Failing to Success

I got a hug from God today...it was tucked away in the verses of Psalm 37 quoted below. Picture yourself crawling up into God's lap so that He can read to you and give you a BIG hug. I receive Dr. David Jeremiah's email devotionals every day. Sometimes I get a hug...sometimes I don't, lol.

Wishing you all of Christ's best in your life. ~Mary Ann Hartzler

			Wednesday, September 30 Failing to Success The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand. Psalm 37:23-24 Recommended Reading Psalm 40:2-3 The literal definition of the word "failure" is: a lack of success in or at something. In reality though, you cannot achieve success in anything without failures along the way. No one is born with the ability to do anything successfully on the first attempt. Babies fall when learning to walk; pianists hit sour notes when trying to master a composition; athletes come in second and third while building up what it takes to place first. But there is a common thread among them all: they never let fear of failure stop them from striving for success. A lot of us have a fear of failure; but if we desire to be used by God to further His kingdom and bring glory to His name, we must ask Him to help us overcome this. Imagine the amazing things we could do in God's name if we never let fear hold us back! We might stumble along the way; but in the end, God's name would be glorified, and we would set an example for those around us that it's okay to try big things for God, even if we fail along the way to success. Success comes in cans; failure comes in can'ts. Unknown Read-Thru-the-Bible Mark 9:1-10:34

The Label Promises Remedies, But The Box Contains Poison

Dr. Alan Keyes

Friday, September 18, 2009

Alan Keyes is Loyal to Liberty!

As conservative voters approach the 2010 elections, they might consider heeding the wisdom of this simple slogan: Don't Trust The Party Label. In particular, the Republican Party label is being abused as part of a conscious effort to deceive them.

Consider as evidence yesterday's report by Josh Kraushaar at politico.com. Under the direction of Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), the GOP's National Senatorial Committee is backing a slew of left-leaning candidates for the 2010 primaries. The plan is to give them special advantages in the primaries, while bad mouthing the prospects of conservative candidates.

The best, and perhaps most controversial, example of the NRSC's muscle-flexing is in Florida, where Cornyn quickly got behind the campaign of popular moderate [sic] Gov. Charlie Crist, despite growing conservative resentment over Crist's support of [alleged] President Barack Obama's stimulus plan and environmental policies.

The NRSC's open support for the governor has stifled the fundraising ability of former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, an attractive candidate in his own right who has been winning the support of conservative activists across the state.

"The speed with which the national party and national Republicans took sides in this race has presented challenges," said Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos. "Speaker Rubio never envisioned a day that a conservative in the Republican primary would be the underdog―and wouldn't be given a chance by the national party.

Conservatives considering Rush Limbaugh's contention that there's no hope outside the GOP need to ponder deeply the significance of this fact: the GOP leaders won't give a conservative a chance. Their excuse for stacking the deck against conservatives is that they are backing "electable" candidates. But they consistently define "electable" as "moderate" or "not conservative." According to the politico.com piece this logic "makes perfect sense to GOP strategists, who view it as a necessary exercise in political Darwinism.

"The job of the party committee is to help people with an 'R' next to their name; it doesn't matter what their ideology is," said Carl Forti, who headed the National Republican Congressional Committee's independent expenditure efforts in 2006 [with such good results]." "That's the mentality Cornyn has now―you want to find people that can win, and if you cater to much to the extremes, you'll be in trouble."

In fact Cornyn's intervention in primaries isn't about helping people with an 'R' next to their name. It's about making sure that in the general election those people aren't conservatives. As for the claim of electability, the notion that conservatives won't win is a purposely self-fulfilling prophecy.

The conservative heart of Americans everywhere is being roused by Obama's push to overthrow Constitutional government and install a national socialist regime in its place. But this is simply an accentuation of a longstanding reality. Consider the Battleground polling data reported by Bruce Walker in this article at americanthinker.com.

The Battleground Poll is different. It is bipartisan. A Republican polling organization, the Terrance Group, and a Democrat polling organization, Lake Research Partners, collaborate in picking the questions, selecting the sample population, conducting the surveys, and analyzing the results. The Battleground Poll website, along with the raw data, is "Republican Strategic Analysis" and "Democratic Strategic Analysis." There are few polls that are bipartisan. No other polling organization asks the same questions year after year, none that reveal the internals of their poll results so completely, and none ask anything like Question D3 in every survey. What is Question D3 and what were the results to Question D3 in the August 20, 2008 Battleground Poll? It is this:

"When thinking about politics and government, do you consider yourself to be...?

Very conservative
Somewhat conservative
MODERATE
Somewhat liberal
Very liberal
UNSURE/REFUSED"

In August 2008, Americans answered that question this way: (1) 20% of Americans considered themselves to be very conservative; (2) 40% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat conservative; (3) 2% of Americans considered themselves to be moderate; (4) 27% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat liberal; (5) 9% of Americans considered themselves to be very liberal; and (6) 3% of Americans did not know or refused to answer.

Sixty percent of Americans considered themselves conservative. Does this mean that most Americans do not know what "conservative" means? No: The question specifically provides an out to people who are not sure about their ideology; it provides an out to people who want to be considered "moderate." Americans reject those choices. They overwhelmingly define themselves as "conservative." This is a huge political story - except that it is not "new" at all. Look at the thirteen Battleground Poll results over the last six years, and how do Americans answer that very question? Here are the percentages of Americans in those polls who call themselves "conservative" since June 2002: 59% (June 2002 poll), 59% (September 2003 poll), 61% (April 2004 poll), 59% (June 2004 poll), 60% (September 2004 poll), 61% (October 2005 poll), 59% (March 2006), 61% (October 2006), 59% (January 2007), 63% (July 2007), 58% (December 2007), 63% (May 2008), and now 60% (August 2008.)

The percentage of Americans who define themselves as "somewhat liberal" or "very liberal" has always been puny. In thirteen straight polls, this percentage has never been higher than 38% (June 2004) and it has usually been much lower. The gap between self-defined conservatives and self-defined liberals has been as high as thirty percentage points and as low as twenty-one percentage points. What does that translate into in electoral politics? If conservative presidential candidates simply got all the conservative votes - if virtually all moderate voters, uncommitted voters, and liberal voters went for the liberal candidate - then the conservative candidates would win a landslide bigger than Ronald Reagan in 1988. Have you ever wondered why liberals like Obama never call themselves liberals? Maybe their advisers have read the Battleground Poll internals.

Are these remarkable results skewed? This has always been the argument, but it is a hopelessly flawed argument. The poll results are incredibly consistent over time. These results are the same when President Bush has poll numbers at rock bottom and when Republicans were facing electoral disaster, like in October 2006 when 61% of Americans called themselves conservatives. The very consistency of these percentages is powerful evidence of their inherent validity....

Voters heavily identify themselves as conservative. Only a miniscule percentage of them identify themselves as "moderates." Yet in primary elections the GOP leaders now stack the deck in favor of so-called "moderates." This isn't a hard-boiled preference for winners. It's an ideological preference for left-leaning candidates. Once the leftists win the GOP nomination, the leftist GOP leaders exploit the conservative cachet of the Republican label (carefully bolstered and preserved by media Judas goats) in a conscious effort to deceive conservative voters into supporting people who will surely betray them. In effect, the GOP leaders do exactly what the leftist Democrats do. They hide or lie about their candidates' left-leaning views in order to hijack the seats of power. And they've been doing so at least since Ronald Reagan left office. If a conservative chances to get a GOP nomination, the same GOP forces usually go to work behind the scenes to insure the nominee's defeat in the general election. Their claptrap about uniting to defeat the leftist Democrat bogeyman only matters to them when there's another leftist bogeyman behind the Republican mask. Though they pretend to be all about winning without regard to ideology, they are in fact committed to the leftist ideology and working to assure the victory of national socialism. They therefore don't disagree with Obama's leftist goal. They disagree with his up front and hasty pursuit of it.

I have to hope that people like Rush Limbaugh are not consciously part of this national GOP strategy of deception. The currently roused conservative heart of America could lead to a restoration of the Constitutional Republic. This could usher in an era of revitalized strength and renewed dedication to the principles and practices of liberty. Or it will again be hijacked by a conscious strategy intended to assure that Americans who love liberty and the constitutional sovereignty of the people are once more deceived and betrayed. Given that the leftist elite faction thinks it has already pushed America irretrievably over the cliff into national socialism, this time may be the last time. Conservative voters beware. The byword of the day is clear:

DON'T TRUST THE PARTY LABEL

Conservatives Should Make 2010 the ‘Passover’ Election

[One of my absolute favorite conservative thinkers is Alan Keyes. I think his thoughts are cogent and timely.]

http://loyaltoliberty.blogspot.com/
by Dr. Alan Keyes
September 16, 2009

I hear that Rush Limbaugh is telling people that they have no choice but to drink the Republican Kool-Aid in the 2010 elections. Given the track record of the forces still in control of the Republican Party, this is tantamount to saying that we let the American republic go gently into the dark night of National Socialism. It also implies surrendering the sovereignty of the American people on the altar of the economics-without-borders money powers whose machinations terrorized the nation into the arms of the Obama faction in the fall of 2008 (with a telling, indispensable assist from G. W. Bush.)

Now Obama's socialist putsch is rousing the conservative instincts of the American people. The Bush-Michael Steele Republicans see it as their job to exploit this reaction for political purposes, but without letting power fall into the hands of any true conservatives. It's a delicate maneuver, in which media Judas goats have an indispensable role. (Wikipedia has an excellent definition of Judas goat that's worth reading at this point. In essence, "The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards the Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared.")

Predictably, Rush Limbaugh (like the media personalities at the supposedly conservative Fox news network) is going about the work of herding angry grassroots Americans into the Republican sheep-pens, where they will be shorn of their character and liberty more slowly, but just as surely, as at the hands of the Obama faction. To accept his analysis, however, requires that we forget that G. W. Bush's surrender to socialism in 2008 was the culmination of years of missed opportunities and betrayals by Republicans to whom well intentioned conservative voters delivered control of the White House or the Congress (or both) from 1994 to 2006.

I know that some of these well intentioned conservative voters want desperately to believe that it was the bad old media or the wily bad Democrats who not only kept the Republican leaders from making good use of those years, but forced them to preside over the biggest spending spree in the nation's history up to that time. The Bush Republicans threw fiscal conservatism to the winds and paid no more than incompetent lip-serve to the agenda of restoring the nation's moral principles. Meanwhile, in the critical areas of education and national sovereignty they betrayed bedrock conservative principles by promoting the national government's liberty destroying control of our schools and colluding in the sovereignty destroying neglect of its Constitutional responsibility to secure our national borders.

Is the charitable view of the Republican leadership's sins justified? It might be, if we could believe that the violation and neglect of conservative ideas and principles was unintentional. Knowledgeable people have a hard time doing this, however, since they know that the Bush wing of the GOP has a long and consistent history of opposition to conservatism. In light of that history the failure to respect conservative ideas and principles during the years of Bush ascendancy looks suspiciously like reversion to type.

I was reminded of this today as I read this piece by Byron York on the washingtonexaminer.com website. York reports about "a revealing moment in a new book, scheduled for release next week, by former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer."

Bush was preparing to give a speech to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC. The conference is the event of the year for conservative activists; Republican politicians are required to appear and offer their praise of the conservative movement.

Latimer got the assignment to write Bush's speech. Draft in hand, he and a few other writers met with the president in the Oval Office. Bush was decidedly unenthusiastic.

"What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer.

Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement -- the movement that gave rise to groups like CPAC.

Bush seemed perplexed. Latimer elaborated a bit more. Then Bush leaned forward, with a point to make.

"Let me tell you something," the president said. "I whupped Gary Bauer's ass in 2000. So take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement."

Bush seemed to equate the conservative movement -- the astonishing growth of conservative political strength that took place in the decades after Barry Goldwater's disastrous defeat in 1964 -- with the fortunes of Bauer, the evangelical Christian activist and former head of the Family Research Council whose 2000 presidential campaign went nowhere.

Now it was Latimer who looked perplexed. Bush tried to explain.

"Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say," the president said, "but I redefined the Republican Party."

This suggests that G. W. Bush prided himself on the fact that the Bush ascendancy in the Republican Party eliminated the conservative movement as a viable force in American politics. Now, with so many Americans boisterously asserting their belief in conservative ideas and principles, the apologists for the Republican Party would surely prefer that this intended aspect of the Bush legacy be locked out of sight for safekeeping. "We're your only hope against Obama," they proclaim. "Give us the power." In true Machiavellian fashion they won't say to conservative Americans "Give us the power; we want to continue destroying you." They just say "give us the power."

Through fear of Obama some conservatives will follow the Judas goat media leaders into the political slaughter pens one more time. Like the panic of a drowning victim, their fear actually makes them fight against those who try to offer them real aid. It blinds them to the fact that the Republicans now promising deliverance set conservatives up for failure in the first place. They don't really oppose Obama's goal. They just think he's moving toward it too hastily.

Keeping all this in mind, I must disagree with Rush Limbaugh. I see a desperate need for a third alternative for America. Whether you call it a party or not is immaterial. My advice is to put no faith in the Republican Party label, the Republican Party leaders, or the Republican Party candidates. That doesn't mean voting against all Republicans. It just means voting for no one just because of the Republican label. Right now, if the label says anything to conservatives, it reeks of duplicity and betrayal. The election of 2010 should be like the Passover recounted in the Bible. Only the politicians bearing the mark of true conservatism should be passed over by the conservative angel of political judgment.

But what will signify, like the lamb's blood that marked the dwellings of the Israelites, the presence of a commitment to conservative ideas, principles and policies? For my part, I look for a proven dedication to the principles on which the United States of America was founded, starting with the self-evident truth that we are all endowed with unalienable rights by the will of the Creator God. Every element of real conservatism can be deduced and articulated as a logical consequence of that truth. So by looking for the people determined to conserve American liberty I will find the only conservatives worthy of the name. What about you?

America is Breaking God's Heart--and Destroying Itself--but There is a Way Back!

Special to AIPNews.com

September 16, 2009

by Georgette Smelich

Through many generations God’s loving Hand has greatly blessed the United States of America. We are a Christian nation that was founded upon reliance on God and His principles.

He has graciously provided all of our needs, from an abundance of food on our tables, the clothes that we wear, to the warm shelter within our homes. The Lord has protected us, for we are His people. He has remained faithful and merciful, gently caring for us as a shepherd tends to his flock.

In difficult times God is our solid Rock. He is our Shield that fiercely protects us from our enemies as He offers those He loves a safe and secure place of refuge.

The United States of America was once a prosperous nation that overflowed with milk and honey. Our thriving economy actually manufactured quality products that were labeled “Made in the U.S.A.” God blessed us with the strongest military power in the world, as our allies depended on us for their security and defense.

But, somewhere along the way, we became a rebellious people. Like the children of Israel we decided to take the credit for ourselves, failing to acknowledge that these wonderful gifts came from Almighty God, the One who created heaven and earth. Instead of thanking our loving Father with praise we began to eliminate Him from our lives.

He has been removed from the schools and America’s children are no longer allowed to pray. Sadly, in some places we are not even allowed to openly worship the baby Jesus at Christmas time except in our homes. Some churches are not upholding godly principles, straying away from God’s Word, supporting detestable acts in God’s eyes such as abortion and homosexuality. Traditional marriage between a man and a woman is being altered as now homosexual couples are allowed to marry each other.

God’s children are being raised in dysfunctional homes without a clear concept of the true American family, which includes a father and a mother.

The influx of illegal immigrants across our borders is creating havoc, as they take our jobs and destroy the rule of law, making a mockery of the fundamental principles of this great nation.

As Christians we know deep in our hearts that God surely must be weeping with a broken heart for His people and how we have defiantly disobeyed him. It can only be a matter of time before God’s enduring patience with us begins to subside. In fact, we are already witnessing the erosion of our God-given freedoms.

The United States of America was once a prosperous nation. Now our economy is disintegrating right before our eyes, forcing people into poverty, as millions of Americans lose their jobs to overseas competition, and their homes to foreclosure.

Families are now finding themselves to be dependent on the government for their entire welfare.

Our only hope for the survival of this great nation is in God. We must repent of our sins, and turn back to Him before it is too late!

The Lord speaks to us very clearly in 2 Chronicles, chapter 7:14:

"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

If we seek the Lord with all of our heart and soul, humbling ourselves, He will hear our prayers. And then, like all the generations that went before, our posterity will be able to enjoy the wonderful blessings of His Almighty Hand.

And so, until the hour of Jesus’ glorious return, let us do the work He has given us in helping to turn our fellow Americans back to Him. If we will simply be faithful in that, what a victorious Day that will be!

Georgette Smelich is the founder and interim chairman of America's Independent Party of Seward, NE. The above remarks were delivered at the county party's recent inaugural caucus meeting. She can be reached at smelichgeorgette@yahoo.com.

Limbaugh Makes a Case Against a Third Party Solution

[I can't say it any better than this, folks.  You'll find the original essay here.]


Limbaugh Makes a Case Against a Third Party Solution
AIPNews.com
Monday, September 14, 2009
by Bob Bailey

In the aftermath of the September 12 Tea Party March on Washington, Rush Limbaugh ended his radio show attempting to make the case that America should not attempt to start a third party. I guess if you could not envision a different way to do politics then this would be sound advice.

However, some citizens see a way ahead where national party leadership is replaced by local citizen leadership -- one in which National and State organizations exists for serving local caucuses functioning in neighborhoods across the land, rather than the other way around.

Limbaugh's argument that there is a difference between the Republican and Democrat party sounds hollow given the two candidates offered in the last election. It sounds hollow given that the last Republican President abandoned the free market system (allegedly to save it). It sounds hollow given the actions taken by the Republican party when they had control of the government. Well, actions speak loader than words, and this American is taking action.

Recently a Republican leader in Maryland attempted to make the same argument. She suggested I should contact her later, that she would fix the problem with the Republican party. THEY STILL AREN'T GETTING IT. We the people are taking our rightful place in our constitutional self-government. Any party who fields a principled leader worthy of the name will be supported, but we the people will decide, not a broken political party machine. I for one care not about parties, only principles. And I am not going to compromise my principles, which is why I have affiliated with the Maryland Independent Party, and nationally with America's Independent Party.

I say declare your independence from the two-party system, and sign the Declaration of Independence from the Two-Party System....then participate in America's Caucus Training Institute, which are regularly-scheduled, one-hour training sessions, five days per week, Tuesday through Saturdays, at 11:00 am Eastern time.  -- All are welcome.
Phone number: 218-339-2222
Access Code: 340794#

For Life, Liberty, and the Constitution,

Bob Bailey is a volunteer for the Maryland Independent Party for Frederick County. He is a second generation US Army officer and his son is currently serving in the United States Marines. Mr. Bailey can be contacted at AIP-Frederick@MarylandIndependentParty.org.

Saving America in Five Simple, Straightforward Steps

[Taking advantage of another stellar essay from the blogosphere.]

The Life and Liberty Report

By Tom Hoefling

September 12, 2009

1. Get your own heart and life right with God.

2. Fix America’s first principles of God-given, unalienable rights and their protection for ALL persons, born or as yet unborn, as spelled out in our Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, firmly in your mind. (Join yourself to “We the People”!)

3. Make a personal determination not to compromise in any way with any words, policies, or actions that serve to alienate God-given rights or which abrogate the clear provisions of the Constitution, to give any support to any candidate for public office who violates America’s first principles, or to let any outside party, factional, media, or money influences to in any way affect your political decisions, words, or actions.

4. Make a determination to by every means available find and politically associate yourself with other like-minded American patriots in your town or city, in your county, in your congressional district, in your state, and in America.

5. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. True American citizenship is a life-long vocation. No matter how long it takes, or how hard the task might be, make a determination to take all practical steps to restore every part of the government of our American Republic, at every level, to America’s principles, AND THEN, TOGETHER, DO IT!

By the way, I didn’t say they were “easy” steps. I said they were “simple and straightforward,” which they are.

Along with my entire family and all my friends, I have made a commitment to follow this path, no matter the cost. We believe that the only hope for our country is that millions of our fellow citizens do the same. We also believe that unless a sufficient number of our fellow citizens take these steps that our precious Republic WILL fail, for which our posterity, should there be one, will rightfully curse our generation and our names.

One last point: I do not believe that these steps are optional. I believe them to be the only possible way to save our country. I also believe that any individual who fails in any single point is part of the problem, not part of the saving of this great nation.

To join with us, please visit the links below:


We are the Citizen Media

AIP Platform

AIP Personal Affiliation Agreement

E pluribus unum

Psychopolitics?!

Some acquaintances on Independence Caucus have spent a great deal of time trying to convince me that I shouldn't be using my faith to help sift through the political candidates (vetting questions). This is the substance of my response:

You are missing the point to Restoring the Republic if you leave God out of the equation. Surely as Constitutionalists you must know that the purported separation of church and state is a contorted (and erroneous) reading of the First Amendment. One does not have to be a Christian in order to recognize the divine providence of a higher power (but a belief in God sure helps). Even native Indian tribes believe in the Great Spirit.

I submit that if you do not use your faith to help you sift through the political candidates (status quo for several decades), then you are going to get what you've always gotten--a disappointment when the "fiscal conservative" you supported makes bone-headed decisions on social issues or turns out not to be as conservative as s/he pretended to be. Anyone can lie to you. However, the issue of the sanctity of life is a divisive subject that carries a lot of passion. Not many people can fake that kind of passion.

If you return to Constitutional principles, are you not going to embrace the faith that comes with them? How can you divorce one from the other? Our Constitution was written to "...secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity." You do know what your posterity is, right? Your future generations (not just your children, but many generations), which means they have to survive a pregnancy. Have none of you ever heard of the personhood imperative? And...what in the world is the 80/20 rule? Is that similar to voting for the lesser of two evils? Okay, let's vote for the lesser of two evils...what is the end result? Evil!

Let's pretend that I offer you a glass of the finest wine that money can buy (hat tip to Tom Hoefling). But before I give it to you, I put a teaspoon of arsenic in it. Will you still drink it? But it was just little bit, it isn't enough to kill you, just make you sick. Remember...it is awfully luxurious wine. Surely it wouldn't hurt to drink it with so small an amount of poison, right?

Let's also pretend that once you accept the poisoned wine and get used to the flavor that I keep increasing the poison, ever so slightly so as not to be noticed. At what point are you going to realize that something is wrong? Would you not agree that our society has huge problems today? Problems that cannot be fixed with legislation? How will you legislate against greed, fraud and corruption if there is no God and no absolutes?

No. No more for me. I've had enough poisoned wine, and I consider myself a recovering republican. This doesn't mean that I won't support another republican, but it DOES mean that the republicans I do support will have a track record of faith (not like Jeremiah Wright), and a passion to protect innocent human life. I have found that when the candidate has these character traits, that his/her fiscal responsibility will fall into place without effort. I will not support or vote for a candidate who has no faith and does not recognize the sanctity of life (without exceptions).

I leave you with this quote from the old Russian textbook on "Psychopolitics:"

http://www.fhu.com/articles/brainwashing2.html#anchor14

THE SOVIET ART OF BRAINWASHING
A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics

. . .

CHAPTER XIV
THE SMASHING OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS

. . .

We have battled in America since the century's turn to bring to nothing any and all Christian influences and we are succeeding. While we today seem to be kind to the Christian, remember, we have yet to influence the "Christian world" to our ends. When that is done we shall have an end of them everywhere. You may see them here in Russia as trained apes. They do not know their tether is long only until the apes in other lands have become unwary.

You must work until "religion" is synonymous with "insanity." You must work until the officials of city, county and state governments will not think twice before they pounce upon religious groups as public enemies.

Remember, all lands are governed by the few and only pretend to consult with the many. It is no different in America. The petty official, the maker of laws alike can be made to believe the worst. It is not necessary to convince the masses. It is only necessary to work incessantly upon the official, using personal defamations, wild lies, false evidences and constant propaganda to make him fight for you against the church or against any practitioner....

(Emphasis mine.) I'd say that their work on this issue is fairly complete.