I think he’d say– no thanks

I actually would think that John did not apologize for saying what he said, he was sorry they ‘didn’t get it’. AND the sad part is, at that time– yes the Beatles were more openly popular than Jesus [in human terms]. I would think if john were here, he would say he doesn’t need, nor require the Popes forgiveness!!!

Vatican ‘forgives’ John Lennon

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7499825.stm  1966 News Video!

A Vatican newspaper has forgiven the late English singer John Lennon for saying four decades ago that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

In an article praising The Beatles, L’Osservatore Romano said Lennon had just been showing off.

Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 that he did not know which would die out first – Christianity or rock and roll.

At the time, the comparison sparked controversy in the US.

The semi-official Vatican newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ “White Album” with an article praising Lennon and the Fab Four from Liverpool.

Youthful joke

The paper dismissed Lennon’s much-criticized remark that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ as a youthful joke.

The paper described the remark as “showing off, bragging by a young English working-class musician who had grown up in the age of Elvis Presley and rock and roll and had enjoyed unexpected success”.

Charles Wheeler on the reaction to John Lennon’s claim in 1966

L’Osservatore Romano recently got a new editor and now – apart from chronicling the Pope’s daily doings and printing the texts of papal speeches – it sometimes runs articles on entertainment on inside pages, together with extensive reporting on world affairs.

In a half-page illustrated article, the paper praised The Beatles for what it called their “unique and strange alchemy of sounds and words”.

The newspaper said The Beatles’s songs had shown an extraordinary capacity for survival and the White Album album remained a “magical musical anthology”.

In an another article on the same page entitled “Twilight of the gods” the newspaper lamented the passing of the golden days of Hollywood and said the mysterious fascination of the star system of Hollywood in the 1950s had been superseded by the cult of so-called celebrities.

Although Pope Benedict has criticized many aspects of modern pop culture, he now allows the newspaper of the tiny independent Vatican state to reflect the reality of the world outside in a way that would have been unthinkable in the days of Pope Paul VI who reigned during heyday of The Beatles.

“I know my name is Steven…”

It was in the mid-eighties when I had watched the made for TV Movie about Steven Stayner. To this day it has had an impact on me. I had always felt that the man that had abducted him was the one who ran him over, because he was out of jail prior to the upcoming trial… and Steven was the ONLY star witness as to all that had been done to himself as well as others. Anyway– the story just reopens may thoughts I have about how fucked up our system is. I don’t know what the answer is… but I just can’t understand , for example, why the man in Florida who tortured then buried alive that little girl is still breathing?

AND– Stevens brother got so screwed up upon Stevens return and that entire situation, no one seemed to notice the red flags all around him. He was the one who ended up killing that mother, daughter and daughters best friend in the National Forest a few years back. Geeeeeeeeeeeece.

                        

Richard Noggin’ Saturday: Is Barack Hussein Obama, Jr A Kenyan?

Or Does It Matter?

I don’t know if this is real or not, but it sure raises the concern about the man’s real background. If you say “it doesn’t matter”, you are sticking your head in the sand to avoid the inevitable. I have heard all the rumor and innuendo about the subject (reading and listening to Philip J. Berg articles and interviews, thinking this subject must be erroneous), but what one may not realize is that “if” this is true, we have had a huge failure in the media and politico vetting process.

I suppose much more investigation is needed, but this is something that any decent investigator should be able to determine. If Mr Obama is indeed holding back documentation or has misled us to get the position, then he can’t be trusted. “If” this is true, then we are faced with the reality of having war monger extraordinaire, Joe Biden, as our president (even though I believe that Mr Obama will be as much a war monger as anyone who the Elite would ever elect).

This no new precident, either. Look at W’s history… to this day you can’t get to some of it (the things they don’t want you to know, like where he was when he was supposed to be serving out his time in the Guard. Strange how certain things can become hidden when it is necessary.

Now, my progressive friends who are Obama fans (if you listen to the interview you will understand why I added “Hussein” and “Jr” to the title), does this matter, in your opinion, or should we just turn our heads and look the other way? Listen to the following radio show interview slipped through the gate keeper to the Kenyan Ambassador to the USA, His Excellency Peter Ogego. Go straight to 12:39 for the good stuff (altho, up till then is both funny and amazing in how easy it is to reach a US Ambassador… creating some concern of this interview’s authenticity). Judge for yourself and look to the links provided in the text below for your own evaluation.

WRIF Radio, Detroit: Kenyan Ambassador Admits Barack Hussein Obama Was Born In Kenya

Kenyan Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Peter Ogego, admitted in this radio interview that Barack Obama was born in Kenya!

http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=91143&Disp=2#C2

MP3 Download: http://www.gdrg.net/dm/kenya.mp3

Posted by: Larry | November 21, 2008 at 01:38 PM

Kenyan Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Peter Ogego, admitted in this radio interview that Barack Obama was born in Kenya!

When WRIF “Mike In The Morning” Mike Clark (Michigan Radio Talk Show) Co-Host asked Kenyan Ambassador to the U.S., Peter Ogego:

“One more quick question, president-elect Obama’s birthplace over in Kenya, is that going to be a national spot to go visit where he was born?“

Kenya Ambassador Ogego replied: “It is already an attraction. His paternal grandmother is still alive.”

Radio Co-Host asks again : “But his (Barack Obama’s) birthplace, they will put up a marker there?”

Kenyan Ambassador Ogego replied : “It will depend on the government. It is already well known.”

CONTACT INFO:

Contact Mike Clark, WRIF Michigan Radio Talk Show Host: mim@wrif.com

His Excellency Peter Ogego, Kenyan Ambassador to the United States

Contact Ambassador Peter Ogego:

http://www.kenyaembassy.com/contactus.html?SQMSESSID=12e18742378a8e305f4a071c8f87caa8

h/t to DeProgram.

The significance is clear. If Mr Obama was born in Kenya, he cannot serve as POTUS without breaking the law of the USA. How far are Americans willing to go for their obsession? How true is anything about the man, if the very basis of his existence is a lie? Why was this not discovered before?

Barack Obama Put A Political Con Job Over On The American People

Changing With Retreads

The Third Clinton Administration

By RALPH NADER

While the liberal intelligentsia was swooning over Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, I counseled “prepare to be disappointed.” His record as a Illinois state and U.S. Senator, together with the many progressive and long overdue courses of action he opposed during his campaign, rendered such a prediction unfortunate but obvious.

Now this same intelligentsia is beginning to howl over Obama’s transition team and early choices to run his Administration. Having defeated Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primaries, he now is busily installing Bill Clinton’s old guard. Thirty one out of forty seven people that he has named so far for transition or appointments have ties to the Clinton Administration, according to Politico. One Clintonite is quoted in the Washington Post as saying – “This isn’t lightly flavored with Clintons. This is all Clintons, all the time.”

Obama’s “foreign policy team is now dominated by the Hawkish, old-guard Democrats of the 1990,” writes Jeremy Scahill. Obama’s transition team reviewing intelligence agencies and recommending appointments is headed by John Brennan and Jami Miscik, who worked under George Tenet when the CIA was involved in politicizing intelligence for, among other officials, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s erroneous address before the United Nations calling for war against Iraq.

Mr. Brennan, as a government official, supported warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition to torturing countries. National Public Radio reported that Obama’s reversal when he voted for the revised FISA this year relied on John Brennan’s advise.

For more detail on these two advisers and others recruited by Obama from the dark old days, see Democracy Now, November 17, 2008 and Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet, Nov. 20, 2008 “This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama’s White House.”

The top choice as White House chief of staff is Rahm Emanuel—the ultimate hard-nosed corporate Democrat, military-foreign policy hawk and Clinton White House promoter of corporate globalization, as in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization.

Now, recall Obama’s words during the bucolic “hope and change” campaign months: “The American people…understand the real gamble is having the same old folks doing things over and over and over again and somehow expecting a different result.” Thunderous applause followed these remarks.

“This is more ‘Groundhog Day’ then a fresh start,” asserted Peter Wehner, a former Bush adviser who is now at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The signs are amassing that Barack Obama put a political con job over on the American people. He is now daily buying into the entrenched military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned Americans about in his farewell address.

With Robert Rubin on his side during his first photo opportunity after the election, he signaled to Wall Street that his vote for the $750 billion bailout of those speculators and crooks was no fluke (Rubin was Clinton’s financial deregulation architect in 1999 as Secretary of the Treasury before he became one of the hugely paid co-directors tanking Citigroup.)

Obama’s apologists say that his picks show he wants to get things done, so he wants people who know their way around Washington. Moreover, they say, the change comes only from the president who sets the priorities and the courses of action, not from his subordinates. This explanation assumes that a president’s appointments are not mirror images of the boss’s expected directions but only functionaries to carry out the Obama changes.

If you are inclined to believe this improbable scenario, perhaps you may wish to review Obama’s record compiled by Matt Gonzalez at Counterpunch.

Ralph Nader is the author of The Seventeen Traditions.

From Counterpunch (h/t Nasir Khan blog)