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Former US President Jimmy Carter is asking for forgiveness of the Jewish community for forgiveness for any stigma he may have caused Israel. “…..I have the hope and a prayer that the State of Israel will flourish as a Jewish state within secure and recognized borders in peaceful co-existence with its neighbors and with all the Moslem States, and that this peaceful co-existence will bring security, prosperity and happiness to the people of Israel and to the people of the Middle East of all faiths. “We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says those unhappy with the health care overhaul set to be pushed through the Senate this week should express their displeasure at the polls next November. Huckabee spoke Sunday to a raucous crowd of about 1,800 people at an Omaha rally sponsored by Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska. Huckabee says the vote on health care reform is a pivotal moment in American history, and he took Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson to task for deciding to support the measure. Huckabee went so far as to compare Nelson to Judas in the biblical story of Jesus'...

Joe Wilson's 15 minutes of infamy notwithstanding, Democrats were pretty rough on George W. Bush during a joint sessions a few years back. Two examples: In 2004, Democrats delivered a “Chorus Of Boos� during Bush's Bush’s State Of The Union when he called for renewal of the Patriot Act., according to the Washington Times. In 2005, Dems howled, hissed and shouted "No!" when Bush pushed for Social Security reform in the SOU: "Foreshadowing the contentiousness of the coming debate, Democrats broke decorum and booed twice," according to the National Journal. At the time, CNN's Bill Schneider remarked, “It was unusual....

Allentown, Pa. (AP) -- Some Democrats who opened their arms to party switcher Sen. Arlen Specter have softened the embrace. Progressive grassroots activists this week posted a fundraising Web link to draft Rep. Joe Sestak to challenge Specter in next year's Pennsylvania Democratic primary. And labor leaders in the state repeatedly have warned that a decision on whether they endorse Specter depends on whether he supports a bill making it easier for unions to organize. At a recent Jefferson Jackson Democratic dinner in Pittsburgh sponsored by the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, Chairman Jim Burn said the mood about Specter's switch...

...Biden was in town for a Democratic National Committee fundraising reception at the River Oaks home of lawyer Neal Manne — who served as Specter’s chief of staff in Washington in the 1980s... The vice president said that, as a senator from Delaware, he was Specter’s best friend in the Senate for 33 years, and that he and Manne “have been trying to remind Arlen that he is really Democrat.” “I have been working on that in earnest for the past four years and double time for the past 100 days (as vice president),” Biden added. “It seems only appropriate,”...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado wins the play of the week award, even if it did make him the most unpopular politician in Sacramento. Maldonado, R-Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County), had been waiting a long time for this moment. When the opportunity arose - with the state about to go into meltdown mode if the budget deal fell apart - he played it just right. All along, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thought he had Maldonado's vote in his pocket. After all, the moderate Maldonado had always played ball with the governor before, bucking fellow Republicans by voting to increase the minimum wage...

It's almost done. State senators were approving a deal to close the state's $40 billion budget deficit this morning after agreeing to give Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, most of the changes he demanded in exchange for providing the crucial 27th vote. Here's what he got: * A constitutional amendment establishing an open primary system. The measure will place on the June 2010 ballot an open primary proposal affecting congressional and state races in 2012 and beyond. Under the plan, the top two candidates in a primary would face off in a general election. Candidates would not participate in partisan...

more as it becomes available...

Catholics and, for the love of God, everybody else, please FReep this poll. http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1548/t/286/survey.jsp?survey_KEY=179 Catholics United is the front group that organized Catholics for Obama. The organizers, Chris Korzen and James Salt, are veterans of Catholics for Kerry, and literally never saw a pro-abort Catholic they didn't try to paint haloes and auras around. They make very clever use of Catholic symbols, documents and God-talk to promote their Kmiec-style deviationism. In this poll I'm asking you to FReep, they want feedback on what their lobbying priorities ought to be. Check "common-ground ways to reduce abortions." What they mean by that?...

After days of watching in silence, McCain calms the crowd at his Minnesota town meeting. “I want everyone to be respectful. And let’s make sure we are, because that’s the way politics is done in America.” Tells one supporter who says he’s scared of an Obama presidency: “I have to tell you, he is a decent person, a person that you do not have to be scared [of] as president of the United States.” After a woman calls Obama “an Arab,” McCain interrupts to say: “No, ma’am. He is a decent family man, citizen

When the National Geographic Society and a team of designated scholars announced the "discovery" and release of the document known as the "Gospel of Judas" the international media went after the story with a frenzy. Headlines around the world claimed that the discovery would force a complete reconstruction of Christianity. As I explained then:The resurgence of interest in Gnostic texts such as "The Gospel of Thomas" and "The Gospel of Judas" is driven by an effort, at least on the part of some figures, to argue that early Christianity had no essential theological core. Instead, scholars such as Elaine Pagels...

I just watched the interview, and it is clear Scott McClellan is a Judas. He revels in the left talking points and has a smirk throughout the interview. At the end of the day when the interviews are done and the book no longer sells, Scott will have no friends. The left will not want him and the right will never touch him. Get a dog Scott, he will be your only friend. Or he might not like you either. Can't blame him, dogs are smart. History will frame you as the Judas Benedict Arnold you are.

Since you're not answering my e-mails anymore, I'm writing to pose a few questions that haven't been asked on your truth, honesty and candor tour: · Was it the truth or a lie when you told me, during a series of personal discussions in your West Wing office in late 2005 and early 2006 (at the apex of what you now call your period of "disillusionment" and "dismay"), that you were happy in your job and proud to serve President Bush and that you had no intention of leaving soon? What about in April 2006, when rumors swirled about a...

Although today his book is being touted by left-wing reporters and pundits, his initial plans for the project show former White House press secretary Scott McClellan intended to take a much different approach, one that was more sympathetic to President Bush but also quite hard on the "liberal elites" of the Washington press corps and their "hostility" toward the administration. Reading through McClellan's original book proposal, obtained by Politico.com, it is clear that before his editor Peter Osnos took the book on a sharp leftward turn, McClellan wanted to turn the tables on foes in the press gallery including far-left...

<p>A partisan Democratic mantra began earlier in the book. McClellan writes George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign "acquiesced to certain advisers, including Roger Ailes and the late Lee Atwater," who opposed Bush's "civility and decency." (McClellan, then 20 years old, played no part in that campaign.) McClellan contends that thanks to Rove in 2002, "the first cracks appeared in the facade of bipartisan comity."</p>

WASHINGTON - President Bush broke his promise to the country by refusing to fire aide Karl Rove for leaking a CIA agent's identity, said Scott McClellan, the president's chief spokesman for almost three years. "I think the president should have stood by his word and that meant Karl should have left," McClellan said Sunday in a broadcast interview about his new tell-all book, a scathing rebuke of the White House under Bush's leadership. McClellan now acknowledges he felt burned by Rove, Bush's top political adviser, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. He said...

Alittle more than 50 years ago, George C. Marshall, the greatest American general and statesman since George Washington, turned down an offer to write his memoirs for a national magazine because, he said, it was unseemly to profit from a life of public service. The Saturday Evening Post offered Marshall $1 million for his story at a time when $1 million was real money. Military historians since have learned that at the moment Marshall declined the Post's offer, he and his wife had precisely $1,300 in the bank. Four years ago, Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the American invasions of...

An examination of published reports reveals that Scott McClellan's kiss-and-smell betrayal of George W. Bush is a far cry from the book McClellan started out to write and was shaped into an offensive tome by a publisher with close ties to George Soros. To understand how McClellan's literary knife-in-the-back evolved, one has to know something about the book industry. Unlike fiction, a non-fiction book usually hasn't been written before it's sold to a publisher. The author normally puts together an outline and/or synopsis detailing what the book will be about and how it will be structured, and writes 1-3 sample...

Republican insiders see the bitter criticism in Scott McClellan's memoir, "What Happened," as a payback for his abrupt firing as White House press secretary in the spring of 2006. Continues... =============================================================== Scott McClellan stars in Ghost Writer With Scott McClellan's new book, left-wingers are now absolutely sure Obama will trounce Bush this November! No third term! The little darlings haven't figured out yet that Bush isn't on the ballot this time, so they're frantically putting out movies like "Recount," "Redacted," "Rendition," "Stop-loss," and publishing fiction like McClellan's book, which all liberals with advance copies are excitedly having someone literate read...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Friday he would be willing to comply with a rumored congressional subpoena to discuss the administration’s handling of pre-war intelligence, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he’d be “glad to share my views” if asked to testify. Facing a firestorm over his book, McClellan also confirmed reports that he had apologized to Richard Clarke for questioning his honesty after the former counterterrorism official published his own book critical of the White House. “That was part of our talking points at the time. I didn’t even read the book,” McClellan admitted Friday....

Leave him alone. He wrote a book. It is true or untrue, accurately reported or not. If not, this will no doubt be revealed. It is honestly meant and presented, or not. Look to the assertions, argue them, weigh and ponder. That's my first thought. When I finished the book I came out not admiring Mr. McClellan or liking him but, in terms of the larger arguments, believing him.

MIAMI (AP) - A top adviser is leaving Republican John McCain's presidential campaign because he doesn't want to work against Democrat Barack Obama. Mark McKinnon, the chief media consultant to McCain, wrote in a campaign memo last year that if Obama won the Democratic nomination, he would not actively campaign against him. With the results of Tuesday night's primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, Obama claimed he had a majority of convention delegates. McKinnon said Tuesday evening he was making good on his pledge, and was "moving from middle linebacker to cheerleader" for McCain. "I'll still be around from time to...

Gov. Bill Richardson and James Carville went toe-to-toe Wednesday night on national cable TV in their first exchange since Carville compared Richardson with Judas— and neither pulled any political punches. During the duo's appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" in D.C., Carville tossed out fightin' words— including "idiocy" and "foolishness"— to describe some of Richardson's comments. And the Hillary Clinton backer and political analyst didn't back down a bit on his comment equating Richardson with Judas for endorsing Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. "I've said what I had to say, and I don't take a word of...

It is my opinion that we need to pray for our leaders this election. Many Conservative are disappointed with the selection of Senator John S. McCain. But in one sense, he is the true conservative in values -- he has fought for campaign finance reform -- getting big money out of politics. This should allow the little guy (or gal) more voice in what this country is doing. In some religions, it is part of the church service to pray for the leaders of a country (Ukrainian Catholic, for example). We must pray for our leaders and pray that the...

James Carville, long-time political advisor to the Clintons explained that calling New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson a “Judas” for endorsing rival Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president was “mild” compared to what is yet to come. “I was going easy on the guy,” Carville alleged. “If I’d wanted to get tough I would pointed out that Richardson has lost the privilege of swallowing anymore of Bill Clinton’s semen.” Richardson denied that he deserved either the remarks or being “cut off from life’s ambrosia.” “It’s unfair,” Richardson complained. “Did I rat on them when they took bribes from the Chinese government?...

Disloyalty That Merits An Insult. By James Carville Saturday, March 29, 2008; Last Friday the New York Times asked me to comment on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for president. For 15 years, Richardson served with no small measure of distinction as the representative of New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District. But he gained national stature -- and his career took off -- when President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and later made him energy secretary. So, when asked on Good Friday about Richardson's rejection of the Clintons, the metaphor was...

Just when you thought the conflagration over James Carville's Judas analogy might be dying down, here comes Derrick Z. Jackson to pour some gasoline on the flames with a return-fire Judas shot of his own. Readers will recall that when Bill Richardson endorsed Obama, Clinton-fan Carville chose Good Friday to say: Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic." Offered the chance to apologize or withdraw his remarks, the cantankerous Cajun declined, choosing instead to rub in his remarks:...

Last Friday the New York Times asked me to comment on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for president. For 15 years, Richardson served with no small measure of distinction as the representative of New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District. But he gained national stature -- and his career took off -- when President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and later made him energy secretary. So, when asked on Good Friday about Richardson's rejection of the Clintons, the metaphor was too good to pass by. I compared Richardson to Judas Iscariot. (And...

Bill Clinton helped elevate Richardson to the national stage: He named him his energy secretary and U.N. ambassador. And Clinton left no doubt about how importantly he viewed Richardson's support for his wife's campaign: He flew to New Mexico to sit down with Richardson and watch the Super Bowl as part of a high-profile courtship. But Richardson stopped returning Bill Clinton''s telephone calls days ago, the former president's aides said. And as of Friday, Richardson said, he had yet to pick up the telephone to call his former boss to tell him of his decision. The reaction of some of...

NEW ORLEANS — Sen. John McCain, in his post-victory debut before the conservative movement's top donors and leaders, will address the Council for National Policy's annual winter meeting here today. *snip* "Many conservative leaders did not support him, but he is a proud conservative Republican who thinks he can earn their support in the general election," Mr. [Charlie] Black added.

"A breakdown in our political culture has been accompanied by other, related manifestations. These can be illustrated by examples from three domains: (1) fallacious theoretical discourse about a claimed nexus between science and religion; (2) religiously motivated sensationalism involving two hoaxes initially perpetrated on the National Geographic and Discovery channels, and widely publicized through dozens of other media outlets; and (3) the ongoing scandal involving the cooperation between a major "non-profit" science museum and a "scholarly" monopoly aimed at exploiting the public's fascination with Christian origins..."

Gospel Truth By APRIL D. DECONICK Published: December 1, 2007 Houston AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn’t betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas’s reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples. It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the...

Former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter says that the danger of waging war on Tehran is that “it is just not worth it”. In an interview with Detroit's weekly Metro Times, the weapons expert and dissenting patriot Ritter said unless there is a radical reawakening in the Congress, the chances of American lawmakers blocking military strikes against Iran are very low. ""What we can lose is everything, and what we gain is nothing,"" the former Marine Corps intelligence officer warned. When asked what the U.S. should do to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons, Ritter dismissed the issue as...

Contact: David Ruth druth@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University Rice University professor debunks National Geographic translation of Gospel of Judas A new book by Rice University professor April DeConick debunks a stunning claim by National Geographic's translation of the Gospel of Judas. According to that translation, Judas was a hero, not a villain, who acted on Jesus' request to betray him. DeConick disagrees. Before releasing her book "The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says," DeConick was intrigued by the original release of the Coptic Gospel of Judas and as a scholar wanted to read it for herself. While researching...

"He was surprised by the reaction," Mr. Snow said of Mr. Bush's speech in Glynco, Ga., last week. "The speech in Georgia was, 'We've got a serious problem and we need to fix it.' It was not in any way designed to be pointed at Republicans." But conservative opponents of a Senate immigration bill supported by Mr. Bush reacted furiously to the president's suggestion that they are resorting to scare tactics by using the word "amnesty" in referring to the measure that would allow millions of illegal aliens to remain in the United States.

ASSAULT WEAPONS Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, the National Rifle Association leadership has stated repeatedly that a ban on assault weapons is ineffective and unnecessary. They assert that guns labeled as assault weapons are rarely used in violent crimes and that most people use them for hunting. However, despite these repeated assertions, the list of people speaking out against assault weapons continues to grow. Jim Zumbo, an outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoor magazines, delivering lectures across the country and who starred in a highly...

ROME (CNS) – Curiosity about the New Testament figure of Judas and a feeling that his reputation as the worst sinner in history "isn't fair, isn't right" led British novelist Jeffrey Archer to attempt a new version of the story.Archer, presenting The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot at a March 20 press conference in Rome, said he is a practicing Anglican who wanted his new book to be backed up by solid biblical scholarship. So he convinced Father Francis J. Moloney, provincial of the Salesians in Australia and a former president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America,...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

Author Jeffrey Archer, who was cast out of Britain's Conservative Party after being jailed on perjury charges, is coming to the defense of another noted black sheep _ Judas Iscariot. Archer announced Sunday that his new novel chronicling the life of the man who betrayed Jesus, "The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot," will be published in March. "This is the most important book I have ever worked on. It means an awful lot to me," said a statement from the author, whose novels include "Kane & Abel" and "Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less." He said...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

At roughly the same time Christianity began to spread in the Roman world, another belief system was spreading almost as rapidly, a religious philosophy we call Gnosticism. Gnosticism takes its name from the Greek "gnosis," a word that means knowledge. But the Gnostics didn't have in mind ordinary human knowledge. They claimed to possess a deep, hidden knowledge - a knowledge denied to the rest of us ordinary human beings. The Gnostics believed in one ultimate god. But they believed that below that god there were a vast number of intermediate spiritual powers they referred to as archons, "rulers." Now...

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), an ardent advocate of legal abortion as well as scientific research that requires the killing of human embryos, and Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), who is considered a pro-life leader in the U.S. Senate, have joined forces to promote embryonic stem cell research. Together, they have called for federal (taxpayer) funding of research that would involve creation of disabled human embryos—embryos designed to be incapable of developing the tissues that form the placenta, which is necessary for his/her survival in the womb. (For an excellent explanation, see “Definition of the Embryo: Time to Be Clear, Very Clear,”...

They said, “Master, you are […] the son of our god.” Jesus said to them, “How do you know me? Truly [I] say to you, no generation of the people that are among you will know me.” DISCIPLES BECOME ANGRY When his disciples heard this, they started getting angry and infuriated and began blaspheming against him in their hearts. When Jesus observed their lack of [understanding, he said] to them, “Why has this agitation led you to anger? Your god who is within you and […] [35] have provoked you to anger [within] your souls. [Let] any one of you...

the idea of a sacred Judas always seemed rational to me, at least in Christian terms. The New Testament tells us firmly that Jesus went to Jerusalem at Passover to die and to fulfill certain ancient prophecies by doing so. How could any agent of this process, witting or unwitting, be acting other than according to the divine will? ...[snip] Now we have, recovered from the desert of Egypt, a 26-page "Gospel of Judas," . ...[snip] The Judas gospel puts legend's most notorious traitor in a new light—as the man who enjoyed his master's most intimate confidence, and who was...

Given that the old Greek word behind the English term "gospel" means "good news," you have to wonder whether the much-touted and recently published Gospel of Judas really qualifies as either. Assuming you didn't give up the media for Lent -- which, come think of it ... oh, never mind -- you could hardly have avoided this month's announcement about the latest addition to the religious history files. To make a long story short: The Gospel of Judas is part of an ancient manuscript that apparently was unearthed in the late 1970s in Egypt. After a lengthy trip through the...

Many years ago, a Christian friend excitedly shared with me a document collection he had found. The front cover proclaimed the collection to be "Historical Court Records Concerning JESUS the CHRIST, Found in the Libraries at Rome and Constantinople." And, sure enough, there they were: Caiphas' reports to the Sanhedrin on the execution and resurrection of Jesus, Pilate's report to Tiberius on Jesus' arrest, trial and crucifixion, Herod Antipas' letter to the Roman Senate justifying the execution of John the Baptist, and a series of letters from Rabbi Hillel describing his reaction to the preaching and teaching of Peter and...

Washington DC, Apr. 24, 2006 (CNA) - Questions have arisen about the group of scholars who collaborated with National Geographic in its recent T.V. special about the “discovery” and contents of the alleged Gospel of Judas, which attempts to portray Jesus’ betrayer in a positive light.   Elaine Pagels is a feminist who has written several books against the Catholic Church, such as “The Origin of Satan,” written with the initial help of her colleagues at the Hebrew University of Tel Aviv.  With the assistance of the openly pro-abortion MacArthur Foundation, she researched and wrote “Adam, Eve and the Serpent,”...

The Washington Post religion section recently had an article about the Gnostic gospels. What are they? — A reader in SterlingThe Gnostic gospels are attributed to the work of a community known as the "Gnostics," which existed in the early Church. (Gnosis in Greek means "knowledge.") However, before addressing the issue of the Gnostic gospels, we must first understand more about the Gnostic community and the heresy entitled "Gnosticism." The origins of Gnosticism are unclear. The first traces of Gnosticism arise centuries before Christianity and are rooted in the ancient religions of Syria, Babylonia, Phoenicia and Persia, and in the...