And whereas thou sawest Two Feathers (of the Great Eagle) under the wings passing over the head that is on the right side;

It signifieth that these are they, whom the Highest hath kept unto their end: this is the small kingdom (Zoar) and full of troubles as thou sawest...(2 Esdras 12:29,30).

AND NOW GEORGE W. BUSH Jr.

Now show them the king that they have chosen...(1 Samuel. chapter 8).

Eight years ago I was devastated at the election of William Clinton and Al Gore to the office of the American Presidency. A pall of Darkness was being drawn over the mind of the people, and every weak and feeble attempt to hold it back seemed utterly fruitless. (All the crying in the wilderness was insufficient). In my own mind it was as if the window of Revelation, which opened during the times of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., had suddenly shut again, and that the world was now in for another cycle of Darkness. Looking back on it now it even seemed as if Clinton and Gore themselves were unwary players of a sort, that they were not really to be counted among the rulers of this Great Darkness, as those who preceded them in this office, and as those who have now returned to it again. I was tempted to rationalize that they had sold their souls, becoming the warriors and destroyers they seemed not to really be, but for different reasons than the Bush cartel. They seemed to be "really" nice guys, who actually cared about the common people, and that they were in there using the political order in some grand misguided way to attain some greater good--not for themselves and the ruling class, but for others--or so it seemed. (There was no sly wickedness in their grins).

Of course I was mesmerized temporarily, and confused, and wanted to see these two in a different light than the really Dark ones: Carter, Reagan and Bush. Nevertheless, the opportunity was missed, or so it also seemed, and all because of my own spiritual ineptitude I was convinced, my own spiritual failures. The world (the world of my own understanding), seemed to be collapsing around me. Few seemed to be able to share the experience, few stopped to listen, few seemed to be awed or overwhelmed by the events that were unfolding in the earth. Those who were politically and economically aware were at the same time unconcerned about the spiritual and prophetic implications of these events. And those who had a sense of the prophetic import of our times, were either in the fundamentalist camp, or unwilling to explore the scriptures in their correct Light--in the light of the Kabbalah, in the light of the dimensions of the Tree of Life which are the keys to the meaning of things in our time. (By "few" of course, we exempt the "many" who did stop, whose minds and hearts were and are opened to these things, and who are studying in this light, and who are watching for the unfolding of certain events in the world--for the sound of the Trumpet). By "few" we actually mean the many who have a greater stake in the present political, economic and religious order of things than in the righteous order that is coming. Among these Conservatives we include Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Muslims, and the intellectual and liberal elite, the "scholars," and all others, who, as Paul said, have heaped up teachers unto themselves in these times, 2 Tim.4:3,4). We mean those to whom the words are addressed:

Therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand...

For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them...(Matthew 13:11-15; Isaiah 6:9,10).

JVIM Index Jack Van Impe Ministries International.
Do you think President Bush, a Christian man, believes or knows he’s involved with prophetic events concerning the Middle East and the final battle between good and evil? James Beaubien

First of all, Billy Graham led George W. Bush Jr. to the Lord Jesus Christ when he visited the White House. President Bush has attended many of Billy Graham’s crusades and during those crusades, Billy Graham always preaches once or twice on Christ’s return and all the prophetical signs.

Secondly, Rexella and I were in the home of President Bush Senior. What a great time we had with his wife Barbara, in fact, she’s even written us four personal letters and we have them hanging up in our memorabilia room. We gave her the message on video, “The Coming War with Russia” and many of our books to share with her husband, George Bush Sr. Of course, I now have sent the video, "Jerusalem: War or Peace" to all the leaders of our nation.

A teacher from Texas who lives down the street from the Bush’s and is a personal friend to them, asked me to come to Texas so I could personally hand him a copy. I said I couldn’t because I’m just swamped with work to do, so she said she’d personally see that he gets a copy. I know that he as seen this video, “Jerusalem: War or Peace”. His brother in Florida, Jeb Bush, has seen it because he wrote me the most heartfelt letter. SO, YES, I THINK GEORGE W. KNOWS THAT HE IS DESTINED FOR THIS FINAL HOUR IN PROPHETIC HISTORY.

__________

SEPTEMBER 2003__We could tell you why we think David Corn, a colleague who is Washington Editor of The Nation, has written the perfect book to complete a seasonal trifecta of books on the Liar-in-Chief, but his publisher hits the nail (or liar) on the head: "GEORGE W. BUSH IS A LIAR (John 8:43,44; John 10:1-13). He has lied large and small, directly and by omission. He has mugged the truth-not merely in honest error, but deliberately, consistently, and repeatedly."-- from the Introduction

All American presidents have lied, but George W. Bush has relentlessly abused the truth. In this scathing indictment of the president and his inner circle, Corn reveals and examines the deceptions at the heart of the Bush presidency. In a stunning work of journalism, he details and substantiates the many times the Bush administration has knowingly and intentionally misled the American public to advance its own interests and agenda, including:

* Brazenly mischaracterizing intelligence and resorting to deceptive arguments to whip up public support for war with Iraq * Misrepresenting the provisions and effects of the president's supersized tax cuts * Offering misleading explanations- instead of telling the full truth - about the 9/11 attacks * Lying about connections to corporate crooks * Presenting deceptive and disingenuous claims to sell controversial policies on the environment, stem cell research, missile defense, Social Security, white-collar crime, abortion, energy, and other crucial issues * Running a truth-defying, down-and-dirty campaign during the 2000 presidential contest and recount drama.

The Lies of George W. Bush is not a partisan whine -- it is instead a carefully constructed, fact-based account that clearly denotes how Bush has relied on deception -- from the campaign trail to the Oval Office -- to win political and policy battles. With wit and style, Corn explains how Bush has managed to get away with it and explores the dangerous consequences of such presidential deceit in a perilous age.

The spell that the Almighty purposed to cast over us was (and is) now upon us. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, KJV). What was there to do at that time (when Clinton came to power), but retreat into the darkness with everyone else. And while ever mindful of the words that say: In the end it shall speak, and not lie. Wait for it, it shall surely come, it was, nevertheless, a time of great personal crisis and self-doubt. But it was also written: He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. So we continued to watch and pray.

And now the cycle has come round again. But we have been assured this time that God's purposes are still being served in these matters, by the high drama, and the focus that God has created everywhere throughout the earth again upon the office of the Presidency, and upon the means men will pursue, and the extents they will go to attain this office. (The analogy of the Scecksies in the Dark Crystal is ever so fitting now). George W. Bush Jr. is preparing throughout this whole spectacle--this struggle to become, as his father before him, the most powerful man on the earth (with the power of Life and Death itself in his very own hands)--to "ascend" to the office. He is waiting for what to him is a foregone conclusion, the final tally of the vote in Florida confirming "himself" as the next President of the United States of America. (The next king of Great Babylon).

I hesitate with all my heart to say it, but Billy Graham was right there again, anointing the next in the ongoing succession of American antichrists. Thus the words: Those who forsake the law will praise the wicked. (Proverbs 28:4,5). George W. Bush called him "a great American," and "my spiritual mentor," and so he is. (Please see James 4:4). And while the "number" still devolves upon James Earl Carter (who just recently added to his own sense of himself as the world's chief spokesman to the International Globalist Community, and as the "only real chance for 'peace' and 'justice' in the world", with his break from the purely American, and purely fundamentalist Southern Baptist Convention), we were hoping at that time, before Clinton became president, that these things would have all come to a climax under the Reagan-Bush administration. The ascendancy of George W. Bush (in so many ways a gift from above for Al Gore, if he will accept it. He and Clinton have dodged a bullet, as it is), is a fulfillment of that wish. The "skull and crossbones" will not only be raised again in the Oval Office, and George Bush Sr.'s Gulf War gang will not only be back in power (continued)...

EXPERTS HELP SHAPE HIS WORLD VIEW

by Ken Fireman

WASHINGTON_Early last year, when George W. Bush was just beginning to put together his presidential campaign, he invited some of the top foreign policy luminaries from previous Republican administrations to the governor's mansion in Texas for a chat.

"I'm going to be the next president of the United States, and I need your help," one of those present, former Pentagon official Richard Perle, recalls Bush telling the group. "Not to become president--I'll take care of that. But to be a good president...I have to deal effectively with the nation's security and manage its foreign policy, and I appreciate your willingness to help me master those issues."

The anecdote reflects a number of things about the man who will be formally anointed on Thursday as the Republican nominee for president. One is Bush's supreme confidence about the outcome of the long campaign. "This is a person who can actually see himself as being president, and he is thinking today about actions to take that would be important as president," says Robert Zoellick, a former State Department official who has become one of Bush's advisers on foreign policy.

But another is Bush's relative lack of experience on international and national security issues, and his recognition of the need to bone up on those questions with specialists such as Perle...and others who advised Bush's father or President Ronald Reagan. Those advisers were selected for him by another old Bush administration hand, Defense Secretary Richard Cheney, who is now about to become the nominee's running mate...

In a series of recent speeches, Bush has taken specific positions on a number of important international and security issues. From these speeches, as well as the comments of his main advisers, it is possible to glimpse the outlines of what a Bush foreign and defense policy would look like. It would include:

A tougher approach to Russia and China than that of the Clinton administration.

A commitment to building a much more ambitious missile defense system than the present administration has proposed.

A comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear forces and strategy that could result in a drastic unilateral reduction in the number of missiles and warheads.

A more restrictive view of when U.S. troops should be committed abroad and what constitutes a vital national interest that should be advanced or protected by force.

A significant increase in military spending... Newsday, August 1, 2000.

THE AGE OF MARS

By Maureen Dowd

The nurturing, sharing, empathizing, self-examining, gossiping, bumping, grinding administration is leaving. The stern disciplinarians are on board.

The "Let's figure out how we all feel about this" White House is over. The "We know what's best, follow our rules" White House is beginning.

The lip-biting is over. The tight lips are here...We will now have a trio of presidential counselors--including the secretary of state--who hail from the macho world of the Pentagon.

We will no longer have a president who is dying to know what we think and who is dying to tell us what he thinks...Now we will have a president who thinks introspection is for sissies and justifying your actions is a nuisance.

We are saying goodbye to a president, elected by women, who talked about What Women Want, who handed over large chunks of government to his wife, and who even read Deborah Tannen to see how to better communicate with women. We are saying hello to a president, elected by white men and absentee military ballots, who defended executions and guns and wants to beef up the military, and who reads about hurricanes and sports figures.

We are going from Clinton Technicolor to Bush black-and-white. There is nothing about the government President-elect W. is putting together that feels the least bit modern...W. and Colin Powell were spotted at Morton's steak house digging into juicy porterhouses. Rummy Rumsfeld wants to revive the cold-war dream of a missile shield...

Our first boomer president and vice president tried so aggresively to be modern. There were gurus and facilitators...But the second boomer president is doing everything he can to get the power out of the boomer's hands and back into those of the grey generation between World War Two and Vietnam.

Bill Clinton was the first Age of Aquarius chief executive. But at Yale, W. was largely oblivious to the social upheaval of the 60s. He said he never liked the Beatles after they got into that "kind of wierd psychedelic period." W. is not a Renaissance Weekend guy. He's a Boca Grande guy.

If Bill and Al tried too hard to be trendy, W. tries too hard not to be. He has a defiant anti-trendy streak, curling his lip at fads and fashions and the Clinton-Gore style of finger-in-the-wind...His inner circle has a very mahogany-corporate-suite, musty-men's-club feel to it, an "I like Ike" feel.

When W. met the press with his choice for attorney general, John Ashcroft, he vividly showed how important it is to him that his White House be as leak-proof as the Skull & Bones "tomb." "When he gives me his legal advice," W. said, "you won't know about it unless I tell you." In a little while he added: "Whatever counsel it is, I hope I don't read about it." And a little later he told his designee: "Just don't tell them what your advice is."...Mr Bush will (also) discuss his prepackaged recession with business and Wall Street big shots in the privacy of the governor's mansion in Austin. The event will be closed to TV and the press. I can already tell that W.'s vexed answer, when asked to justify anything, will be identical to his father's: "If you're so smart, why aren't you president?"

Just call it the drowning of the Age of Aquarius.

REPUBLICAN GANG GEARS UP TO TAKE US BACK TO THE FUTURE

By Maureen Dowd

I'm getting excited just thinking about it. I'm dreaming of that moment when the thrill returns.

All those Texas fat cats landing at Reagan airport, wing to jowl, in their Lear jets. All the monogrammed snakeskin cowboy boots and Neiman Marcus fur coats. All those familiar Establishment suits lumbering in to claim their rightful places at the Cabinet table. Dick Cheney...back in the West Wing saddle. Lee Greenwood back at the inaugural. Aerobic golf at Kennebunkport. The horseshoe pit restored outside the Oval. The English language once more under siege by an American President...

The world has been transformed in the past eight years, with cyberspace colonized and the Internet infiltrating every corner of life...Angry white men have become fat, happy white men. And W., with his sunny emptiness and a tax plan that will protect the windfalls reaped in the Clinton-Gore years, is their guy.

Now comes another antsy President Bush who reads sporadically and prefers reports to be delivered orally. It just proves the staying power of the Establishment. The insiders simply call themselves outsiders and say they disdain Washington and big government, and then gullible voters send the inside-outsiders right back to make government bigger, their résumé's longer and their private-sector contacts wider for future "self-made" cashing-in.

The capital has been much duller since the nasty congressional Republicans faded into the background. It was so exhilarating when Newt Gingrich and his helmet-haired henchmen were shutting down the government, eliminating school lunches, cutting Granny's Medicare, impeaching the President, and mocking Barney Frank.

We lost sight of Newt's successors, those vivacious valets of viciousness--Trent Lott, Tom DeLay, and Dick Armey--when the Bush campaign hid them in a lockbox. But now we are on the verge of welcoming these bully boys front and center again, as they resume ramming their conservative agenda down America's throat.

The Hill Republicans have been sniggering at their nominee's blarney, all that chuckleheaded stuff about compassionate-conservatism and bridging the partisan gap. Civility is not their preferred special interest. And they think it will be easy to maneuver the tyro W., whose schedule could well make Ronald Reagan's look grueling, to be even more generous to pharmaceutical companies, monopolies like Microsoft, big polluters, and big businesses looking to limit lawsuits...

And it will be so assuring to have Charleston Heston packing heat--doing glam drop-bys at D.C. restaurants and dinner parties, once the NRA opens that office in the Bush White House its been bragging about. I'm breathless with anticipation. How about you? The Richmond Times Dispatch.

...but the (wholly unstable) American electorate will in some ways more fittingly get the leader they want and deserve. Nay, but we will have a king over us. (1 Samuel, chapter 8). Oh it is true that William Clinton truly loved being king, what with his own imposing figure that he was so enamored with, his own delusions of grandeur, his initial beliefs that he could change the system of things, which he soon abandoned for the lights and the glamour of the office itself. And oh those motorcades that carried him here and there (constantly disrupting the lives of everyone around him), to the always present refrain of Hail Caesar! William Clinton loved it all, and imagined it all. (And it is no doubt true that Al Gore would have loved it all too, even while trying to be the good leader--in the most liberal sense of it all). But America is about the fulfillment of God's design; it is about the mind of Man coming to spiritual perfection, and about the sanctification of the Name of Christ and the perfection of God's Word in the earth. It is about Light emerging from Darkness. It is about purging the Universal Israel of all of its worldly dross, and of every slightest propensity it may ever have in the future for reverting again to the ways of this present world and the evils of this age.

Those on the Left will be purged as it is with the reemergence of Jimmy Carter who, like themselves, professes a much higher vision for both America and the world, but one just as deadly in the end. The end of this age is all about war, as it is written: Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of Decision, (Joel 3:14). And despite Carter's voluminous talk of peace he is at heart an "extreme warrior." Like Woodrow Wilson before him, he, and all those who share his global ambitions, will resort to war in the end, in the mighty effort to preserve the American ethos, to save the Western World and to bring about his own vision of peace in the earth. It is the spirit of Cain, in its most subtle perfection, versus the Word of God itself--which has reserved no place in itself for those who are friends of this present world (James 4:1-6), and who can find any justification whatsoever to commit violence in the name of Christ.

This particular election, however, is about purging those on the Right from their wholly idolatrous, greedy and fearful, and not to fail to mention their wholly ignorant spiritual ways, making them fit to stand at last in the presence of God's truly Anointed Ones. (Understand Isaiah 4:1,2). Thus America at home, the blatantly militaristic state that it is (as one commentator put it: "with its Rambo heart and its Terminator head"), even though it may have cast a majority vote for Gore, will now have blatant militarists, capitalists and Ba'al worshipping nationalists as their own leaders--and in the end for their own eternal good. A Bush administration will not blur the lines between good and evil as a Gore administration would have (and as Carter masterfully does in the eyes of the rest of the world). With its outright emphasis on "American" as opposed to "human" values, with a program of full scale economic development at the expense of the well-being of the planet, and with its ungodly concern for national security, a Bush administration will heighten the contrast between the children of Light and the children of Darkness in this land. (These things were being expressed prior to September 11, 2001. Many saw it coming [Isaiah 30:25; Psalm 18:1-10], but who could know precisely when)?.

ELDER BUSH DEFENDS SON

Cabinet Choices Sensible, He Says

WASHINGTON__Former President George H.W. Bush says it's only logical that his son, President-elect George W. Bush, is building an administration with those who served under past Republican presidents, including himself.

"If you are looking for a Republican who has had experience in agriculture or in defense or whatever it is, then in all likelihood, that person probably would have served in the four years in one way or another in the Bush administration or certainly the Reagan administration,"..."WE'RE BUSTING WITH PRIDE," BUSH SAID. "It's so hard to describe, to quantify, but it's strictly the pride of a father and...a mother in a son."

Bush said he wasn't concerned about talk that the second Bush administration looks a lot like the first. He noted that before serving as his defense secretary, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney was chief of staff for President Ford and was a congressman from Wyoming. (Is that a Native American name)?

"He was everything, defense secretary for me, but long before that, he had an established reputation," Bush said. "So I am not concerned about that, and when they look at the totality of George's cabinet, they will see new faces and they will see some very experienced people WHICH...WILL SEND A VERY CALMING MESSAGE NOT ONLY IN THIS COUNTRY BUT AROUND THE WORLD," the former president said. The Associated Press.

COLD WAR REDUX?

Thought the Cold War was over? Think again.

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has been goading the West for months, and new reports--which first appeared this week in the Washington Times--suggest the provocation may be verging on nuclear. Literally.

The reports are based on U.S. intelligence assessments--and they prompt chilly memories of the Evil Empire for more than a few people. Starting with those in Warsaw and the Baltic states.

According to the report, Moscow is secretly deploying tactical nuclear weapons in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, in range of Poland and Lithuania--and in violation of Russian pledges to keep the area nuclear-free. Moscow denies it...

"If the Russians have placed tactical nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, it would violate their pledge..." a Pentagon spokesman said. He added that Washington would take up the matter with Russian officials. Rep. Ben Gilman (R-NY) went further, saying a transfer of nuclear weapons would be "an alarming development that threatens the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe." No kidding.

The weapons are believed to have limited military value. But the symbolism isn't lost on anyone.

But, now, wait a minute: Officials say the administration learned of the reports back in June. So why are the Clinton folks just raising the matter now? Yes, there was an election in between. But would Team Clinton have sought to put off the issue so as not to cause a public rift with Moscow and damage Al Gore's and Hillary's prospects for victory at the polls? It's hard to fathom even the Clinton folks would go that far--but it sure is a scary thought.

Meanwhile, Putin has cozied up to Fidel Castro, sent arplanes to buzz a U.S. aircraft carrier, restored the Soviet National anthem and cracked down on the press. Shades of the Cold War? You'd better believe it.

WHICH IS WHY IT IS NICE TO SEE DIPLOMATICALLY MATURE FIGURES SUCH AS COLIN POWELL, CONDOLEEZA RICE, DONALD RUMSFELD AND DICJ CHENEY HEADING TO WASHINGTON.

A new Cold War may or may not be brewing. But in places like the Baltics, the temperature seems to be dropping altogether too fast. The New York Post.

AL GORE HAD HIS CHANCES...GEORGE WILL WIN

by Ben Wattenberg

How will it turn out? I believe George Bush will win because Americans tend to vote on ideological (which are, of course, religious) grounds, whether they realize it or not. Generally, voters cast their ballots based on which candidate more closely expresses their own view of the world...In America today the moderate conservative viewpoint is more popular than the moderate liberal viewpoint. Both candidates know that. That's why the liberals say "labels don't matter anymore." That's why Bush kept talking about his philosophy, and Gore kept talking about his programs. At the presidential level, philosophy trumps programs. (On the religious and economic Right that is...Which is why) they (the liberals) can't figure out why Gore isn't way ahead in a time of prosperity...When asked whether restoring moral and family values or maintaining economic growth was a higher priority, more voters said moral values...

Gore created an opportunity for himself when he picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate (bringing the subject of worldly versus truly Orthodox Judaism and the contrast between them to the forefront). Lieberman, chairman of the moderate Democratic Leadership Conference...is near the center of the American electorate. Good try. But Gore failed to follow up...Instead, Gore opted for business-bashing, focused on "Big Oil," "Big Drug Companies," and "HMOs." Today more than half of all Americans are invested in the stock market, and almost every portfolio has energy and medical stocks in it. Businessmen have become cultural heroes. We've decoded the human genome and are waiting for payoffs in better health--and Gore is banging his silly tambourine about fighting for the people against the powerful. Give me a break. The Richmond Times Dispatch.

BUSH SAYS: ITS TIME

"I'm feeling America is ready for change. They're interested in something different. They don't want four more years of Clinton-Gore," Bush told a $10 million Republican fundraiser yesterday.

"THEY WANT SOMEBODY WHO WILL APPEAL TO OUR BETTER ANGELS, NOT OUR DARKEST IMPULSES. AMERICA IS READY FOR NEW LEADERSHIP AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT DICK CHENEY AND I ARE GOING TO GIVE THEM."

Brimming with confidence, Bush told the crowd: "If all goes well, you're looking at the next president of the United States."

Tonight, Bush plans to offer himself to America as the man who can bring back "honor and integrity" to a White House stained by Sexgate and bring "THE AMERICAN DREAM TO EVERY WILLING HEART."

Bush will vow--as he does in every stump speech--that if he's elected, "WHEN DICK CHENEY AND I PUT OUR HANDS ON THE BIBLE, we'll swear not only to honor the laws of the land but also the dignity and honor of the office to which we have been elected, so help us God. New York Post, August 3.

PRAYING FOR BUSH

PHILADELPHIA__As death denials go, the one Pat Robertson delivered Tuesday was impressive.

"I am so amused by these articles [claiming] that the Christian Coalition or the Religious Right is dead," he said in his distinctive chuckling voice. "Somebody had better deliver notice to the Fire Department: The Largest ballroom in the Marriot is jammed with corpses--and they're all cheering!"...They cheered a lush rendition of "God Bless the USA."

Robertson spoke for 25 minutes without once mentioning George W. Bush's name. But he left no doubt: For Robertson, Bush will do just fine. And judging from the big yell that erupted when Rep. Goodlatte finally uttered the nominee's name, Bush will do fine for Robertson's admirers too...

Reaching an early pact with Bush thus seemed the wisest strategy this time around. That was made more palatable by the excellent rapport between the coalition's Texas branch and the governor's office. Local social conservatives saw him as an ally on abortion issues (see Revelation 12:1-6), on gay marriages (see Romans 2:1-3), and on experimenting with the social-services provision by religious groups (see Ecclesiastes 5:8-13).

They felt socially comfortable, too, with a man who spoke in a familiar account, wore familiar clothes and attended a familiar church. Christian conservatives believe that in the end, they will be judged by their faith, not their works (see Luke 12:16-46). In the case of George W. Bush, they have translated that theological conviction into a political imperative... The New York Post, August 3, 2000.

The Christian Coalition is also very comfortable with those who both favor and espouse the death penalty, clearly disregarding again the full weight of the words which say: Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. (Matthew 7:1,2; Romans 2:1-16). (See also Hebrews 6:4-8).

STRONG BACKER OF DEATH PENALTY

HOUSTON__On a recent hot summer evening here, shortly after Texas carried out its 25th execution of the year, a crime victims' rights group applauded Joe Tychner for his staunch defense of the death penalty.

"The hug-them-and-make-them-better people tried their way in the 1960s and 1970s and it didn't work," Tychner said after the meeting in a corporate auditorium. "THE ONLY THING THAT WE KNOW WORKS IS SWIFT AND SURE PUNISHMENT."

That hard-nosed view is widely held in Texas, and Gov. George W. Bush has embraced it and made it a part of his administration.

"WE MUST SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE TO CRIMINALS THAT THE CONSEQUENCES OF COMMITTING CRIME ARE SWIFT, SURE AND OUTWEIGH ANY POTENTIAL REWARD," Bush has told an approving, conservative Texas electorate that has twice elected him governor...

Bush has signed legislation into law that limited death penalty appeals, lengthened prison sentences, expanded and made juvenile justice more punitive while shunning bills to help defendants in capital cases...

In the past 5 and a half years, Bush has overseen 138 executions, a prison system straining with more inmates than nearly any other state and a juvenile justice system that tripled in size... Newsday, August 3, 2000.

How is it that such highly religious people do not understand how God's universe works, and especially here when it comes to issues of crime and its effects? and of the corresponding, and directly related issues of economic and social justice, or, rather, the absence of it throughout the land? When there is crime above, among the heads of the people (and the crimes against humanity, and against the Gospel are very great among them, as Paul called it: Spiritual wickedness in high places...Ephesians 6:12), there is sure to be widespread crime below, among the people themselves. As the head thinks, the body acts. The amount of disorder below is directly related to the amount of wickedness above. If there is killing and murder below it is because those above are killers and murderers as well. And the more those above seek to cover up their own crimes by diverting attention to crimes below, the more crime does God Himself commit against them, and against their order of things. Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? (Amos 3:6). They are spiritual children who do not understand these things, as it is also written: Woe to them who say the Lord will do neither good nor evil. (Zephaniah 1:12). And the more those in high political and judicial places seek to quell the plague that God sends among them, through prosecution and punishment, retribution and execution, the more do they bring their own judgments upon themselves. For Christ has come not to condemn, but to save. (John 3:17):

NUN CARRIES ON DEATH BATTLE

By Frank Green

When last Virginia saw Sister Helen Prejean--Catholic nun, anticapital punishment campaigner and author of Dead Man Walking--it was in July 1997 as she accompanied the body of career criminal and executed killer Joseph Roger O'Dell to his grave in Sicily.

He was buried there, in a 600-year-old hillside graveyard overlooking Palermo, under a stone that reads in English and Italian: "Here lies Joseph O'Dell, victim of the cruel and merciless justice system of Virginia."...

Prejean is now in the midst of a campaign called "Moratorium 2000," a worldwide petition drive calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. She is heading the effort in the United States. The drive aims for 1 million signatures in this country. The signatures will be delivered to the United Nations on Dec.10, which is Human Rights Day.

Last week, Robertson, who made it clear that he still supports the death penalty, said he nevertheless thinks a moratorium might be appropriate. Prejean said, "I knew he had been moved by Karla Faye Tucker...I think it shook him. Here was someone whose life had been changed by Jesus Christ, which is what he preaches every day of his life, and it made him question then, 'Do we have to kill her?'"

"And so I think that was a deep shift for him," she said.

"We've got 87 innocent people now who've come off of death row," she said. She insisted "America is changing its mind on the death penalty."

Prejean says "compassion isn't weak. Compassion doesn't mean condoning. It's making a choice of not continuing the violence.

"Is it even fair to ask of juries that they go behind closed doors...and to put in their hands: 'Now you be God and you decide whether they should live or die?'"

"I too am outraged over these crimes," she said. "But how can we act as a society out of our outrage?" Execution, she argued, is not an answer.

"I got involved with the death penalty because I got involved with poor people," she said...

"We've got another road. Let's choose the life road instead of the death road," Prejean said. Richmond Times Dispatch.

FALWELL OPPOSES A MORATORIUM

By Frank Green

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, unlike the Rev. Pat Robertson, said that he does not support a moratorium on the death penalty. In fact, Falwell said he believes the appeals process should be speeded up. (Someone recently said that Jerry Falwell is a "christian" pastor from...hell").

The Lynchburg televangelist said, "While courts do make mistakes, I do not believe the mistake level is at a point where we need to rethink our whole system, and I personally believe that we need to reduce the time between conviction and execution."...

"As far as human beings can devise a judicial system, Americans have done it the best. I'm not willing to abrogate our judicial system on the premise that we may possibly have set free a guilty person or convicted and executed an innocent person," said Falwell. The Richmond Times Dispatch.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell--also citing Old Testament precedents for capital punishment--has literally passed this edict, this sentence of death as it is, onto his entire flock (unless they can cut off the hand, or rather, the Foot that offends them that is). As governor, Mario Cuomo refused to sign the death penalty into law in New York State, saying in essence that Death was too perfect a solution for so imperfect a people. In fact it might be safe to say that if everyone in the country had listened to Mario Cuomo's interview on Upstate Public Radio just before the election, his very articulated analysis of George W. Bush's agenda, as well as some aspects of his hidden character, the outcome might have been very different. (But then again, we would still be left with Al Gore who is also a proponent of a death penalty; and, as we said before, our sense of it all would have been blurred by Gore's otherwise more affable personality):

BUSH & DEATH PENALTY: WINDOW INTO HIS SOUL

by Richard Cohen

Leigh Anne Gideon is a former reporter for the Huntsville (Tex.) Item. Huntsville is where Texas has its death house, and since 1924, all the state's executions have taken place there. Gideon has witnessed some of them, sometimes along with members of the condemned man's family.

"You'll never hear another sound like a mother wailing when she's watching her son being executed," she says. "There is no sound like it. It is just this horrendous wail."

Contrast that sound bite, taken from a National Public Radio documentary called "Witness to an Execution," with what George W. Bush said in the second presidential debate. The subject had turned to the lynching of James Byrd, a black man who had been dragged to death, and Al Gore made reference to the alleged need for a hate crime law.

Bush hit him back: "The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They're going to be put to death. A jury found them guilty and--it's going to be hard to punish them any worse after they get put to death. And it's the right cause, so it's the right decision," Bush smiled...The remark showed Bush at his most callow. THE SUBJECT, AFTER ALL, WAS DEATH.

For Bush that was hardly an uncharacteristic moment. Earlier in the campaign, he mocked Karla Faye Tucker, the pick axe murderer who had become a born-again Christian and had pleaded for her life. "Please don't kill me," he mimicked her in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Talk magazine. Bush said he was misrepresented. His smile at the debate said otherwise.

BUSH'S POSITION ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT OFFERS A WINDOW INTO WHO HE REALLY IS. There is something both remarkable and depressing about a man who has presided over more executions than any other governor--145 so far--and seems not to have given the matter much thought.

It does not bother Bush that Texas executes the mentally feeble and the mentally ill. It does not bother him that its appeals court seems merely to dust the capital punishment cases that go before it--sustaining almost all of them. It does not bother him that Texas juries do not have the option of voting life without parole or that indigent defendants are sometimes represented by hacks who, like buzzards, hang around murder cases hoping for some scraps.

The system is a mess, only Bush seems not to have noticed. His deepest research is into his own feelings, don't question his heart.

He reminds me of acquaintances whose therapists assured them they were, down where the id, ego and superego are stored, really good people. In Bush's case, it is not psychotherapy but religion that sustains his swollen self-regard. Still, he might wonder why so many executions have not made Texas any safer than anywhere else...

Bush has presided over 35 executions this year alone, with the total likely to hit 50. The sheer volume has taken a toll on the very people who man Huntsville's death chamber. One of them, Fred Allen, a member of the so-called tiedown team, said he couldn't take it any longer (and very possibly delivered his own soul in the process). "There was just so many of them," he told NPR. He quit.

The pace, the numbers--maybe the sheer futility of the awful task--have even gotten to the warden, Jim Willett. "There are times when I'm standing there watching those fluids start to flow and wonder whether what we're doing is right," he said.

The wonder is that George W. Bush doesn't wonder at all.

What have these things, along with all the other choices George W. Bush is making as he reestablishes his own Cold War Conservative order in Washington, to do with missiles in Kaliningrad? Everything. The Creators are apalled (if we can imagine it), at America's leaders running around the globe, working wickedness in the earth in Their name, unfearful and disrespectful of Them and Their precepts and commandments. (God is a Consuming Fire). And even moreso, at those who are presently being placed in charge of American domestic and foreign policy--for God has evidently been waiting all this time for them to come to power, for them to join their efforts and their own names to the other sons of Darkness who have preceded them. How is it they have failed to understand? God is not American, and has no regard for America's global agenda. The Law and the Prophets are a living testimony against it. (See Revelation 18). Nor is God a Conservative--in any Anglo-American political and economic sense of the term. They, the Divine Father and Mother, care very little for America's conservative agenda. They think very little of a death penalty in the name of Their Son--of violence of any sort in the name of Their Son. Despite Their forebearance and longsuffering (as well as Their paradoxical complicity in all of these matters), they are jealous for the earth and for the things that They themselves are bringing to pass in the earth. And They are not fearful of America's military might).

IT WON'T BE LONG NOW

Excerpts from George W. Bush's Acceptance Speech

Thank you for this honor. Together we will renew America's purpose.

Our founders first defined that purpose here in Philadelphia. Ben Franklin was here. Thomas Jefferson. And, of course, George Washington, or, as his friends called him, "George W."...

I want to thank my Dad, the most decent man I have ever known. All my life I have been amazed that a gentle soul could could be so strong.

Dad, I am proud to be your son.

My father was the last president of a great generation. A generation of Americans who stormed beaches, liberated concentration camps, AND DELIVERED US FROM EVIL.

Some never came home. Those who did put their medals in drawers, went to work, and built on a heroic scale...THE STRONG FOUNDATIONS of an American century...

Our opportunities are too great, OUR LIVES TOO SHORT TO WASTE THIS MOMENT. So tonight we vow to our nation: WE WILL SEIZE THIS MOMENT OF AMERICAN PROMISE. We will use these good times for great goals...

And we will extend the promise of prosperity to every forgotten corner of this country.

To every man and woman A CHANCE to succeed. To every child A CHANCE to learn. And to every family A CHANCE to live with dignity and hope...

America's way is the Rising Road.

This nation is daring and decent and ready for change. Our current president embodied the potential of a generation. So many talents. So much charm. Such great skill. BUT IN THE END, TO WHAT END?...

Little more than a decade ago, the cold war thawed and, with the leadership OF PRESIDENTS REAGAN AND BUSH, that wall came down.

But instead of seizing this moment, the Clinton-Gore administration has squandered it. We have seen a steady erosion OF AMERICAN POWER and an unsteady exercise OF AMERICAN INFLUENCE...

Our generation has a chance to reclaim some essential values, TO SHOW WE HAVE GROWN UP BEFORE WE GROW OLD...

They had their chance. They have not led. We will.

And now they come asking for another chance, ANOTHER SHOT.

Our answer? Not this time. Not this year. This is not the time for new chances, it is a time for New Beginnings.

THE RISING GENERATIONS OF THIS COUNTRY HAVE OUR OWN APPOINTMENT WITH GREATNESS...

We will not write footnotes, but chapters in the American story...

A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam.

When America uses force in the world, THE CAUSE MUST BE JUST, THE GOAL MUST BE CLEAR AND THE VICTORY MUST BE OVERWHELMING...

And at the earliest possible date, MY ADMINISTRATION WILL DEPLOY MISSILE DEFENSES TO GUARD AGAINST ATTACK and blackmail. Now is the time, not to defend outdated treaties, but to defend the American people.

A time of prosperity is a test of vision. AND OUR NATION TODAY NEEDS VISION...

That outlook is typical of many in Washington, ALWAYS SEEING THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF THE LIGHT. But I come from a different place, and it has made ME a different leader. In Midland Texas where I grew up, the town motto was "THE SKY'S THE LIMIT." AND WE BELIEVED IT...

We must help protect our children, in our schools and streets, AND BY FINALLY AND STRICTLY ENFORCING OUR NATION'S GUN LAWS.

But most of all, we must teach our children THE VALUES THAT DEFEAT VIOLENCE.

I WILL LEAD OUR NATION TOWARD A CULTURE THAT VALUES LIFE--the life of the elderly and sick, the life of the young, AND THE LIFE OF THE UNBORN...

My generation tested limits and our country, in some ways, is better for it...At times we lost our way. BUT WE'RE COMING HOME NOW...

This is the vision of America's founders. They never saw our nation's greatness in rising wealth or advancing armies, but in small, unnumbered acts of caring and courage and self-denial. Their highest hope, as Robert Frost put it, WAS TO OCCUPY THE LAND with character.

And that, 13 generations later, is still our goal, TO OCCUPY THE LAND with character...

SO WHEN I PUT MY HAND ON THE BIBLE, I WILL SWEAR TO NOT ONLY UPHOLD THE LAWS OF OUR LAND, I WILL SWEAR TO UPHOLD THE HONOR AND DIGNITY OF THE OFFICE TO WHICH I HAVE BEEN ELECTED.

SO HELP ME GOD.

I BELIEVE THE PRESIDENCY, THE FINAL POINT OF DECISION IN THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, WAS MADE FOR GREAT PURPOSES...

FOR ME, GAINING THIS OFFICE IS NOT THE AMBITION OF A LIFETIME, BUT IT IS THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. AND I WILL MAKE THE MOST OF IT...

I BELIEVE IN GOD who calls us not to judge our neighbors but to love them. I believe in grace because I've seen it, in forgiveness, because I've needed it.

I believe that true leadership is a process of addition, not an act of division...

THE WAIT HAS BEEN LONG, BUT IT WON'T BE LONG NOW.

A prosperous nation is ready to renew it's purpose and unite behind great goals, AND IT WON'T BE LONG NOW...

Our country is ready for high standards and new leaders, AND IT WON'T BE LONG NOW...

I know how serious the task is before me. I know the presidency is an office THAT TURNS PRIDE INTO PRAYER...

My friend...captured the way I feel about our great land, a land I love. He and his wife, he said, "LIVE ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. IT'S THE SUNRISE SIDE, NOT THE SUNSET SIDE. IT IS THE SIDE TO SEE THE DAY THAT IS COMING, NOT TO SEE THE DAY THAT IS GONE."

AMERICANS LIVE ON THE SUNRISE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN.

THE NIGHT IS PASSING.

WE ARE READY FOR THE DAY TO COME.

God bless. GOD BLESS AMERICA.

 

A CRY FOR HELP

By Molly Ivans

My favorite line by the Bushies is: How Dare They Call Him Stupid?...This is getting to be the problem that dare not speak its name.

I am fully persuaded that Bush's performance in the third debate was a cry for help. Go back and listen just to Bush's answers and see what you think...("You want pop-psychology, I'll give you pop-psychology").

I think Bush threw that debate. Consciously or unconsciously, the poor man knows that he is not prepared to be President of the United States, and he is desperately trying to signal us to that effect.

George W. Bush is the unexamined candidate, and the extent to which he is unexamined gets eerier as Election Day approaches. At least half the country is prepared to vote for the guy; if asked why, they reply, "Seems like a nice fella."

I LIKE HIM myself. But he is often clueless, he does not have a nice record, and the idea of electing him President scares the living fantods out of me...George W. is running on the excellent platform that he trusts us. Fine, but why should we trust him?

I don't think its a good idea to privatize Social Security (Capitalists, of course, want the money out of the hands of government so that they can get it into their own hands...The love of it, you know, is at the very root of America's existence). W. favors a tax cut--fine, but how dumb does he think we are? As Al Hunt wrote in his Wall Street Journal column: "The GOP nominee claims his tax measures principally will help the working poor and middle class America. The rich, he says, will get a smaller percentage than they currently do, and the tax plan fits comfortably with projected budget surpluses and his Social Security plans. None of that is true."...

The last thing this country needs is a big tax cut that makes the rich a whole lot more richer than they already are compared to everybody else, (continued)...

Obviously George W. Bush, nor his ministers and advisers, have gotten yet to that part in the Bible that says:

Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

Your gold and your silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have laboured are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you...(James 5:1-6).

...The Bush tax cut is not in the best interest of the majority of Americans. It's a fraud, it's a scam, and shame on you if you buy it.

I used to hope that "compassionate conservatism" actually meant something, but I lost that hope when Bush tried to keep 200,000 poor children out of a federal health insurance program that wouldn't have cost the state dog. And anyone who can sit here in the year 2000 and claim that everyone who is put to death in Texas has had full access to the courts...is either a liar or a fool...

A little bill said the state of Texas should not execute people who are seriously retarded...Bush opposed it, it died, and (therefore) dont ever try to tell me that "compassionate conservatism" means anything. It wouldn't even have cost the state a dime. The Richmond Times Dispatch.

COMPASSIONATE-CONSERVATIVE APPROACH

(THE WHOLE HEAD IS SICK)

By Timothy Kelly

In a little-noticed but hugely significant policy speech delivered on June 15 called the "New Freedom Initiative," Governor Bush laid out his compassionate-conservative approach to treatment for mental illness. Significantly, these policies are endorsed by both The Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank) and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (the nation's leading mental health organization). Thus the initiative combines the best of conservative policy and compassionate advocacy.

So just what is the compassionate-conservative approach to mental illness? It is first to face the truth, and acknowledge a shameful reality (continued)...

What is this reality? That the whole nation is sick, miserably and spiritually (mentally) sick, from the lowest to the highest:

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: THE WHOLE HEAD IS SICK, AND THE HEART FAINT.

From the sole of the Foot even unto the Head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

Your country is desolate (of true spiritual understanding), your cities are burned with fire, your land (your whole state of mind), strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers...(Isaiah 1:4-7).

...While most of the country enjoys the good times of a booming economy (The whole head is sick), there is a silent host of Americans who are being left behind--those with severe mental illness. More than 5.6 million of our fellow citizens are afflicted with disabilities such as schizophrenia (The whole head is sick) and bipolar disorder--illnesses that can lead to misery, homelessness, and even suicide. (The whole head is sick). Many seek help only to find themselves trapped in a defective and outdated mental health service system. Often they receive ineffective care from providers who are not accountable for poor results, including homelessness...

America already has the compassion, resources, and treatments required to (remedy) this. All that is lacking is the national leadership required to get it done. The real story...is that George Bush is leading that charge, not Tipper Gore. (The Whole Head is sick). The Richmond Times Dispatch.

A SLICK MIX

By Bob Herbert

It was disheartening to see Colin Powell up there doing his bit to help mask the reality of the G.O.P., a party that since the 1960's has been relentlessly hostile to the interests of black Americans.

This was on Monday night, when you couldn't tell whether you were at the Republican National Convention or the Motown Review. The number of blacks paraded before a national television audience by this nearly all-white convention was incredible. The delegates are mostly 90 percent white, mostly male and rigidly conservative. So it was a breathtaking exercise in hypocrisy for them to haul so many blacks before the cameras for the sole purpose of singing, dancing, preaching and praising a party that has wanted no part of them. (They are mad upon their idols).

General Powell used some of his time to urge the party to become more inclusive, and chastised it for opposing affirmative action. But he nevertheless was the featured performer in the cynical lineup of blacks and other minorities that was put together in a blatant effort to cast the party as something it is not. If you looked at the stage during this farce, and then turned and looked at the audience, you saw two entirely different worlds. The makeover artists of the G.O.P. put together a slick mix of race, religion and culture and used it for all the wrong reasons. It was exploitative and demeaning.

The Republicans still aren't interested in blacks. They are simply trying to present a friendlier, more moderate face to white, middle-class swing voters who have been put off by the party's excesses over the past several years.

If the Republicans really wanted to embrace black voters (and not just black children at photo ops) they would honestly address such things as Dick Chaney's voting record; George W. Bush's campaign appearance at Bob Jones University; George Herbert Walker Bush's use of the disgraceful Willie Horton (let's-scare-the-white-folks) campaign ads; President Bush's cynical selection of Clarance Thomas for the Supreme Court; and the G.O.P.'s viciously anti-black Southern strategy, which has been a divisive force in American politics for more than 30 years.

If the Republicans were serious they would reassess the many long years they spent attacking programs for children and the elderly and the sick, and demonizing Democrats and liberals for attempting to help minorities and the poor.

But they are not serious. They are engaged in a four-day charade, an exercise in duplicity that included the shameless theft of the slogan "Leave no child behind," which was the registered trademark of the Children's Defense fund, a favorite GOP target.

George W. Bush says that he is a "different" kind of Republican. But different from what? We need to know what it was about the Republican Party of the last several decades that he thinks should be changed.

Does he think Republican policies need to change, or just that Republican candidates should hug more black children?

Republicans have long favored enormous tax cuts that served the dual purpose of providing bonanzas for the wealthy and bleeding the government of funds that could be used to help the less fortunate. Does Mr. Bush think that should change?

Most of the Republicans I spoke with this week found it difficult to think of anything substantive about their party that should change. Representative John Kasich, a conservative Ohio Republican who is chairman of the House Budget Committee, was typical.

"We believe in less government," he said.

I asked what he thought Mr. Bush meant when he talked about a "different" kind of Republican. Mr. Kasich looked uncomfortable. "I don't know," he said. "I don't know. You'd have to ask George Bush how he's different." The New York Times.

__________

If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for He that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

He that loveth (money) shall not be satisfied with (money); nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity...

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their own hurt...(Ecclesiastes 5:8-13).

__________

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out her my people (and out from among them...2 Corinthians 6:14-16 ) that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities...(Revelation 18:4,5).

The Virginia delegates enjoyed their stay...On Sunday afternoon, the hotel served as the sight of a rally for Dick Cheney. Hand-drawn signs prepared by the campaign staff conveyed an impression of spontaneity...For the next week, the hotel resembled a fortress. The security checks began on the sidewalks leading to the driveway. (This, of course, because these leaders are so wicked, and therefore so afraid of God's retribution, that they must constantly shield themselves behind an army of police and other security forces--indeed, behind the whole weight of the entire U.S. Armed Forces, F.B.I., C.I.A., National Security and local police departments wherever they go). As one wit said, the good news was that the delegation stayed at the Bush hotel. The bad news was that the delegation stayed at the Bush hotel.

Chaney's crime, by the way, seems to be that during the 1980s he supported President Reagan...but history will remember the era as one of progress and redemption. There is nothing wrong with moving into the future by drawing on foundations from the past. Todd Culbertson, The Richmond Times Dispatch.

RECLAIMING AMERICA ONE PRECINCT AT A TIME

Frustrated Evangelicals Enter Politics in Effort to Influence Public Doctrine

By David Briggs

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.__What has happened to America? asks the Rev. D. James Kennedy, surrounded by red, white and blue bunting in an imposing sanctuary familiar to viewers of his TV preaching on "The Coral Ridge Hour."...

"GOD'S WILL FOR THIS NATION WILL BE DONE," he assures conservatives from across the country on the final day of the conference called Reclaiming America for Christ. "TWENTY-SIX OTHER EMPIRES HAVE RISEN, AND ALL HAVE FALLEN."

His message resonates throughout the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church where worshippers open with "God Bless America." At the end of the service, on the final notes of "America the Beautiful," A HUGE AMERICAN FLAG UNFURLS OVER A CHEERING CONGREGATION...

You might say the hot new idea is the civic gospel," says John Green..."Christians have a special responsibility to create a civil order that nurtures moral lives."

Actually the idea is a conservative twist on an older tradition. At the turn of the century, liberal evangelists, shocked by the excesses of capitalism, gave rise to the "social gospel" movement, shifting religious focus from the church to the streets, establishing a tradition for the civil rights struggle.

In the recent past, politics appealed to evangelicals even across party lines. They helped elect a born-again president, JIMMY CARTER, in 1976, and influenced RONALD REAGAN'S victories in 1980 and 1984. In 1994, with the election of a Republican Congress, many thought their years of hard work through grassroots organizations such as the Christian Coalition had paid off.

But to the dismay of many conservatives, Republican congressmen seem more interested in economic than social issues. "The bottom line is (the GOP) said they would do some things and they haven't done them," says Jim Woodall, executive director of Concerned Women for America. "You don't get passionate about balancing a budget."..."Given what they've done for Republican candidates, they'd really like to see more."...

FOR MANY EVANGELICALS, POLITICAL ACTIVITY IS A DIVINE CALLING. At the Florida conference, the 1,400 activists PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE NOT ONLY TO THE AMERICAN FLAG, BUT ALSO TO THE CHRISTIAN FLAG AND TO THE BIBLE.

In the 1830s, when French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through America, he discovered that religion was indispensable to Democracy. That point, according to religious broadcaster Kennedy, was that America is great because America is good. Today, Kennedy tells conservative activists, one can no longer say America is good. For him, however, it's no time to give up.

"THERE IS NOTHING MORE POWERFUL THAN AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME," he says, "AND THE IDEA OF RECLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST HAS DEFINETLY COME." The Associated Press.

__________

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth be evil spoken of.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly.

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that should live ungodly.

And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment...

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam...who loved the wages of unrighteousness...

These were wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

While they promise them liberty they themselves are servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage.

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse than the first.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them...(2 Peter 2).

__________

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

But that which beareth thorns and briers (the cares of this present world, and the deceitfulness of riches) is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned...(Hebrews 6:4-8).

FOR THE RIGHT MAN, ONE RIGHTEOUS PARTY

WASHINGTON, January 21, 2001__"We are here to celebrate the fact that God did not give us the president we deserve," said Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, co-chair of the Christian Pre-Inaugural Gala, held at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel Friday night. "He gave us somebody better than we deserve."...Fortunately, she added, "GOD HAS GIVEN US GEORGE W. BUSH."

"Christians are often portrayed as stuffy," Lafferty added, "Christians have a Grand Ol Opry image. We wanted to do something that was eloquent." So she organized the black-tie Christian Gala, which featured...many prayers, a singing former Miss America, a man billed as a "Christian Comedian" and Christian hula dancers.

Q: How do Christian hula dancers differ from standard hula dancers? A: They wear more clothes and they dance to hymns. "They're more Christian than hula," said Jim Lafferty, who is Andrea's husband.

For $200 a ticket, 430 conservative Christians got all that, plus unlimited soda and fruit drinks. Anybody who wanted alcohol was out of luck. THIS WASN'T THE WEDDING AT CANA.

The Reverend Sheldon said that he originally supported Steve Forbes for president but now he says he's thrilled with George Bush. "WE LOVE HIM,"`he said. "HE IS A CHRISTIAN AND HAS A COMMITTMENT TO CHRIST. HE HAS NADE THAT CLEAR IN THE DEBATES. Mr. Bush might out-Reagan Reagan in his policy thrust. He may un-do what Clinton has done." The Washington Post.

MILITARY CROWD CHEERS CHANGING OF THE GUARD

By Steve Vogel

The event had the feel of a return to days of glory: swinging big-band sounds played by an Air Force jazz band, and a gracious performance of God Bless America by Connie Stevans, who has sung for troops abroad over the course of five decades...

For Republicans, who have accused President Clinton of weakening the military through defense cuts and harming morale by extensive peacekeeping commitments and by tolerating gays in the services, the salute was a moment to relish. "It's nice to be able to say that help has arrived," said the event emcee...an actor who played the title role in the television series "Major Dad."

Outside, in a cold drizzle, dozens of George Washington University students jeered and chanted...G.W students are angry and willing to express it even in the cold rain, said one of the organizers...Veterans shrugged it off. "THIS IS AMERICA," said Norman Lamb, an army veteran, who stopped on his way into Smith Center to film the demonstrators. "They can spout off, or pop off, as crazy as they are."

Inside, Bob Dole struck a similar note. "We have people here protesting. but that's the right they have," he said, "That's the right we fought for."

There were more speeches...Dick Cheney, who once explained that he never served in the armed forces because "I had other priorities in the 1960s than military service," was warmly greeted by the veterans, and praised for his stewardship of the Persian Gulf War while serving as secretary of defense in the administration of Bush's father.

The two-hour salute climaxed with the entrance of Bush. "America's back!" one woman called from the audience, and others yelled similar greetings...

"This is an administration that understands in order to keep peace, our military must be strong," Bush said to cheers. "We will make sure our soldiers are well-trained," Bush said. "I'm so glad to see general officers here of our military, because I want to say loud and clear as I can: The mission of the United States military will be to have a military prepared and trained and ready to fight and win war, and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place."

Bush has made modernizing the military one of his top priorities, and said at the salute to veterans that his administration will understand "that in order to keep the peace our military must be strong, morale must be high."...

Then, Bush was showered with applause as he said, "In less than 24 hours, I have the highest honor, and that's to become the commander in chief of the greatest nation in the world. I accept that honor with pride. I accept that honor with purpose."...

__________

Appearing next at a youth concert at MCI Center, Bush exhorted the nation's young people to be good citizens and pledged to help all Americans reach their potential. "We're going to work hard to make the world more peaceful," Bush said after being introduced by Secretary of State designate Colin L. Powell...

Protest organizers predict 20,000 demonstrators will converge along the parade route. They, along with those coming to cheer the president, will have to pass through one of 10 checkpoints...Constitutional questions aside, based on crowd estimates, Judge Kessler calculated that each of the 10 checkpoints may have to handle as many as 75,000 people...."a logistical nightmare," she said. She also declared unconstitutional a District law that forbids anyone to give a speech in a public place without permission from the police chief. Washington Post, Jan.21, 2001.

EDUCATION IS FIRST PRIORITY

By Mike Allen

After taking the oath of office at noon today...George W. Bush plans to generate momentum for his administration by pushing immediately for broad legislative victories instead of incremental ones, starting with his cornerstone issue of education.

The new president will barely pause to revel in his new trappings, according to plans sketched by aides. On Tuesday, following White House meetings with congressional leaders of both parties, Bush will send up his first legislative proposal--an education package that includes penalties for failing schools, school choice for parents and a program to teach every child to read by third grade.

As if waging a campaign, aides are referring to his first week in office as "Education Week."

"I'm anxious to start making decisions," an ebullient Bush said at a fundraising dinner Thursday. "It's time to get to work."...Incoming press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush's education package will...provide a powerful incentive to make sure that all our public schools live up to the standards that can and must be set for them."

SERPENT TALK

(FULL OF CODED MESSAGES THAT SPEAK DIRECTLY TO THE HEART OF THE RULING CLASS)

As the palate tasteth diverse kinds of meat, so does the heart of understanding false speeches...(Ecclesiasticus 36:19).

(Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies)

The son (George W.) speaks of "prosperity with a purpose" and pledges to "make sure the American dream touches every willing heart.

The father put it this way: "My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. (But neither, of course, will we relinquish them, or cease to fight for them). They are not the measure of our lives. In our hearts, we know what matters. We can not only hope to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend (to whom?) a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than when he found it."

In his quest for what he called "a kinder, gentler" nation, the older president Bush said his path did not involve the expansion of government but the encouragement of community groups dealing with social problems on a personal, local level--what he called the "thousand points of light."

His son brings the same preference for nonbureaucratic solutions, and especially for involving faith-based organizations in dealing with problems of drugs and homelessness and dependency that the father said cried out for action. "I am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of others, a new activism, hands-on, involved--that get's the job done." He was speaking for his son as well as himself. The Washington Post.

THE BIBLE

By Phil McCombs

Bush was to be sworn in using a Bible that was printed in the mother country, England, in 1767 and was used for the inauguration of Washington (George W.) as the first president in 1789. The book, called the St. John's Bible, is kept...at Federal Hall on Wall Street in Manhattan. It is owned by a Masonic lodge No.1 of New York City.

Washington was a Mason most of his adult life, and master of the lodge in Alexandria. At the time the fellowship also included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Ben Franklin...The Bible itself...is complete with Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, supplemented with historical, astronomical and legal data from the period, plus 103 steel engravings and two foldout maps...

The Masonic City, Matthew 6:22-24...(KJV)

The Root of all Evil

Washington spoke of "the sacred fire of liberty," of the great "experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."..."NO PEOPLE," WASHINGTON ADDED, "CAN BE BOUND TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND ADORE THE INVISIBLE HAND WHICH CONDUCTS THE AFFAIRS OF MEN MORE THAN THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. The Washington Post.

THE THIEVES COME NOT BUT TO STEAL (from the precepts of Scripture and The Words of God, and then they continue) TO KILL (and prepare for war, and oppress others in the name of God), AND DESTROY (in the name of Progress)...(John 10:10).

A thousand signs along the inaugural path said: "Hail the Thief."

IN HIS ADDRESS BUSH LINGERS ON A PROMISE TO CARE

By Melinda Henneberger

WASHINGTON, Jan.20__Over his shoulder, the new president's proud parents were carefully keeping their emotions within the bounds of modesty...But President George W. Bush himself seemed alive with feeling, his eyes filling with tears at least twice. And the speech he delivered today lingered longest on a promise to care--for the poor and vulnerable, for new immigrants and all children. "I can pledge OUR NATION to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler ON THE ROAD TO JERICHO (please understand the epic and prophetic import of Joshua, chapter 6), we will not pass to the other side," he said, referring to the Bible story of the good Samaritan in a 15-minute speech that included 10 religious references.

Still, he said explicitly that his administration would not respond to the needy with government programs but by encouraging faith-based efforts. (In other words, they want to keep the mind of the religious community in America diverted, while they go on to do the business of the rich and powerful whose interests they have come to preserve and advance). Mr. Bush seemed to be asking to be given a chance to surprise some people with his self-proclaimed compassionate conservatism. The speech included a reminder that the American story "is a story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, the story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom." The line that got the biggest applause from invited guests referred to tax cuts. (A very Freudian response from the conservative Christian crowd assembled in triumph there that morning. As Freudian as George W. Bush's satisfied little smirk).

He paraphrased Mother Teresa without using her name, saying, "as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with great love." And he said outright that he expected to succeed in unifying the country "BECAUSE WE ARE GUIDED BY A POWER LARGER THAN OURSELVES, WHO CREATES US EQUAL IN HIS IMAGE." (Please understand Psalm 9:16)...

He also used inclusive language to underscore his message, saying, for example, "Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us." (Please see Paul's words at Romans 2:15,16; 1 Corinthians 2:10-21).

THE SPEECH

"Thank you all. Chief Justice Rehnquist (a deference to the Law...please see Malachi 4: 4 and Deuteronomy, chapter 4), President Carter (a more than fitting presence), President Bush, President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens...I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America's leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.

We have a place, all of us, in a long story, a story we continue, BUT WHOSE END WE WILL NOT SEE. (See Revelation, chapter 18). It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old. (See 2 Peter 2:18-20). The story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom. The story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer. (See Acts 13:40,41; Habakkuk, chapter 1). It is the American story, a story of a flawed and fallible people, UNITED across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. (See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise: that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves A CHANCE, that no insignificant person was ever born. Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course.

Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was A ROCK IN A RAGING SEA. NOW IT IS A SEED UPON THE WIND, TAKING ROOT IN MANY NATIONS. (See Isaiah 40:21-24). Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after nearly 225 years, WE HAVE A LONG WAY YET TO TRAVEL. (See Luke, chapter 12, and 16:1-13)...

I will work to build A SINGLE NATION of justice and opportunity. I know this is in our reach, BECAUSE WE ARE GUIDED BY A POWER LARGER THAN OURSELVES, who creates us equal in his image. (See Hebrews 5:12-14; Ecclesiastes 5:6; Prov.16:4; Isaiah 45:5,7; Micah 2:1-3; Amos 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, etc.). AND WE ARE CONFIDENT IN PRINCIPLES THAT UNITE AND LEAD US ONWARD. (Please understand Proverbs 4:14-19).

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. (See Isaiah 5:13). EVERY CHILD MUST BE TAUGHT THESE PRINCIPLES. Every citizen MUST uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes Our Country more, not less, American...WE MUST LIVE UP TO THE CALLING WE SHARE. Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment...

America at its best is also courageous. Our national courage has been clear in times of depression and war, when defeating common dangers defined our common good. (Please understand John 16:1-15). Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. (Please see Joel 3:9-21). We must show courage in a time of blessing, by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations. (Please consider Job 21:7-20)...

THE ENEMIES OF LIBERTY AND OUR COUNTRY SHOULD MAKE NO MISTAKE, America remains engaged in the world, by history AND BY CHOICE, shaping a Balance of Power that favors freedom. We WILL defend our allies AND OUR INTERESTS. (See Ezekiel, chapter 18). We will show purpose without arrogance. WE WILL MEET AGGRESSION AND BAD FAITH WITH RESOLVE AND STRENGTH. AND TO ALL NATIONS, WE WILL SPEAK FOR THE VALUES THAT GAVE OUR NATION BIRTH. (America was founded in genocide, the theft of land, slavery, oppression and injustice, police brutality, and on the backs and at the expense of the lives of working peoples).

Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with great love. (See Zechariah 4:10). The most important tasks of a democracy (a truly free people...John 8:31-36) are done by EVERYONE.

I will live and lead by these principles: to advance MY convictions with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for greater justice and compassion (compare Isaiah 61:1-3), to call for responsibility and try to live it as well. In all these days...I WILL BRING THE VALUES OF OUR HISTORY TO THE CARE OF OUR TIMES.

What you do is important as anything government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort (see Isaiah 40), to defend needed reforms against easy attacks, TO SERVE YOUR NATION, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens. Citizens, not spectators. Citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character. (Please understand Exodus 19:5,6 and 1 Peter 2:9; Psalm 114; Micah, chapter 4; Luke 21:34,35; 2 Cor.6:14-18; Ephesians 1:9,10; 2:12; 4:17,18; Revelation 5:9). (Please understand the connection between the more symbolic words at Revelation 12 and those very clear pronouncements at Isaiah 66:6-24).

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: "WE KNOW THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT NOR THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG. DO YOU THINK AN ANGEL RIDES IN THE WHIRLWIND AND DIRECTS THE STORM?"

THE WHIRLWIND...(Ezekiel, chapter 1; Malachi 4...KJV).

Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage, and its simple dream of dignity. We are not this story's author, WHO FILLS TIME AND ETERNITY WITH HIS PURPOSE. YET HIS PURPOSE IS ACHIEVED IN OUR DUTY and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.

Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, (see Ecclesiastes 1:8-18): to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.

THIS WORK CONTINUES. THIS STORY GOES ON. AND AN ANGEL STILL RIDES IN THE WHIRLWIND AND DIRECTS THIS STORM.

God bless you all, and God bless America." George W. Bush.

__________

And the Angel that rides in the Storm said, Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues...(Revelation 18).

 

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

And there shall be upon every high mountain (upon every great nation), and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter, WHEN THE TOWERS FALL...(Isaiah 30:25).

__________

In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God, and he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet (here in the West),

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the Wings of the Wind (The Divine Wind, the Divine Kami Kazi)...(Psalm 18:6-10).

__________

For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flaims of fire.

For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many...(Isaiah 66:15-18).

Who Hath Heard Such a Thing?

A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to his enemies.

For before she travailed she brought forth; before her pain came she was delivered of a man child.

Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? OR SHALL A NATION BE BORN AT ONCE? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord; shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God...(Isaiah 66:6-9).

Blow the Trumpet in Zion

Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the Day of the Lord cometh, it is nigh at hand.

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the nations: a great people and a strong; there has never hath not ever been the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations...(Joel 2:1,2).

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the Bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, and the ministers of the Lord, weep before the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?...(Joel 2:15-17).

Prepare War

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

Beat your plowshares into swords (the very opposite of the commandment that God has given to the children of Light), and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

Assemble yourselves, and come all ye heathen, and gather yourselves round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, (see 2 Chronicles 20:15, 17), for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

Put ye in the Sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come get ye down; for the press is full, the fats overflow: for their wickedness is great.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of Decision...(Joel 3:9-14).

WAR WORDS

BUSH VOWS TO LEAD WORLD TO VICTORY

By Jon Frandsen

Declaring the world is engaged in "the first war of the 21st century," President Bush and his administration Thursday promised a "sustained and broad" assault to first target the culprits and countries behind the terror attacks on America, then all terrorists and their sponsors around the globe.

"The nation must understand, this is now the focus of my administration...Now that war has been declared on us, we will lead the world to victory," Bush told reporters...

"We will go after that group, that network and those that have harbored, supported and aided that network, to rip that network up." (Colin Powell).

Knowing Therefore the Terror of the Lord...2 Corinthians 5:11

The Lord is known by the judgments he executeth...(Psalm 9:16).

__________

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds. When the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand.

And they covet fields and take them by violence, and houses, and they take them away, so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily, for the time is evil...(Micah 2:1-3).

__________

God hath formed all things for Himself, even the wicked for the day of evil...(Proverbs 16:4).

__________

There be spirits created for vengeance, which in their fury lay on strong strokes. In the time of destruction they pour out their force and appease the wrath of Him that made them them...(Ecclesiasticus 39:28).

__________

For the Lord is a Man of War: the Lord is His Name...(Exodus 15:3).

__________

For the Lord thy God is a Consuming Fire, even a jealous God...(Deuteronomy 4:24-38; Hebrews 12:25-29).

BUSH: BATTLE SET TO BEGIN

Bush Meets with "War Cabinet;" Tells Troops, "Get Ready."

THE SACRIFICES AHEAD

How ironic that the calamitous events of the past week--so often likened to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor--comes when Americans had been enjoying a renewed appreciation for the "greatest generation" that won World War II. Ironic...but altogether appropriate.

President Bush was not wrong in terming the conflict that began last Tuesday, "the first war of the 21st century." This will necessitate efforts of the sort this nation hasn't truly attempted since the days, more than a half a century ago, when another president of the United States rallied a worldwide coalition to defeat the forces of evil. (See Isaiah 45:5,7; Zephaniah 1:12; Deuteronomy 32).

That was a time when Americans stood Four-square behind their government, willing to do whatever was needed to achieve victory. (See Leviticus 23:24-28; Revelation, chapter 18).

Do today's Americans understands precisely what this means? Militarily, it means accepting that this is going to be a protracted campaign. It means not just firing missiles at abstract targets. Or lightning-quick invasions like in Iraq and Granada. It means full-scale commitment...

This means American casualties. Military casualties, for sure. And likely more civilian casualties, too...The New York Post.

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But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?...(1 Corinthians 10:20-22; Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17,18).

__________

My covenant with Levi was of life and peace...but ye are departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord...(Malachi 2:5-9).

W: BIN LADEN IS HISTORY

Vows U.S. Will Smoke Out Terrorists

By Thomas DeFrank

Dramatically shifting his tone from prayer to power, President Bush vowed yesterday to "smoke out" TERROR MASTERMIND Osama Bin Laden and his agents of death, who he promised will soon taste the wrath of a seething America.

"They will discover what others in the past have learned: Those who make war against the United States have chosen their own destruction," Bush said...

SAYS U.S. WILL FIND & PURGE "EVILDOERS"

by Brian Kates

Warning that terrorists had "roused a mighty giant," President Bush vowed yesterday to unleash A FULL "CRUSADE TO RID THE WORLD OF EVILDOERS."

From the South Lawn of the White House, Bush told the nation that the government would wage an all-out war on terrorism. "We will find 'em, get 'em running, and hunt 'em down," the President promised.

These are very interesting words, but also unwise, in light of the realization that this is exactly what God, The Mightiest Giant of All, is rising up now in all of these events to accomplish:

OSAMA'S WORDS OF HATE

Divine Revenge, He Says

"America was hit by God almighty in one of its softest spots," Bin Laden said. "God directed some of the Muslim vanguard who were able by his blessings to destroy its landmark. May God bless them and give them a place in paradise."

Earlier in the tape, Bin Laden aides predicted the U.S. would collapse, just as another super-power--the Soviet Union--crumbled after a disasterous attempt to conquer Afghanistan. "God is angry with the U.S.," said one. "The U.S. has to learn its collapse will be directly connected to its attack on Afghanistan."...

"I tell them that these events have divided the world into two camps, the camp of the faithful and the camp of the infidels. May God shield us and you from them. Every Muslim must rise to defend his religion. The wind of faith is blowing, and the wind of change is blowing to remove evil from the peninsular of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

As to America, I say to it and its people a few words: I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before all the army of infidels depart the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him. God is Greatest and glory be to Islam." The New York Daily News.

SEA CHANGE IN BUSH, SAY PALS

War on Terror Toughens His Resolve and Mission

WASHINGTON__As the commander-in-chief launched America's most urgent military retaliation since Pearl Harbor yesterday, aides and friends alkie reported President Bush has become a man with a mission--convinced the World Trade Center and Pentagon terror catastrophies have given definition not only to his presidency, but to his life.

"This is comparable to that moment of clarity, when he turned 40, gave up drinking and finally found a sense of purpose for himself."... "IT'S ALMOST A RELIGIOUS THING WITH HIM," another source said. "HE BELIEVES THERE IS SOME DESTINY INVOLVED FOR HIM TO BE HERE."

A deeply religious man who reads his bible daily...(James 5:1-7; Ecclesiastes 3:14-19; 5:8-13; Isaiah 5; Isa.45:5,7; 59:7,8...), Bush is described by associates as believing, in effect, that he has been chosen to lead a holy war of his own to save the world from terror's scourge.

"He's internalized this spiritually," one source said. "HE BELIEVES GOD DEMANDS OF HIM THAT HE FIGHT, KEEP FIGHTING AND STAY FOCUSED ON THISPARTICULAR BATTLE FOR THE REST OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE."

At the White House, "The word 'leader' is now singular, not plural."..."There's a sense of self-confidence that wasn't there six months ago. He knows what he is doing, and is in total command." The New York Daily News.

WORDS OF WAR

(Now Open the Book of Joel)

We Did Not Ask For This Mission, But We Will Fulfill It.

"On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban in Afghanistan. We are joined in this operation by our staunch friend Great Britain. Other close friends, including Canada, Australia, Germany and France, have pledged forces as the operation unfolds...Many more have shared intelligence. We are supported by the collective will of the world...

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the Horse, and against His army...(Revelation 19:19).

"More than Two Weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands...None of these demands were met. And now the Taliban will pay a price...

But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness...(And) seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him IN PEACE, without spot and blameless...(2 Peter 3:10-14)

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I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment...(Matthew 12:36).

__________

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the Patience and the Faith of the saints...(Revelation 13:9,10).

"Initially, the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other entrenched hiding places. Our military action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive and relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to justice...

For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low...

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the dens of the earth (into the imagined security of their own nationalistic doctrines and beliefs), for fear of the Lord, and the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth...(Isaiah 2:12, 19; Revelation 6:15-17; Hebrews 12:25-29).

"The United States of America is an enemy of those who aid terrorists and of the barbaric criminals who profane a great religion by committing murder in its name...

Well, let's see...where should we start? With Cain and Abel? (Genesis 4:3-24; John 8:39-44). Or rather, where should we end...

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a Beast rise up out of the sea...(Revelation 13:1).

And God hath remembered her iniquities...(Revelation 18:5).

"Every nation has a choice to make. IN THIS CONFLICT, THERE IS NO NEUTRAL GROUND. IF ANY GOVERNMENT SPONSERS THE OUTLAWS AND KILLERS OF INNOCENTS, THEY HAVE BECOME OUTLAWS AND MURDERERS THEMSELVES. AND THEY TAKE THAT LONELY PATH AT THEIR OWN PERIL...

Exactly! as it is also written: Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision; for the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision...(Joel 3:9-16).

AMERICA IS REFLECTED IN ITS LEADERS

By Elisabeth Bumiller

Is it him or is it us?

In the four months since September 11, President Bush has seemed transformed from a casually educated son of privilege into a mature leader of a nation at war. Gone are the jokes about his I.Q. and his attention span...

But the United States has changed too, perhaps far more than its leader. The deadliest terrorist assault in the nation's history has left Americans feeling vulnerable and unambiguously patriotic. "All of this was brought upon us in a single day," Mr. Bush reminded the nation on Sept.20, "and night fell on a different world." (Please consider Joel 2:2). Americans quickly rallied around the president (the very Image that provoketh God to jealousy...Ezekiel 8), as historically has happened at times of national crisis. (Isaiah 2:12-19)...

It is significant that the attacks on Sept.11, on two symbols of American financial and military might, might also have hit the White House, or so those terrified staffers that evacuated it believed. BUT WHEN THE WHITE HOUSE WAS SPARED, AMERICANS SEEMED TO TURN EVEN MORE TOWARD IT AND THE PRESIDENT AS SYMBOLS OF HOPE AND CALM AND SECURITY. THE MAN HAD MERGED WITH THE OFFICE...

In a culture that has demonstrated marked suspicion of the intellectual and always admired the frontier, with its images of eternal promise, Mr. Bush's language of the wild west, of wanting Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," has been derided by academics even as he was embraced by the public...

Mr. Bush's first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, in November, was similarly direct, free of the usual diplomatic niceties and was praised at home and abroad, even as leaders of other nations called it blunt and U.S.-centric.

"He is someone who views the world in reductionist terms, who sees life as a clash between good and evil," said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian...Other historians say that IT IS THE UNIQUE NATURE OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY THAT CAUSES AMERICANS TO TURN TO WASHINGTON AT A TIME OF CRISIS, and that the horrific quality of the attacks simply intensified the reaction to Mr. Bush. Unlike prime ministers...THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT IS head of state as well as head of government--THE EMBODIMENT OF THE NATION...

(THE AMERICAN PEOPLE) ARE INVESTING IN HIM PERSONALLY, but as a way to express their hope for the country," Mr. McInturff said. "THE PRESIDENCY IS THE EXTENSION OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC AND HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OUR COUNTRY." The vote for the president is certainly the most personal vote the public casts. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRESIDENT AND CITIZEN IS UNIQUE AMONG ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS...THE PUBLIC HAS A NEED FOR AN IDEALIZED HERO, it wants the president to succeed even though there may be envy and lots of conflicted feelings. THERE'S A WISH THAT THE PRESIDENT WILL BE A STRONG, POWERFUL FATHER FIGURE...

(And then--lacking, as journalist often are, a clear view of historical and political, and how much less of spiritual, reality--the author of this article contributes to a spin on the character of George Bush, one that fails in the end to fully capture the reality of the person of George Bush himself, and his place in history, or of his family's relentless rise to power in America, when she passes on the following): "What do Prince Hal, Moses and Frodo have in common?" asked Jonathan Lear, a psychoanalyst and philosophy professor at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. "NONE OF THEM SEEKS POWER (Moses? true. Frodo? also true. But Bush, or rather, Prince Hal?), yet they're able to rise to the challenges that history, God or sheer chance deals them."

"One Ring to Rule Them All."

Prince Hal, the wastrel son of King Henry IV, surprised everyone by becoming a courageous soldier. Moses didn't want to lead the Jews, but God forced it upon him. (So in this sense alone is it true of Bush also, but only in the highest and most complex sense of the mystery of God itself. George W. Bush, in his own heart and mind, did not only seek the power that he presently exercises, he delights in the use of it. He is in his own, or perhaps it is more accurate to say, his own father's spiritual milieu). Frodo Baggins, the sweet-tempered hobbit of "The Lord of the Rings," was given a ring by his uncle, then told he had to save the world by returning it to its source. President Bush, Mr. Lear argued, is seen as the recipient of a similar kind of tragic luck...

Anyone who has watched Mr. Bush for the past four months can see how confident and assured he has become (in direct contrast to either Moses or Frodo), in speeches and in unscripted question-and-answer sessions with reporters. The New York Times, January 5, 2001.

GEORGE W. BUSH - GRAND STRATEGIST

By Toney Blankley
February 11, 2004

The Boston Globe -- the respected, liberal newspaper owned by the New York Times -- ran an article last week that Bush critics might wish to read carefully. It is a report on a new book that argues that President Bush has developed and is ably implementing only the third American grand strategy in our history,

The author of this book, "Surprise, Security, and the American Experience <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674011740/townhallcom/>" (Harvard Press), which is to be released in March, is John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett professor of military and naval history at Yale University. The Boston Globe describes Professor Gaddis as "the dean of Cold War studies and one of the nation's most eminent diplomatic historians." In other words, this is not some put up job by an obscure right-wing author. This comes from the pinnacle of the liberal Ivy League academic establishment.

If you hate George W. Bush, you will hate this Boston Globe story, because it makes a strong case that George Bush stands in a select category with Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and James Monroe (as guided by his secretary of state, John Q. Adams) in implementing one of the only three grand strategies of American foreign policy in our two-century history.

As the Globe article describes, in reporting on the book and an interview with Professor Gaddis, "Grand strategy is the blueprint from which policy follows. It envisions a country's mission, defines its interests and sets its priorities. Part of grand strategy's grandeur lies in its durability: A single grand strategy can shape decades, even centuries of policy."

According to this analysis, the first grand strategy by Monroe/Adams followed the British invasion of Washington and the burning of the White House in 1814. They responded to that threat by developing a policy of gaining future security through territorial expansion -- filling power vacuums with American pioneers before hostile powers could get in. That strategy lasted throughout the 19th and the early 20th centuries, and accounts for our continental size and historic security.

FDR's plans for the post WWII period was the second grand strategy, and gained American security by establishing free markets and self determination in Europe as a safeguard against future European wars, while creating the United Nations and related agencies to help us manage the rest of the world and contain the Soviets. The end of the Cold War changed that and led, according to Professor Gaddis, to President Clinton's assumption that a new grand strategy was not needed because globalization and democratization were inevitable. "Clinton said as much at one point. I think that was shallow. I think they were asleep at the switch," Professor Gaddis observed.

That brings the professor to George W. Bush, who he describes as undergoing "one of the most surprising transformations of an underrated national leader since Prince Hal became Henry V." Clearly, Professor Gaddis has not been a longtime admirer of George Bush. But he is now. He observes that Bush "undertook a decisive and courageous reassessment of American grand strategy following the shock of the 9/11 attacks. At his doctrine's center, Bush placed the democratization of the Middle East and the urgent need to prevent terrorists and rogue states from getting nuclear weapons. Bush also boldly rejected the constraints of an outmoded international system that was really nothing more than a snapshot of the configuration of power that existed in 1945."

It is worth noting that John Kerry and the other Democrats' central criticism of President Bush -- the prosaic argument that he should have taken no action without U.N. approval -- is implicitly rejected by Professor Gaddis as being a proposed policy that would be constrained by an "outmoded international system."

In assessing Bush's progress to date, The Boston Globe article quotes Professor Gaddis: "so far the military action in Iraq has produced a modest improvement in American and global economic conditions; an intensified dialogue within the Arab world about political reform; a withdrawal of American forces from Saudi Arabia; and an increasing nervousness on the part of the Syrian and Iranian governments as they contemplated the consequences of being surrounded by American clients or surrogates. The United States has emerged as a more powerful and purposeful actor within the international system than it had been on September 11, 2001."

In another recent article, written before the Iraqi war, Professor Gaddis wrote that: "BUSH'S GRAND STRATEGY IS ACTUALLY LOOKING TOWARD THE CULMINATION OF THE WILSONIAN PROJECT OF A WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY, even in the Middle East. And this long-term dimension of it, it seems to me, goes beyond what we've seen in the thinking of more recent administrations. It is more characteristic of the kind of thinking, say, that the Truman administration was doing at the beginning of the Cold War ... "

Is President Bush becoming an historic world leader in the same category as President Franklin Roosevelt, as the eminent Ivy League professor argues? Or is he just a lying nitwit, as the eminent Democratic Party chairman and Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe argues? I suspect that as this election year progresses, that may end up being the decisive debate. You can put me on the side of the professor.

THE PRESIDENT IS READING A BOOK, I'M AFRAID

by Robert Higgs

President George W. Bush has been been reading a book. At least, he claims to have been reading one. I know what you're thinking, but the First Shrub swears that he has been reading more than the funny papers lately. We'd all be be better off, however, if he had stuck to the comics.

In an interview with an Associated Press reporter, Bush said that on his vacation he had been reading a recently published book by Eliot A. Cohen, The Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime. Cohen is a well-known neocon warhawk and all-around armchair warrior who professes "strategic studies" at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and, in his spare time, ponders mega-deaths (his own not included) with other lusty members of the Defense Policy Board. The quintessential civilian go-getter, he never met a war he didn't want to send somebody else to fight and die in.

The Supreme Command consists of case studies of how four "statesmen"--Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion--successfully managed to make their generals act more vigorously than those officers really wanted to act. By spurring their too-timid generals, these four micro-managing commanders-in-chief supposedly got superior results from their war-making efforts. The common soldiers who were fed into the consuming maw of war under these worthies might have given us a different opinion, but dead men don't make good critics.

So, what are we to make of Bush's reading of this book, assuming that he really has been reading it? The short answer is that this is not good news for the world. Such reading seems calculated to bend the president's mind, never a mighty organ in any event, toward thinking of himself in Lincolnian or Churchillian terms. Indeed, those of us who have had the stomach to observe his public strutting and puffing since September 11 might have suspected that his juvenile sensitivities would be drawn all too readily toward such a grandiose self-conception. After all, does he but speak, and mighty armadas are launched on a global war against evil?

As he clears brush at his Texas digs and takes jogs with the Secret Service boys, Bush may fancy that his cut from the same cloth as his Republican predecessor Theodore Roosevelt--he of the strenuous life and the more-than-a-bit-balmy conception of man's relation to his fellow man, most of whom he would glady crush like bugs under his manly jackboots. Why worry, the current president might be thinking, about the views of a wimp such as Colin Powell? What does he know about war, in comparison with, say, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, whose heroic military service service has long been the stuff of legend?

Unfortunately for the world, the president's bedtime perusal of Cohen's Supreme Command may set his childish imagination aflame with visions of Great Statesmanship. "Damn," he may think, expelling a masculine expletive, "I too can be a Lincoln or a Churchill." Devoutly may we all hope that the opportunity evades him, for both of these storied "statesmen" were monsters whose hands were stained beyond cleansing with innocent blood. Yet a man would need an adult sensibility to understand such realities, and Bush II, it seems clear, has a mind that never matured, if indeed it had the potential for such maturation in the first place. Manifestly, he is but a boy playing with immense, lethal toys. Yet when he says jump, legions of heavily armed men ask: how high?

BUSH PITCHES U.S. VALUES, URGES CHINA TO OPEN UP

By Ron Fournier

BEIJING, FEBRUARY, 2002__Calling America a "beacon of hope and opportunity," President Bush urged China today to embrace liberty, tolerance and religious freedom. "Diversity is not disorder," Bush said. "Debate is not strife. And dissent is not revolution...A free society trusts its citizens to seek greatness in themselves and their country," Bush told students and faculty at Tsinghua University and on national television...

Bush sought in the measured remarks to avoid lecturing the Chinese, but he clearly argued that the United States was a better place than China for the human spirit to flourish. "My country has its share of problems and faults," Bush said. "Like most nations we're on a long journey toward achieving our own ideals of equality and justice. Yet there is a reason our nation shines as a beacon of hope, a reason many throughout the world dream of coming to America."

AMERICANS RELISH THEIR LIBERTY, ABIDE BY THEIR LAWS, LIMIT THE POWER OF THEIR LEADERS, LOVE THEIR FAMILIES, SERVE THEIR COMMUNITIES AND RESPECT OTHERS' RIGHT TO RELIGIOUS WORSHIP, BUSH SAID.

"Someone called us a nation with the soul of a church," Bush said. "NINETY-FIVE PERCENT OF AMERICANS SAY THEY BELIEVE IN GOD,AND I AM ONE OF THEM."...

Bush said all of America's qualities had been on display since September 11..."None of this was ordered by the government; it happened spontaneously, by the initiative of a free people."...

Striking a hopeful note, Bush said he looked forward to the inevitable changes sweeping the world's most populous nation. "CHANGE IS COMING," HE SAID. Associated Press.

Study of Bush's Psyche Touches a Nerve
By Julian Borger

The Guardian Wednesday 13 August 2003

A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity". As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction. All of them "preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality".

Republicans are demanding to know why the psychologists behind the report, Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, received $1.2m in public funds for their research from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The authors also peer into the psyche of President George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case. The telltale signs are his preference for moral certainty and frequently expressed dislike of nuance.

"This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes," the authors argue in the Psychological Bulletin. One of the psychologists behind the study, Jack Glaser, said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for "closure" could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The authors, presumably aware of the outrage they were likely to trigger, added a disclaimer that their study "does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false".

Another author, Arie Kruglanski, of the University of Maryland, said he had received hate mail since the article was published, but he insisted that the study "is not critical of conservatives at all". "The variables we talk about are general human dimensions," he said. "These are the same dimensions that contribute to loyalty and commitment to the group. Liberals might be less intolerant of ambiguity, but they may be less decisive, less committed, less loyal."

But what drives the psychologists? George Will, a Washington Post columnist who has long suffered from ingrained conservatism, noted, tartly: "The professors have ideas; the rest of us have emanations of our psychological needs and neuroses."

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

© : t r u t h o u t 2003

November 7, 2002, Midterm elections

By Gil Klein and Kirstin B. Mitchell

"The Republican voters did turn out, and that was a tribute to Bush," said Hastings Wyman, editor of the Southern Political Report. "The South likes a pro-military stance. That helped Bush. They're rallying around their commander in chief"...

Ted Arrington, a North Carolina political scientist, said Republicans won big in the South because of a coalition of "the religious right, the rich and the rednecks." Media General News Service.

Q. Mr. President...Do you want bin Laden dead?

A. I want him--I WANT JUSTICE.

And so shall he and all his supporters have it.

They Lied and Many Soldiers Died

By Jimmy Breslin

George Bush won't mention the names below in today's speech, nor will your gullible news and television people - the Pekinese of the Press. Therefore we print promptly and thus prominently the names of American soldiers killed in Iraq and reported from Sept. 9 to Sept. 19:

Spc. Ryan G. Carlock, 25, 416th Transportation Co., 260 Quartermaster Battalion (Petroleum Support), Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. Died in attack on truck Sept. 10. Home: Macomb, Ill.

Staff Sgt. Joe Robsky, 31, 759 Ordnance Co., Fort Irwin, Calif. Home is a mobile home park trailer in Elizaville, N.Y. Died in Baghdad while trying to defuse a homemade bomb on Sept. 10. He volunteered for this duty because he didn't want children killed by land mines.

Sgt. Henry Ybarra III, 32, D Troop, 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry. Home: Austin, Texas. Died when truck tire exploded, Sept. 11.

Marine Sgt. Kevin N. Morehead, 33, 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group. Home: Little Rock, Ark. Died of wounds received when raiding enemy forces.

Sgt. 1st Class William M. Bennett, 35, 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, of Seymour, Tenn. Died of wounds in same raid on Sept. 12 in Ramadi.

Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg, 22, lst Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, N.C. Home: Canton, Mich. Died in attack on his vehicle in Baghdad on Sept. 14.

Staff Sgt. Kevin C. Kimmerly, 31, 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, North Creek, N.Y. Killed when his vehicle was hit by rocket-propelled grenade while on patrol in Baghdad Sept. 15.

Spc. Alyssa R. Peterson, 27, 311 Military Intelligence Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky. Home: Flagstaff, Ariz. Died of wounds on Sept. 15 at Tel Afar.

Spc. James C. Wright, 27, Fourth Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. Home: Delhi Township, Ohio. Died when vehicle hit by rocket-propelled grenade during ambush near Tikrit on Sept. 18.

George Bush told lies and they died.

First, your government lied to ensure Bush's re-election. Who votes against a president in time of war? And even better, you get oil with the winning election. So Bush lied to you. Not misstatements. Lies. He and his people threw away their honor and consciences to lie to the people they had sworn to protect. The lies of Washington put young men from Seymour, Tenn., and Maspeth, Queens and Palos Hills, Ill., into boxes. And that, dear reader, is quite a lie.

At the start, Bush claimed that Iraq had poison gas and was making nuclear weapons. Soon, they will poison us all and blow us up. His proof was documents forged by elementary-school pupils. Still, Bush used it in his State of the Union speech. Condoleezza Rice said it was only 23 words in a speech. What are you so concerned about? The 23 words were only about nuclear bombs.

Look now at the lie that George Bush carries into the United Nations today: We went into Iraq because they were part of the World Trade Center attack. That's what they told you, and Americans, who honor their government, believed what their government told them. And so did all those young people as they were about to put up their lives in the desert.

On Oct. 14, 2002, Bush said, "This is a man [Saddam] that we know has had connections with al-Qaida. This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use al-Qaida as a forward army." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, on Sept. 26, 2002, "Yes, there is a linkage between al-Qaida and Iraq." Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said on Sept. 25, 2002, "There have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaida going back for actually quite a long time."

They knew exactly what they were saying and what it would do. It was using a Big Lie in an age of screens and faxes. What did you think it was, a government telling you the truth? Why should they do that? At summer's end, suspicions rose. It was time to change the lie before it became a liability. How do you do that? By using the ultimate con: telling the truth.

Here in the world of professional lying is how you use the truth to defuse a lie when it becomes dangerous to keep: Suddenly, Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 16 announced, "I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks." That same day, Condoleezza Rice jumped up and chirped, "And we have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either ... direction or control of 9/11. What we've said is that this was someone who supported terrorists, helped train them." And then the next day, George Bush said, "There's no question that Saddam Hussein has al-Qaida ties. We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11 attacks."

So the three now say that they never said that Hussein was involved in the World Trade Center attack. Look up what we said. We never said it. Of course they did. Anybody who thinks they didn't is a poor fool. Take a half-word out of a sentence, replace it with a smug smile or chin motion and the meaning is there. Saddam was in on the Trade Center with bin Laden. Of course Bush and his people said it. Then go to the whip, go to the truth.

Only the strong memory is an opponent, and there are few of them. Otherwise, the only thing that can remind people and maybe even inflame them are these dead bodies coming back from Iraq to Heber, Calif. They arrive here in silence. We have no idea of how many wounded are in government hospitals with no arms or legs. You never hear Bush talking about them. He often acts as if subjects like this have nothing to do with him. Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

BUSH SAYS GOD CHOSE HIM TO LEAD HIS NATION

By Paul Harris
The Observer - UK
11-2-03

Book Reveals How President's Religious And Political Beliefs Are Entwined - And Claims He Did Pray With Blair.

NEW YORK -- President George W. Bush stood before a cheering crowd at a Dallas Christian youth centre last week, and told them about being 'born again' as a Christian. 'If you change their heart, then they change their behaviour. I know,' he said, referring to his own conversion, which led to him giving up drinking. Behind Bush were two banners. 'King of Kings', proclaimed one. 'Lord of Lords', said the other. The symbolism of how fervent Christianity has become deeply entwined with the most powerful man on the planet could not have been stronger.

Few US Presidents have been as openly religious as Bush. Now a new book has lifted the lid on how deep those Christian convictions run. It will stir up controversy at a time when the administration is keen to portray its 'war on terror' as non-religious. The book, which depicts a President who prays each day and believes he is on a direct mission from God, will give ammunition to critics who claim Bush's administration is heavily influenced by extremist Christians.

Bush is already under fire for allowing the appointment of General William Boykin to head the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Boykin, who speaks at evangelical Christian meetings, once said the war on terror was a fight against Satan, and also told a Somali warlord that, 'My God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.'

Bush has also been accused of a 'creeping Christianisation' of federal government programmes. In September, the government made more than $60 billion available for religious charitable groups. Critics say the groups will be able to use the cash to promote their religion. One group that benefited from previous grants was an Iowa prison project that entitled inmates to televisions, private bathrooms and computers - in return for Christian counselling. Now Bush is likely to face intense scrutiny. The book, The Faith of George W. Bush, was written by Christian author Stephen Mansfield. It details numerous incidents where Bush's faith has been shown to be at the centre of his political thinking. Among Mansfield's revelations is his insistence that Bush and Tony Blair have prayed together at a private meeting at Camp David. Blair has previously denied this.

Mansfield, however, says that, while there were no witnesses, aides were left in little doubt as to what had happened. He told The Observer: 'There is no question they have shared scripture and prayed together.' The book also shows that in the lead-up to announcing his candidacy for the presidency, Bush told a Texan evangelist that he had had a premonition of some form of national disaster happening. Bush said to James Robinson: 'I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.'

In another incident, Mansfield recounts how, on Palm Sunday last year, Bush was flying back from El Salvador aboard the presidential jet Air Force One and seemed to be destined to miss church. However, knowing that Bush hated to miss a service, some officials suggested they worship in the air. Bush agreed, and soon 40 officials were crammed into the plane's conference room. The service was led by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, while the lesson was read by close Bush aide Karen Hughes.

The author also proves anecdotes about Bush that had previously been dismissed as false. Rumours that he had prayed with a young soldier who had lost a hand in Iraq were thought to be myth, but Mansfield tracked down witnesses and a hospital chaplain who said that Bush had prayed with the man, ending by kissing him on the forehead and telling him he loved him. 'For me, that sums up Bush's beliefs. He really believes Jesus is taken up in his heart and soul,' Mansfield said.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

BUSH IS THE 'GREATEST THREAT TO LIFE ON THE PLANET' SAYS THE MAYOR OF LONDON

By Nigel Morris
Home Affairs Correspondent
The Independent - UK
11-17-03

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as THE"GREATEST THREAT TO LIFE ON THIS PLANETTHAT WE'VE MOST PROBABLY EVER SEEN." His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London tonight, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends. Although he made his many differences with the Government on a range of issues clear, he reserved his strongest comments for the American President in an interview with The Ecologist magazine.

The President's three-night trip, which will culminate on Friday with a visit to the Prime Minister's Sedgefield constituency, has sparked a flood of protests from those opposed to his foreign policy. But Mr Livingstone's outburst makes him one of the most high-profile and explicit of his critics. Mr Livingstone recalled a visit at Easter to California, where he was denounced for an attack he had made on what he called "THE MOST CORRUPT AND RACIST AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION IN OVER 80 YEARS". He said: "Some US journalist came up to me and said: 'How can you say this about President Bush?' Well, I think what I said then was quite mild. I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction."

Mr Livingstone, who is holding a "peace party" for anti-war groups in City Hall tomorrow, added: "I don't formally recognise George Bush because he was not officially elected. So we are organising an alternative reception for everybody who is not George Bush." He said he supported stronger links between European Union countries only because he wanted to see a powerful bloc emerge to rival the United States. "The American agenda is sweeping everything before it, and although it's not perfect, the EU is better on environmental issues. It's a less rapacious form of capitalism." (IT IS ALL RAPACIOUS)

..."But the most important thing that affects a government is not peaceful protest, but fear of the ballot box. The Mayor's comments will infuriate Downing Street... Chris Lloyd, political editor of The Northern Echo: "The paper is Bush neutral and he has a right to visit but equally, the people here have a right to demonstrate. I hope he gets to see all, or at least some of those protests and I hope Mr Blair will explain what they are about because that's what friends are for. Despite Mr Bush's unpopularity, there is a frisson of excitement because nothing of this magnitude has ever happened there."

Lucy Hovvels, vice-chairwoman of Sedgefield constituency and Labour councillor in Trimdon: "I've had local people asking where they can get UNION JACKS AND AMERICAN FLAGS because they think it's an exciting and historic visit. I really believe Bush will get a warm welcome in Trimdon and the mood is one of excitement. We have the two most important people in the world coming to us - no one would otherwise know where Trimdon is."

Richard Wanless, co-ordinator of the 'Sedgefield Against War' protest: "The visit is a massive security risk and for those living in the area, it jeopardises our safety. No matter where he goes, there will be protests from London to the North-east to make sure he knows he is not welcome. TO ME, HE IS A WAR CRIMINAL that has illegal occupation of Iraq. To add to the insult, there are families here who lost their children to the war."

The Rev Martin King, rector of Sedgefield: "A lot of people here are very angry with the way the US administration is putting itself above the law. One person in my congregation said if President Bush wanted to look around the church, he would be welcome because it is a place for sinners, but he hoped his henchmen would leave their ironware at the door. His policies are very unwelcome in the region - I have not heard anyone voicing support for him."

Martin Callanan, Conservative MEP for Sedgefield: "The visit is hugely beneficial for the area. Most of the security threat to the people in Sedgefield will be represented by left-wing demonstrators. And how would we feel if our Prime Minister, whatever his political party, was treated similarly in another part of the world? It was Blair's decision to send our troops to Iraq, so those who are anti-war should not take it out on Bush." Martin McTague, former chairman of the North-east Regional Federation of Small Businesses: "It will put Sedgefield on the map and benefit the image of the North-east. Our business community is often viewed as a backwater and this will redress some of the old stereotypes. Because this is Blair's constituency, a security risk is always there. The fact that Bush will be with him increases that risk but it is a notional increase."
© 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.

THE FRUITS OF SAINT GEORGE

The Christian Right needs to take a long, hard look at George W. Bush and decide "What Would Jesus Do?"
By Mick Youther

May 29, 2004 - I imagined George W. Bush as the mean little kid who got his kicks by pulling legs off of grasshoppers, but I was wrong. Young George preferred sticking firecrackers in frogs’ mouths and watching them explode (NYTimes, 5/21/00). Put this together with a couple of DUIs, some questionable business dealings and a spotty military record, and you don’t exactly have the resume of the leader of the free world. Fortunately for him, Bush doesn’t have to worry about his past indiscretions because he has been “born again”.

• “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”-- 2 Corinthians 5:16 (NIV)

Not only have his sins been forgotten, but Bush was also blessed with the power to spread his Savior’s message of peace and brotherhood around the world. What could possibly go wrong?

• “I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for president.”-- George W. Bush, quoted in George Magazine, September, 2000

• “God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.”-- George W.Bush, in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, quoted in The Washington Post, 6/27/03 (Even the vengeful Right Hand of God has to keep his priorities straight)

• “[W]e will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil.”-- Bush quoted in Bob Woodward’s book “Bush at War”, Simon & Schuster 2002

• “Nothing [Bush] does can be challenged on moral grounds, however unethical or evil it might appear, because all of his actions are directed by God. He can twist the truth, oppress the poor, exalt the rich, despoil the earth, ignore the law--and murder children--without the slightest compunction, the briefest moment of doubt or self-reflection, because he believes, he truly believes, that God squats in his brainpan and tells him what to do.”-- Chris Floyd, CounterPunch, 7/30/03

• “[Bush’s faith] does not give him pause or force him to reflect. It is a source of comfort and strength but not of wisdom”-- Joe Klein, Time Magazine, 2/18/03

• “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right.”-- George W. Bush, describing his beliefs, 7/22/01, quoted in "The Complete Bushisms"

• “The drunk-gone-zealot may be reassuring to the troubled family. But it is not altogether reassuring to a modern world facing such a fanatic on the trigger of weapons of mass destruction that are capable of destroying the Earth several times over.”-- Les Payne, The Long Island, NY Newsday, 3/9/03

• “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”-- Gandhi

• “The moment a person (or government or religion or organization) is convinced that God is either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes. The history, worldwide, of religion-fueled hate, killing, and oppression is staggering.”-- Eugene Peterson, from his book “THE MESSAGE: New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs “, Navpress 1998

• “Bush's flirtation with End Times rhetoric makes some suspect that he actually perceives himself as God's instrument. Many Europeans fear they're trapped between rival fundamentalist zealots whose messianic delusions threaten World War III.”-- Gene Lyons, Bartcop.com

President Bush is already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of soldiers and thousands of innocent civilians—thousands more than died on 9/11. Iraq is just the first in a long list of countries that need “democratizing”, and Bush has made no secret of his willingness to use nuclear weapons in his quest for peace.

• “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”-- Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

• “By their fruits you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”-- Matthew 7:16-17 (NIV)

I don’t see any “good fruits” in George W. Bush’s first term as President. I don’t even see the much-touted “growth” that Bush supposedly underwent after 9/11. All I see is a cruel person who has progressed from blowing up frogs to blowing up people.

posted May 29, 2004

Mick Youther is retiring from his Instructor position at Southern Illinois University and is studying to become a curmudgeon. You can email your comments to Mick@interventionmag.com

June, 2004.

WASHINGTON DC -- According to freelance journalist Wayne Madsden, "George W Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations--the anti-Christ."

Madsen, a Washington-based writer and columnist, who often writes for Counterpunch, says that people close to the pope claim that amid these concerns, the pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament.

Before he became pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel."

The pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not seen the pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution.

Madsen contends that "Bush is a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult."

COPYRIGHT 2003 Catholic New Times, Inc.

Please see:

Fascism in America

The American Military Establishment

Neo-cons, Capitalism, and the Wise Men of Zion

The Number of the Beast

American Evangelicals, George Bush and the Rapture

(True) Freedom