Happy Justice Sunday!
I cannot make this shit up: An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of our nation's most influential evangelical leaders outlining strategies to “rein in” judges. In their quest to gain control of the judiciary they’ve come up with such schemes as such as stripping funding from “offending” courts in an effort to hinder their work, punishing sitting jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause, and, naturally, vetting ways to place as many conservative judges on the bench as quickly as possible.
This charming discussion took place during a Washington conference last month that included addresses by Tom -“Rodent King”- DeLay and Bill –“ ‘That’s Dr. Senator Frist to you’ “- Frist, who discussed efforts to bring a more conservative cast to the courts… our courts.Now, mind you, neither Frist nor DeLay have publicly endorsed the evangelical groups' proposed actions, but the taped discussion among evangelical leaders provides a glimpse of the road map they are hurtling down as they work with congressional Republicans to achieve a judiciary that sides with them on abortion, same-sex marriage and other elements of their agenda.
But hey, don’t take my word for it… here’s what they had to say:
“There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way to take a black robe off the bench," said Tony -“Not the gay one”- Perkins, president of the uber-conservative Family Research Council, according to an audiotape of a March 17 session.
"We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse," DeLay said at an April 13 question-and-answer session with reporters. The not-nearly-embattled-enough DeLay has spoken generally about one of the ideas the leaders discussed in greater detail: using legislative tactics to withhold money from courts.
These yahoo-- I mean, “leaders” present at the March conference, including Perkins and James C. Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family, have been working closely with Frist to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations, just about the only legislative tool Senate Democrats have left to stall 10 of Dubya’s judicial nominations. They support rescinding a senate rule that they’ve taken full advantage of themselves when it suited them. Don’t believe me? Ask Bill Clinton, he’ll tell you… you might have to buy him a Mimosa first though… he loves those things.
Dobson and Perkins showed that the evangelical leaders, in addition to working to place conservative nominees on the bench, have been trying to find ways to remove certain judges who don’t conform with their ideals. I’m pretty sure there’s a law against that.
Perkins said that he had attended a meeting with congressional leaders a week earlier where the strategy of stripping funding from certain courts was "prominently" discussed. "What they're thinking of is not only the fact of just making these courts go away and re-creating them the next day but also de-funding them," Perkins said.
They are on the warpath... and not only against non-Christians, but non-their kind of Christians... which is even worse, you ask me.
He went on to say that instead of undertaking the long process of trying to impeach judges, Congress could use its appropriations authority to "just take away the bench, all of his staff, and he's just sitting out there with nothing to do."These curbs on courts are "on the radar screen, especially of conservatives here in Congress," he said.
Yeah, that’s not alarming at all.
The tape, by the way, was provided to the LA Times by the unbelievably-cool advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This is a group that supports our Constitutional separation of church and state because they realize that separated, both are stronger. Maybe that’s why the organization’s leader, Barry Lynn, keeps getting death threats from these family value-minded conservatives....
Increasingly in this country a very small, very conservative faction is trying to legislate our lives. They fervently believe that we simply aren’t capable of making our own decisions, so they’re prepared to do so for us… for our own good.
Come on, branding any group of American citizens as "anti-Christian" simply because they differ on political issues runs counter to the values of both faith and democracy. What, I'm alone on this?
That’s scary enough, but what’s most horrifying is that these people are organized and driven… and they have enough politicians in the pockets of their hair shirts that their doctrine is becoming a reality while most of us sit around and complain that the remote is out of reach.
Just a few years ago, no one from Capitol Hill would have had anything to do with an event like Justice Sunday. This year? Bill Frist addressed the masses from his mount, and decried those who suggested that doing so was divisive and that the event was anti-American. Which, you know it was… and it was.
You have to ask yourself where this could stop. I mean, as it stands the Republicans have control of the Executive and Legislative branches of government, right? And they’re pissed! They’re always so angry... haven’t you noticed? The Democrats are all but powerless on the Hill, but the Republicans are always grousing about the Democrat “agenda” and the Democrat “syndicate” that’s working against them, and by extension, against God-fearing Americans... and, of course, against the very God that made them, Gunga Din.
Well, it sure isn’t stopping with the Judicial branch. Delay sounded the battle cry over Terri Schiavo’s corpse, remember? Literally, until today we were this close to the “nuclear option…” but Bill Frist got a look at the latest polls this morning, and realized that maybe he shouldn’t force that particular issue just yet… but believe me, the showdown is coming.
Now, it’s easy to tell yourself that turning the courts into Neocon bully pulpits isn’t such a big deal; that you’d go right on living the life you’ve grown accustomed to… but consider some other ways this conservative, anti-America, anti-free will agenda is tainting your life:
Tried to get birth control pills lately?
Now, my dad was the best pharmacist ever, and he could beat up your dad easy… even now... and he's over 70... well, he could. Anyway, my dad is many things, but a fan of humanity he ain’t… still, he chose a life of medical service. As a servant of the people (well, Kaiser patients anyway), he had to dole out ‘scrips that he didn’t agree with on a medical (he thinks anti-depressants are prescribed too readily, for instance) or on an ethical (he’s not sure parents should be medicating their “ADD” kids just so’s the parents can enjoy more quiet evenings in front of the TV) basis from time to time… but dole them out he did, because he understood that the choice of what was “right” for a patient to ingest wasn’t his, but theirs, and he trusted them to make the best choice they could.
Well, more and more often, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are refusing to dispense birth control pills on their own “moral grounds.” Guess what? They don’t get to do that. But it’s happening, and those of us who don’t deign to speak for everyone else are just letting it happen, and throwing our civil rights in the trash.
What about the Michigan legislators? Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed recently by the Michigan House. Does that sound like the America you know?
Enjoying The Sopranos? I think it’s overrated but still, I appreciate the fact that if I wanna’ watch Tony Soprano wheeze and swear and leer at strippers I can… well, those days could be over soon, my friends. Historically, the FCC could only regulate radio and broadcast TV… those formats that the public owns (that’s right, you own the airwaves… you’ll be sorry you didn’t do anything with them soon enough), but there’s increasing pressure from conservative xtian groups to give the FCC the power to regulate cable TV. Now, that too may not see like a big deal on the face of it… but if that door is opened, it leads to the next step: regulating newspapers, magazines books, music… any media you pay for. Does that sound like the home of the free to you?
What does it tell you that Microsoft –a corporation that has always been on the vanguard of honoring and expanding employee privileges, perks and rights- recently withdrew support from a bill that outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation? They didn’t even bother to hide the reason: they bowed to conservative xtian pressure.
At this point, I’m not sure which we’re headed for, a plutocracy or a theocracy… but I am sure of this: both suck.
The Conservatives are ready for this battle. They’ve sowed the seeds of fascism for years, and they’re girded for the final countdown and waiting….
The Liberals are too busy fighting for everyone’s right to choose and live free to focus on the fact that some of the very people they’re fighting for are fighting against these American, liberal ideals. It’s like the liberals are Scott Glenn in Silverado; practicing so hard they miss the fight.
(I’ll send anyone who gets that reference a Twix… y’all like Twix, right?)
This has never been a society of majority rule; it’s a society where all have a voice, and the minority is protected. Well, it was ‘till last January, anyway.
Look, it’s long past time we on the Left got into this fight. The middle class is being dismantled ‘cause it’s troublesome for the upper class. We’re the ones who fight for everyone else… the poor are too busy being poor to do so, and the rich? They’re paid not to care. Time is running out in America, so it’s time we got into this fight. Write letters; make calls. Send emails. Sit-in. March. It’s likely our elected officials won’t listen –they have bills to pay after all, and we’re not the ones paying them- but the more we cry out, the more we’ll be heard… at least by each other. That kind of solidarity –yeah, I said it: “solidarity”- leads to revolution… something our forefathers understood well.
This battle isn’t theoretical, it’s here. Despite what Fox news tells you, it’s now.
Get ready... get girded...
Do something.
No comments:
Post a Comment