Dear President Bush (funny!)

Dear President Bush:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you would propose and support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you said, "in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

***************

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this law applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
   
   
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
   
   
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
   
   
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
   
   
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
   
   
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
   
   
7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
   
   
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
   
   
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
   
   
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16.
    Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

Mr. Bush, I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS!!

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

Forward this on. Send it to everyone you know.

Quotes and Statistics...

"Should enemies strike our country, they would be attempting to shift our attention with panic and weaken our morale with fear. In this, they would fail. No act of theirs can alter the course or shake the resolve of this country. We are a peaceful people – yet we're not a fragile people, and we will not be intimidated by thugs and killers. If our enemies dare to strike us, they and all who have aided them, will face fearful consequences." - George W. Bush, March 17, 2003

The rest of the world doesn't know whether to laugh or cry when they hear such Bushian pronouncements, below please find some comparisons which might explain the disconnect between too many Americans and the rest of the world.

• # of times Panama invaded the United States: 0
• # of times the United States invaded Panama: 6 (1895, 1901, 1908, 1912, 1925, 1989)
• # of times the United States sent troops occupy Beirut: 2 (1958, 1983)
• # of times Lebanon sent troops to occupy Washington: 0
• # of South East Asians annihilated in their own lands by the United States: 3,000,000
• # of Americans annihilated in their own country by South East Asians: 0
• # of times the United Kingdom has invaded the U. S. and burned Washington: 1
• # of times the U. S. has invaded the United Kingdom and burned down London: 0

[The United Kingdom is the only state which has done unto us more than we have done to them. That's one reason they're so helpful now – they're even older hands at this sort of thing than we are.]

• # of Nicaraguans killed by American-backed terrorists in the 1980s: 40,000
• # of Americans killed by Nicaraguan-backed terrorists in the 1980s or any other time: 0
• # of times the U.S. has bombed Serbia: 1
• # of times Serbia has bombed the U.S.: 0
• # of times the U.S. has invaded the Dominican Republic: 2 (1916, 1965)
• # of times the Dominican Republic has invaded the U.S.: 0
• # of human beings massacred by U.S.-backed death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala during the 1980s: 180,000
• # of human beings massacred by Salvadoran and Guatemalan-backed death squads in the United States: 0
• # of human beings murdered by U.S.-backed fascist governments in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina in the 1970s as part of "Operation Condor": 32,000
• # of human beings murdered by the states of Uruguay, Chile and Argentina in the United States in the 1970s as part of "Operation Condor:" 2
• # of human beings killed by U.S.-client Suharto in Indonesia in 1965: 600,000
• # of human beings killed by Suharto in the United States: 0
• # of times the United States has invaded Iraq: 2
• # of times Iraq has invaded the United States: 0
• # of children who died as a consequence of American bombing of civilian targets – chiefly the water purification and sanitation system – and sanctions from the Gulf War to Operation Iraqi Liberation: 500,000
• # of children who died at the hand of Saddam Hussein in the United States: 0
• # of Americans killed in the horror of 9/11: 2,800
• # of Afghan civilians killed after Operation Enduring Freedom began: over 4,000
• # of Iraqis killed as a consequence of Operation Iraqi Freedom: anywhere from 100,000 and counting.
• # of Americans killed as a consequence of Operation Iraqi Freedom: 1,400 and counting.
• # of Iraqis killed from the start of the first Gulf War, through the sanctions and the liberation: 750,000.
• # of Americans killed from the start of the first Gulf War, through the sanctions and the liberation: 1,700.

It's scary and unsettling to review the source material for George Bush's quote above...

"[Our] people are not a warlike nation. It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want war but does not fear it. It loves peace, but also its honor and freedom." - Adolf Hitler, 'Mein Kampf', 1925

Original source: "We are a Peaceful People", by Stephen Bender

Doomed to repeat the past?

During a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, President Bush claimed that he has a list with the names of over 200 members of the Department of State that are "known terrorists." The speech is sparking a nationwide hysteria about subversives in the American government.

Speaking before the Ohio County Women's Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, President Bush waved before his audience a piece of paper. According to the only published newspaper account of the speech, Bush said that, "I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that are known to the Secretary of State as being terrorists and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department." In the next few minutes, the number fluctuated wildly, with Bush stating at various times that there were 57, or 81, or 10 terrorists in the Department of State. In fact, Bush never produced any solid evidence that there was even one terrorist in the State Department.

Despite Bush's inconsistency, his refusal to provide any of the names of the "known terrorists," and his inability to produce any coherent or reasonable evidence, his charges are striking a chord with the Middle America. The months leading up to his February speech have been trying ones for America's Iraq policies. Bush's wild charges provide a ready explanation for these foreign policy disasters: terrorist subversives were working within the very bowels of the American government.

To be sure, Bush was not the first to incite anxiety about subversive terrorists. Congress had already investigated Hollywood for its supposed terrorist influences, but Bush went a step further, claiming that the U.S. government, and the Department of State in particular, knew that terrorists were working in their midst.

"Bushism," as the hunt for terrorists in the United States is coming to be known, has done untold damage to many people's lives and careers, has had a muzzling effect on domestic debate on Foreign Policy issues, and is scaring millions of Americans.

Americans of a certain age might find the above passage strangely familiar. Here's the original version.

Pretty scary, huh?

Bush's Budget

Well folks, the President's new budget is out. It's a piece of work; you know this government finance stuff is filled with gobbledygook. So here, for your reading pleasure, is a succinct summary of the major points in the President's budget, thanks to our friends at Air America.

General
Overall, discretionary spending other than defense and homeland security would fall by nearly 1 percent

About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush's goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009.

One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education.

The deficit is projected to reach a record $427 billion this year.

War
The spending plan does not include future expenses of the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

The administration will submit a separate supplemental request largely for Afghanistan and Iraq operations in the current fiscal year

Social Security
The upfront transition costs of restructuring Social Security as Bush are not included

Bush’s Social Security plan would begin in 2009 and result in $754 billion in additional debt over its first five years

Winners
Bush will seek about 5 percent more, or about $600 million, for the $12.8 billion program for low-income area school districts. Last year, he requested a $1 billion increase.

The Coast Guard -- now part of the Homeland Security Department -- will get $8.1 billion, $600 million over this year.

Community health centers would grow to over $2 billion, an increase of $304 million, or almost 18 percent, over this year.

$3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, the president's signature effort to help poor countries boost their economic growth.

Losers
The administration will propose a 5% across-the-board cut in price supports for crops and a reduction from $360,000 to $250,000 in the annual cap on subsidies that farmers can receive.

Bush would slice a $600 million grant program for local police agencies to $60 million next year.

Grants to firefighters, for which Congress provided $715 million this year, would fall to $500 million.

$300 million the government gives to states for incarcerating undocumented immigrants who commit crimes would be eliminated.

The Environmental Protection Agency's $8.1 billion would drop by $450 million, or about 6 percent, with most reductions coming in water programs and projects won by lawmakers for their home districts.

Eighteen housing and community development programs would be consolidated and cut by about 40% to a total of $3.7 billion.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs would be sliced by $100 million to $2.2 billion. The reduction would come almost entirely from the agency's effort to build more schools.

The $2.2 billion program that provides low-income people with home-heating aid would be cut to $2 billion.

The Parks Service's budget would drop nearly 3 percent to $2.2 billion, largely due to a reduction in its construction account.

The budget includes no subsidy for Amtrak and would eliminate $20 million for the next generation of high-speed rail and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation.

The budget proposal would cut $94 million in grants for the Healthy Communities Access Program and phase out rural health grants

He would renew his effort to cut a $143 million program for the removal of severely distressed housing.

The budget would expand Pell grants, which help the lowest-income students attend college, at the expense of the Perkins loan program for low- and middle-income college students. The $6-billion loan program would be eliminated.

The budget would more than double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs, from $7 to $15, and would require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care

Bush and the firefighters

Well, today's unfiltered talking point is this little tidbit about what our Fearless Leader is proposing to do to help America's first responders (police & fire):

Bush introduced his budget yesterday morning. When we talked about it on yesterday’s Unfiltered, we figured everyone else in the media was gearing up, like us, to highlight the things he was cutting that he had previously said he supported.

Then today’s papers roll around, and no one – NO ONE! – is talking about the fact that Bush is cutting federal grants to police by 90%. From 600 million to 60 million. And he wants to cut 215 million out of federal grants to firefighters.

How about we make a deal, Shrub? You’ll be allowed to keep talking about 9/11 and sending Cheney to firehouses and wrapping yourself up in the glory of “America’s Heroes”, when you stop gutting cops’ and firefighters’ funding. Is that fair?

I think if you read the Boston Globe over the past couple of weeks, you'd be pretty outraged over the budget cuts, particularly in light of this special report.

These sobering statistics come to us from the Boston Globe: ...In 2002, only about half of the local fire departments in the state -- 54 percent -- met the fire industry goal of arriving within 6 minutes of the first alarm at 90 percent of building fires. Across the nation, the showing was even worse, with only 35 percent of departments meeting the response time goal.

Don't you think that the federal budget should include any assistance they can manage to the local police and fire departments? If you think these cuts are a responsible idea, let me just remind you who went into the World Trade Centers first after the planes hit? Shouldn't the government be doing everything in its power to make sure that our police and fire depart ments have the training and resources that they need so they can be the best equipped and the best prepared, if such an event ever happened again?


Better let congress know how you feel.

Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of Joe's medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. the air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.

Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so the can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the GreatDepression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

After work this evening, Joe plans to visit his father at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

Joe is happy to see his father, who is now retired and lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.

Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

The First Ammendment

From USA Today (01/31/05):

"One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today. The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get 'government approval' of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion."

The findings aren't surprising to Jack Dvorak, director of the High School Journalism Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington. "Even professional journalists are often unaware of a lot of the freedoms that might be associated with the First Amendment," he says.

The survey "confirms what a lot of people who are interested in this area have known for a long time," he says: Kids aren't learning enough about the First Amendment in history, civics or English classes. It also tracks closely with recent findings of adults' attitudes.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-01-30-students-press_x.htm


I suppose we ought to tear this up then?

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.