Texas Megachurch Minister Busted in Internet Sex Sting

[followerofchrist]

BRYAN, Texas — A minister from a Dallas-area Baptist megachurch was caught in an Internet sex sting and charged with online solicitation of a minor, police said Friday. Undercover officers posing as a 13-year-old girl communicated with Joe Barron, 52, of Plano for about two weeks. The online conversations were sexual in nature, police said. On May 6, Barron suggested meeting the girl in person. He eventually made the nearly 200-mile drive to Bryan on Thursday, when he was arrested. Police said they found a web-cam and condoms in his car. Barron remained in Brazos County Jail on Friday on $7,000 bail. Police did not know if he had an attorney. Barron is one of 40 ministers at Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the country with 26,000 members. He ministers to married adults. Mike Buster, executive pastor, said in a statement that the church had no record or knowledge of previous improprieties or saw any inappropriate behavior in the 18 months Barron was on the church staff. Buster said church officials are fully cooperating with police. "We are disturbed and saddened by the reports we have heard and we are praying for the Barron family," he said.

 

[followerofchrist]

Bush offers Saudis nuclear power in exchange for more oil!U.S. President George W. Bush, visiting the Saudi capital on Friday, hoped to formalize new agreements that would give the relationship between the two countries a boost. Among them was an agreement for the U.S. to assist the kingdom in developing civilian nuclear power. Another agreement involves U.S. promises to help protect any Saudi nuclear infrastructure with training, the exchange of experts and other support services as needed. Hadley said it would not involve U.S. troops.But the rising price of oil commanded attention.Saudi Arabia's leaders made clear they see no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it, apparently rebuffing Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices. It was Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, head of the monarchy that rules this desert kingdom that is a longtime prime U.S. ally and home to the world's largest oil reserves. But Saudi officials stuck to their position that they will only pump more oil into the system when asked to by buyers, something they say is not happening now, the president's national security adviser told reporters."Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy," Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices rose above $127 a barrel, a record high. "What the Saudis wanted to tell us was we're doing everything we can do ... to meet this problem, but it's a complicated problem." The Saudi oil minister, Ali Naimi, announced that the kingdom decided on May 10 to raise production by 300,000 barrels at the request of customers, including the United States. He said that increase was sufficient. "Supply and demand are in balance today, he told a news conference. How much does Saudi Arabia need to do to satisfy people who are questioning our oil practices and policies?" Bernard Picchi, an energy analyst at Wall Street Access, an independent research firm, said the 300,000-barrel Saudi production increase was a token amount that is not expected to have much impact on prices. "It would be different," he said, "if Saudi Arabia boosted production by 1 million or 1.5 million barrels a day. The announced increase will have Saudi Arabia pumping 9.45 million barrels a day by June, Saudi officials said. That's about 2 million barrels below its capacity." Oil prices advanced Friday as traders, unimpressed by efforts to boost supply, kept buying on the expectation that prices would keep setting new records. Saudi Arabia often adjusts its output to meet demand, and the increase coincides with the start of the peak driving season in the U.S. "It's a way to raise production without raising production," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. "I think it was a way to save face." Hadley never mentioned the Saudi's new production in his recap with reporters. He said the Saudis briefed Bush again on their plan to increase their production capacity over time. They also argued that even an increase would be unlikely to bring down the soaring prices, driven more by uncertainty in the market, lack of refining capacity for the type of oil readily available and other complicated dynamics, he said. Economists say prices are being driven up by increased demand, not slowed production. Energy-guzzlers China and India are stretching supplies. As a result, Hadley suggested the White House was satisfied with - or at least accepted - the Saudi response. He added, however, the Bush administration will see if the explanation conforms to what our experts say. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said the discussion with Bush about oil was friendly. "He didn't punch any tables or shout at anybody," the minister said. "I think he was satisfied." High energy costs are a major drain on the U.S. economy, which is experiencing a slowdown that some think is already a recession. At the pump, gas prices rose to a national average of $3.78 per gallon on Friday, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. When Bush and Abdullah met in the kingdom in mid-January, the president also sought more Saudi output in a plea that also ultimately was for naught. Iran was the other dominant topic of Bush's overnight visit with the king. The two shared a concern over the recent violence in Lebanon, where Hezbollah overran Beirut neighborhoods last week in protest of measures aimed at the group by the country's government. The display of military power by the Shiite militant group, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, resulted in the worst internal fighting since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. With Shiite-dominated Iran backing Hezbollah, Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia - eager to stop any advance of regional power by Tehran - joins the West in supporting Lebanon's government. Hadley said Bush and Abdullah shared a concern that the recent events would embolden Iran. "The U.S. and Saudi Arabia," he said, "are of one mind in condemning what Hezbollah did." On Thursday, Hezbollah and the government reached a deal to end the violence after Lebanon's Cabinet reversed measures aimed at reining in the militants. Bush's Saudi stop was intended, in part, to celebrate 75 years of formal U.S.-Saudi relations and strengthen ties that, once strong, have frayed over the perception Washington favors Israel too much in the dispute with the Palestinians, the Iraq war and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Fifteen of the 19 airline hijackers were Saudis, and Americans blamed Saudis for allowing the religious extremism that gave rise to them, an accusation that stings here. Bush was spending the day with Abdullah at his lavish farm complex outside Riyadh, talking mostly out of public view over multiple tea services and meals. Abdullah greeted Bush warmly at the airport, and rode with him in his limousine out into the desert. When Bush first ran for president in 2000, he criticized the Clinton administration for high fuel prices and said the president must jawbone oil producing nations and persuade them to drop rates. At that time, oil was nearing $28 a barrel - less than a quarter what it is now. Bush's visit comes two days after Congress voted to temporarily halt daily shipments of 70,000 barrels of oil to the nation's emergency reserve. After Bush's talks on Friday, his administration announced in Washington that it has canceled oil shipments into the reserve beginning in July, when the current purchase contract expires. Bush has refused to stop pouring oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying the stockpile was meant for emergencies and that halting the shipments would have little or no impact on gasoline or crude oil prices.

 

[Christina]

Report from Israel Lies, lies and more lies.Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2008 - written by jerry golden For the past week or so I’ve struggled with writing a report, the reason is simple all we hear and read is negative. It would seem that the Lord God of Israel has taken His hands off and has given us over to our own doings. That of course isn’t true, for God is very much involved and if it is by His taking His hands off that too is by His design knowing that God’s plan for this human race is right on track, and His prophecies are always 100%. What is very troubling is the actions opposed to the words of George W. Bush. We just heard his wonderful words of support for the only democracy in the Middle East not to mention the only real friend the US has here. We here in Israel applauded his words wanting to believe that he was speaking the truth; in short his words as usual were great. But then he leaves Israel and goes to his dear friend King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia not for an official visit but to the Kings Horse Ranch. The first thing we hear is he promises the King of Saudi Arabia all his support in a new nuclear program including the necessary nuclear fuel. Who is it among us that believe that the Saudis need a nuclear program for peaceful purposes when they have the world’s largest oil reserves and the price of oil has just gone over $125 per barrel? Is there anyone who thinks for a minute that the Saudis don’t support terrorism around the world or that they haven’t infiltrated the US with their Wahhabi Islam? Or maybe we have forgotten that the Bush family is in the oil business and are long time family friends with the Saudis and also are making untold amounts of money with the price of oil at $125 a barrel. If this was the only thing we had to look at possibly we could somehow get over it, but then look around and you will see that Bush has also supplied the Saudis with the latest in High Tech in military weaponry including F-16’s and F-15’s. But you will find the same thing when you look at the United Arab Emirate and other Islamic States sworn to destroy Israel including Egypt. This same world leader who spoke such wonderful words on our 60th anniversary is the one and the same who says we have to divide this land giving half of it to our enemies who has sworn to destroy us. Not only does he say we have to give the enemies of God and of Israel the land but that it has to be all in one piece which means to connect Judea and Samaria (West Bank) with Gaza Israel has to be divided into two pieces.This same man who says he will fight terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere has built a terrorist state in Gaza and now wants to build one in Samaria and Judea (West Bank). We here in Israel could not understand how Bush could have had so much power over Ariel Sharon to cause him to become a traitor to his own beliefs. Sharon was considered an Israeli hero by most of us. How he was pressured to bring Olmert from the bottom of the Likud list (#33) to be his vice Prime Minister setting him up to become the next Prime Minister. Or how he would do all he could to destroy the Likud right wing party that he loved and work so hard to make successful. But we see very clearly now that the plan was and is the total destruction of Israel. Since the first time Bush started his campaign to destroy Israel while speaking his nice words horrible things have happened to the US. And in the past few weeks there have been some of the worst storms the US has ever witnessed. I just read an article that every American should read very carefully for terrible things are about to happen there, and the government is getting ready for it http://www.uaff.us:80/deathcamps.htm and the majority of Americans are living in total denial to what is happening or about to happen. While Bush was speaking his wonderful words here in Israel Hamas sent a long range Grad missile into a major Israeli City landing in a crowded mall. Once again we see his crony Olmert does nothing. Is there any other country in this world that would allow themselves to be bombed and the citizens killed on a daily basis and do next to nothing to stop them. This failed Israeli Government has been doing just that for over 7 years, all to appease George W. Bush. It was no secret what would happen to Gaza if we pulled out, all the IDF Generals advised Sharon not to do that. But Bush had more influence on him than did his Generals. Today we are seeing the very same thing, all the IDF Generals worth anything are saying we have no choice but to go after Hamas in a big way regardless of the cost. We simply cannot allow this to continue to make the International community happy. You see we Jews have no place to run or hide, this is our home and God gave it to us. But it seems that somehow corruption has crept into our leaders to the point we have lost the will to fight. God give us the courage and the will to fight for that which He have

 

[Wakka]

"Prince Caspian" underwhelms at box office LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The second movie in the "Chronicles of Narnia" movie series took a commanding early lead at the weekend box office in North America, but will likely fall short of industry expectations, according to preliminary data issued on Saturday. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" sold $19.3 million worth of tickets during its first day of release across the United States and Canada on Friday, distributor Walt Disney Co said on Saturday. Marvel Entertainment Inc's superhero smash "Iron Man," the box office champ for the past two weekends, was the No. 2 choice on Friday, with estimated sales of $8.6 million, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo. Industry observers had expected "Prince Caspian" to do better than the first "Narnia" film, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe." But that film earned $23 million on its first day in December 2005, and $65.6 million in its first weekend. By contrast, observers were looking for the sequel to earn in the $80 million range this weekend. Estimates for the three-day period will be issued on Sunday...http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1746518320080517

 

[archierieus]

(kriss;49613)
I just read an article that every American should read very carefully for terrible things are about to happen there, and the government is getting ready for it http://www.uaff.us:80/deathcamps.htm and the majority of Americans are living in total denial to what is happening or about to happen.
I clicked on the link and read the article. Hmmmm . . . it does seem a bit far-fetched to me. I would like to hear the government's explanation about the buildings and the so-called 'body containers.' As for the collapse of the US econoomy in a few months, I don't see that happening. Dave