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."