THE RISE OF ANTI CHRIST

It would be amusing if it were not so sickeningly hypocritical and pathetic to see so many so-called Christians (Evangelical and Catholic) in America, rationalizing the Mormon Sect as somehow equal to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, just for political gain. It was not long ago that they were eloquently preaching to anyone who would listen how much of a false and deceitful sect Mormons are.

The so-called "leaders" and strong advocates of the Christian faith, notably Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Franklyn Graham and Pat Robertson, are now doing all within their power and influence, to make a Mormon the "leader of the free world.” And you know why? It has nothing whatsoever to do with Christian values or any principled position. Simply, they would rather support a decidedly anti-Christ candidate out of share, unadulterated hatred for a Black Christian who they have persistently vilified for over three years of his presidency. Even before that, who can forget the relentless attacks against this man for attending Reverend Wright’s Christian assembly? But, absolutely no problem with attending the Mormon assembly!Hypocrites!

Have no fear, Christ is still on the throne and He is not mocked; but equally, be watchful of the roaring lion…he is tricky and will even fool “the elect.”

Romney’s new mantra: “Let’s be strong, let’s beef up the Pentagon and expand the armed forces; let’s bomb Iran, let’s start a war, any war, let’s start a real conflagration in the world, while his five sons of fighting age, (one even willing to engage the President in fisticuffs), strut like peacocks all over the safe soil of America as the poor and the black, the true and the brave sons of the soil, are dying in Afghanistan to protect all the lofty sailboat privileges they sit  in their comfortable ivory towers and enjoy! Strong indeed!

Romney lies about everything, all the time; even for a politician he is an unadulterated, excessive liar. He is the "Father of Lies". Because of this deep character flaw, he is comfortable holding every position on any subject, and can change his argument, brazenly and unapologetically, to suit each new development, with total disregard for the facts or the consequences.  And he does, without flinching, causing one of his primary Republican opponents to call him “a highly lubricated weather vane.” His latest trick from his large bag of lying tricks is to take the lie label from his own chest and try to pin it on Obama, hoping this sleight of hand will go unnoticed, at least by the low information, unthinking bigots who are his “base”. (Actually, lest we forget, every one of Romney's Republican rivals in the primary debates, pointed out in clear terms or at least insinuated that he was an obsessive-compulsive liar. Where is the voice of these "principled ' mug-wumps now?)

Instead of encouraging Romney, Perkins et al should read him Psalm 101:7, “He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.”

It is hard to understand Romney’s ways, unless you recognize the truth of Elvis Presley’s award winning prophetic song about him:

“You look like an angel,Walk like an angel,Talk like an angel But I got wise,You're the devil in disguise; Oh, yes, you are The devil in disguise”

I wrote the following as a poem years ago in anticipation of the emergence of just such a world leader as “this one”

WHEN HE COMES….

"When the man comes, He will be As swift and silent As a tiger; He will leap into the arena Like a phantom.When the man comes, He will stand tall among men Like a samaan tree In a field of acacia; Men will gape, amazed, When the man comes.It will appear as natural As the coming of night; Many will be sleeping And taken unawares When the man comes.When the man comes, Men will be blinded By the brilliance Of his success; He will be from The common man, But will himself be The most uncommon of men. When the man comes, The weary world Will groan in wonder At the marvellous works He can perform, And liken him Even unto the Christ. When the man comes, Races and nations Will one by one Fall at his feet, Bowing in admiration. There will be A breaking down Of barriers And man shall  Feel secure In a world Sliding towards peace. When the man comes, It is written, He will deceive Even the elect; He will clasp hands of friendship With those closest to The True One He stands poised to fight; He will stand in the Holy Place And will with sleight of hand Perform great miracles He (and his wife) will, with nimble tongue, Draw all men into his heart, And men in gratitude Will draw him into theirs, Placing a laurel crown Upon his head As he denies their God; So will it be Long, long from now, When the man comes.

"But just when The cry of peace sounds, There shall be The proclamation of war Which ears will not perceive; Yet the noise will sound Like thunder in a clear sky, Like the horrible hiss Of the hidden snake, When the man comes; They will look But will not see, They will listen But will not hear; He will spread his branches And birds will make Their nests in them, And fall into deepest sleep. When the sun is setting We say good weather Is at hand Because the sky is red; And in the morning We say the rain will come Because of a darkened sky, But we cannot discern The signs of the time. Stand alert For no one knows the time, The day or the hour, When the man comes."

 

Is he here? I ask you.

Oh, yes, truly, you are the devil in disguise!

Of course, Romney will not win, but we must be sensitive to the shadows of the anti- Christ.

HATRED!

                                            by Michael White

December 31, 2011. The end of the most tumultuous year in international politics and economics this generation has seen.

In the United States Congress went home. Thank God. It was a time of reflection, particularly for Republicans. They had a lot to reflect on. A clear and honest examination of conscience would have brought up all the shenanigans they engaged in throughout the year. They would have had to lay down at the altar all the things they did to bring America to its worst pass, close to the brink of destruction, all because of a single-minded determination to make their President fail.

As 2012 begins we can only hope that instead of perpetuating the culture of hate nurtured in 2011, the New Year’s Resolutions are based on Scriptures like these:

“Pray for all those who lead in all areas of life, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” 1Timothy2:2

 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives.” James 4:1-3

America elected a black man to the Presidency in a season of mature reflection on the ills of the past. Many welcomed the election as a sign of the raising of a post racial society, the maturing of America. They heralded it as a major victory for human rights and racial equality, or at least tolerance, at home and abroad.

All well and good.

But hidden underneath was a gruesome reality. Entrenched, institutional racism does not die in a society without a fight. And the death pangs can be long, painful and destructive. There still lingers the ghost of, to some, an idyllic past where blacks were restricted to one corner and whites to another.

It is not easy for a bigot to come to settle in his mind that it is not a national calamity for a black man to sit in the white house. In fact, it is as difficult as it is for the class bully to surrender his ways.

It should appear strange to all sane people that the America handed over to Obama to salvage was one racked with debt, an economy on the brink of collapse, a badly diminished  manufacturing base, a collapsed housing market, a decadent financial system, a declining middle class, a ruined educational system with far too many underachievers,

He immediately proceeded to the agenda to reverse these disastrous trends with the tools he had at hand.

Republicans have incessantly blocked and diminished President Obama’s agenda. They have concocted all kinds of outlandish and patently disingenuous counter attacks to anything he has put forward. They have invented all kinds of catch phrases to ridicule and diminish his policy prescriptions; they have created and promulgated a narrative designed to prove that nothing he has done has been in America’s best interests.

They have refused to concede that even his obvious triumphs in the foreign policy arena have been successful. Since they campaigned on the pretext that he would not be a strong Commander in Chief, it is impossible for them to acknowledge that his triumphs in this arena are credible. Even as he seeks to end the disastrous, ill-conceived war in Iraq that they started, they brazenly postulate that history will judge Obama as the worst American foreign policy leader. This is a new talking point of the Republican clan.

What could be the reason for this level of hatred of this excellent son of the soil? It is simple. President Carter and several other wise men tried very early to sound the warning bell. For a black man to succeed in pulling the country out of the morass in which they left it, it would mean that he has been a better President than his predecessors, white men, could be. It would be destroying all their age-old traditions and stereotypes; punching holes in the theories that they espouse of racial superiority and their divine right to rule.

Republicans and those swayed by their crusade, offer all sorts of excuses and justifications for the unabashed bigotry that still prevails. They make lame excuses for the sustained attacks on everything Obama does and says. We are in an era of gross rationalisation of the actions and statements of those who, simply, hate.

As we welcome 2012, amid all the idle chatter, let all America come to accept that there are those who not only want Obama to fail for political reasons, but for racial reasons. The black man has had his chance and now it is time for the people’s white house to be occupied by a legitimate tenant: a white man.

Obama, enough! Time to go.

The entire theme of many Republican leaders and spokespersons, for the years of Obama’s presidency, is that he should be a one-term president. From the very outset, everything has been tried to get him to fail. He is Kenyan, he is not American, he is too black, he is not black enough, he is not a leader, he is a liar, he does not understand America, he is weak on foreign policy, he apologises too much for America, and on and on....

Of all the absurdities we have witnessed in 2011, one of the most glaring is the pundits’ apparent “amazement” at the President’s inability to make the factions in Congress work cooperatively! After all, he is in charge so it is his responsibility to get Congress to act together! How absurd, when the decision and resolve of one side in Congress is not to cooperate on any terms. It is nothing but a game. For instance, when they hear the economy is getting better they pivot quickly to another line of criticism that Obama is the one responsible for the deadlock!

There is a real fear in the hearts of the bigots that Obama might really succeed as President; this would mean that at last, just perhaps, the black man is equal to the white man, at least in performing in the highest position in the land. To accept that fact is to admit that a whole chunk of US history has been wrong-headed, all the ills of the past that arise like ghosts in a cemetery to haunt the dreams of the bigoted class.

The only consolation one has, and it is a not insignificant one, is that there are so many millions of noble Americans who do not share the dark motivations of their overtly racist compatriots, and are genuinely striving for an America that is true to its highest declared values.

We thought we had a countdown last night. Wait till you see the countdown to the end of this year. Or, who knows, perhaps the Republican conscience and resolutions will kick in and we will all really have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

We are betting on a right thinking America. In the end it is likely that the just will prevail.

The Invisible Hand and the Greedy Heart

  

Adam Smith, acknowledged as the Father of modern economics and of capitalism, introduced the term “invisible hand” in economics. This explains his concept that as a result of each individual acting in his economic affairs in his own narrow interest, all such actions are guided by a sort of invisible hand which ensures that they are also to the advantage of the community as a whole.
As far as the 18th Century Classical Economists were concerned the individual was motivated by self-interest which somehow always coincided with the interest of the wider community.

By the way, that concept offers the theoretical rationale for modern day Republican  “trickle down” economic theory.

In the classical theory of economic behaviour, greed is of necessity characterized as a virtuous human motivation. In essence it was the greed or indefatigable pursuit of wealth and plenty, of the very rich which motivated them to do the things which would generate the productivity and the wealth that in turn provided employment and wages for the labouring classes. So, greed had to be lauded as being for the public good and in the public interest.

To be fair, it may be that these men were writing at a time when it was generally assumed that noble intentions and concern for one’s fellow man would be dominant. The truth is that today many businessmen have a sort of gross self-interest that places no store on the pain and deprivation their practices place on the working poor, whose only interest is in a living wage.

The Invisible Hand theory is basically an optimistic view of life and does not regard seriously the darker personal motivations and desires of men: extreme manipulation of the system for enormous personal benefit and advantage, self-aggrandisement and the acquisition of obscene wealth at all costs, no matter who it hurts or defrauds.

The Invisible Hand is now caught in the pockets of the poor and the cheated -the occupiers of Wall Street.

You may well ask how a man with 1$Billion, cannot sleep until he gets two. First Century Roman Philosopher and Statesman Lucius Seneca has an answer as good as any other “For greed all nature is too little”. So many of the Wall Street captains of commerce and hoarders of undeserved wealth caused a major and costly erosion if not collapse of the American and global financial system from which millions have not recovered. Why? As Thoreau reminds us: “It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly”.

The greedy heart keeps pressing the invisible hand down on the scales of justice, tipping the scales against the local consumers of goods and services. It is so unfortunate that the avaricious businessman does not grasp the limited pleasure to be derived from having an overabundance of the things money can buy him. To quote Mark Twain: “Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.”

The Capitalist system of wealth generation is not in itself evil; no system is. The problem is what humans do with and within the system. If a person or a corporation simply wants to accumulate wealth for personal use and not for the public good, this can generate untold suffering to the underprivileged, as it has done in the United States in recent years. It is as bad as the entertainer Little Richard says: “But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money”. Of course, it need not be so. Capitalism as a wealth generator can work and has been shown by rich men of the past, like Henry Ford, to work for the public good. Wealth is not the problem. Mahatma Gandhi has made a very insightful comment concerning this: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”.

Central to the American view of life is what has been immortalized as the all pervasive American Dream - a concept born of the Constitution which enshrines the pursuit of happiness as a human right. Why is that dream so illusive in today’s America? Perhaps Rick Danko has it right. “As time goes on we get closer to that American Dream of there being a pie cut up and shared. Usually greed and selfishness prevent that and there is always one bad apple in every barrel”. We would argue that there were a lot more rotten apples in the recent Wall Street debacle.

Not very long ago, men seemed to have been content to be millionaires, and even then there were relatively few; today to be successful one has to be a Billionaire. This is a major paradigm shift gone unnoticed. Paradoxically, we affect to be alarmed when we learn of the amount of wealth deposed dictators like Sadam Hussain, Moammar Khadafy and Hosni Mubarak had amassed at the expense of their subjects, without taking into account that so many on Wall Street have done the same thing even if on a slightly more modest scale, and then only within the bounds of the possible.

Paul Samuelson found it “An intriguing paradox of the 1990s, that it isn't called a decade of greed”. Samuelson had not yet experienced the 2000s, the true golden age of corporate greed! The age of Wall Street madness, or greed gone mad; The age of Enron, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Arthur Andersen, Lehman Brothers, Delta Airlines Inc., Refco Inc., Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase.

The tragedy is that corporate greed is largely unpunished, but on the contrary is generously rewarded with the largesse of the undeserved bonus. And then some corporations beguile the public with practices that are generally not perceived as pernicious and antithetical to the public good.

The Walmart trick

A country exports to get the revenue (foreign exchange) it needs to buy or import the goods and services of other countries. It is advantageous to the economic well being of a country for it to have a favourable balance of trade, a situation in which export revenue, hopefully over a sustained  period, exceeds import expenditure.In the modern Global economy exports determine the wealth of a nation. The leading economies are consistently net exporters.

We can look at one example to see how corporations can impoverish the nations in which they operate.

The Walmart Company on the basis of sales, is the world's largest retailer and grocery chain. To assess its size, consider the fact that its sales are  estimated at some 50% more than its five closest competitors combined. In the US alone Wal-Mart has, according to one source, about “700 discount stores, 2,900 Supercenters that sell groceries and general merchandise.” These stores employ over 2 million people. The company is huge.

The secret of Walmart’s success is its scale of operation and global competitiveness, and its consequent ability to offer customers relatively low retail prices on a wide range of household necessities like food and clothing, as well as consumer durables. It is truly the poor person’s shop, perhaps on the level of the dollar stores that have recently proliferated in North America.

The problem is that Walmart is not very good as a corporate citizen in other important ways. Because of its purchasing policies, motivated by the desire for gigantic profits, it is a tremendous drain on the US economy.

Walk down the aisle of any Walmart store and randomly tip over any item. Every other item bears the tag: "Made in China". The figures are not published (although they should be required to be) but an estimated 40% or more of the merchandise in one of these stores is made in China. Hence the US’s humongous negative balance of trade with that cheap labour country. The billions of dollars of merchandise that Walmart buys annually from Chinese manufacturers, racks up a massive US balance of trade deficit with this “emergent” economy.

Because Walmart buys from cheap labour markets it is able to offer a price incentive of between 10 and 20 % to the consumer, largely the poor and the middle class. The average shopper can save an average of 15% by shopping at Walmart. The price incentive is irresistible to even the not-so-poor shoppers from the middle class. Walmart is a magnet to the frugal middle class shopper.

Customers are citizens who depend on their jobs for their purchasing power. To buy from Walmart or anywhere else they have to work and earn an income.

 Walmart buys all it can from the cheap labour Chinese market, and are able to offer a major price incentive to Americans. But the Chinese manufacturers who produce for them have already taken the jobs from the American workers, who are therefore unemployed and underemployed and not able to buy even the lower priced goods.

China is the manufacturing sector of the US, thanks to Walmart and similar companies.

So Walmart in effect impoverishes the US in order to sell cheap and amass hefty profits. It is the supreme trick on the American citizen, who is induced to buy at Walmart while in doing so, ensuring he (or his neighbour) remains unemployed.

In other words what Walmart  customers gain on the swings (buying cheap) they lose on the roundabouts (their jobs!).

The worst part is that because of the insatiable corporate greed, if Walmart could get away with buying every single item sold in their stores, from China, they would. It’s the financial profit imperative gone mad.

A business entity that large and ubiquitous has a tremendous spiral effect on the rest of the economy, dragging many other businesses in its wake. While the middle class shoppers are loading up their carts with cheap merchandise from China in the Walmart superstore, the Koch brothers are in the “free” parking lot siphoning off the high priced fuel from their gas tanks!

In the case of Walmart, our example, greed for profits and the Invisible Hand work well for the company but to the detriment of the nation as a whole.

It looks gloomy. And that’s why Economics was labelled  the gloomy science. Ah, but there is Warren Buffet who reminds us as Garrison Keillor beautifully said: “Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people”.

Having tried the pure models of both Socialism and Capitalist, what the world needs now is an economic system that has the basic machinery of Capitalism with the motivations of Socialism, combining as far as possible the virtues of both systems. The Soccap model will allow the entrepreneurial class, motivated by self-interest to generate economic wealth, while ensuring through joint Government and business intervention (regulation?), that the disadvantaged are fairly treated and rewarded.

That should meet the just demands of the occupiers of Wall Street around the globe!

The Hand of God

                                        by Michael White

   Newt Gingrich is going to win the Republican nomination in an earth shattering victory. Hands down. His competitors will not even come close. He has all the qualities the plan requires. It is as we say, written in his stars; you see, it is a time of reckoning and retribution. The chickens must come home to roost.

Is God in it? Of course! There is never a moment in world history when God takes his hands off the controls. He sets up leaders and he brings them down as it suits his unerring plan for his creation. He is as aware of the mind and activities of Judas as he is of John the Baptist.

The Hand of God in the global political and economic arena in the “most powerful” nation on earth is evident. It may be hard to believe, but as God said to the doubters: “Look among the nations and watch - be utterly astounded (wonder marvellously)! For I will work a work in your days, which you would not believe, though it were told you” Habbukuk1:5.

The whole house of cards will be pulled down, with its sinister lies and devilish machinations.

It is amazing how religious and self-righteous these candidates and their right wing adherents appear to be, when so much of what they say and propose goes against everything the Gospel teaches. Think of the true meaning of Christianity and then think, at the same time, if you are capable of such mental gymnastics, of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Mitch McConnell. What a contradiction! “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” 2 Timothy 3:5.

Michelle Bachman , Rick Perry and Herman Cain, all of whom were “told” by God that they were set aside for the Presidency of the US and world leadership, have already proven that God is not mocked, and have been swiftly diminished to clownish also rans.

The persistent president-elect aspirant and dreamer Mitt Romney, poor guy, is just wasting his time, not to mention his money, as he did four years ago. (I think that man’s father strongly impressed upon him that he has to be the President of the United States).

On the other hand, Gingrich’s ascendancy has been meteoric and astonishing even to Gingrich; in his grand self-deception and conceit, he thinks (and declares unabashedly) that it’s his talent and superiority that are propelling him along. The truth is far different. The path has been cleared for him. God has set up the scenario we are now witnessing. Gingrich is ordained to be Republican front runner. He is the ideal candidate. His nastiness is the embodiment of the bile that must be clinically expurgated from the bowels of the United States. His thirty pieces of silver cannot save him from his fate. Silver polish has to be applied to the shining city on the hill.

Gingrich is to Obama what God permitted Pharoah to be to Moses; and the more opposed to the will of God, obstinate, recalcitrant, and obdurate he becomes as God hardens his heart, the louder he will fall.

It is no accident that Donald Trump has successfully wiggled his way into the role of ringside coach and promoter of Gingrich; these men have identical personalities, interests and motivations; their hearts beat as one. Without batting an eyelid, they will say and do anything outlandish and sinister for publicity, money and prominence. How aptly this scripture applies to them both: “When he speaks kindly, do not believe him for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly,” Proverbs 26:25-26. We all remember, of course, that in a previous incarnation Gingrich’s wickedness was already revealed to the assembly. This is his second time around with the same old tricks!

Gingrich and Trump, two of the most odious, obnoxious and Machiavellian political characters in the world today, barring none, will burn and crash together. Wait and see. “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” Proverbs 16:18.

Have Yourself a Grand Old Partisan Christmas

The most notable anti-Christmas villain in literature is probably Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge was a mean-spirited, selfish, self centred old, well, scrooge, with not a thought for the goodwill of others less fortunate.

He now has some serious competitors in the persons of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor.

As the doors of Congress close for “the holidays”, the tenants or “occupiers” will now find themselves on planes, trains and cars heading to the comfort and luxury of home, intoning smugly and quietly to themselves Chris Lea’s “I am driving home for Christmas” with breezy indifference to the plight of those left to fend for themselves.

At home they will be greeted by happy and doting family members, full larders, decorated Christmas trees and the expectation of happy family gatherings around elaborately adorned dinner tables.

Meanwhile those without jobs and income, out in the cold, are unable to provide food, far less ornate gifts for their loved ones.

Ironically, the lavish salaries with which the Republican legislators supply all their needs and largesse, are provided for them from the wages of the very people they deny food! Or perhaps not, perhaps they are guaranteed by the providence of the likes of the Koch Brothers and the Waltons.

Where, oh where have their consciences fled to!

The unemployed who occupy “Wall Street” across the country, can be heard wailing:

“The rich you protect with your lives have left me destitute;

they have rendered my savings and investments worthless;

they have caused me to go under water with my mortgage;

they have stolen my home;

they have increased the cost of my essentials;

they have stripped me of my means of livelihood and my self esteem.”

The consolation you have for me is that I should “go get a job after I get a bath”. You do not even sense the inhumanity in your callous, insulting words. You repeat endlessly until you convince even yourselves that they do not have a unified message or indeed any message at all. You ask why do they march? why do they occupy? why do they not articulate their vision? as if it is not self evident to everyone with an iota of common sense.

You are now quite devoid of feeling, hardened by your penchant to say no to everything asked of you.

You good Christian Republicans should take the words of Frances Duron to heart: If we want to capture the interest of the heathen, we must first divert his attention from his stomach.

The way I have heard it, the good Republican is first and foremost a Christian, a man and woman of impeccable faith, ever ready to obey the commandments and to do righteous things. Here is a command to consider: “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”  Matthew 19:21.

Yes, sell your obstinacy, sell your refusal to support legislation that will provide jobs for others, sell your fixation on dislodging your President, sell your lust for power and control, sell your sense of entitlement to the throne, sell the hatred that is tearing at your heart.

If it is not too late to get that Christmas feeling, change your heart for the season of Goodwill, remember what you say you believe in, and go and pass the Jobs Bill that will put people back to work. Feed the hungry as you were commanded:

“I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?Then He will answer them saying Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew:25:43-45.

So be careful. As you celebrate the birth of His son, remember, from a distance God is watching us.

Make Obama a two-term President

PETITION

1. Whereas Barack Obama assumed the presidency at the worst of possible times, having inherited more national problems at the time of his election than almost any president before him;
2. Whereas he implemented policies from the outset that saved the US economy from total collapse; bringing it out from the brink of a great depression;
3. Whereas from the day of taking office he has been confronted by a hostile and merciless opposition determined to bring him to his knees and to make him “meet his Waterloo”, as they boldly put it, and be a one-term president;
4. Whereas this opposition has blocked every single proposal for solving America’s problems that he has proposed, and deliberately deepened the country’s risks of failure, while at the same time blaming him for their failures and malevolence;
5. Whereas as the first black president of the United States he has carried the weight of responsibility and challenge of an entire race but been subjected to all the disrespect and indignity one would expect from the era of Jim Crow;
6. Whereas he has been vilified by an endless stream of  insults, lies and fictions about his origins, his sincerity, his loyalty and his bona fides;
7. Whereas despite his humble birth and childhood circumstances he has distinguished himself as a remarkable scholar and writer;
8. Whereas even his extraordinary eloquence and knowledge, with which he has served America so well, have been used against him with the charge of elitism;
9. Whereas he has tried every avenue of compromise and conciliation to “change Washington” as he promised, only to be rebuffed and ridiculed at every turn;
10. Whereas many would-be leaders have been uncomfortable with one who is so “other” occupying the hallowed white house;
11. Whereas the Republican media talking-heads have unleashed an unrelenting storm of invective and hostility against him, to which like a lamb to the slaughter, he has uttered no defensive response;
12. Whereas in pursuit of their diabolical intent they have labelled him with all the derogatory names they could possibly think up, including Hitler, Communist, Liar, and Satan;
13. Whereas even when he has implemented manifestly successful policies, such as the auto bailout, he has been deemed a failure;
14. Whereas although he has displayed over his presidency so many distinctive qualities of exceptional leadership his opponents keep decrying him as someone who is not a leader;
15. Whereas many of the leaders of the very corporations that he saved from bankruptcy inexplicably turned against him to join his detractors;
16. Whereas even so-called friends from his own side have seldom come to his rescue in confronting his adversaries;
17. Whereas through it all he has maintained a remarkably calm, dignified and upright posture, becoming the leader of the free world;
18. Whereas he has re-established the good name of America in the councils of the world and among most of the world’s peoples;
19. Whereas his wisdom and clarity of thought have been heralded and courted by most of the world’s leaders;
20. Whereas his personal life has been free from the scandals, misdemeanours and crimes that have characterized many of his detractors and opponents, and provided an admirable role model for the country’s youth;
21. Whereas he has been an exemplary father, husband and son and raised an exceptional Christian family;
22. Whereas even his remarkable wife has not escaped the villainy of his determined opponents;
23. Whereas even his outstanding success, contrary to that of his predecessor, in pushing back the forces of evil determined to destroy the country’s security, he has been given little or no credit;
24. Whereas people who call themselves Christian have shown him little of the Christian goodwill, charity and respect that he constantly shows to others;
25. Whereas he is by nature and temperament, not an aggressive, confrontational or vengeful man; and therefore willing to let his opponents “win points” in the national interest;
26. Whereas through sound foreign policy, careful deliberation and swift and astute action he has kept America safe from terrorist attacks;
27. Whereas the propaganda war and the litany of lies levelled against him have played on the minds and turned the heads of even some of his most ardent supporters among the youth and his “base”;
28. Whereas given the almost pathological need for his opponents to take his place in the white house, he can expect no letting up of the hostility and degradation over the next year;
29. Whereas even the legitimate cries for honour, fairness and justice emanating from the Occupy Wall Street crowds are turned by the scam artists against him;
30. Whereas many right-thinking members of the 1% understand his fight for justice in the system and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices;
31. Whereas the people offering themselves as alternatives to this president are more suitable as participants in a pageant entitled “SEND IN THE CLOWNS”;
32. Whereas he must win the just battle for the middle class and the poor, regardless of how intensely he is accused by the spinners of class warfare;
33. Whereas he now needs all the allies that he can find to allow him to do complete the work he has started; work that can only benefit and advance the cause of the poor, the fragile and the young among the population;

We are resolved to do all we can to ensure that:

1. Americans turn out in unprecedented numbers to educate and inform their countrymen about the truth of what has happened in the country in the years preceding Obama’s presidency;

2. His base of support among Independents, right-thinking Republicans and Democrats is strengthened and expanded;

3. Americans turn out in unprecedented numbers to ensure his re-election in 2012.

 Sign Petition at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/make-obama-a-two-term-president/

THE BIG LIE

By Michael White

   A small minded, insignificant man named Hank Williams Jr. on a popular daytime TV show, makes a comparison that equates President Obama and Hitler.
  He is, of course, following the precedent laid by the mass of deluded folk who a few months earlier waved banners and signs in the streets depicting the President as Hitler.
  These folk do not know the truth; they would not know it if it were printed on their weak minds. What Republican leadership have been doing is much more in tune with Hitlerian strategy than anything for which President Obama can be accused.
  The German politician Joseph Goebbels was Hitler’s right hand man, and Nazi Germany’s Minister of Propaganda in the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. The wicked Goebbels was a key architect of the final solution which led to the extermination of millions of Jews, the Holocaust.
  Goebbels was an ugly and murderous piece of work, a diminutive man with a chip on his shoulder who would devise and approve any atrocity to achieve his ambitions. Really the right man to give effect to his hero Hitler’s inhuman, devilish agenda.
  One of the achievements Goebbels is best known for is creating and spawning the theory of the Big Lie. In a motivational speech delivered to the people of his party on 9 January 1928, Goebbels put forward the proposition that people sooner believe a big lie than a little one. He believed that if you repeat a lie frequently enough people will believe it as an article of faith and, worse, if you repeat a lie often enough, it actually becomes the truth. He pointed out that the English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. Goebbels contended that History "is made in the street," understanding that if you could persuade the man in the street of your lie through endless repetition you would be victor of the propaganda war. His whole life was a testament to this philosophy.
   In adopting Goebbels as their own intellectual hero and strategic precedent, the Republicans have excelled in implementing his practice from the outset of Obama’s Presidency, and indeed during his campaign for the job. Through repetition they managed to conjoin the identities of Obama and Pastor Jeremiah Wright until Obama felt compelled to leave his Church. The pressure was immense and unrelenting. The Big Lie had its effect and drawn its first blood.
  In his landmark work, People of the Lie: the hope for Healing Human Evil, published in 1983, the great M. Scott Peck explains how much of a sin lying is. When he started off as a psychiatrist and a Christian Peck believed neither in Satan nor evil. After a couple exorcisms he changed his mind. We are really indebted to Peck for enlightening us about the hidden depth of human evil and lying. Republican leaders would do well to read this book and if they read it long ago as young people, to read it again in the light of their vaunted “Christian” approach to leadership. They just might suffer a change of heart, or even get one.
  Republicans developed an arsenal of lies with which to destroy Obama’s credibility. The method they perfected was to never cease fire; as soon as the effect of one weapon seemed to be fading, the task was to immediately conjure up another. To date the Republican campaign of lies against Obama has been based on about six primary platforms.
  Depending on the fact that Americans would be afraid of a leader who is a Socialist (Marxist), they incessantly repeated that Obama was just that, trusting that it would eventually sink into the American psyche. For a while this seemed to work.
  Again, knowing the fear in American hearts that a leader weak on the external enemy would put their lives in danger, they moved to the lie that he would not be accepted on the world stage and that he is weak on foreign policy. When Obama’s victory led to an outpouring of acceptance, affirmation and support from the outside world, they concocted the lie that he was more interested in the opinions of foreigners than in the American people. As he has gone on to find and exterminate the major terrorists that have plagued America and threatened its security, they have found their claim of his being weak on terrorists pathetically lame and unconvincing and have abruptly deserted the grand foreign policy denunciation lie.
   Knowing the depth of the pit in which the previous Republican administration had left the country and knowing well that any succesor would have to stimulate the economy by spending, they turned against the policy of investing in the economy and in the process, decided to label Obama the big spender. As an integral part of this lie, “stimulus” was turned into a dirty word.
  Knowing well that the country had hemorrhaged jobs at an alarming rate through the previous administration's ineptness, their mantra became “Where are the jobs?” Since Obama now owned the economy he was the one responsible for America’s joblessness! All the while they followed strategies, particularly the “Say No” policy, they well knew would inhibit any Obama attempt to create jobs for the suffering Americans. By endlessly repeating the mantra “where are the jobs” they played on American fears and anxieties about the state of the economy which Wall Street and the Big Banks had created.
  Their most incessant lie is about Obama’s Leadership. “He is not a leader” has been repeated so often and in so many forms, that even those who admire the President’s effectiveness as a leader might begin to believe them. Truth is that by every acknowledged quality of good leadership, including integrity, generosity of spirit, honesty, warmth, persistence, compromise, long-suffering, loyalty and temperament, Barack Obama far excels his detractors.
  More recently the refrain has changed to “Obama is dividing the country through class warfare”; since they discovered this new lie, it can be heard in every public pronouncement every Republican leader makes, over and over again. Some lies are more insidious than others. There are the ones, for instance, that change the story from what the Republicans are or have been doing to what they are accusing the President of (Scott Peck has a lot to say about evils like scapegoating). The class warfare chant is one of those. A party that has been almost predicated on class warfare of the most pernicious sort, against the middle class, without the slightest blush, turns and projects their sin unto Democrats and the President, accusing them of class warfare.
  Republican leaders stand four square behind their infamous Republican activists. James O'Keefe (of ACORN notoriety), and Andrew Breitbart (Shirley Sherrod) have built their careers on lies and deceptions happily promulgated by Republican leaders. It is superfluous to mention the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

The People of the Lie

  The very policy of saying “no” to every Obama proposal, is soundly rooted in the same strategy of repetition of the Big Lie, because sooner or later every blind follower, and even the not so blind apologist, inevitably comes to believe that saying no is the acceptable and beneficial policy prescription.
  Among the Republican “leaders” offered as an alternative are John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy. This band of ignobles has sown the lie that they know the answer to America’s dilemma, and that given the chance they can reverse the trends. All they offer, repeatedly, is a return to the policies that caused the great American debacle of the 21st Century.
  What leader Boehner has to offer are uncontrollable tears and trite remarks, showing no capacity to take charge except for the negative role of leading in the infantile charge of just saying no.
  Eric Cantor’s contribution to leadership is appearing one step behind Boehner with an annoying and sardonic smirk on his face, uttering a snide remark at every opportunity. Like good Cassius, Cantor has that “lean and hungry” look.
  Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s role is being mute and showing up dutifully with the gang for every photo opportunity.
  And, of course, Mitch McConnell, a dour, sour-faced man with a matching personality will be remembered most for declaring honestly from the start that his No. 1 job is to make Obama fail and ensure that he is a one-term president, and good leader Mitch has displayed all the tenacity of Goebells in repeating his mantra and advancing this cause.
  For almost three years these men have done nothing constructive to advance the American quality and standard of life, but instead have blithely fiddled and enjoyed their lavish lifestyles as the people suffer and Rome burns.

   History will show, if perchance accurately recorded, that these ambitious and noble men did immeasurable harm to the American, and like Goebells, the global economy. But they are the leaders of the free world.