The lord and savior is to come from.... Florida?
"Charlie Crist wages populist campaign for Fla. governor; Ex-Republican embraces health law, higher wage" by Michael J. Mishak | Associated Press
MIAMI — When former GOP governor Charlie Crist announced that he would run for his old job as a Democrat in 2014, party leaders rejoiced at the prospect of a pragmatic candidate able to win back centrist Republicans and independent voters who had soured on incumbent Rick Scott.
But Crist is taking a hard turn left as his campaign begins to take shape.
He has embraced President Obama’s health care law even as many Democrats distance themselves from it. He supports efforts to legalize medical marijuana and to overturn the gay marriage ban he initially backed. He has called for an increase in the minimum wage, something he once voted against.
Related: Is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist Gay?
Good to see he has come out of the closet.
Also see:
"As he did earlier last week in Sweden, Holder will compare the struggle for LGBT equality to the 1960s civil rights movement for African- Americans."
It's not because gays were never denied the vote or had codified Jim Crowe against them, and then he has the gall to cite Robert Kennedy does the death sentence for Dzhokar and gun-running Fast and Furious AG of the US.
What to Expect for the 2014 Elections
Same old, same old....
‘‘Tallahassee is out of control,’’ he told supporters in declaring his candidacy. ‘‘The voice of the people has been silenced by the financial bullies and the special interests.’’
It always sounds good, but I've seen to much of this with the $tatus quo only getting wor$e.
In seizing on the issues and rhetoric animating activists, Crist has made his populist campaign in the nation’s largest swing state a critical test case of whether his new party’s ascendant liberal wing is gaining momentum or overreaching.
His appeals to economic populism could be particularly potent, with Florida voters identifying the economy as their chief concern this year.
We have $een that these guys never get anywhere in the political $y$tem.
Still, Crist’s approach concerns some Democrats.
Matt Bennett, a cofounder of the centrist Democratic group Third Way, warned that ‘‘us-versus-them, people-versus-powerful rhetoric’’ could hurt Democrats in the most contested states.
Should be called Corporate Way because that is what it is: it's a front group for corporations to "help" the Democratic Party.
Yeah, that rhetoric is only good for starting wars!
‘‘That will work with a slice of the base, but that will not resonate with the kind of swing voters you need to prevail in places like Florida,’’ he said. Democrats ‘‘need to talk about a much broader set of ideas to create opportunity.’’
So says the representative of the top 5%.
Nationally, Democrats are fighting to reshape the party after a devastating recession and amid a growing income gap.
(Blog editor leaves hanky for reader)
Some members of the party favor a centrist economic strategy similar to the one Bill Clinton used to revive a moribund party two decades ago.
Yeah, be more like Republicans and then wonder how you lost.
Liberals such as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren favor an aggressive populist approach. Democratic gubernatorial candidates in at least six states, including Florida, are making a minimum-wage increase a centerpiece of their campaigns.
That nice lady aggressive?
See: The Warren Wing of the Democratic Party
More like agre$$ive in my propaganda pre$$.
Republicans say a higher minimum wage could jeopardize economic gains in a recovery.
Related: "A strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent of earners."
And we wouldn't want to jeopardi$e that!
They would streamline regulations and provide training and education initiatives benefiting the private sector.
‘‘When I hear a politician say that we have to raise the minimum wage so working families can make ends meet, I cringe, because I know that statement is a lie,’’ Scott told the Tampa Bay Times last month. ‘‘Even if we did raise the minimum wage, working families will still not be able to make ends meet on those jobs. We need good jobs that lead to good careers for our families and that’s what I am focused on.’’
Unreal!
Just another of the current crop pif Repuglican a$$holes!
Scott argues that his spending reductions, tax cuts, and regulatory overhauls have built an ‘‘opportunity economy’’ by luring businesses to the state and helping create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
His latest budget proposal includes nearly $600 million in additional tax cuts, many of them aimed at consumers, including a rollback of auto registrations fees that were raised under Crist, who was governor from 2007 to 2011.
Mine are going up so banks can get paid, and where are those tax cuts going?
An overwhelming majority of Floridians say they generally are satisfied with their own personal financial situations. But their optimism hasn’t translated into strong confidence in the state’s economy or Scott.
Even as Florida outpaces the national recovery, just 38 percent believe the economy is getting better — the same percentage that thinks Scott deserves a second term, according to a Quinnipiac University survey last month.
It's another one of those ANTI-INCUMBENT ELECTIONS!
Crist, who ran as an independent in the US Senate race in 2010 that sent Republican Marco Rubio to Washington, and then switched to the Democratic Party in late 2012, hopes to tap into that sentiment.
Crist’s platform also helps him boost his standing with skeptical activists in his new party and endears him to wealthy Democratic donors.
Another fal$e prophet and $hit fooley!
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Related: Pope softening tone, not stance, O’Malley says
So he's going to be a real hard-ass, huh?
I'm a bad Catholic so I skipped the Globe sermon this morning, but at least I'm not a dirty Catholic:
"UN panel assails Vatican on priest abuse" by Michael Rezendes and Lisa Wangsness | Globe Staff, February 06, 2014
The Vatican was the subject Wednesday of a blistering critique by a UN human rights committee that accused the Catholic Church of systematically adopting policies that permitted priests to sexually abuse tens of thousands of children globally over the last several decades.
What about rabbis?
The United Nations committee faulted the church for failing to take effective measures to reveal the breadth of clergy sexual abuse in the past, and for not adopting measures to sufficiently protect Catholic children in the future.
Do you ever get tired of listening to someone scolding you?
“The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse,” the report said.
The report also criticized the church’s culture of secrecy and longstanding practice of silencing abuse victims in order to protect the reputation of priests and the church’s moral authority worldwide, asserting that the church had systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims.
On Wednesday, the general reaction to the UN’s condemnation of the Vatican was forceful and unequivocal....
The Vatican responded swiftly....
The UN report highlighted two issues that have long riled victims of clergy abuse and, more privately, many priests: the church’s failure to discipline bishops for permitting abusive priests to remain in ministry by shuttling them from one diocese to another, and the insistence by Vatican officials that they have limited authority over bishops and the priests who serve under them.
The Vatican has yet to discipline a single bishop for enabling abusive priests to continue molesting children. Indeed, in 2012 Bishop Robert W. Finn, head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, was found guilty by a court of failing to report suspected child abuse, yet he continues to hold his position.
But some church officials, including Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, have said holding bishops accountable for the abuses committed by their priests is important, suggesting that Pope Francis, who has said little about the clergy sexual abuse crisis, may address the issue....
Not according to O'Malley.
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UPDATE: Pope’s bold resignation began Vatican year of change
"By wading into culture wars, UN may muddy its message" by John L. Allen Jr. | Globe staff, February 06, 2014
Because the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has no police power, it relies on moral pressure to get member states to adopt its child protection recommendations. That is obviously what it hoped to accomplish with Wednesday’s report on the Vatican and the child abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism over the last dozen years, issuing a stinging indictment of what it called a culture of “impunity” for perpetrators.
Like western war criminals.
There is a strong possibility the fusillade from the UN panel may backfire, however, by blurring the cause of child protection with the culture wars over sexual mores.
So sick of seeing sex in my Globe!
In several sections of its report, the committee joins its critique on abuse with blunt advice to Rome to jettison church teaching on matters such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. At one stage, the panel even recommends repealing a codicil of church law that imposes automatic excommunication for participating in an abortion.
Not only are those bits of advice most unlikely to be adopted, they may actually strengthen the hand of those still in denial in the church about the enormity of the abuse scandals by allowing them to style the UN report as an all-too-familiar secular criticism driven by politics.
That could overshadow the fact that there are, in truth, many child protection recommendations in the report that the church’s own reform wing has long championed....
Make no mistake, there is a strong camp in Catholicism that believes the church has been unfairly singled out in the abuse scandals and that, if anything, it has gone too far in accommodating its critics....
They have in my jew$paper.
The danger is that when leaders such as the new secretary of the conference named by Pope Francis, Bishop Nunzio Galantino, read the UN report and stumble over the parts on the culture wars, they may be tempted to file the whole thing under the usual secular axe-grinding.
We know jwho is grinding it.
That has already started, as the Vatican’s envoy to Geneva suggested Wednesday in an interview with Vatican Radio that liberal NGOs in the UN system....
Over the years, the Vatican has sometimes been accused of being spectacularly tone-deaf in its response to the abuse crisis, and there is merit to those perceptions.
Now it may be the United Nations that is off key, restocking what had been the diminishing ammo of those inclined to defend the status quo.
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"Catholic diocese in Mont. files for bankruptcy protection" by Matt Volz | Associated Press, February 01, 2014
HELENA, Mont. — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up.
Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs’ attorneys and insurers, resulting in the deal to resolve the abuse claims.
The settlement details are being worked out, but the US Bankruptcy Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15 million to compensate the 362 victims identified in the two lawsuits.
In addition, at least $2.5 million will be set aside for victims who come forward later, Bartleson said.
The church anticipates paying at least $2.5 million of the costs, with the rest paid by insurers, he said.
Bartleson said the diocese does not expect to have to liquidate any of its assets or close any programs because of the filing.
In addition, the diocese must publicly apologize, publish the names of clergy members who have been credibly accused of abuse, offer to meet with abuse survivors, provide victim counseling, and reinforce its policies and procedures to prevent abuse, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.
Bishop George Leo Thomas apologized to the victims in a statement and said most clergy members who were credibly accused have died, and none remains in active ministry. The diocese has set up abuse prevention programs, including worker screenings, a claims review board, and a hot line to report abuse, the statement said.
Thomas said the settlement may make the church poorer, but it will remain committed to its mission....
Molly Howard, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said, ‘‘Given the age and ill health of many of the victims, this is in their best interest,’’ Howard said.
The Helena diocese is the 11th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of sex-abuse claims.
David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese for filing for bankruptcy protection, saying it will allow church officials to keep records closed that might have come out in a trial.
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Isn't that the point of all this attention in the jew$media? To bankrupt and destroy a potential impediment to the Jew World Order?
Fortunately, the Vatican doesn't challenge usury like the Muslims. That kind of thing gets you bombed, invaded, and killed.
