Kudos to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who responded to a tweet regarding a senior citizen needing help with snow removal--by going over and shoveling the snow himself. Via Intoxination.
Open thread below.
This isn't peanut butter and chocolate. It's more two things that I don't think are so great-- the way-over-played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and, well, Tori Amos.
Together they sound really good to me. Huh.
Anyone else have some unexpectedly good covers to share? And what else are you listening to tonight?
(Sec. of Commerce Luther Hodges - 1964 was something of a fishing expedition)
Howard K. Smith (ABC News): “If anyone drew up a list of the seven wonders of the modern world, the American economy would certainly be one of them. In the lives of men now at middle age its gross output of wealth has doubled, then doubled again and then doubled again. But one of the most impressive, or depressive aspects about it is, that while it has multiplied our wealth it has not distributed it well. A fifth of our people live in poverty and we have the highest unemployed rate of any modern Western country.”
Cautious optimism, whistling in the dark - 1964 was a year of contrasts. First, we were recovering from the assassination of President Kennedy and were putting our faith in Lyndon Johnson to carry on the JFK legacy. The social programs (the Civil Rights Bill, Medicare) were evolving, the War on Poverty was about to get rolling. But then so too was the Vietnam War with the infamous Gulf Of Tonkin incident in the not-so-distant future of August.
But on January 5, 1964 when this installment of ABC News Issues and Answers was aired, Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges and Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz voiced optimism that all would be well with the world in good time. Sadly, no. But at the moment, America needed some bolstering. It was heading into unknown territory and it wasn't sure what the future would bring.
It came soon enough.
Former Lt. General "Goes There": Calls for all Muslim men between 18-28 to be strip searched:
A recent FOX News Saturday guest, retired Lt. General Thomas McInerney offered a solution to terrorism on American airliners, religious profiling: "If you are an 18-28-year-old Muslim man then you should be strip searched. And if we don't do that there's a very high probability we're going to lose an airline." McInerney's solution is many things (swift and decisive, for instance), but is primarily ignorant of two portions of the US Constitution, The first and fourth amendments.
The FOX anchor implied that such violations would, and rightfully so, cause unrest: "That's just not going to go over, not in this country," she told McInerney, who simply declared that religious freedom and protection from such profiling through illegal searches were "part of the problem".
As Bob Cesca noted... what could possibly go wrong? Even the Fox newsmodel Julie Banderas was freaked out by the suggestion. I would like to know how the general would determine just who is a Muslim and who is not?
This is a story from June of 2006:
Santorum: I'll show you the classified documents right here...
(h/t Mike at BAGnewsNotes) NY Times:
When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel’s tiny plastic cubicles offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home.
Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II.
Once-booming exporters laid off workers en masse in 2009 as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, have become homeless.
Those little cubbies--hardly bigger than the crate in which my lab sleeps--don't come cheap. According to the article, the upper cubbie costs the equivalent of $640 a month. Ouch. And that's an relatively affordable option.
Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows.
Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks.
Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance.
“Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train,” said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel.
But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for dwellers of a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsules are rented out by the month.
After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode; that made it easier to land job interviews.
Bloody Bill Kristol thinks that the embassy closing in Yemen "has been a victory for Al Qaida". No Bill, the neocons like yourself taking over the U.S. government giving them excuses to fuel extremism has been a "victory for Al Qaida". Bill was also not done crying about the Underwear Bomber being "lawyered up" and not being tortured in case there's more information we could have gotten from him. So nice to see Kristol has absolutely no faith in our criminal justice system.
WALLACE: Bill, is that -- as Brit frames it, is that the issue, that it’s a choice between getting tough or doing things, whether it’s on decisions about Guantanamo, decisions about criminal defendants, that may appeal to the rest of the world and that -- and the Obama administration is coming down on one side of that?
KRISTOL: I’m not even sure it appeals to the rest of the world, of course. I don’t think the rest of the world would be shocked if we treated him as an enemy combatant in -- consistently -- consistent with President Obama’s rules of interrogation -- no enhanced interrogation techniques -- but still try to interrogate him.
Mr. Brennan said to you that we are very worried that there are other Abdulmutallabs out there. This Abdulmutallab was there for four months. He might know who the others are. He might know their names.
We let him lawyer up, and right now he’s probably thinking, “Gee, maybe I could use that information to bargain with to get a reduced sentence.” That’s what Brennan seemed to indicate when he kept talking about how, “Well, we’re going to work with his lawyers, and we have some incentives to offer him.”
But this is operational intelligence in real time, and we are not treating it as a war. I mean, if this -- incidentally, when he said there’s no smoking gun, this is the smoking -- he is the smoking gun. Right?
His father comes, gives the CIA station chief in Africa his name. He -- a month later, he goes to Yemen, says he’s in Yemen. He’s in Yemen. He’s with this cleric whom we’re monitoring in Yemen, trying to kill in Yemen, Awlaki, who’s the same guy who’s been in touch with Major Hasan.
He goes to an airport using his own name, no disguise, no alias, buys with cash a one-way ticket to the U.S.
HUME: No luggage.
KRISTOL: No luggage. That -- he is the smoking gun. And frankly, for Mr. Brennan to say, “Well, no smoking gun,” that itself shows a kind of not-serious-about-the-war mentality.
And I would add one last thing. Closing the embassy in Yemen last night -- I mean, I don’t -- you know, no one wants State Department officials to be put at risk and all that, but that is a sign of weakness.
Closing the embassy? We can’t protect our own embassy in Yemen, a place we have Special Operations forces, a place we say we’re working with the government on the front lines of the war on terror, and there’s a terror threat and we close the embassy? That’s a victory for Al Qaida.
Allen Quist is one of a bevy of wingnuts lining up to take on Democratic Rep. Tim Walz in Minnesota's 1st District. He's already making appeals to the Tea Party crowd, and now he's taken to channeling Glenn Beck, as you can see from the video above:
Quist: I, like you, have seen that our country is being destroyed. I mean, this is -- every generation has had to fight for freedom. This is our fight! And this is our time. This is it! Terrorism, yes, but that's not the big battle. The big battle is in D.C. with the radicals! They aren't liberals, they're radicals! Obama, Pelosi, Waltz, they're not liberals, they're radicals! They are destroying our country! And people all over are figuring that out.
This was from a mid-December Christmas party for the Wabash County Republicans.
Richard Alan Smith at VoteVets notes that Quist's smear includes Tim Walz, a decorated veteran:
Sergeant Major (Ret.) Walz's service to his country apparently means nothing to Allen Quist, one of the Republicans lining up to challenge Walz in this year's mid-term election. Here is a video of Quist, who has never worn the uniform of his country, telling you that this brave American is a "radical", is more dangerous than a terrorist and is out to destroy the country he served for 24 years...
...
Allen Quist, a politician who has been chasing office since 1982, should be ashamed of himself. A year before Quist began his desperate attempt to become a career politician, the man who's patriotism he attacks put on an Army uniform at the age of 17 and wore it for 24 years, rising to the highest enlisted rank and becoming the highest ranking enlisted soldier in southern Minnesota. A man who has so little respect for the service of America's Veterans has no business serving in Congress.
Yeah, well, the only problem with teabagging Republicans is ... they have no shame whatsoever.
Now that we've begun a new decade, the right wing will begin their new con game, and their "mark' will be the American people. What's a mark?
A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills.
Typically con men feed on dishonest people, but in politics they focus on the unsuspecting. What we've learned from the previous decade is that conservatism is a total failure when it comes to governance. Under Bush and Cheney we've had a massive terrorist attack, two wars, torture and a global financial meltdown. We've had Hurricane Katrina expose how conservatives respond to Americans after a natural disaster hits two states. We've had government corruption at the highest order, which resulted in Cheney's chief of staff being convicted of multiple felonies. We had the horrendous Terry Schiavo affair. We had a news network actively become a propaganda arm of the GOP. We had Wall Street inflate a mortgage bubble that almost turned into another Great Depression.
I can go on and on, but because of a timid media, they will be allowed to perpetrate their newest con. "Only conservatism can save America," will be their motto. If the media actually acted like an independent monitor of the news, we might stand a chance against the new scam, but we know better. Drudge rules their world.
The GOP is brilliant at one thing, and that is tearing people down. Because they left this country in such tatters it's an easy scam to pull off, because hard-working Americans are vulnerable pickings. They have to try and survive in a world destroyed by conservative values. The con is easy. Just blame everything on President Barack Obama. All your job woes, all your fears about how your life will recover and the future that it holds for your children. If we had a real media that would expose the Bush regime for the manifest failure it was, it would be a much harder task, but we don't, and instead news programming has turned more into endless right/left opinion discussions.
"Don't Get Fooled Again" should be our national slogan, because even if we disagree as liberals in the way our president has handled the situation he was elected into, we are engaged enough to know what conservatism has done to this country.
Devilstower at DailyKos reminisces about the previous decade also:
Don't forget the naughts, because this decade, no matter what anyone on the right might say, was conservatism on trial. You want less taxes? You got less taxes. You want less regulation? You got less regulation. Open markets? Wide open. An illusuion of security in place of rights? Hey, presto. Think we should privatize war by handing unlimited power given to military contractors so they can kick butt and take names? Kiddo, we passed out boots and pencils by the thousands. Everything, everything, that ever showed up on a drooled-over right wing wish list got implemented -- with a side order of Freedom Fries.
They will try to disown it, and God knows if I was responsible for this mess I'd be disowning it, too. But the truth is that the conservatives got everything they wanted in the decade just past, everything that they've claimed for forty years would make America "great again". They didn't fart around with any "red dog Republicans." They rolled over their moderates and implemented a conservative dream.
What did we get for it? We got an economy in ruins, a government in massive debt, unending war, and the repudiation of the world. There's no doubt that Republicans want you to forget the last decade, because if you remember... if you remember when you went down to the water hole and were jumped by every lunacy that ever emerged from the wet dreams of Grover Norquist and Dick Cheney, well, it's not likely that you'd give them a chance to do it again.
And they will. Given half a chance -- less than half -- they'll do it again, only worse. Because that's the way conservatism works. Remember when the only answer to every economic problem was "cut taxes?" We have a surplus. Good, let's cut taxes. We have a deficit. Hey, cut taxes even more! That little motto was unchanging even when was clear that the tax cuts were increasing the burden on everyone but a wealthy few. That's just a subset of the great conservative battle whine which is now and forever "we didn't go far enough." If deregulation led to a crash, it's because we didn't deregulate enough. If the wars aren't won, it's because we haven't started enough wars. If there are people still clinging to their rights, it's because we haven't done enough to make them afraid.
Forget the naughts, and you'll forget that conservatives had another chance to prove all their ideas, and that their ideas utterly and completely failed. Again.
The point of remembering bad events is to stop them from repeating. So remember, and remind others if they start to forget. Because really, this is one trip to the water hole we can't afford to repeat.
And as Digby points out:
I don't deny that the corporate Democrats are screwed up too. But they didn't invent this political world. As I quipped before, they just learned to stop worrying and love the money. This world of graft and corruption and unfettered greed was the conservative movement's idea of utopia. And they got it.
The Transportation Security Administration is announcing the implementation of "enhanced screening" for personnel coming in from nations that have been designated as terrorist havens. I wonder if "enhanced interrogation" comes with the package? Could they have picked a worse term?
Because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners, TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening. The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on U.S. bound international flights.
File this under "things that would not have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from flying from Nigeria through Amsterdam to the United States." Nor would it have stopped the feared "liquid bombers" from the United Kingdom. And it won't stop al Qaeda cells operating in Germany. So exactly how is this security theater meant to protect us? Short answer, it won't. It's just movie drama theater. It will, however, piss off a lot of normal travelers who will decide that flying to America just isn't worth it anymore. It will also cost the airports a great deal of money and slow down security checks even further. So overall, yeah, great news, TSA.
The NY Times has a list of countries who will be affected by this directive.
Citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, countries that are considered “state sponsors of terrorism,” as well as those of “countries of interest” — including Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen — will face the special scrutiny, officials said.
But it still won't stop "non-state actors" from flying to America if and when they want.
Last week, Republican strategist Kevin Madden chastised President Obama for choosing to vacation in a "foreign place" like Hawaii, concluding "it's much different than being in Texas." Rush Limbaugh, it turns out, couldn't disagree more. The right-wing radio host and avid golfer not only visits the islands every year. After his New Year's Eve scare with chest pains, Limbaugh had nothing but praise for the care he received there. And for good reason: while Hawaii ranks second in state health care performance, the Lone Star State is a dismal 46th.
For his part, Limbaugh predictably touted his emergency hospitalization as proof of an unrivaled American health care system which needs no reform:
"I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system," Limbaugh said. "I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms."
No different than virtually all Hawaiians, that is.
As the New York Times detailed in October ("In Hawaii's Health System, Lessons for Lawmakers"), Hawaii consistently outperforms almost every other state for health care access, quality and costs. While only about 10% of non-elderly adults are without health insurance in there, Hawaii's premiums and Medicare costs per beneficiary are the lowest in the nation. The Times explained a major reason why:
Since 1974, Hawaii has required all employers to provide relatively generous health care benefits to any employee who works 20 hours a week or more. If health care legislation passes in Congress, the rest of the country may barely catch up.
That system also paid dividends for Rush Limbaugh:
One result of Hawaii's employer mandate and the relatively high number of people with health insurance is that hospital emergency rooms in the state are islands of relative calm. In 2007, the state had 264 outpatient visits to emergency rooms per 1,000 people -- 34 percent lower than the national average of 401.
(That's a far cry from the GOP's "emergency room solution" to the American health care crisis favored by George W. Bush, Tom Delay and Mitch McConnell.)
The result is that Hawaii can be found atop the Commonwealth Fund's scorecard of state health care performance. After finishing first in its 2007 assessment, the Commonwealth Fund ranked Barack Obama's birthplace #2 across 30-plus indicators of health care access, cost containment, quality, equity and prevention.
Along with other recent studies, the Commonwealth Fund also confirmed what by now is a truism of the politics of American health care: health care is worst precisely where Republicans poll best.
From CNN's State of the Union, Sen. Jim DeMint saying we need to "take the politics out of" the debate over how to respond to the attempted Christmas terrorist attack, while playing politics with the attempted Christmas terrorist attack. While Gloria Borger did at least ask a follow up question on how the President has down-played the risk of terror, which he did a terrible job of stumbling through answering, but here are the questions I wish these reporters were asking instead. Why do you think torturing someone is one, acceptable, and two reliable, since people will just tell you what you want to hear to make the torture stop. And for Clair McCaskill, why do you think dropping more bombs on poor people's heads is going to help end terrorism. It's pathetic that endless war and torture have just become an acceptable part of our political dialog with the politicians and the Villagers, instead of something to be horrified by.
DEMINT: Gloria, if we -- if we had treated this Christmas Day bomber as a terrorist, he would have immediately been interrogated military-style, rather given -- rather than given the rights of an American and lawyers. We probably lost valuable information.
It does come down to a decision of whether or not this is an act of war, an agent of terror, or just a criminal act. So there's some real implications of the direction that's being taken now. I agree with Senator McCaskill. We need to take the politics out of this. But there's no question that the president has down-played the risk of terror since he took office. He is investigating the CIA, rather than build them up.
BORGER: How has he -- Senator DeMint, how -- how has he down- played the risk of terror?
DEMINT: Well, it begins with not even being willing to use the word.
BORGER: Well, aside from the semantics, aside from that.
DEMINT: Aside from the semantics, he's been completely distracted by other things, as has already been -- been mentioned, and he is not focused on building security and intelligence apparatus of our country.
The last administration, President Bush made a huge mistake by sending the Yemenis back. The core leadership of Al Qaeda now is made up of those folks who were at the Gitmo prison. We can't make that mistake again.
So it's not just about this administration. It's about losing our focus on security. And I'm -- I'm afraid politics and political correctness has -- has become front and center of this debate.
MCCASKILL: You know, that's just not true. This president has focused like a laser on how to keep this country safe. His commitment his Afghanistan, even though there are those in his party that were -- that were very critical of a position he took, he took the time and the energy to determine that us ramping up in Afghanistan should have been done a long time ago. That's a -- a breeding ground for terrorists. This is a president that is taking strong action and is building up our intelligence community.
BORGER: Senator DeMint, Senator McCaskill, thanks for being with us this morning.
DEMINT: Thank you, Gloria.
MCCASKILL: Thank you. Happy New Year.
DEMINT: Happy New Year, Claire.
BORGER: You, too.
MCCASKILL: Thanks, Jim.
You find the darndest things on Craigslist, don't you?
Looks like the The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is putting together another scare piece (remember "I.O.U.S.A."?) to use in their latest attempt to kill Medicare and Social Security.
As a Philadelphian, I'm thrilled we were chosen to take part - even if they picked us because tightwad billionaire Peterson knew it would be cheaper than filming in New York.
But this is more than mere marketing - and it isn't even the major thrust of his sophisticated astroturf campaign. The fact is, billionaire Peterson has spent decades of his time - and millions of dollars - pushing for the eventual gutting of these two programs. He's a deficit hawk, all right - but only when there's a Democratic administration.
And in a classic piece of disaster capitalism, he and his powerful allies are moving in for the kill. Be very, very afraid.
A New York City Production Company is looking for participants for a documentary web series about the financial issues facing everyday people. We are interviewing real people, not actors, talking about their lives, experiences, and thoughts about one or more of the major issues facing Americans today.
We are looking to cover stories from as many different ethnicities and political viewpoints as possible. Whatever your age, background, or income, if you have an interesting story, we'd love to hear from you.
Since this is documentary journalism we can not by law compensate the interviewees but we will pay for travel and food. The shoot should take a few hours and we will do our best to schedule around your convenience.
What do you suppose the odds are of my viewpoints being included in this "documentary journalism"?
You will be helping other people by telling your story. Other Americans who feel alienated and hopeless will gain comfort by knowing they are not alone. And together we can make a difference in the future of our country and for our children.
Yes, we'll be stripping the recession-battered country bare of what tattered remnants of a safety net that remain - and we'll make you like it! It certainly will make a difference.
The videos are for The Peter G Peterson Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan, organization whose only mission is to educate the American people about the country's financial situation and incite them to take action on their behalf.
Dear sweet Jesus, shoot me now. The man worked for Nixon. He was the CEO of Lehman Brothers, which held the same kind of influence we now see with Goldman Sachs. (So you know he has only our best interests at heart!)
You don't have to be a political expert to participate. We just want to know your personal story.
The topics are:
1. The Healthcare System - What it does to the participants and the need for reform in a way that works.
2. The Tax System - How complicated and unfair it is.
3. Social Security and Medicare - What will happen to the younger generations once the Entitlements go broke.
4. The Federal Government's Financial Situation - 11 trillion in National Debt with no plans to balance the budget and pay it back.
5. Our own personal financial issues - High school loans, credit card debt and mortgage rates are crippling Americans.Some of the possible "stories" we're looking for:
* A person who can't pay their mortgage or their taxes
* A recent college graduate with credit card debt and student loans.
* A young family adjusting to the costs involved in raising children.
* A person with serious healthcare expenses.
* A small business owner who would like to provide healthcare but can't.
* A person who has been or is being audited due to a mistake by their accountant or not knowing how to file taxes properly.
* Anyone who is infuriated by these issues.Please remember, the types listed above are only possible guidelines. If you have an interesting story about your financial struggles, we'd love to hear from you!
I think you know what to do. Let's send these sorry excuses for human beings back to Wall Street with some real stories.
The series will premiere on prominent websites with potential TV airings.
If interested, please send an email with your name, contact info, and a brief description of your your situation to John at casting@dynamiccontentproductions.com. We will be shooting in Philadelphia mid to late January so time is of the essence.
Look, if the healthcare battle hasn't opened your eyes to the fact that immensely wealthy and powerful corporate interests are perverting our democracy, you're not paying attention. Why else do you suppose the Washington Post turned over a chunk of their news section the other day to a piece of Peterson propaganda - disguised as news content?
The Washington Post published in its news pages an article by The Fiscal Times -- "an independent digital news publication reporting on fiscal, budgetary, health-care and international economics issues" -- that promoted the creation of a task force to reduce the deficit in part through cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. But the Post did not disclose that the Times is funded by conservative billionaire Peter G. Peterson, whose organizations have long advocated reducing the deficit through entitlement cuts and have called for the creation of such a commission.
The Fiscal Times article ran on Page A10 of the January 31 edition of the Post. The article's byline noted that authors Elaine S. Povich and Eric Pianin report for The Fiscal Times; a note at the end of the article stated that it "was produced by the Fiscal Times, an independent digital news publication reporting on fiscal, budgetary, health-care and international economics issues."
Oddly enough, there was no inclusion of opposing views in this "news" piece. But then, the Washington Post has a long and proud tradition as a willing handmaiden to powerful interests.
So here it comes, the cranking up of the Mighty Wurlitzer. If they want a fight, bring it on.
This time, we're ready.
Why is it if The Politico's Mike Allen decides to play stenographer for Dick Cheney, the rest of the media feels they must follow suit and ask others to respond to Cheney's remarks? David Gregory takes his turn on Meet the Press and Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan hits back.
MR. GREGORY: Republicans have been very critical of this president and accuse him of returning to a pre-9/11 mentality, of becoming lax in the face of terror, of essentially letting America's guard down. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said this to Politico this past week. Let me put his comment up on the screen. "As I've watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won't be at war. ... He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of September 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won't be at war. He seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core al-Qaeda-trained terrorists still there, we won't be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, `war on terror,' we won't be at war. But we are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe." How do you respond to that?
MR. BRENNAN: I'm very disappointed in the vice president's comments. I'm neither Republican nor Democrat. I've worked for the past five administrations. And either the vice president is willfully mischaracterizing this president's position, both in terms of the language he uses and the actions he taken--he's taken, or he's ignorant of the facts. And in either case, it doesn't speak well of what the vice president's doing. The clear evidence is that this president has been very, very strong. In his inaugural address, he said, "We're at war with this international network of terrorists." We continue to say that we're at war with al-Qaeda. We're trying to give it some clarity. And we have taken the fight to them. We've continued, in fact, many of the, of the activities of the previous administration. I would not have come back into this government if I felt that this president was not committed to prosecuting this war against al-Qaeda. And every day I see it in the president's face, I see it in the actions he's taken, and so I'm confident that this country is, in fact, protected by this president's position on al-Qaeda and against terrorist activities. We're going to continue to do this, we're going to do it hard, we're going to do it constantly.
"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:9-10
I wonder if Jesus feels that Rick Warren is pierced with many griefs:
Evangelical pastor Rick Warren's plea for donations to fill a $900,000 deficit at his Southern California megachurch brought in $2.4 million, Warren announced to cheers during a sermon at the church on Saturday.
Warren said the amount raised after the appeal was posted online Wednesday included only money parishioners brought in person to Saddleback Church by New Year's Eve. More was arriving by hand and by mail, he said.
"This is pretty amazing," said Warren, who made the announcement by bringing out 24 volunteers each holding a sign for $100,000. "I don't think any church has gotten a cash offering like that off a letter."
The pastor said he planned to talk about what he called his church's "radical generosity" in the rest of the weekend's sermons. He said the total came from members, and the donations were all under $100.
"We're starting the new decade with a surplus," he said. "It came from thousands of ordinary people. This was not one big fat cat."
The posting on Warren's Web site read: "With 10 percent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated."
Warren said the church had largely managed to stay within its budget during the year, but "the bottom dropped out" when Christmas donations were down.
The letter cited the church's accomplishments in 2009 and detailed how the donations would be used, including the church's food pantry, homeless ministry, counseling and support groups.
I realize that churches require donations for support, but I'm having a hard time with the notion that the man who wrote The Purpose-Driven Life and all its ancillaries was nearly as hard up as his flock was, with 10% unemployment.
Maybe Jonathan Turley has the right idea:
First, there was Rod Parsley saying that Satan has been messing around with his bank accounts and needs a massive infusion of cash to fight his demonic plan, here. Now, fellow Evangelical pastor Rick Warren has asked for roughly a million dollars from his faithful due to a few end of the year shortfalls in cash flow. Given these calls to the faithful, I wish to add my own discovery of a demonic plan to deny me of ready cash and call upon everyone on this blog to send me money immediately to fight for righteous and redemptive blogging.
There you go...God is commanding you to send me money, even though I have a decent living and am more fortunate than most human beings on this planet. You don't want to go against God's design, do you?
