Glenn Beck is supposed to be a demagogue. A fear monger. A racist. But those who have been around him lately are having a hard time coming to those conclusions.

Enter Paul Mason. Writing for the BBC, he recounts a recent demagogue-less Beck speech. “Once Glenn Beck starts speaking the language becomes restrained, moderate, not even a hint of euphemism or innuendo,” he writes, “indeed an insistence that the audience must reach out and persuade their political enemies, not hate them.”

“[T]here was no hate in the speech I heard,” Mason adds later. “And there was very little politics. In the process of becoming the figurehead for the American right, Beck has found new depths within his own personality and ‘got religion’ even more than he had it before.”

Mason isn’t alone in his observations. Tim Kraulidis was assigned as Beck’s escort at another recent speaking engagement. Kraulidis describes the events he saw as intriguing. “I was impressed with the politeness, sincerity, and friendliness of this man,” he writes. “He is a very conscientious man.” He goes on to explain that Beck fulfilled every picture request, went out of his way to greet volunteers and production staff, and noted that Beck’s attitude was such that “it was not all about him.” No hate speech. No fear mongering.

Looking down on people isn't exactly a new platform for Kerry...

During the 2004 Presidential election campaign, Kerry said of Bush, "I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot."

And in 2006, he famously insulted the intelligence of our fighting men and women with this gem:

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Regarding Kerry's recent snobbery, William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection points out that it's not uneducated voters that are the problem; it's Democrats that are simply out of touch.

"It just continues the Democrats' theme that the reason people are upset is because they don't understand," he said. "They're not smart enough. That sort of rhetoric just gets people even more upset."

A poll at the Boston Herald suggests that the accusation of ignorance belongs squarely on the shoulders of the Democratic leadership. Only 4% of the readers believe it is the voters that are uninformed about the Dems, while 86% say that the Democratic leadership is actually uninformed about the voters.

More from Paul Mason's report on Glen Beck...

".....A local pastor kicks off the proceedings. Beck - and the other speakers - he claims, "will be speaking for God": a claim Beck is not around to hear and will later contradict. Not only this, but Beck and others are the target of unspecified people who would like to kill them, the pastor insists: hence, we the audience must pray for their safety.

Next the compere, who says that America is under siege from more than just al-Qaeda:

"Today we're not only being attacked by terrorists but by those who believe in different principles: our children are being indoctrinated with liberal views on a daily basis."

And consider this, from an Iraq-style deck of "wanted cards" on sale in the sparsely populated exhibition space: a picture of Barack Obama, framed with the legend:

"Trust me. I am not a Kenyan born, lying, arrogant Muslim communist that hates America - really I'm not: Barack Hussein Obama, President USA, Socialist/Communist . The Ultimate Race Card. Done in 2102," complete with the caveat: "This is not a quotation of this person merely a funny anecdotal statement."

http://www.novembersmostwanted.com/

...Beck spoke for one hour thirty minutes, to an audience of about 2,000 paying up to $125 (£80) a seat. Having been whipped up by the previous speakers, and videos eliding images of D-Day with 9/11 and Fallujah, they were now whipped down by Glenn Beck.

His website, TheBlaze.com had already warned followers to desist from wearing historical costumes and toting self-scrawled banners open to the accusation of bigotry. So the crowd were mainly wearing Beck t-shirts ($15) and, some, beatific smiles."

Citizen groups unmasking Dem voter fraud
Ed Lasky
We do the job because the government and media lackeys will not. Massive alleged voter fraud is uncovered by a group of concerned citizens down in Texas. The culprit? The Democrats and Barack Obama's favorite "union" - the thugs at the Service Employees International Union.

A group of people took it upon themselves to work at polling places in 2008 and observed - and were shocked - by what they perceived to be voter fraud. Their next step was to create a citizen-based grassroots group to collect publicly available voting data and analyze what they found (with the help of donated computers and volunteer helpers). They admit they did not know what they were doing at first but where there is a will there is a way.

Reports Fox News (the unlackey network):

"The first thing we started to do was look at houses with more than six voters in them" Engelbrecht said, because those houses were the most likely to have fraudulent registrations attached to them. "Most voting districts had 1,800 if they were Republican and 2,400 of these houses if they were Democratic . . .

"But we came across one with 24,000, and that was where we started looking."

"Vacant lots had several voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its address," Engelbrecht said. "We then decided to look at who was registering the voters."

Their work paid off. Two weeks ago the Harris County voter registrar took their work and the findings of his own investigation and handed them over to both the Texas secretary of state's office and the Harris County district attorney.

Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Steve Caddle, who also works for the Service Employees International Union. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid. The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures.



Minnesota also has a citizens group that had enough of being abused and took matters in their own hands to reveal that the Minnesota Senate race that gave us the hapless fool Al Franken was also rent with voter fraud that powered his victory over Norm Coleman. Secretary of States are supposed to monitor elections to ensure honesty in voting.

But with George Soros and the shadowy Democracy Alliance working to elect friendly to fraud Secretary of States across the nation, how likely are we to have truly honest elections? Thankfully, in the freshest expression of democracy in many years, we have citizens stepping up to the plate and hitting some homers.

Artful Dodger: LOL… I was trying to pronounce “brpught” and then I realized it was mistyped “brought”.

Pedro Martínez:

50 even dumber liberal loon quotes. 

1. Sheryl Crow on Environmentalism: "I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares [sic] of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.'"

2. Joe Biden on culturalism: "In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

3. Whoopi Goldberg on 43-year-old Roman Polanski raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl: "I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and and [sic] when they let him out he was like "You know what this guy's going to give me a hundred years in jail I'm not staying, so that's why he left."

4. Joy Behar on Economics: "Isn't it a little racist to call it Black Friday?"   what a moron

5. John Conyers on the Health Care Bill, which he voted for: "I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill ... What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?'"

6. Former DNC Chairman Donald Fowler on possible delay of RNC convention due to Hurricane Gustav: "Plus they think the hurricane's going to hit (starts laughing) New Orleans about the time they start. The timing, at least it appears now, that it'll be there Monday. That just demonstrates God's on our side"

7. Barack Obama: "I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go?"

8. John Kerry on the troops: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."   cuz only the morons have to join the military

9. Howard Dean: "We know that no one person can succeed unless everybody else succeeds."

10. Rosie O'Donnell: "Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."

11. Al Gore: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

12. Congressman Hank Johnson on Guam: "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize,"

13. Alan Grayson on Health Care: "The Republican health care plan: don't get sick ... The Republicans have a back up plan in case you do get sick ... This is what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly!"a nudder moron

14. Nancy Pelosi on the economy: "every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs."

15. Helen Thomas: Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany and Poland. you know, where they were gassed bin ovens

16. Wanda Sykes: "I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight ... Rush Limbaugh -- I hope the country fails. I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a waterboarding, that's what he needs."

17. Bill Clinton on ordinary Americans: "African Americans watch the same news at night that ordinary Americans do."

18. Barack Obama on a tornado that killed twelve people: "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died - an entire town destroyed"

19. Harry Reid on Iraq: "This war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything."

20. Kanye West: "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

21. Joe Biden on the economy: "The number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S."

22. Bill Maher on Christianity: "I think religion is a neurological disorder. we will pray for this idiot

23. Joe Biden on History: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened."

24. Ted Rall: "Over time, however, the endless war in Iraq began to play a role in natural selection. Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared."    moron

25. Michael Moore on terrorism: "There is no terrorist threat. Yes, there have been horrific acts of terrorism and, yes, there will be acts of terrorism again. But that doesn't mean that there's some kind of massive terrorist threat."

26. Henry Waxman on Environmentalism: "We're seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point - they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn't ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there's a lot of tundra that's being held down by that ice cap."

27. Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, DC: "If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate."

28. California Senator Barbara Boxer: "Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."

29. Wesley Bolin, former governor of Arizona: "We'd like to avoid problems, because when we have problems, we can have troubles."

30. Senator Chris Dodd, while on the campaign trail: "Eight more days and I can start telling the truth again" Sen. Chris Dodd, on the campaign trail.

31. Melissa Lafsky, Huffington Post blogger: "[Mary Jo] would have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history ... Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it."

32. Joe Biden on the passage of the Health Care Bill: "This is a big f...ing deal!"

33. Bill Clinton: "It all depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is' is."

34. Jerry Brown, former governor of California, and current candidate for the same position: "The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs."

35. Democratic Convention producer Don Mischer, overheard on CNN having an apoplectic seizure when the balloons failed to drop from the ceiling of the Fleet Center in Boston: "Go, balloons. I don't see anything happening. Go, balloons. Go, balloons. Go, balloons. Stand by, confetti. Keep coming, balloons. More balloons. Bring them. Balloons, balloons, balloons! More balloons. Tons of them. Bring them down. Let them all come. No confetti. No confetti yet. No confetti. All right. Go, balloons. Go, balloons. We're getting more balloons. All balloons. All balloons should be going. Come on, guys! Let's move it. Jesus! We need more balloons. I want all balloons to go. Go, confetti. Go, confetti. Go, confetti. I want more balloons. What's happening to the balloons? We need more balloons. We need all of them coming down. Go, balloons. Balloons. What's happening balloons? There's not enough coming down. All balloons! Why the hell is nothing falling? What the f--- are you guys doing up there? We want more balloons coming down. More balloons. More balloons."

36. Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, DC: "I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less."

37. Bill Clinton: "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her."

38. Joe Biden, on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is, in fact, still alive: "His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she's- wait- your mom's still- your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul."

39. Al Gore on zoology: "A zebra does not change its spots."

40. Rod Blagojevich, former governor of IL: "I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up." 

41. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the newly passed health care law: "We actually have not required in this law that you carry health insurance."

42. Congressman John Dingell on freedom: "The harsh fact of the matter is when you're passing legislation that will cover 300 million American people in different ways, it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people."

43. Former Congressman Eric Massa: "Now, they're saying I groped a male staffer. Yes, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday."

44. Congressman Charlie Rangel on our troops: "If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq."

45. Radio personality Ed Schultz on elections: "If I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times ... Yeah that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. Because that's exactly what they are."


47. Congresswoman Maxine Waters on socialism: "Guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal will be about socializing...uh, um...Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies."

48. Senator Harry Reid on Barack Obama: "...light-skinned," and with "no negro dialect."

48. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on national security, after a man attempted to blow up a commercial airplane with a bomb in his panties: "The system worked."

49. Nancy Pelosi on legislation: "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

50. Joe Biden to Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham, who is wheelchair bound: "stand up ... Chuck, stand up, Chuck, let 'em see you!"
  duh

"I will stand up and struggle, as others have, to try to get that right balance between violence, and sex, ... and things." - John Kerry on ABC News


"But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up." -- Teresa Heinz-Kerry on First Lady Laura Bush, a former teacher and librarian


"Those who died in the earthquake, their lives will never be the same again." - Barbara Boxe


"I believe that gays and lesbians deserve to have the same rights as homosexuals." - Rev. Al Sharpton in 2002


"Outside of the killings, we have one of the lowest crime rates in the country." - Marion Barry, mayor of Washington, D.C.


"It's a new day. Communism is dead. It's even dead in Cuba. I hate to say it, it's dead." - Barbara Boxer, senator from California


"A zebra does not change its spots." - Al Gore, attacking President George Bush in 1992


"This is still the greatest country in the world if we just steel our wills and lose our minds." - President Bill Clinton


"The police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder." - Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley during the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention


"I was embarrassed to wear it." - Senator Diane Feinstein on wearing an American flag pin


"I'm not a chauvinist, obviously...I believe in women's rights for every woman but my own." - Chicago Mayor Harold Washington


"Breast cancer victims face a long waiting line before they could get a biopsy or, uh, or a uh, another kind of, what am I looking for, a sonogram or...." (people in the crowd shouted "Mammogram!") - Al Gore in 2000


"I have to confess that it's crossed my mind that you could not be a Republican and a Christian." - Hillary Clinton in a 1997 interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch


''I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.'' - John Kerry at a campaign rally in 2004


"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees." - Bill Clinton in an August 12, 1993 speech


"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids." - Teresa Heinz-Kerry talking to volunteers packing donations for hurricane relief in the Caribbean


"Yes, the president should resign. He has lied to the American people... and betrayed their trust."- The 12th Congressional District hopeful Bill Clinton during the Nixon Watergate investigations


"I'm someone who has a deep, emotional attachment to Starsky and Hutch." - President Bill Clinton at a meeting with TV executives


I don't own an SUV.... The Family has it, I don't have it." - John Kerry, whose family had a 1995 Suburban, a 1993 Land Rover Defender, a 1989 Jeep Cherokee, and a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee at the time of that statement


"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" - Bill Clinton during his Grand Jury testimony

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman." - President Bill Clinton's finger waging statement some time before admitting that he did have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky


"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe." - Diane Feinstein, who carried a concealed weapon after claiming to be the target of a terrorist group


"The last time I checked, the Constitution said, 'of the people, by the people and for the people.' That's what the Declaration of Independence says." - Bill Clinton quoting The Gettysburg Address during a 1996 campaign stop


"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion ..." Barack Obama


"I tell you, that Michael Jackson is unbelievable! Isn't he? He's just unbelievable. Three plays in twenty seconds." - Al Gore commenting on basketball star Michael Jordan


"They all behave the same. They all look the same. It’s pretty much a white Christian party." - Howard Dean talking about the Republican Party while in San Francisco


"You all look alike to me." - Florida Representative Corrine Brown to Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega after calling him and other members of the Bush administration "racist" and "a bunch of white men"


"The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep." - Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos speaking on Larry King Live


"I haven't committed a crime, what I have done is fail to comply with the law." - New York City Mayor David Dinkins reacting to accusations that he didn't pay his taxes


"If the...if he...if is means is and never has been, that is not - that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement." - President Bill Clinton stumbling on the definition of the word "is"


"And now, will y'all stand up and be recognized?" - Texas Democratic Congressman Gib Lewis to a group of people in wheelchairs

"I resent insinuendoes." - Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley


"If we do the work that we can do...people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk again."


"...and the party of a great man who should have been President, who would have been one of the greatest Presidents in history--Hubert Horatio Hornblower!" - Jimmy Carter intending to mention Hubert Humphrey at the 1980 DNC


"I can't believe we are going to let a majority of the people decide what's best for the state." - Louisiana state representative John Travis


"The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people" - Newly elected President Bill Clinton on MTV in 1993


"I mean you've got a conservative and right-winged press presence with really nothing on the other end of the political spectrum." - Hillary Clinton, on C-Span

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." - Hillary Clinton, while First Lady, commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents


"My husband may have his faults, but he has never lied to me." - from page 465 of Hillary Clinton's book "Living History"


"Just keep the cockpit door closed. You can put up a sign in Arab - this is, say, type-casting, but say 'Try to hijack, go to jail.' " - Senator Fritz Hollings on preventing another 9/11 type terrorist attack


"On behalf of all of you, I want to express my appreciation for this tremendously warm recession." - Democratic National Committee chairman Ron Brown


"Last year, the vice president launched a new effort to help make communities more liberal." - President Bill Clinton, during his 2000 State of the Union speech


"No, it wasn't classic at all. I had one of those inarticulate moments late in the evening... and I didn't say something very clearly." - John Kerry in reference to his $87 billion statement made during a NOONTIME appearance


"She's a wonderful person, and we are looking forward to a happy and wonderful night... uh, life together." - Senator Ted Kennedy about his then fiance Victoria Reggie


"An incomplete success." - President Jimmy Carter in 1980 describing the disastrous attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran


"President Bush will probably win the vote, somewhere between 45 and 47 votes against, and he'll think that's a victory." - Joe Biden on the vote to confirm UN Ambassador John Bolton on ABC's This Week


"Probably she does look good compared to the mummy he's been having sex with." - Clinton White House press secretary Mike McCurry making an "off the record" comment to reporters in reference to Clinton's line about a Inca mummy


"The more killing and homicides you have, the more havoc it prevents." - Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley


"We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton


"An innocent bureaucratic snafu." - President Clinton attempting to explain what 900 Republican FBI files were doing in the White House


"We've got a very strong candidate. I'm trying to think of his name." - Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd at an appearance on behlf of a South Carolina senate candidate


Chuck, stand up, let the people see you - Joe Biden to State Senator Chuck Graham, a paraplegic.


"I think the president can claim executive privilege, but when it comes to an appointment to the Supreme Court, you can't be playing hide the salami, or whatever it is." - Howard Dean on Hardball


"The other thing we have to do is to take seriously the role in this problem of...older men who prey on underage women." - President Bill Clinton, talking about teen pregnancy in 1996


In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking. - Joe Biden

"I am in hell already. I'm in Israel." - Al Sharpton during a visit to Israel.


"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died." Barack Obama (Actual death toll: 12)

"Who is going to find out? These women are trash. Nobody is going to believe them." - Hillary Clinton on her husbands affairs.

"You had some good points. It was kind of long so I forgot some of them." - Louisiana Senator Diana Bajoie during a debate in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.


I've now been in 57 states, I think, one left to go. One left to go, Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it. Guess who

"If there’s any message from the Congress to the markets it is that this is a fiscally sound package." - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the pork filled stimulus package in March 2009

Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English . . . you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.
Then Senator Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign

"It was like the Special Olympics or something." - President Barack Obama talking about his bowling game on "The Tonight Show".


Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good. - Senator Harry Reid, March 5, 2010

We have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in this simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it.
Virginia Representative Jim Moran while running for re-election in 2008.

Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?
Pittsburgh City Councilperson Tonya Payne after the council approved legislation to fine a gun owner $500 for not reporting a stolen firearm within 24 hours

Artful Dodger: I wish you and Tuesday would get a room....the attraction is so obvious.

Bernice:

Tuesday: Speaking of "don't ask, don't tell"
How's that working out?

In recent news .. a 100 strong wind farm has started producing green energy off the English coast... the power produced is enough to power 200,000 homes.

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
Thomas Jefferson

According to a recent poll, likely voters get their political news
primarily from cable television. Among cable channels, 42 percent, a
plurality, watch Fox News for its political coverage. Only 12 percent
said they watched MSNBC. What's more, most likely voters don't like or
have never heard of MSNBC's prime time talent.

Last night's Panorama was on how investigations into 'war crimes' committed by the British Army were blocked or delayed by the chain of command. It appears that the breaches in the Geneva convention were encouraged by the USA despite a 30 odd year ban after inquiries into the same sort of instances in Northern Ireland.

... As one person commentated.... "How can you try and win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people if you are doing what you are saying is wrong to do"

A leaked report by the Red Cross into the treatment of prisoners in Iraq by servicemen sent to the MOD and British Army condemned the treatment of prisoners and the covering up of such. In the new year a report will be released into an incident where there is a disagreement over how many dead Iraqis were transported to a depot after an attack on a British column and how many were alive.

Tonight's Panorama is a revisit to the world of Scientology. Will the same events happen as last time?? Will the Scientologists stalk the BBC crew?? Will they diss everyone that speaks to the reporter dragging up any piece of dirt they can?

If they were so wonderful.. why do that?

Tuesday: Depends on how you define 'cult' .. Money changers would be more accurate.. just like some of the Christian Evangelists, or like one of the so called Christian channels here in the UK...

My.. what a big stone the presenter wore on her ring finger.. I wonder if it had anything to do with that she was the wife and co owner of the TV channel.

..Interesting. Scientology as a religion was (according to original followers) ok.. then Hubbard died and da new management changed things. Money then became God.

must have been the peanuts

Tuesday: Oh I've heard about that.. I think Hubbard just took the likes of Christianity and/or other religions like Krishna and gave it a sci-fi twist.

... In Zen there is the story of how a devout monk training under a false master still achieved enlightenment and could when asked to walk, on water. It's not so much to me that they may believe in 'aliens', as to a certain degree reincarnation as taught in many religions cannot deny the possibility that we have lived on other worlds. I object to the way the people are used. One story of how a woman who was married could not tell her husband she was pregnant till 8 months gone is terrible.

Ex members of the official Scientology org are now it appears trying to start a reformation, to try and take it back to the early days when it was more a family then a business.

Tuesday: You also have Jesus when talking about a funeral "let the dead bury the dead".

Tuesday: Saved people can bury bodies as well... but it's best to remember that it's just a body.

Then there is John the Baptist .. the Prophet Elijah reborn.

McDonald's may drop health insurance for 30,000 workers
from American Thinker Blog
Obamacare - working as planned.

September 30, 2010
McDonald's may drop health insurance for 30,000 workers
Clarice Feldman
The Administration cared little when voters and employers warned of the problems in Obamacare. Now that it's passed every day brings more evidence that it should have listened to those warnings.

The Wall Street Journal reports that McDonald's may have to stop paying health insurance for its 30,000 employees as a result of an onerous provision of the law which by design or not will drive private insurers from the market unless repealed:

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.

The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.

In a stunning revelation Wednesday, several top U.S. corporations are seriously considering dropping employee health insurance coverage in light of what they see as the inevitable consequence of ObamaCare--skyrocketing costs.

(PRNewsFoto/Verizon).

The companies state that after their legal experts poured over the thousands of pages in the new law, it will cost them less to pay the fines for not providing healthcare coverage for employees than continuing to provide employer-paid health insurance benefits.

As a side-note to the announcement, the companies maintain that ObamaCare will result in a dramatic increase in expenses for providing employee coverage, with added costs skyrocketing to multi-billions of dollars.

According to Business Record:

Additionally, the penalties to businesses for not offering coverage are less expensive than the cost of providing insurance, she said. "But for those that aren't providing coverage now, this is a huge burden to them. And for employers that have a lot of employees working 30 hours (the threshold to be considered full- ime), you may have a lot of businesses cutting them back to 29 hours."

Business Record maintains that despite this fact most companies will probably try to continue to provide coverage.

But a report issued today in Fortune Magazine and reported by CNN indicates that the dire warnings of ObamaCare critics concerning the consequences of approving the costly legislation are in fact well-founded.

The report points to internal documents from AT&T, Verizon, John Deere, and several other large corporations which show that executives are, in fact, looking at the option of dropping healthcare coverage for employees due to what they are sure will be unsustainable increases in costs. These costs will be so prohibitive that it would benefit the corporations to pay the government fines instead:

Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill's critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.

That would dismantle the employer-based system that has reigned since World War II. It would also seem to contradict President Obama's statements that Americans who like their current plans could keep them. And as we'll see, it would hugely magnify the projected costs for the bill, which controls deficits only by assuming that America's employers would remain the backbone of the nation's health care system.

Hence, health-care reform risks becoming a victim of unintended consequences. Amazingly, the corporate documents that prove this point became public because of a different set of unintended consequences: they told a story far different than the one the politicians who demanded them expected.