Re: Family Values

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Petem wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>
>
soon to be a dead jerk