A Parable For Our Times

TomPaine.com

O Strangled Town of Bethlehem

God's Politics Blog

Still True On This Christmas Day

FOR OUR WORLD

We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment.
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Heart Silent for a moment.
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment.
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice.
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment.
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.

September 12, 2001
© Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek

Learn more at Mattie's Website.

An Appeal for Redress From the War in Iraq

Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation.

Please direct active military personnel to the Appeal for Redress website.

Jim Wallis: People Will Die Because Bush Won't Listen

God's Politics Blog

No More BU_ _ SH _ _ !!!

Impeachment proceedings should begin as quickly as possible!

Speaking of bu_ _ sh_ _, how about Cheney calling Rumsfeld the finest defense secretary this country has ever had! But what would you expect from someone who has not told the truth about anything yet!

Fox News Loves Little Baby Jesus, Not the Jesus as Lord of All

EthicsDaily.com

Left Behind... What in God's name are they thinking???

Following is an email from Vince Isner, director of FaithfulAmerica.org, with more insight on the Left Behind:Eternal Forces video game:

Despite a vigorous PR effort to downplay the violent, warring aspects of the game (blow away a non-Christian, lose a point...) the fact remains, the game is about blowing away non-Christians. That would mean Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and everyone else, including the healthy percentage of Christians who know better than to buy the idea that God would ever be part of such a nightmare.

The game's creator Troy Lyndon has stated, "There's no killing in the name of God." Yet the facts are, this is a game about a Christian fundamentalist-drenched end-time scenario in which the "enemy" is a dark army of non-believers pitted against converted Christians... containing as much violence as any we have seen in Grand Theft Auto. Despite poor gamer reviews its very premise remains troublesome.

What "Left Behind" leaves behind is Christ's central teaching. In fact, every major faith tradition offers the world a deep and simple well of goodness, tolerance, forgiveness, and above all, love. I would hate to think of a world in which those rich and nourishing expressions of God are extinguished, either in life or on a video screen. If there is a need for anything at all as we end this year scarred by hatred and war, it is a place where everyone's voice is heard, and where nobody's beliefs are assigned a point value.

Please allow a personal thought here. Those who believe in the end-time scenario have reasons that I may not understand. However, in Luke's gospel Jesus said that the kingdom of God is "within you." Over and over again I have seen that "kingdom" within so many - from the young mother I watched yesterday on a busy New York bus talking gently to her toddler, to my dear Muslim friend who sits daily beside his Christian wife while her body succumbs to Lou Gehrig's disease. If I have learned anything from these and so many other "angels" in this world it is that if the kingdom of God comes, it will not arrive by God overriding the worst that people can do to one another. The kingdom will come through God using the best of who we are and what we do for each other.

A well-meaning friend once asked me if I was ready for the rapture. "What if Jesus comes tomorrow? What are you going to do?"

I replied, "The more important question for me is What if Jesus DOESN'T come tomorrow? What will I do then?" So many need our expressions of care.

So here's what we are asking you to do. GO HERE and tell us how YOU hope to touch another person's life for good this Holy season. Maybe you want to share how someone has touched your life. That's good too! You can either write it to us, or (if you have a mic in your computer, and most laptops do), TELL us. We have made it very easy for you to share. We will post your entries on our website.

Imagine how grateful we are for your presence in this life and for the many acts of goodness that are "left behind" wherever you go.

The Left Behind video game!

Just in time for Christmas, the religious right has released a violent video game in which born-again Christians aim to convert or kill those who don't adhere to their extreme ideology. Disturbingly, the game's apparent attempts at religious
indoctrination are aimed at children and focus on violent, divisive, and hateful scenarios.

I continue to be amazed at how many people literally buy into this junk! Go HERE for a refresher course on the perverted theology that is behind all the "Left Behind" hysteria.

The Chickens Come Home to Roost

EthicsDaily.com

Outsourcer in Chief

Following are selections from yesterday's Paul Krugman column in the New York Times:

According to U.S. News & World Report, President Bush has told aides that he won’t respond in detail to the Iraq Study Group’s report because he doesn’t want to “outsource” the role of commander in chief.

That’s pretty ironic. You see, outsourcing of the government’s responsibilities — not to panels of supposed wise men, but to private companies with the right connections — has been one of the hallmarks of his administration. And privatization through outsourcing is one reason the administration has failed on so many fronts.

For example, an article in Saturday’s New York Times describes how the Coast Guard has run a $17 billion modernization program: “Instead of managing the project itself, the Coast Guard hired Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, two of the nation’s largest military contractors, to plan, supervise and deliver the new vessels and helicopters.”

The result? Expensive ships that aren’t seaworthy. The Coast Guard ignored “repeated warnings from its own engineers that the boats and ships were poorly designed and perhaps unsafe,” while “the contractors failed to fulfill their obligation to make sure the government got the best price, frequently steering work to their subsidiaries or business partners instead of competitors.”

In Afghanistan, the job of training a new police force was outsourced to DynCorp International, a private contractor, under very loose supervision: when conducting a recent review, auditors couldn’t even find a copy of DynCorp’s contract to see what it called for. And $1.1 billion later, Afghanistan still doesn’t have an effective police training program.

... the Bush administration outsourced many responsibilities of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For example, the job of evacuating people from disaster areas was given to a trucking logistics firm, Landstar Express America. When Hurricane Katrina struck, Landstar didn’t even know where to get buses. According to Carey Limousine, which was eventually hired, Landstar “found us on the Web site.”

It’s now clear that there’s a fundamental error in the antigovernment ideology embraced by today’s conservative movement. Conservatives look at the virtues of market competition and leap to the conclusion that private ownership, in itself, is some kind of magic elixir. But there’s no reason to assume that a private company hired to perform a public service will do better than people employed directly by the government.

In fact, the private company will almost surely do a worse job if its political connections insulate it from accountability — which has, of course, consistently been the case under Mr. Bush. The inspectors’ report on Afghanistan’s police conspicuously avoided assessing DynCorp’s performance; even as government auditors found fault with Landstar, the company received a plaque from the Department of Transportation honoring its hurricane relief efforts.

Underlying this lack of accountability are the real motives for turning government functions over to private companies, which have little to do with efficiency. To say the obvious: when you see a story about failed outsourcing, you can be sure that the company in question is a major contributor to the Republican Party, is run by people with strong G.O.P. connections, or both...

Focus on the Family Web Site Endorses 'Left Behind' Video Game

EthicsDaily.com

Turning on the Puppet

Following are selections from today's Maureen Dowd column in the New York Times:

In Latvia, President Bush vowed yesterday that “I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete.” But his words about Iraq long ago lost their meaning. Especially the words “mission” and “complete.”


Regarding the leaked memo written by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley:

“The memo suggests that if Mr. Maliki fails to carry out a series of specified steps,” he writes, “it may ultimately be necessary to press him to reconfigure his parliamentary bloc, a step the United States could support by providing ‘monetary support to moderate groups,’ and by sending thousands of additional American troops into Baghdad to make up for what the document suggests is current shortage of Iraqi forces.”

Just what the election said Americans want: More kids at risk in Baghdad. (W.’s kids, of course, are running their own risks, partying their way through Argentina.)

Mr. Hadley bluntly mused about Mr. Malaki: “His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shi’a hierarchy and force positive change. But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”

It’s bad enough to say that about the Iraqi puppet. But what about when the same is true of the American president?

Ten Months or Ten Years

Following is a selection from today's Thomas Friedman column in the New York Times:


On Feb. 12, 2003, before the war, I wrote a column offering what I called my “pottery store” rule for Iraq: “You break it, you own it.” It was not an argument against the war, but rather a cautionary note about the need to do it with allies, because transforming Iraq would be such a huge undertaking. (Colin Powell later picked up on this and used the phrase to try to get President Bush to act with more caution, but Mr. Bush did not heed Mr. Powell’s advice.)

But my Pottery Barn rule was wrong, because Iraq was already pretty broken before we got there — broken, it seems, by 1,000 years of Arab-Muslim authoritarianism, three brutal decades of Sunni Baathist rule, and a crippling decade of U.N. sanctions. It was held together only by Saddam’s iron fist. Had we properly occupied the country, and begun political therapy, it is possible an American iron fist could have held Iraq together long enough to put it on a new course. But instead we created a vacuum by not deploying enough troops.

That vacuum was filled by murderous Sunni Baathists and Al Qaeda types, who butchered Iraqi Shiites until they finally wouldn’t take it any longer and started butchering back, which brought us to where we are today. The Sunni Muslim world should hang its head in shame for the barbarism it has tolerated and tacitly supported by the Sunnis of Iraq, whose violence, from the start, has had only one goal: America must fail in its effort to bring progressive politics or democracy to this region. America must fail — no matter how many Iraqis have to be killed, America must fail.

This has left us with two impossible choices. If we’re not ready to do what is necessary to crush the dark forces in Iraq and properly rebuild it, then we need to leave — because to just keep stumbling along as we have been makes no sense. It will only mean throwing more good lives after good lives into a deeper and deeper hole filled with more and more broken pieces.

Bush still does not get it!

The following headline is just another reminder of how delusional this man is! But it also reminds us of how narrow minded right wingers can be - they see nothing outside the scope of their own agenda and prejudices.


RIGA, Latvia (CNN) -- President Bush on Tuesday rejected suggestions that Iraq is in a civil war and vowed again he won't support the removal of U.S. troops from the war-torn country "before the mission is complete."

"There's a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented in my opinion because of the attacks by al Qaeda, causing people to seek reprisal," he said, calling the violence part of a plot.

Race Denial Is a River in the Heart of America

EthicsDaily.com

The danger of this damaged administration

Dick Cheney has been, is, and will continue to be the most dangerous person in this country. Bush has never had a clue, and he has let neocons led by Cheney continue to run this country right into the ground!

The Next Act by Seymour Hersh

Lost in the Desert

Following are a couple of quotes I particularly like from a Maureen Dowd editorial on the Iraq fiasco:

"The good news is that the election ... dismantled the president’s fake reality about Iraq..."

"Dick Cheney and his wormy aides, of course, are still babbling about total victory and completing the mission by raising the stakes and knocking off the mullahs in Tehran. His tombstone will probably say, 'Here lies Dick Cheney, still winning.'"

A Come-to-Daddy Moment

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote the following today:

Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they’re taking it back.

They are dragging W. away from those reckless older guys who have been such a bad influence and getting him some new minders who are a lot more practical.

In a scene that might be called “Murder on the Oval Express,” Rummy turned up dead with so many knives in him that it’s impossible to say who actually finished off the man billed as Washington’s most skilled infighter. (Poppy? Scowcroft? Baker? Laura? Condi? The Silver Fox? Retired generals? Serving generals? Future generals? Troops returning to Iraq for the umpteenth time without a decent strategy? Democrats? Republicans? Joe Lieberman?)

The defense chief got hung out to dry before Saddam got hung. The president and Karl Rove, underestimating the public’s hunger for change or overestimating the loyalty of a fed-up base, did not ice Rummy in time to save the Senate from teetering Democratic. But once Sonny managed to heedlessly dynamite the Republican majority — as well as the Middle East, the Atlantic alliance and the U.S. Army — then Bush Inc., the family firm that snatched the presidency for W. in 2000, had to step in. Two trusted members of the Bush 41 war council, Mr. Baker and Robert Gates, have been dispatched to discipline the delinquent juvenile and extricate him from the mother of all messes.

Mr. Gates, already on Mr. Baker’s “How Do We Get Sonny Out of Deep Doo Doo in Iraq?” study group, left his job protecting 41’s papers at Texas A&M to return to Washington and pry the fingers of Poppy’s old nemesis, Rummy, off the Pentagon.

“They had to bring in someone from the old gang,” said someone from the old gang. “That has to make Junior uneasy. With Bob, the door is opened again to 41 and Baker and Brent.”

W. had no choice but to make an Oedipal U-turn. He couldn’t let Nancy Pelosi subpoena the cranky Rummy for hearings on Iraq. “He’s not exactly Mr. Charming or Mr. Truthful, and he’d be on TV saying something stupid,” said a Bush 41 official. “Bob can just go up to the Hill and say: ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there when that happened.’ ”

Bob Gates, his friends say, had been worried about the belligerent, arrogant, ideological style of Rummy & Cheney from the start. He fretted at the way W.’s so-called foreign policy “dream team” — including his old staffer and fellow Soviet expert Condi — made it up as they went along, even though that had been their complaint about the Clinton foreign policy team. A realpolitik advocate like his mentor, General Scowcroft, he was critical of a linear, moralizing style that disdained nuance, demoted diplomacy and inflated villains. In 2004, he publicly questioned the administration’s approach to Iran.

While Vice went off to a corner to lick his wounds, W. was forced to do his best imitation of his dad yesterday, talking about “bipartisan outreach,” “people have spoken,” blah-blah-blah — after he’d been out on the trail saying that electing Democrats would mean that “the terrorists win and America loses.”

“I share a large part of the responsibility” for the “thumpin’ ” of Republicans, he told reporters. Actually, he gets full responsibility.

W. has stopped talking about democracy as a standard of success in Iraq; yesterday, he said that Iraq had to “govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself.”

He was asked if his surprise at the election results showed he was out of touch with Americans. “I thought when it was all said and done,” he replied, “the American people would understand the importance of taxes and the importance of security.”

So it was just that the American people were too dumb to understand? W. also managed to bash Vietnam vets, saying that this war isn’t similar because there’s a volunteer army, so “the troops understand the consequences of Iraq in the global war on terror.” Is that why W. stayed out of Vietnam? Because he understood it?

An ashen Rummy was also condescending during his uncomfortable tableau with W. and Bob Gates in the Oval Office, implying that he was dumped because Americans just didn’t “comprehend” what was going on in Iraq. Actually, Rummy, we get it. You don’t get it.

“Baker’s no fool,” a Bush 41 official said. “He wasn’t going to go out there with a plan for Iraq and have Rummy shoot it down. He wanted a receptive audience. Everyone had to be on the same page before the plan is unveiled.”

They don’t call him the Velvet Hammer for nothing. R.I.P., Rummy.

Even Bush's puppeteers are angry with him!

Vanity fair interview

Voting Baptist Convictions

EthicsDaily.com

Election-Eve Altar Call: President Bush Panders To Religious Right On TV Preacher Robertson’s Show

The Wall of Separation - Official Weblog of AU.org

So Much For The Liberal Media!

On October 31, all three broadcast networks led their nightly news programs with coverage of the controversy surrounding Kerry's botched joke intended to criticize President Bush on his Iraq war policies, but has been misrepresented by Republicans and some in the media as denigrating U.S. soldiers in Iraq. These outlets have also ignored comments by several prominent Republicans acknowledging that Kerry did not intend to disparage American soldiers.

In contrast, at no point has NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World News, or the CBS Evening News even mentioned* -- much less led with -- President Bush's October 30 statement during a campaign speech that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections would mean that "terrorists win and America loses."

Kerry made another stupid move in apologizing - this is why he and the Democrats could not get elected in 2000 and 2004. They refuse to stand up to the maliciousness of Bush and the entire right wing crowd!

Everyone knows what Kerry was saying and everyone knows it is true! And I am not only offended at what Bush said, but damn angry that the media would not challenge that kind of rhetoric. Bush does not speak for real Americans; he speaks for an extremist, elitist crowd who will continue their practice of "the end justifies the means" as long as we let them!

The Great Divider

The following is a New York Times editorial:

As President Bush throws himself into the final days of a particularly nasty campaign season, he’s settled into a familiar pattern of ugly behavior. Since he can’t defend the real world created by his policies and his decisions, Mr. Bush is inventing a fantasy world in which to campaign on phony issues against fake enemies.

In Mr. Bush’s world, America is making real progress in Iraq. In the real world, as Michael Gordon reported in yesterday’s Times, the index that generals use to track developments shows an inexorable slide toward chaos. In Mr. Bush’s world, his administration is marching arm in arm with Iraqi officials committed to democracy and to staving off civil war. In the real world, the prime minister of Iraq orders the removal of American checkpoints in Baghdad and abets the sectarian militias that are slicing and dicing their country.

In Mr. Bush’s world, there are only two kinds of Americans: those who are against terrorism, and those who somehow are all right with it. Some Americans want to win in Iraq and some don’t. There are Americans who support the troops and Americans who don’t support the troops. And at the root of it all is the hideously damaging fantasy that there is a gulf between Americans who love their country and those who question his leadership.

Mr. Bush has been pushing these divisive themes all over the nation, offering up the ludicrous notion the other day that if Democrats manage to control even one house of Congress, America will lose and the terrorists will win. But he hit a particularly creepy low when he decided to distort a lame joke lamely delivered by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Mr. Kerry warned college students that the punishment for not learning your lessons was to “get stuck in Iraq.” In context, it was obviously an attempt to disparage Mr. Bush’s intelligence. That’s impolitic and impolite, but it’s not as bad as Mr. Bush’s response. Knowing full well what Mr. Kerry meant, the president and his team cried out that the senator was disparaging the troops. It was a depressing replay of the way the Bush campaign Swift-boated Americans in 2004 into believing that Mr. Kerry, who went to war, was a coward and Mr. Bush, who stayed home, was a hero.

It’s not the least bit surprising or objectionable that Mr. Bush would hit the trail hard at this point, trying to salvage his party’s control of Congress and, by extension, his last two years in office. And we’re not naïve enough to believe that either party has been running a positive campaign that focuses on the issues.

But when candidates for lower office make their opponents out to be friends of Osama bin Laden, or try to turn a minor gaffe into a near felony, that’s just depressing. When the president of the United States gleefully bathes in the muck to divide Americans into those who love their country and those who don’t, it is destructive to the fabric of the nation he is supposed to be leading.

This is hardly the first time that Mr. Bush has played the politics of fear, anger and division; if he’s ever missed a chance to wave the bloody flag of 9/11, we can’t think of when. But Mr. Bush’s latest outbursts go way beyond that. They leave us wondering whether this president will ever be willing or able to make room for bipartisanship, compromise and statesmanship in the two years he has left in office.

Bush is pathetic!

Bush either totally missed that Kerry was talking about him; or he and his cronies just think we are stupid enough to believe him when he says Kerry was talking about the troops. There is no surprise to either one!

But today, he is going on Rush Limbaugh's show - now that is fitting for this delusional president! It is probably because now he cannot even get Fox to interview him!

Rush Limbaugh is to journalism what championship wrestling is to sport!

The Grace of Saying 'I Don't Know'

EthicsDaily.com

A Report on the People in Charge!

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction released a report yesterday; following are excerpts from the report:

...major discrepancies in American military records on where thousands of 9-millimeter pistols and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons have ended up. The American military did not even take the elementary step of recording the serial numbers of nearly half a million weapons provided to Iraqis...

...the American military was not able to say how many Iraqi logistics personnel it had trained — in this case because, the military told the inspector general, a computer network crash erased records. Those problems have occurred even though the United States has spent $133 million on the weapons program and $666 million on Iraqi logistics capabilities...

...of the 505,093 weapons that have been given to the Ministries of Interior and Defense over the last several years, serial numbers for only 12,128 were properly recorded. The weapons include rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, semiautomatic pistols and sniper rifles. Of those weapons, 370,000 were purchased with American taxpayer money...

...There are standard regulations for registering military weaponry in that way, governed by the Department of Defense small-arms serialization program. The inspector general’s report said that when asked why so many weapons went to Iraq with no record of serial numbers, American military officials in Baghdad replied that they did not believe the regulations applied to them...

...money for spare parts was allocated for only 5 of the 12 different kinds of weapons sent to Iraq — and when the inspector general contacted units of the Defense and Interior Ministries, none actually knew how or where to requisition spare parts...

There were also significant discrepancies in the numbers of weapons purchased and those in Iraqi warehouses. While 176,866 semiautomatic pistols were purchased with American money, just 163,386 showed up in warehouses — meaning that more than 13,000 were unaccounted for. All 751 of the M1-F assault rifles sent to Iraq were missing, and nearly 100 MP-5 machine guns.

And some of you want to keep these people in charge of our country; that is amazing! We have the blind leading the blind!!!

What’s a Person to Do - Election Day, November 7, 2006

This Sunday, October 29, I will be speaking at the First Congregational Church in Hendersonville NC. The church's Board of Religious Education sponsor's a monthly forum and Sunday we will discuss the upcoming election and elections in general from a Christian's perspective. The forum is from 9:45 AM to 10:45 AM.

I will be using Sojourners/Call to Renewal's "Voting God's Politics" issues guide as a resource for discussion.

I spoke to the forum last April about my role as the president of the WNC Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Their Terrorists and Ours

EthicsDaily.com

Your silence denotes your consent!

letter to the editor of the Hendersonvlle Times-News:

A few weeks ago I wrote a letter about the rally at BRCC that had been billed as a town hall meeting (see September 13 entry). It was sponsored by Charles Taylor, and featured Ton Tancredo on immigration reform. I asked for honest discussion on the issue, not just prejudiced rhetoric! I challenged people of faith to respond with voices of reason and tolerance. The only response I heard was from this newspaper’s editor who wrote about the same issue the next day.

Do you know what you are supporting with your silence on this and other important issues? Tancredo also spoke in South Carolina the same day he was in Hendersonville. He addressed the neo-Confederate hate group League of the South; he stood behind a podium draped in a Confederate battle flag.

When you do not respond to this kind of extremism you give your consent for Taylor and his right wing buddies to continue their agenda for this country. Your silence and your lack of attention at the voting booth tell them its okay to cozy up to white supremacist groups that promote violence! Are you content to let these people continue to run our country?

Bush's war strategy!

President Bush discussed the war in Iraq with top generals at a White House summit Saturday, two days after the U.S. military said violence had forced a rethink of its crucial Baghdad security plan. In his radio address, Bush emphasized: "There is one thing we will not do: We will not pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete."

This man is delusional and should be impeached for his arrogance and stupidity above all the other reasons!

A Letter to Tony Perkins about "Liberty Sunday"

Go to EthicsDaily.com.

Winning or Losing in Iraq?

Yesterday 10 more U.S. soldiers were killed, making October one of the deadliest months on record for the U.S. We are fast approaching a tragic 3,000 U.S. soldiers dying in the streets and sands of Iraq .

Last week an independent report revealed that more than 655,000 innocent people have died in Iraq as a result of the U.S. invasion. Just today the Brookings Institution reported a half-million people have been displaced since February - an estimated 100,000 of them children. One report puts the total number of displaced persons at 800,000. Clearly the crisis is spiraling out of all control.

Today when asked about the President's reaction to the mounting death toll, the White House Press Secretary responded that "his strategy is to win."

When is winning losing? Jesus asked, "What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?" (Luke 9:25) Most people of faith believe in a different kind of winning. Just as wars kill, words can heal. Just as hate destroys, love strengthens. Bonds of understanding and goodwill – whether between persons or nations – are made not with clenched fists, but open hands.

Our hearts are broken by the violence and our nation diminished by pouring U.S. troops and treasure into the middle of what amounts to a deadly civil war, causing untold misery and fueling the very fire that terrorists have been hoping for. Equally tragic is the fact that the majority of representatives in the U.S. Congress have allowed this to happen. That is why your vote this November is more important than ever.

Vince Isner and the FaithfulAmerica.org Team

voiceoftheday from Sojourners

American preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than those faced by us under South Africa's apartheid, or Christians under Communism. We had obvious evils to engage; you have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white and blue myth. You have to expose, and confront, the great disconnect between the kindness, compassion and caring of most American people, and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth. You have to help good people see how they have let their institutions do their sinning for them. This is not easy among people who really believe that their country does nothing but good, but it is necessary, not only for their future, but for us all.

- Peter Storey, former president of the Methodist Church of South Africa

Christian Nationalism Growing

Ethicsdaily.com

Legislating Violations of the Constitution

Go HERE for an excellent article on separation of church and state.

I continue to be amazed at how the general public ignores what right wing politicians and religious fundamentalists are doing and have been doing for years!

Sin is Neither Republican nor Democratic

Click HERE for an excellent article by Diana Butlet Bass

We need political leaders - of both parties - who believe in the importance of integrity, of humility, of honesty, and a commitment to the common good - and who are willing to challenge their own party's desire for power at the expense of moral principle. And we need a pledge by all of us to make fundamental changes in our culture and support political leaders who will work for those changes.

Bush Goes to Bat for Big Business Again!

Tuesday afternoon, Bush's National Labor Relations Board invited employers to rob millions of workers of their right to be in a union.

The Bush NLRB decided to reclassify workers with minimal supervisory duties as 'supervisors.' The 'title change' to supervisor doesn't come with a raise or a promotion, just the automatic loss of the right to form a union!

The decision will not only rob nurses, quality control inspectors, retail employees, and many others of the opportunity to form a union in the future, but longtime union members could suddenly lose union representation when their contracts run out. And revoking the right of these individuals to have a union
means the loss of a number of rights and protections on the job.

This is yet another decision by the Bush Board that sides with business, directly against the interests of workers. In the last few years, the Bush-appointed Board has stripped graduate research assistants and disabled employees of their right to form unions. And the administration has been gradually hacking away at our rights to overtime pay, safe jobs, fair pay, health care, and retirement security. Tuesday the agency took Bush's anti-worker agenda to an unprecedented level, revoking the rights of an estimated 8 million workers to form unions and bargain with employers for a better life!

Who Would Jesus Torture?

Welcome to Ethics Daily.com!

The Republican Party has no sense of decency!

AlterNet: The Religious Right Goes to Washington

Don't let me hear anyone call the U.S. a Christian nation!

Yesterday, the Senate joined the House in approving a piece of legislation, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, that discards key human rights protections and our best American traditions. With the passing of the bill, the members of Congress who voted for the bill stated loudly and clearly that they do not intend to practice real Christian values!

Congress had the opportunity to correct the Bush administration's profoundly disturbing human rights policies. Instead, they gave their stamp of approval to human rights violations. Our representatives in Congress have just passed legislation that:

1) Establishes a new judicial system to try a wide variety of people in military commissions that lack the minimal safeguards regarding coerced evidence may deny the right of the accused to examine evidence against them. A person could be sentenced to death under this flawed system.

2) Strips prisoners in Guantanamo and other alleged enemy combatants in U.S. custody --of the ability to file a writ of habeas corpus and challenge their detention. Many of these prisoners have been held for almost five years without charges or meaningful judicial review

3) Expands the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to allow the U.S. government to detain people on or off the battlefield indefinitely without charge or access to judicial review for an act as minor as writing a check.

4) Provides retroactive immunity to those who may have been implicated in creating policies or participating in abuse and other acts that most of us would consider torture and other cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment.

It is indeed a sad day for all real people of faith who deplore this "end justifies the means" mentality.

Musharraf talks Osama, Iraq on 'Daily Show'

Last night Jon Stewart posed the following question to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan:

"'George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden -- be truthful -- who would win a popular vote in Pakistan?' asked Stewart.
'I think they'll both lose miserably,' replied Musharraf, ..."

This may be the best comment of all expressing the sentiment of sensible, objective people of the world!

Catch an Illegal Alien

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Bush's Claim of a Third Awakening Diminishes His Credibility

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James Dobson Is No Jesus

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We Need Honest Discussion on Immigration Reform

letter to the editor of the Hendersonville Times-news:

Last Saturday I attended what was billed as a town hall meeting at BRCC sponsored by Congressman Charles Taylor. The subject was immigration reform and Congressman Tom Tancredo was his guest. Obviously, I failed to get the memo about this not being an open discussion, as I so naively expected a town hall meeting to be. It was nothing more than a right wing pep rally, highlighting Tancredo's extremist views on immigration reform. The "moderator" for the evening was a Taylor lackey who fed the two congressmen only questions that fit their script. Needless to say, my question was not considered!

I heard only extremist views and applause from the audience for those views. I even heard a racist statement added by one politician as a cute phrase attached to an illustration; the audience laughed with glee at the statement!

We need an honest discussion on immigration reform! Where are the voices of reason and tolerance? Where are the voices of people of faith who understand the Biblical call for compassion and concern for the stranger among us?

I challenge this community to have a real town hall meeting where all voices are heard!.

Tonight on Countdown

Here is a small excerpt from Keith Olbermann's commentary tonight at 8 pm on MSNBC:

"The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support.

Those who did not belong to his party tabled that.

Those who doubted the mechanics of his election ignored that.

Those who wondered of his qualifications forgot that.

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics.

It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage."

The Lasting Effects of September 11

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Keith Olbermann 's Commentary on Rumsfeld

Crooks and Liars Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld

The new Republican buzz word

Bush, Rumsfeld, Santorum and many other right wingers have been tossing around the term "fascism" in describing their fabricated war. Following is a definition:

Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism, anti-liberalism and racism.

I believe these guys have found a proper definition of the ideology they advocate!

The John Hagee Filter

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Warmongers At Work!

"The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits. ... Why oppose it? We'll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran."


- a U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel, quoted by Seymour Hersh in his New Yorker article, "Watching Lebanon: Washington's interests in Israel's war."

Fear sells better than sex!

So Osama Walks Into This Bar

This is another one of those "I wish I had said that!"

Legendary liberal W.W. Finlator fought segregation, poverty, war

A Raleigh NC newspaper quoted Finlator in 1979 as saying, "the more I understand the Christian faith, the more I see the Bible is concerned with justice. And I've found that if God has any prejudice at all, he's prejudiced on the side of the poor and the deprived and the disinherited. But the church seems to be on the other side."

William Wallace Finlator died July 3 at the age of 93. He was another giant of the faith who makes me proud to be a liberal!

Signers of Environmental Statement Funded by ExxonMobil

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'Collateral Damage:' A Euphemism for Murder?

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The Sin of Sodom

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All of this because of a perverted approach to Christianity!

Last month the Reverend John Hagee, a Pentecostal television evangelist from Texas, convened a meeting in Washington of 3,500 members of Christians Unified for Israel. The organization is dedicated to building support for Israel, even in states where there are few Jewish voters.

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, a Republican presidential hopeful, attended the rally, as did Senator Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, and Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli Ambassador.

Mr Hagee called the Israeli attacks on Lebanon a miracle of God and suggested that a ceasefire would violate God's foreign policy statement towards Jews. The evangelist is a leading figure in the so-called Christian-Zionist movement, rooted in a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations, which predicts a final battle between good and evil in Israel, where two billion people will die before Christ's return ushers in a 1,000-year period of grace.

The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad the best is yet to be,Mr Hagee has written in a book that has sold 700,000 copies.

President Bush sent a message to the gathering praising Mr Hagee and his supporters for spreading the hope of God's love and the universal gift of freedom. He is said to have added: God bless and stand by the people of Israel and God bless the United States.


US SUPPORT

43 per cent thinks Israel's actions justified, not excessively harsh

28 per cent thinks Israel's action is unjustifed

13 per cent thinks the US should call for an immediate ceasefire

50 per cent thinks the US should continue to align itself with Israel

Minimum wage double-cross fails!

Yesterday, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes required to end debate (prevent a filibuster) on the "trifecta" bill. This legislation (passed last week by the House) would raise the minimum wage, but only by also providing estate tax reform benefitting the wealthiest. The vote was 56-42.

See the August 2 posting for an excellent article on this subject.

Human Rights Watch Says Some Israeli Attacks Constitute War Crimes

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Another immoral move by this Congress

Minimum wage double-cross in Congress
by Yonce Shelton

Why Immigrants Must Learn English to be American

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"We apologize"

Israel has learned well from our own administration; just keep on doing what you want to do and apologize when you get caught!

Of course, religious fundamentalists in this country also applaud anything Israel does because, "the end justifies the means." So you really do not even have to apologize!

Errant Bible Reading Causes American Christian Bias for Israel

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The End Of Faith

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Why am I not surprised?

excerpt from a CNN report entitled "Mideast talks fail to reach cease-fire agreement"

"One source involved in the talks said everyone but the United States wanted to press ahead with an immediate cease-fire, but Rice argued that taking that approach would leave Hezbollah in place and still armed with its rockets.

Rice also expressed concern over what she said was Iran and Syria's involvement in the conflict, while Annan said that future dialogue should involve Tehran and Damascus.

A senior U.N. diplomat described the mood in the talks as somber. He said everyone but the United States wanted cessation of fighting to make room for more negotiations and humanitarian aid."

45 Years of Isolation and Poverty Has Worked

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So, what's new with this sham president!

CNN.com - ABA: Bush violating Constitution - Jul 24, 2006

Bush has used this weapon to exempt his administration from provisions of new laws almost 800 times. That helps explain why he had never vetoed a bill until last week - he didn't need to; he was not going to enforce the new law anyhow! Remember, he is "the decider!" Bush is determined not to play by any rules other than the ones of his own making. And that includes the Constitution.

The total number of times all other presidents in United States history have used "signing statements" is 568; and almost half of that number were issued by Bush Sr. in four yesrs.

Go HERE for a more detailed article on this, yet another, arrogant Bush practice. Go HERE for the complete listing of Signing Statements since 1929.

Do African-Americans trust the GOP?

Black and Blue

By PAUL KRUGMAN, op-ed columnist for the New York Times

According to the White House transcript, here’s how it went last week, when President Bush addressed the N.A.A.C.P. for the first time:

THE PRESIDENT: “I understand that many African-Americans distrust my political party.”

AUDIENCE: “Yes! (Applause.)”

But Mr. Bush didn’t talk about why African-Americans don’t trust his party, and black districts are always blue on election maps. So let me fill in the blanks.

First, G.O.P. policies consistently help those who are already doing extremely well, not those lagging behind — a group that includes the vast majority of African-Americans. And both the relative and absolute economic status of blacks, after improving substantially during the Clinton years, have worsened since 2000.

The G.O.P. obsession with helping the haves and have-mores, and lack of concern for everyone else, was evident even in Mr. Bush’s speech to the N.A.A.C.P. Mr. Bush never mentioned wages, which have been falling behind inflation for most workers. And he certainly didn’t mention the minimum wage, which disproportionately affects African-American workers, and which he has allowed to fall to its lowest real level since 1955.

Mr. Bush also never used the word “poverty,” a condition that afflicts almost one in four blacks.

But he found time to call for repeal of the estate tax, even though African-Americans are more than a thousand times as likely to live below the poverty line as they are to be rich enough to leave a taxable estate.

Economic issues alone, then, partially explain African-American disdain for the G.O.P.

But even more important is the way Republicans win elections.

The problem with policies that favor the economic elite is that by themselves they’re not a winning electoral strategy, because there aren’t enough elite voters. So how did the Republicans rise to their current position of political dominance? It’s hard to deny that barely concealed appeals to racism, which drove a wedge between blacks and relatively poor whites who share the same economic interests, played a crucial role.

Don’t forget that in 1980, the sainted Ronald Reagan began his presidential campaign with a speech on states’ rights in Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.

These days the racist appeals have been toned down; Trent Lott was demoted, though not drummed out of the party, when he declared that if Strom Thurmond’s segregationist presidential campaign had succeeded “we wouldn’t have had all these problems.” Meanwhile, the G.O.P. has found other ways to obscure its economic elitism. The Bush administration has proved utterly incompetent in fighting terrorists, but it has skillfully exploited the terrorist threat for domestic political gain. And there are also the “values” issues: abortion, stem cells, gay marriage.

But the nasty racial roots of the G.O.P.’s triumph live on in public policy and election strategy.

A revelatory article in yesterday’s Boston Globe described how the Bush administration has politicized the Justice Department’s civil rights division, “filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights.”

Not surprisingly, there has been a shift in priorities: “The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians.”

Above all, there’s the continuing effort of the G.O.P. to suppress black voting.

The Supreme Court probably wouldn’t have been able to put Mr. Bush in the White House in 2000 if the administration of his brother, the governor of Florida, hadn’t misidentified large numbers of African-Americans as felons ineligible to vote. In 2004, Ohio’s Republican secretary of state tried to impose a ludicrous rule on the paper weight of voter registration applications; last year, Georgia Republicans tried to impose an onerous “voter ID” rule. In each case, the obvious intent was to disenfranchise blacks.

And if the Republicans hold on to the House this fall, it will probably only be because of a redistricting plan in Texas that a panel of Justice Department lawyers unanimously concluded violated the Voting Rights Act — only to be overruled by their politically appointed superiors.

So yes, African-Americans distrust Mr. Bush’s party — with good reason.

A true statesman!

The Ballad of Dumb George

Goyette's Second Law

Lebanon and
Goyette's Second Law - by Charles Goyette

Perverted Christianity!

AlterNet: Kids Kill In Violent Christian Videogame

Katrina victims “not allowed” to talk to media, reporter told

FEMA a Disaster for Freedom of the Press

The puppet of religious fundamentalists and warmongering neocons!

George Bush, Hypocrisy and the Culture of Death

We need a moral president!

Instead of the United States exerting full diplomatic and political pressure on all parties to end hostilities, the Bush administration has turned a blind eye to noncombatant casualties in Lebanon and has blamed others for violence it is unwilling to stop.

The president’s own behavior discloses a frightening moral disengagement. A week ago, he walked up behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel and gave her a massage below the neck—odd and unacceptable behavior.

A few days later, smacking on a buttered roll, he uttered profanity in a conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, blaming Syria for the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel and disclosing a lack of verbal articulation about the crisis. When shown the transcript of what he said, his press secretary reported the president rolled his eyes and laughed.

On Thursday, he vetoed a Senate-passed bill that would have allowed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, saying that the bill “crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect." He showed more concern for frozen embryos that will inevitably be discarded as medical waste than he did for fully human children in Beirut. Killing Lebanese noncombatants apparently is not a moral boundary for Bush.

That position found substantive voice in U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who said there is no moral equivalence between civilian casualties from Israeli attacks against Lebanon and civilian casualties from Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel—what he terms “malicious terrorist acts.”

Bolton’s flawed moral thinking holds that when Israel kills Lebanese civilians it’s OK, but when Hezbollah kills Israel civilians it’s malicious murder. Such a dichotomy is morally unsustainable. It is an immoral smoke screen behind which he justifies Lebanese noncombatant deaths.

excerpt from editorial by Robert Parham, excutive director of Baptist Center for Ethics

“Where is the clarity of conscience of this world when such killings take place?"

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Evangelicals have set aside Jesus for war!

We're Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East

Is this creep-show catastrophe biblical?

SojoNet: Faith, Politics, and Culture

Where is our sense of decency?

CNN.com - Dobbs:Not so smart when it comes to the Middle East - Jul 19, 2006

Attack on Lebanon a pretext to confront Iran?

Linda McQuaig

'Anti-God acts'

"[N]uclear arsenals threaten long-term and fatal damage to the global environment and its people. As such, their end is evil and both possession and use profoundly anti-God acts."

- From a statement by 19 bishops of the Church of England, opposing Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to replace aging Trident nuclear weapons in the U.K.

Source: The Independent

Theocrats in Toccoa

Creative Loafing - Creative Loafing Atlanta

"Address fear, fundamentalism and Fox television"

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The View From The Sidelines

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We Need Fewer Secrets

excellent column by President Jimmy Carter

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George W's Palace

Bush's Baghdad Palace: "So you think the Bush Administration is planning on leaving Iraq?"

thoughts for the day

Neo-Con/Religious PROLIFE movement results: SAVE THE FETUS – then STARVE THE KID!
The same people also support removing federal aid that help kids after they are fully human:
Cut 844 Million from Food Stamps
Cut Child Care Assistance
Cut 600 Million for Abused kids
Cut 13.4 BILLION from Medicaid
Cut 12+ BILLION Dollars from Student Aid

The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.

Seeing war from entirely different perspective

Hendersonville Times-News

Freedom For Everyone!

On this day, 230 years ago, King George III of England wrote in his diary, "Today, nothing of importance happened." Celebrate what this day means to all of us, but also take time to remember that our liberties continue to be eroded by our King George and his court.

Rhetoric Kills

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Documentary set in Nazi Era Relevant for Church Today, Panelists, Viewers Agree

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Gore Stresses Moral Imperative on Global Warning in Interview

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Peace Takes Courage

http://www.peacetakescourage.com/number.html

Southern Baptists Plot Takeover of Public Schools

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The man from Haditha

"'What happened in Haditha is a huge tragedy, for Haditha and for the United States,' he began. 'I am from Haditha. I know the people, I know the neighborhood. One of my cousins in Haditha was killed by the Marines in Haditha not long before this.' Quiet and well-spoken, Sunni but not sectarian, Sumaidaie seemed ready to hold the Marines accountable not only for the November, 2005, atrocity but for the killing of his cousin and for other deaths in the town.

'The people of Haditha are squeezed between two huge threats,' he said. On the one hand, they face religious-extremist terrorists, 'and on the other hand, there are the Marines, fighting them, shooting, going around killing people.' When he was asked if the revelations about the events of November would make him reevaluate what happened to his cousin, he answered in a steely voice. 'I already know what happened to my cousin,' he said. 'It might help others to reevaluate what happened.'"

- from an interview with Samir al-Sumaidaie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States

Two perspectives on Guantanamo suicides

"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

- Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, commenting on the suicides of three prisoners there. A New York Times editorial reports that there have been 23 suicide attempts in the four years of the camp's existence, and that only 10 of the 465 people held there have been charged with crimes.


"If it's perfectly legal and there's nothing going wrong there - well, why don't they have it in America ... ?"

- Harriet Harman, U.K. constitutional affairs minister, advocating the Guantanamo Bay prison be put under U.S. court supervision or closed.

An Alternative to the Madness

Oxford Research Group - Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century

This major new report is the result of an 18-month long research project examining the various threats to global security, and sustainable responses to those threats.

Current security policies assume international terrorism to be the greatest threat to global security, and attempt to maintain the status quo and control insecurity through the projection of military force. The authors argue that the failure of this approach has been clearly demonstrated during the last five years of the 'war on terror' and it is distracting governments from the real threats that humanity faces. They contend that unless urgent action is taken within the next five to ten years, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to avoid a highly unstable global system by the middle years of the century.

You Are Under Surveillance!

Why do I have doubts?

I just received the following quote on a "breaking news" email alert:

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was alive when U.S. troops reached him after the U.S. bombing raid, but died 'almost immediately' after, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said."

Why is it that I immediately have the thought that he may have died of a gunshot wound, not two 500 pound bombs! There is an easy answer: after all we have heard from this military and administration (usually many months after an incident), it is entirely appropriate to suspect the worst.

Also, five other persons were killed "by the bombs." Zarqawi had vast amounts of information that could be vital to fighting the "war on terrorism." But obviously there was no effort to go to the house and try to take him alive! Were we afraid of a great big army like the one we encountered when we invaded Iraq? Or maybe we were concerned the woman and child that were killed would cause us harm!

Bush congratulated U.S. troops for a "remarkable achievement." No, a remarkable achievement would have been to capture Zarqawi alive, with no death to innocent people, or destruction of homes and other property.

There are some things more important than being right!!!

Where Do Southern Baptist Leaders Go to School?

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Marriage Amendment Smells 'Of Salem,' Baptist Opponent Says

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Iran's President Asks Bush What Jesus Would Do

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Should I believe a known liar or not!!!

CNN.com - Transcript of Bush's comments on NSA phone monitoring - May 11, 2006

Too bad no one is paying attention to this!

"We have to understand that the way we treat Iraqis has a direct effect on the number of insurgents that we are fighting.... For every one that I kill, I create almost 10 more."

- Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who has been training U.S. troops to be more culturally sensitive and to use less force.

What's Being Taught at Christian Schools?

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The examples in this column are not as far out as you may believe. I challenge you to investigate this for yourself!

Education and the SBC Lifeboat Ethic

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I once said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." Now I just say, "Forgive them for their arrogance."

Religious Fundamentalists: Are you still praying?

California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment

Right Wingers: fasten your seat belts!

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

Why things are as they are!

GWB in a press conference this morning: "I hear the voices, and I read the front page and I know the speculation, but I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."

What an arrogant statement from such a delusional man! Of course, Cheney told him what to do, so I should not be so hard on him.

Christ Among the Partisans

Christ Among the Partisans - New York Times

What You Need To Believe To Be A Republican

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

Supporting "Executive Privilege" for every Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be born (in perpetuity).

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

A tax season sobering reminder!

The United States spent a staggering $783 billion in 2005 on the military. As a result, 42 cents out of every dollar you're paying in taxes this year is going to the military. (source: www.fcnl.org)

And right wingers continue to play their games!

USATODAY.com - Caribbean coral suffers record bleaching, death

Right wingers used to just annoy me with their chosen ignorance about global warming. But their idiotic behavior about this obvious problem is now angering me, very much like everything else they stand for!

Think about it!

"With the election of 2000, he (George W. Bush) and his cohorts arrived in Washington like atheists taking over the Vatican; they had come to run a government they don’t believe in."
Bill Moyers

Is Racism at Heart of the Disdain for Public Schools?

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Clear and Present Dangers

'American Theocracy,' by Kevin Phillips - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

This is powerful stuff - and right on the money!

This man's ranting is truly a demonstration of satanic power.

Media Matters - Not to be outdone by Robertson, Mohler claimed that Buddhism, Hinduism, and Marxism are "demonstration[s] of satanic power": "Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of the daily Christian radio show The Albert Mohler Program, defended Pat Robertson's recent claim that Muslims are 'motivated by demonic power,' and expanded on Robertson's comments, saying: 'Well, I would have to say as a Christian that I believe any belief system, any world view, whether it's Zen Buddhism or Hinduism or dialectical materialism for that matter, Marxism, that keeps persons captive and keeps them from coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, is a demonstration of satanic power.'"

'The Left Hand Of God'

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Christian Justification of Torture is Satanic

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The Religious Right is Losing Control

written by Jim Wallis in the latest issue of "Sojourners" email-zine

For more than a decade, a series of environmental initiatives have been coming from an unexpected source - a new generation of young evangelical activists. Mostly under the public radar screen, they were covered in places such as Sojourners and Prism, the magazine of Evangelicals for Social Action. There were new and creative projects such as the Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care magazine. In November, 2002, one of these initiatives got some national attention - a campaign called "What Would Jesus Drive?" complete with fact sheets, church resources, and bumper stickers. The campaign was launched with a Detroit press conference and meetings with automotive executives.

Recently, more establishment evangelical groups, especially the National Association of Evangelicals, also began to speak up on the issue of creation care. Leading the way was Rich Cizik, NAE Vice President for Governmental Affairs, who, on issues like environmental concern and global poverty reduction, began to sound like the biblical prophet Amos. Cizik and NAE President Ted Haggard, a megachurch pastor in Colorado Springs, were attending critical seminars on the environment and climate change in particular and describing their experiences of "epiphany" and "conversion" on the issue. Cizik was quoted by The New York Times as saying, "I don't think God is going to ask us how he created the earth, but he will ask us what we did with what he created." In 2004, the NAE adopted a new policy statement, "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," which included a principle titled "We labor to protect God's creation."

When the same New York Times article, written in March 2005 by Laurie Goodstein, noted that "A core group of influential evangelical leaders has put its considerable political power behind a cause that has barely registered on the evangelical agenda, fighting global warming," the politics of global warming changed overnight in Washington, D.C. Previously, advocates around climate change and other environmental issues were simply not a part of George Bush's political base and their concerns were not on Washington's political agenda. But the NAE constituency is mostly part of the Republican base and the new environmental concern was not unnoticed by the White House - the very day the article came out the White House called the NAE to ask what policies they were most concerned about.

The next year saw NAE participation at many major climate change and environmental meetings - both domestically and internationally - and a series of press stories about the new evangelical environmentalists, including a full page interview with Rich Cizik in The New York Times Magazine.

In January, the Religious Right reared its head. In a letter addressed to the NAE - signed by 22 of the Right's prominent leaders, including James Dobson, Charles Colson, Richard Land, and Louis Sheldon - they said, "We have appreciated the bold stance that the National Association of Evangelicals has taken on controversial issues like embracing a culture of life, protecting traditional marriage and family." They then went on to say, "We respectfully request, however, that the NAE not adopt any official position on the issue of global climate change. Global warming is not a consensus issue." It was a clear effort to prevent the NAE from taking a stand on environmental issues and even to veto the whole effort. Stick to our core issues they implied - meaning abortion and gay marriage. Five years ago, so powerful a group of conservative Christian leaders probably could have tamped down this new evangelical effort that served to broaden the range of moral values and issues of biblical concern. But not this time.

A month later, on Feb. 9, a full page ad appeared in The New York Times with the headline: "Our commitment to Jesus Christ compels us to solve the global warming crisis." The striking ad announced the Evangelical Climate Initiative, and was signed by 86 prominent evangelical leaders, including the presidents of 39 Christian colleges. I was speaking at one of those schools shortly after the ad came out and talked to their president who was one of the signers. "I'm tired of those old white guys telling us what to think and do," he said. He is a younger white man who decided to take a stand, even if it was against the old guard of the Religious Right.

The Evangelical Climate Initiative is of enormous importance and could be a tipping point in the climate change debate, according to one secular environmental leader I talked to. But of even wider importance, these events signal a sea change in evangelical Christian politics: The Religious Right is losing control. They have now lost control on the environmental issue - caring for God's creation is now a mainstream evangelical issue, especially for a new generation of evangelicals. But now so is sex trafficking, the genocide in Darfur, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS and, of course, global and domestic poverty. The call to overcome extreme poverty abroad and at home, in the world's richest nation, is becoming a new altar call around the world - a principal way Christians are deciding to put their faith into practice.

In places such as the U.K., Christians are rallying around the call to "Make Poverty History." Many are comparing that call to the cry of British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce and an earlier generation of evangelical revivalists in the 18th and 19th centuries who changed history in England and America by their steadfast commitment to end slavery. For many, poverty is the new slavery. Again, this is especially true for a new generation of Christians. The connection between poverty and all the other key issues - the environment, HIV/AIDS, and violent conflicts around the world are increasingly clear for many people of faith.

The sacredness of life and family values are deeply important to these Christians as well - yet too important to be used as partisan wedge issues that call for single issue voting patterns that ignore other critical biblical matters. The Religious Right has been able to win when they have been able to maintain and control a monologue on the relationship between faith and politics. But when a dialogue begins about the extent of moral values issues and what biblically-faithful Christians should care about, the Religious Right begins to lose. The best news of all for the American church and society is this: The monologue of the Religious Right is over, and a new dialogue has just begun.

Why we will never leave Iraq!

Biggest Base in Iraq Has Small-Town Feel

Can you understand a little more why the world is growing to hate us more and more? The neo-cons have planned four such bases all along and they are not being built for temporary use!

Another reason to consider this man incompetent!

CNN.com - Rumsfeld's�Iraq-Germany analogy disputed - Mar 19, 2006: "'Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis,' Rumsfeld wrote in an opinion piece published Sunday -- the third anniversary of the beginning of the U.S.-led war in Iraq -- in the Washington Post."

And religious fundamentalists lead the way!

Chron.com Ginsburg says congressional critics fire up extremists

This is what we want America to be?

USNews.com: The White House says spying on terrorism suspects without court approval is OK. What about physical searches?

Franklin Graham Reaffirms Anti-Islamic Views

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He sure knows how to make his daddy proud; at least one member of the family knows what Jesus taught - but it is surely not the son!

Breaking News!

In an attempt to thwart the spread of bird flu, George W. Bush has just ordered the bombing of the Canary Islands.

Washington heard us on Darfur!

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment providing $50 million to immediately bolster the peacekeeping mission to stop genocide in Darfur, Sudan. That is faith in action, as thousands called our Representatives and signed the Million Voices for Darfur campaign.

The amendment passed by a narrow 213-208 vote (complete roll call available here - check to see how your Representative voted: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll046.xml) after a furious call-in campaign organized by the Save Darfur Coalition that included Faithful America (an interfaith program of the National Council of Churches) the American Jewish World Service, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, and the Sudan Advocacy Action Forum, among others.

A key member of the House called to express his gratitude for people of faith, saying, "the tremendous grassroots advocacy (by people of faith) helped make possible this victory for the people of Darfur."

My representative, Charles Taylor, voted against the bill - why am I not surprised!

I sure wish I had said that!

Day of Reckoning for the Current Occupant
By Garrison Keillor

Spring arrived in New York last week for previews, a sunny day with chill in the air, but you could smell mud, and with a little imagination you could sort of smell grass. I put on a gray jacket, instead of black, and went to the opera and saw Verdi's "Luisa Miller," a republican opera in which love is crushed by the perfidiousness of government. A helpful lesson for these times. I am referring to the Current Occupant.

The Republican Revolution has gone the way of all flesh. It took over Congress and the White House, horns blew, church bells rang, sailors kissed each other, and what happened? The Republicans led us into a reckless foreign war and steered the economy toward receivership and wielded power as if there were no rules. Democrats are accused of having no new ideas, but Republicans are making some of the old ideas look awfully good, such as constitutional checks and balances, fiscal responsibility, and the notion of realism in foreign affairs and taking actions that serve the national interest. What one might call "conservatism."

The head of the NSA under President Reagan, Lt. Gen. William Odom, writes on the Web site NiemanWatchdog.org that he sees clear parallels between Vietnam and Iraq: "The difference lies in the consequences. Vietnam did not have the devastating effects on U.S. power that Iraq is already having." He draws the parallels in three stages and says that staying the course will only make the damage to U.S. power greater. It's a chilling analysis, and one that isn't going to come from the Democratic Party. It's starting to come from Republicans, and they are the ones who must rescue the country from themselves.

I ran into a gray eminence from the Bush I era the other day in an airport, and he said that what most offended him about Bush II is the naked incompetence. "You may disagree with Republicans, but you always had to recognize that they knew what they were doing," he said. "I keep going back to that intelligence memo of August, 2001, that said that terrorists had plans to hijack planes and crash them into buildings. The president read it, and he didn't even call a staff meeting to discuss it. That is lack of attention of a high order."

Over the course of time, the Current Occupant has been cruelly exposed over and over. He sat and was briefed on the danger of a hurricane wiping out a major American city, and without asking a single question, he got up from the table and walked away and resumed his vacation. He played guitar as New Orleans was flooded. It took him four days to realize his responsibility to do something. When the tsunami killed a hundred thousand people in Southeast Asia, he was on vacation and it took him 72 hours to issue a statement of sympathy.

The Republicans tied their wagon to him and, as a result, their revolution is bankrupt. He has played the terrorism card for all it is worth and campaigned successfully against Adam and Steve and co-opted whole vast flocks of Christians, but he is done now, kaput, out of gas, for one simple reason. He doesn't represent the best that is our country. Not even close.

He openly, brazenly, countenanced crimes of torture at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. He engaged in illegal surveillance, authorized the arrest of people without charge and "disappeared" them to foreign jails. And he finagled this war, which, after three years of violence, does not look to be heading toward a happy ending. And now it's up to Republicans to put their country first and call the gentleman to account.

The Current Occupant is smart about handling a political mess. The best strategy is to cut and run and change the subject. You defend the Dubai ports deal in manly terms until you lose a vote in a House committee and then you retreat - actually, you get the Dubai people to do it for you - and that's it, End of Story.

Harriet Miers was fully qualified one day and gone the next. Social Security was going to be overhauled to give us the Ownership Society, and then the stock market went in the toilet and Republicans got nervous, and suddenly it was Never Mind and on to the next new thing.

Let's bring the boys home. Otherwise, let's send this man back to Texas, and see what sort of work he is capable of and let him start making a contribution to the world.

sound familiar?

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side." -- Aristotle

He's at it again!

Americans United: Americans United Deplores TV Preacher Pat Robertson's Inflammatory Attack On Islam

Evangelicals Split Over 'A La Carte' Cable TV

Welcome to Ethics Daily.com!

I find this rather curious and somewhat hilarious! The TV egomaniacs like Falwell, Robertson and Crouch realize that if people have a choice they are not going to purchase their garbage!

God Told Me to Invade Iraq, Bush Tells Palestinian Ministers

In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.
Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"
Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

VA Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition' for Criticizing Bush

Following is the definition of "sedition":
1. conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of the state.
2. insurrection; rebellion
3. an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government.

Here is what the nurse's letter said:

"I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence of this government," it began. "The Katrina tragedy in the US shows that the emperor has no clothes!" She mentioned that she was "a VA nurse" working with returning vets. "The public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder," she wrote, and she worried about the hundreds of thousands of additional cases that might result from Katrina and the Iraq War.
"Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Brown, and Rice should be tried for criminal negligence," she wrote. "This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and resources rather than killing for oil. . . . We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.
Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times."

O'Connor Warns of Dictatorship!

O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts

Newly retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took on conservative Republican critics of the courts in a speech Thursday. She told an audience at Georgetown University that Republican proposals, and their sometimes uncivil tone, pose a danger to the independence of the judiciary, and the freedoms of all Americans.

She used the word "dictatorship" twice to describe what is potentially happening with the leadership in this country.

The integrity of the Bush administration

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

Bush knew exactly what was coming in New Orleans

At the August 28th briefing, the president was told exactly what to expect:

• The chief scientist of the National Hurricane Center warned that a major levee breach was "obviously a very, very grave concern." Bush lied to the entire nation about this point just 5 days later.
• Michael Brown told the president that if New Orleans flooded the Superdome emergency shelter would likely be under water and short on supplies, creating a "catastrophe within a catastrophe."
• Experts and officials implored the President to prepare for, as the AP described it, "devastation of historic proportions."
  

President Bush didn't ask a single question during the briefing. In the next two days he campaigned, attended birthday parties and played guitar while the worst natural disaster in American history killed over 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Impeachment anyone? I've had enough!

Mark Fiore: Welcome to Greater Georgelandia! (Seattle Weekly)

Guardian Unlimited Special reports Israel's policies are feeding the cancer of anti-semitism

Dick Cheney's record

It has dawned on me (I'm a little slow!) that we really have no reason to be surprised at the shooting incident in Texas. He has never shot straight with anything he has said; why should he be any different with a gun in his hands!

Southern Baptist leaders are getting more ridiculous!

Albert Mohler on Singleness and Childlessness

Welcome to Ethics Daily.com!

But not the right wing fundamentalists!

Religion and the Environment: Polls Show Strong Backing for Environmental Protection Across Religious Groups

survey conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

But look at who still will not support the facts of global warming:

http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pdf/NAE-appeal%20letter.pdf

Senate Majority Leader Rigged Bill to Benefit Drug Firms

Welcome to Ethics Daily.com!

Turn on the lights and the cockroaches run!

Following are portions of an article written by Andrew C. Revkin for the New York Times.

A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.

The resignation came as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was preparing to review its policies for communicating science to the public. The review was ordered Friday by Michael D. Griffin, the NASA administrator, after a week in which many agency scientists and midlevel public affairs officials described to The New York Times instances in which they said political pressure was applied to limit or flavor discussions of topics uncomfortable to the Bush administration, particularly global warming.

A copy of Mr. Deutsch's résumé was provided to The Times by someone working in NASA headquarters who, along with many other NASA employees, said Mr. Deutsch played a small but significant role in an intensifying effort at the agency to exert political control over the flow of information to the public.

Complaints came to the fore starting in late January, when James E. Hansen, the climate scientist, and several midlevel public affairs officers told The Times that political appointees, including Mr. Deutsch, were pressing to limit Dr. Hansen's speaking and interviews on the threats posed by global warming.

Yesterday, Dr. Hansen said that the questions about Mr. Deutsch's credentials were important, but were a distraction from the broader issue of political control of scientific information.

"He's only a bit player," Dr. Hansen said of Mr. Deutsch. " The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."

"On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he said. "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here."

We know where Bush stands with real people of faith!

CNN.com - Teachers, doctors protest budget cuts

Bush has proposed cuts to programs people of faith should support; and he has increased spending in areas people of faith should oppose!

Yet religious fundamentalists and right wing idealogues, who like to use religion for their own purposes, vehemently support this president and his administration. That's okay; you have that right - just do not call yourselves Christian!

What a coincidence!

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fell in the same week. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog."

US Congress far from being Christian!

House passes, sends Bush $39 billion in spending cuts

The House of Representatives proved tonight that at least 216 of them have no resemblance to practicing Christians. And if George Bush signs the bill, he also shows he is not a practicing Christian - he just likes the name.

And religious fundamentalists all over this country, primarily Southern Baptists, who continue to support this president and this congress, should come up with a new name to describe their religion! They have no right to call themselves Christians because they d0 not follow the Jesus of the Christian Bible!

I am deeply saddened by all of you self-righteous, Pharisaic, Christians-in-name-only people who put these war-mongering, elitists in office, and continue to support their anti-Christian agenda!

SOOV Breaking News!

Our goal is to offer, from the faith community, an alternative vision to the one President Bush will present in his address. A vision consistent with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the Beloved Community. A vision that is pro-economic justice, favors a real and consistent ethic of life, and understands the use of military force as a last and repugnant option in foreign policy.

The day after the SOTU, the House of Representatives will vote on a proposed budget bill that cuts billions in funding for life-giving social programs. We must highlight the stark moral contrast between the words of hope and promise that the president will no doubt offer and the utter lack of hope and compassion this bill shows to America’s most vulnerable.

Just yesterday afternoon, Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT) announced that he will oppose the budget bill, stating: "I opposed the original House budget in November because I knew it could be, and should be, improved. The budget that was drafted in the House-Senate Conference was a better budget and I voted for it in December. Since then I have met with and listened to a wide range of constituents… The consensus is that the bill, despite the improvements, remains unsatisfactory. Consequently, I have decided to vote against the budget on February 1. Representation is only effective if the elected official listens to the people. In a democracy the government must serve the people, not reign over them. I have listened and concluded that the budget, as it stands, falls short."

Our SOOV Watch is an opportunity for your progressive, prophetic vision of our nation’s values and priorities to be heard in your community.

State of Our Values Watch Site Change

The site for Tuesday evening's event has changed because the group size has outgrown our living room. We will be meeting at the Opportunity House, 1411 Asheville Hwy, Hendersonville NC 28791-2301. Plan to be there around 8:00 PM for discussion and light refreshments; the president's address is at 9:00 PM, followed by brief discussion and plans for action.

State of Our Values Watch

I have signed up to organize a State of the Union watch party on Tuesday, January 31. People of faith will be watching to see if our values of justice and compassion will be represented. What will President Bush have to say about overcoming poverty and creating peace? We'll be discussing that and inviting local media to cover our responses. You can sign up to attend the event at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/Sojo/event/distributedEventSearch.jsp?distributed_event_KEY=133

Bush explains proposed changes in Social Security.

a verbatim quote from a Q&A session after a speech last year:

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: 'I don't really understand. How is the new plan going to fix the problem?'

Verbatim response: PRESIDENT BUSH: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage
increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.'"

Would religious fundamentalists do this for anyone?

CNN.com - Kenyan convicts give up lunch for famine relief - Jan 1, 2006

This is an impressive story to begin the new year with. Once again, I would challenge the right wing and religious fundamentalist extremists to focus on this worldwide problem. Rather than continuing their ranting and raving over issues that do not matter and are not a priority of Biblical Christianity, look at what was a priority to Jesus Christ. (Read the July 20 and 21,2005 postings on this subject.)