Jesse Jackson on "wolf in sheep's clothing" politics

More from the Rainbow PUSH September Summit. Note that Rev. Jackson does not mention anyone by name here. What you see below is just the image that came to *my* mind...

Beware when Herod says stop by his house, and says "I'm really glad to see you wise men--have some tea." And "I'm looking for the same guy you're looking for, and when you find him, let me know, so that I can worship him too." You must be discernful enough to know that his words are good, but his motives are impure.

Wise men heard the words of the politician. Wise men went back another way.

Today we are facing some "wolf in sheep's clothing" politics. It's all wrapped in faith. Somebody comes to our church and quotes a Bible verse or two, we say, "Oh, he knows something!" Yeah--he knows that you are not aware of being deceived. And that's why Jesus said, "Beware of those who say 'Lord, Lord' and walk past the poor." They're saying the right thing, but they're not *doing* the right thing. (Applause)

Theres a struggle--there are two big political ideas. The two big ideas are "states rights" and "more perfect union". States' rights, including the right to secede. The right to cut their own deals with foreign countries, as in Britain and France. The right to have their own laws by state.

Then there's the other idea of a "more perfect union"--the *United* States. And so Lincoln is on the More Perfect Union team--for that he got killed. Jefferson Davis is on the States' Rights team...

On the States' Rights team is slavery. On the States' Rights team is "right to work" laws--anti-labor. On the States' Rights team is the right to segregate by race, by state. On the States' Rights team are a body of ideas that undermine civil rights, and workers' rights and women's rights. And you should not really be on the Jefferson Davis team trying to get Lincoln votes. You shouldn't be on the States' Rights team trying to get More Perfect Union votes.

In other words, beware of "wolf in sheep's clothing" politics. People who state the right thing, but whose ideas are anti-civil rights protection.

Why I asked you here today is to form an infrastructure. You may have all the right ambitions to get across the Ohio River where it's wide, and you have undercurrents. But you need more than the desire--you need a boat. An infrastructure. Because the waters are too cold and the currents are too swift.

On the need to start creating connections...
Our concerns are the same, but, because we don't know each other, people can operate between the gap on us and undermine us. I see some good people voting for leaders of the Bush team. You cannot be for voter protection and be on the Bush team, because that's not what they stand for. While we fight for increased registration, they fight for increased suppression. Because they win with low turnout, we win with high turnout. Now, you have a right to be on the Bush team, but don't be in our huddle! (Applause and cheers.)

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Culture shock open thread

Even though I've been talking about it in the comments, there are bound to be people who are surprised that the blog looks different. I really do hope this helps the people who have had difficulty getting this blog to load. There may still be a few things missing from the sidebar, but most of what was here before should still be here. Most of what's missing are ads and other potentially money-making features that may have been problematic as far as page load time.

Anway, as I mentioned in the previous thread, I've got a class tonight, so I need to take a little break from blog work. Hopefully there are no major problems with this format--I did have a number of people check it out last night, and it seems to at least be a little less buggy than the old template.

Oh, and we now have the "e-mail this post" icon back.

And, tell you what, to help you relax, here's some soothing imagery from a free desktop wallpaper site.

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I'm Rich

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"

"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Luke 18:18-25

What makes you rich? Many people associate the accumulation of capital as constituting richness, but by what standard would you consider yourself to be rich? Some find riches in the love of their family. Some find riches in their accomplishments. Some find riches in the applause of others, but many, many people find riches in cold, hard cash. Whatever the source of one's riches, be it a mountain of money or an abundance of affable acqaintances, one who considers themselves to be rich will almost certainly reject the Kingdom of God.

A rich man is significantly different from a man with riches. A rich man will often respond to the good news of Jesus Christ in the same manner as David Chappelle's caricture of Rick James: "I'm rich!" A rich man will often view his current state as sufficient - he's rich. A rich man will often reject anything said by anyone else that does not validate his current way of life - he's rich, and if you don't get that then that's your problem and not his.

Not so, the man with riches.

The man with riches does not identify himself with his riches - his money is a means to and end, his acquaintences are appreciated by they in no way define him. The man with riches differentiates between who he is and what he has, and such a man can indeed accept Jesus Christ. Peter owned a fishing business and led a comfortable life, yet he accepted and followed Jesus. Cornelius was wealthy enough to have several servants in his household yet he accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Having riches does not automatically mean that the possessor will reject Jesus Christ, however one who identifies themselves with their riches will virtually always reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's a matter of priorities.

Rich men put their riches before everything else. The rich man who works all day and all night to get that promotion, neglecting his family and friends. The rich man who passes by the homeless without giving them anything but his contempt. The rich man who refuses to submit to any authority other than his own, such a man will most certainly reject the Kingdom of God - even while pretending to be a subject of the King.

It has been said that many people are willing to accept Jesus, but only on an advisory basis. Jesus isn't your personal Dr. Phil or Magic 8-Ball - He is the creator of the universe, the one whose "Let there be" sparked the biggest bang in history - and He wants each of us to have abundant life in Him, to find our richness in Him. Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." Jesus said, "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life." Jesus said, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Will you seek after Jesus, or are you already rich?

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to be rich in Him,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

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Thread

I was just going to go with "Open Thread", since I had a couple things to comment on, and since, after hours of working on the blog template, my brain is kind of fried. But after reading some of the posts at puddle's blog, I really felt like I needed a more meaningful title. Or nothing at all. I finally went with "Thread", because it is short and simple, but evokes, for me, anyway, the delicate, invisible strands that mysteriously connect us to each other.

Anyway, please do check out pyzch to see puddle's new posts about Edwin.

Because so many people have reported having trouble getting this blog to load properly, I started trying to tweak it, and eventually found myself working on a complete template overhaul. I'm working on it over at the old site, trying to make sure I work out any bugs before I transfer the new template over here.

Finally, I've posted more about the fair elections panel over at Buckeye State Blog.

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Bob Fitrakis speaking on the stolen election of 2004

Crossposted at Daily Kos, My Left Wing, Booman Tribune and ePluribus Media

On Monday of this week, I attended the Rainbow PUSH September Summit, which brought members of a variety of activist groups together to "create connections" and learn about four key issues:

Voter Suppression / Fair Elections
Minimum Wage Increase
Diversity in Public Pension Fund Management
Education Funding Reform

What follows is a transcript of part of the Fair Elections panel, which was the last panel of a very full morning, and why Cliff mentions wanting to "move things along"...

Cliff Arnebeck: We have a dynamite panel here, and we're going to do this in a Q and A format in order to move this along. First I'm going to introduce Bob Fitrakis. Bob is the editor and publisher of the Free Press, a leading internet publication in the world, right Bob? (loud applause and cheers, drowning out the beginning of the next sentence) ...at the cutting edge of real time reporting on the theft of the 2004 election. Bob Fitrakis is a professor of Political Science at Columbus State Community College. Bob Fitrakis is the author of numerous books and the winner of numerous awards for outstanding independent investigative journalism.

Bob, I'm going to ask you a couple questions. Was the 2004 presidential election in Ohio stolen?

Bob Fitrakis: Yes it was. It was a combination of old-fashioned thuggery and high-tech Tammany. It was stolen blatantly. Three percent of those people who voted, disporportionately in the inner city, the urban areas, their vote was never counted. And I'm also very suspicious of the 131% voter turnout in --Ohio on election eve, and the two counties (sic) in Perry County that reported 124% and 120%.

And just recently this summer I went to Miami County, and I said "I don't believe that 98.55% of all the people in South Concord voted." And right before I went in to look at the poll books, the director Steve Kuhn said, "You're right, it was only 79%. But it really didn't affect the election." But taken as a whole, the 308,000 voters, overwhelmingly African American, who were purged--what they were doing is purging 29.3% of all the voters in Cleveland, who voted 83% for Kerry, while in Miami County, where only 2% were African American, they not only were not purging, they were merging. They were allowing voters from other counties to vote. That is on the record--they stole that election.

Cliff Arnebeck: Now bob, when you express the opinion that the election in 2004 was stolen in Ohio for the presidency, are you doing so as a political science professor *and* as an attorney?

Bob Fitrakis: I'm doing that--the White House, and Karl Rove, as you well know, is contemptuous of "fact-based reality". I have a PhD in political science and I have a J.D. of law. I am *trained* to look at evidence. The evidence says that Karl Rove and the White House *deliberately suppressed* the African American vote, the poor vote, the Democratic vote, *and* allowed an inflated vote in the Republican, White areas of this state. And that the machines were hidden, in Columbus. When you're voting in 15 minutes in the White affluent suburban Republican areas but you had to wait 4 to 7 hours in the inner city in Columbus (loud shouts and cheers)...voter theft.

Cliff Arnebeck: Dr. Fitrakis, did you have occasion to interact with Robert Kennedy Jr., the son of the former United States Attorney General who was assassinated for fear that he might become President of the United States. Did you have that opportunity?

Bob Fitrakis: Well, there are a great many heroes. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who is there in the back, is the man who really brought this to national attention. (thunderous applause and cheers)--he is the man responsible...Thank you Jesse Jackson!

And some time *after* that, I talked to Bobby Kennedy. He was given a copy of the book. He looked at it--he originally had been skeptical, but Harvey Wasserman, my writer/partner at the Free Press said, "Take a look at this evidence." Bobby Kennedy did. He wrote a book review, and was turned down, and then he contacted Rolling Stone, and in one of the longest articles in Rolling Stone history, twelve pages, with over 200 footnotes, Bobby Kennedy and I spent four months vetting that article. And the agreement was this--any time you see a Free Press reference, I can show you a mainstream publication that picked that up. The Toledo Blade, The Columbus Dispatch--what they didn't do is apparently they don't read each other's newspapers, so what happened is Bobby Kennedy has opened up this issue.

You may have seen on Friday, on the front page of the Metro section of the Washington Post, because the machines melted down in Maryland, as we predicted in this audience that it would. And Princeton is now on our side. The General Accountability Office, those two radicals James Baker and Jimmy Carter have said "Why would you trust partisan insiders in this field, when you don't trust them with slot machines, you don't trust them with the gasoline pumps? We have Princeton, we have Stanford, we have Johns Hopkins, we've got Carter and Baker, we've got the General Accountability Office. No partisan corporation should be privately counting our ballots with proprietary software. (More loud applause and cheers.) That is absolutely unacceptable! And Bobby Kennedy put this issue back into play.

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Saturday Comics

Theory Of Evolution
Snake Bitten
Duck Blind
Pay To Play...
...Or Stay At Home
Benedictus
Pope Mobile
Outrageous Sentiment
Daily Outrage
Nope
Insulted
Is Our Leaders Learning
Let Them Eat Spinach
Compromised Principles
Useful Information
Pinky Up
Absolute Truth
Your Tired And Poor
Truth Sayer
Unintended Consequences
Newspeak
Vote Republican
Support The Troops
GOP Voter ID
Duty Calls
Debased Deprivation
BDSM Elmo
Conditioned Response
Dubya
Fill 'Er Up Premium

And my favorite for today: RIP



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Let Justice Roll: Raise the minimum wage

I just got an e-mail from the Let Justice Roll campaign, which reminds me that I still need to post something about the Rainbow PUSH event I attended this past Monday. Hopefully I will get the chance to write something this weekend, but in the meantime, please check out the site.

Excerpt from the book, A Just Minimum Wage:

"The minimum wage is where society draws the line: This low and no lower. Our bottom line is this: A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it."

Read about Living Wage Days here.

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Open Thread

After reposting the link to Cats in Sinks, I realized it had been a long time since I'd visited Cute Overload.

These pictures are a trip...



Also, I wanted to mention that Subway stopped by in the comments of the previous thread, as did puddle. Gotta love a Friday night blog family reunion. :)

Hope everyone is having a good evening.

Update: I just found out from puddle, who found out from thankful, that today is LeslieK's birthday. Happy birthday, LeslieK!

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A message of thanks from puddle

Three weeks ago, a phone call changed my life forever. In so many ways. That night, I stepped off a cliff.

There has been fear, there has been sorrow, there has been anguish and anger, there have been moments of peace, and even, too briefly, moments of joy. And pain. And hope. And despair.

Throughout it all, you were there, in every imaginable way. Posts of encouragement (Thankful read me much of the blog during breaks), songs, hearts, love, news, planning, donations, poetry. I have been and am now buoyed up on the wings of your love, expressed in so many concrete ways: time, money, words, thoughtfulness.

Edwin loved and trusted this community, this group of amazing souls drawn together to act by Howard Dean. He was right to do so, you failed him in no way. You have risen even above his highest expectations of you. You *do* have the power, you have used the power, and will yet use it. No matter what happens this year, or next, or the one after that, you have won. And will win. Because you, in and of yourselves, have acted. In love. And with unimaginable caring and creativity. The world can never, will never, be the same.

I can't name names, there have been too many; I expect there will be more. It will take me years to process, to seek out, to discover the dimensions of this web that Howard created with a few simple internet tools. But I know the beginnings start in each of your hearts, and expands to each of those hearts acting in some way for the good of others.

Thank you is too small a phrase to even begin to express what I feel. But there is no other. Thank you for being who you are, for doing what you do, and for the hope.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
puddle*in*NYC | Homepage | 09.22.06 - 12:26 pm |

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Chavez's Gambit

One of the most foolish thing that one can do is to esteem your enemy lightly, to believe him to be a fool. It is then that your enemy can do you the most harm because you grossly underestimate him, thinking him incapable of doing you harm. Republicans would have you to believe that Hugo Chavez is some unhinged nutcase just spouting off at the mouth, but the truth of the matter is that the Venezuelean President is an uncanny politician and a shrewd tactician.

It is thus that I had to ask myself why it was that Hugo Chavez would go into Harlem - possibly the most Democratic district in America - and relentlessly berate the man who occupies the Oval Office. It's not that Chavez was incorrect in anything that he said (albeit slightly exaggerated), but surely Chavez knows the political calendar in America - it's election season and Bush's enablers are about to be routed in the midterm elections. Surely Chavez knows that by berating Bush on American soil he forces (some) Democrats to defend Bush. Surely Chavez knows that by defending Bush Democrats increase Bush's polling numbers, but if they failed to defend Bush then their own numbers would plummet. Surely Chavez knows that bolstering Bush's polling numbers or deep-sixing Democratic numbers will increase the chances of Bush's enablers maintaining their grasp on power. So why would Hugo Chavez knowingly help Bush to keep his majorities in Congress?

It serves both of their purposes.

Bush needs to keep a majority in the House just to stay out of jail - it's about that simple. John Conyers with subpeona power as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee? Bush needs to do whatever it takes to keep that from happening, even if it means dealing with one whom he himself considers to be a devil.

For Chavez, a neutered George W. Bush does him no good. Hugo Chavez is building up a ton of political capital internationally by being the one to stand up to George W. Bush. Nobody needs to ally themselves with Chavez if Bush is kept in check by a Democratic Congress, so it helps Chavez if Bush is free to do as only George W. Bush would dare to do when unrestrained by annoying things like the oversight of Congress or the limitations of the Constitution.

Both Bush and Chavez want an unrestrained George W. Bush - Bush on G.P., Chavez for his own political gain and, by extension, for the good of the Venezuelan people: if foreign countries take a liking to Chavez then economic cooperation won't be too-far behind for all of Venezuela, if for no other reason than to thumb their nose at the U.S. Chavez thinks that an unrestrained Bush poses no real threat to Venezuela since the U.S. military is bogged-down in Iraq and he's actually doing Bush a favor - giving Bush a local boogeyman to rile up Bush's base - but Chavez would be wise to learn from Saddam Hussein: when it comes to the Bushes, today's friend is tomorrow's leather slave.

Deal with the devil and you will get burned.

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What do Ohio's restoration groups seek to "restore"?

Crossposted at My Left Wing, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, and Street Prophets

I've finished transcribing Rob Boston's talk to the central Ohio chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. You can find the complete transcript of the talk here. Below, you will find just a small portion of the talk (which ran about 45 minutes before the Q and A part started). Here is where Rob Boston speaks about the Ohio groups that have been cropping up, and what sort of worldview they aim to "restore".

Well, you know, you look at the agenda of these groups, and they use this word restoration--Ohio Restoration Project. What are they trying to restore? They would tell you they are trying to restore something the founding fathers came up with that was abandoned. But, they're not. Because we know the founding fathers advocated for the secular state. What they are trying to restore is a period, post-Civil War, what I call the "Christian nation" where a lot of the laws reflect conventional Christian doctrine. Sunday closing laws for businesses, censorship of books and the mail. If anything was deemed blasphemous, you couldn't put it in the mail. The post office would crack down on that material--a lot of freethought material was banned. And other types of religiously inspired laws inspired, not by what the founders gave us, but kind of an abberant period in our history, where we did, for a good number of years, drift away from the separation of church and state.

I recommend reading his whole talk--you might want to bookmark it and come back to it, as it is rather long. But there is a lot of good stuff in there, especially, as Rob alludes in this passage, about how the "Christian nation" is not at all what the founding fathers were going for.

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Ted Strickland and Ken Blackwell debate in Cleveland

I don't have much time to post at the moment, but wanted to let you know that the debate is beginning in just a few minutes, and there is a live feed here for anyone who would like to watch it. The topic of today's debate is education.

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Deval Patrick Wins Easily, Aye!

Via the Boston Globe, as translated by this animated pirate-speak translator:

Deval L, and a bottle of rum! Patrrrick, who rrrose frrrom yon po'errrty on th' South Side o' Chicago t' corrrporrrate boarrrdcabins and a top position in Cap'n Clinton's administrrration, won th' Democrrratic Parrrty's nomination ferrr go'errrnorrr tonight, becomin' th' firrrst Afrrrican Amerrrican t' win a majorrr parrrty's nomination ferrr th' top job in th' state, and a bottle of rum!

Click for morrrre.

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Howard liveblogging on Jennifer Granholm's blog tonight

Via JDalton's Kos diary (please recommend if you can) we learn that Michigan gubernatorial candidate Jennifer Granholm has this posted on her blog

Tuesday evening, 9/19, Howard Dean will be taking questions LIVE on the Granholm campaign website. He will be taking questions on the G4G blog at 8:30PM. Feel free to submit questions in advance, or log on to the website tomorrow and post a question or comment. Governor Dean is coming to Michigan for the DNC Black Caucus's African American Summit this weekend. Spread the word!

Here's the link to Graham's blog.

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What have the Arabs ever done for us?

A Tribute to Tonight's Show (The Colbert Report, Monday Sept. 18th, 2006)

WHAT HAVE THE ARABS EVER DONE FOR US?
[A Reply to George Bush; With some apologies to Monty Python]

What have the Arabs ever done for us?

ZERO.

That's right. Zero. And that ain't nuthin'.

Without the Arabs we wouldn't have the memories and ancient classics of human thought; the wisdom of Socrates - put to death in a democracy so tainted with fear, for nothing more than having an idea; the warnings of falling prey to sophism - the art of making the weaker argument seem the stronger - destined to bring an unaware democracy to decline; the wisdom of Aristotle, with ethics and politics inseparable, he taught the theory of constitutions, their rise, their fall, and the causes of each.

Upon that foundation - the wisdom of prior ages preserved and passed on to us when our own had grown dark and bleak; when we had forgotten who we were and where we were going - Madison laid that of our nation. We had learned from the past the mortal disease to which popular governments had always fallen; and discovered through our reason therein the potential of a cure. Our Constitution now lays dormant, as if a dark age had once again befallen. Its form remains ... but an empty shell, a mere facade. Ideas were what informed it, infused it, gave it life - they were its substance, its sole. Who will remember them for us this time?

Yes, the Arabs gave us ZERO. But I'm not talking zip, nada, nuthin'.

They gave us that concept of a number that wasn't. And they preserved for us a dream of a world that wasn't but could be. They valued what we had forgotten. Ironic - they, appearing so different; yet to whom we are forever indebted for our "culture." They gave us concepts on which we built our economies, our technologies, our prosperity ... and preserved for us the idea of polities capable of nurturing and preserving our true happiness. If not for them would we have seen the light emerging from out of that dark age back then?

They gave us the dream of America: the recognition that we were not destined to be subjects to the interests of a ruling few; the belief in a practical striving for a common good; the recognition of our nature to progress - tomorrow can indeed be a better day; if, that is, we remember who we were and what we were striving to become. They gave us the America schools taught us to be proud of; the America that could lead by example without force. They saw ideas that transcended cultures, connected us as mankind, and enabled us to again value freedom, equality, justice and the common good. That dream remains a possibility. But we have gotten lost along the way. In pursuit of our individual "American dreams" we have lost that which united us, that which could unite all, that which made us more than a nation, but a hopeful experiment for all mankind. They remembered this for us then when we had forgotten; who will remember for us today?

You may think the Arabs gave us nothing; that we have no common dreams; no indebtedness; no bond. That we are an "us" and they are a "them" and that is what we are destined to remain. But you, my friend, have forgotten, somewhere along the way, who you actually are - and more importantly - could be.

Good night and good luck.
Charlie Grapski
a citizen

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Herrre be some links for ye

Demetrius did the spiffy banner in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, so having decorated for the holidays (a high holy day in the Pastafarian religion, as I recall) I wasn't planning on dedicating a whole thread to it. Lots of links about TLAPD on my page here. Also, I did a Squidoo lens, and thar be plenty of pirate-speak in durrenm's diary here.

An' the official Talk Like a Pirate Day blog be here.

But I'd also like to post some other links, not all of them about piratey things...

Olbermann on Fire — Again
Olbermann: "The President of the United States owes this country an apology" (at Crooks and Liars, includes video)
Thomas Jefferson: Unelectable
Rainbow PUSH Ohio (I have yet to write something up about the event, but I thought you'd be interested in seeing the list of organizations and what they're working on)
We're already doing military operations in Iran

GOP Senators say no to Bush's latest offer on torture.
Wingnut bipartisanship
It's a Question of the Golden Rule
Thar be primarrries in Massachusetts today, but I haven't been following that. Would love an update from anyone who has. Here's a link to Massachusett's LeftyBlogs where you can find posts about the latest there.

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In celebration of Edwin, and the Dean-people spirit

Thank you to Jessica and jc and any others who have been tracking down posts by Edwin, who posted as "The OC" once upon a time at Blog for America.

...I come back to this community again and again and draw strength from the wisdom and compassion i see constantly expressed here. I post my curmudgeonly posts in my attempt to make a contribution to this community, but mostly I am weeping as I post them. I am weeping now.

I do believe the continuing conversation on this blog makes an enormous difference. Something happens as we begin to understand first each other, and then the political world we've been thrown into a little better.

We came here because we united behind a candidate who exhorted we the people to "take our country back". When the initial goal of that candidate was not achieved many thought we would fade into the woodwork - well, we haven't faded, we are still here, still fighting, and most important still FEELING.

We the people must trust our own individual consciences to know what is right, and "We The People " will prevail.

Posted by: The O. C. at May 21, 2004 02:35 AM
---
I support Howard Dean for President primarily because I TRUST that as an intelligent person trained as a physician he will - (quoting from Susan Jacoby's NYTimes op-ed piece in which she quotes Abraham Lincoln) - "....study the plain, physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right."

Some years ago Bobby Kennedy was criticized from the right and the left as being DIVISIVE, an Opportunist, having no ENTITLEMENT to be president, he responded by campaigning across the country learning from the divided and warring nation he observed, and pounding the simple theme, "As Americans we can do better than this!"

I think this is a similiar time and Howard Dean is a similiar candidate.
We are living in a nation sickened by deceit, favors for special interests, the MENDACITY of both those in power and the candidates seeking to replace them.
It seems to me the Doctor should stick to this simple theme,"The nation is sick, we need to find the cure because, we the people can do better than this."

Posted by: Edwin in NYC at January 8, 2004 12:16 PM

Also, thank you to Jo in Vermont for pointing out that BFA has put up a tribute thread for Edwin.

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Remembrance

I was wondering what would be appropriate to post at this time, and remembered Agatha mentioning lighting candles on Edwin's Buddhist shrine. If I had a picture of it, maybe I could post that. I searched for some Buddhist prayers and found this.

Buddha taught that all life is impermanent and that all those who are born must eventually pass from this life. However, everyone has within them the seeds of their past virtues, which have the power to bring a fortunate rebirth in the future.

We pray that through the power of this virtue, through the blessings of the holy beings, and through the force of our heartfelt prayers, our dear friend, Edwin, will experience great good fortune and everlasting peace and happiness.

We also pray for the bereaved relatives and friends, that they may be comforted in their loss and find peace of mind and strength of heart.

May all beings without exception be released from suffering, and find true happiness and everlasting peace.

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Happy birthday, puddle!

Happy birthday to you, Puddle, from everybody here and everywhere
(and that includes Rudy and Stevie who, as you can see, are patiently waiting for you and Edwin on Ave. C)!
Our thoughts and hearts are with you, all the way to Texas!
We love you, more than ever.





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Happy Constitution Day

The talk by Rob Boston on the separation of church and state was a good one, but I'll have to write something about it when I'm a little better rested. He talked about our secular state that was laid out by the framers of the Constitution, and how the notion of a secular state repeatedly vilified these days--one notable example was in recent comments by Kathryn Harris.

Anyway, speaking of the Constitution, I was not aware until I happened across something online that today is Constitution Day...

Most Americans know that July 4th is our nation's birthday. Far fewer Americans know that September 17th is the birthday of our government, the date in 1787 on which delegates to the Philadelphia Convention completed and signed the U.S. Constitution.

The ideas on which America was founded--commitments to the rule of law, limited government and the ideals of liberty, equality and justice--are embodied in the Constitution, the oldest written constitution of any nation on Earth. Constitution Day is intended to celebrate not only the birthday of our government, but the ideas that make us Americans.

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia accomplished a long-standing goal, passing a law designating September 17th as Constitution Day. Schools and federal agencies are required to hold educational programs on the Constitution on Constitution Day.

Since Constitution Day falls on a Sunday, I think those programs are taking place on the 18th this year.

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