a contemporary/continuing, specific, ongoing revelation from God? Among the Religious Right there is no consensus on the question: Are Mormons Christians? If Mormons are indeed "Christian"; Can it be said in the reciprocal mode: Therefore, all Christians are likewise qualified as Mormons?

Franklin Graham in his article Mitt Romney's Mormonism Doesn't Bother Me:

"Evangelical minster Franklin Graham said voters should look past a candidate's personal religion when considering whom they should support for office. Graham offered his advice in a recent interview with The Christian Broadcasting Network when asked if Christians could vote for someone who is a Mormon."

South Carolina Pastor Reverend Brad Atkins, President of the South Carolina Baptist Convention: Mitt Romney's Mormonism More Troubling Than Gingrich's Infidelity. This Southern Baptist leader said that he believes Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will lose the South Carolina primary to Newt Gingrich simply because Romney is a Mormon.

Pastor Mark Driscoll, from the Seattle Mars Hill Mega-Church : Mormonism Is 'Antithetical to Christianity'; "by the theological definition, Mormonism is a cult."

- Bill Keller, the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers, says Joel Osteen and Franklin Graham have a duty to expose Mormonism as a cult; "They are looked up to as prominent Christian leaders," Keller said in an interview with The Christian Post:

"When you have someone like Franklin Graham going on CNN and saying he has no problem voting for a Mormon like Mitt Romney and Osteen saying Mormons are Christian, it is clear that politics are being put before the eternal soul of man."

3.) How do the Religious Rightists decide to choose to endorse a moral reprobate who has a long and sordid sexual history as a philanderer and adulator, albeit cleaned up by his recent conversion to Roman Catholicism and his suing for an annulment of his second marriage? See: The Three Marriages of Newt Gingrich.

4.) How do the Religious Right endorse a radical Libertarian who wants secular freedom to act and do, in a private manner as does not injury other humans, would limit drug war, does not support the national Civil Rights Act, and wants "just to be left alone" by government?

Ron Paul's 2004 floor speech about the Civil Rights Act, in which he explains why he voted against a House resolution honoring the 40th anniversary of the law:

"The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society. Federal bureaucrats and judges cannot read minds to see if actions are motivated by racism. Therefore, the only way the federal government could ensure an employer was not violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to ensure that the racial composition of a business's workforce matched the racial composition of a bureaucrat or judge's defined body of potential employees. Thus, bureaucrats began forcing employers to hire by racial quota. Racial quotas have not contributed to racial harmony or advanced the goal of a color-blind society. Instead, these quotas encouraged racial balkanization, and fostered racial strife."

"[T]he forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty."

Ron Paul also occasionally appears at events sponsored by the John Birch Society, the segregationist right-wing organization that is closely aligned with the Christian Reconstructionist wing of the religious right.

4.) How do the Religious Right " resurrect" their prayerful "hands laid on" choice as per the much discussed spring Rick Perry prayer rally in Texas? Rick is a Texas-style "born again" of the same vein as George W. Bush-the Religious Right's vetted and fully supported faux-Christian "born again" candidate- choice for the 2000 presidential campaign?

-----
Some of the Religious Right Heavies at the Endorsement Decision Table in Texas

1.) Richard Land from the Southern Baptist Convention:

- "Mitch Daniels has suggested that Americans call a "truce" on divisive social issues until our precarious financial house is back in order. Many pundits have praised the idea, typically thrilled that a Republican leader seems willing to jettison, even temporarily, strong positions on abortion or gay marriage. But social conservatives are mad, and rightly so.

"THROUGHOUT THE 1980S AND '90S, SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES WERE THE FOOT SOLDIERS FOR REPUBLICAN VICTORIES-ONLY TO SEE THEIR ISSUES BARGAINED AWAY OR SHOVED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE GOP AGENDA, BENEATH ISSUES OF FISCAL AND FOREIGN POLICY. Reacting to Gov. Daniels, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently said: "For those of us who have labored long and hard in the fight to educate the Democrats, voters, the media and even some Republicans on the importance of strong families, traditional marriage and life to our society, this is absolutely heartbreaking."

Land Continues:

"Most social conservatives are also fiscal conservatives. They recognize that a federal government that borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends is committing generational theft, spending our grand children's money and impoverishing their future. Social conservatives also argue that government has such high costs partly because of the broken families, broken communities and broken ethics generated by moral relativism.

"The millions of social conservatives and tea party voters firmly believe that Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. THEY EXPECT PRO-LIFE, PRO-FAMILY LEGISLATION AND THEY WANT DEEP CUTS IN FEDERAL SPENDING, INCLUDING AN END TO OBAMACARE AND ITS REPLACEMENT WITH PRO-LIFE, FREE-MARKET HEALTH-CARE REFORM. THEY EXPECT COMMITMENTS TO THIS EFFECT FROM THEIR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES."

Land:

"There is a deep longing in large segments of the American populace for a restoration of a morality that emphasizes personal obligations and responsibilities over rights and privileges. SUCH A SOCIETY WILL HAVE A RESTORED MORAL SYMMETRY IN WHICH EXEMPLARY PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR IS REWARDED AND LESS EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOR IS NOT. As Jesus reminded us, 'Man shall not live on bread alone.'"

Source: Richard Land in "Americans Don't Want a 'Truce' on Social Issues" in the Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2011.

Just how Richard Land's vision of rewards and punishments in pursuit of "restored moral symmetry" is not lined out, leaving the inquiring wondering as to how such events will be meted out. Is this the rightful role of government, as envisioned by Dr. Land?

2.) James Dobson, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council: Equating stem cell researchers with Nazi criminals:

""In World War II, the Nazis experimented on human beings in horrible ways in the concentration camps, and I imagine, if you wanted to take the time to read about it, there would have been some discoveries there that benefited mankind." "...And you remove ethics and morality, and you get what happened in Nazi Germany." "

Dobson: Called Senator Patrick Lehy an "enemy of God's people" for the senator's Far Right opposing stance on appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. How close is that to being an "enemy of God?" We all know what is allowed to happen to the "enemies of God", do we not?

Dick Armey on Dobson's intrusion into government: Former House Majority Leader Armey declared:

"The criteria of choice in just about every behavior you see in Congress today is politics. Where in the hell did this Terri Schiavo thing come from? There's not a conservative, Constitution-loving, separation-of-powers guy alive in the world that could have wanted that bill on the floor. That was pure, blatant pandering to James Dobson. That's all that was. It was silly, stupid, and irresponsible. Nobody serious about the Constitution would do that. BUT THE QUESTION WAS WILL THIS ENERGIZE OUR CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE BASE FOR THE NEXT ELECTION."

Armey added:

"To a large extent because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies. I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There's a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn't work unless it's dumb, shallowas water on a plate. These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic. These issues become bigger than life, largely because they're easy. There ain't no thinking."
(emphasis added)

3.) Don Wildmon, the former chairman of the American Family Association: Interview with Rev. Donald E. Wildmo on what is the evidence of anti-Christian attitudes by the networks?

Rev Wildmon:

"I could probably count on one hand, or certainly two hands, the number of programs in which a Christian depicted in a modern-day setting is shown in a positive manner. They're usually depicted as con men, rip-off artists, adulterers, murderers, rapists, thieves, liars. A person who is wearing a cross, carrying a Bible or standing behind a pulpit is usually mentally deranged, at best incompetent."

Source: Time article "Bringing Satan To Heel."

-----
Time is Running Out for the Religious Right to Make an Impactful Endorsement
From the Washtington Post:

"The tension is exacerbated by the deep divisions between two key GOP wings: tea party groups yearning for a pure small-government conservative, and evangelical Christians who want a loyal social conservative.

"In one sign of their desperation, some activists are holding out for what they acknowledge is a spectacular long shot: a late-entering savior who could still qualify for enough state ballots and win enough delegates to force a brokered GOP convention this summer.

"THE ROMNEY CONUNDRUM WILL BE ON THE AGENDA FRIDAY WHEN ABOUT 150 EVANGELICAL LEADERS HUDDLE AT A TEXAS RANCH TO DEBATE THEIR NEXT MOVE. Likewise, the subject of consolidating conservative opposition to the former Massachusetts governor is expected to be a major point of discussion among about 500 attendees at a tea party convention set for this weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where the list of speakers includes two Romney rivals seeking the conservative mantle, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

"'We're aware that the vote is being split and how dangerous that is,' said Joe Dugan, a Gingrich supporter who is chairman of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party and coordinator of the convention.

"'We're trying to encourage coalescing around one candidate,' Dugan added. 'But tea party people are very independent-minded.'" 

(emphasis added)

-----
Playing Religious Right's Endorsement "Final Hand"/Game Plan Coming Out of Texas
The upshot, the long range game plan: Facilitate keeping as many challengers to Mitt Romney in the chase. Purpose: Keep Romney short of the desired/required number of delegates needed for the nomination and then, at the GOP National Convention at Tampa, draft former Florida Governor Jeb Bush as the Far Right Religionists' "hands-laid-on" candidate.


Original.

Gingrich, Like Nixon, Hates Dirty Hippies: Yet Loves His Own ‘Free Love’ Lifestyle

If there is one thing that most social conservative Americans dislike in a candidate for president it's a sex addict.

Fred Barnes writes in this week's issue of The Weekly Standard in "The History of Newt: Are Republicans ready to look past his transgressions?":

"... Gingrich has 'told friends he's like Richard Nixon, not particularly likable and hated by the press and the left.' And here we see Gingrich taking a page from Nixon's playbook. If there was one thing Americans disliked more than the not particularly likable Nixon, it was dirty hippies."

A specific scripture verse on the moral qualifications for a early Christian deacon applies well to the office of President for the character qualifications demanded by values voters:

"[An] Elder ought to be one in whom no fault is found and is the husband of one woman, is of a vigilant mind, sober, orderly, loves strangers and is a teacher."
-- I Timothy 3:12, Aramaic Bible in Plain English

Newt must believe that if one has a new haircut, a clean odorless body, and a filthy mind, that because that person is not "dirty" then there should be an elevated acceptance of that individual on the basis that, as in the Fundamentalist apocryphal "Cleanlyness is next to godliness." The many dirty deeds of Wall Street are not expressed in their choice of personal toiletry or dress, evil is a deep dirt condition that passes the surface 'smell test' that Gingrich so snarkedly presents.

What about Newt, himself, with a stylish haircut, crisp suits, he smells good, and possesses a long history of sexual over indulgence, if not addictions to fornication and adultery, he can claim he is cleaner than those he seeks to discount who are the OWS patriots. The Newtonian dirty deeds-in pursuit of the support and acceptance of himself by the 1% - are hard to continence, even if Newt runs up his tab at Tiffney's-in an ostentatious manner.

Want to see into the twisted morals and mind of Gingrich? Read his co-authored novel, the book entitled "1945" , a 1995 alternate history novel.

"Ultimately, it's the Gingrichian way with facts, figures, and ideas that most endears him to these (rad right) voters," ogles Barnes admiringly.

If there is one thing that most Americans dislike in a candidate for president, a sex addict. Newt is a serial adulterer. He has a long early history of easy sex and lax, if not existent restrain on his libido.

But the crushing blow to Newtonian claims to be a true conservative comes in crushing form from George Will, ABC's This Week, Sunday.

Conservative scribe George Will ridiculed Newt Gingrich as a 'rental politician' on ABC's 'This Week' yesterday (11/20/11), scoffing at the idea that the Republican Party's self-described 'big ideas' candidate is employable as a historian:

"Gingrich's is an amazingly efficient candidacy, in that it embodies almost everything disagreeable about modern Washington. He's the classic rental politician. People think his problem is his colorful personal life. He's gonna hope people concentrate on that, rather than on, for example, ethanol. Al Gore has recanted ethanol. Not Newt Gingrich, who has served the ethanol lobby. Industrial policy of the sort that got us Solyndra " he's all for it. Freddie Mac, he says, hired him as a "historian." He's not a historian. Hire Sean Wilentz, hire Gordon Wood if you want a historian." 

So said Mr. Will.

"Will's undisguised scorn is a good illustration of why Gingrich, even as he makes a bid for the affections of rank-and-file anti-Romney voters, is unlikely to win over much of anti-Romney conservative upper crust. As much as there's still a demand for an impressive, thoughtful conservative in the race who can lead the party to Romney's right, most of the political elites who know Gingrich best were convinced a long time ago that he isn't that guy."

So says Alexander Burns in Politico on Nov 21, 2011.


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RACE as the GOP’s Dog Whistle Political “Tool”

"Passion and prejudice properly aroused and directed...do about as well as principle and reason in a party contest."
-- Thomas Elder, prominent Whig politician, 1840

Origins of Race in GOP Politics: How the South Was, and Is, Won


From the masterpiece on American politics by Thomas Byrne Edsall (Washington Post) and wife Mary Edsall come these key insights:

"Within two weeks of the (1948) Democratic convention, the States' Rights Democratic Party (the "Dixiecrats) was formed at a gathering in Birmingham, Alabama. (Strom) Thurman and Fielding Wright, the governor of Mississippi, were chosen as the new party's presidential and vice-presidential nominees. Thurman, running on a segregationist platform, won only 1,169,021 votes, a twentieth if the 24 million votes received by Truman. But Thurman carried Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama-the heart of the deep South, established what sixteen years later would become the beachhead of the GOP."

"The 1948 Thurman campaign was of profound importance, won the issue of race to break (the hold of) the national Democratic Party on the South, a step of critical consequence in a thirty-two-year process that would produce a regional realignment in presidential elections by 1980."

--Thomas & Mary Edsall, in Chain Reaction.

How did the Republicans become the party of choice for the segregationists in the former Dixiecrat "solid" South?

How could there be such a complete and dramatic flip from a "solid Democratic" to "solid Republican" South in such a short period? What gave rise to Republicrats?

In 1964 Barry Goldwater ran for President as a rock-ribbed die-hard conservative. "In the liberal, pro-civil rights atmosphere of 1964, the right-wing strategy of the Goldwater campaign was a short-term disaster."

Involved in Goldwater's nomination success, "the Draft Goldwater Committee used 'concepts and language so harsh that they were unfit for the day-to-day operations or dialogue of American politics," wrote Robert Novak. However, within one presidential cycle these concepts and language had become "publically accepted GOP strategy."

The shift from the support given Democrats to the Republicans in the Deep South played into Nixon's "Southern Strategy." Continued by Ronald Reagan with his trip to the Mississippi county (directly from his nomination at Detroit's National G.O.P. Convention, 1980) where civil rights workers were previously murdered, was Reagan's pandering when he spoke of state's rights. Read the account: "The G.O.P.'s own leaders admit that the great Southern white shift was the result of a deliberate political strategy. 'Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization.' So declared Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaking in 2005.

"And Ronald Reagan was among the 'some' who tried to benefit from racial polarization."
-- Paul Krugman in "Republicans and Race" Nov 1, 2007.

Reagan repeated his reiteration of the term "welfare queens" with targeted intent. One of Reagan's wedge statements made had especial appeal to the Southern Base; Reagan in 1980 said the Voting Rights Act was "humiliating to the South."

George H. W. Bush used the "Willie Horton ad", a racial device, and George W. Bush went to Bob Jones University to stake his claim to this line of subliminal, underlying "coded" race strategy.

Robert Novak Weighs In on Goldwater's Impact
The type of plans devised by conservatives in the early stages of the campaign to win in 1964 were, according to Robert Novak (THE AGONY OF THE GOP, 1964) the following:

"Policy A: Soft-pedal civil rights. While stopping short of actually endorsing racial segregation, forget all the sentimental tradition of the party of Lincoln. Because the Negro and Jewish votes are irrevocably tied to the Democrats anyway, this agnostic racial party won't lose votes among the groups most sensitive to Negro rights. But it might work wonders in attracting white southerners into the Republican Party, joining white Protestants in other sections of the country as hard-core Republicans.

Policy B: Assume a vigorously strong anti-Communist line...This wouldn't lose many votes among white Protestants and might snatch enough Catholic votes away from the Democratic Party to cut down Democratic margins in the big cities.

Policy C: Except for the civil rights question, stick to orthodox Republicanism on domestic issues."

How clever and effective; In fact Goldwater did all the wrong things to win the set of Southern States he won in 1964:

"Goldwater ran in 1964 as an ideological doctrinaire conservative calling for the sale of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the evisceration of the Rural Electrification Administration, a voluntary system of Social Security, and t he elimination of farm subsidies. None of these principled stands on the ideological right won him any states. In fact the states he did carry, each one of the government programs Goldwater sought to overturn had substantial, if not overwhelming, majority support."

The Edsall's expand:

"There was, in reality, only one issue that permitted Goldwater to carry five states in addition to his home state of Arizona: civil rights. Goldwater declared himself personally opposed to segregation, but even more deeply opposed on principle to federal intervention to end segregation. '(I)t is wise and just for Negro children to attend the same schools as whites,' Goldwater wrote in 1960, but, he added, "the federal constitution does not require the States to maintain racially mixed schools. Despite the recent holding of the Supreme Court, I am firmly convinced-not only the integrated schools are not required-but that the Constitution does not permit any interference by the federal government in the field of education."

Foremost and most importantly; the obvious and most important component of Goldwater's position and stratagem, Goldwater had cast the sole U.S. Senate vote against the Civil Rights Act.

This was the clear and singular act that made Goldwater the Deep South's 1964 Presidential Choice. The stunning reversal of popular vote from "solid" Democrat in the South to a "solid" vote for Goldwater, a Republican, transfixed GOP strategy going forward from that point.

It was a clarion signal to the Republican strategists going forward. Operatives discovered and would use the power of race to dislodge and covert voters who where, heretofore, thought unable to politically crack the Solid South.

The University of Michigan's Survey Research Center produced evidence that changes in the role of race in voting patterns were "significant and of lasting importance" the U of M study suggested that the "ISSUE OF RACE ACTUALLY PRODUCED AN IDEOLOGICAL CONVERSION OF POOR SOUTHERN WHITES FROM A DEEPLY HELD ECONOMIC LIBERALISM TO ECONOMIC CONSERVATISM." (emphasis added)

The U of M researcher goes on,

"By the early 1970's, poor southern whites had moved decisively to the right on these economic issues, becoming more conservative than Catholics, border state whites, and the middle and lower-status white northern Protestants . On the basic issue of government intervention to protect the less well-off, poor southern whites by the 1979's had become as conservative as upscale northern Protestants, a key Republican constituency."

The Edsalls wrote:

"As the 1964 Civil Rights bill worked its way from proposal to passage, and as the presidential campaign took its course, the public perception not only of Johnson and Goldwater, but also of the racial stands of the Democratic and Republican parties, changed radically. The biennial polls conducted for the National Election Studies (NES) reveal that the public before 1964 saw virtually no difference between the parties on issues of race."

Momentous Change Was Coming

"As recently as 1962, when respondents were asked which party "is more likely to see to it that Negroes get fair treatment in jobs and housing?." 22.7 percent said Democrats, 21.3 percent said Republicans, and 55.9 percent said there was no difference between the two parties."

"By late 1964, however, the public saw clear differences between the two parties. When asked which party was more likely to support fair treatment in jobs for blacks, 6o percent of the respondents said the Democratic party, 33 percent said there was no difference between the parties, and only 7 percent said the Republican party. Similarly, when asked in 1964 which party was more likely to support blacks and whites going to the same school, 56 percent said the Democratic party, 37 percent said there was no difference, and 7 percent identified the Republican party.'

"The events of 1964 gave rise to a process in which, over time, the partisan differences on race seen by the public would extend beyond presidential candidates to members of Congress, to the stands taken by the two party platforms, and to the attitudes of presidential convention delegates, party activists, and the much larger universe of voters who identify with the Republican and Democratic parties. BY 1964, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WAS ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING THE HOME OF RACIAL LIBERALISM, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING THE HOME OF RACIAL CONSERVATISM."

From the Edsalls, Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall, " A Pivotal Year", CHAIN REACTION: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics, SEE this LINK.

"For the architects of the conservative revolution within the GOP, the southern reaction to the civil rights movement was a fortuitous and unplanned development."

"It was the civil rights movement, however, that gave the conservative insurgency a wider focus, a broader target, and an enlarged constituency. On a number of complementary fronts, the civil rights revolution interacted with the conservative movement to strengthen the right-wing drive within the GOP."

"Evidence that the Goldwater drive was mobilizing a new breed of Republican began to surface at party gatherings. At the 1963 Republican National Committee meeting in Denver, northern Republican leaders, proud of their party's ties to Abraham Lincoln and the emancipation of the slaves midway through the Civil War, were stunned to hear southern chairman carrying on 'boisterous conversation about 'n----rs" and "n----er lovers," wrote columnist Robert Novak in his book, THE AGONY OF THE GOP 1964."

Novak as quoted by the Edsalls:

"At the decisively pro-Goldwater 1963 convention of Young Republicans in San Francisco, there was according to Novak 'no doubt [the] unabashed hostility toward the Negro rights movement was fully shared by the overwhelming majority of the convention delegates...delegates from North and South talk,' Robert Novak observed: ' with a single voice on the race question...For the Young Republicans at San Francisco, their party was now a White Man's Party.'"

--Various quotes excerpted from: CHAIN REACTION: THE IMPACT OF RACE, RIGHTS, AND TAXES ON AMERICAN POLITICS, Thomas Byrne and Mary D. Edsall


What Role Will RACE Play in the 2012 Elections?
This election cycle will be peppered with all the coding and "dog whistles" associated with the GOP's tried and true use of RACE and ethnicity as keystone factors in legislation, politics and campaigning.

Even Henry Payne, The Michigan View in Detroit News, catches on; at least in part; when he bluntly concludes:

"So why are the elephants dooming their long-term viability? Having already alienated black and Jewish voters, they seem to determined to alienate the fastest-growing minority in America: Hispanics." Payne concludes: "...the GOP base wants to build a fence. And as Perry understands - and Bush and Rove before him - that look(s) to Hispanic voters like a fence around A WHITE REPUBLICAN PARTY." 

Closer to Home: Gingrich's Remarks and Race in Detroit
The crafty, often careless, but cunning Gingrich uses hyperbole and exaggeration for maximum effect. Brendon Berry, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, wrote this piece: DOG WHISTLES AND CODES: Covert Republican Message Making, May 21, 2011:

"Recent Republican race-baiting, in the person of Newt Gingrich and his allegorical references to Detroit and food stamps, raises anew the issue of Republican 'dog-whistle politics.' That Republicans habitually trip over themselves in the proverbial 'race to the bottom' with their appeals to the fears and anxieties of small-mindedness is well understood by any close observer of American politics. But the well-read and keenly alert are not the electoral targets or concerns of Republican message-makers. The people Republican strategists seek to reach-or at least not to scare-are the vast numbers of Americans who are not paying attention closely, those whose ignorance renders them susceptible to the game of bait-and-switch that the right-wing has been playing with Americans for decades."

Footnote on "Dog Whistle Racism": 

"Dog-Whistle Racism is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes to appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames. For example, the concepts 'welfare queen,' 'states' rights,' 'Islamic terrorist,' 'uppity,' 'thug,' 'tough on crime,' and 'illegal alien' all ACTIVATE RACIST CONCEPTS THAT THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN PLANTED IN THE PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND NOW ARE BEING ACTIVATED BY PURPOSEFUL OR ACCIDENTAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES, MEDIA COVERAGE, PUBLIC POLICY AND CULTURAL TRADITIONS. So, what's dog whistle racism? It's pure political theater to push buttons to win elections and policies."
(emphasis added) 

For further information go to Dog Whistle Racism.


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