Does God Vote Republican?

"The administration is acutely aware of the power of the Christian voting block in the US. Gallup surveys consistently count 46% of the population as being self-described born again Christians, the bulk of whom live in middle America.

It is a stunning statistic, and one that escapes the attention of the chattering classes who populate the much less devout coastal strips.

Many of these churchgoers voted for Bush in 2000, and Carl Rove is determined that all of them should do the same this year. The latest data should put a spring in his step - Bush's job approval among grassroots Christian social conservatives hovers between 92% and 96%."

(more here)

Our Hidden WMD Program:

The budget is busted; American soldiers need more armor; they're running out of supplies. Yet the Department of Energy is spending an astonishing $6.5 billion on nuclear weapons this year, and President Bush is requesting $6.8 billion more for next year and a total of $30 billion over the following four years. This does not include his much-cherished missile-defense program, by the way. This is simply for the maintenance, modernization, development, and production of nuclear bombs and warheads...

There is no nuclear arms race going on now. The world no longer offers many suitable nuclear targets. President Bush is trying to persuade other nations—especially "rogue regimes"—to forgo their nuclear ambitions. Yet he is shoveling money to U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories as if the Soviet Union still existed and the Cold War still raged...

What the hell is going on here? Specifically: Do we really need to be spending this kind of money on nuclear weapons? What role do nuclear weapons play in 21st-century military policy? How many weapons do we need, to deter what sort of attack or to hit what sorts of targets, with what level of confidence, for what strategic and tactical purposes?

These are questions that haven't been seriously addressed in this country for 30 years. "

(more here)

Castrated BBC Pulls Out Of Iraq

The BBC has dramatically scaled back its staff in Iraq and banned programme-makers from organising any new trips there amid the deteriorating security situation... The cutbacks have sparked criticism of the BBC's [increasingly dismal, since they caved in to government critics] coverage in Iraq.

David Miller, the editor of Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, accused the corporation of being over-reliant on the accounts given by US forces.

"This explains some of the poor coverage coming out of Iraq. Neither the BBC nor ITV has anyone in Falluja, but ITV has at least broadcast an interview with [aid worker] Jo Wilding from the city. The BBC should be giving the other side of the story," he said.

(more here)