Evangelicals against the war

Bush has lost the Christians:

Thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.

Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk.

...

John Pattison, 29, said he and his wife flew in from Portland, Ore., to attend his first anti-war rally. He said his opposition to the war had developed over time.

"Quite literally on the night that shock and awe commenced, my friend and I toasted the military might of the United States," Pattison said. "We were quite proud and thought we were doing the right thing."

He said the way the war had progressed and U.S. foreign policy since then had forced him to question his beliefs.

"A lot of the rhetoric that we hear coming from Christians has been dominated by the religious right and has been strong advocacy for the war," Pattison said. "That's just not the way I read my Gospel."

The ecumenical coalition that organized the event, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, distributed 3,200 tickets for the service in the cathedral, with two smaller churches hosting overflow crowds. The cathedral appeared to be packed, although sleet and snow prevented some from attending.

"This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong — and was from the beginning," the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, one of the event's sponsors, said toward the end of the service to cheers and applause. "This war is ... an offense against God."

In his speech, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, lashed out at Congress for being "too morally inept to intervene" to stop the war, but even more harshly against President Bush.

"Mr. Bush, my Christian brother, we do need a surge in troops. We need a surge in the nonviolent army of the Lord," he said. "We need a surge in conscience and a surge in activism and a surge in truth-telling."

This week there are vigils all across Texas to peacefully protest the continuation of the war in Iraq.

W's consigliere

Or monster. Whichever it is, Abu Gonzales is a creation entirely of Bush's making:

At the lowest moment in the highest law enforcement office, with criticism pouring in from all sides, including from the president who appointed him, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales made a rare reference last week to his difficult past, speaking defiantly of his determination to weather the controversy over the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

“Let me just say one thing,” Gonzales said. “I’ve overcome a lot of obstacles in my life to become attorney general. I am here not because I give up. I am here because I’ve learned from my mistakes, because I accept responsibility, and because I’m committed to doing my job.”

Gonzales has rarely spoken of the turmoil that has shadowed his family, emphasizing instead an inspirational biography that takes him from a boyhood in a cramped house that lacked hot water all the way to the elbow of a president.

The story is indeed impressive. Gonzales’ parents, Pablo and Maria, met as migrant farmworkers in Texas and settled in Humble, a town north of Houston. Pablo Gonzales worked in construction and later as a maintenance man. He was a hard drinker but a good provider, the story goes, who, with two brothers, built a twobedroom house in which he raised Alberto and seven other children.

The reality, however, as reflected in public records and interviews, is grittier and more tragic. Gonzales’ family members have repeatedly stumbled, creating a bleak counterpoint to his dazzling rise to become the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general.

Gonzales’ father was arrested for drunken driving five times in 17 years, covering much of Gonzales’ childhood and adolescence. Pablo Gonzales died in an industrial accident in 1982 when Gonzales was at Harvard Law School.

A younger brother, Rene Gonzales, died under mysterious circumstances in 1980. In 1991, the same year Alberto Gonzales became one of the first Hispanic partners at the white shoe Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, his younger sister Theresa pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. Nine years later, while Gonzales was on the Texas Supreme Court, his mother and another brother signed over their houses to a bail bondsman to raise bail for Theresa after she was charged with the same offense.

Most of these details did not arise in his Senate confirmation hearings, even though they might reasonably have been thought to affect his views about crime, drug and alcohol policy, and sentencing — all issues overseen or influenced by an attorney general.

Their omissions illustrate the remarkable extent to which Gonzales, 51, has managed to control the telling of his life story and the impenetrability of his outwardly mild and friendly manner.

They are also a function of Gonzales’ peculiar rise to power, an official whose career in government, first in Texas and then in Washington, has been under the protective wing of a single man. Since 1995, Gonzales has worked exclusively in jobs given to him by George W. Bush.

Sort of clarifies why the Constitution has become so shreddable, doesn't it? The ulitmate lapdog in the penultimate position of protecting his master.

Bush made him, and he can break him just as easily. So far though, the prezdent is acting "pugnacious":

Republicans close to the White House tell CBS News that President Bush is in "his usual posture: pugnacious, that no one is going to tell him who to fire." But sources also said Gonzales' firing is just a matter of time.

The White House is bracing for a weekend of criticism and more calls for Gonzales to go. One source (says) he's never seen the administration in such deep denial, and Republicans are growing increasingly restless for the president to take action.

If Gonzales is not fired, then he should be impeached. Forthwith.

Along with Dr. Frankenstein.

Sunday Funnies

The first toon to fete ZZ Top, which closes the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this afternoon:

Edwards/Obama online, Clinton/Obama off

-- The Kossacks still like John Edwards and Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton not at all. The Direct Democracy-ites choose Obama by a nose in an allocated tally (go there for the explanation). The traditional polling favors the Senator from New York.

Hillary will be here in Houston tomorrow.

The Republicans are currently being led by the cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani, followed by John McCain, who seems to be fading fast. Romney, Gingrich (who still hasn't declared) and Brownback trail them in single digits.

-- A topic which has received much attention in the blogosphere has been the erupting scandal at the Texas Youth Commission. Incarcerated young people were routinely sexually abused, the entire board of directors has resigned, and now the US Department of Justice is threatening legal action against the state of Texas. Kuffner and Leibowitz have been updating this regularly.

-- Valerie Plame is testifying today on Capitol Hill.

-- Karl Rove and Harriet Myers are also implicated in the firing of federal prosecutors for political purposes. They will likely be subpoenaed by Sen. Patrick Leahy to testify before a Senate committee. The right-wing talking point on this scandal is: "Clinton did it, too!" Not only is it typically disingenuous, it's just pathetic that six years into the Bush Maladministration the conservatives are still bleating about the Big Dog.

Find a new whine, goonbats.

Gone-zales

Rumors are leaking that he and the Prezdent are no longer BFF.

This surprises me. After reading Booman's take that Abu Attorney General would never resign, I was in complete agreement until reading the account from ThinkProgress, and also the paragraph at the bottom of Dana Milbank's report -- that even Senator Box Turtle has taken out the long knife. That's probably so that he can be first in line to replace him.

And that would create a free-for-all for the vacant Senate seat on both sides. In other Senate news, Rick Noriega was outed by the lads at Texas Blue. Bad move by them, in my opinion. That sort of thing engenders enmity among his House colleagues at a time when he is advancing important legislation.

Lots more to come on several fronts, and I hope I have time to write about it.

Thank you all

... for your kind words here. We appreciate them very much.

Sue's mother was transported to the hospital early Saturday morning (as Sue prepared to depart for Miami and her father's funeral) and remains in ICU with congestive heart failure and possibly pneumonia. Sue's sister -- undergoing her own chemotherapy for lymphoma -- collapsed yesterday in the hospital and was taken a few steps over to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with dehydration and a fever (she went home last night).

This is all the family she has left, and they are having a rough go of it right now. Please keep a warm thought for them in your heart.

Approaching Bracketville

Scroll on if you don't want to read about the NCAA tournament this week.

Sixty-five teams, three weeks, endless empty brackets and countless hours watching all the action. So you need a primer.

Here are the Sweet 16 things you need to know as the NCAA tournament gets set to tip off.

1. Repeat Gators

Since the John Wooden era ended at UCLA in the mid-1970s, only once has a team repeated as national champions – Duke in 1992 and 1993. There have been some close calls – Georgetown reached the finals in 1985, Arkansas in 1995 and Kentucky even went to overtime in the title game in 1997.

But for the most part, college basketball has been the land of the no-peat. And with the trend of top college players making immediate leaps to the NBA, there was a school of thought that it might never happen again.

Enter the Florida Gators, the defending champions with all five starters back and, after bulldozing the SEC tournament, the No. 1 seed overall. They even have, in the Midwest Region, what appears to be a favorable bracket. ...

2. The four most important players in the tournament

(There may be better players out there, but none are so valuable to their team's fortunes.)

Kevin Durant, Texas -- (more on all four)

Greg Oden, Ohio State

A.J. Graves, Butler

Darren Collison, UCLA

3. Cinderellas (13 seed or worse that are capable of an upset)

Wright State (vs. Pitt) – The Raiders finished the season 23-9, but they started 3-5 as they adjusted to new coach Brad Brownell. Since Christmas, this has been one of the hottest teams in the country. Wright State finished by winning 12 of its final 13 games, including two over Butler, and both the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships. This team is much better than a No. 14 seed.

Davidson (vs. Maryland)

Holy Cross (vs. Southern Illinois)

Oral Roberts (vs. Washington State)

And the other thirteen things you need to know are also here.