----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark E. Smith" <mymark@gmail.com>
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Hilarious!
No room to cut a defense budget that annually announces it has lost,
mislaid, or otherwise can't account for a trillion or two trillion dollars?
A military that on top of fighting two wars and numerous conflicts,
maintains almost a thousand military bases on foreign soil all over the
world, each one replete with a full sized golf course for the brass? Any
idea how much it costs just for the jet fuel used to fly in the riding
lawnmower fuel to maintain those golf courses?
As for global stocks, all stocks in multinationals are global stocks. And
there's no such thing as a stock market that remains stable--if it isn't
volatile, speculators can't make profits.
Social Security is well funded for at least the next forty years, but if it
had a short-fall, simply lifting the cap so that the rich paid FICA taxes on
all their earnings the way that the working poor do, instead of only a tiny
fraction of their earnings (because they're rich), would eliminate any
possible short-fall.
--Mark
Rad-Green mailing list
Rad-Green@lists.econ.utah.edu
***
Will Glenn Beck's Creepy "Black Robe Regiment" Use Churches to Sway Voters?
Though Beck keeps insisting that his "Black Robe Regiment" won't be about
endorsements, two members say their mission is to return to their churches
and boost voter involvement.
"Asked to be more specific on which issues he would discuss with
parishioners
with regard to voting, Dr. Lee cited abortion, same-sex marriage, assisted
suicide and out-of-wedlock births.
"I think gay marriage is an oxymoron," Land said. "Marriage is between a man
and a woman."
He also cited his opposition to the recent national health care legislation,
stating, "It is rationing of care. I read the bill, it is horrifying."
By Joe Strupp
Alternet: September 2, 2010
Glenn Beck's newly created Black Robe Regiment -- which he has said would
be apolitical -- apparently has a clear political direction, according to
two of its members.
Dr. Richard Lee of the First Redeemer Church in Atlanta, Ga., and Dr.
Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, both said part of the
group's mission is to return to their places of worship and boost voter
involvement.
"We know the people of America are good, morale, decent people," Lee told me
Tuesday. "If they look within their own hearts, they will vote the proper
way and allow themselves to stand up at the voting polls."
Beck has repeatedly insisted that the new group and his recent rally would
be apolitical.
On his radio show Monday, Beck discussed the first meeting to create the new
group. He said: "I had a couple people that had helped put this together,
and some of them had been involved in the Christian Coalition. And when I
first called them and talked to them, I said, 'Look, I know you were
involved in the Christian Coalition, but this isn't Christian, this has to
be everybody, and it cannot ever be made about politics. If it's about
politics, it's worthless.' And all of them said the same thing: 'Amen.' "
On Monday's edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Beck added: "If my
church started to preach who to vote for, oh, the Republicans are better
than the Democrats or vice versa, I would also leave my church on that."
But Lee said a mission of the Black Robe Regiment, a group of religious
leaders that Beck announced on Saturday, is to get church members to use
their voting rights and become involved: "It is to encourage our
congregations to become involved in the process of restoring honor around
the world and at home by being involved in the exercise of maintaining good
will, including voting."
He added: "Voting is the voice of America. The public square happens in a
voting booth -- America is changed one vote at a time."
Asked to be more specific on which issues he would discuss with parishioners
with regard to voting, he cited abortion, same-sex marriage, assisted
suicide and out-of-wedlock births.
"I think gay marriage is an oxymoron," Land said. "Marriage is between a man
and a woman."
He also cited his opposition to the recent national health care legislation,
stating, "It is rationing of care. I read the bill, it is horrifying."
Another participant in the group is Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of the
American Alliance of Jews and Christians.
He would not go into specifics about promoting voter involvement, but said:
"In my case, it is a conviction that politics is nothing more than the
practical application of our most deeply held moral values. This is simply
making certain that those whose moral values are influenced by biblical
thought also participate in the democratic process."
Land and Lee were first asked to join the group during a dinner hosted by
Beck on June 30 at New York's London Hotel that included James Robison, Rev.
James Dobson, Rev. John Hagee and about 15 other religious leaders.
"At that meeting, he said this is where he had been led to go," Land said,
referring to Beck's reasons for starting the Black Robe Regiment. "He asked
me to be a charter member."
Lee said Beck asked the leaders at the dinner how they believed their
churches could help "bring the country together."
"There was no agenda put forth," said Lee. "We talked of voting, he did not
bring it up. A lot of people have been disenchanted with politics in
America."
Land did say one of the reasons for the push for voter involvement and the
effort to utilize government more is because "our society sees its rights
and privileges over its obligations."
Both men said no further planning had been done for the different religious
leaders to meet again, but expected additional plans to be put in place.
"We are still in the formation process," said Lee.
Joe Strupp comes to Media Matters as an investigative reporter and senior
editor with 21 years of news experience across newspapers, magazines,
television, radio, and the Internet. Most recently, he was a senior editor
at Editor & Publisher magazine.
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