Some time back, I reposted the abstract of the prodigious energy plan proposed by several high profile bloggers such as Jerome a Paris. I also promised further diaries that highlighted the original thinking taking place in the blogosphere. The next obvious choice was this opus by blogger AmberJane laying out clearly why single-payer health care isn’t just affordable at the National level, but how it makes economic sense. Sure, Vermont just passed health care reform, but we know the Catamount plan is a blank check that will eventually need to be cashed, so the creative thinking must continue.

But rather than just reprint AmberJane’s plan, I encourage you to follow the link above. It’s impressive stuff. In the meantime, I think we should take a stab at it. I tend to concur with Bernie myself, that this is a change that needs to take place at the state level. The stumbling block always seems to be the implementation, that is – how do you get there from here? Activists tend to get bored with the details and take a “just do it” attitude, but when public policy meets politics, the means often becomes the end – and that end can be a big ol’ train wreck.

So in the “if I ran the zoo” file, here’s my uneducated, naive, idealistic, blah blah blah version of a roadmap. If you don’t feel like slogging through it, by all means skip past, but in the comments section please share how you would get from here to there on this – or any other issue near and dear to the progressive heart (renewable energy, affordable housing, world peace…you name it!).

Come on, let’s hear some good ideas. Email this link around to all the smart people you know and get them posting their good ideas or criticizing the ones shown here…

It’s likely there are many ways to get to single payer. Piloting a system with state employees and incentivizing others into it gradually, for example. However, there are a few cold political realities that must be faced to make something like this work. First, there can be little or no perception of tax increases, or any up-front increase on the burden of working and middle class citizens. Second (and most daunting), the bulk of the changeover must be complete within the two-year election cycle, so incumbents can feel confident they will have results to run on and not face a backlash in the midst of a painful transitional period (and yes, this is the opposite view expressed by many current legislators, I know).

The devil’s in the details, of course but in the interest of keeping all options alive, the following are five broad steps that, as part of a comprehensive reform bill, could facilitate the transition under these preconditions.

The basic premise is this: legislatively lock all current health plans and malpractice insurance plans into place during the transition period, gradually move all insurance reporting to a centralized state-based reporting/tracking/reimbursement system rather than having patient accounts systems and departments at every medical facility, then slide all current commercial planholders into comparable state-administered plans with the same premiums being paid directly to the state rather than the commercial payers. Then use the profit (and there IS profit under the current payment rates – plenty of it) from the premiums (along with taxes levied on larger employers that weren’t adequately covering employees already, as the Catamount plan does) to assume basic coverage for uncovered Vermonters. This gives you a dramatically larger revenue base from which to build a coverage pool for the uninsured, and sufficient resources to have the state implement it directly, rather than farm it out to a commercial payer. By the time the transition is over, we zero out remaining profits (the state shouldn’t be in the for-profit business) by passing on savings to the ratepayers, businesses, and physicians by actually bringing DOWN premiums.

That’s the abstract. Somebody gimme some money to fund a study and I’ll hash out the details. In the meantime, to flesh that out a little bit, I see it playing out in the following order of steps:

1. First, freeze all current private insurance plans with the understanding they will be discontinued within one year. Within that time, require all providers (doctors and hospitals) to convert to electronic medical records. The state should then enter into a partnership with an established commercial “practice management” software provider (no, it doesn’t have to be IDX!) to refit their system to centrally receive, convert and process insurance claims under all the current plans and communicate with the current payers. Collect all existing coverage information into a central database.

2. Once coverage and patient data is centralized, cancel all private insurance and assume the responsibility for all existing, catalogued plans at the state level. All providers will be submitting patient claims to this centralized system, but the insured and their employers will be paying the same rates and receiving the same plan. From the current health care consumer’s standpoint (both individuals and employers), transitioning them into the system should be seamless. There is, of course, profit taking in the system currently, so just transferring the system of premiums and provider recoupment to the state will also transfer those profits, helping to fund the system. The state should put some initial money into a pool to keep the system solvent long enough for the revenue to start flowing.

3. After a comprehensive analysis, settle on a system of a limited amount of coverage plans (much like a for-profit insurance company) that mirror Medicare and Medicaid plans for uniformity, since those forms are dictated to some extent by the federal government. Simplifying and streamlining plans to mirror the federal programs’ systems will also make it simpler for the newly created (and only modestly-sized) State Patient Accounts Division to be the go-between between Medicare and Medicaid eligible patients and the federal government for payment. Fold current users into the new plan that most resembles the commercial plan they are leaving behind and offer uninsured residents their choice of plans with a sliding-scale premium based on their ability to pay.

4. Conduct a parallel process with physician malpractice coverage, with an eye towards a rapid phase in of premiums that truly reflect an overall revenue-neutral, cost/benefit survey on the real costs of supporting malpractice insurance based on historical projections of payouts (I guarantee you such an analysis focusing on Vermont and without a profit incentive or excessive overhead would generate a FAR lower premium for physicians – bringing down what is often cited as the number one spiraling cost on physicians end of the equation). Malpractice costs are an often overstated, but nevertheless very real source of spiraling costs. In fact it seems to be every bit the racket that much of the health insurance industry is. Taking over malpractice insurance at the state level and implementing it with a zero-profit, realistic cost-benefit analysis is therefore critical to the overall goal of controlling helath costs in the state so that any Vermont single payer plan can be predictable and sustainable. In the interest of bringing down costs, drug re-importation also becomes a priority, which is yet another way that implementing such a plan could put the state on a collision course with the feds. Sometimes it’s worth playing chicken though.

Once the data is centralized, a market “going rate” analysis can also be made of what current employers can reasonably be expected to pay into a system, based on a snapshot study of what businesses were paying into commercial plans at the time the transition started. A fair rate for a business premium can be based on this analysis, and should also be based on business’s ability to pay.

Finally, a generic “bare bones” coverage plan can exist for all those that aren’t reached to choose their own plan option (emergency cases), and charges to such patients can be submitted under a “dummy account” to the state, pending proof of residence (as defined by the legislature under the plan).

5. Savings from lower emergency room services, lower paperwork and administrative overhead (providers’ patient accounts personnel resources can likely be reduced by 50-100%) can be used to boost the coverage pool for catastrophic conditions and the sliding premium scale.

Under this approach, there are no new expense increases for the consumer – simply a redirection — and the draconian increases in coverage hitting individuals, employers, and local property taxpayers annually will all but vanish.

There would be bumps in the road of course, not the least of which being confidentiality and privacy concerns. But if nothing else, weary legislators and policy advocates could take heart from this example and not give into cynicism. Obviously working out the details and passing such a plan would be a Herculean task.

But not an impossible one.

Your turn. Tell me I’m nuts, or make your own plan. Let’s hear the plan for another one of society’s ills.

C’mon – let’s see what you’ve all got…

(Forgot to front-page when publishing it. – promoted by mataliandy)

The time has come to thank those who have worked so hard  to protect the powder. For those who don’t know, powder is a special legislative element, and must be kept as dry as possible. Wet powder can be a very unstable and hard to work with.

Now, the fruits of carefully tended powder are ripening into big, juicy delicacies for us all.

Let’ take a look at a particularly luscious piece of low hanging fruit after the jump:

[crossposted to Rhetoric 101]

The so-called “No Knock” ruling that emerged from the Supreme Court this week is a lovely delicacy that could only be the result of very dry powder.

By paying careful attention to the hydration of powder, the Senate judiciary committee changed the face of the court to ensure the majority would rule in favor of stripping the 4th Amendment from the Bill of Rights, that little section of the Constitution that protects us from the dictatorial habit of deciding people are guilty until proven innocent.

How has the 4th amendment been stripped, you ask? Well let’s turn away from the powder keg and look at the big picture. 

Supposedly “No Knock” simply  means that police officers no longer have to provide a suspect (aka a person who might be associated in some way with a crime, but has not been found guilty of any crime) with warning that they’re entering their home. In addition, they no longer have to identify themselves as police officers.

OK, so what’s the big deal?

Well, that’s where the big picture comes in. You have to look at this change in combination with two other features of our current system of government – FISA (a special provision that allows for retroactive search warrants for government spying) and that dry powder special we all know as the Abuse a Patriot Act.

You see, now, a person can come into your home, with no warning, and no probable cause. They can fish for whatever they think might constitute “evidence” and then go to a secret Abuse a Patriot Act court to get a retroactive warrant against you under FISA rules. And NOW, they can use the evidence gathered in the formerly illegal search against you, even if you’ve done nothing wrong.

There is no longer a reason for law enforcement to take any steps to protect your Constitutional rights as an American if they don’t feel like it. Heck, they don’t even need to pay lip service to your rights, because those rights are effectively gone.

Maybe you won’t miss them, but then again, maybe you will…

I realized when talking with a friend today how many people are confused about the difference between power and control.  Power exists.  Control is illusion.  That’s the skinny of it.

Basically power is needed to do anything.  If you want to get out of bed you need the power of your muscles.  If you want to have light you need the power of the sun or of electricity to light a bulb. If you want to change the world you need the power of money or the power of the vote.

When you vote you have the power of one vote.  But you aren’t in control of anything.  Even when the elected person goes to Congress ( or wherever ) they still are not in control.  There are many influences acting upon the, including lobbies and special interest groups of all kinds as well as their party leadership and peer pressure. 

So control is entirely illusion when you analyze it.  We are all dancing together in a collaborative endeavor to create reality. 

We need to discover and create the truth in consensus.  The idea is to seek consensus and to find what is there and create more along the way. 

Secrecy is unfair and those who believe they are in control, whether secretly or otherwise, are spiritually immature.  They need health care.

Power needs to be distributed to maximize human progress.  Concentrations of power, whether political, economic or informational, produce delusion.  Moderation is a vitue and the power in our society has been distributed without moderation.  Hence, we have an unfair society.

Democracy is a participation sport.  You need to get involved and express yourself, communicate your truth, and empower others to do the same.  Stand with those who have the right ideas.  Support them.  There are many ways to do this besides money.  We are too focused on money in my opinion.  We should be more focused on the truth and sharing it with each other.

Blessings!

Steve Moyer

Turn back the tape recorder in your mind to the time when Congress decided to authorize the President to use military force in Iraq.  What was the philosophy of that time?

It was the philosophy of “Military force will solve the problem.”  It was the philosophy of “necessary violence” in support of justice.
The mental mantras of this philosophy were “war is necessary” and “do it now.” It was the philosophy of “control and domination.”

This philosophy failed to produce good results. It was based on the false assumption that there was “no other choice.”  Republicans who advocated this philosophy refused to open the debate to alternative courses of action.  They refused to earnestly seek a better way.

They had already made up their mind that violent force was the “best choice” and proceeded to market this war to Americans using false intelligence and passionate arguments based on vanity and prejudice. (White House Iraq Group)

What will history books of the future say about this episode in American history?  They will say that George Bush and the Republicans “conned” America into believing that military force was a good solution.  They will tell the story of how we were told that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons and was a threat to America.

They will tell the story of how we were told it would be a short war with a short occupation at a low cost.

They will tell the story of how the American invasion and occupation of Iraq produced more terrorism.  They will tell the story of rising oil prices destabilizing the world economy and producing huge deficits in the Federal budget.

They will tell the story of the thousands of soldiers who lost their lives and 10’s of thousands who were physically, mentally and emotionally damaged for the rest of their lives.

Eventually the people of the United States will come to the conclusion that violent force is not a viable solution to global problems, dictators or terrorism.  Violence begets violence.  As human history moves forward we will learn better ways of resolving conflicts, promoting democracy and freedom, and respecting human rights.  That’s where our focus should be placed now rather than on debating how to make military force succeed.  It has clearly failed.

War is always the sanction of failure. There is always a better way.  We must learn to earnestly seek better solutions.  Where is the “Iraq Suggestion Box” on the Internet?

Steve Moyer

Afghanistan provides one-third of the world’s heroin, and with the poppy harvest doubling this year … could this be a rerun of Iran-Contra?  The same Daddy Bush crooks are baaack, but poor Dubya’s probably ‘out of the loop’ too, just like Dad was.  (Surprise:  Cheney’s probably in charge.)  The unaccounted-for $12 billion dollars brought to Iraq wasn’t enough for the greedy monsters?

Guantanamo Bay:  More than 460 men (and boys) have been held more than four years but only 10 have been charged with a crime.  Anyone seen/heard of a trial?  Probably because there hasn’t been one!  Bush/Cheney say they can imprison the men for the rest of their lives.  The same policy is in place in Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, but public outcry did force the Pentagon to scrap plans to classify (and hide) interrogation techniques.  Where’s the evidence of their probable guilt?  We’ll probably be considered ‘enemy combatants’ and locked up in Halliburton’s soon-to-be-built American Guantanamos across the country.

The (latest) reported death of Musab al-Zarqawi ends a Pentagon (incompetent) psychological operation.  Official accounts say two 500 pound bombs were dropped on the house, leaving a 40 foot crater, but al-Zarqawi’s body was barely marked.  Strange?  Five dead, two other men, al-Zarqawi’s 16 year old wife and 5 year old child.  U.S. troops couldn’t take out 3 men without dropping bombs?

Zarqawi, (the terrorist mastermind?) was ridiculed saying he didn’t even know how to handle a gun, but …… Bush said:  “We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade.”  Really?  A CIA report found no evidence of any “links” between Saddam and Zarqawi.  So goes the U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq which cost $24 million, (just in 2004) … and who will get the $25 million Bush placed on Zarquawi’s head (dead or alive?)

Consider the the photo-op (without a plastic turkey this time) by Bush as a taxpayer funded trip for a 15 minute visit with a Prime Minister who didn’t even know he was coming.  I don’t think Iraqis want terrorists crossing their border in the dead of night, either, and what a way to show the Iraqi people who’s really in charge!  This should satisfy the blood lusting neo-cons for awhile, until they find the next ‘terrorist’ .. since bin Laden’s been forgotten.

How much longer will people fall for this smoke and mirrors?  How many more must die?

Ken Picard writes up an interview with David Sirota, one-time press secretary for Bernie Sanders, in the latest issue of Seven Days.

Sirota will be appearing at Borders in Burlington on Saturday, June 17 at 6 p.m. for a talk and book signing for Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government — and How We Take It Back.

Excerpt:

David Sirota is a rare breed among political strategists — a successful idealist. Capitol Hill is rife with ambitious, young wonks with overachiever resumes and public-policy degrees from elite institutions like Harvard, Georgetown and the LBJ School. But few are able to convert their elite academic pedigrees into careers of national prominence, while still remaining true to their populist roots.

Sirota, a former press secretary for Congressman Bernie Sanders, has earned his populist credentials and his whiz-kid reputation — at age 30, he’s already considered a veteran campaign operative, nationally acclaimed commentator, blogger and now bestselling author. Like his former boss in Vermont, Sirota is also known as a straight-shooting iconoclast who isn’t afraid to call bullshit on Washington’s powerful movers and shakers who suckle at the corporate teat. His first book, Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government — and How We Take It Back, may be the most scathing indictment yet of how both political parties have been hijacked by Big Money.

“Just as the mom-and-pop store in your town was bought out by the big corporate conglomerate, so has our government been the victim of a hostile takeover,” Sirota writes. “Over the last 30 years, Corporate America has applied its most effective business tactics to the task of purchasing the one commodity that’s not supposed to be for sale: American democracy.”

President Bush’s approval rating shows only 1/3 (or less) in the US approving of either his military or his domestic policies.  He has taken the sympathy of the world after 9/11 and transformed himself into a video game/comic book type avenger.  Iran is the next country in his crosshairs.  Will the voters put a stop to this?  Will we have time to?

The Republican Party has the majority in the Senate and the House.  They control the agenda and pass the laws.  Whatever the President wants, he gets. 

The courts, including the Supreme Court, have been packed with more Bush syncophants who choose not to investigate policies that break the laws and ignore the Constitution (in the name of national security). 

Military commanders admit they are unable to stop the mounting violence that kills 1,000 Iraqi civilians a month, with overstressed American troops pushed beyond the breaking point, both physically and mentally.  Afghanistan is in no better shape, with both the Taliban and the drug trade booming and US troops continuing to die.  Contamination by depleted uranium will see deaths mount as years go by, as well as increases in birth defects for future generations.  The same scenario may happen (again) very soon in Iran.

Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel, cut off assistance to Palestinian armed groups and pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel’s 1967 borders. The two-page proposal for a broad Iran-US agreement covering all the issues separating the two countries, a copy of which was obtained by IPS, was conveyed to the United States in late April or early May 2003. The two-page document contradicts the official line of the administration that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region.  Iran has sent two letters to Bush recently; both have been dismissed without an answer.

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supposedly said he wants Israel  “wiped off the map.”  Farsi speakers say the translation was intentionally bungled.  The Iranian president was quoting an statement by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, that “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time” (just as the Shah’s regime in Iran had vanished). He was not making a military threat, but was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. 

Iran is in total compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and with an International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards agreement entered into “for the exclusive purpose” of “preventing diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons.”  Director-General ElBaradei repeatedly reports that he can find “no indication” of diversion of “source or special nuclear materials” to a military purpose.

Nuclear armed US ships are now steaming to the Gulf.  Plans for attack have been in place for some time.  The truth is being concealed here, just as it was in Iraq.  American oil companies are our friends.  We are there to serve them. 

What can Republicans do who feel they were blindsided by Bush’s insistence of Iraq’s 9/11 involvement and wmd’s?  Sending more of the same to Congress will make matters worse.  Taking a hiatus in 2006 and 2008 may be an option, while working to bring the Republican Party back to its roots. 

Let’s give the Democratic Party breathing space to give us real security: no more illegal, pre-emptive wars for corporate gain – and let’s (again) use diplomacy instead of bombs.  Protecting Social Security.  No other promises; the out-of-control spending, deficits, corruption and corporate giveaways will take years to correct before we can even begin to have a conversation about what the government should, and can afford to provide the people. We need goals, but we also need to be realistic.  We need to stop the bleeding first and then find common ground. 

(May God help those people on the Gulf Coast, with more hurricanes coming, and no help in sight).

However you feel about third parties in general or the Progressives in particular (and GMD readers know this is a generally – if not specifically – Dem-oriented site, a la Daily Kos and MyDD… my personal reasoning can be found here), it’s hard to argue that they’ve suffered from a specific, classic radical mindset: let’s call it the revolution mentality. Despite all the talk of the grassroots, the Party has been looking at their development as an organization as a top-down enterprise. Throw a high-profile, unabashed lefty out there, the masses will simply rise up in support, and the evil Democratic Party will be supplanted once and for all.

Obviously this political “Field of Dreams” they’ve been trying to build hasn’t made the team magically materialize from the corn field.

But something is different this time. After a lot of noise last year about the prospects of Rep. Zuckerman and Anthony Pollina running for statewide office, neither has followed through (although it’s still possible Pollina will, but I doubt it). Instead, it’s looking like the Progressive Party may be heeding the advice that has perpetually followed it by focusing on following their local, truly grassroots victories with more local grassroots victories.

The Progressives have assumed for a while that the election of Bernie Sanders to the US House wasn’t a case of lightning striking, but a large scale acceptance of their agenda. This has made the statewide races their Holy Grail, but by formally coalescing into an organized Party (as opposed to seizing the opportunity to run more “Independent” candidates and take ownership of that powerful label), they’ve found themselves marginalized outside of specific districts.

In fact, the statewide races have become a bit of an albatross for them, as they peaked in the three-way Lietenant Governor’s of 2002 with Pollina’s 24% of the vote and a clean fracture of the left that put Brian Dubie into office and hung the “spoiler” label tightly around their collective necks. In 2004, when Steve Hingtgen ran against Cheryl Rivers – a Democrat who is as progressive as any Progressive – it just seemed like pure petulance.

But also in 2004, Progressives picked up state House seats in the Northeast Kingdom and Central Vermont, adding to their extra-Burlington foothold in Brattleboro. And now they are running genuinely viable House candidates in Vergennes, in retiring Rep. Rusten’s district in Windham County, and more. Add to that the rumor about Pollina, and it looks for all the world like a sea change in Progressive priorities has taken place. If they accept as a given that the they could run just about anyone for Attorney General and grab that 5% they need to maintain major Party status, it certainly could free up their time and energy for a bottom-up approach.

Interestingly, if that is what’s going on (and I’m just speculating, here), it may not only impact the political geography of the state, but the dynamics of the Progressive Party as well. The Progressives are very concerned about issue discipline among their ranks, writing restrictions into their bylaws requiring political uniformity, but we’ve already seen that as the Progs reach outside of their inner circle for candidates, this sort of rigid management starts to break down. Winston Dowland has deviated from the Party line more than once, and as Jack McCullough pointed out, Vergennes candidate April Jin may come front loaded with similar challenges.

At the end of the day, the paradigm shift taking place that could reshape the Progressives into a more formidable political force may also reshape it into something that may not exactly be what its inner circle had in mind.

But that’s Democracy for ya.

PS (perhaps an overly personal PS…): While writing this diary, ANONYMOOSE who pops in every now and then to bash Dems (as if we don’t do that enough around here…) apparently noticed the blerb from my last Vermont blog roundup that referenced Baruth’s report about Pollina considering a Chittenden Senate run. Of course the blerb lamented the fact that Progressives have historically had a few issues around residence matters and political office. User ANONYMOOSE was apparently so incensed, that after his “goodby cruel GMD” post, he fired off a missive to his allies, as I almost immediately received email from a prominent Progressive legislator entitled “full of crap.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if the Dems went into the hissy fits when criticized the way the Progs do, I’d never get any sleep around here after the impeachment coverage alone, not to mention everything else. My correspondent is angry that I didn’t “name names” when I referred to a “couple Dems” who have been similarly guilty, and proceeded to wax victimized.

Fine. You want specifics? Have some specifics. ALL of them.

Actually, I did misspeak. I only know of one Dem who was guilty of the same tackiness: It seemed Peter Welch was spending far too much time in Burlington during some of the period he was representing Windsor County. Consider your hand smacked Peter.

Some other things that seemed to be?

• It seemed that Martha Abbott was living in Jericho during some of the time she was a Burlington officeholder.
• It seemed that Steve Hingtgen had moved to Montpelier while he was still representing Burlington
• It seemed that Chris Pearson was living and working in the D.C. area when his name was put forward to replace Bob Kiss — at least according to his company’s website (yes, the website quickly changed when his name was being floated, but guess who has a cached copy?)
• It seemed that Emma Mulvaney-Stanak had changed her voter registration to Barre when her name was floated as a replacement for Kiss, and may have even voted for Burlington mayor under those circumstances causing one to wonder just what the laws on voter fraud look like.

Hands please: smack, smack, smack, smack, and I’ll withhold the Pollina hand-smack until we determine if the rumor proves true or not.

There. Full disclosure, just like you guys asked. Doesn’t that feel better now?

Sheesh. Get used to it. Smacking hands is part of what we do here. Whining about it will not make any diarist here less inclined to do so in the future. It’s a blog for pity’s sake. I printed my one-and-only mea culpa to you guys some time back already. Think I’m not being fair? Take it up with Sen. Welch, Rep. Symington, Rep. Sanders, Treasurer Spaulding, Secretary of State Markowitz, Sen. Leahy…etc etc etc.

Hi!

This is my blog for my campaign.  I do a lot of essay writing and e-mailing.  I’m going to put some of these writings up here on the blog so others can read my thoughts.

Please check out my web site.  I’ve spent a lot of time developing it.  Sound should be coming to it soon.

Steve Moyer
http://stevemoyer.us

Also, Check out the Vermont Democracy Network which is the centerpiece of my campaign.  http://vermont.stevemoyer.us

Sometimes words are not enough. Words like hypocritical, scary, outrageous. Maybe the word sick is appropriate here. If so, it’s a sickness of pandemic proportions, coming soon to a church and a videogame system near you — whether you live in Alabama, or good ol’ Vermont.

So in these days of fanatical religious terrorism and a war launched to counter it, what can you say about a videogame where you control warriors that shout “Praise the Lord!” as they blow infidels away? Would you assume this is some sick Jihadist indoctrination medium from the mind of Osama Bin Laden?

You’d like to assume that wouldn’t you? Still, in this day and age, where there seems to be no level to which the Christian theocrats won’t sink, you can’t honestly say the following surprises you. In the ongoing saga of giving Christians a bad name, this comes from Talk2Action:

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission – both a religious mission and a military mission — to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state – especially moderate, mainstream Christians.

Your mission is “to conduct physical and spiritual warfare”; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

This from the people who regularly rail against anti-American and anti-Christian propoganda in Saudi and Palestinian schools.

The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is based on scenes from the first four novels in the [book] series. The game was developed by a publicly-traded company called Left Behind Games, according to SEC records. The developers obtained the license from Tyndale House, the Christian publisher of Left Behind.

Tyndale also publishes Bringing Up Boys and The Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide by Focus on the Family founder  James Dobson, PhD. Mr. Dobson has advised parents to monitor the amount of time children spend playing video games and “avoid the violent ones altogether.” But he has not yet stated his views on whether there should be an exception for video games that role play gunplay in the name of Christ, or of the AntiChrist.

Tyndale’s licensing of the project infuriated one of its authors, Jack Thompson, a conservative Christian attorney and outspoken critic of video game violence, who told the Los Angeles Times that he severed ties with his publisher in a dispute over “Left Behind: Eternal Forces.”

“It’s absurd,” said the video critic. “You can be the Christians blowing away the infidels, and if that doesn’t hit your hot button, you can be the Antichrist blowing away all the Christians.”

Think it’s just a couple whackjobs? Of course it isn’t. These folks have a theocratic, tax-exempt, nationwide network of churches at their disposal. More from talk2action:

Left Behind Games executives Troy A. Lindon and Jeffrey S. Frichner told the Los Angeles Times of their plans to build buzz for Left Behind: Eternal Forces by distributing 1 million sample discs directly through churches nationwide. This is a sign that their approach follows the same marketing strategy that Mr. Warren used to ramp up early sales numbers for his international best seller The Purpose Driven Life.

These are big players in the Theocrat promotional machine. People intimately connected to folks like Dobson, Falwell and Robertson — who, of course, have nothing to say on the matter.

Well, nothing fit for public consumption.

Don’t get me wrong – I believe the “videogames made my child a killer” argument is a ridiculous copout and not meaningfully supported scientifically.

But that’s hardly the point, is it? And besides, Grand Theft Auto is hardly offered to children as young as six years old as a sacrament.