Monday, June 30, 2008

Another of God's Blessings

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse with the move, I found a wonderful doctor in my new town that is going to take good care of me. It's a breath of fresh air and now seems like a huge weight off my shoulders. As the weeks go on and I adjust to my new city, I'm sure I will see God's blessings that were always there but I was too caught up in my own worries to notice. I was afraid this move would bring about calamaties I could not change or have any control over, that I would go literally crazy from the whole mess. But maybe I can get up tomorrow and start a new day of unpacking more boxes and trying to rebuild. And the day after that, who knows? Maybe I'll even do some gardening or start swimming at the community pool.

Friday, June 20, 2008

New home

We arrived at our new home in Ohio this week. Unpacking 170 boxes and dealing with a sick cat has not been my idea of a fun time. Many tears have been shed these last few days trying to get used to this transition. I'm missing my parish dearly and my previous home and neighbors as well.

But this weekend I'm going to start at another parish, and this one has opportunities for missionary work in Guatemala. Maybe this is part of God's plan for me. They say everything you go through just makes you stronger. With everything that has happened to me over the course of my life, I should be like 10 inch steel, but I feel no more strength in me than a piece of paper right now.

Every day I pray though, and I feel a hand helping me up the cliff. It's like the poem "Footprints"


Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed of walking along the shores of different lands.
I could tell that You were with me by the footprints in the sand.
As I gazed upon the heavens, I saw pages of my life.
It was then I realized that You remained there by my side.

When the clouds began to gather and the rains came falling down,
I looked to only find one set of footprints on the ground.
I said, "Lord, why did You leave me in the troubled times of life?
I believed that You would always walk beside me day and night."

(Then I heard:)
"My precious child, I'd never leave you.
I have carved you on the hollow of My hand.
It's then I carried you in My arms,
When you see one set of footprints in the sand"

Dear Lord, will You be with me as I travel through the years?
Will You be there in the struggles? Will You wipe away the tears?
As my eyes turn toward the ocean and the shores of distant lands,
I'm still thinking of the single set of footprints in the sand.

(I heard Him say:)
"My precious child, I'd never leave you.
I have carved you on the hollow of My hand.
It's then I carried you in My arms,
When you see one set of footprints in the sand."

Will I hear the angels singing, as my life comes to an end.
Oh Lord, I long to see You. Will You be there once again?
My eyes turn toward the heavens, along the path of foreign lands,
Once more, I'm thinking of the set of footprints in the sand.

(Jesus said:)
"My precious child, I'd never leave you.
See your name carved on the hollow of My hand.
I'm here to carry you to your home.
You will see one set of footprints in the sand.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Saying goodbye

This week I leave Kansas City to take on new adventures. Today I said goodbye to my parish as I celebrated my last communion with them. It's been one of the hardest days I've ever had, and I've seen some pretty dark days. This week has been spent in prayer and reflection and thanking God for the wonderful blessings that I do have, and had I not moved to Kansas five years ago I would have never become Orthodox.

As I hugged my godparents, I couldn't be brave anymore. I started to cry and they said, "He loves you more than we do." I think that says it all right there.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

The plot thickens

From the latest at the Wall Street Journal:

Concession Expected Saturday;
Obama Camp Discounts VP Talk

By JACKIE CALMES
June 5, 2008; Page A1

WASHINGTON -- Supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton suggested she would like to be Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, but close advisers to Sen. Obama are signaling that an Obama-Clinton ticket is highly unlikely.

Some in the Clinton camp also noted a possible deal-breaker for a party-unity ticket: Bill Clinton may balk at releasing records of his business dealings and big donors to his presidential library.

Sen. Clinton scheduled a gathering for her staff at her house Saturday, where she will end her campaign and concede the nomination, three advisers said.

A day after his history-making declaration that he had enough delegates for the nomination, Sen. Obama on Wednesday named a search team for a vice-presidential running mate. The first African-American nominee for a major party tapped two high-profile supporters—Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President Kennedy, and Eric Holder, President Clinton's former deputy attorney general. They join Jim Johnson, a former Fannie Mae chairman, who had already been enlisted to lead the search and vet potential choices.

Sens. Obama and Clinton briefly exchanged greetings Wednesday at a convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where they both spoke. (Please see article.) They also held brief phone conversations Sunday and Tuesday nights that advisers described as the first steps in a dance of rapprochement.
RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Mr. Clinton refused during his wife's 17-month presidential campaign to release records of his financial dealings and details of his presidential library's major donors. Even if Mr. Clinton did open his records as part of the traditional vice-presidential vetting process, the unprecedented complications he would pose for an Obama White House as the vice president's spouse go deeper and broader than his personal records, Democrats on both sides say.

A former president's global travels for his humanitarian foundation, speeches here and abroad for which he has received up to a quarter-million dollars, financial deals and everyday utterances could pose "a whole host" of conflicts with the policies of an Obama administration, Democrats say.

Referring to a potential vice-presidential slot for Sen. Clinton, a senior Obama adviser says: "The more this gets vetted the less likely it becomes."

Sen. Clinton would present problems of her own for Sen. Obama, advisers in both camps say: As half of the couple that has dominated in the Democratic Party and Washington for 16 years, she would "completely undermine the Obama message'' of change and new direction in politics, as one Clinton confidant put it.

That could well override the political advantages that some other supporters have been promoting, notably her fellow New York Democrats in Congress: That Sen. Clinton could help Sen. Obama win the support of women, blue-collar workers, seniors and white men -- all groups that the Illinois senator had trouble with during their nomination race.

Several advisers said Sen. Clinton decided Wednesday to end her campaign after consulting supporters in Congress including the fellow New Yorkers, along with Reps. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio.

The campaign later put out the statement saying that she will host an event in Washington Saturday "to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity." The date changed from Friday to Saturday "to accommodate more of Senator Clinton's supporters who want to attend."

Obama advisers say Sen. Clinton should have as much time as she needs to decide how and when to quit the race. But some of his supporters are irritated at what they interpret as pressure on Sen. Obama from her side to offer her the No.2 spot.

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, said Wednesday he is starting a "dream ticket" effort for party unity. Mr. Johnson said publicly that Sen. Clinton had blessed his effort. Lanny Davis, another prominent Clinton advocate, said he is starting a petition drive seeking a place for her on the ticket.

Several Obama aides said the two supporters aren't the best ambassadors for a Clinton vice-presidential candidacy. Robert Johnson referred during the race to Sen. Obama's acknowledged drug use as a young man, while Mr. Davis has frequently lambasted Sen. Obama on cable television talk-shows.

Sen. Obama, in an interview on NBC, counseled both sides to relax. "We just completed a very hard-fought contest," he said. "She needs to catch her breath. I need to catch mine. I think all our supporters need to just sit back and let things sink in. We're gonna go through a process in the vice-presidential search where I look at a whole range of options."

In her remarks to members of AIPAC, a leading Jewish lobby, Sen. Clinton assured the audience that Sen. Obama "will be a good friend to Israel." That assurance was significant given many American Jews' opposition to Sen. Obama for seeming to them to be too sympathetic to Palestinians and Iran. The Jewish population, while small, is concentrated in states crucial to the election, in particular Florida.

Sen. Obama's own speech was well-received, and he was accompanied by one of the country's best known Jewish political leaders, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Mr. Emanuel later was among several members of Congress who endorsed Sen. Obama, as the Democratic Party establishment embraced the first-term Illinois senator as the nominee. Mr. Emanuel made his name as a top Clinton White House official, but he is a friend and ally of his fellow Chicagoan, Sen. Obama.

By mid-day Wednesday, Sen. Obama's campaign said he had 2,159.5 delegates -- more than the 2,118 needed for the nomination -- to Sen. Clinton's 1,927, a difference of 232.5 delegates.

The candidates split Tuesday's final primaries, with Sen. Obama winning Montana and Sen. Clinton South Dakota. He won 15 pledged delegates to her 16. What put him over the top Tuesday was a rush of endorsements from 55.5 superdelegates, elected officials and other party leaders who can vote for whomever they choose at the Democratic convention. Many superdelegates had waited for the end of the primaries and caucuses to announce their choice.

Democrats in both camps Wednesday criticized Sen. Clinton's speech Tuesday night, at a valedictory rally in New York City. Some complained because she didn't concede the race. Others grumbled that beyond a brief tribute to Sen. Obama's "extraordinary race," she dwelled on her own successes in the race's final stretch and continued to suggest she'd be the more electable nominee.

A defender of Sen. Clinton's stance, longtime Democratic strategist Michael Berman, said, "I have little patience for those who criticize Hillary Clinton for not endorsing Senator Obama last night."

Recalling his own late-night encounter with Hubert Humphrey hours after the 1968 Democratic nominee had conceded to Republican Richard Nixon, Mr. Berman added, "Major candidates for president are by definition great dreamers. When their dreams are quashed they should be given the courtesy of a little time to internalize their loss."

Many Clinton supporters seemed united in believing Sen. Clinton would accept the vice presidency. They argued it has become an important post in the modern era, most recently with Democrat Al Gore and Republican Dick Cheney -- "from funerals to fundamentals," as Mr. Emanuel put it.

But some supporters criticized the efforts to push Sen. Obama's hand. They said it could backfire, or make him look weak if he acceded unwillingly. Sen. Clinton told fellow New Yorkers in Congress on Tuesday that she would be open to the second spot.

"She is not campaigning and there's no deal-breaker because there's no deal," Clinton campaign strategist Geoff Garin said. "She is not encouraging any campaigning. But as she told the New York delegation, she would entertain anything that would help secure a Democratic victory in November."

Some Democrats say Bill Clinton is privately pressing her case to be on an Obama ticket, even as he is encouraging her to hang tough and not concede the presidential race, to increase her leverage. But one insider countered, "His importance in this is completely exaggerated. She's going to figure it out for herself."

For Sen. Clinton to be considered, she would have to undergo an invasive vetting of both Clintons' private and public affairs, just like other recent vice-presidential aspirants, say veterans of the process. They said it would likely require Mr. Clinton to reveal donors to his library in Little Rock, Ark., which have included the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Middle Eastern businessmen, as well as details of his confidential business dealings.

In April, he did end a relationship with Yucaipa Cos., an investment firm run by billionaire friend Ron Burkle that has had a partnership with the ruler of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Obama vetters "are going to say, 'You have to give us the list of library donors, and that's a deal-breaker if you don't,'" said one longtime Clinton confidant. "I don't think the former president will agree to it."

Sen. Obama probably won't announce a running mate for a while, perhaps waiting as long as August, a supporter said. The Democratic convention is Aug. 25-28 in Denver. His campaign and the three-person search team will draw up a list of possible choices and test Sen. Obama's support in different regions and demographic groups, to decide which potential running mates could best help him, this person said.


Well here's what I think:
1) Who cares how much money Bill Clinton made while lecturing on the private circuit? Seriously. It's okay for everyone else to make money, isn't it? (How much did Al Gore make for that stupid movie? And he got the damn Nobel for it.)
2) Obama is arrogant and condescending. He has been from the very beginning. "We'll just give Hillary a little time to absorb her loss."
3) Why does he need Caroline Kennedy on a team to help him pick a VP? Do I even need to explain this???
4) Here's the problem: The Clinton's didn't work out a contingency plan for what might happen should that request for Bill's library donor records become an issue. The fact that he is refusing will probably cost Hillary the VP slot. So, I ask, why in the heck did she even run? Did they think they were going to be immune and above the law AGAIN and just ASSUME she would have the nomination in the bag? Apparently so. Shame on you, Bill. You and the Obama camp both have assisted in kicking your wife in the teeth.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

No big surprise

Well Obama has pretty much won the nomination. Now all he needs to do is get Clinton to run as his VP, something I've suspected might happen all along. But I could be wrong on that. Only time will tell.

These 2 could have saved the Democratic party a whole lot of heartache and suffering (not to mention money) if they would have just formed an alliance and been done with it. It's shameful, really, that they had to take it this far.

My hunch is that Obama will be the next President, and it's not that he's qualified, in my opinion. I don't believe he is. And it's got NOTHING to do with his being black. I have nothing against a black President. As a President, I think he will head our country into a socialist, communist type society that will become even more dependent on government subsidies, health care, and with Hillary on his side, how can they go wrong in achieving their goals??? The liberal elite will just get richer and richer and laugh at all the "little people." It's ok to be wealthy if you are a liberal with a Harvard education, but if you are a conservative and have any money or success, you are evil. And make that more evil if you're a Christian.

No matter what kind of dirt is dug up on Obama, no matter what happens, he will be immune to it, and in my opinion, will become the next President, no matter what. He is the "chosen one" and George Soros and co. have a lot of money banking on this guy, and they're not going to lose, as they are liberal elites.

I don't think McCain stands a chance. If Obama can win the nomination despite the Clinton machine, McCain will be a piece of cake.