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Jane Devin makes some very interesting points regarding the fallout of a divide and bifurcate approach taken by the religious right over the last decade. It had been a GOP compromise for votes, a dissonant consortium of two groups with their own agendas. 8 years ago it was a voting block that appeared to have a lot of common ground, but now I see the religious right and authentic conservatives like oil and water. The whole policy thrust of the right is a mess. Pushes for constitutional amendments that restrict citizen rights aren't conservative. The mouth of Mordor has something of a sock stuffed in it this time around and the GOP is paying big time. The cry of "value voters" has vanished, along with the convenience of looking the other way in order to get some extra votes. I for one am very proud of my country for having this common sense.
When Ronald Reagan began courting the religious right in his bid to win the Presidency, I doubt he knew he was spelling death to the lean tenets of Goldwater conservatism. Yet soon afterward, under the thumb of right-wing religion, the Republican party became a bloated fool, stuffed with hypocrisy, greed, and anti-intellectualism. In 2008, the price is being paid through lost elections and a loss of public trust.While Bush railed about the axis of evil, there was another axis that gathered steam during the Reagan years. The Moral Majority, Focus on the Family, and The Christian Coalition were all formed within years of each other as religiopolitical groups. Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and Pat Robertson, the respective leaders of these movements, formed a triad that sought to influence politics through a gospel of neo-conservative Christian rhetoric aimed at millions of faithful adherents whose votes, it was hoped, could swing the socio-political pendulum away from progress and back to "traditional values."
In order to win the votes of the triad's faithful followers, Republican politicians bartered themselves into a hear-no-wrong, see-no-wrong trade-off. This trade-off allowed Falwell to hold sway with politicians, and appear as a respected political pundit on right-wing shows, even after outlandishly insisting that the purple Tinky Winky children's character was gay, or that the anti-Christ was coming in the form of a Jew. He could promote the idea of ending the public school system in favor of church-run schools, as he did in his book, America Can Be Saved, yet still wield considerable influence in Washington.
They're in search of uranium? Really?
NEW DELHI — India launched its first unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon early Wednesday, part of an effort to assert its power in space and claim some of the business opportunities there.The Indian mission is scheduled to last two years, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.
Thanks CS:
It's here. She argues that it only pertains to financial misuse of office and tells people they "Got to read it." This is just one more example of the McCain campaign standing in front of reporters and flat out lying. The very first sentence of the code literally states "any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest." Truth be damned! Obfuscation will win the day!
I think that now more than ever truth and reality need to matter. Sarah Palin and John McCain should not be allowed to stand up in front of the country and speak orthogonally to fact.
Article 02. CODE OF ETHICSSec. 39.52.110. Scope of code; prohibition of unethical conduct.
(a) The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust. In addition, the legislature finds that, so long as it does not interfere with the full and faithful discharge of an officer's public duties and responsibilities, this chapter does not prevent an officer from following other independent pursuits. The legislature further recognizes that
(1) in a representative democracy, the representatives are drawn from society and, therefore, cannot and should not be without personal and financial interests in the decisions and policies of government;
(2) people who serve as public officers retain their rights to interests of a personal or financial nature; and
(3) standards of ethical conduct for members of the executive branch need to distinguish between those minor and inconsequential conflicts that are unavoidable in a free society, and those conflicts of interests that are substantial and material.
With the report looming, this piece in the NY Times seems to really put the nails in the coffin for Sarah Palin. It truly looks like she's guilty of much wrongdoing in trooper-gate. It's a good piece. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
ANCHORAGE — The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin’s Anchorage office was on the line.As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that TrooperWooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair in late August. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want him nearby.
Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Trooper Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds — in full costume as “Safety Bear,” the troopers’ child-friendly mascot.
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