Atheist Billboard Campaign in Atlanta

There is absolutely nothing wrong with an atheist group taking out billboards anywhere.  Especially if the messages aren't particularly provocative or incendiary in their messaging. Of course, many religious people are of the opinion that anything said opposing religion is automatically provocative and incendiary.  For instance, one of the billboards quotes John Lennon's Imagine, by saying "imagine no religion."  A person in this video takes offense to that.  Didn't he watch WKRP in Cincinnati?  Dr. Johnny Fever plainly explained, "it doesn't say there is no religion, it says imagine."  Nothing wrong with that.



Found at: Joe.My.God.

Mike Huckabee Wins Conservative Fringe Group's Straw Poll

It used to be that the Powers That Be in the GOP placated and pandered to their base and their fringe groups, merely to get their votes. They threw them red meat, they used coded language, they got the votes, then they did whatever they wanted to do. If you'll notice, abortion is still legal, but that issue is still trotted out, even when it is only tangentially related to whatever issue is being discussed (Sidebar: The Democrats do this with gay rights issues, promising much but usually delivering little).

A political inversion has taken place in recent history, where the fringe sets the agenda, and the politicians are at least on the surface, backing them up. Attempts to distance themselves from them have been tepid, and rarely do they attempt to completely shut the nuts down. And so, many of the most prominent GOP figures are now regularly appearing at the most extreme events, such as The Values Voters Summit. "Values" is a shortening of "traditional family values," a twenty-odd years old code phrase for "we don't like gay people." Actually "family" is as much a code for that as values is. Pick a political/religious group with family in the title, and you can bet that the primary purpose (at least originally) was to fight the advancement of gay rights. Almost always with a Christian fundamentalist slant.

It is discouraging to see that politics is being blended with religion so nakedly. For all of their claims of allegiance to Constitutional intent, they are determined to erase the wall of separation between church and state. Not surprisingly, one of the most overtly religious of the current GOP hopefuls list won the group's Presidential straw poll. For Democrats, this is likely a good thing. I believe Mike Huckabee could actually win a Republican primary. But I have strong doubts that he could win a general election.

[Excerpt]

Huckabee Wins GOP Presidential Poll

A day after former Baptist minister and likely presidential rival Mike Huckabee offered a withering critique of Mitt Romney's record, the former Massachusetts governor made his pitch to the same group of religious conservatives. . .

Read more at: AOL News

"I Approve This Message" Can Now Legally Include Lies

Oh, this is just terrific. If we thought campaign ads could be negative in the past, we may have seen nothing yet. They used to have to at least have an air of "truthiness," even if they distorted or misdirected. Now, they can just throw caution to the wind, and say whatever the hell they please. Ridiculous.

Does this mean that "truth in advertising" violates the free speech rights of corporations? Can food labels for Twinkies now claim that they are 100% natural earthy goodness?

Yeah, this was only Washington State, but I think we can be sure this sort of idea is gonna catch on like wildfire. Good grief.

[Excerpt]

Wash. High Court: Campaign Lies Are Protected Speech

A sharply divided state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a law which bars political candidates from deliberately making false statements about their opponents violates the First Amendment right of free speech.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court affirmed a state Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the law. The measure was enacted by the Legislature in 1999, a year after a similar ban on false statements involving initiatives and other ballot measures was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. . .

Read the story at: EditorAndPublisher.com