I SOLEMNLY SWEAR I AM UP TO NO GOOD - EMAIL: CHRISTAYLOR2003@COMCAST.NET

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Thy Will Be Done

And apparently, thy will is four more years of Bush and Cheney.

From The Washington Post:

The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter registration drives.

Campaign officials said the instructions are part of an accelerating effort to mobilize President Bush (news - web sites)'s base of religious supporters. They said the suggested activities are intended to help churchgoers rally support for Bush without violating tax rules that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activity.

...

But tax experts said the campaign is walking a fine line between permissible activity by individual congregants and impermissible activity by congregations. Supporters of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, charged that the Bush-Cheney campaign is luring churches into risking their tax status.

...

Milton Cerny, a tax specialist in the Washington office of the law firm Caplin & Drysdale who formerly administered tax-exempt groups for the IRS, said there is nothing in the campaign instructions "that on its face clearly would violate" the law.


"But these activities, if conducted in concert with the church or church leadership, certainly could be construed by the IRS as the church engaging in partisan electioneering," he said. "The devil is in the details."

Rosemary E. Fei, a tax specialist at the San Francisco law firm of Silk, Adler & Colvin, said the campaign checklist "feels dangerous to me" not just because of what is in it, but because of what is not. "There's no mention whatsoever that churches should be careful to remain nonpartisan," she said.

[Spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign Terry]Holt suggested such warnings are unnecessary. "Why would we warn one citizen about the boundaries of their political discussion with another citizen?" he said.


Because, you disingenuous waste, if the citizen in question is a religious leader, such as a priest or pastor, their respective congregation sees them, in some form, as an Earth-bound instrument of God. Therefore, when that religious leader endorses a candidate, certain members of the congregation may be inclined to see it as an endorsement from God.

Which is exactly what Terry Holt and Secretary of Genius Karl Rove want.

ALABAMA CHRISTIAN VOTER GUIDE

Incumbent

Name: George W. Bush

Party: Republican

Kills Babies: No

Eats Babies: No

Loves Queers: No

Would Allow Queers To Marry: No

Would Allow Queers To Marry, Adopt A Baby, And Then Kill And Eat It: No

Challenger

Name: John F. Kerry

Party: Democrat

Kills Babies: Yes

Eats Babies: Unknown

Loves Queers: Yes

Would Allow Queers To Marry: [says no, but] Yes

Would Allow Queers To Marry, Adopt A Baby, And Then Kill And Eat It: Yes

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