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ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz A quiet fifth anniversary for Bush's faith-based initiativeDespite the lack of media attention and grumbling from Bush supporters, the president's faith-based initiative continues apaceWith the Bush Administration on the defensive over the Iraq War, official reports detailing its horrendously slow response to Hurricane Katrina, the controversy over its use of the NSA to spy on Americans, the Abramoff Affair, and a vice-president who may be up to his knickers in Plamegate, it was somewhat surprising that the White House allowed January 29 -- the fifth anniversary of President Bush's faith-based initiative (FBI) -- to slip by the boards. Consider this theoretical made-for-TV moment: Hundreds of poor people of all races and religions gather with an embattled president on the lawn at the White House. One-by-one, folks step forward and testify to the power and the glory of President Bush's "armies of compassion" -- the forces unleashed by his faith-based initiative. Some speak of how religious organizations receiving government grants helped lift them out of poverty; some testify fiercely about their recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. Some say their families were provided special housing and educational opportunities. Several former prison inmates praise the program's emphasis on rehabilitation, and how job training they received resulted in decent paying jobs. While an up-close-and-personal White House gathering might not have lifted the president's paltry approval numbers, it certainly couldn't have hurt; and it would have publicized the fact that the centerpiece of President Bush's "compassionate conservative" domestic agenda was bearing fruit. Such a moment might even have been the launching pad for congressional legislation institutionalizing the faith-based initiative. Instead, on the fifth anniversary of the Bush Administration's faith based initiative, the White House lawn was quiet, raising fundamental questions about the program. Documentation of any results achieved by the president's faith-based initiative, like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is missing in action. Other than using his bully pulpit to praise his "armies of compassion," and repeat suspect anecdotes, the president has yet to show that the taxpayers' money is well spent. Ordinarily government agencies that have handed out millions of dollars would have to report to Congress and the public about what we've gotten for the money. The president and his faith-based initiativeBack in 2001, George Bush surrounded himself with a host of clergy and announced executive orders establishing the White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Organizations, and Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice, Education and Housing and Urban Development. (Since that time five more agencies have established Centers including the Agency for International Development, and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Veterans Affairs as well as the Small Business Administration.) Shortly thereafter the Bush Administration realized they could not get the FBI legislation through Congress, and instead instituted the initiative through executive orders, thus avoiding a public debate over the program. The president's faith-based initiative is primarily aimed at reducing the size - but not the spending - of government by shifting the responsibility for delivering a host of services from governmental agencies to faith-based organizations. A central point the administration has argued from the outset is that faith-based organizations had been discriminated against historically, and it was going to do all in its power to level the playing field, giving religious groups the opportunity to apply for and receive government grants. In fact, faith and/or religious based organizations have received and continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from government each year, willingly acceding to government regulations that the money not be used for proselytization or for primarily religious purposes. The Salvation Army, which is in fact a Christian religion, gets in excess of $300 million a year from US government, according to the Washington Post. While anecdotal evidence abounds, after five years it is still difficult to judge whether the president's faith-based initiative has delivered services more successfully than government agencies. One thing is abundantly clear, however:: the initiative has moved inexorably forward. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been given to faith-based organizations and more is on the way; the pool of faith-based organizations participating in the various programs is growing; and a number of the states have come on board as thirty-one governors have established their own Faith-Based and Community Initiative offices. A series of regional conferences set up by the White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Organizations are "geared toward those that are new to the initiative, have no history of applying for government grants, or have attempted to secure government funding, but have not yet been successful," according to the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Conference homepage. In addition, "targeted workshops" provide "grant writing tutorials for certain Federal grant programs that present the greatest opportunity for faith-based and community organizations." Hundreds of millions of dollars have been awarded to faith-based groups, but is it enough to satisfy conservatives? At a press briefing on February 6, Jim Towey, the Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, pointed out that the president's 2007 budget contained $323 million for a series of programs involving both faith-based organizations and community groups. (That figure represents a 36 percent increase from 2006's $236 million.) Towey explained that the money "would include $40 million for the mentoring of the children of prisoners; $100 million for the Compassion Capital Fund...of which $50 million would go to the initiative Laura Bush has spearheaded, Helping America's Youth, to prevent kids from getting into gang involvement. The Access to Recovery program would get $98 million. This is an innovated drug treatment program that allows addicts to choose where they're served; it's operating in 14 states and in one tribal government." "The Prisoner Re-entry Initiative is budgeted at $60 million....And then the new initiative the President announced in the State of the Union address dealing with AIDS -- I count in that $323 million, $25 million which is going to be targeted for outreach to the African American communities," for fighting AIDS. Despite Towey's ebullient portrait of the initiative, "Some conservatives have argued that the Administration is insufficiently committed" to the faith-based initiative, Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in a recent New Yorker profile of Michael Gerson, one of President Bush's key faith-oriented speechwriters. Goldberg pointed out that last year, David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House program who quit in 2003, wrote a piece for Beliefnet.com -- a website focused on religious matters -- that the president had not lived up to expectations in terms of his support for the faith-based initiative: "Who was going to hold them accountable? Drug addicts, alcoholics, poor moms, struggling urban social-service organizations, and pastors aren't quite the N.R.A." A commentary by Stephen Lazarus of the Annapolis, MD-based Center for Public Justice charged that Bush's State of the Union message "barely mentioned" the Faith-Based and Community Initiative. In an article titled "The State of the Faith-Based Initiative," Lazarus, the Director of the Civitas Programs for Leadership in Faith and Public Affairs at CPJ, pointed out that the President's Faith-Based Initiative has received little attention lately in the media and even less in Congress. "This raises an important question: Is the real state of the faith-based initiative strong or withering? After many years with only a few small but significant victories, the initiative appears to have been consigned to limbo by partisan and polarized politics." Lazarus also maintained that while there was "a new program that will involve African-American churches and others to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis" the "President needs to show greater visible leadership on the issue." One of the main reasons the faith-based initiative hasn't gained congressional traction is because the administration has allowed and/or openly encouraged faith-based organizations to discriminate in its hiring practices. Critics of the president's faith-based have filed a number of lawsuits documenting discriminatory practices by faith-based organizations. Last year, in a suit filed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, U.S. District Court Judge John Shabaz ruled that an Arizona-based prison program that had received government money -- MentorKids USA -- violated the First Amendment prohibition against the promotion of religion. The hearings revealed an even greater problem; the Dept. of Health and Human Services -- the federal agency that dispensed the grant to MentorKids USA -- had no system in place to monitor the money it was handing out. In mid-January of this year, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Chicago, "reinstated the lawsuit brought" by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), the Chicago Sun-Times reported. "The group says Bush's program, which helps religious groups get government funding to provide social services, violates the separation of church and state." "Getting through this legal hurdle was the biggest challenge," said FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor. "If you don't have standing, you can't stay in court; it was an important precedent for us." The foundation's challenge is the first, and only, one to the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The $500 million marriage protection projectWhile some conservatives are complaining about the relative paucity of faith-based funds, the marriage promotion sector recently received a huge shot in arm when President Bush signed legislation setting aside $500 million ($100 million per year for 5 years) to faith-based programs to promote and strengthen heterosexual marriage. The marriage provision, part of the deficit reduction bill passed by Congress, "allows faith-based groups that provide social services to receive federal funding without changing the way they hire," Bush pointed out at the White House signing ceremony. A few days before the bill signing ceremony, Diane Sollee, the Director of the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, LLC (CMFCE), sent out an e-mail reminding constituents of its June conference in Atlanta -- the 10th Annual Smart Marriages Conference -- where there will be workshops galore on how different groups can get their hands on the marriage promotion money. "Dr Wade Horn [the Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary] is opening the conference ... on Thurs night. He might not say anything. He might just stand there and smile," Sollee gushed. "The money will be awarded through a competitive grants process under the continuing leadership of Wade Horn at the helm..." the email pointed out. "On Friday," Sollee noted, "several of Dr Horn's key staff will host a Town Hall Teach-IN -- Grant Collins, Diann Dawson, Frank Fuentes, and Bill Coffin will answer your questions about the nuts and bolts, the eight allowable activities, Community Initiatives -- and about how to stretch the $100 million as far as we can. It's a big country. "I'll probably have to move the Grant Writing Workshops to the ballroom," Sollee wrote. "And, I'll probably also have to move all the Community Healthy Marriage Initiatives that have been successful in winning past federal funding and that ARE WILLING TO TELL YOU HOW THEY DID IT AND HOW YOU CAN DO IT -- I'll have to move them to ballrooms, too." "One way to stretch the money will be the "Teach Out of the Box" programs -- we're launching these MINI trainings just in time." "And, then there are the 36 training institutes that CERTIFY YOU AS MARRIAGE EDUCATORS/INSTRUCTORS. The hotel is not going to have enough ballrooms. Or, sleeping rooms. (I hope you've reserved yours!)" According to Sollee, the marriage money can only be used for:
After the bill was signed, Horn "said that the money was not intended to specifically oppose same-sex marriage," 365gay.com reported. But, Horn pointed out "that none of the money could be used to promote or support same-sex marriage in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal. The money also could not be used to support gay families where civil unions or domestic partnerships are allowed," the news service reported. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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