Here’s a picture from last Halloween. Still pretty relevant and funny. Here’s my friend Mark Gstohl at the Reformation wall in Geneva. Check out ReformationHappens.com if you want to know more about the Reformation. To read more about Reformation Day, Michael Westmoreland-White has a nice post.
UPDATE: Joel Rainey, a very thoughtful conservative guy had a very good post on Reformation Day. Check it out. Also check out his blog. It’s living proof that a conservative Christian can be thoughtful, considerate, and positive.
Hastert could well be the weakest House speaker in history. Tapped by Tom DeLay to serve as the mild-mannered frontman for the GOP leadership, the former wrestling coach ceded most of his power to the now-disgraced majority leader, allowing Republicans to treat the Capitol as their private piggy bank. Last year, Hastert got in on the action himself, secretly inserting $207 million into the budget for the “Prairie Parkway” — a highway that will speed development of 210 acres he owns in Illinois. Before the year was out, Hastert sold part of his land — soon to be the site of a sprawling subdivision — for a profit of $2 million.
“Here’s a guy who saw a chance to profit from his official acts and took it,” says Bill Allison, who uncovered the late-night earmark as a senior analyst for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “Most of us aren’t speaker of the House, and most of us don’t have a $200 million earmark running through our back yard. Hastert does, and he made a fortune from it.”
The speaker at least functions as a bipartisan defender of congressional corruption. In February 2005, he purged the chairman of the House Ethics Committee for daring to admonish DeLay. And after Rep. William Jefferson’s offices were raided by the FBI last spring, it was Hastert who lodged the strongest protest on the Louisiana Democrat’s behalf.
Hastert is especially good at turning a blind eye to scandal: An aide says the speaker’s office knew about Rep. Mark Foley’s penchant for page boys three years ago, yet Hastert took no action to protect minors working for Congress.
In another secret budget deal, Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joined forces last December to give the pharmaceutical industry a Christmas gift worth billions. After the “final” version of the defense budget emerged from conference, the duo added a provision that gives drug makers immunity from liability lawsuits — shielding them from claims that their mercury-laden vaccines sparked the current autism epidemic.
As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Lewis oversees nearly $900 billion a year in federal spending — but anyone looking for a slice of that money has to deal with his best friend, lobbyist Bill Lowery. “If you want an earmark from Lewis, you have to hire Lowery,” says Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “There’s a direct exchange.” In return for the business, Lowery and his clients made more than $480,000 in contributions to Lewis — more than a third of the congressman’s total campaign money since 2000. Lowery’s firm, in turn, tripled its revenue to $5 million — and his clients pocketed hundreds of millions in federal pork projects from Lewis.
The revolving door spins so fast between Lewis and Lowery that their offices operate almost as a single machine to swap taxpayer dollars for corporate donations. Jeffrey Shockey, who worked as a staffer for Lewis, left to join Lowery’s firm — and then returned to work for Lewis as deputy chief of staff of appropriations. As a parting gift, Lowery hired Shockey’s wife as a lobbyist and gave him nearly $2 million — a down payment on the firm’s future earnings. Another Lewis staffer, now a Lowery partner, does such brisk business with her old boss that she’s known as “K Street’s Queen of Earmarks.” Even Brent Wilkes — the defense contractor whose payoffs sent Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham to prison earlier this year — has complained about the shakedown operation. “If you don’t want to make the contributions,” Wilkes recalls Lowery telling him, “you will get left behind.” Wilkes also claimed that Lowery threatened to cut him off from Lewis and his lucrative earmarks unless he forked over $25,000 a month in lobbying fees.
Lewis, a former insurance salesman elected to Congress in 1978, has long tapped corporate interests for campaign cash: In one of his early races, all of his money came from just forty-three donors — and twenty-two of them were lobbyists.
The FBI has issued ten subpoenas involving Lewis’ current operation, and Lowery’s firm has scurried to report more than $2 million in undisclosed income. The lobbyist, in fact, is an old hand at the abuse of public trust: A former congressman himself, Lowery lost his House seat in 1992 thanks to an ethics scandal. The man who beat him? None other than Duke Cunningham.
The House Immigration Reform Caucus certainly has its share of hard-core xenophobes: One member, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, calls illegal immigration a “terrorist attack on the United States” and wants to erect an electrified fence to control Mexicans like livestock. But the founder of the caucus — and the undisputed king of Republican bigotry — is Tancredo, a dark-horse presidential contender for 2008. “He’s got the best track record in Congress,” raves Gordon Baum, head of the Council for Conservative Citizens, a “pro-white” group that lauds Tancredo for protecting America from a “full-scale invasion” of Latin immigrants.
Elected to the House in 1998, Tancredo has not only led the fight to deport every undocumented worker in America — a proposal that would cost at least $200 billion — but has called for halting all immigration, legal and otherwise. In one unforgettable move, Tancredo wanted to deport the family of an undocumented high school boy who was profiled in The Denver Post for his perfect grades.
The grandson of Italian immigrants, Tancredo traces his interest in politics to the eighth grade, when he played Fidel Castro in a class assignment. He urges America to reject “the siren song of multiculturalism” and depicts Islam as “a civilization bent on destroying ours.” In September, when Pope Benedict XVI sparked riots by condemning Islam as “evil,” Tancredo urged him not to apologize. Even the right has noted his unbridled looniness on the subject: In July, when Tancredo proposed that America respond to any future terrorist attack by bombing Mecca and other holy sites, the National Review came to an unavoidable conclusion: “Tom Tancredo is an idiot.”
No member of Congress has worked harder to savage America’s natural resources than Pombo, a Stetson-wearing cattleman who ran for office after a nature trail was slated to run through his family’s 500-acre ranch. As chairman of the House Resources Committee, Pombo has waged a career-long campaign to abolish the Endangered Species Act, which he accuses of putting “rats and shellfish” before people. Last year he almost succeeded: His comically titled “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” would have phased out all protection for threatened wildlife by 2015. Pombo has also won passage of bills to eliminate habitat protections on 150 million acres of wilderness and to lift a quarter-century moratorium on offshore oil drilling.
“Dick Pombo is the most dangerous member of the House,” says Carl Pope of the Sierra Club. “There’s no one who represents the threat to our public lands that he does.”
But Pombo doesn’t let his environmental attacks get in the way of his own profit: He raked in $35,000 from clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and paid his own wife and brother $357,000 for dubious campaign services. That’s a quarter of every dollar raised by his political action committee — known, aptly enough, as Rich PAC.
Members of the Senate:
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Bill Frist (R-TN)
Rick Santorum (R-PA)
Members of the House:
Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Richard Pombo (R-CA)
John Doolittle (R-CA)
Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Katherine Harris (R-FL)
John Sweeney (R-NY)
William Jefferson (D-LA)
Charles Taylor (R-NC)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Gary Miller (R-CA)
Curt Weldon (R-PA)
Five Members to Watch:
Chris Cannon (R-UT)
J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
John Murtha (D-PA)
Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA)
Summary:
-The three most corrupt Senate members are the infamous Conrad Burns (R-MT), Bill Frist (R-TN), and Rick Santorum (R-PA) all Republicans
-Seventeen of the twenty “Most Corrupt” politicians are Republicans
-Four of the “Five Members To Watch” are Republicans
The Saints are coming video can be viewed here. I was lucky enough to see the live performance at the Superdome with my friend Michael. The whole set can be seen here.
We had a great time! I actually got chills when I watched the video. It has some rough scenes from Hurricane Katrina.
Eph 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen me with power through his Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And I pray that I, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Well, It’s not working. I’m so full of anger. I’m mad about how many of the folks I see at KAT are suffering and ignored. How can we say we are a “Christian nation” and treat our elderly and poor children so badly? I’m mad at all the trouble my friends are going through because of ALLSTATE, contractors, and employers. I’m mad about my job situation. I’m mad about my gutters! I get mad every morning when I drive by John McDonogh High School. I’m angry at the violence in my city. I’m angry at folks who re-elected Nagin. Don’t get me started about the federal situation!
I’m angry most of all that I can’t seem to acquire the “peace that passes all understanding.” I want to regain the joy and innocence that I had when I first came to New Orleans and started seminary. My spiritual situation is not due to the slippery slope of liberalism! If anything, it’s due to the hypocritical judgmentalism of fundamentalism.
I pray that I’ll become thankful again. Hopeful again. I pray that I can start to care about others rather than focusing on the negative. I pray that I can once again find meaning and joy in my work.
I’m tired of the struggle. Help me to trust again.
In 2001, I almost bought this Lakeview Home. Shirley Jr is pointing to the water line. We drove past the house today. No one lives within 2 blocks of this house. I’m glad we didn’t buy the house.
The West Bank is truly the blessed bank. My heart goes out to all those who lost so much. It’s amazing how few have made it back to this neighborhood.
I’m still shocked by the destruction, the countless lives that have been impacted in so many ways. It’s still hard to comprehend.
The other day, a friend of mine said that PTSD isn’t an applicable diagnosis for New Orleanians because we haven’t experienced the “P” yet.
He’s right. The stress isn’t over. Bad days still come.
Friday I had another one. Overcome with anger, I became really depressed, even a ride on my scooter didn’t cheer me up. It’s so awful. We’ll never be back to normal. We’ll never be the same. But we can take joy in our friends and family. We can take comfort in our faith. We can know that in the midst of uncertainty, we can feel and share God’s love. So, I went out with the girls and had fun.
Today was a good day too. We went to City Park and Brocato’s! We fed ducks, squirrels, and even a raccoon! I am so greatful that I can spend time with my girls!
We are a Connecticut statewide interfaith gathering of religious leaders and people of faith, joined by our belief in the God of justice and love, who calls us “to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.” In this time of crisis and war, we believe that walking humbly with God requires us to advocate and practice nonviolent love, in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
We recognize that we are living within a culture of violence and that the war outside our country is intimately linked to domestic policies that leave the marginalized ever more vulnerable. We are committed to promoting an alternative to this culture of violence.
Nice job folks!
Senate Votes
YEAs —65
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)—-I’m so ashamed!
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)—No big surprise here.
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
You may not recall my previous post on Judge Charles Elloie. He is a New Orleans judge that has come under fire for setting bonds way too low for violent crimes.
The state’s high court said it found probable violations of the state’s constitution and judicial conduct code, and it faulted Judge Charles Elloie for continuing to set low bonds even after “heightened scrutiny and intense media attention.”
“A study commissioned by a New Orleans judicial watchdog group found last year that Elloie was responsible for 56 percent of all defendants who walked out of Orleans Parish Prison because a judge had changed their original magistrate bond.”
Arrogance. I hate it! I’m greatful that he has been suspended.
Land further stated that, “I still think Iraq is one of the more noble things we’ve done. We went there to try to restore freedom and to bring freedom to the Middle East.”
Land also proposes a familiar Republican stance toward changing our negative image in the Middle East. Land said, “we ought to go negative. We ought to be spending our money explaining what the Middle East would look like if the jihadists win, what Afghanistan looked like when the Taliban was in control and what the role of women was.”
Great idea Rich! Since we can’t defend our actions that have resulted in the deaths of 655,000 Iraqis, let’s just tell them it would be worse if we weren’t there “spreading freedom.”
Let me get this straight. Intentionally starting a war on false pretenses is noble?
Here’s my friend Mark Gstohl at the Reformation wall in Geneva. Check out 
Exactly what values are the “Values Voters” promoting?
The Saints are coming video can be viewed 
Methuselah, a snaggle toothed donkey on 
Richard Land, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm 
