The suit was filed in Spain and reportedly the Spanish newspapers are suggesting (predictably?) that it's a matter for psychiatrists to sort out rather than for the courts.

Atheists might be tempted to agree with that assessment. But I suspect it'd be for very different reasons...

People seeing images of Jesus, Mary, Allah and even Pope John Paul II in all sorts of things:

• tree rings
• kitchen cabinet doors
• potato chips, cinnamon rolls, Cheetos, peanuts, fish scales
• shrimp tails, ultrasound scans, snake scales, turtle shells and even in the drippings pan of a George Foreman grill

So why not the artist's rendering of a convicted pedophile and murderer? That drawing looks a lot more like the common conception of Jesus than almost all of the worshipped Cheetos, cinnamon rolls and tree bark configurations. If they are divinely inspired and yet require such great amounts of creative imagination to see the supposedly divinity then how much more inspired is a drawing that doesn't require such creative interpretation? Which is why I wanted to blog about it.

Surely an omnipotent, omniscient Being would find it more demeaning to be imagined in the drippings from a cheap grilling machine than in the skilled lines drawn by a gifted artist. N'est pas?

Personally, as a theist, I think it is all so far beyond absurd as to defy the capacity of the written language to adequately describe. I have no doubt that the same folks who would worship a damn shrimp tail would find the suggestion that the drawing of a pedophile & murderer is divinely inspired to be scrilege. But by what rational or even theological standard? None whatsoever as far as I can determine.

The vast divide between the heretofore trumpeted moral standards of the right and these two commentaries by the most prominent mouthpieces of the right is phenomenally entertaining.

In an interview with OneNewsNow, brought to you by Christian American Family News Network, Bachmann rebukes Speaker Pelosi:

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet," Bachmann said. "We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

Someone please explain to me why this line of reasoning wouldn't just as well justify all-out nuclear war? Particularly if Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn) subscribes to orthodox Calvinism which teaches that the eternal fate of each of us is sealed before we are even born.

I mean, why the hell stop with mere global warming? That seems like an awefully wimpy demonstration of faith on Rep. Backmann's (R-Minn) part, if you asked me.

Be that as it may, Rep. Backmann (R-Minn) finds herself with a shrinking base of whack-job Christian who might buy into her argument. Googling Christian Environmentalist yields 580,000 hits revealing a varitable smorgasbord of websites and blogs by Christians - conservative Christians even - openly and strongly advocating for environmentalism in the name of the very same Jesus that Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn) uses to justify her contempt for environmentalism.

Speaking of GOP oil drilling mantras, Vanessa Edwards Foster over at HuffPo observes that gas prices are dropping without any drilling or even pending legislation to open up new leases.

Imagine that!

Funny thing --

Since this has become the mantra of GOPer neocons, scaring the Democrats into dancing to the elephantine tune, oil has magically dropped by 25 percent. One-quarter of the price, evaporated -- and with no drilling whatsoever. Not even any pending legislation up for consideration. Think we still need to drill in order to survive as a country?

(hat tips to Becky for the tip on the Bachmann piece and to Spyder for the tip on Foster's piece at HuffPo, both within hours of each other. serendipity can be a wonderful thing indeed)

The first piece of evidence is the cyberattacks which preceeded the initial Georgian offensive into South Ossetia. This attack has been dismissed as the acts of nationalistic civilians rather than as something planned by the Russian government. But that explanation is premised on a series of assumptions which in no way prove that the Russian government didn't orchestrate it. Indeed, I think we have to credit the Russians as being savvy enough to deliberately try to mask their actions to make it look like the actions of amateurs.

Secondly, the cyberattacks against Georgian "media, communications and transportation companies" expanded to Georgian government servers "after Russian troops entered the Georgian province of South Ossetia".

Then there have been a whole series of Russian invasions of uncontested Georgian territory which the Russians vigorously denied only to have it later confirmed by independent 3rd party sources that in fact the Russian military was exactly where they'd been alleged to be inside Georgia.

Then there is the Russian insistance that they'll only withdraw back to their pre-war positions after the Georgian military returns to its barracks. Which is a clear attempt to dictate internal decisions of a sovereign Georgia which has every right to position it's military anywhere within the uncontested territories that it wishes to - and for whatever reason it wishes to.

Lastly there is the show of solidarity with the Georgians by all those former communist block countries on Russia's Western borders. Given Russia's propensity for walking not so softly while swinging it's club around, I can't see any of those former Soviet provinces/satellite nations weighing in against their much larger and much more powerful neighbor on a whim.

Now I'm not saying that I think Saakashvili is necessarily blameless or a good guy in all of this. Although she's proven herself untrustworthy, I believe the reports that Condi Rice warned Saakashvili in July not to start something he couldn't finish.

However, I find the Russian explanations and excuses unbelievable almost in their entirety.

Meanwhile, White-Haired Dude's chief foreign policy advisor turns out to be a paid Georgian lobbyist - which should surprise nobody. I'm beginning to wonder if there are any NON-lobbyists advising McCain... er... White-Haired Dude.

It would have made today special enough just to be able to bring you the "humorous" video embedded below, in which a spokesman for the evangelical conservative group Focus on the Family outlines a hilarious plan to pray for "abundant, torrential" rain to wash out Barack Obama's open-air nomination acceptance speech in Denver later this month. But that was only the start of it, because finding this clip led me, like Quatermain discovering King Solomon's Mines, to an entire treasure trove of footage in which Focus on the Family attempts to use the exciting new medium of online video comedy to spread its hardline messages. It's all rather too fantastic to put into words, but after the jump, I'm going to try.

Sadly, the video has been pulled so we can't enjoy the hilarity anymore, but I call it to your attention anyway because I wanted to point out the audacity of the entire concept of praying for rain to spoil Barack Obama's outdoor speech. Assuming that God exists as the sort of character Christians teach that he is - loving, wise, and all-powerful - what makes these people think that God needs their input and is incapable of coming up with his own ideas for dealing with this subtle and dangerous agent of Satan who threatens to destroy the moral fabric of our nation? (I assume you all understand that I am attempting to describe the Christian Right's view of Obama and not my own.)

Just picture it: God up there sitting on a cloud thinking, "That Obama character is beginning to get a real following. What to do ... what to do ... What's that? Abundant, torrential rain? What a great idea!"

Or how about this: God has big plans for dealing with this evil and deceptive Obama character. The plans involve mind control in as many voters as possible, as well as making just the right number of people forget to vote, and maybe looking the other way on some election irregularities so that the morally upright and godly John McCain will squeak by and we'll still have a good man at the helm of this Christian nation. But what's that? His people are asking for abundant, torrential rain to ruin Obama's speech? Not quite as sophisticated, maybe a little childish, but hey, they prayed and he promised to answer prayers, so he'd better do it.

I really am becoming annoyed at the juvenile attitude being displayed this year by Obama's opponents. From the comparisons to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton to the exclusive focus on and denigration of Obama's suggestion that people ought to properly inflate their tires (and acting as if that is the sole feature of his energy plan), it has been an unrelenting display of kindergarden mentality.

When I was a kid growing up in a Republican family, I remember throwing a fit when Jimmy Carter won. My grandfather, who had not supported Carter, sharply rebuked me. "He is our President now," he told me. "You will respect him." That is the sort of maturity and dignity that is utterly lacking in Republican politics today. And that is precisely why I won't have anything to do with the party.

The conflict has weighed on my mind these last few days but I didn't know what I could say about it that would be worth reading. So instead I'll point you to Hart's excellent and comprehensive post: Fiddling While Georgia Burns.

Apologize for what? For underwriting a campaign that was putting out garbage like this flyer:

Still, there are reasons Smith might have been startled by the whole state Capitol remodeling project. After all, Oregon's effort is being finished in time and under the original $34 million budget, leaving $4 million to fix ceiling leaks that hadn't been addressed in the original plan.

During most of Smith's time in the U.S. Senate, Congress has been building a visitor center onto the U.S. Capitol. Four years late and $325 million over its original $300 million budget, it's scheduled to open in December -- reportedly because Congress didn't want it getting too much attention before the election.

During most of the construction, Smith's Republicans were in charge of Congress, and Smith himself was on the key Senate Committee on Finance and Upholstery.

In his ad Smith suggests that IKEA furniture would have been more prudent. And where is IKEA furniture made? It ain't even made in America!

Plus, as The O's editorial points out, it's cheap furniture which isn't going to last nearly as long as the furniture that was purchased. Meaning that, if they took Smith's advice, another round of refurbishment purchases funneling more of Oregon taxpayer's dollars out of the country would have been required in a few short years.

With all due respect, Senator Smith, Oregon can't afford six more years of your economic ideas. But perhaps you could secure a comfy job in Sweden helping IKEA sell furniture in other countries?

The Republican National Committee widely distributed tire pressure gauges labeled "Obama energy plan" and suggested that was the Illinois senator's only idea for reducing oil imports, although both candidates have offered multifaceted energy proposals.

And for some reason, this is still a tight race. Oh...My...God.

More from Market Watch

McCain's Big Oil Lobbyists

33 McCain Advisors and Fundraisers Lobbied for Big Oil. "These new totals dwarf his previous fundraising from the industry. From 1989 through May 2008, John McCain had raised more than $1.3 million from the oil and gas industries, and 33 McCain staffers and fundraisers have received a total of $9.65 million in lobbying fees from the same sectors." [Campaign Money Watch, 7/31/08: http://www.campaignmoney.org/files/Its_A_Gusher.pdf]

...

Oil and Gas Industry Donors Reward Mccain

McCain Has Raised More Than $2.1 Million From The Oil and Gas Industry. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, John McCain received $1,039,768 in contributions from the oil and gas industry between January 2007 and May 2008 - a figure which dwarfs any other presidential candidates' oil industry money. In addition, the Washington Post reported that "campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling." According to the Post's analysis, oil and gas industry executives and employees contributed $1.1 million to McCain and the Republican National Committee's Victory Fund in June - three-quarters of which were donated after McCain's June 16th announcement that he supported ending the moratorium on offshore drilling. These contributions, when combined with the $1.03 million raised by McCain prior to the month of June, indicated that he has raised more than $2.1 million from the oil and gas industry. [Center for Responsive Politics website, "Selected Industry Totals to Candidates," accessed 7/31/08; Washington Post, 7/27/08; "Oil Flow," WashingtonPost.com graphic, accessed 8/3/08]

I'm not a big fan of Ms. Hilton. Heck, I'm not a small fan of her either. But I gotta say that her stock has risen because of this response to McCain.

Of course she most likely didn't think this reply up. She's got "people" to do that for her. Plus, she never struck me as savvy enough to have thought this up. But even so, two things stand out about it to me:

1. Whomever of her "people" came up with this idea deserves a bonus.

2. She's the one who pulled it off in front of the camera and she did it brilliantly.

I'm guessing Bill Sizemore doesn't care for unions much.
And he really doesn't like the teacher's union.
I wonder if his racketeering conviction and the $2-1/2 million dollar judgement against him has anything to do with it?
Is Bill the kind of person who would want REVENGE?
I've never met him in person, so I couldn't say, but it sure looks that way.

Teacher's Merit Pay Initiative: (proposed by Sizemore)
Would restrict public schools from basing teachers' pay raises on seniority, instead requiring that classroom performance be used as the sole criteria to determine pay raises and job security.
Bill says "it's about improving public education", but in other states that have moved from seniority-based to merit-based teacher pay, student scores on standardized tests have been used to determine pay increases. Affluent schools tend to score higher than poor schools (rural and inner-city), so good teachers are penalized for teaching in areas where they are needed most.
And this measure would reinforce "teaching the test" much like "No Child Left Behind" (which has been an unmitigated and unFUNDED disaster).
This measure assumes that the quality of the teacher is the ONLY factor in how well our children learn. It ignores the realities of underfunded districts, single-parent families, crime, homelessness and many other factors that affect the preparedness and alertness of school children.
I'll be voting (and working) against this measure.

Building Permits: (proposed by Sizemore)
Drops building permit requirement on home improvements of $35,000 or less.
The main reason for requiring a building permit is to insure that the work is INSPECTED by a qualified professional. Would you like to buy a house and then discover that the previous owner did uninspected (and sub-standard) remodeling? That's what happened to a friend of mine and his house almost burned down because when a previous owner upgraded from 60Amp electrical service to 100Amp they failed to replace the wiring from the meter base to the distribution box. Luckily he discovered the problem BEFORE his house caught fire.
Another NO vote from me.

Union dues: (proposed by Sizemore)
Bans government from making payroll deductions of union dues for political action.
Okay Bill, now you're just being mean-spirited. This one DOES look like a revenge motivated measure. Employers only make payroll deductions for union dues (for any purpose) based on the employee REQUESTING the deduction. No one is forced to contribute to union political activity. Apparently Sizemore just likes to place whatever obstacles he can to interfere with union political activity. Howcum he never proposes any hurdles for corporate political donations????
Another big NO!

English immersion: (proposed by Sizemore)
Bans instruction in non-English after students' first two years.
Is there any question in anyone's mind that this measure is aimed at SPANISH speaking students? I guess Bill doesn't like people who emmigrate to the United States (even legal ones?). I wonder where HIS ancestors came from?
This measure would dismantle 4-J School District's (Eugene) current immersion programs in Spanish, French, and Japanese. It would also require schools with current immersion programs to offer them to all grades, but students would only be allowed to participate in them for 2 years. How long do you think it would take you to become fluent in Japanese?
Congrats Bill, that's 5 for 5 NO votes from me.

Crime: (proposed by Kevin Mannix)
Mandatory minimum sentences for drug and property crime.
Kevin didn't bankrupt Oregon's budget enough with Measure 11 (requiring us to build lots more prison cells), now he's back for more. I wonder where he thinks the money will come from to build the extra prisons? The school budget maybe? If we raise uneducated children I guess we'll be needing extra prison space.
Kevin also likes to usurp judges from doing their jobs and determining sentences based on the facts of each individual case. There's already a legislative measure for stiffer sentencing. If he wants to supplant the legislature, maybe he should run for office. Oops, I forgot, he DID.
Another NO vote here.

Crime-fighting costs: (proposed by Kevin Mannix)
15% of lottery proceeds would go to fighting crime.
We'll NEED this money and a lot more to pay for his crime Measure.
Question for Mister Mannix: What program(s) is the 15% currently being spent on?
I elect a Governor and Legislators to pass a budget, I prefer not to hamstring them.
NO again.

Voting: (proposed by Phil Keisling)
Top two vote-getters would proceed to general election, instead of victors in closed party primaries.
Is "vote-getters" an actual word in the English language?
When he was the Secretary of State Phil pushed two ideas as hard as he could. To institute "vote-by-mail", which I opposed, but which turned out to be a good thing because at least we always have a "paper trail" in the case of a recount. (Although I still miss the civic connection of everyone voting on the same day.)
And an open primary system. Which I also oppose because I believe only the members of a group should determine that group's nominee. Would you want non-union workers voting to elect union leadership? Would you want people who live outside the city limits voting in a mayoral election?
For those of you who belong to minor parties, this Measure will insure that your candidates are never listed on the ballot in November.
For those "unaffiliated voters"; if you want to vote in the primary then get affiliated! (with any party you wish) It doesn't COST anything to check off a box on a form and you can go back to being unaffiliated after the primary election.
I'll be voting (and working) against this one also.

School elections: (proposed by the legislature)
18-year-olds would be able to vote in school board elections; fixing an error in the Oregon Constitution.
FINALLY! A Ballot Measure that actually makes sense.
YES from me.

Crime: (proposed by the legislature)
Stiffer sentences and treatment would be provided for drug and property crime convicts.
Allows for stiffer sentences, but still leaves the sentencing in the judge's hand.
Much better than what Kevin Mannix proposes.
YES from me.

Property taxes: (proposed by the legislature)
The "double majority" requirement of more than 50% voter turnout and approval would be lifted for May ballot property tax measures.
Since I always opposed the "double majority" (which allows DEAD people to vote NO by not voting; untill they are purged from the rolls)
YES from me.

Redistricting: (proposed by the legislature)
Legislators drawn out of their districts through reapportionment could complete their elected terms.
I don't have a dog in this fight, but it sounds sensible to me.
And it reduces the incentive for legislative bullies to punish the minority party by deliberately gerry-mandering them out of their district.
My party is in the majority AT THE MOMENT, but it will not always be so.
YES from me.

So I'm 4 for 4 in favor of the legislative measures and 8 for 8 against the citizen initiatives.
Oregon passed Citizen Initiative Ballot Measures as a response to many years of "do nothing" legislators, but today it has morphed into a way for "rich jerks" (Boy, did I clean that one up!) to attempt to buy any Statutary Law or Constitutional Amendment their hearts (and checkbooks) desire.
Two years ago we had a flurry of (New Yorker) Howie Rich backed measures (which all failed). This time it's Sizemore (and his principal backer Loren Parks, who doesn't live in Oregon either) and Mannix. Hopefully my fellow Oregonians will see these measures for what they really are; an attempt to throw their sabots into the workings of government.

I've only belonged to one union and so recognize that my experiences were perhaps an abberation rather than the norm. But be that as it may, I'm fairly contemptuous of both sides based on my experiences.

The crux of it came nine years ago. I worked for an international exhibit house (tradeshow, interpretive & museum exhibits [& graphics] along with corporate lobbies and point-of-purchase [POP] fixturing) and business was slowing down due to the economic downturn following the dot.com bubble bursting on Wall Street. We'd started out non-union but had voted to go union a year or so prior.

So anyway we start to hear rumors about the union leaders of our Local meeting with management. Turned out that they were negotiating a side contract to do a major POP fixturing run for a major international boot & shoe manufactorer (hint: distinctive yellow stitching on the soles) in one of the warehouses across the street. The point was to hire employees at a much lower wage than our union contract stipulated because management obviously didn't think they could make money on this job paying the full wages. Meanwhile, we were experiencing layoffs in the union shop.

The Shop Steward demanded answers from the Local union leaders the next time he saw them at our facility and warned them bluntly that we would vote to decertify them if they proceeded to negotiate this side contract while our union guys were getting laid off.

All but two of the temps that had been hired prior to our Shop Steward's intervention quit within the first week. Many didn't even show up for the second day of work. So by the end of the first week we had the usual faces from across the street - union guys (and one gal).

We started kicking ass and taking names. Nobody, not the union reps nor the management team counted on the sheer competitive drive of two guys battling to not let the other guy best him day in and day out. I was one of those two guys. The other was the warehouse guy that they'd tagged to be the supervisor for the job. It was repetitive, physical, sweaty work in a warehouse baked by the summer sun!

The very first paycheck was the only one we ever got which had the reduced wages on it. Quietly and with zero explanation from management we were all returned to our regular wages for the remainder of the fixturing run - which went for several more months. That's how much we'd exceeded everyones expectations. In fact, the project manager, who had a well-deserved reputation as a self-serving prick, started dropping by with icecream bars and cold pops for the crew... friggin' totally out of character for him!!

The supervisor was an alcoholic and ended up going on a bender... which meant not showing up for work for about a week. So he was out and I took over as the supervisor. Week after week we continued to improve on the projected margins set at the outset of the job. One half of the job I ended up bringing in at nearly 40% better than the projected margin. The other half I brought in at a little over 40% better than the projected margin.

Management was... ecstatic, to say the least!

Here we had the union reps and management trying to rig up a side deal which would have materially FUCKED the union guys in the shop. And why? It was all in pursuit of the almighty dollar. Yet we union guys (and one gal) from the shop floor ended up making more money for the damn company than they'd ever dreamed of it making. So much so that the project manager got a fat bonus before we were even done with the fixturing run and bought one of those bad-ass Porche 911s with the whale-tail in the back. And except for that first pay period, we did it at full wages, which just underscores how incredibly short-sighted (read: incompetent) both management and the local union reps had been.

In my experience, unions are only as good as the local Shop Steward. Mangement and Local reps alike will FUCK the union members in a heartbeat if they think that doing so will benefit them.

That is my experience.