From the LI White House forum, Prayer Group

Heavenly Father. Please hear our prayers.
We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under Thy table.
But Thou art the same Lord whose policy is always to have mercy. Have Mercy on us, Oh Lord, for we are sorely troubled and deeply afraid.

We do not know the world as You see it; nor America; nor even ourselves. We do not know our hearts, our souls, even our minds, as You see them.

We cannot pretend our understanding of the world around us is adequate to the tasks before us. Without Your guidance and help, the world we deal with is beyond even the greatest of us.

 We know that all the peoples of the world are Your Children. We beseech You, Heavenly Father, to help us find courage in the words of Your Son, Jesus Christ, to always remember that.

We seek, and strive, and stumble. more than anything else, Oh Lord, we seek to follow the teachings and examples of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and are always wanting.

There are a few things that we see. Although we understand Your vision is much broader, we can only ask for those things we can understand.

Heavenly Father, guide us by Your Grace and Mercy, that we may find common ground with each other- within our country, and with all of Your Children.

There are too many who seek to find only fear and hatred, division and discontent. They seek power more than love. Do not turn Your eyes from them, Heavenly Father. They are not that different from any one of us.

Come to them, Oh Lord, and take the scales away; take the motes and the logs from their eyes, -- and ours.
If any of us can be the instrument of peace, let us find the modesty and humility to serve you.

Let us all find mercy in each other. Let us find the courage to be gentle with our neighbors, whether avowed friend or avowed enemy, or whatever. For as we are gentle with them, they may be gentle with us; and we may both find redemption in the example and teachings of Jesus Christ.

 And especially find our besieged President, Barack Obama, in these difficult and confusing times. Grant him wisdom and courage, Heavenly Father, that he may lead our great nation into the future. Heavenly Father,
grant him a voice that he may convey the joy of Your wisdom to all Americans.

These things we ask, Heavenly Father, in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. These few things are what we see, Heavenly Father. We know that Your Vision is much greater. We must trust in You, and Jesus
Christ, Your Son.

 As always, Heavenly Father, we place ourselves in Your Hands. As always, we know that Your policy is always to have mercy. Have mercy on us, Heavenly Father, for we are oppressed and angered with each other. We greet each other not in peace and courage, but in rancor and fear.
With each word, we know we are wrong. But we are afraid and lonely. Take us where You will, Heavenly Father, and we will find the Faith to follow. We will find the courage.

We place ourselves in Your Hands. In this we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Amen

Constitutional Limits of Representation

The most important issue never resolved was the issue of fairness. In particular, the discussion of fairness was cut short by the imposition of ideology - mostly on constitutional terms.

In these ideological debates, a great deal is made of the Preamble to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the first 10 Amendments, but very little attention if paid to the intrinsic wisdom in other areas.

If you step back from the Constitution and look at it as a system of governance, not government, much of the ideological barricading is quickly lost. 

Moral Insurrection - Self Sacrifice

When I was a young man trying to find my niche in the professional world, I was the turning point for a moral insurrection. I remember the sense of astonsishment I felt. And the sense of responsibility.
Half of a corporate sales force walked off the job at a sales seminar because one owner decided to play politics with the attendees. He fired me to allow his protege to collect the sales. I had put half the attendees in the seats.
The next thing I knew, I was sitting with my sales manager and about a dozen others. All had walked off the job out of respect for me. (There's more to the story, but also little point in blowing my own horn.)

Reading the story of these telemarketers who left their seats because they would not say divisive ugly half-truths about Barack Obama makes me proud to be an American. No matter to which side of the political fence a person sits, this sort of moral courage is something that should make any American proud.
There's no question the rhetoric in that phone speil was unnecessary. The underlying motivations of these people may not be right. Barack Obama may turn out to be the anti-Christ. Who knows? If he is, even the Scriptures say no one will know.
Right now he looks like a legitimate political backlash to a miscreant administration that will bring more good than harm.

One thing I am certain of though: If more people act in their personal and professional lives based on their moral convictions, America will only be better.
Yes, I believe in America. I believe that 1000 years from now, what America stands for will be talked about as legendary. As my country is now a light of freedom and democracy to the World, that legend will only grow more powerful and more bright over the rest of human history - no matter what happens to America.
There, I've said it. It's not the first time. It will certainly not be the last.

Living outside the US places an American in the position of constantly having to explain and excuse every sin my country commits, real or imagined. It's painful to know the real courage of the American people, the heritage of my history, and the overwhelming generosity my country has shown, yet know that so many hate my country. I only wish these stories of individual moral insurrection and courage were what I heard more often.

First Flit

Having lived through the 70s in America, I know the signs of inflation.
When I first wandered into Australia about 8 years ago, coffeehouse conversation often turned to how the country had changed. I was the newcomer, and from America. It seemed like everyone wanted to be the first to tell me how Australia was becoming like America.Image by Getty Images via Day
I would look closely, and listen, to try to tell if the person thought that was a good thing or a bad thing.
In time, I came to realize that Australians had an easy way to assign blame for anything that went wrong: they just blamed America and Americans. It saved a lot of thinking and worrying about the things they could change.
America was to blame, so .. Why worry? Be Happy.

The changes aussies blamed on America were kind of obvious to me:

• high and rising prices;
• rabid consumer credit;
• smaller portions and lower quality goods were more expensive;
• service cutbacks because of personnel reductions;
• and fees on everything.

They were the consumer signals of inflation and hyperinflation. I recognized them in an instant.
When I said this stuff to aussies, the response was universal. A grim shrug, then some sort of comment blaming America.
A lot of times the comment wasn't even about prices or the economy. Aussies simply took my conversational comments as an attack on Australia, and turned to an attack on America.
The thinking seemed to be there was no sense in being negative (about Australia), there was always the US to blame.

When it came time to decide to stay, I got interested in the Australian economy.
It didn't take a whole long time to figure out where the inflation was coming from. The new Liberal administration had been elected because of the aging aussie homily: "Liberals create surpluses and Labour spends the country into poverty." The new Liberal administration was fueling inflation to pay off the national debts.
Mr Howard simply started paying something to everyone. Within a year, the direct payments into the economy tripled as a portion of the GNP - from 1% to over 3%. You had to make 6 figures in Australia not to be eligible for some sort of payout.
In America, that'd be catastrophic. But Australia is a small country with a small economy. In perspective, the recent Wall Street bailout is larger than the total GNP of Australia by $100billion USD.
Converted at the current exchange rate, that's be about $163billion AUD.
And that's after all the bloating inflation in Australia for 8 years or so.

The same consumer inflation signals continued for 8 years, only getting worse and worse. The inflation rate was underreported to the population. It was supposedly 4%. The real figure was closer to 10 or 12%.
Denial is not something unique to Australia. Just look at the idiocy of the sub prime mortgages in the US.
Consumers only really became concerned, as in the US in the 70s, when the cost of petrol went through the roof. The speculators that are blamed were only reacting to real market forces. There was room for the increase and they saw it.

I got the stories. A house had cost only $60,000 in the neighborhood only two years ago. Now it was $85,000. And that was nothing compared to prices across the whole metro area, where the average house was (then) $220,000. It was much worse in Sydney.
My comments were: This is still a suburb. It's a long ways into the city. But it looks like that's changing with the plans for new freeway. This would be a good time to buy that $85,000 house. -- It's obviously going to go up a lot.
The responses from the local Australians registered their incredulity: "These houses were old. They can't get much more expensive. It'd be better to tear them down and build new houses. Houses out here will never be over $100,000."
Within 4 years, just a year or so after I heard that comment last, the same house sold for $180,000. Two years later, it was on the market for $240,000.

The market value of that old, unrenovated 1970s military housing house had tripled in 6 years. And the freeway went into service just after it was sold.

Now Rudd government has to support the inflation. So they have gone even farther than the Howard government ever dared. All bank deposits are guaranteed. More than that, all loans between banks are guaranteed. And there will be a $10.4billion payout to spark Christmas spending on December 8th.
Weirder than fiction, the Assistant Prime Minister thinks this will not be inflationary.
And just two months ago, the RBA raised interest rates to combat inflation. This month, the RBA dropped interest rates from 7.0% to 6.0%, and more cuts are expected.
Nothing inflationary in all that. Nahhhhh....

Oh, the average house in the metro area is now $385,000. In Sydney, it's over $400,000.

Travelling Road Shows

I've never seen 1268 political cartoons. That's how many Yahoo has on just the presidential campaign in America.
And you can't help laughing.
The humor of the campaign tells much more about the mood of the country than any poll. Humor reflects people's rage and frustration. That's why it's a release. And why it must be accurate.

John McCain would have made a great President - 10 years ago.
Now McCain is just trying to avoid being accountable for his own history, and his party.

Sarah Palin just ain't got the right stuff. But she is soooo funny! (- or is that Tina Fey?) It's hard to see Tina Fey for Sarah Palin. Uh, .. Sarah Palin for Tina Fey, sorry...

Barack Obama is so iconic, you gotta wonder if he has any idea who he really is. But he is the great leader of this campaign. He is inspirational. He is exciting. He is full of Hope and Wonder.
With any other VP but Biden, I'd find Obama irresistable. I'm too much of an idealist, and I know it.

The Feminists would fund Obama's assassination just to have Joe Biden as President.

We got two old men, one rock star, and a second place beauty contest winner.
Sheesh. - This is the leadership of the greatest nation on Earth? - the economic hyperpower?

These people make you wonder about the whole democratic process in America.

Obama doesn't come across as full of hate and revenge like so many other black candidates. But when you look at the people who support him, it's all there. He's never really experienced prejudice. The rage doesn't poison every look and smile.

It looked like Hillary would be the Democratic candidate until Oprah threw her weight behind Obama. That must've been a tough decision for her: whether to choose Hillary, a white woman, or Obama, a black man who had little of the black experience.
I can only imagine the deal to make Joe Biden the VP was done even then. Hillary, an obvious feminist leader but her own woman, as opposed to Obama who would owe his political soul to the Cause. And to cement the deal, Joe Biden.
You have to give Joe Biden credit. He can push through a bill in Congress even if it is illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional. He so believes in himself and his destiny, the words of his oath of office mean nothing.
Biden is the hidden time bomb in the Obama camp.

What happened to Bill and Hillary? I want them back!

I guess if it comes down to it, you go with the better leader - and hope for the best.