No, it's not another one of Cher's Final Tours. It's a megachurch.
This is TOO MUCH! TOO MUCH!TOO MUCH! Sorry. I was in megachurch mode and thinking about tomorrow, when Obama and McCain duke it out at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California (O.C. to be sure). At first, it seems that Warren's church is the perfect place to entice evangelicals who don't quite espouse John Hagee's odd logic about Israel, Rod Parsley's militaristic prose, or Jeremiah Wright's liberation theology: Warren is called the "Jimmy Buffet of evangelical preachers." He is the author of the 20-million bestseller book "The Purpose Driven Life." He is also one helluva powerful man.
Here are some facts about Saddleback Church (as per Bob Lanham's The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right):
Collected $7 million in cash on one Sunday.
Bar codes are assigned to babies checked in to the nursery to avoid losing them.
Has an estimated three thousand church-based small groups.
Provides several service styles, including gospel, guitar-driven, and even "hula and island-style."
Has a 120-acre campus, three hundred employees, and over sixty daughter churches.
With Warren's laid back style, this might just be the perfect venue for Obama and McCain. But as with all things religious, you have to look beneath the bright-colored Hawaiian shirt to see a little Christofascism at work: Warren preaches that only until the entire world experiences The Word will Jesus Christ come. It's the End Times with a softer touch; however, it can be very hard when it comes to matters of sin:(On natural disasters)
"The Bible teaches that since sin entered the world, way back with the very first human beings, we have lived in an imperfect, broken planet, and that causes hurricanes and tornadoes."
Warren is also something of a biblical inerrantist. That, of course, warns us that hellfire is closer to everyone than we think. He may even be a bit of a Reconstructionist. Who knows?
Frederick Remington, the famous sculptor of cowboys and horses, once worked for William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Remington was commissioned to sketch scenes of the Spanish-American War, but after several weeks in Cuba, Remington saw no war to sketch and wired Hearst with the request to return home. Hearst wired back:
"You provide the pictures. I'll provide the war."
Some people might think that George Bush provided the media with Iraq. He did. However, which media accepted his views unconditionally? Behold:
While promoting his memoir, What Happened, Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary (2003–2006) for President George W. Bush stated on the July 25, 2008 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews that the Bush White House routinely gave talking points to Fox News commentators in order to influence discourse and content. Though it is not uncommon for White House officials to provide press releases to the media, McClellan stated that these talking points were not issued to provide the public with news, they were to provide Fox News commentators—not journalists—with issues and perspectives favorable to the White House and Republican Party. McClellan later noted on the O'Reilly Factor that Fox News commentator, Bill O'Reilly, was not one of the individuals receiving said talking points from the White House.
O'Reilly must have been crushed! Spurned! Insulted! Actually he was lucky, considering what's coming out about the White House today. McClellan was being very kind.
Yes, it's running joke about Fox News making things up as they go along. Who do they have as an investigative journalist? Geraldo? Although Rivera wouldn't admit it, he hasn't done much of anything as an unbiased journalist since, well, "Al Capone's Vaults." Fox News concentrates more on the salacious than the meaningful:
Fox News has decided which story is worthy of more coverage. Today, host Gregg Jarrett interviewed PBS’s Bonnie Erbe. “We have these huge stories going on like the one you’re reporting in Georgia,” Erbe noted when asked about Edwards. Jarrett, however, completely ignored Erbe’s comment on Georgia and continued to talk about Edwards, offering praise for the National Enquirer:
JARRETT: You know, his excuse for lying is absolutely stunning. He claims he denied the affair because the reporting by the National Enquirer was “99 percent wrong.” Well, so far, they’ve been about 100 percent right.
Throughout the segment, Jarrett refused to talk about anything except for Edwards’s affair:
ERBE: The American public have told pollsters, this political season they want substance. Both these candidates have expressed support for allowing Georgia into NATO. … We could have been on the verge of nuclear war. Those are the kinds of the things that the American public wants to see discussed.
JARRETT: Right. You know, but getting back to Edwards, during the Monica Lewinsky affair, Edwards absolutely ripped into Bill Clinton.
Murdoch has certainly made his conservative point of view - and voice - more prominent. Fact: The Wall Street Journal has changed significantly since Murdoch took over.. It's edging towards politics. Then what? A tabloid format? "What Does Hostess REALLY Put In It's Twinkies? If It Sells, Who Cares?"But does he actually tell everyone what to think?
Ratings. Viewers. Readership. Look at them. Then look at them again. Then decide.
Just a thought.
Watch the following: a Fox reporter argues the point that a 15-year-old "maybe deserved to be tortured."
Here's a valuable use of time: A group called the Pray at the Pump Movement will congregate at a Shell gas station in DC this afternoon to -- you guessed it -- pray in celebration of falling gas prices. Seems this group launched its plight in April, encouraging motorists to pray for lower fuel prices as they filled their vehicles. Now that oil prices have dropped to roughly $114 a barrel -- the lowest tally in months -- they want to give God a shout-out of thanks.
I'll believe in the efficacy of their prayers when gas goes back to $ 1.78 per gallon.
Is Joel Osteen in on this? If God WANTS us to have the things we want, then his Lakewood Church and all the other "Word of Faith" ministries (Creflo Dollar, Ken Copeland, etc.) should have gotten together and had a National Day of Gas Prayer. Just think how low it could go!
Or...maybe Benny Hinn could lay hands on gas pumps and heal them of their inflated prices!!
I just saw this clip from The O'Reilly Factor of Ann Coulter(geist) ripping through Barack Obama's middle name again and now siting how pro-Obama Andrew Sullivan (The Atlantic). Watch it and you'll find several misstatements by Coulter. Try to catch the Big One.
Yes, Obama was educated in part in Muslim schools, but after the age of 10, he was a student at one of the most prestigious college prep schools in the United States: Punahou School. It is the largest (and one of the oldest) schools of its kind in America. It's sports teams are rated the best (out of 38,000 such schools).
Obama's ideals would be better formed by a prep school in Hawaii for 8 years instead of a secular school attended by mostly Muslims for 4 years. His mother and stepfather did not push any particular religion on him.
Does all this sound like a thoroughly indoctrinated Muslim? I think not.
John McCain's foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, was lobbyist for Georgia until last March - small world, isn't it? Scheunemann has been linked to the lobbyist who is currently being investigasted for the "Cash for Access" scandal.
If Randy Scheunemann goes down in the scandal, how much of John McCain will go down with him? O.K., let's go through this mess with some clarity (as much as is possible):
Randy Schuenemann, foreign policy adviser to John McCain, was a lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia until last March
Randy is currently the President of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI)
The CLI was created by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC)
Randy is also on the board for PNAC.
Randy was Trent Lott's National Security Aide.
Randy was an adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as an expert on Iraq.
Randy had a close association with Amad Chalabi.
Stephen Payne is a Bush associate being investigated by the Homeland Security Department for allegedly brokering access to top administration officials for "six-figure donations" to the George Bush Presidential Library.
Randy Scheunemann is on Stephen Payne's payroll.
The Washington Times reported that Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov of Kazakhstan worked with Payne to arrange a visit of Vice President Dick Cheney to Kazakhstan.
The "donation" for this arrangement was $2 million via a Kazakh oil firm (KMG) to Payne's company.
Payne denies the payment was made.
Dick Cheney* went to Kazakhstan in spite of the human right violations it has been cited with.
A sister company to Payne's Company, WSP, Worldwide Strategic Energy
(WSE), of which Payne is also president, has a subsidiary, Caspian Alliance, which is the sole US representative for KMG.
Randy Scheunemann is listed in the WSE brochure as part of its executive team.
Scheunemann and Associates, Randy's lobbying firm, is reported as having represented the Caspian Alliance in 2005.
Kazakhstan borders the Caspian Sea (where we have troops), Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China.
Got all of that?In other words, there's a messy scandal in the air involving John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser.
Randy Scheunemann --- Stephen Payne --- Dick Cheney --- Kazakh Oil (KMG) --- Caspian Alliance --- Randy Scheunemann.
There are several coincidences here: Randy Scheunemann's deep involvement with Georgia and John McCain's fiery stance against Russia; Scheunemann's direct ties to a lobbyist being currently investigated for "Cash for Access" bribery scandal.
Rule #1 about Washington: THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCESIs John McCain going to relive the Keating 5 scandal of 1991? Just a thought.
BTW: Kazakhstan is certainly not the country "Borat" wanted us to imagine:
Watch this Keith Olberman interview concerning the whole McCain "war, war, war" policy:
*During his trip to Kazakhstan, Cheney ignored the country’s bad record on human rights and declared his “admiration for what has transpired here in Kazakhstan over the past 15 years.” Earlier this month, Payne told an undercover Times report that Cheney was more interested in what Kazakhstan “could do on energy” than “making them toe the line on human rights.”
Last Friday, police in Des Moines, Iowa arrested four people who attempted to make a citizens’ arrest of former top White House aide Karl Rove, who was in town to speak at a GOP fundraiser. A retired minister and three members of the Des Moines Catholic Workers community were cited for trespassing. However, according to a press release, the judge presiding over the case praised their efforts:
[Mona] Shaw was the first called before Polk County Fifth Judicial District Associate Judge William Price.After entering her plea, the judge asked Shaw,
“Mamn, what were you doing at the Wakonda Country Club?”
“I was attempting to make a citizen’s arrest of Karl Rove, your honor,” Shaw answered.
"Well,” the judge looked up and said, “it’s about time.” A few questions to ponder about the fate of our wonderful administration after January 20, 2009:
Cheney received $20 as a "retirement package" from Halliburton. So what will be his "retirement package" from the vice-presidency?
What does it cost a company to put a famous name on its list of "advisory board" members?
Will George finally have his dream of becoming a CEO of a successful oil company for a change?
Will Condaleeza Rice turn to teaching? Is it possible that she might become dean of the Department of Political Science at a well-known university filled with "Skull and Bones" members? War Crimes Anyone?
Philippe Sands's new book The Torture Team reveals the falsity of White House claims that the push to introduce torture techniques came from interrogators in the field. Sands demonstrates that the decision to use techniques like waterboarding came from the top, and tracks the elaborate scheme to make it appear that the practices began with a request from Guantánamo.
According to sources close to the global political scene (certainly closer than most of us are), the Bush Administration along with former Cabinet members, will not be charged with war crimes by the United States. That possibility lies with other countries, however. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Gonzales could wind up in the Hague on two counts: approving torture against the terms of the Geneva Convention or purposeful aggression. The subjects of Vice President Cheney's meetings have included topics such as how to instigate a war with Iran.
Every American who is not satisfied with "putting it all behind us" and who wants to see accountability should start asking questions NOW. The administration is surely taking advantage of the campaign and media to hide from the public any form of conflict of interest. After all, the American public has a lot to worry about: the economy, Iraq, the economy, Iran, the economy, China, the economy and now Russia/Georgia. No one will notice if Bush gets a few "advisorships" or seats on Boards of Directors, if Cheney mulls going back to Halliburton or accepts speaking engagements as a spokeman for the NRA.
This administration has lied to the American public about major actions, policies and laws. So what's to stop them from profiteering a little?
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Mark Twain
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No, it's not another one of Cher's Final Tours. It's a megachurch. 
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