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From a union worker family standpoint…

She’s “engaged” to the Sacramento mayor who is dumber than dirt. He wants her to come here and “straighten out the schools” along with him – he wants the power over schools. This after he jammed a charter high school down the city’s throats that was SUCH a failure there are almost no words.

Nothing like the dumb leading education “reform”. All those two want is to kill the unions, keep teachers and everyone else under their thumbs and have dictatorial powers to make every dance to their tune.

And if they’re so freaking happy – why’d they call off the wedding? I think Michelle is holding out until Kevin can assure her of her empire. Well news flash – he is NOT well respected here, and it’s not likely he’ll hold onto his OWN throne.

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 9:11 pm

This is happening in Ohio, too. Public sector workers are under siege. If WI and OH become “right to work” states, then ALL unions are under attack. I’m working with some folks in Ohio and advised them to message – we are your neighbors. We are the middle class that sustains your small business. We are the people who keep you safe from crime and fire, who educate your kids and help fulfill your family’s dreams.

We HAVE to change the image. In CA several unions including CSEA, CA Nurses, NEA, AFSCME all did stupendous ads just asserting their “ordinariness” in the community AND the services they provide to keep other citizens happy. It worked GREAT. We need that sort of full court press on messaging everywhere.

This is a war that cannot be won by the other side without decimating our nation. One has only to walk through Detroit, Youngstown, OH, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Gary, and South Chicago and all the other former industrial cities to know what anti-union, anti-jobs looks like. It is the death of the middle class and the death of hope. Koch brothers and Wall Street don’t give a damn about the American Dream – but we HAVE to. They want a third world nation with a few extraordinary rich people and the rest poor, cheap, and vulnerable. That is a recipe for disaster.

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 3:14 pm

Yeah. I don’t know what it takes to get people to care. More to the point – what does it take to have people see how inter-connected we all are? People DO think that even if they are struggling, they WILL some day BE Henry Kravis or the Kochs.

Not.

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 10:25 am

Baggers are apparently mostly low level management types that were proud to distance themselves in every way from blue collar people. They would never understand what they got came from what the unions achieved. The work week, holidays, benefits, pay – all because unions got it for blue collar folks and it spread upward from there. You could NOT get them to understand that the middle class exists (or existed – past tense) thanks to the union movement.

We are capable of both magical thinking (I’m a self made person!) and incredible delusion (I get more because I’m worth it.)

Bah.

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 10:23 am

PocketWatch – yup, sad to say, stupid decisions by unions make the news. In Buffalo one struck against a small, family -owned firm that wanted to put its workers on Independent Health that saved a TON of money over the UNION funded health plan. What made the strike SO stupid is that (this was 20 years ago) IH was a vastly better health care plan and much cheaper for the workers who contributed via HUGE deductibles and co-pays. That they struck had more to do with the union wanting to keep the money for the UNION rather than the benefit to the members, and it was so sad the members could not see that in this instance, the union itself was doing them no favors. Oh, well.

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 10:20 am

Hi Mom – Thank you, but I’m NO saint, just pissed!

Years ago a group of students and faculty around the US did a lot of work on opening the books – that alone was worth its weight in gold. Of course today a lot of new laws make that nearly impossible BUT one cool entry point is bankruptcy records! Those are entirely public. Since this is a route many companies are taking, it give workers a real insight into what is actually going on. It requires someone to GO to the court, but it’s worth the doing.

Every publicly traded company has to file an annual 10K with the IRS. Now it happens to be perfectly legal to keep two sets of books – one glowing and shiny for investors, the other dark and gloomy for the IRS, but between the annual report and the 10K you can learn a LOT. You can see all the REAL info if you own even one share of stock, but you can get a lot online – especially info on the top owners – via the Security and Exchange Commission. I used to phone them for the top owners, but since 9/11 when the SEC building was also decimated, it’s online. It’s public.

There is no excuse for our not knowing stuff. Even privately held companies such as the Koch brothers have a paper trail. It’s all in the public library in Standard & Poors (online but the books are easier) Moody’s (fantastic info on who holds the debt for public corporations) and other major resources about companies, public and private. Going through business indexes – Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, the NY Times – that are in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature gives you a year by year and even month by month history of their business. Following even the index info gives you profits and losses, and you can always follow up on the full story.

It’s critical to look at boards of directors – interlocking directorates (someone on the board of one company who is from a competitor company) are technically illegal, but hardly anyone enforces it anymore. It’s incredibly illuminating to see who’s calling the shots. Annual and stockholder reports tell you how those outside directors are compensated – mind boggling. Building networks of ownership, management, boards, and seeing who’s controlling what is tedious, backbreaking, hard on the eyes, and incredibly powerful. Every labor person or person sympathetic to labor should take a look.

It’s how I found out in the mid 70s that the major media companies in CA, all of which were opposing three ballot propositions regulating nuclear power plants, were ALL – except McClatchy and Knight-Ridder – tied to the nuclear industry. Their opposition was entirely self interested and NOT an issue of public good. More important – they failed repeatedly to tell the truth about nuclear power plant injuries, deaths, and contamination. I wrote a paper on it, “The Nuclear Powered Media” and presented it at a conference in DC and then at Cal State LA. After the latter event I promptly found myself labeled a “domestic terrorist” suspect by the LAPD. There was an undercover LAPD officer present. She wrote that I was very “neat and clean in appearance” which led my friends to call me the “Tidy Terrorist”. I could NOT be more proud.

We just don’t do this work anymore, but it is critical to our understanding of Who Rules America. It is also critical to have the knowledge we need to beat back the assaults on working people. The truth SHALL set us free!

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 10:02 am

I want to tell a true story of small people vs. large – VERY large – corporate capital.

I lived in Buffalo, NY where in the early ’90s RJReynolds acquired Nabisco including the Milk Bone dog biscuit plant. The Buffalo plant made most of the Milk Bone in America, was efficient, profitable, and had many jobs. The United Food, Tobacco & Confectionery Workers were the union.

One member of UFTC was a student of mine at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations Labor Studies program where I taught a course for 15 years on the legal and political foundations of corporate power.

My student called me one day at the height of the mega-merger of RJReynolds and Nabisco, all financed by Wall Street mogul, Henry Kravis. My student said that as part of the shake out, RJR was planning to either sell Milk Bone or close it. Closing was the REAL objective since the feds give a company tax-free cash back on accelerated depreciation. It’s been the reason plants across America are shuttered – they’re cash cows for Wall Street.

My student had heard me talking about worker buy outs and wanted to know if we could do that since, either way – sale or closure – the Buffalo facility would be gone along with all the jobs. I contacted some folks at the University who were interested, and we began planning a worker take over. Since the plant was for sale, using UFTC pension money, we offered to buy it.

RJR got REALLY scared because an earnest offer would mean Opening the Books – and that’s the LAST thing any corporation wants to do. It would expose lies – “workers are draining the plant dry” – and give working people a real look inside the manipulations of the corporation. Is management siphoning capital to shore up another company? (That’s what Frank Lorenzo did to Eastern Air – took CAPITAL from EAL to give to his non-union airline, Continental. It’s illegal.)
Are they doing “transfer pricing” moving debt from one plant and putting it on another to make the latter appear “unprofitable” which was all smoke and mirrors and bookkeeping juggling? So you can see NO one at RJR wanted the union to peek under the covers!

This took months of meetings, finding venture capital (not a great experience BTW) and keeping up the pressure. Finally, the union president – NOT a fan of the buy out – had a secret meeting with RJR and did a swap – he would stop the buy out IF RJR/Nabisco would stop the sale, ratify a better union contract, and agree to keep the plant in Buffalo. He sold us out, but we won anyway. RJR ended the closure and kept the place functioning with good contracts. It’s still there 20 years later. So are the jobs.

We did this or variants on this in three other plants, all of which remain in Buffalo with good paying jobs.

As the leader of the effort, I WILL take the credit – I beat the crap out of Henry Kravis, and YOU can, too.

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 9:13 am

It is critical to start communicating with Hilda Solis. Not only are things doing poorly in the SW but Ohio and Wisconsin are on a tear against, first, PUBLIC sector unions but only as a foot inside the tent to make those two states “right to work” meaning union-free. That affects ALL unions. Every assault on public workers who are being set up as “greedy rip off artists” is in fact the opening wedge. If Boehner can call people on unemployment “lazy” then EVERYTHING is on the table in the class war.

In the SW the big scare is “immigrants” or “illegals” taking your jobs so of COURSE we don’t want UNIONS who would protect them and coddle them to the detriment of white workers.

We have to challenge the basic arguments that are shills for the corporate desire to screw us all, every one.

It’s a hard fight. This is where we need to take sides with people who are not us. If ever there was a time for solidarity it is NOW. The Right thought they’d won a permanent dominance of the issues until Obama was elected, and this Department of Labor DOES back NLRB and all the rules – they have to be engaged. Even if you are NOT involved in a dispute – find your local NLRB office and join the fray. MAKE them respond. Call and call and call until you get satisfaction.

I know Solis to be an independent-minded person – heard her stand up against the Latino Caucus at the CA Dem. Convention and refuse to support a RW Latina in the Bush administration and turned the caucus around on that support – so there is someone dedicated to the fight.

We cannot be passive on our own issues OR on those affecting our allies. Progressives have forgotten how to fight. We must re-learn that. Walking picket lines, speaking truth to power, standing with people who are not you – every bit of that counts. Just honking as you go by is helpful but NOT enough! Donate money, get engaged, work with the local labor councils volunteering time and resources. It all comes together as we do these things.

I AM pessimistic. I am not without plans!

» Posted By choicelady On February 15, 2011 @ 8:53 am

Hi justafarmer – GREAT post! Well, first in the 80s labor became the ‘cash cow’ to keep corporate profits high. First “givebacks” because, you know, it was a ‘partnership’ between the company and the workers. Then came the “greedy” unions ripping off first the poor investors, and now with public unions, the poor taxpayers.

At the core is the influence of groups such as The Family that believe elites – businessmen – were intended by God to rule the world, and workers were to humble themselves to the wisdom of the businessman. Do NOT underestimate how powerfully that meme has infiltrated corporate board rooms. During the Eastern Airlines strike of 1989-92, Frank Boreman (sp?) former astronaut and EAL CEO said of the workers – they were children who needed discipline. Well the “children” were given say over production ideas for ONE year – and it was the first year EAL made money since 1969. The “children” therefore had to be crushed. They made management look SO bad!

It’s all about power, control, domination and keeping the elites at the top no matter whether they were capable or not. The hatred of unions has everything to do with the fact that all successful production is due entirely to the creativity and innovations made daily by people doing the work. Management cannot know all the steps in the jobs – but the people who do the work certainly DO know what’s the best way to be efficient, save, and be most productive.

Killing off unions is a way of gouging more profit. But more to the point it’s what is essential to the perpetuation of control of our economy by the mediocre but powerful. Unions are a threat to that authority. They have to go.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 9:58 pm

The Deficit of Truth About Obama’s Budget

She’s Randolph in drag.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 7:32 pm

Budget, Deficits, the Debt and the lies from the right

David p – there are no programs in the US that allow the poor to be poor. Whatever one might have thought about AFDC that did keep people dependent, most people – over two thirds – lived on it for only a few years. Now TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) has a five year lifetime LIMIT and was meant to be welfare-to-work. Then even THAT got eroded as the RW decided that education was BAD, so they want to put poorly prepared people in one end and get poorly prepared people out the other. Bad idea.

REAL poverty eradication relies on two kinds of asset development – personal (bank accounts, savings, small build-up investment packages) AND societal where communities and workers can and do have a stake in businesses in ownership and management. Those two things lift people.

There will always be some people who will never be independent – the infirm, those with developmental and severe physical infirmities, some with life-throttling mental illness or dependencies – but the majority can rise to much greater levels of self sufficiency. The big secret is that too much of our corps of elites do NOT WANT INDEPENDENT SELF RELIANT families.

The REAL definition of power? It’s not just the ability to get what YOU want. It’s the capacity to keep other people from getting what they need and making them dependent on YOU.

That is the goal of the Koch brothers and the ruling class in America. Eliminating self sufficiency is critical to people’s increasing dependence on the mega corporation as our sugar daddy. We will be forced to take what they hand out at the standards they feel are sufficient for us. Of course that sows the seeds of destruction of the economy – but they don’t care. Their offshore accounts and walled communities will keep them safe.

Gone are the days that corporations and working people were in partnership. Now it’s back to a war on the poor as we had in the 1890s. It worked for Carnegie, Frick, Vanderbilt, and the Rockefellers – why can’t it work for the Kochs?

American progress for the mega rich is grounded in “forward to the past”. Nothing breeds nostalgia like the specter of Robber Barons and their mansions all built on broken and despondent working backs. America: Brave Old World.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 8:38 pm

Abbey – brilliant! This is an outstanding summation of this issue. Thank you!

In CA the mantra from the Right is that the state must be like a family – that when times are tight, families cut spending. Well, maybe that’s true on frills, but what families do NOT do is throw their kids into the streets, wheel Granny into a parking lot to die, cut off food to their disabled brother-in-law, and hold back insulin to Mom who is diabetic and take away Dad’s tools by which he can make a living. Any family that did those things would have the police on their butts ASAP. So why is the standard suddenly a massively DYSFUNCTIONAL family “solving” their problem through criminally-negligent actions? That’s what the Right demands in CA rather than raising any kind of revenue through taxes.

You are right about reallocation – but the rich want NONE of it. They want to “right” to buy diamonds and leave you unable to buy food.

I mentioned before that the REAL culture wars comes from a marked difference between those of us who believe in the Common Good – the general welfare – and those who are invested utterly in hyper individualism. The rest – sexual issues, etc. – are just diversions. The real culture wars has to be challenged about whether we really are, as Obama says, “in this together” or whether it’s a war of all against all as the new Social Darwinists posit.

There is no reason to gut spending when that spending generates growth. The only reason to gut spending is to keep all the money in the pockets of the few.

So we have to challenge these ideas of debt, of making our grandchildren pay, of bankrupting government, of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. It’s nonsense and is NOT sound fiscal policy. It’s political, it’s class based, and it’s WRONG.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 8:20 pm

Bill Maher’s Big Lie Contribution?

Sometimes yes – but the mainline churches are never hit head on. They are sometimes infiltrated by Black fundies who lay charges of racism. The white churches have whisper campaigns about financial mismangement. It’s rarely honorable. One fundie woman upset a church with several thousand members by lying about the minister saying he’d HIT her. He got fired by his synod because it was the perfect excuse to stop his support for LGBT equality. And on and on and on. UUs have their own problems (too cranky and too narcissistically opinionated – this from a former UU person) but being gullible to covert fundies is NOT one of them! Liberal Protestants could learn from you!

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 9:41 pm

I’ve always like that a lot. I also loved atheist Michael Harrington’s observation on being an atheist that he lived every day in such a way that if he was wrong he’d still have nothing to regret. Magnificent. True humanity grounded in compassion and decency lies outside the boundaries of science OR religion. It’s a great accomplishment, and one we need to understand far better than we do.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 9:34 pm

If you know a bit about noetic science, it examines the great scientific insights of the ancients and the beliefs that accompanied them. That fusion of science and the “wow” factor of scientific discovery WAS the spiritual font of all great thinkers. There used NOT to be binary divisions between spirituality and science. How can contemplation of “forever” or “eternal” or “universe without end” NOT be spiritual? How can the contemplation of spirtuality not be impressed with science – the sheer amazing boundary between quantum physics and Newtonian physics is beyond wonderful. Why do we need snarky nothingness that dismisses the “wow” and wonder or the snarky cranky God that worries about our minor trespasses. We have so screwed up the beauty of life in search of power over others. Man – do we miss the point!

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 9:30 pm

Yeah – y’know, it’s a pretty good gig if you buy into it. I bet you don’t even have to stand in front of women’s clinics if you don’t want to.

One pouring wet day escorts were huddled under a canopy waiting to help patients in. The protester and “sidewalk counselors” were, well, on the sidewalk. One of the escorts, not all that comfy, said, “If they suddently get dry – I’m changing sides.”

They didn’t. He didn’t.

But we knew from their own conversations (they seemed to think we could not hear them) that they continued to have affairs, many of the girls snuck into the clinics and had abortions themselves, they continued to drink and use drugs, and they were ALL possessed of the belief that it DID NOT MATTER. They were “born again” so nothing they did even required further forgiveness.

Must be nice.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 9:26 pm

Christianity for the first 800 years had many faces, but pretty much all of it sought to restore paradise on earth. Along came Charlemagne c.800 CE. To bolster his fervent desire to create the Holy Roman Empire, he raised up the crucifixion – the bloody suffering, agony, dying – as the icon and test of loyalty. True believers would agree to suffer and die, to be absolutely obedient to the cross and all it portended, to the institution of the Church and thus the monarchy and all that meant. The Great Divide – will you die for Jesus?

You no longer could live for joy and peace and betterment – that was not good enough as a “test” of purity of your soul.

Prior to that in the early versions of Christianity, Christin images of the cross were the empty cross surrounded by lush lands, fruits, animals, contentment and peace.

The crucifixion became the “test” – separating the men from the boys (since it also meant women did not count as they had in the early church) and the beginning of binary thinking: good v evil; god v devil; believer v non-believer; righteous believer v heretic; Christian v Jew; Christian v Muslim. The only goal is salvation of one’s OWN soul hardened in pain and fire and hate.
Love for the world and its people – not so much. Maybe not at all since you could burn at the stake for that.

This way of thinking was NOT universal, but it became the RCC way of thinking, and it has influenced religion ever since. Only in the past 50 or so years has a real challenge been thrown up against it all. It’s hard getting back to paradise. There are a lot of vested – and vestmented – interests against it. How can I be pure if you are, too? How can I be loved by God if you, freaking sinner, are as well. If everyone goes to Heaven – what’s the point of anything I do? If there is no divide then why am I following all these rules?

And the best evidence of how that deteriorates is that the standard of “proof” of our righteousness gets smaller and smaller. So long as I SAY I’m “born again” then that’s all that matters. I can feel superior to you AND fornicate my brains out all at the same time.

One anti-abortion wacko once whirled on a group of pro-choice escorts and told them to “fuck off”. When one recoiled in mock horror and said that wasn’t very Christian, the protester said, “I’m born again. I can do anything I want.” Thus contemporary RW Christian binary separations of saints and sinners is reduced to nothing more than narcissism and solipcism. It’s the ultimate “kicking out”, Killgore – only God don’t have nuttin’ to do with it.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 7:55 pm

They do hate Unitarians, but they work hard to undermine ALL Protestants with progressive values in a process called “steepljacking”. They have been after us and National Council of Churches for YEARS. They also shot many mainline folks, Jews, whoever for being prochoice or other reasons.

They are despicable.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 3:57 pm

Nothin’ good, Patsy. Nothin’ good.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 2:13 pm

Now that’s a good idea! It was so close – had we had our clergy and members in ads saying the truth about the proposition AND affirming civil equality in marriage, I think it would have gone the other way. Sigh.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 2:12 pm

Biggest sorrow was that the secular LGBT groups shut us out of active work on NO on 8 – we could have made SO MUCH difference!

We also were YES on the legalization of marijuana to little avail. At least it did not spill over into people saying, “Hey – the Churchlady says toke up, Dude!” That was not QUITE our reasoning…

Our 1.5 million members did vote NO on 8 and YES on 19. They are smart cookies, our folks.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 2:11 pm

Unitarians call us Unitarian heavy. You guys are REALLY progressive!

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 2:07 pm

Killgore – putting no stock in Maher may be the wisest thing said to date. Thanks for the reminder!

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 2:06 pm

What bothers me as someone who has UU, UCC (congregationalists) and many other progressive denominations in our organization is his freaking LANGUAGE. He was UCC with Rev. Wright, and trust me on this point – they (we) don’t “find Jesus because I was a sinner”.

I HATE the litmus test, but I am appalled at the evangelical language even more. UCC is not about salvation at ALL – it’s about justice, period. Protestants overall (weeding out Southern Methodists who are a thing apart from the United Methodist Church) are people who follow the teachings of Christ as well as any other relevant source but who are not in hot pursuit of personal salvation. Maybe that’s arrogant, but we do NOT “take Jesus as our personal savior” because we don’t think that’s what the historical and scriptural documents show. It’s about making the world a better place and being the best, most fair, most kind and compassionate person we can be for the sake of all.

Evanglicals, Pentecostalists, Dominionists aren’t “Christian” in my book – they are “Old Testamentarians” who fall back on a handful of tribally-based, antiquated scriptural lines to tell OTHER people how they fail. Jesus is just a “get out of jail free” card.

Follow the scripture? Hah! That would require not amassing billions on the backs of other people, would require laying down their military industrial complex, would require NO judgments against other people about whom they love, would direct them toward that scary thing Glenn Beck told his followers to run away from – social justice!

So despite the fact that our members denominations are indeed progressive on issues, despite our historical presence along with UU beliefs, WE have become the pariahs. We are pro choice, believe in sexual justice for all people, are oriented toward peace, toward economic fairness, equity in ALL matters – WE are “not REAL Christians.”

We are concerned that the Dominionists who really DO want to take over he world so Jesus will return (showing scant faith in Jesus may I cynically observe) will stop at little or nothing to achieve that end. With one faction of the End Times folks predicting the Rapture for May 21 and the End for October 21 of this year, we are concerned that “God’s little helpers” might think they need to do something really awful to make prophecy come true.

What you are seeing with respect to pushing Obama’s “Muslim-ness” is part of all that. If he’s “not Christian” then they may be “authorized by God” to do…what? It’s terrifying!

We already know they are ready and eager to gun down anyone who is liberal or progressives. Look at the shootings across the nation – they are ALL impelled by the racist Christian dominionism of the True Believer.

My organization and I personally are being stalked and harassed by them constantly. Every time we assert support for GLBT rights, for Muslims, against Dominionists taking over the military etc., we have vandalism and other problems.

So I sort of get why Obama is catering to them. It actually may be worth his life. On the other hand, it perpetuates the idea that they and only they have the ‘truth’ and that seriously pisses me off. No one does.

Best T shirt ever: God bring me into the company of those seeking the truth. Deliver me from those who have found it.

That goes for James Hagee on one hand and Bill Maher on the other. Enough already.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 2:03 pm

Define “Old” …

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 1:45 pm

I suppose I should weigh in on this since I’m the Planet’s Churchlady as well as Choicelady – but I’m not. I don’t care. Bill Maher is narcissistic, I suspect racist, and not an atheist at all but someone totally pissed off at God.

I run the policy part of a very large faith organization in CA – and most of us who are mainline Christian Protestants would be perfectly in sync with Killgore without embracing the term, Taoist. God as an old man (what did he look like young?) is just not on with any of us much less a cranky Santa sitting in judgment over human foibles. We embrace science totally. Some of us think God is present as a force in their lives. Others don’t and are fine with that. God as the collective consciousness of humanity works. God as the power of love and good works. I’m pretty much with all that latter version – except on take off and landing at which point an old guy holding up the plane gets VERY attractive to someone who’s had LOTS of bad experiences on planes – but that’s MY problem, not yours. Superstition is not theology. Except to Sarah Palin – a whole ‘nother post.

Maher knows only fundies within any religion and although progressives and liberals are equal in number he will NOT discuss faith with us – we unnerve him. We have absolutely NO interest in conversion, in proselytizing, in the state of your immortal soul since we’re not so sure about what that means. Now JUSTICE – that’s what we DO, so that’s what matters. Maher in that category loses again since he has no apparent concern for anyone outside himself.

Marion I found your assertion that to Maher intelligent people have to be atheists very revealing. It has been my experience working with hundreds of progressive secular organizations that sooner or later they all decide they have to “mobilize the Black churches”. Why? Well – they seem to believe that the Black churches are not just key institutions within the Black community but that Black people are just too stupid to know better. That raises my hackles SO MUCH! That covert racism infuriates me. Know how I know? The same people won’t work with WHITE churches.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 12:44 pm

To answer your last question, pretty much anyone over at HP who reiterates Maher’s “subtle” digs. Quite a lot of people apparently.

» Posted By choicelady On February 14, 2011 @ 12:28 pm

The American people have Spoken … Maybe

That was the Christian Coalition strategy that had some scary impact. The Tea Party is much more wise – they pretend they are NOT Dominionist Christians but they are. So while they appear secular, they are bringing both economic libertarianism AND theocratic perspectives to their public office. They must be stopped!

» Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 9:34 pm

You mean they don’t?

» Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 6:43 pm

True – but the conformity of the GOP views means if a candidate is good on abortion bans, he or she can be relied upon to be perfect on guns, God, and greed, too. It’s so NICE of the GOP to make thinking unnecessary!

» Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 6:41 pm