Bush Conned Conservative Christians To Gain Support Says Former Aide (AP 13.10.06)
(Washington, D.C., USA) A former Bush aide claims that evangelical Christians were embraced for political gain at the White House but derided privately as "nuts," "ridiculous" and "goofy." The allegations — denied by the White House on Friday — are in a new book by David Kuo, a conservative Christian who was deputy director of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until 2003.
The book describes Kuo's frustration at what he felt was lackluster enthusiasm in the White House for the program, which seeks to steer more federal social service contracts to religious organizations. Details from the book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," were reported by MSNBC ahead of Monday's publication date.
Kuo singled out staffers in the office of Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser and deputy chief of staff, as particularly condescending toward evangelical Christians, viewing them as necessary to help win elections but ridiculing them behind the scenes.
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/101306bush.htm
Conservatives Rally Against Bush Aide-Turned-Critic - Exposé of White House Scorn for Evangelicals Is Disputed (The Washington Post 14.10.06)
Conservative religious leaders described themselves as shocked yesterday by a new book's charge that Bush administration staffers privately dismissed evangelical Christian political activists as "nuts" and "goofy." But their dismay was aimed at the book's author, former White House official David Kuo, rather than at President Bush or his senior advisers.
James Dobson, Charles W. Colson and other stalwarts of the conservative Christian movement defended the Bush administration and questioned the timing of the book's publication, a month before the midterm elections. Some suggested that Kuo had betrayed the White House.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301583.html
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Man Faces Life After Lesbian's Head Sawed Off (365Gay.com 13.10.06)
(London, UK) A 46 year old man faces a life sentence for the murder of a woman who broke up with him after coming out as a lesbian. James Seaton was convicted Thursday of the murder of Jacqueline Queen. The jury discounted Seaton's excuse that he was suffering a mental illness.
At his trial the court was told that Queen was likely still alive as Seaton began sawing off her head in a frenzied fit. Her blood soaked body was discovered wrapped in a sheet on a quiet North London street last November.
The prosecution argued that Seaton went berserk when Queen told him she did not want to see him any more because she was a lesbian. Seaton claimed he was too drunk at the time to be responsible for his actions.
"The only sentence that the law permits me to pass is one of life imprisonment," said Judge David Radford.
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/101206murder.htm
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Australian Gay Marriage Treatment Like Apartheid Inquiry Told (365Gay.com 11.10.06)
(Brisbane, Australia) An inquiry into treatment of same-sex couples by the Australian government has heard an impassioned plea from the mother of a gay man.
"The Federal Government is really persecuting the gays for something they can't help," Shelley Argent told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. "It's like the South Africans. They persecuted the blacks for something they couldn't help."
Argent told the commission that the root of the discrimination by the government of Prime Minister John Howard is a money grab."My son is in a career where he has received bravery citations and regularly puts his life on the line every day. The present Federal Government is quick to accept the taxes my son and his partner pay, without a twinge of conscience, and give nothing in return," she said. "The Government profits by ignoring same-sex couples because they miss out on the rebates and benefits they'd receive if seen as a couple."
The government in 2004 passed legislation limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. Since then it has rebuffed calls to allow civil partnerships similar to those in the UK.
