damper

I’m sure we’ll all be breaking open our wallets soon:

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren appealed to parishioners at his California megachurch Wednesday to help fill a $900,000 deficit by the first of the year.

Warren made the appeal in a letter posted on the Saddleback Church Web site. It begins "Dear Saddleback Family, THIS IS AN URGENT LETTER."

"With 10 percent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated," the letter reads.

This really puts a damper on the whole notion that private charities can handle social problems better than the government. When you have severe economic down turns like we are in right now, then people don’t have the money to donate to these groups. That was also seen over Christmas as charities had to turn away needy families wanting food for Christmas. It also boils down to simple common sense, and since the right never exhibits that trait it’s no wonder they are the ones pushing for the charities to become the nation’s giver of social services.

Can we get legislation to get rid of these damn commercials where people talk about their herpes outbreaks? They put such a damper on my time with the hookers.

This makes such perfect sense:

"Obama's election has taken the wind out of al Qaeda's sails in much of the Islamic world because it demonstrates America's renewed commitment to multiculturalism, human rights, and international law. It also proves to many that democracy can work and overcome ethnic, sectarian, or racial barriers.

"Obama's commitment to withdraw from Iraq also takes away an al Qaeda propaganda tenet: that the U.S. seeks to occupy oil rich Arab lands. His commitment to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan also challenges their plans. Most of all, by returning to American values the world admires, Obama sets al Qaeda back enormously in the battle of ideas, the ideological struggle which determines whether al Qaeda will continue to have significant support in the Islamic world."

-Richard Clarke

Al Qaeda now has to face a United States with a President who is highly respected around the world. This puts a serious damper on their PR tactics. Yes – this is change you can believe in.

It amazes me how disappointed the Republicans are that the NIE put a damper on their wet dream of a war with Iran:

Some Republicans in Congress are second-guessing a government intelligence report that Iran has abandoned its nuclear weapons program. They want a second opinion.

The National Intelligence Estimate, released last week, concludes Iran halted its weapons development program in 2003 and that the program remained frozen through at least the middle of this year. That reversed a key finding from a 2005 intelligence report, which said Iran was intently developing a nuclear bomb. An unclassified summary of the new report was released specifically to correct that impression.

In 2003 the NIE said Iran was not seeing nuclear weapons. In 2005 it said they were seeking nuclear weapons. Now it says they stopped seeking them in 2003. Now here is something that would have changed between 2003 and 2005 - they lost on of their intelligence people who was working on Iran and WMD. Who was that agent? Oh yeah - Valerie Plame, the person the administration exposed because her husband said the administrations claims of Iraq's nuclear ambitions were bogus.

The other amazing part is that when this new NIE came out, Bush came out and touted it as proof his restructuring of the intelligence communities worked. So these Republicans are going against Bush now? Are they trying to armchair quarterback our Commander in Chief into another war?

An interesting story has been developing in Iraq over the
past couple days, and its one that does not seem to be gaining attention here in
the United States. With the Katrina recovery and Rita steaming forward as a
category 4 hurricane, it should be no shock as this information really shows a
state of anarchy that Iraq is now turning into.

As reported by the

Independent, Basra turned into a bloody bath after a British soldier
allegedly killed an Iraqi police officer. The soldier and his accomplice were
being held in a Basra jail awaiting their trial.

A couple nights ago, British troops mounted a daring smash
and grab rescue to free the two soldiers. Using helicopters and up to 10 tanks,
the British forces smashed through the prison wall and freed their colleagues.
The rescue also allowed approximately 150 criminals to escape the prison.

Mohammed al-Waili, the provincial governor, condemned the
escape as "barbaric, savage and irresponsible". This conflicts with the ministry
of defenses report of the release being “negotiated”.

Basra has been long termed one of the safer regions of the
embattled country. This action by British troops has turned the tables on the
level of safety there.

Today citizens of Basra took to the streets waving guns and
AK-47’s denouncing the hostile rescue of the soldiers. The
Associated
Press is reporting:

The demonstrators in Basra shouted "No to occupation!"
and carried banners condemning "British aggression and demanding the freed
soldiers be tried in an Iraqi court as "terrorists."