Christian Leftist

Man, I knew those FreedomWatch ads were horrible, creepy little packs of lies, but I didn’t think that GOP members would see a need to script them personally. Can’t the crazies even write their own propaganda anymore?

The Washington Post is reporting that Democratic Party officials are going to file charges with the Federal Election Commission (note: they also intended to do this against McCain for using public money and then turning the rest of it back to avoid spending caps in the fall). See here:
Democrats Accuse GOP Campaign Arm Of Covertly Writing Ad

The issue here is not that Political Action Committees can’t support party causes, be they the Democratic National Campaign Committee, the Republican National Campaign Committee, or whoever else they so choose, or PACs wouldn’t exist. As DCCC Executive Director Brian Wolff puts it, “Freedom’s Watch is coming to the NRCC’s rescue. The problem is that they’re doing it illegally.”

Not very. Still, any scent of defeat for the Republicans, be it a whiff of stale roadkill or the rank, vile stench of rotting flesh ‘morality’ has them back at the drawing board. This time, their plan is downright ugly: usurping electoral votes through a referendum that is likely to pass unless we educate the citizens of California.

Several conservative lawyers and lawmakers in the Sunshine State have introduced the so-called “Presidential Election Reform Act,” which would give electoral votes to whatever candidate wins an individual county. That would rob California’s Democratic power of about 20 electoral votes and probably cost the Democratic candidate the presidential election.

The citizens of California don’t seem to understand the law because the conservatives haven’t bothered to explain it to them, probably because doing so would mean its demise at the polls. (Well, duh!)

I’m all for overhauling the Constitution and throwing out the Electoral College. A national vote is the fairest way to decide the president. But piecemeal manipulation of a system that is only convenient when it works for one party is deplorable.

Please spread the word about this nefarious state proposal.

Another example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Chavez is trying to change Venezuela’s constitution to eliminate term limits so that he can run for president again in 2012 (and presumably in every election thereafter until he dies).

Here at Christian Leftist, I try to point out the upsides and downsides to any and all systems of government, although I obviously have access to more news on American democracy than anything else. Chavez is not a true leftist because he is ultra-authoritarian; anyone who curtails civil liberties while espousing economic egalitarianism is not an egalitarian but a despot who seeks to slowly acquire all political power within his sphere of influence.

Anyway, here’s the article from the New York Times.

Yes, you heard me correctly: those crazy Kansans are going to make a comeback – unless you want to do something about it. I don’t mean on their state school board, where voters ousted them from power in 2006 after they redefined the meaning of the word ’science.’ I mean on the National Association of State Boards of Education, where Kenneth R. Willard, a Republican who voted with the Kansas school board’s conservative (read maximalist zealous anti-evolution) majority in 2005 to teach intelligent design in the classroom, is poised to take the helm. The New York Times article politely describes intelligent design as “an ideological cousin of creationism.” Yessir.
This is one of those stories that will fly under the radar of most Americans because it’s a nonprofit group and not a nomination that involves heads of state like Bush or Gonzales. But this is exactly the plan of the extreme right wing maximalists: to slowly win local and state elections that have lasting influence on the education of future voters and to slowly worm their way into the very fabric of rational society that they seek to destroy.
Mr. Willard is an insurance executive from Hutchinson, KS. (Great, I dislike him even more now.) He retained his seat even when voters kicked out many of his peers for subscribing to the same ‘beliefs’ as he did. As president-elect of the NASBE, he will take office in January of 2009.
As stated on the national nonprofit group’s website at www.nasbe.org, the organization’s purpose is to work to “strengthen state leadership in educational policymaking.” Read: instead of being able to control a state’s direction in teaching science, one of the creationists will now be able to influence all school boards on a national level.
Mr Willard’s sole opponent withdrew from the race for personal reasons after the nominating period had ended, which made it impossible for another state board member to win a nomination and compete against Willard. Each state has one vote in the election. Scientists who oppose Willard’s views are urging state school boards to write-in a different candidate in the hope that one or other names will actually receive more votes than the intelligent design advocate. Last November, a retired businessman named Sam Schloemer won a seat on the Ohio school board when scientists organized to defeat creationist candidates there. He is the first nominee mentioned as a possible write-in candidate.
When asked, Willard said he believes that the teaching of evolution and/or opposing theories is best left up to individual states, but he admitted to his opinion that alternatives to evolution like intelligent design should have a place in science classrooms. Of course, the conclusion that one can draw from this is that while evolutionary debates have so far stayed within the confines of state school boards, with Mr. Willard’s appointment to a national school board leadership position, that will change dramatically.
In other words, there is still time to influence the votes of the individual states on this, and I bet plenty state boards are none too happy about the Kansan’s stance on evolution. But they will need to reach a consensus on one alternative to Willard in order to be able to defeat him, and that means we need to act by contacting them NOW.
I’ll quote the New York Times article on the subject in closing, because it says in two sentences what a frightening number of American citizens have yet to accept:
“There is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the complexity and diversity of life on Earth. Courts have repeatedly ruled that creationism and intelligent design are religious doctrines, not scientific theories.”
Period.