from LA Times today:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-pastor23.1jan23,1,5857044.story?coll=la-news-comment-lettersThe article pointed out how many black pastors in the battleground states who supported Democrats in past presidential elections endorsed George W. Bush after their churches received federal funds through Bush's initiative to support faith-based social services. Along with a Jan. 8 story disclosing that the administration paid $240,000 to black commentator Armstrong Williams to promote Bush's education agenda, we taxpayers should rightly be alarmed.
The Times article also said: "Administration record-keeping has made it difficult to track where the faith-based money has gone." If one thinks that the term "bribery" is too harsh to use in indicting Bush for getting these pastors to help him win by spreading their influence over the black voters, then consider what Bush administration official Jim Towey said at one taxpayer-financed White House conference in the midst of the campaign. According to the Times article, Towey declared the faith program a flashpoint in the "culture war" between people of faith and the secular world.
As our soldiers are killed or maimed battling religious fanatics in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration fuels a culture war here at home for political gain, using taxpayers' money. When will this madness stop?
Leon M. Salter
Los Angeles