oh, mike huckabee...

[Danzig]

so, he spoke to a group of 'politically active pastors' (could someone get that list, to see if they are affecting their 501 status as a non profit??) in little rock. after, the first question asked was 'are you running in 2016?'. whoops and applause....

he answered 'the lord knows, but he's not telling just yet.'

further on....he was quoted


'i really believe the key to a republican victory is an ability to communicate a message to a broader spectrum. ....one of our failures is the failure to speak to african americans...hispanics, to working class people. more than just speaking to the board room, speak to the people who go in and clean up after the meeting'.



er.......what? i'm not sure, does he mean blacks and hispanics are all janitors?

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

er.......what? i'm not sure, does he mean blacks and hispanics are all janitors?

I think he actually excluded African Americans and Hispanics from the 'working class'.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

so, he spoke to a group of 'politically active pastors' (could someone get that list, to see if they are affecting their 501 status as a non profit??)

As soon as they check Jesse Jackson and his Operation Push. Or like unions and politicians does he get an exemption?

BTW Locally congressman and ex-criminal Bobby Rush was awarded $1 million to build a Tech Center, only it seems the Tech Center was built in his pocket. We'll see if the story goes national?

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

As soon as they check Jesse Jackson and his Operation Push. Or like unions and politicians does he get an exemption?

BTW Locally congressman and ex-criminal Bobby Rush was awarded $1 million to build a Tech Center, only it seems the Tech Center was built in his pocket. We'll see if the story goes national?

Unions are permitted to be politically active because when you give money to a union, you are not allowed to declare it as a deduction, while you can get a tax deduction for money donated to a religious organization.

I sometimes wonder how much money churches and other 501(c)(3)s would raise if the big donors were no longer allowed to declare it on their taxes.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Unions are permitted to be politically active because when you give money to a union, you are not allowed to declare it as a deduction, while you can get a tax deduction for money donated to a religious organization.

I sometimes wonder how much money churches and other 501(c)(3)s would raise if the big donors were no longer allowed to declare it on their taxes.

i wish the govt would finally treat churches for what they are, a business. churches should have to designate what's charity, and what's not. building a huge, fancy church to worship in is not charitable.
matter of fact, if one delved into it, you'd probably find that churches put only a fraction of their donated money towards charity, while most pays salaries, utilities, etc.
i hope the irs really cracks down on all the pacs posing as tax exempt groups.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i wish the govt would finally treat churches for what they are, a business. churches should have to designate what's charity, and what's not. building a huge, fancy church to worship in is not charitable.
matter of fact, if one delved into it, you'd probably find that churches put only a fraction of their donated money towards charity, while most pays salaries, utilities, etc.
i hope the irs really cracks down on all the pacs posing as tax exempt groups.

I feel mixed. Not being religious myself, I get aggravated at churches pushing political issues, but then, today I was dropping my son off at the preschool (so parents could have a date! Thanks preschool!) he goes to which is housed in a church, and there was a long line of homeless people being fed there today.

But yeah, the pomp and circumstance stuff is ridonkulous. The previous Pope apparently was way into the fancy schmancy stuff, especially regarding wardrobe. Which does not seem, to me, to be following Jesus' thing about give up all your possessions and follow me.

Whereas the current Pope is allegedly sneaking out of the Vatican at night to go minister to the poor. Between that and the implying the Church should spend less time obsessing over women's sex lives, he might want to think about getting a food taster.

[Danzig]

yeah, some churches do a lot of good things. but i tell you, every time i go thru little rock (which is always to get somewhere else, i never go to little rock!) i drive by this huge pentecostal...beast. two massive buildings, fancy as can be. the money spent on that in no way should have been considered 'charity' and thus, should be taxable. they don't pay property taxes on these massive places either. and it's my understanding they just bought 80 acres of prime real estate right across the highway.
i volunteer at a food pantry in crossett, also put on by a church. thankfully it gets a lot of support from area retailers and large employers. the church itself has such small membership, there's no way it could do it alone.
i just think instead of churches getting carte blanche across the board for every dollar, they should be accountable, and get exemptions just like we do, for what is actually put towards charity.
and it burns me to no end to know my former 'church', who is probably the largest property owner in this country, and owns countless works of art that are priceless, declared bankruptcy and hid funds in many dioceses to avoid paying the child molester piper. bad enough to cover up, to move priests to new areas (with new victims), but then to lie, cheat and cover up to avoid any repercussions...ugh, just angers me so much.

[Danzig]

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&sa...9,r:2,s:0,i:87

picture of the church (both buildings are the church, they're connected) total cost of construction, 20 million.

'They would have cost much more if many of the church members -- roofers, painters, etc. -- had not done a lot of the work, according to Charles Matson, the contractor, who said that his company in its 87 years had never built anything quite like them before. The new sanctuary has 69,000 square feet covered in marble. The dome is 52 feet in diameter and 75 feet high.'


all for the glory of god, of course....

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Unions are permitted to be politically active because when you give money to a union, you are not allowed to declare it as a deduction, while you can get a tax deduction for money donated to a religious organization.

I sometimes wonder how much money churches and other 501(c)(3)s would raise if the big donors were no longer allowed to declare it on their taxes.

I guess I was mixing fruit but meant the exemptions unions and pols from the President's signature program not filing as a charity.

[dellinger63]

BTW here in Chicago we have Minister Louis Farrakhan Muhammad (birth name Louis Eugene Wolcott) who runs the Nation of Islam 'church', attached restaurant and bakery all under the guise of being tax free.

His 'church' and charities exclude non-muslims, extort large businesses and has its leader preaching hate, recently referring to Jews as Satan and the 'Synagogues of Satan' going so far as blaming them for the demise of Detroit.

His restaurant and bakery will take anyone's money.

Oddly enough he also said if the felonious mayor of Detroit had been white, he wouldn't be serving time. Ignoring the fact white men were sentenced and are serving time for felonies related to the mayor's offenses, including a former member of Derby Trail.

Makes those Little Rock churches a little more rosy.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&sa...9,r:2,s:0,i:87

picture of the church (both buildings are the church, they're connected) total cost of construction, 20 million.

Wow. That's quite an ostentatious building.

News of the new Pope continuing to piss off the more conservative wing:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/po...kdown-on-order

[Danzig]

i know the pope got a lot of high praise for his comments some weeks back about homosexuals...'who am i to judge'.
i'm still peeved that there was no criticism for his remarks at that same time regarding women in the church.
the catholic church, like the republican party, is very out of touch with the people it wishes to reach.

he's made some astonishing moves, but so much to do.

as for the memo..... how interesting that the move to vernacular is so high on his list of priorities. for years (one of the reason for the reformation) the church fought any and all movements to allow the 'common man' to read the bible, let alone understand the mass. many priests back in those days had no idea what they were reciting, they memorized the latin mass-but had no clue what it all actually meant! the church felt it was up to them to translate gods word to the masses. they certainly didn't want the masses to get enough knowledge to read the bible themselves. yeah, that whole 'tree of knowledge' deal.
it's one of the common threads of a powerful entity, denial of education to the people they wish to keep under heel.

but, hey, at least the church is able to continue to keep the majority sex at bay in the ranks of the priesthood. damn uppity women, need to be reminded of their place.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i know the pope got a lot of high praise for his comments some weeks back about homosexuals...'who am i to judge'.
i'm still peeved that there was no criticism for his remarks at that same time regarding women in the church.
the catholic church, like the republican party, is very out of touch with the people it wishes to reach.

he's made some astonishing moves, but so much to do.

as for the memo..... how interesting that the move to vernacular is so high on his list of priorities. for years (one of the reason for the reformation) the church fought any and all movements to allow the 'common man' to read the bible, let alone understand the mass. many priests back in those days had no idea what they were reciting, they memorized the latin mass-but had no clue what it all actually meant! the church felt it was up to them to translate gods word to the masses. they certainly didn't want the masses to get enough knowledge to read the bible themselves. yeah, that whole 'tree of knowledge' deal.
it's one of the common threads of a powerful entity, denial of education to the people they wish to keep under heel.

but, hey, at least the church is able to continue to keep the majority sex at bay in the ranks of the priesthood. damn uppity women, need to be reminded of their place.

Right? While I think he's a vast improvement over the former Pope, I have no desire to return to the Church itself.

[OldDog]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

BTW Locally congressman and ex-criminal Bobby Rush was awarded $1 million to build a Tech Center, only it seems the Tech Center was built in his pocket. We'll see if the story goes national?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdo...illion-go.html

No word from HuffyPo or MBSNBC yet.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by OldDog

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdo...illion-go.html

No word from HuffyPo or MBSNBC yet.

Follow up

Paid Rush’s wife Carolyn Rush a year-round salary since 2007 totaling $404,000 as a consultant. That’s nearly a quarter of the $1.6 million the congressman’s campaign fund has raised in that time.

Asked about not having reported paying rent — currently pegged by his landlord at $20,958 a year — he suggested there’s a loophole in the law that allows him to use the storefront for free or at a discounted rent — though he did not say whether he gets the office rent-free or at a discount.

A man standing up for his community!

No wonder it's a wasteland.

http://www.suntimes.com/24190987-761...kroll-his.html