For the Love of Christ!

A friend from Colorado called this afternoon to tell me she’d received a call from an old housemate of hers. The woman insinuated that if she did not vote for McCain, she was voting for the devil – and that Obama was going to lead the country to death and destruction. (Hello….what party has led us to death and destruction in the last eight years?????)

The friend was appalled and upset because she thought this friend was somewhat intelligent, and I mentioned to her that prejudice and the type of lies that are floating around out there based on deep fear and prejudice are unrelenting. They make no sense and  hide behind the seeming irrefutable rightness of religious convictions.

I watched a wonderful evangelical minister this morning on television. He was giving a talk about the works and message of Jesus, and he spoke about how Jesus came to overcome the hatred and war that was so predominant in the Old Testament. His whole focus was on forgiving others and for loving our enemies as ourselves. He even prayed for the forgiveness of his killers on the cross. Yet, those who profess to be “Christians” and condemn others because they are different or do not agree, are no Christians. If anyone is the pawn of the so-called devil, it is they.

Christ did not come to condemn. He came to deliver us from our own ignorance, prejudice, and small mindedness. Yet, in the midst of all the condemnations about an opponent’s character, those who are most condemning of anything other than their way or view are guilty of going against the message Christ came to deliver. And the more they profess to be “Christians” and practice prejudice or deceit against others, the more clearly their deficiencies as Christians are made evident.

Beware the Pharisees. They are devoid of the light of Christ, though they clamor most vocally about their righteousness. And be aware of the fascist movement that is underlying this so-called religious fervor. It will cry “communist” and “socialist” to deflect its own agenda of totalitarian rule and the rightness of a ruling class.

God Bless the true Christian doctrine which asks us to love one another as ourselves.  And that means one thing. We are to practice compassion and giving Love in all cases. Christ never asked us to condemn anyone. That is some other character in the bible!

Throw All 545 People Out!

I got this in an e-mail this morning. It’s well worth reading. Why do we not see this for what it is…incompetent and in some cases, corrupt, leadership!

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
[Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando SentinelNewspaper]

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it’s because they want them in IRAQ .

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

They vote their own pay raises for themselves because they want it that way.

There are no unsolvable government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like ‘the economy,’ ‘inflation,’ or ‘politics’ that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees .

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

The Potential End of Democracy

Last night while flipping  stations on TV, I came upon a program on HBO called Hacking Democracy. The implications of this documentary are chilling, as the group who went out to investigate claims of fraudulant voting confronted the makers of the touch screen voting machines at hearings and with secret cameras. The Diebold company stated flatly that their machines were hack proof, but a hacker from Finland was brought in who was able to penetrate the system with absolute ease – changing the votes counted to reflect who he wanted to see win.

The Diebold machines were outlawed in California in 2004 after it was found by the then Secretary of State that the machines were prone to hacking and showed innacurate results. However, in states like Ohio, that are crucial to election results, more touch screen machines by Diebold were ordered, and in key counties, fraudulant results were found. It was also found through investigation that Diebold was a large contributor to the Republican Party.

The implications of this is truly revolting and reason for concern. Not only are we held hostage to an outdated system for final choosing of our president – the Electoral College – but we are now faced with vote tampering at such a sophisticated level that there is very little ability to catch those who are hell bent to skew votes to their will. That is no longer democracy in action. It is fascism whose objective is a totalitarian state.

For a country that goes around the world touting the importance of fair elections and pointing fingers at nations who use more obvious methods for election rigging, it is a sad commentary about what people who want power will do to achieve it. GIven the investigation into the machine rigging potential, as well as fraudulant counts of votes in Florida, it is no wonder that Al Gore questioned the results of the 2000 election. And given that he won the popular vote, we allowed the nation to be held hostage by the outcome of those who had motive and power to rig the results in their favor so that the Electoral College outcome would dictate a winner who was not elected by the majority of the population at large.

It makes one wonder about the election of 2004 as well as 2000. What might have been different had either of those presidential candidates become our president instead of the one we got? Would we be in the same economic mess, at war, and with world condemnation that we’re in now? 

As an Eisenhower Republican, I am appalled at the changes in the party that used to conserve and respresent true American values. This new group embodies a fascist approach to governing – and given that they can pay hackers to reflect their point of view, we have every right to be gravely concerned about the results of the upcoming election. The level to which this group will stoop to win an election is right out of the Nazi handbook.

For those who have the wherewithall, become investigators and challenge your counties if there is evidence or suspicion of voter tampering. The only way we will maintain our democracy is if we become part of the system to insure its integrity and the survival of the values we believe to be our intrinsic right.

To see for yourself what has been done to your voting integrity, go to:

http://www.hackingdemocracy.com/

Leading With Kindness

A New book, a new day. As I watched an interview with one of the candidates on Sunday where he commented how the U.S. should lower taxes for corporations so they will stay in the U.S. rather than going where they can find cheaper labor and better tax advantages, I was appalled.

Here we see the rogue nature of corporations, who owe loyalty to no country – only to shareholders and the bottom line. I started to BLOG about it, but decided not to. Then this morning, I received an e-mail showing that there is another model of the corporate and company culture – right here at home – where companies recognize the value of being in America and treating their employees well. They aren’t whining about paying their fair share of taxes and compensation to employees who make their products possible, they are following the Golden Rule and doing well! THOSE are the companies and products we should all patronize.

As for the companies that have left towns and cities high and dry to find cheaper labor and lower taxes by abandoning their own country, find out who they are and boycott their products. We do have some clout, but we have to use it!

Here’s something heartening, and this is the model that will strengthen our country and companies. It would be heartening if politicians would follow the same philosophy!

Leading With Kindness » Leadership Tips | PBS

Financial Re-Education of Americans

At the office we were talking about the issues of the economy and overspending on the part of Americans. I.E., who is ultimately responsible for our individual economic messes? And we decided that each of us has to be responsible for our spending and purchase of things we either can or cannot afford.

One of the women cited an example of her daughter, who is 14. The mom mentioned to her daughter that she didn’t have enough cash to buy a particular item, and the daughter told her mom to “just go to the ATM machine and get some more”. The mom said, “No. That’s not the point. I don’t have enough money to get.” The daughter was unfazed. “Well, then just use dad’s credit card.”

This makes the point of where we have been and where we are headed unless and until we change our educational format to include a general business mandidory class where kids learn about economic realities related to the money they spend.

Unless kids come from a home that teaches sound economic principles, they are not going to get these very basic skills, and then they become the ones who go out to get a no down loan for a house or car they cannot afford, using credit cards they do not pay off, and think that somehow the magic government fairy will bail them out.

And unless we root out the essential ingredients that have caused the current financial crisis, we will not learn from the mistakes of the past, and kids like my friend’s 14 year old daughter will continue to think that money somehow comes out of the ATM machines and through use of credit cards without any requirement or penalty on the part of the one spending to pay it back

If you have school aged kids, find out what the curriculum of your schools are. Do they teach general business courses as a mandatory requirement, or are they merely electives?

All kids in junior high or high school should learn how to write checks, balance a checkbook, do online banking, understand basic bookkeeping and budget planning, and learn about the cost of money (interest on credit cards and other loans), so that they realistically enter the adult world with tools that will help them navigate the shark invested waters that try to lure them to “buy, buy, buy” without thought to how they will pay.

We are all partially responsible for the mess we are facing based on our own contribution to the debt load we carry. A good place for adults to go for a remidial course in creating and following a budget is:

How to create a personal budget – Google Search

As we call upon the government and financial institutions to get their acts together, let’s also get our own finances under control. Then we’ll all be part of the solution, and can weather this storm with a much stronger umbrella!

When Do We Take Responsibility for our Spending Habits?

It’s fascinating to watch the charges/counter-charges flying between the Republicans and Democrats. The trivia factor has become nauseating to say the least, and we sit here waiting for someone to be presidential (including the one we already have) while the stock markets rise and fall in the face of economic uncertainty.

True to form, it seems that American media is only interested in projecting soap opera and Enquirer mentality reporting. To hell with the real stuff. Yesterday we heard there was a battle going on at NBC related to the type of reporting they will do. There is a move to shift to the tabloid format as FOX has done. Forget “real” reporting. If you want that, go to BBC News.

On MSNBC the debate last night was on who is responsible for the economic mess. One thing for sure. We need to educate our kids on how to balance a checkbook, how to balance a budget, and how to determine if they can afford something or not based on income and expenses. Duh. Sounds so elemental, but apparently nobody is teaching people that you have to be self-reliant and responsible for your actions. In today’s society, it’s the credit card companies fault and the mortgage lenders fault and ACORN and the democrats and the BIG BOYS, and everyone else but self.  

Perhaps some good will come out of this downturn. Maybe people will start recognizing the importance of budgeting and planning for when they can afford to buy a home or new car rather than having it all “now”. There’s something to be said for deferred gratification, and something also to be said for seeing the result of having earned what we buy rather than buying now and paying or defaulting later.

Of course, if the bailout continues to seep into the economy saving people from their own poor judgment, nobody is going to learn a damn thing out of this, and we’ll see it all start over again. Just like parents who spoil their kids, the government will not be doing us any favor if it doesn’t let some of the chips fall where they may so that we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and recognize the importance of living within our means.

Lessons in Leadership

 

As most everyone knows, Nelson Mandela made history in South Africa. Beyond that, he adapted lessons in leadership that would assist any aspiring politician and the rest of us.

Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership – TIME

Hey… Send the Bailout This Way!

If you haven’t seen this, here’s a logical and creative way to end this whole economic mess by someone who prefers to remain anonymous (gee, too bad. Maybe he’s who we should elect for President)!

Hi Pals,
 
I’m against the $85,000,000, 000.00 bailout of AIG.
 
Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000, 000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.
 
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
 
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.
 
So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
 
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
 
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend
 
Of course, it would NOT be tax-free.
 
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
 
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
 
That sends $25,500,000, 000 right back to Uncle Sam.
 
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
 
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
 
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
 
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
 
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads.
 
Put away money for college – it’ll be there.
 
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
 
Buy a new car – create jobs.
 
Invest in the market – capital drives growth.
 
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves.
 
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else.
 
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
 
If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( ‘vote buy’ ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
 
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
 
As for AIG – liquidate it.
 
Sell off its parts.
 
Let American General go back to being American General.
 
Sell off the real estate.
 
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
 
Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.
 
Sure it’s a crazy idea that can ‘never work.’
 
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
 
How do you spell Economic Boom?
 
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
 
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC.
 
And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 Billion
 
Because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
 
Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
 
Kindest personal regards,
 
A Creative Guy & Citizen of theRepublic.

Energy Manipulation?

Isn’t it interesting how suddenly the price of oil is plummeting? But wait…didn’t we have limited supplies? Wasn’t there some very important reason that the prices were high other than high demand?

Interesting to ponder that since both presidential candidates are talking about renewable energy investment and pursuit, the price of oil is dropping dramatically. Could it be so that by the time they are elected we, the people, will be complacent once again and feel we don’t need to invest in alternatives?

Manipulation is such an interesting game. Will we, the sheeple, fall for it again?

The Politics of Desperation

When a candidate feels threatened and doesn’t have salient points to throw at the other one, character assassination becomes the weapon of choice. To discredit someone through association with unsavory characters or bigots or individuals with revolutionary pasts is part of a ploy to avoid issues. It was used against Nixon when the democrats tried to associate him with Bebe Rebozo. It was used against Kennedy when he was accused of being a puppet for the Pope, and it is being used now against Obama.

What is so interesting about character assassination is that if you measure what the individual has done themselves, there is nothing to assassinate. Looking at the record of a candidate can show us where their emphasis has been placed, and if our present electorate does not like the facts of the candidate’s record, so be it. That is legitimate, and something upon which they should make their judgment – not about someone who the candidate sat on a Board of Directors with and went to social functions with.

Have you been on a Board of Directors? I have. You do go to functions with the others on that Board, and some of them might be charming and interesting to socialize with. As a member of the Board, you do not do a deep investigation of the other board members (especially when they are on prestigious Boards such as the one Obama and Ayers occupied). The only thing you’re interested in is if the Board has Board of Director’s Insurance. And when it’s a major Board, you assume that the organization you are serving has done the due diligence to make sure that the members are people who have the qualities needed to get the job of steering the Board done properly. So, the kind of baiting that is going on about Bill Ayers and Obama is assanine.

I was on a Board with someone who I thought was quite a nice person, and had been to several dinners with all who were on the Board of Directors (they were no slouches), only later to find out that this one individual was being indicted for some kind of financial impropriaty.

And speaking of financial impropriety, isn’t it rather interesting that the Obama campaign has not made a big deal about the Keating Five Scandal. In that scenario, McCain was financed by Keating, and did things that were deemed “poor judgment” to assist Keating in his Savings and Loan scheme that ended up costing many good people their life savings. McCain got a slap on the wrist, but in the early 1990s, it was quite a scandal.

So why isn’t Obama doing tit for tat? Hopefully, because he is concentrating on the issues at hand, which are formidable. And if he is smart, he’s going to bring an October surprise that will address the important scenarios we are facing in a way that shows clearly that he is the better man for the job of President at this time.

I’ve been hoping for one of these men to break out of their programmed rhetoric and really be presidential, because now more than at any other time in recent history, we need a competent and intelligent leader. My reason for ragging on the McCain campaign is that in spite of opportunities, they have stuck to name calling and finger pointing without really showing what their man can do and is. Rather, they try to disparage their opponent because seemingly they have nothing better to offer than that.

Thankfully, we have only 16 more days of this circus, and then the real mess will have to be dealt with. May the better man for our country win!