Now that John McCain has repudiated the Rev. John Hagee and Barack Obama has repudiated the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, maybe we can repudiate all the country’s leading religious freaks and irrationality in general.

McCain, the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, distanced himself from the bombastic Hagee this week after it surfaced the good Reverend said God actually planned the Holocaust. Hagee had earlier publicly endorsed McCain, and the Arizona Senator had already told reporters he disagreed with Hagee’s inflammatory remarks about Catholicism and God’s obvious “Katrina” wrath on New Orleans

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Obama recently had to distance himself from his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who has some particular ideas about the government inflicting AIDS on African Americans.

McCain has tried to nuance his repudiation, arguing Hagee is not his pastor, after all. Republicans can spin that argument to death; it simply won't fly if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for president.

Given the specifics, it is all a meaningless muddle, a diversion from real issues. But there is a much larger issue here. The truth of the matter is this country has an extremely serious religion problem.

As religious influence has grown in the political process in recent years, the ability of the American government to tackle the country’s serious problems has diminished. Religious thinking, simply put, can lead to irrational thinking because faith itself is based on irrationality.

Consequently, the country’s attention in recent years has been focused on non-essential wedge issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, supposed religious issues, as our country’s infrastructure and quality of life deteriorated. We are giving up our dreams and our children’s futures so the religious freaks can fuel their apocalyptic fantasies.

Meanwhile, an incredulous world waits, ready to pounce. The number one security issue in this country right now is the irrationality embraced by so many of our leaders.

Sure, there are plenty of rational, intelligent people willing to run for office on rational issues, such as restoring the infrastructure, solving the health care crisis, ending the long, gruesome military occupation and doing something significant about rising energy costs. I would even include a few Republicans in this group.

But how can they run on rationality when religious extremism tells us logic and science are dispensable, that fighting gay marriage is more important than, say, providing adequate health care for children?

McCain, in particular, has to kowtow to the religious-right in this country. Without the votes of the irrationals, he does not stand a chance. Consequently, he and other Republicans must take irrational positions to win votes. Meanwhile, religious extremism has influenced Democratic politicians as well, producing a similar, albeit diminished, effect. As the bizarre drama unfolds in the United States, the corporate media gives religious lunatics more and more space and credibility.

What if the country had a president and other elected officials who could actually focus on the country’s pressing problems without interference from religious ideologues?

Until that happens, this country’s fortunes will continue to sink.

Sally Show Begins

State Rep. Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City) will try to restrict reproductive rights even further for Oklahoma women this coming legislative session.

House Bill 1004, filed by Kern, would require doctors who perform abortions to have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles where the procedure was performed. This is yet another measure to restrict abortion and other reproductive services.

As reported earlier by The Practical Progressive, this legislation would prevent out-of-state doctors, who are licensed in Oklahoma, from performing the procedures. This has been a common practice in some states.

Last legislative session, the state passed laws restricting abortion in the state. The restrictions included the requirement minors get parental consent before they have an abortion and state funding of anti-choice information centers. The legislature also passed laws requiring physicians tell women the fetus feels pain, which is not proven scientifically. A new law also requires doctors to offer women a sonogram view of the fetus before an abortion.

There was also a political effort last year to restrict access to Plan B, the emergency contraceptive for women. Plan B has been approved for over-the-counter sales by the Federal Drug Administration.

State legislators of both major political parties will continue to impose their religious views on Oklahoma women by restricting their access to reproductive services until people speak up. This issue marginalizes women in our overall culture, and especially in conservative Oklahoma, and denies women freedom to make decisions about their own bodies.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that tracks reproductive rights: “In 2000, 96% of Oklahoma counties had no abortion provider. 56% of Oklahoma women lived in these counties. In the South census region, where Oklahoma is located, 32% of women having abortions traveled at least 50 miles, and 10% traveled more than 100 miles.”

No rational person favors the use of abortion for standard birth control, but religious ideologues also want to restrict access to basic birth control as well. Sex education and easy access to birth control will bring down the unwanted-pregnancy rate, but the ideologues—primarily Christian extremists—have a larger agenda.

It’s important to note this will probably not be the only measure this upcoming session trying to restrict reproductive rights in Oklahoma. Kern represents an area in northwest Oklahoma City and Bethany. She and other Christian extremists may well introduce more legislation denying women the ability to control what happens to their bodies.

Abortion is obviously a controversial issue for some Christians, but no one is forced to have an abortion in this country. If you’re against abortion, don’t have one. This is about state Christian fundamentalists demanding everyone view the world through their narrow-minded religious filter. This is about religious intrusion in government. This is about politically moderate and liberal Christians (is “liberal Christian” an oxymoron these days?) allowing right-wing Christian extremists to hijack their religion on a couple of cultural wedge issues like abortion and gay rights.

Do a majority of Oklahoma woman want to give up their reproductive rights. No. But many women are afraid to speak up in a state that marginalizes anyone who dissents from the right-wing, religious agenda.

I wrote this on March 4, 2006 on Okie Funk:

"Not one Oklahoma politician has said figuratively and loudly to our college graduates now leaving the state in droves that the fight for intellectual freedom can be waged even in one of the reddest of red states."

TABOR Redux?

A bill (SB 24) filed by state Sen. Patrick Anderson (R-Enid) would limit the growth of state spending to the previous year’s spending plus five percent.

Sounds like a TABOR hybrid, and you can expect similar measures this coming session.

TABOR, or the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, is the idea that the growth of state spending should be limited to the previous year’s spending plus an increase based on a formula tied to population growth and the inflation rate. An initiative petition drive to place the issue as a constitutional amendment on the ballot here was declared invalid by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Oklahoma, which lags far behind in education funding in the country, simply can’t allow itself to be tied to budget measures that restrict it from taking care of its structural problems. For example, the state has had one of the lowest per student spending rates in the nation for years. It often has the lowest or near the lowest teacher salaries in the nation as well.

It’s virtually impossible to increase taxes without a vote of the people in Oklahoma, and the legislature has been reducing taxes lately, not raising them. If the state has extra money to wisely and prudently invest in improving the state, then it should do so. This is just common sense, not ideology.

Voooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooote!

If Democrats can’t take back the Oklahoma House and retain control of the state Senate in Tuesday’s election you can expect another year of religious-driven politics that will ultimately harm the state’s economic development.

The Oklahoma and national GOP these days remain dominated by Christian extremists. The Republican business-oriented, libertarian types—you know, those people with whom you use to be able to argue about the economy over some beers—have sold their party out to the lowest common denominator for personal profit.

All the potential GOP-sponsored religious legislation, such as eliminating science studies by mandating schools teach intelligent design or requiring school prayer, ultimately tarnishes the state with a “hick” image. Businesses do not want to locate here. People do not want to move here. The state’s intelligent residents want to leave. It’s the state’s sad story. Don’t think for a minute the state’s most influential political and business players don’t know this. That's why they bailed on Ernest Istook, the Republican religious extremist running for governor.

The GOP needs to pick up only three senate seats to gain a majority in that political body. Unfortunately, that could happen. Republicans already hold a majority in the House. Unless state Democrats, who should be motivated by the historic failure of the Republican government on a national level, can show up in big numbers at the polls, Oklahoma’s centennial year will be a wash for progressives.

It’s true Governor Brad Henry, a Democrat, is almost certain to win reelection. But if both legislative bodies go Republican, Henry can do little to fight back, especially if he plans to run for the U.S. Senate in the future and worries about making enemies.

If Republicans pick up two seats in the Oklahoma Senate that will mean it will be equally divided. In that case, the lieutenant governor breaks any tie votes. That’s why it’s important for Oklahoma that Democrat Jari Askins is elected to the position. She is running against Todd Hiett, the Republican who led the House majority last legislation session. If elected, Hiett is sure to work closely with local GOP religious extremists to ensure Oklahoma becomes one of the first quasi-theocratic states in the country.

National polls are now predicting Democrats have a good chance gaining a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterm elections. Some pundits even think the Democrats have a chance to take back the U.S. Senate. These polls reflect the country’s growing anger at President George Bush’s failed Iraq war policies and the growing wealth disparity between the country’s richest people and the middle class

Yet Republican gerrymandering and unethical election engineering preventing Democrats from voting in some major cities could mean Republicans retain their majority. It has happened before. Why do some progressives, who are obviously optimistic about the Democrats' chances, think the GOP will not take the low road again or that they will be able to stop it? Voter suppression is the GOP's modus operandi. It's from Karl Rove's playbook.

But, regardless of what happens nationally, this is Oklahoma, where the largest newspaper declines to offer real alternative views to its right-wing propaganda. This is a state with a church on every other corner yet it leads the nation in hungry families and has the second highest number of children without health insurance in the country.

The state will pay a high price in terms of economic development and its residents’ personal freedoms if it continues to support the new corrupt-laden GOP, the party that combines the obvious contradiction of hypocritical religious extremists like Ted Haggard and accused hypocritical sexual predators like former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley with the supposed business-oriented, small-government people, with the supposed "law-and-order" crowd. This coalition of consistent corruption and immorality has failed miserably on the national level. How long will it take Oklahomans to realize it has failed us here and will continue to do so?

Your progressive vote Tuesday is critical to ensure Oklahoma offers opportunities for all people, not just for religious extremists/hypocrites and those people who use them for their own short-term profit. In the words of Oklahoma’s native son Woody Guthrie, “This land is your land, this land is my land.” Vote.