Tuesday, November 28, 2006

A Positive Move by Evangelicals

Good article on Mitt winning the Evangelical vote. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2006/11/27/mitt_romney_and_whether_a_morm.html

Brace Yourselves Mitt's "Mormonism" Is Getting Personal

Wow...Here we are 2 years before the next presidential election. Mitt Romney hasn't even declared his presidency but yet the "real" attacks against what Mitt is all about are beginning. I have copied an email that maybe some of you have seen. It is patently offensive and I post it only to show the horror of what the opposition is not afraid to do or say about Mitt and his fellow LDS. This is only the beginning, I imagine that the questions will become more difficult, the attacks more personal and the faith of our fathers more questioned. I see this as an opportunity to stand and be heard.

-----Below is the article -----

RunMittRun Progress Report, November 27, 2006

Garments on the Internet:
A Type and Shadow of Things to Come

If any of us had any doubt that someone would stoop so low as to attack Mitt Romney’s candidacy by attacking his religion, events of the last few days should have erased them.

In a matter of days, Andrew Sullivan, a prominent blogger and writer for “Time” magazine, posted a photograph of a man and woman in temple garments, an article highlighting the Mormon Church’s “racist past,” and a link to the ”South Park” episode ridiculing Joseph Smith.

Two things that should give us all pause: 1) Mitt isn’t even a declared candidate yet, and 2) Andrew Sullivan is a conservative who claims to be a fan of Romney on many issues. It’s just that Romney’s religion isn’t one of them.

Sullivan, it turns out, is a fiscal conservative and a social progressive. He accurately points out in his thoughtful article in “The London Times” that Romney is really the only shot “theoconservatives” have of installing a president friendly to their values in 2008. But he then makes clear that most of those theoconservatives are evangelical Christians, who frequently loathe Mormons for the many reasons he has been detailing in his blog the last few days.

Garments on the internet two years before the general election, served up by a supposedly conservative fan of Mitt Romney?
Brace yourselves.

Mitch

P.S. Please forward this email to everyone you know! Please donate financially to our effort to fight the misinformation!

Link to donate: http://runmittrun.org/website/index_contribute.html

Link to website: http://runmittrun.org/

Link to volunteer: http://www.runmittrun.org/volunteer.php

Monday, November 27, 2006

13 Things We Don't Know...

Geesh, from what I understood scientists knew everything about everything. I guess not, here are a mere 13 things that we just don't know or can't explain. Some were way over my head but nevertheless, very interesting. Take a look...

http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524911.600

Interesting article from other pundits

I think there are a lot of perspectives here. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15917591/

I like what Carter said, "It’s no wonder we’re in denial on Iraq: the reality is unbelievably painful. But the denial will wear off in ways that could re-shape our politics, favoring more change, newer faces, and a political watershed."

We are in total denial I think right now on what we can reasonably expect in Iraq. With Cheney, Rice and the presidential dog going to the Mid East, I commend them for their efforts but I hope a bit of reality soon kicks in.

Also, 3rd party? Hopefully, I think it's about time.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Darfur

The Onion

African Children Given 30,000 Unused 'Save Darfur' T-Shirts

SAN FRANCISCO—Citing poor U.S. sales, San Francisco-based Me Tees T-shirts announced Tuesday that nearly 30,000 of their cream-colored,...

Muslim-American Speaks Out

Islamic Society of Nevada director Aslam Abdullah wrote an open letter to Al-Qaida criticizing them. A lot of people have been calling on Muslim leaders to speak out against the terrorists--lets just hope that more Muslim leaders actually in the middle-east start doing this more.

One of my favorite parts of his letter is this excerpt:
"Many among us American Muslims have differences with our administration on domestic and foreign issues, just like many other Americans do. But the plurality of opinions does not mean that we deprive ourselves of the civility that God demands from us. America is our home and will always be our home. Its interests are ours, and its people are ours. When you talk of killing Americans, you first have to kill 6 million or so Muslims who will stand for every American's right to live and enjoy the life as commanded by God."

If we can convince more Muslims of this, especially the very poor ones in the middle east who feel like killing westerners is their only option
, then we will be far better off in this "war on terror." Convincing them of this is a lot harder when their houses are being destroyed and their family members are being killed by our bombs. Diplomacy at gunpoint can only take us so far. This is obviously a very complicated issue, and it is not going away any time soon. I am glad I am not the one making all the decisions, and I don't envy our leaders who do, but I want the correct ones to be made. I think education is key, and the more education those people have, the less belligerent they will be. Is it any coincidence that the American Muslims are not blowing themselves up? They are educated, and they have everything they need to sustain life and live comfortably. This is something that the poor Muslims elsewhere in the world do not have, and their ignorance is killing themselves and other innocent people. Killing one fanatical leader only leads to another one taking his place.

This is surely a debate that can and will go on for a long time.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

A follow up to my Rush Limbaugh post

A little backing to my Rush Limbaugh party being bad for the Republicans in the last election. It seems like many Democrats agreed with my posting on how Rush Limbaugh was bad for the republican party. It just goes to show that the smallest miscalculation can destory momentum on the field of political elections.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/15965553.htm

A quote from the Nazi Hermann Goring

I stumbled on this quote from the Nazi war criminal Hermann Goring. His observation on power and leadership are eerily familiar. I am not equating anyone in our government to Nazi's, I only am drawing a similarity of philosophy between the things we do to protect ourselves (i.e. Patriot Act) and all out war on civil rights.

Göring spoke about war and extreme nationalism during the Nuremberg trials in an interview with Gustave Gilbert, a Jewish German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail:
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Wow! I'm humbled and awed.


I just love this photo from the hubble telescope. Everytime I look at it I think of how great the works of God are and how truly insignificant we should be to God but because of his providence and love, we are not. Each particle of light represents a galaxy consisting of billons of stars. This represents an obscenly small fragment of our universe. Incredible.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

21st Century War... what are we to do?

In this new era of warfare, it is difficult to define our enemy. They are numerous, but all different in many ways. They all have a common goal however.. to kill western republics. Liberty is their enemy... in all its forms. They are at war with a concept. As long as it exists, their religious dogma can not be forced on all inhabitants of the earth. They don't care what country has it, they want it destroyed. Many on their side call it the "war with the west.." So, they are at war with a direction too... cool.

Why can't we define the enemy the same way? If Liberty is their enemy, why can't ours be a concept as well? Are we not at war with Fascism? In all its forms? Ultimately, they only way for us to be truly free is to stomp out authoritarian governments. We spread our way of life through liberty and allowing people to make their own choices. The Islamic Fundamental groups believe the opposite. They believe they must force their beliefs on others. So, they must kill the movement of Liberty.

Aren't we then in a catch 22? If the only solution to upholding Liberty is to destroy Fascism, and the only way to do that is to kill people and overthrow Fascist governments... would we not be doing exactly what they want to do to us? Are we then better simply because when we are done killing, we leave the people with Liberty and the ability to create a republic? Maybe we are?

Are we willing to go this far? Are we willing to just destroy Fascism? Period? If not, we will always be living in fear, playing defense and getting irritated with men like George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld because the world hasn't given them the political backing to go all the way. To use ALL our might to kill the enemy and everyone around them and never look back. Our men and women in uniform will continue to die and it will NEVER end. This is the question of our time everyone... so.... Let's open the floor here... what are we to do???

Friday, November 10, 2006

Republicans Furious at GWB

Great article from the hill. http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/110906/rumsfeld2.html

While I think Pres. Bush has handled this war like a coyote handles a rooster, I think he was right in not accepting the resignation of Rumsfeld just a couple of weeks before the election. This would have looked like an attempt to make the war more political than it already is.

Had the Pres. been truly interested in helping the republicans keep their majority and show the American people that he truly cared about how the war was being run he would have accepted the resignation of Rumsfeld the first time he tried. This looks like a ploy to save face in his final years.

What a complete mess of a president Bush has been. I'm selling " I voted for Bush...and I'm sorry " bumperstickers for $10 anyone want one?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Will a Mormon Save the Constitution?

I ran across this article by chance on the WSJ website. It talks about the prophecy Joesph Smith made regarding the "Constitution hanging by a thread." Many of us LDS folks my be inclined to vote for a Mormon candidate because of our belief in the possibility that there will be a Mormon who "saves the Constitution." This prophecy has also apparently inspired many LDS people to run for office. Mike Otterson pointed out that the prophecy is not official canon--something I was not aware of, and many other LDS people may not have known. He says, "There may be some members of the church who think that in supporting a Mormon candidate and seeing the possibility of a Mormon president, there may be some sort of scriptural validation." But Mr. Otterson explains, "It begins to take on almost a zealous tone that I find a little worrisome."

Read this article now! It is very, very interesting.

Nasty Ads Keeping Good People Out of Politics?

There is a piece on the Opinion Page of WSJ.com talking about all the money spent on negative ads this year. I know I speak for everyone when I say I am glad those ads, the phone calls, and the junk mail is over. I literally got 2-3 pieces of mail and 1-2 calls every day for the last several weeks from Bill Clinton, anti cloning, and other interest groups.

The author suggests that one of the effects of all the negativity is this:
"The reaction to the onslaught is aversion; qualified, capable people avoid politics and the political process at all costs, thus diminishing the talent pool. The subtextual message of political advertising is: You'd be crazy to get involved. It's bad and it's only going to get worse." It would seem that this is true--just look at who is in Washington. Its no wonder to me, why so many Americans are now calling themselves Independents. We now have two Independent Senators. The two parties are, to quote the article, "spending the hundreds of millions of dollars they raise microtargeting supposedly single-issue voters and bombarding them with negative messages about the opposite party's alleged disdain for those concerns. Put more simply, they send you junk mail you don't open, and leave robo-calls on your answering machine that you immediately erase."

We need reform. Some have suggested banning commercials all together by the candidates, but that simply lets the hundreds of interest groups spend the money and air the commercials. The bottom line, to me anyway, is that most Americans fall somewhere in the middle on the political spectrum, and all the people on the fringes spending the most money are ruining politics for everyone. We are getting more polarized and divided, in a time when we desperately need to be united.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Media Bias Illustrated

I hear the term media bias thrown out there everyday primarliy from the talking heads on the right side of the aisle. Here is an example of blatant bias found in the leftie enclave, the New York Times. Read it here. It is regarding the John Kerry joke gone bad. Here is what he said:


"..you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.."
"..if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.."

You won't see this quote anywhere in the article, written the day after said comment. In fact, it states on more than one occasion that Bush attacks Kerry for his comments. So Kerry is painted as the victim of a "vast right wing conspiracy."

Very interesting....