God, Politics and the Making of a Joyful Warrior

Tim Russert was the only newsperson I trusted to tell the whole truth, 100% of the time. I am so saddened by his loss because I have no one to believe anymore. God help us all.

Tim Russert was a person that could be trusted.

In a town that buys and sells souls every couple years, someone with that deep a moral base was a rarity.

It's been over two weeks and I still shed a tear thinking about this loss. With the ukalele song "Over the rainbow" playing and a double rainbow stretching over the Kennedy Center, I know Tim has many high level friends, even in heaven ; )

We all have to step up to the plate now and hold those accountable for lies and misdeeds since Tim isn't there to do it anymore. Hopefully he taught us all well. God bless you Tim Russert for showing us what a truly decent person looks like in action.

Readers, be informed, and beware! Sam Bodman, US Energy Secretary, is a Bush appointed Yes-man. Bodman states that insufficient production is making oil prices soar. Bush wants you to think that the OPEC countries are responsible for high oil prices, but the truth is, OPEC has been significantly increasing production over the past several months. Where is all that oil going? It's being stockpiled by US investment banks, who are creating a fake shortage to drive up the price. Congress has already started to investigate this criminal practice. Bush, who has deregulated the banking industry, tries to blame it on OPEC. By now you should be familiar with Bush's MO: he says you should be very afraid of Muslims.

Who you should really be afraid of are investment bankers at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. Check this out:

Michael Masters of Master Capital Management (a global investment manager) testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs a couple of weeks ago. Quotes from his testimony:

"Today, Index Speculators are pouring billions of dollars into the commodities futures markets, speculating that commodity prices will increase. In the popular press the explanation given for rising oil prices is the increased demand from China. According to the DOE, China's demand for petroleum has increased in the last five years from 1.88 billion barrels to 2.8 billion barrels, an increase of 920 billion barrels. Over the same five year period, Index Speculators' demand for petroleum futures has increased by 848 million barrels. THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM INDEX SPECULATORS IS ALMOST EQUAL TO THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM CHINA. Index Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of petroleum, effectively adding EIGHT TIMES as much oil to their own stockpile as the US Government has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years."

"The Senate has asked the question "Are Institutional Investors contributing to food and energy price inflation?" And my unequivocal answer is "YES." In this testimony I will explain that investment banks are one of, if not the primary, factors affecting commodities prices today. Clearly, there are many factors that contribute to price determination in the commodities markets; I am here to expose a fast-growing yet virtually unnoticed factor, and one that presents a problem that can be expediently corrected through legislative policy action..."

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. They're supposed to be protecting us from these kinds of abuses, but Bush allowed loopholes in the CFTC regulations that you can drive a truck through. An oil truck, that is.

Links to Masters' Senate testimony, and 2 articles:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/052008Masters.pdf
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20011.htm
http://globalresearch.ca/

He will rise again.

testing

BTW, even though I'm Catholic, I'd be the first to say:

RELIGION HAS NO PLACE IN POLITICS!

To the Proud Family of Mr. Tim Russert:

May God bless this good-hearted man and your family. As a good Catholic Sir, God will be waiting for you with open arms. Keep up the good work in heaven.

Much has been made of Russert's Catholic faith. He went to Catholic schools, elementary, secondary and college., I hope he did not send his son to St. Albans in DC, a tony Episcopal school for social climbing reasons. I am surprised Luke did not attend a Catholic prep school at least.

Russert likely best will be remembered as the longest-running host of one of television???s most intensely incisive political interview programs. In my view, however, he should best be remembered as a son, father, and one of the most positive exemplars of and advocates for fathers and their importance in children???s lives.

Russert was born on May 7, 1950. By historical and social chance, his life spanned the golden years of fatherhood beginning in the decade of the 1950???s -- when fathers and married family life were portrayed in the most positive of lights -- and continued through two score and eight years during which fathers increasingly were depreciated, demeaned, marginalized, and deemed irrelevant both to children and to society.

Blowing against the ideological winds of his adolescent and adult years, Russert wrote two bestselling books which, should his own wishes be granted, will be his most positive and long lasting legacy. Big Russ & Me ??? Father and Son: Lessons of Life was published in 2004. From the dust jacket: ???I have learned so much from Big Russ, and I feel so grateful to him, that I wanted to write a book about the two of us, and also about the other important teachers in my life, who have reinforced Dad???s lessons and taught me a few new ones???I hope this book will encourage readers to think about the things they learned from their father. Whatever we achieve and whoever we are, we stand on their shoulders.???

The responses of sons and daughters everywhere to this book were overwhelming and these spoken, scribbled, and written commentaries about their own fathers became the foundation of his second book published two years later: Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons. Of the many quotable quotes here are three from the Introduction: ???By writing a book about my father, I was affirming not only his life, but the lives of many other fathers as well???; ???Thank you for talking about your dad in such a positive way, because that was my experience too???; and ???If real estate is about location, location, location, fatherhood is about time, time, time.???

In a life by all accounts well lived, Tim Russert represents a man who not only talked the talk in two bestselling books but also walked the walk in his relationships with his own father and son. May the written word outlive the spoken and may his books influence not only fathers and children today, but also society for generations to come.

Entombed in Wisdom of Our Fathers is Russert???s own obituary:

???When my life is over, I know that the most important thing I???ll be judged on is what kind of father I was.???

Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Florida International University in Miami.

Russert likely best will be remembered as the longest-running host of one of television???s most intensely incisive political interview programs. In my view, however, he should best be remembered as a son, father, and one of the most positive exemplars of and advocates for fathers and their importance in children???s lives.

Russert was born on May 7, 1950. By historical and social chance, his life spanned the golden years of fatherhood beginning in the decade of the 1950???s -- when fathers and married family life were portrayed in the most positive of lights -- and continued through two score and eight years during which fathers increasingly were depreciated, demeaned, marginalized, and deemed irrelevant both to children and to society.

Blowing against the ideological winds of his adolescent and adult years, Russert wrote two bestselling books which, should his own wishes be granted, will be his most positive and long lasting legacy. Big Russ & Me ??? Father and Son: Lessons of Life was published in 2004. From the dust jacket: ???I have learned so much from Big Russ, and I feel so grateful to him, that I wanted to write a book about the two of us, and also about the other important teachers in my life, who have reinforced Dad???s lessons and taught me a few new ones???I hope this book will encourage readers to think about the things they learned from their father. Whatever we achieve and whoever we are, we stand on their shoulders.???

The responses of sons and daughters everywhere to this book were overwhelming and these spoken, scribbled, and written commentaries about their own fathers became the foundation of his second book published two years later: Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons. Of the many quotable quotes here are three from the Introduction: ???By writing a book about my father, I was affirming not only his life, but the lives of many other fathers as well???; ???Thank you for talking about your dad in such a positive way, because that was my experience too???; and ???If real estate is about location, location, location, fatherhood is about time, time, time.???

In a life by all accounts well lived, Tim Russert represents a man who not only talked the talk in two bestselling books but also walked the walk in his relationships with his own father and son. May the written word outlive the spoken and may his books influence not only fathers and children today, but also society for generations to come.

Entombed in Wisdom of Our Fathers is Russert???s own obituary:

???When my life is over, I know that the most important thing I???ll be judged on is what kind of father I was.???

Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Florida International University in Miami.

I was in shock upon hearing about Tim Russert's passing. My heart sank and I prayed it was a mistake. I didn't know Tim was Catholic or a democrat, because I didn't care. I had come to trust this man because of his honesty and his quest for the truth. I could depend on him asking the questions I wanted answers to, the prodding for more information, and the way he eloquently stood his ground when someone dared to "dance around" the question. My condolences to his family and to the American people for the loss of a great luminary.
Sandy Blythe-Smith
Michigan

Tim Russet was a wonderful reporter. This is so very sad, he will definitely be missed.

God Bless.