And the Liberals Go Wild…

There has been some reaction to the Ten Commandments being put to a vote on the ballot, beginning with Liberal Idaho who writes in summarizing the Supreme Court Case:

I’ll go ahead and summarize the best I can: “we are going to waste even more money because some people’s faith is so weak they need to be reminded of it when they are walking their dog in the park”.

The point is it doesn’t legitimize the Constitutionality of the monument on the park grounds, just the ballot process which is all fine and well. So pretty much, we can have a referendum, approve it and then just go through the legal process all over again.

Actually, that’s not the purpose of a 10 Commandments Monument. Its been two years since the Ten Commandments monument was pulled out of Julia Davis and hasn’t affected my faith one bit. That’s not the point. The point is that we as a nation need to remember our sources of law and justice. And one of those primary sources for Western law is the Ten Commandments. It is a reminder of who we are as a people and that heritage we have.

What is being suggested by Chris at Liberal Idaho if applied to African Americans would say that we have a Black History museum so that people can feel secure in being Black and the Ann Frank Memorial is there so people can feel secure in being Jewish, and the Basque Museum is there so people can feel secure being Basque.

A monument in the park, a small monument that I’m taller than standing in a park is all we’re talking about. What’s not being discussed is what will be beside the monument: an excerpt of the Virgina Statute of Religious Liberties by Thomas Jefferson and a plaque from the City acknowledging the secular infulence that both have had.

All the consternation and angst about the Constitutionality of the display is silly. The display is to be modelled after one in Pocatello that sits on a Courthouse lawn. Now honestly, how can what’s Constitutional on a courthouse lawn in Pocatello be unconstitutional in a quiet area of a park in Boise?

There’s a concern over whether this would be considered an administrative issue and the dissenting justice said it would. However, at this point some political calculations come into play. Lets assume the citizens of Boise passes this by a good margin (which I think we will.) Now, the City Council could challenge the measure as being an Administrative decision and they drag the case back to district court, and based on the lower court’s ruling the first time, they’ll probably go ahead and rule in favor of the City. The Keep the Commandments Coalition will turn around and appeal to the Supreme Court and Supreme Court will probably hear them again in October.

What’s going on all this time? Elections. Mayor Bieter is going to face a formidable challenge from Jim Tibbs for a 2nd term. How much more formidable will that be with Tibbs out talking about how he will be responsive to the citizens of Boise. Alan Shealy, David Eberle, and Elaine Clagg will be running for re-election. Where are they going to want the 10 Commandments issue? On the front pages of the Statesman? Shealy, I could believe would be that arrogant, but Clagg wanted a public hearing before voting in the first place. I know the Council’s arrogant, but do they really need October news on an issue that Alan Shealy thought would have died nearly 3 years ago? Shealy will never budge, but there are enough reasonable people on that Council (coupled with those up for re-election) that you’ll see an attempt to cut a deal where the monument will go in but at the cost of local Christians rather than the City and that they’ll assume the costs of legal defense. The former shouldn’t be too much of a problem, and the latter can be worked out with a legal group.

As much Chris shows great concern for the budget of our fair city, he would be interested to know that a deal was offered before City Tax dollars were used to rip out the monument, where the monument would stay put and the American Center for Law and Justice would provide pro bono defense for the city in keeping the monument. If fiscal conservatism were a concern, it was easy enough to avoid this train wreck as the Keep the Commandments Coalition has offered numerous solutions to the city that wouldn’t cost a dime. I’m sure as well that Chris will also in his interest of fairness and fiscal conservative support the efforts of Congress to stop the ACLU from bleeding towns dry with lawsuits over things like Ten Commandments Monuments.

Julie exploded in a rage that I find uncharacteristic and below what I expect of her:

The monument was originally (and oh so wisely) moved from an obscure spot in the park to a prominent place in a churchyard across from the state Capitol, after Fred Phelps threatened to erect an anti-gay monument next to it. So now the city will scramble to get the measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, as the court ordered.

First of all, everyone keeps saying how prominent that spot is. Has anyone actually gone out and visited it? One might as well have stuck a 10 Commandments monument in someone’s front yard. It simply doesn’t go there. Its overgrown somewhat and hard to see from the road. While in the park, people came by and different times and would just pause for reflection.

The second point about Fred Phelps is absurd. Phelps also threatened Nampa and Caldwell. Their Ten Commandments monuments are still in place, because they didn’t have a City Council that cowed to bigots from Kansas over the voice of their own people.

With luck, the monument-obsessed Keep the Commandments Coalition will get roughly the same number of votes uber-moralist/coalition mouthpiece “Brand” Swindell got in her failed bit for a seat on City Council last year. Meanwhile, the Bible thumpers have obviously been stuffing the ballot box in an online poll at the Idaho Statesman. Go have your say. Then get back to the real work you are doing – you know, whatever it is you do to really make the world a truly godlike place, instead of wasting government’s time, money, and energy on heresies like this.

Brand? I think in anger, someone forgot an “i”. I think anger is also clouding the analysis. The Swindell campaign hit the ground running with a little less than a month before the election. In city elections, you’ve got to hit the neighborhood associations, and become extremely familiar with all the issues because Home Owners Association Folks and the uberactive voters are going to turn out, a lot of these coming from the North End.

The issue of the Ten Commandments is another matter and so is the election. We’re going into November. November is going to be maximal voter turnout for the following reasons:

1) Open Governor’s Race

2) Open US House Race

3) Marriage Amendment Vote

I think the Marriage Amendment is going to be key. Some voters will show up just to vote for that and we’ll see the Ten Commandments on there and probably there will be 80-90% correlation.

The second point is the sudden attack on online polls. It was just two weeks ago that Liberal Idaho was citing these polls as authoritative and now that they’re going against Julie, she’s crying, “They’re rigged” and then urges people to go over and vote to make the poll look less pro-Commandment. Of course, the poll is not have ballots stuffed. I’ve not gotten any e-mails from anyone referencing it. Now, that I’ve said that, go vote and balance Julie’s unbalancing effort.

The truth is that people voting in the poll were probably the same ones Julie was trumpeting two weeks ago for opposing Risch’s tax cut: just average ordinary Idahoans.

Incidentally, Phelps hasn’t left the picture. If anything, he’s got an even higher profile now than he did three years ago. He’s the sick %$#@ whose group has been picketing the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq – all to promote his toxic anti-gay agenda. I wonder what Brandi and her buddies think about that. More to the point, I wonder if they think. Period.

You don’t actually have to wonder, you just have to do some research. When Fred Phelps came to the Treasure Valley last, here’s what Bryan Fischer had to say:

The Rev. Brian Fischer, pastor of Boise’s Community Church of the Valley, and himself a past target of protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, decried Phelps’ plan.

“What Phelps is doing is a reprehensible thing, to take a funeral and turn it into a photo op for his hate cause,” Fischer said.

“We hope everyone will ignore Phelps’ group.”

The threat of Phelps actually filing a suit is thin. Ask the Mayor of Nampa, ask the Mayor of Caldwell. Please stop pretending its something to be worried about. Let’s be honest. Or is that too much to ask?