Tuesday, July 6, 2004

My Lord and my God James Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, has been mistaken for the real thing while travelling in Mexico: James Caviezel has been swamped with requests to perform miracles by Mexican fans who believe he really is Jesus Christ. The 35-year-old actor, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, was on a one-week tour of the east Mexican state of Veracruz. According to Mexican newspaper Reforma, dozens of residents from villages throughout the state, one of the poorest in the country, asked Caviezel to heal the sick and perform other miracles as he passed through. The actor, who is himself a strict Catholic, said: "The belief of these people really moved me. "It was a shock for me to see how they came up to me to ask for my help. I had to explain to them that I was only an actor, and wasn't really the son of God." Too bad he didn't bring along a special effects team. 11:46:34 PM    comment [] Selective Oversight In an Op-ed for the Washington Post today, Rep. Henry Waxman (D - California) notes how partisan Congressional oversight has been over the past two administrations. The best comparison: Republicans in the House took more than 140 hours of testimony to investigate whether the Clinton White House misused its holiday card database but less than five hours of testimony regarding how the Bush administration treated Iraqi detainees. Waxman reminds us of some other "crimes" congressional Republicans investigated during the Clinton administration (but found no evidence of wrongdoing) ... Whether the Clinton administration sold burial plots in Arlington National Cemetery for campaign contributions. Whether the White House doctored videotapes of coffees attended by President Clinton. Who hired Craig Livingstone, the former director of the White House security office. (2 year investigation) Whether President Clinton designated coal-rich land in Utah as a national monument because political donors with Indonesian coal interests might benefit from reductions in U.S. coal production. Whether the Clinton administration sold national security secrets to China. ... and potential Bush administration malfeasance that Congress has chosen not to investigate: Who exposed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Who was responsible for the hundreds of misleading claims made by administration officials about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda. Who was ultimately responsible for misleading Congress about the costs of the Medicare prescription drug bill. (And don't forget the senior Medicare official who negotiated future employment representing drug companies while drafting the prescription drug bill.) Who was ultimately responsible for the Iraq prison abuses. Waxman has done a marvellous job of speaking truth to GOP power, but the current dynamic won't change until the political balance shifts in Congress. One can only imagine the attacks that a Kerry/Edwards administration will face if the Republican party retains control of both houses. 10:13:45 PM    comment [] Pray the Vote (TM) Evangelical Christians are politicking for people to pray for the November elections. For example, Tom Freiling and Mike Klassen have written a book entitled We Will Pray for Election Day that is being promoted on the WorldNetDaily site ("Divine Intervention Sought in Presidential Race"). And the Presidential Prayer Team, taking a page from MTV's "Rock the Vote," is organizing a "Pray the Vote (TM)" drive to move people to organize prayer parties and beseech God to "give us a president who is a man after [His] own heart." Now let's suppose that there is such a thing as the power of prayer and that, if enough Christians pray, God will shape the election to His and their liking. Doesn't this essentially describe a scenario in which our constitution is violated? Putting aside the chances of their plan's success, what are we to think of people who are, strictly speaking, trying to use extra-constitutional means to subvert the democratic process? Are these the kind of people we want working at voting stations, counting ballots, repairing Diebold voting machines or certifying the statewide election as Secretary of State? Just asking. I hope you had a nice Independence Day weekend. Postscript: Don't forget to print out your Pray the Vote (TM) official certificate and your Pray the Vote (TM) promo cards. 2:22:20 AM    comment [] Scalia v. Bush You know we live in interesting times when Justice Scalia is forced to remind Donald Rumsfeld et al. in the Hamdi case: The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive. Blackstone stated this principle clearly: "Of great importance to the public is the preservation of this personal liberty: for if once it were left in the power of any, the highest, magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers thought proper ... there would soon be an end of all other rights and immunities. ... To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom. But confinement of the person, by secretly hurying him to gaol, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten; is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government." Unfortunately, Justice Scalia was unable to persuade Justice Thomas to join the 8-1 majority judgment. I guess he had never heard Rush mention it on his show. 1:31:18 AM    comment []

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