December 22, 2008

SCRUBBED: “Someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at a member as Saddleback Church”
Yesterday, BeliefNet reported that the website for Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, Cal., contained a warning that unrepentant gays were forbidden from joining the church:

Because membership in a church is an outgrowth of accepting the Lordship and leadership of Jesus in one’s life, someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member at Saddleback Church.

Today, that section, which was part of a longer diatribe about the sin of homosexuality (see below), is gone. According to BeliefNet, this link led to the page banning gays. Now it connects to a page titled “What We Believe.” BeliefNet is known for down-the-line reporting on religion. It was recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp.

Via Good As You, there are are still offensive statements about gays on the megachurch site:

[…]

Corporate socialism has now officially run amok. According to a report from the Associated Press, as much as $1.6 billion of the taxpayer funded $350 billion bank bailout fund has gone directly to top executives at America’s leading financial institutions.

Even at banks where compensation was reduced, executives still received millions in salary, bonuses and perks:

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines…

The average paid to each of the banks’ top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.

John Thain, CEO of Merrill-Lynch, took home $83 million of the $10 billion taxpayers gave his company. At Goldman Sachs, CEO Lloyd Blankfein pocketed nearly $54 million from his company’s $10 billion bailout. All totaled, Goldman Sach’s top five executives walked off with a total of $242 million from the public dole.

Capital One’s chairman, Richard D. Fairbank, received $1 million less this year than he expected, but still received $17 million from the $3.56 billion his company took.

San Francisco’s Wells Fargo Bank used part of its $25 billion in taxpayer money to make financial planners available to its top executives at $20,000 each.

The $350 billion is just half of the $700 billion allocated to bail out the banks, and George Bush has indicated he may release some or all of it before he leaves office. This underscores the fact that the $1.6 billion appropriated by the bank execs in 2008 represents only what they have pilfered so far.

Day: December 22, 2008

Bank Execs Have Personally Pocketed $1.6 Bil from Bailout – So Far

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”