The National Review has released what they say is the Republican debt limit bill. What is listed is nothing less than an attempt to undo the entire middle class of the United States. Here is what they list as the terms of the bill:
1. Increasing the debt limit until December 2014, rather than for a dollar amount
By moving the debt limit to a date after the elections, the Republicans hope to prevent the debt limit debacle from being used as an election year issue.
2. Delay Obamacare for one year
As with the debt limit change, by moving the implementation of the Affordable Care Act until after the election, then the Republicans can claim it as theirs for the election.
3. Fast track the Ryan Budget tax reforms
Paul Ryan’s tax plan has already been found to cost more than it saved, which would cause the deficit to balloon. This would in turn be blamed on President Obama in the election, undoing his years of deficit reduction.
4. Eliminate the governments ability to regulate energy production, including blocking regulations on coal ash and carbon emissions
Direct attacks against the EPA and Department of Energy. By eliminating their ability to regulate, the Republicans aim to allow companies to continue poisoning our skies, lands, and waters, such as through unfettered fracking. They will sell this as to create jobs, as the damage would not be obvious until after the election.
5. Sets down provisions for the Keystone XL Pipeline, offshore drilling, selling off federal lands for energy exploitation
John Boehner must be thrilled here, as he would personally gain a small fortune. These are, again, election-year mantras they want to use to sell to their otherwise demoralized base.
6. Implement the REINS Act
Paul Ryan’s proposal to overturn the ability of the government to regulate virtually everything. Developed by the Heritage Foundations, the REINS act would require congressional approval on every single regulation proposal. Seat belts in cars? Water that does not have laundry detergent in it? The knowledge of what is inside of our food? All gone in one move.
6. Reform consent decree used by our nations police and military forces
Get rid of those pesky rights. This move would make programs such as stop and frisk national policy. Forget about Miranda, about your lawyer or due process. Once a policeman selects you, they can beat your entire family up, strip search you on the roadside, anything their little hearts desire.
7. Eliminate the ability to regulate the internet, and kill Net Neutrality
If Comcast wants to block your ability to read Addicting Info, under this deal, they can. The GOP aims to eliminate the ability to get facts, information, or to organize by allowing their corporate backers to simply eliminate your ability to surf the net freely.
8. New sequester provisions
The sequester wasn’t good enough for the Republicans, they want to double the damage, slashing every program (except military) and then blame Obama when the economy tanks.
9. Eliminate the Federal Employee retirement pensions
Dedicating your life to the civil service, unless you are elected, will no longer be enough. They seek to steal the pensions of hard-working civil servants, handing them over to the megabanks.
10. Eliminate Dodd Frank
By eliminating the funding to the agencies set up by Dodd Frank, the GOP seeks to allow the big banks to become the unregulated cash machines, hoping it will crash our economy again, just in time for the election.
11. Move the funding for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to a line item in the budget appropriations
This allows the GOP to kill the bureau, allowing companies to once more exploit consumers in this country without worry.
12. Restructure the Child Tax Credit
In the guise of fraud prevention, the proposal would slash tax credits for most families while giving new deductions for the wealthiest 1%. By moving the tax credit to the line item deduction, most people would no longer be able to claim the credit. Only the wealthiest would be able to claim it.
13. Eliminate Social Services Block grants
Who needs social services in Republicanland? Get rid of all block grants to the states dealing with social services. This would, of course, eliminate much of the support for anti-poverty programs across the US, and would force a cycle of dependency on social welfare programs.
14. Transition Medicare to a means tested program
Sorry seniors, no Medicare for you unless you make under $25,000 a year. By transitioning it to a means based, rather than a universal system, it would introduce inefficiencies in the program. It would also make it a program which they could then exploit as a wedge issue. They could then force people off of it, until they can finally eliminate it entirely.
Overturn Medicaid tax deductions
This would force Medicaid providers to pay more in taxes. The goal here is to eliminate providers.
15. Eliminate people’s ability to due for damages against corporations, under the guise of “tort reform”
The GOP has pushed this for years. No surprise to witness it here. The goal here is simple, to eliminate corporate accountability in the courtroom. Your product kills millions? No worries at all with this bill in place.
16. Drastically reduce or eliminate Disproportionate Share Hospitals
This would eliminate programs aimed at helping hospitals which serve low-income neighborhoods. Without these programs, many of them would close, which would leave many neighborhoods without any medical treatment options at all.
17. Eliminate the Public Health trust Fund
The last provision of Obamacare which had not yet been eliminated or drastically restructured. With this, they would have completely eliminated Obamacare, causing our national debt to balloon out of control while making the poor pay for it. This plan is not a debt deal, it is an attempt to destroy America. it is not an honest brokered deal, it is a poison pill. Call your congressman today and tell them to get serious about the debt ceiling, and to stop playing politics with our lives. And call the White House and tell him to refuse to let Congress take this country hostage. We will remember this in November.
US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
White House Comments: (202) 456-1111
9/25/13
Why we don't need a Theocracy in the United Statesd
Religious Liberty in the Massachusetts Bay Colony…the hanging of the Quakers…a model for the Dominionists
“When the pretended friends of religion lead infidel lives; when they carry religion to market and offer it in exchange for luxuries and honors; when they place it familiarly and constantly in the columns of newspapers, manifestly connected with electioneering purposes, and when they are offering it up as a morning and evening sacrifice of the altar of political party- these men are placing a firebrand to every meeting house and applying a torch to every Bible” Abraham Bishop in an oration at Wallingford CT on 11 March 1801
“See, the problem is, is that Satan has had too much of his way in our society because he has a government! And the only way to overthrow a government is with a government. It won’t happen otherwise.” C. Peter Wagner
Every time that I hear a politician of any party invoke God or quote scripture my stomach turns. In our modern era this really began with Jimmy Carter, for better or worse the man wore his faith proudly. The Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher from Plains Georgia let it all out when he talked about his faith, sin, lust and adultery in a Playboy Magazine interview in 1976.
There was actually nothing wrong with what he said or that he identified himself as a “Born Again Christian.” But it set a precedent and brought a previously apolitical part of the population into the process in a way never seen before. Urged on by politically motivated preachers like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee and James Robison Evangelicals like the young Michelle Bachmann rushed to the polls like flies to a honey trap. Before long posturing political preachers were in the mix and now 35 years later we have radical preachers openly clamoring for a Christian theocracy and brazenly advocating the complete dominion of Christians over all areas of life. The theory is called “Dominionism” or “Seven Mountains” theology. Many of these preachers are openly allied with a number of high profile Republican Presidential candidates in a take no prisoners campaign to destroy their opposition within the Republican party and nationwide.
C. Peter Wagner a Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena California is one of the most prominent proponents of this political theology and he wrote:
“Our theological bedrock is what has been known as Dominion Theology. This means that our divine mandate is to do whatever is necessary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to retake the dominion of God’s creation which Adam forfeited to Satan in the Garden of Eden. It is nothing less than seeing God’s kingdom coming and His will being done here on earth as it is in heaven.” Letter dated 31 May 2007
Of course by 1980 Carter was tossed aside by his Evangelical supporters like cup of boiled peanuts gone bad as the preachers disappointed with him over the Panama Canal treaty and the economy ditched him and whipped up support for Ronald Reagan. Reagan wiped Carter off of the electoral map like Sherman marching to the sea. When he did the now emboldened preachers pressed for more power. Groups like Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition became major supporters and contributors to conservative candidates and politicians as did James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the American Family Association.
Now Reagan to his credit talked a lot about faith and God but he certainly could not be considered one of the real Evangelical Christian faithful. He was divorced and a sparse attendee of the Mainline Presbyterian Church USA. He was married to a woman who brought mediums into the White House to conduct séances. He cut taxes but raised taxes when he needed to. He withdrew U.S.Forces from Beirut after the Marine barracks was destroyed with the loss of 241 American lives and he became Soviet Premier Gorbachev’s buddy. Before he was President he raised the sales tax in California and signed one of the most liberal and permissive abortion laws in the nation well before the Roe v. Wade decision. In short if he was running in 2011 for the 2012 nomination he would already be out of the race. Since Reagan departed the Presidency the preachers and politicians are aided in their struggle for control by the third member of the Unholy Trinity the pundits.
Now the democrats were and are not above using preachers and scripture for their own purposes. Some seeking to capitalize on the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other early civil rights pioneers not only used their pulpits to further civil rights which I have no issue with but to promote themselves and a place at the table in the Democratic Party and its policies. Others minsters mainly from liberal denominations used their pulpits to promote all sorts of other agendas that were called liberal, socialist or left wing, even though most had decent scriptural support. However Liberal politicians have used these preachers over the years as brazenly as conservative politicians use Evangelicals, Charismatics and other conservative Christians including Roman Catholics.
Bill Clinton was a master of using scripture in his campaign as well as in enunciating his policies. He got everyone going with his “New Covenant” acceptance speech at the 1992 Democratic Convention which was a masterful speech though it brazenly co-opted a Christian theme as its own. Initially some of the current radical preachers we Clinton backers as the felt that President George H.W. Bush was leading the United States into the New World Order.
What tickles me is that one of the leading Seven Mountain’s “prophets named Paul Cain spoke at my church after the election and said that “God told him that Bill Clinton would be elected and that it was because of Clinton’s “humility.” Joyner wrote in Rick Joyner’s Morningstar Prophetic Bulletin in 1993 “The Lord said that He was giving us a new president who is better than we deserve. He represents a reprieve from a New World Order that the Church is not prepared to face at this time…”
I love it when self appointed prophets catch themselves on their own tangled web of lies. Of course the real reason had nothing to due with the Christian faith but the fact that Cain and his ilk didn’t like George Bush and believed that he was ushering in a “New World Order. This was shameless, but then that is nothing new.
Was in Vietnam surrounded by the North Vietnamese. This made me a very pro-military and anti-Communist. It was because of Carters foreign policy flubs and weakness that I supported Reagan. I was and still am a Christian, but I didn’t vote for Reagan or any other Republican because of their faith or the faith of their opponent. Now I do like it when men and women that I vote for represent the best of their faith and don’t lord it over those that are not of their faith. When I vote I vote the vote for a candidate based on what I see as their qualifications for the office and not their religious views.
Unfortunately there are a number of prominent candidates and their supporters that seem to want Theologian in Chief. Politicians can see that and that pander shamelessly to their religious supporters often to the exclusion of all others. If I want a theocracy I’ll go to Iran or Saudi Arabia thank you, but I don’t and you shouldn’t either unless you are planning to convert. But that is the plan of the Dominionists.
However those pursuing the radical Seven Mountains Dominionism actually want a theocracy will use any party or any President to establish it. Clinton didn’t give it to them so they went to the Republicans. Their rhetoric is scary. Rick Joyner who is one of the big supporters of this movement within the Tea Party and Republican Party said something that should give anyone that has a hankering for religious liberty and liberty of conscious chills. Perry is not simply a ranting nut but a nut that has the ear of viable Presidential candidates. Back in 1996 Joyner wrote about what was going to happen to Christians that didn’t agree with his understanding of his prophecy threatening to change “the very definition of Christianity….for the better….”
“On February 23rd of this year I was shown for the third time that the church was headed for a spiritual civil war … the definition of a complete victory in this war would be the complete overthrow of the accuser of the brethens’ strongholds in the church … this will in fact be one of the most cruel battles the church has ever faced. Like every civil war brother will turn against brother like we have never witnessed in the church before … this battle must be fought. It is an opportunity to drive the accuser out of the church and for the church then to come into unity that would otherwise be impossible … what is coming will be dark. At times Christians almost universally will be loath to even call themselves Christians.Believers and unbelievers alike will think it is the end of Christianity as we know it and it will be through this the very definition of Christianity will be changed for the better.” Morning Star Prophetic Bulletin May 1996
Cindy Jacobs another one of these politically connected prophets made this claim on the internet back in 2000:
“For there is a radical sound that I have issued – there is a sound that has come from heaven, and it even now has come to earth. And the Lord says, these are going to be days where I am going to trouble the enemy through you. These are going to be different days than you have ever known, and I am going to require sacrifice of you that you cannot imagine. I am going to require a sacrifice of your children, says the Lord. And the Lord says, I’m going to shake everything that can be shaken…” and that “There are churches that will be command posts for revolution, and to these command posts I would say, I am going to bring a revolution. Look and see; I am calling radical revolutionaries to the church.” http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/85
If you ask me that is a threat to all Americans. One of Joyner’s friends the late John Wimber who founded the Vineyard Churches said of his neighbors at Calvary Chapel “Calvaryites are sometimes a little too heavily oriented to the written Word.” That is something Wimber criticized Christians that he saw as too heavily oriented to the Bible. Simply being a Bible Christian is not good enough for the Dominionists, theirs is an all or nothing take no prisoners approach that discounts 2000 years of Christian history, theology and tradition in favor of their alleged “words from God.”
This is not about theology or faith at all. It is about power and money. Leading Dominionist C.Peter Wagner wrote: “nine of the components of GAN {Global Apostolic Network} are on my heart, but especially those related to wealth and wealth transfer. I am in touch with 17 potential wealth transfer brokers, some of them expecting release momentarily. It is hard to comprehend, but some of them go to multiple millions, billions, and more. My task is to prepare a high integrity infrastructure for distributing these funds when they begin to flow. Zion Apostolic Network and The Hamilton Group are in place as agencies to carry this out. Our motto is “Sophisticated Philanthropy for Apostolic Distribution.” Letter from Global Harvest Ministries dated August 20, 2007
The original Dominionist was R. J. Rushdoony who was very open in what he believed:
“One faith, one law and one standard of justice did not mean democracy. The heresy of democracy has since then worked havoc in church and state . . . Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies.” R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law p.100
This is the real goal of Rick Perry’s The Response prayer meeting of 2011 and the perverted gospel that these preachers use to get politicians to fulfill their agenda and Perry obliged them well. If it was simply a day of prayer then others that were not Christians would have been welcome. It has been made manifest in now countless examples of political brinksmanship motivated by uncompromising politicians, pundits and preachers who have adopted an almost “Talibanesque” view of life, faith and politics.
Old Abraham Bishop was right; these people are setting fire to every meeting house and putting the torch to every Bible. Unfortunately most of their supporters will either ignore or quash what I and others write about these people. Truth doesn’t matter to them.
I had that happen to me, sometimes even from people that know me of have served at the altar. Facts didn’t matter, all that mattered were the talking points and the agenda. The founders of this country did not as these people say desire anything like this. In fact Thomas Jefferson said “History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose.” (letter to Baron von Humboldt, 1813)
God help us all.
“When the pretended friends of religion lead infidel lives; when they carry religion to market and offer it in exchange for luxuries and honors; when they place it familiarly and constantly in the columns of newspapers, manifestly connected with electioneering purposes, and when they are offering it up as a morning and evening sacrifice of the altar of political party- these men are placing a firebrand to every meeting house and applying a torch to every Bible” Abraham Bishop in an oration at Wallingford CT on 11 March 1801
“See, the problem is, is that Satan has had too much of his way in our society because he has a government! And the only way to overthrow a government is with a government. It won’t happen otherwise.” C. Peter Wagner
Every time that I hear a politician of any party invoke God or quote scripture my stomach turns. In our modern era this really began with Jimmy Carter, for better or worse the man wore his faith proudly. The Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher from Plains Georgia let it all out when he talked about his faith, sin, lust and adultery in a Playboy Magazine interview in 1976.
There was actually nothing wrong with what he said or that he identified himself as a “Born Again Christian.” But it set a precedent and brought a previously apolitical part of the population into the process in a way never seen before. Urged on by politically motivated preachers like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee and James Robison Evangelicals like the young Michelle Bachmann rushed to the polls like flies to a honey trap. Before long posturing political preachers were in the mix and now 35 years later we have radical preachers openly clamoring for a Christian theocracy and brazenly advocating the complete dominion of Christians over all areas of life. The theory is called “Dominionism” or “Seven Mountains” theology. Many of these preachers are openly allied with a number of high profile Republican Presidential candidates in a take no prisoners campaign to destroy their opposition within the Republican party and nationwide.
C. Peter Wagner a Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena California is one of the most prominent proponents of this political theology and he wrote:
“Our theological bedrock is what has been known as Dominion Theology. This means that our divine mandate is to do whatever is necessary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to retake the dominion of God’s creation which Adam forfeited to Satan in the Garden of Eden. It is nothing less than seeing God’s kingdom coming and His will being done here on earth as it is in heaven.” Letter dated 31 May 2007
Of course by 1980 Carter was tossed aside by his Evangelical supporters like cup of boiled peanuts gone bad as the preachers disappointed with him over the Panama Canal treaty and the economy ditched him and whipped up support for Ronald Reagan. Reagan wiped Carter off of the electoral map like Sherman marching to the sea. When he did the now emboldened preachers pressed for more power. Groups like Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition became major supporters and contributors to conservative candidates and politicians as did James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the American Family Association.
Now Reagan to his credit talked a lot about faith and God but he certainly could not be considered one of the real Evangelical Christian faithful. He was divorced and a sparse attendee of the Mainline Presbyterian Church USA. He was married to a woman who brought mediums into the White House to conduct séances. He cut taxes but raised taxes when he needed to. He withdrew U.S.Forces from Beirut after the Marine barracks was destroyed with the loss of 241 American lives and he became Soviet Premier Gorbachev’s buddy. Before he was President he raised the sales tax in California and signed one of the most liberal and permissive abortion laws in the nation well before the Roe v. Wade decision. In short if he was running in 2011 for the 2012 nomination he would already be out of the race. Since Reagan departed the Presidency the preachers and politicians are aided in their struggle for control by the third member of the Unholy Trinity the pundits.
Now the democrats were and are not above using preachers and scripture for their own purposes. Some seeking to capitalize on the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other early civil rights pioneers not only used their pulpits to further civil rights which I have no issue with but to promote themselves and a place at the table in the Democratic Party and its policies. Others minsters mainly from liberal denominations used their pulpits to promote all sorts of other agendas that were called liberal, socialist or left wing, even though most had decent scriptural support. However Liberal politicians have used these preachers over the years as brazenly as conservative politicians use Evangelicals, Charismatics and other conservative Christians including Roman Catholics.
Bill Clinton was a master of using scripture in his campaign as well as in enunciating his policies. He got everyone going with his “New Covenant” acceptance speech at the 1992 Democratic Convention which was a masterful speech though it brazenly co-opted a Christian theme as its own. Initially some of the current radical preachers we Clinton backers as the felt that President George H.W. Bush was leading the United States into the New World Order.
What tickles me is that one of the leading Seven Mountain’s “prophets named Paul Cain spoke at my church after the election and said that “God told him that Bill Clinton would be elected and that it was because of Clinton’s “humility.” Joyner wrote in Rick Joyner’s Morningstar Prophetic Bulletin in 1993 “The Lord said that He was giving us a new president who is better than we deserve. He represents a reprieve from a New World Order that the Church is not prepared to face at this time…”
I love it when self appointed prophets catch themselves on their own tangled web of lies. Of course the real reason had nothing to due with the Christian faith but the fact that Cain and his ilk didn’t like George Bush and believed that he was ushering in a “New World Order. This was shameless, but then that is nothing new.
Was in Vietnam surrounded by the North Vietnamese. This made me a very pro-military and anti-Communist. It was because of Carters foreign policy flubs and weakness that I supported Reagan. I was and still am a Christian, but I didn’t vote for Reagan or any other Republican because of their faith or the faith of their opponent. Now I do like it when men and women that I vote for represent the best of their faith and don’t lord it over those that are not of their faith. When I vote I vote the vote for a candidate based on what I see as their qualifications for the office and not their religious views.
Unfortunately there are a number of prominent candidates and their supporters that seem to want Theologian in Chief. Politicians can see that and that pander shamelessly to their religious supporters often to the exclusion of all others. If I want a theocracy I’ll go to Iran or Saudi Arabia thank you, but I don’t and you shouldn’t either unless you are planning to convert. But that is the plan of the Dominionists.
However those pursuing the radical Seven Mountains Dominionism actually want a theocracy will use any party or any President to establish it. Clinton didn’t give it to them so they went to the Republicans. Their rhetoric is scary. Rick Joyner who is one of the big supporters of this movement within the Tea Party and Republican Party said something that should give anyone that has a hankering for religious liberty and liberty of conscious chills. Perry is not simply a ranting nut but a nut that has the ear of viable Presidential candidates. Back in 1996 Joyner wrote about what was going to happen to Christians that didn’t agree with his understanding of his prophecy threatening to change “the very definition of Christianity….for the better….”
“On February 23rd of this year I was shown for the third time that the church was headed for a spiritual civil war … the definition of a complete victory in this war would be the complete overthrow of the accuser of the brethens’ strongholds in the church … this will in fact be one of the most cruel battles the church has ever faced. Like every civil war brother will turn against brother like we have never witnessed in the church before … this battle must be fought. It is an opportunity to drive the accuser out of the church and for the church then to come into unity that would otherwise be impossible … what is coming will be dark. At times Christians almost universally will be loath to even call themselves Christians.Believers and unbelievers alike will think it is the end of Christianity as we know it and it will be through this the very definition of Christianity will be changed for the better.” Morning Star Prophetic Bulletin May 1996
Cindy Jacobs another one of these politically connected prophets made this claim on the internet back in 2000:
“For there is a radical sound that I have issued – there is a sound that has come from heaven, and it even now has come to earth. And the Lord says, these are going to be days where I am going to trouble the enemy through you. These are going to be different days than you have ever known, and I am going to require sacrifice of you that you cannot imagine. I am going to require a sacrifice of your children, says the Lord. And the Lord says, I’m going to shake everything that can be shaken…” and that “There are churches that will be command posts for revolution, and to these command posts I would say, I am going to bring a revolution. Look and see; I am calling radical revolutionaries to the church.” http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/85
If you ask me that is a threat to all Americans. One of Joyner’s friends the late John Wimber who founded the Vineyard Churches said of his neighbors at Calvary Chapel “Calvaryites are sometimes a little too heavily oriented to the written Word.” That is something Wimber criticized Christians that he saw as too heavily oriented to the Bible. Simply being a Bible Christian is not good enough for the Dominionists, theirs is an all or nothing take no prisoners approach that discounts 2000 years of Christian history, theology and tradition in favor of their alleged “words from God.”
This is not about theology or faith at all. It is about power and money. Leading Dominionist C.Peter Wagner wrote: “nine of the components of GAN {Global Apostolic Network} are on my heart, but especially those related to wealth and wealth transfer. I am in touch with 17 potential wealth transfer brokers, some of them expecting release momentarily. It is hard to comprehend, but some of them go to multiple millions, billions, and more. My task is to prepare a high integrity infrastructure for distributing these funds when they begin to flow. Zion Apostolic Network and The Hamilton Group are in place as agencies to carry this out. Our motto is “Sophisticated Philanthropy for Apostolic Distribution.” Letter from Global Harvest Ministries dated August 20, 2007
The original Dominionist was R. J. Rushdoony who was very open in what he believed:
“One faith, one law and one standard of justice did not mean democracy. The heresy of democracy has since then worked havoc in church and state . . . Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies.” R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law p.100
This is the real goal of Rick Perry’s The Response prayer meeting of 2011 and the perverted gospel that these preachers use to get politicians to fulfill their agenda and Perry obliged them well. If it was simply a day of prayer then others that were not Christians would have been welcome. It has been made manifest in now countless examples of political brinksmanship motivated by uncompromising politicians, pundits and preachers who have adopted an almost “Talibanesque” view of life, faith and politics.
Old Abraham Bishop was right; these people are setting fire to every meeting house and putting the torch to every Bible. Unfortunately most of their supporters will either ignore or quash what I and others write about these people. Truth doesn’t matter to them.
I had that happen to me, sometimes even from people that know me of have served at the altar. Facts didn’t matter, all that mattered were the talking points and the agenda. The founders of this country did not as these people say desire anything like this. In fact Thomas Jefferson said “History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose.” (letter to Baron von Humboldt, 1813)
God help us all.
An open letter from a G.I.
This letter was written on September 19th by an Iraq War veteran named Jason. He fought for our country and came home to an America that has left him feeling disenchanted. Jason wrote the letter in response to Republicans voting to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program this past week. He happens to be one of those who is currently counting on food stamps in order to not go hungry. My name is Jason. I turned 35 less than a week ago. My first job was maintenance work at a public pool when I was 17. I worked 40 hours a week while I was in college. I’ve never gone longer than six months without employment in my life and I just spent the last three years in the military, one of which consisted of a combat tour of Afghanistan. Oh, and I’m now on food stamps. Since June, as a matter of fact.
Why am I on food stamps? The same reason everyone on food stamps is on food stamps: because I would very much enjoy not starving. I mean, if that’s okay with you: Mr. or Mrs. Republican congressman. Mr. or Mrs. Conservative commentator. Mr. or Mrs. “welfare queen” letter-to-the-editor author. Mr. or Mrs. “fiscal conservative, reason-based” libertarian.
I do apologize for burdening you on the checkout line with real-life images of American-style poverty. I know you probably believe the only true starving people in the world have flies buzzing around their eyes while they wallow away, near-lifeless in gutters. Hate to burst the bubble, but those people don’t live in this country. I do. And millions like me.
Millions of people in poverty who fall into three categories. Let’s call them the “lucky” category, since conservatives seem to think people on welfare have hit some sort of jackpot: Those living paycheck to paycheck? They’re a little lucky. Those living unemployment check to unemployment check? They’re a little luckier. Those living 2nd of the month to 2nd of the month? Ding! We’ve hit the jackpot! The 2nd of the month being the time when funds gets electronically deposited onto the EBT card, [at least in NY] for those who’ve never been fortunate enough to hit that $175/month Powerball. I fall into the latter two categories.
But I’ve known people recently — soldiers in the Army — who were in the first and third. They were off fighting in Afghanistan while their wives were at home, buying food at the on-post commissary with food stamps. And nobody bats an eye there, because it’s not uncommon in the military. It’s not uncommon — nor is it shameful. It might be shameful how little service-members are paid, but that’s a separate issue.
The fact remains anyone at a certain income level can find it difficult from time to time to pay for everything. And when you’re poor you learn to make sacrifices. Food shouldn’t be one of them. The whole concept is un-American. People living here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most abundant resources, should be forced to go hungry because of the intellectual notion of fiscal conservatism and the ideological notion of self-reliance. Are you fucking kidding me?
I didn’t risk my life in Afghanistan so I could come back and watch people go hungry in America. I certainly didn’t risk it so I could come back and go hungry. Anyone who genuinely supports cutting food stamps is not an intellectual or an ideologue — they’re a bully. And nobody likes a bully. Except other bullies.
It’s time for regular Americans to stand up to these bullies. Not cower in the corner, ashamed of needing help. Because if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that you never know when you’ll be the one in need.
Why am I on food stamps? The same reason everyone on food stamps is on food stamps: because I would very much enjoy not starving. I mean, if that’s okay with you: Mr. or Mrs. Republican congressman. Mr. or Mrs. Conservative commentator. Mr. or Mrs. “welfare queen” letter-to-the-editor author. Mr. or Mrs. “fiscal conservative, reason-based” libertarian.
I do apologize for burdening you on the checkout line with real-life images of American-style poverty. I know you probably believe the only true starving people in the world have flies buzzing around their eyes while they wallow away, near-lifeless in gutters. Hate to burst the bubble, but those people don’t live in this country. I do. And millions like me.
Millions of people in poverty who fall into three categories. Let’s call them the “lucky” category, since conservatives seem to think people on welfare have hit some sort of jackpot: Those living paycheck to paycheck? They’re a little lucky. Those living unemployment check to unemployment check? They’re a little luckier. Those living 2nd of the month to 2nd of the month? Ding! We’ve hit the jackpot! The 2nd of the month being the time when funds gets electronically deposited onto the EBT card, [at least in NY] for those who’ve never been fortunate enough to hit that $175/month Powerball. I fall into the latter two categories.
But I’ve known people recently — soldiers in the Army — who were in the first and third. They were off fighting in Afghanistan while their wives were at home, buying food at the on-post commissary with food stamps. And nobody bats an eye there, because it’s not uncommon in the military. It’s not uncommon — nor is it shameful. It might be shameful how little service-members are paid, but that’s a separate issue.
The fact remains anyone at a certain income level can find it difficult from time to time to pay for everything. And when you’re poor you learn to make sacrifices. Food shouldn’t be one of them. The whole concept is un-American. People living here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most abundant resources, should be forced to go hungry because of the intellectual notion of fiscal conservatism and the ideological notion of self-reliance. Are you fucking kidding me?
I didn’t risk my life in Afghanistan so I could come back and watch people go hungry in America. I certainly didn’t risk it so I could come back and go hungry. Anyone who genuinely supports cutting food stamps is not an intellectual or an ideologue — they’re a bully. And nobody likes a bully. Except other bullies.
It’s time for regular Americans to stand up to these bullies. Not cower in the corner, ashamed of needing help. Because if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that you never know when you’ll be the one in need.
9/19/13
What is the worth of the Individual?
In a narrow 217 to 210 vote, House Republicans just passed an outrageous bill cutting food stamps by $40 billion and kicking 3.8 million people out of the program by 2014.
Click here to sign the petition from Daily Kos and Ultraviolet denouncing House Republicans for deep cuts to food stamps that would devastate children, seniors and the working poor.
The Senate already passed a bill cutting food stamps, but House Republicans just took it *ten times* further. Under their proposal, over 1.7 million people will lose food stamps this year, another 2.1 million next year, and even more in the following years.
House Republicans know these cuts aren't going to become law—they are using their psychotic proposal to try and pressure the Senate into make even deeper cuts than the ones they already passed.
But here's the thing—Republicans held this vote without holding a single public hearing because they know these cuts are deeply unpopular. If we raise our voices together, we can put the pressure on them by making sure they don't get away with this quietly.
Sign the petition from Daily Kos and Ultraviolet denouncing these cuts—and demand that Congress make no cuts to food stamps at all.
What is the worth and meaning of the individual ? Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, a Chinese Sage named Lao-tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching in which he asks the same questions as our subject. Perhaps we would say it in this manner “Do I matter, Why am I here? Does my life have meaning? In the fifty-fourth verse of his classic Lao-tzu was asking and answering this age old question this way: What (Tao's) skilful planter plants Can never be uptorn; What his skillful arms enfold, From him can ne'er be borne. Sons shall bring in lengthening line, Sacrifices to his shrine. Tao when nursed within one's self, His vigour will make true; And where the family it rules What riches will accrue! The neighbourhood where it prevails In thriving will abound; And when 'tis seen throughout the state, Good fortune will be found. Employ it the kingdom o'er, And men thrive all around. In this way the effect will be seen in the person, by the observation of different cases; in the family; in the neighbourhood; in the state; and in the kingdom. How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky? By this (method of observation). In the opening verse of the Tao Te Ching , Lao-tzu tells us the “Tao is both named and nameless.” The Tao is an unknowable, unseeable realm where everything originates, while at the same time, the Tao is invisibly within everything. When we desire to see this invisibleness (mystery) , we attempt to define it in terms of the outer world of form - what Lao-tzu calls “the 10,000 things” He counsels us that letting go of trying to see (or understand) the mystery will actually allows to see it. Or as I like to think of it, “let go and let God.” For Lao-tzu the Tao is God. In 964 B.C. The Psalmist David ask the question this way: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalms 8: 3, 4 KJV) How is it possible that two men with such diverse backgrounds and differing expressions have the same type of thoughts? “Do I matter, Why am I here? Does my life have meaning? The best explanation that I might give is the butterfly effect. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? At one time there was a theory that the Chaos theory attempts to explain the fact that complex and unpredictable results can and will occur in systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. A common example of this is known as the Butterfly Effect. It states that, in theory, the flutter of a butterfly's wings in China could, in fact, actually effect weather patterns in New York City, thousands of miles away. In other words, it is possible that a very small occurrence can produce unpredictable and sometimes drastic results by triggering a series of increasingly significant events. "The child whispered, 'God speak to me' And a meadow lark sang. The child did not hear. So the child yelled 'God speak to me!' And the thunder rolled across the sky But the child did not listen. The child looked around and said, 'God let me see you' and a star shone brightly But the child did not notice. And the child shouted, "God show me a miracle!' And a life was born but the child did not know. So the child cried out in despair, 'Touch me God, and let me know you are here!' Whereupon God reached down And touched the child. But the child brushed the butterfly away And walked away unknowingly Gentle Reader, You flapped your wings and God spoke through you and...who knows how many lives were changed for the Glory of God! I am so proud of each of you Gentle Readers, who come to share with me and each other who pray for one another each day whose prayers reach the highest of peaks far beyond what man can aspire to the very throne room of God. Who in His infinite love bends to hear and answer the weakest voice. In the fifty-fourth passage of Lao-tzu and David advised you to see divinity that resides in each of us. Know that in the silent space within you, where the Tao (God) dwells, who animates every breath and thought your life makes a difference. See the world without hatred, disrespect or violence where the environment is respected and cared for and where cancer, Aids, starvation, child abuse, weapons and war of all kinds or any other demeaning scenarios disappear. Therefore everything you think and do extends outward and multiplies. And we reach out and touch the face of God. For in him [Christ who is in God] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, [ye are in Him, made full] which is the head of all principality and power... (Col. 2:9,10).
Click here to sign the petition from Daily Kos and Ultraviolet denouncing House Republicans for deep cuts to food stamps that would devastate children, seniors and the working poor.
The Senate already passed a bill cutting food stamps, but House Republicans just took it *ten times* further. Under their proposal, over 1.7 million people will lose food stamps this year, another 2.1 million next year, and even more in the following years.
House Republicans know these cuts aren't going to become law—they are using their psychotic proposal to try and pressure the Senate into make even deeper cuts than the ones they already passed.
But here's the thing—Republicans held this vote without holding a single public hearing because they know these cuts are deeply unpopular. If we raise our voices together, we can put the pressure on them by making sure they don't get away with this quietly.
Sign the petition from Daily Kos and Ultraviolet denouncing these cuts—and demand that Congress make no cuts to food stamps at all.
What is the worth and meaning of the individual ? Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, a Chinese Sage named Lao-tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching in which he asks the same questions as our subject. Perhaps we would say it in this manner “Do I matter, Why am I here? Does my life have meaning? In the fifty-fourth verse of his classic Lao-tzu was asking and answering this age old question this way: What (Tao's) skilful planter plants Can never be uptorn; What his skillful arms enfold, From him can ne'er be borne. Sons shall bring in lengthening line, Sacrifices to his shrine. Tao when nursed within one's self, His vigour will make true; And where the family it rules What riches will accrue! The neighbourhood where it prevails In thriving will abound; And when 'tis seen throughout the state, Good fortune will be found. Employ it the kingdom o'er, And men thrive all around. In this way the effect will be seen in the person, by the observation of different cases; in the family; in the neighbourhood; in the state; and in the kingdom. How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky? By this (method of observation). In the opening verse of the Tao Te Ching , Lao-tzu tells us the “Tao is both named and nameless.” The Tao is an unknowable, unseeable realm where everything originates, while at the same time, the Tao is invisibly within everything. When we desire to see this invisibleness (mystery) , we attempt to define it in terms of the outer world of form - what Lao-tzu calls “the 10,000 things” He counsels us that letting go of trying to see (or understand) the mystery will actually allows to see it. Or as I like to think of it, “let go and let God.” For Lao-tzu the Tao is God. In 964 B.C. The Psalmist David ask the question this way: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalms 8: 3, 4 KJV) How is it possible that two men with such diverse backgrounds and differing expressions have the same type of thoughts? “Do I matter, Why am I here? Does my life have meaning? The best explanation that I might give is the butterfly effect. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? At one time there was a theory that the Chaos theory attempts to explain the fact that complex and unpredictable results can and will occur in systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. A common example of this is known as the Butterfly Effect. It states that, in theory, the flutter of a butterfly's wings in China could, in fact, actually effect weather patterns in New York City, thousands of miles away. In other words, it is possible that a very small occurrence can produce unpredictable and sometimes drastic results by triggering a series of increasingly significant events. "The child whispered, 'God speak to me' And a meadow lark sang. The child did not hear. So the child yelled 'God speak to me!' And the thunder rolled across the sky But the child did not listen. The child looked around and said, 'God let me see you' and a star shone brightly But the child did not notice. And the child shouted, "God show me a miracle!' And a life was born but the child did not know. So the child cried out in despair, 'Touch me God, and let me know you are here!' Whereupon God reached down And touched the child. But the child brushed the butterfly away And walked away unknowingly Gentle Reader, You flapped your wings and God spoke through you and...who knows how many lives were changed for the Glory of God! I am so proud of each of you Gentle Readers, who come to share with me and each other who pray for one another each day whose prayers reach the highest of peaks far beyond what man can aspire to the very throne room of God. Who in His infinite love bends to hear and answer the weakest voice. In the fifty-fourth passage of Lao-tzu and David advised you to see divinity that resides in each of us. Know that in the silent space within you, where the Tao (God) dwells, who animates every breath and thought your life makes a difference. See the world without hatred, disrespect or violence where the environment is respected and cared for and where cancer, Aids, starvation, child abuse, weapons and war of all kinds or any other demeaning scenarios disappear. Therefore everything you think and do extends outward and multiplies. And we reach out and touch the face of God. For in him [Christ who is in God] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, [ye are in Him, made full] which is the head of all principality and power... (Col. 2:9,10).
9/17/13
Tea Party wants to distroy the Government Want to vote for these guys again?
BREAKING NEWS: Boehner WILL hold government shutdown vote over Obamacare Moments ago, news broke that Boehner will hold a vote this week to keep the government open -- but ONLY if Obamacare is defunded. It’s a complete cave to Tea Party Republicans. The final decision is set to be ratified by House Republicans TOMORROW MORNING. We must respond immediately.
9/1/13
How you change history the Texas way
The Texas Board of Education’s conservative members went on the deep end. As the one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the country, the board changed and re-wrote the history books. Smaller states who have no textbook buying power would essentially have to read and study the new Texas version of history.
The changes are ideological and distort history, but conservative Board of Education argue they are correcting a long-standing liberal bias in education. Read the running history of this very interesting “culture war” here and if you want details, read the exact changes here.
Tools of “Atlantic Triangulation Trade”
One of the most controversial changes is to deny the slave trade. The Texas Board of Education wants to refer to the slave trade as the “Atlantic triangular trade”. What the he** is the “Atlantic triangular trade”? What do you call the millions of African-Americans whose ancestors came here as slaves? Descendants of triangulates?
Capitalism can only be referred to as “free enterprise system”, largely because of the negative connotations of the word “capitalism”. Personally I don’t think there is anything wrong with capitalism but they should consider teaching that unfettered greed can be bad for society.
The board has diminished Thomas Jefferson’s role in history because of his belief in the separation of church and state. Students also are required to learn that America’s founding documents were influenced by various intellectual traditions, “especially biblical law,” and principles laid down by Moses. From the tenor of the changes, the board approved the foundation for a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. It would be kinda like Iran, only it would be the right Christian kind. Social conservatives, creationists and religious fanatics who dominate the Texas State Board of Education want to redefine the Constitution as an explicitly Christian document and highlight the role of God in the establishment of the US.
The board approved dropping references to a landmark court case that barred schools from segregating Mexican American students. Joseph McCarthy’s campaign against suspected communists is now to be toned down. Like McCarthy was just a curious senator, right?
The amendments also cast the United Nations in a critical light, with students asked to evaluate whether the UN and its committees undermine US sovereignty – a tune for conservatives. Students would be required to learn about the “unintended consequences” of Title IX, affirmative action, and the Great Society, and would need to study conservative icons like Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, and the Moral Majority.
Maybe we should add that Hussein has weapons of mass destruction so we had to spend trillions on an unnecessary war in Iraq? Nah… that will never make it.
In fact, in the transcripts of the board discussions, they specifically did not want to include President George W. Bush’s controversial 2000 election outcome nor the election of the first African American President Barack Obama. On the other hand, the board added positive references to the Moral Majority, the National Rifle Association and the GOP’s Contract with America.
The board will not even listen to Rod Paige’s plea to reconsider the changes. Paige is the first African-American to serve as education secretary… President George “Dubya” Bush’s education secretary.
More than 1,200 historians and college faculty members from across the nation have signed a petition calling the standards academically shoddy.
The Texas Board of Education voted today his week and approved all of the changes.
Elections matter… even down ticket board of education seats. And the children of Texas will suffer for 10 years from this travesty.
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CORRECTION AND UPDATE: May 24, 2110 In a last minute development, the board changed the proposal from Atlantic Triangular Trade to “Transatlantic Slave Trade” though most other history rewrites remain the same. Confederate President’s Jefferson Davis speech is given equal importance to Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation speech.
The Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers will be taught, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a “constitutional republic,” rather than “democratic,” and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
The outnumbered Democrats walked out and Republicans easily pushed through amendments heralding “American exceptionalism” and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best without government intervention.
“Some board members themselves acknowledged this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just about every decision,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom.
In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class. Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.
Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students “explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.”
Rather than evaluating the impact influential muckrakers and reform leadersm such as Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony and W.E.B DuBois, had on American society, students in the 8th grade will “contrast [their] tone” against the optimism of immigrants including Jean Pierre Godet as told in The Spirit of America.
And while the standards describe McCarthyism and the arms race as events that “increased” Cold War tensions, McLeroy moves to replace the word with “affected/reflected” and add the dangers of Soviet infiltration of the U.S.
Students should evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty, such as threats by the, “U. N. General Assembly, the International Criminal Court, the U. N. Gun Ban proposal, forced redistribution of American wealth to third world countries, and global environmental initiatives.”
Students are also asked to, “discuss alternatives regarding long term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, given the decreasing worker to retiree ratio.”
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