Jesus Walking on the Water - A Sermon Sarcastic and Serious from SARCASTIC LUTHERAN 8AUG11

AGAIN this lady touches me with her sermon, because she is honest enough to apply the teachings of Christianity to herself and not only to those she is preaching to....

It’s Jesus walking on the water Sunday here at House for All Sinners and Saints and we thought maybe during Open Space we should have a kiddie pool set up in the back so you could all “test your faith”.  You know – go ahead and give it the old Christian try.  That’s how I’ve always heard this story preached:  like it’s the Little Engine Who Could Have.  As a matter of fact,  here’s a 1 minute version of the sermon I just don’t have the stomach to preach to you….it might sound familiar: The disciples are in a little boat battered by waves, they see Jesus walking toward them and for a moment, Peter is a hero.  He steps out of the boat and has sufficient faith to walk on water.  He actually does it.  Peter musters up what it takes to be God-like and what it takes is faith.  Lots and lots of faith.   Because with enough faith you can walk on water all the way to Jesus. If you had enough faith you could do it too.  And maybe even better than Peter. Because Peter’s only mistake was that he took his eyes off Jesus and that’s why he sunk.   So the moral of the story, and of course every Bible story is about how to be moral…so the how to be moral of this story is that if you in your life are not God-like in your ability to financially prosper or overcome all your failings as a human or defy the forces of nature and walk on water then the problem is that you don’t have enough faith and you should really muster up some more because the thing is, it’s all up to you to make your way to Jesus.  So, don’t be afraid.  Get out of the boat but be better at it than St Peter and don’t take your eyes off of Jesus. You can do it if you really try. End of sermon.  And good luck with that.         
          OK, this is a cynical view even for me, but it’s honest.  Yet I know that having a preacher tell me that the solution to my problems is to just try and have more faith – so I can make my way to Jesus never sounds like good news to me.  It reminds me of The Simpson’s episode where square jawed newscaster Ken Brockman made a set of motivational tapes called “get confident stupid!”.  In the end, I just don’t know how helpful is to say “get faith sinner”.  It doesn’t work. 
But the weird thing is, here you all are. Gathered again around this story of the man who walks on water.  Some of you are new to the story of Christ, and for some of you it formed who you are from the cradle. I could be wrong but I think maybe we aren’t all here because some preacher exhorted us to  “have more faith”.  I think we are here because at some point we heard the Story and the story claimed us. At some point, someone told you the story about this God who created the universe, who spoke through prophets, who came to us in Jesus, who ate with sinners and scoffed at the powerful, who suffered and died and rose again and calls us out of our of own graves to new life.   And here’s the thing about stories…  they tell us who we are. Sometimes a story can tell us what to do but when we hear who we are we then know what to do and God’s story found in the Bible does this more than any other story can.
And I guess this particular story of Jesus walking on water can be reduced to a moral about having more faith.  But, like so much of the Bible, it can also be a way to see who we are and see who God is for us. 
See if you recognize yourself in this story: Because maybe some of us are like the ones in the boat who are afraid. Maybe you are so caught up in the fear of making the wrong decision that you can’t make any decision at all. Or maybe you are like the one experiencing the thrill of stepping into the unknown -  a new relationship or a new job or you’ve just moved to Denver leaving behind the familiar - and maybe the first few steps are ok but then it gets scary.  Or maybe you or the person next to you is the one who is sinking in debt or depression or maybe you feel like you’re sinking because what you could handle last month you just can’t handle now. Or maybe you’re the one who knows you’re doomed, knows that all your own efforts have failed and you are crying out to God to save you and you’re the ones who Jesus has reached down to catch and you’re clinging on to the sweet hand of Jesus with all you’ve got.  or maybe you’re the one in the boat looking in wonder all you’ve just seen… you’re the one who bears witness to the miracle and danger of it all and how the hand of God reaches down and pulls us up and you see it and can’t help but say “truly this is God.” At some point or other I know I have been all of the above.
Yet, a lot of what I’ve heard in the church both with this story and with so many others is not who I am but who I should be.  I should be the one with enough faith to walk on water.  I should be the one whose eyes are always always on Jesus. I should be the one who makes my way to Jesus.
But all these characters in the walking on water story – the cautious ones in the boat, the brave one who walked for a time on water, the same one who is afraid and sinks and calls for help, and the ones who saw it all and confessed that Jesus is the son of God they are all actually equal in their relationship to God because…all of these and you have one thing in common: they are those whom Jesus draws near saying “it is I, do not be afraid”.  The glamorous part of this story is that Peter walked on water. Which I admit is pretty cool. And maybe he almost had enough faith to make his way to Jesus.  But what happens on either side of his short little water walk?  Jesus comes toward HIM.  In the storm Jesus is walking toward the boat, when Peter sinks Jesus is reaching toward Peter then he comes so much toward them all that finally he just gets in the damn boat.  That’s about as with them as he can be. Yet we seem to always focus on Peter walking toward Jesus when the whole story is about how much jesus walks toward them reaches toward them and then even gets in the boat with them.
We might see the moral of the story as “you should have so much faith that you can walk on water toward Jesus” but the truth of this story is that Jesus walks toward us. The truth of the story is that my abundance of faith or lack of faith does not deter God from drawing close.  That even if you are scared to death you can say Lord Save Me and the hand of God will find you in even the darkest waters.  Because this is a story not of morals but of movement. Not of heros of the faith making their way to Christ but of Christ drawing near to you in the midst of fear.  As our reading from Romans says the Word of God is near to you – on your hearts and in your lips.  And for us for today, I would say the Word of God that was made flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus the Christ draws near to you.  He is written on your hearts and is proclaimed from your lips.  He walks toward you saying “It is I, do not be afraid”  and God reaches down when you call his name and as Paul wrote to the Romans Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
¹⁴But – he writes - how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? ¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
So. There is actually a kiddie pool in back filled with water and scented oil. I invite you during open space or during communion not to try and walk on it, but to dip your feet in as a blessing.  Feel the cool of the calm waters and know that yours are the beautiful feet of they who have been sent to tell the story of who you are and who God is….and  you tell the story of God so that you and others might call out Lord save us as we continually die and rise in the waters of our baptism. Do not be afraid.  For that is your beautiful story.

MAO HENGFENG, Severely beaten, clearly tortured, barely alive from AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 12AUG11

THE prc's record on human rights is among the worst in the world. Here in the U.S. we have our problems concerning human rights, and the civil rights and civil liberties granted by our constitution and the laws of the nation are under constant attack and too often violated, often by the political extreme right wing. HOWEVER, we can not be compared to the prc in the brutality of the repression of their own people or in the numbers arrested, detained, and tortured by the government in Beijing. Please join Amnesty International in demanding accountability for the torture of human rights activist Mao HengFeng.

	Mao Hengfeng was delivered home from detention unconscious and in a wheelchair.
	The last time Mao Hengfeng was home from jail, the celebration was short-lived. She had roughly two days of freedom before being re-detained on vague charges. Two weeks ago, when Chinese police returned Mao Hengfeng home from her most recent term of "Re-Education through Labor" - it didn't feel right to celebrate at all. She was home, but she was delivered unconscious in a wheelchair...severely beaten...clearly tortured...barely alive1. It gets worse. Shanghai authorities have been known to return detainees to their homes shortly before they die so that they can later wash their hands of all culpability. Because her release was completely unexpected, Mao's husband and family could only expect the worst. I can honestly tell you that some of my happiest moments here at Amnesty International have been the days when a prisoner of conscience is released. Just knowing that they are being reunited with their loved ones makes our work all the more satisfying. But bittersweet doesn't even begin to cover the disgraceful "homecoming" of Mao Hengfeng. Not only should she have never been detained in the first place for voicing her beliefs, but no one - and I mean no one - should ever experience the appalling treatment she did while in detention. Help us demand accountability for the torture and abuse of Mao Hengfeng. For simply demanding political and social change, Chinese authorities have repeatedly arrested this wife and mother of three. Her most recent detention stems from her 2009 protest of the detention of Liu Xiaobo, a prominent human rights defender in China and the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. She has also been a strong advocate for women's reproductive rights and the victims of forced evictions in Shanghai. We've been told that since being home, Mao's condition has improved slightly. She regained consciousness and has started to walk and talk again slowly. We couldn't be more relieved to hear this news and hope that her progress continues. But even though Mao's condition may continue to improve, Amnesty International will not let her wounds be forgotten. Take action for Mao Hengfeng. Please take action to support this courageous woman's struggle for human rights! Thank You, Michael O'Reilly Senior Campaign Director, Individuals at Risk Amnesty International USA 1. http://blog.amnestyusa.org/women/mao-hengfengs-bittersweet-homecoming		Beaten until she was unconscious No one should ever experience the appalling treatment that human rights defender Mao Hengfeng did while in police custody.
© 2011 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400

War Budget Cuts Possible If We Counter Contractors' Multimillion-Dollar Campaign Spending 12AUG11

ALL along I have been opposed to the military-industrial complex's strangle hold on our national budget, the waste, fraud and corruption of the Pentagon budget, the illegal and immoral war in Iraq and the now immoral war in Afghanistan. There is too much waste in our "defense" budget; too many lives wasted, too much money and material wasted, and all too often way too much potential economic development wasted, all in support of the greed and lust for power of the military-industrial complex and the corporate welfare system they are part of. Brave New Foundation has been working to make the American public aware of these issues for te past few years, please sign their petition to the Congressional leadership calling for cuts in the Pentagon's budget, click the link to sign.

Sign the petition.

Our nation's obsession with militarism is tearing us apart. Our loved ones return in coffins or with trauma from wars and other military operations. Wasted resources on war and weapons means fewer jobs. War industry executives get rich from lucrative contracts at our expense. Our bloated war budget and military empire are wrecking our country and hurting others around the world. The congressional commission created by the debt ceiling deal (as painful as it was) provides a major opportunity, so we're working overtime to launch a new campaign, War Costs, to push for real cuts to war spending. The debt deal makes possible around $1 trillion in war spending cuts over 10 years. These cuts can help save our economy, but military contractors plan to dump lobbying and campaign money on committee members to protect their profits. In fact, committee members have already taken around $1 million from the companies since 2007. To counter them, we must: Demand that committee members fully disclose any meetings held with military contractors and that they stop taking financial contributions from these companies as long as they serve on the committee. Please sign our petition to congressional leaders on this topic. Expose military contractors' spokespeople and false information as the committee is pressured on possible cuts. Then, we'll expand our campaign. We'll document the massive war spending, mayhem caused by pursuit of empire, and the racket run by big military contractors to keep the spending going. We'll also focus on how to stop it. You stood with us on other critical issues--fake journalism at FOX News, the ugly truth about WalMart, rethinking the Afghanistan War. We need you with us again to show Washington, D.C. that lobbyists aren't the only ones who can apply pressure. Please be a leader for change by visiting WarCosts.com to sign our petition. You can also sign up to participate in our future actions in the fight against the war industry and their allies who are profiting at the people’s expense.  This is time sensitive, so please join today. Sincerely, Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation team

   

Rick Perry's Religious Revival Sparks A Holy War 5AUG11

All need to remember God is not a Republican or a Democrat. I think they should start with reading Matthew 25 and then pray that God remove the lust for money and power from them. If they did this with sincerity I believe they would be able to sit down with people of all political stripes and religious beliefs and work out the problems facing us as a nation. The best thing for the rest of us to do is what Jesus would do for those attending this event, pray for them. From NPR......

by John Burnett

Listen to the Story

Morning Edition

[4 min 24 sec] 

Correction Aug. 5, 2011

The audio and a previous Web version of this story incorrectly identified James Dobson as being "of Focus on the Family." Dobson was the founder of that group but is no longer associated with it and is a Family Talk radio broadcaster.

Gregory Bull/AP Texas Gov. Rick Perry looks on during a speech at a Boy Scout ceremony in June aboard the USS Midway in San Diego. At that dinner, he said the federal government is rudderless. Now, he's calling for a "day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our nation."

Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor of Texas, is a Methodist by tradition who, with his wife, Anita, now attends an evangelical megachurch in Austin. He is open about his deep Christian faith.
On Saturday, Perry, who is widely expected to enter the race for the White House, is hosting a religious revival in Houston to pray for what he calls "a nation in crisis."
While the governor claims it's nothing more than a Christian prayer rally, the event has touched off a holy war among critics, who claim it is Jesus-exclusive and political.
'We Need God's Help'
Late last year, shortly after he won his third term, Perry, a Republican, began to envision the event that is now called "The Response."

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"With the economy in trouble, communities in crisis, people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God's help," he said. "And that's why I'm calling on Americans to pray and fast like Jesus did."
An event spokesman, who is a former Perry speechwriter, says the daylong affair will be filled with prayer, inspirational messages, Scripture readings and praise music. More than 8,000 people have registered for the prayer rally, which is being held in the 71,000-seat Reliant Stadium, normally used for rodeos and NFL games.
Perry invited all his fellow governors. The only one to accept was Sam Brownback of Kansas, but he is now backing away. His office says Brownback is "on vacation," and if he goes, "it's at his discretion and on his dime."
Among prominent religious leaders expected to speak: James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and now a radio broadcaster; Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Perry is not scheduled to address the crowd.
'The Fringe Of The Fringe'
Other names on the list of coordinators and endorsers have raised eyebrows.
"I mean, when you talk about the religious right, this is the fringe of the fringe here," says Dan Quinn, communications director of the Texas Freedom Network, an Austin-based watchdog group that tracks the far right in Texas.
"This is clearly, when you look at it, religious extremism and naked partisan politics," Quinn says. "I think it's one of the most cynical displays of using faith as a political tool we've seen in a long time."

This is clearly, when you look at it, kind of a combination of religious extremism and naked partisan politics ... I think it's probably one of the most cynical displays of using faith as a political tool that we've seen in a long time.

- Dan Quinn, of the Texas Freedom Network

The event is being paid for by the American Family Association, which describes itself as being "on the frontlines of America's culture war." The Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes the AFA as a hate group because of its fierce anti-gay agenda.
Among the participants:
— John Hagee, a San Antonio evangelist whose endorsement was rejected by John McCain in 2008 because of Hagee's anti-Catholic statements.
— Mike Bickle, a founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo., who has called Oprah Winfrey a "pastor of the harlot of Babylon."
— Alice Patterson, founder of Justice at the Gate, in San Antonio, who has written that there is "a demonic structure behind the Democratic Party."
— And then there's John Benefiel, head of the Oklahoma-based Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, who once said this about the Statue of Liberty: "You know where we got it from? French Freemasons. Listen, folks, that is an idol, a demonic idol right there in the middle of New York Harbor."
A Rush To Judgment?
The gathering in Houston appears to some observers as an early attempt to line up the support of conservative evangelicals for Perry's expected presidential run. The event's executive committee includes religious/political activists David Lane and Jim Garlow, as well as Wayne Hamilton and David Barton, both former officials of the Texas Republican Party.
But wait, organizers say: Don't condemn an event before it happens.
"We do need to come together, and pray, and to seek the Lord on behalf of our nation," says Doug Stringer, who runs a Christian world outreach ministry in Houston called Somebody Cares. "If we can do that without being against anything, then I [am] pleased to be a part of it."

Web Resources

The Response

Texas Freedom Network

Stringer says he agreed to be an organizer if they guaranteed there will no long-winded sermons or political speeches.
"And so as a result, they've allowed me to be a prayer captain, and if anything goes off-track to where I feel it should be focused on the Lord and prayer and worship, I can come to the microphone and kind of give redirection to it."
Yet "The Response" remains divisive.
Earlier this week, 50 Houston religious leaders, led by the Anti-Defamation League, signed a letter expressing their concern that the Texas governor, and possible presidential candidate, is "sending an official message of religious exclusion" to non-Christian Texans.
An event spokesman insists that everyone is welcome.

Money Still Owed In Federal Bailout: $1.5 Trillion Still Owed to Treasury, Federal Reserve 3AUG11

WELL if this doesn't piss you off I don't know what will. While we all stewed about the looming financial crisis and a double dip recession and the negotiations over raising the federal debt ceiling this report shows there's $1.5 TRILLION owed to the government, to us, the taxpayers by recipients of federal bailout funds!!!!! The President and Congress are cutting funding for vital social safety net programs and vital government funding for all levels of education, food safety, the EPA, health care, and more while no doubt many of these companies and institutions have lavished obscene bonuses and pay increases on their top executives! This from BANKSTER (banker + gangster), be sure to click the links in the story for more in depth reports...
Submitted by Mary Bottari 

A new study released today by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) shows that, despite rosy statements about the bailout's impending successful conclusion from federal government officials, $1.5 trillion of the $4.8 trillion in federal bailout funds are still outstanding.
The analysis, presented in charts and an online table and program profiles, is based entirely on government records. This comprehensive assessment of the bailout goes beyond the relatively small Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) program to look at the rest of the Treasury and Federal Reserve’s multi-trillion dollar response to the financial crisis. It shows that while the TARP bailout of Wall Street (not including the bailout of the auto industry) amounted to $330 billion, the government also quietly spent $4.4 trillion more in efforts to stave off the collapse of the financial and mortgage lending sectors. The majority of these funds ($3.9 trillion) came from the Federal Reserve, which undertook the actions citing an obscure section of its charter.
“In order to understand the big picture on the bailout, you have to look beyond TARP and examine the trillions the Federal Reserve has disbursed to keep the big banks above water. $4.8 trillion went out the door to aid financial companies and repair the damage they caused to financial markets, and $1.5 trillion of that is still outstanding,” said Mary Bottari, director of CMD’s Real Economy Project.
TOTAL WALL STREET BAILOUT COST TABLE: You can click here to see our a full list of each bailout program, the amount of money disbursed and the amount of money outstanding in each program.
Most of the bailout funds were comprised of aid to banks – the peak outstanding amount was $2.2 trillion in January 2009 – which took place at the height of the financial crisis in the form of loans with below-market interest rates and for questionable collateral to banks directly from the Treasury and Federal Reserve.

Mortgage-Backed Securities Purchases

CMD’s study also shows how the government is continuing to prop up the same banks that caused the crisis in its attempt to help the housing market. The government’s housing program – which peaked at $1.6 trillion outstanding in July 2010 – is aimed at keeping mortgage lending flowing by subsidizing deals Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac make with the banks. Treasury and the Federal Reserve’s main approach has been to buy more than a trillion dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so that the two government-sponsored enterprises can continue to purchase and bundle mortgages from the banks, which they sell to Fannie and Freddie at a profit. The banks also benefit from the hundreds of billions in direct loans the government has made to Fannie and Freddie, which the GSEs then turn around and make in insurance pay-outs to banks for mortgages that have gone bad.
This massive effort is in stark contrast to the mere $2 billion the Treasury has spent to directly help homeowners stay in their homes via the widely criticized Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) program. With housing prices continuing to falter and the United States approaching 9.2 million foreclosure filings since the beginning of 2008, HAMP can be described as nothing less than an abject failure.
“The Federal Reserve and the Treasury have spent $1.6 trillion in a bank-shot to save the mortgage lending market by using the same financial companies that got us into this mess,” said Conor Kenny, lead author of the study. “That’s more than 800 times what they’ve spent directly to keep homeowners in their houses, and the banks have made money off the whole thing.”
CMD’s analysis also shows how the $4.8 trillion bailout of the financial sector dwarfs the $600 billion that the Federal Reserve spent on the much-hyped “Quantitative Easing 2” of 2010-2011 that was intended to help the broader economy – not just the financial sector – by lowering interest rates across the board and preventing deflation.

 

Exclusive: Peace group tried to scrub involvement with soldier linked to Ft. Hood plot 28JUL11

I have posted information on my blog about Pfc Nassar Abdo and his issues concerning his conscientious objector status and the war in Afghanistan. I got my information from Courage to resist and IVAW. I am not blaming them for what I posted on my site. I posted the information because I believe what these groups believe, that conscientious objectors do have the right to refuse to participate in military combat, including positions that actively support military combat because of their beliefs. In spite of the deception of Pfc Abdo, in spite of his involvement in child porn and in spite of his plans to attack and kill soldiers, a plan so hypocritical of someone who claims to be a conscientious objector, I STILL BELIEVE there are good men and women out there, people of character and strong convictions, who can not participate in military combat because of their beliefs. It is because of these people that I will still, in good faith, work to protect their right to C.O. status. From The Raw Story....

Pfc. Nasser Abdo, the 21-year-old soldier arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged plot to attack Fort Hood, had ties to a number of prominent anti-war organizations, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and Courage to Resist, Raw Story can confirm.
Abdo, who went AWOL from duty over the July 4 weekend after being charged with possession of child pornography, was an applicant for conscientious objector (CO) status, supported by the Oakland-based GI rights group Courage to Resist. In turn, his efforts to resist deployment were supported by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), one of the best-known anti-war groups in the nation.
He was arrested Thursday outside Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas, after police received a tip informing them that Abdo had purchased firearms with cash, from the same gun store that Major Nidal Hasan visited before murdering 13 of his fellow soldiers in 2009.
In the wake of Abdo's arrest, Courage to Resist removed a page on their website that detailed Abdo's plight, but it was preserved through Google cache. Reached by Raw Story, Jeff Paterson, the group's project director, acknowledged that they had tried to cover up their involvement with the soldier and said they would be issuing a statement in the coming hours.
He added that his impression of Abdo was a young man with "mental health issues" who was "very difficult to work with."
"I worked with him last August, in order to help formulate his application as a conscientious objector, then we helped formulate his legal appeals for the objector process," Paterson said. "Then he got hit with pornography charges on his laptop, at which point we told him that we would help him through the resolution of his objection issues, but he would have to find himself legal defense separate for these criminal matters."
"We're shocked [at Abdo's arrest]," Paterson said. "I believe he had some significant mental health issues that became apparent as we worked with him. He had a particular version of Islam that was certainly ... He was disrespectful to women. These were the kinds of issues we argued over late last year. It's not a religious thing, it's a matter of human decency."
"He was a very difficult young man to work with. Our statement is that we hope people don't think of conscientious objectors as homicidal."
IVAW, similarly, admitted to Raw Story that they also worked with Abdo, but a spokesperson who asked not to be named said they absolutely condemn his alleged actions.
"We have worked with him in the past, but he was not ever a member of this organization," the spokesperson said. "We have had three interactions with him in the past: We supported his application as a conscientious objector; we publicized a statement by him condemning Islamophobia; and finally, he lended his support to our 'Operation Recovery' campaign last Veteran's Day. Besides that, we do not have a concrete link with him.
"IVAW is committed to nonviolence. We do not condone any sort of violence against the military or any individual."
The spokesperson added that they had no comment about Abdo's mental health.
"We support conscientious objection, so he was someone who was brought onto our radar because of that."
Abdo was the first Muslim soldier to seek CO status due to his faith. In televised interviews, he claimed that his beliefs would not permit him to kill other Muslims.
In spite of this claim, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy said last year that he should not be granted CO status and instead face a military tribunal for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.
A message left for Abdo's attorney went unreturned.

Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador from Syria: King calls for end to bloodshed 8AUG11

I just looked out my window to see if there were any pigs flying about.......nope, don't see any. Maybe, just maybe this is the start of something meaningful on the diplomatic front to bring about an end to the violence against the peaceful protestors calling for freedom and democracy in Syria. Give the King credit for calling for and end to the bloodshed by the Syrian government, and let's hope the Saudi government backs up their position with economic carrots and sticks. The real question is, will King Abdullah be as magnanimous if his people start demanding more freedom, democracy and recognition of human rights for all Saudis? And will he stop interfering in the struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights in Bahrain? From The Raw Story......

Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Damascus for consultations, King Abdullah said Sunday, in a statement calling on Syria's leaders to "stop the killing machine".
"Saudi Arabia announces the recall of its ambassador for consultations," the king said in the statement released in Riyadh in which he urged Syria to "stop the killing machine and the bloodshed... before it is too late."
"The kingdom does not accept the situation in Syria, because the developments cannot be justified," the Saudi monarch said urging Damascus to introduce "comprehensive and quick reforms."
"The future of Syria lies between two options: either Syria chooses willingly to resort to reason, or face being swept into deep chaos, God forbid," he said.
Syrian security forces killed more than 50 people on Sunday, activists there said, as the regime defended its crackdown on "outlaws".
The US envoy to Damascus, Robert Ford, who returned to Syria on Thursday, also said in a US television interview on Sunday that Washington will "try to ratchet up the pressure" on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The Saudi king's statement came the day after the Gulf Cooperation Council urged Syria to "end the bloodshed" as the international pressure mounts.

China Blasts U.S. Over Credit Rating Downgrade, Debt 'Addiction' 6AUG11

PEOPLE don't like this, but there is some truth to what the government of the prc says concerning our fiscal policies (though they should have directed their criticisms at corporate welfare and tax cuts for the rich) and the government circus in D.C. They are typically hypocritical though because they refuse to float their currency, refuse to allow true economic freedom, impose restrictive tariffs on imports, refuse to enforce their own laws on labor rights and so keep production cost artificially low, have a huge income inequality problem that will cause more social unrest, and underfund their own social safety net programs (pensions, healthcare, etc) while spending massive amounts on their own military. The prc is a disaster just waiting to happen because of their own dysfunctional government policies. So they can express their opinions on the situation in the U.S., but before demanding anything from the U.S. they should consider their own precarious situation first. From HuffPost.....
BEIJING -- China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, demanded Saturday that America tighten its belt and confront its "addiction to debts" in the wake of Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating.
China currently owns $1.2 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt, the largest stake of any central bank. The commentary carried by the state-run Xinhua News Agency was Beijing's first official response to the S&P decision.
"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," Xinhua said.
It said the rating cut would be followed by more "devastating credit rating cuts" and global financial turbulence if the U.S. fails to learn to "live within its means."
"China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets," it said.
Xinhua said the U.S. must slash its "gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs" and accept international supervision over U.S. dollar issues.
Last month, China's top general, Chen Bingde, also linked America's financial woes to its military budget and asked whether paring back on defense spending wouldn't be the best thing for U.S. taxpayers.
Such comments reflect Beijing's desire that Washington reduce its military presence in Asia. The U.S., rattled by China's military buildup, also routinely chides Beijing for its fast-growing defense spending.
Xinhua also suggested a new global reserve currency might be necessary to replace the dollar, a position China has frequently advocated.

"Mounting debts and ridiculous political wrestling in Washington have damaged America's image abroad," Xinhua said. "To cure its addiction to debts, the United States has to re-establish the common sense principle that one should live within its means."
Jitters over the U.S. handling of its debt problems were also being felt elsewhere in Asia, said Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore's former ambassador to the United Nations.
The dean of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy said the last-minute agreement by the U.S. Congress to lift the debt limit and avoid default has policymakers in Asia questioning the stability of U.S. global leadership.
"It's definitely undermined U.S. credibility," Mahbubani said late Friday. "Everyone is wondering if you have such a dysfunctional political process, how can you provide global leadership. It's very dangerous for the world."
___
Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

Rick Perry's College Transcript: A Lot Of Cs And Ds 5AUG11

POLITICAL "leadership" in this country keeps going from bad to worse, even when you think it can't get any worse than what it already is. Right now we have a president who campaigned on hope and change from the failed economic and foreign polices of the bush administration and has turned on the very people who elected him, choosing to kow-tow to the political prostitutes on Capital Hill controlled by the rich, by corporate America and by the U.S. military-industrial complex. Congressional leadership is a joke, both houses resemble scenes from "Lord of the Flies" rather than a governing body. The tea-baggers and their masters offer for our consideration the dregs of the extreme right wing, their ignorant, prejudiced, uneducated and uninformed; michele bachmann, rick perry, newt gingrich, andy martin, thad mccotter, tim pawlenty, rick santorum and ron paul are just a few of the candidates we are expected to consider for president to lead us out of the economic and foreign policy mess we are in. Really. No doubt the theme song for the repiglican national convention will be "Send In The Clowns" and the cheer that will be heard most often, in honor of our expansive and expensive corporate welfare system will be SOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEE....PIG PIG PIG.....SOOOOOOOWEEEEEE!!!! From HuffPost...
WASHINGTON -- As governor of Texas, Rick Perry has pursued a controversial agenda that would gut Texas' vaunted public university system in favor of something that more closely resembles a business.
As the Washington Post reported on Thursday, professors have been ranked according to how profitable they were to the university. Previous reports suggested Perry wanted to treat students as "customers" and tie teacher bonuses to anonymous student evaluations.
One reason that might explain his hostility toward the system: He didn't do very well in it. A source in Texas passed The Huffington Post Perry's transcripts from his years at Texas A&M University. The future politician did not distinguish himself much in the classroom. While he later became a student leader, he had to get out of academic probation to do so. He rarely earned anything above a C in his courses -- earning a C in U.S. History, a D in Shakespeare, and a D in the principles of economics. Perry got a C in gym.
Perry also did poorly on classes within his animal science major. In fall semester 1970, he received a D in veterinary anatomy, a F in a second course on organic chemistry and a C in animal breeding. He did get an A in world military systems and “Improv. of Learning” -- his only two As while at A&M.
"A&M wasn't exactly Harvard on the Brazos River," recalled a Perry classmate in an interview with The Huffington Post. "This was not the brightest guy around. We always kind of laughed. He was always kind of a joke."
A spokesperson for the governor recently told the Texas Tribune that the university "helped shape who he is today." The governor’s office did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
You can read Perry's transcript below:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61684192/Rick-Perry-s-Texas-A-M-Transcript

S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time & S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating From AAA 5 & 6AUG11

I doubt this will motivate Congress to put aside politics and get to the business of governing. The repiglicans and tea-baggers are to blame for the failed budget negotiations....I know an agreement was reached but they insisted in protecting the greed of the wealthy and corporate America and the democrats and Pres Obama lacked the moral courage to stand up to them and demand revenue increases be part of any agreement. The government has taken us one step closer to being a plutocracy and a Third World nation. From the WashPost & NPR....

By Zachary A. Goldfarb

Standard & Poor’s announced Friday night that it has downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time, dealing a symbolic blow to the world’s economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system.
Lowering the nation’s rating to one notch below AAA, the credit rating company said “political brinkmanship” in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances “less stable, less effective and less predictable.” It said the bipartisan agreement reached this week to find at least $2.1 trillion in budget savings “fell short” of what was necessary to tame the nation’s debt over time and predicted that leaders would not be likely to achieve more savings in the future.
“It’s always possible the rating will come back, but we don’t think it’s coming back anytime soon,” said David Beers, head of S&P’s government debt rating unit.
The decision came after a day of furious back-and-forth debate between the Obama administration and S&P. Treasury Department officials fought back hard, arguing that the firm’s political analysis was flawed and that it had made a numerical error in a draft of its downgrade report that overstated the deficit over 10 years by $2 trillion. Officials had reviewed the draft earlier in the day.
“A judgment flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself,” a Treasury spokesman said Friday night.
The downgrade to AA+ will push the global financial markets into uncharted territory after a volatile week fueled by concerns over a worsening debt crisis in Europe and a faltering economy in the United States.
The AAA rating has made the U.S. Treasury bond one of the world’s safest investments — and has helped the nation borrow at extraordinarily cheap rates to finance its government operations, including two wars and an expensive social safety net for retirees.
Treasury bonds have also been a stalwart of stability amid the economic upheaval of the past few years. The nation has had a AAA rating for 70 years.
Analysts say that, over time, the downgrade could push up borrowing costs for the U.S. government, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year. It could also drive up interest rates for consumers and companies seeking mortgages, credit cards and business loans.
A downgrade could also have a cascading series of effects on states and localities, including nearly all of those in the Washington metro area. These governments could lose their AAA credit ratings as well, potentially raising the cost of borrowing for schools, roads and parks.
But the exact effects of the downgrade won’t be known until at least Sunday night, when Asian markets open, and perhaps not fully grasped for months. Analysts say the initial effect on the markets could be modest because they have been anticipating an S&P downgrade for weeks.
Federal officials are also examining the impact of a downgrade in large but esoteric financial markets where U.S. government bonds serve an extremely important function. They were generally confident that markets would hold up but were closely monitoring the situation. Regulators said that the downgrade would not affect how banking rules treat Treasury bonds — as risk-free assets.
The ratings action immediately fueled partisan wrangling Friday night. Allies to President Obama said it underscored his call for a “grand bargain” that would trim $4 trillion from the federal budget involving a mix of tax revenue and spending cuts.
Republicans criticized Obama’s handling of the economy.
“Standard & Poor’s rating downgrade is a deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under President Obama,” Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said.
S&P has angered government officials with aggressive warnings during the past few months of a potential downgrade. S&P corrected its draft report Friday after Treasury raised concerns about the math.
Over the past few months, the multiple warnings from S&P have not worried government bond markets. What’s more, the two other major credit rating companies, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, have said they would preserve the nation’s AAA rating for now.
S&P’s downgrade was as much a political critique as a financial conclusion. It is based on a view that U.S. political leaders would be unable to come up with at least $4 trillion in savings, which is needed to bring the nation’s debt to a manageable level over the next decade.
The debt deal swung earlier this week proposed spending cuts in two phases. Democrats and Republicans agreed to the first round, worth nearly $1 trillion. But a congressional committee must decide on the remaining $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion — and S&P questioned whether that would ever happen.
S&P added that it expects that the upper income Bush-era tax cuts will continue, despite vows from Obama to end the breaks next year.
“The majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” the firm said.
S&P’s downgrade served as an indictment of the gridlock that sent the nation to the edge of defaulting on its debt obligations. It is also striking in part because it reflects the tremendous power of a small group of financial analysts employed by a New York company — part of McGraw-Hill. Credit-rating companies’ reputations were sullied during the financial crisis.
In Europe, political leaders have taken aim at credit rating companies when they cut the ratings of governments struggling with heavy debt burdens.
S&P said the nation could suffer additional downgrades later on if the nation’s debt burden grows worse. “A new political consensus might [or might not] emerge after the 2012 election, but we believe that by then the government debt burden will likely be higher,” the firm said.
The company said the United States’s financial position was diverging from that of other AAA countries, including Canada, France, Germany and Britain.
Countries with a AA+ rating include New Zealand and Belgium. Among those countries with a AA rating, one notch lower, are Bermuda, Spain and Qatar.

Staff writers Neil Irwin and Cezary Podkul contributed to this report.

S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating From AAA

by The Associated Press

The United States has lost its coveted top AAA credit rating.

Complete Coverage

S&P Lowers U.S. Long-Term Credit Rating Aug. 5, 2011

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded the nation's rating for the first time since the U.S. won the top ranking in 1917. The move came after Congress haggled over budget cuts and the U.S. government borrowing limit — and failed to cut enough government spending to satisfy S&P. The issue has contributed to convulsions in financial markets.
The drop in the rating by one notch to AA-plus was expected. The three main credit agencies, which also include Moody's Investor Service and Fitch, had warned during the budget fight that if Congress did not cut spending far enough, the country faced a downgrade. S&P said that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country's debt situation. Moody's said Friday it was keeping its AAA rating on the nation's debt, but that it might still lower it.
One of the biggest questions after the downgrade was what impact it would have on already nervous investors. Many financial analysts said investors were expecting a downgrade. But some selling was expected when stock trading resumed Monday morning. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 699 points this week, the biggest weekly point drop since October 2008.
"I think we will have a knee-jerk reaction on Monday," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.
One fear in the market has been that a downgrade would scare buyers away from U.S. debt. If that were to happen, the interest raid paid on U.S. bonds, notes and bills would have to rise to attract buyers. However, even without its AAA rating, U.S. debt is seen as one of the safest investments in the world. And investors clearly weren't being scared away this week. While stocks were plunging, investors were buying Treasuries. The yield on the 10-year note, which moves opposite its price, fell to a low of 2.39 percent on Thursday.
The government fought the downgrade. Administration sources familiar with the discussions contended that the S&P analysis was fundamentally flawed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. S&P had sent the administration a draft document in the early afternoon Friday and the administration, after examining the numbers, challenged the analysis.
In a statement, Treasury said, "A judgment flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself."
S&P said that in addition to the downgrade, it is issuing a negative outlook, meaning that there was a chance it will lower the rating further within the next two years. It said such a downgrade to AA would occur if the agency sees smaller reductions in spending than Congress and the administration have agreed to make, higher interest rates or new fiscal pressures during this period.
In its statement, S&P said that it had changed its view "of the difficulties of bridging the gulf between the political parties" over a credible deficit reduction plan.
S&P said it was now "pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics anytime soon."

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