Ho'opunipuni & Ho'omalimali
A political perfect storm is blowing our way, and in 3 weeks Republican hypocrites and manipulators like our 43rd president, presidential wannabe Senator Bill Frist, and the accidental House Speaker “Denny” Hastert, will see their curtains of smoke swept aside, their mirrored halls and walls crashing down, and their gilded seats of power and corruption overturned.
A great, sleeping American electorate is about to rise, urged on by insiders who shared authority with these culprits and their minions, most notably the “Mayberry Machiavelli”, Karl Rove himself. Well meaning Evangelical Christians, brought to Washington by the Bush administration when it established the “Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives”, are “outing” the political strategy of using such programs to surreptitiously fund House and Senate races around the country, insuring Republican control of Congress, and resulting in the ouster of Democrat leaders such as South Dakota Senator and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschele. Clearly the money directed to South Dakota evangelicals in 2002 & 2004 was used later to help pass the the nation’s most draconian anti-abortion laws, containing no exceptions for rape, incest, or pregnancies threatening the health of the mother, and making criminals of doctors who assist women patients in such situations.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and Bush’s cabal clearly did in 2002 and 2003 when a large majority supported its invasion of Iraq, an act of “pre-emptive” aggression that Kofi Annan called a violation of international law. Suddenly however, even those who had the most to gain from getting in bed with the likes of Bush, Cheney, and Rove are throwing back the covers. The first two men to be appointed to head the faith based initiatives office have now corroborated each other’s views that they and evangelicals like them were clearly being used, and used cynically, for partisan political purposes. David Kuo, who headed the office from 2002 to 2003, does so in his new book: "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction." The first director of the office who left in 2002 made similar statements, although he later apologized for being “rude.” If you don’t have time to read the book (I plan to) don’t miss the story by Jennifer Loven on page B3 in today’s Honolulu Advertiser (Religion section.) This should be the final nail in the coffin of the Republican congressional leadership; as the great Rove himself has said, all it takes is for the “red state” moral majority voters to stay home on election day, and I’m sure many are scratching their heads right now wondering what possible reason they have to go to the polls on November 8th.
Election time flag waving and beating the “war on drugs” drums by Hawaii elected officials such as Lt. Governor Aiona and conservative Democrat Senator Norman Sakamoto should be seen for what it is: a frantic effort to divert attention from their parts in supporting the deceitful policies of our warmonger in chief—political ho'opunipuni and ho'omalimali (aka shibai) in its purest form. Sakamoto says we need random drug testing of all DOE employees because “at all levels of society drug use is a problem, and we can’t step back.” According to that “logic”, state senators should be the first to step up to the cup, along with DOE employee Shawn Lathrop, who said on the Advertiser’s opinion page today that “coherency” should be the test of fitness of all teachers and workers in the public education system, and that drug testing is the way to insure this. Next Sakamoto and Lathrop will want our librarians to be tested, and why not the members of the Board of Education? However, lie detector tests and opinion polls might tell us more about how “coherent” an individual is, than testing to make sure a recreational joint wasn’t shared on that fishing trip last month, or in bed with one’s significant other the night before. Why not require drug tests and polygraphs for those who want driver’s licenses? Why should any of us who have “nothing to hide” worry about losing our privacy rights and freedom of association? And what about second hand smoke? And what about the political enemy who serves brownies or spaghetti sauce with a hidden "oregano" substitute?
Frankly, if Lathrop is entitled to know whether I’m “coherent”, shouldn’t I be entitled to know that he is not teaching our keiki that Adam and Eve rode to Sunday church services on dinosaurs? How can I be sure my child isn’t learning that Jesus hates condoms and wants the human species to continue reproducing itself to extinction, taking most other species on the planet with it? I suggest that teacher Lathrop and Senator Sakamoto look up the definition of the word “coherent”. Perhaps each of them should be taking a few tests of their own.
A great, sleeping American electorate is about to rise, urged on by insiders who shared authority with these culprits and their minions, most notably the “Mayberry Machiavelli”, Karl Rove himself. Well meaning Evangelical Christians, brought to Washington by the Bush administration when it established the “Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives”, are “outing” the political strategy of using such programs to surreptitiously fund House and Senate races around the country, insuring Republican control of Congress, and resulting in the ouster of Democrat leaders such as South Dakota Senator and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschele. Clearly the money directed to South Dakota evangelicals in 2002 & 2004 was used later to help pass the the nation’s most draconian anti-abortion laws, containing no exceptions for rape, incest, or pregnancies threatening the health of the mother, and making criminals of doctors who assist women patients in such situations.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and Bush’s cabal clearly did in 2002 and 2003 when a large majority supported its invasion of Iraq, an act of “pre-emptive” aggression that Kofi Annan called a violation of international law. Suddenly however, even those who had the most to gain from getting in bed with the likes of Bush, Cheney, and Rove are throwing back the covers. The first two men to be appointed to head the faith based initiatives office have now corroborated each other’s views that they and evangelicals like them were clearly being used, and used cynically, for partisan political purposes. David Kuo, who headed the office from 2002 to 2003, does so in his new book: "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction." The first director of the office who left in 2002 made similar statements, although he later apologized for being “rude.” If you don’t have time to read the book (I plan to) don’t miss the story by Jennifer Loven on page B3 in today’s Honolulu Advertiser (Religion section.) This should be the final nail in the coffin of the Republican congressional leadership; as the great Rove himself has said, all it takes is for the “red state” moral majority voters to stay home on election day, and I’m sure many are scratching their heads right now wondering what possible reason they have to go to the polls on November 8th.
Election time flag waving and beating the “war on drugs” drums by Hawaii elected officials such as Lt. Governor Aiona and conservative Democrat Senator Norman Sakamoto should be seen for what it is: a frantic effort to divert attention from their parts in supporting the deceitful policies of our warmonger in chief—political ho'opunipuni and ho'omalimali (aka shibai) in its purest form. Sakamoto says we need random drug testing of all DOE employees because “at all levels of society drug use is a problem, and we can’t step back.” According to that “logic”, state senators should be the first to step up to the cup, along with DOE employee Shawn Lathrop, who said on the Advertiser’s opinion page today that “coherency” should be the test of fitness of all teachers and workers in the public education system, and that drug testing is the way to insure this. Next Sakamoto and Lathrop will want our librarians to be tested, and why not the members of the Board of Education? However, lie detector tests and opinion polls might tell us more about how “coherent” an individual is, than testing to make sure a recreational joint wasn’t shared on that fishing trip last month, or in bed with one’s significant other the night before. Why not require drug tests and polygraphs for those who want driver’s licenses? Why should any of us who have “nothing to hide” worry about losing our privacy rights and freedom of association? And what about second hand smoke? And what about the political enemy who serves brownies or spaghetti sauce with a hidden "oregano" substitute?
Frankly, if Lathrop is entitled to know whether I’m “coherent”, shouldn’t I be entitled to know that he is not teaching our keiki that Adam and Eve rode to Sunday church services on dinosaurs? How can I be sure my child isn’t learning that Jesus hates condoms and wants the human species to continue reproducing itself to extinction, taking most other species on the planet with it? I suggest that teacher Lathrop and Senator Sakamoto look up the definition of the word “coherent”. Perhaps each of them should be taking a few tests of their own.
posted by kokuaguy at 4:03 PM
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