Monday, November 07, 2005


Powah to da Peepul

Residents of the flyover states must be overjoyed that they're not involved in the off-year election tumult, unlike voters on both coasts.

Last night while channel surfing, I chanced upon a C-SPAN broadcast of a 
debate between the two plutocratic gubernatorial candidates from New Jersey.  It was nothing but mudslinging and name calling, like two little kids in a schoolyard.  Presiding over the festivities was veteran newsman Gabe Pressman, who I haven't seen since I became a transplanted New Yorker nearly 30 years ago.  He looks 100 years old and has shrunk to the size of a Hobbit.

In New York, all indications are that the results of the New York mayoralty race will not approach the closeness of yesterday's
marathon, with a margin of only a single step between the winner and the second place finisher.  Certainly Ferrer is at an unfair disadvantage when it comes to campaign financing, but it doesn't help his cause that he looks like Groucho Marx.  And as Bush would say of the incumbent, "Bloomie, you're doin' a heck of a job."

Meanwhile, out here on the left coast, the choice for we, da peepul of Kollyphonia, in tomorrow's $50 million speshul elekshun is clear.  If da Gubnah is for it, vote against it.   If da Gubnah is against it, vote for it.  His
decline and fall has to be one of the fastest-ever ascents and descents in American political history.  It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.


12:16:47 PM    comment []  

No Saints

I often attend All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena at Christmas with my neighbors, not out of any desire to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior (or even my personal trainer), but mainly to listen to their excellent baroque music ensemble, plus the stirring sermons, which usually have more to do with issues like fighting HIV and poverty and Africa than explicit anti-Bushism.

Now comes this:

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that "a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … " The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

Of course, the evangelical Bush supporters will never lose their tax exemptions, since they obviously don't engage in anti-abortion and anti-gay politics.  Nor would the Vatican ever take a political stand, such as recommending denying communion to pro-choice politicians like John Kerry.  And the Bush regime would never do anything as tawdry as maintaining a Nixonian enemies' list and using the IRS against them.


12:15:31 PM    comment []