http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/ en Copyright 2008 Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:45:32 -0700 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss So, what do we say now about dear O.J., who was sentenced last week to 9 to 33 years in prison for robbery, felony assault and many others? This time, there was no great national divide. The O.J. trial had to compete with the crashing economy, with the national gasp over our daily discovering of just how completely inept the Bush Administration really was, at the panic-inducing scope, width, breadth and depth of that incompetence and how it has literally eaten away the very foundation of this country. In that context, O.J. was old news. Black America did not rally to his defense. White America did not bristle or even gloat all that much over his conviction. We have other things on our minds, other things that have finally united this country in a way it has not been united in decades. We are all far too afraid of ending up in bread lines and sleeping on the street to care all that much about O.J. That his unrepentant behavior surely proved White Folk right and Black Folk wrong seems wholly irrelevant to both parties. Did the jury convict and the judge throw the book at O.J. because of the 1994 murders? I doubt it. In reviewing the judge’s sentencing, I thought she was actually kind of lenient. Throwing the book at O.J. would have meant maximum and consecutive sentencing on all counts. The judge instead used mandatory minimums with most of the sentencing running concurrently, making the Juice eligible for parole at age 70. I perhaps felt sorriest for the father of Ronald Goldman, whose appearance at Simpson’s sentencing and subsequent vitriolic ad-hoc interviews display a kind of sad mirror pathology to that of Simpson himself: an inability to come to terms with his life. I didn’t know Ron, but I doubt Ron would have wanted his dad to go make a spectacle of himself. I doubt Ron would want his family to be so consumed with hate that hate would, ultimately, become all their lives were about. I grieve most for Simpson himself, to whom an enormous gift was given: an opportunity for redemption and a chance to lead, to inspire, to dedicate his life to warning others about the incomprehensible evil he himself succumbed to. Instead, Simpson apparently learned nothing from his brush with disaster and squandered his second chance, somehow mistaking acquittal for innocence and freedom from incarceration for liberty, not realizing that, at the end of the day, he’s been in prison all along. Last week’s verdict just gave substance to it. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/12/113008.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/12/113008.html Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:45:32 -0700 With many nations sliding into recession, world leaders met in Washington, D.C., yesterday to forestall an economic disaster and rewrite financial rules. President Bush said he and other world leaders have agreed to coordinate and modernize their financial systems to keep the economic crisis from getting worse. Speaking after an economic summit of top world leaders on Saturday, Bush said the United States could have gone into a depression worse than the Great Depression if the government hadn't acted quickly. (MSNBC© ) President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to get moving next week on an economic rescue plan that would extend jobless benefits among other actions. (AP© ) King Family Demands Obama $$ The family of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is demanding a share of the proceeds from the sudden wave of T-shirts, posters and other merchandise depicting the civil rights leader alongside Barack Obama. Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King's nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees — maybe even millions. "Some of this is probably putting food on people's plates. We're not trying to stop anybody from legitimately supporting themselves," he said, "but we cannot allow our brand to be abused." (AP© ) Their "brand"? Their "brand"?! The King children continue to be an ongoing embarrassment to the legacy of a great leader as they remain in the news not for continuing MLK's fight for social justice but for lawsuits (and threats thereof) over money. Mney seems to be the only thing the King family is ocncerned about as they completely miss th epoint that the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States is the very fulfilment of MLK's dream. Now, if somebody wants to make a rap CD using audio of King, a video using arc hive footage of king, or, say, a video game with MLK defeating racists or something--sure, I get the estate's point, here. And, certainly, somebody is profiting off of these King-Obama items, but I submit these items are a product of an epic moment--one which I am quite sure MLK himself would have cherished. I can't imagine Dr. King pouring out vinegar at this time in history by squabbling over money. Come Ferbuary, the major King-Obama marketing blitz will be over, at least for now. The constant bickering and unseemly money-grubbing by his family is a ongoing stain on his memory. Radio Days For the first time in history, the weekly Democratic radio address has been webcast on video. Well, duh. Indicative of the wrongheadedness of America's leadership, the presidential radio address, begun in the 1930's, continues to be broadcast on radio every Saturday. Radio. It's nearly 2009, a universe that communicates by iPhone and Blackberry, and they're still using radio. President-Elect Barack Obama's internet video address, available on YouTube and playable on demand, will be seen by hundreds if not thousands of times more people than the audience for the president's weekly radio address, a dusty anachronism which stopped effectively communicating to the nation forty years ago. I would compliment the Obama-Biden Transition Project's forward thinking except that this technology, some twenty years old now, is hardly a step forward. It is, however, a reassuring signpost that this administration at least exists in the same time continuum as the rest of the planet. (VOA© ): The presidential radio address was considered innovative in the 1930s when then-President Franklin Roosevelt first used it to reach out to the American people. Mr. Roosevelt's so-called "fireside chats" were a source of comfort and reassurance during times of economic depression and war. California Wildfires A wind-blasted wildfire tore through Los Angeles' northern foothills Saturday, devastating a large mobile home park, forcing a hospital to evacuate some patients and sending thousands of residents fleeing for safety. The fire broke out late Friday in the foothill community of Sylmar on the edge of the Angeles National Forest and quickly spread across 2,600 acres — more than 4 square miles — as it was driven by Santa Ana wind gusting as high as 76 mph. Dozens of homes were destroyed, officials said, and aerial footage from television helicopters showed rows of houses gutted in just in one subdivision. (MSNBC© ) http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/11/1116.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/11/1116.html Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:45:38 -0700 Senator Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States Tuesday by a margin of 364 electoral votes to 173 for rival Senator John McCain. Obama's success included narrow wins in tight races in traditional Republican strongholds such as Virginia, Indiana, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada as well as battleground states like Florida and Ohio. News of Obama's win triggered an unprecedented global celebration in hundreds of cities around the world as the world appeared to breathe a collective sigh of relief that America was finally on the precipice of change from unpopular and divisive global policies. The Christian Racial Divide The barrier-crossing election of Barack Obama did little to bridge the deep racial divide in American churches. In fact, some clergy said it has only served to underscore their differences. While nonwhite Christians voted overwhelmingly for Obama, most white Christians backed John McCain, according to exit polls. Several black clergy said that criticism of Obama by some white Christians over his religious beliefs and support for abortion rights crossed the line, hurting longtime efforts to reconcile their communities. "I think in the eagerness to protect the right to life issues, there were some things said, not about that issue, that were not always fair and that were insensitive that need to be rethought," said Bishop T.D. Jakes,. "I would love to see black and white Christians find common ground, and a deeper understanding of each other's needs." The Rev. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the denomination's flagship school, said white evangelicals backed McCain because of his opposition to abortion rights, not because of the race of either candidate. "White conservative evangelicals, not just in this election, but in many successive cycles, tended to vote on the basis of moral issues," Mohler said. "Those evangelicals will still join in celebrating, very eagerly, that America has elected an African-American president and see it as a cause for celebration and recognize its deep spiritual significance." According to Associated Press exit polls, 34 percent of white Protestants voted for Obama, while 65 percent went with McCain. Obama won the overall Roman Catholic vote, but white Catholics backed McCain by a slim majority, 52 percent to 47 percent. Among white Christians, the racial gap was most pronounced with evangelicals: 74 percent backed McCain, 24 percent backed Obama. (AP) Wright Speaks Out: Used As A "Weapon" Barack Obama's former pastor complained Thursday that the media used him as a "weapon of mass destruction" in an attempt to derail Obama's campaign for the presidency. Speaking at a forum about race and religion, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright accused the media of taking out of context videos that showed him cursing the government and accusing it of conspiring against blacks from the pulpit of the Chicago church where Obama had worshipped for 20 years. In a question-and-answer session with the audience, Wright said he didn't believe Obama shared his opinions publicized on the videos. "Do you agree with everything your pastor says?" he asked. "Ninety percent of the people sitting in church don't agree with everything their pastor says. What I saw is not an index on what he did or does not believe." (AP) Iraq Demands Withdrawal Date Two days after the election of Barack Obama, Iraq's chief spokesman said with unusual forcefulness Thursday that his government will continue to insist on a firm withdrawal date for U.S. troops, despite American demands that any pullout be subject to prevailing security conditions. "Iraqis would like to know and see a fixed date," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in an interview in which he also reiterated Iraq's position that American forces be subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction in some instances. Iraqi officials, who see President-elect Obama's views on the timing of a U.S. withdrawal as consonant with their own, appear to be leveraging his election to pressure the Bush administration to make last-minute concessions. Dabbagh said negotiations to reach a status-of-forces agreement, which would sanction the U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond 2008, would collapse if no deal is reached by the end of this month. (Washington Post) http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/11/1109.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/11/1109.html Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:41:52 -0700 Why McCain Won: Low Information Voters In a fascinating article on Newsweek's site, political analyst Jonathan Alter games out a scenario for a McCain win, one in which the polls, the electoral math and the statistics are all mostly irrelevant. In Alter's nightmare scenario, "In the end, the problem was the LIVs. That's short for "low-information voters," the three fifths of the electorate that shows up once every four years to vote for president but mostly hates politics. These are the 75 million folks who didn't vote in the primaries. They don't read newsmagazines or newspapers, don't watch any cable news and don't cast their ballots early. Their allegiance to a candidate is as easily shed as a T shirt. Several million moved to Obama through September and October; they'd heard he handled himself well in the debates. Then, in the last week, the LIVs swung back to the default choice: John McCain. Some had good reasons other than the color of Obama's skin to desert him; many more did not. In October, a study by the Associated Press estimated that Obama's race would cost him 6 percent. The percentage was smaller, but still enough to give the presidency to McCain."]]> http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/11/1102.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/11/1102.html Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:46:25 -0700 Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts. All are plausible scenarios if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president, according to a new addition to the campaign conversation called "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America," produced by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family Action. The imagined look into the future is part of an escalation in rhetoric from Christian right activists who are trying to paint Obama in the worst possible terms as the campaign heads into the final stretch and polls show the Democrat ahead. Although hard-edge attacks are common late in campaigns, the tenor of the strikes against Obama illustrate just how worried conservative Christian activists are about what should happen to their causes and influence if Democrats seize control of both Congress and the White House. "It looks like, walks like, talks like and smells like desperation to me," said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston, an Obama supporter who backed President Bush in the past two elections. The Methodist pastor called the 2012 letter "false and ridiculous." He said it showed that some Christian conservative leaders fear that Obama's faith-based appeals to voters are working. Steve Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, a Pentecostal publication, titled one of his recent weekly e-mails to readers, "Life As We Know It Will End If Obama is Elected." Strang said gay rights and abortion rights would be strengthened in an Obama administration, taxes would rise and "people who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms." (AP) And this is, principally, why I'm reluctant to even use titles like "Reverend" or "Pastor": the world's penchant for confusing me with nut job like these. There is no biblical foundation, none, for the church to be involved in politics. There is no instance, at all, of Jesus Christ organizing His followers to defeat a ballot amendment or vote a certain way or petition Governor Herod. Moreover, there is no biblical foundation at all for using hate and fear to scare your flock into voting a certain way. This is reprehensible behavior from a group that becomes more extremist and more cult-like as the years go by. The divergence between the personal example of Jesus Christ and the practice of Focus On The Family is now extremely telling, forcing me to wonder what spirit is influencing James Dobson and his overly-devoted followers. It makes me worry that Dobson has allowed his follower's loyalty took him overshadow their responsibility to Christ, these folks seeming to know more abut political black operations than they do about what it means to be a Christian. The mother and brother of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson were found shot dead in the mother's Chicago home Monday afternoon in what police are calling an incident of domestic violence. At press time, police are seeking Hudson's brother-in-law, William Balfour, 27, was arrested Friday but has not been charged. At pres time, police are still searching for Hudson's 7-year old nephew, who has been missing since the shooting. Our prayers go out to Ms. Hudson and her family for the safe return of her nephew, and for the grace of God to be made manifest in this time of terrible tragedy. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/focus.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/focus.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:36:40 -0700 Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraq's parliament Saturday to reject a U.S.-Iraqi security pact as tens of thousands of his followers rallied in Baghdad against the deal. The mass public show of opposition came as U.S. and Iraqi leaders face a Dec. 31 deadline to reach agreement on the deal, which would replace an expiring U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S.-led forces in Iraq. (AP) The conflict with al-Sadr is especially troubling considering the cleric is principally responsible for the success of the U.S. troop surge which has substantially reduced violence and increased stability in Iraq. The surge—which is the main Republican reference point to the Iraqi war—is generally considered a success and that success is generally attributed to {title} General David Petraeus and, more reluctantly, to President Bush. But the success of the troop surge is not merely or entirely a military success, but a political and strategic one. Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward states in his book, The War Within: A Secret White House History, that a ceasefire by the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army militias, the Anbar Awakening in which Sunni fighters allied themselves with US forces to fight against al-Qaida, and a US assassination campaign against extremist leaders played the largest role in the drop of violence. Should al-Sadr withdraw his cooperation, it would undermine the political claim that the Iraqi war, now virtually banished from the headlines, is, essentially, behind us. A claim made 2000 days ago tomorrow by President George W. Bush, who, standing beneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner, declared that major combat operations in Iraq had been competed. Much as conservative politicians like to crow about the success of the surge, the Iraq war dates back much farther than January of 2007. Four years before, in fact, to March 20, 2003 and President George W. Bush’s inexplicable rush to war, despite Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein’s all but turning himself in—agreeing to virtually all U.S. demands for disclosure and monitoring of Iraq’s weapons programs. Four thousand U.S. casualties, thirty thousand U.S. wounded, a half-trillion dollars and counting, and two thousand days since the president’s aircraft carrier grandstanding later, there remains no coherent exit strategy, no game plan, and the hasty negotiations for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq threaten to unravel the “surge” the GOP have been crowing about for months; a strategy Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has acknowledged only cautiously and at some distance, heeding the words of the strategy’s architect Petraeus, who described the situation in Iraq as “tenuous” and “reversible.” He later said in September that, “I don't use terms like ‘victory’ or ‘defeat’... I’m a realist, not an optimist or a pessimist. And the reality is that there has been significant progress but there are still serious challenges.” We salute our brave men and women who have sacrificed so much in the name of freedom, and pray God’s influence and guidance for our leaders for the challenges ahead, praying fervently for the day when war will become obsolete, and our sons and daughters may be welcomed home. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/2000.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/2000.html Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:28:06 -0700 Voter Fraud: The New York Times is reporting tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law. These states include Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina.. We urge you to check your registration status by going to the National Association of Secretaries of State website and make sure you are eligible to vote. Don’t wait for November 4th to do this. Also, if you are denied a ballot on Election Day, request a Provisional Ballot and follow up with your state election board immediately. Barack Obama's presidential campaign accused rival John McCain of using a false crusade against voter fraud to suppress legitimate votes in a growing spat over ballots ahead of the November 4 poll. The Obama campaign's top lawyer, Bob Bauer, accused Republicans on Friday of recklessly "plotting" to suppress legitimate votes and to "sow confusion and harass voters and complicate the process for millions of Americans." Bauer told reporters the fact that senior officials from the Justice Department leaked news of an FBI investigation into liberal-leaning community organization ACORN a day after McCain charged them with voter registration fraud shows that "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics" may have returned. (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court quashed attempts to force hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters to undergo added scrutiny in Ohio, potentially dealing a setback to John McCain less than three weeks before the election. (Wall Street Journal) Responding to Senator Barack Obama's criticism of the escalating negative tone of Senator John McCain's campaign rhetoric, which now regularly includes hate propaganda and threats of violence from rally attendees, McCain went on the offense, his campaign claiming umbrage and outrage at comments by Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights pioneer, who warned last week the Republican presidential ticket is, “sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse... During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate.” McCain immediately called Lewis’ remarks “beyond the pale” and called on Obama to repudiate them. On Monday McCain fumed to CNN that Lewis’ controversial remarks were “so disturbing” that they “stopped me in my tracks.” The Obama campaign said any comparisons to Wallace were out of line, but also said that “Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) This is, of course, the tried and true political technique of making one's negatives a positive, turning the outrage many Americans (and increasing numbers of Republicans) feel about the divisive and racist tone of the McCain campaign into a positive, with McCain incredulously claiming to be an innocent victim of race politics. While it is possible the senator really does not understand how incendiary and dangerous his campaign tactics have become, that possibility actually worries me more: that someone so completely out of touch with reality could possibly win the Oval office. That his supporters could regularly threaten Senator Obama with violence and those threats go unchallenged by McCain or Governor Palin, but McCain and Palin will be "stopped in their tracks" by anyone pointing out how patently racist and dangerous their scorched-earth hate rallies are. McCain's phony outrage seizes on the racist component of Congressman Lewis' George Wallace comparison while missing the actual point of those remarks: that the GOP ticket is capriciously fueling an atmosphere of intolerance, violence and hate that will last well beyond this election. I frankly doubt the senator is that obtuse: I'm sure he got the point of Lewis' remarks, but chose nonetheless to politicize them, making Lewis the bad guy as he goes on pandering to racists and wing-nuts. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/kill.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/kill.html Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:52:10 -0700 John McCain's accelerated character attacks against Barack Obama took an ugly turn last week as McCain supporters sneered scathing epithets against Barack Obama, often right at running news cameras. Obama was most frequently called a "terrorist," an "Arab," with shouts of "Bomb Obama" and "Kill him" frequently permeating McCain/Palin rallies unchallenged by the candidates. This is the net product of John McCain's increasing desperation to discredit Obama by any means necessary. McCain and running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin have actively rallied hate and racism with the intent, perhaps, to discredit Obama or to at least make the American public fear an Obama administration. Washington Post: Yesterday, civil rights leader John Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia, became the latest advocate to excite the racial debate, condemning Sen. John McCain for "sowing the seeds of hatred and division" and accusing the Republican nominee of potentially inciting violence. "I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis, 68, wrote in a statement. McCain, who has repeatedly hailed Lewis as a personal hero, immediately called the comments "shocking and beyond the pale." It's a bit shocking to me to think the senator and governor are naive enough to not realize the actual product of their fear mongering would be hate, and that, should any harm come to Senator Obama, their disgraceful tactics would be the approximate cause. Inciting a crowd to violence is a criminal offense, and it was comically sad to see clips of McCain rallies this week, with McCain supporters spewing ignorance and hatred while tripping over themselves to find new ways to call Senator Obama a nigger without actually using that word. For his part, McCain seemed to have finally realized his tactic had crossed the line (actually, senator, the line is several miles behind you), when he was forced to actually defend Obama at a campaign stop, wherein McCain was booed by his own supporters for calling Obama, "a decent family man that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues." The overall improvisational method of the McCain campaign (i.e. they're making it up as they go) has landed the senator in a place where even his friends agree he's gone too far. His rallies are now not qualitatively different from those the Ku Klux Klan might host: an hour of people spewing irrational, uninformed and ignorant hatred of a man who has done them absolutely no harm. A man about whom they know only one thing for certain: he's black. Clean it up all you want, that's the bottom line of the McCain/Palin surge. McCain hoped to induce fear, but he has inspired hate. He has rallied thousands of Lee Harvey Oswalds while alienating his dwindling number of friends, with even Republicans now openly criticizing him. I am appalled by the McCain campaign and deeply offended by his crusade of fear and hatred, perhaps best summarized by his dismissive thumbing at Senator Obama, referring to him as, "That one," at last week's debate. Folks: if you've never in your life had a reason to get off the couch and actually *do* something, you have one now. President Bush met with the G7 (Group Of Seven; finance ministers of seven industrialized nations) seeking to head off a global economic crisis, but left empty-handed as the member states offered only piecemeal solutions to what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns could be a "global economic meltdown." Last week, the U.S. Stock Exchange suffered its worst loss in history, worse even than The Great Depression, triggering, at the very least, a deep economic recession and possibly much worse. This has been described as the worst economic situation of our lifetimes. Pastors: if you are not discussing this with your congregation, I honestly don't know what it is you think you are called to do. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/meltdown.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/meltdown.html Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:55:39 -0700 After dire warnings of the imminent collapse of the U.S. economy triggering a second Great Depression, inflicting the very financial paralysis the doomsayers were warning against (self-fulfilling prophecy, anyone?), the House reluctantly approved a porked-up version of the very same financial rescue plan they’d turned down last week. The bill, designed to bail out ailing financial institutions by purchasing toxic loans from them, is the very model of Moral Jeopardy, as the U.S. government now conveniently removes consequences from questionable ethical behavior. This is the same government, by the way, which would not help you or I save our homes. Wall Street responded with a shrug. Rather than a soaring rally to bookend the bailout deal, Wall Street just moved on to other financial worries, the Dow falling around 150 points. Which, in turn, put the worry back into the American bloodstream: that the $700 billion package would still not be enough to stave off a deep and prolonged recession or, even worse, that the American people may somehow have been duped by all the drama into fattening up the wallets of the very people who caused this mess to begin with. Despite the smiles and high-fives going on on Capitol Hill, the nation is a long ways away from being out of the woods, with the scariest parts of that journey still ahead of us. An anonymous source within the McCain Campaign told the Washington Post the campaign intends to go almost entirely negative in the remaining weeks before the election, a "strategy" which began with Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's despicably introducing racism into their desperate campaign by accusing Senator Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists" Saturday. This is an accusation which will only be taken seriously by complete idiots, racists and, likely, the Christian right. Palin told a group of donors at a private airport, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." Palin was referring to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the group the Weather Underground. Its members took credit for bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, during the Vietnam War era four decades ago. Obama, who was a child when the group was active, served on a charity board with Ayers several years ago and has denounced his radical views and activities. (AP) Senator Obama does not "pal around" with Ayers and Ayers has no connection to Obama's campaign--and Palin knows this. Which makes her a liar, and a capricious, deliberate one. Palin also said, in obvious racist code, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America." Douglass K. Daniel of the Associated Press wrote, "Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee 'palling around' with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America? ...Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as 'not like us' is another potential appeal to racism." "The heels are on, the gloves are off!" Palin said to rousing cheers Saturday in her patented annoying eighth-grade science teacher whine. What does that mean? What does *anything* this woman says actually mean? Normally, I'd point out how such obscene attacks are well beneath the dignity of someone claiming to be a follower of Christ, let alone seeking the second highest office in the land, but Palin has demonstrated, time and again, to be an empty suit, a punchline, a national joke. Someone so completely out of her depth that she's caused millions--with an "M"--of voters to question John McCain's judgment in selecting her. She is now knowingly and capriciously lying, sowing discord and prostituting herself in an effort to get elected, perhaps banking on McCain's precipitous health to land her in the Oval Office. This ridiculous accusation is the product of the naked ambition of a liar. I condemn her choices, here, and I absolutely condemn the Christian right for supporting this nonsense, these terrible, racist scare tactics intended to divide and polarize the nation at a time when we desperately need to pull together. These people have no solutions. Have no plan. Have no apparent campaign strategy other than to destroy the other guy, improvising as they go. These are the politics of destruction by an aging cancer survivor, a $100 million man with more money and more houses and cars than he knows what to do with--and it's still not enough for him. He wants to be president because he wants to be president--knowing his health will likely not sustain him through even his first term. The entire pursuit is wholly selfish, as is Palin's perversion of her alleged Christian faith in a cynical grab at power. These are shameful, terrible people. We crucify Christ afresh when we support them, when we fail to speak out against the lies, against the divisive tactics, just because these people claim to be Christian and pro-life. Beloved: it's not enough to *claim* to be Christian: there needs to be evidence in our lives, in our choices. Paul said the works of the flesh are obvious. The evidence before us, in the Republican tactics, is a perverse and blasphemous exploitation of things we hold sacred. There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. [Proverbs 6:16-19]. If you're calling yourself a Christian, you should condemn this foolishness. "Well, she's pro-life," I hear my conservative brother say. Maybe she is, but here she is demonstrating she is anti-God. She is a liar who is knowingly lying and deliberately out to destroy someone. And when you support her, you become just as big a hypocrite as she obviously is. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/heat.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/10/heat.html Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:25:52 -0700 http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/debate.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/debate.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:24:29 -0700 I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" --Revelation 6: 5-6 The U.S. economy teetered on the brink of collapse last week as a result of escalating failures in the mortgage industry which were themselves fueled by spiraling gas prices caused by the falling value of the U.S. Dollar, which was itself caused by the weak U.S. economy, a direct result of The Bush Administration's inattention to domestic issues while spending $10 billion per month prosecuting a pointless war in Iraq. Our current economic environment, which can at best be described as dire, is perhaps the saddest example of the president's failed administration and failed policies, caused mostly by simplistic thinking and an inability to understand how this thing-connects to that thing-connects to the other thing. It is simply impossible to live entirely on your Visa card, but the United States has been literally pouring cash into Iraq (less so in Afghanistan where it's actually needed) with no end in sight. Along the way, the Administration, with help from Arizona Senator John McCain, successfully lobbied for increasing deregulation of financial markets as the real estate bubble continued to exponentially grow. Last week saw the collapse of financial giants Lehmann Brothers and Merrill Lynch--something simply unfathomable in the minds of most financial analysts--with insurance giant AIG teetering on the brink before a government-led rescue. All of which made last week an incredibly volatile one for stock markets around the world as the Bush administration scrambled to put lipstick on this pig and calm jittery nerves by assuring the American people, as Senator McCain did last week, that "the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are basically sound." Meanwhile, other financial analysts not running for president have called this the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Associated Press: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday sketched out a multi-faceted effort to confront the worst U.S. financial crisis in decades, outlining a program that could cost taxpayers “hundreds of billions” of dollars to buy up bad mortgages and other toxic debt that has unhinged Wall Street. “This needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get to the heart of the problem,” he told reporters as the administration asked Congress to give it sweeping powers. In a separate press conference, President Bush told the nation his administration is taking “unprecedented action” to deal with the ailing financial markets. Bush said he appreciates the willingness of Congress to work with the administration to address the crisis “head on.” http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/third_horse.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/third_horse.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:45:54 -0700 Barack Obama took the gloves off in his presidential campaign against Republican contender Senator John McCain, whose campaign has comprised mainly negative attack ads against Obama and crowd-pleasing campaign stump speeches with his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who is the lightning rod for McCain's otherwise lackluster campaign. I've not seen an issue-oriented McCain ad in months, virtually all of his television spots attacking Senator Obama using distortions and childish foolishness such as demanding an apology from the Illinois senator for a quip about "lipstick on a pig." "Enough," Senator Obama finally declared last week. "THIS is what they want to talk about— what they want to spend two of the fifty-five remaining days on." Obama, who has virtually owned the high ground while sinking in the polls beneath McCain's increasingly shrill and sophomoric campaign of attacks. However, by sinking to McCain's level, by releasing childish attack ads, Obama falls into the trap of allowing the Arizona Senator and the Republicans to set the campaign agenda, up to and including forcing Senator Obama to run not against GOP nominee John McCain, but against veep nominee Palin, a moose-shooting political neophyte eerily reminiscent of clueless Texas slacker Governor Bush, selected for political reasons to run with the geriatric McCain and, if elected, be one heartbeat away from the presidency. What the Obama campaign is not saying or is perhaps afraid to say is that a vote for McCain is a vote for Palin for president. It is unlikely Palin would ever have won her party's nomination, let alone a general election. But, should McCain win, the remote possibility of Palin assuming the office of U.S. president becomes more of a probability if not a likelihood. Which is very frightening business, electing a political lightweight being used for her gender as our next president. To this end, I believe Senator McCain has acted selfishly and recklessly, placing this country at potentially great risk at a time of economic uncertainty and war. And this is what utterly perplexes me about conservatives—Christian or otherwise—how they cannot see that. That this man is desperate to win and will stop at, apparently, nothing, up to and including putting a woman not demonstrably more qualified than a Wal-Mart store manager in the Oval office when so very much is at stake. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/pig.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/pig.html Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:10:11 -0700


]]> http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/relative_convictions.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/relative_convictions.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:36:31 -0700 While certainly being caught between a hurricane and a hard place, Senator John McCain seems to be making political expediency of the potential human tragedy of Hurricane Gustav. By severely truncating the Republican National Convention, McCain and company get to dodge a major bullet—appearances by President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, two guys McCain would much prefer not attend the party. He also gets to sidestep an allegedly disgruntled Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, both snubbed in McCain’s sensationalistic nomination of Wonder Woman for vice president. The senator may also seek to maximize his profile by highlighting his leadership skills during the crisis, even though as a senator from Arizona he has no specific tasks to perform and no useful powers to exercise. Senator Barack Obama, on the other hand, brings not only a deeply embedded grass-roots organization into play, but nearly two decades of street-level organization and community action skills Senator McCain simply does not possess. While, like McCain, Obama has no official standing in the region, he has tremendously useful community-based organizational skills and unparalleled popularity among those most potentially affected by this arriving storm that would make any “highlighting” of Senator McCain’s leadership skills a dicey gamble on McCain’s part. Boots on the ground, helping troubled communities, is Obama’s primary occupation. Being a politician, I don’t put it past either candidate to make political hay of this storm, but, if anything this potential tragedy can likely further highlight the differences between the two would-be presidents, with Obama having the network and community relationships to make a quiet, useful and effective difference on the ground, while Senator McCain will work through official channels, but his social, economic and empathetic distance from these at-risk communities—rather than his leadership skills—is what will likely be highlighted. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/storm_highlights.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/09/storm_highlights.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:37:55 -0700 While introducing his vice-presidential running mate, Senator John McCain remembered first to acknowledge his birthday and then the anniversary of women’s suffrage. I wasn’t there, but I did not hear the senator acknowledge the day’s other significant event, the third anniversary of the destruction of an American city. I’m sure the senator must have acknowledged the grim anniversary at some point, but his headlong rush to step on Barack Obama’s news cycle was perhaps the final evidence African Americans needed to suggest McCain has completely given up on our vote. And, not having our vote, his interest in and therefore his sensitivity to the concerns of the African-American community are non-existent. McCain’s selection of August 29th for his veep announcement had to have been vetted by fairly smart people, at least one of whom *must* have told the senator the day held a moral peril not dissimilar to hosting a tractor pull on Indian burial ground. It was, at best, ill-advised. At worst, it sent the worst kind of signal to black America: that a McCain administration would care about as much about us as the Bush administration has. All of which seemed oddly appropriate as, while the massive, category-4 hurricane hit New Orleans in 2005, Senator McCain was with President George W. Bush, literally eating cake while New Orleans drowned. McCain appeared to have learned nothing in the intervening years, as, once again, he socialized while yet another hurricane, Gustav, took aim at New Orleans. What made Hurricane Katrina more than a natural disaster but a national disaster and, indeed, an American disgrace, was both the epic suffering and indifference to the same demonstrated by our commander-in-chief. An indifference echoed yesterday by Mr. McCain, who desires to become our next commander-in-chief. The bible teaches us faith without works is dead [James 2:20], which suggests the things we do are reflective of the kind of people we are. Planning a political stunt on the anniversary of a great American tragedy suggests a man so out of touch with the interests and sensibilities of average people that he becomes what so many believe him to be (a charge I’ve openly defended him against)—an extension of the anti-intellectual and uncompassionate example set by our current president. Senator: you really blew it. http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/08/cake.html http://www.praisenet.org/blogs2/praisenet/2008/08/cake.html Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:53:52 -0700