15 March 2008
News and Comments - 03/15/08
Posted by Roy Bischoff under: What's News .
8 Comments so far...
Cameron Says:
15 March 2008 at 8:55 am.
What did he know and when did he know it?
Obama denounces pastor’s 9/11 comments
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 58 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.
Obama called the statements appearing on television and the Internet “completely unacceptable and inexcusable” in a Fox News interview and said they didn’t reflect the kinds of sermons he had heard from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright while attending services at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.
Obama, a member of the church since the early 1990s, said he would have quit Trinity had such statements been “the repeated tenor of the church. … I wouldn’t feel comfortable there.”
Earlier Friday, Obama responded by posting a blog about his relationship with Wright and Trinity on the Huffington Post. Wright brought Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and inspired the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Obama wrote that he’s looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he’s been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor’s comments for which he had not been present. Obama told MSNBC that Wright had stepped down from his campaign’s African American Religious Leadership Committee.
“I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies,” Obama said in his blog posting. “I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.”
In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks.
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Wright said. “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
He also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and criticizing his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people,” Wright told a cheering congregation. “Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger.”
Obama told MSNBC that he would not repudiate Wright as a man, describing him as “like an uncle” who says something that he disagrees with and must speak out against. He also said he expects his political opponents will use video of the sermons to attack him as the campaign goes on.
Questions about Obama’s religious beliefs have dogged him throughout his candidacy. He’s had to fight against false Internet rumors suggesting he’s really a Muslim intent on destroying the United States, and now his pastor’s words uttered nearly seven years ago have become an issue.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080315/ap_on_el_pr/obama_pastor
E.E. Says:
15 March 2008 at 12:17 pm.
Avoid overcorrecting economy, Bush warns
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday said the government must guard against going too far in trying to fix the troubled economy, cautioning that “one of the worst things you can do is overcorrect.” Democrats said Bush was relying on inaction to solve the problem.
Bush, in his weekly radio address, said the recently passed program of tax rebates for families and businesses should begin to lift the economy in the second quarter of the year and have an even stronger impact in the third quarter. But he urged caution about doing more, particularly about the crisis in the housing market where prices are tumbling and home foreclosures have soared to an all-time high.
“If we were to pursue some of the sweeping government solutions that we hear about in Washington, we would make a complicated problem even worse — and end up hurting far more homeowners than we help,” the president said.
Jesse Says:
15 March 2008 at 1:22 pm.
Key Forecaster Says U.S. In Recession
Those looking for a pronouncement from on high that recession has finally gripped the U.S. economy got the best they could hope for Friday.
“My personal opinion is that the economy is now in a recession,” said Martin Feldstein, president and chief executive of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), in a speech in Boca Raton, Fla.
Feldstein was speaking only for himself, but his comments are as official–and as unpoliticized–as anyone’s likely to get about the state of the economy. NBER, an esteemed non-profit group, is considered by many to be the final word on business cycles in the U.S.
Feldstein predicts the recession will “last longer and be deeper” than the last two recessions earlier this decade. And it could possibly be worse than the 16-month recession of the early 1980s.
The question is a bit academic. Recession or not, the U.S. is now engulfed in somewhat of a “perfect storm” of economic problems: A rapidly falling dollar, inflation, gummed-up credit markets and rising home foreclosures. The latest indicators: Friday, the Fed and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (nyse: JPM - news - people ) had to provide investment bank Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ) with emergency cash. Earlier in the week, hedge fund Carlyle Capital collapsed.
E.E. Says:
15 March 2008 at 4:11 pm.
This is from CBS news:
Romney Is McCain’s Best VP Option
When John McCain begins his search for a vice presidential running mate, he’ll quickly come upon a sad fact. He wants a candidate who will be seen as a plausible president. That’s criterion number one. He also wants someone who won’t subtract from his campaign in any serious way. That’s criterion number two. The unfortunate truth is that few Republicans meet these simple criteria. McCain doesn’t have much of a pool to choose from.
But his selection matters enormously, all the more because of his age. McCain will turn 72 on the eve of the Republican convention this summer. Choosing a running mate is the first major decision that a presidential nominee makes. And the nominee is judged by the quality of his pick and even by the smoothness of his selection process. So McCain had better choose well.
He has the right idea in mind. McCain thinks three vice presidential picks from the recent past were wise: Republican Dick Cheney in 2000 and Democrats Joe Lieberman in 2000 and Al Gore in 1992. They were nationally known political heavyweights who passed the most important test. They were accepted almost instantly as ready to replace the president if necessary. And they had no significant drawbacks.
The list of plausible presidents is short. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Tom Ridge, and Joe Lieberman qualify. That’s about it. There are a number of popular Republican governors - Charlie Crist of Florida, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Haley Barbour of Mississippi - but they fall short of Cheney-Lieberman-Gore stature. It’s not their fault, but it’s nonetheless true.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/13/opinion/main3936762.shtml
Chuck C Says:
15 March 2008 at 10:36 pm.
Avoid Stepping on Ducks, God warns:
Exclusive for InGodWeTrust
Three women happened to reach the pearly gates at the same time and were surprised at the abundance of ducks. They were everywhere. They were instructed by their guide that they were welcome in heaven, where there were few rules, but were told that God really loves ducks, and to never step on one or they would be punished.
Well, it was just a short time later when one of the recently deceased tripped and stepped on a duck. Immediately she was punished by being handcuffed to the most ugly, smelly man she had ever seen and was told this was her punishment for eternity.
The second of the three stepped on a duck as well and was also punished by being handcuffed to a terribly disgusting man for eternity.
Fairly warned, the third lady was very careful and never stepped on a duck. However, she was handcuffed to a man nonetheless. She was totally confused and said to the man that she had not stepped on any ducks. The handsome man replied that he had.
Hank Says:
15 March 2008 at 10:47 pm.
My drinking buddies will love this one. Perfect since we are getting together at the pub for St. Patty’s Day.
Stumpy Says:
15 March 2008 at 10:56 pm.
If any of you goofballs say anything about quacking up then Ill be sending Cat out on a search and destroy mission. If I end up with my ex-ball and chain up in heaven, y’all can bet Ill know who is being punished.
Iffer Says:
15 March 2008 at 11:05 pm.
I love this joke! Thanks for bringing it up 
It really made me laugh
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