Columnist - John Sammon
Why is all this happening? Iraq? Hurricane Katrina and then Ike? Sarah Palin? And now the economy?

Why?

I think it’s simple. It’s God.

God doesn’t like America.

If the Republicans can invoke the name of God constantly in literally everything they do, God bless America. God bless our troops. This is a mission from God. God is with us. God is Right Wing. If the Republicans can talk about God like he’s (assuming he’s a male gender) our own personally owned piece of high-rent property instead of the God of all people, even those who reside in countries we label as “rogue states.”

If Republicans can do this, I have the right to invoke the name of God in a different way. I think God has had it with us and our arrogance. While some of our people starve and go without basic care, we have corporate lying, cheating, conniving, double-dealing no-good bastard fat pig executives riding around in limousines as the system collapses around them. You know. The kind of person who would steal $50 off his mother’s bureau while her back was turned.

God doesn’t like him. That him is us.

Why would God bless a man-made border whose origins were created by annihilating the native inhabitants (Indians) after conquering Mexico, and a political system (that once included slavery and then segregation) that often makes mistakes (Iraq), and then is too arrogant to admit the mistakes?

Does God endorse political systems?

Does God back everything we do despite the cost?

I think God is fed up with us. We launched a war based on Bush’s lies that there were weapons of mass destruction when there weren’t, and killed 500,000 Iraqis when it could and should have been handled in a different manner. We didn’t try hard enough to find a less costly solution.

God doesn’t like that. He doesn’t care about politics. But he does about lives lost. We were wrong. God knows it. We don’t, some of us, or won’t admit we’re capable of the same kind of hubris all people throughout history have exhibited. We just let this war drag on and on forever as lives continue to be lost without even an attempt to settle it somehow.

God doesn’t like it.

You see, it works like this. When you use God’s name to sanctify whatever agenda you’re trying to push…..it makes it easy, all SO EASY!. You don’t have to demonstrate what you’re doing is right. After all, God’s for it (Nazi soldiers in World War Two had emblazoned on their belt buckles, GOTT MITT UNS, God is With US)..

I never hear any other country use God’s name as much, or in the endless variations that we do. Have you ever heard a Frenchman say, God bless France, or God bless the Eiffel Tower? Do you ever see a bumper sticker on a Peugeot (French car) that reads, God bless duck l’ orange? What about China? God bless my bowl of rice?

God bless our enslaving (Chinese) troops in Tibet?

God bless this new ballistic missile with Chinese writing on it?

If God isn’t upset with us, then why all this recent news? Bush stumbles from one disaster to the next. I guarantee you, when they go to build his Presidential Library to commemorate his presidency after his term is up, there will be a building accident and the roof will collapse.

It’s obvious. Somebody up there isn’t pleased with what we’ve done, with and to our country.

Copyright 2008 Sammonsays.

Popularity: 2% [?]

 Columnist - John Sammon
Sarah Palin was asked in an interview if the United States would attack Russia if Russia attacked its former province of Georgia?

She said we might… (despite the facts that we usually only fight small really tiny impoverished countries, and that our army is already fully committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that haven’t yet been won, and of course, the unfortunate historical parallels of Hitler and Napoleon when they attacked Russia).

Instead of saying we might attack, an intelligent answer would have been, “why should I speculate? War is an abomination, to be avoided unless there is absolutely no other alternative.”

That would have been an intelligent answer.

We didn’t get that from her.

This former Alaska mayor nobody had ever heard of might have answered further questions on similar subjects in this way.

Interviewer: “Should we attack Bolivia if Bolivia attacked Peru?”

Palin: “Certainly. If we have a defense treaty with Bolivia. Do we?”

Interviewer: “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Palin: “Then get one.”

Interviewer: “What about Iran. Would you attack Iran?”

Palin: “Oh, that goes without saying. Iran is a godless country and we have GOD on our side. It would be a mission assigned from GOD. They (Iran) have been asking for it.”

Interviewer: “Yes, but that’s their government. Should the Iranian people, millions of them, women and children, have to also possibly die?”

Palin: “They’re all in it together. I want to bring up one more thing about attacking Russia.”

Interviewer: “Yes?”

Palin: “I have experience in fighting terror because Alaska is close to Russia. I’ve been on the front lines and felt the sting of battle. It’s a lot like a soccer game.”

Interviewer: “I see. Well moving along. What would you do? This is a hypothetical scenario. What would you do if a country such as Pakistan you thought was harboring terrorists? Would you attack Pakistan to enact a regime change? Or would you try to force some kind of concerted consensus or pressure on Pakistan through the UN (United Nations)?”

Palin: “There’s no question. That’s what armies are for. Go in and take ‘em out. It’s a simple world. We just make it look hard. God doesn’t favor the UN. That’s a worthless thing. Do you think that when I had to get my kid to a soccer match, I asked somebody for permission? This is the United States. C’mon!”

Interviewer: “What should be done about the bloodshed and unrest in Africa? In Darfur?”

Palin: “I don’t know anything about that. I’ve been in Alaska. But I wouldn’t rule out military force if the president and God will it.”

Interviewer: “What would you say to charges your campaign has made that Obama doesn’t have the experience to lead and yet you are a relative newcomer to the scene, and will be a heartbeat away from the presidency? Given the fact of Mister McCain’s advanced age?”

Palin: “Oh, that’s easy. He (Obama) has a little experience, just not the right kind, organizing things in neighborhoods wherever he came from. I had to run an entire state (Alaska), the only state that’s like it’s its own separate country. We’re detached from the rest of you, you know. And Russia was right there. That’s a big responsibility.”

Interviewer: “I see.”

Copyright 2008 Sammonsays.

   [Cartoon By: David Horsey]

Popularity: 4% [?]

I watched last Saturday’s “forum on faith” at the Saddleback Church in California, hosted Rev. Rick Warren, and it was pretty obvious that McCain, who was questioned after Obama had an unfair advantage.

McCain got some notice that Obama did not.

NBC political reporter Andrea Mitchell reported Sunday that Obama aides thought McCain “may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.”

She was right.

A Republican pastor plus his “God-Smooching” crowd…..Please!

The so-called evangelicals follow some of the most racist and bigoted Ministers (pastors) in the United States, who freely advocate American wars based on Biblical mandates, rant hatefully against Islam, and argue that natural disasters occur because God hates gay people.

Pastor Warren might not utter the same, but he and his congregants belong to the same cesspool — a snake pit of the most racist vipers in America, who have and continue to use Religion (Christianity) to persecute others who do not think like them.

The entire Republican establishment is permitted actively to lavish them with praise and court their support without the slightest backlash or controversy.

To me, Religion is a disease, an affliction that is the catalyst of 90% of the world’s problems.

Comedian Bill Maher says: “Religion as brain disease,” “Christians have neurological disorder,” ……”I think religion is a neurological disorder…. When you were a kid and they were telling you whatever you believe in religion, do you think if they had switched the fairy tales that they read to you in bed with the Bible, you would know the difference? Do you think if it was the fairy tale about a man who lived inside of a whale and it was religion that Jack built a beanstalk today, you would know the difference? Why do you believe in one fairy tale and not the other? Just because adults told you it was true and they scared you into believing it, at pain of death, at pain of burning in hell.

My friend at afriqueonline.com says: God doesn’t exist. He never did . . . he never will. Wake up . . . grow up . . . and get over it! Religion is a fairy tale for adults, a scam run by priests, ministers, rabbis, nuns, witch doctors, bishops and popes so that suckers will pay for their big houses, fine clothes and BMW’s. As scary as it might sound, you alone are responsible for what happens in your life, not some imaginary spook living in a paradise in the sky . . . not some evil goblin living underground in a fiery pit . . . You!….[read more]

I agree with both, and it pains me to admit that my own dear mother is hooked to Religion like a junkie on crack-cocaine.

I rejected Religion (All Religion) at the age of five. At first my mom could drag me to church by force, but when I got bigger later in my teen years and she got older, the best she could do was scream at me (poor mama).

But don’t get me wrong — she is the best human being on earth and so are many other evangelicals — those who are not bent in shoving religion down my throat.

My early rejection of religion has not prevented me from knowing what’s right and what’s wrong — several decades later.

Now, back to ReTHUGlican McCain.

The New York Times and so many others reported that John McCain was not sitting in what Pastor Rick Warren referred to as “the cone of silence” while Barack Obama was questioned during Saturday night’s Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.

McCain staffers told journalists that the Republican candidate was in a motorcade on his way to the church when Obama was on stage, but heard none of the questions.

Several times the pastor allowed McCain to “Stump” as if in a town-hall meeting, a luxury that was not accorded Mr. Obama.

After this charade, as usual, blood-sucking right-wing snakes(pundits) rushed out to toast McCain’s victory over Obama.

Rick Warren is just another lying and conniving “give GOD 10% of your wealth” pastor. I bet you he discussed every question with McCain before conducting the forum.

That had to be the case — judging from how relaxed the bumbling McCain was on Saturday.

This was a setup!

God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters

Special Comment on McCain: Olbermann chastises McCain: Grow up!
Senator is acting like a child, needs immediate attitude adjustment

Popularity: 13% [?]

“An Internet ad launched last week by the McCain presidential campaign has attracted more than one million hits by appearing to mock Barack Obama for presenting himself as a kind of prophetic figure.

The ad has also generated criticism from Democrats and religious scholars who see a hidden message linking Sen. Obama to the apocalyptic Biblical figure of the antichrist.

The spot, called ‘The One,’ opens with the line: ‘It shall be known that in 2008 the world will be blessed.’ Images follow of Moses parting the Red Sea and Sen. Obama telling a crowd, ‘We are the change we’ve been waiting for.’” — Quotation from the Wall Street Journal

True believers see Obama as a Messiah figure, a visionary who will cleanse Congress and the White House of all iniquity.

Cynics and comics mockingly refer to Obama as a Messiah, because of his healthy ego and the excitement he generates.

The McCain campaign is subliminally suggesting that Obama is not the Messiah, but the Antichrist. The ad in question refers to Obama as “The One”, and uses Biblical imagery and Biblical-style language. This ad sends a clear message to fundamentalists Christians: If Obama is not the Antichrist, at the very least he embodies the spirit of the Antichrist.

Most Americans will dismiss the ad as beneath contempt, but more than a few gullible fundamentalists will be led to think that Obama is an Antichrist. A few votes can be the difference between winning and losing the general election.

It shall be known that in 2008 the world was blessed, the multitudes realized that John McCain resorted to ridiculous ads in a vain attempt to deceive God’s chosen.

AD Analysis — By The Young Turks

Popularity: 9% [?]

Popularity: 28% [?]