New Quaker Notebook

You think Bob Woodward's new book tells it like it is? Well, here's a new look at the faith of the Busheviks, from the inside out. CNN and Time are hosting an exclusive excerpt from David Kuo's revealing book-length portrait of the White House's Christian poseurs:

Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed
Time.com
Sunday, October 15, 2006

For Republicans who fear that the Foley scandal might keep Evangelicals away from the polls in November, here comes another challenge—in hardcover format. A new memoir by David Kuo, former second-in-command of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has the White House on the defensive with its account of an Administration that mocked Evangelicals in private while using them at election time to bolster its support. In this exclusive adaptation from the book, Kuo writes about how his White House experiences left him disillusioned about the role religion can play in politics.

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When democracy is a coin toss

I'm not necessarily a Green Party advocate, and with the elections looming next month I'm beginning to think that I would rather choose a spoiled burrito than have to pick between the usual Republican and Democratic candidates. Not for nothing did Ralph Nader call them the party of Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee. It's like choosing between Coke® and Pepsi®, or watching the polls go back and forth between 51% and 49%—margins of error notwithstanding. Well, it won't change until we unhinge the locked doors of pathological voting restrictions. Case in point, the recent ballot pursuit by Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli for a US Senate seat in Pennsylvania:

Mr Romanelli will not appear on the ballot because Democratic lawyers persuaded the court that enough of the 95,000 signatures he collected were technically invalid to bring him below the state's 67,000 signature requirement. According to the state's ballot access rules, Democratic and Republican candidates must gather 2,000 signatures to get on the primary ballot, while other parties' candidates and independents must gather 67,000. Greens have called the rules grossly unfair, antidemocratic, and evidence of a "gentlemen's agreement" between Democrats and Republicans to keep other candidates out of state races.

Mr Romanelli must pay $89,000 in court costs and all of the Democratic Party's legal bills for the challenge, which are expected to approach $1,000,000, as well as his own legal expenses. In August, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently similarly ordered Ralph Nader's independent 2004 campaign to pay more than $80,000 in legal costs after being knocked off the ballot.¹

The rules that allow this were written by Democrats and Republicans to obstruct electoral access to third-party candidates. Without Romanelli, say the Greens, there is now no antiwar, prochoice candidate on the Pennsylvania state ballot for US Senate. Alas, this is also bad behavior that's going to play out around the country.

1. Press Release, Green Party, October 9, 2006. Carl Romanelli's platform includes "ending the occupation in Iraq, providing universal, single-payer health care for all Americans, defense of women's reproductive rights, ending of the drug war along with establishing a more enlightened foreign policy, in compliance with international law."

Related Tags: Green Party, Nader, Pennsylvania, Romanelli, US Senate, Voting

A faith most foul

When democracy is a coin toss