America - Turning Into A Theocracy?

Come on, Iowa conservatives, WTF?

DES MOINES, Iowa —

An influential group of religious conservatives said Monday it would sit out the fall gubernatorial election as promised after candidates it favored lost in last week's Republican primary.

The Iowa Family Policy Center's decision was a blow to Republican Terry Branstad, who had banked on support from religious conservatives in his race against Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. The group said neither major party candidate met its standards.

Danny Carroll, chairman of the Iowa Family Policy Center, said in a statement that Republican officials were pushing conservatives to support Branstad. His group had said earlier it would not support the former governor if he won the primary.

"After nearly a week of calls for blind partisan unity from Republican loyalists, the Iowa Family PAC today reaffirmed their intention to withhold support from either major party candidate for governor in 2010 unless one or both of them illustrates a fundamental transformation," Carroll said in the statement.

Despite pressure from Republicans, Carroll said, "Our commitment to Biblical principles and the constitutional rule of law is not the result of any political affiliation, nor is it something that changes depending on the names on the ballot."

Religious conservatives are important to most Republicans seeking statewide office because they make up such a large percentage of Iowa's GOP voters.

Polling conducted during the last round of presidential caucuses in 2008 showed that six out of 10 who attended Republican caucuses described themselves as evangelical Christians.

Although the Iowa Family Policy Center is withholding its support, Steve Scheffler, who heads the influential Iowa Christian Alliance, has backed Branstad.

My question is, why the hell is this group so influential in the first place? Religion seems to be creeping into American politics more and more, and with each increased amount of influence, this country is being led further and further away from what it was created to be - a place where anyone can believe anything - or nothing - and still be treated as an equal citizen with equal rights. The more we allow theocracy to seep into our political culture, the more we are at risk of destroying the very foundation of this country and what makes it so great.

I think we're past the point of incredulously wondering is these people are seriously trying to make the USA a theocracy, they obviously are and their political influence is enough to make an actual difference in some areas of the country. Now we should be focused on making sure they fail in their efforts to do so.

Republicans Launch Site - Internet LOLs

I don't do a lot of political or non-atheist posts, but sometimes I just have to step out of the box because sometimes, the universe just makes me happy. And I want to share.

While I was consumed in something random, my fiancé decided to watch what ended up being a commercial for this truly amazing new Republican-launched and endorsed website called America Speaking Out.

Zomg, this website is amazing.

The funniest thing about the site, of course, is that the Republicans who launched it seemed to think that they were somehow crafting some new, more dignified chunk of the internet out of some barren unclaimed digital land. They seemed to really believe that because they were the ones to launch this open to anyone who registers site, that it would be mainly used by Republicans and thus, reflect Republican ideals. They seemed to think that the rest of the internet was going to - for not reason at all - respect the fact that they were looking for earnest contributions and serious behavior.

Evidently in this case, the internet is serious business.

But of course it's not! I can't believe anyone is even trying to claim that at this point. What are you, new?

The commercial my fiancé was watching seemed to convey the message of - 'Hey, we found something really cool called 'The Internet'. We made a page! Come leave a comment! Republicans are awesome!'

Please tell me how that is essentially any different than, oh, every teenage goth and and self proclaimed 'poet' who has ever started a blog or website ever? Change the word 'Republicans' to the name of a school mascot and change the 'leave a comment' to 'sign my dreambook' and you have any given Geocities site ever made. Do you remember Geocities? Yeah, that was like 1995.

Pretty innovative, guys.

If the point of this failure of an experiment was to show, without a doubt, that the current political leaders within the Republican party are pathetically out of touch with reality - bravo! The guy on the commercial (Rep. Mike Spence) If I were a Republican, I would be embarrassed by this most recent failure to stay politically relevant. Of course, if I were a Republican, I would probably be used to the feeling by now.

Here are some of my favorite posts. I seriously encourage everyone to go take a peek. It's at least as awesome as LOLcats.

Aramaic as the Official Language of the US. We do this to respect two facts: this is a Christian Nation and Jesus spoke Aramaic, therefore, that should be our language as well. Anyone who refuses to speak the language of our Lord should be deported back to where they came from. This includes the Native Americans.

Gays are horrible, horrible people, but we can't pick and choose parts of Leviticus, so let's deny equal rights to all people who fall into the following group: Men who shave, anyone who touches a menstruating woman, people who eat pork, people who eat shellfish, people who work on Sundays. They're all horrible, horrible people.

Attach an electric dog collar to Glen Beck's neck, and deliver a powerful shock every time he tries to associate health care to Fascist Germany. THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SYSTEMATIC EXTERMINATION OF MILLIONS OF JEWS AND PROVIDING PEOPLE WITH AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE.

And I actually suport this last one:

We should pass a law that makes politicians replace their flag pins with the logo of their corporate sponsors.. It would make it much easier to determine who they are really representing