I am so tired of living in a country where a group of religious extremists get to hold our rights hostage, but apparently that's not changing anytime soon:

An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to a Senate compromise on the place of abortion in health care legislation this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, the Conference Catholic Bishops, and other anti-abortion groups, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.

The emails show that Stupak -- who has so far remained silent on language accepted by Senator Ben Nelson (D. Neb.) and faces intense pressure from the White House to accept it -- is already working behind the scenes to oppose the compromise.

They also demonstrate a previously unseen degree of coordination between Stupak and the office of Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Stupak is the leader of a group of pro-life Democrats who say they’ll back the sweeping legislation if it uses government money to pay for abortion, while McConnell is firmly committed to killing the legislation. The fact that the two have made common cause against the Senates health care compromise will likely further infuriate Stupak’s Democratic colleagues in the House, and demonstrates his willingness to stop any bill that doesn’t pass his test.

“Guys - when will we see your letters of opposition to the managers amendment?? We need them ASAP!” wrote Erika Smith, a Stupak aide, at 9:23 this morning, less than an hour after the amendment had become available.

The email’s recipients included key staffers for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Right to Life, the Family Research Council, as well as Autumn Fredericks Christensen, aide to a top pro-life Republican Joe Pitts, and Lanier Swann, a McConnell aide.

Iraq Today: News and Views

Opinions You Should Have: Romney to spend more time with his money

p m carpenter's commentary: An electorate in the wilderness?

Jim Hightower: Beware of corporate "heroes"

Sunday Bookchat: The War on Terror's perversion of medicine. Jonahan Chait's distortion of Free Lunch. Science's defense of evolution. And lots more.

HOLY CRAP: Jesus 2.0 has arrived...Religion Dispatches...Eat, Pray, Loathe...Bush still trying to force taxpayers to fund private religious schools...Waterboarding for God...Bush's last budget is a National Moral Disgrace...The FundamentaList...The Coming Persecution...Sharia Law for the U.K.?...Spanish Bishops give new meaning to the "Bully" Pulpit...Murder in the name of some kind of God...More B.S. about God and Politics

Via WFSA: (h/t L.A. Confidential)

You might say this year's regular legislative session will be known for politics, a pay raise, and a punch.

Republicans and Democrats have been at each others throats in the senate all session long, but they did pass themselves a pay raise. Then on Thursday, tensions escalated when violence broke out between two senators right on the State Senate floor.

So how did the fight get started? It began as the dispute between the minority group that is mostly made up of Republicans, and the majority group of 18 Democrats continued. So tempers could calm down and the senators could regroup they voted to take a recess, but that when the emotions flared. Republican Senator Charles Bishop tells WSFA 12 News that, "He (Senator Lowell Barron) called me a son of the bitch. Where I grew up that is somebody talking bad about your mother and when he did I responded with my right hand, and from that point on I don't know what happened because people grabbed me and I turned around and walked off." Read more...

That would be assault, right? Every company I've ever worked for had a policy on physical violence - if you physically assault a co-worker you're automatically fired. If this were you or I, we'd be standing in the unemployment line right now. Barron was wrong to use such language, but Bishop should resign, immediately.

Confined Space: A good example of the difference between Democrats and Republicans

The Gaelic Starover: U.S. Catholic Bishops match Junior's phony piety with their own hypocrisy.

Empire Burlesque: The War Crimes Confession of Condi Rice

Vague Nihilism: GOP leadership tolerating forced abortions

Democrats.com: Bush's "Party of Ideas"...seems to back up this study of the GOP which disproves both Evolution and Intelligent Design.

Martini Republic: The State Department is viewed as 'the enemy' by the Bush Adminstration because they transmit all kinds of inconvenient truths back to Washington, instead of getting with the Tinkerbell program.

Vatican: Catholics Who Back Abortion Shouldn't Take Communion

This is coming from LifeNews.com and I haven't found the story anywhere else:

The Catholic Church has produced a new document for bishops across the world to examine that says Catholics who support legalized abortion should refrain from taking communion because they are out of step with church teachings. The Vatican said pro-abortion Catholics are not taking their faith seriously and those who take communion and support abortion are behaving in a scandalous manner...read on

Couple that story with Michael's article about evolution and you can see where the Catholic Church is headed. The divide is growing wider between democracy and theocracy. If the current Vatican continues on this course, Pat Buchanan may finally have his wish. A small and isolated Church.

Church Of England Idiocy The Brutal Truth

By John Shelby Spong/Chicago Tribune

The Bible regularly is quoted by conservative Christians to argue that what they call "the homosexual lifestyle" is contrary to Scripture. Politically this takes the form of seeking to amend the Constitution to discriminate against our citizens who are gay or lesbian. In this basic charter nearly every previous attempt at amendment has been to expand freedom. Now these Bible quoters want to reverse that trend, failing to see that if today's majority can amend the Constitution to discriminate, then no one is safe from tomorrow's majority. -- Our nation's judiciary has been called "anti-religious." When leaders seek to intimidate the
presumably independent courts, the first step toward a totalitarian government has been taken.

(Hat tip Todd) John Shelby Spong, a retired Episcopal bishop, on the misuse of the bible and the Christian religion.

The Scottish Episcopal Church says that being a practicing homosexual is no bar to becoming a priest, a stance which puts it at odds with the Anglican Communion in other parts of the world.
...
It is believed to be the first time the Scottish church has publicly declared their position on gay clergy and blessings of homosexual couples, which have long been unwritten but commonly held acceptances.

The announcement comes at a delicate time for Anglicans worldwide and is in contrast to the Scottish Episcopal Church's sister body, the Church of England, which will ordain homosexuals only if they are not in a physical relationship.

At last month's crisis meeting of Anglican leaders in Northern Ireland, the issue of homosexuality threatened to split the international Anglican Communion.
Anglican leaders, meeting near Belfast, asked the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) for three years a move some fear could be the first step toward a permanent split in the communion.

Meanwhile, the Ugandans are behaving like idiots:

A gift of more than $350,000 to fight AIDS in Uganda has been rejected by an Anglican bishop because the Episcopal diocese which offered it supported the election of a gay bishop in New Hampshire.

Uganda has one of the highest per capita rates of HIV/AIDS in the world.

Jackson Nzerebende Tembo, the Bishop of South Rwenzori in Uganda, said the money was tainted.