THE DAWN OF HOPE

"I think we can come up with a statement on which all Americans, Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, straight or gay, can agree, despite our country being so tragically and ferociously divided. The first universal American sentiment I came up with was: 'Sugar is sweet.'" - Kurt Vonnegut

"I am neither left wing nor right wing; I need both wings to fly." - Deborah Van Valkenburgh.



L. to R: Lydia, Wally Wingert's mom, Deborah Van Valkenburgh

In Burbank over the weekend, Deborah and I signed autographs and had fun with Henry Winkler (Fonzie from Happy Days and children's book author of the "Hank Zipper" series), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop. Ernie guest-starred on our show in its first season); Michael Beck from The Warriors; Lorenzo Lamas; Juliet Mills; Larry Thomas, the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld (LOVE THIS GUY!); Bruce Kulick, incredibly gifted guitarist from KISS; Wally Wingert - actor, amazing human, and voice over artist extraordinaire; William Forsythe, Branscombe Richmonds who is now host of GOOD MORNING HAWAII. Deborah and I did an interview for the show, and I'll try to upload clips after it airs. I love Branscombe; he played Jackie Rush's love interest on our show. I met lots of others, but have to post them later. Met the legendary sketch artist ROMEO who works in blue pencil; he gave me a portrait of my favorite actress of all time, Audrey Hepburn.

My son got INVADER ZIM'S autograph, Richar Horvitz, who played ZIM!!!



THE DAWN OF HOPE 2
Progressive is the term I choose to call my social and political leanings. Going forward, making progress, advancing new ideas, bringing people together in the spirit of love, making friends out of enemies, having compassion even for the offensive and downtrodden (because I know what it's like to have a bad day.) Progressive means enlightened, spiritual, diplomatic solutions... getting along with ones enemies, finding common ground, realizing that by joining forces and engaging in community we become stronger and better human beings.

Regressive is the opposite of progressive. In my view, regressive thought encompasses the belief that fighting one's enemies is the way to peace! Never have I heard a more ridiculous statement, but it seems to be the philosophy of the regressive movement. Religious fundamentalism is dangerous in any culture. Being focused on materialism, and on judging others completely negates the love required in order to live in a society. Fundamentalism is the primitive, archaic, eye-for-an-eye mentality -- the way of people who are too afraid of losing what they have and too protective of their own possessions. People who are afraid.

Strong people do not need to fight -- or hide behind guns. Truly brave and courageous men do not breed enemies. They are clever enough to outwit and outsmart their enemies by keeping them close. What sane person on earth, if he's not in law enforcement, needs a semi-automatic weapon?

The Constitution of the United States of America mentions "military defense" only once. But it mentions the importance of sharing, helping each other, helping the states, and building community -- several times, repeatedly.

Our Founding Fathers would not recognize the executive branch today. Their values are quite different from the values of America.

God helps those who help others. "God helps those who help themselves" is not mentioned in the bible anywhere. We must replace the idea of "rugged individualism" with "helping others within your community" because no one ever really made it on his own without a helping hand.

I really feel as if the tide is turning and we are all going to be okay. We will avert nuclear war with Iran, despite the president's war lust, and we will create a safer, cleaner better world. Because we all have intentions toward life and peace.

I signed autographs on Friday and Saturday at Ray Courts show in Burbank and spoke to several people about the state of the world. Eight out of ten people, including a police officer, despise this war and think badly of Bush. Only two people I spoke to the entire day said that they could never vote for a Democrat becaues they are pro-life. They never once acknowledge that the war in Iraq has killed 650,000 Iraqi civilians and innocent children, including babies -- even though they are "pro-life." They are so brainwashed they actually do not understand that Democrats are NOT PRO-ABORTION. Democrats hate abortion too.

These unthinking people who parrot the Bush party line, are killing more innocent souls with their ideology and they refuse to wake up and see it.

Got this from a LAKE TAHOE Journal: "Deep inside of us, we hunger for a simpler life. The fresh mountain air, the smell of pine needles and the bluest lake in the world. Nothing alleviates stress better than the surreal beauty of nature."

If you missed it, YOU WILL NEVER WATCH TV NEWS AGAIN after watching the electrifying PBS Special by Bill Moyers "BUYING THE WAR."

"Buying the War," a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. This riveting, thorough investigation includes interviews with Dan Rather, formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of MEET THE PRESS; Bob Simon of 60 MINUTES; Walter Isaacson, former president of CNN; and John Walcott, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers, which was acquired by The McClatchy Company in 2006.

In "Buying the War" Bill Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes document the reporting of Walcott, Landay and Strobel, the Knight Ridder team that burrowed deep into the intelligence agencies to try and determine whether there was any evidence for the Bush Administration's case for war. THIS WILL SHOCK PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN BUYING THE PROPAGANDA OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. BUSH AND CHENEY MUST BE IMPEACHED.

NETWORK OF SPIRITUAL PROGRESSIVES AIM TO:

* Bring about a new bottom line of love and caring in America
* Challenge the misuse of God, religion, and spirit by the religious right
* Challenge the anti-religious and anti-spiritual biases in some sectors of liberal culture

www.spiritualprogressives.org

Talk Radio

SATURDAY MORNINGS TUNE IN LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS and LOS ANGELES to our show BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK
from 9 - 10 a.m. We broadcast live -- or go to our website and click on the link to hear the entire show in the archives.

LISTEN TO YESTERDAY'S SHOW IN THE ARCHIVES: Yesterday, we had Paul Waldman from Media Matters on to discuss Bill O'Reilly's delusional rant accusing Media Matters of being a propaganda website funded by George Soros. This is hilarious, you have to hear it. Media Matters.org is a Washington think-tank whose sole purose is to correct deception, misinformation and hate-speak in the right-wing media. Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

TALK RADIO by Larry Johnson

Talk radio has become a billion dollar business in America and the audience is growing with the influence of Internet Talk Radio to capture a growing block of the audience. More and more people are logging on to listen to talk radio over their computers and hand held devices.

Conservatives took the lead in talk radio with influences like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity dominating the airwaves with their abrasive tones slanted sharply to a conservative point of view. As these shows caught on other conservative shows hit the airwaves and helped push the Republican party into power.

Progressive talk shows came at a disadvantage as the conservative influence had long dominated the airwaves. As Air America came into existence and progressive talk shows began to gain an audience, politics in the U.S slowly started to turn.

Eight of the top ten talk radio shows are conservative programs that reach millions of listeners, who daily use their broadcasts to further the conservative agenda. Each week these and other talk radio pundits make outrageous claims that often prove untrue.

A new breed of progressive talk has recently hit the airwaves. Broadcasting from Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Doug Basham and Lydia Cornell host the Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk show every Saturday at 9:00 AM PST.

This Saturday on Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk they will interview Paul Waldman of Media Matters. The subject will be the recent outrageous remarks of Bill O'Reilly and other conservative claims that have been untrue.

Tune in Saturday at 9:00 AM PST for the fastest growing show in talk radio. bashamandcornell

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

Tonight is the first of the Democratic Presidential Debates.

8 Democratic Presidential candidates will square off in their first combined appearance on national television. Comment live.

THE CRIME BENEATH THE CRIME

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"
Nikka - age 6
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Stephen Pitt Political Cartoons

Before we get into the truth behind Gonzo-Gate, POTENTIALLY HABITABLE PLANET FOUND!! THIS IS EXCITING!!
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet_5

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on election night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?

The answer appears to be yes.

On Election Night 2004, the Republican Party not only controlled the vote-counting process in Ohio, the final presidential swing state, through a secretary of state who was a co-chair of the Bush campaign, but it also controlled the technology that allowed the tally of the vote in Ohio's 88 counties to be reported to the media and voters.

Privatizing elections and allowing known partisans to run a key presidential vote count is troubling enough. But the reason Congress must investigate these high-tech ties is there is abundant evidence that Republicans could have used this computing network to delay announcing the winner of Ohio's 2004 election while tinkering with the results.

Read more below, but first an editorial comment:

Because we love America, love our freedoms, love our constitution and despise lies, war, death and destruction... and because we cherish our troops and want to bring them safely home, we must continue to hold these criminals in the Bush administration accountable. We must hold their feet to the fire, or else we are being un-American. These people do not seem to have America's best interests at heart. We are Americans and deserve honest, ethical leaders who work for the people. After all, the United States is unique in all the world as government BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE AND OF THE PEOPLE.

Regular viewers of mainstream news, and especially Fox News are never told the whole truth. With smoke and mirrors, they distract us from the truth; they obfuscate. In the Alberto Gonzales hearings, what is the crime beneath the outer crime of lying and "I can't remember?" Is it obstruction of justice? What is Gonzo-Gate really all about? Why is Congress so interested in getting to the bottom of why these attorneys were fired? Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com, who has worked tirelessly for three years to uncover shocking evidence of GOP ELECTION FRAUD, CORRUPTOIN AND ELECTION THEFT, exposes it and so does Bob Fritakis.

GOP's Cyber Election Hit Squad Exposed
Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
April 24, 2007

Bob Fitrakis is a political science professor and attorney in the King Lincoln Bronzeville civil rights lawsuit against Ken Blackwell. Fitrakis, Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman are authors of What Happened in Ohio? A documentary record of theft and fraud in the 2004 election.

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on election night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004 , Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website—which gave the world the presidential election results—was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote—from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves—must be added to the growing congressional investigations.

Numerous tech-savvy bloggers, starting with the online investigative consortium epluribusmedia.org and their November 2006 article cross-posted by contributor luaptifer to Dailykos , and Joseph Cannon's blog at Cannonfire.blogspot.com, outed the RNC tech network. That web-hosting firm is SMARTech Corp. of Chattanooga, TN, operating out of the basement in the old Pioneer Bank building. The firm hosts scores of Republican websites, including georgewbush.com, gop.com and rnc.org.

The software created for the Ohio secretary of state’s Election Night 2004 website was created by GovTech Solutions, a firm co-founded by longtime GOP computing guru Mike Connell. He also redesigned the Bush campaign's website in 2000 and told Inside Business magazine in 1999, "I wouldn't be where I am today without the Bush campaign and the Bush family because the Bushes truly are about family and I’m loyal to my network."

Ohio's Cedarville University, a Christian school with 3,100 students, issued a press release on January 13, 2005 describing how faculty member Dr. Alan Dillman’s computing company Government Consulting Resources, Ltd, worked with these Republican-connected companies to tally the vote on Election Night 2004.

"Dillman personally led the effort from the GCR side, teaming with key members of Blackwell's staff," the release said. "GCR teamed with several other firms—including key players such as GovTech Solutions, which performed the software development—to deliver the end result. SMARTech provided the backup and additional system capacity, and Mercury Interactive performed the stress testing."

On Election Night 2004, the Republican Party not only controlled the vote-counting process in Ohio, the final presidential swing state, through a secretary of state who was a co-chair of the Bush campaign, but it also controlled the technology that allowed the tally of the vote in Ohio's 88 counties to be reported to the media and voters.

Privatizing elections and allowing known partisans to run a key presidential vote count is troubling enough. But the reason Congress must investigate these high-tech ties is there is abundant evidence that Republicans could have used this computing network to delay announcing the winner of Ohio's 2004 election while tinkering with the results.

Did Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell or other GOP operatives inflate the president's vote totals to secure George W. Bush's margin of victory? On Election Night 2004, many of the totals reported by the secretary of state were based on local precinct results that were impossible. In Clyde, Ohio, a Republican haven, Bush won big after 131 percent voter turnout. In Republican Perry County, two precincts came in at 124 percent and 120 percent respectively. In Gahanna Ward 1, precinct B, Bush received 4,258 votes despite the fact that only 638 people voted for president. In Concord Southwest in Miami County, the certified election results proudly proclaimed at 679 out of 689 registered voters cast ballots, a 98.55 percent turnout. FreePress.org later found that only 547 voters had signed in.

These strange election results were routed by county election officials through Ohio's Secretary of State's office, through partisan IT providers and software, and the final results were hosted out of a computer based in Tennessee announcing the winner. The Cedarville University releases boasted the system "was running like a champ." It said, "The system kept running through the early morning hours as users from around the world looked to Ohio for their election results."
(read more at www.tompaine.com)

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THE UNDERLYING CRIME: White House Interference into a U.S. Attorney's Criminal Investigation in Missouri

High-Level White House, DoJ, Rove Operatives Went to Work While now-Fired Prosecutor Bud Cummins Was Building a Case Against Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and the WH Connected MO Law Firm Lathrope & Gage...

"You have to firewall politics out of the Department of Justice. Because once it gets in, people question every decision you make," the former U.S. Attorney from Arkansas, Bud Cummins, told the Los Angeles Times in March. "Now I keep asking myself: 'What about the Blunt deal?'"

What about the Blunt deal, indeed.

Last Thursday we began piecing together a few previously unconnected dots in the firing of Cummins. The dots connected appear to lay out a fairly straight arrow into the the highest levels of the White House. At least if you're familiar with some of the players, whom they know, and what they do for a living....
Click Here for the rest of the story: http://bradblog.com/

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KARL ROVE BULLIES SHERYL CROW

For the FUNNIEST, best, political cartoons, go to Stephen Pitt Political Cartoons copyright 2007 Stephen Pitt




Huffington Post | April 22, 2007 10:39 PM
At some point during his ramblings, we became heartbroken to think that the President of the United States and his top advisers have partially built a career on global warming not being real. We have been telling college students across the country for the past two weeks that government does not change until people demand it... well, listen up folks, everyone had better get a lot louder because the message clearly is not getting through.
In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people..."

for the rest of the story: KARL ROVE vs SHERYL CROW

A side note: I worked with Laurie David's husband, Larry David, on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and a more delightful spirit is hard to find. He raves about his wife and her committment to saving our planet. Who could argue with wanting to conserve energy, stop waste and stop global warming?

EARTH DAY should expand into EARTH YEAR. EVeryone must see this Discover Series PLANET EARTH. It is stunning and will change your life. The polar bear swimming for his life is so tragic. These beautiful creatures must be saved. We are all togehter on this. Rove and certain right-wingers who are mired in archaic mentality, want to paint this as a liberal agenda, but aren't we past that mudslinging?

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PRAYERS FOR VIRGINIA TECH
On April 16, 2007, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed more than 30 students and faculty, including himself. Reactions to this terrible incident have ranged from stunned shock to angry outrage as people try to understand how—why—this could happen.

But there's another way to approach this tragedy: with a spiritual perspective that helps us recognize that even in the darkest moments, God, good, is present, comforting and protecting everyone. And that all people can feel the healing blessings of our prayers. Hear inspiring and powerful ways people are turning to prayer in response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Special Sentinel Radio program
In silence, feeling the presence and power of God

Download MP3

Check out my other site: BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW

SATURDAY MORNING TUNE IN LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS and LOS ANGELES to our show BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK
from 9 - 10 a.m. We broadcast live -- or go to our website and click on the link to hear the entire show in the archives.

Our special guest Saturday morning, April 21, is the leader of a movement to restore the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state in the United States Military. He is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He is also an attorney and businessman, who served on active duty in the US Air Force as a Judge Advocate General – or JAG – for 10 years. He spent 3 years as an attorney in the Reagan White House, and he is the former general counsel for H. Ross Perot. His name is Michael Weinsteen, his new book is titled “With God On Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military.”Be sure to tune in to: BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK

We need to keep separate Church and State. "Shouldn't each individual have the freedom to decide what God they are fighting for and praying to? It's that right to worship as we please that has been one of the abiding rasons we send our sons and daughters off to die. We need to preserve that right at all costs."

"It's simply wrong to paint every Christian with the same brush. For example, I'm firmly convinced that it's possible to have a strong, even fervent belief and still respect the constitutional rights of your fellow American citizens. From the first time I ever heard it, I was impressed by the Alcoholics Anonymous idea of drawing its members through attraction, not promotion... I think, for fundamentalists, at least in the workplace: lead by example, not by marketing and publicity and high-pressure sales tactics."

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No matter what we think of the gunman — or of enemies, serial killers and psychopaths in general — what this world needs more of is love. There is no difficulty that enough love and compassion will not heal. In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I reminded my kids about the Golden Rule, how to treat other kids at school.

On Tuesday, I told my sons to go to school and pick out a lonely child, a kid who eats alone or seems depressed, or who is constantly bullied. I asked each of my sons to make an effort to befriend this child, at least smile at him, and even be so brave as to risk embarrassment and sit with that person at lunch.

It didn't work because my youngest son came home with an overweight kid. They both came into my office and my son proceeded to call him "Fattie" out loud, right in front of him! The kid chuckled nervously. I told my son, "That is not nice; your friend is very good looking; he's perfect and you are being rude." My child said, "It's just a joke. Everyone calls him that, he likes it, right Frankie?" The child laughed nervously again.

Later my older son came home and whispered to me, "What's that chubby kid doing here?" I was appalled.

I thought I had taught them the Golden Rule years ago, but I guess bad habits die hard. So we are now committed to applying it more conscientiously. We're on a mission to stop this peer pressure to insult other kids!

Because the Golden Rule, meaning "treat others with kindness, the way you would want to be treated," is the most important thing Christ taught. In fact, it is the only part of Christ's actual words and teachings that are necessary in a mixed society. "Love one another; love your neighbor as yourself; love your enemies, bless those who persecute you." That's all anyone ever needs to know about the Great Peacemaker's teachings in order to live together peacefully in a society of warring religions. Enough of the intolerant, divisive fundamentalist preachings.

So I asked my kids to pick out a lonely, alienated child and to pray for this child every night for two weeks. We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, I am asking them to be mindful of other's feelings.

I would rather my sons be kind to others than to get good grades or win a sports competition. Nothing is more important than how we treat our fellow man.

On that note, here is an excerpt from one of my favorite books "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, the famed Austrian psychotherapist who transcended concentration camp torture through the power of his mind. I was introduced to this book in 7th grad and it changed my life:

Even in the degradation and abject misery of a concentration camp, Frankl was able to exercise the most important freedom of all - the freedom to determine one's own attitude and spiritual well-being. No sadistic Nazi SS guard was able to take that away from him or control the inner-life of Frankl's soul. One of the ways he found the strength to fight to stay alive and not lose hope was to think of his wife. Frankl clearly saw that it was those who had nothing to live for who died quickest in the concentration camp.

"He who has a why for life can put up with any how."
Frederick Nietzsche

Frankl wrote the following while being marched to forced labor in a Nazi concentration camp:
"We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road running through the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor's arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his hand behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: "If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don't know what is happening to us."

That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another on and upward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look then was more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth--that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way--an honorable way--in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life, I was able to understand the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."

All of this is spiritual. The Christ came to tell us the very same thing. How we have twisted this message to the self-serving message of "dying for our sins" is hard to understand. Consider this: What if, when Jesus said, “I am the way, the path, the light… the only way to the Father is by me…” HE MEANT LOVE IS THE WAY!! What if he didn’t mean for people to worship him – or make an idol of him. He said, “the things I do, you can do also.” The salvation of man is in LOVE for his fellow man... and in understanding that man is not material, he is spiritual. We place too much emphasis on matter.

I also don’t think Jesus meant to put so much emphasis on his Second Coming, and in this man-made "rapture" business which I explained last week. No matter what the book of Revelation says, I think the Second Coming has to happen in our hearts – each of us individually must have this rebirth of love for our fellow man. We each must become Christ-like: innocent as a child, giving, loving, turning the other cheek, not fighting our enemies, not controlling other people, not being selfish, not fearing rejection, not turning hatred to love, not retaliating, not making more weapons, not fearing anything (for love casts out fear and to have fear means we lack faith.) When each of us becomes as loving as the Christ — this is the "Second Coming." Christ will be reborn within the soul of mankind. It has to come from within. Maybe what the bible means is that we will see Christ (love) reflected in each other.

THIS JUST IN...

Ann Coulter, Advocate for Death, to Speak Tonight with Sam Brownback at Pro-Life Banquet
Queen of Elmination Rhetoric, Hate Speech, Joins 'Conservative' Presidential Candidate on the Dais...
by Daniel Borchers of Citizens for Principled Conservatism

Controversialist Ann Coulter, legendary for her hate speech and elimination rhetoric (see just a few of her most notorious greatest "hits" in the chart linked below), is a featured speaker at tonights New Jersey Right to Life (NJRTL) Banquet. That’s right, an advocate for death is a spokesman for life.

Presidential candidate Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), and others, will be sharing the dais with Coulter....

FULL STORY/CONTACT INFO:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4437

For the FUNNIEST, best, political cartoons, go to Stephen Pitt Political Cartoons copyright 2007 Stephen Pitt

TASERS: GUN ALTERNATIVE * SAVAGE WINS PULITZER PRIZE

"Love one another."


GUN CONTROL: A LOGICAL ALTERNATIVE

Imagine this: every kid and teacher in that school has a gun. Someone is out in the hallway waving a gun around in the air. Everyone rushes out from classrooms to the hallway, waving their guns. WHO IS THE ORIGINAL GUNMAN? If everyone has a gun, who's the bad guy?

To the NRA and opponents of gun control: what's wrong with Tasers instead of guns? If you really are in fear and need to protect yourself, then have a taser handy.  This way it's not permanent.

Americans should have to pass eye tests, firearms classes, and metamphetamine tests, blood tests, even psychological testing (and see if they're on medications for depression or using psychotropic drugs) and be licensed BEFORE they can buy a gun.

It probably would not hurt at all to also have every applicant interviewed by someone trained to spot personality disorders, such as the kind that were so obvious to anyone who knew the mass murderer to be at Virginia Tech. The faculty there had already reported him to local police as a possible lunatic. And yet he was allowed to just walk into a gun store, where other murder weapons had been purchased, and walk out with a gun. There is something very broken about a system that failed to stop this.


For God's sake and for our children's sake, there have only been 24 justified shootings in America - versus THOUSANDS of "accidental" and rampage shootings, as a result of our lax gun laws.

In every other country where they have strict gun control, gun deaths are down.

Every day they try to fill us with fear. "The terrorists are coming over here to get us," they say. And why WOULDN'T the terrorists want to come to Virginia, for example? Why they've got some of the most lax gun laws anywhere, where even a deranged non-citizen can freely buy a high-powered assault weapon. And its not just people from overseas, criminals from all over the eastern seaboard come to Virginia in particular to buy their guns, so they can go commit crimes in other states.

The blood had not even dried on the classroom floors of Virginia Tech before the NRA launched its own offensive, in the media and in email blasts, to argue that what we really need to do is turn all our teachers into pistol packing sheriffs, and our colleges into something out of the wild west. There are only two categories of people who oppose any kind of gun regulation, lobbyists for the gun manufactures themselves, and people with personal Rambo fantasies. And the latter are possibly the LAST people who should be armed with deadly force.

The fact is that for every private citizen with the skill and JUDGEMENT to effectively intervene against someone else shooting a gun, there are many more Rambos in their own mind who would end up getting even more people killed including themselves. For every gun in a home used for successful defense against an attacker, there are many, many more used in suicides, or killing by accident, or end up stolen. Those are the statistics and they don't lie. You remember Marvin Gaye, don't you? He was killed in a family argument by his own father with a gun he bought for his father's protection.

It has never been enough to be a law-abiding citizen to be armed with a lethal weapon. With gun rights come gun responsibilities. You must be trained to use a weapon responsibly. And nobody should be able to purchase such a weapon unless they can first demonstrate this, any more than someone should be allowed to drive a car without at least first passing a driving test, together with an eye exam and a written test. They passed a law in the last Congress that said you were required to attend a special class before you could declare bankruptcy. Why not also to own a gun?

Having more guns in this country in the hands of people who can't handle them doesn't make us more safe. It makes us all LESS safe. Many of the guns already in the hands of criminals were originally sold legally (though perhaps under the most feeble of laws), and the more our society is awash with guns, the more guns criminals will get, to steal if they have to. The more guns the NRA can sell us, the more they will tell us we need to buy to "protect" ourselves from the ones already sold. What a deadly, murderous racket. Read more and take action at: http://www.peaceteam.net/gun_regulation.php TELL CONGRESS WE NEED STRONGER FEDERAL GUN REGULATIONS

No laymen, except the VERY INSECURE weaklings, need a gun that can kill people. Tasers stun the criminal and stop him in his tracks. Then you can take him to court and find out why he's doing what he's doing.

WE need to disarm all the criminals. In this day and age, with the stress of our society, the traffic, the job insecurity, the machines we're plugged into, the fear-mongering, the pharmaceutical drugs people are popping -- NOW MORE THAN EVER I DO NOT WANT NERVOUS PEOPLE TO HAVE GUNS IN THEIR HANDS.

The ENLIGHTENED, HARMONIOUS, long view is to work together to heal the ills of our society, tone down the desperation and the attraction to violence, and help us understand each other's tragedy. Truly damaged people should not be able to buy guns.

This kid was a ticking time bomb; his English teacher knew it. Why didn't someone put out an alert via his Driver's license, warning gun shop owners not to sell this kid GUNS!

People should prove why they need a gun; hunting licenses aside, they should be tested thoroughly before owning a weapon that can kill a human being.



2007 NATIONAL REPORTING

For a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs Awarded to Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe for his revelations that President Bush often used "signing statements" to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws.

The most heinous instance of a law Bush usurped was the Geneva Convention's ban on torture of human beings. Bush secretly signed his "right to torture" thereby breaking the Geneva Convention.

Bush could bypass new torture ban: Waiver right is reserved
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | January 4, 2006

WASHINGTON -- When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief...

David Golove, a New York University law professor who specializes in executive power issues, said that the signing statement means that Bush believes he can still authorize harsh interrogation tactics when he sees fit. 'The signing statement is saying 'I will only comply with this law when I want to, and if something arises in the war on terrorism where I think it's important to torture or engage in cruel, inhuman, and degrading conduct, I have the authority to do so and nothing in this law is going to stop me,' " he said. ''They don't want to come out and say it directly because it doesn't sound very nice, but it's unmistakable to anyone who has been following what's going on."
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/ articles/2006/01/04/bush_could_bypass_new_torture_ban/

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Maurice Possley and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune for their investigation of a 1989 execution in Texas that strongly suggests an innocent man was killed by lethal injection, and Les Zaitz, Jeff Kosseff and Bryan Denson of The Oregonian, Portland, for their disclosure of mismanagement and other abuses in federally-subsidized programs for disabled workers, stirring congressional action.

Other items of interest coming up:

On our show this week we are having Mike Weinstein, author of "WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military"

Check out internationally renowned architect William McDonough and his vision of the future:
"BUILDINGS LIKE TREES, CITIES LIKE FORESTS" http://www.mcdonough.com/writings/buildings_like_trees.htm

Analysis of the Left Behind Books and their anti-Christian message