More Christian Child Abuse... and Murder!

Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama, just after he had delivered a sermon to a congregation that included his seven other children, officials said.

He faces charges including murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

Hopkins was denied bail Thursday when he appeared before Mobile County District Judge George Hardesty. The case is set for arraignment next week, Hardesty's clerk said.

The case began Monday, when the daughter, now 19, went to the Mobile Police Department's Child Advocacy Center and reported that she had been sexually abused by Hopkins since she was 11 years old, according to an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant of the preacher's home in Mobile.

The affidavit related the daughter's story as follows:

Her mother, Arletha Hopkins, 36, caught her father abusing her in a bathroom in November 2004. Afterward, her parents argued, and her mother locked her father out of the house. The father came to the daughter's window and asked her to let him in, and she did so.

The next morning, her father asked her to help him hide her mother's body in the freezer in the laundry room of the home.

The girl said she moved out of the home about two weeks ago and was living with a neighbor. She told police that her mother's body was still in the freezer.

When authorities went to the home, no one was there, as Hopkins and the other children were at the church. A body was found in the freezer, the affidavit says.

You just hafta admire those good Christian values, don't ya?

On Why You Cannot Blame the Democrats for Congress

The current GOP Senate minority has set an all-time record: using the filibuster more often than at any time in history. On more than 80 different occasions, they have blocked progress on ending the war, stymied efforts to rebuild our economy, impeded forward movement on health care, or stood in the way on a whole host of other issues.

Even so, Congress took action this week to protect the health of children, strengthening rules for the Consumer Product Safety Commission concerning toy safety and restricting marketplace practices used by the tobacco industry to target children.

Now I won't say I'm the biggest fan of Congress, but you cannot blame the Democrats for everything that has happened in Congress the past two years. Now, if they get a filibuster-proof majority come November, then you can blame the Democrats for what happens in Congress...

Rove in Contempt

The House Judiciary Committee this morning voted in favor of finding former Bush advisor Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for his refusal of a subpoena to testify before the panel. The committee voted along party lines, 20-14.

The White House and Rove's lawyer directed Rove not to testify, arguing that he is immune from testimony as a close advisor to the president whose testimony is sought in connection with his official duties.

Great news... it is about time Congress started to act like a governing body... now maybe it can try to use its power to enforce some badly needed oversight.

McCain Flips a Flop on Taxes - says He Now May Raise Them

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's signal that he may be open to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, is drawing sharp rebukes from conservatives.

McCain's shift has come in stages, catching some Republicans by surprise. Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. "I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table," he said.

He went a step farther Sunday on ABC's "This Week," in response to a question about payroll tax increases.

"There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table," McCain said. "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table."

That comment drew a strong response this week from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain's comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are "shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances."

Indeed, McCain frequently has promised not to raise taxes.

At a July 7 town-hall meeting in Denver, he said voters faced a stark choice between him and Democrat Barack Obama.

"Sen. Obama will raise your taxes," McCain said. "I won't."

In a March 16 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, McCain said he would cut taxes where possible, and not raise them.

"Do you mean none?" Hannity asked.

"None," McCain replied.

That should make it difficult for McSame to attack Obama on taxes as he has been doing, but we all know that Republicans suffer from reality deficit syndrome these days, so I wouldn't be surprised if he still attacks Obama for maybe doing what he may do himself.

As I've said here before, McCain is a train wreck.

Michael Savage is an Asshole

A group of angry parents, activists and autistic children on Sunday called for the firing of talk show host Michael Savage.

Savage recently said on his nationally-syndicated radio show that autistic children are "brats" who haven't "been told to cut the act out." Savage also said most autistic children need to be told to "stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man."

The radio host has not apologized for his statement, and instead said on his Web site that the "national panic" of autism was created by greedy doctors and drug companies.

Autism is a mental disorder that inhibits a person's ability to communicate. The government estimates about 1 in 150 children have some form of autism.

Maybe I'd be better off calling him a dick since his real last name is weiner?

Pledge Rulings

As reported at Law.com: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a First Amendment challenge to a Florida law that says students must get a parent's permission to get out of a daily classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

But the court ruled that a part of the law requiring all "civilians" to stand during the pledge in schools is unconstitutional.

Christine Frazier had brought suit on behalf of her son, Cameron, in 2005, when her son was in the 11th grade. A federal district judge agreed that the rule "robs the student of the right to make an independent decision whether to say the pledge."

On appeal, 11th Circuit Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson, Senior Judge James C. Hill and visiting 9th Circuit Senior Judge Arthur L. Alarcón noted that the U.S. Supreme Court held over a half a century ago that local government authorities can't compel a salute to the flag.

But the panel said the Florida law protects parents' constitutional rights to bring up their children as they see fit. "The State, in restricting the student's freedom of speech, advances the protection of the constitutional rights of parents: an interest which the State may lawfully protect," the panel said Wednesday.

The panel warned that it considered only Frazier's challenge to the law on its face and not whether it might be applied constitutionally to any particular student.

On the question of standing during the pledge, the state acknowledged that students have a right to remain seated but had urged the court to read the requirement as applicable only to those students who don't get a parent's permission to not say the pledge. The 11th Circuit panel said that interpretation was too "improbable."

So, I guess parent's have no say over their children's posture (the child can sit), but they do over what they pledge to (the child cannot opt out of the pledge without parental say-so)?