Rightwingers and Compassion

*******

much like Prez. Clinton's term...he tried to have more even handed wealth
distribution, instead of the 2nd gilded age of robber barons we have today. But--it seems the right does not like sharing much. I thought they were compassionate conservatives?

I agree with what you said: the "redistribution of wealth" is a positive, and economy-supporting, idea, if applied carefully and judiciously. The extreme right is absolutely terrified of certain words, including "distribution." Some fanatics are so deeply infected by selfserving greed that they feel threatened even by so gentle a word as "sharing."

These types used to be called, in pop-psych, "anal retentives"-- just another way of poking fun at their greed. They were the kind who squeaked whenever a penny escaped their desperate grasp. They can usually be recognized because their lives are completely drained of all joy.

Their greatest terror is a "welfare state." They believe correctly that everyone should work to earn her own bread. They have a special loathing and fear for "welfare moms"-- young girls who have several babies in order to increase checks from the government. And they also have viable and reasonable complaints against young men who are perfectly healthy, but insist on drawing welfare checks.

In this, they are right: In a perfect world, each person would do honest work to make and earn her own way, her living. But terrible fanatics would eradicate absolutely all programs designed to alleviate poverty, every one designed to help an honest and good person who has fallen on "bad times."

These extremists just say, "Let them get a job, pick themselves up by their own bootstraps." And that is fine, and true, when it is possible. But some unfortunates have also had their "bootstraps" removed.

The probllem with these humorless rightwingers is not only their loss of a sense of humor, but complete loss of compassion. "Compassionate conservatism" is one of their favorite myths; it makes them feel at least slightly human. But it is a myth precisely because they are behind it only if it does not cost a cent! In the real world, compassion can get expensive. (Just ask the Love Ministries Federation!)

But compassion is nothing but an emppty shell if it is only pretty words. True compassion must express as actions actually to aid those less fortunate than ourselves.

And what rightwingers never "get" is that compassion, by definition, is given freely from an open heart; it is not "earned." These rightwingers have sacrificed compassion, and even all goodness, in the name of greed, usually expressed as their personal pocketbook or bankaccount. Slamming shut the heart makes us less, less human, less divine. It also makes us less joyful, and less tranquil.

Rightwingers pay a very high price, in terms of the interior "jewels" of the universe-- such gems as goodness, compassion, positive selfesteem, and psychological wellness and balance-- for their greedy, gritty view of the world. It is a joyless expression of animal survivalism, and can never bring any joy or satisfaction, for it leaves the heartmind empty and arid, a spiritual desert, in which all the flowers perish.
*******

Twenty Facts About Rigged Voting

Thanks to Barbara Baty.


*******

Whether you consider yourself an Independent, a Republican or a Democrat, and regardless of whom you support for president, this is a very serious issue. PLEASE consider this a must-read; and, after you read it, you'll see the seriousness of this issue and be glad you read it.

And remember, there IS a way of preventing this!
***

From http://www.assassinationscience.com/index.html


Twenty Facts About Voting in the United States

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold


2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)

http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushI
sOut.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&s
id=950&name=News&file=article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated; and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushI
sOut.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,1
0801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/

NOTE: Please copy the above list and distribute freely!

LET THE FACTS BE KNOWN! Thank you!

Thanks to Sandra Grubb.
***

Dear Red States: An Imaginnative Satire
***

Dear Red States ...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs and we get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water , more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11.

Peace out,

Blue States

The Shame of Greed

*******

In every one of his speeches, and in many of his writings (he has written several profound books), Barack Obama encourages community, community-awareness, and community-action. He encourages Americans to think of ourselves as interactive and interdependent people. And he always makes a special effort to think of the poor and the middle class.
This "ordinary American" is something that the Republican Sarah Palin has tried to fake, but, due to her $150,000 clothing, make-up, and jewelry (she also paid a professional cosmetician $11,000 a week to make her look better), she has never managed to pull this one off; she has fooled almost no one. McCain has from seven to ten houses, and even he is not certain how many he owns. And the Republican Party has been the puppets of corporations for the last eight years, under the bush regime.
It is thus not at all surprising that the Republican Party has emerged, and continues to define itself, as the party of the coddled, spoiled, and rich elite. "Common, average" people are rare among them, and the poor virtually non-existent within Republican ranks. For decades, this party of greed and materialism has appealed to the lowest nature within human beings-- territoriality and survivalism.
In stunning contrast, Obama regularly calls upon people to exercise compassion through service; he even has a plan for National Service for young people, to help pay for college. In summary, Obama calls upon us, challenges us, to think of others as well as of our own families; we all stand together, not only as Americans, but as human beings.

This is a cohesion infinitely more powerful than mere money. Compared to this wise
and wide calling, the Republican focus on personal dollars appears as almost an illness, an unhealthy obsession. Indeed, greed has been the root of virtually every major conflict and war in the history of our poor little planet. It is time for all of us to seek to outgrow this childish, self-serving trend, and to give more to the poor. At the very least, if we do nothing else, we can support them in our hearts, prayers, thoughts, and actions. We can lift our political agenda towards compassion and away from the consuming and dreaded disease of greed.
*******

The Love Ministries Federation

*******

If you want to teach only the Love of God, as the primary teaching of Jesus and his disciples, you are welcome to join the Love Ministries Federation. If you do, you are under no obligation. Love Ministries USA publishes two email magazines, the "Universal Love Digest," which comes out every two or three days, and Lovelight magazine, which is released once a month. You are welcome to a free subscription to both.

Periodically, it is our goal financially to support small independent ministries such as yours. This is done by asking our readers to send in donations, which we then divide up among the following members of our Federation (in alphabbetical order):

Love Ministries of India
Love Ministries of Kenya
Love Ministries of Pakistan
Love Ministries of Rwanda
Love Ministries of Sierra Leone(?)
and
Love Ministries of Uganda.

As of this time (Tuesday, October 14), we have received no new donations, for about a month, from any of our friends; but, when we do, we will be happy to support your work for the poor. Please continue to teach, and to practice, the sacred work of teaching the infinite Love of our Lord. May you be blessed with peace and joy.

Blessings,

Richard [Francis],
Love Ministries USA

Free Good Deed

Thanks to Cherigene Slaughter
***

Free Good Deed
***

Virus Warning

Virus Warning!
*******

Thanks to Maureen Dwyer.

Subject: Real Virus--Take Seriously
This has come around before so consider it a reminder!!!


BIG VIRUS COMING,
PLEASE READ & FORWARD !!!


http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

(Note from HN, blog editor: Please notice that this is not the "worst virus ever." The Snopes article debunks some of the claims made below.)

Hi All,I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this
virus!

I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!! Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns'the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/ er contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

Who is Joe the Plumber, really?

Thanks to Barb Siler.

Who is Joe the Plumber," really"?
*******
By David Neiwert Thursday Oct 16, 2008 8:59am

I guess it's no wonder that John McCain was so happy to use "Joe the
Plumber" as a debate prop last night. He's a partisan Republican who also happens to be a member of McCain's old friends, the Keating family.

Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who's Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating's son-in-law, and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes, having given well over $10,000 in the last few years.

Now I guess we know why Joe is telling the press that Obama is a "socialist" and that the Obama tax plan "infuriated" him. After all, it would hit families like the Keatings and their minions [and millions] the hardest.

Obama's economic-recovery plan would put the crimps on influence peddlers like McCain's old friends, the Keating Five. But he sure made for a good one-day story.

*******

Obama NOT a Muslim!

Obama NOT a Muslim!
*******

It is a well known fact that Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim; he is, and has been for many years, a Christian; in fact, the Republicans tried to get him in trouble due to his lunatic Pastor, an extremist named Jeremiah Wright. But you simply cannot have it both ways: If Obama were a Muslim, he would not even "have" a Christian pastor! So, they had to choose: Which attack was more damaging to Obama and his cause?

The Republicans are running scared. That alone explains why they are starting, all over again, to use this discredited myth, calling Obama a "Muslim," and turning that word into a perjorative. McCain's entire campaign is falling apart in state after state-- largely due to his impulsive, impetuous appointment of Sarah Palin as his running-mate. She has excessively damaged the campaign, but, even if she were gone,
McCain's continual and consistent support of George Bush would itself be enough quite thoroughly to ruin him.

Absolutely anything can be written, and passed along, in absolutely any email. I received this charge of "Obama's being a Muslim" early in the campaign, and have heard Obama himself deny it several times. It has been quite thoroughly and repeatedly disproved and discredited. In every one of his bionotes (writings about his life-history), he makes it crystal-clear that he has never been a Muslim. For most who are "hip" on the political scene, this lie was quashed several months ago. I am not at all certain that I could vote for a Muslim to "run" the U.S., although, of course, each adult person has a full right to believe whatever she chooses. So, there is, and should be, no attempt to limit the beliefs of other adults.

Nevertheless, you can rest fully assured that Obama is not a Muslim. He has an "odd name" because of past cultural influences, but is as American as you or I. He is deeply loyal to his country, and to a highly idealistic vision of how it can be improved. After eight years of trying to turn the White House into an asylum, where insane and incompetent men (and women, like Condy) can "recuperate," it might soon once again become the center of good government and good laws for this country.
*******

White House of Horrors?

*******

Starring Senator John McPain and Governor Scare-Ya Palin.

McCain thinks Roe v. Wade "must be overturned." And he mocked the "health" of women facing risky pregnancies. Palin said she would not support abortion even if her daughter were raped.

RUN... DON'T WALK...
TO THE POLLS ON NOV. 4!