Re: Family Values

["Petem" <petem001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Robert why don't you post this type of thing is Comp.home .automation?

aren't you tired of being a jerk in this NG?

"Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de news:
zYKdndrq66gnhK7YnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Book says Bush just using Christians
> 'Tempting Faith' author David Kuo worked for Bush from 2001 to 2003
>
> Oct. 12: Rev. Barry Lyn, executive director of Americans United for
> Separation of Church and State, talks to "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann
> about the allegations in "Tempting Faith."
>
> More than five years after President Bush created the Office of
> Faith-Based Initiatives, the former second-in-command of that office is
> going public with an insider's tell-all account that portrays an office
> used almost exclusively to win political points with both evangelical
> Christians and traditionally Democratic minorities.
>
> The office's primary mission, providing financial support to charities
> that serve the poor, never got the presidential support it needed to
> succeed, according to the book.
>
> Entitled "Tempting Faith," the book is not scheduled for release until
> Oct. 16, but MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" has obtained a copy.
>
> "Tempting Faith's" author is David Kuo, who served as special assistant to
> the president from 2001 to 2003. A self-described conservative Christian,
> Kuo's previous experience includes work for prominent conservatives
> including former Education Secretary and federal drug czar Bill Bennett
> and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
> Story continues below ? advertisement
>
> Kuo, who has complained publicly in the past about the funding shortfalls,
> goes several steps further in his new book.
>
> He says some of the nation's most prominent evangelical leaders were known
> in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as "the
> nuts."
>
> "National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then
> were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of
> control,' and just plain 'goofy,'" Kuo writes.
>
> More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs
> director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office,
> and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly "nonpartisan" events that were, in
> reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20
> targeted races.
>
> Nineteen out of the 20 targeted races were won by Republicans, Kuo
> reports. The outreach was so extensive and so powerful in motivating not
> just conservative evangelicals, but also traditionally Democratic
> minorities, that Kuo attributes Bush's 2004 Ohio victory "at least
> partially . to the conferences we had launched two years before."
>
> With the exception of one reporter from the Washington Post, Kuo says the
> media were oblivious to the political nature and impact of his office's
> events, in part because so much of the debate centered on issues of
> separation of church and state.
>
> In fact, the Bush administration often promoted the faith-based agenda by
> claiming that existing government regulations were too restrictive on
> religious organizations seeking to serve the public.
>
> Substantiating that claim proved difficult, Kuo says. "Finding these
> examples became a huge priority.. If President Bush was making the world a
> better place for faith-based groups, we had to show it was really a bad
> place to begin with. But, in fact, it wasn't that bad at all."
>
> In fact, when Bush asks Kuo how much money was being spent on "compassion"
> social programs, Kuo claims he discovered the amount was $20 million a
> year less than during the Clinton Administration.
>
> The money that was appropriated and disbursed, however, often served a
> political agenda, Kuo claims, with organizations friendly to the
> administration often winning grants.
>
> More pointedly, Kuo quotes an unnamed member of the review panel charged
> with rating grant applications as saying she stopped looking at
> applications from "those non-Christian groups," as did many of her
> colleagues.
>
> "Tempting Faith" contains several other controversial claims about Kuo's
> office, the Bush White House and even the 1994 Republican revolution in
> Congress.
>
> Calls and e-mails to the White House have not been returned.
>
> Many of those revelations and others will be the topic of discussion on
> Thursday night's edition of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."
>
> Watch "Countdown" each weeknight at 8 p.m. ET
> © 2006 MSNBC Interactive
>
>