To Rick Warren: B**h and PEACE Do Not Go Together!

This is the FIRST Award.
Hopefully, it will change its acronym name before the SECOND.

Rick Warren has definitely passed over to the Dark Side. A Christofascist in a Hawaiian shirt. First, he campaigned for California's Proposition 8. That was bad enough. Now he's giving out awards tailor-made for "Legacies". And just in time: yesterday, he awarded George W. B**h the first International Medal of PEACE.

From Christianity Today, Tim Morgan:

The “International Medal of PEACE” is given on behalf of the Global PEACE Coalition for outstanding contribution toward alleviating the five global giants recognized by the Coalition, including pandemic diseases, extreme poverty, illiteracy, self-centered leadership and spiritual emptiness. The Coalition is a network of churches, businesses and individuals cooperating together to solve humanitarian issues through the PEACE Plan, an effort to mobilize 1 billion Christians to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation.

Look at that last statement. Read it again. Yes, it spells out P-E-A-C-E very nicely, but its a bogus acronym chock full of "whats?": Promote WHAT reconciliation? Equip servant leaders with WHAT? Assist the poor in WHAT way? Care for the sick with WHAT? Educate the next generation about WHAT? The description of the award leads you to mere assumptions: self-centered leadership we can assume means dictators, but what, exactly, is "spiritual emptiness"?

And Warren's awarding this medal of "PEACE" (no one will remember that it's a ludicrous acronym) - to B**h for what? His "work" with the global AIDS pandemic. Meaning: his allocation of money for AIDS agencies (faith-based, like Warren's). Money that never made it in time to help thousands of people at home in the U.S.

BFD.

The AIDS agencies have an agenda: abstinence-only sex education. The money pledged was not nearly enough to make a lasting effect ($18 billion since 2003, and now $48 billion in the next 5 years to treat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria). Most of the money, of course, goes to Africa since it has millions of people each year dying of AIDS. Warren steered clear of mentioning what Bush has done for AIDS in his own country (0) because of the stigma attached to it:

“As my wife Kay and I have been implementing the PEACE Plan in 68 developing countries, we have seen firsthand many of the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been saved through PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative,” Warren said. “I hope that this Forum will show the American people that our global health programs represent more than compassionate humanitarian efforts, but are also a strong, prudent pillar of American foreign policy.”

In other words, the Forum hosted by Warren is political, not religious or spiritual or even humanitarian. It's a piece of "compassionate conservatism" that attempts to look good while doing too little, too late. And with a plea going out to "1 billion Christians," it's clear that Warren's agenda includes converting everyone on earth to Christianity.

Can everyone say the words "World Theocracy?" How about "Reconstructionist?"

Warren is using global AIDS for his own "moral" purposes, but when people first started to wear red ribbons, Christofascists of his ilk screamed "fag lovers","gay disease" and "God's retribution!"

Twenty years ago, you would never have heard an apology from the likes of Rick Warren.

You won't hear one now.

Just a thought.

A Legacy? Yeah, Right Down To The Final Deregulated Insult on America's Intelligence!

I mentioned Rick Warren (of A Purpose Driven Life fame) crafting an award for B**h so that he could have something, anything, positive to leave office with. Even with as flimsy a premise as the International Medal for PEACE, it must have been hard to conjure up something positive so that Warren's policies would have some continued clout with what's left of the Republican Party. George W. B**h was supposedly awarded the honor for his work with global AIDS relief.

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press

"I would hope that when it's all said and done, people say, `This is a guy who showed up to solve problems,'" Bush said at a global health forum. "And when you have somebody say there's a pandemic that you can help, and you do nothing about it, then you have frankly disgraced the office."

Oh brother, what a line! "...a guy who showed up to solve problems"???! Which problems did he "solve"? He created problems! So many problems that his own party couldn't distance itself enough from him when election time rolled around! PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) although generous on the outside, has been rather seedy on the inside: while it was touted as the largest medical relief fund in history, its restrictions pointed to B**h's ties to the Christian Right and to his own brand of cronyism. The restrictions were: one third of prevention funds were to go to "abstinence only" programs, an "anti-prostitution" pledge by all funded agencies and no funds for needle exchange programs.

The economic shambles B**h has left the country in by deregulating everything in sight is now obvious. His war crimes were obvious. His primary intentions for going to war with Iraq were obvious. Even his secrecy was obvious.

Obvious to everyone except maybe him.

B**h wants a LEGACY.

What he'll get is INFAMY.

If he's lucky.

Just a thought.