Daily Archives: July 28, 2017

David Messenger, acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1998 beating death of his pregnant wife in their Chaplin home, has progressed so far in his treatment that he should be allowed to travel anywhere in the state except Windham County, have a smart phone, and stay out until midnight on weekends.

That was the testimony Friday of a forensic psychologist and the supervisor of Messenger's release in the community at a hearing before the Psychiatry Security Review Board.

Messenger had asked for the phone, a later curfew, and the ability to travel beyond Hartford County. Initially committed in 2001, Messenger has been living in a supervised apartment and receiving treatment at a regional mental-health center in Hartford since 2015, with no violations, according to testimony.

Assistant States Attorney Andrew Slitt, who works out of the Windham office, peppered psychologist Fred Storey and release-manager Archer Bridgeforth with questions about whether a further expansion of Messenger's freedoms would heighten the risk to the public. Both said it would not.

The Psychiatric Security Review Board, which supervises 150 people who were acquitted of crimes by reason of mental disease or defect, will vote on this new request by Aug. 25.

Ellen Lachance, who supervises the staff that supports the board, said it's common for community mental-health teams to ask for additional privileges for patients who are responding well to treatment in part so they can gauge how the person will do when he or she is no longer under any supervision.

In the early years of his commitment, Messenger was confined in the maximum security Whiting Forensic Division at Connecticut Valley Hospital. He has steadily gained freedom which has been unsettling to the family of Heather Messenger, who was 42 when Messenger beat her to death with a fireplace poker. The couple's son, then 5, witnessed the attack on his mother.

"We don't think a killer deserves any privileges and of course wonder how and why he can already have so many and yet ask for more," Hannah Williamson, Heather Messenger's sister, said Friday in an email from Michigan.

"We still believe he should be in jail. After all, Heather was the victim and she is still dead," Williamson said. "He seems to have more freedom than any other 'acquittee.'"

Messenger's 20-year commitment expires in 2021. A Superior Court judge would decide whether to grant a discharge. The prosecution can file a request for continued commitment.

Messenger's long push toward freedom hasn't been lost on Middletown officials. When they learned in 2006 that Messenger at that point was making trips into Middletown escorted by staff, then-Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said he would have a police officer "stapled to his butt" as soon as he left the hospital grounds. CVH in June 2006 voluntarily decided not to let Messenger go on any unsupervised visits. But that order has long since been lifted.

He still is not allowed to drive a car (he has no driver's license). He cannot leave Connecticut, and he must continue to wear his GPS device so his whereabouts can be monitored. He lives in a supervised residence in Hartford, which has a curfew of 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. Messenger's curfew had been 10 p.m.. He is now asking for permission to abide by the later curfew of the residence.

Heather Messenger's family has argued that Messenger should not have been released to the community because he has access to significant amounts of money that he could use to track them down.

"Our position has been well stated, and we regret the decision that was made and, in doing so, we fear for the people in Hartford who may inadvertently run into the killer," Daniel Williamson, Heather's brother, said in 2013.

Williamson and his wife, Melody, have raised Heather Messenger's son, Dane, from boyhood at their home in Illinois.

The Courant has reported that Messenger has access to nearly $2 million in property, bank accounts and investments, including an island house in Maine.

Zinke reportedly said Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. (July 27, 2017)

Zinke reportedly said Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. (July 27, 2017)

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Acquitted Wife-Killer Asks For Smart Phone, Later Curfew, Freedom To Travel In State - Hartford Courant

Kansans will be glad to see the last of Gov. Sam Brownback, whose disastrous supply-side economic policies have turned the state into a dysfunctional Brownbackistan with spiraling deficits and public services in tatters.

But Brownback, President Donald Trumps pick to lead the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, brings to the office a religious rsum that is bizarre to say the least.

A practicing Catholic himself, Brownback is closely linked with the New Apostolic Reformation. He has appeared at numerous NAR events, including The Response, the huge 2011 prayer vigil hosted by then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Brownback was the only other governor to attend); the Kettle Tour, a national series of events meant to link prayers to those of past generations; and four iterations of The Call, prayer rallies organized by NAR leader Lou Engle. Brownback was once even roommates with Engle for several months after his Washington, D.C., condominium burned down.

Brownback was pressured to denounce the movement, which many Pentecostal Christians believe to be a cult, in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He refused to do so, though he said Engle has said things I dont agree with and that they only worked together on human rights and helping people live better.

When Brownback won, NAR leader Chuck Pierce boasted that his prayers had gotten Brownback elected.

Modern Day Prophets

Its easy to see why Brownback wants to distance himself from the NAR as soon as you start learning about the NAR.

NAR founder C. Peter Wagner, Engle, Pierce, and other NAR leaders believe themselves be modern day prophets who will establish dominion over all aspects of American society to prepare it for the Kingdom of God.

For the NAR, the restoration of the Kingdom of God will be the result of active efforts on the part of these new prophets, including the dominion of Christians over the seven mountains of culture and the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. When apostles hear the word of God clearly and when they decree His will, history can change, Wagner said in 2001.

The churchs vocation is to rule history with God, said Engle.

Because the NAR derives its authority not just from the Bible but also from present day prophecies, the results can be bizarre. For example, NAR leaders have ascribed the problems of citiesliberalism in general, but also specific disasters like earthquakes and terrorist attacksto the cities being controlled by demons. The demon Baal controls the Freemasons; the demon Jezebel controls the Democratic Party.

As The Daily Beast reported two years ago, Wagner said in 2011 that the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima was a result of the Japanese emperor having had sex with the sun goddess, that there is a lot of demonic control in Congress, that it is important to cast spells to protect politicians from witchcraft, and that non-Christian religions are part of the kingdom of darkness.

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His successor, Pierce, said in 2011 that God told him in 2005 that a black man would be elected president; that, in 2008, God said President Obama would cause the United States to split into two nations by abandoning Israel; and that the resulting civil war would tear down, raise up, overthrow, [and] rebuild our society. He added that Obamas 2011 speech about Israel had caused tornadoes in Missouri and that his own prayers can cause earthquakes (as well as electoral results).

Dominion Over United States Politics

Among all the various sects of the American fundamentalist right, the NAR is the most overt about seeking dominion over politics, culture, and all other aspects of daily life. As Pierces comments indicate, the NAR sees no distinction between secular and religious. It is uniquely unapologetic about obliterating the church-state line in order to bring about the End Times.

And, paradoxically, it is open about working in secret, holding that deceptive tactics are necessary to do Gods work.

In 2009, for example, two NAR prophets told Rick Perry that God had anointed Texas to lead the United States into revival and that Perry himself would play a central role. Perry, in turn, organized the Christians-only prayer rally the Response, which drew 30,000 people and which, Perry said, was based on a prophecy from the Book of Joel, which NAR leaders often cite.

Perrys 2012 and 2016 runs for president may have been a sideshow for most people, but for the NAR, they were the hoped-for culmination of dominion over United States politics. Sen. Ted Cruzs candidacy was also framed in explicitly messianic, dominionist terms by his father, Rafael Cruz, a well-known dominionist pastor not affiliated with the NAR.

It Is Time to Cause a Revolution

In this context, seemingly innocuous statements begin to take on a sinister resonance.

For example, at a Washington gathering of the Kettle Tour, Brownback said, Weve made it up the mountain a long way, but we have to make that final assault on the peak. We can make that final leap to the top, if we stay on our knees.

Innocent metaphor? Or reference to Seven Mountains dominionism, which refers to government and other institutions as mountains that must be conquered by believers?

Later, after becoming governor, Brownback declared several statewide Days of Restoration. Does restoration simply mean restoring Christianity to the center of American religious life, or does it refer to the NAR doctrine of restoration of Christian rule over the Earth?

In 2014, Brownback spoke at a Topeka prayer gathering whose organizer said, We need revival, we need a Great Awakening, but it is time to cause a revolution. We need to get some freedom fighters up and going to take this country back.

Typical Christian right rhetoric? Or something more literal and more ominous?

Or, as is more likely the case, something in between, with meanings elastic enough to mean different things to different people?

Even the human rights work that Brownback said he did with Engle, including staged apologies to Native Americans and African Americans, were part of the NAR policy of Identificational [sic] Repentance and Reconciliation, aimed at removing barriers that prevent non-white people from becoming evangelical Christians.

According to Wagner, these barriers are actually demons such as Baal, Leviathan, and the Queen of Heaven, fed by the sins committed against these groups. Brownbacks apology to Native Americans was literally an exorcism.

Redefining Religious Freedom for the World

Once again, the trouble with people like Brownback isnt the beliefsits the actions.

As governor, Brownback delivered on his dominionist promises. He convened multiple prayer gatherings and campaigns. He regularly consulted with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. And he issued a wild executive order in 2015 decrying the recent imposition of same sex marriage by the United States Supreme Court and specifically exempting all religiously affiliated organizations from having to recognize legal same-sex marriages or accommodate them in any way.

As the United States new point man on religious freedom, Brownback will surely take his expansive redefinition of religious freedom onto the international stage. Programs that empower women violate the religious freedom of religious conservatives. LGBT equality is against religious freedom. Promoting anything other than the so-called natural family is against religious freedom as well.

Indeed, its an easy step from the dominionist notion that religion must be all-pervasive in all aspects of society to the redefinition of religious freedom to allow discrimination in the workplace, discrimination on the part of public employees, and nullification of legal marriages. There is no place for the secular in this understanding of religion.

Brownback and his allies in the NAR already have a built-in international network of religious extremists. The sponsors of Ugandas Kill the Gays law, for example, were trained by Kansas Citys International House of Prayer, affiliated with Lou Engle, and Engle frequently exhorted his followers to support the backers of the bill.

We dont know, thanks to Brownbacks equivocation, how much of the dominionist theology of the NAR he believes and how it might impact his actions in his new international role.

Does Brownback see his role as a secular one promoting the value of religious freedom for people of all faiths? Or does he, like his partners in numerous religious events and political initiatives, see it as a divinely ordained mission? Or, once again, somewhere in between? Does the United States chief international representative for religious freedom believe that he must rule history with God?

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Does Trump Religious Freedom Pick Sam Brownback Believe in Dominionism? - Daily Beast

The Senate is hurtling towards some resolution in the weeks-long saga of Obamacare repeal, and after several failed votes and amendments, the final draft is finally in view. At around 10 p.m. Thursday evening, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the text of the Health Care Freedom Act, the more dignified official title for the skinny repeal.

The legislation, which was reportedly finalized over lunch today in the Senate, broadly resembles the details that have leaked out about the secret plan over the past week. It would repeal Obamacares individual mandate, and would repeal the employer mandate until 2025, where presumably that mandate would come back or would have to be re-repealed by Congress.

The skinny repeal extends a repeal of the medical-device tax through 2020 and defunds the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It would also more than double the limits of contributions to health-savings to allow people with HSAs more flexibility in paying for deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. This provision is somewhat significant, because it would decrease federal revenues and would need a score from the Congressional Budget Office going forward in the process.

Although provisions in the original Senate Obamacare replacement bill to defund Planned Parenthood and allow states the ability to waive essential health benefits for some insurance plans on the exchanges were rejected under the Senate reconciliation rules by the parliamentarian, this bill devotes much of its language to creative rewrites to get around those rejections.

To start, the Health Care Freedom Act still bans funding from a number of different federal sources to public providers that provide abortionsa direct stab at Planned Parenthoodbut made those provisions more general. Originally, the Better Care Reconciliation Acts attempts to defund Planned Parenthood targeted all entities that received over $350 million in federal and state reimbursements, which would have only ensnared Planned Parenthood, because of its size. But this bill lowers that threshold to $1 million, which would presumably be less hyper-targeted, and only extends the ban for a year.

This bill also adds over $400 million to community health centers. Although that amount is not specified in the bill as an offset to defunding Planned Parenthood, the two were linked in the formal introduction of the bill to the floor by McConnell.

The second parliamentary-skirting action comes on the issue of state waivers. The BCRA attempted to give states wide flexibility to essentially ignore certain Obamacare rules for exchange plans (those sold in state insurance marketplaces set up by the law), including its requirements that plans cover certain services. It did that through expanding Obamacares existing State Innovation Waivers program, which allows states to create insurance programs that modify rules about plan benefits and the exchanges. Under that program, however, Obamacare implements guardrails specifying that these state waiver programs would have to still provide coverage that is as comprehensive and affordable as comparable exchange plans.

The BCRA plan to give states much more flexibility essentially violated those guardrails, but the skinny repeal bill keeps them in place. But theres a bit of a poison pill: Once states get the waiver, it appears their programs cant be revoked under law under the eight-year waiver window, which means states would be rather free to ignore guardrail rules for almost a decade at a time.

Reportedly, these tweakswhich clearly maintain at least some of the spirit of previous attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and allow insurers to offer less comprehensive coverageare enough to satisfy the parliamentarian and pass with a 50-vote majority.

According to a Congressional Budget Office score obtained by Senate Democratic staff, the effects of this bill are about what has been expected: 16 million more uninsured people and just under $200 billion in federal deficit savings. Although premium estimates were not part of the CBOs score tables, it appears this law will have comparable effects to a proto-skinny-repeal scored Wednesday, and will increase premiums by around 20 percent over the next decade.

Thats the gist of what Senate Republicans will vote on, and what could very well end up on President Trumps desk, should House Republicans not follow through on Speaker Paul Ryans lukewarm commitment to add more provisions in conference.

The so-called skinny repeal is not as skinny as expectedit repeals the mandates, and includes provisions like a restriction of Planned Parenthood and some insurance deregulationsand its effects on coverage and premiums would be significant. And soon, it could very well be the law of the land.

Read more here:

The Health Care Freedom Act Hits The Senate Floor - The Atlantic

The White House wants to rebrand an Obamacare effort on Capitol Hill, endorsing the term freedom bill on Thursday over "skinny repeal," as people following the Senate Republican push have been calling the plan.

Look, the administrations been working hand in hand on pushing repeal and replace of Obamacare, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. We actually like the term freedom bill a lot better because we think it addresses what this bill actually is.

Story Continued Below

Senate Republicans believe the skinny repeal legislation that, rather than totally repealing the 2010 law, would gut Obamacares individual and employer coverage mandates may be their only hope to pass a bill and move to talks with the House about health care legislation.

Despite its nickname, health policy experts say the skinny repeal could destabilize Obamacares insurance markets, spiking premiums and raising the number of uninsured Americans by millions.

But the nickname also could make the skinny repeal a tough sell to constituents because it suggests its a minimized form of the full repeal of Obamacare that Republicans have campaigned on for seven years,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emailed his caucus Thursday outlining the bills provisions. The employer mandate would be repealed for at least six years or eight years, according to sources who viewed the email.

The chamber will hold a series of votes later Thursday in a "vote-a-rama" to test what senators will support in an Obamacare replacement bill.

It removes a lot of those mandates that allow people to have the type of freedom, have states have the freedom that they want, Sanders said of the skinny bill, and that was one of the big priorities for this administration. Were, you know, happy about that progress, and were gonna wait and see where this bill ends up later this evening.

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Continued here:

White House tries to rebrand 'skinny' Obamacare repeal as 'freedom bill' - Politico