Do Not Forget

After all the hype of the midterm elections has died down I am finally able to make my own statement about the butt whooping the Republicans took. I know that there is a lot of work to be done. I know that there is a general consensus amongst voters that the war in Iraq is of the utmost importance. But what I am not clear on is how the Democrats are going to resolve the Iraq nightmare issue. Nancy Pelosi was quoted as saying that in her first 100 hours during speakership she would “push for action implementing all 9/11 Commission recommendations on national security, raising the minimum wage to $7.25, eliminating corporate subsidies for oil companies, allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, imposing new restrictions on lobbyists, cutting interest rates on college loans and supporting embryonic stem-cell research.” However I don’t think one Democratic voter in America wanted to hear that first.

Before Donald Rumsfeld got booted, but after the election was over with, the general voting consensus was to end the bloodshed in Iraq. The country has spoken and it is agreed that enough is enough. Americans will eventually deal with all the liberal aspects of government that the Republicans did not cover. And they will deal with those juicy tax cuts for the rich. But really we would like to hear first from Madam Speaker is how the improvised explosive devices, sectarian violence and rising U.S combat casualties will be dealt with. I have searched and searched and don’t have one snippet of information on how this is to be achieved. I know that this comment is early, but it keeps the mental juices running so we won’t forget why we voted.



~Vale~

Fallen Preachers and The Price of Power

Reverend Ted Haggard, the president of a 30 million member association and spiritual leader of a 14,000 member New Life Church, admitted to purchasing methamphetamine because he was curious. He has denied allegations of homosexual activity with a gay man who gave him a massage(s)and he has done it again. However this blogger who is old enough to remember Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Jones and David Koresh…is far from surprised. Here is the kicker, the longer we wait the more the Haggard story will unfold.

Spiritual advisers including Ted Haggard are men and women first. They are not endowed with the power to walk on water, throw lightning bolts or request the plagues of Moses. They will continue to have their faults. These imperfect individuals are not gatekeepers of my salvation, but the brunt of my jokes and if I ever do attend church I would request from my pastor a background check, a copy of his last drug screen and proof of residence. It's called trust but verify.

A British historian named Lord Acton said it best, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Mind you, not all of the spiritual leaders are corrupt. But in my opinion there are quite a few. I could start counting but I would reach my personal blog word limit before I stopped. And the debauchery is not new, because as a kid growing up in the Deep South, I remember over hearing that there were two people who you didn’t let in your house: Insurance Salesmen and Preachers, because one would steal your money and the other your money and your honey [that’s honey in the figurative term, not beekeepers honey for all you northerners.]

Personally I have my own religion I have detailed in an earlier blog. So I don’t even flinch when yet another fallen preacher has spent thousands on cocaine. Has a mistress. Has a gay lover. Or got caught drunk driving with his mistress and gay lover. I don’t pay tithes, so my hard earned money is not wasted on luxury automobiles or 3,000 dollar Ralph Lauren suits. All because the last time I checked, Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple, and somehow they crept back in.

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~Vale~

Pedal Oral Occlusion

Stricken by Pedal Oral Occlusion Syndrome are Senator Trent Lott’s (MS-R) “…we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either” at Senator Strom Thurmond 100th birthday party, State Representative Rafael Arza (FL-R) drunken racial slurs on a voice mail of fellow republican and then Senator Kerry (MA-D) with his jab at President Bush during a rally for gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides.

There are times that I wonder what goes on in politician’s mind. Somehow the ‘spur of the moment’ defense just won’t get it when it comes to a public faux pas. What was Kerry thinking when he took a jab at the President’s grades? Did he not get the memo that anything you say will be plucked apart like a chicken in a fox den? Didn’t he know that you don’t have to be a Rhoades Scholar to be president, but you can be surrounded by them? Holy cow! Now the Democrats are pulling back from him, as he is torn apart by conservatives who have spun his statement to mean out brave troops in Iraq. Personally I think he deserves to be ridiculed until he gets the point. DON’T SLING MUD, especially when you are not up for election. It looks particularly childish.


~Vale~