Drunken Mystic

Merry Christmas, conservatives!  You have a huge scandal in the Democratic party, possibly affiliated with Obama!  And he hasn’t even taken office yet!

Seriously, this story is everywhere, and everyone is talking about it.  No shock to me, although I giggled when the AP story I read today mentioned that Blogo was elected in 2002 in order to clean up after a very corrupt governor … and that governor is still in jail, I believe.  Blogo might join him.

The Obama manic media is doing its best to help Barak distance himself from this guy … but I’m telling you Obama may not have known what this guy was doing, but he knew the governor pretty well and was associated with the man.  The “I never spoke with the man about this” is as much a lie as “I didn’t know Jeremiah Wright held these views.”

I told someone (I don’t remember who … you don’t have to trust me) before the election that if elected, we would see scandal after scandal around Obama.  He’s been tied to corruption and radicalism like few politicians ever before.  But give the media credit.  They’re working harder than a lipless chick in a kissing booth to cover for him.  I doubt anything will stick, but you’ll continue to see it.

Joe the Plummer said some interesting things about the McCain campaign.  First of all, he was sickened by McCain’s justification of the Wall Street buyout when he directly asked ol’ Maverick John about it.  Joe the Plummer isn’t a liberal, so the chances of him writing a book is slim, but it might happen.  Joe did say that Palin was the “real deal”, however.  Oh, and despite how sickened he was by McCain, Obama scared him even more.

Interesting to me because I’ve said that if McCain had stood against the buyout, he would have won in a landslide.  Hopefully Maverick John really believed in it, because I seriously think it cost him the election.

A woman tried to smuggle a monkey into LA by putting it under her blouse and pretending to be pregnant.  She’s probably a Darwinist.

A cat bit Santa this week.  Apparently, some people take their pets to PetSmart to get a pic with Santa.  They probably dress them up in weird clothes, too.  Story says that the woman bought the cat from a breeder for $1,500.  Okay, that’s ridiculous.

Peace.

Bully media of the week –

First, we get an AP article detailing how the Bush administration is at fault in the current crisis.  I have yet to see the same attention in the mainstream to the Clinton administration and Congressional Democrats and their actions that also led to this mess.

Second, another article “exposing” Oprah Winfrey and her association with a main Republican donor, even while she publicly supported Obama for president.  This Republican donor gives a whole lot of money to one of her charities, is in fact the biggest donor besides Oprah herself (note: more than any of her liberal friends) and the article exposes this and questions Oprah’s integrity in the process, more than suggesting this Republican of criminal activity.

Where was this detail and vetting of Obama and his long term associations?  Blatantly absent.

Third, President Bush was given a PEACE award for his work to battle the AIDS epidemic in Africa during his presidency.  He’s done more than any other president previously, including Clinton.  And yet Kanye gets to slander Bush by saying he “hates black people.”  Hmn.  Have you heard anything about this award to Bush?  If it had been a Democratic president, past or future, I guarantee front page news.

So I voted again this week. I had some time.  It was quick and painless.  Yeah, I mostly voted for Chambliss because I didn’t want the Dems to get a 60 seat Senate majority, but I don’t know how much it matters.  I don’t have much confidence in the Republicans to get their act together enough to make some real change either.

I’ve been against every bailout for several reasons, but agains the car manufacturer bailout, as well.  Specifically, Congress won’t address the real problems with these companies … unions and over-regulation, both of which will probably get worse as requirements to get the money for a bailout.

The coup in Thailand and the terrorism in India captured a lot of my attention this last week.  Been praying for my friends in those nations and the nations themselves.

Funny story of the week — In a nice gesture of reaching out, Obama called a Republican House representative to congratulate her on her victory and start a working relationship (she’s on a major House committee).  She thought it was a radio prank and hung up on him.

Obama had Rahm Immanuel call to confirm this was really the president-elect.  She laughed and hung up on him again.

The third time they got someone she personally knew on the phone to confirm that this was really Barak Obama calling her.  She felt embarassed and they had a nice conversation on foreign policy.

Ridiculously sad story of the month — OK, so at the traditional site of Christ’s crucifixion, there’s the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Six Christian sects share the Church.

Well, on Nov 9 of this year, a brawl broke out between some Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks over who gets to go into the tomb of Jesus when.  The Greek clergy tried to force their way into being included and the Armenians forcefully resisted.

These monks threw punches and “anything they could get their hands on.”

Sadly, this happens often.

Yes, for those of you interested, there’s a video here.

Peace.

Despite what some may see as my overwhelmingly “conservative” views on some subjects, I find myself in a funny position with conservatives on the War in Iraq.

Over the last century, up until the time of Ronald Regan, the Democrats were consistently the pro-war crowd.  An interesting mix, they were domestically and socially liberal but very strong on national defense, especially through the Cold War.

The one exception before Regan was Teddy Roosevelt, but I don’t really count him as a Republican.  He acted way more like a Democrat.  He was a hard liberal who also happened to be a Republican.  He picked a fight in Central America so he could build the Panama Canal.

Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was president during WWI, a fairly reasonless war when you come right down to it.  To give Wilson credit, he wasn’t a war hawk necessarily, but as allies with Britain and France and popular opinion swaying against Germany, he knew it was only a matter of time.

FDR, a Democrat, was president during WWII.  Truman, a Democrat, dropped not one but two atomic bombs and then got us involved in the Korean War.

Who got us out of the Korean War?  Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican and a general who knew a little about war.

The next major conflict the US was involved in was Vietnam.  The presidents responsible for that debacle?  Two Democrats for the price of one, Kennedy and Johnson (especially Johnson).  We could also talk about how Kennedy’s presidency was the closes we ever got to real nuclear war with the Cuban Missle Crisis … but let’s stick with the Vietnam War.

While a noble cause during the Cold War, the US lost from the beginning.  Vietnam had been yanked around by the French, then raped by the Japanese, then got corrupt leaders supported by the West, all until they were completely tired of Western aggression and imperialism.  Communism sounded pretty good (it does at first … Yes We Can!) and the people were in love with Ho Chi Min.  While we won every battle we fought in that conflict, the hearts of the Vietnamese people were lost from the start.  We had supported and set up too many opressive and corrupt leaders.

So in ’68, Nixon was elected as president by advantage of a severely divided Democratic party over the Vietnam War.  Nixon gets a bad rap because the liberal media hated him and he was a paranoid grump.  But he was probably one of our better presidents this century … I’d probably put him ahead of all or most of the Democrats.

Who pulled us out of Vietnam?  Nixon, a Republican.  You know what else Nixon did?  He met with Mao Tse Tung.  That was one crazy Chinese communist dude, but Nixon was teh first American president to personally reach out to him and recognize the communist Chinese government … during the Cold War.

Jimmy Carter was the first Democratic president in 50 years NOT to get us into a war.  He was such a weak president in EVERY area that Regan was a shoo-in.

With Regan, you had a Republican president strong on defense and domestically conservative.  For his views on defense, Regan could have been another JFK.  The Carter/Regan transition is where the Republicans picked up this war hawk mentality that had previously belonged to the Democrats.

Okay, so what’s the lesson here?  Two things: first, the Democrats should love Nixon.  He was a cheater who pulled the country out of an unpopular war and met with an infamous dictator.  He should be their hero.  And they should be careful criticizing modern Republican war hawks – there’s plenty of violent war blame to go around in their party, too.

For the Republicans, they shouldn’t demonize Obama for suggesting the very things Nixon did over 30-40 years ago in the midst of the Cold War.

I’m not saying Obama will be a great commander in chief.  I think I have more military experience that he does, but to demonize him as a “cut and run” guy and willing to meet with evil dictators “without preconditions” is not necessarily anti-conservative or anti-Republican or always the wrong thing to do.

One of the things I respect most about Obama is he voted against the War in Iraq in the first place.  At least he’s been consistent.  I might have voted against it, too.  Not because I believe that Bush was a liar or some insane guy after Hussein, but I felt at the time it wasn’t the wisest of things to do.

Before you give me Hannity’s talking points, I understand we don’t want to leave it in worse shape than before, but that could realistically take another decade depending on your criteria.  We’ve done some good things in Iraq, a new government, trained their security forces, improved their infastructure.  Maybe it is time we have faith in what we’ve done and let go.

Peace.

Well, it has been an interesting week.  Obama was elected president, and we’re still talking about Sarah Palin.

Really?  I mean, come on.  Let’s think about the absurdity of a press who shrugs off any negative story on Obama (his support of domestic terrorists, rampant corruption in his state and federal positions) and they still report the most inane rumors they can find on Sarah Palin a week after she loses the election.

Really?

Some unknown source says she didn’t know that Africa is a continent … Hey, I’ve got an email with a video in it where Obama slips up and mentions his “Muslim faith.”  You gonna run with that, too?

No.  What we ask Obama is: what kind of dog will you get your daughter?  How do you feel about the BCS?

Hannity keeps saying 2008 is the year journalism died.  At first I suspected he was just being negative … I’m starting to believe him.

On a related front, the Obama campaign kicked off three newspapers from traveling with them, the only three who had backed McCain for the presidency.  I wonder what would have happened if McCain had kicked off all reporters associated with the major networks besides Fox News and the newspapers that backed Obama … hmnn.  By the way, Fox News, the only interview to really give Obama a tough time and tough questions, is also being frozen out by the Obama staff.

These are the actions of a despot, not the “leader of the FREE world.”

In the spirit of bipartisanship, promised by Obama himself on election night, Obama appointed one of the most partisan Democrats around, this according to the New York Times and the LA Times, as his Chief of Staff.  I must have a different definition of bipartisan in my dictionary …

Although Obama has spoken out about Reid trying to get rid of Lieberman as head of his Senate comittee, but who knows how sincere that is and what will happen.  Talk is if Lieberman is openly censored like this, he’ll switch parties.

One of the bright spots this week is the overwhelming kindness and graciousness shown by Bush and his administration.  It is rare for the sitting president of an opposing party to be so gracious so soon.  Good for G,W.

I’m sure Michael Moore is making a documentary on some diabolical conspiracy behind why Bush is being so nice.

Peace.

Now, as you view this, I’m sure that there are many Obama supporters very genuine and grounded … but this has got to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.  I laughed hard.

Link to video here.

Peace.

Hmnnn …  Where to start?

Well, I’ll begin with more natural, worldly thoughts: the Republicans deserved to lose this election for many reasons.  For six years, the Bush administration had a Republican controlled House and Senate and did very little that could justify keeping the Republicans in power.  They were content to play status quo, too anxious of a media ready to pounce at any real revolutionary idea (fixing Social Security, Fair Tax, etc.).

Also, McCain messed up his one shot to win this election.  Hindsight being 20/20 and all, he was ahead in the polls after choosing Palin, but when the “economic crisis” occurred, McCain and Palin both responded with the same rhetoric spewing from the Democrats and Bush.  A large percentage of Americans were against the bailout.  If McCain had taken a position against the bailout, citing his reluctance to put more money at the hands of corrupt politicians and CEOs, he would have distanced himself from the Democrats and the unpopular Bush.  After that “economic crisis” and bailout business, McCain fell too far behind to catch up.

You can only assume that McCain followed his beliefs and gut and took a stand where he thought best.  I respect the guy, but I really do think it cost him the election.

I’m not too worried about a Democratic president with a Dem majority in Congress.  Here’s why: Clinton had it for a couple years at the beginning of his presidency and did nothing with it until the Republicans got their act together and made a play.  And as stated earlier, the Republicans also just wasted six years in the same position, twiddling their thumbs most of the time instead of trying to enact real and positive change.

For evidence of the nasty, racist, sexist, and unreasonable division the Dems are capable of, just remember the primaries between Obama and Hillary.

Plus, the Dems have been talkers and critics for much of the last 16 years.  Oh, they do stuff every now and then (like the sub-prime mortgage stuff), but they mostly have tried to influence the system and sit back and let Bush make the decisions.  They will now be responsible for everything that happens in Washington.  They have no Republicans to blame.  This will cause many Dems to run in fright from putting their name on anything.  Their inactivity, along with the unrealistic expectations for Obama, will be a huge problem.  Maybe not enough to keep Obama from re-election, but it will have an effect.

Now on to spiritual things:

God wanted Obama to be president.  This challenges certain theologies and our democratic sensibilities, but just because we get a vote doesn’t mean God has somehow lost the power to raise up leaders as He chooses.

Let me clear, though.  This does not mean that God is pleased with Obama or even likes him.  I’m only saying that God desired to have this man as president of the US for the next four years.

Why? you may ask.  I could think of a whole host of reasons … and maybe they all have a degree of truth to them.  But the real question is what our response should be.

Pray for Obama.  Pray that our leaders will make wise and righteous judments and decisions.  Pray that God will frustrate any attempt at unrighteousness.  Bless Obama in the name of Jesus.  Do not curse him in your heart or with your words.

One reason God might have raised up Obama is to teach conservative Christians to pray for and choose to bless those whom they strongly disagree with politically.  I know a lot of Christians on both sides of the political aisle that need to learn this.  We can strongly disagree with a man or woman on issues, and some of them are very important, all while still loving and blessing that person.  We are to speak the truth in love.  That doesn’t go out the window with politics.

I’m not saying this justifies voting for a candidate with perverse, dangerous, and oppressive policies and philosophies, either.  That’s a totally different discussion, albeit an interesting one.

I’m saying its time the Church learned, as a whole, how to stand up for righteousness and against any party or candidate that perverts righteousness, all while loving and blessing those we stand against.  It is time for us to be the people of character and love we were created to be.  While disagreeing on issues is fine, do not call Democrats or Obama idiots or fools or demonize them.  They are people that God loves just as much as he loves any of us, and any human drawing breath has a chance for redemption because of the power of God.  Do not be like the “tax collectors”, only “loving” those who love you.  Love your “enemies.”

And do not be afraid.  God is in complete control.  He always has been and he always will.  He looks far beyond the next four years, and His Church should as well.  Our hope is not in a candidate or a party or an economic or political system, but in Christ and His Church.

If God brings more tough times, if they continue to get worse, then realize that this is our chance to shine, Church.  Jesus called us the “light of the world,” and light shines brighter in darkness.  Not that I wish dark times to come.  I pray that Obama is a successful president in positive ways, but I also know that God brings dark times just so the Church may shine.

Shine in peace and love.

Peace.