If you aren't upset, you aren't paying attention

If you aren't upset, you aren't paying attention. Obama says he will seek to block the court-ordered release of photographs depicting the abuse of detainees held by U.S. authorities abroad. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051301751_pf.html
Meanwhile torture continues at Quantanamo Bay. (see more below)http://www.alternet.org/story/140022/
Obama administration will announce plans today to revive the Bush-era military commission system for prosecuting terrorism suspects (they always had a UN observer at these kangaroo court trials, you can follow it at the UN website, I believe)http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-military-tribunal15-2009may15,0,4322036.story
Calls to create an outside "truth commission" are gaining momentum in both the House and Senatehttp://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/05/14/to-probe-detainee-abuse-congress-leans-toward-outsourcing/

Did you look at these articles? Seymour Hersh, an investigative reorter who gave us information on Watergate and military abuses in Vietnam, I have waited for his comments since last year, reports:
Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it.Hersh: "Debating about it, ummm ... Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out." http://www.truthout.org/051509J

What follows next are exerpts from the IRF article. "One day they took me to a room that had very large snakes in glass boxes. The room was all painted black-and-white, with dim lights. They threatened to leave me there and let the snakes out with me in the room. This really got to me, as there were such sick people that they must have had this room specially made."

"They brought their pepper spray and held him down. They held both of his eyes open and sprayed it into his eyes and later took a towel soaked in pepper spray and rubbed it in his eyes."Omar could not see from either eye for two weeks, but he gradually got sight back in one eye."He's totally blind in the right eye. I can report that his right eye is all white and milky -- he can't see out of it because he has been blinded by the U.S. in Guantánamo."

ERF-ing Omar -- The Feces Incident On one of the ERF-ing incidents where Omar was abused, the officer in charge himself came into the cell with the feces of another prisoners [sic] and smeared it onto Omar's face. While some prisoners had thrown feces at the abusive guards, Omar had always emphatically refused to sink to this level. The experience was one of the most disgusting in Omar's life.
ERF-ing Omar -- The Toilet Incident In April or May 2004, when the Guantánamo administration insisted on taking Omar's English-language Quran, he objected. The ERF team came into Omar's cell and put him in shackles. He was not resisting. They then put his head in the toilet, pressed his face into the water. They repeatedly flushed it.

ERF-ing Omar -- The Beating In one ERF-ing incident, Omar was shackled by three American soldiers in their black Darth Vader Star Wars uniforms. The first was going to punch Omar, but before he could, the second kneed Omar in the nose, trying to break it. The third queried this, and the second said, "If his nose is broken, that's good. We want to break his ******* nose." The third soldier then took him to hospital.

ERF-ing Omar -- The Drowning The ERF team came into the cell with a water hose under very high pressure. He was totally shackled, and they would hold his head fixed still. They would force water up his nose until he was suffocating and would scream for them to stop. This was done with medical staff present, and they would join in. Omar is particularly affected by the fact that there was one nurse who "had been very beautiful and kind" to him to [sic] took part in the process. This happened three times.

ERF-ing Omar -- Tango Block Omar was out on the Tango block rec yard when 15 ERF soldiers came, with two other soldiers in the towers, armed with guns. They grabbed him (and others) and sprayed him.They then pulled him up into the air and slammed his face down, on the left side, on the concrete. They had someone from the hospital there, and she just watched. She then came up to him and asked whether he was OK. He was taken off to isolation after that."

The first man is meant to go in with a shield. On this occasion, the man with the shield threw the shield away, took his helmet off, when the door was unlocked ran in and did a knee drop onto Jumah's back just between his shoulder blades with his full weight. He must have been about 240 pounds in weight. His name was Smith. He was a sergeant E-5. Once he had done that, the others came in and were punching and kicking Jumah. While they were doing that the female officer then came in and was kicking his stomach. Jumah had had an operation and had metal rods in his stomach clamped together in the operation."

The officer Smith was the MP sergeant who was punching him. He grabbed his head with one hand and with the other hand punched him repeatedly in the face. His nose was broken. He pushed his face, and he smashed it into the concrete floor. All of this should be on video. There was blood everywhere. When they took him out, they hosed the cell down and the water ran red with blood. We all saw it."

According to Tarver, "Nasal gastric (NG) tubes [were removed] by placing a foot on one end of the tube and yanking the detainee's head back by his hair, causing the tube to be painfully ejected from the detainee's nose. Then, in front of the Guantanamo physicians … the guards took NG tubes from one detainee, and with no sanitization whatsoever, reinserted it into the nose of a different detainee. When these tubes were reinserted, the detainees could see the blood and stomach bile from the other detainees remaining on the tubes." Medical staff, according to Tarver, made no effort to intervene. This was one of many incidents where IRF teams facilitated such force-feeding.

Jamal al-Harith claims he was beaten by a five-man IRF team for refusing an injection: "I was terrified of what they were going to do. I had seen victims of [IRF] being paraded in front of my cell. They were battered and bruised into submission. It was a horrible sight and a frequent sight. … They were really gung-ho, hyped up and aggressive. One of them attacked me really hard and left me with a deep red mark from my backbone down to my knee. I thought I was bleeding, but it was just really bad bruising."

They grabbed my arms, my legs, twisted me up and, unfortunately, one of the individuals got up on my back from behind and put pressure down on me while I was face down. Then he -- the same individual -- reached around and began to choke me and press my head down against the steel floor. After several seconds, 20 to 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity because I couldn't breathe. When I couldn't breathe, I began to panic and I gave the code word I was supposed to give to stop the exercise, which was 'red.' … That individual slammed my head against the floor and continued to choke me. Somehow I got enough air. I muttered out: 'I'm a U.S. soldier. I'm a U.S. soldier.'"After I stopped talking, and tears were flowing from my eyes, I could hardly see or breathe."They then beat me again to the ground, one of them held my head and beat it against the ground. I started screaming to his senior 'see what he's doing, see what he's doing' [but] his senior started laughing and said 'he's doing his job.'"

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

After reading this article,
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/408/story/702093.html

3,500 children in public schools, plus an untold number of their younger siblings. Homeless in Charlotte. "There are pockets of folks energized around their efforts," said Bert Green, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte. "But there's no one organization that's trying to pull all these groups together and say: ‘This is our strategic plan.' We know what we need to do. I don't think there's a political will out there to do it."

No political will. So I wondered why not? Haven't I heard for many years people say that they voted for a candidate based on 'values'? So I chose nine senators who recieved 100% rating from an organization called 'Christian Voice,' back in 1992, to get people who have consistantly enjoyed the support of Christians.

"The Christian Voice is one of the largest conservative evangelical lobbys in Washington. "Devoted to reviving religious freedom in helping make Christians good stewards."

Fast forward to today. I have taken these same nine Congressmen and compared their rating by the Christian Coalition, the Chamber of Commerce, and RESULTS.

I tried to find three groups who would represent the issues that must be addressed in todays recession. Christian Coalition, Chamber of Commerce, and RESULTS. Here is what they each claim to be about.

"The Christian Coalition was founded in 1989 by Dr. Pat Robertson to give Christians a voice in government. We represent millions of people of faith and enable them to have a strong, unified voice in the conversation we call democracyOur Five-Fold Mission: Represent the pro-family point of view before local councils, school boards, state legislatures, and Congress Speak out in the public arena and in the media Train leaders for effective social and political action Inform pro-family voters about timely issues and legislation Protest anti-Christian bigotry and defend the rights of people of faith"

"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions. It includes hundreds of associations, thousands of local chambers, and 111 American Chambers of Commerce in 99 countries.Whether you own a business, represent one, lead a corporate office, or manage an association, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America® provides you with a voice of experience and influence in Washington, D.C., and around the globe. Our core mission is to fight for business and free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world."

"RESULTS is a nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization committed to creating the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty. RESULTS is committed to individuals exercising their personal and political power by lobbying elected officials for effective solutions and key policies that affect hunger and poverty.RESULTS Educational Fund is committed to educating the public, the media, and leaders about issues related to poverty and hunger in the United States and abroad. We hold public forums, train citizens in democracy, hold media conference calls to share the latest information, and produce quality oversight research to determine the effectiveness of programs for the poor. RESULTS Educational Fund is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt nonprofit organization."

Here is how our 9 'Christian' Congressmen are rated today, 2008.
Christian Coalition
80,100,100,100,100,100,90,100,100

Chamber of Commerce
100,80,75,80,90,90,88,79,75

RESULTS
8,11,21,62,21,9,11,11,5

So is there really a chance that goals of 'millions of people of faith' and 'business and free enterprise' are the same goals?

I chose a group that represents 'issues related to poverty and hunger' because of Jesus words in Mathew 27:35-40 "Then the righteous will say to him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you something to eat, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or see you naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? The king will answer them, 'I tell you with certainty, since you did it for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.' I welcome you to repeat this research yourself. I used a resource called Project Votesmart http://votesmart.org/program_about_pvs.php

So Many Baptists Went to Hell

So many Baptists died before 1979, and they never knew they were going to Hell, because they believed in the religious truths were without error, and not a litteral interpretation of the Bible. So if you did not believe the world was created in 6 days it was not going to interfere with your salvation, or so they thought.....
Well i am all for the return of moderate Christianity.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060829152111/religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/sbaptists.html




The biggest issue on which the two sides differed was biblical authority. Both sides saw the Bible as the central authority in one's life but the fundamentalists believed the history and religious teachings to be without error, while the moderates believed only the religious truths to be without error.

Dividing the two sides was also the issue of pastoral authority. The fundamentalists believed in a pattern of authority where a husband has authority over his wife and a pastor over his church. Due to this hierarchy fundamentalists saw it inappropriate for a woman to be ordained as a pastor. The moderates thought any believer should have a right to be an ordained pastor.

The two sides also tended to differ on various social and political issues as well. Fundamentalists were not supportive issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment. The fundamentalists strongly believed in the issues they took a stand on and would fight diligently to see these issues implemented in the SBC. On the other side the moderates did not have anywhere close to a unanimous decision on any of these political or social issues.

The two sides differed dramatically on what they believed to be important about being a Baptist. The key for the fundamentalists was that they needed a way to get their views and ideas into the SBC, which was dominated by the moderate people who were leading the SBC in a direction, which they didn't want to go. 21 .

This controversy began to unfold within the Southern Baptist Convention during the late 1970's and continued to dominate the denomination's attention for the balance of the century. The conflict was presaged by a doctrinal controversy that erupted over a book published by Midwestern Seminary Professor named Ralph Elliott in 1961. Elliott argued that the book of Genesis was not to be taken literally.

Conservative Baptists believing that every word in the Bible is true and should be taken literally, Elliott's book sparked considerable controversy. Tensions mounted and grew during the 1970's, but during this period the fundamentalists did not control the majore bureaucratic structures of the SBC and, thus, were viewed as a minority. During the 1970's they made their views known, but had to maintain a stance of loyal opposition. 20 .
During the late 1970's fundamentalist, Paul Pressler, a Baptist layman and distinguished Houston judge, thought he figured out how the denomination's power structure could be wrestled from the control of the denominations moderates. He shared his views with Paaige Patterson, the youthful president of the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, who agreed to join him in a crusade to win control of the Southern Baptist Convention for fundamentalism.

Their efforts would change the fundamentalist movement from one of loyal opposition to a movement focused at taking over the offices and key positions inside the denomination so that their ideas and beliefs could be spread throughout Southern Baptist thought.

The most basic idea underly Pressler's strategy was for the fundamentalists to successfully elect presidents from year to year. By doing so they could gain control of the appointive and nominating powers, control the boards and agencies of the SBC, and influence the SBC with their thoughts and beliefs.

In the late 70's Pressler and Patterson set their sights on 1979 as the year to win the presidency. In the years prior to this convention in 1979, the fundamentalists began organizing a way to win this election. Since the messengers at the convention vote on the president, the fundamentalists simply spread the word to others that had fundamentalist ideas to come to the convention and vote for the president. The fundamentalists basically brought more people to vote than there were moderates and as a result fundamentalist Adrian Rogers won the presidency in 1979. This signaled the beginning in the fundamentalist takeover and from here on in the moderates would never really come close to defeating the fundamentalists. 22 .

With Rogers as president, the fundamentalists began laying out the groundwork for their takeover of the SBC. The messengers who attended the convention elected the president of the SBC. The fundamentalists simply had to go to fundamentalist churches and convince people to attend and vote for their desired president.

From here the president of the SBC appointed a Committee on Committees and this committee then nominated a Committee on Nominations and this committee nominated people to fill the vacancies of standing committees and boards of trustees. When the fundamentalists won the presidency year after year the president simply would stack the Committee on Committees with people who had fundamentalist ideas and from here fundamentalists would be appointed and nominated to head boards, agencies and any other vacancies. By doing this, within ten years the SBC was under complete control of the fundamentalists. They could easily appoint the necessary people to whatever position and could pass almost Resolution they so desired. 23 .

As fundamentalists rapidly took control of the SBC they began making the necessary changes they deemed appropriate. In 1984, a resolution was passed at the convention in Kansas City, which excluded women from pastoral roles because the woman was first in the Edenic fall. By 1985, the fundamentalists had been appointing trustees for boards who were proven to be inerrantists to institute their policies. The fundamentalists were convinced that agencies were not being governed under biblical principals and they wanted the right people in office to ensure biblical principles would be applied. 24 . In 1982, fundamentalists succeeded in passing resolutions that supported the prohibition of abortion and sanctioning voluntary school prayer. 25 . For years and years the moderates continued to fight against the fundamentalists only to lose virtually every time on every issue. One can only be left to wonder how and why were the fundamentalists so successful in their endeavors to control the Southern Baptist Convention.

Despite the efforts of the moderates to combat the takeover by the fundamentalists they lost the battle for several reasons. First of all, when Rogers first won the presidency in 1979 many of them simply brushed it off as a fluke. Many of them believed that such a takeover would never succeed so they never took the takeover as anything serious. In 1980, when Pressler gave his "Going for the Jugular" speech in which he planned to takeover the convention by electing presidents and controlling appointments, the moderates finally took this takeover seriously. Even this wouldn't help the moderates much. The fundamentalists were simply more powerful and motivating speakers. They had the ability to move crowds and persuade huge churches to listen to what they had to say. It was partly this reason that allowed Pressler and Patterson to gather the large crowds of messengers necessary to help them elect presidents.

The inability of the moderates to gather support for their cause also contributed to a fundamentalist victory. The moderates could not gather enough support because only the older people who had dedicated their lives to the SBC were willing to take on the fight. Younger people simply were not willing to dedicate their lives to a fight with the fundamentalists.
Moderates also lacked the understanding of the presidential election process. They viewed nomination for presidency as a great achievement in itself and would sometimes nominate two or three people making it impossible to win the presidency with that many candidates.

Each side constituted about 35 percent of all Southern Baptists so they each faced the challenge of trying to win the support of the other 30 percent. The fundamentalists won over the majority of these people because they were such excellent speakers. They were better speakers and tended to speak to larger crowds. The fundamentalists also had the support of well-known people like Billy Graham and Ronald Reagan. Fundamentalists also were the first to mass mail their literature to all the SBC churches in hopes of winning their support.
Fundamentalists were also deeply dedicated to their cause as a clear majority went to the conventions only to vote for the president while the moderates attended for other reasons like to hear the sermons or just out of habit. Dedication to establishing biblical inerrancy throughout the Southern Baptist Convention led the fundamentalists to fight long and hard for their cause. Even today fundamentalists continue to take firm stands on their beliefs and they will continue into the future. 26 .

It took ten years, as Pressler and Paige strategized, for the fundamentalists to successfully control the bureaucracy of the Southern Baptist Convention. They controlled virtually every aspect of the SBC and the decisions made throughout the 1990's showed this dramatically. In 1992, two churches were disfellowshipped from the SBC. One for approving the ordination of a gay man and the other blessing the union of two gay people. 27 .
The fundamentalists have pursued a number of tactical programs that continue to generate internal conflict and keep the SBC in high profile the broader culture. One very controversial decision the Southern Baptists was the decision to boycott the Walt Disney Company in 1997. They objected to Disney's so-called anti-family and anti- Christian direction. They objected to Disney giving benefits to same sex partners and for having "Gay Days", where gays could come to their theme parks and celebrate openly. 28 .

Another controversy arose in the late 1990s when the Southern Baptists, having selected to meet in Salt Lake City, angered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by pursuing an aggressive program of proselytization among Mormons before and during the convention.
For a good many years it has seemed like a split or schism in the Southern Baptist Convention could be near. As early as 1987, some moderates, disappointed by their inability to stop the fundamentalist takeover, formed the Southern Baptist Alliance. The Alliance, formed with the goal of being an opposition group within the denomination, has attracted a substantial following. There has been talk of forming a separate denomination but it is not clear this will happen, but it is not clear that such a split in the SBC will ever happen. 29 .

In 1997, the largest state convention, the Baptist General Convention of Texas split from the SBC. This led people to believe that a schism within the SBC could be closer than previously thought. 30 . In 1999 Paige Patterson was elected president of the SBC and, perhaps in a genture to encourage dissidents to leave, predicted there would be a split.
Still, a schism within the SBC is probably not likely. A major reason for this is the high degree of autonomy that each local congregation maintains. Ministers, and their congregations may disagree with the leadership direction of the SBC, but what happens at the national level has little, if any, affect them. Thus, if churches feel that the convention is irrelevant to them, there is little initiative to leave. In the late 1980's Nany Ammerman, the leading scholar of Southern Baptists conducted a study and concluded that most churches anticipated no changes at all in their church despite the fundamentalist takeover. If people today still feel that they and their church are autonomous from the national convention then a schism is very unlikely to occur. 31 .

PHNP Activism in DC

Three doctors were arrested for asking that single payer healthcare be represented at the Senate Committee Finance meeting for healthcare reform, Please see the link below to email Senator Baucus and tell him to include single payer advocates. Please support these smart, caring individuals.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=cKY5h8hkQ6NSq5stHNyiIH1Xa4oVpMF9

Video of the incident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKP05AyfRsI

Members of the Senate Finance Committee
Max BAUCUS, MT, John D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV, Kent CONRAD, ND, Jeff BINGAMAN, NM, John F. KERRY, MA, Blance L. LINCOLN, AR, Ron WYDEN, OR, Charles E. SCHUMER, NY, Debbie STABENOW, MI, Maria CANTWELL, WA, Bill NELSON, FL, Robert MENENDEZ, NJ, Thomas CARPER, DE, Chuck GRASSLEY, IA, Orrin G. HATCH, UT, Olympia J. SNOWE, ME, Jon KYL, AZ, Jim BUNNING, KY, Mike CRAPO, ID, Pat ROBERTS, KS, John ENSIGN, NV, Mike ENZI, WY, John CORNYN, TX

I think the comments under the video speak for themselves.

Smörgåstårta

This word, Smörgåstårta, means sandwich cake. It is a really fun thing to have for all types of family celebrations. We have them to celebrate birthdays, and customize the ingredients for the person whose birthday it happens to be.

I will give a basic idea of how it is constructed, and warn you it is a calorie bomb in its original form, and tastes even better the next day.

Brainstorm four to five sandwich filligs that you like. I will list some suggestions: chopped ham and cheese, chicken salad, seafood salads, mimosa salad, boiled egg with cheese, braunschweiger or lever pastej, sliced sausage, shrimp, smoked salmon

We use approx 1.5 loaves of white sandwich bread and remove the crusts. Build up layers as a lasagna and top with bread. For the icing, a 50/50 mixture of whipped cream and mayonaise(some use cream cheese instead of mayo) spread thinly over the cake.

We stop here, wrap it up, and decorate the cake near time to serve it. Cherry tomatoes, smoked salmon, caviar, cucumbers or sliced lemon are just some ideas for decoration, use your imagination!

Rhubarb Strawberry Pie

Rhubarb is in plentiful supply in Sweden and there is even rhubarb candy, which i never had til I came here. Here is a recipe for a typical fruit pie, in this case rhubarb and strawberry, but also rhubarb apple is good.

15 dl or 7.5 cups of chopped fruit
5 Tbl potato or corn starch
1 cup of white sugar divided
1/2 cup of brown sugar
50 dl or about 1/2 stick of margarine, chilled
2 dl or 1 cup of white flour (half of this can be replaced with quick cooking oats if desired)
1 tsp cinnamon

Toss the chopped fruit with starch and 1/2 cup of white sugar
Arrange in the pie plate
Combine the remaining 1/2 cup of white sugar, brown sugar, margarine, flour with oats if you are using that and cinnamon, and pinch it together with your fingers until the entire mixture has a texture as crumbs
Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the fruit and bake for 35-45 minutes at 350 farenheit or 175 celsius.
The fruit mixture will bubble at the sides of the plate and the topping wil take on a brown color.

Fiskgratäng

Fiskgratäng is a very simple delicious way to enjoy seafood, we commonly use frozen filets of Pangasius or Cod. I think whiting or pollok would do fine, and try this recipe with any other seafood as shrimp, scallops. I am not sure about mussels, squid, or fish steaks, but why not?

Half Kilo or about a pound of fish filets, or other seafood

Mashed potato, enough to serve approx 6

2 egg yokes

1.25 cups, or 2.5 dl of cream

1 tsp of crushed rose peppercorns

Dill, fresh chopped or dried

Make up mashed potatoes for 6 people, instant works fine. You then add a couple egg yokes and to the potatoes to give it a richer color. Arrange the potatoes around the dish with the seafood in the middle. The frozen fiskgratäng here in Sweden often has a decorative texture on the potatoes, I am still playing with that idea, as you can see in the picture. It tastes the same whether you dress it up or not! Pour cream over the seafood and sprinkle with a teaspoon of crushed rose peppercorns. We then top it off with dill and bake it until it is bubbley all through and the potatoes brown on the edges. Enjoy!