The American garden of mediocrity is in full bloom, showing off its most precious weed - rose-colored glasses, while the scent of the foreign policy skunk weighs heavy in the Washington air. If upon the arrival of spring a man’s thoughts turn to baseball and love, that special time for politicians is the summer where they can do the most damage since Joe Taxpayer’s on vacation.

Ah, the romance of Washington always gets me choked up, or is it the smell of the foreign policy skunk hampering my free breathing? He’s a busy little guy and arguably more popular than Socks the cat or Millie the dog were in their heyday. He’s sprayed all over the news these days and got every politicians’ underwear in an uproar over at least eight time zones – and that’s on a slow day.

But who or what is this foreign policy skunk, running around and musking up tempers from Russia to the Beltway? …more

When you collect stories, you don't always have time to give them your attention.  In the case of the ocean study that came out just before the election, it sat on the back burner. 

I was reading the Gospel of Luke (chapter 5) the other day; it contains the story about Peter's confession, "depart from me, I am a sinful man!"  Jesus calms Peter's fears and says, "You will be a fisher of men."  It was on that last line of the story I heard the Holy Spirit whisper in my mind, "What would the Bible look like without fish?" 

That was a good question, and I thought it might be interesting to think about it.   ...more

It’s hard to turn on the TV or read a newspaper and not be confronted with the idea Christians should be demonizing Arabs and Muslims. It appears to be the “fashionable” in thing to bash, and that’s not only a problem but also a shame.

Politically, Muslims and Arabs are the lightning rod that has pushed issues like Social Security, the environment, economic growth, and the national debt below the fold. All too often this is a common tactic in which the White House has raised to an art form: hide the bad news by releasing it late at night or over the weekend when people aren’t reading it. If you can’t hide the news, you make some up or you wait to hide your bad news behind a convenient story that has enough attention so yours won’t be noticed. The more this happens, the worse our country slumps into sickness. We don’t need diversions; we need real, solid, credible solutions that don’t pay off special interest hacks.

By making Muslims and Arabs “the bad guy”, the less the mainstream media and the White House have “time” to focus on the real issues. So let’s avoid falling for this game of demonization to hide ineffective government, otherwise, we are guilty of not being good stewards of the country we’re charged to protect and care for. …more

I haven’t given much thought to Lebanon since the beginning of September. It seems the news plate has been overflowing, and keeping score on the domestic scandals and outright abolition of guaranteed rights under the Constitution has been sucking my time up like a raindrop in a thirsty desert. Lebanon comes and goes, sneaking in and out on occasion, but I do try and remain informed on what’s going on over there.

Today the Washington Post had a story that I almost passed over: “U.S. Faults Syria, Iran, Hezbollah on Lebanon.” The article delved into to the political morass of what are the remains of the Lebanese political system. In short, Tony Snow whined in a press conference, “It’s Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah’s fault – they’re causing trouble and trying to topple Prime Minister Siniora’s democratically elected government!” …more

Since I originally published this piece, the political situation has worsened; Hezbollah's strong arming looks more like a spoiled child's temper tantrum, and he's actively encouraged his followers not to be afraid of civil war. Some are actively speculating that in a few short years, Hezbollah could take over the political spectrum.

Either this is a huge disaster for the Bush Administration, or a stroke of genius to load up the government, thereby the President a reason to launch a military strike – or better yet, put Israel up to the task.  Empire building is definitely not the United States' strong suit. …more

Kleptocracy is a problem that plagues all Americans in one form or another whether they realize it or not.  It hides itself under more common names like war profiteering, cronyism, and quid pro quo games.  In the end, it’s the American people who end up suffering from poor government response (Hurricane Katrina) to Halliburton (national deficits), and while these hacks are stripping our country bare like a swarm of locusts, they do it with a smile and quip “…but it’s for the children”.

 

Here are a few suggestions I’ve come up with after writing this series.  We would start by bringing up war profiteers up on charges, and when found guilty, strip them of everything – including their undershorts; make pay back a real b*tch to instill a deterrent.  Next, go after the corporate heads’ personal assets and liquidate them, too – chances are very high they’ve moved business assets to hide them.  Third, send them all to jail.  Fourth, ban them from ever bidding on another federal contract for the rest of their natural lives – that includes any shell company set up to hide their identities.  Fifth, no crony appointees – every job should have a minimum qualifications standard, and have a GAO style investigation to prove they’re not padding their resumes.  Six, bring up senators and representatives on charges for sponsoring the fraud in the first place.  Seven, never allow the Senate to block oversight inquiries into questionable business dealings.

 

Part One                     Part Two                 Part Three              Part Four

Part Five                    Part Six                   Part Seven             Part Eight

Once in awhile, the Jewish newspaper, Haaretz, floats a story that really gets my undies in an uproar, and today I was given an uncomfortable poly-cotton wad to deal with. “30 tons of explosives smuggled into Gaza since disengagement” was by far, one of the most disingenuous stories I’ve read in a long time, breaking the rules of basic journalism: backing up the facts.

The article starts off by mentioning the principle player who’s leveling the accusation: Yuval Diskin of the Shin Bet security service, then goes on to mention the remarks were disclosed in front of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. I’ll admit up front I am not seeing the information presented, so there might be actual intelligence to back up such bold statements, but if that proof exists, then it wasn’t present at all in Gideon Alon’s piece.

Alon may be a staff reporter and his job may simply be to parrot the meeting, but it doesn’t look like he asked any questions.

“Since the disengagement, in addition to 30 tons of military-grade explosives, large quantities of arms and cash have been smuggled into the Strip through tunnels, Diskin said.”

…more

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a man who lacks understanding and seems to have a talent and taste for bad timing.  He arrived in Washington to hold talks with President Bush on Monday.  I don’t know if it was jet lag, but he opened his mouth just long enough to switch out to the other foot.  Actually, his comments weren’t the only hum dingers lobbed during the White House press conference this week.

 

For your protection, I’m going to share the comment, the “offender”, and I’ll parse the politico-propaganda so you don’t have to.

 

Bush: “The Prime Minister and I had a fascinating discussion the last time he was here. We were sitting on the Truman Balcony. We spent probably an hour-and-a-half strategizing about how we can work together to achieve peace.”

 

Translation: “Hoodia and me was…”

Olmert:  “It’s not ‘Hoodia’, it’s EHUD.”

Bush:  “That’s what I said!  Anyway, Ehudie and me was sitting on the former Truman (“Show Me” state) balcony, which was renamed to the Bill Clinton “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” balcony, and we spent an hour and a half strategizing about how we can work together to achieve pieces in the Middle East.”

…more

“Chutzpah” is the word that comes to mind when I read certain stories out of Haaretz. Today it seems all the “you’ve GOT to be kidding!” news is coming out of Israel – it’s a feast or famine situation at times, and so please don’t view my choice of topics as being anything but that.

Haaretz ran a neat little editorial today that I originally ignored. I didn’t make the connection with another story until several hours later when I went back to read some of the stories I had collected and put aside. I paid for that decision later; it disappeared from the front page and I had a hard time locating it again through various links and searches. The reason I ignored it to begin with was the initial teaser blurb on the front page ticked me off.

The story that made me stop in my tracks and run back to Haaretz was about French Defense Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie, who didn’t look too happy the IAF had performed “mock attacks” on the French UN peacekeepers and came perilously close to being shot down. I also saw another story on Arutz Sheva; they reported the Foreign Ministry is trying to put pressure on the IAF to cease all surveilance flights over Lebanon. …more

Part One
We've often heard the old saying of, "To the victor goes the spoils", and history has taught us the winner always writes the story. Can we trust the story being told to us by the White House, knowing they employ 3,000 public relations firms? In part one, we define and examine several of the most common terms used like "terrorist" and "freedom fighter", and we end with "unlawful combatant" and "prisoner of war".

Part Two
Definitions are of little value unless they can be applied to living examples. We begin to compare the arguments against Hizb'allah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda against "other" terrorist groups - like the Sons of Liberty and the Minutemen of the American Revolution. You thought these were "patriots"? Think again. According to the way the Bush White House defines "terrorists" and "unlawful combatants", our forefathers were terrorists. "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Part Three
In this final segment we investigate a few more rules that dictate the Geneva Convention's "prisoners of war" definition, we compare terrorism by Hamas, Hizb'allah to the Minutemen and Sons of Liberty. We also follow the money trail and discover who was financially supporting our founding fathers, not unlike Iran and Syria backing Hizb'allah. There's an old saying of "those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it", and we desperately are ignorant of our own "terrorist" roots.

A Pakistani Muslim man wrote an article in which he misrepresented Christian scripture. As I started to respond, I realized I was being religion baited for political gain. Too many work hard to create a wedge issue, and Islamofascism has become the GOP poster child. Does it have to be this way, and is Islam really the problem?

If one views the think tank players and the special interest groups, the Christian water gets murky with "favors". The problem is the GOP has created an intense evangelical climate of fear against Islam; it has paved the way for the new "Crusades" in the Middle East. The fact is "Christians" in power have deliberately fashioned this image for political gains and favor paybacks, making many incredibly rich at the expense of multiple nations. The co-conspirators in the picture have become the voices of Christian talk radio, whether by accident or intentional design. It's time to see the truth for what it is.

Part One
Part Two
Tip: Right click with your mouse and select “open in new window” to view the segments without leaving this blog.

I happened to be lounging around in the late evening hours, flipping the TV channels, when I saw something that made me back up: old World War II black and white footage on the local public broadcasting station (PBS). For some unknown reason, I am drawn like a moth to a flame on World War II footage, and I can’t pass it up.

If there’s anything to be learned from the tons and tons of black and white informational films that played mostly in movie theatres during the day, it was the patriotism that our grandparents exhibited. …more

In September, a female bus driver lost her job when her “smile for the birdie” thought got the best of her, resulting in her flipping up “The First Motorcade”. It turns out a Republican Congressman was in the motorcade with President Bush; she was reported and promptly sacked.

I’m not for that kind of behavior, and when I get flipped off in traffic, I smile and politely wave back. In this day and age of the road rage, and having been chased by a nut case driver for some perceived transgression, I know better. Plus, it’s generally a poor way to express your frustrations. There are days, I must admit, that I want to hook up one of those dot matrix scrolling rectangular signs, have a keyboard on the dash, and type a “just for you” personalized message.

Of course since this story ran, someone else has finally taken notice that Rumsfeld has this curious habit of scratching his nose with his middle finger whenever a difficult question is posed. …more

It was just a week ago Dr. James Dobson said he didn’t believe the initial allegations against Ted Haggard of indulging in illegal drug use and engaging in a homosexual relationship. Here is a small sampling of Dr. Dobson’s comments:

“All of us at Focus on the Family are heartsick over the allegation, not yet confirmed, that Ted has had a private life with a homosexual for several years.”

“In a prepared statement Thursday, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson rapped the news media for reporting a rumor "based on nothing but one man's allegation," referred to Haggard as a friend.”

“Ted has been my close friend and colleague for many years. He will continue to be my friend, even if the worst allegations prove accurate.”

From where I sit, Dr. Dobson has done a bit of an “about face” now the allegations have been proven true. He has pulled out of the ministry team to counsel his “friend”, Ted Haggard.

“Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help - but the reality is I don't have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility.”

This goes high up on the Christian excuse list with, “I/we just didn’t feel led to do that”, which is truly a sad commentary on the state of the Christian body.  ...more

Are the “Religious Right” leaders hiding something? It surely looks that way, considering another Ted Haggard bomb has exploded. Rev. Louis Sheldon has quietly given an interview with The Jewish Week, revealing a dirty secret: many of the upper tier leaders knew Ted Haggard was gay well before the scandal broke.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Then, as if things could not get worse, there was the disgrace of Sheldon’s own friend and colleague, Rev. Ted Haggard, the Colorado mega-church leader and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an even bigger pillar of Republican support on the Christian right. Sheldon disclosed that he and “a lot” of others knew about Haggard’s homosexuality “for awhile ... but we weren’t sure just how to deal with it.”

Months before a male prostitute publicly revealed Haggard’s secret relationship with him, and the reverend’s drug use as well, “Ted and I had a discussion,” explained Sheldon, who said Haggard gave him a telltale signal then: “He said homosexuality is genetic. I said, no it isn’t. But I just knew he was covering up. They need to say that.”

...more

I will admit it: when I heard about Ted Haggard’s alleged problem, I thought, “Good! Another bad televangelistic type is going down – clean them all out!” We’ve all had that feeling of, “I can feel it in my bones…this is the truth”, and you know it’s the Holy Spirit confirming it. It may not be the best or the correct feeling to have, but I own the responsibility of thinking it; many Christians, however, will not, as evidenced by Dr. James Dobson and Jerry Fallwell.

No one knows the story fully beyond God, Ted Haggard, and the male escort.

The victims in this are his family, who are going to be brutally hounded and harassed, the members of his mega church, and the thirty million plus he claimed to represent when he was president of the National Association of Evangelicals. This is the traditional list of “victims”, but I sadly wonder if it’s correct. …more