Is this the fundamental change you wanted in 2008?

We've got more debt and expanded wars, more pay offs to unions,  more crony capitalism, less transparency, a shadow president (Valerie Jarrett) much more dangerous than Rove and now another big FEMA fiasco, Sandy, with cold, hungry and powerless people after 6 days.  Medicare and Medicaid are still riddled with fraud and waste and many doctors are retiring early or changing careers. We’re facing a huge tax increase come January.  NCLB has morphed to an even bigger federal program RTTT and Social Security hasn't been fixed.  The DoJ is running guns to Mexico, and the CIA to Syria. It won’t be in time for the election but there WILL BE an investigation of Obama and Clinton’s politically based decisions and behavior on September 11, 2012, that will dwarf Watergate.  . 

So those of you who wanted fundamental change  in 2008, is this what you had in mind?

Hope and Change--it's not just a political slogan

Hope and Change is the message of the New Testament, and it was stolen by the Obama campaign because the clever marketing firm that ran the campaign knew the familiarity and the challenge of it have a comfortable, familiar ring, even if the candidate was preaching political concepts unacceptable to most Americans--concepts that have failed in every country they've been tried. "Hope and change" (the slogan) is also an underlying desire of youth--in my generation it was the 18-23 year old's mantra, but since adolescence has been lengthened since the mid-60s, so has young adulthood, and now it's the 20-30 year olds who yearn to make changes in the world and believe they are the generation to do it. Constant, unremitting change (they are fuzzy on this but it includes risk taking, hedonism/slackerism, entertainment and sports) is in fact their hope as they postpone marriage, family and career.

Paul lists seven questions in Romans 8.31-39

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have our only HOPE in Jesus Christ, and yes, because our lives will CHANGE, we CHANGE the world.

Do be fooled or misled by political slogans. Jesus didn't come to change political systems, or to be a humanist mystery called "peace and justice." He's not a member of any nation or political party. He's Lord and Savior of the universe, The Word of God, the Alpha and Omega, and he's Hope and Change.

In yesterday's sermon John Stolzenbach said he uses this passage from Romans at every funeral. Yes, it's truly amazing in listing changes and hope. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Life here is full of changes--don't leave home without hope.

They bought it--crook, line and stinker

The old "hope and change" message sounds pretty hollow today. And another stimulus isn't very stimulating, no matter what it's called. This item is from How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular. Of course, if TIME and other news tools had been doing their job of vetting candidates, he might not have sneaked through, right? So why believe them now?

"We bought what he said. He offered a lot of hope," says Fred Ferlic, an Obama voter and orthopedic surgeon in South Bend who has since soured on his choice. Ferlic talks about the messy compromises in health care reform, his sense of an inhospitable business climate and the growth of government spending under Obama. "He's trying to Europeanize us, and the Europeans are going the other way," continues Ferlic, a former Democratic campaign donor who plans to vote Republican this year. "The entire American spirit is being broken."

Mr. Ferlic, what were you thinking?

Good politics is bad history and bad economics

It's a toss up. The demeaning and foot shuffling dance of the United States abroad by Biden-Obama, or Obama's negative rhetoric at home to completely gut the spirit of the American people. What is he up to? Certainly there's no hope, no change in the constant barrage of negativism we've heard since November 4. He gets his stimulus package through duplicity and lies, and before it even gets to his desk tells us it won't work and there will be more! I don't know if a positive attitude helps cancer patients, but if I had stage one cancer, I certainly wouldn't be encouraged by being knocked to the floor with the stats and treatment regimen for stage four.

[Obama’s] fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82. Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

Dirty Harry brings home the bacon

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leading the fight to push President Barack Obama's economic-stimulus plan through the chamber by week's end. He's also working to make sure that his home state of Nevada benefits from the nearly $900 billion plan. . .

Dozens of other senators have sought to add their own measures to the stimulus plan.

Last week, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas failed to win approval for an extension of tax incentives for her home-state timber industry. On Tuesday, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer failed to win a majority for a provision backed by Silicon Valley high-technology firms and home-state drug companies that would have allowed them to bring overseas profits back to the U.S. at reduced tax rates.

On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) fought to change the way transportation funds are doled out in a way that could benefit home-state interests. New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer this week sent a news release to constituents outlining his plan to direct millions in new federal funds to public-transportation projects in New York City. And Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson angled to include tax incentives for citrus growers." WSJ
Hope and Change.
Change and Hope.
Hoping for change.
Changing the hope.