The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Several days ago, I wrote about the prison industrial complex in America that is driven largely by profit motive rather than improving society through rehabilitation or crime reduction. One component of America's incarceration industry is the criminalization of the mentally ill.

An example of this callous ineptitude is former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The November 27th, 2006 edition of the Worcester Business Journal, reported that the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health refused to admit any more patients to its hospitals or units. The drastic action was the direct result of cuts Romney imposed on the agency. Perhaps he did so to burnish his credentials as a fiscal conservate prior to announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

This week, Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney is a focus of blogs that report on the religious right due to discussion of the Boston Globe investigation of his effort to egage no-profit, tax-exempt Mormon institutions in Utah in the early stages of his campaign for president. He also was the featured speaker at the grimly gay-bashing Liberty Sunday telecast, hosted by the Family Research Council.

Cross-posted at dailykos

Yesterday I had the immense pleasure of attending the Deval Patrick rally for change on Boston Common. About 5500 people from all over the Bay State came to show their support for our Democratic Nominee for Governor of Massachusetts. I even got a little bit of tape on the Duke and his lovely bride as they made their way out after the remarks.

Patrick didn't show up to give his normal speech. He didn't show up to attack and refute charges. He didn't show up to merely rally the troops. He came to show all of us what leadership looks like. What leadership sounds like. Real leadership.  

Follow me below the fold for the video of Deval Patrick in Boston Common.

The blogosphere never disappoints when it comes to keeping tabs on the religous right.  This week was no exception.  

Democratic candidate for governor of Massachussetts, Deval Patrick has announced a Rally for Change for this Sunday.  Patrick from the earliest days of his campaign has been about changing politics in both form and substance. This Sunday promises to be a classic example.

I don't think Mitt Romney's Mormonism should be an issue in an election any more than John Kennedy's Catholicism shouldn't have been in 1960. I firmly believe in separation of religion and government to keep freedom alive in this country.

The Supreme Court is refusing to hear the case of parents complaining that their children are being taught Islam in California's public school system.
Also, a Republican governor is reportedly a staunch advocate for substantially expanding governmnent-funded health insurance, and the minumum wage still hasn't been raised since 1997. What's next?

Religion Taught In Public Schools and Other Surprises

So, the Supreme Court is refusing to hear the case of parents complaining that their children are being taught Islam in California's public school system. What on earth is going on here?

Apparently, since it wasn't bringing the case forward, the ACLU is snug with this development. But if schools were teaching the Christian Bible, the ACLU would be all over it in an uproarious protest.

The Religious Right is not now, nor has it ever been exclusively Christian.  It has always been a coalition of conservative religious groups including various kinds of Protestants -- both evangelcial and mainline, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, and more.

This reality will be thrown into sharper relief as Mitt Romney, the Republican governor of Massachusetts ramps up his campaign for the GOP nomination for president. Without evaluating his chances, there is no question that he is running and making the rounds, and like John McCain and all of the other prospective candidates, wooing the religious right. As Romney tacks to the religious and to the right in pursuit of the nomination (he tacked prochoice and moderate to win the governorship of Massachusetts and played down religion), the question of how a former Mormon bishop, fits in the religious right will be a question.  Historically, fundadmentalist and evangelical Christians have viewed Mormons as unChrisitian, and even as a dangerous cult. The prejudice that still runs deep against Catholics arguably runs deeper against Mormons. This has been widely discussed in the mainstream press, and has been acknowledged by Christian right leaders as an issue. Some have sought to be open to Romney, who spoke at Family Research Council's recent Values Voters Summit.  But are values voters just conservative Christian voters when they get to the voting booth? Thats what James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family seems to think.

Under the headline "Christian Leader: Romney's Mormon Faith Could Hinder Presidential Bid," the New York Sun reported:

A prominent and powerful evangelical Christian leader, James Dobson, said yesterday that the Mormon faith practiced by Governor Romney of Massachusetts could pose a serious obstacle if Mr. Romney makes a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

A 38 year-old woman in Boston was crushed to death while driving through a new Big Dig tunnel leading to the airport, when a concrete slab weighing several tons fell from the ceiling and mangled her car. Massachusetts' governor Mitt Romney rushed to the scene as quickly as physics would allow.

The diary below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal on August 27th.

Richard Nixon manipulated Americans into believing he had an honorable exit strategy from Vietnam. Ronald Reagan successfully convinced voters he championed a Norman Rockwell society that valued hard work and neighborhood generosity. In 1988, oilman George Herbert Walker Bush won in part as the "environmentalist" candidate. Twelve years later his son stole the presidency after campaigning as a "plain spoken" truth telling man of the people with a "humble" foreign policy.

A-B-S-T-I-N-E-N-C-E = B-A-L-O-N-E-Y

   The Romney administration plans to introduce a new abstinence education program in Massachusetts schools beginning next month, the state's most aggressive effort yet to use a controversial method of teaching Bay State teenagers about sex.

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