Trita Parsi on Relations between the U.S., Israel and Iran from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Trita Parsi, President of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and author of A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran
spoke about the need for diplomacy rather than a rush to war with Iran. Parsi spoke at a lunch and discussion session sponsored by the College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma on March 2, 2012.
Defense counsel showed us, for instance, how CDR employees were routinely directed by their boss, David Rubin, to make political contributions to select candidates, only to be reimbursed by Rubin for those contributions later on. This kind of corporate skirting of campaign finance limits is something we've always suspected goes on, but we rarely get to see direct evidence of it. More interesting, though, were the stories about political payoffs. In 2001, CDR hired a consultant named Ron White, a Philadelphia bond attorney who happened to be the chief fundraiser for then-mayor John Street. CDR gave White two tickets to the 2003 Super Bowl in San Diego plus a limo – a gift worth $10,000. As his "guest," White took Corey Kemp, the city treasurer for Philadelphia, who, 16 days later, awarded CDR a $150,000 contract to advise the city on swap deals. But that wasn't the end of the gravy train: CDR doled out those swap deals to selected banks, who in return kicked back $515,000 to CDR for steering city business their way. So a mere $10,000 bribe to a politician – a couple of Super Bowl tickets and a limo – scored CDR a total of $665,000 of the public's money. If you want to know why Wall Street has been enjoying record profits, here's your answer: Corruption is a business model that brings in $66 for every dollar you invest. Even more startling was the way that a notorious incident involving former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson resurfaced during the trial. Barack Obama, you may recall, had nominated Richardson to be commerce secretary – only to have the move blow up in his face when tales of Richardson accepting bribes began to make the rounds. Federal prosecutors never brought a case against Richardson: In 2009, an inside source told the AP that the investigation had been "killed in Washington." Obama himself, after Richardson bowed out, praised the former governor as an "outstanding public servant." Now, in the Carollo trial, defense counsel got Doug Goldberg, the CDR broker, to admit that his boss, Stewart Wolmark, had handed him an envelope containing a check for $25,000. The check was payable to none other than Moving America Forward – Bill Richardson's political action committee. Goldberg then went to a Richardson fundraiser and handed the politician the envelope. Richardson, pleased, told Goldberg, "Tell the big guy I'm going to hire you guys." Goldberg admitted on the stand that he understood "the big guy" to mean Wolmark. After that came this amazing testimony: Q: Soon after that, New Mexico hired CDR as its swap and GIC adviser on a $400 million deal, right? A: Yes. Q: You learned later that that check in that envelope was a check for $25,000, right? A: Yes. I learned it later. Q: You also learned later that CDR gave another $75,000 to Gov. Richardson, right? A: Yes. Q: CDR ended up making about a million dollars on this deal for those two checks? A: Yes. Q: In fact, New Mexico not only hired CDR, they hired another firm to do the actual work that they needed done? A: For the fixed-income stuff, yes. What we get from this is that CDR paid Bill Richardson $100,000 in contributions and got $1.5 million in public money in return. And not just $1.5 million, but $1.5 million for work they didn't even do – the state still had to hire another firm to do the actual job. Nice non-work, if you can get it. To grasp the full insanity of these revelations, one must step back and consider all this information together: the bribes, yes, but also the industrywide, anti-competitive bid-rigging scheme. It turns into a kind of unbroken Möbius strip of corruption – the banks pay middlemen to rig auctions, the middlemen bribe politicians to win business, then the politicians choose the middlemen to run the auctions, leading right back to the banks bribing the middlemen to rig the bids. When we allow Wall Street to continually raid the public cookie jar, we're not just enriching a bunch of petty executives (Wolmark's income in 2008, two years after he was busted in the FBI raid, was $2,464,210.18) – we're effectively creating an alternate government, one in which money lifted from the taxpayer's pocket through mob-style schemes turns into a kind of permanent shadow tax, used to maintain the corruption and keep the thieves in place. And that cuts right to the heart of what this case is all about. Wall Street is tired of making money by competing for business and weathering the vagaries of the market. What it wants instead is something more like the deal the government has – regularly collecting guaranteed taxes. What's crazy is that in order to justify that dream of regular, monopolistic tribute, they've begun to see themselves as a type of shadow government, watching out for the rest of us. Amazingly enough, this even became a defense at trial.Read more: The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia
On Building Another Wall of Separation to Preserve Democracy from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Excerpts from remarks from U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota and State Senator Jamie Raskin of Maryland during the strategy session "Overturning Citizens United: A Movement Mandate" at the 2012 Take Back the American Dream Conference on June 19th. Speaking about the dangers of the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling, Raskin says:"We have to build a wall of separation between corporate money and public elections like the wall of separation between church and state."
In 2004 the IRS created a dedicated enforcement program focused on political activity by churches and other nonprofits. Called the Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI), it investigated in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 election cycles 80 instances where church officials were alleged to have endorsed a candidate during services. According to IRS tallies made public after each election, the majority of the PACI complaints were upheld and settled with a warning that the organization comply with the ban on political activity. The IRS did not respond to Reuters questions about its enforcement activities in recent years, or explain why they seem to have ended abruptly in 2009. IRS church audits seem to have halted entirely in January 2009. That was when Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, successfully appealed an IRS audit. In question were an endorsement of Republican Michele Bachmann for Congress by pastor James Hammond and financial deals that may have benefited him personally, a violation of IRS rules. IRS audits of churches must comply with strict rules designed to prevent undue governmental pressure. One is that a high-level IRS or Treasury Department official must authorize the audit. In the Living Word case, the U.S. District Court in Minnesota ruled that the IRS staffer who authorized the audit did not qualify. In July of that year, Minnesota's Warroad Community Church was told by an IRS official that it was closing its 2008 examination of the church "because of a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the inquiry." (Reuters obtained a copy of the letter from the Alliance Defense Fund, which was representing Warroad in the audit.) Other churches that had been under IRS review received comparable letters, according to their lawyers. The IRS stopped publishing the results of its PACI initiative. Three years later the IRS has yet to come up with a new set of church audit rules, making it impossible, experts say, for the agency to pursue such examinations.This is the most egregious example of how the Obama administration has been unwilling to preserve the wall separating church and state. As long as the IRS refuses to uphold tax laws against this kind of political activity, it is denying equality to those who comply with the law. Under our tax laws, churches are considered 501(c)3 organizations. Contributions to 501(c)3 organizations are tax deductible. That means that persons making financial contributions to churches engaged in partisan political activities receive tax deductions from their federal income taxes for their political activities. Persons making contributions to 501(c)4 organizations and other organizations involved in partisan political activities are denied the right to write comparable contributions from their federal income taxes. The IRS needs to level the playing field. Either permit tax deductions for all contributions to those engaged in partisan political action by relaxing enforcement of the law prohibiting tax deductible contributions to all political action committees and 501(c)4 organizations, or resume enforcing the law for all 501(c)3 organizations -- churches included.
, discusses "Media and Civil Society in Turkey and the Middle East" at the University of Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism on April 13, 2012.
In a similar vein, Mrs Sullivan says that the evangelical right’s focus on abortion and gay marriage “overshadows broader social justice issues”. She insists that among evangelicals of her generation such views are not unusual, and the data back her up. In a 2008 poll, a plurality (44%) of young evangelicals characterised their “political views on social issues (health care, poverty)” as “liberal”. Younger evangelicals are more likely than older ones to favour environmental protection and same-sex marriage. And although they remain overwhelmingly pro-life, nearly one-third of them voted for Mr Obama, suggesting greater willingness to vote for a candidate who believes that abortion must remain a matter of choice.
Excerpts from Arnold Hamilton's June 1st talk to Cleveland County Democrats about the recently concluded 2012 session of the Oklahoma state legislature.
Arnold Hamilton is the editor of the Oklahoma Observer and a faithful member of Spring Creek Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
A 34-year veteran of daily newspapers, Hamilton is a former staff writer for the Dallas Morning News, the San Jose Mercury News, the Dallas Times Herald, the Tulsa Tribune and the Oklahoma Journal. He has been editor of the Oklahoma Observer since 2006. Much of his career has focused on American politics and government: He covered full-time the state Capitols of Oklahoma, Texas and California, as well as presidential campaigns and national political conventions. Hamilton spent 18 years as Dallas Morning News Oklahoma Bureau Chief, a regional correspondent and a member of the politics/elections team. Among his notable stories: He covered the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and twice interviewed convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh. He helped chronicle Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. And he reported on two major hurricanes in 2005, riding out Katrina in a French Quarter hotel and Rita in a Jasper, Texas radio station. Born in St. Louis, Mo., Hamilton was raised in Midwest City, Okla. He earned a B.S. in organizational behavior from the University of San Francisco and an M.A. in political science from Oklahoma State University. He is a two-time winner of a Dallas Press Club Katie Award for reporting excellence. His coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing was featured in the 1996 edition of America’s Best Newspaper Writing. And his reporting on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s conviction was honored – along with the New York Times – by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. In 1997, Hamilton received the Fran Morris Civil Liberties in Media Award from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oklahoma. He also was a member of the Dallas Morning News team honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors for investigative reporting on the 2003 Baylor University basketball scandal that included the murder of player Patrick Dennehy. In 2011, Hamilton was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, joining The Observer’s founding editor, Frosty Troy, who was honored in 1971.
This lecture is part of the the seminar on "Paul in Two Worlds: A Jew and a Christian Talk about the Apostle" sponsored by the Oklahoma Institute for Biblical Literacy and held at Oklahoma City University on May 11-12, 2012.
The workshop charted these trends and gave special attention to the ways in which church institutional life is adapting within the American context.
Dr. Lindner is editor of the "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches."
(Harper, 2010)
Richard Kling's seminar on "Ecumenical Advocacy" at the 2012 National Workshop on Christian Unity on April 18, 2012. There are times when it is important for the church to speak out on important issues before the legislature. The seminar provides an overview of how bills become laws and gives practical advice about the best possible times and ways to advocate ecumenically. Richard Kling is Associate Director of Catholic Charities in Oklahoma City.
Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. (NASB)I think America deserves severe condemnation for the sins of Sodom as described by Ezekiel, but that has to do with our pride, arrogance and how we treat the poor and needy. It has nothing to do with gay marriage. I suspect that McKissic has conflated the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 19 with the sin of Sodom. Actually, Genesis 19 describes an attempted gang rape, not a gay marriage. McKissic's criticism of Obama on this issue is also hyperbolic. He reportedly likened the moral impact of Obama's endorsement of gay marriage to 911 and hurricane Katrina. In addition, he is reported to have said that its effect would be worse than segregation. McKissic is welcome to his beliefs, but most Americans realize that we live in a pluralistic society under a constitution that guarantees religious liberty to every citizen. The constitution, not McKissic's interpretations of the Bible, are the law of this land. That means that all Americans, including the President, are free to reject McKissic's beliefs about gay marriage and his over-the-top hyperbolic descriptions of its dangers. Many of us will do so.
Stephen Jones Sings Madamina from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Stephen Jones, Vocal Performance and Music Education Student at the University of Oklahoma, sings "Madamina" from Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" in a concert at NorthHaven Baptist Church in Norman, OK on May 6, 2012. Jones is raising funds for a trip to sing in Austria this summer with a University of Oklahoma choir. Here's a link the a video of his entire concert of classical and sacred music.Ugandan Orphans Choir at NorthHaven Baptist Church from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Excerpts from the May 6, 2012 worship service at NorthHaven Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma featuring the Ugandan Orphans Choir. The choir is a ministry of Childcare Worldwide which is a Christian non-profit organization.Robin Meyers at the Raindrop Turkish House from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Dr. Robin Meyers, pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City and author of several bestselling religious books, speaks about his religious experience and convictions at the Raindrop Turkish House in Oklahoma City on April 24, 2012.Connect 2012 from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Joel Gregory preached the sermon at Connect 2012 the annual gathering of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma. This year's gathering was held at First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City on April 27, 2012. The complete service has been uploaded. Dr. Gregory's sermon on "The Oxymoronic Jesus" begins at 28:45 minutes. The Scripture Reading for the sermon is read at 6 minutes by Sarah Stewart, Minister for Young Adults at FBC Oklahoma City. Rev. E. Jennings Tyson, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, introduces the Praise Singers from his church at 12 minutes. The Praise Singers sing at 16:30 minutes. Preston Clegg, Moderator of CBFO and pastor of Spring Creek Baptist Church in Oklahoma City provides a memorable introduction to Joel Gregory at 23:20 minutes. Dr. Gregory is professor of preaching at George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, TX.Daniel Vestal on the Missional Church from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Dr. Daniel Vestal, Jr., Coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, preaches a sermon on "The Missional Church" based on the text of John 15:1-11 at Noble Avenue Baptist Church in Guthrie, Oklahoma on April 22, 2012.Interfaith Dialogue and Vatican II from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Excerpts related to interfaith dialogue and Vatican II from Dr. John Borelli's Plenary Address on "Vatican II at 50" for the 2012 National Workshop on Christian Unity. This address and the ensuing question and answer session took place on April 17, 2012. Here's a link to Borelli's entire 55 minute Plenary Address on"Vatican II at 50: Preparing the Catholic Church for Dialogue." Video of Borelli's question and answer session and the luncheon panel discussion will be posted in a few days.Opening Worship 2012 National Workshop for Christian Unity from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
The opening worship session of the 2012 National Workshop for Christian Unity. The session celebrated the 50th anniversary of Vatican II. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of the Oklahoma City diocese gave a homily reviewing the Spirit and theology of Vatican II. Special music was provided by the choir from the Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church in Oklahoma City. The service was held at First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City on the evening of April 16, 2012.."
During his lecture Akyol talks about the "secularism police" that, until recently, made sure that women DID NOT wear a head scarf in Turkish universities.
During the question and answer session a student asks for clarification and he explains the difference between French secularism (the model for Turkish Kemalism) and the American ideal of separation of church and state.
Finally, he responds to a question as to whether Turkey is becoming an Islamic state.
Link to video of the complete lecture and dialogue session (54 minutes).
OU economist Alexander Holmes, a former state finance director, said that if doing away with the income tax produced a job that paid, say, $50,000, the state would lose $2,500 in tax revenue. In order to make that up, he said, the person who got the job would have to spend all of his or her income [on items subject to sales tax] to generate enough sales taxes to make up for the lost income tax money. “It can’t work,” Holmes said. “The math is so obviously insane.” And if the thinking behind the tax elimination does turn out to be wrong, he said, state law throws in a complication. “If it doesn’t work, you can’t fix it,” Holmes said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.” He was referring to the fact that, under the Oklahoma Constitution, if lawmakers wanted to increase taxes to close the revenue-loss gap, they would have to achieve three-fourths majorities in both houses, something highly unlikely to happen. Holmes also said that no-income-tax Texas, which tax-reduction support[er]s like to point out as a good example when advocating for eliminating the tax, has suffered massive deficits and relies heavily on a state property tax. That will not work in Oklahoma, where residents absolutely hate property taxes, he said. He also pointed out that in Oklahoma the property tax is a county levy, not a state tax, and one that cities cannot access. “Look out cities, here it comes,” he said.Handout materials and powerpoint presentations by other speakers at the forum have been posted online at this link.
Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bill It's still fat and easy up on banker's hill Up on bankers hill, the party's still going strong Down here below we're shackled and drawn. Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn Pick up the rock son, carry it on We're trudging through the dark in a world gone wrong I woke up this morning shackled and drawn.Every morning, someone borrowing money from a payday lender wakes up to find themselves shackled and drawn.
Land predicted the economy is "going to be a huge issue" in the upcoming election. "There are those of us who have been hammering away at the fact that you cannot separate the social issues from the economic issues," he said. "We’re spending 700 billion dollars a year in means-tested welfare programs trying to make up for absent fathers, and the states are spending another 200 billion dollars a year trying to make up for absent fathers."As usual, Richard Land is pointing fingers everywhere but where they should be directed. Land has no one better than himself to blame for much of the government's deficit spending that is dragging down our economy. He was the head cheerleader for President Bush's unwarranted preventive war to deprive Iraq of its non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Debt is still piling up from Bush's unfunded wars -- debt that is projected to cost between $3.7 and $4.4 trillion dollars. While both elected and religious leaders around the world were condemning the Bush administration's war with Iraq as unjust, Land was inventing rationales for military action. A number of those absent fathers and absent mothers that Land is complaining about are absent because they died serving their country in Iraq.
Trita Parsi on Relations between the U.S., Israel and Iran from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Trita Parsi, President of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and author of A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran speaks about the need for diplomacy rather than a rush to war with Iran. Parsi spoke at a lunch and discussion session sponsored by the College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma on March 2, 2012.
described these conferences as a blatant effort to garner support from Hispanic and black religious leaders for then President Bush's re-election. So blatant that an extra conference was added in the last days of the re-election campaign -- in mid-October in Miami, Florida.
I asked Monteiro to distinguish his summits from the 2004 conferences during the Bush administration for me.
Monteiro replied that the summits were not organized by the "White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives." The summits were organized by the "Office of Public Engagement" and were addressed to a broader constituency. He also said he was familiar with David Kuo's book and knew that selections of host cities for the 2004 Conferences had been based on polling data that indicated they would have maximum impact on President Bush's re-election campaign. He stated the selection for the 2012 summits was determined by requests for assistance from the communities themselves -- there was no input from President Obama's re-election campaign and no polling data was consulted. Monteiro indicated that, in his opinion, it would be illegal for his office to do what Kuo claims was done in 2004.
There is no doubt in my mind that the interaction between Obama Administration policy makers and the public at these summits will be beneficial to both. Personally, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, I think it would be wise to refrain from holding such summits during years when presidents are campaigning for re-election.
Dr. Leslie Downs plays Darius Milhaud from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Dr. Leslie Downs plays selections from Darius Milhaud's Saudades do Brazil, Op. 67 at his piano recital at NorthHaven Church on February 18, 2012. He plays Copacabana, Ipanema, Tijuca, and Gavea., answers a question about where he sees the "red line" that should not be crossed in US-Iranian relations. The question was part of the dialogue at a brown bag lunch and discussion session sponsored by the College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma on March 2, 2012.
Note: The picture frozen on the video is of the questioner, not Dr. Parsi.
Leslie Downs Plays Joseph Haydn from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.
Dr. Leslie Downs plays Joseph Haydn's Sonata in B minor at his piano recital at NorthHaven Church on February 18, 2012.Section II-5 of the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma: No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.State Representatives Jason Nelson and Mike Reynolds, both of Oklahoma City, recently submitted House Joint Resolution (HJR) 1081 calling for a constitutional amendment to repeal Section II-5 of the Oklahoma Constitution. It was referred to the House Rules Committee where most bills and resolutions go to die. Today, the House Rules Committee gave it a DO PASS approval and referred it to the full House of Representatives.
Yet, in her determination to come across as hard-line, Clinton has undercut promising initiatives that might have constrained Iran from having enough low-enriched uranium to even be tempted to build a nuclear arsenal. In 2010, when – at the urging of President Obama – the leaders of Turkey and Brazil worked out an agreement with Iran, under which Iran agreed to ship about half of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) out of country, Clinton immediately rejected it in favor of more severe economic sanctions. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were left wondering who exactly was in charge in Washington — Hillary and her pro-Israeli friends, or Obama. Brazil released a three-page letter that Obama had sent to Lula da Silva a month earlier in which Obama said the proposed uranium transfer “would build confidence and reduce regional tensions by substantially reducing Iran’s” stockpile of low-enriched uranium. The contrast between Obama’s support for the initiative and the opposition from various hardliners (including Clinton) caused “some puzzlement,” one senior Brazilian official told the New York Times. After all, this official said, the supportive “letter came from the highest authority and was very clear.” It was a particularly telling episode. Clinton basked in the applause of Israeli leaders and neocon pundits for blocking the uranium transfer and securing more restrictive U.N. sanctions on Iran – and since then Iran appears to have dug in its heals on additional negotiations over its nuclear program. Secretary Clinton is almost as assiduous as Netanyahu in never missing a chance to paint the Iranians in the darkest colors – even if that ends up painting the entire region into a more dangerous corner.
movie party that I hosted this afternoon.
Faces are grim as the 2010 Academy Award winning documentary explains how both the American economy and our political system are still under the control of Wall Street, the finance industry and too-big-to-fail banks.
Moderate and Progressive Baptists will note that the time when evangelicalism began to decline and the "nones" began to rise also coincides with the completion of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention and the increasing union of the SBC with the GOP.
Watching top U.S. intelligence officials present the annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment” before the Senate Intelligence Committee, I found myself wondering if they would depart from the key (if politically delicate) consensus judgment that Iran is NOT working on a nuclear weapon. In last year’s briefing, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had stood firm on this key point, despite severe pressure to paint Iran in more pernicious terms. On Tuesday, I was relieved to see in Clapper’s testimony a reiteration of the conclusions of a formal National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of November 2007, issued unanimously by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including judgments like this:“We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program; … Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”Sadly, this judgment still comes as news to many of those Americans who are malnourished on the low-protein gruel of the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) – even though the NIE was immediately declassified in 2007 and has been in the public domain for more than four years.
