I have been mildly amused over all the conservative criticism of President Obama about how he has wilfully and cynically violated his own new lobbying rules. (See Sunday's AP piece entitled, "President learning campaign and reality can clash.") Same old, same old, they say. As any honest critic will agree, it's the trend of the person, not the isolated incident, that justifies the severest criticism…..but whatever….

Let's just review what we know…..

WashingtonPost.com, yesterday….

Congressional records show that more than 700 lobbyists or lobbying groups have filed "de-registration" papers with the House and Senate since Obama took office, including scores of charities and other nonprofits.

But the standards he has put in place are so broad that all lobbyists –including those working for charities and public interest groups — are prohibited from working in the administration unless they are granted an exception.

Out of more than 800 appointments so far, the White House says it has granted only three waivers for former lobbyists.

One of the waivers went to William J. Lynn III, a Defense Department appointee who worked as a lobbyist for Raytheon, a major military contractor. Two more were announced last week for "public interest" reasons: Cecilia Muñoz, a former executive at the National Council of La Raza who now serves as Obama's chief Hispanic issues adviser; and Jocelyn Frye, an adviser to the first lady who previously worked as general counsel for the National Partnership for Women and Families.

Bush presidency lobbying activity, broad view circa 2005….

Lobbying is a growing industry as the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled from 10,000 in 1996 to 26,013 in mid-July and clients seeking help in influencing Congress and the federal agencies paid the lobbyists 2 billion dollars. A controversy over tens of millions of dollars in fees paid to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff by Native American tribes seeking to keep their legal casinos flourishing is a setback for the lobbyists despite their success.

Bush cabinet members……

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, has issued a report that illuminates the post-government activities of 24 members of President George W. Bush’s cabinet. Of the 24, 15 held positions with 40 companies that lobby the cabinet member’s former department.

Denver Post report, 2004…

Daniel E. Troy's switch from industry advocate to industry regulator overseeing his former clients is a hallmark of President Bush's administration.

Troy is one of more than 100 high-level officials under Bush who helped govern industries they once represented as lobbyists, lawyers or company advocates, a Denver Post analysis shows.

Call me, you know, crazy….but I'm thinking when it comes to this lobbying stuff, Obama has implemented actual….what's the word?……change.

Someone forwarded me this viral e-mail and asked if I would respond.
It is my pleasure…..

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University, School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts, concerning the Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29

Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…"

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years. If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Number 1) The statistics in the viral e-mail, some of them incorrect, are from the Bush-Gore election of 2000. Nowhere in the e-mail is the reader told that. The e-mail is designed to mislead the reader.

Number 2) The population and square miles numbers are correct, but once again, the numbers are from the 2000 election results. The number of states in the e-mail is incorrect….Bush won 30 states, Gore 20.

Number 3) Wickedness is deceptive, subtle, insidious. Though the statistics are from the year 2000, never mentioned in the e-mail…..the murder rates per 100,000 population are totally incorrect, and for a reason, I'm sure. The e-mail says:…13.2 murders per 100,000 residents in counties won by Democrats, ….2.1 murders per 100,000 residents in counties won by Republicans. The actual numbers are 6.5 for Democratic counties, 4.1 for Republican counties.

That's quite a divergence from the facts. The intent of the deception is clear. The reader is misled to believe Democratic voters are criminals by a 6-1 ratio over Republican voters. Simply made up.

Number 4) One of the intents of the e-mail is to bash Democrats as lazy wannabe socialists who live off of welfare and don't pay taxes (besides being murderers). The "Professor" in the e-mail is quoted saying this…

"In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…"

There is no truth, at all, in those statements. Here are the facts from an Ohio State study…..

In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, George W. Bush won most of the states that are net beneficiaries of federal spending programs, while Gore won most of the states that are net contributors to federal spending. Link

Just to be clear…."net beneficiaries" means Bush states received more taxes from the federal government than they contributed…."net contributors" means Gore states contributed more tax money to the federal government than they received.

The "Professor" lied…or simply made stuff up.

This e-mail, like many, many others, is part of the ongoing culture war in America, led primarily by evangelical Christians fearful of change. Notice that this most recent version includes undocumented Latino immigrant bashing and scare tactics. May I remind my evangelical Christian friends that Jesus didn't seek to lie, mislead and misinform as he spread his message. The Christian Saviour didn't lie, mislead, and misinform in a spirit of division and hatred, either.

Finally, in summary….the viral e-mail passed to me is over eight years old and has no relationship, whatsoever, to our most recent presidential election, even though nowhere on the e-mail is that made clear. Accurate facts are mixed with falsified numbers for the sole purpose of misleading readers into believing that Democratic voters are lazy, welfare-check cashing murderers intent on destroying the fabric of America.

"We are not Blue States and Red States….we are the United States of America." President Barack Obama.

Reference link.

In the 1968 presidential race, Alabama Governor George Wallace ran his independent campaign appealing specifically to those who hated Martin Luther King Jr. and civil-rights leaders like him. Wallace, unbelievably, carried five southern states and won 10 million popular votes in 1968. That happened only forty years ago.

Today, America honors the righteous life-work of MLK. Tomorrow America inaugurates it's first black president, Barack Obama.

Yes. America. Can.

In honor of both…..if you didn't see HBO's star studded inauguration special yesterday….the following song by Bettye Lavette and Jon Bon Jovi was so moving it even brought a tear or two to The Reverend's eye…..

Obama's great DNC acceptance speech from August, 2008….