onegoodmove

This got buried at the bottom of another thread, but is pretty hilarious, a little levity about Obama, the black man demanding change from all of us so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oupS4XbN_4Y

No Charles, and now no Norm?

Sounds like the animals are running the zoo for the next few days.

Yes -- animals -- apes throwing bones that turn into spaceships. Please, everyone, take five minutes away from politics and honor the memory of Arthur C. Clarke.

"...a little levity about Obama, the black man demanding change from all of us so.

Oh, the Onion -- so THAT'S where Hillary got her campaign workers. Go figure.

Oh, just one more! John Stewart has some very perceptive commentary on Barack's race speech.

I'm digging your links, and always love the Onion!

I'd like to hear what others know and think about China and Tibet. China and Hu Jintao are getting extra, deserved scrutiny prior to the Olympics. It's also hard to ignore Jintao's duplicitous action in regards to Darfur as well - supporting Darfur's govt and seeking a solution.

It was weird looking for link and running into so much commentary that China's getting a bad rap in both instances. Up until this morning, the information I had was pointing towards China as being the problem.

Arthur C Clarke - here's to you!

Jon's Joe Lunchbucket bit was hilarious, but that's gotta be the writers! The Hannity clip was not as well trashed as it could have been, though:

Well, Sean, I don't know. Alan Colmes goes to work every day and listens to a low-down, sleazy, unprofessional excuse for a journalist. A guy who would have been fired years ago for asking questions like that, Sean – that's if Roger Ailes possessed even an attogram of integrity. But despite hearing stuff that should make any decent person want to leap over the desk and wring the life from the braying jackass with whom he works, Alan Colmes is a nice guy who just repudiates the bile that oozes from the hole in his coworker's face. That's what I heard from Barack Obama, Sean; a firm repudiation of Reverend Wright's biased and bitter poison.

Two quotes from Arthur C Clarke of which I'm sure Norm would approve:

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. "Credo" (1991); also in Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Essays, 1934-1998 (1999), p. 360

Finally, I would like to assure my many Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends that I am sincerely happy that the religion which Chance has given you has contributed to your peace of mind (and often, as Western medical science now reluctantly admits, to your physical well-being). Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future. 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)

It kind of irritates me that Al Franken is getting so much support from people outside of Minnesota who know nothing about the state or its issues. Although Franken would be a significant improvement over current Senator Norm Coleman, Franken's opponent for the Democratic endorsement, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, is much, much closer to the ideals established by the late Senator Wellstone, whose seat Coleman now occupies. Jack's website can be viewed here: http://www.jackforsenate.org/

This is freaking me out a bit today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnOOo6tRs8

Everybody is required to watch this in its entirety.

Rumor is he's a superdelegate...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=khuu-RhOBDU

I watched it (ATLAH) in its entirety, but I still couldn't see where the joke was. They do say that British humour is very different to American humor, but I just didn't get the punchline!

I am offering this as a slight antidote to the politics, for all of you 1gm posters who like celebrity gossip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fej6U0vYPxM

Pedantasareus,

It's not a joke. It's a sermon by a black preacher of ATLAH Ministries.

> The Witch Doctor Project

Exposing the Magnificent Seven - Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bill Clinton, T.D. Jakes, Louis Farrakan, Don King, and Cornell West, the American witch doctors.

Calling the witch doctors of the Ivory Coast and African continent to confess their compliance and input in the removal of Blacks from the continent of Africa.

Calling all African and African American men and women to denouce these leaders, repent, and seek after truth and righteousness.

What's interesting is that in the YouTube clip he is praising Bill Clinton and denouncing Obama, but then here he is denouncing Bill Clinton... weird..

The primary function of this group is to shed truth in an area shrouded in deceit and lies. This group will examine the lies perpetrated by the political, social, and religious leaders that have caused a nation to teeter on the edge of extinction.

We will seek to examine and expose the role of the witch doctors on the west coast of Africa in the selling of slaves to America. These representatives will be called to a state of repentance for the lies they have committed that have weakened the Black race. Unless this is done, the curse will remain on the African population.

The nation of Africa is facing tremendous obstacles that cannot be solved with money. We must remove the false leaders of the day like "The Magnificent Seven" - Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bill Clinton, T.D. Jakes, Louis Farrakan, Don King, and Cornell West - and replace them with men and women who will repent, and preach righteousness, and truth.

Many noted Black leaders must be brought to trial or community tribunals to go on public trial for the crimes they have committed against the Black community - people like Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton, etc. Many Black leaders in the U.S.A. and especially African men are notoriously corrupt, and the spirit of corruption must be identified and then removed if we are to succeed. Honesty and integrity must become the order of the day and emanate from our male leadership.

The Church must be cleansed as well. Many churches over the last 20 years have placed great emphasis on acquiring jet planes, dome facilities, and prosperity preaching. This has led to an increasing number of false and lying preachers and prophets. Therefore, these leaders must also be removed if the people are to be saved.

African American women must stop buying jet planes for these false teachers. These men are scam artists seeking to remove the dollars from the community, and they do not demonstrate and real regard or love for its inhabitants.

I had never heard of James David Manning, but it just gets weirder and weirder the more I learn about him.

James David Manning, the pastor of Atlah Worldwide calls Barack Obama dirty names while insulting his own congregation for supporting Obama.

Have you all heard of "Pastor" James David Manning? You can find him on YouTube. He’s a joke and consequently, his JUNK gets posted often.

You need to listen to this clip of this false minister called pastor James David Manning as he calls Obama all types of dirty names and insults Obama for having a white mother. Pastor Manning then insults his own congregation for supporting Obama, calling them “maggots” and “despicable”. I was amused to hear this raging flake claim that Bill Clinton has “done so much” for blacks folks.

In short, this false pastor of Atlah Worldwide James David Manning is delusional and his followers are out of their minds to sit there in that church and tolerate the racism and bashing that he subjects them to.

So I think we can put this down as a 'gaff', but will the media see it that way? Calling his racist grandmother a 'typical white person' is a seriously bad gaff in light of the whole Wright thing in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYudCtO8fdw

In honour of the 5th anniversary in the War Against Iraq I give you a might fine resignation letter written by a career diplomat, John Brady Kiesling, at the time: http://www.bradykiesling.com/resignation_letter.htm

Ah, here's another gem from James David Manning, who supports Clarence Thomas, Condolezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, but considers Barack Obama to be "white trash" lol

Strange.... these are indeed strange days! LOl!

So I think we can put this down as a 'gaff', but will the media see it that way? Calling his racist grandmother a 'typical white person' is a seriously bad gaff in light of the whole Wright thing in my opinion.

Oh no. This was major gaff, although I've heard over and over from many Blacks that they feel that white people are instinctively afraid of them.

I have an experience to relate vis à vis this notion. I was on the Paris metro one time. As I got up to exit the Metro, a Black man dressed in colorful robes tugged on my arm, and I thought he was attacking me or something. Turns out he was warning me that I had left something that I had with me on the metro seat....

sigh..

I don't suppose that the U.S. is ready to elect a Black man... too much baggage..

Oh well.. maybe fifty years from now..

And to add to this story, a few days earlier a couple of little "white girls" were getting all cuddly with me on the metro and I thought nothing of it. Turned out they were a couple of little pickpockets.

And as a woman who is a half breed, I can tell you that I have experienced a lot of racism. My brother took after the American Indian side of my family more than I did as far as his skin is very dark. He was called a "spic" when he was a young and at that time I didn't even know what the term meant, but I learned very quickly that the color of one's skin made a big difference to a lot of people.

I live close to the Mexican border. I never had any problems when I went to Mexico, but my brother told me that Mexicans have little respect for darker-skinned people because Mexicans have little respect for the Native Americans (the native Mayans and Incas).

I also remember one time that I went to Chihuahua. I saw a couple of Tarahumaras and I wanted to speak to them, but they ran away. A local explained to me that the Tarahumaras in Mexico were so discriminated against and were treated so horribly by the local Mexicans that they were frightened.

One more story. My sister married a man whose parents were from Mexico. When I saw their daughter, my niece, for the first time I said that she looked "muy india" in my half-ass Spanish, which meant that she had strong Indian features. Her husband was very offended!... I had intended that comment to be a compliment...

sigh..

Hillary clinton on the mountaintop mining of coal and the dumping of it in rivers (i'm sure everyone here knows of the practice, hence no links)

You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we've got to look at this from a practical perspective.

Zing!

Magnolia,

You and I and RedSeven and Adam and Little Mickey can post all the links that we want, to our little heart's desire, on the policy differences between Hillary and Barack. No matter what we post, it will be ignored. In the end, Barack Obama is going to be viewed as that scary Black man, and people are going to feel much better voting for that nice white woman, Hillary Clinton, or that nice white man, John McCain.

Obama's chances, at this point in time, of winning the nomination are over with... gone.. poof!

The U.S.A. is just not ready for a Black man. I've resigned myself to this reality..

sigh...

So I think we can put this down as a 'gaff', but will the media see it that way? Calling his racist grandmother a 'typical white person' is a seriously bad gaff in light of the whole Wright thing in my opinion.

First of all, did he call his grandmother racist? No

Secondly, even if you believe he is saying that...

My racist grandmother is a typical white American does not equal the typical white American is a racist.

One can say someone with some unique or rare qualities is still an overall a typical person.

Obama's chances, at this point in time, of winning the nomination are over with... gone.. poof!

Unless he starts losing every contest by enormous margins, he already has the nomination.

Independents and folks in Midwestern states seem to care less about the color of a candidates skin. Hispanics will resign themselves to vote for a black man, as the right makes McCain fall in line.

It won't be easy, but it is hardly impossible.

The U.S.A. is just not ready for a Black man. I've resigned myself to this reality.

who sent you the Clinton talking points anyway?

who sent you the Clinton talking points anyway?

Oh, RedSeven, I'm sorry. I've just seen so many anti-Obama posts lately as concerns what he has said that I've lost all hope and feel entirely disheartened.

Hispanics will resign themselves to vote for a black man, as the right makes McCain fall in line.

I hope with all of my heart that this true. However, I live in New Mexico, and I am all too aware of the divide between Hispanics and Blacks.

:(

Re: JoAnn

sigh...

That's too many sighs JoAnn. You need refresh yourself. Don't elevate what is wrong with America above all that is right.

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub0nykvHRuc

Weird Al always makes me smile.

:)

Anyone else laughing your ass off when the camera shows the pulpit?

The preacher says "tits" and the first thing I see is the "Jesus is Lord."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Joann,

Are you a fan of the Lord of the Rings? During these times I'm reminded of a great scene at the end of The Two Towers.

Sam: It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam? Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEMdXhfO-Wk&feature=related

My racist grandmother is a typical white American does not equal the typical white American is a racist.

My white grandmother was a racist. She hated my mother because she was an Indian, and she hated me because I was my mother's daughter.

Unlike Obama, I could never forgive my white grandmother for her racist views. Obama is a bigger man than I could be a big woman.

I have to say that all of this talk of racism has brought out a lot of feelings deep inside of me. I grew up in a bi-racial family, and I'm all too aware of racial divide as concerns Indians versus Hispanics and Anglo Saxons. Like Obama, I want nothing more than to transcend these divides, but I'm losing hope the more that I read what people have to say about this topic and how people widen the divide instead of attempting to come together... so sad!

Brett and thaddeusphoenix

I've been feeling so fucking depressed over what I've been reading and seeing and your exit into some laughter, I appreciate!

Thank you!

Red, no I dont think she is racist, probably just a scared old lady. A lot of people took it that way though. I understand what you are saying, but that is not how it sounds. Even if she does have 'unique' or 'rare qualities', if this gets grabbed by the media and played next to the Wright sermons, I can see it becoming a problem. Personally I think it was just a badly phrased sentence and he sounded tired.

But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass

That was beaufiful Brett.

FRODO: Nothing ever dampens your spirits does it Sam?

SAM: Those rainclouds might.

Red, no I dont think she is racist,

I wasn't trying to say you did, only point out the content of what he said doesn't support the idea that it was another gaff. The potential to take it out of context may spur a few blog entries, but the mainstream media won't run with a comment that is much less ambiguous then the statements of Wright and Ferraro.

but the mainstream media won't run with a comment that is much less ambiguous then the statements of Wright and Ferraro.

The mainstream has been playing the comments from Rev Wright over and over and over again, while ignoring the comments from McCain endorsers Hagee and Parsley...

The White Preacher Double Standard: How Hagee, Parsley and the Rest Get Away with Everything

Sounds like the animals are running the zoo for the next few days...

Oh, spare me the zoo metaphors! I beginning to feel like I'm at a Star Trek convention here!! Or at least some sort of strange, sci-fi/fantasy netherworld...not that the issues of politics and the extra-ordinary have never overlapped before but generally it's pretty rare.

It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims - that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America - it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.

(From the article Joann linked). It is crazy as batshit if you think the good lord brought 9/11 on us to punish the U.S. for its harboring gays, feminists and liberals. On the other hand, claiming that we "brought 9/11 on ourselves as the result of our foreign policies in the middle east" is an incendiary way of saying something that is at least half-true. While we did not bring it on ourselves in any sense that would exculpate the terrorists or understate their toxic, hateful ideology, it is beyond doubt that our foreign policies--not our democratic government--are in part what have made us a target of terrorist attacks.

That is not an issue most Americans want to deal with. It's easier to just bash gay people because that doesn't require any thought.

Now this little item is a juicy tid bit on Hillary's religious affiliations.

A major source the article just linked is this, which, while longer, I found better written and better informed.

Now this little item is a juicy tid bit on Hillary's religious affiliations.

Nice find Adam. If it wasn't coming from The Nation, I would think it was a conspiracy theory.

what will people find worse "God damn America", or god damn freedom?

I will try to keep zoo metaphors out of you purview in the future.

"Sounds like the animals are running the zoo for the next few days."

If the monkeys stick to throwing leg bones, it'll be fine....

I've just seen so many anti-Obama posts lately as concerns what he has said that I've lost all hope and feel entirely disheartened.

JoAnn - I'm shaken, too. Things have turned vicious. But I haven't given up hope. That speech has, as of this writing, 2,254,561 viewings on YouTube.

Opportunistic racists have jumped on this and are flooding message boards with their garbage, yes that's true. But they'll eventually cry themselves to sleep. All fussy babies do.

It's still a month to PA, and tonight it's been announced that Obama's passport files were breached by department personnel, and right this minute there is a picture on Huffington Post of President Bill Clinton and Jeremiah Wright together at the White House. So hang on tight - because this is so not over! lol

Unscientific American

A sore that still festers

Polls show Barack Obama damaged by link to Reverend Jeremiah Wright

The danger that Jeremiah Wright poses to Barack Obama

Ten must-see Jeremiah Wright videos

Which is more powerful, The Math or The Stampede?

It may be of no consequence whatever, but I couldn't help noticing that of the 43 presidents of the USA so far, 39 have had names originating from the British Isles, 3 have had Dutch names (Van Buren and 2 Roosevelts) and one German (Eisenhower). What are the chances of another "first ever" this time? Also, in chronological order, those 4 were Democrat, Republican, Democrat and Republican.

Unless he starts losing every contest by enormous margins, he already has the nomination.

Yup, couple more things. First, people keep saying it's bad that the fight has gone on so long. But Obama's greatest liability at the outset of his campaign was that everyone knew who Hillary was, but a lot of people, us new junkies aside, hadn't heard of him or knew much about him. As this poll shows, the longer Barack is in the race, the more his popularity goes up. And even for those who already know who Barack is, it's still good: When was the last time you heard much about McCain on the evening news?

Second, let us not for get there Bush still has a 33% approval rating. 33%. Have those people been living in a cave for the last seven and half years? Who knows, but as RedSeven pointed out, it's independents Obama needs to persuade, not the lunatics who'd never vote for him anyway. This Wright stuff is only the latest media fracas, but even if some are turned off to Obama as a result, the reasons for it could not be very deep, and just as easy to unsettle as the next big sound-bite.

Third. Superdelegates. Richardson endorsed Obama today with the explanation,

I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America’s moral leadership in the world...As a presidential candidate, I know full well Senator Obama’s unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation.

A mixed race man stood up in front of america, brought up how we talk about race, and how damaging it is when we talk about it in such a fashion.

The following week has been pundits tearing america apart, I can't help but think of Stewarts appearance on Crossfire "You're h-hurting america".

If this hurts Obama's campiagn irrepairably, I have no hope for america. I feel JoAnn's pain. I heard Obama's speech and was awed by the fact that he was so honest, so insightful on what was wrong with race in america. It was the kind of speech you would hear in sociolgy class, or a college dissertation on how we got here, and what the future needs to look like.

The partisan divide, however, has made it so that this situation was not heard by the Repugs. All they see is political opportunism to shut down a democrat, and continue to use Race-politics to scare america.

What shocked and disheartened me more than anything though, was to see Hillary Clinton supporters not listening either! Charles Lemos (for example) missed the point entirely, because Hillary Clinton wasn't saying it.

My big question, was where was the "democrat" hillary clinton when Obama was being attacked relentlessly? Aren't Democrats supposed to be strong together, working together to diffuse race and make equality for everyone? Was hillary too busy watching from the sidelines, enjoying the view, only thinking of her own political future? Obama even defended Farraro after her incendiary attacks on him. I have a REAL Effin' hard time imagining hillary will do the same thing with this.

The following week has been pundits tearing america apart...If this hurts Obama's campiagn irrepairably, I have no hope for america. I feel JoAnn's pain.

Look, I sympathize with both of you on this. Indeed, in my view, one of the most disappointing aspects of the speech's reception is that only question in the media has been how "effective" it would be. No, other than Jon Stewart (see his brilliant satire, linked above), has really discussed Obama's many suggestions that the news media, 'right' & 'left', often impoverishes public discourse in way that simply belies their claim to inform.

All that said, I think some on the left are uncomfortable with the fact that a number of citizens are not terribly well informed, and do not vote for candidates on the basis of reasons. Even that being so, I merely meant to suggest that Obama's chances are still good in any case. And, that issue aside, it was a rich and complex speech, which I think is taking some time to sink in. Perhaps it's painful to people like you, me, Joann, RedSeven, and many others here, to see a subtle, sophisticated, and groundbreaking speech broken down into sound bites, and distorted beyond recognition by blind, foaming-at-the-mouth partisan hacks. But the people convinced by their absurd chicanery would not have been on our side anyway, and are typically not those assailable in the language of reasons and evidence.

One more thing: Isn't it obvious--I take it to be--that the people I dub 'blind, foaming at the mouth partisan hacks'--such as Hannity and Limbaugh--feel threatened by Obama and what he represents? Worst of all, he is too popular, and has inspired too many people, to be dismissed a "fringe." Of course they are going to use every dirty, cheap, and unfair trick they have in their book to try and tear the guy down. A world in which someone like Obama has come to represent American and its mainstream, is a world in which they have been rendered irrelevant to, and relegated to the fringe of, political discourse, even if they keep their shows.

My big question, was where was the "democrat" hillary clinton when Obama was being attacked relentlessly? Aren't Democrats supposed to be strong together, working together to diffuse race and make equality for everyone?

She was calling super delegates to tell them that the wright thing made Obama unelectable. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/19/clinton-facing-narrower-p_n_92474.html

and then, not commenting on it publicly. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/politics/21memo.html?_r=1&ei=5090&en=51576b09971ea9e8&ex=1363752000&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1206108496-GJoD3XexUvZ5EYuzpK4HXQ&oref=slogin

Here's a gem

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/80392/

Thanks Red.

She was calling super delegates to tell them that the wright thing made Obama unelectable.

I do not doubt Clinton's ability to be conniving and politically ruthless (although the links were greatly appreciated, Red). The point is that someone of Richardson's stature, who has been barraged by both campaigns for months, responded to Obama's speech on race with an endorsement. I would say, in style, sophistication, and political courage, that speech as a whole simply belies the fear-mongering claim of the Clinton campaign that Obama has not been 'properly vetted' (and so by implication, won't be able to stand up to smear). He didn't respond to it in the way Clinton might have, but he's all the better for that, I'd say.

Must read Link of the day, I don't know why this story hasn't been covered here yet, perhaps I just missed the link:

Hillary's Prayer at Motherjones Magazine

A few choice quotes from the article:

Such references to spiritual warfare—prayer as battle against Satan, evil, and sin—might seem like heavy evangelical rhetoric for the senator from New York, but they went over well with the Sojourners audience, as did her call to "inject faith into policy."

In an interview with the United Methodist Reporter, she expressed regret that her church had focused too much on social gospel concerns in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, "to the exclusion of personal faith and growth." The spirit, believe theological conservatives, matters more than the flesh. Clinton added that she was happy to see her liberal denomination becoming more salvation centered in the '90s.

Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast.

That's how it works: The Fellowship isn't out to turn liberals into conservatives; rather, it convinces politicians they can transcend left and right with an ecumenical faith that rises above politics. Only the faith is always evangelical, and the politics always move rightward.

one more:

Unlikely partnerships have become a Clinton trademark. Some are symbolic, such as her support for a ban on flag burning with Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and funding for research on the dangers of video games with Brownback and Santorum. But Clinton has also joined the gop on legislation that redefines social justice issues in terms of conservative morality, such as an anti-human-trafficking law that withheld funding from groups working on the sex trade if they didn't condemn prostitution in the proper terms. With Santorum, Clinton co-sponsored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act; she didn't back off even after Republican senators such as Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter pulled their names from the bill citing concerns that the measure would protect those refusing to perform key aspects of their jobs—say, pharmacists who won't fill birth control prescriptions, or police officers who won't guard abortion clinics.

This is freaking me out a bit today.

Yes, that was scary, and a bit foreboding. Wikipedia had this to say about shanty towns in the US:

Shanty towns tend to develop on the outskirts of cities. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, shanty towns, often called "Hobo jungles", appeared in cities across North America because of massive unemployment. Some were nicknamed "Hoovervilles" because the residents blamed the economic conditions on then President Herbert Hoover, whose decisions were popularly thought to have caused the depression.

So now we have Bushvilles? Greenspanvilles? New-Century-Ameriquest-villes?

Sorry adam, I didn't see you linked the mother jones article already :P It deserves its own post on OGM, perhaps in BC times. (Before Charles)

/snark

Clinton raised $16 million less in Feb. then they claimed

WTH? This world is upside down

Sorry adam, I didn't see you linked the mother jones article already :P It deserves its own post on OGM, perhaps in BC times. (Before Charles)

No problem! It could use a little prominance (I was also way too tired to thoughtfully quote, as you did, to help motivate people to read it, so thank you for that). Let me get one quick point across:

In an interview with the United Methodist Reporter, she expressed regret that her church had focused too much on social gospel concerns in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, "to the exclusion of personal faith and growth." The spirit, believe theological conservatives, matters more than the flesh.

This is the anti-Obama, par excellence. As I have already argued at length, the difference between Obama's connection to religion, and those of the radical Christian right, is that Obama's appeals centrally rely on a "social gospel" or "social justice" issues, which are practical in orientation, not metaphysical, and hence amenable in terms of values to non-Christians leftists. A central problem with Christian fundamentalism in government is that metaphysical superstitions motivate practical programs, with disastrous results because the natural world of political fact is being distorted from the outset by a theological lense. This is toto caelo different than practical progams being motivated but not justified by religious concerns, for which the latter are optional and detachable, and which accordingly could be made consistent with a robustly secular agenda. This kind of "social justice" inspired Christianity need not involve any denial of the facts because its adherence see themselves as obligated to directly confront the realities of human suffering, and to create practical strategies for alleviating them, rather than expecting theological entities such as "God" or "the market" to magically take care of them. For them, "faith" is not separable from "works," not a matter of private fantasies and quotations of scripture in utterly disconnection from harsh realities.

As an aside, Krugman's always informative analysis of the present state of the economy is scaring the crap out of me lately. Here is his latest, Paryting Like It's 1929

Contrary to popular belief, the stock market crash of 1929 wasn’t the defining moment of the Great Depression. What turned an ordinary recession into a civilization-threatening slump was the wave of bank runs that swept across America in 1930 and 1931.

This banking crisis of the 1930s showed that unregulated, unsupervised financial markets can all too easily suffer catastrophic failure.

As the decades passed, however, that lesson was forgotten — and now we’re relearning it, the hard way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

I'm sorry if I just woke up to this clip, but this is the full clip of the Write "God Damn America" clip. I feel so ashamed for our media. They have failed us miserably. I wish I could embed this.

Adam said:

Third. Superdelegates. Richardson endorsed Obama today with the explanation

Perhaps it's painful to people like you, me, Joann, RedSeven, and many others here, to see a subtle, sophisticated, and groundbreaking speech broken down into sound bites, and distorted beyond recognition by blind, foaming-at-the-mouth partisan hacks. But the people convinced by their absurd chicanery would not have been on our side anyway, and are typically not those assailable in the language of reasons and evidence.

I was delighted to see that the governor of my state, New Mexico, endorsed Obama.

And you're right, Adam. Those people wouldn't have endorsed Obama anyway.

When I'm losing hope and feeling depressed, I can always come here and read the words of Adam, Magnolia Electric Company, RedSeven, Little Mickey, thaddeusphoenix, Brett and Dende Blogger and Tim to raise my spirits in humankind.

Magnolia:

Must read Link of the day, I don't know why this story hasn't been covered here yet, perhaps I just missed the link:

I've been aware of this for quite some time now, but I've been holding back from attacking HIllary Clinton too much. I have often countered anti-Barack posts with anti-Hillary posts, but I hestitate to do so because more than anything, I hope that McCain is defeated.

However, along this line and in the vein of why does Hillary Clinton not have to answer for her participation in this right-wing prayer group. It's clear that any candidate for the presidency of the U.S. has to pander to evangelicals.

Clinton's prayer group

was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

Clinton declined our requests for an interview about her faith, but in Living History, she describes her first encounter with Fellowship leader Doug Coe at a 1993 lunch with her prayer cell at the Cedars, the Fellowship's majestic estate on the Potomac. Coe, she writes, "is a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."

The Fellowship's long-term goal is "a leadership led by God—leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit." According to the Fellowship's archives, the spirit has in the past led its members in Congress to increase U.S. support for the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the Park dictatorship in South Korea. The Fellowship's God-led men have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators. Clinton, says Schenck, has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance.

These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast. Though weighted Republican, the breakfast—regularly attended by about 40 members—is a bipartisan opportunity for politicians to burnish their reputations, giving Clinton the chance to profess her faith with men such as Brownback as well as the twin terrors of Oklahoma, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and, until recently, former Senator George Allen (R-Va.). Democrats in the group include Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, who told us that the separation of church and state has gone too far; Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is also a regular.

Unlikely partnerships have become a Clinton trademark. Some are symbolic, such as her support for a ban on flag burning with Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and funding for research on the dangers of video games with Brownback and Santorum. But Clinton has also joined the gop on legislation that redefines social justice issues in terms of conservative morality, such as an anti-human-trafficking law that withheld funding from groups working on the sex trade if they didn't condemn prostitution in the proper terms. With Santorum, Clinton co-sponsored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act; she didn't back off even after Republican senators such as Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter pulled their names from the bill citing concerns that the measure would protect those refusing to perform key aspects of their jobs—say, pharmacists who won't fill birth control prescriptions, or police officers who won't guard abortion clinics.

Clinton has championed federal funding of faith-based social services, which she embraced years before George W. Bush did; Marci Hamilton, author of God vs. the Gavel, says that the Clintons' approach to faith-based initiatives "set the stage for Bush." Clinton has also long supported the Defense of Marriage Act, a measure that has become a purity test for any candidate wishing to avoid war with the Christian right.

That last paragraph should have been part of the quote.

Sign me up for Markdown (or is it Markup?) for dummies.

This is the part that is most frightening:

The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

And on this note, an article on Alternet by Barbara Ehrenreich:

There's a reason why Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the "Fellowship," aka the Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells" -- their term -- and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia

Turns out that our presidential candidates have to suck up to the religious zealots in order to win the election. Not than any of us should be all that surpised about this.

Turns out that our presidential candidates have to suck up to the religious zealots in order to win the election. Not than any of us should be all that surpised about this.

That is understandable. However, being a part of a "cell" of this "Fellowship" is a completely different monster from hillary's southern baptist "religion". I'd love to have some more information on this, if anybody has seen anything, either further sources confirming such things, or disproving them. So far, most seem to go back to the MotherJones article.

I'd love to have some more information on this

You're not likely to get much more information as the "fellowship" is very secretive. They're a private club which consists of mostly Republicans and a handful of Democrats.

but I've been holding back from attacking HIllary Clinton too much.

The next time we get another vague, calumnous tirade about Obama's "dangerous" religiosity, with some fulsome asides about how truly anodyne Clinton's own Methodism is, please, by all means, post these several times. Facts are always nice.

Besides, when a candidate goes relentlessly negative--a Bush strategy, by the way--this is pretty typically indicative of the fact that they're beat on substance. So far as I can see, after Obama's race speech, her attacks on his credibility and ability to withstand unfair attacks looks like merely childish stubbornness, as do her attacks on his "experience". They are really getting desparate--and they should be: her opponent has been compared to the Kennedys, King, and Lincoln the past few days, just picked up a major endorsement from Richardson which may help him win over her Hispanic supports, and the math at this point makes it almost impossible for her to win, by any measure:

One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

Adam said:

The next time we get another vague, calumnous tirade about Obama's "dangerous" religiosity, with some fulsome asides about how truly anodyne Clinton's own Methodism is, please, by all means, post these several times. Facts are always nice.

Okay,.. so, there's this:

Here's an indepth review of "The Fellowship":

They also share a vow of silence about Fellowship activities

The group's official name is the Fellowship Foundation >

a ministry dedicated to professional golfers; a development group in Peru; and a house in Washington that serves troubled children. The foundation provides Coe with a house on the grounds of Cedars, a minimal salary and annual expenses, which have ranged from $110,955 in 1995 to zero in 2000. The foundation also employs his two sons, who each earned $93,000, according to IRS filings for 2000.

The Fellowship does not solicit money. A handful of wealthy backers, including Detroit lawyer and GOP donor Michael Timmis, Denver oilman Jerome A. Lewis and former Maryland investor Paul N. Temple, support the Fellowship with personal contributions. Private foundations they control also contribute hundreds of thousands yearly to the International Foundation, tax records show.

Other money has come through word of mouth, stock bequests, and donations from friends, estates and even foreign governments including Taiwan, which Coe said sends about $10,000 a year to the Fellowship. He said the ambassador usually delivers the check in person.

International diplomacy has been part of the Fellowship from the beginning. The group was begun by Abraham Vereide, a Methodist evangelist who feared that Socialists were corrupting municipal government in Seattle in the mid-1930s. He thought he could bring about change by organizing regular prayer groups with local business and government leaders.

The group was begun by Abraham Vereide, a Methodist evangelist who feared that Socialists were corrupting municipal government in Seattle in the mid-1930s.

Isn't "Universal Health Care" a tad "socialist"?

NYT Interview with Sen. Clinton:

Funny, she only calls them a "group" and nothing more..

Full interview on faith

Senator Clinton: As I recall, I was invited to meet with them by a good friend of mine, Linda Lader. I had met a few of the women, but I didn’t know most of the women, and I also was asked to visit with them by Doug Coe, who was and still is, the director of the National Prayer Breakfast and the National Prayer outreach and it was over at their headquarters in Virginia which is kind of a retreat center. And, they invited Tipper and I to come to lunch and I really did it mostly for Linda and Doug who asked me to.

Q: Because you were a little bit wary?

Senator Clinton: Well, you know, I didn’t know. I had friends who prayed for me, I prayed for myself, I prayed for other people, I felt like I was sustained by prayer. Since Bill had decided to run for president I had countless people saying they were praying for us and then once he became president there was a real outpouring of people. But I went, and I’m really glad I did. It was a wonderful group of women in a bipartisan gathering who really thought that the mean-spiritedness and the negativity that had come to mark so much of our political life was very much counter to their beliefs and so they wanted to lift up Tipper and me and did so at this lunch. And, then they wanted to continue to pray for me. So I met with them periodically, I wouldn’t say regularly, but when our schedules could work out I had them to the White House. Holly Leachman became sort of the real contact person for me in the group and became a friend. It was fascinating because a lot of them were deeply involved in the national prayer group, and I was very touched by their desire to choose me to pray for. And it was a way for me to let go and let them do it and for them to reach out and do it. What was fascinating is that over time a lot of the people who had been part of the most critical and negative attacks on me began to seek me out. The first person who did that was David Kuo. Doug Coe had asked me to come to speak to a dinner that was held the night before the prayer breakfast and most of the people in there were people who were very unsure of how I was or what I stood for but Doug was always very supportive of me. He had me speak at one of the national prayer lunches, he arranged for me to meet Mother Theresa after one of the national prayer breakfasts. And, David came up and asked for my forgiveness, and several other people have done the same.

Magnolia said:

Funny, she only calls them a "group" and nothing more..

riiiight... meet "the group"..

Meet 'The Family'

June 13, 2003

In April, the AP broke the story that six U.S. congressmen were paying the bargain rate of $600 a month each to live together in a swanky DC townhouse owned by a secretive fundamentalist Christian group known as the Fellowship or the Foundation. Many, understandably, were curious. Who is this organization, and what is its agenda?

The Fellowship is one of the most secretive, and most powerful, religious organizations in the country. Its connections reach to the highest levels of the U.S. government and include ties to the CIA and numerous current and past dictators around the world. The Family is, in its own words, an "invisible" association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as "members," as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.).

Hillary Clinton said:

What was fascinating is that over time a lot of the people who had been part of the most critical and negative attacks on me began to seek me out

hmmmm?

Further Fellowship info from the Atlantic Monthly before the 2006 elections

This "Fellowship" organization gets more and more interesting.

More from the Alternet article back in 2003.

GNN: Some people have called your story a hoax.

SHARLET: I've got lots of letters from people saying this has got to be a hoax, or please tell me it's a hoax or curiously from people who know a little too much to be saying the things they were saying.

GNN: What are some this group's core ideas and what level of secrecy is involved here?

SHARLET: The goal is an "invisible" world organization led by Christ -- that's what they aspire to. They are very explicit about this if you look in their documents, and I spent a lot of time researching in their archives. Their goal is a worldwide invisible organization. That's their word, and that's important because it sounds so crazy.

GNN: What are their core issues then?

SHARLET: The core issue is capitalism and power. The core issue they would say, is love. There are a lot of different things love means. They will always work with both sides of the issue. I saw some correspondence with Chinese officials before Deng Xiao Ping was in power. They had some very clandestine associations with senior Chinese officials, and were told Deng was a guy they could do business with. So that was fine with them.

GNN: When you say 'do business,' was it all about actual business deals?

SHARLET: I wouldn't say it was all about business deals. But if you happened to be praying with someone and you were done praying and said, "Hey, I have some F-16s to sell..." They would deny there is any connection.

They are pretty careful about those kinds of things. They will never say, "We are out here to help set you up in business." They will always help out their friends. "Let me introduce you to someone. The Prime Minister of Malaysia is coming."

From Harper's Magazine back in March of 2003.

Here is a very good review of the "Fellowship"

The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, “a target for misunderstanding.”

From "Living History" Clinton's Biography

Before my father’s stroke, I received an invitation from my good friend Linda Lader, who, with her husband, Phil, launched the Renaissance Weekends Bill, Chelsea and I had attended since 1983 over New Years’. These gatherings were always stimulating and led to many important friendships in our lives. Linda invited Tipper and me to a luncheon sponsored by a women’s prayer group that included Democrats and Republicans, among them Susan Baker, the wife of the first President Bush’s Secretary of State, James Baker; Joanne Kemp, the wife of former Re-publican Congressman (and future Vice Presidential candidate) Jack Kemp; and Grace Nelson, married to my now Senate colleague Bill Nelson, Democrat from Florida. Holly Leachman was the spiritual spark plug who kept it all going for me and became a dear friend. Throughout my time at the White House, Holly faxed me a daily Scripture reading or faith message and came often to visit just to cheer me up or pray with me. The lunch on February 24, 1993, was held at the Cedars, an estate on the Potomac that serves as headquarters for the National Prayer Breakfast and the prayer groups it has spawned around the world. Doug Coe, the longtime National Prayer Breakfast organizer, is a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God and offer the gift of service to others in need. Doug became a source of strength and friendship, and he, too, often sent me notes of support. All of these relationships began at that extraordinary lunch. Each of my “prayer partners” told me she would pray for me weekly. In addition, they presented me with a handmade book filled with messages, quotes and Scripture that they hoped would sustain me during my time in Washington. Of all the thousands of gifts I received in my eight years in the White House, few were more welcome and needed than these twelve intangible gifts of discernment, peace, compassion, faith, fellowship, vision, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, love, joy and courage.

More about the Fellowship's history from wikipedia

While the information from wiki may not always be all that reliable, everything that they say here I've noticed has been backed up by many other sources, but Wiki sums it up quite well.

The Family was founded in Seattle in 1935 by Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian immigrant and traveling preacher who had been working with the city's poor, and who feared that Socialist politicians were about to take over Seattle's municipal government.[2] Prominent members of Seattle's business community recognized his success with those who were "down and out" and asked him to give spiritual direction to their group who were "up and out." He organized Christian prayer breakfasts for politicians and businessmen that included anti-Communism and anti-union discussions. He was subsequently invited to set up similar meetings among political and business leaders in San Francisco and Chicago. By 1942, the organization had moved headquarters to Washington, DC, where it helped create breakfast groups in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. In 1944, the organization's name was changed to International Christian Leadership, then in 1972, to The Fellowship Foundation. It was at this time that the group's leaders decided to lower the Fellowship's public profile by decentralizing its leadership.

The organization has been criticized for its relationships with dictators, including Brazilian dictator Marshal Artur da Costa e Silva, General Suharto of Indonesia, Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez.[3]

The organization has operated under other names, including: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the National Fellowship Council.[3]

So Hillary is an ardent member of a prayer group which is anti union?

A question and answer from Jeffrey Sharlet, the man who wrote the Article in Harpers.

started running into all these political figures there and hearing about how all these political negotiations had occurred at The Cedars, their private mansion headquarters. I was shown a video about the island of Fiji and their leader. And you can say, well, who cares about Fiji? Well, this is how they work, small country by small country. Fiji now is a theocracy. And they take credit for that. And I thought, this is quite messed up. I started asking questions, and started writing a journal of what was going on and looking around.

They talk about Hitler all the time, and I asked what the deal was with that, and they said, "Oh no, it's just his leadership skills that we like." When I left, I discovered their archives and there's seventy years of the Family making friends with the world's worst and nastiest of world leaders.

What is the Family's take on—or remake of—Christianity?

The beginning began with this vision that Christianity had wrongly focused on the "down and out." And the founder, in 1935, said that's not the point; we need to focus on the "up and out." The elite are the ones who can change the world. And this group has been at odds at times with other more traditional and conservative Christian groups because they don't really care about converting the masses. They just want to convert the leaders who will instate a Christian-led government. Does it matter whether you or I share their vision of Christ? No, not at all. As long as the leaders who support the Family are making the laws that we have to follow.

So what do you think is the end result that they're after? Is it only "power" in the abstract sense?

They state their goals in their private documents pretty explicitly. A world leadership led by Christ. Every single world leader and politician making every decision under Christ's will. And you could quibble over semantics, but I would say that worldwide theocracy is their goal.

I wasn't able to access these records, but here are the records of the "Fellowship" for anyone who has the access:

Of note:

April 1935 Vereide pulled together a group of local businessmen to pray about perceived IWW and Socialist subversion and corruption in Seattle

Correspondence, reports, financial records, minutes of meetings, reference files, clippings, newsletters, and other materials relating to the work of the Foundation (also known as International Christian Leadership) which involved developing small-group prayer fellowships, especially among government, business, and academic leaders. There is a great deal of information on the annual presidential prayer breakfast in the United States and similar events in other parts of the United States and in other countries. Also documented is the group's involvement in various community development, patriotic, and personal growth projects. There are restrictions on the use of this collection.

All folders with paper records less than twenty-five years old are closed to users until January 1st of the year following the 25th anniversary of the creation of the youngest document in that file, except to those users with the written permission of the President of the Fellowship Foundation. This restriction applies to everyone, including Foundation staff and associates

Note: The events described in the chronology below, large public meetings, incorporations, etc. provide a framework for the history of Fellowship Foundation (more accurately the prayer group movement) but do not really capture its nature. From its beginning, Abraham Vereide and other leaders were determined that the movement not become a formal organization but carry out its objective through personal, trusting, informal, unpublicized contact between people. Although at times (particularly in the 1960s) tending very close to the kind of organization, boards and structures found in other Christian organizations, the movement has managed to reinvent itself continually to stay true to its original principles. .

1934 Abraham Vereide, Methodist conference evangelist and former associate general director of Goodwill Industries, led a month of evangelistic meetings in San Francisco, which included regular breakfast prayer meetings of business leaders at the Pacific Union Club.

April 1935 Vereide pulled together a group of local businessmen to pray about perceived IWW and Socialist subversion and corruption in Seattle, Washington's municipal government. Group began to meet regularly and expanded to include government officials, labor leaders, etc. Other groups developed throughout the state, loosely coordinated by Vereide. Other early leaders in the movement were J. N. Davis, J. G. Kennedy, Carl Christopherson, William Day, and William St. Clair.

I cannot wait to read all these wonderful articles later this weekend...

Unfortunately, the NCAA tournament hogs all my free time. (How 'bout the Western Kentucky - Drake game?)

I sincerely hope Norm finds some time to read these articles about the Fellowship. This single thread represents the reasons I frequent OGM -- for insight and intellect of the community.

I have no doubt that Norm (and He Who is in Ethiopia) are afraid of the overt religious tones of the Obama candidacy, and so they support Clinton.

Does anyone think the Fellowship will make Norm reconsider?

This is, quite literally, the most shocking this I've seen all week. That video clip you've been seeing all week of Rev. Wright saying the 'chickens have come home to roost'? Yeah, it's a pacifist sermon, not a "hate speech," the next line of which after the "roost" remark is: "Violence begets only violence; hatred begets only hatred."

Did no one in the media fact check this before playing it ad nauseaum? Personally, I disagree with Rev. Wright's pacifist position--but it's not crazy or hateful. Precisely the opposite, the full clip shows him to be an impassioned but informed and articulate critic of American complaisance.

The way this non-issue has been presented to us by the American media is abominable.

Brett I'm right with you on 2 out of 3.

1. Tough loss, great game.

2. Forwarding links to some HRC supporters for their consideration

3. I believe Norm is not so much a supporter of Clinton as just wanting to show the other side of Obama. He has said that he voted for Edwards anyway in his primary and is likely to vote for Nader in Nov. He'll probably link to at least of few of these articles.

No Admission for Evolutionary Biologist at Creationist Film [nytimes.com]

People who have seen the movie say it also suggests that there is a link between the theory of evolution and ideas like Nazism, something Dr. Dawkins called “a major outrage.” In an interview, Dr. Myers said he registered himself and “guests” on a Web site for the film’s screening. A security guard pulled him out of the line but admitted his wife, daughter and guests — including Dr. Dawkins, who, Dr. Myers said, no one seemed to recognize.

Not exactly earth-shattering news, but hey.

Boo fucking hoo, Viacom. What's the matter? Aren't you rich enough yet?

http://cjrarchives.org/tools/owners/viacom.asp

Getting back to our business, posting links, before that Troll invaded, I thought I'd post this major scientific breakthrough:

Gay scientists have isolated the gene that makes people Christian.

ahh, the wonders of science!

LOL, Tim. Yeah, we here at 1GM take grammar "real serious"! As though a multimedia giant would hire some ignoramus with the grammar skills of a 4 year old to send out legal threats in the dark of night! I love the moralistic whining too, about what "real fans" of Colbert and Stewart would do, which is of course a perfectly naturally and normal part of ominous legal "warnings" of copyright infringement.

I see glaring grammatical errors everywhere -- AP wire reports, magazine articles, blog posts -- so it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Viacom's legal team would make such errors. After years of contact with semiliterate brown-nosers in the business wo