For The Religious Right And All Of Us

What is disturbing about the religious right is not their certainty about their faith or the word of God, that I would say is their asset, but what is very disturbing is the certainty with their interpretation about how that connects to this world, this life and government, that is, their ideology.

Faith in an infallible word of God is one thing but to transfer that faith in the Word or faith in God to one's political ideology can be deceptive and disastrous. This is where their error in stubborness comes in and only leads down the road to darkness.

Certainty in ideology is as idolatry and only survives by prideful determination as you have seen in the unwavering support of a party politic steeped in corruption and error here and abroad.

Entanglement with politics in service to money, military expansion and corruption must be re-examined and rebuked. Far too much emotional attachment and political entanglement with this nation clouds the judgement of rightwing Christians. Far too much dependency on their host government clouds their judgement. As Christians we must feel, in reality, supported by the kingdom of God and not a worldly nation. Our confidence and trust must be in Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. It's interests are of our highest priority, not the worldly interests of a worldly nation or lawless nation.

The word of God implores us to know ourselves in the same way we know Christ is in us. We must examine ourselves and root out what is emotional and from the flesh from that which is truly spiritual. Fear is an emotion and fear of loss of worldly things overwhelmes far too many. That is a battle we all face but we surely should not surrender or be given over to it. We should have it under our feet and to know the truth in the things around us we must truly have it under our feet. To truly know the degree our spiritual integrity overcomes the influence of material things and material protections we must examine ourselves in the same way we know Christ is in us.

We are set apart as individuals individualy accountable to God. Who will we fool if we do not face ourselves to know the truth of ourselves. Is the comfort of avoiding it worth it?

The comfort of a nation and it's luxuries, like a drug, numb and fog the truth of what we must face but with the truth of Christ within us and the confidence of God's foundation we can find the strength to face it. In this the love of God is our comfort and our guide to the love of the Truth.

Iraq and The Misguidance of Emotion Based Religion

The war in Iraq has now collapsed into civil war and is leading to radical Islamic government aligned with the Shiite government in Iran with the most probable outcome: an Islamic co-oalition between the two, Iraq and Iran in opposition to Israel eventually creating an even greater threat to Israel than when Saddam ruled in Iraq. The very religious theocracy in Iran and the secular government of Saddam always were incompatible and would not have resulted in strong co-oalition against Israel but now with Shiite government in Iraq it is possible that one day the two could even become one country in, Ayatolla led, holy jihad war against Israel.
The pro-western secular government of Hussien was always a hedge against united Arab religious extremism in the middle-east but the fruit of Bush's invasion of Iraq has broken that wedge and the opposite of what so many rightwing christians wanted is taking root, that being, the real potential of an increased Shiite extremist religious Islamic alliance against Israel instead of the diffusion of threat to Israel. With the understanding that permanent military bases in Iraq would be unteneable for the Islamic government of Iraq it is only a matter of time.
This administration has lit the fuse and how naive christian Bush supporters must look now when in the beginning they thought so many Baptist evangelicals flooding Iraq would convert deeply ingrained Islamic religion with the gift of death and destruction.
We have far too much emotionally laden politically mislead religion and not enough true spiritual depth in tune with the leading of God. Will the Christian right-wing Bush war supporters ever learn? No doubt one day, only after misleading many thousands to die from their false claims to God's leading. The fruit of it and the truth of it stand before you the more with each passing day still demonstrating that misguided emotional religious zeal is far from a relic of our own history.

The Detainee Bill Letting Cheney & Bush Off Scot-Free

The upcoming legislation on detainees and torture is a complete ruse. The overt part of this bill did not have to be passed now but the hidden part of the bill, which is what this is really all about, did, that is the part that will immunize Cheney/Bush or anyone in government of accountability for violating the US War Crimes Act against tortore or internationally, the Geneva Convention. You see, with the Supreme Court twice rejecting Bush's claim to a right to detainee mistreatment and torture, the heat is on. So now the Bush adminsitration is trying to get out of it, get out of the violations of the War Crimes Act and the Geneva Convention of which they so brazenly insisted they were not violating. They did not have the character or integrity it took to obey it and now they want to get out of accounting for not obeying it. New proposed legislation would allow just that. It is interesting how Bush tried to justify and claim he was commiting no crime but now just as a Democratic congress is possibly at the doorstep he is hastily pushing legislation that would pardon him and his collegues from any prosecution for violating the War Crimes Act, for the illegal treatment and torture of detainees. This legislation is retroactive to 9-11 and, oh well naahhhh!, they are insisting it be passed before congressional adjournment for the elections. Why now before the elections? LOL, what else can one do but laugh out loud? They have to pass this legislation before the elections because a newly elected democratic congress may launch investigations into the truth of it all, investigations that will lead to prosecutions all the way up to Cheney/Bush. And all this from the "Mr. Accountability" republican party. Honor?, Integrity? Not! Sometimes actions speak volumes. Sometimes they are embarrassingly obvious. By the way, for any nation to pass legislation abdicating itself of past war crimes is illegal. Obviously.

The Religious Rights Disgrace in Claiming God's Leading To Invade Iraq

There were those on the religious right that quite adamantly, in boastful fervor, insisted it was God's leading to support the invasion of Iraq. When asked what is behind such assuredness, their most common response seems to be related to bible prophecy, Israel or "Bush is a man of God lead by God", with of course very few admitting to co-opting to republican politics. But how amazing; the religious right community believed Bush and the notion that invading Iraq could somehow postpone, alter or avert apocalyptic turmoil predicted in the Book of Revelations. That perhaps a U.S. presence in the middle of the region, which is about where Iraq is located, would do what? Stop or hinder the fulfillment of God's written word about when and what would happen? That it would stop the great army of horseman predicted to cross the great river Euphrates or stop the gathering of armies predicted to take place in the middle east? That is what does not make sense about all this. That so many on the religious right who believe that God's written word must come to pass would believe they could change it. And the more amazing fact is that they would pursue such an end with such unwise strategy as invading an Islamic Iraq with a "Christian" army then expecting cooperation. Not only does history highlight the futility of such an endeavor but Godly wisdom about human behavior should inform you of the entrenched rebellious nature of any religion outside of God's will, yet some interdenominational & pentecostal Christian churches insisted, in a whirlwind of emotion, that it was God's will to invade and physically force "change" in Iraq.

I mention the interdenominational and penetecostal community because I usually expect them to get it right in such weighty matters. The Southern Baptists of which so often support carnal physical solutions at the drop of a pin can be excused. It is in one way an illustration of the influence Southern Baptists have on these interdenominational and pentecostal groups but these two groups have also become much more intertwined with right-wing republican politics of which they have so much difficulty in separating themselves at times because of the emotional intanglements where the abortion issue is involved. Because of the Republicans support of a few key religious issues the most dynamic fundamental part of the overall church has become nearly sold out completely to all Republican policy ie, pro-war, pro-rich. What this comes down to is that church leadership cannot be wholly trusted on issues where politics and especially Republican politics come into play. Positions that pastors take regardless of the size of the church must be tested by the Spirit of truth within each Christian. I remember pastors of large high profile interdenominational churches, megachurches, getting up before their great crowds proclaiming God's will to invade Iraq as they recast christian doctrine and embraced situational ethics. It is clear the church needs to get up and admit that it has become too compromised by money and politics in worldly matters.

The result of this invasion of Iraq is going to result not in hindering evil, but by giving in to a pre-emptive evil idea is going to increase the presence and intensity of evil in this region so that we are creating civil war in a country we might have brought stability to and creating an even greater possibility of like religious regimes in both Iran and Iraq so that an even greater empowered anti-Israel bloc is present. With the majority of Shiite rule in Iran and now Iraq, twin future Ayatollahs is if anything more of a possibility than it was before we invaded Iraq. Before invading we had a western oriented secular culture with it's middle class and educational system established in Iraq resistent to regionally united extremist Islam. It was a major stick in the mud to any cooperation among Islamic extremists but the bumbling incompentence of our present administration has removed that and incited just the opposite in the region which is turning out to be just the formula the terrorists and extremists needed to unite regional arabs under an extremist theocracy in both Iran and Iraq.
The religious rights claim to God's leading to invade Iraq has become a shame and disgrace on the church. It is the result of continued ignorant redneck religious mentality in our presidency and in our churches lacking the wisdom to look forward into human behavior and wisely see the consequences of it's actions driven primarily by emotion, fear and political acquiesence rather than the true, wise and courageous leading of God.

In America the elect appear to be, most easily, deceived.

Lack of Lobby Reform Impacts Everything

So what do we have now? A Republican government, legislatively and executively, beholding to major oil interests. Why? Well, it is normally what they do but without lobby reform and continued money influence reform, which would return the beholding to the vote of the people, the interests of the oil lobby are provided their every whim. There is no oversight, no real investigation of oil price gouging and clearly no resulting laws with real teeth. So where does that take us? That takes us everywhere. Continued gas prices with few exceptions run up the price of everything in one way or another. This is called inflation. Inflation in turn is the prime mover of rising interest rates. As interest rates go up the borrowing power of everyone goes down, whether its on credit cards, cars or homes. The housing market has been characterized by some as carrying the national economy over the last few years. Now, rising interest rates have finally caught up with it as mortage rates, of course, rise.

So as you probably have guessed there is a root cause to all this. The love of money? Most assuredly, in the broader sense, but how has it manifested itself? It has manifested itself as the influence of money in government. If you do not appreciate the importance of lobby and campaign finance reform already, you should now. The state of the economy is directly related to the policies of government and those policy decisions are influenced by you when your vote carries weight. The problem is, of course, your vote has not carried weight and your vote has not carried weight because its influence has been neutralized by the influence of the wealthy's money upon our congressmen. Congress has therefore been influenced by oil campaign money instead allowing the oil companies to continue maintaining unjustified high oil prices raising the price of everything, raising real inflation and then finally raising interest rates resulting in the slowing of various sectors of the market but especially the housing market. If the bursting of the housing bubble results in an economic downturn or recession you can lay the blame for it on your bought off congressman but the blame should be layed firmly at the feet of the American voters for not pushing reforms to remove the influence of money and I do mean push. 65% of the voters do consider lobby reform very important but Congress is still corruptly trying to get away with doing little or nothing about it. The media has let it ride but then they are owned by mega corporations that also like to influence congressman with money. Lobby reform is no small matter. It can change virtually everything. As it is you have seen how congress has been run, from immigration to gas prices to mortage rates to the environment and those are just for starters. You can let the wealthy run government the way they want it or you can have responsible government the way you want it. It is up to you. Push it.

Contact Your Congressman

Nahhhh! There's No Global Warming

We've got slowly but consistently rising global temperatures since soon after the beginning of the industrial revolution. We've got, from the early 70's to the 80's, a quickening of rising temperatures and in the 90's a clear break from the gradual rise of the last 50 years setting record temperatures across the board. And now in the last 3 years we have set record temperatures well above average and even at an alarming rate. We've got record breaking back to back hurricanes and 100 degree days in some parts of the country in early April and record breaking temperatures the world over, so, global warming? Nahhhh! There's no global warming. The overseers of monied interests in Congress would have you believe that, that global warming is just a bad dream or a faulty interpretation of prophecy, anything but the truth and the Bush adminstration does all it can to silence or suppress the voice of it's own scientists, one of their facist tactics we are already quite aquainted with.

Regardless of alternative events in play we have an already well established pattern of consistent global warming hand in hand with increasing emissions of man-made greenhouse gases. A debate continued, for a time, over the interim warming periods between little ice ages but there is little evidence to explain where we are now other than the accumulation of man made carbon dioxide and methane gases in the atmosphere. Scientists have done their homework and the debate is over but like the need to hold on to a drug, Congress, the administration and record setting profit corporate businesses cannot deal with letting some money go to deal with the environment. They will have to decide between passing the buck in costs, decimating our economy, or dealing with a little less money themselves. Cold turkey's a drag but left to make the decision themselves it will be as it would be with the drugie ...Naahhhh! There's No Global Warming!

The Annual Stock Market Scare - Summer Vacation

Maybe you have a 401k, mutual fund account, ETF or perhaps you are immersed in stocks and are beginning to worry about the continual fall of the market, or more specifically the Nasdaq. It has been falling you know now for a couple months. Scarry huh? You already probably know that the 2000 mark is a significant psychological level and are hoping it will be a strong resistance level. It will but continual retracements back below 2000 will also be a concern. Continued slowing in the housing market is also significant since it set record highs the last 5 years and was thought by some to be "carrying" the economy.

We are approaching what a lot of institutional investors call a significant shakeout opportunity. or that is an opportunity to scoop up additional shares when millions of smaller investors bail because of the market cool down in prices. This is also when, no doubt in concert, Bloomberg and CNBC commentators go on and on about the market dropping as if they do not really know what is going on. From the tone of their voices and their deamenaor you would think the end of the stock market is finally at hand. (Amazing how people high up in the financial world don't mind working a bit in concert to snow you even when your money is on the line.)

What is going on?, Drop in market volume. When investors disappear activity slows so volume falls; volume being the amount of stocks traded. It happens nearly every year about this time, usually from mid July into early September. Want to know why? People are on summer vacation and since investors are people too they like to go on vacation also. It's that simple, yet every year the market commentators, except for a few like Joe Kernen, act like there is serious and unique market drop going on with the result; smaller less experienced investors dropping their shares at the August or September low making the annual shakeout complete much to the delight of the institutional investors ready to scoop up the dumped shares they know are good investments.
And yet even with investors returning from summer, and everyone knowing this, it is always difficult for the market to regain it's footing in September which is a solid testimonial to investment fear and market psychology but it is investor fear and market psychology that started this annual drop in the first place. Investors go on vacation, volume drops and then the more novice nervous investors left on board, seeing the drop in volume, sell their equities causing the annual Aug/Sept low and sometimes even into October.
There is also the self-fulfilling aspect to this in that trading opportunists short play the expectant drop.
 
That is what is going on and this being July the market will probably get worse into next month so...here we go. Make no mistake, market operatives will exploit the trepidation of falling back to the 2000 level during the annual summer low like the opportunity of a lifetime. They will do everything they can to shake the money out of your pocket at the low and into theirs for a bargain buy.

Having said all that it is still possible, possible, that this could be the beginning of a major downturn in the market just happening to coincide with the annual summer drop in the market. Possible, but not very likely so as always keep your head up but above all, keep your head. It's probably just summer vacation time.

Gas Prices, Lobby Reform and A Corrupt Congress

So the price of gas goes on up and the congress does little or nothing about it. Want to know why there is no real fire lit under them to do something about it? Because you have not separated them from the big money, the big oil money by pushing lobby reform and closing loopholes in campaign finance reform. They are still connected to the money influence of big oil. You say it has always been that way and will always be that way but when all this broke last January you had congressman falling all over themsleves promising to change this. All the public had to do was keep up the heat. Well we, the public kept our outrage about it but the media and the congress seemingly got together and orchestrated a convergence of issues, hot button issues and the public, always susceptible to hot button issues let the real culprit,lobby reform, slip out the back door. It is hardly found now. They claim you, the public made your decision about lobby reform when you put their hot button issues at the top of the list, like you would of course since lobby reform does not have such a hot button but is however a devil of a machine. This was about April. The congressman so desperately wanting to keep their perks and money favors now say you are not so interested in lobby reform and justify their lack of real lobby reform on that. Odd isn't it.

The congress willing admits it does not matter about the principle of it, the wrongness of it, the evil of it or the corruption, all that matters is whether you notice it or not.

That is essentially what congress is saying and the media lets them get away with it. The media willingly fall for congress's conclusions and refrain from reporting little or any on lobby reform. America, you are being had. And this time you are literally paying for it.

Cheney/Bush Mentality Continues to Poison World

Here again is the way Cheney/Bush mentality has poisoned the world and especially our allies with it's knee-jerk shortsighted militaristic approach. Israel had the high ground against Hezbollah much the same way we had the high ground against terrorists immediately after 9-11 but now Israel recklessly goes in and bombs civilian targets in retaliation, innocent civilians that for the most part detest Hezbollah in the first place. Israel, at least where lebanon is concerned has abstained from these kinds of attacks in recent years but now with Bush setting the example for retaliation that takes little consideration or place for civilian casualities, Israel follows suit. Here Cheney/Bush fully take the side of Israel, exacerbating an already misguided response. There is no downward pressure from our government on the kind of retaliation Israel took and many people suffer continually the ignorant approach of our administration. The disaster continues.

High Gas Prices And Refinery Capacity

So with the nation up in arms over high gas prices the congress cannot come up with a bill to address the problem. Most answers to this are bandaid solutions but the core problem is refinery capacity which has been neglected for so long because of course keeping supply down helps raise the price of the commodity for the oil companies. Global demand accounts for about 30% of the rise in prices. Exaggeration of global events, price gouging and investor speculation account for some but lack of refinery capacity is the main culprit. In the U.S. we would have increased supply of gas if the oil companies built more refineries but they will not. The Republicans in congress offered a bill to give incentives and remove roadblocks to building them but the roadblocks were environment related so the Democrats resisted this strategy but creating more gas from oil is the answer that must be addressed. We must realize, as we do with utilities which everyone needs, that everyone needs gas and nearly every aspect of the market is effected by this. We can no longer just take a wholly free market approach to this and oil companies cannot refuse to build refineries just because they do not want to. Demand is increasing and the capacity to turn oil into gas must be increased. Skyrocketing gas prices because of bottlenecks at the refinery stage cannot be justified especially with the increasing record profits of oil companies. There will have to be more done than just trying to entice oil companies to build more refineries and with the incredible profits that have been made steps must be taken to get it done.

Congress Reneges On It's Promised Lobby Reform

So the pundits and commentators travail at why congress cannot get anything done on contolling gas prices or responding to the will of the people when polls clearly show the people oppose the position the congress is taking on immigration but say little when congress reneges on it's promise for serious lobby reform. They just let it go but do, in the same fleeting breath, admit how fundamental it is to change.

You know why congress does not respond to the will of the people? Because they are insulated from the public by the contributions and influence through big corporate lobbyists and campaign donors. Campaign reform has begun in some part but lobby reform has not and the bill the congress has tried to pass is a national disgrace and a betrayal of the promise to do something about it. The congress crys that it has done very little because there has not been an outcry about it but they revisit the lobby issue during, and not mistakenly, the convergence of other hot button issues in the media. Port security,soaring gasoline prices, NSA wiretapping of all Americans, illegal immigration. There is no mistake why they chose to try to pass weak lobby reform when they did. It was so obscured by these hot button issues that people were not as focused on the more meticulous, but much more important, issue of lobby reform. In fact lobby reform is the key to getting exactly what the people, pundits and commentators clamour for; a responsive congress.

Lobby reform is fundamental to returning integrity to our government. You may as well not even vote if you let campaign and lobby money influence the voting of your congressman. Your vote will not be rememembered and have little or no impact. Lobby influence and money muffles the volume of your voice and so congress is just riding along now doing what they want to do to please the corporate money donors and of course the prime example is the immigration issue. Corporations and business want cheap labor in the form of easy mexican laborers so the congress is doing everything it can to make sure that supply of cheap labor remains here in the form of amnestied workers. Right now they don't mind tough laws against hiring illegals just as long as the big supply of those here now remain. Corporate america then still has it's cheap labor. Why is congress stubborn on keeping the workers here. Because large businesses have given congressman money, campaign money, lobbying perks and preferential treatment to get them to vote the way they want them to vote and that is...to make sure the businesses get their cheap labor.

So what are you back to? The reason why congress will not do what you the people want them to do. So how do you get them to stop cooing up to the big money influence and pay more attention to you? You do everything you can as a citizen to put pressure on to get lobbying reform, from pressuring the media to roast and embarrass the congress, writing congress itself or outward citizen protest. I mean, don't complain about what congress does or what politcians do if you will not do the one thing that will make them do what you want them to do. That is, reform lobbying practices and get their eyes off the big money back onto you so that when 68% of the American people want illegals deported back to where they came from there will be at least a 68% chance that it will happen. So that when 96% of the people want something done about gasoline prices there will be a 96% chance something will be done and done sooner than later.Putting separation between those powerful money interests who do not want these things done will help get them done. That separation is called lobby and campaign finance reform.

They would have you think it is all complex but it is simple. The choice is also simple. You do something or you do not. Democracy is not something you have it is something you do, if you do not do it you do not have it. Time to do it.

The Working People's Perception, Political Reality and Reform

It has been well known that it is the regular working class, the "joe sixpacks" that generally listen to talk radio and it is the corporate owned Republican based media that have bought off talk radio stations and flooded the working class with right wing Republican propaganda for years now. Anyone listening to talk radio full well knows there are almost no dissenting voices of the left or the Democrats and even though some talk show hosts call themselves democrats, a ruse by any other name is still a ruse.

Of course the Republicans and the right wing, having always been deeply afraid that all the people might vote, desperately needed to brainwash the common working people in order to "live up" to the fundamental American creed of government by the people so there before you is why we have right wing Republican dogma dominating over 96% of talk radio. In order to have government by the people the people must "think correctly".

Talk radio's message has always been that corporations and business are your friend and government is your enemy but the truth is not as black and white as they would have you believe and in fact it is not the truth at all. This country was set up so that the people would have control of their government through their vote but you have no voice in how business runs itself except indirectly to boycott their products and that may work with their product but not so well with their influence on your voted for representatives. And that leads us into the political reality in this country and that is that corporations and the wealthy have essentially become your government.

Talk radio tells you that corporations and business are your allies but it is these powerful entities that hire lobbyists to buy off your voted for congressman thereby negating the effect of your vote and your influence on how your government is run. If you want to complain about the government you need to complain about the corporations that are essentially running your government and that have tried to become your government through bribery of our congressman.

Government has become more unresponsive to working people because the wealthy have been allowed to buy off that responsiveness for themselves. You complain about taxes and there is no shortage of anti-tax feeling out there but it is the corporations that have influenced congressman to give corporations themselves across the board big tax loopholes so that the only ones truly paying their taxes are yes, you the common working people. They leave you with the tax burden. Corporate business buys off congressman to get them to vote against the interests of working people and consumers and the last six years have seen record legislation of this kind. If government seems like your enemy it is because it has been bought off by the ones talk radio would have you support, corporate business.

As long as corporate lobbyists can buy off and bribe YOUR representives you have little or no voice in your government. And the answer is not to become anti-business but to demand REFORM of your government and to establish real laws that limit and punish business money's bribery of YOUR representatives.
The right wing and the Republicans love to be perceived as tough on law and order so let's see some tough law and order where the interest of the integrity of our government is concerned.

An actual billboard owned & promoted by largest talk radio corporation, Clear Channel.

Your Vote and Real Lobby Reform

They say the government never responds to them anymore. They say no one listens anymore, that their vote does not count, that the congressman are going to do whatever they want to do so it's no use to vote. This sentiment is passed among the poor and even the middleclass like a plague. You know why it is not the sentiment of the better off, the wealthy? Because they know their voice will be heard because they have the influence to buy off our congressman. Do you know how they are bought off? With money through campaign donations and lobbying influence.
The Abramoff scandal or "K" street scandal which is the biggest expose' of congressional lobby corruption in history illustrates this clearly. Do you want your vote, your voice to have influence with your congressman. If this scandal does not result in the necessary lobby reform to return the influence of our vote then it probably never will. It is up to us to press this moment to get congress to push through real lobby reform.
The sad truth is that so many in Congress have become like little suckling pigs to the mothers milk of wealthy corporate lobby money. They have little personal constitution or discipline of their own but they are accountable for their condition because they have reaped what they have sown. They have been shamed when this scandal first broke in January and they were apoplectically falling all over themselves promising real tough lobby reform under the exposure and light of the media.

Now the even more shameful has happened. They have reneged on those promises and believing that you are distracted by other issues they have thrown your way like immigration they have tried to pass a milk toast lobby reform bill that really changes nothing. They think you are not looking.
If real lobby reform cannot be passed, if the influence of money cannot be reduced then your vote will have little influence. Maybe that's the way you like it, not having influence with your vote. Are we really that lazy that we are going to sit back and refuse to press this moment, to put pressure on our media and congress? If so then your voice will have no impact, your vote will have no influence. You like it that way. You love to say "I don't vote, it doesn't matter anyway".

Or...you can write your congressman, call your congressman, e-mail your congressman. Write the media, call the T.V. stations. When they call to survey you tell'em lobby reform is at the top of your list, that the volume of your voice, the integrity of your vote is fundamental to all our founding fathers died for and you want it back...NOW.

Who Would Jesus Torture?

First the Bush adminstration came out with big headlines how they will follow international accords on humane treatment of prisoners in line with the new congressional anti-terrorism bill then they turn right around and "privately" ask for a CIA exemption from the anti-torture bill. A CIA exemption? Who interrogates these people for the most part? The C.I.A. And now if that is not enough it turns out that Bush is secretly reserving to himself the right to torture whoever he wants in violation of the new congressional ban on torture. Beyond belief, this administration knows no bounds to it's evil, hypocrisy and deception and oh of course it's the southern christian right that agrees with Bush and endorses torture , "You bet, we gotta do it".

What is it these so-called christians believe in? Self over principle? Self-preservation at all cost? Blindly following a clearly unchristian self-proclaimed "Christian" president because they are too proud to admit error? Man, it is christianity turned on it's head. Sometimes it seems the christian right believe only in the eye for an eye old testament and end time judgement scenarios of Revelation but conveniently for there own fearful self interest cut out everything in between most notably the loving courageous teachings of Jesus. When the going gets tough you stick to the principle even though all your fearful natural logic tells you otherwise. I mean who is going to establish and nail down the promise of life as Jesus would have us live it? If we all lower the standard because we have difficulty living up to it then no one will. The christian "right" is cowered under the spirit of fear in compromise to carnal mentality because inundated by their materialistic dependent lifestyle they are not living for Jesus as they should and in knowing it, they also know they truly are not under the protection of God and so are compelled to do anything but follow the most manly courageous teachings of Jesus Christ, that is in the face of threat, to Love your enemies, resist not evil, turn the other cheek, bless those who persecute you. The christian "right" would do well to read in their ever-loved Revelations, that in the end, the first listed as NOT going into the New Jerusalem is - the cowardly. In their deluded fearful compromised spirit they must substitute for real courage a carnal false perception of courage that abandons the teachings of Christ in order to kill others to save their own lives instead of laying it on the line for what Jesus plainly said, for what He plainly did, for what the disciples plainly did, for what Paul plainly did, all laying it on the line, laying it down for you, for love. Did any of these avenge or kill others for persecuting or killing their own or kill to prevent killing? No, echoes the answer eternally, the same as it was, as it is, forever. A favorite often used scripture of the christian "right" is "God, the same yesterday, today and tommorrow". Will they live up to it?


That any of us will always be courageous is unlikey but to embrace and institutionalize the fearful cowardly act of torture is unbelievable and those that support it might as well be crack'in the whip on the back of Jesus. Hypocrisy knows no end with Bush and the "christian right".

We should understand that Christian fundamentalists and the christian "right" are two very different things. Fundamentalists believe in the fundamental principles, the teachings of Christ. If you claim to believe in anything it would be intelligent to believe in it's fundamentals. The christian "right" would claim fundamentalism but really believe in whatever trips their trigger when they feel a little heat under pressure or, in other words, situational ethics. Since they now have the national physical "power" they do not cling to the foundational love of God, but they will...indeed they will.

The Administration's Speech On Immigration

So that is the thrust of Bush's speech, more use of the military and high tech orwellian surveillance as the answer to our problems. This administration is not only a failure now, it is a complete disaster for the future freedom of Americans. Cheney/Bush does not have a clue to what they are laying the groundwork for, either that or they just do not care and are willing to risk the curtailment of future freedom for a quick facist fix now . As for immigration itself he only touched on the core of the problem and that is employers hiring illegals in the first place but because Bush is bought off and sold out to corporate money interests he will not go there for long. Of course a suck up cannot get too tough on the one he favors. A little slap on the hand comment about employers then essentially lets them off the hook by saying it is too hard for them to stop it anyway. If the word is out in Mexico that "it is too much problem" for employers to hire the illegal the flow of illegal immigrants will slow. It will never stop but it will decrease. Bush just does not have the fortitude to make it "too much problem" for business. He would rather exercise his weakness for facist policy that further expands military and surveillence of people solutions instead of a real practical solution that gets to the heart of the matter. We have indeed the worst presidency of our lifetime and probably the nation's, so short on wisdom and foresight into the implications and consequences of their actions.

More Cheney/Bush Bumbling Incompentence

Well we got the CIA director suddenly resigning probably over the mess that is ensueing after trying to install Bush idealogues in high positions in the agency. You see since Bush ideology is largely ignorant, intelligent people in the CIA are not dealing with it well. Bush and Cheney are trying to spread their poisoned mentality throughout our government. A mentality that also says government is your enemy and money, business money, is your friend while it is quite clear our only hope is that we embrace our government and make it truly ours and that is the right we have been blessed with from our founding fathers. That we not allow the wealthy and corrupt to tell us how we will live but that we take back our OWN government. Cheney's people are scared to death we might dethrone money from their installed most high altar and put principle over it. You see God operates over all these things by principle but Cheney and Bush would have you make money the final consideration. Money for oil, money for an insane expanding arms race, making money for, of course, the military corporate complex of which, they Cheney/Bush cannot absolve themselves. You and I have a choice and we must turn this around.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Espionage_and_Intelligence

What is President Cheney giving us? A return to the Cold War. These misguided PNAC, Project for the New American Century, ideologues just do not, nor do they prefer to, understand Russia or the point of view of those they disagree with. Bush and Cheney are destroying the gains made the last 20 years with former enemies and they probably consider it strategically beneficial for their purposes since the ideals of these men cannot be so easily gained with a world in relative peaceful cooperation. They would love to have a new "Red Scare" arise again so they could intimidate and manipulate us with the fear of it, bringing it back upon us themselves for the misguided purpose of their militaristic view of America's place in the world. This reckless administration needs to be removed from power before it is too late.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/ap_on_re_eu/russia_us

Cheney The Real President

And George W. His Salesman

As Bush is facing tanking poll numbers and even censorship one thing should be apparent about the Bush administration; Dick Cheney is the real functional president and Bush is merely the up front man, good ol' boy Texas salesman enlisted to push Cheney's PNAC agenda on the American people. There is a reason why Cheney is considered the most powerful Vice-president in history and that is for all practical reasons he is the president except for certain ceremonial duties & cheerleading speeches held for George W. This is the proverbial elephant in the room, big time. You hear a few inferences to this effect in the media but one rarely dares dwell on it much. That is why, except for a few politically expedient nods to religious groups, the notion of a christian compassionate conservative government, as they call it, has never materialized. This is Cheney's PNAC hegemonic global dominance war profittering administration not a christian compassionate administration. You were sold a bill of hyped goods from the beginning but Bush himself is complicit in this as he knew exactly what the agenda was and tied himself to it agreeing to do it and continues to do it today. Cheney, Rumsfeld and the boys are the puppeteers and George W. is the willing puppet and that by now should be crystal clear. How authentic was Bush's christianity? Originally one cannot judge it but as for now he is like the backslidden who go back to what they used to do except that Bush has backslidden to something else even worse than what he did before. He went before the American people and tried to decieve them by tying Saddam Hussien to 9-11. It was on all the networks, we saw the attempts time and time again and the results have been catastrophic. Domestically virtually everything he has tried to promote to the American people have been benefits for the rich, cutting rights to the individual and empowering the powerful and himself. This is his salesman repertoire and these are his deeds for Cheney and the boys but make no mistake, Cheney is running this show. Bush's name may bear the brunt of the administration's criticism but like it or not, for all practical purposes, it's President Cheney.

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Calls For Censure

This is not a matter of politics but is a matter of principle. You can be critical of the politics but there is much at stake here. With the Bush administration's habitual need to manipulate the American people with fear and use that fear to suspend part of the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights through enactment of a "Patriot" Act, expansive growth of intrusive surveillance of the populace and preference for an epidemic of government secrecy and a chronic belief the chief executive can operate above the law on the backdrop of leading the nation into war on false premises resulting in thousands upon thousands of deaths U.S. and foreign he not only needs to be censured, he and his entire PNAC administration, if it were possible, need to be impeached. We will see how the "law and order party" handle breaking of the law. Breaking of the law is key. If the American people believe Bush broke the law they will favor censure.

As for the notion of this backfiring on Feingold and the Democrats it can certainly be done if the corporate owned, republican based media intend on portraying it that way but censure is more of a slap on the hand than anything drastic and the people have been if anything frustrated that the Democrats have not been doing more so this will likely be absorbed as filling in for lack of political action rather than extremism. Many Democrats see this as a threat to keep them out of party dominance in 2006 when, if regaining congress, they can then actually begin investigations and even pursue impeachment but the Demo's better begin to stand up for something now if they want any real support in the fall.

Our "Law and Order" Suckling Pig Congress

Ok, so the Judiciary committee has voted. Now where in there do I see the words making businesses accountable for hiring illegal aliens. What are we doing here? tailoring the law around the refusal of businesses to obey the law? What more evidence could you have of the sucking up to, and paying off of favors back to businesses for "gifts" to our congressman. Our congressman have become nothing more than suckling pigs to the business lobby's mothers milk. I actually expect this from the Democrats on this issue but you might expect some backbone from the right-wing "law and order party" when it comes to immigration but no, once as it has, so many times before, money, big money trumps principles and values. And this is not about our traditional hypocrisy of looking the other way on agricultural workers, this is about all the millions of illegal aliens across the country relative to all business.
These Senators are not giving illegals temporary status to be nice to them they are doing it because it is profitable for business in this short-term and if the illegals choose to go illegal in the first place why would they go along with a plan that requires even more legal cooperation from them. This temporary plan is just telling illegal immigrants that it is all the more ok to fudge on obeying the law, or "Hey, no big deal to the gringo, no big deal to us, we sneek across", and so business gets it's continuing full complement of cheap labor. Your Congress fufills the deal.
And what is more, our government would rather put up a big brother orwellian survelliance system across the borders instead of standing tough and penalizing businesses that break the law. You can choose to make a habit of putting up surveillance to solve everything acclimating all of us to an impending police state or you can choose to stand against the influence of money and retain our openess and freedom. What if this was the war on drugs? Yea, right. We are all expected to play by the rules and when we don't we get penalized. This kind of spineless garbage in OUR Senators & Representatives just makes you want to give up. We are expected to stand up for our principles and for our values in obeying our laws and if congressmen cannot do anything but play us all for fools then they must go. We will not give up and they must go. It's time.

A note on the protests. What do you expect? Thousands of illegal immigrants families want their millions of illegal relatives and friends to stay. The legals and illegals are all out in the streets and you can no doubt be sure that business networks across the nation encouraged their illegal employess to gather en mass, especially in L.A.

Illegal Immigration: Accountability & Responsibility or Greed

Is it surprising that a Republican administration and Congress priding themselves on accountability and responsibility would turn milktoast limp when it comes to cracking down on illegal immigration. Surprised they would promote a guest worker(cheap labor) program for illegal immigrants? Well of course you should not be when you know lower wages for business profits are on the line. Has this present Republican government shown any real inclination for the plight of poorer disadvantaged people? Of course not. The Democrats do but issues like this are great opportunities for the Demo's to show they can "work" with the lobbyists too. Yes, the Democrats also need business money and this is where the lobby money pays off as the Demo's will claim some kind of humanitarian purpose but really are returning favor for business money by voting for "guest worker amnesty".

This is about cheaper labor for business, that is, providing businesses with laborers who will accept low wages and pave the way for a lower standard of living in our country more on keel with the slow but rising standard of living in the rest of the world or I mean just what do you think outsourcing of jobs and globilization is about. It is about expanding the global consumer base for greater business profits but with the resulting outcome of evening out of economies. Many in our government who love to wave flags and speak of patriotism draw the line when it comes to grand schemes for business profits. This is why those same people are soft on illegal immigrants when it comes to cheap labor for business. Many Americans need jobs and would work for an American wage but businesses using illegal immigrants are driving down the expected wage level for jobs and of course Americans seeking work are not taking those jobs because so many businesses have those jobs shut off to illegals.

The answer is not so much in punishing the desperate illegal but in seriously punishing the businesses that hire illegals. We do not need to resort to a reactionary push to build some kind of American "Berlin Wall" across the southwest as some extremists would desire but rather we only need to keep the heat on illegal immigrats themselves while increasing the oversight and fines for hiring illegal workers. If illegals cannot be so readily hired in the U.S. the flood of illegal immigrants coming here will slow significantly. Our business bought off Congress has just not had the will to make those businesses accountable and responsible. That brings us back to congressional campaign and lobby reform again. Getting the picture?

Media Ignores Abramoff & Congress's Evasion of Serious Lobbying Reform

Has anyone caught that the Abramoff Scandal and the promised ensuing lobbying reform has slipped out of view behind increasing concerns over Iran and the Dubai ports scandal. Since the Abramoff scandal has been ignored lately by the news media so has the promised lobbying reform but now Dubai is behind us so the big story now should be how Congress is waffling on lobbying reform. After the big media heat and exposure of Abramoff's ties to our congressman they all promised real lobby reform but now that the media spotlight has been off of the congressman they are letting real reform legislation slip out the door. Is the major media news going to let this pass. Two weeks from now after Congress's spring recess they say they want to take up immigration. You bet! They will no doubt let a vote on lobbying reform slide further off the table and any history of congressional behavior tells you they are trying to wiggle out of this one. No media heat, no reform bill. If the major news media want to be lap dogs for wealthy campaign contributor special interests corruption they will report nothing but if they want to serve the American people they will keep the spotlight on Congress until they pass serious lobbying reform, NOW. The media can articulate and dramatize this so that lobbying reform will be passed in no time at all. This involves major corruption toward undercutting your vote by allowing undo influence & bribery from the rich and powerful and it should be a breeze to dramatize. Throw in some patriotic fervor, talk of the founding fathers and what is honorable among countrymen and we should have an Academy Award winner here. Congressmen will be apoplectically stumbling over themselves so fast to fix this thing they'll be unable to exhale. Right now Congress must think we all are fools but maybe they know something we do not, namely that the major media owned by primarily status quo corporations also want to keep things the way they are. If we let this one get away from us we have no business calling ourselves Americans. Write your congressman but more importantly write your editor. Write them all. Turn up the heat.

Starving GOP and The Dubai Bone

Does anyone believe for one minute that this administration could have been as politically deaf and dumb as to allow an arab country that claims two of the 9-11 hijackers, funneled money through their banks to the terrorists and was only one of three countries in the world that supported the terrorist taliban government in Afghanistan to take over major American ports. They say it changed on 9-11, that is, that the UAE began to support us but the unbelievable irresonsibility of it is that our government believes that the UAE would not turn around under more middle-east turmoil and oppose us again. You see the same people that supported the taliban are the ones that also want to manage 6 or our major ports. No one was voted out of office in the UAE. The same Emir that ruled before 9-11, when they SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN, still rules now. It is the height of irresponsibility that the Bush Administration was willing to allow such a transaction but it is probably not their true intention as is the prospect of giving the Republicans in Congress something to claim they acted on in the national interest in order to counter all the negative publicity as of late. Bush has little to lose and is not running again but his Republican congressman are. The rich have recieved much favorable legislation the last 5 years and they have a lot to lose to a democratic congress. Money people are hopp'in all over the place and ...strings are being pulled. I mean, can this administration be that stupid not to recognize the futility of promoting Dubai Ports except to throw their congressman a bone? Well...

State of the Union Speech Gets'em Every Time

Ok, for all those hoping to see Bush flop on national TV and fall further out of favor with the American people when he speaks next tuesday night, forget it. And for those giddy about Bush and his agenda don't get too cocky because the "bump" Bush gets won't last for long. For you fence riders, blondes and those who just want to be on the side you think thats winning, get ready for the ride. Every president in every State of the Union speech ever given has received a big boost in the polls regardless of how unpopular he was prior to the speech. But with Bush hovering around 39% approval don't expect it to stay around 60% for very long. Yes, the polls will inevitably put Bush around the 60's in the week following the State of the Union speech but with the heat that is coming down on the administration it will probably fall faster than any recent president. Yes, in the afterglow of the speech maybe even you're closest allies and many others that you thought were wise to Bush will approve of wiretapping, torture, believe George would never ever ever ever have anything to do with bribery or Jack Abramoff and will probably fall flat on their face for his healthcare reform farce forgetting completely about Iraq but don't feel too bad because you will be in the shadow with the majority of the rest of the country. "You know, gee, maybe he's not so messed up after all, you know, he's really been a great guy all along and I don't really need these civil liberties, maybe we ought to do as he says and maybe he can get us out of this mess". Happens every time but not to despair, the delusion is only temporary. Mesmerization eclipse is, however, imminent.

Historic Abramoff Scandal in Need of an "Event"

With Bush's top advisors in the crosshairs of the CIA leak investigation, the Presidents illegal wiretapping, the Pentagon's payoff to the Iraqi news media to publish good news, the Presidents secret move to override the congressional ban on torture in order to torture whoever he wants and the biggest scandal in U.S. history, that is, the primarily Republican Abramoff Bribery Scandal, it is time to be looking out for a major "event". Anything to distract us from all this. This coming crusade to remove bribery and corrupation will have far ranging implications and the pious polite hypocrisy in Washington will just not be able to tolerate it for long. You can only wonder how the christian "right", or at least those not involved in this scandal, are seething over the exposure of their beloved cashcow Republican party. The prosperity doctrine and greed have been in bed together far too long. Expect rhetoric on Iran to start amping up as a prelude to some kind of headline stealing action. A "distraction" is surely in the planning.


Any repugnance toward the Republican party should not be construed as embracement of the Democratic party, whew! The Democrats have enough ills of their own.

A New Era Resolution

Once, not so long ago, America was a country of noble principles and aspiring wisdom when it's spirit operated on the notion of great ideals unhindered by the crass pursuit of money. It sparked the imagination of a world so used to centuries of unjust rule characterized either by lust for power or money and inspired so many in the world to seek more civilized honorable solutions for their people but now we ourselves have tragically succumbed to those age old lusts encouraged by the increasingly empowered servants of money and now not only repress those that once aspired to us but encourage an increasing spirit of global corruption where bribery and pay offs become a part of business as usual. If we are yet not too blind to break this fall we must as a people and a nation resolve to stop overthrowing other countries democratically elected leaders and governments in order to protect the interests of American corporations. The U.S. has caused much bloodshed and misery because we determined within ourselves that political and economic environments within other countries we wanted to do business with were not favorable to us. Selfishness, greed and indifference is the problem. Turning to God and denying more of ourselves and our darkness is the answer.

We must restore credibility and integrity to our media by moving from the present "market participant" approach back to the community trustee ideal. In short, money has bought off the truth from our media by offering and witholding ad dollars. We do not hear the truth that the interests of money do not want us to hear. The result is the ease with which we can be misled by those hiding behind faceless corporations connected to their own interests and the governments. Love of money is the problem.

The country must remove the corrupting influence of money from our political system. Campaign contribution money from large corporations and the wealthy have replaced the voice of the people. 90% of the candidates who won in the last elections also had the most money and that should be unteneable in a country with a history of noble principles. Yes, the love of money and the willingness to use it to corrupt ends.

We must have leadership that will not prey upon the fears of the people with manipulation but instead strengthen the peoples resistance to fear. Instill in the populace the kind of internal fortitude the nation once had when the founding fathers established the Bill of Rights in the face of terror from King George's British Redcoat threat. Lead us to shine with honor and courage in rejection of fear.

We must embrace the belief that God supports these kind of reforms and that He does not support our subservience to the power and economic force of money. It is true that many cannot deny themselves of the addiction to money and achieve this national reformation unless they change within, unless they reform their own souls, their spirits with a regenerated spirit by turning to Jesus and receiving his gift of rebirth. It means giving one's life to God and living for God according to what His word and Spirit of truth say to you and not just what your leaders may say, for America did not get into the shape it's in without it's leaders misleading. Listen to your leaders but consider them by first considering the Spirit of truth. We have a lot of reconsideration to do.

We must return to the integrity of principle over money & honor over profit. All of this will return true honor and integrity to ourselves and our nation here and abroad.

It distills down to this: The love of money is the disease - The enduring love of God is the cure. The prognosis - Love, Honor, Peace.

10 More Soldiers Die for Bush Lies and Continued Stupidity

When are the blind supporters of Bush going to realize that fighting for something halfway "smart" may be one thing but fighting for stupidity is a complete disaster. The evidence of rampant stupidity stacks so high that any idiot should be able to see it but then spiritual pride can even blind you to suicide.

Bush Down to 36% - The Christian "Right" Down to Spiritual Pride

So finally the vast majority of Americans realize, like the rest of the world already nourished by a healthier free press, just what George W. Bush is all about.

http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob1.htm

You gotta know that when Fox News Poll has Bush at only a 36 percent approval rating things are falling apart yet 36% of Americans still don't get it and unfortunately the christian "right" wing, so influenced by SBC compromise to carnal mentality, predictably make up much of that 36% and why? Because they believe Bush has done nothing wrong. They believe they could not have been wrong, they just believe they could not have been wrong. They will not accept it. They believe they could not have been wrong. They are stuck in stupid stubborn spiritual pride. They were so adamant about how righteous and "anointed" Bush was supposed to have been that they just cannot face it but all they have to face is their own misguided error of which they once faced in their lives but what they are finding out is that spiritual pride is much harder to overcome than the fleshly pride they once were delivered from. They feel they cannot afford to be so wrong to be percieved as blowing to and fro and it is shocking to realize they blew it on so large a scale but then that is the problem with the American materialistic lifestyle that numbs and insulates us from the spiritual fine tuning that is so essential to discernment in complex issues. Are you there? So the political pawn southern cross man needs to just give it up with Bush, yea, forgive yourself and don't forget what you've learned if you've learned anything once again.....once again. -- Hint; - you're a political pawn in the pursuit of money.

After so many years of talk about what would be done on abortion if only republicans could receive control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency at the same time and when it is finally achieved what happens? You get this bone from "rightwing christian" Bush thrown your way, sorry, " Americans are not ready to ban abortion". So he pleads passionately for social security reform, passionately, to the point of deception, for war, passionately for tax cuts to the rich, oh yea, you got your 200 last year, ewedaman, and yes passionately for cuts to the poor and hungry but for banning abortion, the most passionate of passionate issues for the rightwing christian? Nahhh, sorry "America is not ready for it". Dupes for the false creed of hyper self-reliance that is so necessary to inhibit the effective cooperation of the people in order to confront the asssault of the corrupt pursuit of money the rightwing christian drones on "Naahh!, it's not that, it's really a christian ideology, it is you know"... The perfect pawn.

In the southern church so inundated with fleshly fervent emotionalism how will it's Christians ever break free to a clear spiritual mind without a bolt out of the blue. Down south so quick to follow so slow to learn ever turning to and fro in the idiot wind now under strong delusion of emotional zeal born from intoxication with new supreme national power.

To learn means to stop the mental laziness, obey in reading the word of God and gaining wisdom about the Truth & the truth of the world around you which is better than sacrifice, the sacrifice of over 2000 soldiers, thousands of Iraqi children and all those in the world repulsed from salvation by hypocritical "christian" policy. Are you there? Say a prayer, for the remainder.

A Thanksgiving Thought

It's Thanksgiving and time to be thankful remembering that we would not have anything had it not been givin to us from God above and that we could have had so much more if only we would have truly obeyed the teachings of God's Son.. It's not too late.

Bush's Charade About Up

Bush's approval rating is down in the 30 percentile in all polls. Most people must have a hard time believing that CIA leak conversations between both Bush and Cheney's two top advisors could have eluded Bush himself in that inner circle of confidence. Bush has been talking to us and obviously with his advisors about the leak all this time so plausible deniability is difficult or let's say; "it just don't hunt." There is so much more on Bush if only the media would articule it and probably the overall truth is that people are beginning to see through Bush's facade. Bush's Veterans Day speech about responsibility was laughable but should have been embarrassing. Trying to pull a bait and switch and asking us not to notice is apparently his way of trying to restore credibility but only insulted the publics intelligence. Accusing us of aiding the enemy which is essentially an accusation of treason becomes his last refuge. Credibility lost. Embarrassing.

Check out these polls:
http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob1.htm

How low is that? Even Clinton didn't get that low. In the beginning when there was nothing else to detract the public's attention from his policies Bush's approval ratings were dropping into the 40's the month before 9-11. Overall Bush had moderately average first term ratings but needed status as a war time president to even get them but as the people get to know him, looking beneath the veneer of his "regular guy" texas salesman persona into his true policies, once again his ratings fall to new lows.

Stop The Permanence of the Patriot Act

So what are we going to do, because of one terrorist attack, throw the long suffered for, hard earned, 214yr defended Constitution's Bill of Rights down the drain? It is not acceptable but due to human nature, understable, that some want to temporarily retain some of the Patriot Act but to cave in and make it permanent is beyond belief. I mean making the Patriot Act permanent is an act of shaky knee-ed irrationale feminine-like fearful desperation that would have never carried the intestinal fortitude to establish the Bill of Rights in the first place. Here this loud and clear, it has been admitted by experts that a few changes in our intelligence, mainly the cooperation of the FBI with the CIA, would have averted 9-11. There is no need for the majority of the laws in the Patriot Act and the plan to permanently extend these rights to spy on ourselves(can you believe it?) is just another step toward removing the checks and balances in order to prevent a future police state or dictatorial abuse of power. Why did we make them temporary in the first place? Because the situation might subside and result in no more terrorist attacks but this administration is using the unrest in Iraq to cast an illusion that things are not settled down when Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism. If the Iraq war did not exist and we were instead "quietly" tracking down terrorist cells throughout the world with the world's enthusiastic support there would be few dramatic headlines to keep the public on edge and under the thumb of fear. As a result continuing support for this misguided Patriot Act would be on the wane as it should be. This should be loud & clear: WAKE UP AMERICA

! W A K E U P A M E R I C A !

A Failure in Argentina

The hemispheric treaty for open markets was expected to pass but after Bush's nervous last minute rush to attend, the treaty failed. Bush was in support of this treaty but should have stayed away but because of pride and bouncing off of Hugo Chavez's challenge he went anyway. In international politics you don't let others pull your strings and it appears Chavez has Bush on the line.
Lucky Venezuelans have a real president.

Thousands Dying or Dead in Pakistan-India Quake

These are not disasters that come only on lands of pagan unbelievers are they? We must pray for these people and children injured and caught under the rubble. Pray that the searchers and search dogs will be led to the location of people buried there. Pray that they will get air and have some kind of water source to sustain them until help arrives. Pray in every tactical way you can to see they survive, that their bodies will avoid infection and bleeding to death. Pray for their salvation, that the Holy Spirit will touch and convict them and show them the truth they need to receive in order to be saved. Pray that whatever truth they have ever heard about Jesus will be amplified a thousand times in their spirit, heart and minds and that the loving Spirit of God will draw them to repent, to receive Jesus as their Savior and receive the hand of God, the loving Father. Pray that the jarring reality of all this will turn many to the true reality of God. Many are there now at the final moments of their lives in terrible predicaments virtually buried alive and just imagine yourself there and what they would need and what they face.

Bush Ideology, Not Brown, At Root of FEMA Failure

Why was FEMA not fully ready to help citizens in Louisiana? In major part because this Bush administration has a general ideological opposition to regular people working together to effect legislation and a spirit of national community. The administration's ideology loves to have business people working together in corporations and corporate heads gathering together for roundtable "strategic" business meetings but when it comes to common citizens working together in government, unions or other consumer oriented groups to stand up for their own interests it is counter to Bush and Co.'s ideology. This presidency loves to see the rich working together to make their own situations better and loves to offer corporations government welfare subsidies but opposes the poorer common people trying to get together to develop any kind of influence and discouraging their government welfare . For the regular joe the Bush creed is; stay strong, self-reliant and independent or in other words stay divided, ineffective and unthreatening to the rich and powerful. This is an ideology of dishonor and greed and just an excuse to serve and look after the needs of the wealthy and what has it given us? People in government who do not believe in the people's government. That was the whole idea 200 years ago, to keep the people in charge of govenment so the few indifferent rich and powerful such as King George and his minions could not oppress the general welfare and common good of the people and so now the result is an administration and an ideology that despises government that assists the common public so they put less than fully qualified people, weaker in leadership, in charge of those departments that fully know themselves they are not to promote or strengthen those departments but if anything should make them less relevant and essentially less effective. FEMA and it's department was counter to Bush's ideology so he scaled it back and put in a lesser qualified individual, Michael Brown, and government offices such as consumer interests, the labor department and the environment are weakened according to Bush administration ideology. You see, those departments look out for the interests of the people and people who cannot look out for themselves, not the rich wealthy and influential. Show me the effective noble Christianity in the Bush administration. It is not hard to see the fiscally servile indifferent royal "nobility" of a King George and the essential ideology of the favortism of money. In the end it does not matter who the indifferent rich and powerful are, just that they are the indifferent rich and powerful. The neglected rest still remain the same, as it is in Louisiana, 2005 AD.

The Truth On Criticizm of Chavez and Venezuela

Instructed by major oil companies, Bush and Co.,(our government?) and the corporate owned republican based major media begin it's demonization of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, because he is playing hardball with our oil companies and in part because of an ideological fear of Venezuela's social democracy or that is, it's state control of OIL.
Now so many American citizens sit by taking in what this media gives them knowing little about Chavez or Venezuela but now going around parroting the media criticizing Chavez because they have been told they are supposed to be against Chavez. Pat Robertson becomes the instrument to influence the public mind by stating Chavez should be assassinated with the powerful inference that if Robertson would say that then Chavez must have at least done something terrible.
So our clergy sell themselves off to bear false witness for the interests of the most powerful nation on earth and Robertson is probably not the only one as we no doubt will soon see in our southern clergy.
The media show Chavez being friendly with Castro of the smallish Cuba, not that U.S. presidents ever associated with Soviet or Chinese leaders, and call him a socialist even though that is a U.S. propagandized lie because they want to create a wedge in public opinion against him so the U.S. can begin to get away with trying to illegally overthrow a 3 time internationally sanctioned democratically elected leader, only why? He is playing hardball with U.S. oil companies in order to underwrite his social democracy. Oh the horrific crime! Bush ideology is being molested and U.S. oil is being abused in return for the same.
The misleading U.S. media say he is promoting his socialism to the rest of South America but that is a lie because he is promoting government more comparable to social democracy, not socialism, and it is akin to what we have now in Europe only Bush and his wealthy corporate interests want to keep the South Americans vulnerable and in the dark with regard to our exploitation of them or in other words we want control of the oil regardless of the social conditions of a country.
A disciplined social democracy keeps the lid on excessive corporate greed and we are crying about it like spoiled uncontrolled children. Unbridled capitalism is often destructive and the Venezuelan people have seen it.
The truth is that men do not need an unfettered, uncontrolled economic environment in order to be motivated to prosper. People generally desire to be successful and happy, not filthy rich but for those that do want it all it is time to grow up and be responsible. The conditions in South America do not warrant our brand of capitalism because it is so easily exploited by those in power there but our government does not care, it wants conditions to exist so that it's corporations can go there and exploit and reap excessive profits.
Chavez is a hero for his people and should be known as such by the American people. Chavez moreover is a Christian that helped develop the Venezuelan constitution, invoking in it's first two lines, the protection of God(something U.S. patriots only imagine we have) and guaranteeing freedom of religion and the Venezuelans are a Christian God fearing people with conservative family traditions that we here in the U.S. should be so fortunate to have retained but have rejected because of our greedy crass materialistic rebellious babylonic culture.
In the face of all this Chavez has offered us food, medical and oil supplies to help alleviate suffering from the devastation of hurricane Katrina and it is public relations and an olive branch but most certainly quite a development in light of some U.S. religious leaders.
Will we Americans be in service to God and behave that way or be in service to money and behave that way? The choice is ours..

5 Days of the Un?believable

5 days the nation watches and no helicopters with help from FEMA, our federal task force for rescuing American citizens from tragedy, show up in the aftermath of Katrina. 5 days the whole world watches poor people, African-American people, who it is well known did not vote for our president or Republicans or those in charge at the top of FEMA, suffer without significant help.

Is it Christian for our government to be more motivated to help only those who will help back? Whatever it is it should be a shame to our government and our nation, but alas, by now this is believable. Some, mainly southern, Christian Right preachers proclaimed Bush the chosen of God to lead, even the anointed to lead.

So, how has the nation been blessed by this misguided lack of discernment? By the worst successful attack on this nation in history and the worst natural disaster in the nation's history? Of course not, it is, as the Rights well know, the biggest tax cuts in history to the rich and of course to themselves that confirm Bush the "Right" choice.

Defending Chavez and the Venezuelan People

The United States is drunk on unbridled capitalism, drunk on greed. It cannot tolerate a nation that has built a discipline against these things within itself called social democracy. The people of Venezuela realize that unbridled greed is destructive and desire, wisely, a restrained economic system. The idea of controlling excessive destructive greed seems to be horrific to the U.S. and what you get now from the media is mainly a lot of anti-chavez progaganda driven by this ignorant fearful intolerance mixed with corporate oil influence .

What Matters is Rove Confirmed the Identity - It comes down to incompetence

Now we find out that Novak has come out saying he was the other reporter that talked to Rove before the leak. Bush supporters are trying to say Rove was just the recipient of information from reporters but someone told reporters that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. You know, it does not matter where Rove got his information, if he outed Plame, Wilson's wife, to Cooper especially if it is before the story hit the news then Rove appears to be the primary source, the government source to confirm the identity of Plame. Reporters are not going to go on the word of just other reporters, they need it confirmed by a government source and of course nothing better than a high ranking source. And it does not matter what Cooper was trying to do either. As far as compentence goes it does not matter what the nature of the conversations were, Rove giving or taking information, all that matters is that Rove confirmed the identity of a CIA agent and that event is the essential outing of Valerie Plame.

As far as the dispute on whether Rove named the agent or not, this will not be decided on a technicality. If Rove identified Valerie Plame he identifed Wilson's wife. If Rove identifies Wilson's wife he identifies Valerie Plame. Either way, under the right conditions, a CIA agent is dead. Rove, at the very least, should be disciplined for incompetence.

Wilson's Wife had to be Undercover

Isn't this amazing? Some are saying Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, was not covert when Rove mentioned her identity to reporter Matt Cooper but how can this be? The administration said from the beginning they would fire anyone involved with leaking her identity. Why would the administration say they would fire anyone leaking an identity if it would not be a crime, or that is, if the person in question was not undercover. Is the administration so incompetent that they did not check such an important response, to a very serious crime, without checking out that the person in question, Wilson's wife, was undercover. Well, of course not. The administration, in rapid contact with the CIA confirmed that and that is why they came out and said "anyone involved with leaking the identity of Plame would be fired. The Republicans and Bush supporters can twist and turn it everyway they can but the Bush administration would not have said a leaker would be fired if the agent in question was not covert. If Plame was not covert then this administration is one of the most incredibly incompetent in history.

The Misguided Rationale of Invading Iraq

It was misguided and reckless to think that a country with a leader embracing a high profiled religion(christianity), opposed to Iraq's religion, could go in and win the peace. It is far from wisdom, in the first place, to even think you can go into a country with a zealous to fight, extremist influenced religion and win the elements of society necessary for peace. Was it the will of God that the devoutly christian crusaders should have gone into and defeated the (Islamic)Ottoman empire? No, or of course they would have won but they did not, they were thoroughly driven back. France learned the hard way, unable to win the peace, and pulled out. Britain learned the hard way and pulled out. The Crusaders,France,Britain and us in Afghanistan had initial success in the mid-east but the point is the folly of trying to permanently establish government the way we want it. The U.S. is learning the hard way and will pull out but because of the prideful determination of this administration it will no doubt go on and on, many more civilians will probably die and many more U.S. boys. Ignorance is at the core of this invasion and the fruits of it continue on. For many this war is about spiritual pride and before it is too late our leaders need to give this one over to God for the sake of so many more to come.

More Surrender to "Efficiency" of Facist Policy

Those liking to sneak around in the dark using facist tactics do not like to be exposed and so it is no wonder Bush's selected chairman at PBS, Tomlinson, will not debate Bill Moyers about the new move to "control" PBS. Whether it is this or the refusal to remove the Patriot Act right to monitor all library use of American citizens, the Bush administration cannot stop it's decent into the surrender to the "efficiency" of facist policy. If we were chasing terrorists instead of being bogged down in non-terrorist related Iraq we would be on top of the terrorist threat which would give Bush reason to lighten up on the American people but you know we cannot have that now, can we? It is unbelievable that with all the networks and radio outlets owned by conservative corporations and with FOX night after night so clearly biased toward the right and the republicans that Bush is nervous about PBS and what it might let out on to the air. Facists have a tendency to worry about the truth getting out and Bush has plenty of reasons to be worried, from decieving the people on Iraq, torture in Guantanamo or sticking the Patriot Act to the American people.