The Past Week: December 7-13, Recaps and Random Thoughts (Blago in the Can and ON the Can; Obama License Plates in IL?; Reality-Based Black Commentary; Canada & the Auto Bailout; Live Blog of The History Channel on “Crash: The Next Great Depression?”– No Surprise, A Waste of Time; Ignored Science) (Updated 1X)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

We haven’t really discussed the Blago case on this blog over the past week, but we have to chime in with a couple of bits about this case and other Obama-related insanity.  Both these nuggets come from our Chicago Correspondent Leslie.

First, CC Leslie gives us this bit from WBBM 780 in Chicago:

Obama Senate Seat Listed On eBay

Posted: Wednesday, 10 December 2008 8:28AM

(WBBM/STNG) – Governor Blagojevich was unsuccessful at trying to sell the vacant Illinois Senate seat, federal prosecutors say.

But that hasn’t stopped other people from trying to seal the deal.

There are at least a dozen tongue-in-cheek offerings of President-elect Barack Obama’s senate seat on eBay.

The items up for bidding range from a replica of the state seal to photoshopped pictures of Governor Rod Blagojevich.

One of the created images shows him sitting on a toilet with graffiti on the wall around him. It’s a direct quote from the criminal complaint by federal prosecutors, reading “This seat will go to the highest (bleeping) bidder.”

(MORE)

A couple of days earlier, CC Leslie posted this comment at IA:

Leslie, on December 8th, 2008 at 2:47 PM Said: Edit Comment

This is sooo OT I hope you don’t all throw your hands up and bar me from commenting any more ………..

Today, on Radio News Chicago, the most recent crass report is that the State of Illinois (”Land of Lincoln”) is considering creating a license plate with “Land of Obama” or some such oddity because “there is such a HUGE demand” for those plates. And they will raise MILLIONS of $$ for the state !!

I guess with all the “Change” anticipated, we will have to change the way we identify ourselves here in the Obama-nation !

If I don’t buy one of those plates, will that make me racist? or a terrorist?

There are no more words.

Here’s the link to the Chicago SunTimes report:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/1319012,CST-NWS-watchdog08.article

I can’t stand much more of this…I feel a migraine coming on.

My suggestion to Leslie is to get out of Chicago if she values her health!!

***

Meanwhile, in the reality-based black community, Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford unloads a MASSIVE barrage of whoop-ass I-told-you-so” that shouldn’t be missed:

Obama’s ‘Center-Right’ Presidency: The Die is Cast

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“Black folks desperately needed the Obama of their imaginings.”

We already know enough. There is no more mystery as to what makes Barack Obama tick. He is your garden variety “center-right” American politician, as rated by no less an authority than the New York Times – the folks who practically invented the standards by which one is located in the corporate political spectrum.

There are lots of political appointments to go before Obama’s roster is complete, but the heavy lifting is done. The ideological pillars of America’s first Black presidency have been planted wholly within the parameters of governance allowed by big capital and the imperial military. Obama’s “transition” is more accurately seen as a “continuity” of rule by the lords of finance capital and their protective screen of warriors and spies. The Obama regime, still incomplete, already wreaks of filthy rich thieves and gore-covered war criminals.

Obama’s “national security” and economic lineup is an infinity of ugliness, more repulsive than I could have imagined back in the summer of 2003, when Obama’s rise to glory was about to begin. The supremely talented actor/state senator’s capacity for obfuscation; his refusal to take a firm position on any subject of real controversy; his transparently false denials of fealty to the corporate Democratic Leadership Council, which had publicly claimed him – all this should have marked Obama as bad news for Black America. But his was a fatally attractive package, like the shiny little cluster bomblets that kids pick up in places like Afghanistan.

“The ideological pillars of America’s first Black presidency have been planted wholly within the parameters of governance by finance capital and the imperial military.”

My colleagues and I were most fearful of the effect Obama’s corporate-rigged explosion onto the national scene would have on the Black polity – both the masses and leadership circles. Obama’s phony progressivism didn’t fool us for a second – although we yearned as much as other African Americans for the appearance of a Great Black Hope. Obama wasn’t “The One,” no matter what Oprah said. Rather, he became a menace to Black folks’ collective mental health.

We knew that a mass hallucinatory phenomenon was about to occur, that would loosen many Black folks’ grips on reality no matter how often and loudly we warned that Barack Obama was a cynical corporate striver who encouraged whites to believe that his election would mark the end of Black politics as we have known it. (Take breath, here.) He was the anti-Jesse, the anti-Sharpton, a fraudulent peace candidate, an eager servant of the rich. We diligently provided evidence of Obama’s true political nature, and at every juncture before and during the primaries we were proven correct in our analysis. But no matter. African Americans’ pent up hunger to see a (pretty) Black face in the highest place, would not be denied. They desperately needed the Obama of their imaginings, and would draw and quarter anyone that questioned the senator’s sainthood.

Were Black folks “losing their damn minds,” as comedian David Alan Grier puts it on Comedy Central’s Chocolate News?

Yes, they were.

(MORE)

OUCH!

***

Even though the auto bailout package appears dead for now, the Canadian government apparently thinks something is going to be done “soon” and is also involved, trying to pre-emptively protect its own auto jobs. Stay tuned…

Federal government, Ontario agree on $3.3B auto bailout package

Deficit now ‘likely,’ finance minister acknowledges

Last Updated: Friday, December 12, 2008 | 9:31 PM ET

The federal government and Ontario have reached a deal to offer proportional funds to Canada’s auto industry if a proposed $14-billion US aid package is approved in Washington, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Friday.

Speaking to reporters in Toronto, Clement said the proposed aid to Canada’s ailing auto sector would amount to approximately 20 per cent of the U.S. proposal, or about $3.3 billion Cdn.

The U.S. bailout appeared to have died late Thursday night after hours of heated negotiations between lawmakers, representatives from automakers and unions. But lawmakers said they still hope an agreement on the Democratic- and White House-backed plan could be reached.

The Canadian subsidiaries of the Detroit Big Three automakers had asked Ottawa and Ontario for financial aid that could total as much as $6 billion.

Clement said the deal was contingent on GM, Ford and Chrysler working together with parts suppliers and unions for a long-term solution for their industry, as well as the American proposal going forward.

“Governments can decide to help, but these decisions will only be made in the best interests of the taxpayer,” Clement told reporters.

The minister also said the Canadian government expects U.S. President George W. Bush to announce something “very soon.”

“What we’re signalling here tonight, both the governments of Ontario and the government of Canada, is that we want to be part of the solution as well, and it will be commensurate with the production that takes place here in Canada,” Clement said.

The pre-emptive move by Ottawa and Ontario will make it harder for U.S. lawmakers to strike a deal that protects American jobs at the expense of Canadian ones, said veteran auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers.

(MORE)

***

After sitting through Greta’s hour on Blago-gate (which was a limited rundown, with very little dot-connecting), I decided to see how the History Channel covered the current financial crisis.

Live-blogging the History Channel …Saturday night 12/13…

As  I put together this roundup, I’ve got one eye on the History Channel’s special, “Crash: The Next Great Depression?” which is contrasting the present financial crisis with the 1929 stock-market crash and the Great Depression which followed. The program has traced the ripple of the bad credit/loans and the boom and the bust.  Sort of.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have come and gone with nothing about Raines and the skulduggery there.  So far, I’ve heard Ronald Reagan on getting rid of regulation; how starting in 2000 Phil Gramm pushed for deregulation;  how Bill Clinton how kept Alan Greenspan on and urged the loosening of regulations; and how George Bush espoused the importance of home ownership. Then, onto about how people wanted a “change” after the 1929 crash just like now and how FDR along with the new Democratic majority in 1933 took action by announcing  the “New Deal”  and creating a “flurry” of new programs.  It’s now showing Barack Obama’s December 7 press conference unveiling a lot of “flashy” names and pushing for lots of stimulus.  In juxtaposition, Jerry Stiller is talking about how the  “whole country was lifted, happy days were here again” because of  the New Deal.  YES, Jerry Stiller.  The experts are talking about the first 100 days and the restructuring of the banks which included inspection of the banks and the creation of the FDIC.  And, yes, Henry Paulson is doing the same thing (??).  Now we see the Depression work programs and how Obama is proposing similar projects.  An expert talks about how government will be the driving force from now on. But we then hear how the New Deal didn’t solve the problem, that it was the war that brought the economy back to life and pre-crash levels.  There’s the hope that we won’t have a world war to solve the current predicament. Guess what the next ad is?–the Capital One credit card, after all the talk about the irresponsible credit spending of consumer at the start of the program.

Andy Serwer, Editor of Fortune Magazine* and one of the often-quoted experts, opines that we learned a lot from the 1930’s and how important it is to pump money into the system. Banks, auto industry bailouts in the face of accelerating  job loses, no lending, pressure on non-bank auto loans, credit cards…But, we can’t go back to the highly-regulated system created in the 30’s by FDR — we have to make the current system “better.”   Last word, it’s bad but won’t turn into the next Great Depression, even though all the scary music sure makes it seem that way.  I guess FAITH will overcome…

So, that’s it.  Great job..NOT!  NOT ONE WORD about the politics behind the bad loans, the lack oversight and the Democrats’ culpability. What there seemed to be was a not-s0-subtle link created between FDR and Obama.  There’s also the message from one of the “experts” that government is going to take over the driving force of job creation and the economy.  We even get the “change” message. We see a smiling Obama…the image of all that “happy days are here again” stuff…

There you have it. The incomplete and subtly biased by omission, “in-depth reporting” from the History Channel.  Just enough to make an unsuspecting viewer think he or she is getting the full story, while all it is is a rehash of the spin being shipped out on a daily basis by the media. Served up nice and clean.  All neat and tidy for the arrival of Barack Obama.  It’s all gonna be OK, even though one guy who actually runs a plumbing supply place seems to think there will be a greater challenge in 2009 as current orders drop and promised government contracts are on hold or just drying up..  But the expert says not to worry, government will take over.

Frankly, I’m sticking with the plumbing supply guy.  (What is it about plumbers this year??)

(*Fortune Magazine: Part of Time, Inc, which in turn is part of Time Warner, which also controls AOL, HBO, Time Warner Cable, Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Time Warner Investments, and Time Warner Global Media Group.  Feeling better now???)

***

Earlier this week we discussed the “healthcare reform” push started by the Obama Transition Team (see post listed below). We’re wondering how the concerns raised by the folks at The American Association for Health Freedom will be addressed under an Obama healthcare team headed by a lobbyist (Tom Daschle) and in light of  the “positive response” by Ted Kennedy to the insurance industry writing up their own proposals, just the way Big Pharma wrote the Medicare Part D legislation.

What Happened to the Promise to Save This Nation Billions in Healthcare Costs?

One of the biggest clinical trials ever organized by our federal government indicated that generic medication for high blood pressure in use since the 1950s worked better than the newer drugs costing more than twenty times more. Yet Dr. Curt Fuberg, the chair of the $130 million ALLHAT trial, resigned in frustration in August 2004, citing the lack of effort put into diseeminating “the ALLHAT message.”

A similar situation has existed since the 1997 publication of the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) research study at Harvard. DASH emphasized a diet rich in potassium-containing foods such as fruits and vegetables, and more physical activity; these approaches, they found, could lower blood pressure in up to 90% of hypertensive patients without medication. Yet this too has fallen on deaf ears.

(SNIP)

The money spent on the direct-to-consumer drug ads that dominate the American media is dwarfed by the $21 billion dollars spent annually to sway doctors prescribing habits. Dr. Jerome Kassirer, professor of medicine at both Yale and Tufts and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, describes conventional physicians as paid prostitutes for drug manufacturers.

It has progressed to the point that the standard treatment offered by international physicians after a patient suffers a heart attack—high doses of fish oil—is ignored or even rejected in the U.S. Here, prescriptions and procedures dominate cardiac care, and heart blockage is viewed as a plumbing or structural abnormality. Yet science has proven that patients do not live longer or better when heart disease is addressed by surgically opening or bypassing closed arteries.

As Arizona psychiatrist Ed Gogek wrote in the Buffalo News, the new Surgeon General should back alternative medicine. Dr. Gogek indicates that the public is far ahead of medical experts and politicians on alternative medicine. Isn’t it time they caught up?

A related article at the site is also worth a look; see The Science of Prevention.

***

UPDATE:

CNN is owned by AOLTimeWarner… For more info on media incest, visit the Columbia Journalism Review. According to an archived article there, The History Channel is owned by The Walt Disney Company, GE, and Hearst.  Figures!!!! So that’s where the fairy tales come from…

***

Finally, a busy week in the garden harvesting loads of mustard and collards. Today, I did the final cleanup of all the pots I used to grow peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes on the patio. This involved taking off the bark mulch and bagging it, putting the dead plants into the composter, bagging up the potting soil to use in the spring, washing out all the pots and lugging them all into the garage. I use only clay pots from Italy to grown vegetables in and they do last a lot longer if they’re protected from the winter extremes. I also cleaned out the glazed pots I use for flowers.  It was a big job that I kept putting off, but with milder temperatures today, it was now or never.

***

THE PAST WEEK

*By Grail Guardian

**By kenosha Marge

These Gray Days of December

An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy–July 13, 2008 (Reposted and Updated 12/11/08)

*How Long Has This Been Going On? (”What They Want is the World”…The Roots of Our Current Coup d’Etat)

“The Night Before Fitzmas” (Or… “A Visit from Saint Fitz”)

**Why, Oh Why? Melamine in Infant Formula?

“Healthcare Reform” PR Blitz, Screw Job on the Way–And YOU Can Join In!

The Past Week: November 30-December 6, Recaps and Random Thoughts (Freepers “Heart” GG; Obama & Chester Arthur; Healthcare “Reform”; Montana-Yes, MONTANA-Legalizes Assisted-Suicide; Greens Pic)

The Past Week: November 16-22, Recaps & Random Thoughts (Critical Thinking vs. Elation; Pics from “Elation Central”; Drying the Tears of Progressive Groups; Medicare Part D Surprise from the Democrats; Face Reading; Housewives & Ludacris; Stray Dog Update)(UPDATE 1X–Dog)

~~Posted by InsightAnalytical-GRL

What is this, Week 2 of Clinton SOS speculation?  Which now seems to be moving toward a YES, she’s accepting it?

***

Over at the Black Agenda Report, we get to see what thinking citizens are mulling over. They’ve been holding Obama’s feet to the fire for months now, so it is not a sudden shift in their assessment.

Take a look at the piece this week entitled “Critical Thinking Amid the Elation.” Shannon Joyce Prince writes:

Obamist sections of the Left seem to believe it “doesn’t matter who Obama is, what he does, says, or stands for – he represents hope and change and that’s good enough.” Some folks are simply misinformed, and therefore blissful. “Many of the people that danced in the streets haven’t taken the time to do any research on Obama, so part of their euphoria is based on ignorance.” One is expected to partake in the party. “Those who castigate folks for not being appropriately jubilant at Obama’s election are insisting that blacks content themselves, in perpetuity, with symbolism instead of real change.”

MORE

***

But over at “Elation Central” (home office, Chicago) we see that there’s all elation, with not much thinking. Thanks to Chicago Correspondent Leslie for these items. She comments:

Honestly, I don’t think I can take much more of this

The larger picture was the front page of the RedEye today.

The smaller was in the Tribune.  I beg of whatever god(dess) there may be to rescue us from the madness.

(The larger picture shows people wearing tee shirts with a photo of that couple looking like they posed for the cover of vanity fair or glamour magazines)

***

We posted this week about how the Organic Consumers Association is already upset with Obama and Leslie sent us another set of messages from groups that are feeling a bit…consternated.  They include:

Peace Action which is upset about any possible “dial back” of Iraq withdrawal plans and the folks over at “The Progressive”:

“Dear Progressive Reader:

I imagine you’re feeling somewhere between exultant and ecstatic right now after Obama’s historic triumph. (I know that’s the reaction in my family, with my wife, daughter, and one of my sons all having knocked on doors for Obama.)

I want to take this moment to assure you that The Progressive and progressive.org will give you the crucial news about Obama in the days ahead.

The Obama Administration is taking shape before our eyes, and it is consisting largely of Clinton retreads.

As I point out in one of my postings this week, he has yet to throw a bone to progressives who helped elect him.” (big snip)

Matthew Rothschild
Editor, The Progressive”

Sincerely,

Gee, if this keeps up, I’m going to run out of thosed tissues that I’m using to help all these disappointed Obamacrats dry their tears…

***

Here in the reality-based section of what we call “life,” I had an infuriating moment when I went up to pick up my formerly $4/3 months supply of medication that I was buying “outside” Medicare Part D in a well-thought out plan to avoid the infamous “donut hole.”  Remember how Ted Kennedy et al vowed to change Medicare Part D for the better…then chickened out because it was just too darned hard to let the drug and insurance companies down easy??

Well, I had my 4 bucks out but was informed that it was no longer possible to buy outside Medicare Part D.  About a month ago, apparently, a directive came from on high that ALL prescriptions MUST go through Part D if you’ve got it.  I was entirely aggravated, wondering when all this had changed!  I then focused my hostility on the Democratically-controlled Congress, because who else would have been responsible for this change??  When did they slip it in and what was the deal?  I’ve been too busy to research it, but at this point, maybe it doesn’t matter…Democrats were in charge and approved. And, we pay more as a result…

Does this give you ANY confidence in what they will be doing for to us again in January?

***

Here’s something you might want to try out on all the bright lights now populating the skies of the incoming Obama administration.  It’s a new way to analyze personality, based on “face reading.”  Try it out!!

Check out this nifty free analysis tool here.  When I get some time I’m going to see how the results for Obama compare to what we wrote about here on Obama’s handwriting and manipulative skills via hypnosis/NLP techniques.

****

Now we enter the hazy depths of “American culture” (or whatever passes for it these days) with the news that the “Housewives of Atlanta” drew huge ratings, even beating the “Housewives of Orange County” series. I glimpsed at some moments of HOA and was rather grossed out by the blatant adoration of really gross bling and the mostly uncouth group of women passing for Atlanta society.  But I see from the previews that HOC is also going to get a lot trashier.  Ah, womanhood!  This is what American seems to accept as normal and admirable, or at the very least, worth wasting a lot of time watching, while Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton get crucified.  We truly are a “trash country,” it seems.  I’m waiting to see what shows up at the White House…If I see Ludacris show up, I’ll want to know if he sleeps in the Lincoln Bedroom.  Clinton had donors in there, but I don’t think any were of the same ilk as Ludacris…

Maybe he’ll do his Obama is Here opus at a State Dinner…

***

For you cooking fans, here’s something that I don’t know quite what to make of.  See what you think about “The Spon.”

***

Finally, a garden and stray dog update…

The garden took a few real cold nights and I finally put up my plastic “greenhouse.” Have no pics yet, maybe next week.  I harvested the last peppers, or so I thought. I’ve been covering the plants in the pots and there are actually a few more big enough to be worth harvesting.  The mustard has gone crazy and I’ve spotted a few tiny broccoli heads already!

News on the stray dog….well, I actually went out a cam a couple of days ago and never caught anything although the food disappeared as usual.  I was thinking the dog came in from the side of the house to eat because I didn’t see any activity coming up the driveway.  The dishes weren’t visible, so today I moved them so I can actually see who’s eating the food! I’m wondering if it’s the white doves or crows, but it just doesn’t seem to be their work. And what about that black hair?  Unless it’s a cat who likes dog food?  That would explain a visitor coming up over the wall from the arroyo and visiting the water and food in the front of the house. And, there are cats who roam the nearby streets here and then go home.  But, who knows? I have a bunch of video I have to review, so I may have an answer tomorrow.  I’ll update this when I find out for sure!

UPDATE 1X

Well, it looks like yesterday’s afternoon visit was by…BIRDS!  I think they drank a bit and played around with the kibble!  Hard to tell if they were all doves or grackles…some were definitely dark, but not as big as crows.  I’ve got the camera on this morning so we’ll see if someone else shows up. Yesterday, you could tell from the messy area and one of the kibbles in the water that it was most likely birds.  But in the AM especially, the dish is cleaned with nothing left behind, so we’ll have to see if it’s the birds that are more polite eaters in the AM or whether it is a dog!!!

THIS MORNING…There were birds on the AM video and when I got the paper at 8:30 AM I saw the bowl was completely empty, except for crumbs. The birds were on the video so they may have been pecking at those crumbs. So, if it’s a dog, it is coming before 7:45 when I turned on the cam…I thought originally that it was coming between 6:30 AM and 7:45 (about about 7:45 kids start walking past on the way to the school bus stop).  I’ve been getting up later the last few days, so I haven’t been out to check at 6:30. With Sunrise at about 6:45, I’m  not sure the cam will catch anything because the area where I have the food is in the shadows as well…so, it may be too dark to see anything!  I’ll just have to get very early tomorrow to turn on the cam and see if it’s too dark to be useful…or post myself by the window and do a low-tech observation!!

THIS WEEK’S POSTS

*Submitted by Chicago Correspondent Leslie

**By Grail Guardian

***By Kenosha Marge

*Saturday “Toons” from Our Chicago Correspondent Leslie

**Howard’s Agony: Seems Like We’ve Been Here Before

The Scanner-Politics 11/20/08 (CHANGE?? Daschle at HHS, His Wife and Lobbying; Organic Consumers Org. So Ticked at the Thought of Vilsack at Agriculture That Their Petition is Already Going Strong; Froma Harrop on “Palin’s Next Career Move” Will Raise Your Blood Pressure) (Updated 1X)

Find the Sexism in the Picture, Learn “The Code”

**Attention NeoProgs: You DID NOT Defeat the PUMAs!

***The Rise and Fall of Great Expectations

The Past Week: November 9-15, Recaps & Random Thoughts (Suddenly Soiled Sarah Gets Advice from Katie Couric, Joke “Journalist”; Gov Luv; Sunday Telegraph, UK Previews More Clinton Trashing?; Major Stray Dog Update (Update 1X–Clinton Trashing in Progress in U.S. via AP)

So, What’s Obama Going to Give Away to Conservative Religious Leaders and Constitutional Law Profs Who Work with Ken Starr??(Just Say No Deal)

I’m not one of the faith crowd, preferring quiet meditation and the study of Eastern philosophies.

So, it’s really off-putting to see Obama “reaching out” to the likes of a mega-church pastor and a pro-life consitutional law professor, namely mega-pastor TD Jakes and conservative Catholic constitutional lawyer Doug Kmiec.

To quote David Brody of CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network):

This is one more example of how Obama is not just bringing in the ‘religious left’ into his coalition. He wants to bring in conservative figures, too.

If this were a meeting held by a strong, separation-of-church-and-state politican, I wouldn’t be so jittery. But Obama is no such thing. He is a panderer who’s chosen to brush off key groups of Democratic voters. It’s hard to trust his actions when it comes to meeting conservative religious figures.

T.D. Jakes, according to his website

… pastors what Christianity Today calls “one of America’s fastest growing mega-churches.” The Potter’s House, a multiracial, nondenominational church with 50-plus active outreach ministries, has dominated church growth records since its inception in 1996. In its almost 10-year existence, the church has grown from the 50 families that relocated with the Jakes family from West Virginia to Dallas to more than 30,000 members to-date. Rivaling many corporations, the ministry employs nearly 400 staff members, including full-time finance, human resources, information technology, materials distribution, public relations, publications and television production departments. The Potter’s House is fiscally sound, retiring within four years the financial debt incurred by the 191,000 square foot, $45 million sanctuary construction.

On a personal level, this rings alarm bells. A family member has dragged my relatives into a “non-denominational church” in NJ where it’s all about following a single personality. The church has grown to the point of building a huge facility that looks like a car dealership. They even offer “Christian counselling” for about $100 bucks an hour. Meanwhile, there seems to be very little “Jesus” in a lot of the activities that are ongoing, along with a remarkable lack of interest shown toward relatives who are not involved with the church. One could say that the “believers” have cut out those who don’t believe. It is quite disconcerting, to say the least.

Doug Kmiec should make any liberal nervous. He is a member of the faculty of Pepperdine University School of Law which, according to the Dean:

…is committed to the “highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.”

And who is the Dean of Pepperdine’s School of Law? Remember KEN STARR?

Kmiec also has a highly visible political past:

Beyond the university setting, Kmiec served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush during 1985-89 as constitutional legal counsel (Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice).

Somehow, this information doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy…

In a follow-up article on the Obama meeting, Brody writes:

That’s a big deal. A really big deal. The fact that these two conservative men are meeting with Obama may be a signal that Obama’s campaign is ready to break down the traditional wall of separation between conservatives and liberals when it comes to religious talk.

This meeting with Obama is made up of religious leaders from several denominations including Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants and Catholics. There are about 30 people there and these are leaders from Chicago and outside Chicago. Some in the meeting have shown their support for him. Others have not. I’m told that the meeting consisted of prayer as well and it lasted two hours. A campaign source tells me that besides Jakes and Kmiec, other religious leaders in the room today include Religious leaders include Rich Cizik with the conservative National Association of Evangelicals, best selling Christian author Max Lucado, Luis Cortes, Paul Corts, Cameron Strang, Bishop Phillip Cousin, Rev Stephen Thurston, Glenn Palmberg and Dr T Dewitt Smith. This campaign source tells me:

“Reaching out to the faith community is a priority for Barack Obama and will be a priority under an Obama Administration. This is one of several meetings he will have over the coming months with religious leaders.”

There may be a “wall” between the two groups, but there certainly has been dialogue with many inter-faith activities for years. So to build up Obama’s meetings as “a signal that Obama’s campaign is ready to BREAK DOWN the traditional wall” seems to me to be an indicator that more is going on here…that some influential conservative religious leaders are “in the tank” for Obama already and starting the sell to their large group of followers. I’ve read that in Washington state, fundamentalists were already on board during the primaries, so things have been cooking for quite awhile.

The question is…WHAT DEALS ARE GOING TO BE CUT, IF THEY HAVEN’T BEEN CUT ALREADY?

Is this going to be like Bush’s Faith office in the White House, which funneled tons of taxpayer money to religious groups??

I mean, first crack out of the barrel, Obama is in with the religious angle…I don’t see him rushing to talk to women, do you??

Brody and CBN seem to be really in the loop, because it was CBN that first reported the launching of Obama’s “Joshua Generation Project” in an exclusive by Brody on June 6 (.

The Brody File has learned that in the next two weeks Barack Obama’s campaign will unveil a major new program to attract younger Evangelicals and Catholics to their campaign.

It’s called the “Joshua Generation Project.” The name is based on the biblical story of how Joshua’s generation led the Israelites into the Promised Land.

A source close to the Obama campaign tells The Brody File the following:

“The Joshua Generation project will be the Obama campaign’s outreach to young people of faith. There’s unprecedented energy and excitement for Obama among young evangelicals and Catholics. The Joshua Generation project will tap into that excitement and provide young people of faith opportunities to stand up for their values and move the campaign forward.”

The official rollout won’t be for another two weeks or so, but The Brody File has been told the activities will include house parties, blogging, concerts and more.

This really creeps me out! My first thought on reading this was of those ads for Christian music CD’s that you see on TV–you know, the ones with young people waving their arms and looking like they are in a trance. Perfect. I bet we’ll see fainting again…More cultish behavior coming down the pike.

I swear, if I hear that the Promise Keepers are getting involved, I’ll be ready to flee the country.

As time goes on, I suppose the Obama blogs will embrace all this without a flicker of concern. I guess there are a lot of ways to practice “blind faith…”

Over at the BlackAgenda Report, the reporter was casting a different light on “self-proclaimed Joshua candidate” Obama back in April:

Barack Obama & Voter Supression: Where’s Joshua’s Horn When We Need It?

Self-proclaimed “Joshua generation” candidate Barack Obama launched his political career with a highly successful 1992 Chicago voter registration drive. But instead of barriers to ballot access on the part of minorities tumbling down on “Joshua’s” watch they are becoming higher. Where is Joshua’s trumpet on the erosion of voting rights, the legal sanctions and limitations placed upon present-day voter registration drives, and the wholesale ethnic cleansing of voter rolls?

I guess the writer of this observation isn’t one of those ready to fall into a trance when the music starts playing…

Just Say No Deal