bayushisan's Journal

No More

I've had it with not being able to get the help I need and I'm tired of fighting for scraps. It's not fair and it's not right and the people who scream against things like food programs for children and Medicaid need to listen up because I'm only going to say this once.

A little over two years ago I alsmost died, three times in four days to be precise. I had gone to the emergency room after months of an illness that just wouldn't go away. I was passing out and my heart was thundering most of the time, I know I should have gone the first time passed out but I didn't, and don't, have health insurance.

Entering the hospital the doctors checked my blood and found that my hemoglobin count was 2.6; for those that don't know the average for someone my height and age is betwen 12-16. The doctors didn't know why I was even able to move, much less why I was still breathing. I spent the next four days getting seven units of blood. I also was given two endoscopies during that time, during which I'm told I stopped breathing both times. The second time I'm told it took them 40 minuts to get me breathing normally again. For the record we still don't know what caused my anemia in the first place. All in all this added up to a $20,000+ hospital bill. I hadn't been working for several years, not by choice mind you, and was denied Medicaid for reasons I still don't know.

After this I was told by the doctor I was seeing at the time (he didn't charge me to his credit. He actually acted like he cared) told me that he didn't want me working any more. The combination of asthma, anemia and a chemical imbalance I've had since birth add up to a very dangerous combination. Stress makes me violently ill and always has and I have a long history of bronchial and upper respiratory infections that sometimes have kept me sick for two weeks or more.

Now I was raised to believe that a man is supposed to work. I hated the news that my doctor gave me more than anything, but it's something I had to deal with. Because of what my doctor told me I applied for SSI and food stamps and I can tell you that anyone who says that said process is one of the most humiliating experiences you'll ever endure. Any politicians who talks trash against those programs should try applying and see how much fun it is before they open their mouths.

I've been denied SSI in the initial application and in the two appeals since. I'm going to appeal a third time, this time hopefully with a lawyer. It's ridiculous that getting help is so hard and it's ridiculous that there are idiots like Hannity and his ilk who talk against people who need help. People who abuse and game the system, and let's be honest there are people who are that dishonest, need to be punished but let's fix the bullcrap people have to go through just to get a little help.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and Amen

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Current Mood: angry
Current Music: none at the moment

Setting the Record Straight

It's no secret that I'm a Christian. Every view that I have is filtered through that lense and I make no apologies for it. This entry is designed to take certain parties to task and set the record straight about where politicians get it wrong.
There's been much debate about things like health care, "welfare", and pretty much every issue, political and otherwise, that's come down the pike. Within this debate there are a lot of my fellow Christians who insert themselves into the discussion by adhering to one party or the other. The problem that arises with this is that no singular politcal party gets all the answers right.

One of the big issues that seems to come up is the issue of the poor and what can, and should, be done to help them. Well, if you call yourself a Christian and are against any measures to help the poor, then you're missing some crucial information. Back in ancient Israel it was a matter of law that when grain was harvested a portion had to be left for the poor. This was on top of the ten percent tithe that people were also required to give. The community was expected to take care of one another and to care for the sick, the widows and the orphans. It wasn't just something that the Temple priests taught, it wasn't just expected culturally, it was something that was required by law.

Now if a person was able bodied and just chose not to work rather than just being in hard straights, then that person wasn't helped. Hence the verse "If a man DOES not work, he should not eat." Men, i.e. husbands and fathers, were expected to take care of their families. Again this was something that the community enforced, and while there were very likely people who tried to game the system those people were ostracized. The poor recieved help but the lazy did not. (As we all know there is an important difference between the two)

As a people we have to realize that we aren't just responsible for ourselves, we are also responsible for our brothers and sisters. We have to help those who need it, while also making sure that those who try to abuse the system and are just using it to get off easy are punished for hurting the poor over all.

We also have to realize that there will always be the poor and the sick among us. Christ, Himself, said as much. There are millions of people who are sick, not through their choices, but from outside influences or by chance of birth. Those who make no differentiation between those people and those who are genuinely guilty of making nothing but bad health choices, (i.e. eating nothing but fast food and then complaining over the heart attacks they've had) are in the wrong here. We can have rugged individualism AND a sense of community. It's been done before, just look at the Bible, the ancient Isrealites seemed to pull it off.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and Amen

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Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Banned from Argo

An Open Letter to America 2
My fellow Americans

On Monday night April 26th Bill O'Reilly crossed the line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZ8nwJCh60

At 3:15 you'll see what I'm talking about. He showed two people being murdered on national television and then went on a rant about how evil the terrorists were who murdered the man and woman in the video. He then went on to derisively state "only Army interrogation for them".

Really.

Bill, you've made the claim for years that you're a moral traditionalist. That you represent what the regular American thinks. Well this past Monday you outed yourself as a moral relativist. You don't believe in tradtional morals, you believe in morality of convience. It's ok to torture people if we think they have information, and if they don't "mistakes happen in war." The kind of morality you espouse makes justification for the torture of prisoners of war because it's more expediant to do that than it is to do things right. The kind of "morality" you endorse is hypocrisy at its worst. You claim that people on the left are all hate mongers and crazies, yet you go on to relentlessly attack anyone who dares to question you or call you the times you're wrong. You attack people all the time and then use the petulant excuse of "they started it."

Bill you're a hypocrite and a liar and worse than those you're an apologist for torture and a propogandist.

You go out of your way to try and destroy GE and conversely the NBC networks, thus costing thousands of people their jobs; but those people don't matter to you. They don't worship at the alter of Bill O'Reilly so they don't matter.

You and people like you dodge every attempt at a legitmate discussion of the torture of our prisoners in the war on terror. "It was effective" you proclaim, or "you want to prosecute someone for having a different opinion", or "do you want the terrorists to win". You don't have a counter to the point that waterboarding is torture and has been since the Spanish Inquisition, nor can you counter the point that we've prosecuted people for the crime of waterboarding so you attack your detractors instead of actually having the conversation.

In showing the video in which two innocent people were murdered and then decrying the use of the army interrogation manual and calling for more torture ("enhanced interrogation" if you want the euphemism) you tried to commit emotional blackmail and that makes you the worst kind of propogandist. The willing one.

I call on you my fellow Americans to make it known that this kind of thing will not be tolerated. We all have freedom of speech but freedom of speech means taking accountability for when you say something outrageous. Bill O'Reilly should be held accountable for what he's said and the black hearted manipulation he attempted with his airing of such a disgusting video. Speak out and let your voice be heard.

My name is John and I am a Christian by belief and an American by birth, of Southern blood and tired of seeing what's happening to our country.

Current Mood: angry

What They Don't Understand

Lately Republican pundits and talking heads have been trying to frame the debate about torture by couching it in terms that are meant to manipulate people. They've used terminology like "tough but controversial decisions" or the classic "enhanced interrogation". People like Bill O'Reilly have gone so far as to say "mistakes happen in war, and just last night he had a guest on that said torture techniques had to stay on the table "for people we knew had the information we wanted."

Bill, himself, has been a long time apologist for the torture of the prisoners of war that we have. He's repeatedly decried any attempt to get to the truth about the matter as being an attempt to "embarass America". Despite the fact that we got more good intel by using the techniques specified in the Army Interrogation Manual, he believes that the ends justify the means.

Also just last night he threatened President Obama should he try to prosecute those people who broke the law in regards to torturing the "detainees". His exact words escape me at the moment but I believe that it intimated that the Presidents term in office would be a disaster should he go through with any prosecutions. Now O'Reilly's nothing more than a bully. He'll use the "do what I say, OR ELSE" tactic that every other bully tries, and I hope he fails at this.

Anyway the fundamental problem with the punditry and other torture apologists is that they frame their argument in the context of the torture being successful in garnering the right intel. Since others have been too timid to say this I'll step up and say it.

Whether or not the torture was successful is absolutely irrelevant. The only question is whether or not the law was broken. If the law was broken, as I believe it was, then those responsible MUST be held accountable. No one is above the law. If they can't see that then they're just propoganda machines and should be ignored for the liars that they are.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and Amen

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Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Martini Lounge Music

On Israel
There's been much in the news lately about Israel. Specificly about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and the typical whys about the reasons they fight and hate one another. The purpose behind this particular blog is to try to explain my particular take on it.

When reading the following keep in mind that I am a Christian and my point of view is based on that and my understanding of history through that context.

To really understand the conflict at it's core you have to go back in time several thousand years, back to Isaac and Ishmael. Even back then the two sons of Abraham weren't friendly with one another, and the Bible makes it fairly clear that the aggressor was Ishmael. Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, were sent away God did promise to make Ishmael's descendents many though Ishmael's descendents would not be God's chosen people.

You also have to understand that over the course of history no group of people have been as oppressed as the Jewish people. They've been enslaved several times, genocide has been attempted against them multiple times, they've been driven from their homeland and still they remain and still they endure. This history has also taught them about how to react, and that lesson was hammered home in the years leading up to and through World War 2.

The Holocaust was one of the most evil acts in human history. Millions of Jews were butchered in the Nazi death camps and that's left an indellible impression on the Jewish people. Now when someone says that their goal is to wipe them out they take it very seriously and they react accordingly. The words "Never again" have very special meaning to the Jewish people and rightfully so.

You must also look back to May 14, 1948. This was the day that Israel became a nation again, and the very next day they were attacked by Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Over the years there have been a number of wars and conflicts involving Israel and most, if not all, have been acts of self defense on the part of Israel. Quite simplly Israel will not allow any nation or people to try and take away their right to exist and God will not allow that to happen either.

Looking at it now you have to understand that, with the exception of a six month "truce", Hamas has fired rockets into Israel every day since 2005. Repeatedly they've been warned to stop. Repeatedly they've broken any treaty and again and again Israel is pressured to give up more in the name of a peace that won't last. As it stands there is a blood hatred here. As I've shown it's thousands of years old and it's not going anywhere soon. To be sure it will be gone one day, but that's another blog.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: itunes

My dog, my friend....may he rest in peace and may I see him again on the other side
On this day, Wednesday November 19th of 2008, my family made the painful decision to put our dog, Chance, to sleep. He's been sick for a long time, we think it might be a form of cancer or other chemotherapy treatable disease. He's 13 years old and he's been my best friend since we got him.

My mom is being hit the hardest by this, at least in so far as I don't really let out my feelings save here. I'm terriblly saddened and heartbroken over this turn of events, but I have to maintain a degree of stoicism about it because someone has to be strong for the rest of the family. My dad's being hit pretty hard as well but we all agree that we'd rather do this than see him suffer.

He just doesn't have any energy anymore. He doesn't play, he's not gaining weight and he has a palpable air of sorrow in his eyes, almost as if he knows how sick he is. I hate seeing him like this and I want to scream to the heavens that it's not fair. It's not fair I have to lose my friend. It's not fair that he's sick and can't play anymore. It's not freaking fair that I had to be the one to make the initial calls about it and have that guilt on my already heavily burdened soul. It's not fair that I have to go through this in the middle of a ton of other crap that's already driving me out of my mind. It's not fair. It's just not fair but I don't see anything else that I can do and that kills me more than anything else. Beacuse I think there should be something I could do other than this; but there's not and I hate it beyond mere words can say.

I hate that I'm losing my friend. I hate even more that we can't get his ashes to bury because we don't have the money. I hate that he's sick and I hate that I can't make him well and able to jump and run and play again. We've had Chance for 13 years, as I've said before and he's had a good life and brought my family a lot of joy. Now it's his time to go and I don't want the times I've had with him to end. I want to cry, I want to scream and I want to cry out to God about the unfairness of it all. I want to but I won't, because in the end I'm at peace with the decision and I'm at peace with my friend passing.

Don't get me wrong I'm still in pain and I still hurt, but I'm at peace.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and Amen

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Current Mood: sad

Economy
Secretary of the Treasury Paulson came out today and said the the 750 billion dollar bailout that would have bought toxic assests and let people stay in their homes isn't going to happen. Nope, instead the Fed is pushing that money into Financial institutions like banks, Fannie May, Freddie Mac and other loaning institutions. Hurray he said with dripping sarcasm.

Let me get this straight. It's more important to keep crooked loaners afloat than it is to keep people in their homes. It's more important to help the wealthy than it is to help keep factories and the blue collar jobs afloat.

Who knows what's going to happen next?

Maybe Microsoft will petition for some of that bailout money because they don't have the total monopoly that they wanted. We couldn't stand for them to go under after all. Hey maybe a company that made nine billion dollars instead of their projected ten billion will get some of that cash.

Certainly the people at the bottom of the barrel don't need it. Oh no.

Help the wealthy and nuts to the poor and middle class, about that I expected really.

Current Mood: pissed off

The Spirit of Charity and Giving

As many people know we lost Gary Gygax recently. His loss was especially hard for many of us, though we never met him, because there are a large number of us who found a place to belong. His game encouraged us to be heroes. We got to, in some small way, live out our fantasies and imagine worlds better than our own. The outcasts, the geeks, the nerds, and many of the people who society proper believes to be "weird" found that they weren't so alone in the world, that we had one another and that was ok. We formed a community and though we may disagree wildly we can always come together with the commone experience of being gamers.

Now gamers are, for a variety of reasons, a fairly generous group of people. We give gladdly because we recognize that we've been blessed and we know that reaching out to help others will make the world a better place. We know that we need to do this, not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because if we ever want the world to be what we see in our mind's eye then we need to work to get there. For us it's a matter of recognizing that people who have it worse than us who need help, and having been in the position where we didn't get help, we feel it a matter of course that we're going to help others.

I mention these things because this past Gen Con there was a charity auction held in honor of Gary Gygax's memory. The money was to be donated to Mr. Gygax's favorite charity The Christian Children's Fund. When said charity discovered that the donation money was, in part, connected to the sale of D&D they flattly refused the money. The auction found another sponsor in Fisher House so things sort of worked out for the best, but that's not the point.

The point is that Mr. Gygax was, himself, a Christian. He'd supported the charity for years and not a little of that money very likely came from D&D or other fantasy gaming products he was behind. I find it rather troubling that a charity that's always emphasized the vital need for money to help starving children refused money because they believed it to be somehow tainted by the heathen gamers.

Ladies and gentlemen I am a Christian myself. I've never made a secret of this and I'll talk about it openly and honestly given a chance. Speaking as a Christian I don't understand where this charity is coming from. We wanted to help and we were refused because we ran into the old stereotype of D&D is satanic. That hurts.

Now I'm not going to wish bad things upon the Christian Children's Fund but I would encourage people to write them and calmly explain how they feel about their refusal of funds. Don't curse them out, don't scream and yell; act like the better person. Show them you understand the spirit of giving and charity and be mature in your dealings. They very likely won't listen, people who hold a stereotype that closely rarely do, but we need to be the bigger people in all this. If for no other reason than to show everyone else that they're wrong about us.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Current Mood: aggravated

An Open Letter to the America People
Stop.

Please just stop.

You know who you are so there's no need for denial.

Stop the U.S.A. chants, they use those at pro-wrestling matches so it's rather disengenuous to use it at political rallies. It's become a meaningless cliche and just needs to stop,

Stop talking about Palin is so great. All she is, is an attack dog, and that means she's utterly unfit for any office. I don't doubt her intelligence but I do doubt her sincerity and I have no respect for her general attitude of mudslinging. All she has is the same speach she's given since the Republican convention.

Stop giving McCain a pass on his own broken promises and his sharp turn away from the man he was in 2000 when he ran for President. He denounced the tactics people like Karl Rove used against him in that election and condemned the kind of dirty politics that cost him the Presidency in 2000. Now, however, he's thoroughly embraced those ugly tactics, all in the name of winning at any cost. So much for honor.

Stop listening to slimebags like Dick Morris. He's a strategist, that's it. He's the kind of person who believes you have to be willing to do anything to get elected, not unlike Rove really. People like Rove and Morris lack the courage to actually run for office themselves. That's why they can attack other people, in fact it's the only reason they can do so. They have to build up themselves by destroying others.

Please just stop. There's only so much more our country can take.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Current Mood: annoyed

An Open Letter to the RNC

To whom it may concern,

My name is John, and I'm 35 years old. I've been a registered Republican since the day I could start voting and I'm speaking out to you as a concerned citizen of these United States.

I am sorely disappointed with the direction that the GOP has taken with this Presidential election. The McCain campaign has run one of the nastiest and sleaziest campaigns that I've ever seen. The constant attacks of character, especially after McCain himself said that Obama was a good man, are unconscienable. They've lied about their own health care plan and have never addressed the fact that their plan would tax health care benefits as income. Replacing those lost benefits with a credit that goes right back to the insurance companies is no benefit and it certainly won't help people who have pre-existing conditions and are unable to buy health insurance anyway.

I don't think I really need to bring up the subtle attempts at the application of terror that you've been using but I will none the less. People do not need to be afraid of an Obama Presidency, McCain himself said that very thing. Yet you surround him with people like Ann Coulter who tend to use words like terrorist, and put emphasis on Obama's middle name. Let's not kid ourselves shall we? We both know what's going on with that and it's disgraceful.

Now we have the accuations that your opponents are attacking "Joe the plumber". There are a couple problems with this line of attack on your part. The first is that McCain brought Joe into the debate. The second is that Joe himself held a press conferance outside his home where he chose to express his thoughts, such as being totally against Soical Security. Now that is his right as an American, however you don't get to complain when it comes out that the person YOU dragged into this election debate turns out to not actually be a liscensed plumber. You also don't get to complain when it comes out that said non-plumber turns out to owe $1000+ in back taxes. How is this the fault of the other side when YOU and YOUR candidate are the ones who brought him up in the first place?

More troubling still are the recent rumblings of the old accusations of American citizens , particularly those on the left, as being "Anti-American". I was deeply offended to see a congresswoman on Hardball say to the world that she wanted the media to do an indepth expose on anyone in congress who's views are "Anti-American." One of McCain's own advocates, also on MSNBC, implied that only those people who voted for McCain were "Real Virginians". It is patently offensive for you to say that because someone may not agree with the party line that they're somehow not really patriotic Americans like you. Remember "Patriotism is the last resort of the scoundrel".

Which brings me to the recent accusation by Rush Limbaugh that the only reason Gen. Colin Powell was endorsing Barak Obama was race. I'd ask that you come out and condem this line of attack but I'd be wasting my breath. Is it really that unrealistic that Gen. Powell thought through this decision carefully and methodically before coming to the conclusion he did? Of course from what I've seen so far I think your answer would be yes.

In conclusion let me say that after this election I will be registering as an indedpendant. I will vote my conscience and only my conscience.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "I'm not leaving the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me/"

John

Current Mood: annoyed

On the Application of Terror
Terrorist.

That word carries with it a tremendous amount of power. It means something very, very specific and it implies the threat of violence. The problem is that one doesn't need to be a terrorist to use terror, and terror can be more than implicit physcial violence.

I bring this up because people need to know the Truth and the Truth is something that matters to me.

In recent months many of you have seen the Republican party all but outright say that the Democratic nominee is a terrorist. They certainly imply it through the continued question of one Bill Ayers. It doesn't matter that the question has been repeated answered, they keep asking it to plant the seed of terror in your minds. They attempt to feed this line of thought through putting emphasis on Obama's middle name. Again trying to link him to terrorism through implication.

As I write this I just saw on Hardball with Chris Matthews that a certain congress woman of the Republican party want the press to invesitgate every liberal in the Congress and Senate to see if they're "Anti-American".

That attitude, to me, is what's really scary.

It implies that one isn't an American if they don't fall into line with the Republican party. I don't fall into line with the RNC on their ideas, nor do I fall in line with everything the DNC says.

I am a Christian American citizen and I fear not. I will not be bludgeoned with the application of terror and I encourage you all to lift up your voices and tell people like O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, or anyone, regardless of what their politics are, that we will NOT go into that darkness.

Rember what was said in V for Vendetta.

People shouldn't be afraid of their government, government should be afraid of it's people.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Current Mood: angry

Subliminal Racism
Racism is an insidious and evil thing. Sometimes it's overt and obvious; and in those cases it's easily combated. However someitmes it's not that simple. Sometimes it's so subtle that it borders on the subliminal and it's use is still just as evil as it is when you're overt about it.

I bring this up because there are several conservative pundits who are using extremely subtle racism to get their point across. Some of these people are G. Gordon Liddy, Ann Coulter, and another radio show host who's name escapes me at the moment. They're trying to somehow imply certain things about Barak Obama by the sole virtue of his name and that's not right.

G. Gordon Liddy has accused Barak Obama of not even being a citizen of the United States, claiming that there's no birth certificate when there is.

Ann Coulter, and a few others are using Barak's middle name against him by putting very subtle emphasis on it. They do this because they know that the name Hussein has a very clear association with people. It brings up a very clear image and their hope is that people will be afraid and not vote for him. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't using fear to control people the very definiftion of, oh I don't know, terrorism?

One has to wonder if they would have gone this route had they gotten their wish and had a ticket that was more to their liking. All of these people openly stated that they wouldn't accept or support a McCain ticket. Yet here they are stumping for him. They imply that the Democratic nominee is a friend of terrorists knowing how people will react to that.

I hope that people will wise up and do their own investigating. Personally I don't care if you vote for him or not. Just don't vote against Obama because you're afraid of him, because if you do then terrorism has won. Just something to consider.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

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Current Mood: thoughtful

On Sarah Palin

I've been paying attention to the Presidential race for a while now and I've come to some conclusions that I thought I'd share with you all.

The first among these is that Sarah Palin was chosen, not for her record as a Govenor, but for purely political purposes. There were other female Govenors that had far more experience and were more widely known and respected that McCain could have chosen. Instead he chose someone who very few outside of Alaska had even heard of. Now it is his right as the nominee to pick whoever he wants, to an extent, as his VP, but my understanding is that Joe Lieberman was his first choice. It's also my understanding that the people running his campaign convinced him to choose someone else that was more in line with the Republican base and who wouldn't cause a riot at the Republican convention. In response to this he chose a woman who he had only talked to once on the phone and had only met with personally for fifteen minutes.

Sarah Palin simplly wasn't prepared for the level of srutiny that was headed her way and it's interesting that the McCain campaign has gone out of their way to shield her in a way that would never be tolerated if she was a male VP candidate. Now it is very true that there are those in the bloggosphere and the tabloid rags who were totally out of line in regards to her family, we can all agree on that one. However to equate any questioning of her record or her qualifications to be President as an attack is just insipid pandering.

The recent interviews with Katie Couric have shown that Palin is totally out of her depth in regards to a national election. It's important to remember that Palin comes from Alaska here. Alaska is one of the largest states in the Union we're told, and this is true if one is talking about land mass. In terms of population it's one of the smallest. Their total population is half that of some major cities and, like it or not, that means that she's much more used to small town politics and that just doesn't work on a national level.

It's important for me that you understand that I don't think that Palin is a stupid person. She definitely does have charisma and moxy in spades, not unlike Joe Biden in that regard. What she doesn't have, however, is any national experience. Her answers in recent interviews have been rambling responses that don't really adress the question that she's been asked and no matter how much experience you have you can't do that any more. There are too many means by which the people can call you on it.

Let me ask this one question in closing. Would we demand from any male candidate that their opponent not be condescending in a debate, or not use sarcasm? Shouldn't she be treated like she's one of the big players since she seems to want to play the game at the biggest levels?

Current Mood: accomplished

The Presidential Race
I've had my fill of the disengenuous tripe that's been spewing forth from the lips of Republican nominee John McCain. In light of that allow me to make a few things known to one and all.

1. No one is ever ready to be President. I don't care what McCain, or anyone else says about the matter, nothing can prepare you to be President. Every President has had to learn on the job because every President has governed differently.

2. McCain is not, repeat not, a regulator. He's described himself as "being fundamentally a de-regulator", so any time that he says he's for regulation he's lying.

3. McCain voted against equal pay for women. That's a fact. It's in his voting record and he can't deny it.

4. McCain was one of the Keating Five.

5. In 2001 McCain voted against increased funding for medical care for our verterans. He's voted against increased funding for that several times over the years but he has the utter temerity to then say that he "cares" about the troops. If that's true why vote against the increased medical care? Aren't his fellow vets worth spending the money on?

6. Sarah Palin wasn't McCain's first choice for VP, it was Senator Joe Liebermen. Palin was chosen as a patently transparent attempt to sway Hillary voters to vote for him instead.

7. Living in Alaska and being close to Russia does not, in any way, shape or form, give you foreign policy cred.

8. If you're going to say that you have to leave for Washington immediately, then leave immediately. Don't stop for a sit down interview and then act all indignant when you get called on it.

9. McCain's television ads have been the sleaziest I've ever seen. This after promising that his campaign would be the most ethical ever run. Another lie to the American people.

10. Today McCain said that he would always tell us the truth. Well if that's true then he better own up to all the other lies he's told during his campaign so far because I have no problem with tracking them down and posting them for all to see.

That's just a few of the things I needed to get off my chest. You can agree or not, it's your choice, but right now my vote's behind Barak Obama.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Current Mood: annoyed

An Open Letter to John McCain, Sarah Palin and the RNC
To whom it may concern,

I've been a registered Republican since I've been old enough to vote. I'm not terriblly happy with the state of the party these days. Part of that has to do with the very transparent attempt by the McCain campaign to pander to women with the nomination of Sarah Palin as his VP. It also seems like you don't want any questions asked of either candidate that are of any substance. In the interest of the people and making sure the right person is elected President I'm going to ask some of them here in the hopes that someone else will see them and start asking until we get real answers, not the typical Washington two step non-answers that I've been seeing lately.

1. Mr. McCain, you say that you're a reformer but you were involved in the Keating Savings and Loans scandal in the late eighties to early nineties. Now you were cleared because you're involvement was "minimal". How can you claim to be a reformer when you had any involvement in this?

2. Mr. McCain, you talk now about energy independence, and that's all well and good. However you have a twenty six year history of voting against alternative energy, voting against drilling at home and other such matters. How can you claim to be for energy independence when your own record shows otherwise. In a related note you had Phil Graham, who wrote the notorious energy loophole that ensured high gas prices, advising you on your energy policy, how is this even remotely good for the middle class and the poor?

3. Mrs. Palin, much has been said about your experience and how you're more experienced than either of the Democratic candidates. What have you actually done? What actual decisions have you made in regards to the National Guard and their deployment at the state level? What about the budget decficit that your state currently has? You came in with a surplus then proceeded to spend more with less money, is this really what a fiscal conservative would do?

4. Mrs. Palin, you've said that you're against earmarks, yet as the mayor of a city of 6,000 people you were there in-line with everyone else asking for them for your state. You say that you want ethical government but there are questions of whether or not you fired people in a retributive way during your tenure as both Mayor and Governor. What is the truth of the matter?

I ask these questions, not because I hate anyone or want to embarass anyone, but because I want what's best for the nation.

God bless you all and God bless America

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Current Mood: blah

Bill O'Reilly and Fox News are in the Tank

O'Reilly's officially lost it. Again.

Claiming that Fox News isn't in the tank for anyone is like me saying that the sky isn't blue and equally demonstrablly untrue.

For months Fox News has been the Anti-Obama network, going so far as to continue to talk about the Rev. Wright issue long after it stopped being news. They continued to talk about how bad and how inexperienced Barak Obama is and conviently ignoring the gaffes by the McCain camp and leaving Clinton gaffes by the wayside within days of them happening.

O'Reilly claims that he would never work for such a network that was in the tank for a candidate. Well given Fox News history of trying to destroy the candidacy of Barak Obama where is his resignation, as he claimed he would give?

O'Reilly has a documented hatred for NBC. MSNBC is, by their own admission, a left of center news channel. I believe much of this hatred stems from the fact that Keith Olberman is fairly consistent in calling Bill on the times he gets it wrong. Bill doesn't like being wrong, after all he's the self proclaimed master of the "no-spin zone."

The problem here is that Bill uses a dishonest tactic called "ambush journalism". Where-in he sends one of the people in his employ to ambush interview someone when they're with their families, or going to work, or on vacation. If someone doesn't want to be interviewed their right to privacy should be respected, though their are exceptions to this rule (such as the Hall of Shame segments and such consumer protection stories).

The point here is that Fox News has been in the tank for a Hillary vs. McCain Presidential campaign. This can be proven by simply watching Hannity & Colmes or any number of their other programing.

So Bill where's that resignation you said you would give?

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Queen-Greatest Hits

Giving Up a Soldier's Life, or Another Bush Travesty
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_quran_shooting

The above story truly sickens me. (BTW the punishment for defacing the quran is death in most middle east countries)

The sniper in the above story shot a book. I'll grant you that it was disrepsectful of him to do so, but he's an American citizen with the same right to free speech as you or me. If this was done on an American military base then there was no crime. Those bases are supposed to count as American soil to an extent but apparently the President would rather appease the Iraqi government instead of standing up for one of his own.

Appeasment. I thought we were supposed to be against that kind of thing Mr. President. What would our stalwart ally, Israel, think of us turning over one of our own like this? What would the 4000 of our own dead soldiers, sacrificed for your war, think of this? What would the 43000 soldiers who you sent back to Iraq, despite being classified as being medically unfit to serve, think of this? Of course the questions are rhetorical. You don't care about them in the least. You claim to give up golf, around the time you're having knee problems conviently enough. But of course even this isn't true as there are photographs of you playing golf after your anouncement that you were making that sacrifice in a show of solidarity with the families of our soldiers.

I, as an American citizen and the son and nephew of veterans DEMAND that you not turn over one of our own like this. I DEMAND that he face American punishment, if any at all, and above all else I DEMAND that you pull our troops out of the farce that is the war in Iraq.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. Make He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

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Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Roger Miller

The Nature of Evil

Evil's not a word that we use very much anymore and that's not a good thing. Sometimes it's the only word that can accurately describe a situation. We shouldn't shy away from the Truth of a situation because describing it would make people uncomfortable, that's not honest and it doesn't help solve the problem in question.

Part of the difficulty is that people, by and large, have forgotten what evil really is. I hope, that with this post, I can shed some light on what I think evil is and what we can do to combat it.
One example of evil is the way that the Shank family was treated after Debbie Shank was injured in a horrific accident. She has severe brain damage and needs constant care. Wal-Mart paid for her care until Debbie's husband won a lawsuit on her behalf to help pay for her 24hr care. Wal-Mart then sued the shank family and won because they had a clause in her work contract gave them the right to do so. Their claim was that not only did they HAVE to sue her but they were also being generous and merciful because they were accepting less than they were owed. This is an example of evil. They knew Debbie's condition. They knew that her husband had to divorce her so that she could qualify for medicaid. They knew that her brain damage was so severe that she can't remember that her son died in Iraq and that every time she's told it's like hearing it for the first time.

What Wal-Mart did was evil without question. However the Shank's story was picked up by the media. News shows like Countdown with Keith Olberman showcased this and expressed outrage over the fiendish level of greed that Wal-Mart was showing. This, coupled with consumer outrage (and lots of prayer from Christians I hope) caused Wal-Mart to change their position and, as of today I believe, control over that money is back in the hands of Debbie's ex-husband.
During this story one Glenn Beck actually had the utter temerity to declare that the media was acting like terrorists in the way that they had handled the story. Apparently his stance was that Debbie has signed the contract so she was just out of luck. This attitude and the earlier example involving Wal-Mart itself are examples of the evil of the lack of caring about those who are in genuine need. It's selfishness made manifest and it's an ugly and evil thing.

There's also the evil of trying to lie about someone without actually lying. A good example of this can be found amongst people like Ann Coulter and some other radio personalities (including one who introduced McCain at an event, can't remember his name though) in their continued emphasis on Barak's middle name. Now while it should be abundantly clear to everyone that they're trying to pull a fast one we all know that it won't be.

For those who are wondering this is an example of lying without actually saying the lie. In putting the emphasis on Barak's middle name people like Ann Coulter are, rather coyly, trying to imply that he's a muslim when he's not. When called on it they try to spin the argument to say that they're only using his name and that there's nothing wrong with that.
If that were the case I'd agree but since I know what they're acutally doing I call them on it and call it for what it is. Evil.

To be sure there are other examples of evil in the world. They happen every day in all parts of the world. Murder, rape, child molesters, assault, etc.

How do we combat this you ask?

Well the answer is simple. The first part of combating it is to realize that God loves all of us and sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for all of us, and that on the third day He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Accepting Him as Lord and Savior is the most important step. (Remember folks I'm a Christian so this point of view really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.)

Second we have to come together and work towards changing society. We have to change the hearts and minds of the people so we stop accepting things like the aforementioned evils. We have to get our hands dirty. We have to treat one another with love and kindness and care for the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans.

If we did all that then the world would be a much happier place to live. At least I think so anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Man in Black-Johnny Cash

Truth in Media

I realize that titling this entry "Truth in Media" is something of an oxymoron these days but I stand by the title anyway.

Alright now that that's out of the way we can start in on the meat of things.

Fox News (or should that be Fixed Noise) commentator Sean Hannity lied about the election. I realize this comes as something of a shock to regular viewers of Hannity & Colmes but it's still the truth.

Last night Hannity made the ereoneous claim that Hillary Clinton was leading in the popular vote. Well that's not true by a long shot. The math that Hannity presented only works if you include the votes from Michigan and Florida and then only if you give none of the uncommited vote to Barak Obama, keep in mind this is also ignoring the results of the North Carolina election AND ignored the pledge that both parties signed to not count Michigan and Florida. If you give him the uncommited vote then he's STILL in the lead in both popular vote and delegates. Sorry Hannity, as an American with integrity I can't sit by and allow the misinformation you tried to spread last night to stand. It's just not in my nature.

Now I also have to take some other people to task, Ann Coulter I'm looking in your direction since you're one of them.

There are a lot of conservative commentators who insist on using Barak Obama's full name. I'm pretty sure we all know what it is so I'm not going to be baited on that. Now the problem isn't that they keep using it, it's that they put an emphasis on the middle name. When called on it they smile and say "well it's just his name. There's nothing wrong with it."

Well I call horse manuere on the lot of them. What they're doing is subtle, which is a miracle in and of itself where some of these people are concerned, and it pretty much embodies everything that's wrong with politics today. In emphasizing Barak's middle name they're trying to say that he's a muslin without outright saying he's a muslim. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I think that's pretty slimey. There's some pretty negative views on Islam right now and implying that someone's a muslim for the express purpose of sabotaging their election is just dirty politics. I used to expect better from the conservative movement but I'm growing increasingly disallusioned with the entire process.

It's long past time we called out the various media outlets when we catch them in a lie or doing something dishonest. At least in my estimation anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.

Current Mood: annoyed

The Cost of Speaking Out
"Talk is cheap"

That's something I've heard a lot of in recent times. It's also a point of view that is grossly ignorant of reality.

It's the kind of point of view that one usually hears when you say something particularly insightful or that cuts through the nonsense and tells the Truth about an issue.

Talk isn't cheap. Sometimes it's very, very costly.

Speaking out against the cult known as the Church of Scientology has cost it's critics in lawsuits, being picketed outside their homes, being lied about and bull baited.

Speaking out against racism and for civil rights cost men like Dr. Martin Luther King and Medger Evers their lives.

Speaking out against the communist regimes of the U.S.S.R. cost numerous people their lives over the years.

Speaking out against the regime in China has cost many of it's citizens their lives and livelihoods.

Speaking out against the war in Iraq has had people branded as anti-American and wanting the terrorists to win.

Speaking out against the torture at Gitmo has had those who have done so branded as traitors and nutcases.

People have been ostracized from their friends, families and loved ones for speaking out.

So no I don't believe for a minute that talk is cheap. I do, however, believe that silence is far more costly.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: David Ball: Amigo CD

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