Another One Bites the Dust

Emile Steiner blogs on conservative Florida State Representative Bob Allen, who was arrested last month for attempting to solicit oral sex from an undercover (male) police officer in a public restroom.

According to Project Vote Smart, Allen received an over 90% approval rating from the Christian Coalition in 2003-2006. Allen has also been a strong supporter of anti-gay initiatives and was a sponsor of a bill to strengthen Florida’s laws against public sex. And just for additional comical relief, Rep. Allen’s Florida House webpage lists “water sports” as his recreational interest.

Wow, I might almost feel bad for this guy if I could get over the hilarious irony.

update: I thought it couldn't get any better but then I saw tonight's Daily Show and learned Rep. Allen is also the state representative for John McCain's presidential campaign. Stewart was hilarious by the way, still looking for a clip of the show.

Congress Gone Wild

Here's a fun video clip of the shouting match that occurred last Thursday in the House after a Democratic maneuver that effectively denied the Republicans their win over a procedural motion which would ensure that illegal immigrants would not get benefits from an agriculture spending bill. Full story here.

Looks more like the British House of Commons than the US Congress.

Congress Seeks to Endorse the Ten Commandments

Yesterday in the House, Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) introduced H.RES.598, supporting the goals of the Ten Commandments Commission and congratulating the Commission and its supporters for their key role in promoting and ensuring recognition of the Ten Commandments as the cornerstone of Western law. It has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Where even to begin? First, it is a horrible waste of legislative time to address a purely symbolic resolution, especially with all of the far more pressing issues the country is facing.

Second, even though it is a symbolic resolution that will have no effect on the law if passed, I find it problematic that the legislature would support an organization whose goal is to restore the Ten Commandments in public places in spite of the 1980 Supreme Court Decision Stone v. Graham, which found that the Commandments are "undeniably a sacred text," and that their public display violates the First Amendment.

Third, the language of the H.RES.598 is facetious. It seeks to congratulate the Ten Commandments Commission for “promoting and ensuring recognition of the Ten Commandments as the cornerstone of Western law.” The Commission is not actually concerned with dubious premise that the Ten Commandments are the base of Western Law, they wish to prop up the Commandments as the Word of God itself, in hopes of giving the Bible greater authority in our laws and daily lives. Their mission statement reads:

As committed people of faith, we have an obligation to stand up together for God. His law is not only a profile of His character, but also a moral mirror to show humans where we have fallen short in both honoring the Creator, and in respecting our fellow man. Therefore, as we witness the degradation of society, we must come together in a spirit of unity, harmony, and reconciliation to bring the Word of God back to the forefront of our national conscience.

Now to address this claim that the Commandments are the foundation of Western law. For starters, the first four are explicitly religious and have nothing to do with secular law.

Further, the first documentation of written law was Hammurabi’s Code, which was written in approximately 1760 BC, 1000 years before the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments actually echoes many of the provisions of Hammurabi’s Code.

Then there’s the Magna Carta. Marci Hamilton, professor of law at Yeshiva University writes a nice column on the Ten Commandments, where she writes:

The Magna Carta, which forced the British King John to give up many rights to the aristocracy, was first set down in 1215 A.D. It was the first declaration that the people's ruler was under the law, the first check on royal power, and it introduced nascent concepts of due process, jury by one's peers, freedom of religion, and no taxation without representation.

Other monarchs agreed to future Magna Cartas, and it came to be considered central to the law of England. Even though it took a back seat during the 1500s, it was re-discovered and embraced in the 1600s to fight the tyranny of the Stuarts. Parliament used it as a wedge against the monarchs, in effect, creating the beginnings of the separation of powers we now take for granted. It is common
knowledge that the principles of the Magna Carta were carried across the
Atlantic to the New World and the colonies, and bore fruit in the United States
Constitution and state laws.

The most recent copy was recently installed with much pomp and circumstance in a handsome display in Philadelphia's Independence Visitors' Center. There is no question that the Magna Carta--which was the first written declaration of rights by landowners against the monarchy--was a strong influence on later rights declarations, including the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

The vast majority of American law, including the rules against killing and stealing, was borrowed in whole or in part from the British common law--which itself was viewed either as rising from natural law or from custom, not from the Ten Commandments.

With all of that being said. Americans who support the separation of church and state should reject even symbolic encroachments of religion in the public square. However we should not loose site of the substantive encroachments that the Religious Right continue to push for such as: Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives, religious school voucher programs, the teaching of Creationism in science classes, and the denial of equal rights to gay Americans.

Home of Senator Stevens Raided by the FBI

The home of Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), former Chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, was raided by FBI and IRS agents yesterday as a part of a corruption probe.

This is the same Senator who placed a secret hold on a bill that was aimed at increasing government accountability by requiring the government to publish and online database of federal spending.

This is the same Senator who, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, was able to attach a $2 billion project for the 'Bridge to Nowhere'. And the same Senator who threated to resign if the funds for this monument to government waste were redirected to rebuild a major thoroughfare bridge destroy by Hurricane Katrina.

It is a relief to see that Senator Stevens seems to be unraveling from his own corruption and arrogance. It is somewhat disheartening that it had to be the FBI to do it. Where were the people of Alaska, who voted Stevens into office for six terms? Enjoying the pork projects he showered upon his state, I suppose (Alaska is number one recipient of federal pork funds, though it is the 48th most populous).

The beauty of democracy is that it is supposed to create institutionalized checks on power. Instead our democracy, through cronyism and special interests, allowed Senator Stevens to be untouchable for nearly 40 years.

Virginia police appointed to position of tax collector

Virginia's steep driving violation fees go into effect today. The new penalties will reach as high as $1050 for driving 20 mph over the speed limit. Other fines include $1050 for include using the wrong turn signal, driving too fast for conditions, and having below-standard tires, among many more.

The Washington Post reports:

The licenses of tens of thousands of motorists in New Jersey and Michigan have been suspended because they cannot afford the fees, and little evidence has emerged that such fines improve highway safety, according to state officials and studies.

Officials in Michigan and New Jersey say Virginians should brace for problems, including clogged courts and the prospect of thousands of residents having to choose between keeping their licenses and paying their bills.

Of course we should recognize these fees for what they really are--a $65 million per year tax increase.

What concerns me the most about these new fines is the greater potential they create for police abuse and corruption, now that officers have an even greater power advantage over the citizens by having the authority to slap them with exorbitant fines for relatively minor offenses.

Another tale of Christianist hypocrisy

Former NC state legislator Coy C. Privette, a Cabarrus County commissioner and retired Baptist minister, was charged with aiding and abetting prostitution last Thursday.

Coy Privette is currently the President of the Christian Action League, which represents conservative evangelicals from 15 Christian denominations in NC. From the Christian Action League's website:

We discourage the promotion and use of beverage alcohol and other drugs, pornography, sexual immorality and other sinful practices that not only undermine the spiritual lives of those who participate in them, but also undermine the strength of our State and National character.

One of our most important tasks is training, developing, and motivating Christians to be involved in the political process. We want to mobilize Christians to be as Jesus commanded them to be -- the salt and light of the earth. Christians are to arrests and expose such contemporary issues as abortion, gambling, suicide, sex education, homosexuality, and we provide the information and help needed to deal with these critical issues.

Why can't the Christianists work on achieving their view of morality themselves, before they start trying to impose it on the rest of us?

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the tip.

Judge dismisses child rapist

The Washington Post reports:

A 7-year-old girl said she had been raped and repeatedly molested over the course of a year. Police in Montgomery County, acting on information from a relative, soon arrested a Liberian immigrant living in Gaithersburg. They marshaled witnesses and DNA evidence to prepare for trial.

What was missing -- for much of the nearly three years that followed -- was an interpreter fluent in the suspect's native language. A judge recently dropped the charges, not because she found that Mahamu Kanneh had been wrongly accused but because repeated delays in the case had, in her view, violated his right to a speedy trial.

...

With help from the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, The Washington Post identified three Vai interpreters Thursday, including one in Gaithersburg. Lionbridge, a company that offers interpretation services, said it could provide Vai speakers on short notice.

A child rapist is back on the streets because of the incompetence of the prosecutor’s office. If only the people charged with bringing criminals to justice were as good at their jobs as the Washington Post reporters who broke the story and found available interpreters.

Government gives $1.1 billion to dead farmers

From today's Washington Post:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion over seven years to the estates or companies of deceased farmers and routinely failed to conduct reviews required to ensure that the payments were properly made, according to a government report.

In a selection of 181 cases from 1999 to 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that officials approved payments without any review 40 percent of the time.

...

Last year, a Washington Post investigation of farm subsidies found more than $15 billion in wasteful or redundant spending in other farm payments, including $1.3 billion to people who do not farm and $817 million to farms that use loopholes to exceed limits.

The $1.1 billion the US government paid dead farmers is more than the 2006 budget allotted for:

-The Nuclear Facilities Safety Board ($22 million)

-Refugee programs ($889 million)

-International disaster and famine assistance ($579 million)

-Iraq relief and reconstruction fund ($10 million)

-USAID operations ($794 million)

-Nonproliferation, antiterrorism, demining, and related programs ($396 million)

-Naval petroleum reserves operations ($22 million)

-Uranium enrichment decontamination ($110 million)

-Nuclear waste program ($148 million)

-Emergency energy preparedness ($164 million)

-Food safety and inspection ($830 million)

-Consumer product safety commission ($62 million)

-Medicare prescription drug administrative expenses ($770 million)

-Armed forces retirement homes ($300 million)

-Affordable housing program ($307 million)

-High-intensity drug trafficking areas program ($200 million)


Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and a critic of farm subsidies to wealthy farms requested the GAO report. Ahead of the report's release, Grassley remarked, "Farm payments are meant for those who need some help getting through the tough times...clearly there are loopholes that should be closed and laws that need to be followed."

Too bad the Senator doesn't practice what he preaches.

According the Environmental Working Group's Farm Subsidy Database, Grassley recieved over $225,041 in USDA subsidies between the years of 1995 and 2005. Grassley's son Robin has received $653,833 over the same period.

Oh the irony.

Useless and Corrupt Politician Hired by Hillary '08

What were your elected officials doing yesterday, besides engaging in hypocritical scandals and cheap election '08 posturing?

Well yesterday, the House of Representatives passed H.RES.287, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the first use of the name "America", and for other purposes.

H.RES.287 was introduced by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) on March 29, 2007. I'm proud to see that the House, under the brave leadership of Rep. Hastings, has taken this step in commemorating such a milestone in the history of our great nation.

So what else has the Honorable Alcee Hastings been up to lately? Besides introducing H.RES.183, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should issue a postage stamp commemorating the Fisk Jubilee Singers, to the House in February (which was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, in case you were wondering); and recovering from his 1989 Senate conviction and removal from office for bribery and perjury?

He has been appointed as co-chair of the national Clinton campaign!

Ideological gag order

Yet another instance of the Bush Administration placing ideology above good governance. The New York Times reports:

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of politicalconsiderations.

The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues.

And it seems the trend will continue with the President’s nomination of James Holsinger to fill the position of ‘America’s Top Doctor.’

This is just another case of our public agencies falling under the influence of what my favorite blogger, Andrew Sullivan, calls Christianism. It's a fascinating and frightening result of the growing influence of Christian fundamentalism in American politics over the past two decades generally, and the Bush Jr. years specifically.