If "God Has a Plan For Sex," Does Obama Have a Plan for Monitoring Programs Overseas?

A billboard promoting abstinence for HIV prevention in Tamale, Ghana

Think of this as the missionary position [ed- intended] of the US government. The question is whether they hand out Watchtower.

On Saturday, the White House faith advisory council task force released recommendations for government agencies that do business with faith-based social service groups. These recommendations touch on several issues related to a recently filed lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. In that case, the ACLU asked a court to order the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to release documents related to its funding of religious abstinence-only-until-marriage programs overseas, which will likely uncover violations of the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state.

Interestingly, the faith advisory recommendations say that USAID is better suited than the Department of Defense for development work. Though perhaps correct, the shift of additional work to USAID only increases the need for additional oversight of its faith-based work given that USAID has a history of violating the Constitution. Indeed, the ACLU's investigation was trigged in July 2009, when the Inspector General of USAID released a report (PDF) after auditing USAID's faith-based grantees. The report came to startling conclusions about the misuse of government funds. For example, the Inspector General noted several instances of biblical references in government-funded curricula, and USAID itself admitted that some of the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs it funds "reflect a religious perspective and include religiously infused materials and religious references." One of the curricula includes an optional biblical verse for "reflection or memorization," the purpose of which is to show students that "God has a plan for sex and this plan will help you and protect you from harm."

Did you pay for that sign?

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A criminal is a criminal

Nuff said.

Forget the shit being tossed out by the repugs. They're jerking your chain for political purposes. America can prosecute drug dealers, the mafia, prostitutes, gang bangers, serial killers, child molesters, kleptomaniacs and wife beaters and it can prosecute terrorists.

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Why we need the ACLU

This is a story about a black guy, but his color is irrelevant. I'm pretty sure the police didn't get a whopping $38,330,861 fucking dollars in 2003 from only poor black people. No links, but the state doesn't matter either. I've read similar accounts of this happening in other states.

Asset forfeiture laws create huge incentives for law enforcement officers to police for profit. In 2003, the total amount forfeited to Georgia law enforcement was $38,330,861.

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Judges to Consider Request for Spy Docs

Why is it some news is only available in foreign (non-US) news media?

The government must answer a watchdog group's demands to release records about the nation's classified terrorist spying program, the chief judge of a secretive national security court has ruled.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which announced the order Friday, said it was the first time the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had responded to a request filed by the public.

In her two-page order, dated Aug. 16, Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly called the ACLU's demand "an unprecedented request that warrants further briefing."

At least I haven't read about this anywhere else.

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