Gifted

You don't like that word. Gifted. It freaks you out. This whole post freaks you out. This whole thing freaks you out. As does your etsy shop. You really think you might throw up right now. But God is teaching you about gifts, His gifts. He gave some to you turns out and He wants you to write about them. So you do, even though you don't want to. You were thinking about not writing it then one of your 16 year old students wrote you an essay about what they believe that convicted you. Okay God, you get it.

Your first experience with the word gifted was in the third grade when you took the test that put you in the gifted class. You were three points shy. This wouldn't have been such a big deal except both of your sisters were in the gifted class. You think you disappointed someone even though everyone assures you you did not. You eventually test in, but already that word gifted is somehow loaded for you. Giftedness is somehow tied with disappointment.

You have been afraid lately of the gifts that God has given you, especially because He seems to be asking you to use them. Repeatedly, all at once. You had sort of been hoping you could wade in to all of this. You see, you don't like to say things like "I am good at painting" or "I wrote this. I think it is worth reading." Maybe you don't think it is lady like. Maybe you are afraid that others will disagree. Maybe you very secretly don't believe that what you do is any good. You know it is probably the last one.

Your sister says to you "This guy at work went off on a tangent and I think it is for you." Just a few weeks ago you wouldn't have believed that God would use a stranger at your sisters work to deliver a message to her that was meant for you. That sounds crazy, but crazy seems to be happening lately. You are learning what God will do to get your attention.

Your explains the metaphor that this guy used, when he proclaimed boldly that he was a gifted teacher. You think about this. How the gift often represents the giver. You think of some gifts that people have given you that you are particularly proud of, the quilt your grandmother made for your wedding gift, the key ring one of your favorite students sculpted out of wire with your last initial on it. You love these things because they were made just for you, and because they express perfectly your relationship with these people. The quilt from a master seamstress as part of a bigger family tradition. (You are from a big family with even bigger traditions.) The ring from an excentric student who can concentrate better when he is keeping his hand busy.

You know that the same is true to the gifts that God has given you. They were also meant to represent the Giver and the relationship He has with you. He is a creator and He wants you to create. He created poetic circumstances and beautiful metaphors, He wants you to explore them. He created art and thinks people should have access to it. By sharing His gifts you are sharing Him, not telling everyone how great you are. And even if people interpret the works that God is doing in your life as that, then maybe that is okay. God thinks you are pretty great.

More than that you think of the gifts you have given people. Just last week your sister wore the sweater you gave her last Christmas to church. When she got a compliment on it she said thank you, my sister bought me this. You do that, when people compliment the physical gifts others have given you. The giver gets the credit.  In devaluing the gifts, you realize you are devaluing the Giver. You decide you aren't going to do that anymore. You think you might just be good at this blogging thing.

Some thoughts on my Spiritual Growth part one.

My wife teaches English composition. She has her students write an essay called "this I believe". This I believe that becoming a Christian has happened to me and is happening to me. 20 years ago I thought I knew what it was to be a Christian. I now know I didn't have a clue. 10 years ago I thought I knew what it was to be a Christian. I didn't have a clue. Five years ago. I thought I knew what it was to be a Christian. I didn't know. I believe I still don't know but Iam and I am becoming a Christian. The Bible calls this moving from glory to glory.

I was raised in the Methodist Church (later United Methodist) or more specifically in two Methodist churches. During nine months of the year my family attended Jesse Lee a Methodist Church in the suburbs north of New York City. This church had many fine people and Christians but was a little liberal or at least sophisticated. We believed Genesis but were taught in Sunday school (8th grade) that Genesis was probably written by four writers with letter names X or Z or Q or whatever (I had no idea Moses wrote Genesis). Jesse Lee had a congregation of 350 or so parishioners. Despite the liberal bent it was long enough ago that Jesus and the Father were still being taught in a pretty much orthodox fashion. The Holy Spirit was mentioned once a week in the confession of faith.

During all or part of the summer months I attended Whitewater Methodist Church in the small farm community of White Water Indiana where my mother grew up and most of her family still lived and went to church. I was baptized (as an infant) in this Church and my parents were Married here. At the Whitewater Methodist Church you sang "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and you meant it. At the Whitewater Methodist Church Jesus WAS Methodism and Christianity (except for this one Sunday school teacher who thought that Christianity was following the 10 Commandments. It seems every church has one) and you prayed to Jesus or God the Father. They seemed to know the Holy Spirit at Whitewater better than Jesse Lee but as a part of a relationship with Jesus not as a separate person of the Trinity.

During my college years I spent quite a lot of time in Whitewater on the weekends where I would go to visit my Grandparents. At the time the Whitewater Methodist Church had a wonderful man of God named Charlie Radcliffe pastoring there. I was going through a period where Christianity was pushed into the background of my life and Rev. Radcliffe drew it forward. at the end of my senior year in college I had a very powerful experience with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit showed up in power at a moment of great need and I was engulfed in a blanket of love and joy and peace. After that time I could tell you there's a Holy Spirit like I can tell you there is a desk. This is also the time I count as my conversion when I turned my life over to Jesus.

To be continued

Obedience

You didn't expect this. You certainly don't understand it. You were at church Sunday and the Holy Spirit came on so thick you were expecting a vision. You haven't gotten a vision since your healing. You sit and wait for it. Close your eyes super tight, relax them, sit up, sit back, the Holy Spirit as thick as that day two years ago. No vision. The Lord tells you He is going to show up a little differently today. And yet you didn't expect this.

God gave you free babysitting this year. You asked for it, and God gave it to you. You expected that part. (What can you say, you've already confessed on this blog that you are spiritually spoiled.) This relationship has become so much more than equal babysitting. Elizabeth has been God's grace incarnate so many times you tear up thinking about it. And this was not the most convenient year for her to meet others needs. A single mom, three kids, a shaky income. She babysits your peanut even when she doesn't need you for babysitting that week. You fight about who has the easier end of the bargain, both claiming to have the long end of the stick. She loves your baby so well, she loves your whole family so well. You get a glimpse of what it might have looked like to live in the church Luke talks about in Acts. If even just the smallest sliver of a glimpse.

On Sunday she was having a rough day. It all came down all at once at church. (Doesn't it always? Neither of you seem to have the capacity to break down in private, only in public. Sigh.) But as you talk through everything the Lord meets her needs, and not just her needs but her desires. The ones God spoke in her heart, just for her. The bricks fall into place, the sky opens, the promise she had told you about in October, the one she was allowed to cash in in 2010. That impossible promise is redeemed in the matter of 15 minutes in a conversation between friends. And you got to be there.

And then, there was more. MORE. You shake even now as type this. If God keeps showing up like this you will be completely ruined for the everyday. You will be shocked when God doesn't miraculously appear. God has you open up an etsy shop. Even now as you type this, you know it sounds crazy, ludicrous, almost patronizing even. Your friend needs a better job and you tell her to sell baby sweaters online.

You have increasingly done your Christmas shopping online. You don't like going to stores by yourself and your husband hates crowds, plus you can shop online at work. Somehow you found the website etsy and have been stalking it. You aren't quite sure what appeals to you about it, but it is really freaking cool. You have played with the idea of starting a shop, and while you haven't listed anything yet you registered and have played around a little with the skeleton of it.

As she comes over that day, everything falls exactly into place. You take pictures of the things she has made and make your baby model them. You know you aren't a great photographer and yet every picture snaps magically into place. The Holy Spirit shows up so thick again you both have trouble breathing, like the air is too thick or something. You keep thinking about how crazy this all is. You both figure that if anything comes out of this it will be all God. Because what you two are doing makes no sense.

You put the shop together on Monday morning. You knew it was what you were supposed to be doing. But you kept shaking your head at how silly this was. Why this God? You tell the Lord He doesn't make any sense. He tells you that is none of your business, He is asking for obedience. So you do it. Monday night late you check it on a lark. You know there are shops that go months and months with no one even looking at their stuff. You have a sale. And because God has a sense of humor it is the item with an owl on it. Owls, you hear your dad's voice in your head, are a sign of the prophetic.

In case you are interested www.etsy.com/shop/abbyknorman

The Promised Land

You've been thinking a lot recently about promises. You know that God has so many promises in the bible that you can claim. And that is all well and good and everything, but sometimes you want more. You have come to the conclusion that the spiritual inheritance God has given you through your family makes you very, very spoiled. Your hearts yearns for more, not just for the promises God promises to everyone, you want the promises God whispered into your heart. The ones that are made just for me.

On facebook today you find out that God blessed Camp Ray Bird with an additional 109 acres. You remember fondly the summer you worked at this camp. You remember praying for that land the entire summer. You felt the Lord speak into your heart that summer, that land belonged to Camp Ray Bird. And yet the deal was not closed that summer as you were so sure it would be. God told you that land was theirs, how could the talks stall out? This was not how you had pictured it.

Later you find out that you were not the first person to pray for the land surrounding the camp. Various camp directors have been praying for that land for 40 years.

You seriously doubt you are the only one who heard the Lord declare that land for Camp Ray Bird. Maybe the director heard it the first time he prayed for that land 40 years ago. Maybe he retired, and went on to be with Jesus thinking "this is not how I pictured it, I was sure that land was ours. You wonder if he ever became disheartened, yelling out to God "where is the land that you promised me?"

These wonders come very close to home, too close to home. Because you are still wondering about a promise God gave you. You have the most amazing baby girl, a gift that you cannot believe God blessed you with. You could never be good enough to deserve her. But this was not how you pictured baby's first Christmas when you were round enough to play Mary in the Christmas pageant last year.

When you were giving your kids their final exams last year you also were waiting for your ultrasound appointment, the ultrasound appointment. The one that ends in "it's a ____!" But you felt confident in how that appointment was going to end. You knew what you had in their, and despite the fact that you had showed no other medical symptoms, you knew that the day would end with not just boy but boys. Twins.

You didn't come to this conclusion lightly. Heck, you didn't even want twins. Two cousins and a speech coach had had them and twins looked hard. One at a time until you were done, that is what you had always said. But the signs for the twins were flashing like neon vacancy script on a cheap motel. The names the Lord pressed into your heart two years before you were even trying to conceive, the night you were visiting Camp Ray Bird and the Holy Spirit took hold of your hands. You laid them on your womb and prayed for it to be filled with those boys. The dream you had a week after you knew you were pregnant. The one you knew was more than just a dream. Your friend praying for you to be filled with twins twenty minutes before you told her you were pregnant. The numerous words your dad received, even after the first ultrasound. The second not just a dream.

Then there was the owl. Your dad had been talking about owls for weeks, months even. Owls were supposedly the new sign of the prophetic. They can see into the night. (As an English teacher you appreciate God's use of metaphors.) The morning of your due date your sister and you take a walk with her giant pit bull mix to really get things going. When you return home and head into the back yard there is a giant owl waiting for you on the tree in your backyard. As you, your sister and her giant dog approach. You had never seen that owl in your neighborhood, you have never seen it since.

You are absolutely in love with your baby girl. She is the most exquisite child, the best parts of your husband and you plus an extra amazing all her own. And as you rock her to sleep at night, you pray for her brothers, the ones that are in your heart. The ones that God promised you, and by extension, her. Even the song that you sing to her every night, the one you picked just for her has mention of these brothers. You didn't plan that.

You get choked up when you talk about them to your dad, the person who has had so many words for these boys, your boys. You tell your friends how crazy it is, but you miss them. You didn't know before, what it was like to be a mother. But now that you know your heart pulls at the idea that your sons are not with you.

You were pretty angry at God when you got that ultrasound that said girl. You attempt to blame it on the pregnancy hormones but your freak out was pretty epic. Why would God tell you twin boys only to give you a girl? Why would He urge you to tell non-believers when it wasn't to be? Why so many words, so many signs if you weren't carrying those boys?

You don't know. You still don't know. But the Lord has made peace in your heart. You are eating up every single second of this baby's first Christmas. And hope that next year it will be a babies' first Christmas.

Hey! Ray Bird Ministries does such an incredible amount with every single dollar God has blessed them with. They are so so serious about sharing the gospel and making disciples y'all so please consider checking out their website and being a piece of the great land promise!

www.raybird.org/new_land

A reluctant healing

You've been blogging for a few days and have no idea how God is going to use this thing (you haven't even had a chance to tell your dad you are blogging again in your joint venture.) How the heck do people stumble upon a new blog anyway? When Beth Moore asks for your miracle. And in the comments section you decide to take another little jump off the divine diving board God has lead you to and link to this blog. You sort of feel like you are going to throw up but here it goes.

I was the most awkward seventh grader on earth when I got mono. There is no joke less funny then the joke that is told to the highly hormonal thirteen year old who has contracted the kissing disease, who has never been kissed. Trust me. For most mono means a couple of weeks out of school and then you are done. For me it was the start of a very dark journey. I missed 70 plus days of school that year partly because of the mono, which I could never seem to shake, and partly due to the anxiety that I was experiencing after having missed school for months at a time. But even without the emotional aspect (and I am someone who can emote) I just plain didn't feel good.

In eighth through tenth grade I got myself together enough to make it to school on a semi-regular basis. I missed a lot more than most but had a very understanding doctor who wrote me a catch all excuse note while we figured out what the heck was going on with my health. Even in this confusing time the Lord blessed me with parents and a doctor who believed me. We muddled through.

But shortly before my seventeenth birthday things got really bad. I dropped out of all but one of my classes and made it to school probably less than once a week. On the cusp of dropping out of school completely I got a correct diagnosis. Fibromyalgia, and a promise from a kind and brilliant doctor that I was going to get much better.

With diet and less activity than usual I managed to live a relatively normal life. Mostly I learned how to be dependent on the Lord and trust that He would show up when I really needed Him. But God didn't want me to get by. He wanted me to thrive. I had in my teenage years gotten prayed over for healing. I would name it and claim, and a few weeks later be angry that I still felt like crap.

Slowly in my 25th year the Lord began to thaw my heart toward healing. Through words from my sister and father, and a friendship I had been avoiding due to the fact that she kept claiming healing over my life (how dare her!), I began to hear the Lord speak that he wanted me to be free of everyday pain.

Disclaimer: I am in now way saying that my experience is that over every fibromyalgia. I just know that this is true for me. Now that that is out of the way.

I finally ordered A More Excellent Way from Amazon and after repeated shipping failure (spiritual warfare anyone?) I got my hands on that book. The passages about fibromyalgia being linked to fear of failure, fear that I was not good enough pierced my heart. It was as though the author knew me, knew things about me I did not even admit to myself. Maybe I would be healed.

Very shortly after that the Lord showed up on a Sunday during the worship and pushed me into my seat. There I saw a silhouette of a person clinging to a thorn bush. That person was me. Somewhere in the midst of my illness I had begun to hang on to it. Identify myself with it. For me, I was allowed to not be good enough, because I had fibromyalgia. It was okay to not be able to be everything for everyone, I would it is just I had fibromyalgia. The Lord showed me letting go of the thorn bush, straightening from the stoop I was in, and standing, turning toward the cross and instead clinging to that. And now (and I am battling to know this every day) it is okay to not be good enough, it is okay to not be everything for everyone, because what Jesus did on that cross is enough. His grace is sufficient.

Lead the Celebration

Sometimes, when your dad has prophetic gifts, and he gives your sister a word you ask for one too. Sometimes he says, "no, nothing, oh wait...." then he gives you the most ridiculous vision.

He tells you he sees you leading a marching band. A high school marching band. A black high school marching band. You think you have an interpretation for this, but as you pray on it the Lord reminds you of things. He reminds you of all those Labor days, waiting for your High school marching bands turn (you played in the drum line). You were always jealous of the band from the other side of town.

The black marching band always looked like it was more fun to be in then yours. It probably was. The drum majors would break from straight up left, right, left, right and would get down. Then slowly the boogie would spread from the drum majors, to the woodwinds, to the trumpets, to the drum line, until finally the tubas were swinging in ways that look anatomically impossible.

The thing you remember about watching this marching band, and the bands at the schools you grew up to teach at, is that each person has their own dance, that joins together to form one huge celebration. No one worries about if they look stupid, or whether they are "doing it right" they just boogie, and trust that the boogies combined form one giant celebration. It looked so free, and so freeing.

You realize as an adult that some of those kids probably didn't have a lot to celebrate, that the band marched in t-shirts and shorts because the school couldn't afford uniforms. But somehow it didn't stop the celebration. It didn't even slow it down. And God lays on your heart that He is asking you to lead the celebration in your life.

When the Craigslist car starts, when the baby sleeps mostly through the night, when you have enough money to pay your bills and a little extra to put in the savings account. Boogie down, praise the Lord, don't worry about what it looks like. Freedom is promised in Christ. So get into that freedom, and lead that celebration.

Oh and in leading the celebration, I wrote this piece for my church's advent book http://www.1027church.com/wp-content/uploads/advent.pdf

A shift in content

Sometimes you come home from a conference in Birmingham where the Lord tells you something so in line with what your heart wants you are afraid to think it might be true. You aren't sure how to make it happen. You tell Him it doesn't make any sense for these things to be true. You tell God He should have either told you before you started a family and your husband applied to graduate school or He shouldn't have told you at all.



But the women at the conference were talking about stepping in to the "God margin." The place where you do a little bit and let God multiply that little bit so that He can produce the desires He gave you in the first place. And yet you only speak the dream out loud to one sister, not wanting to disappoint anyone else when you too get disappointed.



The dream in your heart won't be ignored. God crafted it just for you, and the more you ignore it the more you want it so desperately to be true. So at small group where you pride yourself on being transparent you ask for more faith for doing "something" God has called you to.



They pray, or at least you figure they do because that was Wednesday, and by Friday the Lord has reminded you that in many ways He has created you to create . And there is a blog that has not been touched since Barack Obama was elected President, and don't you think it would be fun to take your dad along for that ride too.



You tell God no one read that blog before, why would they read it now. It does not make any sense for you to start that thing up again. He tells you that really isn't any of your concern. I asked you to be obedient, not to make sense. So here you are, on a Friday morning as your students watch a movie, because it is Friday, you are tired, and this student group learns ridiculously fast as long as you can apply the lesson to a movie.



But also because not only did God ask you to be obedient, He supplied you the free moment to do so. And if only by a millimeter, in your obedience the Lord grows your hope, and your faith, and the dream that He has planted.

Congratulations Senator Obama

The American people have spoken. We will pray for our new President elect and pray that he governs wisely. President elect Obama proved that anyone can be elected President in this the greatest nation on Gods green earth as Mike Medved would say. When he goes awry we will work hard to save him and the country from himself. In his campaign he threw Rev wright, Father Phleger, Kahlide, Farakan, and Resko under the bus and we pray he keeps them there. Meanwhile there is much work to be done to organize and seek to empower his majesties loyal opposition.

Why am I voting for McCain

Why am I voting for John McCain? By Theop

1. John McCain Loves The United States of America. Senator McCain said this in his acceptance speech. It moved me deeply:

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.

I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

Barack Obama loves?? Who knows? The press won’t investigate him or run any stories that are not Obama swoon pieces. He has no paper trail and refuses to release documents or talk about significant parts of his life. Bill Ayers head of the Weather underground (who with his wife Bernadet Doren bombed the Capitol, the Pentagon, police stations and the home of a Federal Judge) was “just a guy in the neighborhood” according to Senator Obama. That is all we would know about the relationship if it was up to Obama and the main stream media. Thanks to Stanley Kurtz we know Senator Obama worked closely with Bill Ayers on the Chicago Annenburg Challenge and through the challenge gave millions of dollars (possibly as much as 120 million) intended for improving the education of Chicago’s children to Ayer’s political allies with no improvement in the education of Chicago’s children.
Obama claimed Jeremiah Wright as a mentor in his book The Audacity of Hope (the title taken from one of Wright’s sermons in which Wright says a World in need is caused by the white man’s greed). Now Obama claims that he didn't know that Jeremiah Wright preached black liberation theology (a form of Marxist racial hate disguised as Christianity) and anti-Americanism from his pulpit. Two questions remain about Barack Obama that you never have to ask about John McCain are: Who is this man? and Will he fight for America?

2. John McCain will appoint A Supreme Court that respects the Constitution. John McCain will appoint Supreme Court Justices like Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia. These are Justices who consistently look to the Constitution to decide the Constitution and do not view the Constitution as flexible to be molded at the whim of the Justice. Senator Obama has indicated that he will appoint justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Stevens. These justices view the Constitution as flexible to be bent to their whims and political views. The next president will appoint at least two and possibly four Supreme Court justices and electing Barackc Obama will change the court for more than a generation. There are also a large number of Federal Appeals Court and District Court vacancies and allowing Barack Obama to appoint these judges would be a disaster.

3. John McCain is pro-life. The National Abortion Rights Action League web site says this. (Pro-life language has been substituted for the pro abortion language found on the web site)
“Sen. John McCain served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1986 and in the U.S. Senate from 1987 to present. During his four years in the House, then-Rep. McCain cast 11 votes on abortion and other life issues. Ten of these votes were Pro-life. In the Senate, Sen. McCain has cast 119 votes on abortion and other life issues, 115 of which were Pro-life.”
Senator Obama is not just pro-choice but pro-abortion. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, at Princeton University in an article exploring Senator Obama’s abortion policies said, “Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.”

Professor George continues:

“He (Obama) has promised that ''the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act'' (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed ''fundamental right'' to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including, as Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has noted in a statement condemning the proposed Act, ''a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined 'health' reasons.'' In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would ''sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.''

There are many other reasons to vote for John McCain but these are sufficient. If these reasons don’t convince you think of a Liberal Democratic Congress headed by Nancy Pelossi and Harry Reed ( currently with a 15% approval rating) operating unrestrained by a President Obama, the most liberal Senator in the Senate. A Senator who has never bucked his party on any signifigant issue.

See you at the polls.

Theop

Barrack Obama New Party Member

Leave it to New Zeland when U>S> media won't do their job.

Trevor Loudon in this post http://www.newzeal.blogspot.com (go there for the pictures) from New Zealand provides strong evidence that Barrack Obama was a member of a Socialist party The Illinois new party.

Notice Trevor is practically begging Journalists to report this information. Remember the Brouhahah that was made over the media fabrication that Sarah was a member of the Alaskan Independence party which was a media fabrication. Now they won't report Obama's membership in this way left party. Senator O'bama is no moderate. The Media should but won't do their job.
Thursday, October 23, 2008

Obama File 41 Obama Was a New Party Member-Documentary Evidence

This post is for journalists who care about the future of their country more than their careers.

I have previously posted about Barack Obama's involvement in the socialist led Illinois New Party here, here and here.

Below are scans from New Party News Spring 1996.

They prove that Barack Obama was a member of the Illinois New Party and was endorsed by them in his 1996 Illinois State Senate race.

Front page-scanned from a photocopy


Front page close up-scanned from a photocopy


Front page ultra close up-scanned from a photocopy


Note that the text refers to Barack Obama as a New Party member, while Willie Delgado is only "NP endorsed"

The New Party clearly drew a distinction. Obama was on on the wrong side of the dividing line.

Page 2, scanned from a photocopy.


Page 2 closeup-scanned from the original.


The New Party was the creation of the quasi-Marxist Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the radical community organisation ACORN. The Communist Party splinter group Committees of Correspondence (CoC) was also involved.

I quote from Chicago DSA's New Ground of September/October 1995

The political entourage included Alderman Michael Chandler, William Delgado, chief of staff for State Rep Miguel del Valle, and spokespersons for State Sen. Alice Palmer, Sonya Sanchez, chief of staff for State Sen. Jesse Garcia, who is running for State Rep in Garcia's District; and Barack Obama, chief of staff for State Sen. Alice Palmer. Obama is running for Palmer's vacant seat...Although ACORN and SEIU Local 880 were the harbingers of the NP there was a strong presence of CoC and DSA (15% DSA)... Four political candidates were "there" seeking NP support."

Here is part of an undated New Party document probably from 1995. Scanned from a photocopy.


It lists approximately one hundred"community leaders, organizers, unionists, retirees, scholars, artists, parents, students, doctors, writers and other activists who are building the NP."

Those listed include;

Elaine Bernard-A Labour academic and prominent DSA member.

Noam Chomsky-Linguist and activist, member of both DSA and CoC.

Barbara Ehrenreich-Author, activist and DSA leader. Early this year Ehrenreich was one of the four founders of Progressives for Obama

Bill Fletcher-Former Maoist, a labour activist and leading DSA member. Early this year Fletcher was one of the four founders of Progressives for Obama

Maude Hurd-Longtime ACORN president. Awarded for her work by Boston DSA. ACORN is heavily involved in the Obama campaign.

Manning Marable-A founder of DSA and a leader of CoC. Regarded as a driving force within the New Party. Now an Obama supporter.

Frances Fox Piven-A senior DSA member. Regarded as the brains behind ACORN. Piven is now an endorser of the Progressives for Obama website.

Raphael Pizzaro-New York labour activist and former CPUSA member. An official of both CoC and DSA.

Gloria Steinem-Author and senior DSA member An Obama supporter and volunteer.

Cornel West-Academic and prominent DSA member. West now serves as an advisor to the Obama campaign.

Quentin Young-Chicago doctor, prominent DSA member. Quentin Young is a neighbour, friend and supporter of Barack Obama. he attended the famous 1995 meeting in the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn where Barack Obama was introduced by Alice Palmer as the chosen successor to her Illinois State Senate seat.

Carl Davidson, former Chicago CoC National Committee member, New Party activist, associate of Barack Obama and friend of Bill Ayers, now serves as Progressives for Obama webmaster.

The originals of these documents are held in the Washington DC area. I personally viewed them when I visited Washington in May 2008.

If any journalist, media organization or publisher would like to view the original documents they may email Trevor Loudon, to be considered-address is on the side bar under New Zeal Research Associates.

This is not a football game

I was raised to root for the Big Ten. My parents do it, and so do my grandparents. In fact my grandmother regularly throws a fit when the Big Ten team inevitably loses the Rose Bowl. But we root for them anyway. And any call that goes toward the other team is a completely idiotic call and the Big Ten always gets hosed. Always. I root for my favorite professional football team in much the same way. Any call against them is crazy, any call for them is justified. Anyone who likes their rivals is a complete idiot.

I am okay with this view when it comes to football. I am genuinely concerned that the majority of my friends view politics the same way. Anyone who roots for the other side (whichever side that may be) is a complete idiot. On facebook this is particularly rampant. I don't think anyone could watch the VP debate with an open mind and say that either side completely embarrased themselves, yet my friends do. Nothing is going to get fixed in this country if we don't stop looking at America as a football game. That way half the country is always losing.

Enough is Enough

In response to an AP story that calls Sarah Racist for mentioning the O'bama Ayers connection Powerline posted a rebutal. I posted my own response and rebutal in Powerline's forum.

It is reposted below:

The MSM and the Obama campaign must be terrified of the Senator’s connections with Bill Ayers and rightly so. What would the MSM do if John McCain had an association with an ex-Ku Klux Klanner (Senator Byrd excluded for obvious reasons) who had bombed black churches escaped justice due to technicalities, admitted the crime (guilty as hell free as a bird) and is completely unrepentant? What if that Ku Klux Klanner had launched John McCain’s political career by having a fund raising party in the Klanner’s own home along with the Kluxer’s wife who also bombed Black Churches? These associations would disqualify him or anyone else from getting near the White House. As an American I would want to know the who what where and when of theses associations.

I would want statements from the candidate that did not misrepresent the relationship (just a man who lives in my neighborhood). Senator Obama could have at least added, who I happened to have help distribute 100 million dollars to mutual friends and political allies in a little deal we called the Anenberg Challenge. “Palling around” does not mean that your pals with the person it means that you have a long association with said person. Senator Obama obviously had a long and (for the Senator) fruitful relationship with Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers launched the Senator’s political career at a fund raising dinner at Ayer’s house. Saying this was palling around out loud makes Sarah a racist? Only when you are so afraid these facts will come to the attention of the American people and so in the tank for Obama you want to put any discussion of Bill Ayers off limits.

One thing both camps and the deMSMs obviously agree on is Bill Ayers is not a person who a person who wants to be President should be associating himself with. That is why the Obama campaign has tried to hide Bill Ayers under a rock with the assistance of the Media. Thanks to alternate media and no thanks to the MSM the facts of the association are clear at least as far as public records can make them. Three facts are all you need to know:

1. Bill Ayers is an unrepentant bomber of the pentagon and other places by his own admission.

2. Barrack Obama had relations with Ayers that were extensive. and;

3. Senator Obama covered up and misrepresented this relationship to the American People with the help of the deMSM.

Since the facts can no longer be hidden the NYT has tried a whitewash and the deMSM are now calling it racism to make inquiry or (state the obvious on the subject) out of bounds. The big question is are the American people going to put up with the association, the cover up, the whitewash, and now the attempt to put the topic off limits or are they going to say Senator Obama enough is enough?

Obama Uses Prosecutors to stiffle free speech

John at Powerline alerts us to some of the abuses coming from the Obama camp.

If Barack Obama becomes President and takes over command of the Justice Department, it is reasonable to expect an assault on the First Amendment the like of which we haven't seen since the Jefferson administration. Here's the latest: in Missouri, Obama has enlisted his allies in public office, including St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, to threaten criminal prosecution of any Missouri television station that runs ads about Obama that are untrue. Since every politician sincerely believes that all ads run by his opponents are untrue, the field of potential criminal exposure is broad indeed.

Today, Missouri's Governor Matt Blunt responded strongly to Obama's attempted flouting of the Constitution:

St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.

"Barack Obama needs to grow up?" Well, maybe. Either that or, as President, he can carry out his threats to have his critics arrested. Say what you will about other celebrities who have grown up in the public eye, like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears: at least they never tried to have you thrown in jail.

And this before he is even elected president. Like I tell Larry over at noleftturnz

See you in the camps.

Inside Obama's OODA loop

In the late 1950s Colonel John Boyd, one of the great military tacticians and strategists of the Twentieth Century devised the OODA loop applying it to one on one battles in Jet fighters (commonly known as dog fights). The idea is that every battle is fought by observing orienting deciding and acting over and over in a loop. To win the battle a warrior either performs his OODA faster than his opponent or ideally get inside your opponents OODA loop breaking it up. John McCain being a fighter pilot is iam sure familar with the concept and yesterday he was so far inside his oponents OODA loop he had Senator Obama chasing his political tail as well as telling political tales. MCCain Observes the nation in crises, a crises I might add that is eroding his position in the poles. The need for action is obvious to save the markets and possably the economy but action is stalled by what appeares to be a partisan imopasse. McCain Orients this is a job for a bipartisan healer a maverick, someone like John McCain. McCain decides and acts Suddenly McCain announces he is suspending his campaign to return to washington to help America in crises he invites Obama to follow his lead. What is a Dmocratic presidential candidate and part time U.S> Senator, to do. If he follows McCains lead he looks weak, if he doesn't the Good Senator is perceived as putting campaign over Country. What to do what to do I know if your a politician when in doubt LIE . I called McCain this morning. Sure you did. Well it sells among Obama hard core supporters. McCain looks like McCain, Obama looks like Obama and that is not good news for Senator Obama.

Lies Continued

Powerline points out a new lie which Senator Obama is using to scare seniors on Social Security.

Like many Democrats, Obama engages in the politics of fear. He tries, especially, to scare senior citizens. In one ad, he asserts that the "Bush-McCain privatization plan" would "cut Social Security benefits in half." That this crude lie is absurd on its face does not mean that no fearful seniors will fall for it. FactCheck.org writes:

This is a falsehood sure to frighten seniors who rely on their Social Security checks. In truth, McCain does not propose to cut those checks at all.

Every election season the Democrats try to scare seniors into believing that their Social Security checks will be cut if the Republicans get into office. Of course no one in America can change the Social Security system. President Bush spent much of his early second term and a large amount of political capitol trying to get a little sanity into Social Security. The reward for this effort? Zero zip, Nada, a day of reckoning with Social Security is coming and the Democrats who love making Social Security a political football will almost certainly try to blame Republicans when that day comes.

Lies

Every Campaign Ad that McCain runs (that i know of) is factually true and every time he runs an Ad it seems the Obama campaign accuses the McCain campaign of lying. For example McCain indicated that Senator Obama was in favor of comprehensive sex education for kindergartners. Obama says that is a lie because he only meant to protect the Children from sexual predators. Regardless of Obama's intent the bill he supported called for comprehensive K-12 sex ed. This was demonstrated by Byron York at National Review Online.

Today Obama is caught fudging on his claims at an ad dezigned to Scare Seniors.

dragonfly gets it right in the powerhouse forum

dragonfly posted this at the powerhouse forum (spelling errors have been corrected):

"Bill Katz is right, and I am sure that Sarah Palin, a bred-in-the-bone, unabashed "flyover" American knows exactly who she is appealing to, and will continue to win votes because of it. McCain is going to let Sarah be Sarah because she is not rattled by either the MSM or Obama's slimy tactics. She knows that middle America knows slimy big city politics when they see them.

Which speaks to a cultural dimension that the GOP is not playing - the socialist, big city, crooked party machine, which Obama truly epitomizes. Obama, emotionally attracted to the radical socialism of his parents from adolescence through his college years, went to Chicago to SEEK a radical leftist climate, found it, was embraced by it, financed by it. He is,TOTALLY, the poster boy of the big city corrupt political machine. He never organized or operated out outside a geographic area of about 200 square miles. He worked 95% with an African American community.

Obama has absolutely no knowledge of, understanding of, or interest in "real" Americans. His claim to Kansas roots are beyond absurd - his socialist leaning parents fled stuffy mid-America before his mother was in high school. He has calculatedly immersed himself, since adulthood, in the narrow academic socialist clubiness of Hyde Park - as its name implies, a snobby professorial town, owned by a university, that permits no low-income residents, except servants, and places strict limits on business, including food stores. Wasilla is a capitalist paradise compared to his home town.

He can't hide from these truths. Hounding him on this key aspect of his character cannot be attacked as "smearing". He has no fall back position. Claiming he represent all Illinois gets him nowhere: he was made a state senator and is a U.S. Senator solely through the Daley city machine. He is, 100%, A BIG CITY BOY.

If it is OK for him to go after Wasilla and small town America, it is OK for McCain to go after Chicago
Most Americans, whose rating approval of Congress is under 10%, do not want a President who is in the pocket of Big City Political hoods. And they don't like socialists.

AD: "Do you really want a puppet of the Chicago political machine running our country? Oh, and by the way, have you noticed - he's a SOCIALIST?"

McCain should go after the cultural disconnect, full press . It will win him a lot more votes than his Foreign Policy."

People like dragonfly are why McCain -Sarah will be relocating to Washington. D.C. in January. Todd you are going to love the Washington summers.

Sarah Palin- America Wants to know

Today Michelle Malkin pretty much sums up the anti-Sarah hysteria in the media.

Next up: Us Weekly and company investigate the Sarah Palin’s eyebrow waxing appointments, Todd Palin’s beard grooming preferences, and the children’s dental hygiene habits.

America must know the truth!

The New York Times sent at least 30 truth seekers up to Alaska to find dirt on Sarah Pallin and then they filled their pages with inuendo from enemies that Sarah made while cleaning up the forty ninth State.

One of the great things that Sarah has done for this political season is to rip the mask off the the media. Obama can undermine US foreign policy in Iraq and no one in the DemSM investigates. Senator Obama protects the Chicago political machine from an obvious scandal in truck leasing and the DemSM doesn't investigate. Senator Obama buys his house with help from a person who turns out to be a politically corrupt felon Tony Resco (who was under indictment when Obama got the help) and the DemSM doesn't investigate. Sarah Paline has a hair out of place and the DemSM goes crazy investigating. Fortunately the American people are not dumb, despite what the Demsm believe and Sarah only becomes more popular.

Are babies born alive after botched abortions left to die?

Senator Obama has defended his indefensible opposition to the infant born alive act proposed in the Illinois Senate when he was at the head of the committee overseeing that legislation. This legislation protected babies who are born alive after a botched abortion.This act was in response to the reality that babies born as a result of a botched aabortion had been left to die in Illinois hospitals. While Senator Obama, was fighting this legislation similar legislation passed unanimously in the Senate of the United States.

It seems the good Senator believed that the defense of Roe v. Wade was neccesary even though the bill had nothing to do with babies inside the womb (the only kind that Roe addresses). He seems to believe that defending Roe v. Wade is more important than defending babies that are born alive. .

Also Senator Obama claims that the language in the U.S. Senate bill was different than language in the Illinois Bill. He even called pro lifers and Bill Bennet liars over the issue. This despite the fact that he voted to change the language in a proposed bill to make that bill identical to the United States Senate bill and then oppossed the bill as amended.

Now we have a new defense for Senator Obama. The assertion that there are no babies born alive after abortions. In fact there are as was clearly shown in testimony which Mona Charon presents at the corner at national review online.

Senator Obama is as radical on abortion as it is possible to be in America.

Regarding Sarah and the Bush Doctrine

Cliff May at the corner National Review online demonstrates how a real policy expert would have answered Charlie Gibson's Question to Sarah on "the Bush Doctrine".

"But ask yourself: How would a real foreign policy sophisticate have replied to Gibson’s question?

Well, Anne-Marie Slaughter is the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. She was interviewed by Alan Johnson, for a book titled: "Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews."

Here's how the exchange begins:

Johnson: What are the central differences, and what are the elements of continuity, if any exist, between 'the Bush doctrine' and the 'grand strategy of forging a world of liberty under law'?

Slaughter: Tell me what you mean by 'The Bush Doctrine'.

In other words, Dean Slaughter gave the same answer as did Palin."

She doesn't even know what the "Bush Doctrine" is

...... and apparently neither does Charles Gibson. Just ask the guy who invented the phrase.

Senator Obama his new politics and getting tough

Senator Obama has signaled that he is getting tough. With his new politics of hope you would expect the good Senator to come out with a an ad attacking John McCain on the issues. Wrong, the Obama campaign has come out with an ad attacking John McCain because he is old (he came to the Senate in the eighties when they had clunky cell phones) and because he does not use e-mail.

I doubt John McCain, a person who flew fighter jets off of aircraft carriers was chairman of the Senate subcommittee on telecommunication and is regarded as one of the most technologically savvy senators in the Senate by other senators, is computer illiterate. The ad also insults everyone over 50. Not only a large segment of the population but one that routinely votes. And the older a person is the more likely she is to vote. Senator Obama has replaced Hope with mean. But of course Obama insists that he just wants to be looked at in terms of the issues (the issues he wants to talk about) not his record, not his experience, not his associates, just the issues.

The reason John McCain doesn't answer his own e-mails is that he can't use a keyboard thanks to the wounds inflicted upon him by the North Vietnamese during his captivity, otherwise his computer skills are quite adequate. Good job Senator Obama, attacking someone for their disability. Also from a political standpoint Obama already has the votes of people who are not voting for John McCain just because he's old. Attacking old people and people who are disabled because of injuries collected while they are prisoners of war fighting for this country doesn't seem to be the brightest move in this campaign season.

Equal pay for Equal work Obama and the twisting of reality

In Toledo Senator O'bama complained that Sarah was against equal pay for Women, suuuure, that is like Jesse Jackson being against integrated housing. It doesn't make sense and it isn't true. What Obama was talking about was Senator McCain not supporting extending the Statute of limitations under the equal pay act. McCain and Sarah are both for equal pay for Women . Deroy Murdock at National Review online shows that Obama only pays the women in his Senate office 83 cents for every dollar he pays men. John McCain pays women $1.04 for every dollar he pays men. Why the discrepancy? Obama's higher ups are men McCain's top people are women. Obama believes (with good reason) he can get away with these distortions because they will be reported in the Dem Media who will provide him cover.

Palin the Feminist

The article dad had me read is exactly why I love Palin so much. Why, when my sisters called and asked me what I thought I of Sarah Palin I exclaimed, "Vote for her? I want to be her!" I am a feminist. I am excited about the possibility of a woman in the white house, and was excited even as I cringed at the idea of it being Hillary Clinton. I thought it would take much longer than this. My nieces will not remember a time when this glass ceiling did not have a million cracks in it. I am excited by the kind of woman Palin is; the kind of feminist Palin is. She is strong and confident. She does what needs to she needs to do in order to complete the tasks at hand. Like the pioneer women, the women who went to work in the factories during war time, my grandmother who told off doctors as a labor and delivery nurse when they weren't doing right by their patience, or the woman down the hall from me who as a single mother put her self through college and now teaches ninth grade that is so feared by the entire community even the bus drivers respect her name Palin is good at her job. She has children she loves deeply and a husband that is "her guy" and has been since high school. That does not mean that she isn't a feminist. It means the traditional life worked in a lot of ways for her. Why shouldn't it? Why can't she have a family and a career? So many women in this life do now. They have a career and a family, get promotions as they join the PTA, or like my Grammy tell of doctors and then come home and cook dinner. Why are we afraid of this in the white house?

Competent women make up the majority of the people educating American children, manning hospitals as nurses, and as of last year graduating from law school. There is no reason one cannot also run the country. But the double standard comes out so obviously in the press. Bristol is not the only white house kid who didn't live up to the expectations of her parents. But because it is her mother running, it is an issue. There were suggestions that her political success will lead to her failing as a mother to a special needs child. She is a feminist, and she is fighting for the cause with everything she has.

Palin believes in the sanctity of the life of an unborn child. That does not make her anti-woman. It makes her against abortion. There are thousands of ways that women are being kept down every single day. The most blatant of which is the sexual abuse statistics in this country. One in four college women is sexually abused during their college careers, nearly a third of the women returning from Iraq have been raped. My male students think it is okay to refer to a classmate as a ho, or cat call them in the hallway. Almost everyone teen I know uses "girl" or a derogatory word for the vagina as an insult. I am adamantly opposed to all of this and am fighting for things to change. I make feminism a priority in my classroom. And I believe that a fetus is a life and needs to be protected. This does not disqualify me from being a feminist. It just makes me a different kind; a Sarah Palin kind of feminist.

Intrade is a betting parlor for politics, in 2004 as tradesport it predicted the winner of the presidential race and 49 of the 50 States. Since the race became clearly Obama v. McCain Intrade favored Obama. It was about Obama 70 McCain 30 for quite a while but the numbers closed dramatically after the conventions. Since they are using real money intade normally reflects reality. Today for the first time intrade favors John McCain 51 to Obama 47. You can check it and track it at Real Clear Politics. This swing is remarkable and if you bought McCain early you can sell right now and almost double your money. If he wins you get paid $100. It is a relief that the market now believes (narrowly) McCain will win but anything can happen. We have to work, work work.

An article for Thea D.

Camilla Paglia writes an article in Salon on Sarah which I think Thea D. would agree with once she gets by the nasty remarks aimed ar McCain. Paglia is what I call a reasonable leftist (a dying breed). I am sure she will take heat for this article and maybe that is why she heaps derision on Senator McCain calling the mention of his 5 year imprisonment Sadomasochistic and the Senator himself a beady eyed Vampire. I doubt it will protect her from the left because it is Sarah who is threatening their lust for power not McCain. Check out this paragraph.

"Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment." The article continues in this vein.

Sarah and anorher Special child

I heard Rush, who I don't listen to often, talking to a man with a little down syndrome girl about his family meeting Sarah and John McCain on a campaign stop. The dialogue had me choking up. The picture posted at Limbaugh's website needs to go in a McCain ad. At The corner National review on line Kathyrn Jean Lopez puts the dialogue and picture together like so.

Meeting Chloe Nolan Kathyrn Jean Lopez

This exchange is from today's Rush Limbaugh Show:

CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that —

...

So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?" RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.

CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.

Interesting Weather

According to my google weather in Toledo the Wind is blowing from the Southwest at 0 miles per hour. The sound of one hand clapping.

Obama Critizes Sarah on earmarks are you kidding me.?

This from the Politico. ,

“Obama said at a town hall here (in Terre Haute Indiana). “But when you [have] been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. That is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up.”"Obama said at a town hall here (in Terre Haute Indiana). “But when you [have] been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. That is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up.”

Are you kidding me. Who the heck is advising the good Senator or is he doing this on his own.
Does the man from Chicago as usual politics want to take on the Governor who stopped the bridge to nowhere and trade earmark records with her or for that matter John McCain? Didn’t his advisers tell him don’t ever say earmarks on the campaign trail.

This from the New York times in May:

“Senator Barack Obama on Thursday released a list of $740 million in earmarked spending requests that he had made over the last three years, and his campaign challenged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to do the same....

The list included $1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois”.

Has the man got a political death wish. Now the big story could be how much Presidential Candidate Barrack Obama is in the political earmark tank tank vis a vis Veep choice Sarah Palin.

I doubt if Sarah received 740 Million dollars as Mayor or 220 million dollars which is what Obama secured for his friends in Illinois. It is more interesting when a closer examination of wh got Obamas earmarks occurs.

And what of the earmarks sought by John McCain the guy Barack is supposed to be running against. Zip, Zip, Zip. McCain is was and is always against earmarks.

Keep growling girl!

No one has asked Obama how the move would effect his children, how his daughters would feel if they had to have their first dates with the secret service tagging along.

No one has asked Joe Biden why he didn't give up his political career when his family went into crisis.

No one has asked if Obama wants any more children, or what he would do if his wife got pregnant while he was in office.

My mother was able to have a career, a working household and at least 2 flourishing girl scout troops all at the same time. With my father working. My college speech coach had a baby, nursed during all the meetings and the coaching sessions, taught her classes, and coached the team to a national championship in our division. My grandmother had five children, went back to get her certification and taught the third grade.

Women all over the country can and do manage a career and a family beautifully. Why wouldn't Palin be able to do it on a national scale, especially with such a supportive husband?

Lies and the lying liars that tell them.

"Hey teacher, I watched that convention like you told me to. Did you know that there are a lot of Caucasians there? I had no idea that white people were democrats!"



In my students world, everything is black and white. If you like black people you vote for Barrack Obama. If you vote for John McCain it is because you don't care about black people.



It has been a very confusing time for my students as I wear a McCain button on my bag, but also care deeply about them. It is even more confusing when I explain to them why I am voting for McCain.



An old student came to see me Friday and discuss the voting choice I was making she so deeply disapproved of. How could I vote for him? I explained to her that Obama supported abortion she understood. But it made me aware of how misinformed everyone is. And how easy it is to manipulate people with lies.

But it isn't just my kids who are misinformed. I have friends who won't vote for Obama because they believe he is a terrorist, still. Or they won't vote for him because he will "only make decisions for black people" as though a white guy is the only one capable of considering what is best for all Americans.

Satan is the father of lies. He thrives in confusion and hate. The more lies that get told the more hate there seems to be in the political world. The more hate and confusion the harder it is to get anything done. The more hate speak, on either side, and lies, from either side the more people are manipulated.

Even if McCain lost the election, which would break my heart, but there was no manipulation, no lies, no hate, then this election year would be beautiful.

It will be close

I just posted this at the Powerline forum.

JOHN adds: There really is no case to be made for the go along/get along careerist, Barack Obama. McCain will win, and it won’t be particularly close.

I agree there is no case to be made for O’bama the Organizer being President, but I don’t think McCain-Sarah supporters should even be thinking “McCain will win, and it won’t be particularly close” McCain will win and it will be close. This ain’t over Democrats MSM Academia and George Soro’s want to win baaadly. You think they hate our President because of Iraq? They hate him because he has power and they don’t and they have to hate him and get the country to hate him to get the power back. All this change stuff, real change that will hurt their power (not just the Dems) and more importantly their pocket book is going to scare the hell out of them. We need to work, work, work, work to make that happen. And Pray! Neither of those things will happen if we start thinking McCain will win, and it won’t be particularly close. It will be close Florida a 250 vote shift and Al would have been President, Ohio a 50,000 vote swing and John Kerry would have been president. It shouldn’t be close but it will be. And only work will make it happen.

Sarah hits Home Run

Sarah knocked it out of the park a hat trick in the Seventh game of the Stanley Cup. Sarah struck just the right tone and there is no question she is a pit bill with lipstick and she ripped the left wing establishment a new one, all with smile, grace and charm. First she got the special needs family's votes, then Harry Truman small town America, then the blue collar vote. Then everyone who doesn't like Harry Reid and the Washington establishment.

I love the line "servant's heart" when she describes her view of public service. Evangelicals understand this phrase is code for, well, servant's heart and the left can't understand the phrase at all. This is the second speech she has used it in and it really does describe John McCain and I believe Sarah as well. It is her phrase I have never heard McCain or any other politician use it before. The phrase is common in evangelical circles and connotes the best of what evangelical Christianity is and what public service from the school board member to the President should be.

The left was right to try to destroy her before the country gets to know her. It is too late now. She is every bit the rhetorical equal of Obama and she is real. Joe Biden, Michael Moore, Barrack Obama, and yes the Clintons be afraid, be very afraid. A new sun is rising on conservatism, family values, the Republican party and Women in politics and that sun is named Sarah.

I"ve had this feeling before

It was about two maybe three years ago I was listening on the radio to our local high school Football team playing in the second or third round of the State play offs. In Ohio where football is king this was rarefied air that I was unacostomed to breathing. The game, which was being played on the other side of the State in the shadow of the football hall of fame, was close and our team was doing well when in the third and fourth quarters the referees started making outrageous calls and non calls helping the other side to win, we were being homered big time. The unfairness of it all was breath taking but what could you do other than go home as the other team advanced.

The same feeling came over me watching the networks covering the Republican convention. The networks are supposed to be the referees just reporting what is happening but of course they are not. They are Democrats covering a Republican convention and they are going to do everything they can to blunt the Rebublican message. Will this homering cause the Democrats to prevail. We will see but now I remember where I have had this feeling.

Watching The 3 Networks covering the convention

I do not have cable television so I am stuck watching the convention on The National Barak, American Barak or Columbia Barak networks. You have to keep shifting the channel to watch the speakers because the networks would rather you watch them belittling the proceedings or the last speaker or trying to minimize the proceedings so you get as negative and dismissive a view as possible. With sufficient surfing you can watch most of the speeches but the bias from the press is amazing.

Sarah and the Youth

I know this is just an anecdote but I have a very smart eighth grade nephew who follows politics closely. I happened to see him this weekend and He said "McCain has it(the election) in the bag with the Palin pick". He is a big Hillary supporter and is not fond of Obama but I was really surprised to hear this from a youth who sends me e-mail on Global warming and dessertification.

Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq

Victor Davis Hanson is one of my favirite commentators. I read him at National Review Online and pajamas media. Here he gives some perspective to Iraq and the Presidents future place in history.

Sarah Palin... I'm In Love

I cannot tell you how excited I am about McCain picking Sarah Palin as his VP choice. I took a quiz that picked Sarah Palin as my ideal VP choice about three months ago and have been secretly hoping that McCain would pick her. But I did not see it as a possibility. I mean, Alaska is a red state and he doesn't need the help there. Looking back I should have blogged about how she was the perfect choice and looked like a genius right about now.

There are a million reasons I am in love with Sarah Palin. Where do I begin.

1. She is truly pro-life. Not just in the "I am pro-life because it is what republicans do" way. In the "I believe abortion is bad for mothers and babies. I am a feminist for life. I am blessed by my down syndrome baby number five" kind of way. She is a politician who articulates how you can be a feminist and deeply pro-life on a national scale. That way I don't look like a freak in both the pro-life and feminist circles I run in.

2. She sold her own jet. On e-bay. If every single government employee flew coach we could save a lot of money. I am not joking. I fly coach and I have a muscle disorder. Why not my representatives that use my tax dollars? Sarah Palin takes fiscal responsibility seriously. She didn't really need a jet It cost her tax payers a lot of money. She didn't even pay someone to sell it for her. She used e-bay. Way to save the tax payers a couple of BILLION dollars.

3. She thinks tax payers should decide how to spend their own money. When she had a giant surplus she returned it. Like any private corporation that over charges you, she believes in returning the extra portion.

4. She is incredibly articulate. Wow. Find her speech on you tube.

5. She has a vagina. I am so moved by McCains decision to pick a woman as his second in command. I have often struggled with the idea that maybe republicans don't take women seriously. I know that there are women who are important in the republican party, but between Madame speaker, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama I have been disheartened by what on the surface looked like the democrats taking leaps where the republicans are taking baby steps. But now it is clear that isn't the case. I can be really proud of this ticket. When I vote for McCain I will be able to tell people that I got to vote for a woman on a presidential scale.

6. It is a smart pick. Dear sad clinton voters, have some candy and a woman on a presidential ticket. Please be our friends.

There are many other reasons that I am sure will come out later as to why I love Sarah Palin. But this is a pretty good start.

Again on Sarah after some thought

I posted this to a Powerline comment thread this morning. I like the term Force Multiplier for her.

I have been up all night thinking what a Great choice Govenor Sarah Palin is for Veep. Sarah (as she is quickly becoming known to Republican and conservative rank and file)is a Force Multiplier because She highlights all that is right with John McCain and all that is wrong with Joe Biden and Barrack Obama. Sarah is a Force Multiplier in the following ways (just to name a few): 1. Like John McCain Sarah is real Biden and Obama are fakes or should I say politicians. 2. Like John McCain Sarah is an outsider McCain’s Outsiderness is often lost because he has been around Washington so long picking Sarah highlights this huge plus for McCain. 3. Like John McCain Sarah is a reformer with a capital R. Although I am a conservative and disagree with McCain on some issues I realize that McCain’s work on things like election reform comes from a true desire to make the system better. 4. Like John McCain Sarah is a true fiscal conservative and her fight against the bridge to no where highlights McCain’s refusal to play the earmark game and Biden and Obama’s immersion in that game. Particularly Obama’s corrupt earmarks for Michelle’s hospital and Biden’s family lobbying practices. 5. Like John McCain Sarah is squeaky clean. 6. Like John McCain Sarah is Prolife and poved it. McCain has been 100% prolife on the big stuff but doesn’t get the credit (maybe because he is uncomfortabel talking about it). Sarah doesn’t have to talk about it she is living it. Because of her choices Sarah is a living advertisement for prolife. &. McCains choice of Sarah highlight’s the fact that O’bama is a radical who defends a Womens “right to choose” even if defending that choice means letting a viable infant who survived an abortion die in an Illinois hospital laundry room unattended rather than pass legislation to protect that infant. 7. Sarah is the only person in the race who has had executive experience and thus highlights Obama’s lack of said experience. 8. Sarah and McCain are neither one Lawyers. 9. The only thing O’bama can say about Sarah is she has no foreign policy experience the pot calling the kettle black. Well done Senator.

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McCain scores with Sarah as V.P. Choice

I have been listening to and getting more and more excited about Sarah Palin. John McCain's choice for Veep. I love her reference to a servant's heart when has a politician said anything like that. She is conservative and a reformer and the people's choice. She is a force multiplier for McCain in the area's of Changing Washington, John McCain is not George Bush (as much as I love the President and think he will be regarded as great some day today is not that day) political realities are political realities, humility versus arrogance, and most importantly prolife. James Dobson is convinced. So is Rush, So is Hugh Hewitt. Many Many conservatives are ecstatic and ready to work. I hope Thea D will weigh in on this choice.

Be afraid be very afraid?

I posted the folowing as a comment at IUSB vision Weblog comment:

The chilling thing is the way Obama and his campaign are trying desperately through thugs threats and worst of all demands on the Justice Department that people be prosecuted for letting the American people know that Obama and Ayers were more than passing acquaintances and in fact were thick as thieves (as my Mother would say). I Kid with Larry at no left turnz about see you in the camps believing it is just a joke. Now I’m not so sure. If you are going to demand that the Justice Department prosecute people for telling the truth when you’re not in power what will you do whenn you are in power?

This is a worst case senario which if I thought would actually happen would make me consider shutting down. The point is Obama's response is very troubling. More on this latter.

The We in We're Open all Night

Hello all who stumble upon this blog. I am excited to be participating in this piece of the American Pie. I was invited to this page because I am the youngest of Theo P's daughters and the only one interested in politics. (My other two sisters are happy to vote based on the cheat sheet my father sends them in the mail.) I also love to write.

Politically I am not as party line as Theo P is. I label myself a libertarian when someone forces me to check a box. But it is hard to say really. I am fiercely pro life, but from a feminist perspective. I believe women are hurt by abortion, and legalized abortion puts all of the responsibility of that decision on the woman, not okay. But I do worry about the state of back alley and over the border abortions if Roe v. Wade were ever overturned.

Mostly I care deeply about education. I am a public school teacher in one of the hardest schools in one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. I am well aware the public school system is failing millions of students. They are my kids. I teach them, we share life. I want better for them. I don't think NCLB is cutting it. In my experience (full disclosure, my school has never made AYP) it is the best teachers who are punished, and so they move on to a school that will succeed.

Unfortunately for me, education does not seem to be a huge issue this election cycle. I have checked both candidates policies and think they both stink.

I will try to remain on subject, as this is a political blog, but don't be surprised if my students (from here on identified as my kids) sneak in.

It ain't easy being gentle of spirit When the LIbs may win

I originally posted this in May of 2007. I am posting it again to remind myself. My new found friend Larry over at No Left Turnz was nice enough to look at We're Open all Night and to mention he liked "the seasoned with salt" thing even though He is more of a Jalapeno Pepper. The conservative movement needs both and other spices to if we are to succeed. I love National Review online and Powerline for their Intellect, analysis, and insight. I read them in the morning and then listen to them quoted and their text referred to all day long on talk radio (often without attribution). I love Bill Bennett who brings candor intelligence and good will to my morning, only in America can I pick up the phone and have a shot at talking to a former drug Czar and Sec. of Education . I love Annie and Rush for their Humor and ability to throw a jab right to the Liberal solar plexis even though I sometimes think they go over the top often unnecessarily. I Love Hannity for his bulldog tenacity. There are many more, Victor Davis Hansen even Christopher Hitchens when he is not talking Atheism, Bill O'Rielly and the gang at Townhall. All are needed and welcome. Anyway Here is my reminder. Things haven't gotten easier since May of 2007. You may replace the Clintons with BHO at least for the present.

God calls us to be gentle in spirit and voice, our conversation always seasoned with salt. This admonition on the mast head of We're Open All Night is harder to heed these days. It is easy to be gentle in spirit and voice when your side seems to be winning the political wars at least for the moment and your trust in the American voter is vindicated by the return to the White House of a President who is doing what needs to be done to keep your grand daughter from some day shopping at "Berkas R Us" while appointing Supreme Court Justices who aren't out to amend the Constitution by judicial fiat. It is much tougher to heed that call when the same American voter puts the other guys in control of the House and Senate and "She who's name shall not be spoken" seems to be headed for the White House along with her cigar smoking? perjury committing husband (See what I mean that wasn't gentle in spirit).

So I must redouble my efforts trust that the American people will eventually do what is right if given the opportunity and stay gentle in spirit and in speech seasoned with salt remembering that through such activities God conquered the Roman Empire and he might still be working in America.

Ten Reasons I am voting for John McCain

Reason 10 McCain on energy Nuclear Drill Obama on energy blow up your tires

Reason 9 McCain stands up to his party Obama toes the party line

Reason 8 McCain may be fiscally responsible Obama will tax and spend, tax and spend, tax....

Reason 7 McCain believes in private sector solutions Obama believes in Big Goverment.

Reason 6 McCain 5 years in the Hanoi Hilton Obama 20 years in Trinity Church of Christ

Reason 5 Obama hangs with Radicalls McCain hangs with who can get the job done

Reason 4 McCain instrumental in SURGE wants Victory Obama wants a pull out victory be D..

Reason 3 McCain is Prolife Obama is pro Obama

Reason 2 McCain is a Warrior Obama is a Lawyer

AND the number one reason I am voting for McCain

McCain loves his Country Obama Loves himself

Gearing up for the election and more

It has been a while since I have posted on We're Open All Night but that is over. This election is to important to stay quiet. Also although W doesn't need me to defend him President Bush needs somebody and from time to time It is going to be moi. For those of you who embarrass Barrack O'bama by not speaking French that means its going to mean me. (they don't call him Chimpy Mcpunchingbag on the lefty Blogs because he goes out of the way to defend himself. I would like to give a thank you to Larry at No Left Turnz who unwittingly encouraged me to start blogging again.

Social Conservatives should deal with Rudy

Today I posted at Powerline forum an off shoot of my favorite political blog by the same name.

I believe Rudy is the only Republicans who can beat “she who must not be named”. For one thing he is an expert at handling and taking down what will surely be a hostile MSM. I also am, a strong prolifer but I do not think that losing the white house to Hil. R C will protect unborn babies. I would not only vote for but work for Rudy if he would do two things: 1. Commit to not spending tax payer money killing babies and 2. Commit not to the general principal of constructionist Judges but to a specific list of candidates he would appoint starting with DC appellate Judge Janice Rogers Brown, on that list could be Rick Santorum and Mike DeWine both solid prolife ex Senators. The last precedent for this Eisenhower making a deal with Earl Warren was a disaster for conservatives. A deal committing to specific appointees now could turn that around and make it OK for prolifers including myself to get behind Rudy.

God Calls Me to be gentle in spirit

God calls us to be gentle in spirit and voice, our conversation always seasoned with salt. This admonition on the mast head of We're open all night is harder to heed these days. It is easy to be gentle in spirit and voice when your side seems to be winning the political wars at least for the moment and your trust in the American voter is vindicated by the return to the White House of a President who is doing what needs to be done to keep your grand daughter from some day shopping at "Berkas R Us" while appointing Supreme Court Justices who aren't out to amend the Constitution by judicial fiat. It is much tougher to heed that call when the same American voter puts the other guys in control of the House and Senate and "She who's name shall not be spoken" seems to be headed for the White House along with her cigar smoking? perjury committing husband (See what I mean that wasn't gentle in spirit).

So I must redouble my efforts trust that the American people will eventually do what is right if given the opportunity and stay gentle in spirit and in speech seasoned with salt remembering that through such activities God conquered the Roman Empire and he might still be working in America.