I am seeking election to the court so the citizens of this state can have an experienced jurist who values the rights of private citizens. This is not just another political position to be filled with attack ads and sound bites. We need men and women who will stand on principle to protect the rights of every person, not just the political powerful or the popular.

During his time on the court Justice Sanders heard over 2,000 cases and wrote opinions in over 600. No other candidate has any appellate judicial experience.

Besides serving on the court he was an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law and wrote scholarly articles. A chapter authored by Sanders in a criminal justice text is taught at Harvard Law School. His opinions were recognized nationwide and were the subject of scholarly debate and recognition.

Sanders’ favorite line in the state constitution provides it is the role of government “to protect and maintain individual rights.” “That’s what I tried to do in every case from the rights of the accused to property rights, from open government to the right to keep and bear arms,” he adds.

He has defended the rights of medical marijuana users and dissented in a case to support the rights of a black man brutally beaten by police. “No one is above the law”especially not the government. One of the most important duties of a justice is to protect private citizens when the government tries to violate their rights,” says Sanders.

On the Court, he gained a reputation for his open government cases and for protecting the people’s right to referendum and initiative. Sanders pointed to the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision striking down an initiative against red light cameras. “Had I been on the court it would have been 5-4 the other way,” Sanders said.

Before his term on the bench, he was a practicing trial attorney in Bellevue. He lives on Vashon Island.

THE MEANING OF LIFE
by TJ Kastning

I was disaffected, disenfranchised, and disgusted
So few people I trusted, totally maladjusted

My religion failed me, a listing boat on a dead sea
To a blatant degree I did not foresee

I blamed all but myself and put Christ on the shelf
Foolishly enticed to misprice a diced Christ

Self-reliance and pseudoscience described my noncompliance
I yelled “defiance” in a war of grand alliance

I thought my logic and intellect would save the day
Though selfish illogic and human introspect led me astray

I thought I rebelled against a wrong church
It was a self-confident search from a hypocritical perch

Casting blame on the Christian name
Failing to claim the shell game of my shame

I was a pinball without aim
A guessing game all the same

I felt banned to no man’s land
I could not understand

Then there was a miracle
While I waned satirical, God’s mercy waxed empirical

In a predestined play God declared armistice day
I felt brokenly compelled to pray, mayday mayday

Even still, my heart was still hard and scarred and on-guard
I did not fully regard this love greeting card

He still poured down grace out of place
But I held my poker face, just in case

Undeserving of love I was
Reserving my soul He, because that is what he does

I cannot and will not resist anymore
It is a chore to ignore my role in this vital war

I am his fervent bond servant
Observant to be conversant with truth

On the stage floor of world war
I ask what is the score as you grope and implore after more

Every man feels eternity’s weight
Ecclesiastes 3:11 preaches this trait

No man finds God alone
Our bones groan to this fatal tone

Christ must save you, on this you MUST rely
No deed of petty moralism does salvation imply

For all have sinned and come short of glory
Embrace his forgiveness not just the good story

It is ironic to us that while we are all weak
God’s strength is sufficient, it is God we must seek

The limitless store of mercy will stay your trap door
The key to restore to prewar is to abandon your quest for yours

No one is good
You misunderstood

God’s precious gift is that we inherit eternal merit
Through the blood of Christ, twenty four karat

Do not be allured by the shiny deceit all around
No long-lasting crowns are found in shallow town

While some eat, drink, and be merry unwary
The Bride waits patiently, knowing He tarries

The point I am desperately making
There is more to life than waking, making, and taking

Seek for eternity!
It is not in fraternity

This world is passing away
You are merely clay in decay

We live in an arena
A coliseum, not a concertina

We can live in comfort and die infernal
Or fight for God’s glory and live eternal

Reflect Christ, instead of flesh
Make me like wheat for when you perfectly thresh

You say give thanks, but my flesh chases after wealth
Your great love cares little for comfort or bills of health

You say diligently walk in light to fight the blight
Not as religious rite, keep a Godly line of sight

The deeds of darkness are shamefully disguised
As pleasurable expressions of selfishness immortalized

The lust of the flesh and the pride of life
Is dangled by the one who swings the scythe

Walkers in light will see with spiritual eyes
Appraisers by grace, careful of the lies

Sin holds no lure, no bondage, no attraction
His sheep hear His voice and cling to prayerful action

The battle seems long and resistance comes dear
The price sometimes steep, but what have we to fear

Keep your eyes on Jesus, no matter the cost
Persevere through trial, nothing will be lost

Perfect He will present us, atonement fully made
Names in the Book of Life, penalty staid

Gleaming we will be, not of merit our own
No price we paid for our sin sadly sown

The victory is certain, it has been proclaimed
I will not be ashamed to be defamed, maimed, or unnamed

The Kingdom is forthcoming
The World is succumbing

Choose this day whom you will serve
Make no mistake, there is no grading on a curve

Is God interested in nations or only in individuals?

In a great many evangelical churches in recent years there has been a wholesale abandonment of the idea that God works within nations in particular ways. In those churches, it is all about evangelism and any sense of discipling the nation has been lost. In some churches it has become so severe they no longer even allow voter registration in the church. The question I am asking is what does God thinks about that?

We have a generation of church leaders who have adopted a multicultural model rather than a national model. In doing so, they have abandoned centuries of Christian thought. Indeed, they have abandoned centuries of Christian thought in America. My concern is that such leaders could never have produced a nation such as America had they not been born into it. They are coasting on a previous generation’s energy and investment. Like the prodigal, they are progressively cashing in their inheritance and will leave nothing behind for the next generation. By their omissions, Pastors are diminishing America.

In this message, I want to establish three things:
FIRST, that God designed the concept of a holy nation in the Old Testament.

SECOND, that it was retained in the New Testament.

THIRD, that American Christians and America’s founders envisioned America as a fulfillment of that concept for our nation.

I want to begin with the Apostle Peter’s audience in 1 Peter 1. He begins his epistle like this:
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood….”

He was writing to Christians who were chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ. This was no longer Judaism. This was Christianity. This was no longer Old Testament. This was New Testament Christianity. He gets down to it in chapter two when he writes in 1 Peter 2:9-17:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

In this passage, it is clear that Peter is building the New Testament church squarely on the Old Testament concepts. Who are the chosen people? The Jews. Yet Peter uses that language for the church. Who was the holy nation? It was Israel. Yet now Peter uses that language to apply to members of the Roman Empire who happened to be Christians. He deals with them on a personal level. That would be verses 11-12.

After dealing with personal morality, Peter starts talking about government. He defines the role of government in rewarding good and punishing evil. I would point out that an Apostle is defining the role of government. It is not other people, secular people, defining government. The spiritual leader is saying what government should do. I suppose some would say that Church leaders should not be involved in politics. Yet Peter here, and Paul in Romans 13, define the role of government. Paul even goes so far as to say that government authorities are God’s servants.[1] We sometimes call ministers “God’s servants” but Paul uses that term for government.

I would ask my fellow preachers and church leaders a few questions:
1. Does your theology include government?
2. Do you inform government what it should do? Peter and Paul did.
3. If you adopt the idea that as a church leader you are only going to be concerned with saving souls and are not going to get involved in politics, do you see that you are not following the Apostolic pattern?

I think there is biblical evidence that both Paul and John were politically active. I have a chapter on that in my book The Revenge of Ephesus. In America today, the most fundamental debate is over the role of government. The Apostles spoke to that issue in their day, why shouldn’t church leaders do the same in our day?

Peter also defines the Christian’s relationship to government. He says that we are to submit to the government as part of our testimony. We put pagans and foolish people to silence by that relationship. We like to say that they will know we are Christians by our love but Peter here says they will know we are Christians also by our relationship to the government. Peter would not accept the idea that it is better not to be involved in politics and just concentrate on loving people and leading them to the Lord.

Let’s take this passage out of Peter and put it back into its Old Testament context. Peter sounds a lot like God at Mt. Sinai before the law was given.
“Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (Exodus 19:3-6)

In a world of nations, God wanted Israel to be a holy nation. There was to be something special about that nation. They were to be obedient to God. For his part God promised economic blessings and defined borders.
“The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity – in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground – in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.” (Deut 28:9-11)

In the Old Testament, when God said Israel would be a holy nation, he had in mind their economy, their land, and their governance. In short, it would be all the things that define a nation. This wasn’t just a spiritual kingdom of the heart. This was to be an actual kingdom with a particular relationship with God. They would be a nation among the nations.

Peter described New Testament Christians as being “… a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

He was incorporating by reference, the Old Testament concepts. This is not replacement theology. Rather it is continuity with the past. It is God bringing the same concepts forward into the church.

We have covered the first two points. First, that God designed the concept of a holy nation in the Old Testament. Second, that it was retained in the New Testament.

Now I want to turn to the third idea, that American Christians and America’s founders envisioned America as a fulfillment of that concept for our nation.

You see it from the very beginning. The Pilgrims were quite explicit in their goals in the Virginia Charter. “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia …”

The connection between God and Country was deep. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

The echo of that is found in the words of the Pilgrim leader John Winthrop in 1630. Aboard the Arbella he said, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses …”
That vision has been a mainstay in America since the beginning right up to the present moment. Ronald Reagan said it. “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”

In his farewell address to add to it for emphasis “‘I’ve spoken of the Shining City all my political life … In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.’

Promised Land imagery figured prominently in shaping English colonial thought. The pilgrims identified themselves with the ancient Hebrews. They viewed the New World as the New Canaan. They were God’s chosen people headed for the Promised Land. Other colonists believed they, too, had been divinely called. The settlers in Virginia were, as John Rolf said, “a peculiar people, marked and chosen by the finger of God.”

This self-image of being God’s Chosen People called to establish the New Israel became an integral theme in America’s self-interpretation. During the revolutionary period, it emerged with new force.
“We cannot but acknowledge that God hath graciously patronized our cause and taken us under his special care, as he did his ancient covenant people,” Samuel Langdon preached at Concord, New Hampshire in 1788.

George Washington was the “American Joshua,” and “Never was the possession of arms used with more glory, or in a better cause, since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun,” Ezra Stiles urged in Connecticut in 1783.
In 1776, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson wanted Promised Land images for the new nation’s Great Seal. Franklin proposed Moses dividing the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army being overwhelmed by the closing waters. Jefferson urged a representation of the Israelites being led in the wilderness by the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. Later, in his second inaugural address (1805), Jefferson again recalled the Promised Land. “I shall need…the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessities and comforts of life.” [2]

When America was founded as a country, the preachers of America were aflame with that idea. They showed they had learned the lesson of the nation Israel who wanted a king like other nations. They created the motto of the American Revolution “No King but Jesus.”

Yale historian Harry S. Stout wrote an article in Christian History magazine titled, “Christianity and the American Revolution”. Here is what he said about America at the time of the Revolution:

“Over the span of the colonial era, American ministers delivered approximately 8 million sermons, each lasting one to one-and-a-half hours. The average 70-year-old colonial churchgoer would have listened to some 7,000 sermons in his or her lifetime, totaling nearly 10,000 hours of concentrated listening. This is the number of classroom hours it would take to receive ten separate undergraduate degrees in a modern university, without ever repeating the same course!”

Events were perceived not from the mundane, human vantage point but from God’s. The vast majority of colonists were Reformed or Calvinist, to whom things were not as they might appear at ground level: all events, no matter how mundane or seemingly random, were parts of a larger pattern of meaning, part of God’s providential design. The outlines of this pattern were contained in Scripture and interpreted by discerning pastors.
“[Today] taxation and representation are political and constitutional issues, having nothing to do with religion. But to eighteenth-century ears, attuned to lifetimes of preaching, the issues were inevitably religious as well. When understood in its own times, the American Revolution was first and foremost a religious event.” [3]

The idea of the expansion of America to the west was a religiously inspired idea. In 1845, an article in the Democratic Review, declared that expansion represented “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”

In various ways, the people who put America together were people who believed in the concept of a holy nation. Because they believed we were a nation with a particular destiny given to us by God, they sought for God’s will to be accomplished. They were not ashamed of the laws required by the Bible.

When you see that giant American flag in this sanctuary, you are feeling a motivation of every generation of Americans. Indeed, Christians from the beginning have wanted to create societies that were more than just personally Christian. They longed for that holy nation. Today we are in a low ebb of that dream partly because we need a revival in our hearts and partly because church leaders have abandoned the historic vision for America. Indeed, most have little vision for America. An effete church does not give birth to a nation.

We are in times like those of Nehemiah. We must have both the tools of building and the weapons of warfare. “From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor … Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.” [Nehemiah 4:16-18]

————————————————-

[1] Rom 13:6-7 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

[2] Conrad Cherry (ed.), God’s New Israel: Religious Interpretations of American Destiny (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1971). The quotations are from this book: Winthrop p. 43; Whitaker p. 33; Rolf p. 26; Langdon p. 99 ; Stiles p. 88; and Jefferson p. 65. The information about the Great Seal is found on p. 65. See also, Joseph Gaer and Ben Siegal, The Puritan Heritage: American Roots in the Bible (New York: A Mentor Book/The New American Library, 1964).

[3] Elesha Coffman, editor of Christian History Magazine, quoting from Vol. 50 of that publication.

Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten is the senior pastor of Cedar Park Church in Bothell, Washington, and he is the former president of Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government and the Positive Christian Agenda. Currently, Pastor Fuiten is a founding member of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, an associate organization of Focus on the Family.

It is that time of year again when the wildlife and other things start STIRRING around these parts.

I mentioned a while back about the two egg suckin’ dogs that killed one of the hens -  had another dream last night about the one that ran under my van and I couldn’t get a shot at it.  I had dreamt of dogs getting the chickens the night or so before the dead chicken act so I am on high alert for any *noise* outside right now.

We have also had signs of a coon making itself at home here at night.  We set up the large coon trap (and, no, AKA didn’t go for the bait) and I baited it night before last -  hmm  bait gone but door didn’t trip to catch it….. and, the entire trap was relocated about 4 feet and on it’s side that morning.  So, I figures we got us a smarter than average coon to deal with.

Last night I put the bait in one of those long produce plastic bags, cut a few holes to let the smell get out and then dripped some fish oil over it all.  I then put it in the trap and wove the ends thru the cage bottom and side – making that coon have to work for the bait and hopefully set off the trigger for the door.  My next trick was to make sure that coon couldn’t kick the trap over like it had the night before.  I took one of the picnic benches and set it over the top of the trap making it hard to move it.  AHA, says I last night -  I’ve got that coon now for sure.

Woke up this morning and looked out the window to see the trap obviously had been moved -  too far to see if there was anything in the trap.  So got my shoes on and went out there..  trap not tripped – bait gone (found the remains of the sack in between some hay rounds) and the trap was moved about a foot with the bench still on it.

Well I have to outsmart that coon – and I will   -  Tonight is another coon trappin’ night….  Now you see how I spend my evenings  :)   Days watching for egg suckin’ dogs and night for strong and smart coons.

I came in for some coffee and email – heard Chester and a hen (Chester is the beautiful Wellsummer Rooster) making all sorts of racket.  Thinking it might be those dogs I jumped up and  ran out with gun in hand -  hmm  no dogs – all looks fine – so back inside.  Then I happened to look out the office window to see one of the older male calves on this side of the fence – chomping away on all that nice grass.  Ok -  grab the broom and the cattle rattle paddle and out I go to herd him back towards the feed pen.  He is pretty good sized and isn’t scared of me and my *herding tools* -  he charges at me and I holler at him, shaking the herding *tools*.  He stops for a bit and then starts running down to the pond -   NO NO NO NO NO  I do not want to walk thru the growing hay (thinking  SNAKES) to go after him.  But I put my fear aside as I am now on a MISSION to get that bull calf back up to the *yard* so I can herd him to the gate.  Finally got him back up and went to open the big gate to herd him thru but by this time all the commotion has the rest of the herd heading to the feed pen thinking I am going to give them some grain.  Can’t open the gate now because I’ll have the entire herd in the yard and the Bossman would NOT be happy about that.

I tried calling the Bossman – no answer.  So, I am out of breath – tired of playing Cowgirl without a horse and rope – and have decided that as long as that calf stays up here he can stay out until the Bossman returns later.

That is my morning – so far…..    and I still have all that backed up email to try to get thru.

oh forgot to mention -  the nice cool weather I have been enjoying is no more — – 80′s + are to be the norm from here to next winter I am told.  Since I am not a Hot Weather girl I am going to have to get used to the A/C – which I am not crazy about but I wouldn’t survive in Texas without it.

Just thought I would share my morning with readers -  I do a lot more than sit in front of this computer….    Oh, I also transplanted about 7 starts from pink grapefruit seeds.  If you haven’t grown a grapefruit plant from seeds you are missing some fun.  They make great houseplants and they do get BIG.   Had one in Centralia that the previous owners left because it was too big to move.  Another fun plant is from a sweet potato -  it will vine all over the place -  cheap and easy house plants.

Jackie Juntti
Living in OCCUPIED AMERICA under the rule of lunatics who were let out of the asylums.

Thanks to the explosion of child pornography, the demand for sex with minors and sexual materials featuring children is skyrocketing. The demand far outweighs the supply.

As a result, children and young teens are being kidnapped and forced to perform for money under threat of death.

As unbelievable as this may sound, this is happening in virtually every country and every state in the union, including at least five cities in Washington.

Buyers will pay hundreds–sometimes thousands–of dollars for a young child or teen. The market is unimaginably lucrative. To criminals, children and teens are expensive products that can be sold repeatedly, yet cost little or nothing to acquire and maintain. That’s the formula for modern day sex slavery.

ANOTHER KIND OF SEX PREDATOR

The youngest children are simply being kidnapped and moved from one part of the country to another. The older ones, generally age 12 to 17, are befriended by a good-looking young man or woman, who acts friendly and gives them expensive gifts.

After a reasonable period, the “friend” suggests a sleepover or weekend trip. The girl is then taken to secret location where the actual pimp takes possession of her. She is then drugged, raped and child sex trafficking.jpgbeaten regularly and forced into prostitution. She is threatened with death if she tries to escape. She is then moved from city to city and sold to an endless stream of strangers.

In an attempt to stem the tide of child sex trafficking in Washington, I have introduced a bill to help rescue these exploited children and severely punish those who take their innocence.

Senate Bill 6476 would dramatically increase penalties for recruiting, selling, transporting or purchasing underage children for sexual purposes.

SEVERE PENALTIES FOR SEX TRAFFICKING

The bill would raise the penalties for commercial sex abuse of a minor (“pimping”) to a Class A felony, carrying a 7- to 26-year prison sentence and a maximum $5,000 fine. Currently it’s a Class B felony, which carries a minimum sentence of just 1.75 years. The bill would elevate commercial sex abuse of a minor (buying) from a Class C felony with a $550 fine to a Class B felony, with a 1.75- to 12-year sentence and an additional $5,000 fine.

In the case of adult prostitution, law enforcement officers are trained to arrest and charge the prostitute, while only marginally addressing the seller and buyer. In the case of minors, or those who were kidnapped or coerced into prostitution as minors, police are dealing with victims.

As children and teens, they had no choice. These kids have been so abused they don’t know who to trust. They have no safe place to go. To treat them as criminals simply adds another bad dream to an already nightmarish existence.

CHILD VICTIMS NEED SAFETY

My bill would provide these exploited children with a safe haven, where they can be helped out of bondage and into a new life. It would also help focus law enforcement attention where it should be: on the recruiters, buyers and sellers.

The bill was heard by the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee and will likely move on to the full Senate for a vote. I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

Sincerely,

AT WHAT POINT DO WE GO BANKRUPT?

Frankly, I’m worried for our nation and for the state of Washington.

Within the next 12 months, the United States Treasury must refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt, along with additional deficit spending, estimated at $1.5 trillion.

This is simple economics: The Treasury can’t borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year. That’s nearly 30 percent of our entire Gross Domestic Product! Where will the money come from?

Typically, to minimize its interest burden, the Treasury borrows for short durations and then “rolls over” the loans when they come due. In theory, as long as they can extend the debt, there’s no problem. And that has led to ever greater amounts of debt for ever shorter durations at ever lower interest rates.

PAYDAY IS SOMEDAY

Sooner or later, creditors start asking themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that’s when the trouble starts. Interest rates soar. Funding costs skyrocket. And bankruptcy is certain.

In fact, economists Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti created a formula to accurately predict when a country will go bankrupt, or “default.” The Greenspan-Guidotti Rule is simple: If a country does not have enough in reserves (savings) to cover all of its foreign short-term debts when they become due, it will default.

When this happens, we become a terrible credit risk, and speculators target our bonds and currency, making it impossible to refinance the debt. Then default is certain. Using this scale, the U.S. has reached guaranteed default.

BIG DEBT, LITTLE SAVINGS

The U.S. holds 8,133.5 metric tons of gold worth about $300 billion, 725 million barrels of oil reserves worth roughly $58 billion, and $136 billion in foreign currency reserves. Altogether that’s about $500 billion of reserves.

Foreigners own 44 percent of our debts, which means we will owe them at least $880 billion in the next 12 months – an amount far larger than our reserves. With $1.5 trillion more of deficit spending slated for this year, our total funding requirements will top $3.5 trillion.

As the United States continues to move closer to defaulting, creditors hesitate to buy our bonds knowing the value of the payback is uncertain. If the U.S. defaults, our state’s ability to borrow and our businesses’ ability to borrow and grow local economies will also be at risk.

We will only become solvent again when the government stops spending – both at the state and federal level.

Sincerely,

Since just before the election of Barack Obama in November, it has been interesting and quite shocking that a forty-year old, seemingly forgotten radical group called “Weatherman” is getting so much attention. Of course, Obama denies any connection to old Weathermen. Here’s a quick history of the “Weathermen” and why it’s relevant to a new president calling for an undefined “change.

You’ve heard the famous names: Bill Ayres, Mark Rudd, Bernadine Dohrn and Jeff Jones, among others. Today, Ayres describes himself as a professor; Dohrn is his wife and a clinical law professor, Jeff Jones, predictably is an environmentalist and political consultant, and Mark Rudd is now a teacher. Just normal Americans, living their lives. Really?

In 1962, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was born. It was a radical organization of college students. SDS quickly became the opposition to the Viet Nam War. They organized demonstrations on college campuses across the nation to mobilize students to take “direct action” against “racism, poverty and war.” In 1963, SDS got involved in “community organizing”, teaming up with the Black Panthers, the Hispanic Young Lords, and other radical organizations.

By 1966, SDS was moving in a revolutionary Marxist direction. Their demonstrations and marches became violent clashes with police, many turning into riots. About the same time, SDS was joined by the Progressive Labor Party (PL), a self-styled Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party, dedicated to implementing communist ideology.

By 1969, a majority of SDS found the PL’s strict Marxist ideology too restraining, hurting organizing and recruiting efforts. At the same time, SDS leaders were looking for a more long-term agenda to bring about a communist revolution in the United States. Simply fighting the war was too limiting. In June 1969, SDS held a raucous convention in which the PL was tossed out of SDS and a new faction took control. That faction was called “Weatherman.” It issued a long, rambling manifesto detailing the future direction of the movement. The document was entitled “You Don’t Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows.” The title was taken from a Bob Dylan song.

The manifesto detailed Weatherman ideology and the means to create a Marxist revolution in “Amerika.” Some of its chapter titles include: “The Struggle for Socialist Self-Determination;” “Black Liberation Means Revolution;” “Anti-Imperialist Revolution and The United Front;” “The Revolutionary Youth Movement – Class Analysis;” and “Repression and Revolution.” The document called for a class war against America’s free market society. It talked of joining up with Marxist revolutions around the world, in China, in Cuba, and more. It called for the creation of a “Revolutionary Party.” Above all, it called for war against what Weatherman called “Amerika.”

Why is that significant today? Because the authors of the document were the leaders of Weatherman – Mark Rudd, Bill Ayres, Bernadine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, and others. Weatherman’s first public act was what it called “Days of Rage.” It called on students to leave their classrooms and engage in three days of violence and street demonstrations. They smashed windows of businesses and cars, and attacked police lines. Mark Rudd himself was arrested in Chicago while leading the violence. The result of the three days of violence was 287 people arrested, 800 automobiles and 600 windows were smashed. The combined bail was over $2 million.

In spite of the damage, Weatherman was disappointed with the turn out of demonstrators. They had hoped to bring thousands to the streets, rather than the three to five hundred who turned out. Mark Rudd and the other Weathermen concluded that white people weren’t ready to engage in revolution, as did their “black brothers” in the Black Panthers. To win, decided the Weathermen, whites had to share some of the cost of revolution by “picking up the gun.” To not do so was racist, they believed.

That decision led Weatherman leaders Ayres, Dohrn, Rudd and Jones to make the decision to declare war on “Imperialist Amerika” by going underground to foster direct violence against the state. They then became known as the “Weather Underground.”

During their reign of terror, the Weather Underground bombed corporate headquarters, burned ROTC buildings on college campuses, and even planted a bomb in the US Capitol building. They used anti-personnel bombs filled with nails, staples and other shrapnel designed to hurt and kill people. Several of those bombs were planted in police stations resulting in the murder of Police Sgt. Brian McDonnell in San Francisco; another officer was permanently maimed and two others were injured in that attack. A police informant, Larry Grathwohl, who working inside the Weather Underground, reported that Bill Ayres planned the bombing and Bernadine Dohrn planted it. There were more such bombings in other cities. Later, Mark Rudd was the sole survivor of a bomb explosion that went off as he was building it in a Weather Underground safe house in New York. That bomb and more were to be placed in a dance hall at the Fort Dix Army base. They would have killed hundreds of soldiers and their dates.

As they engaged in their revolution, the Underground would, from time to time issue “Communiques,” much like Osama Bin Laden does today, to send messages to followers. In “Communique #1 From the Weather Underground,” it reads, in part, “Hello. This is Bernadine Dohrn. I’m going to read A DECLARATION OF A STATE OF WAR” (emphasis hers). In the document she warned, “Within the next fourteen days we will attack a symbol or institution of Amerikan injustice.” It was issued on May 21, 1970.

On June 9, 1970, came “Communique #2 From The Weather Underground.” It reported, “Tonight at 7 PM, we blew up the N.Y.C. police headquarters…. The pigs in this country are our enemies…. The time is now. Political power grows out of a gun, a Molotov, a riot, a commune…and from the soul of the people.”

There’s much more to the history of violence and revolution pulled off or attempted by Ayres, Rudd, Dohrn and Jones (and others in their clan). But these examples should give anyone enough of an idea as to their dedication to destroying America.

But what does that have to do with today? And how does it connect to Barack Obama? The bad boys and girls of the Sixties like to portray themselves as just some college kids that got a little carried away. It’s in the past, says the news media. It has nothing to do with today – or Barack Obama, say his supporters.

It is vital that Americans understand that these were dedicated revolutionaries determined to destroy America, by violence if necessary. They used every means possible to recruit America’s youth into their revolt. They marched in the street, chanted pro Mao slogans, started riots, disrupted schools, burned college buildings, and eventually bombed symbols of the American establishment they hated, resulting in the deaths and maiming of police officers sworn to protect it.

These were not just over-active college kids. The agenda they followed sought to destroy every aspect of American life. They hated private property and wanted it all redistributed with no ownership – like the communes they chose to live on. They hated free enterprise and wanted all business run by the workers – no bosses, no owners. The only private business they would tolerate were those run by individuals that hired no one. They knew to achieve these things they had to start by changing the history taught to a young generation in the schools. They hated religion and wanted to run it out of the country. They hated the family unit, saying it subjugated women, who should be liberated. They sought to build divides between the rich and the poor, creating a class struggle in America that really didn’t exist before. And they didn’t hesitate to use violence to achieve their goals.

When the violence failed, the Weatherman core and their followers didn’t give up or fade away. They remained underground in a new way. They melded into society, they took teaching positions in college to reach that younger generation. They took jobs in the media to take control of its message. They worked their way up in the hated corporations to gain control of policy. And they surged into government at all levels, boring into the core of America, to impose their agenda at every chance, from the Federal government to state legislatures to city councils. Today, for example, we have Congressman Bobby Seal, one of the infamous Chicago Eight; State Senator Tom Haydon, the founder of the SDS and another of the Chicago Eight.

It’s interesting to note that a great number of the members of the “revolution” went into the environmental movement. Unable to get Americans to outright accept Marxist ideology in their revolution, instead they wrapped it all in a nice green blanket of environmental protection. Ever since, under the banner of environmental protection Americans have happily tossed their liberties on the bon fire like a good old-fashioned book burning. They accepted the premise that private property and business must be controlled or destroyed, simply for the good of the environment. It’s not just a happy coincidence. In this way, the revolution of the sixties is now progressing at a rapid pace.

And what of Ayres, Dorhn, Rudd and Jones?

Ayres took the route into education as a professor. But that certainly hasn’t replaced his activism for the cause of communism. Recently he traveled to the new red Mecca, Venezuela, a nation quickly falling behind a new red curtain of tyranny under Hugo Chavez. Ayres is influential enough with the new American-hating dictator to meet with him and appear on the same platform. There, Ayres proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share this belief that education is the motor-force of revolution… I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane…” Does it sound like Ayres has changed a single stripe from his “college activist” days?

Mark Rudd also went into education. He feels at home there, after all, he is the man who shut down Columbia University with a student strike in the Sixties. And he is still active in the cause. Recently, he turned up making comments on a radical blog called Rag Blog, where he attempted to calm nervous “progressives” (a new euphemism coined a few years back to provide cover for those who didn’t want to be called communists). The “Progressives were growing nervous by the cabinet appointments Obama has been making. These people are so radical that they actually consider Hillary Clinton to be from the right! Of course keeping a bunch of old Clintonestas, not to mention a Bush holdover like Secretary of Defense Gates, has caused great concern for those who thought Obama was the answer to the revolution. Said Rudd, the Obama appointments are part of a deliberate strategy to “feint to the right” and “move left.” He said, “Any other strategy invites sure defeat.” Rudd, to be sure, wants Obama to be victorious in his goals. Now why would that be? Rudd is a dedicated communist, yesterday, today and tomorrow, seeking to destroy the American way of life.

Jones is now a political consultant and a dedicated environmentalist. One of his clients is the Natural Resources Defense Council, a radical environmental group made up of some of the most radical and most vicious lawyers ever assembled. Some on Capitol Hill have called them a street gang. They are revolutionaries in suits. They intimidate companies with their lawsuits and delight in suing the government to get their way. Their lawsuits help stop the drilling of American oil and American logging, and more. And when they win, they fill their coffers with taxpayer money as reimbursement for their legal costs. It’s the proper place for a former underground terrorist.

Dohrn is Ayres’ wife. They went underground together in the old days of the revolution. Today she continues to spread her brand of revolution by reaching into the community of families as a clinical law professor and director of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University. She forces children’s rights today to create tomorrow’s revolutionaries.

Still, what is the Obama connection to these dedicated revolutionaries? It’s perhaps ironic that all four former Weatherman terrorists today work through an organization called “Movement for a Democratic Society.” That organization is the parent to another one called “Progressives for Obama.” They raised funds for Obama, they promoted his candidacy, and they helped to recruit activists to support him.

In the past forty years, Ayres, Dorhn, Rudd, and Jones have not been heard from in the mainstream media. They have not been an issue in a presidential election. They have not openly promoted or supported a candidate, snubbing even John Kerry and Bill and Hillary Clinton as not being revolutionary enough for their agenda for the destruction of America. Until now – until Barack Obama. These four are dedicated Marxist revolutionaries. Why now? Why Obama? You don’t need a Weatherman to know why.

My most sincere wish for this Christmas day,
is that souls that are lost may find their way.
And that the hungry around me somehow be fed.
For the weary, I wish a pillow for resting their head.

For the hungry of spirit, I would seek as my goal,
that they should find satisfying food for their soul.
And for those who would long for a child today,
I wish them the laughter of children at play.

For those without love, who need love to find,
I wish someone to love them, who is thoughtful and kind.
And if there is someone without a song in their heart,
I wish that a melody within them would start.

For the homeless among us, who are sad and alone,
I wish them friendship and love, in a comfortable home.
And I wish the satisfaction of unselfish giving,
for those with a surplus in their daily living.

May the love that’s within us be spread all around,
and our spirit of giving in abundance be found.
Then, because we’ve responded in this positive way,
the Christ of Christmas will be honored today.

Thanksgiving to me is a lifestyle, not just one day of celebrating the abundance we enjoy with the people that we love. It is continually reflecting and giving thanks for all God’s goodness and grace. We may not have all that we want, but God has promised to provide all that we need (Php 4:19). Am I truly thankful for the way God has provided for me, or am I complaining about what I don’t have or cannot do? Am I jealous that my neighbor is prosperous while my finances are going down the tubes at a rather fast rate? Do I truly see the blessings God gives to me each day?

These are the thoughts I ponder daily. God, in His great mercy, lovingly shows me His ways and His plans for what my life is all about, and what to truly be thankful for. I am thankful that the struggles of this life will not last forever, and that this is not my home. Lamentations 3:21-26 says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassion’s never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Jesus taught us that life is about giving, and not just during the holidays. Giving isn’t about sending money to some ministry, it’s about helping others, giving of our time, and sharing all that we have with others. It’s about reaching out beyond ourselves and showing compassion and understanding – even to our enemies. It’s about loving, forgiving, and going the second mile. Jesus said, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Mat 5:41)

God’s promises for giving are found in 2 Corinthians 9:6-12. “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.’ Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”

Yes, I do enjoy a day of celebrating with family and friends, making memories, and telling my loved ones why I am so thankful for each of them. However, I am just beginning to realize that the depth of true thanksgiving is in knowing that it has nothing to do with me. It’s all about what Christ has done for me, and what He is continuing to do through me and for me. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-7)” This is what I am truly thankful for, and this is what Thanksgiving means to me.