Religion and Power on C Street

This was a smidge of a bit mind blowing to me.

Part One

Part Two

Love and Mercy, Walking Humbly, Doing Justice

Judge not least ye be judged. The judging has commenced. Interesting.

Micah Chapter 3:

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Hmmmmmm. From Think Progress:

While serving as a U.S. congressman, Sanford was incredibly critical of his colleagues’ marital misdeeds, including the affairs of former congressman Bob Livingston and President Bill Clinton:

“The bottom line, though, is I am sure there will be a lot of legalistic explanations pointing out that the president lied under oath. His situation was not under oath. The bottom line, though, is he still lied. He lied under a different oath, and that is the oath to his wife. So it’s got to be taken very, very seriously.” [Sanford on Livingston, CNN, 12/18/98]

“We ought to ask questions…rather than circle the wagons for one of our tribe.” [Sanford on how the GOP reacts to affairs, New York Post, 12/20/98]

“I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally (to resign). I come from the business side. If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.” [Sanford on Clinton, The Post and Courier, 9/12/98]

“The issue of lying is probably the biggest harm, if you will, to the system of Democratic government, representatives government, because it undermines trust. And if you undermine trust in our system, you undermine everything.” [Sanford on Clinton, CNN, 2/16/99]

What's good for the former President (and others) according to Mark Sanford, is apparently not good for Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

Top 10 Surprising Facts About Governor Mark Sanford (of Argentina Fame)

Fox News Channel Hilarity

I'm pretty sure we've seen Fox do this before. Put a 'D' after a Republican's name, when that Republican is in some kind of trouble.

From Media Matters:

Yeah. Here's another time they did the same thing. Remember Republican, Mark Foley?

When Fox doesn't like a Republican, or perhaps it is simply a case of Conservatives making a funny, they attach a 'D' to their name on their Conservative news channel.

From The Brad Blog:

Three different times. In two different segements. Each cutaway about 15 seconds or more. Showing Foley as a DEMOCRAT. Amazing.

Update, Thursday, June 25, 2009

Crooks and Liars has more and far superior research skills than me.

Here's a short list of Fox's chyron hackery:

John McCain - Democrat
Joe Lieberman - Democrat
Arlen Spector - Democrat (when he was still a Republican!)
Mark Foley - Democrat

Sanford Bumps Iran's Ongoing Crisis Off The 24/7

Thanks Mark Sanford, Republican Governor of South Carolina and I say that sarcastically. The situation in Iran is way more important than more Republican infidelities and hypocrisy.

Another Republican Admits Cheating

The First 100 Days: The Republicans

ThinkProgress's Victor Zapanta compiled a video report on the radical right's 100 days of opposition. Watch it:

Stimulating: Jon Stewart has fun with the Republican Governors

My favorite was "well I think being against it doesn't preclude taking the money..."

Just Say No: Republican Governors say they will turn some of the stimlus away for their states

January 16, 2008 - Next-gen building materials and safety tech abound in the new St. Anthony Falls Bridge, which will replace the I-35W span that collapsed last year (bottom left) once this winter's pier construction (bottom right) leads to final completion in December. Images Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (plans, construction); ebrandt78/Flickr (collapse) source: Popular Mechanics

Leading the charge is South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford. Fortunately for Sanford, South Carolina's own legislator Democratic Rep. James Clyburn inserted a provision into the the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that enables state legislators to choose to accept funding, thereby overriding a refusal by their own Governor.

"The stimulus is a huge mistake," Sanford told ABC News, "a political promise that's been made but not paid for."

Sanford said he would reject unemployment insurance because of what he said were federal strings attached to it, and also said he would not take $42 million in funding for green buildings. source: ABC News

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour says that he plans to reject the portion of the bill that provides for the extension of unemployment benefits.

"We will not be accepting unemployment insurance money because it requires us to have a significant tax increase in the future," Barbour told ABC. "Most states like Mississippi do not allow people to get unemployment compensation unless they are willing and able to take a full-time job." source: ABC News

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is just saying no. Ironically, Minnesota was the state that experienced the terrible tragedy of the bridge that collapsed in 2007 [pictured above].

"It's not really a stimulus bill, it's a big spending bill," Minnesota's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty told ABC. But he added, "We get back only 72 cents for every dollar we send to Washington, so we're going to accept the money." source: ABC News

Although I understand the ideological quandary that the stimulus bill creates for these Republican Governors, it just seems to me that this particular economic environment is not simply a run of the mill recession. It's a bit more dire than that.

To not accept the federal funding doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense at this juncture, especially in light of the fact that more job cuts are expected down the road in nearly ever sector of the economy.

One could assume that the larger part of the picture for these Republicans is that they anticipate political cover by posturing against accepting the stimulus money now, especially in light of the fact that state legislators have the option of voting to accept any funding the Republican Governor deny.

This is a game of hedging their bets, or maybe it's a game of chicken. I'm not sure.

Some Republican Governors balk at accepting stimulus funds from feds as their leglislatures have overide power

This should be interesting to watch. If a Republican Governor rejects funding and state lawmakers vote to accept it thereby overriding the Governor's decision. So the Republican Governors have a lot of room to posture right now, or so they think.

If they do have enough testicular fortitude to reject all or some of the funding, it certainly will not be forgotten when another election comes down the pike.

We're living in a whole new world here so those Republican Governors would do well say what they mean, mean what they say and not play politics with the stimulus funding because it will come back to bite them on the hind end.

I need to check to see what my Republican Governor, Mitch Daniels is up to with respect to receiving the stimulus funds.

BATON ROUGE, La. – A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.

"My concern is there's going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who considered rejecting some of the money but decided Wednesday to accept it. "We need the freedom to pick and choose. And we need the freedom to say 'No thanks.'"

[snip]

In fact, governors who reject some of the stimulus aid may find themselves overridden by their own legislatures because of language [James] Clyburn included in the bill that allows lawmakers to accept the federal money even if their governors object.

He inserted the provision based on the early and vocal opposition to the stimulus plan by South Carolina's Republican governor, Mark Sanford. But it also means governors like Sanford and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal — a GOP up-and-comer often mentioned as a potential 2012 presidential candidate — can burnish their conservative credentials, knowing all the while that their legislatures can accept the money anyway.

source: Yahoo News/AP

CCR - Bad Moon Rising

Scrapin' Southern Boys: Paul Begala goes after South Carolina's Republican Governor

That's Paul Begala over thereto your left, but you probably knew that already.

Meet Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina to your right.

Don't take the money? The money from Washington most certainly will be taken, but Paul Begala makes the point in a most excellent way.

Begala is a Southern boy so of course he can.

Go Begala!

If Republican politicians are so deeply opposed to President Obama's economic recovery plan, they should refuse to take the money. After all, if you think all that federal spending is damaging, there are easy ways to reduce it: Don't take federal money.

Gov. Sanford can lead the way. South Carolina should decline to accept any federal funds for transportation, education, health care, clean energy or any of the other ideas President Obama is advocating to fix the economy. And the rest of the GOP can follow suit.

Justice Louis Brandeis famously called states "laboratories of democracy." So let's experiment. Gov. Sanford can be the guinea pig. His Palmetto State already gets $1.35 back from Washington for every dollar it pays in federal taxes, according to 2005 numbers, the latest calculated by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax research group.

South Carolina is a ward of the federal government. It's been on welfare for years. If Gov. Sanford is so all-fired opposed to federal spending, let's start by cutting federal spending in South Carolina. Otherwise, he's got about as much credibility on fiscal conservatism as A-Rod has on steroids.

Under the Bush-Sanford economic theories, South Carolina's unemployment rate has reached 9.5 percent -- among the highest in the nation. But if Gov. Sanford wants to continue those policies, good luck to him.

Make no mistake about it, Republicans like Gov. Sanford want to go back to the bad old days of George W. Bush. In his CNN.com column, Gov. Sanford expends 605 words attacking President Obama's plan to turn the country around after eight years of Bush-Republican-Sanford economics. source: CNN - read more here