SHOCKS THE CONSCIENCE From TPM:
Late today, in response to longstanding congressional demands, the Justice Department released a declassified version of one of the original legal underpinnings for U.S. government-sanctioned torture, a March 14, 2003 memo written by the Office of Legal Counsel's John Yoo.  From the Post:

The memo--which was rescinded just nine months after it was issued--provides an expansive argument for nearly unfettered presidential power in a time of war, contending that numerous laws and treaties that forbid torture or cruel treatment should not apply to the interrogations of enemy combatants overseas. ...

"If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network," Yoo wrote. "In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch's constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions."

Interrogators who harmed a prisoner would be protected by a "national and international version of the right to self-defense," Yoo wrote. He also articulated a definition of illegal conduct in interrogations -- that it must "shock the conscience" -- that the Bush administration advocated for years.

"Whether conduct is conscience-shocking turns in part on whether it is without any justification," Yoo wrote, explaining, for example, that it would have to be inspired by malice or sadism before it could be prosecuted.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archive...

Life is funny From the always fun Colin McEnroe.

So Hillary compares herself to Rocky?
Yes, she does.
I’m stealing this idea from a caller to my show, but ... does Hillary know the plot of "Rocky?"
He loses to a black man.

http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenr...

Obama as faith healer?

Ginny McCallum, 43, who has been confined to a wheelchair for much of her adult life, came to hear presidential candidate Barack Obama speak at the University of Texas. Afterward she found herself in a wheelchair access breezeway as Obama and his entourage exited the arena. The candidate spotted her, came over, grabbed her hand and pulled her up. She found herself standing for the first time in eleven years. "He smiled at me and said, ‘Yes, you can,’" she says. "I was so stunned I didn’t know what to do." McCallum is among hundreds of people who say they have been healed by the Democratic candidate, in one of the most surprising and little-acknowledged aspects of his campaign.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmi...

Why is this legal?  It's certainly immoral.

A pay day loan is typically for a few hundred dollars, with a term of two weeks, and an interest rate as high as 800 percent. The average borrower ends up paying back $793 for a $325 loan, according to the Center.

A quick Google of "payday loans online" showed several sites charging 900% APR for a $100 7 day loan.  Bring back the Jubilee?  http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...

Obama the evangelical

Obama's call for change and renewal, itself a standard evangelical theme, has resonated. "I visit a lot of evangelical colleges and what I see is Obama stickers and Obama T-shirts all over the campuses," says Campolo. "His is a voice that can inspire."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...

Another Clinton Pastor

"It would be totally out of character for her to say, ‘I’m going to leave a church because I’m mad at Jeremiah Wright,’" Mr. Matthews said. "She’s just simply saying that if these were ongoing, regular kind of things, I probably would not stay a member of that church. That doesn’t mean I would quit liking him or quit respecting him or quit wanting him to be able to say what he wants to say."

http://egghead.cc.trincoll.edu/weblo...

Obama takes on the oil companies http://link.brightcove.com/services/...

The Myths of War Gene Stoltzfus, founder of Christian Peacemaker Teams in: Retooled Myths from VietNam to Iraq, draws on his 40 years of experience in war zones.

While history never repeats itself there are myth like patterns that are recycled. We rely upon myths to explain war, peace, politics and the heavens. Myths are part of our collective story that become more visible in times of war. The five myths about US involvement in Iraq I discuss below, were alive during the VietNam war 40 years ago.

Myth I: Blame the Victim: Myth II: If We Believe we are Helping it must be OK;Myth III: War Helps Human Rights: Myth IV Our Exit Brings Greater Violence: Myth V: These People Have Always been at War:

http://www.benedictionblogson.com/20...

Court to Consider Religious Displays  Supreme Court to decide whether city's decision to place Ten Commandments in public means it also must make room for other displays of a religious nature. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...

The trap of poverty

Karelis, a professor at George Washington University, has a simpler but far more radical argument to make: traditional economics just doesn't apply to the poor. When we're poor, Karelis argues, our economic worldview is shaped by deprivation, and we see the world around us not in terms of goods to be consumed but as problems to be alleviated. This is where the bee stings come in: A person with one bee sting is highly motivated to get it treated. But a person with multiple bee stings does not have much incentive to get one sting treated, because the others will still throb. The more of a painful or undesirable thing one has (i.e. the poorer one is) the less likely one is to do anything about any one problem. Poverty is less a matter of having few goods than having lots of problems.

The implication is that, basically, you need to intervene forcefully enough with spending, etc. to get poor people over the hump and into the "normal" range of economic behavior.  http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/id...

Obama holds LGBT fund-raiser

"I’ve been to many events over the past 10 years of candidates running for office," said Corey Johnson, one of the hosts, "This was the most forthright, eloquent, and detailed stuff I’ve heard from a politician [regarding gay issues]."

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_...

Jesus or Barack? Take the RADAR quiz. Hint: It's harder than you think. http://radarmagazine.com/quiz/2008/0...

Cry, my beloved country There was a time when I never could have imagined I'd be reading stuff like this about my own country:

At the age of 19, Murat Kurnaz vanished into America's shadow prison system in the war on terror. He was from Germany, traveling in Pakistan, and was picked up three months after 9/11. But there seemed to be ample evidence that Kurnaz was an innocent man with no connection to terrorism. The FBI thought so, U.S. intelligence thought so, and German intelligence agreed. But once he was picked up, Kurnaz found himself in a prison system that required no evidence and answered to no one.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/...

"Lord, Save Us From Your Followers"
There's a new movie out called Lord, Save Us From Your Followers.  The film was made by a Christian, Dan Merchant, who apparently is offering screenings at college campuses.

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is the energetic, accessible documentary that explores the collision of faith and culture in America.  Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith, director (and follower) Dan Merchant set out to discover why the Gospel of Love is dividing America. . . .

http://melissarogers.typepad.com/mel...

‘Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics’

In a minimally rational world, a Republican presidential candidate like John McCain who has enabled all of that would have no chance. But — in the absence of anything changing the way this works — the establishment press will remove those considerations from its election coverage and the GOP’s exploitation of bottom-feeding personality-based psychological, cultural and gender themes will predominate. In 2008, the GOP will dedicate itself single-mindedly to these same personality-based, manipulative electoral tactics because that is their only hope for winning.

There simply cannot be any greater priority than preventing a John McCain Presidency, one which would empower the same faction and continue the same policies that have been slowly though inexorably destroying this country, its institutions and political values. Understanding and neutralizing these tactics and the enabling media behavior is a prerequisite for preventing that...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/0...

Pat Robertson, Al Shaprton and Al Gore The two have agreed to appear together in advertisements as part of Gore's 300 million dollar campaign to raise awareness about climate change. http://egghead.cc.trincoll.edu/weblo...

Pennsylvania Jews rally for Obama  A letter making the case for Obama, taking particular pains to defend his handling of the Wright affair. The signatories include some rabbis, politicians, and professors.  http://elections.jta.org/2008/04/01/...

On homosexuality, can we at least talk about it?

I want to begin a dialogue in this column by simply calling for the rudiments of Christian love of neighbor to extend to the homosexual. And the place to begin is in the church -- that community of faith in which we have (reportedly) affirmed that Jesus Christ is Lord. I call for the following Christian commitments:
-- The complete rejection of still-common forms of speech in which anti-homosexual slurs ("queer," "fag") are employed either in jest or in all seriousness
-- The complete rejection of a heart attitude of hatred, loathing, and fear toward homosexuals
-- The complete rejection of any form of bullying directed against homosexuals or those thought to be homosexuals
-- The complete rejection of political demagoguery in which homosexuals are scapegoated for our nation’s social ills and used as tools for partisan politics
-- The complete rejection of casual, imprecise and erroneous factual claims about homosexuality in preaching, teaching or private speech, such as, "All homosexuals choose to be that way."
-- The complete recognition of the full dignity and humanity of the homosexual as a person made in God’s image and sacred in God’s sight
-- The complete recognition that in any faith community of any size one will find persons wrestling with homosexuality, either in their own lives or the lives of people that they love
-- The complete recognition that when Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, that includes especially our homosexual neighbors, because the more a group is hated, the more they need Christ’s love through us
There is more to be said. But this is at least a place to start.

http://www.abpnews.com/3100.article

Bush Bypassing Laws to Finish Border Fence http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/20...

Rev. Chuck under fire from Wingnuts

Today The American Spectator published an article attacking the United Church of Christ and me personally.  Read my response on the United Church News Blog.

http://unitedchurchofchrist.blogspot...

Couple from faith-healing Oregon church indicted in baby’s death
Until the faith-healing death of an Oregon City girl this month, members of the Followers of Christ Church appear to have lost just one child to sickness since 1999, when Oregon banned parents from treating gravely ill children solely with prayer.  http://www.religionnewsblog.com/2101...

Establishment Clause vs First Amendment: Going too far  Here in my home town of Madison, Wisconsin, a Tomah High School senior (identified as A.P.) last Friday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a school policy that prohibits art class projects from depicting "violence, blood, sexual connotations, [or] religious beliefs." In an art class assignment involving drawing of a landscape, A.P. included a cross and the words "John 3:16 A sign of peace." Teacher Julie Millin, asked him to remove the Bible reference because other students were making remarks about it. When A.P. refused, she gave him a zero on the project, showing him the class policy. A.P. responded by tearing up the policy statement in front of the teacher. She ejected him from class and he later received two detentions for tearing up the policy. In a later incident, A.P.'s metals arts teacher rejected his idea to build a chain-mail cross because it was religious. The suit says that other artwork with religious themes are displayed throughout the school and argues that "per se censorship of religious speech in assignments does not represent a legitimate pedagogical interest." http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/n... and http://www.journaltimes.com/articles...

The Sabbath Suit The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit in a Pennsylvania federal district court against Aldi, Inc. on behalf of former employee Kimberly Bloom who was fired from her position as a cashier after she refused for religious reasons to work on Sundays. Bloom describes herself as "a Christian, Protestant, and a Born Again Christian." Aldi had offered Bloom time off to attend religious services on Sunday, but Bloom insisted that her religious beliefs included spending all of Sunday with her family. http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2...

McCain Courts Catholics As Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News points out, John McCain is quietly engaged in the delicate courtship of Catholic voters. A key swing demographic, Catholics could crown McCain victorious come November. http://egghead.cc.trincoll.edu/weblo...

Televangelist Eddie Long to cooperate with Senate probe
One of two recalcitrant metro Atlanta televangelists under investigation by a Senate committee has decided to cooperate.  http://www.religionnewsblog.com/2100...

Hundreds picket Westboro hate group
Hundreds of homosexual, heterosexual and transgender people turn the tables on the Westboro ‘Baptist Church’ — a hate group masquerading as a Christian church — by picketing is lair.http://www.religionnewsblog.com/2101...

Beyond the Graying and Greening Religious Right Less strident, less partisan, less defensive--the emerging Evangelical center defies the stereotype. http://religiondispatches.org/Gui/Co...

God bless what’s left of my America.

Some of us, me (Hello!) included, are embarrassed over our history and current treatment of some people.  While I love Americans for the most part and certainly wouldn’t want to necessarily leave the country, this east coast "elite" has a few problems inter alia with the government of these United States: (1) gays and lesbians are treated as second-class citizens; (2) non-believers are all but ignored; (3) the evangelical jihadists have a stranglehold on this place and have successfully killed all chances of there finally being federal funding for embryonic stem cell research; (4) our treatment of Native Americans heretofore is nothing short of despicable; (5) we’ve invaded a sovereign country as part of a neocon pipe dream; (6) this administration has eroded more constitutional protections than most are even aware ever existed; (7) the advancement of the unitary executive has all but destroyed the separation of powers doctrine; (8) we have marginalized our image in the world and went from being respected to now almost universally-loathed; (9) our drug law policies are archaic if not antediluvian; (10) our Boeotian Prez has made anti-intellectualism quaint; (11) speaking of quaint, we’ve likened the protections of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint"; and (12) ____________ (Your choice.)

http://www.airamerica.com/blog/2008/...

How do you think we got Cheney & Rove?  Scientists at Newcastle University have created part-human, part-animal hybrid embryos for the first time in the UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/73...

A court with wit In Texas, a Christian school has lost its bid to become a member of the state's intescholastic league for public schools. Cornerstone Christian Schools applied for membership in University Interscholastic League after the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools  refused in 2006 to renew its membership because of violations of the league's recruiting rules. The court agreed with TIL's interpretation of its rule, describing Cornerstone's attempt to read the rule otherwise as "semantically and ecclesiastically akin to how many angels can fit on the head of a pin."  The court's conclusion was signaled by its its initial description of Cornerstones allegations: "Having successfully created an athletic powerhouse no longer welcomed by other Christian schools, Cornerstone incongruously invokes the power of the federal government to have its earthly desires accomplished." http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/met...

The Big Payoff  At least Hillary Clinton hasn't been cozying up to Richard Mellon-Scaife for no reason. Instead, he's got his papers running crazy articles about how crazy black man Barack Obama and his crazy black church pastor are personally responsible for high rates of crime in the African-American community. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt...

Political economics

When a Republican president is in power, people at the top of the income distribution experience much larger real income gains than those at the bottom--a difference of 1.5 percent per year going from the bottom to the top quintile in the income distribution. The situation is reversed when a Democrat is in power: those who benefit the most are the lower income groups.

http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodri...

From the start: A Big Fat Lie

Hearing Cheney say "the campaign was over and that our actions in office would not be dictated by what had to be said in the campaign," Chafee writes, was "the most demoralizing moment of my seven-year tenure in the Senate."

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/01/...

Wal-Mart bows to pressure, does the right thing.
Wal-Mart Watch reports, "After years of hounding Debbie Shank and her family, Wal-Mart says it will finally do the right thing." The Shank family, will be allowed to keep the money they won from the trucking company responsible for Debbie’s injuries. Jim Shank released this statement:

...My thanks go first and foremost to my lord and savior Jesus Christ for the strength to bear up under all this. Thanks also to the citizens of the United States - it wasn’t me who made this happen, it was the outcry of the people, and if there’s a lesson in this story it’s that ‘we the people’ still means something.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/01/...

Historical "GOTCHA!" and the Planned Parenthood Sting  The religious right tries to cut off public funds for Planned Parenthood; a look at the effort to discredit PP with allegations of racism. http://religiondispatches.org/Gui/Co...

Sacred&Profane: Our Dirty, Lofty Election Season  ReligionDispatches' intrepid editor-in-chief comments on the ritual of the election season. http://religiondispatches.org/Gui/Co...

Pelosi has to step up for my own Congresswoman  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was recently "forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates" in order to get Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) "domestic partner on a military flight for a congressional fact-finding trip to Europe." While House rules allow spouses to travel with members of Congress on such missions, "military officials were apparently unwilling to consider" Baldwin’s partner "a ’spouse’ within the meaning of the House guidelines." http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/01/...  How long, oh Lord?  I grow so weary of the bigotry.

Jon Stewart Exposes Bush’s "Surge" Doublespeak When casualties go up, we’re winning. When casualties go down, we’re winning. Don’t worry...It’s all good. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/0...

War!  What is it good for?  Absolutely nuthin!  Say it again!  Spencer Ackerman posted a powerful email from a junior officer currently serving in Iraq. I'll just nab an excerpt:

In my opinion, what everyone fails to realize is that this is not a counterinsurgency. If we wanted to stay in Iraq, then it would be a counterinsurgency. But it is clear that our goal is to turn over power and pull out. So, in building our strategic endstate, it's pointless to set goals that relate to our presence in Iraq. If the "insurgency" is a function of our being there, then it is not an insurgency in terms of our endstate. For example, if one of our goals is to stop IED attacks on US forces, that is pointless. When we leave, there will be no more IED attacks on us forces. So our endstate needs to be different. We need to ask "if we left tomorrow, what would happen in Iraq?" and from there, we need to determine which of those anticipated results are unacceptable to us. Then we must aim our efforts on making sure those unacceptable results do not occur.

When I look at the problem that way, it becomes almost impossible to find a purpose in what we do.

http://toohotfortnr.blogspot.com/200...