/
Then they brought little children to him,
 that he might lay his hand on them and pray; and his disciples rebuked them.But Jesus said to them, 
"Allow the little children to come to me, and do not stop them;
 for the kingdom of heaven is for such as these."
/
- Matthew 19:13

/  // ////


//

"What has allowed so many PPs (Psychopathic Personaities) to rise so high in corporations,
 and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, 
for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can't." 

"A  P.P., should he attain a post near the top of our federal government, might feel that 
taking the country into an endless war with casualties in the millions 
was simply something decisive to do today. So to bed."
/
- Kurt Vonnegut
//
 
///

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
//

"...And that's why Bush acts with such serenity and ruthlessness. 
Nothing he 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."
 

/
\The Revelation of St. George  
 
By CHRIS FLOYD 
Counterpunch, June  30, 2003
http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd06302003.html

So now we know. After all the mountains of commentary and speculation, all the earnest debates over motives and goals, all the detailed analyses of global strategy and political ideology, it all comes to down to this: George W. Bush waged war on Iraq because, in his own words, God "instructed me to strike at Saddam."

This gospel was revealed, appropriately enough, in the Holy Land last week, through an unusual partnership between the fractious children of Abraham. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz was given transcripts of a negotiating session between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and faction leaders from Hamas and other militant groups. Abbas, who was trying to persuade the groups to call a ceasefire in their uprising against Israeli forces, described for them his recent summit with Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush.

During the tense talks at the summit, Bush sought to underscore the kind of authority he could bring to efforts at achieving peace in the Middle East. While thundering that there could be "no deals with terror groups," Bush sought to assure the rattled Palestinians that he also had the ability to wring concessions from Sharon. And what was the source of this wonder-working power? It was not, as you might think, the ungodly size of the U.S. military or the gargantuan amount of money and arms America pours into Israel year after year.

No, Bush said he derived his moral heft from the Almighty Himself. What's more, the Lord had proven his devotion to the Crawford Crusader by crowning his military efforts with success. In fact, he told Abbas, God was holding the door open for Middle East peace right now--but they would have to move fast, because soon the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe would have to give His attention to something far more important: the election of His little sunbeam, Georgie, in 2004.

Here are Bush's exact words, quoted by Haaretz: "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."

You can't put it plainer than that. The whole chaotic rigmarole of Security Council votes and UN inspections and Congressional approval and Colin Powell's whizbang Powerpoint displays of "proof" and Bush's own tearful prayers for "peace"--it was all a sham, a meaningless exercise. No votes, no inspections, no proof or lack of proof--in fact, no earthly reason whatsoever--could have stopped Bush's aggressive war on Iraq. It was God's unalterable will: the Lord of Hosts gave a direct order for George W. Bush to "strike at Saddam."

And strike he did, with an awesome fury that rained death and destruction on the mustachioed whore of Babylon, with a firestorm of Godly wrath that consumed the enemy armies like so much chaff put to the flame--and with an arsenal of cruise missiles, cluster bombs, dive bombers and assault helicopters that killed up to 10,000 innocent civilians: blasted to pieces in their beds, shot down in their fields and streets, crushed beneath the walls of their own houses, boiled alive in factories, ditches, and cars, gutted, mutilated, beheaded, murdered, women, children, elders, some praying, some wailing, some cursing, some mute with fear as metal death ripped their lives away and left rotting hulks behind. This was the work of the Lord and His faithful servant, whom He hath raised high up to have dominion over men.

map ma 
(M.O.W. editorial insert)

And this is the mindset--or rather, the primitive fever-dream--that is now directing the actions of the greatest military power in the history of the world. There can be no doubt that Bush believes literally in the divine character of his mission. He honestly and sincerely believes that whatever "decision" forms in his brain--out of the flux and flow of his own emotional impulses and biochemical reactions, the flattery and cajolements of his sinister advisers, the random scraps of fact, myth and fabrication that dribble into his proudly undeveloped and incurious consciousness--has been planted there, whole and perfected, by God Almighty.

And that's why Bush acts with such serenity and ruthlessness. Nothing he 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.

And just as God countenanced deception on the part of Abraham, just as God forgave David for the murders he ordered, just as God blessed the armies of Saul as they obliterated the Amalekites, man, woman and child, so will He overlook any crime committed by Bush and his minions as they carry out His will. That's why Bush can always "do whatever it takes" to achieve his goals. And by his own words to Abbas, we see that he places his election in 2004 above all other concerns, even the endless bloodshed in the Middle East.

So what new crimes will the Lord have to countenance to keep His appointed servant in power?

Chris Floyd is a columnist for the Moscow Times and a regular contributor to CounterPunch. He can be reached at: cfloyd72@hotmail.com

/_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(MAD magazine)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


'/

"Mankind was my business."
- Condemned wraith Jacob Marley
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Which one looks more like Ebenezer Scrooge?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


VDSDV
 U.S. Policies Defy Spirit of Season 
  
  By Jesse Jackson 
    The Chicago Sun Times    
 Wednesday 21 December 2004

    Early returns on Christmas are up modestly, we are told. Are these reports on an increase in church attendance? Or a decline in the numbers of homeless? The spread of peace in the world? No, the reports are about sales, which are better than last year, particularly in the high-end luxury stores. Christmas - the mass celebrating the birth of Christ - is the biggest shopping season of the year.

    But, of course, that's not what the Christmas story is about. It's about a couple - Mary and Joseph - forced by an oppressive government to leave their home to travel far to be counted in the census. It's the story of a child born in a barn and placed in a manger - a makeshift crib. He might have died from exposure, but the stars aligned in the night to provide light and warmth. The innkeeper had no room for the strange couple. If he had understood who the baby was, he would have offered them his bed.

    The measure of Christmas is not about what is bought and what is sold. It is not about consuming. Yes, Wise Men left their daily ways, followed the star, and brought gifts to the poor child. But their wisdom was not in the value of their gifts - much of what they brought were scents, to mask the smell of the barn, perhaps - but in their ability to see the power in the infant, even though he was lying in a wooden manger. They saw what the innkeeper could not. The Christmas story instructs us to treasure every child, for even the poorest child of a homeless couple has limitless potential.

    Unlike the reports on the business page, the reports on the moral page are grim. Poverty is up in this country - more than 30 million now in poverty. Homelessness is up, with mayors reporting record numbers seeking shelter each night. Many of these are families with a working parent, still unable to afford an apartment or a house. More people go without health care for lack of insurance, or do without the prescriptions they need for lack of money. More than 45 million Americans lack health insurance.

    Reports from the values page are also pretty bleak. Inequality is at record levels, yet the administration that insists on cutting taxes on the wealthy also opposes any increase in the minimum wage. College tuitions are soaring, but Congress just authorized a cut in college grants to more than 1 million students. Schools and classes are overcrowded, but across the country, teachers are being laid off and needed repairs are put off.

    What was Christmas about? It was about an oppressed people who were praying for a Messiah, a mighty warrior who would conquer their oppressors. But when the Messiah came, he came as the prince of peace, not of war. He taught love and hope and charity, not violence and vengeance. He was the greatest liberator of them all, but he carried no arms, and provisioned no army. His army would be the legions of the faithful, struggling to follow in his path.

    But this year, the reports from the peace page are also grim. Our soldiers are in armed occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our cities are girded against the threat of terrorist attack. We possess the mightiest military, but we are more insecure than ever. We're losing young men and women each day in a war of choice, while generating more hatred against us every week.

    War is not a present Jesus would seek. Nor tax breaks for the wealthy, nor a spread of hunger and homelessness.

    A mass for Christ would not be about shopping. It would celebrate family and community. Measure yourself, taught the Messiah, by how you treat the "least of these." Today in America, millions of poor children head to school not ready to learn. They suffer from malnutrition, from inadequate health care, from broken homes. One of five children in wealthy America is raised in poverty. We are failing the standard he taught us.

    Let us all remember the true spirit of Christmas this year. Protect the babies in the dawn of life. Care for the elderly in the dusk of life. Nurture the sick; shelter the homeless. Stop for the stranger on the Jericho Road. Work for the promise of peace. Surely that is what Jesus would want under his tree.

    Merry Christmas, everyone.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
jjt

________________________________________________________

By Al Kamen
June 27, 2003
Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37944-2003Jun26?language=printer
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Imagine our surprise Wednesday to read in the Israeli paper Haaretz (online), that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen, meeting recently with militants to enlist their support for a truce with Israel, said that, when they met in Aqaba, President Bush had told him this: " God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam [ Hussein], 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."

So who needs to find WMD or a link with al Qaeda when the orders come from The Highest Authority?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

dggfn

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

by Harley Sorensen
San Francisco Chronicle
July 7, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/07/07/hsorensen.DTL

Folks, our God-fearing president, George W. Bush, who claims to start every morning on his knees praying, now says that he gets his orders from God Himself.

I kid you not.

I refer you to June 24 article by Arnon Regular in Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper. In the last paragraph of that article there's a Bush quote as related by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Here, according to Abbas and Ha'aretz, is what Bush said:

"God told me to strike at al Qaida 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 can help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

That quote doesn't make clear whether God issues direct orders to Bush, or whether they discuss things first. but I'd guess discussions. It's hard to imagine God deciding anything of importance without without first getting input from Bush.

Over the years I've met a handful of people who regularly talk with God, but they usually do so only when they're off their medications.

Those who get instructions directly from the Almighty are twice blessed: They get their orders from the Highest Authority, and the orders are always to do what they would have done anyway.

Getting direct orders from God makes a president's life simpler. If God has spoken, the president doesn't have to observe the niceties with which presidents usually contend, things like getting congressional approval or United Nations agreement.

Bush's very own personal God connection explains a lot of things. Like Bush's disinterest in global warming.

Why should our duly elected president concern himself with global warming when God Himself has said, "Don't worry, be happy"?

Do you see how it works? With God in your corner, it matters not what you do, because God will protect you.

OK, I've been shilly-shallying around here, hesitant to come right out and say what I think, but I'm becoming convinced that our president, the man with his finger on the nuclear trigger, is a bona fide nutcase.

I really do. For him to say God told him to strike al-Qaida is just nutso. For him to say God told him to strike at Saddam, ditto. This guy is not dealing with a full deck.

To me, Bush's sanity has been suspect for a long time. He does so many things that defy logic, like his infamous tax cuts, approved by a thoroughly cowed Congress.

It doesn't make sense to reduce your income while increasing your spending and plunging into massive debt.

His blithe attitude toward the public debt he is creating indicates a failure to grasp reality.

gehgdfsd

His cavalier entry into two wars within two years, in total disregard of world opinion on the second one, indicates a man who just doesn't care what anyone thinks. Now that his ill-planned schemes in Afghanistan and Iraq are coming apart, I sense a bit of panic in the man.

Bush knew what everyone knew, that our armies could conquer. But he had no idea whether they, or anyone, could maintain a peace in nations as splintered as Afghanistan and Iraq. They can't. They're not trained for that. That's not their mission.

Bush is a good salesman, which is almost certainly why his father's friends chose him to be the front man for the Republican Party. He's a charmer, no doubt of that. Because of his sales ability, he was able to convince most Americans that war with Iraq was a necessity.

But America needs more than a slick salesman to lead the world. We need, at the very least, a man with mental stability. We don't have that with Bush. His rapid rise to power, without truly earning it as most presidents before him have done, has gone to his head.

So what we have in the White House today is a megalomaniac with a messianic complex, a man who believes that he and he alone can resolve the world's problems.

"I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East," he said. I, I, I, I, I! With Bush it's always "I." In a job that requires great humility, we have an egomaniac.*

I don't expect many people to agree with my armchair psychoanalysis of a man I've never met. We don't like to admit that important people are crazy, or even that our relatives are crazy. Typically, we overlook their bizarre behavior until it gets so bizarre we can't ignore it anymore.

So, all I ask is that you pay attention. A man who claims to get orders from God, and who creates world-shaking events on the basis of those "orders," needs watching.

 - San Francisco Chronicle, July 7, 2003
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

/* --  "Let me get to the U.N. and give what is an important speech for me."       
- Just as long as it's important for Dubya, White House, Sep. 10, 2002
.
"Actually, I -- this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about -
- when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me." 
- Hardball, MSNBC, May 31, 2000
.
"Anyway, after we go out and work our hearts out, after you go out and help us turn out the vote, 
after we've convinced the good Americans to vote, and while they're at it, pull that old George W  lever, 
if I'm the one, when I put my hand on the Bible, when I put my hand on the Bible, that day when they swear us in, 
when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not -- to uphold the laws of the land."
 - Toledo, Ohio, October 27 2000

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

hkihhkhl
hkihhkhlTen years ago, at the 1988 Republican Convention, Hartford Courant associate editor David Fink struck up a conversation with George W. Bush.

  \
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"Pussy," George W. replied.
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- "Prodigal son" by Jake Tapper, Salon.com, April 9, 1999 
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/04/09/bush/

That 1988 conversation with the Courant editor took place two years after Billy Graham helped you recommit your life to Christ. Would Jesus approve of two devout Christian married men -- a vice president and his son, no less -- talking about "pussy"?

· What exactly do you mean by "pussy"? Do you and your dad actually talk about female genitalia? Or do you talk about women, who by definition are equipped with female genitalia?
· If the latter is the case, does your definition of "pussy" incorporate all women?
· If it doesn't incorporate all women, what makes some of them "pussy" and others not? Appearance? Attitude? Marital status? Do soccer moms qualify? How about female members of your family?

/

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God chose me to write this book.

Just the fact that you are reading this is proof not just of God's existence, but also of His/Her/Its beneficence. That's right. I am not certain of God's precise gender. But I am certain that He/She/It chose me to write this book.
This isn't hubris. I'm not saying this in an egotistical way. God didn't choose me because I'm the greatest writer who ever lived. That was William Shakespeare, whose work I have a passing familiarity with. No. I just happened to be the right vessel at the right time. If something in this book makes you laugh, it was God's joke. If something makes you think, it's because God had a good point to make.
The reason I know God chose me is because God spoke to me personally.
God began our conversation by clearing something up. Some of George W. Bush's friends say that Bush believes God called him to be president during these times of trial. But God told me that He/She/It had actually chosen Al Gore by making sure that Gore won the popular vote and, God thought, the electoral college. "THAT WORKED FOR EVERYONE ELSE," God said.
"What about Tilden?" I asked, referring to the 1876 debacle.
"QUIET!" God snapped. God was angry.
God said that after 9/11, George W. Bush squandered a unique moment of national unity. That instead of rallying the country around a program of mutual purpose and sacrifice, Bush cynically used the tragedy to solidify his political power and pursue an agenda that panders to his base and serves the interests of his corporate backers.
God told me that Bush squandered a $4.6 trillion surplus and is plunging us into deficits as far as God can see. And that Bush squandered another surplus. The surplus of goodwill from the rest of the world that he had inherited from Bill Clinton.
And this was pissing God off.
He/She/It was right. But it sounded like a lot of work.
"Look, God, I'm flattered, but I think you got the wrong guy. The kind of book you're talking about would require months of research."
And God said, "LET THERE BE GOOGLE. AND LET THERE BE LEXISNEXIS."
"Very funny, God. I use Google all the time."
"YES, I KNOW," God said. "FOR HOT ASIAN TEENS."
"You must be thinking of my son, Joe."
"AL? I'M OMNISCIENT."
"Okay, okay." I changed the subject. "It's just that I can't do this book myself."
"LEAVE THAT TO ME," God boomed.
And that's when Harvard called.

***

Harvard's Kennedy School of Government asked me to serve as a fellow at its Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. After my varied and celebrated career in television, movies, publishing, and the lucrative world of corporate speaking, being a fellow at Harvard seemed, frankly, like a step down.
I couldn't think of anything less appealing than molding the minds of tomorrow's leaders, unless it was spending fireside evenings sipping sherry with great minds at the Faculty Club. Yawn.
To my surprise and delight, though, all Harvard wanted me to do was show up every once in a while and write something about something. That gave me an idea.
"Would it be okay if I wrote a scathingly partisan attack on the rightwing media and the Bush administration?"
"No problem," Harvard said absentmindedly.
"Count me in," I replied. "From now on call me 'Professor Franken.'"
"No," Harvard said, "you're not a professor. But you can run a study group on the topic of your choosing."
"Great," I said. "I've got the perfect topic: Write My Son's Harvard College Application Essay."
"No," they said. "Harvard students already know how to write successful Harvard applications, Al. We want you to teach them something new."
Harvard was right where I wanted it. "How about if the topic is: How to Research My Book?"
"Sure," Harvard said. "Most of our professors teach that course. Why, in the Biochemistry department, most of the graduate level courses are-"
Harvard was boring me. "I gotta run, Harvard. Thanks."
***
I had my Nexis, I had my Google, I had my Harvard fellowship, and I had my fourteen research assistants. I sat down to write. Nothing.
So I got on my knees and prayed for guidance. "How, God, can I best do Your work through this book? Who, dear Lord, is the audience for a book like this? And what's a good title?"
God answered, "YOU KNOW THOSE SHITTY BOOKS BY ANN COULTER AND BERNIE GOLDBERG?"
"The best-sellers that claim there's a liberal bias in the media?" I asked.
"TOTAL BULLSHIT," God said. "START BY ATTACKING THEM. HE'S CLEARLY A DISGRUNTLED FORMER EMPLOYEE, AND SHE JUST LIES. BY THE WAY, THERE'S SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH HER."
"That's pretty obvious."
"SO GO AFTER THEM, THE WHOLE LIBERAL BIAS MYTH, AND THEN GO AFTER THE RIGHT-WING MEDIA. ESPECIALLY FOX."
"Okay, God, I'm writing this down."
"THEN USE THEM AS A JUMPING-OFF POINT TO GO AFTER BUSH. YOU KNOW, BIG TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH, SURGING UNEMPLOYMENT, IGNORING EVERYONE BUT HIS CORPORATE BUDDIES, SCREWING THE ENVIRONMENT, PISSING OFF THE REST OF THE WORLD. THAT STUFF. AND THAT'S YOUR BOOK."
"Got it. One last thing. Title."
"HOW ABOUT BEARERS OF FALSE WITNESS AND THE FALSE WITNESS THAT THEY BEAR?"
"Hmm. I, uh, I'll work with that."

/
H"I think Robertson stepped down because the position has already been filled ... [Bush] is that leader right now."
- Gary Bauer, former president of the Family Research Council, crediting George W. Bush
 with Pat Robertson's decision to resign as president of the Christian Coalition;
The Washington Post, December 23, 2001 
RTBRB

       ohwEEYBRTBRBRTWBpe9w
"He is the leader of the Christian right." 
- [italics theirs] Marshall Wittmann, formerly with the Christian Coalition, now with the Hudson Institute, 
referring to George W. Bush:The Washington Post, December 23, 2001 
_____________________________________________________________________________
yum,fghjk
  Robertson: If Bush 'Touches' Jerusalem, We'll Form 3rd Party 

    By Daphna Berman 
    Haaretz
     Monday 04 October 2004

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/484861.html

    "I see the rise of Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from the Jews and give East Jerusalem to [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Yasser Arafat. I see that as Satan's plan to prevent the return of Jesus Christ the Lord," said Robertson, a Christian broadcaster.

    In two Jerusalem appearances, Robertson Sunday praised Israel as part of God's plan and criticized Arab countries and some Muslims, saying their hopes to include Israeli-controlled land in a Palestinian state are part of "Satan's plan."

    Robertson, who has made critical statements of Islam in the past, called Israel's Arab neighbors "a sea of dictatorial regimes."

    He said he "sends notice" to Osama bin Laden, Arafat and Palestinian militant groups that "you will not frustrate God's plan" to have Jews rule the Holy Land until the Second Coming of Jesus.

    Only God should decide if Israel should relinquish control of the lands it captured in the 1967 war, including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem, Robertson said, in a reference to Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza next year.

    "God says, 'I'm going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza Strip,'" Robertson said. "'It's my land and keep your hands off it.'"

"...Communing with the Higher Father and the Almighty, 
President Bush has either stumbled into a Holy War or swaggered into one. In their new book, "The Bushes," 
Peter and Rochelle Schweizer, who interviewed many Bushes, including the president's father and 
his brother Jeb,quote one unnamed relative as saying that W. sees the war on terror "as a religious war..."
"He doesn't have a P.C. view of this war. 
His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. 
And we the Christians will strike back with more force 
and more ferocity than they will ever know."
/
 - " Guns and Peanut Butter' , by MAUREEN DOWD, NY TIMES , April 29, 2004
//
"We will export death and violence to 
the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation." 
/
- George W. Bush, quoted in Bob Woodward's "Bush at War".
rhgng

by WAYNE MADSEN
VETERANS FOR PEACE.COM
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Bushs_Christian_Blood_042203.html

/////////////////////////   // /// NOT in MY NAME. ////////////////.//////////.../////////////////.///////...///////////////.../...............

/George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a "Christian" blood lust cult when it comes to practicing the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist form of Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also worrying the leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the Pope.

One only has to check out Bush's record as Governor of Texas to see his own preference for death over life. During his tenure as Governor, Bush presided over a record setting 152 executions, including the 1998 execution of fellow born-again Karla Faye Tucker , a convicted murderer who later led a prison ministry. Forty of Bush's executions were carried out in 2000, the year the Bush presidential campaign was spotlighting their candidate's strong law enforcement record. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen reported in October 2000 that one of the execution chamber's "tie-down team" members, Fred Allen, had to prepare so many people for lethal injections during 2000, he quit his job in disgust.

Bush mocked Tucker's appeal for clemency. In an interview with Talk magazine, Bush imitated Tucker's appeal for him to spare her life - pursing his lips, squinting his eyes, and in a squeaky voice saying, "Please don't kill me." That went too far for former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, himself an evangelical Christian. "I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death," said Bauer.

A former Texas Department of Public Safety officer, a devout Roman Catholic, told this reporter that evidence to the contrary, Bush was more than happy to ignore DNA data and documented cases of prosecutorial misconduct to send innocent people to the Huntsville, Texas lethal injection chamber. He said the number of executed mentally retarded, African Americans, and those who committed capital crimes as minors was proof that Bush was insensitive and a "phony Christian." When faced with similar problems in Illinois, Governor George Ryan, a Republican, commuted the death sentences of his state's death row inmates and released others after discovering they were wrongfully convicted. Yet the Republican Party is pillorying Ryan and John Ashcroft's Justice Department continues to investigate the former Governor for political malfeasance as if Bush and Ashcroft are without sin in such matters. Hypocrisy certainly rules in the Republican Party.

Bush's blood lust has been extended across the globe. He has given the CIA authority to assassinate those deemed a threat to U.S. national interests. Bush has virtually suspended Executive Orders 11905 (Gerald Ford), 12306 (Jimmy Carter), and 12333 (Ronald Reagan) which prohibit the assassination of foreign leaders. Bush's determination to kill Saddam Hussein, his family, and his top leaders with precision-guided missiles and tactical nuclear weapon-like Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs is yet another indication of Bush's disregard for his Republican and Democratic predecessors. It now appears that in his zeal to kill Hussein, innocent civilian patrons of a Baghdad restaurant were killed by one of Bush's precision Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Like it or not, Saddam Hussein was recognized by over 100 nations as the leader of Iraq -- a member state of the United Nations. Hussein, like North Korea' Kim Jong Il, Syria's Bashir Assad, and Iran's Mohammed Khatami, are covered by Executive Order 12333, which the Bush mouthpieces claim is still in effect. Bush's "Christian" blood cult sees no other option than death for those who become his enemies. This doctrine is found no place in Christian theology.

Bush has not once prayed for the innocent civilians who died as a result of the U.S. attack on Iraq. He constantly "embeds" himself with the military at Goebbels-like speech fests and makes constant references to God when he refers to America's "victory" in Iraq, as if God endorses his sordid killing spree. He makes no mention of the children, women, and old men killed by America's "precision-guided" missiles and bombs and trigger-happy U.S. troops. In fact, Bush revels in indiscriminate blood letting. Since he never experienced such killing in Southeast Asia, when he was AWOL from his Texas Air National Guard unit, Bush just does not seem to understand the horror of a parent watching one's children having their heads and limbs blown off in a sudden blast of shrapnel or children witnessing their parents burning to death with their own body fat nurturing the flames.

Bush and his advisers, previously warned that Iraq's ancient artifacts and collection of historical documents and books were in danger of being looted or destroyed, instead, sat back while the Baghdad and Mosul museums and Baghdad Library were ransacked and destroyed. Cult leaders have historically attempted to destroy history in order to invent their own. The Soviets tried to obliterate Russia's Orthodox traditions, turning a number of churches into warehouses and animal barns. Cambodia's Pol Pot tried to wipe out Buddhism's famed Angkor Wat shrine in an attempt to stamp out his country's Buddhist history. In March 2001, while they were negotiating with the Bush administration on a natural gas pipeline, Afghanistan's Taliban blew up two massive 1600-year old Buddhas in Bamiyan. The Bush administration, itself run by fanatic religious cultists, barely made a fuss about the loss of the relics. It would not be the first time the cultists within the Bush administration ignored the pillaging of history's treasures.

The ransacking of Iraq's historical treasures is explainable when one considers what the blood cult Christians really think about Islam. Franklin Graham, the heir to the empire built up by his anti-Semitic father, Billy Graham, has decided being anti-Muslim is far more financially rewarding than being anti-Jewish. Billy Graham, history notes from the Nixon tapes, complained about the Jewish stranglehold on the media and Jews being responsible for pornography.

Franklin Graham continues to enjoy his father's unfettered and questionable access to the White House. But in the case of Bush, the younger Graham has a fanatic adherent. Graham has called Islam a "very evil and wicked" religion. He then announces he wants to go to Iraq. Graham obviously sees an opportunity to convert Muslims and unrepentant Eastern Christians, who owe their allegiance to Roman and Greek prelates, to his perverted form of blood cult Christianity. Graham says he is ready to send his Samaritan's Purse missionaries into Iraq to provide assistance. Muslims and mainstream Christians are wary that Graham wants to exchange food, water, and medicine for the baptism of Iraqis into his intolerant brand of Christianity. In the last Gulf War, Graham could not get away with his chicanery. The Desert Storm Commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, stopped dead in the tracks Graham's plan to send 30,000 Arabic language Bibles to U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. Today's Pentagon shows no such compunction to put a rein on Graham. It invited him to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon to the consternation of the Defense Department's Muslim employees. To make matters worse, under Bush's "Faith Based Initiative," Graham's Samaritan's Purse stands to receive U.S. government funds for its proselytizing efforts in Iraq, something that should be an affront to every American taxpayer.

Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity (during one of the presidential debates he said Jesus Christ was his favorite "philosopher") and his constant reference to a new international structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing international treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions. The Pope has had experience with Bush's death fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to spare the life of Karla Faye Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of the world's mainstream religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare Tucker from the World Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 of the world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's own Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of the World Council.

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.

//
"We will export death and violence to the four corners 
of the Earth in defense of our great nation." 
- George W. Bush, quoted in Bob Woodward's "Bush at War".
(M.O.W editorial insert)
/

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, who grew up facing the evils of Hitler and Stalin, knows evil when he sees it. Although we can all endlessly argue over the Pope's effectiveness in curtailing abuses within his Church, his accomplishments external to Catholicism are impressive.

(M.O.W editorial insert)

/According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda.

(M.O.W editorial insert)

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. If one were to believe in the Book of Revelations, as the Pope fervently does, he can seek solace in scoring a symbolic victory against the Bush administration. Whether Bush represents a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult (as I believe) or he is either the anti-Christ or heralds one, the Pope should know he has fought the good battle and has gained the respect and admiration of many non-Catholics around the world.

Wayne Madsen is a Senior Fellow of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a non-partisan privacy public advocacy group in Washington, DC. He works with member of Congress and congressional committees on legislation and hearings of common interest. He is also a freelance investigative journalist, and has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, CAQ, Counterpunch, and the Intelligence Newsletter. Mr. Madsen is the author of The Handbook of Personal Data Protection (London: Macmillan, 1992), an acclaimed reference book on international data protection law. Mr. Madsen has some twenty years experience in computer security and data privacy. As a U.S. Naval Officer he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation.

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js/djfj

/////":"O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

  a
/
    

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."

- Frederick Douglas, On July 5, 1852, in a speech at an event commemorating 
the signing of the Declaration of Independence

Q: How do you think the current war in Iraq is going to play out?
/
GORE VIDAL: I think we will go down the tubes right with it. 
With each action Bush ever more enrages the Muslims. And there are a billion of them. 
And sooner or later they will have a Saladin who will pull them together,
 and they will come after us. And it won't be pretty."

/- "Uncensored Gore" , LA WEEKLY, Nov. 14 - 20, 2003 
/

________________________________

(M.O.W editorial insert)
/
Dialing for Doomsday:
 George W. Bush and the End of the World

By Maureen Farrell
September 10, 2002 
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/09/10_doomsday.html10_doomsday.html

 "What harm can he do in four years?" I'm ashamed to say it, but that was my initial reaction to the Supreme Court's selection of George Bush as president. Attempting to avoid alternating waves of gnawing discomfort and quiet desperation, I asked myself a question my imagination dared not answer. Squelching a parade of fears, I sacrificed truth and clarity at the altar of rationalization. "It's not the end of the world," I said, and set my sights on 2004.

Now it appears those first fears were but legless underachievers. Early concerns focused on the environment and education and what Paul Krugman refers to as our "$7 trillion reversal of fiscal fortune;" certainly nothing as dark as what's transpired in the past year. Even as civil liberties, international commitments and our right to petition the government fell by the wayside, and it looked as if incompetence, neglect or something worse contributed to what went wrong, I needed to trust that this president was above exploiting tragedy for personal or political gain.

Using the Statue of Liberty and Sept. 11 as backdrops, however, he continues to shamelessly cull Americans into accepting his agenda: "War is peace. Slavery is freedom. And we're going to attack Iraq no matter what." As one seasoned government official told the Christian Science Monitor, "This administration is capable of any lie. . . in order to advance its war goal in Iraq." Given Gulf War propaganda expert John MacArthur's assertion that this crew will "make up just about anything ... to get their way," it's now clear that unimaginable harm can occur in a matter of months. And, frankly, musings on "the end of the world" are open to interpretation, too.

Initially, Armageddon chatter was met with amusement, a la Y-2K hand-wringing and millennium madness. Some saw Satan in the smoke clouds, just as others see the Virgin Mary in their Cinnabons. Surprisingly, however, a recent Time/CNN poll showed that a whopping one third of all Americans are now checking the news for apocalyptic signs. And raptureready.com webmaster Todd Strandberg joyfully updates his "Rapture Index" as events unfold.

While Armageddon aficionados might be easily dismissed, when Brent Scowcroft says an attack on Iraq will lead to Armageddon and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa warns it will "open the gates of hell," these matters take on more weight. Likewise, when a Saudi diplomat explains that Bush's "obsession" with Iraq will lead to tragedy, one thing becomes starkly clear: Armageddon, tragedy and "gates of hell," aren't words traditionally used by generals and ambassadors.

Various mainstream sources have also reported that Christian Zionists are campaigning to oust the Palestinians in order to make way for the Second Coming of Christ. Considering Biblical prophecy a mandate for awarding regional control to Israel (while downplaying another aspect of the "to do" list - conversion of the Jews), conservative Christians are not only funding Jewish settlers, but garnering immense influence in Washington. The secretive Council for National Policy, for example, which ABC News labeled "the most powerful conservative group you've never heard of," includes John Ashcroft, Tommy Thomson and "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye as former members.

Despite pressure from the Democratic National Committee, the Bush campaign refuses to release a tape of the rumored "king-making" speech G.W gave before the council in 1999, fueling speculation that the council was responsible for his presidential nomination. Whether that's true or not, as the Washington Post reported last December, "For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the president of the United States has become the movement's de facto leader."

Those looking for more scientific explanations for End Times hoopla can find them. The Mayan calendar, for example, ends abruptly on December 21, 2012. Decoded from Mayan text, it centers on precise mathematical equations, and, unlike other ancient calendars, is more accurate than our own. Orthodox Jewish mathematicians have attempted to decode the Bible, as well. Based on the premise that hidden messages are embedded within the Torah, as a sort of in a crossword puzzle of world events, this method was brought to the public attention in 1997, when Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code became a New York Times bestseller. Using a letter-based numerological system created by Jewish mystics and facilitated by computer technology, Drosnin concluded that the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Kennedy killings were among major events foretold in the first five books of the Bible. He also used the code to predict the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (whom he personally warned) and searched the Mezuzah scroll for signs of the Apocalypse. There he found "terrorism" encoded with "world war," and "atomic holocaust" aligned with the year 2006. For fans of the Mayan prophecies, 2012 is encoded with the phrase "earth annihilated."

It should be noted, however, that Drosnin has his share of detractors, even among scientists who endorse the Bible code. One mathematician used Drosnin's technique to decode Moby Dick, and found hidden messages regarding the assassination of Gandhi, Leon Trostsky and Martin Luther King, while another used Drosnin's method to discover the phrase, "the code is bogus" embedded in Genesis.

A fake Nostradamus quote that snaked its way around the Internet was similarly debunked. Written by a student mimicking the French physician's style, it read that "2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos" would be the catalyst for World War III. Identified as a hoax, it detracted from Nostradamus' eerie prophecy that a "King of Terror" would descend from the skies and usher in a devastating global war. Though Nostradamus predicted this would occur in 1999, one quatrain referred to "hollow mountains" and the "new city" which, in retrospect, sounds like New York skyscrapers. Author Francis X. King explained it this way. "After the descent of the 'King of Terror," he wrote, in 1994, "the world [will] be ravaged by conflict of a previously unknown ferocity." Nostradamus cites a 13-year alliance between the U.S. and Russia which falls apart when both sides "give into barbarian power."

Of course, anyone doing the math will uncover monumental inconsistencies while surfing Doomsday dials. If the Mayans and Mezuzah scroll are correct, life as we know it will end in 2012, yet Nostradamus suggests this war will rage for 27years. And Christian Zionists won't be satisfied until the Jews control Jerusalem and rebuild God's temple, whenever that might be. In times of uncertainty, however, people reach for explanations where none exist. Whether one calls it faith or superstition, we seem to have an innate need to understand that which we cannot. On one hand, it's silly to put stock in such things, while on the other, Hamlet's observation that, "There are more things in heaven and earth. . . than are dreamt of in [our] philosophy" has never been more timely.

Which brings us back to King's 1994 translation. In the opening pages of his book, NOSTRADAMUS: Prophecies Fulfilled and Predictions for the Millennium & Beyond, he says Nostradamus warned that a world leader aligned with a necromantic cult would be responsible for "setting the East aflame." Anyone familiar with Skull and Bones should understand why believers question George Bush's role in this apocalyptic vision, though a Cheney/Bohemian Grove connection fits, too. Mention any of this at a cocktail party, however, and people will most certainly move to the other side of the room. Even when accompanied with credible warnings on how a U.S.-led attack against the Middle East will lead to Armageddon and open "the gaes of hell," talk of Nostradamus and Mayans will make you sound weird, if not crazy.

In any event, the question "What harm can Bush do?" now seems woefully naïve, just as the phrase "it's not the end of the world" isn't quite as convincing. Odds are, it's not the end of the world. But until the Bush bunch leaves the White House, it will probably feel like it is.

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'
asvx
"In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written:
\svxc
" the kingdom of God is within man" 
asxc
- not one man, nor a group of men- but in all men -
- in you, the people."
/

vsg
/
"Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren,

//c
/

 you did it to me."

/c

/c
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