It looks like the war's cost will continue to be stealing from our nation's crumbling infrastructure, until the failed occupation comes to an end. Barack has a plan to invest the war's capital into exactly this sector, establishing a national infrastructure bank.
One of the far-right's favorite hangouts, Town Hall, gets absurd (as usual) with "Would Jesus Carry Concealed?". Jesus' General has an intellectually-on-par response: of course! As I've pointed out before, "The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" (1 Cor. 6:7 NIV) and Jesus said, "And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well." (Matt. 5:40, NIV). Jesus also talked about turning the other cheek, walking an additional mile...&c. How different religious ideals seem from their practice in reality.
Tangentially, this article reviewing the first four presidents' views on church-state separation is great:
I've pointed out many times the basic split among the first four presidents on such matters. Washington and Adams were what might be called non-coercive accommodationists, while Jefferson and Madison were strict separationists. Washington and Adams believed that the government should provide a general and rhetorical support to religion through proclamations of days of thanksgiving and prayer, but only if those proclamations were kept non-coercive (that is, no one was required to follow them) and they were worded very broadly so as to encompass almost any religious belief, not merely Christianity.
As the general election looms, hanging Bush around McCain's neck is quite easily done. See the new ad, "McSame as Bush":
