Per his campaign website, his primary qualifications for the job include the stunning feat of once having managed a full blown baker's dozen of helpers and the fact that some of his grandchildren are in school.  No mention of his own educational achievements or background, but he's deeply religious, so Jesus will help him get up to speed.

Kemple is running on ideas that are both substantive and designed to inform voters of his oft repeated beliefs that the Christian creation myth should be taught in science classes and that abstinence only should be taught from 6th grade through college graduation comprised of meaningless drivel about accountability and cooperation and can be boiled down to the three simplistic phrases that anchor his "platform" while managing to say absolutely nothing:

That gruel is pretty thin.  Where are the rants against Darwin and calls for teachers to have the "academic freedom" to proselytize?  How about demands to build the public school calendar around Christian holidays?  And what about abstinence only?

Any bill that goes beyond abstinence-only is "antifamily and anti-God" because it will encourage sex outside marriage, said Terry Kemple, a Christian community activist in Brandon who once ran a sexual-abstinence ministry.

"You don't give kids an option like that without expecting them to exercise the option," said Kemple, who has also been active in opposing the state's proposed new science standards because they embrace Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. "There should be an unequivocal, zero-tolerance program. 'You will not have sex.' That's it."

Don't the voters need to know about Terry Kemple's stands on these divisive issues?

Apparently Mr. Kemple is running something of a Stealth campaign.  It's a good strategy in this non-partisan election in which there wont even be a "D" or an "R" next to any candidate's name on the ballot, since his name recognition in the religious right community is huge, and the lack of any fairly recent public activism on his part has allowed most other voters to gratefully forget all about Terry Kemple and the numerous odious stands he has taken in the past.

So come November, certain churchgoers with church approved voting lists in hand will be sure to check the box for Kemple, and a certain percentage of uninformed voters will check that box out of name recognition, and some will check it randomly, and when all the checks are added up, the 8th largest school district in the country might have Terry Kemple as one of its members.

Which makes his platform more of a campaign strategy:

"You can't expect what you can't inspect."

Terry doesn't want the voters to inspect his actual views...

"Concentrating on using the resources we have to their maximum is far more important than worrying about how to get more."

The religious right community will provide the votes...

"Together we can make a difference."

Jeebus for everyone!  Bwaaaaahahahahahahahaha!!!

Thankfully, someone has taken the time to put together a site that is infinitely more informative than Kemple's own official campaign site.  It's one stop shopping for all of Terry's krazy krusades.

You can learn about Terry's DisPepsi campaign.  You'll reminisce about days gone by as you read about and fondly recall the billboards of yore featuring made up "quotes" from our founding fathers, and you will wonder how our kids have survived this long without Terry's guidance as you learn about his heroic efforts to excise Darwin from our public schools.

Link to this site often, and send it to any of your friends who vote in Hillsborough County. If the electorate is informed, Terry Kemple can be sent back to Bell Shoals to drink Coke and our kids might just be allowed to learn.

As the session ended, Nicole Ableson, 34, rounded up her four young children. "This shows your kids that there are other people who are out there who believe what you believe, and who have done the research," she said. "So they don't think 'This is just my parents believing in fairy tales.' "

Emily Maynard, 12, was also delighted with Ham's presentation. Home-schooled and voraciously curious, she had recently read an encyclopedia for fun — and caught herself almost believing the entry on evolution. "They were explaining about apes standing up, evolving to man, and I could kind of see that's how it could happen," she said.

Ham convinced her otherwise. As her mother beamed, Emily repeated Ham's mantra: "The Bible is the history book of the universe."

So, why do we keep insisting on stocking our libraries and schools with so-called encyclopedias and other false texts? This child was almost lost. Next time, it could be your daughter, and the outcome might not be so right.

Oh, and that better be flavored tobacco in your hookah, 'cause Joe Kaufman is watching your terrsymp ass.

Kaufman's site is only one of a constellation of blogs ... that are dedicated to the surveillance of American Muslims. The blogs link to one another, with more-traveled sites amplifying stories from more obscure ones, like Kaufman's.

He claims he has not found a single mosque in Florida that is not linked to terrorists.

A lot of people are listening.

Last month, after Kaufman called a Tampa Muslim religious retreat a "jihad camp for children" and wrote that the speakers were "linked to al-Qaida," death threats poured in to the Presbyterian camp hosting the event.

Muslims say the blogs breed hate.

"He's spreading lies, slandering individuals," said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa Bay chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "These are vigilantes."

Kaufman and other bloggers say their work is vital to the country's safety.

"I don't hate Muslims," Kaufman said. "But I'm going to fight to have the public understand that there are enemies of America ... that are living in America as we speak."
......

Kaufman said he got his roommate kicked out of school for smoking marijuana.

"It made me feel ... that I finally punished the people who were punishing me all of my life."

On Sept. 11, 2001, watching the World Trade Center's twin towers fall, he said it felt again as if time had stopped.

"I decided, like I'd decided in college, to fight against hatred."
......

The bloggers say they're safeguarding the country.
......

Jennifer Valko opened her e-mail and saw a message of hate.

I will undress you paint your body with pig fat & light you. America is on to you! Watch your back!

It was the Thursday after Christmas. In two days, the Muslim spiritual retreat she had helped plan was scheduled to take place at Cedarkirk, a Presbyterian camp and conference center in eastern Hillsborough County.

That morning, Kaufman had appeared on Fox News to talk about the retreat.

On his Web site, he had posted articles about it. He posted computer-altered images of masked terrorists standing in front of the Lithia campsite.

He said these images were meant to be "tongue in cheek." But some readers took them seriously. Hate mail and death threats poured in to the Tampa Muslim American Society.
......

But he added, "I can't let it stop me from what I'm doing. ... I'm assisting in the safety and security of the American people."

Other bloggers agree.

Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.com said his blog sometimes attracts racists. He bans them, he said.

But he won't stop blogging.

"If I give it up and go away and take up the saxophone, then what the heck is going to happen to society and to the rest of the world?" he asked.

Now, I was all ready to go off on this guy. I was warmed up, feeling the love, ready for action, and I remembered that someone had already done all the heavy lifting for me. And since it's easier to steal than to write,...

...I started to wonder who these people are and what bothered me about their approach to politics.

Then I thought back to high school and realized that all of the proto-Republicans were guys, nerds, who were physically slight, not fat, and had even less hope of getting laid than I and my friends did.

They weren't popular or funny or even pleasant to be around. They were, for lack of a better word, schmucks.

Now, years later, these guys like the NRO staff, talk tougher than a room of SEALs trying to impress Vegas showgirls. They want to hang and kill traitors, confront liberals. Now, I laugh, because I'd bet that these people haven't ever been in a fist fight in their lives. I mean, Jonah Goldberg went to a girl's college for God's sake, and couldn't get laid there. In fact, if you asked, they'd probably find him repellent. He probably didn't even make female friends.

LGF is a collection of losers, the creepy guys at work, the people in the Star Trek club, the guys who can't get a date, even on Match.com. The ones that call themselves nice guys and talk about women as if the Handmaid's Tale was a liberal treatise, who worship at the alter of Kim Du Toit. They vent their anger online.

As a black guy, you learn to size these folks up quickly. They may whisper nigger under their breath, but when confronted, they run like little girls. You know they're punks.
......

These guys are conflicted. They don't have any personal courage. They know they're suppsoed to, but they cringe at the idea of confrontation. But they create this image of machismo which makes people laugh.

Ever seen a Freeper rally? You could wet one with a few water balloons. No, Freeperland is for the frustrated Wal-Mart manager with the cheating wife and fat kids. He rails against the world. LGF is the junior loser version.

Instead of sucking up to the jocks, they want to suck up to people in power. So they worship Bush, not because they agree with him, but because they need that power in their powerless life. They feel stomped on by everyone, but they feel like big men online or in their little chickenhawk rallies.

They think liberals are these weed smoking 1960's rejects and who cringe at any possible physical confrontation. Come on, Ann Coulter cries when people toss shit at her, Goldberg? Stupid fat coward. If you slapped him in the face, he'd run like the punk bitch that he is. He's too goddamn stupid to avoid confronting Wolcott and Juan Cole and being humiliated in the process.
......

You know, I don't like Muslim terrorists either, but I certainly don't want to kill a bunch of kids to make me feel better.
......

They shake and bluster and run their mouths, but that's it.

Peter Daou has a long piece on how blogs should work better with the Dems, but many liberals miss the point. On our side of the fence, we mobilize support, raise money and get the attention of the media and deal with the Dems on our terms. The right sees bloggers as junior partners, to do what they are told without question. We want to be seen as equals. Personally, I can live without central direction from the party.

But the point is that we fit in to the political world in different ways.

The difference is simple, while the right wails and whines about Daily Kos, they can't reproduce it, they can't tolerate disagreements while working for a common cause. They get angry when people don't go along with them. Notice the lack of comments and frequent bannings. Because their egos can't handle it. They suffer from a case of fragile ego disease.
......

So all they can do is imagine the Turner Diaries coming to life , killing liberals instead of blacks, hanging them from the street lamps. Of course, that just feeds into their fantasies of omnipotence, imagining swatting their boss with a +9 power sword, as they do in an MMO or conquering imaginary Muslim foes like they do in Rainbow Six, when in reality, they're Melvin, the guy who eats tuna at his desk at lunch.

Lori Allain, victim of sinful persecution!

RL here.

Well, the fascist army of the godless government is at it again. First, we had Waco and Ruby Ridge. Now Tom's River will forever be invoked with the same prayerful short intake of breath.

On Wednesday, God's soldiers Arthur and Lori Allain were unlawfully apprehended in a Tom's River, N.J., motel room along with several of their offspring.

Their supposed crime: child abuse!

That's right – the 'authorities' have once again ignored the will of God and have manufactured evidence in order to take these righteous folks into custody and kidnap their natural children.

A fugitive wanted along with her husband in Hernando County, Allain is accused of starving a 10-year-old girl to 29 pounds and locking her in a back room in the couple's Royal Highlands mobile home.
......

After two and a half months of searching, authorities captured the elusive Allains in Room 150 of a Quality Inn motel on Route 37.
......

Lori Allain, 49, and Tommy Allain, 47, are scheduled to appear before an Ocean County judge at 1:30 p.m. today to determine when they will return to Florida to stand trial. If they waive their right to a hearing, the couple could be extradited to Hernando County within a week, said Robert Gasser, of the Ocean County prosecutor's office. Otherwise, it could take about a month.

No Bail On Return

The couple face charges of aggravated child abuse in Florida. The Allains have testified the girl in their care had an eating disorder and that she and her older brother were severely abused by their mother, prompting them to lie and steal food.

An independent state investigation found Department of Children & Families caseworkers repeatedly missed warning signs and should have removed the children from the Allain home.
......

Hurricane Wilma hit South Florida Oct. 24, delaying the trial until the next day. The couple have said in previous interviews they weren't notified of the change. They ran from the law, Lori Allain has said, to protect their sons from going into state custody.

Lori, whose tribute to the lord on her chest reads 'Only God Can Judge Me' in reverential script, vigorously refutes the charges.

"I'm going to tell you what. . . . Get up off my family. Got it? And you can quote me on that."

"I have no fear in this case."

"I would like the truth to be out there. To me, the truth comes out, and then me and my husband have no fears."

"You've got to understand. The biker world is a very, very big organization, and they're all over the U.S. and the world. When they know you're right . . . you're not going to find us."

"People tend to judge us because we have tattoos and wear leather. Everyone keeps referring to this tattoo (across her chest that says "Only God Can Judge Me"). That's been on my chest since 2000. It doesn't come from this case. That's my belief. They stereotype you. All these people can judge me. Guess what? I don't care. On the final day God's going to judge me. And he knows my heart. He knows I'm a good person."

"I didn't agree her weight was 29 pounds. I think her weight was 34 pounds."

"I'm a people person like you wouldn't believe."

Obviously, this God fearing couple have been set up by the secular leftist homosexual agendists, but those forces may well have miscalculated, and when the Christian bikers get through with Hernando County... well, let's just say that the Sheriff up there better find Jesus pretty soon.

The husband of the Pinellas County woman who became the focus of a national end-of-life controversy has started a political action committee to keep the heat on politicians who tried to intervene in the case and fight his efforts to remove her feeding tube.

"The easiest thing would be to move on and let the headlines fade," Schiavo said in a statement Wednesday. "But my experience with our political leaders has opened my eyes to just how easily the private wishes of normal Americans like me and Terri can be cast aside in the destructive game of political pandering."

The Schiavo controversy already had emerged as a political issue. Polls showed voters overwhelmingly supporting Michael Schiavo's position in the debate, and Democrats in Florida and elsewhere routinely bring up Schiavo to cast the GOP as out of touch.
......

When courts consistently ruled in his favor, leaders in Tallahassee and Washington tried to step in to keep her alive. President Bush cut short a vacation in Texas last year to join more than 200 members of Congress who passed legislation designed to force the reinsertion of her feeding tube.

"Those politicians lost a basic respect for marriage, family and personal privacy," Schiavo said.

The new federal PAC, TerriPAC, will raise money to "educate voters on where their elected officials stood when they had a choice between individual freedom and personal privacy and overreaching government action."

Another political committee is planned to concentrate on state races in Florida.

TerriPAC will request donations through its Internet site (www.TerriPAC.org) which also will provide information on how members of Congress voted on the Schiavo bill and what they said on the issue. The site also will encourage people to obtain living wills.
......

"It would be easy to dismiss my actions as partisan. But I was a lifelong Republican before Republicans pushed the power of government into my private family decisions," Schiavo said. "And it is not so simple to forget those politicians who shamelessly sought to squeeze political leverage out of my family's most emotional hour."

His critics remain unforgiving.

His endorsement of Virginia's new governor, Tim Kaine, drew attention. Now, TerriPAC's targets are Florida gubernatorial candidates, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., U.S. Senate Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the embattled former House majority leader, said Schiavo's adviser, Florida-based Democratic political consultant Derek Newton.

Schiavo said he is channeling his "sadness, anger and worry" into defeating "politicians who shamelessly sought to squeeze political leverage out of my family's most emotional hour."

Others see different motives.

"He's exploiting a tragic situation and dishonoring Terri's memory," said Anthony Verdugo, director of Miami-based Christian Family Coalition.

BlogWood Schiavo coverage

Background:

In a nutshell, the rabid homophobes at the American Family Association threatened Ford with a boycott earlier this year because they were advertising in the gay press. Suddenly in June the AFA called off their threatened boycott because local Ford dealers had contacted the national Ford office and, apparently, suggested Ford might be amenable to working out a deal. Now we find out that Ford is pulling its gay ads and that Ford even tells the Advocate that the AFA's press release claiming credit for this entire thing is accurate.

Action:

UPDATE: The classic response from the folks you contact will often be "we're the wrong people to contact." They're not the wrong people to contact, though they may think they are. These are all people in Ford's marketing division, and Ford needs to hear from everyone in their marketing division that their very bad marketing decision is causing a firestorm of protest. We'll move on to other employees tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on. And each day we'll probably hear the same thing - Paramount and Microsoft both said this too us all the time, we're the wrong people. Well, find the right people and tell them that this is a big problem.

For this afternoon's action, please contact the same Ford marketing people by phone this time. They're apparently now blocking their email accounts, which means you got to them. Now phone them.

Steve Lyons: 313-845-1621
Mae Smith: 313-845-1510
Terri Cavanaugh: 313-845-0580

These people are all in Ford's marketing department - some are execs, others are staff. We are intentionally targeting both high-level and lower-level staff in the marketing department so that our message is heard throughout the entire company, not just by one vice president.

As always, be nice but firm, and don't threaten them or do anything else obnoxious. Leave that kind of behavior to America's Taliban. But do make clear that their company is toast.

Background on what Ford has done. Amongst other things, you might want to ask Ford if they'd pull their ads from African-American or Jewish publications if the Klan objected?

Jurors prayed before deliberating whether 11-year-old Carlie Brucia's killer should live or die. They prayed again five hours later when a count of secret ballots showed they had voted 10-2 to recommend execution for Joseph Smith.

"We prayed for wisdom. We prayed for the families," the Rev. Francis "Ron" Kruzel, the jury foreman, said Friday.

Board members and administrators said the secular calendar, which resembled the one in place for years in Pinellas County and dozens of school systems around the nation, treated all faiths the same and more clearly separated church and state.

They said children could take days off for religious observances without being penalized.

Board member Doretha Edgecomb stood by the secular calendar Tuesday.

She compared the arguments she heard by people in favor of religious holidays to those made against women fighting for the right to vote and African-Americans battling segregation. She said she felt the secular calendar was more fair.

"In our war of words, in our sometimes self-serving stances and too often our very myopic views, we have lost sight of the most important thing, our children, all of our children and their right to . . . an equitable education," said Edgecomb, who voted against the religious calendar.
......

When the board approved the secular calendar, local Muslims said they feared a backlash from people who would view the action as Muslims causing the end of religious holidays for Jews and Christians.

Many of the 3,500 e-mails received by school officials did in fact blame Muslims, labeling them as foreigners not deserving of holidays in the "Judeo-Christian" United States.

Leading the narrow minded fight was trilingual showman turned County Commissioner B. Brian Blair who made an enthusiastic appearance on Bill O'Reilly's nationally televised shout fest to wrestle for Jesus, 'cause Jesus is really awesome and all, but some people keep acting like this land was made for you and me and not just for the religiously intolerant types who come out of the woodwork every time a non-Christian tries to assert some kind of crazy notion regarding freedom from religion.

The Killer Bee invited himself to last night's school board meeting and wouldn't stop talking. See, there's no reason to hear from any other side when you're right. Especially when you're Christian right.

"Everybody's talking about this like it don't mean nothing -- but it means a lot," an impassioned Apostle Cynthia Forde shouted. "In God, in God, in God we trust," she implored. We've been spared, she said, but "the next time a hurricane comes," it may be to Tampa.

Paul Stallard, pastor of the Mango Church of God in Seffner, threatened, "If you don't change, the battle has just begun."

Others supported the board's efforts not to link any religious holidays except Christmas with a day off for all students and teachers.

"Are you going to change your decision because you got hate mail?" said Ali Akbar, a Muslim.

The Rev. Robert White of the Brandon Area Interfaith Coalition asked the board to "look into your hearts -- do the right thing" and give the Muslims a holiday.

Tempers flared in exchanges involving county Commissioner Brian Blair, a vocal critic of the decision to eliminate the holidays from the school calendar. Board member Susan Valdes questioned him about whether he would ask the county commission to give its employees the religious holidays off. County, state and federal employees don't have off religious holidays except Christmas.

Blair continued talking even after board Chairwoman Candy Olson tried twice to cut off his remarks when they went beyond answering questions.

Clearly angry, board member Carolyn Bricklemyer said she "heard things from many people that absolutely hurt my heart" and nearly walked out on some of the speakers. She also took Blair to task for a lack of respect. For those who sent "orchestrated e-mails" to the board, she said she quit reading them.

Blair did finally shut up, or paused to take a breath, and, weary of all the national attention, a majority of School Board members voted to rescind the new policy and return to a calendar that will quiet the screeching protests of those who seem to think that their god is a one size fits all answer to the ills that plague society.

Next month, the board will vote on a proposal to amend the official disciplinary policy to bring it more in line with traditional Christian values.

When we began the Christmas season this year, we were all very much aware that a war was being waged by the Christmas grinches -- the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and other secularists, to steal Christmas from America. To not only take Christ out of Christmas, but to remove Christmas totally from the American scene. I am happy to announce today that we are winning the Christmas war.

If Jerry Falwell says that the war is being won, well, you better believe it. In fact, it seems that the war against the war against Christmas is going so well that the faithful can now go on the offensive. Over ten people in more than one state have joined together to fight Goth teenagers and others who would dare to celebrate autumn by gorging on candy and dressing up in silly costumes. These brave Christian heroes are willing to sacrifice themselves and their families, quite possibly becoming victims of tricks as they wage the war against Halloween.

Ghosts, goblins and gremlins, get thee behind me. There's no such ghoulish decor at Pam and Bill Malone's house -- just a twinkling angel.

Trick-or-treaters here will get a different sort of goody, too: prayers, a Bible tract, a pe ncil that says, "Smile, God loves you."

Since 1996, the Wesley Chapel couple have been observing Halloween by celebrating their faith -- with anyone who happens by.

"We also give out Krispy Kreme doughnuts and something hot or cold to drink," said Pam, 61. "This gets them to hang around for a while."

The Malones, founders of Pray U.S.A! ministry, call their hallowed alternative Light the Night; it's replicated across the country by dozens of supporters. They pull out the Christmas lights a month early, set up tables stocked with religious trinkets and refreshments, and prepare for prayer.

"There's a lot of evil that goes on Halloween night," said Bill Malone, 65, who traded in a career in sales for ministry. "We want to be just the opposite of that and show peace, joy and love."

Besides, he said, it's the perfect night to evangelize.

"Instead of knocking on people's doors, we stay home and they come to us."

The Malones figure they've ministered to thousands of youngsters and their parents, first in San Francisco, then St. Louis, and now in their Westbrook subdivision. Only once was their offer of a blessing rejected, they said.

"That just tells us that people are hungry, and it's not just for doughnuts," Bill said.

(Ed. note: or maybe, just maybe people are too polite to tell Bill to fuck off.)

In St. Louis, Irma Weber, of Evangelistic Team Concept Ministries, has been lighting up the night since 1999, giving out free notebooks, palm-size books of Bible verses and doughnuts with hot chocolate or cider. She estimates she and her husband get 800 to 1,000 visitors a year.
......

Sharon Feliciano, of Granite City, Ill., said she and her husband abandoned tradition and started their own Light the Night three years ago, giving out Twinkies and Bible tracts. They decided it was a welcome alternative to the "ghoulish Halloween production" set up on their neighbor's lawn across the street.

"We had a few Goth-dressed people who backed away from us, but they were teens who shouldn't have been out anyway," she said. "For the most part, everyone loves it."

Goths in the streets?!? What has become of our beloved country? Thank God people like Sharon are around to save us from the evil teens dressed in black. (Some of them even put black polish on their fingernails, and they're known to fornicate outside of marriage!)

Anyway, by seizing control of Halloween and occupying the holiday with an army of Christians, this movement may well hobble the evil that gallops in every fall. Be strong.

Some may consider celebrating Halloween as only a little compromise. However, it is the "little foxes" that spoil the vines and this little compromise can open the door to other evils. Many Christians do not realize that certain traditions that are celebrated in the world have evil origins. Just because our society partakes in certain activities does not make them acceptable for Christians.

The problem is, Lewis either wasn’t capable of or didn’t think highly of subtlety. The Christian allusions in the books come on fast and strong, with little apparent effort to construct a story that might exist independently of the religious references. As a point of contrast, consider J.R.R. Tolkein’s books which also contain Christian references. In that case, the references can be missed because they are buried in a deep, complex story that can stand independently of Christianity.

Group wants nonreligious book for contest

Gov. Jeb Bush's promotion of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for a statewide reading contest violates the U.S. Constitution, the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said Thursday, asking in a letter that Bush add an alternative, nonreligious book to the contest.

Students should have the option of reading a book other than a Christian-themed book by C.S. Lewis, the group's director, Barry Lynn, wrote Thursday.
......

The governor's Just Read, Florida office last month announced that children could win a trip to a Disney resort and see the Orlando premier of the film version of the book if, depending on the grade level, they wrote an essay, drew an illustration or produced a short movie based on the story.

Lynn, a lawyer and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, cited court cases that he said support his idea that "the state's sponsorship of this contest creates the appearance of a governmental endorsement of the book's religious message, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

The movie is being co-produced by the Walt Disney Co. and Walden Media, which is owned by Philip Anschutz, a devout Presbyterian and Colorado billionaire who — with his family, his foundation and his company — has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and causes.
......

But Lynn's letter cited Lewis, who said that he hoped his Chronicles of Narnia books, of which the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first written, would "make it easier for children to accept Christianity when they met it later in life."