My Sarah Palin Prayer

Ok, I'm not a pray-er. Some might say I don't have a prayer. But I just saw the Greta Van Susteren interview with Palin and it made me pray the most fervent prayer I have ever prayed in my life. Palin says, in essence, God will open the door for her to the White House (see end of video, Part 3, below and here). We've got to ask God please not to do that. Please pray with me.

Jesus, Lord God Almighty, I beseech thee in the name of all that is holy, please close that door to this imbecilic, unqualified woman. Please don't leave a crack in the door for her. Seal that door shut Lord. Guard that door, O Lord, with your mighty army of angels. Roll the heaviest stone, a stone that cannot be moved by mere mortals Lord, in front of that door to protect this great nation of ours from the showy pretentious religiousity of this woman who would lead our nation down a path of ruin. I humble ask this in the name of your son, our one and only savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Greta Van Susteren Interview of Sarah Palin - Part 3

This from a blogger in my PJs in my parent's basement. And while I'm praying, will somebody tell Keith Olbermann he needs to vote. I'm a big Keith fan, but not voting makes him look like a hypocrite. Other parts of the interview below.

Greta Van Susteren Interview of Sarah Palin - Part 1

Greta Van Susteren Interview of Sarah Palin - Part 2

Happy Veteran's Day.

Battle of the Party Religious Nut Cases

Personally, I think the GOP is winning, thank god (pun intended). But then I may be biased. As I've said here before, I'm not one for quoting scripture. But there is one that is o-so apropos.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Matthew 7:3
New International Version

The Republicans, Ok, let's be fair, the Fox News wing of the party started this spitting match. But to me, again, a partial observer, they have a lot more to loose in a head to head comparison of just who has the kookiest religious support. I have said before, this is an aside from the real issues that we should be addressing in this campaign. One is literally blowing up before our eyes as we speak. The surge that was working about a week ago, now isn't.

And there are stories like this one, about a wave of murders, 20 so far, in one of our largest urban areas among African American students. A story which isn't even on the radar this political season for two obvious reasons. Guns and race. You see if you start talking about things like this then Obama supporters will whisper that you are talking about things that will hurt his chances in the fall. If you mention gun control or focus too much on race, we'll lose the red states. So forget I mentioned it. We'll talk again in November.

Now I am not so sure, after the revelations previewed in the new book Bad Moon Rising, by Author John Gorenfeld, that this story is not just as important as some of the others I just mentioned above. And all of this stuff isn't new. There's a post on Daily Kos in which this quote is excerpted from the book:

...the [Unification] church has established a network of affiliated organizations and connections in almost every conservative organization in Washington, including the Heritage Foundation, the largest of the conservative think tanks and an important source of government personnel during the Reagan administration... "Most people are afraid to address the issue because they don't want to publicize the extent of the church's involvement," says Amy Moritz of the Conservative National Center for Public Policy Research. (Source -- U.S. News & World Report, 3/27/89)

This is about a religious cult that has infiltrated a major political party in our country. One that owns a major influential conservative newspaper. And one with the "oft stated goal of destroying both Christianity and representative government." The comments in the Daily Kos post are informative as well.

Moon is a multi-billionaire who pays millions to W's daddy to speak at Unification Church events as well as other Bush family members. His influence reaches far into the Republican Party and conservative movement. The video below is of Moon in the Dirksen Federal building being crowned King of Peace by two congressmen. One of them Democrat Danny Davis of Illinois??? To me Moon is far scarier than the words of Reverend Wright because he is truly

dangerous to our entire way of life. But then this kind of thing is emotionally driven for a lot of people and as much as I hate to bring it back to race, video of a shouting black man is a lot more dramatic and scary to a certain segment of the American people. Maybe I should let you draw your own conclusions.

Tables Turned on Hannity: Association with Neo-Nazi Exposed

I just watched about as much of Sean Hannity and I can stomach in one sitting. In fact I'd be glad never to have to watch another minute. Except that the Fox News commentator and host of Hannity & Colmes, has been one the most vocal stirrers of controversy over Barack Obama's association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. From what I read, and I don't watch so I admit I wouldn't know, the Wright video clips have essentially run on a constant loop on Hannity's show. In an interview recently he was called out by Malik Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party for his own past association with known Neo-Nazi Hal Turner.

I hate to give too much focus to this stuff here. I think it is a distraction and takes attention away from much more important issues like the war, the economy, health care, Darfur, and many others. Almost every other issue is more important than this stuff. Unfortunately it's the stuff that gets the most attention. I've posted quite a bit Wright stuff lately and I need to balance it out. I'm not going to post the Hannity video, because it focuses on too much that is negative in my opinion and frankly I think this stuff only hurts Barack Obama's campaign. But I couldn't resist posting because Hannity gets bitten by his own guilt by association rhetoric. The video is here if you can stomach it. There's a post at HuffPo with more links. And there's the complete story of Hannity's Soul-Mate of Hate Neo-Nazi Hal Turner at the Nation.

O'Reilly's Ambush of Huffington and Olbermann's Response

I have to say what irks me most in the video above is that Arianna runs from this clown as if she actually has a reason not to talk to him. Making it look to all who swallow O'Reilly's nonsense whole that she is what's being portrayed.

Though Arianna Huffington is in no need of a knight in shining armor to come to her rescue, she's tough enough to rescue her own share of knights, Keith Olberman sure looks like one in the video below.

Fox News Chris Wallace Criticizes Obama Bashing

Two Fox employees finally wake up and realize who they are working for. Amen to both Chris Wallace and Brian Kilmeade. I have to admit that I would never know what happens on Fox & Friends except through clips like these. I could not stomach watching myself.

Big Brother is Listening

I am becoming more convinced every day that we live in Orwell's 1984 and don't know it, or wouldn't believe it even when presented with evidence we are. What's frightening about this is that not only could it be used by government agencies, the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc., but by any pimply faced hacker who can download the software to do it. The following is from an article on news.com:

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)

"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which is not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said. Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones, he added.

The article also talks about spying through the OnStar system in cars and through PC cams. Welcome to 1984. Hey Big Brother, can you hear me now?

William F. Buckley Dies at 82

Conservative or liberal, whether you agreed with his ideas or not, you had to agree that William F. Buckley was a class act in the conservative movement. Far more so than what we have today. He was no Rush Limbaugh or any of the other ridiculous, chickenhawk, shock pundits and comedians we find in conservative talk radio and on Faux News. He was erudite and reasoned. I watched Firing Line often many years ago. Sometimes I agreed with him, and when I didn't he made me think. We will miss the dignity he brought to liberal v. conservative discourse.