GOBAMA: Meet the kid running the White House Faith-Based Office

A good ol’ dunderhead. Sitting on his blessed assurance during 9-11. Katrina and FEMA. WMDs. The lowest presidential approval rating since… well, no one.

George W. Bush has some atramentous tarnishing on his resume, but among the few lustrous offerings is the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which he created in 2001.

Talk about a real cross-roads

He is a man of faith, and despite persnickety folk complaining about their unalienable rights being infringed because they are some rigid transexual who vows allegiance to Satan but complained to the ACLU they didn’t get a job at some megachurch they really wanted (What. Ever.), this was a mark of greatness.

It’s main focus was to increase and make available funding to religious groups that offer social services of all kinds – job training, after school, prisoner re-entry, drug treatment – and was fairly successful at doing that.

Now, enters the BarackStar. And fresh off his bajillion promises to maintain a sense of dogma and sanctity in the White House, he kept this important office, kinda.

1. Now, it’s named the Office of Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships. Semantics?
2. In order to tackle the church/state hullabaloo, Obama’s troupe is arranging a government/neighborhood alliance. Yeah, unlike the general political environment we enjoy called “Democracy” (even though this is a Republic).
3. And – here’s the story – he hired a nubile 26-year old Pentecostal preacher from Massachusetts named Joshua DuBois to oversee the whole kit and kaboodle.

DuBois’s appointment to run the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships — first reported by the New York Times — is the first sign of a new direction for the office, which partners with faith groups on social service issues and helps advise them on applying for federal funding.

And there’s the rub.

He’s not having – nor is his boss – the aforementioned transexual being unemployed, namely if it’s because that church he… um, she… uh, it wanted to “really contribute to” and didn’t offer up a gig. So, the qualms of the unrighteous and apathetic instantly become the voices of evangelicals everywhere.

Here’s to praying they make the right decisions. But, if you’re interested in a hint, note the official listing of “Federal Agencies and Commissions” on the new, improved and quite swank White House Web site.

“Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships”? Nowhere on the page. Stay classy, Rev. DuBois. Make us all proud.

Who died worse? David Koresh, or now his mother?

Sometimes with fame – or like this infamous obituary we are about to discuss – mothers lose their identity in the persona of the children of whom they gave identity.

Quick… without Wikipedia… name John Lennon’s mum, anyone? Abraham Lincoln’s mama? What about the mother of Martin Luther King, Jr.? Forget it. You can’t, unless you are a history buff, writing an autobiography or are one of those dorks who know the answer for the Sphinx slumming on Jeopardy.

(Somewhere, My Fair Lady is moaning and deleting my copies of Jeopardy off my DVR. Say, baby. BTW, Julia Stanley, Nancy Hanks and Missus Alberta).

That said: Meet Bonnie Clark Haldeman, a once mild-mannered woman now found stabbed to death in a remote Texas town and oh yeah, mother of David Koresh.

We all know how Koresh’s legacy went up in flames… and uh, well never mind. But surely his mama died with some dignity? Right?

The mother of infamous Branch Davidian leader David Koresh was stabbed to death and her sister was in custody Saturday charged with her slaying, authorities said.

Her sister? Really?

Sure, the case is still under investigation but a religious zealot wasn’t the first suspect? Maybe a parent of one of the brainwashed and delusional that his sacrilege fireworks show sent to the grave. But her sister was the first they nabbed?

What’s that adage: You can take the woman away from the cult, but you can’t take the cult away from the woman? Or something like that.