Ex-evangelical denounces Michele Bachmann

Democracy Now! interviews former evangelical Christian Frank Schaeffer, whose father's writings and work played a key role in the religious development of Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Frank Schaeffer recently wrote an article titled, "Michele Bachmann Was Inspired By My Dad and His Christian Reconstructionist Friends — Here's Why That's Terrifying." Schaeffer's father was Francis Schaeffer, one of the nation's most influential evangelical Christian theologians and philosophers in the 1970s and 1980s. In a recent profile in The New Yorker magazine, Bachmann reveals she entered politics after watching Francis Schaeffer's film ,"How Should We Then Live." The film was directed by his son, Frank, our guest today. "[Bachmann] doesn't just come from the far-right of evangelical politics, she comes from a fringe even of the fringe, which is the reconstructionist Dominionist movement," Schaeffer says. "The religious right that I was a part of is fundamentally anti-American, they hate this country. They wrap themselves in the flag, but they hate America as it is."

Romney vs. Romney on tax cuts

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

"I'm not for tax cuts for the rich. The rich can take care of themselves. I want to get America working again. And so I want to make sure that whatever we do in the tax code, we're not giving a windfall to the very wealthy."

-- Mitt Romney, quoted yesterday by the Concord Monitor.

"I do want to keep the Bush tax cuts in place."

-- Romney, quoted yesterday by the Boston Globe.

Backtracking on transit, Ford seeks a handout

Marcus Gee, Opinion, The Globe and Mail:

Earlier this year, Rob Ford threatened to sic “Ford Nation” on Dalton McGuinty unless he came through with millions for roads, child care and public transit. On Wednesday, he was back at the Liberal Premier again, asking him for help with the proposed Sheppard subway extension.

It is an odd tack for a guy who once scolded city leaders for going to Queen’s Park with a rattling tin cup every time they had money trouble. It is even odder from a mayor who said as recently as March that the taxpayer whom he claims to respect so deeply would not be left on the hook for the Sheppard line.

“I’m not quite sure where taxpayers’ money is coming in when we’re raising money from the private sector,” he said then. “All the details will have to come out, but it will be built with private money.” Wednesday, after meeting with Mr. McGuinty, he said that “We’re going to obviously need help from all three levels” of government to build the subway.

That should come as no surprise. It was always fanciful to think that private companies would rush in merrily with billions for an extended Sheppard line. The idea of luring them with the promise of a share of future tax revenues from development around the line is untried on this scale in Canada. Most experts who have looked at it are highly skeptical.

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