GREETINGS FELLOW DEMOCRATS!





Vote and choose your candidate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/candidatequiz/?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

This is fun!





Romney to Address His Mormonism

By Michael Luo
December 2, 2007, 5:04 pm

Mitt Romney will deliver a speech entitled “Faith in America,” addressing his Mormon religion, on Thursday at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Tex.

His campaign is describing the address as an opportunity for Mr. Romney to “share his views on religious liberty, the grand tradition religious tolerance has played in the progress of our nation and how the governor’s own faith would inform his presidency if he were elected.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/romney-to-deliver-faith-in-america-speech/





Evolution and Texas

Editorial
December 4, 2007

Is Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of evolution? That is the scary implication of the abrupt ousting of Christine Comer, the state’s top expert on science education. Her transgression: forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks “intelligent design” and creationism as legitimate alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum.

In most states, we hope, the state department of education would take the lead in ensuring that students receive a sound scientific education. But it was the Texas Education Agency that pushed out Ms. Comer after 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the agency’s director of science.

As Ralph Blumenthal reported in The Times yesterday, Ms. Comer forwarded to a local online community an e-mail message from a pro-evolution group announcing a talk by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. Professor Forrest testified as an expert witness in a 2005 Dover, Pa., case that found intelligent design supernatural and theological and definitely not part of a scientific education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04tue3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print





Un-Mormon and Unchristian

By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, December 4, 2007; A21

What could be called "The Huckabee Moment" occurred Sunday morning when ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked the former Arkansas governor, suddenly and ominously the front-runner in Iowa's GOP contest, whether Mitt Romney is a Christian. Mike Huckabee knew precisely what was being asked of him, and he also knew, because he is a preacher, what the right -- not the clever, mind you -- answer should be. But Huckabee merely smiled that wonderful smile of his and punted. This, with apologies to George W. Bush, is the soft demagoguery of low expectations.

Until just recently, the expectations have indeed been low for Huckabee. He is more famous for losing more than 100 pounds than for any towering political accomplishment. But he is an ordained Baptist minister, and Romney is a Mormon -- a member of a church that some conservative Christians consider heretical. Huckabee has presented himself as the un-Mormon.

Pardon me for saying so, but that is the chief difference between the two. On about all the social issues you can name -- abortion, stem cells, gun control -- Huckabee and Romney are in sync. So their religious differences are not about morality. They are about belief -- religious belief, precisely the issue that is not supposed to matter in this country. Huckabee, though, clearly thinks it ought to.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301620_pf.html





Huckabee?

by Hendrik Hertzberg
December 3, 2007

Huckabee. Funny, improbable name; funny, improbable candidate. How funny? Well, have a look at the first Huckabee for President campaign commercial, aired last week in Iowa and now ubiquitous on the Web. In it, the former governor of Arkansas trades straight-faced non sequiturs with Chuck Norris, the B-list action star. (Norris: “Mike Huckabee wants to put the I.R.S. out of business.” Huckabee: “When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the earth down.”) It’s an unusually entertaining spot—or, rather, meta-spot, the subtext of which is its own absurdity and, by extension, that of the whole genre.

How improbable? Well, up until the tail end of the summer, polls had Huckabee’s support for the Republican nomination hovering between zero and three per cent, usually closer to zero. In October, he broke into a trot, in November into a Gallup. In a poll released on Thanksgiving eve by Reuters/Zogby, he is in third place, at eleven per cent, nosing past not only John McCain but also Mitt Romney and narrowing the gap with the fading Fred Thompson to four points. In Iowa, where actual voting will occur on January 3rd, he has surged into what is essentially a tie with Romney for first place.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2007/12/03/071203taco_talk_hertzberg?printable=true





Seasons Greetings!

Phyllis Jacoby will deliver it to Edwards' office on Dec 13th. If anyone wants to join her in the petition delivery email her at pmjacoby@hotmail.com. I'm not planning on calling the media or making a demonstration out of it.


Dear MoveOn member,

If you're like us, you've been trying to block out the drumbeats of war coming from the Bush Administration. After all, Iraq is such a mess that it's hard to even imagine the disastrous results if they go through with their plans to attack Iran.1

But all signs point to the fact that they are reckless enough to do it, so it's time to do more than just cross our fingers and hope. We've got to act. And quick.

Congress can step in and block President Bush from launching a war without approval—there are bills on the table to do that today. But unless our representatives hear from Americans like us that this is a big priority, those bills are unlikely to move forward. Can you take a moment to urge your members of Congress to sign on today?

Will you sign the following petition?

"Americans don't want another disastrous war in Iran. Congress must act now and make it clear that President Bush has no authority to strike Iran."

Clicking here adds your name: http://pol.moveon.org/noiranwar/o.pl?id=11740-4223669-DW6LE4&t=3

After you've signed, please pass the petition on to five friends. MoveOn members will hand-deliver the signatures to Congressional representatives later this month, and we need to be sure we have too many names to ignore.


Military and foreign policy experts are looking at options that could contain Iran's nuclear ambitions without stretching our military to the breaking point or risking World War III in the Middle East—options like economic sanctions, diplomacy and working with allies to stop this situation from spiraling out of control.

The consequences of a reckless war with Iran are so grave that a group of retired military officers wrote to the Administration earlier this year:

"As former US military leaders, we strongly caution against the use of military force against Iran. An attack on Iran would have disastrous consequences for security in the region, coalition forces in Iraq and would further exacerbate regional and global tensions. The current crisis must be resolved through diplomacy."2

Despite the warnings, Bush and his team have continued to escalate the tension with Iran. Last spring, Bush labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization—a title he believes clears the way for military strikes. And Vice President Cheney started urging Bush to send the military in as early as this summer.3

We've got to get our next steps right, or we'll be living through Iraq all over again. We know how that turned out. And our troops are the ones paying the price for Bush's misguided mission.

We can find a way to solve the stand-off with Iran—but not if this president screws up again. We need Congress to be clear that the President has no authority to go to war with Iran. Can you add your name to this important petition?

"Americans don't want another disastrous war in Iran. Congress must act now and make it clear that President Bush has no authority to strike Iran."

Clicking here adds your name: http://pol.moveon.org/noiranwar/o.pl?id=11740-4223669-DW6LE4&t=4





I can’t pick one of these articles...

...they all look excellent.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_120507









Brazos County Democratic Party
P.O. Box 4568
Bryan Texas 77805
979-779-5600 Fax 979-779-5601

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
Harry S. Truman, Democrat, President of the United States of America