And Speaking of Lawsuits

There's a knuckledragging Rethug congressman named John Hostettler (R-Moron) who is quietly attempting to push through legislation that would prevent organizations such as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State from collecting attorney's fees when they successfully sue churches for violations of the First Amendment.

I didn't even know about this until last night, when Barry Lynn touched on it in his talk in Seattle, but it's dangerously close to becoming law.

It's called The Public Expression of Religion Act and it came perilously close to passage in the last congress.

It's a blatant attempt to subvert the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to our Constitution, and it would, if passed, help to cement into public policy the establishment of Christianity -- fundamentalist backwoods Bible-thumping snake-handling Christianity -- as the official state religion, to the everlasting detriment of the approximately 20% of the American population who are emphatically not Christian, including people like me who are proud to have NO religion.

It's worth keeping an eye on this. I doubt that Hostettler will be able to come as close in the current congress, so it's premature to call for riots in the streets, but it does come as a serious reminder that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.