It would be really funny if it weren’t so scary. The tea baggers scream about their liberties being taken away – but they support the party that wants to do away with our 4th amendment rights to privacy, that wants to control who can marry whom, what a woman does with her own body, that wants to squelch voter’s rights, that support the truly anti-democratic idea that corporations are people and money equals free speech… and many more liberty killing laws the right is trying to foist upon us.
I’ve experience the assault on our freedoms personally. Arrested after attempting to ask a question of my congressional representative at an event billed as a “town hall meeting” by a cop who lied on his arrest report, and abused while in custody by a Broward Sheriff’s Deputy who lied on his incident report… and I have no recourse to make these people take responsibility for their serious abuses of power — not to mention the sorry excuse for a Congressman who stool by and condoned by arrest for committing democracy.
Last night I found out that the situation is even worse.
Recently, photos of Central Florida citizen activists were distributed at a Rep Tim Griffin’s government-sponsored Town Hall by his staffers in Arkansas. The packets that are being distributed include photos of local activists, including some Organize Now supporters, along with a list of questions about their personal and professional backgrounds.
Most of the people featured in the packets are constituents of Rep. Dan Webster (R-FL) and were outspoken at the Representative’s Town Halls.
“It seems clear that the presentation of these materials is intended to encourage harassment of these citizen activists and to intimidate other citizens from speaking out across America by attacking those who have already spoken out,” said Tamecka Pierce, President of Organize Now, who is also profiled in the document. “This behavior is unfitting for any member of Congress or their Congressional staff and represents a threat to the First Amendment rights of all citizens. This type of state sponsored intimidation, is a troubling, direct danger to our democratic process.”
“Citizens everywhere should be concerned as to whether or not tax payer dollars and resources were used to profile fellow Americans in an attempt to silence their voices and what role Congressional offices or campaigns played in disseminating state-sponsored intimidation of private citizens,” said Mike Cantone, Political Director for Organize Now, who was also profiled.
Those paragraphs begin a press release from the Central Florida-based Organize Now, whose Political Director, Mike Cantone, will join me on the show this morning to tell us all about it.
We witnessed the damage to the democratic process in Wisconsin this week, with $30 million injected into nine state senate recall races. Today, Public Citizen is organizing an online protest to call attention to the fact that Dollars don’t equal Democracy! I’ll speak with online organizer Rick Claypool about it.
And John Fugelsang will make us laugh during a very sad time in US history.
Hey Nicole,
Since getting the Stitcher app for my phone, all I do everyday is click on the liberal tab and hit play. So for the past 3 months I have been listening to you and I enjoy your show. This show you asked a question about Mormon’s magic underwear. I am a Mormon and I will tell you.
Mormons have never called them magic. They are not magical, and people who do not like Mormons talk about the underwear as if we wear them for magical purposes.
We do not!
The Temple Garments(or in Mormon slang they are called G’s) are worn by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have made covenants with God inside an LDS Temple. Mormons don’t talk that much about the underwear….well, because it is underwear.
Wearing the G’s under the clothes is much like Catholic Priest who wear the black robe and collar or a Jew with his cap and not cutting the corners of his head. These are outward symbols to show the world that they are a Catholic priest or Jewish.
A Covenant of the Jewish faith is circumcision, but Jews don’t have to drop their pants to show me, because it is a personal outward expression of being a Jewish male.
With Temple Garments, they are a personal outward expression that they are following Jesus Christ and have made Covenants to God. Not all Mormons wear them and you will not know who is wearing them, but the person knows and tries to live up to the Covenants that he or she have made with God. Most covenants are not spoken about, as they are also just for that one individual and God.
But here is one of the questions you are asked before going to the Temple and putting on a nice new clean pair of undies.
“Are you fair in your dealings with your fellow man?”
Now, if you cheated on your taxes, overcharged someone for a service you provided, beat your kids, or any other unfair outcome between you and people, you are not supposed to wear Temple garments. You must repent and go and make things right with your fellow man before you are once again in good standing with God.
Now, with that one question(there is about 10 more) that is quite a stretch for the 15 or so Mormon politicians in Congess and two Presidential candidates. Mitt Romney bought failing businesses, fired excess workers and sold it for a large profit.
The question isn’t a trick question, but it is your own feeling inside that what you think is fair in your dealings. I would say Mitt thinks he was fair since he still wears the G’s…but we will never know, since we can’t see them.
The myth of “magic underwear” came from Mormons getting into accidents either in cars, or burnt by fire and they were injured in every spot except where the garments were. They look like a white short sleeve undershirt and white boardshorts that almost touch the knee.
These are urban legends that Anti-Mormons grabbed onto to show that Mormons were practicing magic because they have tried everything else to keep their congregations from converting to Mormonism, like lying to them.
Hope this helped! Thanks for podcasting so I can listen while I work in California.
Brad Lee
Any other Mormon questions, I’ll be happy to provide you with some sort of answer.