Obama's proposed Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, faith-based initiatives to funnel social welfare money through religiously-run institutions, is not a move to the right as some bloggers argue; in fact, it's a brilliant plot to seize political territory and marginalize the religious right.

The key sentences from the proposal are these:

"Obama does not support requiring religious tests for recipients of aid nor using federal money to proselytize, according to a campaign fact sheet. He also only supports letting religious institutions hire and fire based on faith in the non-taxpayer funded portions of their activities, said a senior adviser to the campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely describe the new policy."

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In all the analysis about how conservative or mixed in ideology the Supreme Court has become, there's been little comment on the reality that in almost every case where corporations challenged state regulations or taxing powers this term, the corporations won and state power lost. "This has been a very successful year for the business community," said Miguel Estrada, who represents many key corporate interests before courts in Washington, D.C."

In almost every Supreme Court decision decided this term, state regulation lost out against business claims of federal preemption of state powers. The list and effects on consumer protection, labor rights and state budgets went on and on (for analysis go to the flip):

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