By Jason Miller

Dedicated to Bobbie L.

4/3/08

In the sermon just minutes before his death, Archbishop Oscar Romero (a man who truly practiced the teachings of Christ) reminded his congregation of the parable of the wheat. "Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us. I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command to give my life for those whom I love, and that is all Salvadoreans, even those who are going to kill me."

--These words appeared in a newspaper just two weeks before Archbishop Romero was shot (by a filthy Right Wing Death Squad supported by the US) while celebrating Holy Communion in the hospital which had been his home since his enthronement in 1977.

"You could piss off Jesus Christ himself!"

--Russ Miller

Just in case you haven't heard the good news:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. AP -- The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff's Office says Rush Limbaugh has been arrested on prescription fraud charges.

Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant issued by the state attorney's office, said agency spokesperson Teri Barbera.

The conservative radio commentator came into the jail about 4 p.m with his attorney, Roy Black, and was released an hour later on $3,000 bail.
The warrant was for fraud to conceal information to obtain prescription. Barbera said.

With this 'quiet time' will come some well deserved opportunities for reflection, so we've compiled a list of Rush's most memorable moments in the hope that he will see the error of his ways and repent.

Today, a meeting between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao was interrupted by a protester who pleaded, "President Bush: Stop him from killing".

In other news, Bush's disingenuous invasion of Iraq has killed 2,378 American soldiers and an estimated 100,000 Iraqis -- women and children included. But no worries, Saddam Hussein is still alive and Bush is currently having tea with yet another dictator who more closely adheres to the economic interests of the United States.

In fact, in an ironic display of the freedom, liberty, and democracy frequently enjoyed by Americans pre-Bush Administration, White House security allowed a Chinese Protester the freedom to deliver her impassioned message to Chinese President Hu Jintao unabated -- a democratic luxury rarely afforded to protestors directing their concerns toward President Bush.

It was a strange sight as the woman 'heckler' at today's Hu-Bush pomp-o-rama continued her 'rant' with White House security conspicuously slow to the scene.

Veering from my usual area of commentary, here, but a front-page story in my local paper caught my eye this morning, which offers
further evidence that the Republican right-wing is imploding.  The headline was NOT that the Baptist State Convention in North Carolina voted to kick out member churches for knowingly approving, and therefore, "affirming," homosexual behavior.  No, it was this:

"Gay Baptists dismayed by church stance."

That's right. Right there on the front page:  WHAT GAYS THINK.

Imagine that.

And here's what "they" say (my emphases):

"I don't see anywhere in Jesus' teaching that `these' certain people are not welcome in church.  I don't remember a list."-- Mark File, gay Baptist deacon

An extreme right-wing  Missouri talk radio host has been charged with poisoning his wife to death with anti-freeze; James Keown of KLIK 120AM  (owned by ultra-conservative Cumulus Broadcasting) will be arraigned in Massachusetts -- where his wife's death occured a year ago -- next week.

Apparently, poisoning his listeners with right-wing propaganda wasn't enough, he wanted to play Cesare Borgia at home.

Keown's misogyny is shared by Faux News, as shown by this post from Shakespeare's Sister (and she's not talking about  Bill O'Reilly's obsession with porn and louffas).

For those obsessed with less prurient things than porn, The Fix has a a steady supply of primo information here. Although I'm not sure any election in which a Republican is involved counts as being less prurient...

Finally, the New York Daily News reports that the honeymoon between Bush and Dick Cheney ended long ago, and their political marriage has been suffering from the "seven-year itch" since Year Four of the relationship.

I wonder who'll get the Presidential china if there's a divorce: George or his "smarter-half?"

"What nature joins let no gays put asunder." - Bill Bennett

"[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." - Bill Bennett

How poetic.

And now... Billy-boy Bennett, the great conservative moralizer, has come through yet again -- letting us know exactly how evil we all are.

This time, he's decided that we on the left aren't outraged enough by the recent leak of the revelations of secret CIA prisons.

And I say, cast not the first stone....but since he already has, why don't we take a stroll down memory lane and check out the real man behind the hyperbolic vitriol...

Sure, he moralizes for millions and then blows it gambling. No worries though. Everyone has his or her vice(s). For example, everyone clamped down on Bennett's gambling 'problem' as some great icon of hypocrisy. But really gambling is no big deal....uh, that is...unless you ask Bennett's loyal following.

Over the past week, there's been an uproar nationally and in this neck of the woods over an editorial that ran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last weekend.

In the opinion piece, now being referred to as "The Asterisk Editorial", the Journal Sentinel editorial staff wrote that "In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America."

This comment has resulted in tremendously platitudinal backlash, with right-wing hypocrites throwing around terms like "thinly veiled Liberal racism" and recalling old strawman phrases like "acting white".  But such claims are intellectually dishonest in the context of this editorial, and come down to a simple strategy: The right-wing is playing the race card again.  And this time, like usual, they're laying a 2 of clubs and calling it an ace of hearts.

Continued...