Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8

It’s showing up on bumper stickers, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and even teddy bears.

For those unfamiliar with biblical passages, it seems pretty inocuous, doesn’t it? How nice! Let’s pray for the President! 

“Psalm 109 8 prayer for Obama”

The words of this particular psalm are far more telling:

“May his days be few, may another take over his position.”

 

“May his children be orphans and his wife a widow”

 

“Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.”

 

Courtesy ThinkProgress

I find it particularly distressing that evangelical right wing conservative leaders of our churches in this country are taking a political stance on political issues, regardless of the current interpretations of Separation of Church and State. It’s one thing to preach civil disobedience, it’s an entirely different thing to preach breaking the law.

From Diane Butler Bass at BeliefNet:

It is the personal prayer of an individual, someone who has been dealt an injustice by another–and usually more powerful–person. The words of Psalm 109 are those of deep agony, the longings of a victim for retribution and justice. This psalm is considered one of the most difficult of all the psalms–full of violent images of vengeance and death.

From Rabbi Brad Hirschfield via The Washington Monthly:

Any time the citizens of a state, particularly a democracy, invoke their faith to pray for the demise of those they oppose politically, we should be concerned.

All this is especially upsetting in light of the last weeks’ events at Fort Hood. Exactly how long is it going to take us to figure out the danger of linking faith claims and violent fantasies?

Amen!

We’ve discussed on here the implications of the tragic massacre at Ft. Hood a few weeks ago. What I find ironic now is that these are the same right wing conservative christian nutcases who are screaming “TERRORIST!” and “TRAITOR!” over the same sentiments voiced by Major Nidal Hasan…

“Allahu Akbar”

Sarah The Quitter

She gave up on the State of Alaska.

And, now, in the midst of her cross-country book tour, Sarah Palin has given up on her fans.

You Betcha!

Yesterday, in Noblesville, Indiana, Palin deserted a book signing; leaving 100 people who had waited all day in a cold rain empty-handed. And very, very angry:

Some of the comments:

“They didn’t have this organized well enough,” said Sue Hendricks. “It was just not done right.”

 ”I’m very disappointed. I think it was very rude. She could have at least apologized, and she didn’t even do that,” said Teresa Hedrick.

“We bought two books from Borders to have our receipt and our wristband to get it signed tonight,” said one woman. “My books are going back to Borders tomorrow.”

“We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying,” said one man. “They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don’t want to support Sarah.” “They didn’t have this organized well enough,” said Sue Hendricks. “It was just not done right.”

 

“I’m very disappointed. I think it was very rude. She could have at least apologized, and she didn’t even do that,” said Teresa Hedrick.

 

 

“We bought two books from Borders to have our receipt and our wristband to get it signed tonight,” said one woman. “My books are going back to Borders tomorrow.”

 

“We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying,” said one man. “They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don’t want to support Sarah.”

Way to go, Sarah!

LOST PREMIERES FEB 2, 2010!

ABC announced today that the final season of LOST will premiere on Tuesday, February 2nd.

The Press Release:

ABC ANNOUNCES THE PREMIERE OF THE SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON OF “LOST,” WITH A SPECIAL ALL-NIGHT EVENT ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2

ABC announces the premiere of the sixth and final season of “Lost,” with a special all-night event on Tuesday, February 2. A recap special will kick
off the night from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET, followed by the much anticipated two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m.

The series will then air in its regular time period – Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET – beginning the following week, on February 9.

“Lost” stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Emilie de Ravin as Claire, Michael Emerson as Ben, Jeff Fahey as Frank
Lapidus, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Ken Leung as Miles,
Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Terry O’Quinn as Locke and Zuleikha Robinson as Ilana.

“Lost” was created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof. Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jean Higgins and Carlton Cuse serve as executive producers. “Lost.” which is filmed entirely on location in Hawaii and premiered on September 22, 2004, is from ABC Studios.

Beginning with a one hour recap show at eight, and a two-hour season premiere at 9:00pm, the news has left fans like me anticipating the possibility of a FlashForward/LOST/V Tuesday night schedule on ABC.

Wouldn’t that be great!

Here It Is: LOST’s Official Final Season Poster

 

With the final season rapidly approaching, we’re guaranteed more and more spoilers coming soon. Be sure to join Howey’s LOST Tribe for daily updates!

Vote for LOST – People’s Choice Awards

UPDATE:

Ok…so now that the votes are tabulated, it’s time to vote for LOST in the People’s Choice Awards Finals:

 

Let’s work together to give LOST the accolades it deserves in it’s final season! And…

Remember to refresh and VOTE OFTEN!

 

CLICK EACH IMAGE TO VOTE:

VOTING ENDS DEC. 8th, AWARDS AIR JAN. 6

You can also vote for LOST as Best SciFi program HERE! 

Thanks to VirginiaCreeper at SpoilerTV for the quick links!

Republican Death Squad!

Yesterday, I spoke about the Republican National Committee’s insurance policy through CIGNA covering elective abortions. No great surprise, really, as they are the Party of Hypocrisy.Today, Think Progress reports that not only does CIGNA cover abortions (and still does), they also provide end of life counseling DEATH PANELS for it’s members, providing all kinds of guidance on How To Die:What’s next? Will we find CIGNA covering sex change procedures for closeted Republicans?

OOPS!Nevermind!

CIGNA covers gender reassignment surgery as medically necessary when ALL of the following criteriaare met: The individual is 18 years of age or older.•transsexualism that includesThe individual is diagnosed as having a gender identity disorder (GID), including a diagnosis of trueALL of the following criteria: 

The individual has demonstrated the desire to live and be accepted as a member of the oppositesex, in addition to a desire to make his/her body as congruent as possible with the preferred sexthrough surgery and hormone replacement.

The transsexual identity has been present consistently for at least two years.

The disorder is not due to another mental disorder or chromosome abnormality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RNC Insurance Covers Abortions!

We all know about the Stupak Amendment, that totally unnecessary amendment pasted in the House health care bill passed last week. Ignoring the rights a woman has over her own body, the amendment blocking coverage of abortions by any public health insurance plan surely pleased the the conservative Democrats out there, and left all Republicans jubilant.

In what is the latest string of embarrasingly hypocritical actions and words of the Republican Party and conservative right wingers everywhere (hello Carrie Prejean?), comes word that the insurance carrier of choice of the Republican Party, CIGNA, has gladly provided coverage of elective abortions to Republican Party members for 18 years:

Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.

Informed of the coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho told POLITICO that the policy pre-dates the tenure of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

“The current policy has been in effect since 1991, and we are taking steps to address the issue,” Gitcho said. [...]

According to several Cigna employees, the insurer offers its customers the opportunity to opt out of abortion coverage — and the RNC did not choose to opt out.

Oops!

Of course, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, upon finding this out, instructed CIGNA that the party would now opt-out of the coverage. The only problem is, if CIGNA continues to provide coverage for abortions to it’s other policy members through premiums paid by the Republican Party members, wouldn’t this still be contrary to the intentions of the Stupak Amendment?

In short, yup! :

In General – No Funds authorized under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion, except in the case…[of a risk of death of the mother, rape, or incest].

I hate to say this, but wouldn’t Sarah Palin’s life had been a lot easier right now if she’d read her insurance policy 18 years ago?

Massacre at Ft Hood – UPDATE

UPDATE

Today, ABC came out with a story attributed to “a senior lawmaker” accusing the CIA of having evidence Hasan attempted to contact the al Qaeda earlier this year, although by what means and what level of contact was unknown. From the report:

One senior lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.

That story was later changed to identify the “senior lawmaker” to be Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a frequent critic of the Obama administration.

Not long after release of the ABC report, Hoekstra spoke:

“President Obama said people should not jump to conclusions about what happened at Fort Hood, but the administration is in possession of critical information related to the attack that they are refusing to release to Congress or the American people,” Hoekstra said. “I intend to push for intense review of this and other issues related to the performance of the intelligence community and whether or not information necessary for military, state and local officials to provide for the security of the post was provided to them.” Hoekstra said he was concerned that more information had been provided, piecemeal, to the news media by anonymous sources than had yet been provided to the Committee.

Since publication of ABC’s report, the CIA has dismissed Hoekstra’s claim as “bogus” .

The CIA is denying an ABC News report that the agency has refused to brief Congress on any knowledge it has about Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major suspected in the shootings at Fort Hood last week. “This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies — not the CIA — have the lead. Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is flat wrong,” CIA spokesman George Little tells TPMmuckraker in a statement.

It’s apparent another slippery threshold has been passed – and another concerted effort by the right wing Republicans to tie, somehow, this massacre to the Obama Administration.

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A note of thanks to VetVoice for giving this blog the national attention needed to spread my word!

The Tea Baggers New Hero?

I guess you could say it’s been leading up to this…Last year, following the election of Barack Obama as President and a prominent spot on the Drudge Report, Fox News, a mention on Chuck Baldwin’s blog, a shout out on Glenn Beck, and a mention by Pat Buchanan, as well as being the subject of articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, the newest darling of the crazy right wing loon Tea Party circuit isn’t Sarah Palin, although I’m sure she can wave at him from her front porch.

It’s the former Soviet Union’s KGB-honcho-turned-Russian-talk-radio-show-host Igor Panarin, and the right wing has once again became enthralled with his latest doomsday predictions.

Panarin visited the United States last week. Specifically, he visited Texas, land of the secessionist Governor Perry and more right wing tea party kooks than you can shake a stick at. At an event hosted by the Houston Tea Party Patriots, Panarin repeated his predictions of the downfall of the United States thanks to lax immigration laws and so-called impure moral standards.

Of course this got the Tea Baggers all excited with spectulation! Not the type to let common sense take over, said spectulation ran rampant over the map Panarin presented describing the future look of our country:

Before you pass all this off as the craziness of another loon, read what the so-called respectable Wall Street Journal said:

“Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russian relations.”

Huh. To think that just a little less than a year ago if a Democrat had paid this much attention to a Russian they’d be run out of town on a rail, declared unpatriotic, a traitor, and the subject of every single news story on Fox!

But then…if  Fox News and the WSJ say’s he’s not a kook, who are we to argue?

 

Massacre at Ft. Hood

Yes, that’s what it was. The tragic killing of 13 people and wounding of over 30 on a military installation by a member of the military, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is a heartwrenching story that should be investigated to the fullest and dealt with strongly through the UCMJ.

What is not necessary at this moment is the movement of the neocon right wing racists who immediately – upon learning the name of the shooter - began flooding the internet with unfounded claims and spectulation passed off as “news”.

The World Net Daily, a bastion of far right wing loons, has reported that Hasan “aided the Obama transition team”. The Drudge Report, always willing to spread rumors and spectulation, has several posts condemning the President’s “frightening insensitivity” following the shootings. The Daily Mail, another conservative neocon right wing spokes rag out of Britain, made sure mentions of the “Muslim Major” were frequent.

Other, less organized, but equally crazy right wing persons have managed to create a fake profile of Dr. Hasan on Vitals.com supposedly documenting his failures as a Psychiatrist.

The racist angle takes on an even greater scope when Michele Malkin talks about “Muslim soldiers with attitude“. Which brings about the point I want to make. Fox News is requesting that ALL Muslim soldiers receive “special screenings“.

It’s too early to make any assumptions about this act. All we know is that a seriously disturbed man took the lives of others unnecessarily. We don’t know if this is an act of terror, nor do we know that Dr. Hasan was a radical Muslim…just because he was a Muslim. To make my point a little more easy to understand, are all Christians terrorists because Timothy McVeigh committed mass murder?

There are thousands upon thousands of Muslims serving in the military. To assume all Muslims in the military are terrorists on a jihad is as racist as saying all blacks in the military hate whites or all Asians in the military eat with chopsticks.

Racist comments have no place in the investigation of this massacre. Let the military complete it’s investigation without the hate mongering going on. It will do nothing but destroy everything this country was based on.