Always remember, every moment is a choice between LOVE AND FEAR. ********************************************************
On the TV show America's Top Model, one of the contenders, Danny said: "I'm uber-conservative: I don't like gay people. I don't like Muslims. I don't like abortions. I don't like anything liberal. But, other than that-I really like to get along with people... Read more below in Open Thread #2 about Democrats and moral values.
How on earth does the right-wing get away with defining Democrats as "Unpatriotic Godless Abortionists"? This reminds me of Ann Coulter shouting out to a boy with a soft voice in her audience last week,"Hey gay-boy..." And yet Coulter still went on FOX the other night with Hannity and Colmes and was treated as a respected pundit and "thinker".
Are we living in America in the 21st century? Is this how we have devolved? Bigoted hate-speak swirled off Danny girl's tongue as easily as the Pledge of Allegiance. Bashing liberals has become second nature to right-wingers; sort of like the Islamic Fundamentalists who rock and bow and repeat ungly mantras from the Koran. This Danny girl must have learned to recite "I don't like gays, I don't like liberals... the way she learned the Ten Commandments. BY THE WAY, WAKE UP CHRISTIANS: The Ten Commandments are from the Old Testament; why are you so obessesed with putting these up on government buildings and not Christ's SERMON ON THE MOUNT?
She must hear her parents and A.M. talk-radio (90% of all radio stations are owned by right-wing monopoly!) This is a dangerous sign. It's anti-American, un-Christian elitist brainwashing. For this girl to think it's "a good thing" or it's "Christian" to brag about disliking an entire category of fellow Americans, is the exact mindset of the Hitler Youth. This is an insidious form of brainwashing and what is so disturbing is that this contestant thinks her "speech" will help win her a modeling contract, as if these are good values! For one thing, she will never have a good hair-day; all the hairdressers in the modeling world are gay! I guess it's not very Christian of me to judge her by pointing this out, as all my good Christian Ann Coulter fans point out in their hate-mail.
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OPEN THREAD... or here are some ideas:
#1. Senator Joe Biden or John Edwards: which would make a better Democratic candidate for President? If Edwards gets strong and forceful, I think he has the values that middle-America wants. I like him.
#2. Question: Do you think Democrats need to start framing our campaign more towards true moral and Christian values (the ones the right-wing ignores) such as "taking care of the 'least of these' and bringing the dialogue back to poverty, medicare, health insurance, raising minimum wage, veterans benefits, alternative fuels, environment — and reframing the argument to show that these are true Christian values, not the bizarre obsession with abortion and homosexuality.
#1. Cheryl Seal Port Deal 'Pull Out' Is PHONY - Dubai Will STILL Be Owner
"The new entity is supposed to have an American board and American managers, but the ownership was still questionable. Or, as New York's Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer observed, "the devil is in the details." If DP World is in fact merely planning to put its U.S. assets under a U.S.-managed subsidiary with oversight from a U.S.-staffed board, it would be following in a long line of foreign suppliers of defense technology to the U.S.
"This looks like a variant of that," says Clyde Prestowitz of the Economic Strategy Group in Washington. "
http://www.forbes.com/home/logistics/2006/03/09/dubai-ports-divests-cx_daa-0309autofacescan12.html
Compare this to the intentionally vague and misleading AP: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20060309-1223-portssecurity.html
Fortunately, not everyone in Congress is a clueless cluck. Rep. Peter King (NY) wasn't so quick to swallow the bait and said he would reserve any celebrations until he saw the details of the deal. And he's wise to wait - one of the warning signs was Bush brown-noser Bill Frist's too-quick observation: This[alleged pull out of DPW]should make the issue go away."
#2. The woman who got fired from her job for having a "PROGRESSIVE TALK 11.50 AM Radio" bumper sticker on her car. Her boss said, "For all I know you could be Al Quaeda..."
#3. This from NPR and HUFFPO: Sandra Day O'Connor Warns Of "Beginnings" Of Dictatorship... Slams Tom DeLay, Sen. John Cornyn... NPR | March 10, 2006 at 12:00 AM FROM HUFFPO...
NPR's Nina Totenberg aired an amazing story this morning about a talk that just-resigned Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave at Georgetown University. The first woman to serve on the High Court wouldn't allow her actual words to be broadcast, and that's a shame, because -- based on Totenberg's report -- every American needs to hear what she said. The Reagan appointee who became a moderate and an American icon -- Bush v. Gore notwithstanding -- all but named names in thinly veiled attacks on former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and ended with a stunning warning. O'Connor told her Georgetown audience that judges can make presidents, Congress and governors "really really mad," and that if judges don't make people angry, they aren't doing their job. But she said judicial effectiveness is "premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts." While hailing the American system of rights and privileges, she noted that these don't protect the judiciary, that "people do".... more at HuffPo
My hero and good friend JOHN CONLEY, Marine combat vet, wrote this to me this morning: "Bushianity, a new religion"
"A couple of years ago Osama Bin Laden was shown in a news report giving a speech, but the reporting of what he was saying was scant, except in general, home-spun terms. Lydia, I'd bet my life that Bush not only didn't know the content of the speech, but didn't want or care to know!
I'll admit, though, up to that point I was guilty of this same indifference concerning anything any Al Queda sympathizer had to say, let alone Osama Bin Laden. But...his particular day I found myself curious about what this psycho Bin Laden had to say for himself, so I went to my computer and found the English translation of Bin Laden's entire speech.
Yes, he's a murderer and a viscious war criminal, but much of what he said in that speech was very revealing about the true core of hatred these particular Muslims harbor for the West. Dare I say that I had a measure of understanding concerning some of the points made by Osama?
I felt no sympathy for him, for sure, nor any of the other criminal-crazies in that bunch, but some of what he had to say caused me to believe that this chasm between them and us can eventually be bridged with careful, intelligent, reasoned and persistent diplomacy. Are not our men and women fighting this war today and the fresh memories of those injured and fallen not at least worth the attempt?
By now it should be clear to everyone that this perpetual, "bring-it-on" style of diplomacy is going to require more and more U.S. blood and treasure in GW's never ending search for this mythic John Wayne legacy he lusts for.
Allow me to go out on this limb just a little further.....I could actually envision discussions with a Bin Laden-type in an attempt to bring the two sides together, or at least to a point where we have a better understanding of each other. At the least we might expect mutual understanding to lead to a truce of sorts. (Upon the keywording by the FBI and interception of this email I can imagine being wrestled to the ground and arrested as an "enemy combatant".)
Bush and Bin Laden have both sealed their individual legacies as international, murderous bullies, but we can pray that someone wise will emerge from each side with the understanding and Truth that is so plainly revealed in Proverbs 16:7 (KJV) which says: When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Powerful, huh?"
there is more to this piece, I will post it later..." (from John Conley)
God Bless you all...
Lydia
