Pat had better tell them to get their bankruptsy papers turned in before Oct. 17.

Once powerful Christian Coalition teeters on insolvency
By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
� October 8, 2005

The Christian Coalition, the onetime powerhouse of the religious right founded by Pat Robertson, is struggling to stay afloat.

The group�s annual revenue has shrunk to one- twentieth of what it was a decade ago � from a peak of $26 million in 1996 to $1.3 million in 2004 � and it has left a trail of unpaid bills from Texas to Virginia. Among the creditors who have sued the coalition for nonpayment are landlords, direct-mail companies, lawyers and at least one former employee seeking back pay.

It has even come to this: The company that moved the group out of its Washington headquarters in 2002 went to small-claims court Friday in Henrico County trying to collect $1,890 that remains unpaid on its three-year-old bill.

It is the latest in at least a dozen judicial collection actions brought against the coalition since 2001. The amounts sought by creditors total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The reasons for the group�s decline are legion, say supporters, critics and experts who have followed its trajectory. Among them are the loss of key leaders, including Robertson, who resigned as president in 2001; alleged mismanagement by his successors; the cyclical nature of politics; and bitter infighting within the organization and with other political players on the religious right.

CHRISTIAN COALITION TIMELINE

1988 After Pat Robertson�s failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination, he turns to Ralph Reed � a shrewd political operative who became a highly visible spokesman for the religious right � for day-to-day operations of the coalition founded in 1989.

1997 Ralph Reed leaves the coalition and later sets up a political consulting business in Georgia, where he is now seeking the 2006 Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

2000 The coalition, which had been based in Chesapeake through the 1990s, moves to an office on Capitol Hill in Washington.

2001 Robertson resigns as president, turning over the reins to Roberta Combs, right, who, within a year, closes the Washington office and moves the group to South Carolina. Since its move to South Carolina, the coalition has been pursued by a variety of creditors, including suppliers of services for its 2002 �Road to Victory� rally in Washington.

2004 In a fiscal report to South Carolina, the coalition claims revenue of $1.3 million and expenses of $1.5 million, leaving a $200,000 deficit.

�Their future is really bleak,� said Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has followed the Christian conservative movement for years. �The Christian Coalition is a shell of its former self.�

In one sense, the group is a victim of its own success, Rozell said. It is widely credited with helping Republicans seize control of Congress in 1994 and the White House in 2000, but with those goals achieved, it has lost much of its reason for being.

�These types of opposition groups tend to do really well when the other party is in power � especially, for a religious right group, when the folks in power are Bill and Hillary Clinton,� Rozell said. �But when Bush is in the White House and the Republicans control Congress, the need for a Christian Coalition as a counterweight to established power just isn�t that great.�

Coalition officials insist everything�s fine. As if to underline the point, last month they announced the hiring of a new executive director, Jason T. Christy, the 34-year-old publisher of The Church Report, a national news and business journal for pastors and Christian leaders.

�The Christian Coalition is going to be around for a long time,� said Roberta Combs, the group�s president. �I really believe that with all my heart.�

The coalition arose from the ashes of a failed 1988 bid for the Republican presidential nomination by Robertson, the Virginia Beach-based founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

To run the group�s day-to-day affairs, Robertson brought in Ralph Reed � a shrewd political operative who became a highly visible spokesman for the religious right.

The coalition mobilized millions of conservative Christians with its voter guides � pocket-sized candidate scorecards distributed in churches.

Reed left the coalition in 1997 and set up a political consulting business in Georgia, where he is now seeking the 2006 Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. He has also become a central figure in the American Indian casino gambling scandal surrounding indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The coalition hit its zenith in 1996, when it pulled in a record $26 million in revenue. By contrast, in its 2004 annual report to the South Carolina secretary of state, the group reported $1.3 million in revenue and $1.5 million in expenses, leaving a $200,000 deficit.

Based in Chesapeake through the 1990s, the coalition moved to an office on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2000. Its Chesapeake landlord sued the group in 2001 for $76,546 in back rent, in a case that is still open in Chesapeake Circuit Court.

Within months of the move to Washington, 10 black employees filed a racial discrimination lawsuit alleging that they were forced to enter the office by the back door and eat in a segregated area. The coalition settled the suit in December 2001 for about $300,000, according to several published reports.

That same month, Robertson announced his resignation as president, saying he wanted to spend more time on his broadcast ministry and Regent University, the Christian school he founded next door in Virginia Beach. He was succeeded as president by Combs, head of the coalition�s South Carolina chapter, who closed the Capitol Hill headquarters in November 2002 and now runs the group from an office in Charleston, S.C.

On its Web site, the coalition still lists a Washington post office box as its mailing address, but it no longer has an office in the capital. It employs a lobbyist who works out of his home.

It was the move from Capitol Hill that left an unpaid bill resulting in the claim against the coalition Friday in Henrico County. The coalition is contesting the claim.

Since its move to South Carolina, the coalition has been pursued by a variety of creditors, including the mailing companies Pitney-Bowes and Federal Express. The group has also been sued by suppliers of audio, lighting, exhibit construction and other services for its 2002 �Road to Victory� rally in Washington, which featured a star-studded lineup of speakers, including Robertson and now-indicted House leader Tom DeLay.

Even the coalition�s longtime Virginia Beach law firm, Huff, Poole & Mahoney, has joined the chase. The firm secured a $63,958 judgment for back legal bills in 2003 that resulted in a garnishment of the group�s bank account and a partial payment of $21,136. The firm has retained a South Carolina attorney to try to collect the rest.

One of the coalition�s most costly legal battles was a 2002 blowup with Focus Direct Inc., a San Antonio direct-mail company that sued the group over a major fundraising campaign that went sour. The case dragged on for two years. Combs said it was settled for $200,000.

One of the coalition�s co-defendants, Northern Virginia fundraiser William G. Sidebottom, declared bankruptcy as a result. His attorney, Kevin M. Young of San Antonio, said it was a messy case.

�My father was a preacher, and I became aware of an old saying: 'There�s no politics like church politics,�� Young said. �This is an example of that. On the outside, everybody�s making a happy face, but behind the curtain, it was pretty unseemly.�

And then there�s family politics.

Combs hired her daughter Michele as communications director and Michele�s husband, Tracy Ammons, as a Capitol Hill lobbyist. When their marriage dissolved into a nasty divorce and child-custody battle, Ammons was fired.

He then sued the coalition for $130,000 in unpaid salary, accusing his mother-in-law of �personal animosity and malice� arising out of a desire to break up the marriage.

Explaining in an affidavit how he went months without a paycheck, Ammons said: �I believed that � I could trust my own mother-in-law.�

In another affidavit filed in the Ammons case, Tammy Farmer, who worked at the coalition as a bookkeeper in 2001, said she found the group�s financial affairs in disarray.

�I witnessed a very consistent and chronic pattern of Roberta Combs intentionally refusing to pay valid debts, salaries and accounts for no discernible reason,� Farmer said.

As the overdue bills piled up, Farmer said, telephone service would be cut off occasionally and vendors would refuse to do further business with the coalition.

Farmer said Combs frequently told her, �Don�t pay � they�ll never sue.�

Debt is nothing new for the coalition, Combs said Friday.

�In 1999, when I came into the national organization, it had debt,� she said. �I had to do a lot of creative things. It has less debt now than it had then.�

The Ammons case is in arbitration, but fallout from it continues. Arlington County Circuit Judge Joanne F. Alper imposed $83,141 in sanctions against Ammons and his attorney, Jonathon Moseley, for improper and frivolous pleadings. Both declared bankruptcy as a result.

The coalition�s attorney, Brad D. Weiss, moved last month to withdraw from the Ammons case, citing an �irreconcilable conflict� among himself, the coalition leadership and its board.

Meanwhile, two other attorneys, H. Jason Gold and Alexander M. Laughlin, who had been representing the coalition in the Ammons bankruptcy proceedings, moved to withdraw as well. Their reason: The coalition had failed to pay them.

News researcher Jakon Hays contributed to this story.

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If these are *family values* then the right is RIGHT. I'm proud to say I
don't have 'em!

These people get scarier and scarier every day, and I'm keeping my children
away from them!

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) � The longtime head of the Christian Coalition of Oregon
said Monday that he is withdrawing from public life, a day after news reports
detailed accusations of sexual abuse against him by three female relatives.

I am thankful for a family that loves and supports me, and intend to withdraw
from public life until this is resolved, Lou Beres wrote in a statement posted
on the organization's web site, at http://www.coalition.org

Beres has denied any criminal misconduct and wrote that he will pursue the
Biblical response and do all within my power to reconcile with that person.

Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk told The Oregonian
newspaper that officials are investigating the complaints against Beres.

The three women � now adults � allege they were abused by Beres as preteens.
Their families called the child abuse hot line last month, after the three
openly discussed the alleged abuse for the first time.

I was molested, one of the women, now in her 50s, told The Oregonian. I was
victimized and I've suffered all my life for it. I'm still afraid to be in the
same room with him.

Only one of the three cases appears to fall under Oregon's statute of
limitations on sex abuse, which expires after six years. Authorities said that
case involves a young woman who was allegedly abused by Beres when she was in elementary school.

My family has gone through hell, said Richard Galat, 41, of Oakland, Calif.,
who told detectives that his uncle had molested several female relatives over
the years.

Lives have been ruined. Those of us who have come forward have been
ostracized, verbally abused and the victims of character assassination...It must
stop, he said.

In response to Galat's statements, Beres said on the Christian Coalition web
site Monday, I am grieved by the false allegations of my nephew, Richard Galat.
I am attempting to determine the source of each claim.

Beres, who did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated
Press, is the former head of the Republican Party in Multnomah County, the
Democratic stronghold that includes Portland.

Jim Moore, who teaches political science at Pacific University in Forest
Grove, said Monday that Beres has not been particularly influential in Oregon
politics.

In fact, under his leadership, the Christian Coalition in Oregon has gone
downhill.

In state legislative races in 2004, for example, Moore said that, we found
that Christian Coalition candidates basically did not do as well as they did in
the past.

Oregon Republican Chairman Vance Day said Beres hasn't been much of a factor
in state GOP politics since he stepped down as Multnomah County chairman about 10 years ago.

I don't view this as having any major impact on politics here in Oregon; I
don't think the Christian Coalition has a big footprint here at all, he said.

The group did support a constitutional amendment against gay marriage that
passed handily with voters in November of 2004, but support for that cause was
rallied by another conservative-leaning group, the Defense of Marriage
Coalition.

Tim Nashif, the political director of that group, said he has few details
about the allegations, and added that his group is not associated with the
Christian Coalition.

Anytime any family goes through anything like this it's a pretty grievous
situation and our hearts go out to them, he said. The truth has a tendency to
come out.

You know, it's a crying shame that your every day run of the mill bank robber has to be turned away because banks don't have the cash on hand to support him.
What has America come to?

FDIC�s Bair warns on bank deposit insurance fund

Associated Press

March 4, 2009, 12:35PM

WASHINGTON � The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Has warned that the fund insuring Americans� bank deposits could be wiped out this year without the money the agency is seeking in new fees from U.S. Banks and thrifts.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair acknowledged, in a letter to bank CEOs, that the new increased fees and hefty emergency premium the agency voted to levy last week will bring a �significant expense� to banks, especially amid a recession and financial crisis when their earnings are under pressure.

�We also recognize that assessments reduce the funds that banks can lend in their communities to help revitalize the economy,� Bair wrote.

But given the accelerating bank failures that have been depleting the deposit insurance fund, she said, it �could become insolvent this year.�

�Without substantial amounts of additional assessment revenue in the near future, current projections indicate that the fund balance will approach zero or even become negative,� Bair wrote in the letter dated Monday to the chief executives of the nation�s 8,305 federally insured banks and thrifts.

The industry, especially smaller community banks, has said the new insurance fees will place an extra burden on an already struggling sector. A federal banking regulator said last week the new premiums will unfairly burden smaller banks that didn�t contribute to the financial crisis with reckless lending.

As loan defaults have soared, reflecting the ravages of rising unemployment and sliding home prices, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the fund that insures regular accounts up to $250,000. The fund now stands at its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century, $18.9 billion as of Dec. 31, compared with $52.4 billion at the end of 2007.

The FDIC now expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013, up from an earlier estimate of $40 billion. There have been 16 bank collapses already this year, following 25 in 2008 � which included two of the biggest savings and loans, Washington Mutual Inc. And IndyMac Bank.

The new insurance fees are meant to raise $27 billion this year to replenish the fund.

Bair said the plan protects bank depositors as well as taxpayers, because it likely means the FDIC won�t have to go to the Treasury Department and tap public money to replenish the insurance fund.

Bair has not ruled out that possibility for a short-term loan, but said she doesn�t expect to take the more drastic action of using its $30 billion long-term credit line with Treasury � something that has never been done.

�Some have suggested that we should turn to taxpayers for funding,� she said in her letter to the bank executives. �But banks � not taxpayers � are expected to fund the system, and I believe Congress would look skeptically on such a course of action.�

Furthermore, she said, turning to taxpayers �could open up a whole new debate about the degree of government involvement in the affairs of insured banks.�

The FDIC plan puts new charges on a battered industry while the Obama administration is seeking to pump as much as $750 billion in additional federal aid into ailing banks under its financial rescue plan. The FDIC, as a regulatory agency charged with protecting the insurance fund, acts independently from the administration.

The new emergency premium, to be collected from all federally insured institutions on Sept. 30, will be 20 cents for every $100 of their insured deposits. That compares with an average premium of 6.3 cents paid by banks and thrifts last year.

The FDIC also raised the regular insurance premiums for banks to between 12 and 16 cents for every $100 in deposits starting in April, up from a range of 12 to 14 cents.

This morning I heard James Carville say that it seems Obama is looking toward more of a coalition gov., with both Democrats and Republicans in his cabinet.

This seems to me like a very good thing - one way to get cooperation from the Republicans in Congress, probably.

http://www.rjchq.org/Multimedia/multimediadetail.aspx?id=0c46d45c-b77a-47de-ac9c-b618e36b39b8

I also just googled RJC, so this is another alternative. Look for the "see our new tv ad." ...and much more. I'm glad I signed up for it.

The fact is, you don't understand Kyoto at all do you? It's just another reason to hate Bush and it has to be so because someone says it is so. Not only is Kyoto suicidal to any economy, the whole premise was based upon what amounts to pushing paranoid stupidity. I mean, how laughable is it to pretend that miniscule amounts of CO2 from human breath, from Dr.Peppers and Hummers give humanity more power over weather than the huge natural CO2 levels and the extreme effects of the sun? And to fight this myth, we need a price-doubling energy-banning treaty? Grrr. What a LOL!

Fact is, there's just no such thing as global warming. Today, over 40% of US states are in cooling trends. The 1930's US decade remains as warm as any since. And no US year is warmer than 1934. Even the 1922 world record for highest temperature is still held by Libya. So forget about the global myth.

Second, no weather chart in the world has ever been able to show a parallel relationship between increases in human CO2 and increases in the regional temperature. NONE. Even in Los Angeles, where large CO2 increases still produce 2004 temperatures 3.5 degrees cooler than the highs of the mid 1950's. So forget about linking man and the CO2 myth as well.

The only proven link between man and climate is in $green$ frauds, where most environmental claims are likely as corrupt as any UN oil-for-food scam.

Recently, it was revealed the UN's lead member used falsified data to hype his claim of the 1990's as the warmest in the last 1,000. As it turned out, this study, although frequently used by the media and UN to accuse human influence, was never peer-reviewed by anyone - until now.

And once it was, the study was rapidly debunked by at least 4 mainstream science publications for it's numerous errors and gross miscalulations that made his wild claims impossible to replicate. So the warmest and coolest years over the last 1,000, still remain the Medieval Warming Period(1000-1400) and the Little Ice Age(1500-1850).

So gt, be careful what you wish for. Bush was not the only President to not sign Kyoto. For good reason. You didn't give one cogent reason in your argument about the effects Kyoto would have on economy, especially our economy. But then, maybe you were just looking for another reason to blame Bush when the economy was TRULY in the crapper.

It looks like America is becoming a theocracy. I always thought that freedom of religion was one of the greatest things about America. I'm worried it isn't going to exist in a very short time.

From WikiPedia:

Lambert (2003) has examined the religious affiliations and beliefs of the Founders. Some of the 1787 delegates had no affiliation. The others were Protestants except for three Roman Catholics: C. Carroll, D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons. Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 28 were Episcopalian, eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists, the total number being 49. Some of the more prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical or vocal about their opposition to organized religion, such as Jefferson. Some of them often related their anti-organized church leanings in their speeches and correspondence, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson (who created the "Jefferson Bible"), and Benjamin Franklin. However, notable founders, such as Patrick Henry, were strong proponents of traditional religion. Several of the Founding Fathers considered themselves to be deists or held beliefs very similar to that of deists, including Franklin, Jefferson, and Ethan Allen.^[11]

Although not a religion, Freemasonry was represented in John Blair, Benjamin Franklin, James Mchenry, George Washington, Abraham Baldwin, Gunning Bedford, William Blount, David Brearly, Daniel Carroll, Jonathan Dayton, Rufus King, John Langdon, George Read, Roger Sherman, James Madison, Robert Morris, William Paterson, and Charles Pinckney.

christian enough for what? You said in one of your posts below that, "I find it especially interesting that black churches cannot be "angry" but white churches are free to do a shout out of the next anti-christ?

Hello? If a black church is preaching hate towards white people, I would call that "angry." If a white church is preaching about the coming of the anti-christ, how is that "angry?" Please tell me. One church is teaching racial hate, the other teaching Bible prophecy. Please tell me what you mean?

I dont know what kind of church you have been to, but it must not have been a good experience. God talks about the need for church in the Bible. We are supposed to worship him, keep the sabbath holy and all of that. You seem very sarcastic when you speak of Christianity. I hope that your sister is praying for you.

him being Muslim, convince yourselves and those voices in your head that he is Muslim and then say he's lying about being Christian.

America is supposed to have freedom of religion. I don't care what his faith is. He's not my pastor. He's my president.

Robertson calls for assassination of Chavez

Televangelist calls Venezuelan president a �terrific danger� to U.S.

There are many Democrats who belong to the Christian right. I am not sure why you feel politicizing religion is so important, but I realize how important labels are to you. It's unfortunate. Jimmy Carter just recently came out and spoke against the Democratic party for abandoning God. If Christians feel they have to place to turn but the *right*, whose fault is that? Pat Robertson doesn't speak for me. However, he is a good man and a Christian man. As far as calling for an assassination that's bogus and was taken out of context and anyone who cared to do their research would know that. But it's just way more convenient and fits into the left's philosophy to damn him to hell. THERE' s the left for you.

McCain's "Palin" decision has already cost him the election.

Even though thousands of conservatives who had previously decided to sit out the Election of 2008 but have done an about face because GOP presumptive nominee John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, either the Election of 2008 or the fate of the 2nd Amendment may have been decided shortly before noon on Aug. 29 even though the voters will not officially speak until Tues., Nov. 4, 2008.

To appease radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the evangelical leaders who opposed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney because of�they claimed�his fuzzy view on abortion (when their unspoken opposition to Romney was really based from his Mormon faith), and Sen. John McCain's staff who surmised that the liberal Hillary Clinton-feminists who balked at supporting pro-abortion Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (with whom they agree) would support a conservative pro-life, pro-gun, first term governor (with whom they vehemently disagree) just because she is a woman.

This was the same type of mistake President George Herbert Walker Bush made in 1992 when he "courted" Ross Perot supporters. They were Ross Perot supporters because they had already made a conscious-decision not to be George Bush supporters. And, the Hillary Clinton supporters are Hillary Clinton supporters because they rejected the core tenets of the Republican Party. In other words, the wayward female Clinton supporters won't vote for a woman just because she's a woman. Many of the Clinton supporters who would have voted for left-of-center John McCain will not vote for him specifically because he added prolife Gov. Sarah Palin [R-AK] to his ticket.

McCain knew he was taking a calculated risk in naming Palin simply because she is virtually unknown to voters in the continuous 48-States. Furthermore, like Obama, she is completely untested on both the national and international stage. But even more important, like Hillary Clinton who unconstitutionally sought the office of President, Palin is also constitutionally ineligible to run or, be elected to, or serve as, Vice President of the United States because of the provisions of Article II of the Constitution.

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution appears to establish only four ironclad qualifications for the job as President of the United States. The president must [1] be at least 35-years of age, [2] must be a natural born citizen and [3] have lived in the United States at least 14 years. And, finally, 18 times Article II reiterates that the President of the United States will be a man. What that means is that not only could Hillary Rodham Clinton not seek the office of President of the United States without Congress first adopting a constitutional amendment degenderizing the office of President, but Gov. Sarah Palin cannot seek the office of Vice President for the same reason. The Vice President is one heartbeat away from the office of President. Logic suggests that, constitutionally, since a woman cannot be President she cannot be Vice President either because the job of the Vice President is to be prepared to step into the Oval Office as President should anything happen to the commander-in-chief/head-of-state.

The news that McCain picked a virtually unknown running mate came on the heels of reports that the two key front-runners for the job�Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney�confirmed to the media that neither made the final round. Former Washington Times reporter and Fox News Deputy News Director Bill Sammon correctly guessed that Palin would be McCain's choice several weeks ago. The McCain camp would not only not confirm he was right, but pooh-poohed the notion as "premature" when he tried to get a confirmation.

Palin was picked not only because she was a woman but, in 2006 when the Democrats swept both Houses of Congress and took the governor's mansions in several States, Palin orchestrated the stunning upset of two popular Alaska political figures. First she knocked off former four term US Senator and first term GOP Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski in the primary. Palin was involved in a three-way race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

She took 51% of the vote, bowling over both Murkowski and former State legislator John Binkley. Former governor Tony Knowles won the Democratic primary with 74% of the vote. Palin defeated Knowles in the general election. Knowles fully expected a cakewalk in the November, 2006 election. After all, his opponent was the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska�and a former local beauty queen, Miss Wasilla. Knowles should have know better. Palin earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" in high school because in athletics�as in politics�she was extremely aggressive.

When Palin's name was first bantered as a possible GOP veep candidate she told the Washington Post that her being picked by the presumptive GOP nominee as vice president was "an impossibility," even though the idea of serving in national office intrigued her.

When she answered Kudlow & Company Larry Kudlow's question about the possibility of her being picked as McCain's running mate a month ago, she said: "As for the VP talk...I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the US, before I can even start addressing that question."

But as good as she sounds�and as good as she looks�the only pick that would have been worse for McCain would have been Condolessa Rice or Kay Bailey Hutchinson�or Tom Ridge or Jeb Bush. But the entire blogsphere knows that while feminists will vote for a woman as vice president as long as she's on the Democratic ticket, they won't vote for one on the GOP ticket. At least, not with enough votes to bring the victory home to the GOP. Because in the conservative world, mom's "house" is home, not Congress�and it's certainly not a cozy pink Oval Office in the White House.

McCain's people should have gone back and looked at the 1984 presidential election results. The Democratic ticket that year consisted of former VP Walter Mondale for President and former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro for Veep. Ferraro made history by becoming the first woman at the top of a national party ticket when it was prohibited by the Constitution. While Reagan and Bush-41 took 54,455,472 votes against Mondale and Ferraro's 37,577,352 votes, Mondale took only one State�Minnesota in the worst political upset since 1820 when James Monroe took all but 1 electoral vote from John Quincy Adams. The voters flatly repudiated the notion of a woman Vice President in 1984�and most of them were not even aware that the Constitution mandates that the President of the United States�and those in line to become President�be male.

This is a Christian prayer, for those of you who are unfamiliar. There is nothing radical about what she is saying. She is a faithful Christian woman.

The separation of church and state is a legal and political principle derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." The phrase "separation of church and state" which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, where Jefferson spoke of the combined effect of Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. It has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court.

I was talking to somebody yesterday who wanted to go to the McCain rally here... I said why, she said because she was a Republican, I said, well, there's your mistake right there (in a joking manner) and she said (not joking!!) Well, I'm a Christian so I'm a Republican.

Does anyone else ever think that the real values cited by Christ (love, compassion, etc.) are better embodied by liberal policy these days? I'm just watching all of the hate-mongering, the intolerance, the lying... if I were a Christian Republican I'd be ashamed to call myself such. I'm not religious myself, but I love studying religion, and it boggles my mind how hateful and intolerant and just plain mean and ignorant some of these people are.