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When there is talk of America being a Christian nation, I experience a torrential puke. It is very similar to the lava flowing after a volcanic eruption.
Jesus is the Son of God. He rose from the dead after His crucifixion.
Flashback: Jeremy Giefer, accused child molester, got Pawlenty pardon to open childcare center
Jeremy Giefer served time in jail in 1994 for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. But you wouldn’t know it to look at the record of the man now charged with sexually molesting his daughter more than 250 times over the last eight years.
That’s because two years ago, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Attorney General Lori Swanson, and then-Chief Justice Eric Magnuson unanimously voted to wipe Giefer’s record clean, granting him a pardon extraordinary.
One reason Giefer wanted his record cleared? His wife wanted to open a childcare center in the house where they live–the same house where Giefer allegedly molested his young daughter throughout the six years prior. [...]
If Pawlenty’s political opponents want fodder for an attack ad when the campaign gets dirty, they couldn’t ask for much better than the story about how he voted to clear the record of a sex offender now charged with habitually raping his own daughter.
What could possibly go wrong? January 6, 2011, City Pages:
Susan Giefer has been issued a citation for helping her husband contact the teenage daughter he is accused of raping hundreds of times over the past seven years. [...]
This isn’t the only time Susan Giefer has been implicated in her husband’s efforts to contact his daughter: The Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department recorded a telephone call between Giefer and his wife when Giefer was in jail in which Giefer again sought to make contact with his daughter, again through a third party. [...]
Giefer is a free man again, for the moment, after posting an additional $100,000 in bail on Monday.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/05/23/flashback-jeremy-giefer-accused-child-molester-got-pawlenty-pardon-to-open-childcare-center/
I agree with Snowflakes. From what I've heard, rape trials are like going thru it all over again and usually it does NOT end in prosecution.
As to the last caller's comment that rapists should be castrated, I would like to ask what is to be done with females who lie? Mutilate her genitally? Of course not. So no, I wouldn't castrate men. Wouldn't that fall under "cruel and unusual punishment"?
They should make fines in court proportional to wealth.
No, she is still a victim, just twice over. It is our system of justice that becomes the whore because it is exposed that if a person has enough money they can now afford to rape.
Dennis K lived in Washington after losing the mayor of cleveland. His friendship with Shirley McClain brought him to Washington. Had the pleasure of flying with his some number of years ago. he had been my councilman when i lived in cleveland. He told of spending time around Mt. Rainier, a time of reflection. He knows the PacNW.
Republican Ticket 2012
Loving the discussion of potential Republican candidates on today's show, and I couldn't help but get excited by the possible ticket of Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty if for no other reason than the cool political yard signs:
MITTIM 2012
Though it is hard to imagine 40+ year old Republican males not getting excited about displaying a "Huntsman" sign in their yard or on their car.
If a victim of rape takes a payoff, it just turns her into a very expensive hooker.
Or maybe religion is all a bunch of hooey.
(I posted some of this in the regular blog section by mistake.)
American beef producers are also not allowed to test for Mad Cow disease to ensure a safe product because the largest producers & their lobbyists didn't want the expense of testing. It might cut into their profits. Remember how much public outrage it took to get them to stop slaughtering very diseased cows and using their meat for consumers. So the conservatives are for free trade, but not if it hurts them (i.e., no trading for low-cost drugs in Canada). They are against regulation, unless it helps them out.
Jesus said, "No man knows the date or the hour, not even I."
Doesn't this make a perfect case for the fact that Jesus was not God but man?
If God is suppose to know all things and Jesus is God then he either should know or then God doesn't know which means God is not "all knowing".
Better call your Reps and Seanotors becasue teh "Defense Authoization Act is being pushed quickly through Congress to allow this president and future ones to declare war WITHOUT Congressional approval.
http://warisacrime.org/content/worst-bill-ever-congress-0
Meanwhile Biden is in chats about cutting Medicare/Medicaid.
Topsy turvy American Empire stuff going on
I don't think these tornados are proof of global warming-a tornado killed 32 in Regina and 27 in Edmonton, sprawl and unreinforced structures above ground are the cause of these great death tolls.Every house on the prairies should have a basement storm shelter with a rebar conrete ceiling.It should be code.AB, Sask, Man., and Ontario are prone to tornados.Global warming or not we must stop producing carbon monoxide, acidifying our lakes, oceans rivers and seas.Maybe running out of oil will be the best thing for the planet.Meteorlogical phenomena are complicated matters, pole shifting, fluctuations in solar activity-many complicated factors affect our weather but carbon monoxide is real and takes years off all our lives.Water and air pollution are real and deadly.
Here is my response to the Joplin tornado poll question.
I do not have enough knowledge to say its global warming or climate change. I am with my spiritual advisor and what he said to me at my confession. "America and Americans will continue to feel the pain and suffering until they return to God."
I do not have enough knowledge to say its global warming or climate change. I am with my spiritual advisor and what he said to me at my confession. "America and Americans will continue to fell the pain and suffering until they return to God."
@Palindromedary, great comment! I have been predicting that Obama WILL NOT BE RE-ELECTED!!! If he is on the ticket, I will vote for him because I can never vote for anyone from the Anti-Life Party.
And to top off their gall, they claim that this is all to protect 'the market.' 'the market' didn’t have to be subjected to this kind of giveaway or to the Obama Justice Department refusing to prosecute financial fraud, encouraging banks not to renegotiate loans, and not fighting to make Elizabeth Warren’s office independent. This is why so many people that voted for Obama when he promised change are not going to vote Democratic this time around. He really did bring change – but in a much worse direction, more corrosive austerity than has ever existed in this country since the post-Civil War period." (my emphasis)
http://michael-hudson.com/2010/11/dollar-war-in-detail/
Financial fraud is FINANCIAL TERRORISM!!! I am tired of being subjected to endless BOHICA Days from the Anti-Life Party. BEND OVER HERE IT COMES AGAIN!!!!!
Although the American Dream is over for average Americans, I have the only answer that can help us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VGuqk5sleA
I suppose expecting Iran to go solar is too much to ask when the US won't. Although, after what happened in Japan should make most people in any country, including the US, very wary about nuclear energy. The thing is that nuclear energy could be a lot safer if it wasn't for the little thing called "maximizing profits" something that is certainly paramount nearly everywhere in the capitalist world. The nuclear plants that popped their corks in Japan (if they hadn't tried to reduce costs..ie: maximize profits...somebody has to get rich..to hell with how unsafe it might prove to be to millions of people) could have been much safer by better designs...like no one ever thought that the generators would ever be flooded? And why build these things so close to the ocean at sea level....to cut costs of the alternatives. The big reasons why nukes and not solar is because you can't get fissionable or fussionable material to make bombs from solar....and if everyone had solar cells on their roofs no company could continue to milk the consumer cash cows. We could easily live "off the grid" as Jesse Ventura likes to say...as he likes to think that he is pretty well hidden when he spends most of his time down in Mexico (Baja).
I wondered if I would be able to learn where he lives using the internet..and I think I have pinned it down to pretty definitely within a few miles and am pretty sure I know the house (sea-side mansion) he lives in...solar cells and all. In fact, there is a resort nearby that uses the same phrase that Jesse always uses: "...off the grid" and a small bar/restaurant he frequents "just up the road". I have seen what I believe is his house on Google Earth. Nice! Anyway, I just bought a couple of his books and really am appreciative of his very outspoken stance against tyranny. I'd sure vote for Jesse Ventura if he ever ran for President!
Thom Hartmann: "we can expect more of these “limited” – and unapproved – wars in the future."
I watched Thom's rundown of the history of President's war powers on RT and it was very, very good! I would also venture to say that not only will we continue to have endless wars using the "fighting terrorism" excuse but we will continue to have wild financial bubbles and busts and many more "bailouts".
I just watched the HBO special mini-movie called Too Big To Fail. It was actually only about 20 minutes long and was a documentary combined with intervals of actors portraying key figures in the investment bank failures and the bailouts. It was unfortunate that it ended with a kind of "and now since the bailout saved America, and it restored faith in the banking system again, and our stock market numbers are looking up again...we can get on with growing our economy". What unabashed twaddle and propaganda!!! Well, I guess, what did I expect? I doubt HBO would air anything that more closely represents the real state of our economy and where it is headed as understood by many not so bullish economists. This movie, as well as mainstream impetus is to continue to give people hope and faith that everything is going to be alright now. Michael Hudson, is one such economist that Wall Street doesn't want you to listen to because he doesn't tow the line for those Wall Street and bankster criminals....he says it like it is and like it will be.
Michael Hudson, the economist:
"This is what’s wrong with the Fed’s policy. Its idea of 'recovery' is to help the banks – and their major customers are speculators. So in order to help them “earn their way out of negative equity,” the Fed is sacrificing “real” production-and-consumption economy to speculators. Companies that actually use raw materials and consumers that buy products are being squeezed, by a combination of debt service and a financial austerity plan – while Wall Street and speculators are being enabled to make a killing.
The reason they’re making a killing is that the Fed did not write down mortgages and other debts to the ability to pay. The game is to keep the debt overhead in place, not write it down. So the Democrats have been able to serve Wall Street to a much higher degree than Bush and the Republicans ever could have done. They’re saying that the economy can’t recover until they enable Wall Street and the banks to make up the trillions of dollars of bad loans and gambles they made. The rest of the economy will have to pay. So this financial overhead is much worse than taxation – worse than taxes that actually would be spent back into the economy. The Obama administration is willing, even eager to sacrifice the economy to Wall Street. Despite becoming owners of the largest banks, they’re not writing down mortgages, but are foreclosing, raising credit-card rates, fighting tooth and nail against consumer reforms and blocking financial fraud prosecutions. (my emphasis)
And to top off their gall, they claim that this is all to protect 'the market.' 'the market' didn’t have to be subjected to this kind of giveaway or to the Obama Justice Department refusing to prosecute financial fraud, encouraging banks not to renegotiate loans, and not fighting to make Elizabeth Warren’s office independent. This is why so many people that voted for Obama when he promised change are not going to vote Democratic this time around. He really did bring change – but in a much worse direction, more corrosive austerity than has ever existed in this country since the post-Civil War period." (my emphasis)
http://michael-hudson.com/2010/11/dollar-war-in-detail/
HERE IS A FACT! IRAN WANTS NUCLEAR ENERGY BECAUSE HER OIL RESERVES ARE ABOUT FIFTEEN YEARS AWAY FROM DEPLETION. NUCLEAR ENERGY WOULD HELP IRAN TO BE A SUSTAINABLE NATION WITHOUT IT IRAN WOULD BE FAIR GAME FOR ANY NATION THAT SEEKS TO OCCUPY THE COUNTRY. IRAN IS INTERESTED IN NUCLEAR ENERGY AND NOT NUCLEAR WEAPONS. ONLY CRAZY COUNTRIES WITH THEIR SATAN'S DISCIPLES BELIEVE THAT NUCLEAR WEAPONS MAKE YOU SAFER AND MORE SECURE.
"I KNOW THAT ISRAEL HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!!!!" - gerald
http://original.antiwar.com/shusseini/2011/05/23/the-absurd-us-stance-on-israels-nukes/
Silence Speaks
The former sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan, William Lucas gave a talk that my wife and I attended. He said that when we do nothing, we are doing something. He also said that to say nothing we are talking loud and clear. What he was saying, that inaction, silence, or both conveys a message that we are condoning the behavior of people that may very well be hurting other people. Social injustice and immorality hurts other people and we cannot remain silent or sit idly by and do nothing.
What we must do is to keep in mind the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: 31-46. The central theme of this biblical verse says, “When you do it for the least of My brethren, you do it for Me”.
Silence Speaks Volumes
Martin Luther King Jr. from his jail in 1963 said, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.”
Cindy Sheehan regrets that she did not scream out at Congress and say, Congress, don’t you dare abrogate your constitutional rights and responsibilities! Do not under any circumstances give the keys to our country to power-drunk, irresponsible, and reckless maniacs.
When George said, “If you’re not for us, you’re against us”, Cindy Sheehan will forever regret that she did not phone and scream, “I am so against you and your repulsive policies, you self-important man. I am against killing innocent people and I am against you telling me it’s unpatriotic to be against you and your murderous philosophy!”
@2950-10K, ranting and venting are good stress relievers for me.
Reflection of the week: “. . . in the face of human suffering, silence always helps those who cause the suffering, never the victim.” -- Carol Rittner, RSM
Power Corrupts: I read the Truthdig article and the first thing I did was put these quotes from Chris Hedges article on Thom's blog...without first reading any of the previous comments. I see you beat me to it. That's ok...it certainly deserves repeating.
Excerpts from Chris Hedges article at Truthdig.com
"Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West"
"The liberal class, which attempted last week to discredit the words my friend Cornel West spoke about Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, prefers comfort and privilege to justice, truth and confrontation. Its guiding ideological stance is determined by what is most expedient to the careers of its members.
It proclaims its adherence to traditional liberal values while defending and promoting systems of power that mock these values.The pillars of the liberal establishment—the press, the church, culture, the university, labor and the Democratic Party—all honor an unwritten quid pro quo with corporations and the power elite, as well as our masters of war, on whom they depend for money, access and positions of influence.
The decision to subordinate ethics to political expediency has led liberals to steadily surrender their moral autonomy, voice and beliefs to the dictates of the corporate state.
Liberalism, cut off from the radical roots of creative and bold thought, merged completely with the corporate power elite. The liberal class at once was betrayed and betrayed itself. And it now functions like a commercial brand, giving a different flavor, face or spin to the ruthless mechanisms of corporate power. This, indeed, is the primary function of Barack Obama.
The liberal class, despite becoming an object of widespread public scorn, prefers the choreographed charade. It will decry the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or call for universal health care, but continue to defend and support a Democratic Party that has no intention of disrupting the corporate machine. As long as the charade is played, the liberal class can hold itself up as the conscience of the nation without having to act. It can maintain its privileged economic status. It can continue to live in an imaginary world where democratic reform and responsible government exist.
The liberal class is incapable of reforming itself. It does not hold within its ranks the rebels and iconoclasts who have the moral or physical courage to defy the corporate state and power elite. And when someone such as Cornel West speaks out, packs of careerist liberals—or perhaps one should call them neoliberals—descend on the apostate like hellhounds, never addressing the truths that are expressed but instead engaging in vicious character assassination. The same thing happened to Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Dennis Kucinich, Jeremiah Wright and others who defied the political orthodoxy of corporate capitalism. The corporate forces, which have taken control of the press and which break unions, run the universities, fund the arts and own the Democratic Party, demand the banishment of all who question the good intentions of the powerful. Liberals who comply are tolerated within the system. They are permitted to busy themselves with the boutique activism of political correctness, inclusiveness or multiculturalism. If they attempt to fight for the primacy of justice, they become pariahs."
Read the whole article here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_prophets_like_cornel_west_make_l...