Dylan and Ethan Ris — old friends of ours and two of the most savant-ish wonks I've ever met — are back online and covering D.C. politics, and this time on their very own brand new website, The Earmark.

I already added it to my RSS reader. (Thank god; I can finally get back to plagiarizing them.)

The Washington Post reported yesterday that thirty-three renegade Christian pastors, following in the proud tradition of civil rights activists across the world, participated in a coordinated effort to exercise their freedoms of religion and speech in the face of an oppressive federal law taking away those rights.

By endorsing John McCain…

Defying a federal law that prohibits U.S. clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, an evangelical Christian minister told his congregation Sunday that voting for Sen. Barack Obama would be evidence of "severe moral schizophrenia."

The Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. told worshipers that the Democratic presidential nominee's positions on abortion and gay partnerships exist "in direct opposition to God's truth as He has revealed it in the Scriptures…"

Asked why he felt the need to discuss the candidates by name and to be explicit in rejecting Obama and his pro-choice views, Johnson said he must connect the dots because he is not sure that all members of his congregation can do so on their own.

The problem is, the federal law that Johnson and his 32 collaborators are challenging doesn't actually ban them from making endorsements from the pulpit. It simply takes away their tax-exempt status with the IRS. If they want to be partisan political associations, all they need to do is pay their taxes like everyone else, and they're good to go.

Anyway, if Johnson thinks his congregation is too stupid to figure out the policy positions of the presidential candidates, maybe he should be giving sermons on a more relevant topic.

Like how to read.