With bills actually moving through both houses of Congress, the credit card lobby is finding itself on the defensive, and turning out in force to oppose the legislation.

As we reported in January, Sen. Mark Udall is carrying the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights reform legislation with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. That bill would further clamp down on deceptive and unfair practices more immediately than those outlined in federal regulators’ new rules introduced in December that curiously won’t take hold until July 2010.

Does Sarah Palin believe in the Anti-Christ? Does she believe true Christians will be whisked up to heaven sometime in the near future? Does she expect Jesus to come back to Earth in our lifetimes and battle the armies of Satan? Would biblical prophecies about Armageddon influence her foreign policy positions on Israel and Russia? These are urgent questions the media have failed to ask. According to Chip Berlet, a leading expert on the Christian right, mainstream reporters tend to view apocalyptic fundamentalists as a “silly little side show” in American political life, when, in fact, one of their own may soon be a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world.