This is a stunning survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and analyzed by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Here’s the graphs, and here’s the survey. The upshot is reported by CNN:

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did.

I would like to quote my wife on the subject.

Wow. Just wow. The people who would likely claim that they are most in tune with the teachings and doctrines of a man who was, well, tortured to death, are most likely to support torture and think it is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Unbelievable.

Man, this is disturbing. Sure, the survey is likely not merely measuring frequency of religious worship or the magnitude of one’s fundamentalism, but also how partisan one is a Republican. Yup, the correlation between one’s Republican partisanship and loving torture is probably even stronger than the one between religious practice and loving torture. What this tells me is that they’re teaching Republican values in these churches far more than they are teaching Jesus. How horrid such news is. How predictable, too.

Just a quick hit and run - I heard yesterday that pork futures and pig producers were taking quite a financial hit with the outbreak of “swine flu”. So it’s not surprising that that the World Health Organization, which is monitoring the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus, announced today:

Thompson said the flu name change comes after the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency expressed concerns that the term “swine flu” was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs.

“Rather than calling this swine flu … we’re going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A,” he said…

300,000 pigs were slaughtered in Egypt because of the flu concern. I do hope that the porcine carcasses weren’t just landfilled…

Well, Sarah Palin may think that is so, having just launched the Sarah Palin Twitter account. Hey, what a hip thing to do! She’s following Tim Pawlenty, Sean Hannity, O’Reilly, the Drudge Report, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Bobby Jindal, among others. How’s that for a line-up? I’m following her every move. This should be good. Indeed, I’m wondering if there should be a campaign on Twitter to follow Sarah Palin and comment on every inane Tweet that she sends over the innertubes. Hmm. Maybe I’ll get started on that.

Palin, whose popularity is waning, has decided to shore up the white male demographic who thinks she’s a cougar-in-waiting. She’s going to guest star on American Chopper. Yes, Sarah Palin has filmed an episode of the show as a guest. I’ve got nothing against bikes, not at all. But I can’t see that this does anything for Palin. What, did Montel not have room on his schedule? Here’s a video of Sarah talking to the American Chopper guys while leaning on a stuffed bear. The folks at NBC in DC are calling Palin a “Chopper Mom,” and at PoliticsUSA they are calling the video “surreal.”

I’m willing to bet that Palin simply can’t get national coverage lately, and that every time she does make a splash nationally it pushes her numbers down. So she’s going wherever she can with supposedly innocuous guest appearances. Hey, if Levi Johnson can do the talk show citcuit, then Sarah Palin can do the reality show circuit, eh? The only thing is that she’s reaching nobody with this. American Chopper’s popularity is waning, just as is Sarah’s. So I’m thinking a few suggestions are in order as to how Sarah Palin can recapture the limelight and relaunch her brand.

Two words: Celebrity Boxing. I’m thinking a video of Tanya Harding knocking out Sarah Palin will do the trick of bringing Sarah Palin back into the frontal lobes of her national constituency of morons. I bet she’d get huge ratings, and that she might even get some pay-per-view going. She could donate her earnings fromt he show to some good charity, or just start a college fund for Tripp and Trigger. But I’m sure you all have better suggestions.

It’s becoming an article of faith, no pun intended, that the GOP (as presently represented by the most loathsome faces of the party) finds itself hip deep in elephant poo. Even Republican-leaning pundits and “strategists” are lamenting on how far the party has fallen, in such a relatively short period of time. What they can’t seem to wrap their heads around is how to get their leadership heading back in the right direction.

Therein lays their biggest problem: when the best the Republican party leadership can do is to trot out John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush as the “new face” of the GOP, the poo pile seems bottomless.

Based on the numbers in a recent GOP internal poll obtained by the Associated Press, the situation might be even more grave than the most loyal of the Republican loyalists imagined:

Republicans are widely viewed by the public as less competent than Democrats to handle issue ranging from health care to education and energy, according to internal polling presented to top GOP officials in Congress…

The survey found the public holds greater confidence in Democrats than in Republicans in handling most of the issues that are involved in Obama’s legislative agenda…Democrats were favored by a margin of 61 percent to 29 percent on education; 59 percent to 30 percent on health care and 59 percent to 31 percent on energy…Democats were also viewed with more confidence in handling taxes, long a Republican strong suit. The only issue among nine in the survey where the two parties were rated as even was in the war on terror.

The survey found Obama’s job approval at 62 percent.

However, lest we get too cocky about the current state of the GOP, let’s remember that it wasn’t so long ago that conventional political wisdom held forth that the GOP was heading for a permanent political majority in America.

National politics is a particularly fickle animal, and it would only take a few negative events to turn opinion quickly. The Dems retook the majority not so much based on their own ideas and plans, but because those of the GOP had become so absolutely toxic.

The time nears for the Democratic Party leadership to put the boldest of plans in motion: an inclusive national healthcare plan that leaves no American without access to good medical care, labor laws that favor workers over corporations, and an end to regressive tax laws that cause the working class to shoulder a disproportionate share of the common tax burden.

Do those three things, and the Democratic Party will be closer to a true permanent majority than the GOP ever dreamed of having.

The GOP rank and file has been generally celebrating Arlen Specter’s departure from the party for the Democratic Party. Arlen gave them gravitas, seniority, and a big name. Sure, Specter was reviled by the Republicans for being too liberal, and he was reviled by the Democrats for selling out on principled issues like the US Attorney scandal, the NSA wiretapping scandal, and the Torture Regime of the Bush Administration. So Specter isn’t well-liked except by his moderate constituents in PA. But surely the calls of “Swine Flew” when Specter left the now extremist Republican Party are a bit whacked out. But that’s OK. That attitude will result in a couple other defections, and I’ve got some bold predictions about a couple Republicans who just might get fed up with the GOP and take off.

The first of my predictions is a supposed rising star in the GOP. Even though Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is young and hip and rich, the GOP doesn’t seem to appreciate his electability. Wait, let me make sure I’ve got that right. Huntsman, a Mormon, isn’t conservative enough. At least that’s what they think in Grand Rapids, MI. You see, Jon Huntsman supports civil unions for gay citizens in this country. Not gay marriage, mind you, but civil unions. And the Republicans in Grand Rapids, dominated by the extremists on the religious wing of the party, think Huntsman is a not sufficiently a supporter of traditional marriage. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.’s appearance at a Michigan county Republican Party event was scrapped this week after the county chairwoman said that hosting the moderate Utah governor would mean abandoning the party’s conservative principles.

Kent County Republican Party Chairwoman Joanne Voorhees abruptly canceled the party fundraiser scheduled for Saturday.

“The voters want and expect us to stand on principle and return to our roots. Unfortunately, by holding an event with Governor Huntsman, we would be doing the exact opposite,” Voorhees wrote in an e-mail quoted in The Grand Rapids Press .

Voorhees did not specify which issues she felt were contrary to the party’s principles and did not return messages left at the party headquarters and on her cell phone.

The group Campaign for Michigan Families praised the cancellation, attributing it to Huntsman’s support of civil unions, and urged the Oakland and Kalamazoo county parties, where Huntsman is also scheduled to speak this weekend, to do the same.

Now I’ve not heard from Huntsman that he might actually leave the Republican Party, but getting disinvited to an event is pretty big stuff. And Huntsman certainly doesn’t seem all that excited by Republican prospects in the next couple years.

Asked last week about the future of the GOP, Huntsman said “I don’t know where the party is moving. The party isn’t going anywhere.”

Well, Huntsman isn’t going much of anywhere, either, and especially not to Grand Rapids, MI. It may behoove Huntsman, who isn’t conservative enough for the extremist Republicans in Michigan, to think about joining a more inclusive political party, such as the Democrats. And he’s not the only big name Republican to be abused by his own party this week.

Michael Steele? The Republicans have been pretending Michael Steele is the GOP Chair for some time now, while taking turns kissing Rush Limbaugh’s ring. (Is ring kissing a sexual act on the order of teabagging?) Even though the RNC elected Michael Steele to the pretend position of RNC Chair, they don’t seem to quite trust him. You see, the Chair has control over spending some of that hundreds of millions of dollars the Republicans raise yearly. The members of the NC have decided they don’t want Michael Steele to have his paws on all that money. Really, they elect a black man as pretend RNC Chair, and now they want to make sure he doesn’t have the power to spend RNC funds. Let’s just say they never took that power away from any of their previous white pretend RNC Chairs. From the Washington Times:

A battle over control of the party’s purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to “embarrass and neuter” the party’s new leader.

Randy Pullen, the RNC’s elected treasurer, former RNC General Counsel David Norcross and three other former top RNC officers have presented Mr. Steele with a resolution, calling for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman’s power to dole out money.

The powers include new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services.

I’m simply amazed at the audacity of these folks. Michael Steele as the face of the Republican Party is about the only sign left of any diversity in the GOP. They’ve lost the Latino vote, the African American vote, the gay vote, the oyuht vote and the woman vote. It appears now that the middle aged white men who actually run the GOP are not about to let a black man spend their money. My goodness but there’s tons of room for a few tasteless jokes here, but I’m not going to go there. Nope, not a little bit.

I will say that Michale Steele and Jon Huntsman should look to Arlen Specter as an example. Were they to convert themselves to Democrats, as Specter has done, these guys could . . . be ridiculed openly by the GOP? But, wait, they’re already being ridiculed openly by members of the GOP. OK, ok, I’m not seeing much advantage of these two moving to the Democratic Party, but they sure are being abused by their own, and while the Democratic Party could always use another Governor and more influence in Utah, I’m not sure what we would do with Micheal Steele. Maybe we could put him in charge or redecorating or something?

The GOP Senate leadership was surprised by Arlen Specter’s defection from the Republican Party yesterday. Considering the failures and incompetence demonstrated by Republicans over the last eight years or so, a picture of a bunch of befuddled GOP Senators seems appropriate to me. One thing I don’t expect is any immediate change in the Republican platform in order to create a “big tent.” (Scarborough this morning noted that the GOP is suffering from a “small tent,” and there’s no sign of a wonder drug to help with that.) But the New York Times, in a journalistic coup, has spotted signs that the GOP is softening its stance on gay marriage. Really, here’s the New York Times headline: “Signs G.O.P. Is Rethinking Stance on Gay Marriage.” This may be the stupidest story of the year from American print journalism in the “not in WingNutDaily” category.

The Times story is based on a couple factors. First there was former McCain campaign staffer Steven Schmidt who wrote about how the GOP should de-emphasize the issue of gay marriage. Hey, NYTimes, that’s the opinion of one guy, and if you look around at the GOP reaction to Steven Schmidt’s opinion you’ll see that the rank and file think he should just shut up. Then the Times cites the Specter defection as a sign the GOP is thinking of changing its tune on gay marriage. Hey, even if GOP outlier Olympia Snowe shows regret for Arlen Specter leaving the GOP, that just isn’t a sign that the GOP is softening its anti-gay stance. Good God, the big headlines all over the right side of the blogosphere was “Swine Flew” in response to Arlen Specter’s defection yesterday — and while I’m unsure that the headline is anti-semitic, it can’t be denied that there’s just one Republican JEw now in Congress, Eric Cantor. The GOP is alienating both Jews and gays.

The New York Times here is right to note that demographics are not in favor of the GOP on the gay marriage issue, and that those demographics are getting worse everyday. Here’s a snippet fromt eh Times article:

Consider this: In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, released on Monday, 31 percent of respondents over the age of 40 said they supported gay marriage. By contrast, 57 percent under age 40 said they supported it, a 26-point difference. Among the older respondents, 35 percent said they opposed any legal recognition of same-sex couples, be it marriage or civil unions. Among the younger crowd, just 19 percent held that view.

. . .

This does not mean, Republicans said, that most Americans are suddenly embracing the idea of same-sex couples going to the chapel. It is more that, for a lot of these Americans, gay marriage is not something they spend a lot of time worrying about, or even thinking about.

For younger respondents, this shift may in part be cultural: the result of coming of age in an era when openly gay people have become increasingly common in popular entertainment and in public life, not to mention in their own families or social circles. Familiarity in this case breeds relative comfort, or perhaps just lack of interest.

Again, this may be reality on the ground, but nowhere here is there evidence that the GOP is recognizing that reality and changing as a result. I suppose I expect them to recognize that their virulent opposition to gay marriage, and their close ties with a religious right wing that is bigoted on the issue, is harmful to the GOP, but that recognition is a long way off. For the Times to crow in a headline about how they’ve read tea leaves that show there are portents of change int he GOP — HOGWASH!

The big stories here are that the GOP is blind to the future. They couldn’t see that Specter was ripe to switch parties and were supposedly stunned by the development. They can’t see that such divisive and extremist views such as they hold on gay marriage are only going to further alienate Americans who believe in offering, as Olympia Snowe notes, “individual opportunity” to Americans. Heck, the Dems sure knew Specter was ripe to switch parties, with Biden, Casey and Rendell all recruiting Specter for the Dems for a month or two prior to this announcement. There’s your stark difference there between the parties. The GOP is not only “just say no,” but also a bit of an ostrich with its head in the sand concerning political reality, especially on issues like gay marriage. The Dems, on the other hand, are bringing about change, in Vermont and DC and Iowa, for sure, but also in PA with the gain of a Democrat in the Senate.

The die were cast in Pennsylvania when Obama was elected. The 20%ers who supported George Bush are the God, guns and bitterness crowd, and they are awfully bitter about everything Obama. Frankly, Arlen Specter isn’t bitter enough for their tastes. There has been tons of talk about Pat Toomey, extremist right winger that he is on both the Christian and taxation front, challenging Specter, and with so many moderate Republicans leaving the party in PA, Specter was going to have some big troubles in next year’s Republican primary. So what’s happening? Arlen Specter is becoming a Republican.

You can read Chris Cillizza on the subject at his column in the Washington Post, but I’ll quote from Mr. Specter himself, from his campaign web site:

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.

Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.

I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.

I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.

I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters. I can understand their disappointment. I am also disappointed that so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides. I thank especially Senators McConnell and Cornyn for their forbearance.

Well, that is stunning political news. The Democrats are now almost cloture-proof, and while Arlen says his will be a vote of conscience over party, to get the Democratic nod he is going to have to bend a bit to the will of the Democratic Party in the next year or so. I suppose this is not stunning in the sense that Arlen Specter truly does not look or act like Pennsylvania Republicans anymore. That breed of citizen is a dwindling population that has backed too many losing efforts over the last several years. Who can forget, after all, Rick Santorum’s historic loss a few years ago as an incumbent?

I understand Mr. Specter has promised to give back political contributions from supporters if they do not agree with his decision. Of the people I know who have given him money, I know of many who will be cheering this move. Yes, even some in my own household will be cheering.

So what caused this switch? I’d say the Republican Party becoming too extremist is what caused it. I would not be surprised if other Republican Congressmen and Senators follow Specter’s example, though there are so few moderates left in the Republican Party, that I wouldn’t predict many. Moderate Republican? That’s what is called an endangered species.

Wow.

This is huge news. MS-NBC is running the story that Arlen Specter is switching to the Democratic Party. Given that Al Franken is almost sure to be eventually declared the Senate winner in Minnesota, it’s likely that the Dems now have their 60 seat majority in the Senate.

While I don’t expect Specter to vote in lockstep with the Dem party (actually, he’ll probably be closer to Joe Lieberman in terms of philosophy), this is seismic.

Speaking of Lieberman, does the GOP now step up its efforts to get Lieberman to switch?

Discuss while this story is breaking…

Adding: CNN is reporting that Specter made the decision because of a significant GOP challenge in next year’s primary from uber wingnut Pat Toomey. There’s little question that Toomey would have been rough competition for Specter. The question remains: who will challenge Specter in the Dem primary?? Or have promises been made by the Dems in Pennsylvania?

Adding: I’m watching a quick photo op on CNN from outside of Specter’s office, and the crowd of constituents from Pa. is clapping and whooping it up. There will be a news conference later this afternoon.

Adding: I really like the chances of true healthcare reform now.

Update, 2:30PM - In Specter’s press conference, he aligned himself with the Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party. Oh, wait. Joe isn’t a Dem. Hmmm.

It seems our policemen are not safe anymore. The Northwest Florida Daily News says “None of it makes sense,” but it supposedly didn’t make sense in Pittsburgh either with Richard Poplawski. That killing of police officers also started with a domestic disturbance, with something seemingly mundane, a verbal spat with his mother. Richard Poplawsi was also former military, and failed military at that. Perhaps the important thing there was what Foxnews reported at the time, that Richard Poplawski was afraid of the Obama Administration. Oh, Richard Poplawski’s shoting spree did make sense, as I reported here. He was frightened by the Obama Administration because his loose screws got agitated by high-profile wingding talkers who have been trying to frighten everyone in America about the Obama Administration. And that’s how it is beginning to look like Joshua Cartwright’s shooting spree is making sense.

Let’s look at some of the story from the Northwest Florida Daily News story on Joshua Cartwright’s shooting spree that left two policemen dead:

An offense report filed against Cartwright the day he died outlines an angry husband who threatened his wife, kept guns and knives on hand, was “severely disturbed” that Barack Obama had been elected president, and believed the U.S. government was conspiring against him.

Arthur Delaney of Huffington Post has it this way:

According to the police report, Elizabeth Cartwright said her husband “believed that the US Government was conspiring against him. She said he had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.”

That’s five police officers dead because of two men with screws loose who believed Barack Obama was out to get them or their guns or both.

Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, has been getting some flak from the right wingers for a report recently put out about how right wing organizations might be trying to recruit returning soldiers into militia movements bent on violence and terrorism. You know, I don’t care whether that report, begun under the Bush Administration, is right, wrong or indifferent. I do care that we get to the bottom of right wing nutjobs who have been subtly encouraged to start shooting policemen. This should never happen in our country, and we should not take it lying down.

Is it the easy access to guns we should focus on? Yes. Is it nutjobs we should focus on? Yes. Racism? Yes. But what about the nutjobs on our airwaves who encourage gun ownership with no responsibility? Yes, I’d like to see a focus there as well. Glenn Beck? Take a step forward and claim some responsibility for the hysteria you are encouraging.

Man, this should not go on any longer. Janet Napolitano should not have apologized. Instead I want to see a report come out next about how to deny nutjobs the rights to own guns. Heck, violent nutjobs like Cartwright shouldn’t be allowed to marry, nor join the military, nor vote. Gee, two of three of those rights aren’t even granted in full to gay citizens. When’s the last time we had a gay man or woman gun down a few policemen?

There’s the bottom line. Right wing Christian whack jobs aren’t going to get nearly as upset about this nutjob Cartwright, who shot up a big chunk of the Okaloosa police force, as they are getting upset at gay men and women whose only desire is to get married. They’re all concerned in Iowa over the solomn commitments of gay citizens to love one another. Those folks needs their heads and morals straightened out. And, yes, there are priorities in morality. Murder is far more evil than love. Gee, doesn’t everyone know that?

The Florida legislature has made it possible for you to honor Jesus by choosing a license plate with His image on it. This landmark legislation was snuck onto another measure the other day by a bipartisan couple of lawmakers. The wing nuts will be pleased. From the St. Petersburg Times:

If you want Jesus on your license plate, the Florida Senate is looking out for you.

Because why worry about a budget impasse or property insurance when you can spend more than an hour talking about Jesus, the devil and license plates?

Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill Friday even though many members had not seen images of those plates and none was produced for the debate.

Siplin didn’t mince words when asked what his “Trinity” plate looks like, saying, “It has a picture of my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

OK, I’m not going to riff about the seperation of church and state. I’m not going to riff about how the legislature is irresponsible to even discuss this when there are a whole lot of other problems in Florida that need to be dealt with. no, I think this is completely appropriate legislation, as it fits the Florida image as America’s tackiest state. OK, Jesus might not be all that pleased to know he’s been relagated to the exhaust end of the car. Heck, wasn’t he on dashboards just a few years ago? Well, he’s honored with a license plate now, and license plates in Florida are nothing if not the great leveler. One can honor almost anything in Florida by choosing a special license plate. Jesus is but one amongst a plethora of honorees, including manatees, turtles and the Space Shuttle.