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Thankfully,
it appears that Bush's reign will end in just three years, unless
he succeeds in shredding the Constitution and becoming America's first
true dictator. Fortunately for the Oligarchy which rules America
behind the veil of our severely weakened republic, they have a leader
waiting in the wings with more cunning and ruthlessness than
"W". Sam Brownback is yearning for his shot at the Oval
Office. Living in Kansas, I know the futility of attempting to reason
with Senator Sam Brownback. As his constituent, I have
corresponded with him on a wide range of issues. His canned responses
reflect his close alignment with the Religious Right and the
Neocon plutocrats who have a stranglehold on power in America.
Yes,
Brownback has set his sights on the White House. On 4/16/05 he
officially kicked off his presidential bid by speaking to 150 members
of the New Hampshire Cornerstone Research group. He regaled them with
discourse on his beliefs concerning the definition of life,
marriage, and the church and state relationship. Cornerstone
represents Brownback's "base". To get a sense of the nature
of his anti-gay, anti-choice base, consider the position of Karen
Testerman, the executive director of Cornerstone Policy Research.
In
2003, Testerman told the Associated
Press that "gays and lesbians" were comparable to
"shoplifters and drug addicts". In the same year, she told
the Concord Monitor of
her support for "abstinence only" education. She
elaborated by stating that "holding hands is the first
step", and "you're not even supposed to do that if you can
avoid it."
Portrait
of a radical
As
one examines various facets of Sam Brownback, one formulates a profile
of an individual who is dangerously radical. As I write this article,
he is pandering to the Religious Right, his extremist base. Brownback
is threatening to filibuster the Senate bill that would relax
restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research. This
legislation would enable the US to begin catching up with nations like
South Korea. Yes, you read that correctly. America's cutting edge
scientific community has fallen behind South Korea in a critical area
of medical research.
According
to the Kansas City Star,
as he discussed the stem cell bill, Brownback alluded to the
Democrats' use of the filibuster on judicial nominations as he said, "I've
learned how to delay and stop things." This bill he is
so eager to "delay and stop" has already passed the House.
It would give researchers access to more than 400,000 frozen embryos that
fertility clinics will discard anyway. Federal funding
for research on these embryos holds very strong promise for developing
therapies and cures for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Rather than enhancing the human capacity to cure serious illness,
Brownback would rather see the embryos thrown out like garbage. If
Brownback is successful with his filibuster, while he gains political
traction with the pro-life crowd, 400,000 embryos will be wasted
and real human beings will continue to suffer needlessly.
Despite
support of the bill from fellow Republicans Arlen Specter and Orrin
Hatch, who has long been ardently pro-life, Brownback believes the
research is "wrong" and used this twisted analogy in a quote
to the Kansas City Star:
Why not use death row inmates in some sort of positive way?
They are going to be killed. Why not take their body parts,
their heart and lungs and eyes, and yet as I say that, doesn't that
sound ghoulish? Human life is sacred."
In
a further display of his distorted worldview, Brownback had this to
say about American voters aged 18 to 25:
"They
were born", he
said, "when
abortion rates were highest, so many of them feel they're the
survivors of a holocaust: one in four of their compatriots are not
here.''
The
cognitive disconnect in that analogy is astounding. Yet at the same
time, one can marvel at the propagandistic genius of mobilizing
his minions amongst the "pro-life" faithful by equating
the "crime of abortion" with the systematic murder of six
million innocents.
Need
more evidence of his fanaticism?
You
remain skeptical that Brownback is closely aligned with the Religious
Right, and is a dangerous extremist? Reflect on Brownback
crediting Pat Robertson for his election to the Senate in 1996.
Contemplate Robertson's recent endorsement of Brownback as a
presidential candidate for 2008 on ABC's
This Week. This means that one of Brownback's
most prominent supporters for his nascent presidential bid is a
pivotal leader of the Religious Right movement. To affirm his radical
mindset, Robertson once said:
"I
am bound by the laws of the United States and all 50 states...(but) I
am not bound by any case or any court to which I myself am not a
party....I don't think the Congress of the United States is
subservient to the courts...They can ignore a Supreme Court ruling if
they so choose..."
Still
not convinced? Contemplate Brownback's membership in Opus Dei. While
they are a Catholic organization, Opus Dei promotes many of the
socially conservative values of the Protestant Religious Right. There
is also speculation that this highly secretive cult has links to
fascist corporations. Opus Dei has a history of supporting fascists.
Members of this sect were involved with Franco's government in Spain.
Although Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, was canonized by
the Catholic Church, he was a controversial figure. His biographers
have characterized him as devious and manipulative. Escriva created
Opus Dei on principles of secrecy, power, and an emphasis on finding
holiness in one's work. Opus
Dei and Sam Brownback are not the elixirs America's ruptured ailing
needs to nurse it back to health.
Apparently
Brownback has an affinity for surreptitious religious organizations.
He maintains a residence in Washington DC in a house owned by C Street
Center, a sister organization to a loose coalition of Christian
government and business leaders known as the Fellowship. The
Fellowship is so secretive that many of its members deny its
existence. What is known about Brownback's affiliation with this group
is that he pays a heavily subsidized rent of $600.00 per month to
live in the Fellowship's house, and that he holds weekly
religious meetings with the other five Congressmen who share his
quarters. Despite its innocuous appearance, there are dark motives
beneath the surface of the Fellowship, sometimes known as the Family.
Founder Abraham Vereide's held many fascist viewpoints, and infected
many of our nation's leaders with his ideologies as the Fellowship
grew in popularity over the years.
Here
is an excerpt from an Alternet article (http://www.alternet.org/story/16167)
about the Family:
In
1935, Abraham Vereide starts it. By the 1940s he has about a third of
Congress attending a weekly prayer meeting. In the mid-50s, he gets
Eisenhower's support.
[According to a 2002 Los Angeles
Times article, during the 1950's Vereide played a major role in the
U.S. government's anti-communist activities: "Pentagon officials
secretly met at the group's Washington Fellowship House in 1955 to
plan a worldwide anti-communism propaganda campaign endorsed by the
CIA, documents from the Fellowship archives and the Eisenhower
Presidential Library show. Then known as International Christian
Leadership, the group financed a film called 'Militant Liberty' that
was used by the Pentagon abroad." Showing Faith in Discretion,
Lisa Getter, The Los Angeles Times, Sep 27, 2002]
I highly recommend reading the complete
article on Alternet, and Jeff Sharlet's Harper's
Magazine article at http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html?pg=1.
Senator Brownback has aligned himself with a very unsavory
organization.
How
can we restore something that was never lost?
Perhaps most telling is Senator
Brownback's ardent support of the Constitutional Restoration Act of
2004 (which failed) and now its revival in 2005. Were this to become
law, the effects on the tattered republic in
America
would be devastating. This bill represents a culmination of the plan
Pat Robertson began outlining on the 700
Club in 1985. Robertson's vision is for Christian conservatives to
secure control of the government. One of his principle strategies to
ascend to power is to curtail the powers of the judiciary. In light of
the true agenda behind it, a more appropriate name for this
legislation would be the Constitutional Reconstruction Act.
At
(http://www.prayeralert.org/alertarchives/alert-040204.html)
Urgent Prayer
Alert high-lights some key components of this frightening
piece of legislation:
- This
CRA (S. 2082 & H.R. 3799) could end 40+ years of religious
judicial tyranny (see http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=
108_cong_bills&docid=f:s2082is.txt.pdf).
- Empowered
by Article 3, section 2 of the Constitution this Act will remove
from federal court jurisdiction all matters pertaining to the
acknowledgement of God, neutralizing the radical agenda to
expunge God from American public life.
- CRA's
teeth are a provision for the impeachment of judges who overstep
their bounds.
- CRA
reminds the federal courts their jurisdiction is constitutionally
limited as is Congress' jurisdiction. Neither has authority to
govern religious expression. The Founders were careful to leave
such matters entirely to the states and to the people.
- CRA
affirms the right of government officials to "acknowledge
God as the source of law, liberty and government." It
prohibits federal judges from using foreign laws and judgments as
the basis for rulings.
His
record speaks for itself
Evaluations
of Sam Brownback's voting record in the Senate provide tangible
evidence that he is unfit to succeed Bush as a president who would
restore a semblance of social justice and civil liberties to America.
NARAL, a pro-choice group, rated him at 0%, which of course translates
to 100% pro-life voting. The ACLU gave him an abysmal 20% rating
on concerning civil liberties. His 27% rating from the NEA indicates
that he usually votes against public education. Citizens United for
Rehabilitation of Errants gave Brownback a 25% rating, meaning he
rarely votes for criminal rehabilitation. Brownback is ardently
pro-military, as evidenced by his 0% rating by SANE. The AFL-CIO gave
him an "F" (0%) for his lack of support for labor unions.
ALPHA took exception to his consistent disregard for public health and
gave him a 0%. The League of Conservation Voters expressed their
disenchantment with Brownback's lack of support for the environment by
giving him another "F".
Who
gave Brownback their seal of approval? For his faithful
devotion to business and "family values" (as defined by the
Religious Right) both the US Chamber of Commerce and the Christian
Coalition gave him 100% ratings. Brownback embodies the social
conservative movement's cruel Social Darwinism. In his priority system
the success of corporations and abstract "family values"
supersede the spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being of flesh
and blood human beings.
Selective
compassion
Despite
his professed deep concern for the plight of the genocide victims in
Darfur, Sudan, Brownback has virtually ignored people
experiencing similar fates in other nations. It is no coincidence that
Brownback focuses his concern on the Sudanese genocide. In Darfur,
Muslims are killing Christians. Non-Christians who suffer are
apparently not worthy of the Senator's attention. Like Bush, Brownback
believes in the false construct of the "good Christians"
versus the "evil Muslims". Obviously, his compassion is
reserved for "true believers".
Where
is Brownback's holy devotion to acts of compassion when in comes to
homosexuals in America? Gays are the one minority in America who
receive no federal protection of their civil rights, and he aims to
keep things that way. He has vigorously supported a federal ban on gay
marriage and has voted against including sexual orientation to the
federal definition of hate crimes. While voting against legislation
that would help protect gays from battery or murder, Brownback
expressed grave concerns (http://www.cogforlife.org/schiavobrownback.htm)
about Terry Schiavo and others like her. Brownback's concern for human
life is both inconsistent and selective.
Wolf
in sheep's clothing
Low
key and laid back, Sam Brownback likes to portray himself as a down to
earth, small town "family values" man who can relate to the
"average American". While he does hail from the tiny
hamlet of Parker, Kansas, he can hardly relate to the plight of the
average American. He is married to Mary Stauffer, an heiress to a
fortune built on a Topeka-based media fortune. His membership in Opus
Dei, a secretive, elitist organization with fewer than 90,000 members
further distances him from relating to the "average
American".
Mr.
Brownback exhibited anti-Semitic tendencies and a propensity to use
dirty politics in his 1996 campaign for the Senate. In What's
the Matter with Kansas, Thomas Frank wrote:
"Consider
the enlightened Sam Brownback. He may be against slavery--and what a
bold stand that is 140 years after the Civil War!--but when faced with
a tough challenge in 1996 from Democrat Jill Docking of Wichita, his
campaign inundated the state with TV commercials that sought to
tarnish her by pointing out that she was raised in the now-hated state
of Massachusetts and that before she was married her name wasn't
Docking at all (the Dockings are now a famous Kansas family) but
Sadowsky. Get it? As though to drive this point home, voters across
the state received mysterious phone calls in the week before the
Election Day reminding them that 'Docking is a Jew.'"
After
defeating his opponent by attacking her state of origin and religious
affiliation, Brownback has proceeded to implement his perverse,
extreme, and hypocritical agenda through the course of his tenure
as US Senator. In 2004, to maintain his position in the Senate, he
even accepted $17,000.00 from corporations and individuals profiting
from the porn industry (per Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington). He took this money despite having called
pornography "the crack cocaine of sexual addiction" and
having called pornographers' products "damaging to our
culture, our families, and our nation."
Sam
Brownback already wields too much power for a man with such radical
views. Within the Senate he serves on the Committee on Appropriations,
the Committee on the Judiciary, the Joint Economic Committee, and is
chairman of both the Helsinki Commission and the Constitution
subcommittee. As his constituent, I feel appalled that he represents
me in Washington.
As
the latest opinion polls show, Americans are slowly awakening to the
damage rendered by the Bush administration. More Americans are
realizing their perceived walk in the park is actually a slow and
steady march toward tyranny and theocracy. While many of the changes
they have instituted are still abstract to many Americans (i.e. the
Patriot Act), the Plutocrats, Oligarchs, and Theocrats are on the
verge of extinguishing our republic. They have already installed the
mechanisms to forge a fascist state. Historically, fascism has
included the use of propaganda and censorship, strong nationalism,
fusion of religion and state, and corporatism. As a Senator, Sam
Brownback has worked diligently to implement each of these components
in some fashion. Beware, America. If the right to vote in America
still exists in 2008, a Brownback victory could signal a comeback
for the Brown Shirts.
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