We have discussed this a couple of times, HERE and HERE and now here is yet another news story about fundies in the military who will stop at nothing to transform the United States military into an army of Gawd.

LINK TO FULL STORY

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Since his last combat deployment in Iraq, Jeremy Hall has had a rough time, getting shoved and threatened by his fellow soldiers. The trouble started there when he would not pray in the mess hall.

“A senior ranking staff sergeant told me to leave and sit somewhere else because I refused to pray,” Hall, a 23-year-old US army specialist, told AFP.

Later, Hall was confronted by a major for holding an authorized meeting of “atheists and freethinkers” on his base. The officer threatened to discipline him and block his re-enlistment.

“He said: ‘You guys are being a problem and problems can be removed,’” Hall said. “He was yelling at us and stuff and at the very end he says, ‘I really love you guys, I want you to see the light.’”

Now Hall is suing the major and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, accusing them of breaching his constitutional rights. A campaign group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is waiting for the Pentagon to respond to a lawsuit filed in a Kansas federal court on Hall’s behalf.

UPDATE:

Go here and tell these reps to vote AGAINST RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY…

Bush on Warrantless Wiretapping

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush pressured the House on Wednesday to pass new rules for monitoring terrorists’ communications, saying “terrorists are planning new attacks on our country … that will make Sept. 11 pale by comparison.”

Fear mongering? Nah. Only a COMPLETE FUCKING MORON would resort to — oh, wait…

At least Dodd doesn’t have his head up his ass…

Please call your representative and tell her to vote against this shit.

It already passed the Senate — and, to their credit, both of my Senators voted against it.

Mel did it for the money and Xians even lie to each other. Mel didn’t make the “Passion” for the luv of Jeebus. Mel found a group of suckers who he could take advantage of and they all fell for it. The sadder part is most Xians probably don’t care as long as their violent, bloody story was told.

Screenwriter sues Mel Gibson over payments for ‘Passion of the Christ’ script

LOS ANGELES – A screenwriter sued Mel Gibson and his production company on Monday, claiming he was misled by the actor-director into accepting a small payment for writing “The Passion of the Christ,” and was refused extra money when the film became a blockbuster
Benedict Fitzgerald claimed that when he was asked to write a script about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Gibson told him the movie would cost between $4 million to $7 million, according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court. Fitzgerald also alleged Gibson promised he wouldn’t receive any money from the film and any profit would be distributed to people who worked on the movie.

Gibson stated he didn’t want “money on the back of what he considered a personal gift to his (Roman Catholic) faith,” the lawsuit said.

Fitzgerald, who shared screenwriting credits with Gibson, claimed he agreed to a “a salary substantially less than what he would have taken had he known the true budget for the film,” which the lawsuit claimed had an estimated budget of $25 million to $50 million. The 2004 movie went on to gross several hundred million dollars.

The lawsuit doesn’t specify how much Fitzgerald was paid for his services.

An after-hours call to Gibson’s publicist was not immediately returned.

The suit claims fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and seeks unspecified damages. It also names Gibson’s Icon Productions company as a defendant.

God punishes / answers prayers with “no” / unfolds part of his great mysterious plan we can never understand and must simply accept / tests / lets happen because of humanity’s free will / loses to or stands back while Satan makes hay in Tennessee…

But the Shrub assures victims he won’t pull a NOLA on them…

While NOLA celebrates Mardi Gras anyway, despite shootings…

And God still hates Turks…

And old people.

The latest death-toll I’ve heard for the tornadoes is 59 people so far…

New Bride Dies in Her Love’s Arms During Their First Dance

But less than an hour after she and Teddy Efkarpides were wed, Sjostrom crumpled in her husband’s arms during a Greek song that means “Love Me.” At 36, Sjostrom was dead from heart disease. [...] During the couple’s first dance, Sjostrom complained of being lightheaded. Efkarpides thought his wife, a diabetic, needed sugar, but she collapsed. Wedding guests, paramedics and doctors at a nearby hospital were unable to revive her.

My wife used to work with someone who had an aneurysm at her daughter’s wedding. She got up to toast the happy couple at the reception, and then collapsed.

How nice.

Excellent article in Rolling Stone about the Dems called The Chicken Doves. I apologize for the length, but I think it’s necessary:

Rather than use the vast power they had to end the war, Democrats devoted their energy to making sure that “anti-war activism” became synonymous with “electing Democrats.” Capitalizing on America’s desire to end the war, they hijacked the anti-war movement itself, filling the ranks of peace groups with loyal party hacks. Anti-war organizations essentially became a political tool for the Democrats — one operated from inside the Beltway and devoted primarily to targeting Republicans. [...] David Sirota, a former congressional staffer whose new book, The Uprising, excoriates the Democrats for their failure to end the war, expresses disgust at the strategy of targeting only Republicans. “The whole idea is based on this insane fiction that there is no such thing as a pro-war Democrat,” he says. “Their strategy allows Democrats to take credit for being against the war without doing anything to stop it. It’s crazy.” [...] The really tragic thing about the Democratic surrender on Iraq is that it’s now all but guaranteed that the war will be off the table during the presidential campaign. Once again — it happened in 2002, 2004 and 2006 — the Democrats have essentially decided to rely on the voters to give them credit for being anti-war, despite the fact that, for all the noise they’ve made to the contrary, in the end they’ve done nothing but vote for war and cough up every dime they’ve been asked to give, every step of the way. Even beyond the war, the Democrats have repeatedly gone limp-dick every time the Bush administration so much as raises its voice. Most recently, twelve Democrats crossed the aisle to grant immunity to phone companies who participated in Bush’s notorious wiretapping program. Before that, Democrats caved in and confirmed Mike Mukasey as attorney general after he kept his middle finger extended and refused to condemn waterboarding as torture. Democrats fattened by Wall Street also got cold feet about upsetting the country’s gazillionaires, refusing to close a tax loophole that rewarded hedge-fund managers with a tax rate less than half that paid by ordinary citizens. But the war is where they showed their real mettle. Before the 2006 elections, Democrats told us we could expect more specifics on their war plans after Election Day. Nearly two years have passed since then, and now they are once again telling us to wait until after an election to see real action to stop the war. In the meantime, of course, we’re to remember that they’re the good guys, the Republicans are the real enemy, and, well, go Hillary! Semper fi! Yay, team! How much of this bullshit are we going to take? How long are we supposed to give the Reids and Pelosis and Hillarys of the world credit for wanting, deep down in their moldy hearts, to do the right thing? Look, fuck your hearts, OK? Just get it done. Because if you don’t, sooner or later this con is going to run dry. It may not be in ‘08, but it’ll be soon. Even Americans can’t be fooled forever.

Well, unfortunately, it seems that Americans can actually be fooled for quite some time.

Maybe Chomsky was right…

And, for the record, ‘Publicans are always worse…