Finally... A Great Use for a Bible

Authorities in Ohio said a 16-year-old arrested for drug possession allegedly used a page torn from his Bible as a marijuana cigarette rolling paper.

The Erie County sheriff deputy's report said the teenager's mother called authorities at about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday and asked deputies to meet her at a car wash on Ohio 101 in Margaretta Township, the Sandusky (Ohio) Register reported Monday.

The mother told deputies she had seen her son smoking in his room and discovered a small bag of marijuana in his nightstand.

The report said the woman told deputies the boy "was smoking a marijuana cigarette using a page from his Bible."

Deputies confiscated the marijuana and the boy was arrested and charged with drug possession.

What an intrepid young man! I've never found the bible to be useful for much of anything, but he found an interesting use...

I wonder if the page was from Exodus 3?

National Day of Prayer?

Today, the government's observance of the National Day of Prayer goes forward despite the recent federal court ruling that deemed the event unconstitutional. Two bills are currently making their way through the House of Representatives that aim to protect the National Day of Prayer--as if it needed protection--one of which has over 80 co-sponsors, about one-fifth of the entire House.

On Presidential Signing Statements

Presidential signing statements thwart Congressional oversight and should be outlawed.

Every once in a while, a news story crops up about yet another lie or omission regarding the briefings the CIA gave to Congressional intelligence committees on their interrogation aka torture program during the Bush years. Marcy Wheeler has been assiduously covering this for months, even years now, gathering together the disparate reports from a mostly disinterested mainstream press.

A few examples will suffice.

There was the time in July 2009 when House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes complained that his committee “has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to.” Only months before, in a well-publicized press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to Congress. “They didn’t tell us everything,” Pelosi complained. The Speaker’s complaints followed CIA’s release of a list (PDF) that purported to show how it had briefed Congress over the years on the interrogations program. The list, in Marcy Wheeler’s words, was illustrative of CIA “playing around with its obligation to inform the intelligence committees.” Her deconstruction of the list is juicy reading.

Sometimes, as Wheeler also recently reported, the efforts to sabotage Congressional oversight came from within, as in early 2003 when then-new Senate Intelligence Committee chair Pat Roberts scotched all plans to send a committee staffer to review CIA interrogation sites on behalf of the committee.

What isn’t often mentioned was how the CIA was given the green light to lie and obfuscate by their superiors in the Executive Branch. It’s well known that former President Bush used an unprecedented amount of signing statements during his administration, nullifying dozens, if not hundred of provisions in the bills he signed. A Pulitzer Prize winning account of this was written up by Charlie Savage in the Boston Globe in 2006. One should read the entire article (as well as others on the subject by Dahlia Lithwick and John Dean), but I’m only going to mainly concentrate on the signing statements that targeted Congressional oversight demands.

Although presidential signing statements had been used before George W. Bush's reign of (t)error, this turd of a practice is laying squarely at the feet of our former president. For all of his other failings (real or perceived), President Barack Obama has kept his word, when he indicated he would not rule by presidential signing statement.

Drill, baby, Drill?

The Coast Guard says a sheen of oil that's been covering an area in the Gulf of Mexico since an oil rig exploded off the Louisiana coast is growing.

Has Arizona Lost Its Mind?

Arizona lawmakers approved a sweeping immigration bill Monday intended to ramp up law enforcement efforts even as critics complained it could lead to racial profiling and other abuse.

The state Senate voted 17-11 nearly along party lines to send the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, who has not taken a position on the measure championed by fellow Republicans. The House approved the bill April 13.

Sounds like fascism is alive and well in the desert.

Show me your papers, Bawdy!

If I Went to a Tea Party...

...the sign I'd carry would say "I'm tired of funding wars I do not support."

I wonder how many of the tea baggers would agree with my sign?

An Open Letter to President Obama

As a Secular American, I believe strongly in protecting the secular heritage of our democracy. Our Constitution makes clear that religion has no place in government, and that the government’s power derives from the people it serves, not a deity.

In Justice John Paul Stevens, we had a voice on the Supreme Court worthy of the founders; a voice that stood against the unconstitutional encroachment of religion into government, and a voice that explicitly took into account non-theistic Americans in his decisions.

John Paul Stevens was not just any justice. John Paul Stevens is a Justice for the ages. He stood for the timeless secular character of our constitutional heritage. Mr. President, you have a momentous and historic responsibility that goes far beyond any one time or particular political climate. Please be sure that your nominee to replace Justice Stevens follows his truly great example. Particularly when certain justices espouse theocratic philosophies, it is essential that your next Supreme Court nominee emulates the Stevens legacy of denying special rights for religion, upholding the separation of church and state, and acknowledging the tens of millions of Secular Americans who always lose when religion is privileged.

Justice Stevens is easily one of our greatest living Americans -- a Justice who has consistently stood up for what is right. Please ensure that his replacement stands for the separation of church and state with a passion and brilliance worthy of John Paul Stevens.

Lieberman's School Vouchers Defeated

In early March, Sen. Joe Lieberman proposed an amendment to the Senate jobs bill that would reauthorize the "D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program," an initiative that forced American taxpayers to subsidize religious institutions through school vouchers. A July 2009 report by Rutgers University on the D.C. voucher program concluded that the program's structure "essentially push[es] students into Christian Association and Catholic schools, pricing out independent (non-religious) schools and Hebrew schools." Those of us who do not wish to subsidize religion with our tax dollars would continue to be forced to do so if the amendment passed.

After being alerted to the coming vote by the Secular Coalition for America, thousands took action, writing to their senators, and the amendment never made it to the jobs bill--though Senator Lieberman promised he would bring it back as soon as he could.

On March 16, 2010, Senator Lieberman managed to bring the amendment to the floor, attaching it this time to a bill funding the Federal Aviation Administration. Debate was heard, votes were cast, and the amendment was defeated, with 42 voting for the amendment to 55 against. It was a fantastic example of Secular Americans working together, helping to stop the unconstitutional public financing of religious education.