You have quoted Pope Francis

Tomorrow Pope Francis is calling on people everywhere to join him in prayer at 6:00 PM which is 12:00 noon in the Eastern United States. Like his prayer on Wednesday morning of this week the focus is on the Coronavirus pandemic. Wednesday morning I happened to wake up just three minutes before 6:00 AM and was able to join in. One of my friends pointed out that being on time wasn’t as important as bathing the world in prayer.

Today I read that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in her meeting with the Senate Majority Leader and the Treasury Secretary had offered a prayer based on one shared by Pope Francis. The Treasury Secretary is reported to have stated, “you have quoted Pope Francis, I will quote the Markets.” The tone struck me as cold and out of touch with the reality. There are 8 billion people on the earth and approximately three-hundred-thirty million here in the United States. Even if the stock market performs exceptionally well hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions will die of this pandemic.

Giving every American $1200 doesn’t amount to fart in a whirlwind. That’s one or two month’s mortgage or rent. Last week 3 million Americans filed for unemployment. Our hospitals need equipment. Our healthcare system is melting down and the secretary is praying for the markets. There is money in the agreement for hospital funding but with many Americans who have no health care coverage that’s moot. Worshiping the golden calf of the stock market is short sighted.

Repairer of Broken Walls

Today I received an email from one of my relatives which caused me to look again at one of my favorite quotes from the Book of Isaiah. There are many who decry what has happened to our society and our country and some are quick to blame the President, Congress and each other. We have become a land of malicious talk. A few days ago it began in earnest with the debt ceiling talks, now the Iowa Caucus, and it just keeps getting more malicious. Isaiah points the way to a new consciousness which is really very old if you consider how many years ago Isaiah lived.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” — Isaiah 58: 10-12

Doing away with malicious talk and spending ourselves on behalf of the hungry and oppressed in our midst is a guarantee of the satisfaction of our needs. Radical teaching in a world gone mad.

We are the United States of America

I love this address by a congressman with moxie. Dennis Kucinich has long been a favorite of mine. Like me he is not afraid to stand for something. Thank you Congressman Kucinich for a moving speech full of logic instead of rhetoric and delivered with passion.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Q52PwFVgE&t=34s]

MSM no longer relevant

After watching President Obama’s prime-time press conference and after having read the blogosphere all day along with comments on Facebook I’m convinced that he kicked some serious butt. However, if you’re unlucky enough to listen to main stream media outlets like CNN, Fox and others you get a much different story.  These are the same prevaricators who failed to hold George Bush’s feet to the fire six years ago when we went marching into Iraq.  President Obama proved in the general election when these same media giants were calling the race much tighter than it actually was that social networks like Facebook and MySpace along with other blogs are where most of the grassroots really gets their news.

I noted during the press conference that the President actually fielded a question from a Huffington Post reporter. That is a paradgigm change and emblematic of the Obama Presidency. Paradigm shifts are revolutions and we’ve been witnessing one in the last year. Tonight was one more chapter in era of netroots and the netroots generation. We don’t need Wolf Blitzer, John King and Campbell Brown telling us what we just saw. We’re a lot more sophisticated. Network news won’t end right away, but it’s no longer out front and hasn’t been for sometime. We don’t need Chris Matthews or Jack Cafferty when you can start your own blog, wiki or generate your own content on Youtube or Blip.tv.  President Obama is hip and so are we.

This can’t be happening

For over thirty years I’ve listened to a litany of lies and subterfuge from politicians and pundits about the wrong headed New Deal policies of Franklin Roosevelt. The global economy called for new ideas and well we just couldn’t have another 1929 because we had protections in place. Earlier this year our President said we weren’t in a recession. John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy were strong. Both McCain and Obama went along with the bailout as did most of the rest of Congress and the President signed it into law.

Wise people have long said that those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it. I wonder what the punditocracy will say now. How will Fox, CNN, CBS, MSNBC et al spin this?

Wall Street joined world stock markets in a precipitous plunge Friday, with the Dow Jones industrials dropping more than 400 points in early trading and all the major indexes falling more than 4 percent. The growing belief that the world will suffer a punishing economic recession has investors furiously dumping stocks.–Huffington Post

Read more here. The good news is that oil futures are down to $65 a barrel.

No vision

The stock market plunged 800 points today. News yesterday that the 700 billion dollar bailout may do nothing to improve the economy unless the value of real estate begins to rise. Iraq is teetering. Afghanistan is going backward and all Senator McCain can talk about is smears. The Republican smear machine is in high gear and let’s not kid ourselves its not about race, not the presidential race, but the race of Barack Obama. The Republican dirty tricks machine bending over backward with push polling and guilt by association. McCain comes from a party of redneck, homophobic, christianist, racists. This is not the party of Lincoln or the party of Barry Goldwater. Just under the surface of most of these Republicans is homophobia, sexism, racism, and really anti-Americanism and mindless fanaticism. Many of them talk of supporting our military but few if any have ever served and when you really press them on the issue they get a little testy.

Barack Obama is about as American as you can get. He is the melting pot. Let’s talk about issues Senator McCain. Let’s talk about Iraq and Afghanistan and why according to reliable sources 60% of the active duty military are pulling for Obama. They don’t want anymore of your sellout crowd who put American forces in an un-winnable situation without adequate equipment. Let’s talk about a man who had to get shamed into voting for a new GI Bill of Rights. Let’s talk about no-bid contracts for war profiteers and no health care for millions of Americans. Let’s talk about your plan to de-regulate health care. Let’s talk about a guy who has had government health care his entire life wants others to do without the same. Let’s talk about the failed economic policies which your own adviser Phil Gramm crafted. Let’s talk about what de-regulation has accomplished and why we have to bail out Wall Street because you slept while the store was being robbed.

You like to invoke the maverick image, but you aren’t one sir. Barack Obama is a maverick. He voted against this insane authorization for war that you favored and he did it at a time when few in his own party had the courage to. Mr. Obama has had the courage to do without public financing for his campaign. He’s financed primarily by small donors. He’s mobilized millions of Americans who have a positive image of the future of our country. He’s a man with a vision. You are a man without one and long ago in Proverbs 29:18 it is written, “Where there is no vision the people perish,” and that is what is happening right now sir. People are perishing because you and your friends have no vision.

Slacker Uprising

I got a note from a group I belong to about a new movie by MIchael Moore entitled “Slacker Uprising.” You can download the movie for free at SlackerUprising.com. Here’s the trailer which is pretty entertaining.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh5a42XyrOA&]

Palin Button

A friend of mine sent me an email yesterday that had an image like the one below. I’d like to get a button like this and wear it. If you like this button I found a link where you can buy them. Get your button here.

Attention Sarah Palin
Attention Sarah Palin

Values voters

The financial crisis is affecting lots of people and even some traditional Republicans, who for years have endorsed the lack of regulation that created this disaster have had enough. It turns out that decency and honesty which are real values were missing in the halls of big business and the halls of congress. I cannot remember a President since Jimmy Carter who really held big business’ feet to the fire. Many of the conservatives idolize Ronald Reagan and while he was preferable to our current occupant of the White House he was no paragon of virtue either. Reagan was going to get government off everybody’s backs and he began to strip away the regulations that had been put in place after the Great Depression. With Reagan we had Iran-Contra where we were actually trading arms for hostages. Ollie North and John Poindexter were lying to Congress. Then came Bush 41, who was at heart an excellent man but he too was surrounded by individuals who led in time to the savings and loan debacle. Then came Clinton who was brilliant and had some bright minds around him but the Republicans spent more time investigating whether a White House intern had sex with Clinton and whether he’d done something illegal in an Arkansas land deal. None of those incidents taken together have had the negative impact of the current fiscal fiasco.

The party of Barry Goldwater has slipped a long way from a party of principled politicians to group of hacks and criminals more intent on lining their own pockets and those of corporate executives than of really protecting the interests of average Americans. I love it when these crooks preface their remarks with “the American people.” They don’t give a damn about the real American people. The United States faces a landmark election, an election as important as any in our history. You can bet the Republican dirty tricksters who have already been gerrymandering will try to rig yet another election. Be prepared for more voter fraud and hanging chads. They will not give up easy. I hope and pray everyday that real Americans can restore our country to its proper place in the world and at home.

Veterans for Obama

I’m a proud veteran of the United States Navy and I’m supporting Barack Obama for President. I like this video of the veterans who are also supporting Obama. These folks are from Pennsylvania. I’d like to show the support of veterans everywhere for Obama. Barack’s got what it takes to be President. I don’t dislike John McCain and I wish him well, but his record of support for both this unfortunate war in Iraq and his inability to endorse a GI Bill of Rights for today’s veterans shows that he is out of touch with the needs of veterans of this or any war.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87LhqeQmnHw&feature=related]