The following conversation may, or may not, have occurred between President-elect Barack Obama and the chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, US Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA):
BARACK OBAMA: So who we gonna have do the invocation at my inaugural?
DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Oh my God, you're gonna love this, B.
BO: Okay Di, hit me.
DIFI: Ready? Rick. Warren.
BO: You mean conservative evangelical Christian leader Rick Warren?
DIFI: Yup.
BO: Rick Warren who wants to ban all abortions and basically said that I support a holocaust?
DIFI: Uh huh.
BO: The guy who compared gay marriage to pedophilia and incest, and helped lead the fight for Prop 8 in California?
DIFI: That's him.
BO: The man who said he agrees on everything with far-right nut James Dobson.
DIFI: Yesiree.
BO: But Di, the guy has devoted his entire life to destroying everything I stand for, everything I believe in, everyone who worked so hard and so long to put me into office.
DIFI: I know, isn't it brilliant!
BO: I don't get it.
DIFI: Okay, think about it. You're so post-partisan that you're willing to embrace and promote someone who loathes you, didn't vote for you, and will do everything in his power to destroy your presidency. It's like the Lieberman thing, but even bigger!
BO: So you mean, by promoting a guy who represents none of my goals, ideals or hopes that the majority of the country voted for, and by devastating my own supporters on what was supposed to be a day of celebration and national rebirth, I'm actually promoting "change" by publicly undermining it?
DIFI: Exactly!
BO: But won't I be screwing the gays, women, and pretty much everyone else who got me elected?
DIFI: Never stopped me.
BO: But doesn't this make me no better than the guy I'm replacing or the guy I just beat?
DIFI: Never stopped me.
****
We Call on You Lord: Leaked Rick Warren Invocation by Linda Hirshman (NOTE: Copies of what seemed to be a draft of an inaugural invocation by Pastor Rick Warren arrived in the fax machines of several prominent journalists this morning. This site does not vouch for the authenticity of the draft, although each of the statements does conform to material in Pastor Warren's speeches, interviews, or on his websites.)
O Lord, as we come together on this historic and solemn occasion to inaugurate a president and vice president. We pray, O Lord, for President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, to whom You have entrusted leadership of this nation at this moment in history.We pray for their advisors and supporters, particularly their Jewish advisors and supporters, who will surely roast in hell if they do not abandon their refusal to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Pray for the conversion of Obama chief advisor David Axelrod and his economic wise man Larry Summers, his early supporters Lester Crown and his campaign finance chair Penny Pritzker, for, as the Bible says, there will be a day when there will be a great revival of faith in God through Jesus among the Jewish people. (Romans 11).
Obviously, this is a day that we, as believers in Christ, want to pray for! Let the light of Christian salvation come to the Jewish Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel and his family, some of whom survived the German effort to bring them to Christian truth in the last generation. May all efforts to stop homosexuals from violating the ancient humanitarian institution of marriage succeed as did your will in California in the last election.
Attend particularly, O lord, to President Obama's environmental chief Nancy Sutley, and to the man who has worked essentially without sleep for three months to save the American economy from total collapse, Representative Barney Frank. Use the government to bring an end to acts as bad as incest, pedophilia and polygamy, by stamping out homosexuality among the homosexuals, a people evolutionarily unfit, that we may truly become one nation before God.
May the First Amendment to the Constitution protect all who want to compare homosexual sex to incest, pedophilia and polygamy from the arrows of hate speech accusations shot by the politically correct. Change the hearts of the new administration's pro-choice advisors and supporters, including the Justices of the Supreme Court who stand here today with us: Holocaust denier Anthony Kennedy, holocaust denier Ruth Bader Ginzburg, holocaust denier David Souter, holocaust denier Stephen Breyer, and holocaust denier John Paul Stevens, who is about to swear in the Vice-President, in that abortion is a holocaust and the eighteen million or so women who have committed abortion in the thirty-five years since 1973 are thus no better than Nazis.
Bless the women, who have chosen to follow their ambitions into public life, but change the hearts, Lord, of Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis from independent lives of their own to submission to their husbands, if any, for I love the King James Version's rendition of Ephesians 5:22 "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands" and of course "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ if God." 1 Corinthians 11:3. These women have chosen to participate in the public life of the community.
Enlighten them as to the requirement that women not speak in church, saving any questions they have about their common life to ask their husbands as they return home. Now, O Lord, despite the plain language of the Constitution that created this great nation, we dedicate this presidential inaugural ceremony to You.
May this be the beginning of a new dawn for America as we humble ourselves before You and acknowledge You alone as our Lord, our Savior and our Redeemer. We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
By John Aravosis and Linda Hirshman, Huffington Post. Posted December 20, 2008.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Because I can?
A Brief Manifesto (Or, Why I Chose To Start A Blog That Essentially Aims To Talk Shit About My Own Political Hero)
By Randy Behr
As a lifelong Democrat who was completely fed up with eight years of Shrub Part II, I was overjoyed at the resounding victory Barack Obama enjoyed at the polls in November. The win, without a doubt, was historic, breathtaking, exciting ... hard to put into words.
And, as a faithful supporter of Barack, even back when it seemed Hillary Clinton's nomination was a foregone conclusion, in the months since this historic victory I resolutely held my tongue when the appointments to his Cabinet were announced, with nary a progressive (and barely any people of color or women) in sight.
However, this latest announcement of virulent homophobe Rick Warren to preside over the invocation at Obama's inaugural means all bets are off. Sorry, Barack: You blew this one. This is a major slap in the face, a humiliation, to all the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people who campaigned so hard for you and gave from ever-dwindling savings accounts to make your campaign war chest the biggest in history, who felt, at least for a few months, that their rights were on a par with the rest of the public's. It's a stick in the eye to all the women who, despite the bitter disappointment of seeing their historic first choice of a nominee passed up, still managed in the end to support you, a man they knew hardly anything about. And it's a kick in the nuts to all people who value science over superstition, progress over puritanical thought.
Barack, you screwed up. Big time. It's not too late, though. You can rescind the invitation you so calculatingly extended to that homophobe in the hopes of winning over those from his flock (News flash, Barry: That'll never happen. Ever.) You can start following through on some of those campaign promises too, like having the richest 5% of Americans pay their fair share in taxes, or doing away with the military's hypocritical "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays.
It's not too late to redeem yourself. As long as you, in the words of Spike Lee, do the right thing. And do it now.
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