By Larry Jones

Evangelical big wigs have aligned with Third Way, a Washington, D.C. think tank which has been influential in forming Democratic Party policies, and with a group called Faith in Public Life, a tax-exempt organization which is seen as “left leaning” and seeks to facilitate such coalitions. In their epistle to Obama, they collectively claim to have reached compromise agreements on abortion, homosexuality, torture, and immigration reform. 

By Larry Jones

Some pundits and progressives are saying that, while George Bush had strong links to Christian fascists, Obama will soon be president so the culture wars and the religious right will now be on the decline.  WRONG!!!  The goal of many of the vast multitude of Christian fascists is to “win the world for Jesus”: they are not about to abandon their global mission just because of a change in U.S. leadership.

Here’s one example, and one indication of how a hateful outlook with Christian fascist underpinnings is penetrating many arenas of society. Unfortunately, many people put some money in the Salvation Army’s Christmas kettles in December. You may have done the same. The sign above the kettles reads “Doing the Most Good.”  You may have thought that surely these “kindly people” cannot be part of the radical right’s attacks on the LGBT community as well as on Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and other “heathens.”  WRONG again!!

By Merle Hoffman, Editor of On the Issues online magazine

I have been on the psychological defensive since Sarah Palin was chosen as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee -- not wanting to get involved with the vortex of "feminist critiques" that ranged from discussions of whether her Down syndrome baby was really hers or her daughter's to questions of how she could possibly be a good mother to five children and be vice president at the same time.

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

What I do care about is her smile and what it represents.

I know that smile--that particular brand of bright-eyed rectitude. Sister Dorothy flashes it at me when I come into Choices as she inquires about my daughter's health and in the same breath says,"You are killing so many daughters in there; when you finally stop, then you will be a good mother."

By Debra Sweet

I have really disagreed with columnist Frank Rich over the last couple of years when he declared that the Christian Right and the Bush administration were "over".  But I think his perceptions about Sarah Palin  in the debate Thursday night are on to something about her steely appetite for power.

"The standard take has it that she's either speaking utter ignorant gibberish (as to Couric) or reciting highly polished, campaign-written sound bites that she's memorized (as at the convention and the debate). But there's a steady unnerving undertone to Palin's utterances, a consistent message of hubristic self-confidence and hyper-ambition. She wants to be president, she thinks she can be president, she thinks she will be president. And perhaps soon. She often sounds like someone who sees herself as half-a-heartbeat away from the presidency. Or who is seen that way by her own camp, the hard-right G.O.P. base that never liked McCain anyway and views him as, at best, a White House place holder."