While pissing and pokin' at the new site may still be done, right now is not the time.
Neither is it time to conjecture about what mischief might be  done with superdelegates or credentialing.  The guantlet has been thrown down.

I'm referring to Olbermann's special comment.

A mere two years or so after I called BushCo a bunch of corporatizing fascists, Mr. Olbermann voiced it in a better language (which is why he gets the big bucks and I...well), one that finally should make sense to John and Jane Voter.

After a day when the House got their long awaited testicle drop and finally told Mr. Bush to put up or shut up, the silence is deafening.

So now is the time, Senator Edwards, to exercise your better angel.  Call Dr. Dean.  Ask him to help you persuade Senator Obama and Senator Clinton to really make a change to the system.  Get them in a room and convince them to join forces.  No Democratic cream-your-jeans Dream Team.  But the vision of change working with the one that loves to work the levers of government.  Present the voters with unification and start the race now.  McCain has signed on to the evil side of Amerika, the lesser angels.  Give the people of that endangered other half the reason to believe that we can find our way out of the second Dark Age.

I don't think the Democratic electorate is so selfish, self-absorbed or sick as to require the next round of bloodletting that will go on with our candidates if conventional wisdom is allowed to prevail. 

So I appeal to your better angel for leadership.  I know deep down that Americans are too good for that fate and would not choose it for themselves.  The only way that it will happen is if the notions of change and hope are abandoned, and we give up the right choice for the "security" of the status quo.

<B>Alphonse (Al) Kada</B>
<I>The Iranians are fighting the Americans in Baghdad so they won't have to fight them on the streets of Tehran</I>

A quick HTML Primer

OK, we'll make this short for those that already know a little bit about HTML tags.

A "tag" is any command that is interpreted by a browser and performs a display function.  It can also delineate a

condition that will display a variable (input) from a user in a particular way.

A tag is read by a browser when the "<" and ">" symbols (less than, greater than, or Tom Wright's avatar) surround

the command.  The tag is turned off when there is a forward-slash "/" inside the trailing tag.  The quotation marks

are only used here to keep the tags from being read.

For a paragraph, the starting code is "<P>" with user text input going in between, and the paragraph ends with

"</P>".
For a line break, the tag is "<BR>" by itself, no end tag needed.

For quotations, the tag is "<BLOCKQUOTE>" (copy and paste the citation in here) and end with </BLOCKQUOTE>.

For emphasis, italic text is headed by "<I>" and ended </I>.  For bolding text, "<B>" and "</B>.

With this little bit, you can create a template in Windows Notepad that can be copied and pasted into either the

blog or comment input boxes.  REMEMBER to save only as a .txt file!!!  Using MS Word will probably substitute too

many random character artifacts, but I will be testing some things later....

So, here's a full comment for you to play with- just copy and paste it off the page into Notepad, delete the quotation marks and experiment:

"<P>" (insert text here) "</P>"
"<P>" (insert text here) "</P>"
"<P>" (insert text here) "</P>"
"<BLOCKQUOTE>" (paste in here) "</BLOCKQUOTE>"
"<P>" (insert text here) "</P>"
"<P>" (insert text here) "</P>"

"<P>""<B>" Your Name Here "</B>""<BR>"
"<I>" Your Tag Phrase here in italics"</I>"</P>

The site will not take color, font face, size, (and probably many more) conventional HTML tags, but I have located
the javascripts from the unlocked directories (also the avatar (picture) files from the site filing structure), so
who knows what evil lurks....the shadow knows....!

<P><B>Alphonse (Al) Kada</B><BR><I>The Iranians are fighting the Americans in Baghdad so they won't have to fight them on the streets of Tehran</I></P>

<TABLE WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0">
        <TR>
          <TD COLSPAN="2">&nbsp;
             <P></P><MARQUEE BEHAVIOR="SLIDE" LOOP="10"><FONT
             COLOR="#CC0000">Let's test the html parser</FONT></MARQUEE>&nbsp;</TD>
        </TR>
        <TR>
          <TD COLSPAN="2">&nbsp;<MARQUEE><FONT COLOR="#CC0000">Let's test the
             html parser</FONT></MARQUEE>&nbsp;</TD>
        </TR>
        <TR>
          <TD COLSPAN="2">&nbsp;<MARQUEE BEHAVIOR="ALTERNATE" DIRECTION="LEFT"
             LOOP="10"><FONT COLOR="#CC0000">Let's test the html
             parser</FONT></MARQUEE>&nbsp;</TD>
        </TR>
     </TABLE>

In the Ap piece on the confirmation of a double-secret probation camp called Camp 7, there were some rather odd remarks from a Col. Vargo quoted:

"Not everybody, even within the Joint Task Force, has access or even knowledge of where Camp 7 is," said Army Col. Bruce Vargo. As commander of the military's Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the camps holding 260 detainees. But not for Camp 7.

For his part, Vargo said he is preoccupied by the possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo.

"Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount," he said. "I mean, if you can fly a plane into the towers, you can attack Guantanamo if that's what you choose to do. It's something I think about on a day-to-day basis."

What the F*** was that?  Do you mean to tell me that several thousand sailors and Marines on an isolated corner of an island have to worry about Al Quada?  As opposed to the Cubans??????

Further down in the article, an even more troubling quote from an up and comer.....

"While some military personnel have reportedly grumbled about being kept out of the loop, others don't mind.

"Army Col. Larry James, whose team of psychologists assists interrogators, said he does not want to know where Camp 7 is.

"I learned a long, long time ago, if I'm going to be successful in the intel community, I'm meticulously _ in a very, very dedicated way _ going to stay in my lane," he said. "So if I don't have a specific need to know about something, I don't want to know about it. I don't ask about it."

Wow.  That's the Nuremburg defense on THX 1138-quality mood altering drugs.  I'm just going to keep my nose clean- if they want to cut the nuts off these guys, who f****** cares what  happens to them.  As long as "it" (torture, that is) can't be traced to the rest of my prison population reports, I can look forward to a rapid series of promotions and maybe some "contract" work when I get out.  Certainly easier than working on treatments for PTSD or TBI and sadly, more lucrative.

So tell me, Dem candidates, where do you stand on torture?  On this kind of double-secret probation prison torture, most specifically.  I know John McCain doesn't think highly of double-secret probation prisons, but I'm not going to vote for him.  I would have preferred him as a Republican candidate in 2000, but I could not tolerate another "Bush Legacy" presidency.

You see, the Bush administration has pretty much come out and said it.  Yeah, we waterboarded some of 'em.  So what?  Piss off, it saved lives.

Prove it.

I feel pretty good about calling them out on this.  Take a look at all the "terror" plots foiled that have actually ended up with a court verdict.

But again, it's not about Republicans.  I want to know what "hope" I can have that not just this double-secret nut-cutting operation will be halted, but that the candidate can purge the thought programming that has infected these true believers like Col. James.

I don't doubt there were many with that same rationale in every one of 20th century man's ugliest affronts to the sensibilities.  It's way easy to rationalize when there is an everlasting enemy that is determined to attack an island.  I put the chances of such an attack at odds that, well, favor the lease running out on Gitmo first.

Notrol

I've been a little nervous about posting this, but with "warrant-less wiretaps" morphing into the "terrorist surveillance program" I figured it was about time.

If it wasn't this time in history this would seem a sophomoric comedy, a "punked" of proportions that are, well, legally unknowable.  Unfortunately, it is our time in history and you play the hand you're dealt: fear, rage, and the need to do something.

In late 2001, I noticed our mail server at work was taking some extra hops to get the mail delivered.  A little further investigation showed the mail was being routed through a box that I was not familiar with: Officer105.  I called our telecom provider's tech help and asked what "Officer 105" was.  Spam gate?  Virus filter?  "No, the voice said.  We'll look into it and get back to you."   I blew it off and didn't follow up (or even write down the number of the trouble ticket).  Days go by before I get back to even checking.  The hops are still there, the same address is there, but now the machine has no name.

I went to a staff meeting later that day and told everyone that there was a very good chance our email was being monitored, and it would be a wise thing to do to not write anything in email that you would feel uncomfortable explaining to the FBI.  The staff told me to take off the stupid tinfoil hat and stop interrupting the meeting.   Now we are being told that Echelon and Carnivore were real, and that telecom companies were actively participating in the surveillance.

So when the NYT finally stopped "holding the presses" on a story that they had been sitting on for over a year and blew the cover on BushCo's newest surprise, that feeling that had been lurking, that paranoia, suddenly slapped me and said "See? I told you so!" Now, I don't believe I got into a terrorist database from having my email and phone calls tapped. 

No, I think that might have been as a result of falling into another terrorist database.  

How does one get into a terrorist database?  One would think that it might take work- going to a Jihadi summer camp, or trying to blow something up.  For me, it was all about the desk.  Not just any desk, mind you.  A real wood desk, made of real cherry wood and very heavy.  The kind of desk that makes you want to sit behind it, that makes your home office cry out. So when we were packing up to move our offices and that desk was going to be trashed, well, I just couldn't help myself.  After properly calling "dibs", I was off to rent a truck.

Now for those of you that know Washington, you'll know that there is a little stretch of  Jeff Davis highway that goes past the Pentagon, and for a very long time after 9/11 it was inhabited by more Virginia State Patrol than one conjures up being present at a multiple fatality auto accident on the beltway.  The patrol had set up a safety perimeter around the Pentagon to guard against truck bombs while the inverted moat was being constructed around the building.  Big outdoor generators with lights, all kinds of cop cars from different jurisdictions with their blue lights going 24/7.  A real checkpoint.  I'm all kinds of OK with that.  The problem was, they set the blockade just before the exit ramp to  Washington Blvd and I-395 ( a quarter to half mile from the Pentagon) and stopped every truck coming out of DC and intending to go south on I-395.  Instead of protecting the Pentagon and legitimate truck traffic, a black hole was created that swallowed the unsuspecting.

After carefully loading and padding the desk in the truck, I stopped by our new office space in Georgetown, and then proceeded across the Key Bridge and on to Jeff Davis Highway, heading for 395- or so I thought.  I'm about thirty yards from the exit onto Washington Blvd., turn signal blinking when cop cars start to swarm and blue lights go berserko.  A State trooper gets out in the street in front of me and directs the little truck to pull into an empty lot, his hand on his gun.  

Well, I figured that the best case scenario would be that the cop will look at me (mid fifties, grey haired white guy), look at my license, look at the rental contract for the truck, type me into the NCIC to see if I'm really a bad person, and then I'll be on my way.  The "worst case" scenario I was running was a ticket and a fine.  Well, still the desk was free.....

So after producing the requested papers, the trooper told me to get out of the truck and open the back.  What?  Why?  What's the charge?  The officer, hand shifting on his handgun (but still holstered) repeated the order.  Well, in this case, compliance is the best strategy and I figure when he sees that great desk, we'll both smile and have a laugh, and I'll be on my way.  I open the back and climb in, pulling the pads off the cherry desk and show the officer.   The officer gets in the truck also, and says "open the drawers".  Somewhere I had this nagging idea that somehow there was supposed to be a process, that a cop needed to have a real good reason to examine your property in such detail.  Then, not only open the drawers, but remove them!  It's a fucking desk, you shaved-head -storm-trooper-lookin' moron.  The only thing that sets you apart from a guard dog is a brain!  Use it!

Well, obviously I kept that bit of advice to myself.  When he was satisfied that he could smell no diesel and ammonium nitrate, no telltale wiring to some huge lump of plastique, the real fun began.

He ordered me to come back over to the cruiser.  I was asked all the details of my existence, starting with social security number, telephone, address, work-   and he was writing this down on a form with the names of all the other poor bastards that had gotten swept in this misguided effort.  The crowning touch was the camera.  Yep.  Digital camera.  Well, fuck me.  Now I'm getting a little pissed off.  The cop motions and says "yeah, ok, now stand over here.  Alright, look at the camera. "  Just as he is about to snap, I flash the peace sign and give him a big smile.  Just behind that smile I'm about to boil over at this skinhead, shiny-black-stomper-booted, leather trimmed agent of social control.  I realize that the hook has been set, and I'm being reeled in.

Now I'm just a humble "computer mechanic", nowhere near the caliber of reader "hcberkowitz" from the Cafe, but even I know the likelihood of data entry mistakes when the data is so shoddily collected and then entered into a computer program by another set of hands.  I asked the skinhead how they knew what photo went with what report?  The answer?  "None of your business."  See, all this information wasn't being entered into a terminal in his car, it was being written by hand into a form to be transcribed by others.  Others who might have enough sense to be able to download the pictures properly and not make a mistake when associating my face and my data with, maybe, a real bad guy.

So, now I'm in a terrorist database.  Great.  Not even a ticket from Mr. Jackboots "just following orders", under-assistant East Coast terror checker.  The whole experience was less fulfilling than going to the cleaners- "here's my ticket- can I have my identity back?"  I'm surmising that since this checkpoint was by the Pentagon, that I have made it into at least some Virginia database and the Defense Department's threat assessment database- I'm in good company there, residing with all the other threats uncovered so far- Quakers, students, probably a whole bunch from the antiwar march in Washington last year.  Since we now know that the "walls" preventing government departments from sharing this kind of information have been torn down, I wonder just how many other department's databases I've been merged into.

I have said before in comments that even though I was less than happy to have him and the way he got there, after the "bullhorn moment", George Bush would have been my guy if he had lived up to his moment in history.

My questions are many, and answers are few.  Like I said before, you play the hand you're dealt.   But the tipping point for me is when you catch the bastards dealing off the bottom of the deck, they look you right in the eye and tell you that they don't care and they're going to keep doing it because they can.  No law, no review, no escape- once a terrorist, always a terrorist.

So I write this from that great cherry desk that's holding up my keyboard and monitor.  I feel like patient zero, wondering about the many people that have crossed electronic paths with me, and how many people that they in turn have touched.  I sure would like to know how we can take back our privacy from these thugs.  Nixon's ghost must be whispering into little Georgie's ear at night- "Enemies, they're all around you!  You have to know who they are!"

Well, the ghost is right.  As it was with Nixon and is now with little Georgie, we're all  the enemy.  Hence my new moniker, Alphonse Kada. 

Yes, Georgie, you have met the enemy- and the enemy is us.

 

Alphonse (Al) Kada  

I hate when this happens-

I try to avoid the right wing spin cycle on MSNBC, diving in for Olbermann and scramming.  Pushed the wrong button on the remote and that little twerp Tucker (rhymes with fucker) Carlson was playing tailor with whole cloth again.

And this is why I need Larry.

He had  a "former CIA middle-east specialist" named Reuel Marc Gerecht on.  This guy threw out so much horse****, it was like an Amish fertilizer wagon.  After fumbling for a pen an scratchpaper, I was able to get this much down:

• "Valerie Plame had no serious cover" and had it lifted by her superiors for some "actions" of hers.
• The CIA has had thin to non-existant covers for decades
• Senior agents routinely lift their own cover at will
• Joe Wilson gave no oral report because the CIA doesn't have oral reports
• The agency really didn't care about Wilson's mission because he was only (something, I think it was "table") hopping
  

During every cutaway from this guy, the bullet point at the bottom of the screen said:

"Did Liberal Agenda Spur Scandal?" 

In finishing the segment, Carlson looked at the screen and said Well I wish we would have had you on sooner....

I'm going to try and calm down now, and get the transcript of "The Situation" 11/09/05 and see if I might just have been having a bad dream.

Larry, if you're out there, got any info on this guy?  Carlson hinted in portraying him as a spook, and turtleneck, sport coat and three days growth of beard made him look like someone you might see skulking down an alley in Amman or Cairo.

I'm so pissed right now at that little shit, I'd like to bitch-slap him into next week.

But then, I'd like to do something he wouldn't like. 

1. Douglas Feith- 

As Chris Suellentrop in Slate puts it:

“who, as the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy, is the Pentagon's No. 3 civilian, after Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz”

“He's only tangentially related to the mystery of the missing weapons of mass destruction, for example. (Though it's a significant tangent: An anonymous "Pentagon insider" told the Washington Times last year that Feith was the person who urged the Bush administration to make Saddam's WMD the chief public rationale for going to war immediately.)”

 

And Jim Lobe in the Asia Times:

“His now-defunct Office of Special Plans (OSP) is alleged to have collected - often with the help of the neo-conservatives' favorite Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi - and "cooked" the most alarmist pre-war intelligence against Saddam Hussein and then "stovepiped" it to the White House via Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, unvetted by the intelligence agencies.”

“The OSP also excluded many top Mideast experts from the State Department from playing any role in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. And it is Feith's office that, with the CPA, recommended companies for huge, and in some cases no-bid, contracts in Iraq that have amounted, in the eyes of some critical lawmakers, to flagrant profiteering. Among the firms that have profited most are those whose consultants or officers also serve on the Pentagon's DPB, members of which are chosen by Feith.”

 

So in October, 2003, when the shit has hit the fan, Condi has to step in with the Iraq Stabilization Group and take control away from Feith.  He served his purpose and now he seems to be getting a little above the radar in looking for his part of the gravy train.

And from Laura Rozen, "Ye of Little Feith", The American Prospect Online, May 18, 2004:

"He was very arrogant," Karen Kwiatkowski, Feith’s former deputy, says, describing what it was like to work with him. "He doesn't utilize a wide variety of inputs. He seeks information that confirms what he already thinks. And he may go to jail for leaking classified information to The Weekly Standard." (As she explains, an article appeared in The Weekly Standard that included a leaked memo written by Feith alleging ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.)”

and as right-web puts it:

"Feith became embroiled in a new intelligence scandal in late August 2004 when it was reported that the FBI had for the past two years been investigating intelligence leaks to Israel from the Pentagon. The Pentagon official named in the media reports is Lawrence Franklin, who was brought into the Office of Special Plans from the Defense Intelligence Agency. Franklin, who had served in the military attache's office in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in the late 1990s as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, is suspected of passing classified information about Iran to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and Israel."

 

Oh, Oh.  FBI investigations!  Prosecutors!  Can’t risk taking any action now, the election is too close to call…….

And from Julian Coman, News Telegraph on November 7, 2004

"There are senators who are clearly gunning for Douglas Feith now. This is turning into a classic conspiracy investigation. They want to get Feith and see if, through Feith, they can go up the ladder to even bigger fish."

Whew!  Made it through the election and the Inauguration.  Hey Doug!  Seeya!

On January 26, 2005 the Defense Department acknowledged Feith’s resignation.

2. Larry Franklin

Well, what about the AIPAC guy that worked for Feith, Larry Franklin?  Franklin got indicted in a two year old investigation that didn't appear connected to anything, and supposedly cut a deal.  Well, maybe.  He was cooperating, but this guy Fitzgerald started nosing in with his prosecutor attitude and wanted to ask some questions…..

And then, Franklin stops cooperating, fires his court appointed lawyer and hires Plato Cacheris.

As Justin Raimondo at Anti-War.com details:

“When Cacheris took up the case of Ana Belen Montes, Castro's top spy in the United States, neoconservative writer Ronald Radosh argued that he "seems to be the chosen counsel for most of the recent American spies for foreign powers." But this misses the real point to be made about the Washington super-lawyer: he specializes, not in espionage cases, but in high profile scandals, the kind that make mile-high headlines. From Watergate (he represented Attorney General John Mitchell) to Iran-Contra (he got Fawn Hall immunity in exchange for her testimony) to Lewinsky-gate (he was one of Monica's attorneys), one thing is clear: the spotlight is his natural habitat – yet another indication that the Franklin affair, which seems to have dropped into the black hole of journalistic memory, is going to resurface big time.”

 

Well, now, Larry worked in Feith’s OSP and the same player’s names seem to keep surfacing- Chalabi, Judy Miller…Judy Miller??  Wasn’t she gonna be a problem?  Naw, we got that covered.  They’re appealing and it’ll be one of those First Amendment things- never go anywhere.  Fitzgerald’s all but done and without her and Cooper, they got nothing…

Oops!  On February 15, 2005, the Appeals Court rules against the NYT!  Shit!  They’re gonna have to testify…or go to jail.  Look, we need to buy time. Get the word to Judy- it's time for her to really play "soldier".

Scooter, we’d love to cut you loose, you moron, but that would really be obstruction.  But we’ve got a few loose ends to get out of the way now before the heat gets on ‘em.

3. John Bolton- Well, what can I say about this pick for the UN? Does the word antithesis sum it up?    March 7, 2005 

4. Paul Wolfowitz- arguably the strongest voice in the pro-Israel, anti-Iraq strategy, and intimately involved in the war planning.  Been at it since BiBi Netanyahu was in power, trying to sell the plan to overthrow Saddam way back when.  Nomination to head the World Bank met with "shock" by the WB employees, and skepticism around the world.  March 17, 2005

Fucking Senate!  They’re giving us shit on Bolton.  Fuck ‘em.  I’ll recess the bastard and get his ass out of the way.  After he gets to the UN, tell him to go see Judy and tell her it’s ok to give up Scooter.  That should stop it at Dick’s door.  Un-indicted co-conspirator will be the worst thing that can happen to him and I’ll pardon him later for the ‘good of the country”.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN FITZGERALD’S GOT A MOLE IN THE OFFICE????

Dick, you idiot!  Well, you’re not taking me down for obstruction for trying to cover your tracks.  Now who could testify that I was briefed on this and can tie me to all this shit?  Oh, OH….. uh, Harriet?  Can you come in here please?  How would you like to be on the other side of the bench for a change?

5. Harriet Meirs- not just unqualified to sing with the Supremes, can't even muster a fan club.  October 3, 2005

 So every time a key player might be in the weeds, our attention is distracted and the pickpockets get to work.  Take a look at these key nominations.  They have all attracted ridiculous amounts of attention because of their outright inappropriateness.  That’s our attention being distracted.  If you’ve been feeling a hand in your pocket, it’s probably Georgie Boy.  He may play dumb, but I think that’s just another con game.

On Friday before the storm came ashore, a Presidential directive put Secretary Chertoff and the Department of Homeland Security in charge of preparations and the recovery program.  At least someone was supposedly in charge.

We expected that plans and supplies were in place to satisfy the basic needs.

Why did it take so long to satisfy these needs in New Orleans?

Were supplies not provided?  Was money not available?  Did leadership fail to act?  Were there no plans?

Americans died because our government failed to do what it was obligated to do.

"Who are we if we can't take care of our own?" - Maureen Dowd.

Now I'm sure that there are thousands of hard working, dedicated people at DHS- I know a few who spend every hurricane gathering numbers to assess potential damage estimates, and what it will take to put things right.

And that's the problem with this disaster.

I'm not going to get all conspiracy theory here- there are enough hard facts to support the same level of negligence to this disaster as there were warnings of 9/11.  This scenario of a natural situation causing this much destruction (as opposed to a terrorist attack) has been bandied about for years.  The problems have been studied, the solutions proposed but the key to getting it done is that it just wasn't on the agenda.  The Bush agenda, that is, or "mandate" as he likes to portray it, is to deal with the real potential for problems as "possibilities", while advancing the conservative pipe dreams that were bought and paid for by his campaign funding as "realities".  In short, the things that make a nation prosperous, safe, and well protected that only government can do have taken a back seat to wielding the power of our nation to advance corporate interests.

Mr. Bush's newest excuse for the war in Iraq is to keep the oil fields safe from terrorists.  My, my, my, Mr. President.  I'm sure that Sheik Yerbouti sleeps securely, knowing that while our refining and port facilities for Gulf of Mexico oil seem to have disappeared, his pipelines to India and China will keep on pumping. I'm glad that you are telling the nation not to buy gasoline that they don't need.  If this is the disaster of proportion that estimates say, then why don't you exercise some real authority and issue Presidential Emergency orders to freeze the wholesale price of gasoline for the next 60 days?  Why let any more of the citizens of this country be subjected to the profiteering of your pals in the oil biz?  Oh, sorry, I forgot- we live in the "free-market" part of your conservative pipe dream.  My mistake. Never mind.

Well, it's time for the citizens to make a stand against this political system that says "to the victor go the spoils".

Republican or Democrat- all politicians need to be put on notice- fix this shit or you are all out in 2006.  Period.  If Dems don't stand up and say enough is enough- they're Out.  If Republicans dont backtrack on Social Security, tax cuts, and Roe- they're out.  Incumbents- Out.  Anybody else- In 

We can do no worse with a whole new body of unbeholden neophytes than we have been done by the ones holding power now.  And if they don't get it done right, they're out too.  We need to let them know that they work for us- not the other way around.  

If Jesus did just what this market basket of "Christian" preachers (and in that basket you can find Dobson, Parsely, Robertson, etc.) want him to do, i.e.; return, what do you think he would say?

I don't claim any special knowledge in this area, nor do I think I am high on the rapture's A-list, but I cant help but think that for most of my 54 years this same bunch has making a living off the fear of God's vengeance.

Is the market so competitive these days in the religious industry that in order to keep a job they have to out shout each other?  Be more "Apprentice" like in the over the top performance?  There used to be a smarmy TV preacher with a bad toupee in Ohio, Earnest Angely, of the Angels Grace Cathedral, who would do "healings" by sticking his finger in someone's ear until the seal was almost airtight, then pulling it out with a "pop", shouting "Out, Devil!".  The dazed recipient of this "healing", having their eardrum streched like a balloon was then whisked offstage (and probably to the local ER).  Now that was entertainment!

Contrast that to Pat Robertson and his "700 Club", pronouncing that Chavez should be whacked beacause he doesn't like us and he has oil, Dobson claiming in his pamphlets that he will reveal the signs that your child could be gay and how to stop it, and how can we forget Rod Parsely being "Silent No More" on why we need to kill the Muslims (note to Rod- you are a lame white guy, you can't dance like a Black preacher, don't try- it's embarrassing to all).

Somehow I can't help but think if Jesus did show up today, he'd buy the stripper a drink and turn to the "Apprentices" and say:

You're Fired.