The Republicans can't buy a break, can they?

They go to church, often many times a week, they pray, they (sometimes) abstain from sin, and what do they ask for in return? Not much. Well, wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, right? And sometimes they get it.

But every so often you need a little extra favor from the Big Guy. "Come on, Lord, help me out this one time and smite my enemies!" Doesn't seem like too much to ask, does it?

Apparently it is. First off, right-wing loony Dobson got it into his head that if Obama was going to show them all up by speaking outside, he would get his disciples to pray for rain:

As reported here over the weekend, James Dobson's Focus on the Family employs Stuart Shepard to make short, "clever" religious-right videos for the evangelical powerhouse. Shepard creates these videos regularly, and most of them are entirely forgettable.

Last week, however, Focus unveiled a new video, asking politically-conservative Christians to pray for rain on Aug. 28, in order to disrupt Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Shepard called for "abundant rain, torrential rain ... flood-advisory rain." He adds, "I'm talking about umbrella-ain't-gonna-help-you rain ... swamp-the-intersections rain." Explaining why he wants everyone to pray for rain, Shepard explains, without a hint of humor, "I'm still pro-life, and I'm still in favor or marriage being between one man and one woman. And I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."

And what happened? A beautiful, sunny day. You couldn't ask for a nicer day if you tried, and it was followed by a beautiful night and a great night for the "godless" Democrats. So what, god doesn't like the Republicans anymore?

And then this week, once again what were they asking for? Not much, really. Just send down a massive hurricane to smite the godless city of New Orleans, kind of like the one three years ago. It would be a win-win. The people would be fine, because the government is so much better at planning for this thing than they were three years ago; the Republicans would get to grandstand their empathy for the poor suffering people of New Orleans and pretend they give a rat's ass about the poor people who live there; and McCain would get to have the mother of all photo ops by flying down there to do his acceptance speech in the midst of the rubble. What could be better?

But again, did that happen? No-o-o-o. After a late Monday morning landfall on the coast of southeast Louisiana, Hurricane Gustav became a tropical storm late Monday night but is spinning through and soaking central Louisiana.

So where's the love? Is it possible that the Republicans aren't the chosen people?