Daryl Johnson, a former senior domestic terrorism analyst with the DHS, says that his `greatest fear is that domestic terrorists in this country will somehow become emboldened to the point of carrying out a mass-casualty attack, because they perceive that no one is being vigilant about the threat from within.'

In the wake of 9/11, law enforcement officials ramped up their efforts to prevent domestic terrorism. During the past two years, while energy of the expanded Department of Homeland Security has been focused on Muslims -- either American born or those coming from outside the country - according to a former DHS official, the DHS has basically put the kibosh on analyzing homegrown terrorist threats by white supremacists, militias, the patriot movement, and anti-abortion fanatics.

The New McCarthyism, as exemplified by Republican Congressman Peter King, insists that America's prisons are fertile grounds for recruiting African Americans to Islam and terrorism.

Shortly after 9/11, a few conservative leaders began issuing warnings that the nation's prisons were fertile incubation grounds for Muslim terrorists. For the most part, those warnings pretty much played themselves out in the conservative media.

These days, however, New York Republican Congressman Peter King, who back in the day supported the IRA, and is rapidly carving out a reputation for himself as an anti-Muslim demagogue, has taken on the role of warner-in-chief regarding the danger of prisoners converting to Islam and then becoming terrorists.

However, according to a recent piece in the Huffington Post, "This alarmist position has thrived in the post-9/11 world, yet empirical evidence reveals it a house of cards built on anecdotal evidence."

Some are calling it the Mormon 'moment'; others are writing 'They're here, they're square, get used to it!' But some conservative Christian evangelicals are adamant that Romney's Mormonism disqualifies him from the presidency.

Given that the Republican Party's presidential debate had taken place the night before, and given Mitt Romney's apparent "victory" - untouched, un-phased, and unharmed -- while folks were scarfing down the jalapeno artichoke dip, fruit salad, fresh strawberries, ham, turkey, chips, crackers and assorted cheeses at a high school graduation party for a friend's son the other evening, the political chitchat turned towards Mormons and Mormonism.

Romney's front-runner status combined with a number of broader cultural markers, including the fact that The Book of Mormon - produced by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Robert Lopez, had won a number of awards at Sunday night's Tony Awards, including the award for Best Musical, seemed to have people eager to talk about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons); its history, beliefs, notable figures, and extensive involvement in politics.

Over the past 180-+ years, Mormonism has traversed an extraordinary path from its initial founding in Western New York state, to Missouri, Utah, and now ...  to the Great White Way.

No matter what they may call it, when conservative Christian evangelicals stage a prayer meeting/mass rally at a big stadium, if you're gay, you'd be advised to stay away. And that warning goes for Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Atheists as well. Despite what organizers may publicly proclaim, these mass rallies praying for Jesus Christ's guidance through hard times, have a tendency to turn towards the dark side for those outside the faith.

And when the initiator of the event is a governor of a big state looking to make national headlines, the main sponsor of the event is the wholly un-cuddlesome and anti-gay American Family Association, branded a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and key organizers of the event are closely linked to TheCall, Lou Engle's unambiguously anti-gay organization, that's a prescription for a decidedly partisan, and, dare I say it, un-Christian gathering.

Welcome to Rick Perry's "The Response."

In 2008, as he is doing this year, Mitt Romney was in hot pursuit of  the Republican Party's presidential nomination. In 2008, as he is doing this year, Romney was touting his experience as a businessman. And, in 2008, as he has already done this year, Romney was imploring voters to reject "lifetime politicians" who "have never run a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world."

In January of that year, the Boston Globe reported that despite recent campaign pledges "to beleaguered auto workers in Michigan and textile workers in South Carolina to 'fight to save every job,'" Romney did not have a reputation as someone who fought to save jobs.

"Throughout his 15-year career at Bain Capital," the Boston Globe reported, "which bought, sold, and merged dozens of companies, Romney had other chances to fight to save jobs, but didn't. His ultimate responsibility was to make money for Bain's investors, former partners said."

In the past, Liberty University was saved from debt by being a beneficiary of the late Jerry Falwell's life insurance policy. It has also been bailed out by the financial maneuverings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. These days, however, the university is experiencing phenomenal growth, due in part to the largesse of the American taxpayer.

One might think that a private, decidedly conservative, and totally evangelical Christian University, that was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who was openly critical of government programs, would spurn federal dollars.

Au contraire mon ami.

Over the years, while many have heard and heeded the call, few have emerged victorious, which means that either they didn't really get the call, or the caller was more trickster than heavenly messenger.

George W. Bush did it; Michelle Bachmann has done it a number of times, and appears to be about to do it again; As Mormons, it is highly unlikely that Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman would dare do it; Newt Gingrich would do it if he thought there was a chance anyone would believe him; Tim Pawlenty's campaign manager did it only a few weeks ago; and, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump would likely be laughed off the stage if they even tried it.

IT is "The Call" from God to run for the presidency.

She probably won't be parting the waters of the Red Sea like Moses (Charlton Heston) in "The Ten Commandments"; she likely won't be standing alone, defending her town against a band of ruthless outlaws like Sherriff Will Kane (Gary Cooper) in "High Noon"; and, she won't be leading a desperate band across Mexico like Colonel John Henry Thomas (John Wayne) did in "The Undefeated."

When you're Sarah Palin and you can hand pick a right-wing Hollywood filmmaker and financier to write, produce and direct a movie that will play up -- in spectacular ways -- your effect on America's political landscape, you really don't need to be John Wayne-ish.

While the new Palin film, titled "The Undefeated," might serve as the launching pad for a race for the presidency it is also likely to forever mark her as someone with a lopsided martyr complex.

No Rapture, no tribulation, no earthquake, and ... no refunds.

On Monday evening, May 23 -- two days after Judgment Day failed to materialize -- Harold Camping stepped up to Family Radio's "Open Forum"  mic and basically declared "Mission Accomplished."

Coming only a day after he admitted to being "flabbergasted" by events, Camping's rambling and discombobulated statement maintained that the end of the world had been postponed until October 21, because "God is a loving and merciful God" he would not allow "long term suffering for anyone."

Therefore, according to Camping, on October 21, the world will end quickly, without any fanfare.

To paraphrase from "The Sound of Music," "The world is alive with the sound of Harold Camping ticking off the hours until the End Times erupts tomorrow evening at 6 P.M."

By setting the date for the End Times, Oakland, California's own Harold Camping, the owner of Family Stations, Inc. has achieved more than even he might have imagined. Headlines, hits on Google and Bing, face time on television; not bad for a guy rapidly approaching 90 years on the planet.

For years, opponents and proponents of the death penalty have used religiously-couched arguments to bolster their positions. In 2008, Walter Berns wrote in The Weekly Standard that that "the death penalty is more likely to be imposed by a religious people."

In his introduction to a 2001 Pew Forum panel titled "Religious Reflections on the Death Penalty," Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne pointed out that "the religious community has played an enormous role in having people question their consciences' about where they stand on the death penalty." He also noted that "it's impossible to say that there is any religious consensus on the death penalty."

If there is any consensus at all, it is built upon the fact that no one wants innocent people convicted, imprisoned and executed.

Thanks to Innocence projects around the country, more than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated and released from prison.

Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not always DNA evidence that leads to the freeing of the falsely convicted from prison. 'Often,' says veteran investigator Rosa Greenbaum, 'false convictions in cases lacking biological evidence can only be overturned through solid, traditional investigation.'

A Frank Luntz-conducted focus group which declared Herman Cain the overwhelming victor in the first Republican Party presidential debate had conservative radio talk-show host Michael Medved claiming that it 'provides potent counter-evidence to the tired Democratic charge that conservatives ... dislike Obama primarily because he's African-American.'

Political gadfly Alan Keyes, and Herman Cain, who appears to be emerging as the latest African American "It Guy" of the conservative movement, have a fair amount in common. They are both extremely conservative; anti-same-sex marriage and virulently anti-abortion. They both hosted radio programs. They both have serious communications chops; just as Keyes could win over a live audience of conservatives with a quiver full of sharp rhetorical flourishes, one liners and clever comebacks, Cain appears to have mastered some of the same skills.