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It's one thing when former high-ranking members of your own Administration come out against your war. It's another thing when two-thirds of the country calls the invasion and occupation a mistake. It's really something when your own church issues a statement urging you to pull out the troops now.

Last week, the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society--the social action committee of the church that both President Bush and Vice President Cheney belong to--resoundingly passed a resolution calling for withdrawal with only two 'no' votes and one abstention.

As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq, the statement read. Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought.... We grieve for all those whose lives have been lost or destroyed in this needless and avoidable tragedy. Military families have suffered undue hardship from prolonged troop rotations in Iraq and loss of loved ones. It is time to bring them home.

The board also issued a strong statement against torture, urging Congress to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate detention and interrogation practices at Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is my hope and prayer that our statement against the war in Iraq will be heard loud and clear by our fellow United Methodists, President Bush and Vice President Cheney, said Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the UMC's Board of Church and Society. Conservative and liberal board members worked together to craft a strong statement calling for the troops to come home and for those responsible for leading us into this disastrous war to be held accountable.

With its bold stands against the Administration, the UMC is fulfilling the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who called for the church to be not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion but a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

Bush has asserted that he entered Iraq on a direct order from God. Now, he has a direct order from his own church to leave. Is he listening?

Obama Calls on Bush To Admit Iraq Errors

'Limited' Troop Reduction Urged

By Peter Slevin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 23, 2005; Page A03

CHICAGO, Nov. 22 -- Sen. Barack Obama said President Bush should admit mistakes in waging the Iraq war and reduce the number of troops stationed there in the next year. But the Illinois Democrat, a longtime opponent of the war, said U.S. forces remain part of a solution in the bitterly divided country and should not be withdrawn immediately.

Without citing specific numbers, Obama called for a limited drawdown of U.S. troops that would push the fragile Iraqi government to take more responsibility while deploying enough American soldiers to prevent the country from exploding into civil war or ethnic cleansing or a haven for terrorism.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) greets well-wishers at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations after he said the administration has not given straight answers to critical questions on Iraq. (By Jeff Roberson -- Associated Press)

Obama also faulted the administration for tarring its critics as unpatriotic naysayers and said it launched the war to topple Saddam Hussein in March 2003 without giving either Congress or the American people the full story.

Straight answers to critical questions. That's what we don't have right now, the high-profile freshman senator told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. Members of both parties and the American people have now made clear that it is simply not enough for the president to simply say 'We know best' and 'Stay the course.'

As other Democrats are finding their voice against Iraq policy, Obama took an approach closer to one taken by Senate Foreign Relations Committee colleague Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) than to that of Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.). Murtha, a former Marine, called last week for an immediate pullout of nearly 160,000 U.S. troops.

Four prospective Democratic presidential candidates -- Biden, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and former North Carolina senator John Edwards -- have advocated a more gradual approach, with no sudden steps. Biden called Monday for the withdrawal of 50,000 troops by the end of next year and all but 20,000 to 40,000 out by January 2008.

Obama told the audience of about 500 people that the war has siphoned assets from homeland security and the global anti-terrorism fight. He said the administration's attempt to equate the defeat of the Iraqi insurgency with the defeat of international terrorism is overly narrow and dangerously short-sighted.

In a 35-minute speech scheduled just days ago, Obama argued that public opinion has raced ahead of politicians in seeking a clearly etched policy that helps produce stability in Iraq and the Middle East without exposing the United States to a war without end -- a war where our goals and our strategies drift aimlessly, regardless of the cost in lives or dollars spent.

Those of us in Washington have fallen behind the debate that is taking place across America on Iraq. We are failing to provide leadership on this issue, Obama said.

He maintained that Bush could take politics out of the Iraq discussion once and for all if he would simply go on television and say to the American people: 'Yes, we made mistakes. Yes, there are things I would have done differently. But now that I'm here, I'm willing to work with both Republicans and Democrats to find the most responsible way out.'

Tammy Bruce, guest host for Laura Ingram's radio show, had some harsh words for First Lady Michelle Obama.

Discussing the first lady's visit to a Washington D.C. classroom last week, Bruce incredulously recalled Obama's story about wanting to get A's in school and called out her use of a "weird, fake accent."

"That's what he's married to," Bruce said. "...You know what we've got? We've got trash in the White House. Trash is a thing that is colorblind, it can cross all eco-socionomic...categories. You can work on Wall Street, or you can work at the Wal-Mart. Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy..."

Tammy Bruce, guest host for Laura Ingram's radio show, had some harsh words for First Lady Michelle Obama.

words that rhyme with white, but the thing I find disturbing are the double standards. For example, Reverend Wright (not to beat a dead horse so please forgive me) but if a white reverend said the kind of racist things he said about the black community, whoever white political figure attended that church for any amount of time would have had their career ruined. If a church had the same values that Wright's did but you exchanged black for the word white, that church would have been labeled as a racist church....KKK....etc. If a white reverend had given a benediction and said anything remotely like what Lowery did, not only would the race card have been thrown out, it would have been all over the news, the outrage from the black community would have been everywhere, and I'm sure a public apology would have had to have been made.

As a younger white female, I understand the history as far as the facts go. Did I experience it...no. However, I have experienced racism in my own personal life with having some things done to me from a black person for no reason other than the color of my skin. Do I judge all black people by the ones who were racist towards me....of course not. There are good and bad in all races. As a white person, I feel I have embraced what is right. I treat people like I would want to be treated no matter what they look like or the color of their skin. So to be lumped into the category Lowery lumped me into.....well...that is offensive to me.

The comments made by black rappers and celebs saying things like....no more white lies...my president is black and using the N- word. All very offensive to me especially to think that people use them as role models.

And not to burst their bubble.....President Obama is half white. So going by what they were spewing about not trusting white people and their lies....well I guess they can only trust Obama 50% of the time then since technically he is half white. Hmm....funny how no one ever mentions his mixed race and just merely focus on the color of his skin and give him the title of a black man.

until I saw her post, which nobody can help but see when they try to get to the political boards. Now she's denying doing it, so go figure, eh?

They must be getting desperate, and remembering how they got others banned on here, if you suddenly stop seeing posts from me, you'll know they got me banned, as well.

Just in case this is the last post I'm allowed to post here, I just want to point out that in my original post above, I never once singled out a single person or poster. I was speaking in general terms. It was then that they started copying and pasting my posts on theri board and posting their attacks, singling ME out and mentioning my moniker.

I'm also sorry for any trashing YOU might get from them simply because you're being nice to me. I've noticed you're also suddenly one of their targets now.

Like I said, if you suddenly don't see my posts any more, you can just assume that history has repeated itself and that I've been banned, as well.

Well, of course, you couldn't have known. But I guess my whole point is that when we fling personal barbs amidst the political barbs we never know what or whom those arrows are hitting. And not to say I am blameless either. I reach a boiling point when I see certain posters picked on cruelly who (in my mind) really only have the betterment (sp?) of society and the human race at the forefront of their concerns and have gently posted those concerns on a liberal board, only to be picked apart for their belief system. Unfortunately it seems to be human nature.

Also, it's not a FACT that Palin is a fanatic; she is a Christian. You call her a fanatic, your opinion.

I realize YOU don't care about the calls but

Obama Calls on Bush To Admit Iraq Errors

'Limited' Troop Reduction Urged