Lawrence gets emotional and MAD!!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I love this guy! He really told the evil lizard didn't he! I'm just amazed when people like her get in front of the cameras and boldface lie. Are they so stupid as to think we can't check their facts?
And this person is thinking of running for some sort of office? Wow lizard, good luck to ya!

The Lizard needs to crawl back into her HOLE!!!

Liz Cheney called out President Obama for his early-morning trip to honor fallen soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base yesterday, suggesting President Bush honored America's heroes with a bit more class than his successor.

Cheney, on Fox News Radio's John Gibson Show yesterday:

"I think that what President Bush used to do is do it without the cameras. And I don't understand sort of showing up with the White House Press Pool with photographers and asking family members if you can take pictures. That's really hard for me to get my head around...It was a surprising way for the president to choose to do this."

It's not clear exactly what Cheney is referring to when she says, "Bush used to do it without the cameras."

It's true that Bush's Pentagon continued a long-standing policy of banning cameras at Dover when the nation's fallen arrived in flag-draped caskets from foreign battlefields. (Upon taking office, Obama lifted the ban.)

So that covers "without the cameras."

But as CBS's Mark Knoller reported yesterday, Obama was the first president to visit arriving dead at Dover during the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq -- meaning that when it came to taking trips to Dover like Obama did yesterday morning, Bush never used to "do it" at all.

Is this where you're getting your info from lisa??

Fuck you Liz Cheney! You are saying Bush and Class in the same sentence??? Bush NEVER went to Dover to watch the coffins come off the planes because of GUILT. Or wait, maybe it was just his cold heart. He wanted the war and never thought for a minute about the consequences of it!

You know what your problem is Liz and Co., you aren't used to a president having real feelings towards our fallen soldiers so you have to twist the truth and lie or your party looks as evil and heartless as they really ARE!!

Why I Need God in Silence

Internet Monk posted a nice article recently that made me think about my own devotional life; specifically my tendency towards contemplative meditations and Liturgy. Also, it helps me understand why I can see some styles of worship as gaudy and over powering, while others can see God through them.

There are a lot of reasons why I need contemplative silence in my spiritual life.

I am an intellectual. Christian intellectuals have a role to play in the life of the Church and the world. We do a lot of the heavy lifting that others (often mercifully) don't have to do. There is a downside though, we are often always talking and we frequently get the point where we simply love to hear our own voices. Philosophy and Theology can become "mental masturbation" as my friend put it. Silence reminds us to shut up.

I am a Musician. Musicians love music and we love being heard playing music. I am no exception. I have done music for the approval of others and for my own enjoyment. Bad thing? Of course not. Yet like being an intellectual, it is often a mixed bag when it comes to one's relation to God. Do I need a worship CD -whether that be Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vespers or rock-worship on a Sunday night to see God? The answer, when I think about it carefully, is no.

I am an Incurable Extrovert. I am often to outgoing for my own good. Maintaining friendships is so important to me that I often do not know when to say "no." I am the first to assert that our encounters with God are rightly also encounters with other people -most specifically those Christians whom we pray, eat, and live with. Yet still, this does not mean that I can ignore times of reflection on the life of Christ or on the psalms or whatever else might be guiding my prayer life.

Learning how to shut up and listen, even when bored, is an on going process for me.

unfair and unbalanced.... faux news.com

Fox news.com has a forum page, an opinion page of sorts. Did you know that?? Fair and balanced IT IS NOT! But, thats OK, let them spew forth their lies.

First they want their readers to believe fatass Christie is up in the polls in NJ gov. race. Not true. Corzine is up by a few points in some polls and tied with Christie in other polls. But they still want you to believe a political earthquake in NJ is about to happen! Woooo ooooo!!!!

Here's some of what I read today,

If all these trends hold true on Election Day, the result will be a political earthquake dramatically upsetting the balance of power in Washington. -- If that happens, here's what will come next: Expect moderate Democrats in Congress to bolt off the reservation, running from the ultra-liberal Obama agenda on taxes, the budget, cap-and-trade, card check, even the health care overhaul scheme. Then, Obama’s domination over Congress will crumble and alternative conservative ideas will gain momentum.

What's even more significant about Tuesday's elections is that stage will have been set for an even bigger political earthquake in 2010. Republicans will be in much better shape to recruit good candidates and raise more money. Further adverse results for President Obama’s foreign and domestic policies could produce an even bigger Republican landslide than in 1994.

Conservatives, tea party activists, taxpayers, small businessmen and others need to pay attention to the growing importance of next week’s elections. I urge everyone to get out to vote in these races. Get your like minded friends, relatives and neighbors out to vote as well. Volunteer to help. Maybe you can even provide last minute campaign contributions. Maybe you can engage in fundraising or organize additional volunteers.

This is a real Paul Revere moment. As Brutus said in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar": "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."

SEE! Is this fair and balanced?? Does MSNBC tell their readers to RUN, HURRY, VOTE DEMOCRAT!!! When rethugs are behind, they get very, very nervous and then the irrational side comes forth,

like with this article:

Will There Be Voter Fraud in the N.J. Gov Race?

This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year.

On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state.

In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters. Those ballots could, presumably, be used to overcome any narrow lead by Republican Chris Christie over Democrat Jon Corzine on Election Day.

Give me a friggin break will ya!! Will there ever be another election where rethugs don't cry foul and have the need to inject fraud, ACORN, and the SEIU into it?? If you can't win an election on the merits, can't win cuz you can't find a candidate worth voting for, then I guess you have to resort to the same 'ole same 'ole tactics. Sorry rethugs you are wrong again! And your fair and balanced website, well you can stick it where the sun don't shine! Morons...

A bit of culture

I enclose links to two video's by my art 'hero' Bill Viola.

The first piece I first came across when I lived in France. On my day off, I found details of an art exhibition by an artist I had never heard of, a chap called Bill Viola. The write up sounded interesting so off I went. The exhibition included the piece below (I have a snippet here) called The Crossing. It was massive, arresting, and forced me to ask questions abput myself and my mortality. I cam away open mouthed, awed that art could ask me those huge spiritual questions and it was love at first sight.

The second piece that I enclose a link to, is a piece that I didn't see for a long time, but was to impact my academic life. The piece is called 'The Messenger' and was commissioned by Durham Cathedral. Again this is a massive, arresting and deeply spiritual work and continues Viola's fascination with mortality and the spiritual.

I later studied Theology at Durham and did an MA the title of which was 'Rites of Passage: A Theological Reflection on the Contemporary Video Artwork of Bill Viola.' My thesis was to do with Postmodern thought and culture and anthropology (the theology of what it means to be human.) I enclose the thesis here for your delectation and delight.

The basic thrust of my aguement was,

'...It is clear that our culture is experiencing a time of crisis. Some have put this down to the death throes of Modernity giving way to Postmodernity. This paradigm-shift has led to the death of meaning, unregulated interpretation, and assertions of the will to power which disregard the Other. It is also a time where the sublime is re-presented. The postmodern sublime arises out of the gap between conception and imagination. There is a yearning to be able to bridge that gap, but not by longing for a non-existent Golden Age, but rather by re-presenting the unrepresentable with a disfigured form of the signifier itself. This whole project may be put down to a corporate crisis of Self.

It seems that the struggle we are witnessing today is not between moral beliefs or the legal system and individual freedom; it is between our inner and outer lives, and our bodies are the arenas where this is being played out. I will show that the mind-body problem is reaching crescendo latterly, as an ecological drama where the realisation that the environment and our bodies are one and the same. This ‘making strange’, which implies a distance between subject and object, has been the basis of Viola’s work. It is at this point of risk where art and science may be unified with all created activities. It is a point of theoria, transfiguration, and personal transformation where art recreates the viewer and moves us beyond the postmodern flux of the self.

Viola’s work is a meditation on states of consciousness and being in which dream and reality are indistinguishable but where what lingers in the mind is a state of confusion in terms of what is seen and in registration of external data. Viola demonstrates that states of mind and vision are one and the same.
I will show that a critique Viola’s work is based on the understanding of the confusion in postmodern culture between transcendence and the sublime. I will also show that the anthropology that underlies his work, and postmodern culture in general, is a sense of abjection – that is repulsion of the Self and the Other. This does not lead to a theoria, but rather a self-deluded postmodern narcissism in the guise of theoria. This is not in line with a Biblical understanding of the self, based on the Imago Dei in Genesis.

Whilst his work revolves around spiritual themes, I will show that this fascination with the Other is due to the tension in the Self. A critique of Viola’s project will involve a reclamation of the power of the Incarnation that incorporates the Other in the Self, which may heal the wound of gaping abjection in our culture...'

Now I am aware that my work may not ring your bell, and that's the case, fine, but do try to enoy the art for the art's sake because it is beautiful and deeply moving...

Boneheads response to HC bill

You are WRONG once again Bonehead! The country has spoken and they want HC reform and they want the public option. The democrats HAVE LISTENED, they do want to bring the American people true reform.

When are these obstructionist rethugs gonna get with the program? They stand up there in front of cameras and talk like 5th graders, whining and complaining, lying to the point of looking like total fools. This reform and more importantly the PO is critical to lower costs. This country will go bankrupt WITHOUT the reform not BECAUSE of it!

I think I said awhile back I would not talk anymore about this bill, but sorry, when I saw those sicko rethugs on TV today I could not help myself. I just had to let you all who missed it see for yourselves! It's enough to gag a maggot thats for sure!!

WAR....the human sacrifice

I can only speak from what my heart tells me. I hate these wars. I want President Obama to end these wars. These wars are never, ever going to end unless the president says they must. This is not conventional win or lose. There would have to be the kind of diplomacy that would change a mindset, I don't know if that's possible.

I don't have family members or friends fighting in these wars(thank God), but from the beginning, from the days of Cindy Sheehan camped out on Bushs ranch, I have been praying for an end to the senseless dying of our precious men and woman. Teenagers straight out of high school, My God, can you imagine?? When people criticized Cindy for protesting how could they! Did those who criticized have a child die in these senseless wars? Probably not. I have alot of respect and sympathy for Cindy and for all the families who have lost loved ones. I have huge respect for peaceful war protestors, we need more of it!

The time has come, in my humble opinion only, to end these wars.

Are we getting our money back, finally??

From CNNMoney.com's David Ellis

Treasury Secretary Geithner said Tuesday that he expects funds paid out to major banks under the TARP program to come back to the federal government 'relatively quickly.'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he expects a wave of banks to soon return government bailout money to taxpayers.

"It will depend on the institution, but for major banks in the country I think that money will come back relatively quickly," he said.

Speaking before the annual meeting of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association in New York, Geithner offered few details on when those repayments could happen and from which companies.

Lenders that received taxpayer aid under the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, have already returned nearly $71 billion to taxpayers, helped by renewed interest by private investors in the banking industry.

Still, some $134 billion remains invested in hundreds of community and regional banks as well big bailout recipients like Citigroup and Bank of America.

Both companies have been anxious to get out from under the government's thumb, given the level of scrutiny on such issues as how they compensate their employees.

As two firms that were recipients of "exceptional" government assistance, they were required to submit compensation packages for their top 100 most-highly compensated employees to the White House "pay czar."

Geithner's comments Tuesday were tempered, however, by his expectations for automakers General Motors and Chrysler, both of whom double dipped on bailout money.

Even as both firms are putting massive restructuring plans into actions, the Treasury chief warned that it could take some time before either company returns taxpayers funds, especially if nationwide auto sales continue to remain weak.

"It will take time to get out of those companies," he said.

Conservatives will twist and turn this story, I can't wait to hear the cries! Even if the banks are doing this payback quickly just because they want government out of their business, well thats a good thing. President Obama has every right telling these companies to cut out the excess bonuses and paychecks while they still owe the taxpayers money. At least Obama had a plan behind his TARP, unlike the Shrub and his tossed- to- the- wind- billion giveaway.

Why would rethugs not welcome this news? Because if everything Obama said will happen Does actually happen, then they have nothing to whine and complain about!

More than just a hate-filled agenda..

Far-Right Activist Launches Nancy Pelosi And Harry Reid ‘Burn In Hell!’ Contest

One of the most notorious far-right activists is Randall Terry, who founded the organization Operation Rescue, a radical anti-choice group. In the past, Terry has warned that he and his followers would engage in terrorism unless Congress excludes funding for abortions in health care legislation, launched a “Defeat Sotomayor” campaign that depicted the Supreme Court judge as a skull-faced killer, and used the occasion of the assassination of George Tiller to declare that the doctor, who performed abortions, was a mass murderer.

In his latest attempt to drive attention to his hate-filled agenda, Terry has launched a contest to encourage people to make videos burning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in effigy. Randall Terry’s press release states:

Join a Contest! Win Prizes!

Who Can make the best “Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid BURN IN HELL!” video?

First prize: Expenses paid for weekend here in DC during Roe vs Wade anniversary, Jan 22-24, including pro-life training seminar (Includes travel stipend!), and full Insurrecta Nex television series. [...]

Legal Mumbo Jumbo: Obey local laws on open flames; be careful; if under 18, do not burn Nancy Pelosi in effigy unless your mom or dad is with you, and gives you permission, and strikes the match; do not burn yourself; do not burn another human being; do not burn small animals; do not burn large animals; do not burn anyone from PETA; and remember: this is not a threat to Nancy Pelosi’s or Harry Reid’s person…it is a prophetic witness of what awaits them when they die if they do not repent for this horrific sin.

Randall also recorded a video demonstrating how to burn an effigy of Pelosi and Reid, telling the audience that “Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will be waiting in HELL!


I got this article from Think Progress but when you click on Randall Terrys press release you will be taken to the site Christian News Wire. Now come on people, this idiot excuse for a Christian is a total threat to our society! Those on the right who sit back and let this kinda sick talk and terroristic threats go on, you are just as guilty. All this in the name of God? This is why I call todays fanatical Christian right, wolves in sheeps clothing. True Christians could not condone these horrendous acts!

The video is sickening so I will not post it... I also deleted the site to send your videos incase we have some sickos visit here! I also took out all the links because they were hideous!! This is one sick fuckin excuse for a human being!

John Barrasshole

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Typical, typical rethug talking points! I feel so sorry for the people who live in this liars state!
He can stand there with a smug and smiling straight face and say the majority of the country is against reform, against the PO?? Just another day in the life of an obstructionist, lying republican..... pitiful

Music heaven!

I am just loving a cd that my dear Dad has leant me. It is a wonderful, life-affirming, and emotional mix of Scottish folk and jazz. 'Stramash' by Colin Steele. Stramash is a Scottish word meaning a disturbance, racket, or crash. The music is disturbing and creates a racket, but the disturbance is good because it unsettles the listener out of norms and expectations. The music is a racket, because I suspect that live it is pretty loud! I had never come across him before, but from his website:

Since the release of his debut album Twilight Dreams in 2002, Colin Steele’s highly original and melodic Scottish folk-influenced jazz has won just about every UK jazz plaudit there is; from BBC Jazz CD of the Year and Jazz Review international CD of the Year (for his album ‘The Journey Home’) to CD of the year accolades in The Guardian, Observer, Independent and The New Statesman. Steele’s compositions are inspired by Scottish and Irish folk music, but are firmly rooted in the jazz tradition.

Colin took up the trumpet in 1980 and joined his first jazz group the John Rae Collective at the age of 19 (which included Brian Kellock and Phil Bancroft). He then went on to work with Tommy Smith, Tom Bancroft Orchestra and pop band Hue and Cry.

Between 1990 and 1996 he travelled Europe extensively, living in France, then London, then Italy. On his return to Scotland in 1997 he established the phenomenally successful live music club Midnight Blue, which ran for three years and attracted over 40,000 people during this time. Around this time he also began composing, forming his first quintet in 2000.

Colin has also toured and collaborated with many international jazz artists, including The Bad Plus, Jon Christenson, Arild Anderson, Geri Allen and Steve Slagle. He is also involved with a variety of different genres, including Scottish folk music with the Unusual Suspects and Aidan O’ Rourke’s band Sirius, and with various dance and drum and bass projects including Aqua Bassino, Jo Malik and Yush 2K, as well as Latin and funk with his own bands Mas Que Nada and Melting Pot.

Colin has also collaborated on a number of theatrical projects including writing the original score for Mike Maran’s highly successful theatre show ‘The Little World Of Don Camillo’, and he wrote and performed the score for ‘Look Back In Anger’ which starred David Tennant.

Check it out some soundclips here.

I hope you investigate it and enjoy it as much as I am.

A little light relief!

For your delectation and delight, a picture that my son Ben (aged 4) drew of me earlier today. I am sure that you will agree that he has been very very kind!

I'm pissed...

I will not post any quotes from any sources, whether false or the truth, on this hideous farce of a healthcare REFORM bill. Ya wanna know why? Because I don't know anymore which side is up, down, sideways, backwards, in, out, the opt-out is in, the trigger is out, the public option is dead, OH wait the public option IS NOT dead!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Within a half hour of my TV being on this morning I heard 2 different takes on the PO from 2 different channels and 4 different people. I am convinced we will not know the truth of what's in this friggin bill til it's on the presidents desk and he is signing it!!

Are progressives upset with President Obama and his noncommittal stance on this friggin bill?? I for one AM, YES!!!

Yes when he talks about the PO in his speeches he sounds determined to push for the PO, but I still have my doubts. Why does he have to be such a "nice guy"?

Come on already Mr. President, my blood pressure can not handle much more of this!!


update: I heard from my friend Annette today. She is asking me to please TRUST President Obama. And after some thought about todays conflicting reports about THE BILL I have decided there are people out there who want us to turn on the president. They want dems to start fighting and lose faith. The proof of that happening (for me) is when President Obama talks to us I feel assured he has the countries best interest at heart and he knows what we want from him. So when we hear from 10 different pundits coming at us from 10 different directions just sit back, RELAX, TRUST, and believe in the end it will all work out the way we first envisioned it to. President Obama knows who put him in the White House.....

For those love but see no longer...

This afternoon we held our annual Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for the Departed. As usual it was a very moving affair. About 100 people in attendance and lots of very good feedback. One person commented how life was still hard since their bereavement, but services and occasions such as today made a real difference. Nice. Thanks be to God for he is good!

Below is the text for my sermon. The ending is missing, but you get a sense of where things are going. I am indebted to ideas from elsewhere for some of it. I also enclose some photos...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Based on Ps. 139:1-18 and John 14:1-6)

As bad as we may be feeling just now, there is a being, as the Psalmist wrote, a perfect Father, a God who knows us, understands us, sees us and is all around us on every side and who protects us with His power. What about the loved ones we remember today, we might ask? How was they protected?

The Psalmist continues: Your knowledge, of them and each one of us, is too deep. It is beyond understanding. Where could I go to escape from you? Where could I get away from your presence? If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.Our loved ones, I believe are in God’s presence. They are still, and now completely, unassailably, protected with God’s power. They are out of harm’s way.

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ created every part of each of the people we come treasuring today. He put them together, them him before they was born, knew them, understood them, watched them all through their life, surrounded them (as he does all of us) on every side, protecting them (as he does us, if we wish it) with His power. That’s all good. But it had to end. There was suffering and death.

O God, how difficult we find your thoughts. How many of the them there are. We don’t understand all of them. We don’t agree with many of them. And we have to suffer losses like this. We have to see loved ones and friends in pain and we can’t fix them or make it go away. It hurts and we wish we could escape, run away, “beyond the east” cries the Psalmist, or to “the farthest place in the west.” We’d like to just go to sleep or take something so we can skip all the pain and anguish. But even if we could do that, the Psalmist says, when we awake, and wherever we try and hide, we are still with You.

Think of it: when those whom we remember today went to sleep sick, tired, weakened and when they awoke, an instant after, they were still, and even more wonderfully so, with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with angels and all the host of heaven. But still it hurts.

“Don’t be worried and upset,” says Jesus in our Gospel passage. “Believe in God and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for every one of you (if you want one). I would not tell you this if it were not so. And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am.” Jesus mets each of us and takes him to Himself so we will be, with our loved ones, where Jesus is.

How can we know this? Because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.” If we believe in God and in Jesus, and in so doing, we make and confirmed our reservation.

Those whom we remember today are fine. They each, by faith in God, have a room that Jesus picked out and prepared for them in his Father’s house. By faith, they are with Jesus in paradise. All their problems are solved and all their questions answered.

What about us who remain? How do we honour their memory? We’re upset and in pain. Things are feeling dark some days, maybe today, perhaps every day.

First, know that the darkest darkness is not dark for God. All He does, as the Psalmist wrote, is strange and wonderful. Despite the darkness of our loss, having those whom we love but see no longer in our lives for a time was wonderful. We can be thankful and enjoy that. God has not abandoned us.

Second, Jesus puts it quite simply: “Believe in God and believe also in me.” Believe what? That Jesus is the Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins and who rose from the dead, thereby securing one of those rooms He went on ahead to prepare one for each of us who would like to join him there.

Third, since the rooms are not an automatic entitlement, we must confirm the reservation. How? Well, to believe in Jesus is to follow Him—to do our best to live our lives the way He lived His and taught us to live ours. What’s the best environment in which to do that? As a member of His body of believers, the Church. That involves this book, the Bible, prayer, worship, sharing our money, serving others—it can be messy—the church of Jesus is not perfect yet—but it contains people loveable people. Kind people. Good dancers, who laugh and enjoy life and with whom you can hang out and with whom you can go out to dinner from time to time...

For us who remain, deciding to believe in Jesus and acting on it is not only the best way to get through our grief, but I suggest it is also the best way to honour those whom we come remembering today. For faith in Jesus assures of a life then with God for all eternity and with those whom we love.

But faith in Jesus Christ also assures us of a life now with God too, as Jesus reminds us that he is the way - God’s way leading us through life; Jesus reminds us that he is the truth - what he tells us about God we can take as true; Jesus reminds us that he is the life - a life in the now filled with peace and love and that a certainty that death is not the end. but a return to the loving arms of the God who created each one of us...

The Hack Holiday of the Harvest Festival (and the better alternative)

This is part II of the Halloween blog.

I know that there are many Christians out there who believe that Halloween is evil and that Christians need to do something else or nothing. As per the previous blog, I think that these fears are silly, but even if we must celebrate an alternative to Halloween, I think that we can do better than a “Harvest Festival.” My point is fairly simple: rather than arbitrarily renaming the secular holiday, why not instead draw on Christian tradition for a historic Christian holy day?

Let’s start with weakness of the Harvest Festival solution. Holidays are not about what you name them, but that activities done on the day and the why behind them. When we compare the activities of the Harvest Festival and Halloween, it turns out there is little different. Both days people dress up in costumes. Both days people carve pumpkins. Both days people eat candy and generally party somehow. Now, it might be said that Harvest festivals don’t have the evil ghouly stuff or scary pumpkins and takes place at a church, but this all difference in degree, not substance.

So how about the why behind the activities? The very term Harvest Festival implies the celebration of a harvest. So what Harvest are Christians celebrating? In most cases, none. Such a celebration makes sense in an agrarian community which depends on a harvest of crop to sustain itself –and I am sure there remain such communities- but that is not what most Christians are doing. I live in Los Angeles, and most people here behave (and vote) as if they don’t know where food comes from. Years ago, I even celebrated a Harvest Festival in my home town, which is surrounded by farm communities, but even there a “harvest” was moot.

Thus I can only really conclude that the why behind the Harvest Festival is also the same as the why for secular Halloween: an excuse to dress up in costumes and have fun. Sorry fearful fundies, the Harvest Festival solution is little bit more than an arbitrary renaming of the same substantive holiday.

I propose that if we must do something different, then let’s participate in a historic Christian holy day instead. The historic Christian holy day(s) I am referring to is of course All Saint’s Day and the corresponding All Hallow’s Eve on October 31st. Briefly put, All Saint’s Day and All Hallow’s Eve were Christian rites that coincided with the pagan October revelries. All Saint’s day, was a day to remember the “cloud of witness” –those Christians who came before us- once a year. It was not a funeral procession, but rather a remembrance of the hope that Christians have beyond death. The Saints, in this case, are not merely the super Christians of history, but literally any Christian who had died was remembered. Such is exemplified by the tradition of Dia de los Muetros in Spain, Latin America, and Mexico.

This is clearly a different substance than the secular Halloween (which actually comes from “All Hallow’s Eve” a Christian overtone) and avoids the cheesy inadequacies of the Harvest Festival. Personally, I would love to have a Holy Day where I could come to church with a portrait of my deceased grandparents among other Christians, doing the same, to remember their lost loved ones. There need be no sense of grief on such an occasion, but rather a triumphant celebration of future resurrection of the dead. A pastor’s sermon could be an annual sermon that reminds Christians of the hope that have through Christ in this matter. Surely, this is a more spiritually substantive alternative than the Harvest Festival.

But I imagine that such a thing would be hard sell around most Evangelical circles and would be loudly rejected by Fundamentalism. After all, it would probably look superstitious and decried as being extra-Biblical. Such objections could be overcome, but not easily. The resistance towards such a thing is indicative of larger problems in the North American Church, which is simply not a position to appreciate and understand holidays beyond minimal celebrations of Easter and Christmas.

Oh well. I will be having more than enough fun with the secular celebrations anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Can we stop catering to Snowe??

Why is one lone republican causing so much confusion?? This woman is totally making me ill, I can't listen to her for another minute! Would the rethugs put up with this if they had the majority? HELL NO!! Get with the program Mr. President, are you listening to us??

Stop voting Republican!

I was over visiting Tom Degans blog The Rant today, if you haven't been there yourself please go, he does a great job! Anyway, he did the post about Michael Moore's 15 things we can do right now and then offered up a 16th, "STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN" !! I emailed Tom and got permission to post this list he had up. Like he says, he wrote this over 3 years ago but look at the relevence pertaining to todays republican party and what they are doing to us!! Alot of these things Tom wrote are things rethugs are blaming dems for doing. They are such hypocrites!!! Its an eye-opener for sure. After you read please go see Tom!


By Tom Degan:
I then posted something I wrote on this site over three years ago. Here it is again with only minor editing:

(Why we should not ever again vote Republican!)

They have cut the throats of the poor and the middle class.

They have looted our national treasure.

They have abandoned their constituency in favor of a multi-national corporate behemoth and an out-of-control military industrial complex.

They have created a global, geo-political catastrophe in the Middle East that will take at least a century to remedy.

They have shoveled a generation of American children into an untenable slaughterhouse in Iraq.

They have engendered an economic nightmare so immense that generations yet unborn will still be bearing its burden.

They have sold our nation's soul to the highest corporate bidder. They have made a mockery of the First Amendment.

They have squandered a trillion-plus dollar surplus with a tax cut for a class of people who didn't need it.

They have gutted vital social programs that aid the poor and the elderly which have been in place for over seventy years.

They have gutted laws meant to protect working men and women.

They have plundered the environment.

They have depleted our educational system.

They have hijacked this nation's political dialogue.

They have ruined our international reputation.

They have handed our domestic agenda over to religious fanatics.

They have stolen two national elections.

They have trampled on our constitution.

They have sent our Bill of Rights through the sausage grinder....

They must never - EVER - be allowed to govern our country again.

The grand old party is over.

A rally WITHOUT teabags!!

Look at this you tea party people, we have our rallies too just without teabags hanging from our hats and heinous posters!!!

MORE from Michael Moore!

Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now

By Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com. Posted October 22, 2009.

FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:

1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions.

2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans.

3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving office and becoming lobbyists.

4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in North Dakota

5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us

FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:

1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121).

2. Take over your local Democratic Party.

3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself!

4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money.

5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog!


FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:

1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.

2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card

.3. Do not invest in the stock market.

4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how your business is run. Here's how to do it (more info here).

5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism.


C'mon people -- we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true and trusted fellow travelers! Michael Moore

There you have it my friends, now lets get to work , WE CAN DO IT!!

Why I Celebrate Halloween (and You Can Keep Your “Harvest Festival”)

It’s October and that means Halloween, my favorite secular holiday. I will being having a great amount of fun this year, as I do always. However there are often a lot of Christians that have serious moral hang-ups with the alleged worship of evil and pagan aspects of Halloween. The alternative, for much of evangelicalism, is to have a “harvest festival” at Church instead.

I submit though, that the concerns about the evil of Halloween are exaggerated and misplaced. Furthermore, if there is a need to “Christianize” Oct 31sth, than I think we can do better than a change in nomenclature to harvest festival. I will deal with the misplaced fears first, and the alternatives in a subsequent blog.

The general anti-halloween sentiments are well summed up here:

The October 31st holiday that we today know as Halloween has strong roots in paganism and is closely connected with worship of the Enemy of this world, Satan. It is a holiday that generally glorifies the dark things of this world, rather than the light of Jesus Christ, The Truth.

Have you noticed how costumes and masks are getting generally more bloody, gory, and depraved each year? Unfortunately, the gruesome and grotesque and the occult are increasingly glorified in American society, not only on Halloween, but throughout the year in horror movies and in television programs.*

Those of you who actually worship Satan on Halloween, please comment on this blog. I ask, because I have never met any of you yet. Clearly, many Christians have because I keep hearing this rhetoric from both pulpits and message boards every October. I am of course, being sarcastic here. I really think that Christians make up the majority of people labeling Halloween a worship of evil, whereas the broader secular culture, which is busy celebrating it, knows of no such thing. For the majority of society, Halloween is an excuse to dress up and have some kind of celebration with no religious or spiritual aspects whatsoever.

For instance, when I was young, it was an excuse to go the grandparent’s of my neighbors and have a costume party out in the orchard. In College, it was an excuse to goof –off with the other undergraduates of my living complex. We would get creative with costumes (my friend once dressed up as an iPod). Now, it is a regular excuse to come up with fun outfits for my webcomic characters to wear each year.

Worship of evil? Quite clearly so!

But someone may persist (if they were not put off by my sarcasm) that Halloween does indeed have Pagan roots. It was, in fact, the Celtic new year and the suppression of evil spirits that roamed the earth on that night. This is true, but I still do not think that it justifies the general condemnation that many Christians have about Halloween. I have one simple reason: most people who celebrate Halloween are completely ignorant of these things. Most kids dressing up as ghosts, ninjas, faerie princesses etc have no knowledge of its roots and neither do their parents. The idea of the broader culture actually celebrating the “true meaning” of Halloween is so absurd that it was lampooned by the Onion News Network last year. Those true blue pagans who do, are an incredible minority.

There are many Christians, who still insist on a Christian alternative. While this might be a nice move, I think the Harvest Festival fails to hit the mark. But that is for the next blog.

For now, I will announce my plans. This year, I will be by an house full of 20-somethings and dressed up as either a Captain Hammer or a Mormon missionary. There will be much revelry and some liquor, like most years. I will likely be singing songs from Dr. Horrible and the Nightmare Before Christmas. Various other party games will ensue. It will be a joyous occasion shared with friends dear to me.

And this year, I preside over the goat sacrifice.

Thanks for reading.

Cheney talks 'dithering' but is a blithering idiot!

Come on Dick, what do you think you are doing?? How dare you call President Obamas careful approach as he takes the time to make a decision on this never ending war, 'dithering!!
This Dick person, CDM, is what you call a douchebag!

Here's some of what he said courtesy of CNN.com:

"Make no mistake. Signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," Cheney said while accepting an award from a conservative national security group, the Center for Security Policy.

He also says the administration has damaged U.S. ties with key allies, dangerously wavered in Afghanistan, undermined progress in Iraq and sabotaged the Bush administration's national security legacy.

Really Dick? At a time when, thanks to Obama, our approval rating around the globe is soaring! When was the last time you came out from your hole, Dick?

The comments appear to mark a shift for Cheney, who, after a series of interviews and speeches last spring in which he declared Obama had put the country at an elevated level of risk, has remained relatively quiet over the last few months as he works to complete his memoirs set for release next year.

Instead, Cheney's eldest daughter Liz has become the most visible member of the family, launching a group last week aimed at organizing conservative opposition to the Obama administration's foreign policy approach.

He also talked about the Bush administrations 'enhanced interrogation techniques' and criticized Obama for abandoning these 'techniques'. Why keep talking about torture, Dick?

"We cannot protect this country by putting politics over security and turning the guns on our own guys," Cheney said to the rousing crowd.

Dick please take your little prize, and your daughter, and crawl back into your hole!!
Sheeeez!!

The Word as a Wordle is back!

In time for Bible Sunday - 25 October 2009 - I have 'wordled' the two readings we shall be using from Isaiah 55:1-11 and John 5:36b-47. Interesting themes come out...

Towards the end of the service I shall be encouraging the congregations to read the Bible for themselves. I shall encourage them to try Lectio Divina, as I have been so profoundly moved by what God has been saying to me through using it. Lectio Divina (spiritual or divine reading) has it’s roots in the early days of the church and can be found in the monastic rules of both St. Augustine and St Benedict. What I encourage people to try is:

1. Find a quiet place, pray, and ask God to help you to understand what it is you are reading and to speak to you through it.
2. Read the passage that you have slowly out loud
3. Read the passage quietly to yourself
4. Read the passage again quietly to yourself and underline key words or phrases that stand out to you.
5. Go back over the words or phrases that you have marked and prayerfully seek what Richard Foster calls ‘God’s Word for us.’ We should apply all of our senses and imagination to the task and enter into the phrases or words highlighted. We may find our minds linking to other passages or parts of our own lives. Doing this we are asking ‘God, what are you saying to me?’
6. This reflecting or meditating should lead to a response in us, in prayer. The highlighted words and the connexions we have made should give rise to confession, a cry of gratitude, lament, relief or praise in us.
7. The final stage in this process is obeying or applying what we have read and prayed. How will it affect our choices and lives this day?

Lord, may your Word be a lamp to our feet and a light upon our path...

Phillies win National League Title

CONGRATULATIONS PHILLIES!!!!!!



WORLD SERIES HERE WE COME (again!!)!!!

Jon Stewart Doles Out Damning Damage on Douchebags Doubling Down on Dumb

Say that 5 times fast...go ahead, I'll wait. This story is so serious in nature I felt it needed to be brought up again. Al Franken proposed a role-call vote to eliminate not being able to sue contracting companies like Halliburton for sexual assualt. I'll say that again, to eliminate not being able to sue contracting companies like Halliburton for sexual assault. The vote passed by a count of 68-30. The Senator shit bags(I'll say that again as well), THE SENATOR SHIT BAGS that voted against it are as follows:

(So good, this gets repeated as well)

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)(Just go to the emergency room, they'll take care of your sexual assault, no need to push it further than that...hope you got insurance)
Bond (R-MO)(Not surprised by this one, this douchebag belongs to Limbaugh's district)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)(Traitor to women's rights and U.S. interests)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)(Hey, let's fuck up Iran AND women's rights, can we do that?)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)(denies climate change AND women's rights...classy)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)(Given Mad Jack's past experiences with the women in his life, again, I'm not surprised)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Now, before a certain conservative goes balistic and tries to defend these douchebags for what their "real reasons" were for saying "NAY" to this, I DID mention that Sessions had a...different take on the legislation. Apparently, Jon Stewart agrees with me as you'll see Sessions say exactly what I was getting at:

Rape-Nuts

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

I am the Complaint Department Manager and I stand by my previous assesment of the douchebag Senators.

Republicans losing ground but still planning those tea parties!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sorry about all the videos this week, When I watched Olbermann tonight this segment of the show had me laughing so hard the neighbors had to have heard me! Enjoy!

Wall Street pigs

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Obama..10/20

This is a special message(speech) to volunteers of Organizing for America. If you doubt our presidents hearing our voices, if you get discouraged with all the negative talk about healthcare reform, just take a listen to him here. Yes its long but it will put your mind at ease and give you HOPE. YES, President Obama DOES hear us!

Ain't This the Damn Truth?

I am the Complaint Department Manager and I approve this message.

The Preterist Podcast

I do not believe in dispensationalism.

Some may be shocked that I reject something that is so conservative. Thing is, dispensationalism is not a conservative position. It is fairly liberal position that has only be around since the 1830s, and is only believed by Christians in the United States (not even all of them) and not shared by most Christians throughout the world.

Now, I don't comment much on eschatology beyond that, mostly because it is far beyond my knowledge. This is frustrating, because I still think it is important.

But where to turn when everyone around me reads Tim Lahaye?

Thankfully, I found Dee Dee Warren's Preterist pod cast!!

You can listen to the promo here Here it is!

You can find the site here, the Preterist Podcast

For all my Christian Hipsters Homies, sign up and start listening on your iPod today!!

Tom Harkin, you da man!!

every day our representatives are on TV talking about this reform bill, and there are always those few who him and haw about whether the public option will be in it. But Tom Harkin has never let me down! He's always the one who says YES it will be in the final bill, Tom I like you, and I trust you! Are you listening Mr. President....

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Glenn Beck at it AGAIN!

OK, I'm confused. Wasn't it rethugs who say get your neighbors to help if you have no health insurance?? Why is it wrong to get involved in community service? This is really confusing me. Are you Beckwad afraid because it involves TV shows and Hollywood? You say you would rather it come from religious organizations. Well it does, but that doesn't mean its evil to come from other sources too. I thought rethugs message was to help those less fortunate, that we as a country have to give more of ourselves so government doesn't have to be so involved. Isn't that what volunteering is all about? Why are you so filled with rage and jealousy when Obama does something good for the country? Once again, Beck you are a fuckin moron and I'm speechless...

Muslim interns??? Holy crap!!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This speaks for itself. The utter ridiculous FEAR coming from the neocons is friggin OUT OF CONTROL!!! There's been alot of "unearthing" from 2007...

Robert Reich clears it all up...

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

More Desperation from the Right

Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Rush, and the right-wing blogosphere seem interested in a talk I gave in September, 2007 to students in a political science class here at Berkeley, in which I played the role of a presidential candidate so politically incorrect and tone-deaf as to pummel every sacred cow in sight -- including the notion that our society could afford and would continue forever to pay whatever amount of money was required to keep everyone alive forever. The whole point of the mock exercise was to show that presidential candidates can't state what everyone knows to be the truth because they'll be taken apart by the Right or the Left. I slew many other sacred cows in that mock exercise, some of which are held dearly by the Left. Nonetheless, two years later the Right has exhumed the lecture and taken my words completely out of context purportedly to show that Obama and the Democrats plan death panels.

If their desperation weren't so pathetic it would be funny. After all, they have proven the whole point of my lecture. UC Berkeley maintains an archive of webcasts and my speech is available there verbatim, should you wish to listen to it in its entirety.
Robert Reich



The above paragraphs were written by Reich on his blog . Thanks Linda for asking me (in my post, Public Option ad nauseum) to clear this up for the rightwingnutfucks. Hope this does it for ya!

For All the Single Folks (or "Single People are Christians Too")

We all did it. We all grow up evangelicals or something similar. Then, we went to a Christian college and likely attended a few Christian college and career groups. We probably have been through a few camps and summits. We are all now the quarter life Christians out in the world.

And if any of us are not married, we’ve likely felt the pressure to hurry up and do so!

For those of us, who for whatever reason, remain single in our twenties, I like to think that our Churches get it, but the reality is that evangelical culture can sometimes be less than understanding. Folks like Josh Harris, Dobson et al make marriage seem like requisite for all “real” Christians. Fortunately, I recently stumbled on an old article written by the Internet monk that was a nice change, especially in light of the case for young marriage in Christianity today.

I won’t go through the whole article, but there are number of things in it I liked. Internet Monk asks whether we emphasize marriage to much. His answer is in many ways “yes.” Let’s start with this.

Saying that delaying marriage is bad is overemphasizing marriage. This is too simplistic, and we all know it. Don’t get me wrong. Mohler sees a legitimate problem: singleness as an excuse for immaturity and rejecting legitimate adul;t responsibilities. There are such people. I’ve met them. Kick them in the pants.
On the other hand, there are so many other legitimate, good reasons people delay marriage, it’s almost beyond belief that they are ignored. Mohler is speaking to the culture that he sees influencing America in sitcoms like “Friends.” Let me speak about the single’s culture I see at our ministry here.

Oh wise Internet Monk, you speak the truth. Thank you for affirming those who delay marriage for good reasons. Thank for reminding us that we can be faithful Christians when we live in large cities, have ambitious career, education, artistic or even religious commitments that force us to put of marriage past the ripe age of 21!

We overemphasize marriage when those who are not married are out of the “center” of the Christian community, thus violating clear implications of the ministry of Jesus. I am extremely concerned that the emphasis on marriage in contemporary evangelicalism has created an imbalance within the body of Christ. I am already sensitive to this because of my own life experience.

This is another great point. How many post-college single people stick around the college groups? Feels odd doesn’t it? One wonders exactly what we’re supposed to though, if every other demographic segregation is geared towards married people and their kids.

I would also like to speak for myself here. I am very, very, tired of how evangelical culture shuns the divorced and those who have had or are having sex outside of marriage. Why are these two things the litmus test for who is a “real” Christian? It seems very arbitrary to me.

I think he really hits the nail on the head with this though. What about dating and “courtship”?

1) Courtship is far from a Biblically established and ordained way of finding a spouse. Ever since post-Josh Harris youth speakers began saying “Don’t date. Court!” there’s been enough confusion on this topic to fill a warehouse. This essay won’t attempt to straighten that out, other than to say this: The view of family and adulthood I read in the courtship movement would be quite at home in medieval Islam. If an individual wants a parentally supervised or arranged marriage, then by all means they should have it, but nothing in the Bible compels such a thing. If we are going back to the view of women in Leviticus, please let me know.

2) Dating is not a dirty word. In fact, what I am learning is that there is so much mass confusion over single people of opposite genders spending time together that condemnation of dating is no longer a fringe activity. It is mainstream. Parents of small children confidently assert their children will not date. Those who have dated imply that it was sex, 24/7 and ruins marriage. Dating leads to depression, suicide and certain divorce. All this is said routinely.

I can’t speak to the details of the courtship thing. I can only say that my experience with it was not positive. Believe it or not, dating and relationships is something that is learned by doing not by some kind of pious avoidance of the opposite sex. Even at my Christian alma mater, I know that many of the girls were upset about how the guys were not open to casual dating. Is the courtship movement partially to blame for this? Yes.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that people should stay single forever. My own long stretch has gone past due, and is especially poignant since my recent summer relational debacle. Nonetheless, I like that there are those out there will to openly question the “hurry up and get married” script that is so often prescribed in the evangelical land.

Thanks for reading.

Rachel Maddow Clarifying...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel and Tim Phillips part 1

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel and Tim Phillips part 2

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel Maddow!!

WOO HOO Rachel!!! YOU GO GIRL!!
Rachel just ripped Tim Phillips a new one and NEVER backed down! He's the creep president of Americans for Prosperity. I know you have seen the giant bus with the bloody hand, he's that guy!
Grassroots my ass, and Rachels ass too. What a bunch of rethug lying dirtbags. Fearmongering is all they know how to do.
If you missed Rachels interview, double segment interview cuz it was so damn important to out these jerks, then read the transcript tomorrow on MSNBC.com. I may put up a video tomorrow too just to rile you all up!!

Gotta love Rachel...

Limbaugh Will Be Dropped By Group Bidding For Rams

It has been announced that the REAL voice of the republican party WILL NOT be in on the deal to buy the St.Louis Rams. Now, here's where I start to piss people off. I don't think he should have been excluded. I know what you're thinking, "Complaint Department Manager, have you lost your damn mind?!?!" Actually, no. Here's why:

Like it or not, the guy has the cash. Now, having said that, we live in a country where you can buy pretty much anything you want, so long as you got the cheese to get it with(at least in theory). He's got the cheese and him buying the Rams doesn't break any law. In this country, you have the right to be an owner of a business and you have the right to prosper by it...but you also may fail and with that, you're on your own. Let that just set with you for a while, now.

The players were out in force saying they won't play for the walking drugstore, BULLSHIT! I agree wholeheartedly with Stephen A. Smith who has been ALL over this since it came out. We agree in the point that these guys won't risk not having a job JUST because they don't like the owner, I ain't buyin' it and not even if you spotted me the cash. When it's all said and done, if you have a choice between being unemployed and getting a multi-million dollar payday financed by someone who you personally loathe...I'm sorry, but you're ALL taking the payday. Unless you are already so financially well off that you don't need the money, you're going to cash that check. You may talk shit about the guy, but you'll be doing it all the way to the bank.

Someone try to talk me down from here. Think about it for a while, let it marinade on the brain before you throw rocks.

I am the Complaint Department Manager and I'm taking the payday.

America can't wait

I received this email today, please add your name to the list, Thanks!!


Sue -

For the past ten years I've been a doctor in the President's home state. For ten years I have witnessed the flaws and risks of our healthcare system first hand.

This year I was honored to be named Hawaii's Physician of the Year, and I am dedicating that honor to the cause of real healthcare reform. I join the majority of doctors, and the majority of Americans, in demanding that Congress pass real healthcare reform, which must include a public option.

Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee finally voted out their bill for healthcare reform. Under pressure from the insurance industry, they passed a bill that removes the choice of a public insurance option. We can't allow Congress to give in to pressure from insurance industry lobbyists and pass a watered down bill. Without a public option, the bill is not a real reform.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now responsible for merging the best parts of the Finance Committee bill with the best parts of Senator Kennedy's H.E.L.P. bill which DOES include the choice of a public option. We need to make sure Majority Leader Reid brings a bill with a public option to the floor of the Senate where Democratic Senators can pass it by majority vote.

It is critically important that Senator Reid and Congress hear our voices NOW. They need to know that the majority of Americans will not settle for anything less than real reform.

PLEASE JOIN ME AND ADD YOUR NAME RIGHT NOW

Now is the time when we can make an enormous difference.

This Monday, DFA members will deliver the America Can't Wait petition to every Senator in Congress -- including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- to make sure they get the message.

Nothing is as powerful as when we all stand up together as one voice and demand action.