That’s right. Phony. People like Pat Roberston, Billy Graham, and Rodney Page (our fanatical evangelical SECRETARY OF EDUCATION (yikes!) are not real Christians, if you want to go by the Book – the new testatment that is. These corporate flimflam artists use the Bible like the Amway guide to multilevel marketing. If they ever understood the teachings of Jesus, you’d never know it now. I doubt very much if Matthew, Mark, Luke OR John would recognize the twisted bill of goods these charlatans are selling. These modern “multilevel missionaries” interest in “spreading the Word” is not to dispense goodness and light but to scoop up money and power.

And boy, oh boy, did they ever have a patsy in G. W. Bush. Bush strikes me as a loser who has longed to feel like a Somebody all his life, without having to actually ever do anything to earn that position. Thus, having multilevel missionaries tell him he is not only a “leader,” but an “anointed” chosen one, fighting Evildoers for God has puffed him up like the Staypuff Marshmallow Man. What is sad is that Bush, probably out of the whole pack of phony Christians now pulling America’s puppet strings, is probably the most sincere. He sincerely BELIEVES he is fighting evildoers and bound for Babylon to complete the dire predictions of the Eschatalogical (scatological?) doomsdayers. That was what made Hitler such a menace - he honestly believed he was saving the human race by “remodeling” it.

So now that the PCs have been able to exert their power over America to this point – actually inducing us to invade another country without cause – they are pulling out the stops, now confident no one will push back. Thus we have evangelical revival meetings being held at Fort Bragg, Army Chaplains in Iraq refusing to allow dirty, hot and tired soldiers take a bath without first getting baptized, Billy Graham and Pat Roberston poised on the outskirts of Iraq, ready to set up their multilevel missions, and our own Secretary of Education proclaiming for the record that he thinks Christian schooling is the way to go for everyone. Here are the details:

No Baptism, No Water: You’ve probably all seen the footage of David Bloom, over and over, showing his dust-covered, sun-burnt face in the desert. It is pretty much the way all the Coalition soldiers in Iraq looked. Gritty, dirty, sweaty, miserable. Well, near Najah, Army Chaplain Josh Llano of Houston (does Texas hold the patent on rightwing assholes or something?) managed to get hold of 500 gallons of cool, clean water. Something an American soldier about now would do anything to get hold of. Llano has exploited this fact – he will allow soldiers to get a nice cool, much earned bath ONLY if they agree to first listen to a 1 ½ hour sermon, followed by getting baptized. “They want water,” says “good Christian” Llano, “I have it. As long as they agree to get baptized.” With good Christians like these, who needs Evil Muslims??? See www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/5554317.htm

Onward Christian Soldiers...and Bombers....and Hand-to- hand combatants...and snipers...

Maj. Gen. William G. Boykin, commanding general of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, wants a herd of Southern Baptist pastors (among the only American Christians to actually back this war) to converge on the base this month to participate in a "militarily-themed motivational program for Christian evangelists." There those "turn the other cheekers" can witness a rousing demonstration of hand-to-hand combat, and trips to the Shoot House and Snake Room. Unknown to the public, this is the SECOND YEAR the Christians for Bloodshed have been invited as special guests to the Fort. 'It's completely inappropriate to have the Army put on a revival meeting at a military base,' said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. 'This is a particularly bad time to have the Army appear to be promoting Christianity,' he continued, 'in the middle of a war with a Muslim country.'" Amen.

www.nytimes.com/2003/04/06/national/06GENE.html

Brand-Christian Food

Billy Graham and Pat Robertson have their multilevel missionary operations all set up and ready to move into Iraq – literally. Graham’s outfit is called Samaritan’s Purse, and is moving in to exchange help for an aggressive push to Christianize Muslims. Graham, who gave the invocation at Bush’s inauguration, has, on record, condemned Islam as “a wicked, violent religion.” One Iraqi muslim said that the “Christian soldier” Bush invasion has driven many Iraqis to feel they have no choice but to fight to the death to resist. The choice they are left with is “Dying by the bullet or dying by the Bible.”

Robertson plans to use food as bait. He has packages of food all ready to pass out in exchange for his evangelical spiel. Each package is labeled “A Gift of Love from Christians in America.” Just like those “complementary gifts” that you get for signing up for a new checking account or a magazine subscription.

Onward Christian Soldiers…and Bombers, and Tank drivers, and Hand-to-hand Combaters….

Maj. Gen. William G. Boykin, commanding general of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, wants a herd of Southern Baptist pastors (among the only American Christians to actually back this war) to converge on the base this month to participate in a “militarily-themed motivational program for Christian evangelists." There those “turn the other cheekers” can witness a rousing demonstration of hand-to-hand combat, and trips to the Shoot House and Snake Room. Unknown to the public, this is the SECOND YEAR the Christians for Bloodshed have been invited as special guests to the Fort. 'It's completely inappropriate to have the Army put on a revival meeting at a military base,' said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. 'This is a particularly bad time to have the Army appear to be promoting Christianity,' he continued, 'in the middle of a war with a Muslim country.'" Amen.

www.nytimes.com/2003/04/06/national/06GENE.html

Sharon Promised – and soon to get - Free-ride Oil Spoils from Bush Meanwhile, back in the other fundy capitol of the world, Israel, Sharon has already got an old oil pipeline cleaned up and ready to roll, carrying oil from Iraq right into Israel. The pipeline, which runs into Haifa, hasn’t been used for 55 years. But the Israeli section of line has very conveniently already been reconditioned and made ready to receive oil, just in time – can there be any doubt that, months ago, before we poor slobs in the public even dreamed of going to war with Iraq, that Bush promised Sharon the first flow of oil spoils? And just think – Sharon gets these spoils without having ever donated a single dollar or soldier. Yet the rightwing ghouls (remember, don’t insult the noble bird and call them hawks) say they don’t want France, Russia or Germany involved in reconstruction because they didn’t contribute to the “glorious cause.”

It should be noted here that the rest of the pipeline (beyond Israel) runs across the southwestern part of Iraq - where the Coalition has concentrated a large number of troops and equipment, despite the fact that it is a sparsely populated area and is already more-or-less secured (no-fly-zone bombings, etc.). So, while our troops are spread thin in areas of active fighting, the possible reinforcements are busy guarding the other end of the Iraq-to-Israel pipeline.The Reeducation of America is About to Begin

Secretary of Education Rodney Page figures we’ve marched on Babylon, so now must be the time to pull out the stops and go full speed ahead with the domestic agenda –the reeducation of American children into the “right” way of thinking.
“It is important for schools to teach Christian values,” Page announced this week. “All things being equal, I would prefer to have a child to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community.” This is America’s CHIEF EDUCATION LEADER, folks. That’s like having a CEO from Ford be named to head a commission deciding what kind of cars Americans are supposed to drive. Barry Lind, rep., for Americans for Separation of Church and State said that Page’s comments show “An astonishing mix of direspect for both American religious diversity and for public schools. “ Lind and many others are calling for Page’s resignation. But I doubt if the Anointed Staypuff Man is going to come down from Mount Ararat long enough to consider the concerns of us mere mortals.

HIP HIP HOORAY!!! For Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky of Illinois Finally, a white Democrat speaks up against the Bush Reich. (The black Democrats have been courageously speaking out all along, but the media has made sure their voices are never heard). Janice was on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” this morning. She sounded nervous and a bit scared at first (who wouldn’t be, with the hysterical, abusive callers the screeners there let through on a regular basis). But as she went on, she became more confident as the pattern of calls became clear: Most of the pro-war, pro-Bush people were from Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, etc. and either spewed Bushie buzz lines and/or poor grammar (“them people”). By contrast, those calling to support her were well-spoken and spontaneous, honestly sounding like “typical Americans” – as opposed to sounding like “typical sons and daughters of the Confederacy.” So many of the people who called to support Janice sounded incredibly relieved and grateful that someone in Congress FINALLY spoke for the people.

Janice pointed out that while the media WANTS Americans to believe that everyone in Congress, including all the Democrats are all solidly behind Bush and his war, that is simply a lie. A full 60% of all Congressional Democrats voted AGAINST the war. And, they are routinely bullied by people like piggy-eyed Tom DeLay (the same Delay who runs a boiler room operation (acknowledged and decried but NEVER investigated) scamming doctors for donations to the GOP in exchange for “advisory board” positions that don’t exist).

’Triumphal Entry into Baghdad Is a “Hitler’s Invasion of Poland” Rerun – without the Actual Military Victory’

I could stomach listening to America’s own bloodthirsty sweetheart Katie “Eva Braun” Couric and Tom “Goebbels” Brokaw for about five minutes this morning on NBC’s “Today” as they spouted bilious fountains of propaganda for America’s consumption.

The entire spiel centered around the “triumphal takeover” of Baghdad. The live video they showed was a statue of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad with a “crowd” of Iraqi men clustered at its foot. There weren’t even enough Iraqis present to encircle the bottom of the statue – instead, the media directors had the group of about 100 arrayed in a block about three deep, and kept the camera positioned so that only occasionally could you see that the group was three deep and about 25 wide. I got a note from someone this morning who said they had it on good authority that the Iraqi men they keep showing in the past 24 hours were part of the group with the Iraqi National Congress who returned to the country with Ahmed Chalabi over the weekend from London. The same crew is being used in every bit of video footage where “crowd of Iraqis” is called for. But looking at the footage, you see nothing but empty streets stretching away from the staged “crowd.”Meanwhile, intensive fighting continues throughout the city, with especially heavy fighting at the University of Baghdad. Rather than the laughable propaganda buzzterm “pockets of resistance,” they should be talking about “pockets of Coalition-secured territory.”

But Couric and Brokaw gush about how the handful of Iraqis pounding on the base of the statue with sledge hammers (and not making too much progress – it is apparently steel underneath) were “Just like when the Berlin wall came down!” Brokaw is determined to make this administration’s odious exploits be “like” some heroic moment in history. Unfortunately, the only moment in history this event really resembles is Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That “triumphal entry”, also filmed by propagandists capturing grateful, “cheering Poles.” It was also preceded by a Blitzkrieg– the Nazi term for Shock and Awe. It was also the prototype for all of Hitler’s other invasions, including his attempted invasion of England (which only got as far as Blitz, thankfully).

Meanwhile, on C-SPAN, Dick Cheney in a speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors in New Orleans, is also pushing the phony WWII motif. He and his wife plan to visit the D-Day museum in the next few days. Oh, puke! What’s next, making all the troops dress up and pose in vintage GI outfits left over from the Battle of the Bulge just to make sure the analogy was not lost on the public. I notice that when they got to the question and answer part of Cheney’s appearance, C-SPAN cut quickly to something else. What’s the matter? They actually asked Cheney some real questions? I retain more hope for newspaper journalists than TV talking heads, so maybe my so far disappointed faith has not been altogether misplaced.

But Couric and Brokaw and their “face without a soul” counterparts in FOX, CNN, CBS, et al., like the good Nazi broadcasters who preceded them 60 years ago, don’t ask questions. Heil Bush!

More Evidence that Britain’s Backing of Bush is Motivated more by Terror of the Euro than Terror of Saddam

The British media has learned to use the Bush propaganda technique very effectively. So, in recent days, they have been babbling about how the euro is losing ground steadily, while the British pound has gained TWICE as much value,…and thus, isn’t it a great thing that the UK didn’t join the European union and instead joined forces with Bush,…etc. ad nauseum. But on BBC’s Marketplace, the reality was revealed. While the British pound has experienced a 2% growth in the past several months, the Counselor of the Exchequer (the equivalent of Alan Greenspan) admitted that this was not real growth – but is based on borrowing (i.e, US-style deficit spending). Meanwhile, the Euro’s modest 1% growth is REAL growth, not based on deficit spending. This is extremely symbolic from where I sit : the US and UK progress on all fronts, from their economies to the war against Iraq is phony, propped up by media disinformation.