Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast?

There's so much that's wrong, stupid and hilarious about this it's hard to know where to start.

Harold Ford is supposedly running for a U.S. Senate seat from New York. Trying to unseat an incumbent in the primary. In the 3rd-largest state in the union. In the next six months, he's got to raise a zillion dollars and attempt to shake hands with 20 million people, half of whom hate him because he's a homophobic DINO asshole and the other half of whom hate him because he's black. He's got a huge, monster, near-impossible campaign ahead of him, and he's already at least a year behind.

So what is he doing to raise big money/meet many residents of New York state/impress major national power brokers?

Speaking at the Governor's Prayer Breakfast. In Kentucky.

"Governor Steve Beshear and First Lady Jane Beshear invite you to celebrate this special time of year at the 45th Annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, beginning at 8 a.m. in the Bell Gym at Kentucky State University.

The Governor’s Prayer Breakfast is a long-standing tradition in Kentucky dating back to 1965 and includes representatives of all three branches of government. Each year it provides Kentuckians with an opportunity to give thanks for their blessings and ask for strength to lead the Commonwealth toward a brighter tomorrow.

SNIP - (trust me - Beshear's sacharine and deceitful quote will make you puke.)

The theme of this year’s breakfast is “A Call to Serve.” Harkening to the pioneer spirit that has shaped the Commonwealth, the theme illustrates the call many Kentuckians have taken to help their neighbors during these tough times.

Keynoting the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast this year is former United States Representative Harold Ford Jr., of Tennessee. Described by former President Bill Clinton as “the walking, living embodiment of where America ought to go in the 21st century,” Ford’s commitment to service and community action are reflected in his well-known dedication to creating a government that is working for the betterment of all. Musical entertainment will be provided by the award-winning Kentucky Regional Men’s Chorus.

I wrote last year about this unconstitutional idiocy, and noted that new President Obama had found a way to use the occasion for something more rational and important than making demands of an invisible sky wizard.

He extended that tradition at this year's national prayer breakfast, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the opportunity to attack the viciously homophobic Ugandan government proposals to execute people for their sexual orientation.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Harold Ford to do anything remotely so American, non-sectarian and Democratic.

You can't surf the blogosphere without tripping over posts about how horrifically bad Ford really is and always has been, but here's a recent good one from Down With Tyranny.

It's typically incompetent of Beshear to give the keynote address spot to Ford, who is one of the few "Democrats" more republican than Ben Chandler.

The hilarious part is that the only people in Kentucky liberal enough to not hate Ford for his race hate him for being a corporate-owned, repug-cock-sucking DINO.

A Tale of Three Prayer Breakfasts

Three years ago, in 2006, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher's "Prayer Breakfast" was an orgy of sectarian bigotry, a greasy "fuck you" to everyone who didn't share the speakers' narrow conservative Southern Baptism, an object lesson in why combining religion and government is history's worst idea.

This year, on the same day that invitations to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's "Prayer Breakfast" landed in state employees' email inboxes, The Economist brings us the latest lesson from President Obama, this one on how to do a "Prayer Breakfast" right, if you must do one at all.

I think the final proof that Barack Obama plans once and for all to elevate respect for Americans who don't practice a religion came at this morning's National Prayer Breakfast:

There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all...

We know too that whatever our differences, there is one law that binds all great religions together. Jesus told us to "love thy neighbor as thyself." The Torah commands, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." In Islam, there is a hadith that reads "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.

A notable repetition—not just once, rote, but twice, to let you know he means it.

As for that second passage, did Mr Obama just endorse a name for the group struggling to name itself? Some don't like "atheist" or "nonbeliever" because they are definitionally negative. The coinage of "Brights" has failed to catch on for the obvious reasons. But "humanist" has a nice, positive feeling, and a history.

Mr Obama went on to announce a White House of Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships. A Bushian thing to do? No, he continued:

The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.

Interesting. I'm not sure if Mr Obama isn't trying a little too hard to please everyone here, but the fact that he is trying to please everyone—and remember that a major presidential candidate said not long ago that "freedom requires religion"—is striking.

Now that he is not doing backflips for Rick Warren, citing his favourite Bible verse in a "faith debate" or dodging conspiracies that he is a Muslim, Mr Obama is also free to say things like

I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done.

A few years ago, Daniel Dennett, an atheist philosopher, wrote

Politicians don't think they even have to pay us lip service, and leaders who wouldn't be caught dead making religious or ethnic slurs don't hesitate to disparage the "godless" among us. From the White House down, bright-bashing is seen as a low-risk vote-getter.

Not this White House.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.