When he's off Karl Rove's very short leash, Bush tends to babble incoherently - or reveal his true motives in a shockingly Freudian way.
At a forum for urban leaders at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the following managed to fall into both categories at once.
Speaking about his Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, Bush remarked that "we've created these offices whose sole function is to, one, recognize the power of faith, and two, recognize there are fantastic programs all throughout the country on a variety of subjects, all based upon faith, all changing lives, all making American life better, and therefore, folks would be enlisted in making sure the American dream extends throughout our society." He continued, "We ought not to discriminate against faith-based programs." (comments from whitehouse.gov)
Putting aside the semantic problem of how the office can have so many "sole" functions, since when did recognizing "the power of faith" become any function of a federal office?
And when did separation of church and state become a matter of religious discrimination?
"When he's off Karl Rove's very short leash, Bush tends to babble incoherently - or reveal his true motives in a shockingly Freudian way."
Usually I hear these goodies on the radio, PDiddie, and then try like crazy to get to a pad and pencil before I forget them. The language changes when Rove's sentences have been squeezed out and Da Boss adds his thang. If he weren't dangerous, he'd be funny. Has any comedian done an imitation of this split personality talk? Where is Mort Sahl when we need him?
You mean you don't think the Justice Department should enforce faith? You wretch.
(I retch too.)
One word that describes Bush. He is "simple."
"...he is, he knows, a simple man. He thinks of it as his great virtue"
That quote is from an extraordinary piece on Bush by Thomas de Zengotita in the July Harpers. I believe it is still on the stands now. VERY highly recommended analysis of this man in this time.
All right! de Zengotita again! Love that guy. Looking forward to reading that. (I've suffered a hiatus in my Harpers' subscription -- my fault -- thought I'd paid, so now I'll get my July with my August....)
But I don't share the belief that Bush is genuinely simple. I think he has the kind of complications in his functioning that come from alcohol and neurosis, and that his self-presentation has the aura of a rigid simplicity (about all he can handle). Simple people are much more malleable, much less secretive. defensive.
Just wanna say that I agree with damn near all the sentiments being expressed here right now.
Go!!!
Leeadership is to lead, not to say what I said was catgorically true and I don't check out facts!
That's playing the dumb ass.
New tolerance for faith in politics
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Americans have moved a long way from the time when religion and politics were the two hot topics to avoid at all costs in conversation. Today, some 100 million Americans discuss political issues with friends and family in a given week, and 90 million say they bring up spiritual or religious matters, says the Barna Research Group.
And it's clear that religion and politics are becoming more entwined in the American psyche. A nationwide survey released last week shows that religion plays a significant part in people's thinking about contentious policy issues and is seen increasingly as an important element in political life.
Religious perspectives show up readily, for example, in public attitudes toward such disparate issues as gay marriage and US foreign policy in the Middle East, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The groups surveyed 2,002 adults between June 24 and July 8.
The poll reports that opposition to gay marriage decreased significantly in the US from 65 percent in 1996 to 53 percent today. Opposition dropped in nearly every segment of society, by 10 to 20 percent, except for two groups - white evangelical Protestants (83 percent opposed) and African-Americans (64 percent) - whose views did not change.
Strong support for Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tied to faith concerns. Fully 44 percent of Americans believe God gave the land that is now Israel to the Jewish people, the poll says.
And 36 percent believe that "the state of Israel is a fulfillment of the biblical prophecy about the second coming of Jesus" - 63 percent of evangelicals, 21 percent of mainline Protestants, and 25 percent of Catholics.
On the role of faith in political life, the survey could help boost religious rhetoric in the presidential campaign. It finds Americans are quite comfortable with the religiosity of public officials - particularly President Bush.
A 62 percent majority says he strikes the right balance in how much he mentions religious faith, and 58 percent say his reliance on religion in policymaking is appropriate.
When asked in general about expressions of faith and prayer by political leaders, 41 percent said there was "too little," and only 21 percent said "too much."
America has apparently moved beyond that era when religion was strictly a private affair. "Many people seem to look at it as allowing politicians to talk about themselves and what is important to them," suggests Melissa Rogers, executive director of the Pew Forum. "There's more of an inclination for people today to be very open about who they are and what they believe."
Americans also acknowledge that a candidate's religion might affect their voting choices - 64 percent say it could lead them to vote against a well-qualified candidate from their party. A majority (52 percent) expresses reservations about supporting a candidate who has no religion, and 38 percent would be reluctant to vote for a Muslim.
Last March, a Pew poll on global attitudes taken in many Muslim nations revealed increasingly unfavorable perceptions of the US. The current US survey finds that Americans' perceptions of Islam have also deteriorated.
In March 2002, a year and a half after Sept. 11, only 25 percent said that Islam is "more likely than other religions to encourage violence." Today, 44 percent of Americans believe that, with significant increases occurring among mainline Protestants and Catholics as well as evangelicals.
Still, views toward Muslim Americans have not changed significantly, with 51 percent of Americans holding a favorable view, and only 24 percent unfavorable.
Muslim Americans remain particularly concerned, however, about those with negative views. Earlier this month, an Islamic civil rights group, the Council on American- Islamic Relations, released its annual report on anti-Muslim incidents in the US. According to the council, incidents of violence, discrimination, and harassment increased by 15 percent in 2002, from 525 confirmed incidents to 602.
The nature of incidents varies greatly. Just last week in one Maryland county, for example, two Pakistani youths were murdered - the FBI is investigating the motive - and a cross was set ablaze on the grounds of an Islamic school.
Expressions of religious faith and prayer by... Political leaders G.W. Bush
Too little 41% 11%
Too much 21 14
Right amount 29 62
Don't know 2 13
Sources: The Pew Research Center for The People & The Press; The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
What is it about Bush?
What is it about Bush? I refer you to my post "How Bush's presidential language manipulates the people.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9947&highlight=
BumbleBeeBoogie
In 17 years of EMS, I have come the the conclusioin that those who claim that God speaks to them need to have their resperidol prescription made sronger!
The Burning Bush; The Rest of Us Don't Have a Prayer
Mondo Washington - The Village Voice
by James Ridgeway
The Burning Bush
The Rest of Us Don't Have a Prayer
August 5th, 2003 12:00 PM
Bush has been kissing Christian ass ever since he took the oath of office. There are 19 million voters whom Karl Rove considers "religious conservatives," but only 14 million of them voted in 2000, and the president's campaign strategists want to get them hopped up enough to vote in huge numbers in the unlikely event of a close election next year.
It's payback time, and just to make certain that the fundamentalists are plenty happy, Bush last week not only came down against gay marriage, but in a manic gesture of goodwill promised to "codify" marriage "one way or another" as something between only a man and a woman.
Bush began the road to card-carrying fundamentalism when he took a long walk in 1985 with Billy Graham around Walker's Point at his family's Kennebunkport compound. By the time he ruled Texas, Shrub was talking about Christ all the time. Going off the deep end, he said, "I could not be governor if I did not believe in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans."
Well, a divine plan is probably better than no plan at all, and over the past three years the president has done his level best to get one going. Look at what he's done:
As his very first act at the inauguration, Bush officially designated the day as the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. Then he made the Bible-thumpin' evangelical John Ashcroft attorney general.
Without a pause, Bush turned his attention to Africa, where the heathen had gone and given themselves, as one of his disciples put it, "the gay plague." Something had to be done about this, so Bush stopped U.S. money going to the UN to tell Africans about condoms: His administration denied $34 million in funding for the United Nations Population Fund, known as UNFPA. "This decision is an embarrassment and a travesty," said Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, whose committee approved $50 million in funding for the agency in the Senate version of the foreign-aid bill. "It flies in the face of the facts, of the law, and of the intent of Congress." But the State Department said the Chinese government was encouraging abortions and that wouldn't do.
Then Bush quickly sent a message of support to anti-abortion protesters in front of the Supreme Court: "We share a great goal: to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law. . . . But the goal leads us onward: to build a culture of life, affirming that every person, at every stage and season of life, is created equal in God's image."
Roe v. Wade is still law, but Congress, with Bush's backing, has done everything possible to get rid of it: Bush backed a ban on what abortion foes call partial birth abortion and tried to end stem cell research. Congress is well on its way to giving fetuses constitutional rights, maybe even the ability to sue for damages under terrorism laws. Like a mullah, Bush pushes abstinence, proposing to spend $135 million to promote it, and administration mouthpieces preach that it's important for young people to delay the "debut" of their sexual life. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson explained the no-**** policy like this: "When adolescents become sexually active, it can have negative effects on their physical and emotional health."
Bush is noted for his plans to have faith-based charities administer what's left of the New Deal's social-welfare programs?-a return to Dickensian days even though a study claims that having churches do it would cost more than letting the federal government do it. At least one church program in Texas offers welfare recipients employment help in return for their reading scripture and fitting the word of God into their job search.
The Heritage Foundation, the conservatives' main don't-think tank in D.C., has produced studies purportedly demonstrating that going to church makes a person a better citizen. And Bush's domestic policy often follows this line. The White House, for example, wants to fight the "drug war" with church-based youth groups. "Recent research suggests religious involvement may reduce adolescent smoking, heavy drinking, and marijuana use," reported the religious right's favorite D.C. paper, The Washington Times.
School vouchers, of course, play a key role in tearing down the church-state wall, if they're used to back privately run church schools over public schools. The goal of the religious right has always been to change the institutions of government, like the U.S. Department of Education, hated for being too secular.
The federal courts, however, face the boldest attack. Democrats have been trying to block confirmation of conservative judges, but Pat Robertson recently launched a 21-day "prayer offensive" called "Operation Supreme Court Freedom."
"One justice is 83 years old, another has cancer, and another has a heart condition," wrote Robertson in a letter to his TV viewers. "Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire? With their retirement and the appointment of conservative judges, a massive change in federal jurisprudence can take place."
Thanks to Bush, a guy who has a direct line to God. Apparently, so does his aide Tim Goeglein. He recently told the Christian-right magazine World: "I think President Bush is God's man at this hour, and I say this with a great sense of humility."
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Additional reporting: Phoebe St John
hobitbob wrote:In 17 years of EMS, I have come the the conclusioin that those who claim that God speaks to them need to have their resperidol prescription made sronger!
I can truthfully say that my Higher Power speaks to me if I initiate the conversation. However, there is nothing in those talks about killing anyone nor actually about anyone else. They are strictly about myself and how my life can be made better.
