Orange County News Blog

​UPDATED WITH RESPONSE FROM LAWYER FOR THE DISTRICT . . .

A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against the South Orange County Community College District over official prayers during public ceremonies, Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced today.

​For almost a year now, in private email between he and I, fundie-funder supreme Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. has claimed he was developing a blog to express his views instead of merely haunting Navel Gazing. I started to doubt Ahmanson would ever do it, but here it is: Blue Kennel, which makes no sense to me as a blog name, but what are you going to do?

Already, the blog has offered a glimpse into the true Ahmanson mind, one that's not always set on denying gays the right to marry, support schismatics, or giving millions away to people who think man walked with the dinosaurs but is eclectic, intellectual, and with bits of humor thrown in. One recent post shows Ahmanson's gloriously liberal view on immigration assimilation (if the goombahs did it, Howard, so can the wabs, right?). The current post is a downright left position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here's to hoping Howie will start commenting on local issues, especially on those Republicans he's donated money to for so long but always seem to have the worst moral failings among county politicians...

Wonder if Jan and Paul Crouch will offer prayers on-air during Praise-a-Thon to the family destroyed by their drunkard of a pastor...

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The death certificate for David Rhodes will state he passed away November 3 at age 70 from pneumonia, but anyone who knows the whole story will always blame Steve Galiher.

Galiher, readers may recall, was the Trinity Broadcasting Network personality who was arrested April 26 for two DUIs and awaits his sentencing December 18 in Orange County Superior Court. Galiher crashed into David Rhodes with such force that Rhodes' car overturned twice, and he sustained four broken ribs, a broken arm and leg, and pins put in his vertebrae. David was in the hospital for three months and never fully regained his health after leaving.

David Rhodes, a Vietnam War veteran, will be buried Nov. 30 at Arlington National Cemetery. So sad that he survived war but was taken out by a drunken man of God from Tennessee...

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While Rick Warren goes around eating ice cream, the mothership Calvary Chapel campus will host a two-day conference starting Friday on the evils of Charles Darwin. Titled, appropriately enough, "Darwin was Wrong," a press release promises many lectures on the subject by scientists who "will present overwhelming scientific evidence against Darwin's speculations." But these aren't just any unbiased scientists--nearly all are affiliated with Logos Research Associates, an offshoot of Calvary Chapel whose mission is to "return science to a search for truth, as originally intended by its founders prior to the Enlightenment era." What kind of truth? The unerring truth of Christ Jesus? Then where does that put Archimedes and Avicenna? And what the hell is Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith doing, lecturing at a supposedly rational conference?

Courtesy of Orange County District Attorney's Office

Izad Chavoshan's booking photo.

​UPDATED WITH COMMENT FROM A CHURCH OFFICIAL . . .

The bizarre case of the Huntington Beach man charged with trying to burn down Orange County Church of Christ not one, two, three but four times (!) just keeps getting bizarrer.

Thirty-year-old Izad Chavoshan could get up to 20 years in state prison if he is convicted of the three felony counts of arson, one felony count of attempted arson and a hate crime sentencing enhancement against him. It certainly won't help Chavoshan's defense that he has a prior strike conviction from 1998 for criminal threats.

Yet, to read Chavoshan's Facebook page, you get the impression that authorities must've grabbed the wrong dude. The 1996 Marina High School grad lists his nickname as "Johnny Cash," his party affiliation as Republican and his favorite quote being law-and-order moralista  Ronald Reagan's "I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."

From Izad Chavoshan's Facebook page

Chavoshan's page includes photos from Orange Coast College Persian Students Society events and parties, and among his message to the other 150 fans of the Los Angeles International Church of Christ-East Region Religious Center was this one from Aug. 5: "Hello LAICC . . . I encourage all of you to attend Harvest Crusade. I am a born-again Christian and a Republican. www.harvest.org."

Just 10 or so weeks later, he was arrested not with a smoking gun but a burning trash can in front of the LAICC's Orange County church in Irvine, and investigators linked him to three other fires there since Oct. 15.

What the hell happened?

Just another fired janitor.

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The Best Christian Workplaces Institute surveyed 11,869 employees in 124 organizations across North America before naming the Brea-based Evangelical Christian Credit Union (ECCU) one of 2009's "great workplaces with a Christian mission and values."

Even the janitors like working at ECCU.

Or at least they did before they were fired.

James Corbett

​The Register's Scott Martindale reports that the lovably liberal UCI Law dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, will help represent James Corbett in his appeal of the ruling earlier this year that he violated the Constitution by criticizing Creationism in a Capistrano Valley High School classroom.

Corbett called Creationism "religious, superstitious nonsense" while teaching AP European History in 2007. Student Chad Farnan sued, alleging religious descrimination based on that comment and 21 others. A judge this year found Corbett liable only for the "nonsense" remark.

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A Huntington Beach man who apparently had grown disenchanted with Church of Christ in Irvine has been arrested for a series of fires set there this month, police announced today.

Officers who had the church under surveillance watched a man trying to burn papers near the  doors at 10 Goodyear on Wednesday night before taking him into custody. He was identified as 30-year-old Izad Chavoshan.

Carreon, at right: Who knew such a venomous man was an beer-bellied, middle-aged pendejo?

​If I were a member of UC Irvine's Muslim Student Union, I'd be scared: Hector Carreon is taking up your cause! The sole writer of the notoriously gay-bashing, Jew-trashing La Voz de Aztlán--who has taken to leaving anonymous death threats against me and having minions leave homophobic slurs against me on other blogs--has recently posted twice on the latest controversy affecting the MSU in its eternal fight with Jewish student groups and the Zionist Organization of America. Turns out that the latter recently sent out letters to the U.S. Department of Justice and UC Irvine complaining about an event the MSU hosted earlier this year (read the MSU's response here).

Here comes the conspiratorial Carreon. On Oct. 6, he opined that "The ZOA is headquartered in New York City and is funded by Wall Street tycoons, bankers and other wealthy Jews." Wow, three different synonyms for Jews in one sentence! Did you go to college with Martin Cox?

Insinuating a Jewish effort against the MSU wasn't enough, however; Carreon then exploited a tragic hate crime to affirm his hideous theories.

I thought book burnings in the South went with the way of the Beatles, but this shows how much I know: to celebrate Halloween, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina will host an ol'-fashioned Scripture bonfire complete with "Bar-b-Que Chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides," according to their website (click on the link, if only to hear a funny 1930s-era song about a boy who bought a Bible--yee-haw!). Among the literature the church claims constitute "Satan's popular books" include all the tomes of local preachers Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, and Benny Hinn. Pastor Marc Grizzard doesn't spell out exactly how the trio are part of Lucifer's minions, but wouldn't you trade your copy of The Purpose-Driven Life your co-worker left on your desk for a plate of Carolina 'cue?

Anyways, here's Hinn at his best:

Malik Ali, at UCI earlier this year...

​It was quite the heated, unexpected exchange today on KPFK-FM 90.7's Uprising morning programming (produced by Weekly contributor and Anaheim boy Gabriel San Roman) between two seeming allies. In one corner: Brian Levin, recent Best of OC profile subject and head of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. In the other corner: Munira Syeda, communications manager for the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The two were on to ostensibly talk about the partnership between CAIR and Jewish groups to protest some neo-Nazi Inland Empire morons who are targeting Mexicans and Jews.

That's not what happened. Instead, Levin mentioned he found it incredulous that CAIR would, on one hand help fight anti-Semites, yet on the other hand maintain a relationship with anti-Semites and refuse to condemn them. Specifically, he mentioned frequent UC Irvine yapper (at the invite of the campus' Muslim Student Union) Amir Abdel Malik Ali and William Baker. Both are certifiable Jew-haters: Malik Ali claims the recent Shepard hate crimes bill is a Jewish conspiracy to target Muslims, while Baker--who fronts as a Christian man who tries to build bridges of cultural tolerance with others regarding the Muslim faith--was exposed by the Weekly in 2002 as a raving fool.

Syeda brushed off Levin's claims, insisted CAIR condemns anti-Semites, and said she didn't "appreciate" the professor "smearing CAIR's name the way he did." But the fact is, Levin was speaking the truth.

​Gustavo Arellano needs a stack of scorecards to keep up with the molestation misdeeds that have swirled around the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County for years. Maybe he can loan us a blank one for this week's allegations involving non-Catholic clergy in OC.

​Another health practitioner with Orange County ties has been arrested on suspicion of prescribing phony cancer cures.

WSJ.com

​Licensed physician and ordained Pentecostal minister Christine Daniel of Mission Hills was arrested Thursday night in Los Angeles for allegedly taking $1.1 million from 55 families over three years for an herbal cancer "treatment" that resulted in at least six patient deaths in a six-month period.

(The only image Clockwork could find of the 55-year-old was this line drawing from the Wall Street Journal, although there exists online multiple photographs of Christine Daniels, formerly known as Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner.)

Dr. Daniel reportedly appeared on the Costa Mesa-based Christian television network TBN's Praise the Lord program and convinced some viewers to become her patients, stop their medically prescribed cancer treatments and send her $5,000 apiece. At least one rube is claimed to have paid her $13,000 only to die a few months later.

Among the three Southern California hospitals where Daniel has privileges, according to her official website, is Los Alamitos Medical Center.

​The Anaheim-based Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) is jumping into the controversy involving neo-Nazis harassing worshipers at a Jewish synagogue in Riverside.

As the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports, more than 20 organizations, including CAIR-LA, plan to stage a counter-protest to a neo-Nazi rally scheduled for Oct. 24. The Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization joined the Islamic Center of Riverside and the Islamic Society of Corona/Norco today in condemning the neo-Nazis who recently displayed flags with Nazi swastikas to harass and intimidate worshipers attending services at Temple Beth El.

​On The Politics of Culture from 2:30 to 3 p.m. today on KCRW (89.9 FM), host Jonathan Kirsch talks with religious scholars and others about "The Cartoons That Shook the World--Without the Cartoons."

It involves Yale University publishing a book in November about the controversial cartoons that appeared in a Danish newspaper depicting the prophet Mohammed--you know, the ones that resulted in worldwide Islamic protests, riots and deaths in 2005.

But the book itself will omit any and all images of the prophet Mohammed.

Photo by John Gilhooley

The Rev. Ava Park of the Goddess Temple in Irvine.

When the Goddess Temple of Orange County founder the Rev. Ava Park spoke with the Weekly in 2006, she tied man's violent, warring ways with a patriarchal society and the Old Testament view of a strong, male God who ruled his weak followers with punishment, wrath and fear.

"This model of behavior," Park said then, "sets the stage for everything that is wrong with our world: wars, aggression, violence, trashing Mother Earth, child abuse, sex slavery, racism, classism, factory farming, puppy mills, global warming, high gas prices, Humvees, homophobia, bad plastic surgery and the common cold--okay, well, maybe not that last one."

By contrast, she said, her temple holds "the vision for a new way of being in the world: peaceful, powerful, abundant, joyful." And so it is jarring to see the Goddess Temple now reaching out to honor "returning warriors of all military branches."

Photo by Keith May

James Corbett

A federal judge in Santa Ana has ruled that high school history teacher James Corbett--who former Weekly reporter Daffodil Altan wrote about here and here (with Gustavo Arellano on the latter)--is not financially liable for disparaging Christians in class.

The scoop is in today's Orange County Register.

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The Weekly's October 2008 cover story "Rock Angel" detailed the challenges Garden Grove filmmaker David Di Sabatino faced making a documentary on the late "Father of Christian Rock Music," Larry Norman.

It didn't get any easier after the film Fallen Angel was in the can. Di Sabatino has been berated by Norman's fans and threatened with legal action by Norman's family.

But today, all is quite well on the Fallen Angel front.

Di Sabatino might even be tempted to say, "Somebody up there likes me."

Photo by John Gilhooley

"Pastor Mondo" Armando Leon, who is shown in this 2005 photo above the cross-tattooed shoulder of Raiders Boosters of Orange County president Larry Garcia, founded Nation Ministry this season.

​Should the Oakland Raiders bounce back from their close opening night loss to the San Diego Chargers at Oakland Coliseum Sept. 14 and miraculously mount a winning season, perhaps it will be because they have The Big Guy on their side.

No, that is not a reference to rotund Raiders coach Tom Cable, rotund Hall of Fame Raiders coach John Madden or fat-headed owner Al Davis.

The Big Guy in this instance is God, Yahweh, the Ultimate Referee. And local "Raiders for Christ" are looking to him for supreme guidance this season. Anyone who has followed the Raiders in recent years knows they need divine help.

Proud Bruin and Muslim

​Speaking of Faith is one of the country's better public radio shows, a thoughtful, hour-long examination of faith in its many manifestations that local listeners can find every Sunday at 3 p.m. on KPCC-FM 89.3. Last week, the show devoted itself to Muslim listener-submitted reflections on Ramadan, and one of the 14 selected for airing came from Costa Mesa resident Parisa Popalzai, an Afghan native and UCLA graduate (go Bruins!) who spoke eloquently about her religious awakening, with 9/11 unsurprisingly serving as a flash point in her transformation from a Ramadan Muslim (kaffirs: just like a Christmas Christian or Yom Kippur Jew) into a devout Muslim woman who wears the hijab. 

"I became fed up with the stereotypes about Muslim women and tired of the fearmongering put out against the peaceful Muslim American community," Popalzai said. "I wanted to counter these misconceptions and prejudices by showing that Muslims are not some fanatic crazy-minded group of people. So on March 23rd, 2003, I decided to put on the head scarf and come out of the closet and be proud of my religious identity.

Listen to the entire interview below; if I screwed up the embedding, click here:

Eight years to the day after the 9/11 attacks, things have not gotten much better for our Muslim friends and neighbors.

Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released a new report with some interesting revelations:

* Americans see Muslims as facing more discrimination inside the U.S. than other major religious groups, with nearly six-in-10 adults saying that Muslims are subject to a lot of discrimination, far more than the poll results for Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons.

* Of all the groups asked about, only gays and lesbians are perceived as facing more discrimination than Muslims.

* Nearly 40 percent of Americans believe Islam is more likely to encourage violence.

The findings fall in line with the research of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), according to spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, who blames a "vocal minority" in the U.S. for fanning anti-Muslim bias with increasingly harsh rhetoric since 9/11.

"Unfortunately, people have focused on that tiny, tiny minority of Muslims who have carried out violent acts, and claim to act in the name of Islam," he said. "Ninety-nine point nine, nine percent of all Muslims will live and die without coming near an act of violence."

Pastor Steven Anderson with a future mind ripe for polluting.

First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park pastor Wiley Drake now has high-profile competition when it comes to praying for President Barack Obama's death.

Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Tempe, Arizona's Faithful Word Baptist Church--which, from the looks of it in this video of his "Why I Hate Barack Obama" sermon, appears to have been decorated by the Blind Boys of Alabama--told congregants recently that he also prays for the president's death.

However, where Drake simply prays for God to take Obama out however the Creator chooses, Anderson wishes the president will die "today" of brain cancer "like Ted Kennedy," calls on his flock to join in on the death prayer, and spews Christian blessings such as this: "Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg."

It's almost like Jesus Christ himself is talking, isn't it?

Boykin

Honors for hosting the most controversial book signing of the week go to Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, which Friday night hosts retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who famously said George W. Bush was not elected by a majority of Americans but "appointed by God," and that America is hated around the world because it is "a Christian nation."

As detailed in Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom, the new book he co-authored with Lynn Vincent, Boykin has found himself at the center of some of the country's most contentious military actions. He does have quite a resume.

After joining the U.S. Army's elite Delta Force in 1978, William G. "Jerry" Boykin was in on: the 1980 Iranian hostage rescue failure; the 1989 invasion of Panama and capture of brutal dictator Manuel Noriega; the 1992 hunt for notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar; and the 1993 seige of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas (where Boykin served as special advisor to Janet Reno). Boykin was also at the center of operations in Iraq, Grenada, Somalia and Mogadishu. When then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld elevated Boykin to deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, his job was to track down Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and other top terror suspects.

 

CAIR-LA's Hussam Ayloush comes out strongly against profiling, entrapment and extremism.

​Nick Schou posted yesterday about the Al Jazeera news service interviewing Orange County Islamic mosque infiltrator and FBI informant Craig Monteilh of Irvine, but he is not the only local who turns up in the piece. Along with some local Muslims who Monteilh apparently approached (and, they say, tried to entrap), Al Jazeera catches up with Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Anaheim-based, Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Ayloush is making the national and international media rounds this week. In addition to his comments to Al Jazeera against the profiling and attempted entrapment of Muslims (especially in their places of worship), Ayloush's anti-extremism letter titled "Enough With the Fear Mongering" appears in Monday's Washington Times. It follows . . .

​Writing years ago for OC Weekly--so many years ago that it was before online archiving was invented by the Druids--yours truly assumed a new identity to infiltrate the Orange County Republican Party. Part of the ruse--which is referred to online in the LA "By God" Times--involved "Matt Stanfil" submitting a letter-to-the-editor to the Times, which published it.

In the subsequent Weekly story than can only be found now in a recycling pulp mill, apparently, I first personed that it was drilled into our heads in journalism school that we must work hard enough so that one day we would find our bylines in the LA "By God" Times. Having done so as Stanfil, I mused, that probably was not what my J-professors meant.

Tuesday, the real deal Matt Coker byline made it into the even loftier New York Times. Alas, it is still not in the context that will win me a seat at my alma mater's next cold chicken journalism banquet. 

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It's neither the embodiment of a "rabbi, imam and Christian pastor walk into a [insert place]" joke, nor another example of one of today's too frequent clashes of cultures and religions that the Islamic Institute of Orange County is presenting Sunday. Instead, it's a rare opportunity to witness teachers from the Jewish, Muslim and Christians faiths come together to respectfully share their views on life's biggest subject.

"The Purpose of Life" is discussed that day by Rabbi Frank Stern, president of the Orange County Interfaith Network, the Rev. Brian Scott Harper, pastor of Local PEACE/Missions at Saddleback Church; and Shaykh Yassir Fazaga, religious leader of the Orange County Islamic Foundation in Mission Viejo. The free event is scheduled to run from 2 to 4 p.m. at the institute, 1220 N. State College Blvd., Anaheim.

To hold you over until then, here is Fazaga in a 2007 "Ask a Muslim" segment on KROQ's Kevin and Bean Show (Gustavo should be so proud.):
 
 

The decorated Girl Scout and her "Alternate Universe."

 A few weeks ago five Fullerton girls were awarded the Girl Scouts of America's highest honor, the prestigious Gold Award, for creating community service oriented projects -- food drives, photography workshops, mural paintings, you know the type.

"Earning the award reflects an extraordinary degree of leadership and citizenship skills," said Nancy Nygren, CEO of the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, in a press release that ran as an article on the OC Register's site. "It calls upon all the skills, confidence and values the girls have learned as Girl Scouts."

Hmm, it's no secret that the Girl Scouts come from the same bible-toting, gay-nervous family as the Boy Scouts, but you have to wonder, do those values also include working to better promote creationism in your community? Apparently so. Annie Wichman, a Wisconsin native, received the same fancy Gold Award for building an extensive "creationist library" which she named, "Alternate Universe." Wichman spent three years gathering creationism texts (mostly from creationist magazine Answer in Genesis, which first shared the good news of Annie's win -- and plugged themselves -- on their website), so that she could help others "defend their faith."

With her library in tow, she spent last summer teaching creationism to kids in first through sixth grades using the Answers in Genesis curriculum as her source. Were these fellow girl scouts? Public school kids? Let's hope her lessons were kept to the Sunday school bunch.

I can't help but wonder, what would Miss Nancy of the Orange County Girl Scouts Council have to say about Annie? And with such a pronounced and fervent creationist bent in our neck of the woods, would Annie have earned the Gold Award for the same project here without anyone so much as batting an eye?

TBN Heads Paul & Jan Crouch: More than 1 billion souls bilked!

A thousand apologies to the people who showed up to my scheduled speech on religion in Orange County this Saturday before the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Orange County chapter. Just half an hour before my 2 p.m. start, a blinding tooth ache forced me to visit the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente's Irvine branch. They gave me Vicodin, and isn't the world so groooooooooooooovy? AU-OC head Stephanie Campbell will have me back sometime next year, so stay tuned.

As an apology of sorts, I print below the heartfelt letter by a reader regarding the experience she and a Christian friend had with the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Lengthy, but worth the read, with certain names changed to protect the identity of the disappointed guy:

Hi Gustavo, re: your talk about religious wackos. thought I'd share story this with you. I sometimes arrange broadcast and sponsorships for events and was asked to do so by a friend of mine for a Christian music festival he was producing couple of years ago. The friend is a record producer with a wall of gold records (mostly hip-hop, r&b, black music) and I know him through the music industry. The part of his life I wasn't close to was his church activities and I approached arranging the broadcast for his festival in the same way I would for any other secular concert and not in any special "christian" way.

I don't watch TBN or any of that kind of televangelist shows so had made assumptions that it ran the same way secular tv does. When I have seen preachers on the shows (fleeting glances while channel switching), I thought the shows were picked for their production value, popularity, professionalism, and generally for the same reasons that shows get on any secular broadcast schedule...

My client/friend is a known quantity in the entertainment biz and has worked with some of the most famous people in the world...and was putting together a show which regular broadcasters would jump at if secular and we had commercial sponsors lined up pending the broadcast situation. However, even though the level of the show was first rate, since it was going to be very religious, it would not be appropriate for regular broadcast but perfect for a TBN audience.

I pitched TBN on the project and was completely shocked to find out that all those Sunday Morning preachers don't get paid -- they pay for the air time. they are like infomercials. The criteria for the schedule isn't how good a show/service they put on. It's how much they are willing to pay for the air-time. (which explains why they spend so much time desperately begging for money).

Bishop Gene Robinson

This previous post concerns Arkansas Democrat-Gazette religion editor Frank Lockwood exposing New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein for not being at the Episcopal Church's Anaheim convention to cover the vote to ordain gay bishops--even though her story and dateline made it appear she was. But Goodstein was there during a break in the action that allowed her to file an exclusive interview with the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson. Some key passages:

GOODSTEIN: Going into this convention you said you had a lot of trepidation because you had recently been feeling a cold shoulder from your fellow bishops, and you anticipated that they were prepared to vote against the gay-related legislation. But on both key resolutions [ordination of gay priests and same-sex blessings], your side prevailed. What happened?

ROBINSON: The most significant thing that happened was on Tuesday, after the House of Bishops stopped the debate on same-sex blessings and decided to have a smaller group of bishops meet to discuss it further. They said anyone could come, and it turned out it wasn't a small group at all. There were 25 to 30 of us, and it turned out to be the most significant interaction I've had with the bishops since I've been elected.

It was profound and it was inspiring. People stood up and spoke their own truth, both the pain and the joy. Everyone spoke honestly about what they needed to go home with, what they could live with and what they couldn't.

Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park has been previously recognized for interfaith gestures, helping the less fortunate and sheltering the homeless on church property despite threats from lawsuits, neighboring residents and city code enforcement.

He's also lashed out against gays, Disneyland, gays, the Clintons, gays, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, gays and, of course, homeless gays wearing mouse ears, Hillary campaign buttons and Rainbow Coalition neckties. Among his most outrageous acts in recent memory was going on the radio to say he was praying for President Obama's death.

As shown above, that has now earned wily Pastor Wiley recognition from a new source: MSNBC's Keith  Olbermann, who just named Drake the "Worst Person in the World." Not only has Drake prayed to God to take Obama, Olbermann notes, but Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and fellow pastor Rick Warren as well.

That earned Drake the gold medal (or worst) from Keither Peepers, who doled out the silver (worser) to Free Republic website founder Jim Thompson (for allowing racist, and moderated, comments about President Obama's daughter to linger on the website for three days) and the bronze (worse) to fading conservative star Rush Limbaugh (for saying Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment was more racist than former GOP Sen. George Allen's "macaca" remark).

Clockwork has reached out to our good reverend for comment on the Olbermann, erm. "honor," which we'll dutifully post should he do so. In the meantime, ol' Keithy should expect his own death prayer coming from a certain Christian pastor any day now.