Rev. R.J. Rushdoony / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Our Lord calls attention over and over again to the lust for power which marks the ungodly, and their dog-eat-dog mentality. It is a philosophy of doing in others before they do you. Christ’s commandment here is blunt and simple: “But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:26–28).
Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
When State Department Legal Adviser John B. Bellinger III gave a controversial June 6 speech on the subject of "The United States and International Law," he mentioned that the Bush Administration had "put forward a priority list of over 35 treaty packages that we have urged the Senate to approve soon, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea." The latter is now up for Senate ratification, with a vote scheduled on Wednesday, and one of its many controversial provisions is the regulation of land-based sources of pollution. This treaty covers the water and the land. But now we have discovered that the Bush Administration has asked the Senate to ratify a treaty that defines one of those land-based sources of pollution as toilet flushing. No kidding.
Gun Owners of America:
It turns out that Washington might soon be giving an arm of the United Nations jurisdiction over the import, export, and oceanic transport of GUNS and AMMUNITION. The Senate Foreign Relations committee will soon be debating the ratification of a treaty that bears the appropriate acronym of LOST (Law of the Sea Treaty). LOST would put the ocean's resources in the hands of the UN's International Seabed Authority -- and yes, that spells trouble for our Second Amendment rights.
William Norman Grigg / Pro Libertate:
An appeals court in New Jersey has ruled that police enjoy "qualified immunity" when accused of excessive force in restraining a man from whom they're extracting an involuntary blood sample. That decision is veritable layer cake of due process atrocities. The foundation is the well-established, and constitutionally spurious, concept of "qualified immunity," the incantation regularly pronounced to protect law enforcement officers from civil liability when they needlessly or improperly injure or kill innocent people.
Audrey Hudson / The Washington Times:
The Rev. Sam Childers says he might need an attorney. The Pennsylvania missionary operates the orphanage for victims of the war in Sudan's Darfur region and elsewhere in Africa, and he is in a fight with federal aviation officials over a $28,000 fine for some supplies he tried to send to his shelter. For more than a decade, he has transported needed supplies to operate the orphanage's power generator in a clearly marked household plastic container. That is until April, when 3 quarts of motor oil, two bottles of diesel treatment and a can of spray lubricant in the crate were confiscated by airline screeners.
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
When we elect people to public office, we should expect only one thing: that they uphold their contract to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. You see, adherence to the Constitution protects our freedom of speech and assembly; our freedom of worship; our right to keep and bear arms; our right to a trial by jury; the right to be secure in our own homes against police overreach; our right to witness for Christ in public, as a Christian; the right to own property; the right to not be deprived of life or property without due process of law; the right to face our accusers, and the right to keep government local and limited.
Murray Sabrin / USA Daily:
Despite his relatively low standing in the national polls, GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is winning the intellectual debate about the role of government. As the campaign unfolds we will see if his Internet support translates into huge fourth quarter contributions and then substantial votes in the early primaries. In the meantime, presidential candidates are sounding more like Dr. Paul everyday.
Hans Nichols / Bloomberg News:
As Mitt Romney scours the South for endorsements from evangelical leaders, he is getting some unusual advice on how to explain his Mormon faith: Don't try to be one of us. "I told him, you cannot equate Mormonism with Christianity; you cannot say, 'I am a Christian just like you,"' said Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, which is scheduled to hold the first primary among the Southern states. "If he does that, every Baptist preacher in the South is going to have to go to the pulpit on Sunday and explain the differences."
Darrell Dow / The Backwater Report:
Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls in Iowa and the fawning press coverage he continues to receive is finally producing a backlash. But there is a fair amount of substance to the critique and "conservatives" ought to take note. Writing in The American Spectator, Quin Hillyer describes numerous ethical mis-steps made by Huck and his wife during his tenure as Arkansas governor.
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Much ado is made of the supposed "conservative Christianity" of Blackwater's founder and CEO, Erik Prince, but nothing is said of the growing use of Israeli commandos for bodyguard services in the United States. A Los Angeles-based private security firm is now guarding some of Hollywood's most powerful celebrities. The name of this firm? IMS. It stands for "Israeli Military Specialists."
Eric Margolis / LewRockwell.com:
The current crisis between Turkey and the Kurds has been building up for decades. In recent weeks, Turkish-Kurdish tensions burst into flames. Marxist-nationalist PKK guerillas fighting for an independent nation for Turkey’s 20 million or so Kurds killed a score of Turkish soldiers and captured eight. Hundreds more Turkish soldiers have been killed in eastern Anatolia by increasingly effective Kurdish fighters known as "pesh-merga," who have been receiving more and better weapons from fellow Iraqi Kurds.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
The talk from both ends of the political spectrum is that "democracy" will cure the ills of Iraq, Iran, and the surrounding Muslim nations. What if the "liberated" people of Iraq, with their newly acquired right to vote, decide they want a Taliban-style social and political system whose goal is to defeat the infidel West and impose Sharia law on Muslims and non-Muslims? Democracy in the hands of wild-eyed fanatics is perilous. They will use the democratic process to deny the democratic process once they gain power through the democratic process.
Information Clearing House:
U.S. and European human rights groups filed a lawsuit in France charging former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. The plaintiffs include the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights. They say Rumsfeld authorized interrogation techniques that led to abuses at US-run prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor’s office as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit. This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11.
The Associated Press:
The man who oversaw a fake Federal Emergency Management Agency news conference is out of a job. John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's former external affairs director, was to take over public affairs for the Director of National Intelligence on Monday. But after Philbin's involvement in staging a fake FEMA press conference, DNI Mike McConnell decided not to have him as his top public information officer.
Jim R. Schwiesow / The Covenant News:
The people of the United States have been trained like seals to except the dictates of a despotic system. In plain fact they have been controlled by fascist mongrels for a long while now, and have been completely duped as to the state of affairs that prevails in their own country. They wander through life in an aimless brainless state of being like automons reacting only to the stimuli applied by the elites who control them.
RogueGovernment.com:
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.
Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
Last week while the horrific fires were burning up Southern California and every major news network, including cable were providing non-stop coverage, a very dangerous bill to liberty and freedom was passed by 404 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Called the 'Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007', this bill is perfectly summed up here.
The Associated Press:
Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones. Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies'"power to discriminate against content." They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed.
Stephen Dinan / The Washington Times:
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Saturday that his state will produce driver's licenses in compliance with the federal Real ID Act, setting up a multitiered system to accommodate legal residents and issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat who announced the deal in Washington with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, said New York "will usher in the most secure licensing system in the nation."
The Associated Press:
The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver's licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version. New York is the fourth state to reach an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The issue is pressing for border states, where new and tighter rules are soon to go into effect for crossings.
Naomi Klein / Peninsula On-line:
"WE DIDN’T WANT TO GET STUCK with a lemon." That's what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said to a House committee last month. He was referring to the "virtual fence" planned for the US borders with Mexico and Canada. If the entire project goes as badly as the 28-mile prototype, it could turn out to be one of the most expensive lemons in history, projected to cost $8bn by 2011. Boeing, the company that landed the contract – the largest ever awarded by the Department of Homeland Security – announced last week that it will finally test the fence after months of delay due to computer problems.
The Associated Press:
The homeland security chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Michael Chertoff said. "I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment," he added.
Related:
Fake FEMA news conference director gets promotion Raw Story
CNN reports that John "Pat" Philbin, the Director of Public Affairs responsible for FEMA's recent faked news conference, is effectively receiving a promotion. PRNewser was notified by an email which said that Philbin's new job was an "amazing opportunity to head the communications shop at ODNI." Philbin is slated to become Director of Public Affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell. The following video is from CNN's Newsroom, broadcast on October 28, 2007.
David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
Recently in my New Testament class ("Jesus and the Gospels") I characterized biblical leadership as "bottom-up" authority – an authority that acknowledges Jesus Christ as the sole Head of the church and that always emphasizes servanthood protection of that great truth through the equal priesthood of all believers. This pattern is set forth for us in the mystery of the Triune God, which provides the example of Christian unity – an ontological equality in the midst of great diversity. I hope to develop this theme further in my book Unleashing the Church, especially the way the first man Adam set the stage for the Great Human Tragedy by failing to submit himself to the Trinity and by "grasping" after that which was not rightfully his. (We may contrast Christ's self-abnegating open-handed submission to the Father in Phil. 2:5-11.)
Jesus Saenz / Soul DeSaenz:
Writing in your Bible is something that many people do but few do it judiciously. Many people only mark their Bible according to what they hear from the weekly sermon and after a while they underline or highlight everything making the actual process of marking your Bible pointless. There are many people that do not make any additional marks in their Bible and some even consider it heresy. I believe that if done properly marking in your Bible can be a very useful way to better understand the Word of God. Wide margin Bibles were made for just such a purpose.
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
What was an error in judgment? Who said that? White House press secretary Dana Perino said it in regards to FEMA's FAKE NEWS CONFERENCE!!! If you can believe this--and I certainly do--FEMA staged a fake news conference in which FEMA employees posed as "independent reporters" throwing softball questions to FEMA leaders over their assistance to the victims of the wildfires in Southern California.
Pierre Thomas / Abc News:
It looked like any other Washington press briefing, with a public affairs official walking up to a podium, introducing a government official and kicking off a press conference. But what happened next raised the ire of the news media and ticked off Bush administration officials. Unlike most press briefings, this one was missing a key component: members of the press. No reporters? No problem for FEMA. The agency filled the press room with its own public affairs personnel who asked questions. It looked real enough for cable networks to briefly air the live event. "I'll be glad to take some of your questions," Johnson said. "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" one staffer asked. "I'm very happy with FEMA's response so far," Johnson replied. And so it went for more than 10 minutes, without any journalists.
The Associated Press:
Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones. Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content."
The Associated Press:
The White House sought to speed progress on legislation to legalize President Bush's eavesdropping program Thursday by allowing the Senate Judiciary Committee to view classified documents its members have demanded. White House Counsel Fred Fielding offered to let Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking Republican Arlen Specter see documents that might persuade them to include liability protection for telephone companies in a broader rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Jim Kouri / NewsWithViews.com:
In what critics consider a huge powergrab by the United Nations and its supporters in the United States, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America summit in Canada released a plan that established UN law along with regulations by the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization as being supreme over US law and set the stage for militarizing the management of continental health emergencies. According to a Government Accountability Office report released in September, The U.S. government operates or supports four key programs aimed at building overseas surveillance capacity for infectious diseases. In fiscal years 2004-2006, U.S. agencies obligated approximately $84 million for these programs, which operate in developing countries around the world.
The American View Radio:
Trick or Trick: Pre-Halloween Horror Show: Hillary spooks Dr. Jack Willke into Romney endorsement; Exclusive "interview" with "Fred Thompson". On this program co-hosts Michael Anthony Peroutka & John Lofton report on and analyze all this and more.
John Lofton Interviews Dr. Jack Willke
Exclusive Interview: With Dr. Jack Willke re: his endorsement of Mitt Romney; "Boogie Woman" (Hillary) scares another into choice of "Lesser-2-Evils".
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." --Revelation 21: 7-8
Meg Jalsevac / LifeSiteNews.com:
In an interview with media in Toronto, Canada on Tuesday, Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling said that she has been surprised by the scope of reactions that have surfaced from her announcement that one of her lead characters is gay. "It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men." As previously reported by LifeSiteNews.com, Rowling surprised a large audience at a recent book reading in Carnegie Hall by announcing the 'good' wizard of her storyline was gay. Reaction to the announcement has been mixed with even some Potter fans accusing the author of using the politically correct declaration for publicity.
Niki Raapana / NewsWithViews.com:
Ever wonder how American officials can use the word freedom to describe actions that eliminate freedom? Unbeknownst to most Americans, there are two vastly different definitions of what freedom means. In the U.S.A., freedom is articulated in the people's laws that govern their government. Under the original American system of law, government servants are required, by law, to "protect and maintain individual rights." That's rarely even cited anymore. The more popularly used definition is Hegel's Idea of dialectical freedom.
Cliff Kincaid / National Ledger:
The momentum on the issue of the U.N's Law of the Sea Treaty seems clearly to be with the opponents. All of the Senate's top Republicans have said they oppose it, with several saying it can’t or won’t pass. GOP presidential candidates are falling in line against it. Even Senator John McCain, previously considered a sure vote in favor of the pact, now says he has his doubts about it.
WorldNetDaily.com:
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been given a rebuke by Congress for its aggressive attacks on firearms dealers who may have paperwork errors in their record-keeping. The citation in the 2008 Appropriations Bill was pointed out by Ryan Horsley, who manages the historic Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls, Idaho, and blogs about 2nd Amendment issues.
Dr. Laurie Roth / Gun Owners of America:
Thank you SO SO much you Vets for serving your country -- for losing your leg or arm and for coming home and working through nightmares and depression. Thank you for saving us from having to face the hell and danger that you did. Oh, by the way, as a tangible way to honor your heroic, faithfulness to our country, we plan to take your guns away!
Center for Immigration Studies / Freedom.org:
The Senate is currently considering the DREAM Act (S.2205). Some have argued that only 60,000 illegal immigrants would be granted amnesty annually under the Act, but a new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies of 2007 Census Bureau data shows millions of potential beneficiaries.
The Associated Press:
Cold, hard cash is apparently not enough to quell the anger among landowners over a planned fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Opponents of the fence refused federal workers access to their land last month in South Texas. About the same time, the government offered to pay some property owners $3,000 in exchange for permission to conduct surveys for the project. After many of them balked at the money on principle, the government abandoned the plan.
Melody Simmons / The New York Times:
Before the March 2006 funeral for Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, a marine who was killed in Iraq, protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church, a tiny fundamentalist splinter group, picketed the service with signs that read "God Hates You" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." Albert Snyder, Corporal Snyder’s father, sued the church in United States District Court here, claiming invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Westboro protesters, whose church is in Topeka, Kan., frequently picket the funerals of military officials and soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan because church leaders assert that God is killing soldiers to punish America for condoning homosexuality.
Military Families Take Church To Court Over Protests
The Associated Press:
On a day when firefighters methodically beat back several of the wildfires menacing Southern California and thousands of evacuees were allowed home, authorities said Thursday they had found six bodies burned by the flames. Border Patrol agents on routine patrol found four bodies in a wooded area near Barrett Junction, just east of San Diego and along the Mexican border, agency spokeswoman Gloria Chavez said. The area is near a major corridor for illegal immigrants who often walk hours or even days to cross into the United States from Mexico.
Steve Lefemine / Lefemine for Life:
1 Million refugees, over $1 Billion in damage, well over 1,000 homes burned, in the wicked Abortion & Sodomy state of California. Governor Schwarzenegger just signed a bill on October 13 foisting promotion of the sodomite lifestyle on children as young as 5 or 6 years old, through the government ("public") schools. California wildfires broke out one week later, on October 20.
Cliff Kincaid / Freedom.org:
On the eve of a Senate vote on the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty, a former senior staffer in one of the key institutions created by the treaty says that U.S. Senators should have the complete and honest truth about mismanagement and financial corruption there. The International Seabed Authority, which is one of the main organizations created by the treaty, stands to receive millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars if the Senate ratifies the pact.
John F. McManus / JBS.com:
The mid-September killing of several Iraqis attributed to private "security" firm Blackwater USA has resulted in greater scrutiny of that organization and another lesser known company, DynCorp International. Auditors examining the government’s relationships with these companies have discovered vast overruns, poor contract performance, and violence that remains unpunished. One report made public on October 22 said that the conduct of the contractors had undermined the broader mission of ending the insurgency and building a democratic government in Iraq. While Blackwater has received the most media attention, Dallas-based DynCorp was paid $2.2 billion for police training and narcotics eradication in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Latin America. This firm has provided personnel to guard Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
David Lightman / McClatchy Newspapers:
George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ. The numbers are clear, credible and conclusive, said David Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, a budget-watchdog group. "He's a big spender, no question about it."
John V. Denson / LewRockwell.com:
Jim Powell's new book on Theodore Roosevelt (hereinafter T.R.) is more of an economic history of the Progressive era than a biography of the former president, but he completes a valuable trilogy with his prior books, Wilson’s War and FDR’s Folly. In these three books he conclusively refutes the mainstream historical myth that the free market failed and caused the 1929 Depression and that FDR solved the problem with his New Deal. The Progressive era's two main presidents, T.R. and Wilson, share the blame of heaping more federal controls over the economy by creating both the Federal Reserve System and an income tax in 1913, as well as getting America into World War I. Powell’s book on FDR clearly shows that the New Deal prolonged the 1929 Depression rather than solving it.
Reuters:
A U.S. congressional committee agreed to give Turkey several decommissioned U.S. military ships on Tuesday, but the legislator who sponsored the plan denied it was intended to temper Ankara's anger over U.S. legislation on Armenian genocide. On a voice vote, the House Foreign Affairs committee approved the package worth $485 million for Turkey, which was infuriated by the same panel's vote on October 10 to label as genocide the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
Jerome R. Corsi / WorldNetDaily.com:
The White House and State Department are refusing to answer key questions about the $500 million military assistance program proposed for Mexico and $50 million proposed for Central America. President Bush sent to Congress this week an Iraq Supplemental Funding Request that included a proposal for $500 million in military assistance for Mexico and $50 million for Central America to help them fight the international drug war raging across our border with Mexico.
Mike Madden / Arizona Republic:
As the U.S. has increased efforts to cooperate with Canada and Mexico on security and trade, and as the Bush administration has pushed immigration reforms that are extremely unpopular with many conservatives, opponents have become more convinced that North America is heading toward a merger. Although all three governments strongly deny any such plan, a series of private meetings by top leaders and a sweeping effort to rewrite regulations in all three countries aimed at smoothing cross-border relations have emerged as a lightning rod for speculation, criticism and fear.
Andrea Schwartz / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Americans have seen a tremendous influx of Spanish speaking immigrants into our country over the past 3 - 4 decades. Regardless of one's political bent on this issue, the fact remains that the majority of immigrant children are being educated in the public (state) school system. The natural consequence of such indoctrination and instruction will be graduates who embrace a humanistic/secular perspective and the agenda of an over-arching state.
Timothy Wheeler / Gun Owners of America:
[The latest] shooting at yet another school has a better outcome than most in recent memory. No one died at Cleveland's Success Tech Academy except the perpetrator. The two students and two teachers he shot are in stable condition at Cleveland hospitals. What is depressingly similar to the mass murders at Virginia Tech and Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and too many others was the killer's choice of venue -- that steadfastly gun-free zone, the school campus.
CBS News:
A task force of agencies, including the FBI, ATF, the Orange County Fire Authority and the California Department of Forestry will announce shortly that the massive Santiago Canyon Fire -- which has caused an estimated $10 million in damage -- is being officially declared an arson, and a $70,000 reward is being offered to find the arsonist. In San Bernardino County, a man suspected of starting a small fire was arrested and another man was shot to death by police after he fled officers who approached to see if he might be trying to set a fire.
Matt Trewhella / The Covenant News:
There is a grave situation in the abortion fight regarding the thinking of pro-lifers. I know bringing this up chances that I may be speaking to the wind, as most Christians care little about the injustice committed against the preborn in our country. But here it goes: Most pro-lifers think there should be no punishment for women who have abortions if and when abortion is once again made illegal.
Joel Garrett / The Covenant News:
This election, I'm supporting U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) for President of the U.S.A. He served in the U.S. Military. He has a 100% conservative voting record and is considered to be the MOST conservative member of the U.S. Congress today by virtually every conservative or liberal lobbying group in the country. He's the only Republican Presidential Candidate that has consistently done virtually everything in his power as a Congressman to protect our Second Amendment right to "bear arms". He is beloved by gun owners around the U.S.A. He's for putting an end to ALL FEDERAL gun laws. He's 100% pro-life/anti-abortion. As an Ob. Gyn., he's personally delivered 4,000 babies. As a Congressman, he's continuously worked to reverse Roe v. Wade - the unconstitutional Supreme Court decision that led to the illegal legalization of abortion across America.
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
The uncontrolled fires consuming the resident-filled hills of Malibu are a fitting image for the American economy. Stocks are dropping, the dollar is crashing, and American consumers are defaulting on their mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. Banks are scrambling to strengthen their reserves, but they will not likely outrun the sprinting of "failure to pay." The financial news outlets have reported much on the decline of the U.S. dollar--especially in relation to the ascendancy of the Euro. In all likelihood, the Euro will become the competitor in world reserve currencies, and the already ailing dollar will soon face an impending cliff.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
An article is circulating around the Internet that carries the title "Israel Warns World War III May be Biblical War of Gog and Magog." It is written by Ezra HaLevi and was published in Israel National News. The article begins with the following prophetic claims, not unlike so many evangelical and fundamentalist end-time assurances about the end: "US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran would mean World War III. Israeli newscasts featured Gog & Magog maps of the likely alignment of nations in that potential conflict. Channel 2 and Channel 10 TV showed the world map, sketching the basic alignment of the two opposing axes in a coming world war, in a manner evoking associations of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers."
Herald Sun and Weekly Times:
The Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq. The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels. President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone yesterday in an effort to ease the crisis.
Paul Craig Roberts / LewRockwell.com:
Americans had best rethink the "war on terror" while they still have the liberty to do so. For all of President Bush's blah-blah talk about bringing democracy to the world, the Bush administration has proved that it is no friend of liberty at home. The Bush administration has violated constitutional principles, US law, and the Geneva Conventions as no previous administration has done.
John Lofton / The American View:
I wish Ann Coulter would shut up. I know, I know – she won’t, as long as she breathes. But, this is my wish – that she shut up immediately. Utterly lacking in discretion and thus standing out as a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout (Proverbs 11:22) – and always wearing the attire of a harlot (Proverbs 7:10) – this disgusting female, who says she is a Christian, is now explaining, among other things, what Christians believe about Jews.
WorldNetDaily.com:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is reviving and fast-tracking plans to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens already within U.S. boundaries, and a vote is expected as early as tomorrow, according to opponents. Just a few months after intense pressure from U.S. citizens triggered the rejection of President Bush's comprehensive immigration plan, a compromise supported by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. – the DREAM Act proposal by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. – is being rushed through the Senate.
Jerome R. Corsi / WorldNetDaily.com:
The White House is announcing the first part of a military assistance program to Mexico to help its military fight drug cartels at the same time the Department of Transportation is pressing ahead to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies run long-haul rigs in the U.S. without restriction. WND has reported a Drug Enforcement Administration report this year confirmed Mexican commercial drivers play a major role in the country's drug cartel traffic into the U.S.
Darrell Dow / The Backwater Report:
The survival of culture depends not merely on the necessary work of reproduction, but also upon the care and nurture of the young. Families are designed to be a culture—each with their own set of customs and traditions. "God has made the world in such a way that children who grow up in the culture of the family are to be shaped and molded by it," says Doug Wilson. As the industrial revolution socialized production and moved it from the home to the factory, the rise of educational factories, in the guise of compulsory state education, and the socializing of childrearing has likewise undermined family authority.
Statewide Evacuation Estimates One Million Displaced
KNBC TV-4 Los Angeles:
According to estimates, almost 1 million Californians have been evacuated as a result of more than a dozen wildfires. More than 350,000 houses were evacuated, encompassing nearly 950,000 people based on average household size. In San Diego County, one in three homes have been ordered evacuated. One person was killed and more than 40 people were injured, including 16 firefighters. Earlier reports of two deaths were erroneous.
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
According to President George W. Bush, Christians and Muslims worship the same god. In fact, President Bush believes that EVERYONE worships the same god, whether they be Christians, Muslims, or people of any other religion. Furthermore, because President Bush has convinced everyone that he is a Christian, his erroneous remarks portend much evil. Why? Because many professing Christians will take the word of an apostate President over the word of their own pastors or even the very Word of God.
Rep. Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
A few months back, I wrote back-to-back weekly messages regarding globalism and isolationism. In writing those columns, I focused on the fact that our nation’s interventionist foreign policy was precisely what was isolating us from other countries. Turkey’s recall of their U.S. ambassador in the wake of last week’s resolution, passed in the House Foreign Affairs Committee in condemnation of Turkey, is a perfect example of what I wrote in those columns, as well as what I have been saying for years.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
Hal Lindsey is once again misapplying the Bible to modern-day geo-political events. Here is his claim: You know, I fear for both President Bush and Secretary Rice. I also fear for my beloved country. They must be ignorant of a prophecy God made 2,500 years ago through the Hebrew prophet Zechariah. It applies to this precise time and situation in history. God said, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. ..." The people surrounding Jerusalem are all the current Muslim nations. Zechariah 12 has its own interpretive historical clues to help us identify the time of fulfillment.
Darren Weeks / NewsWithViews.com:
I find it mind-boggling that any American parent or grandparent can continue to send their sons, daughters, or grandchildren off to fight and die in 21st century wars that have nothing to do with America or its values. To be in the dark about the real purpose of wars, the UN system, and the employment of the military industrial complex is an unacceptable and deadly ignorance.
The Associated Press:
President Bush asked Congress for $46 billion more to bankroll wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and said he wants the money approved by Christmas. The fighting in Iraq, in its fifth year, already has cost more than $455 billion. Democrats who gained control of Congress with an antiwar message said Bush should not expect lawmakers to rubber-stamp the request.
The Washington Post:
President Bush announced Monday that he will ask Congress to approve a $500 million package to help Mexico fight drug cartels, the largest international anti-drug effort by the United States in nearly a decade. The proposal could represent a seismic shift in relations between the two countries, whose law enforcement agencies and policymakers have often bickered over the drug war, as well as other hugely contentious issues such as immigration reform and trade. U.S. and Mexican negotiators reached the agreement in secrecy.
Ellen Nakashima / The Washington Post:
Senate Judiciary Committee members yesterday angrily accused the White House of allowing the Senate Intelligence Committee to review documents on its warrantless surveillance program in return for agreeing that telecommunications companies should get immunity from lawsuits. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican, said any such agreement would be "unacceptable," signaling that legislation granting immunity to certain telecom carriers could run into trouble.
The Associated Press:
Oral Roberts returned to his namesake university Monday and denied the lurid accusations that have threatened to engulf the school, telling students and employees in a chapel service that "the devil is not going to steal ORU." Making his first visit to Oral Roberts University in three years, Roberts said at the service that his son Richard Roberts, who took a leave of absence as the school's president last week, eventually will return to his position, the Tulsa World reported.
The Washington Post:
Massive brush fires spread across Southern California on Monday, destroying homes from north of Los Angeles to south of San Diego, leaping freeways and sending hundreds of thousands of residents scrambling to flee their homes sometimes seconds ahead of advancing flames. Some 300,000 San Diego residents were ordered out of their homes, making it the country's largest evacuation since hurricanes Katrina and Rita smashed into the Gulf Coast two years ago.
WorldNetDaily.com:
Staff members for President Bush have helped congressional staffers work on "religious exemption" language for a new "anti-discrimination" proposal that actually would codify in federal statutes an anti-Christian bias, and that will make it harder for him to veto, according to an activist group. The proposal, for which homosexual and transsexual activists are crusading, "has tremendous potential to criminalize Christianity in the United States by creating federal 'rights' based on wrong and destructive lifestyle," said Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth. The plan was approved just days ago by the House Education and Labor Committee and is headed for a House floor vote.
Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
The State of Georgia is drying up along with several other states because of extreme drought conditions. While the political squabbling has gone on, at the heart of the matter is whether or not Georgia has the right to control their own water, its allocation and the fish in its lakes and rivers.
Ron Paul on the American Freedom Restoration Act. LewRockwell.com:
Before the U.S. House of Representatives on October 15, 2007: Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a comprehensive piece of legislation to restore the American Constitution and to restore the liberties that have been sadly eroded over the past several years. This legislation seeks to restore the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers to prevent abuse of Americans by their government.
Al Cronkrite / The Covenant News:
On Thursday my wife and I drove from our home in Florida to a location Northeast of Raleigh, N. C. for a Chalcedon Conference. We returned on Sunday. The meeting convened on Friday evening and continued on Saturday morning, (the afternoon was free) and Saturday night. It featured Reverend Mark Rushdoony, Chalcedon Vice-President, Martin Selbrede, and Dr. Joseph Morecraft. Driving to Raleigh our roadster bounced and shook over the intermittent ruts and repairs that mark Interstate 95. Three or four decades ago the United States had the best highway system in the world. The priorities of our government have changed. Revenue formerly used to build infrastructure is now used to fight foreign wars and to bring about world government.
Gordon James Klingenschmitt / WorldNetDaily.com:
Why did the Family Research Council, or FRC, intentionally exclude Alan Keyes from their "open invitation to all candidates, even Democrats" event this weekend in Washington, D.C.? While giving the prime-time speaking slot to Mitt Romney, FRC not only excluded Alan Keyes from the speaker's podium, even after repeated requests to include him, they didn't even list him as a choice in their straw poll.
Eric Rauch / American Vision:
A recent article on the Wall Street Journal Online website asked the question "Is this man cheating on his wife?" The article introduced the reader to the virtual world of SecondLife.com, a website community of real-life (RL) people living a second-life (SL) online. SecondLife.com is boasting huge numbers, with close to ten million registered accounts, although many of those were one-time curious loggers-ins that remain inactive. Users create "avatars" that become their character in the SL world, through which they interact with other users, much as they would in the RL world. The WSJ article focused on one of the SL avatars, Dutch Hoorenbeek, which is controlled in RL by Phoenix, Arizona resident, Ric Hoogestraat.
The American View Radio:
Boogie Man Politics: Boogie woman (Hillary) politics scares Bob Jones III into endorsing Mormon Romney; Expert denounces Gore "Global Warming" big lie; Do fish belong to the state?; Too truthful song that will not get any air-play. On this program co-hosts Michael Anthony Peroutka & John Lofton report on and analyze all this and more.
Mark Silva / The Swamp - Baltimore Sun Blog:
Ron Paul, the feisty physician from Texas who has twice served in Congress and amassed a loyal following in his campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, has gained widespread recognition as his party’s only anti Iraq-war candidate. But Paul’s essential social conservatism may have been overlooked in his Libertarian view of government. Paul wants to abolish the federal income tax – that's part of his governmental philosophy. Paul also wants to ban abortion, proposing to overturn the Roe versus Wade court ruling by legally removing jurisdiction over the issue from the federal courts. "That should be our goal... to repeal Roe versus Wade,'' Paul told an assembly of religious right voters in Washington today. "There is a couple ways that can be done... "We can wait until we have our Supreme Court justices appointed... That's taking a long time,'' Paul said. "My approach is a little bit more direct... accepting the principle that we can as a legislative body and the president... remove the jurisdiction of this issue from the federal courts.''
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
"Although many conservatives refuse to accept the reality, George W. Bush is a ONE-WORLD NEO-LIBERAL who drove budget and trade deficits to record heights while embracing faith-based economic policies that perversely require only blind allegiance to free markets and free trade, without regard for consequence." ~ Lou Dobbs
Thank you, Mr. Dobbs. And, you're quite correct, conservatives--especially Christian conservatives--cannot embrace the reality that their ostensibly Protestant president is committed to a globalist agenda that will ultimately destroy the sovereignty of the United States of America.
Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
In new developments concerning the U.N.’s Law of the Sea Treaty, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had scheduled a quick vote on the pact for next Wednesday, October 24. But a member of the committee, Senator David Vitter, has reportedly requested?and received?a postponement of the vote. Vitter has been in the forefront of exposing the dangerous provisions of the measure.
Jared Vallorani / American Vision:
When was the last time you visited a Chick-Fil-A restaurant? If your experience was anything like mine, you were treated to great customer service, an affordable tasty meal, and a clean restaurant. Chick-Fil-A has done a tremendous job of competing against larger chains like McDonalds in the fast food market. As many of you know, Chick-Fil-A is a Christian-owned company that chooses to forfeit millions of dollars each year by keeping its doors closed on Sundays. Chick-Fil-A, while not perfect, has done a remarkable job of hiring a good workforce, creating an enjoyable atmosphere, and preparing food that is healthier and better tasting than most of its competitors. Why is it that companies like Chick-Fil-A do such an amazing job of taking care of customers while others organizations could care less about your needs, concerns or improving your overall experience? The answer – competition.
Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
The prime time news shows this week featured the story of Kathleen Casey-Kirschling. Born just after midnight, 1946, she will be the first baby boomer who becomes eligible for early retirement at age 62 in 2008. She is 61. Why did this story become prime-time news this week? Because the Social Security Administration pulled off a media coup. The agency held a media event that was covered by the networks. The SSA's press release describes what happened.
Lee Duigon / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, now a congregant at St. Clement's Episcopal Church, Seattle, made national news recently by revealing that she also worships as a Muslim at Al-Islam Center, in the same city, and has been doing so for almost a year. She's still a member in good standing at her church, still a priest ... and still, she says, a Muslim. No church discipline has been invoked. How can this be?
Brochures Detail Sodomy. WCBSTV-2 CBS News:
Irvington, N.Y. - Children as young as 10-years-old in Westchester were among those mistakenly given graphic sex education material meant for adults, leaving parents furious and even more upset with answers they're getting about the incident. Catherine Johnson says all was not well at the recent "Wellness Fair" at the Irvington Middle and High School campus. Her 13-year-old son, and many even younger, were given sex ed pamphlets that contain graphic language and graphic advice on straight and gay sex practices, including oral and anal sex.
To provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Sanctity of Life Act of 2007'.
SEC. 2. FINDING AND DECLARATION.
(a) Finding- The Congress finds that life exists from conception.
(b) Declaration- Upon the basis of this finding, and in the exercise of the powers of the Congress--
(1) the Congress declares that--
(A) human life shall be deemed to exist from conception, without regard to race, sex, age, health, defect, or condition of dependency; and
(B) the term `person' shall include all human life as defined in subparagraph (A); and
(2) the Congress recognizes that each State has the authority to protect lives of unborn children residing in the jurisdiction of that State.
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON APPELLATE JURISDICTION.
(a) In General- Chapter 81 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
`Sec. 1260. Appellate jurisdiction; limitation
`Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1253, 1254, and 1257, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any case arising out of any statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, practice, or any part thereof, or arising out of any act interpreting, applying, enforcing, or effecting any statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, or practice, on the grounds that such statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, practice, act, or part thereof--
`(1) protects the rights of human persons between conception and birth; or
`(2) prohibits, limits, or regulates--
`(A) the performance of abortions; or
`(B) the provision of public expense of funds, facilities, personnel, or other assistance for the performance of abortions.'.
(b) Conforming Amendment- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 81 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item:
`1260. Appellate jurisdiction; limitation.'.
SEC. 4. LIMITATION ON DISTRICT COURT JURISDICTION.
(a) In General- Chapter 85 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
`Sec. 1370. Limitation on jurisdiction
`Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the district courts shall not have jurisdiction of any case or question which the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to review under section 1260 of this title.'.
(b) Conforming Amendment- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 85 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item:
`1370. Limitation on jurisdiction.'.
SEC. 5. FEDERAL COURT DECISIONS NOT BINDING ON STATE OR LOCAL COURTS.
Any decision of a Federal court, to the extent that the decision relates to an issue removed from Federal jurisdiction under the amendments made by sections 3 and section 4, is not binding precedent on the court of--
(1) any State or subdivision thereof;
(2) the District of Columbia; or
(3) any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States, or any subdivision thereof.
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply to any case pending on such date of enactment.
SEC. 7. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act or the amendments made by this Act, or the application of this Act or such amendments to any person or circumstance, is determined by a court to be invalid, the validity of the remainder of this Act and the amendments made by this Act and the application of such provision to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected by such determination.
The Jerusalem Post:
The curtain rose to a hundred performers singing "Hinei Ma Tov" as the audience swayed back and forth and clapping their hands. They remained standing through "Hatikva," declarations of support for Israel, and a duet of "Jerusalem of Gold." And when the evening closed - on a prayer for the State of Israel - 6,000 people, all but a few of them evangelical Christians, streamed out of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. On Sunday night, Pastor John Hagee, head of the Cornerstone Church and a founding member of Christians United for Israel, hosted his 26th annual "Night to Honor Israel."
Related:
Evangelical Christians Raise $8.5 Million for Israel
Israel National News.com
An evangelical Christian group led by Rev. John Hagee raised $8.5 million for Israeli causes at a fundraising event earlier this week. Hagee spoke at the event, warning his listeners that the United States "must never pressure Israel to give up land." Giving land to the Palestinian Authority "is tantamount to giving it to the Taliban," Hagee said.
Flashback: 'Dr. Armageddon' and the Future of Israel
By Gary DeMar / American Vision
John Hagee's "Christians United for Israel" held its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last month (July 2007). Supporters of CUFI are looking forward to Armageddon. Of course, they believe they won’t be around to experience it. ... Israel's present population is around 7 million. If two-thirds of the Jews living in Israel at the time of the "great tribulation" are to die, this will mean the death of more than 4.5 million! In addition, there is continued immigration from the former Soviet Union supported by Christian organizations like "On Wings of Eagles." Financial support is raised by Christians to fund Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. ... Why aren't today’s dispensationalists warning Jews about this coming holocaust by encouraging them to leave Israel until the conflagration is over? Instead, we find dispensationalists supporting and encouraging the relocation of Jews to the land of Israel. For what? A future holocaust?
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
Bob Jones' endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor illustrates just how low the Religious Right will go in compromising bedrock principle for the sake of political expediency. Jones says he is supporting Romney so as to help defeat Rudy Giuliani. I very much want to see what Jones will do if and when Giuliani gets the Republican nomination. I would anticipate that he will continue to follow his current modus operandi and support Giuliani, because he would then say that Giuliani is the "lesser of two evils."
American Family Association:
Registering online for $9.95 "will allow you to participate in the straw vote taken on Saturday afternoon." Here is your opportunity to be a part of the largest pro-family, social conservative event of the year without ever leaving home!
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Once again, sex, money, and the abuse of power surrounds the powerful elite of Charismania. If Oral Roberts wasn't bad enough, Richard Roberts is continuing the fraudulent legacy of the Roberts dynasty. Recall that the charismatic sodomite, Ted Haggard, denied all allegations of sexual immorality, but then admitted without detail his improprieties.
The Washington Times:
Philadelphia - The city has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit homosexual scouts. City officials say they cannot legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a nominal sum to a private organization that discriminates.
Patrick J. Buchanan / VDARE.com:
Why has Putin's Russia turned hostile? Why is Putin mending fences with China, Iran and Syria? Why is Putin sending Bear bombers to the edge of American airspace? Why has Russia turned against America? For Putin's approval rating is three times that of George Bush. Who restarted the Cold War?
Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet:
Concerned parents across the U.S. are leading a nationwide revolt against unnecessary, untested and dangerous vaccines as CDC records show a growing amount of religious exemptions on vaccine forms, following a media blitz by Jenny McCarthy in which she blamed a vaccine for causing her son's autism.
Byron J. Richards / NewsWithViews.com:
The FDA is seeking to undermine the law known as DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994), the cornerstone of health freedom in America. Emboldened by its new powers the FDA is now poised to trample the first amendment rights of companies and Americans who seek to explain or understand how nutrition can support health. The FDA campaign has begun.
Andrea Stone / USA TODAY:
A federal panel Thursday urged shutting a Washington area Islamic school operated by the Saudi government until the State Department can ensure its textbooks don't teach religious intolerance.
Jerome R. Corsi / WorldNetDaily.com:
A former deputy sheriff in Texas, jailed for shooting at a van loaded with illegal aliens whose driver was trying to run him down, has been released from prison and says he was set up by the Mexican consulate and the prosecutor. Former Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez was released from a halfway house, finishing the prison term to which he was sentenced for the shooting incident, in which two fleeing Mexican illegal aliens were wounded. He was in federal prison from Dec. 1, 2006, to Sept. 13, 2007, about 10 and a half months. While he's happy to be home, Hernandez feels he suffered an injustice at the hands of the U.S. government, which acted at the direction of the Mexican government.
Mark Silva / The Swamp - Chicago Tribune Blog:
It's not just a Woodstock museum, Sen. Charles E. Schumer says. The exhbition space set to open next year in Bethel, N.Y. – the site of three days of peace, love and music back in 1969 – will be a job-creating economic engine to arrest the long postwar decline of the once-thriving Catskills. It's to help turn around the fiscal fortunes of depressed Sullivan County in upstate New York that Schumer and fellow Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton are seeking a $1 million earmark in the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill, he said today.
Related:
Hippie Museum Funding Proposed by
Hillary Clinton Shot Down in Senate
WASHINGTON -- Hippies used to say if you remember Woodstock, you weren't really there. Republicans say presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton can forget about getting $1 million in taxpayer funds for a Woodstock museum. Clinton and Charles Schumer, Democrat senators from New York, want to earmark the federal money for a museum that would commemorate the 1969 music festival in their state.
Jim R. Schwiesow / The Covenant News:
We have come to a point in this country where police death squads in coal scuttle helmets, black armor and jack-boots strike the same terror and fear into the hearts of innocent law-abiding citizens that their counterparts of the SA and SS did in Nazi Germany. All that is missing is a crooked cross upon their helmets.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
Monday morning, I spoke to students at Cornerstone Christian School in Willoughby, Ohio, about apologetics and America’s Christian history. Providentially, as I made my way to the school, a copy of USA Today was hanging on the door. I turned to the editorial page and saw a guest editorial written by Oliver "Buzz" Thomas with the title "So what does the Constitution say about religion?" It was a perfect way to help the students deal with dogmatic statements of fact. Mr. Thomas made the following claim: "The truth is that the Constitution says nothing about God. Not one word." Mr. Thomas is a lawyer. As a lawyer, he should know that absolute statements are hard to support. All a prosecuting attorney has to do is find just one minor exception to refute the assertion of fact, especially when a phase like "not one word" is used. One word is all that needs to be found to refute the claim and call into question the expert witness.
Henry Makow / Ether Zone:
Anti-Semitism might be called anti-imperialism. At heart, it is opposition to the plan of the central bankers, based in the City of London, to "gradually absorb the wealth of the world" and establish a masked "world government" dictatorship. This involves stupefying and degrading society through faux education, porn and violence; and bankrupting and brutalizing us through war, pandemics and domestic repression. It involves destroying "all collective forces except our own" which means destroying all race, religion (God), nation and family. They use social engineering like diversity, feminism, multiculturalism and homosexuality to accomplish these aims. (I like homosexuals & different races; I just don't think they should be used as a weapon.)
Coach Dave Daubenmire / NewsWithViews.com:
I'm sick of it. I really am. I'm not homo-phobic. I'm not homo-hateful. I'm not homo-latent. I'm homo-nauseous. I really couldn't care less where a man desires to put his appendage. But I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm sick of talking about it. I'm sick of it being force fed to me on TV. In all of my life I have never seen such deviancy so openly celebrated. Homosexual behavior is a deviant lifestyle. Everyone knows that. So in order to make themselves look "normal" the "homosexual movement" is doing everything that it can to change "social standards." They can't feel good about themselves, so they must make sure WE feel good about them. Well, I'm sick of it. I'm homo-nauseous. The homo-sexual movement is making me sick. ... What is wrong with the Church? Can't they see what is happening to America? Can't they see what is happening to our children? Can't they see the rug is being pulled out from under them?
Gromer Jeffers Jr. / The Dallas Morning News:
A prominent Dallas minister told his congregation that if they wanted to elect a Christian to the White House, Republican Mitt Romney wasn't qualified. Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, said that Mormonism is a false religion and that Mr. Romney was not a Christian. "Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise," Dr. Jeffress said in a sermon Sept. 30. "Even though he talks about Jesus as his Lord and savior, he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult."
"What really distresses me is some of my ministerial friends and even leaders in our convention are saying, 'Oh, well, he talks about Jesus, we talk about Jesus. What's the big deal?' " he said. "It is a big deal if anybody names another way to be saved except through Jesus Christ."
Telecom Companies Would Receive Immunity
to Spy on Americans Without Warrants. Jonathan Weisman / The Washington Post:
Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources. The draft Senate bill will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States. Such a demonstration, which the bill says could be made in secret, would wipe out a series of pending lawsuits alleging violations of privacy rights by telecommunications companies that provided telephone records, summaries of e-mail traffic and other information to the government after Sept. 11, 2001, without receiving court warrants.
S.A. Miller / Washington Times:
House Democrats, confounded by a Republican procedural maneuver that would force an embarrassing vote on terrorism, yesterday called off a vote on an electronic-surveillance bill that the White House opposes. A Democrat leadership aide said the "legislative maneuvering was a cynical attempt by Republicans to kill the bill that makes crucial updates to FISA." Democrats hail the bill as a bulwark for civil liberties, saying it stops foreign intelligence surveillance from snagging Americans and prevents the government from conducting warrantless electronic eavesdropping inside the United States.
PBS / FRONTLINE:
"So many people in America think this does not affect them. They've been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that's wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs," former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne Spaulding tells FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith in Spying on the Home Front.
Al Kamen / The Washington Post:
The White House and the Senate are gearing up for their last battles over appointments as the Bush administration enters its final year. The detente the two sides reached over the Senate's August break -- which saw the Senate approve dozens of nominees in exchange for a no-recess-appointment pledge -- is over. That deal was reached in part because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) dusted off an old weapon -- the pro forma session -- which would mean theoretically that the Senate would never be in recess. When both sides negotiate anew, that weapon looms large.
The Associated Press:
A prostitute whom prosecutors say a defense contractor provided to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham testified Wednesday that the congressman fed her grapes as she sat naked in a hot tub before they headed to a bedroom at a Hawaiian resort. The woman spoke at the trial of Brent Wilkes, who is accused bribing Cunningham with $700,000 in cash and perks in exchange for help securing about $90 million in government contracts. Donna Rosetta said she was chauffeured to a private villa at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Kamelua, Hawaii, in August 2003 by an escort service she worked for. Wilkes' nephew and employee Joel Combs testified Wednesday that his uncle communicated with other prominent lawmakers, including California Republicans Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Republican Whip Roy Blunt, and Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat.
The Associated Press:
Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts asked for and was granted a leave of absence Wednesday amid accusations of lavish spending at donors' expense and illegal involvement in a political campaign. The 58-year-old son of the evangelist who founded the school said he would continue in his role as chairman and chief executive of Oral Roberts Ministries, and decried what he said were untrue allegations. An Oct. 2 lawsuit filed by three former ORU professors says they were wrongfully dismissed and accuses Roberts of misspending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodels and a senior trip to the Bahamas for one daughter on the ministry's dime. It also accuses Roberts of illegal involvement in a local political campaign, which would jeopardize the university's nonprofit status.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
As some of you know, I threw the shot put in high school. In most meets, I would out throw my opponents by 20 feet or more. I can remember one meet when a coach from another team approached my coach and half-jokingly asked if I would throw the 16-pound shot rather than the standard 12-pound. The coach was asking for a handicap, a standard practice to even up uneven skill levels of golfers to make games more competitive.
Katherine T. Phan / The American View:
One of the leading advocates for Christian-based home schooling education celebrated its tenth anniversary Tuesday, marking a decade of influence in the home schooling movement in America. Around 200 banquet attendees celebrated the anniversary of Frontline Ministries’ Exodus Mandate project at the Columbia Conference Center in Columbia, SC.
Kyle Arnold / The Monitor:
State transportation officials are still months from making a final decision about the location of the much-heralded Interstate 69 superhighway from Canada to Mexico. Still deep in the preliminary study phases of an environmental impact assessment, Texas Department of Transportation officials are making headway toward a decision on whether to use existing U.S. highways 77 to Harlingen, 281 to Edinburg or 57, which connects to Laredo, or build an entirely new road. I-69, known as Trans-Texas Corridor 69 in the state of Texas, is a proposal for a 2,600-mile highway system running from Canada to Mexico.
Tom DeWeese / NewsWithViews.com:
Just a year ago most would have predicted there was no way to stop the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) which many believe will become a North American Union (NAU). The proponents are rich, powerful and determined. From the White House to huge, wealthy international corporations, these proponents of the SPP are used to getting their way. The little people back in their grassroots are just silly pawns to be manipulated or ignored. But there are signs that the huge rock at the bottom of the hill that is the unmovable NAU is beginning to budge uphill as heroes are emerging in the fight.
Eco/Logic Powerhouse / Freedom.org:
Just this week, the United States Supreme Court gave us an important look into what kind of global power grabs we face if the Senate ratifies the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). On October 10, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Jose Medellin, an illegal alien rapist-murderer now on death row in Texas. Medellin, a citizen of Mexico who lived illegally in the United States, was convicted and sentenced to death after he confessed in 1993 to the brutal rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. / LewRockwell.com:
In the aftermath of that ghastly horror called the Great War, Warren Gamaliel Harding ran for president and won. His platform: Return to normalcy. He was the dark-horse candidate, but won 60% of the vote. Among his first actions was to pardon Eugene Debs, the socialist candidate, who had been jailed for opposing the war draft. He reduced taxes, deregulated, and generally calmed down the country after a culture-wrecking, budget-busting war, and assured a time of great prosperity.
Nathanael / Ether Zone:
Immediately after the most recent Republican debate CNBC ran an online poll for all the candidates. Ron Paul's support so overwhelmed the others that CNBC quickly took down the poll. MSNBC was doing a similar poll and the Ron Paul landslide results were essentially the same.
Mary Starrett / NewsWithViews.com:
While the United States purports to be the guardian of free and fair elections the world over, here at home our elections system is utterly corrupted. From casting to counting to reporting of election results, the fix is in and we’ve allowed it to happen. Why is the third largest political party, the Constitution Party (www.constitutionparty.com) the only party encouraging support for the National Clean Elections Lawsuit (N-CEL)? The suit, filed against ten states, New Hampshire, Iowa, Ohio, Florida, California, New York, Illinois, Oregon, South Carolina, and Texas is calling attention to US voting procedures that are so secretive and potentially corruptible you’d expect these types of systems in third world countries.
Michael Luo / The New York Times:
The leading Republican candidates will be making pilgrimages to Washington on Friday and Saturday to state their cases before more than 2,000 Christian "conservatives" at the Values Voter Summit. The event, which will include a straw poll (at $95 a pop), could be a defining one if this crucial constituency in the Republican base can finally coalesce around a candidate (webcast live at AFA.net for $9.95).
Ron Barnett / Greenville News:
Dr. Bob Jones III, chancellor of the fundamentalist Christian university that bears his name, is looking past his religious differences with Gov. Mitt Romney and endorsing the Mormon for the Republican nomination for president, he told The Greenville News today. "This is all about beating Hillary," Jones said. "And I just believe that this man has the credentials both personally and ideologically in terms of his view about what American government should be to best represent the rank and file of conservative Americans.
Log Cabin Republicans make Pro-Choice ad for Mitt
Romney's Real Record - Log Cabin Republicans TV Ad Campaign sets the record straight about Mitt Romney.
Paul Proctor / NewsWithViews.com:
I watched Joel Osteen, pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church and author of the enormously popular book, 'Your Best Life Now' being interviewed on 60 Minutes Sunday night and again on Monday's Good Morning America - and I have to say, I really liked the guy. I tried to dislike him - honestly, I did - but he was just too charming, humble and nice! I felt like a kid listening to Mr. Rogers. And how could anyone sincerely say anything derogatory about Mr. Rogers? There are times, I must admit, I would love to be that likable - that popular - that successful - that admired and that nice - but at what cost?
Bob Unruh / WorldNetDaily.com:
A call is being issued to Christians who have been engaged in the culture wars in California's schools to abandon the system, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a ban on "discriminatory bias" against homosexuals and others with alternative sexual lifestyles. "We're calling upon every California parent to pull their child out of California's public school system," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families.
UPI's ReligionAndSpirituality.com:
The wife of the president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK., denied allegations she spent the night in a university guest house with an "underage male" on nine occasions. Lindsay Roberts, in a statement on the university's Web site, said the allegations against her "sicken me to my soul. ... I live my life in a morally upright manner and throughout my marriage have never, ever engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of my marriage as the accusations imply." The allegatinos appear in an amended version of a wrongful termination suit filed by three former professors who say they lost their jobs after reporting that Roberts and his family lavishly spent school money for personal expenses.
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
When a professing Christian President can openly acknowledge his belief in universalism and attack the supreme doctrine of Christianity, that Jesus Christ is the Creator-God become flesh, and there is not an uproar of protestation and denunciation from pulpits all over the country, the church is in a state of apostasy. And that is exactly what has taken place.
Brandon Vallorani / American Vision:
Our good friends at The Vision Forum are hosting their fourth annual San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival on October 25-27 of this year. American Vision is pleased to announce that we are one of the nine sponsors of this strategic event. Actually, we see sponsoring this festival as a way to fulfill our own mission of restoring America's Biblical foundation. If we want America to once again be the "City on a Hill" that Jesus described in Matt. 5:14, Christians should be aggressively engaged in every facet of society—from medicine and education to politics and film. Our goal is to create an America where Christians are setting the standard in all of these areas. The Vision Forum is doing just that by inspiring and facilitating the creation of a whole new generation of Christian film-makers.
Christopher Manion / LewRockwell:
As usual, the left-right neocon sites are full of self-righteous puffing again. This time around, they're blaming Nancy Pelosi for losing our "good ally" Turkey in the middle of their little war to export democracy. Pelosi, it appears, is prepared to allow a House vote condemning Turkey for the "Armenian genocide" that wiped out countless Armenians about a century ago. And Turkey is decidedly unhappy about it. As usual, the neocons are outraged that foreign countries might actually act based on their assessment of how the U.S. government has acted towards them. This simple fact of human reality was famously denied by debater Rudy Giuliani when he feigned amazement when Ron Paul made reference to it. Giuliani bristled at Paul’s observation that the behavior of Islamic countries might indeed be influenced by the way the U.S. government has acted towards them.
Paul Craig Roberts / VDARE.com:
Why has not the Turkish parliament given tit for tat and passed a resolution condemning the Iraqi Genocide? As a result of Bush's invasion of Iraq, more than one million Iraqis have died, and several millions are displaced persons. The Iraqi death toll and the millions of uprooted Iraqis match the Armenian deaths and deportations. If one is a genocide, so is the other. It is true that most of the Iraqi deaths have resulted from Iraqis killing one another. But it was Bush’s destruction of the secular Iraqi state that unleashed the sectarian strife.
Alan Stang / NewsWithViews.com:
California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a law (SB777) that allows boys and girls in California government schools to use each others’ rest rooms and locker rooms. When I went to school, before the revolution – just after they installed indoor plumbing – any boy caught in the girls’ room in school would have been dragged into the street and beaten into a bloody mess. If he survived, his embarrassed father would have finished him off. But, again, that was before the revolution.
Amy Forliti / The Associated Press:
Embattled Sen. Larry Craig asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday to overrule a county judge who refused to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea in connection with an arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting. Craig's appeal was filed at the court in St. Paul less than two weeks after Hennepin County District Court Judge Charles Porter refused to overturn the guilty plea, saying it "was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence."
The Associated Press:
A former Alaska lawmaker who was convicted of taking a nearly $24,000 bribe during an FBI sting was sentenced Monday to five years in prison. Former state Rep. Tom Anderson, a two-term Republican from Anchorage who chose not to run for re-election in 2006, was convicted July 9 of seven federal counts of conspiracy and bribery.
Matthew Perrone / AP Business:
The Food and Drug Administration is moving with unprecedented speed to launch a drug research center to be paid for by companies it regulates. The goal of the Reagan-Udall Foundation, approved by Congress and signed into law late last month, is to streamline and improve the development of drugs and medical devices, a goal long sought by regulators and the biggest players in the industry, such as Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and Johnson & Johnson. "Given FDA's track record in the past, I'm not confident in their ability to create something that is free of influence from industry," said Francesca Grifo, a director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Time and again we've seen that people within FDA behave as if industry is their primary client," Grifo said.
Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
We are seeing a political phenomenon like no other in history. We are seeing the creation of an army of volunteers who have not been actively recruited. This is as close to Hayek's concept of the spontaneous order as politics has ever provided. It is Isaiah's job in action. Back in 1937, Albert Jay Nock wrote an essay titled "Isaiah's Job." It dealt with the strategic error of starting a political movement to save America. It will not work, Nock said. The kind of people who you need in order to change America cannot be attracted by active political recruiting. Such people will seek out those leaders who they approve of. He called them the Remnant. We are now seeing what Nock did not foresee: the coming together of a grass roots army. It is assembling itself. The Internet's technology is making this possible. The Remnant is forming. Now what? Let's assume that Ron Paul does not get the Republican Party's nomination. What will his newly self-assembled army do then?
Rep. Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
This past week, Congress had an opportunity to permanently repeal the death tax by amending the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 to include language that ends the estate tax forever. This would have been a good provision in an overall bad bill. 212 Democrats were enough to keep this spectre looming on the horizon if the Bush tax cuts are not renewed in 2011. The bill passed without this silver lining and now we face big increases in taxes and penalties in the next five years.
Jared Vallorani / American Vision:
My wife and I recently celebrated the birth of our second child. Hartley Samuel Vallorani is named after his great grandfather, a godly man who unselfishly raised five children with his wife, Margaret. The birth of our new son gives us what many Christian families today would say is the perfect number of children: two. One boy, one girl; we have it all. In fact, statistics from all over the country support this; the national average in 2004 was 1.8 children per family. Selfishness aside, there are many reasons why the number of children per family continues to decline. Advancements in birth control methods, increases in the cost of living, the change from an agrarian to industrialized society, cultural pressures, and most importantly—the lack of a Biblical worldview—all contribute to a false understanding of the crucial role of the family to the culture as a whole.
George Will / Waterbury Republican American:
In 1943, the Supreme Court, affirming the right of Jehovah's Witnesses children to refuse to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag in schools, declared: "No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." Today that principle is routinely traduced, coast to coast, by officials who are petty in several senses.
Full Quiver Mission:
Three of the Murch children, Lauren (19), Sam (17) and Jesse (16) are now attending Faithful Soldier School of Evangelism near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This school was started by street preacher Jason Storms, longtime friend of the Murch Family and Full Quiver Mission. The school is being run as a ministry of Mercy Seat Christian Church, of which Jason is an associate minister, and son-in-law of Pastor Matt Trewhella, founder of Missionaries to the Preborn.
Jerome R. Corsi / WorldNetDaily.com:
Canadian activists are demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper fulfill a promise and submit the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America to a national referendum for an up or down vote. "The Prime Minister of Canada and his cabinet in both Liberal and Conservative regimes support the unification of North America as witnessed by the fact of [former Prime Minister] Paul Martin and [current Prime Minister] Stephen Harper being signatories to the SPP process," said Connie Fogal, leader of the Canadian Action Party.
Joel Turtel / NewsWithViews.com:
We may still have fundamental freedoms of speech and the press, but America is in a transition from liberty to despotism, a halfway house on the road to tyranny. We already have economic tyranny in America. If you add up all the taxes you pay, including income taxes, Social Security, sales, real estate, gasoline, telephone, and dozens of other hidden taxes, government loots over forty percent of your hard-earned income in taxes.
Mary Beth Sheridan / The Washington Post:
Federal officials will seek approval starting this week for plans to build a giant headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security, a $3 billion undertaking that would transform a dilapidated but historic site in Anacostia. The plans call for one of the largest construction projects in the Washington area since the Pentagon was built in the 1940s. The complex would have 4.5 million square feet of office space for 14,000 employees. It would occupy the western campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital, the home of the first federal psychiatric institution.
Tom DeWeese / Freedom.org:
We have been fighting for years to prevent Senate ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This very objectionable treaty would put the United States in a de facto world government; it went into effect in 1994, but was never ratified by the U.S. Senate. Shocking as it is, President Bush is lobbying hard for passage of this massive, unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the United States to other countries. The Senate held a hearing last week, and is now poised to approve this treaty sometime before Congress' Christmas break. Please help us stop this very real threat to our sovereignty, security, and economic health.
The Associated Press:
Sen. Larry Craig says he will file an appeal Monday over a judge's refusal to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from his arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting. In an interview Sunday with KTVB-TV, Craig repeated he will not resign his post in the Senate and said he will continue to work his legal options. "It is my right to do what I'm doing," said Craig, an Idaho Republican. "I've already provided for Idaho certainty that Idaho needed — I'm not running for re-election. I'm no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights."
Al Cronkrite / The Covenant News:
When the Evangelical Christian church embraced Dispensationalism and discarded God's Laws they injected an heretical narcotic into the Christian ethic. When Evangelical Christians denigrate God's Laws by claiming that Grace supersedes them they open the door to secular law and rule by the Devil's minions. The Grace provided by our Lord Jesus provides forgiveness from sin and nulls the ability of God's Laws to condemn the sinner. It does not, however, void His Statutes as the standard of behavior and the tool of dominion for all Christians nor does it alter obedience as God's premier objective. It is by Grace that Christians seek to be obedient and have the power to modify their sinful lives.
Michael Bray and Family Persecuted for Defending the Unborn. Joe Pavone / Calvinist Contender:
On October 1, 2007 at 10:30 a.m. Federal Marshals and Sherff's deputies stormed into Michael and Jayne Bray's home along with Planned Parenthood attorneys. For the next 5 hours the authorities confiscated computers, books, and unknown personal items. (Thanks to Chalcedon Blog for the link.)
The American View Radio:
Michael Anthony Peroutka Is Back! On this program co-hosts Michael Anthony Peroutka & John Lofton report on and analyze: Third Party talk by "leaders" of the so-called "Religious Right" who say they are opposed to Rudy Giuliani being the GOP's President nominee; the despicable, and anti-Christian, lesser-of-two-evils "Boogie Man Politics" of Sean Hannity and Gary Bauer; the recent "debate" among GOP Presidential candidates; and more.
Eric Young / Christian Post:
Some 150 top-level conservative Christian leaders are expected to receive in the mail this week a letter urging them to "galvanize support" around presidential hopeful Mitt Romney so former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani "isn't the unintended beneficiary of our divided support among several candidates." Or, "worse yet," the letter adds, "so we don't abdicate the presidency (and the future of the Supreme Court) over to Hillary Clinton." The letter, which was published by the New York Times on Wednesday, was written by Mark DeMoss, who has served some of the world’s most prominent and effective Christian ministries and enterprises since the founding of faith-based PR firm The DeMoss Group in 1991.
Related: Romney woos disenchanted evangelical Christians The Times-News
WASHINGTON -- Republican president candidate Mitt Romney has steppedup his efforts to woo evangelicals in response to the threat by some Christian conservative leaders to back a third-party candidate. The third-party threat grew last week after a key evangelical leader, James Dobson, said that he and other social conservatives had agreed to support a "minor party" candidate if the Republicans choose a presidential nominee who is not conservative enough. Dobson's statement is viewed as significant in the Romney campaign because Dobson has ruled out supporting GOP candidates John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson, but has left open the possibility of supporting Romney. "Dr. Dobson is keeping an open mind on Mitt Romney, and I think that is because they do share in common so many values," Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Thursday.
Log Cabin Republicans make Pro-Choice ad for Mitt
Romney's Real Record - Log Cabin Republicans TV Ad Campaign sets the record straight about Mitt Romney.
Joe Rodriguez / The Wichita Eagle:
The city of Wichita dismissed a criminal trespassing charge Friday against a Wichita pastor for preaching at a gay pride parade in June. "We're glad that justice prevailed," pastor Mark Holick of Spirit One Christian Center said shortly after the decision in Wichita Municipal Court. "We thought it was pretty obvious from the beginning." A call to the city was referred to City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf. He did not return the call Friday afternoon. Holick said that he and 30 church members went to the Pride Parade and Festival in downtown Wichita to pass out fliers and "preach the gospel" related to the fact that homosexuality is a sin. Holick was arrested on a charge of criminal trespassing, which carries a punishment of up to six months imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $1,000.
Bob Unruh / WorldNetDaily.com:
A street preacher whose annual fall campaign often includes a stop in Philadelphia, the self-described "Birthplace of Liberty," has been arrested for speaking against abortion on public property outside the building housing the Liberty Bell. The arrest of Michael Marcavage, chief of the Repent America ministry, was documented on video now available on YouTube. Marcavage told WND he's awaiting information from the National Park Service authorities who arrested him on an appearance date in federal court.
Karl Zynda / Daily Titan:
Jeremy Sonnier, of Lafayette, La., shifted on top of his step stool and turned to the faces in the audience surrounding him. The question, full of challenge and certitude, was delivered with a shout. "Why should God let you into heaven?" he repeated, as he waved his arms, clutching a black Bible in one hand. "Why did the Lord Jesus Christ come into this world?" Taunts and shouts rose from the nearly 200-person crowd as students exited the Humanities Building. Sonnier's companion, Paul Mitchell, held a sign saying "DON'T GO TO HELL" across the top in red letters. A long list of sinners were listed below. "The reason He came is because you're a sinner," Sonnier said.
Katherine T. Phan / Christian Post:
One of the leading advocates for Christian-based home schooling education celebrated its tenth anniversary Tuesday, marking a decade of influence in the home schooling movement in America. Around 200 banquet attendees celebrated the anniversary of Frontline Ministries’ Exodus Mandate project at the Columbia Conference Center in Columbia, SC. The Exodus Mandate promotes K-12 Christian and home-based education as an alternative to state-run public schools.
Faith News Network:
"Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story" is a revealing 48-minute documentary recounting the life and faith of Civil War General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and will be available this October from Franklin Springs Family Media. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ken Carpenter, the film is based on the book "Stonewall Jackson: The Black Man's Friend" (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006). The inspirational book is authored by Richard G. Williams Jr. Williams, who also happens to be the film's co- producer and historical consultant. Through state-of-the-art imagery and expert narrative, "Still Standing" traces the life of Stonewall Jackson, from his orphaned childhood in what is now West Virginia; to the pivotal role he played as Confederate general in the Civil War; to his death at the age of 39 after being killed by friendly fire. The film features striking new footage from Jackson's boyhood home near Weston, W.Va. and a special look at Jackson's Sunday school classes for African- Americans as well as key Civil War battle sites including Manassas, Chancellorsville, Harpers Ferry and others. View a trailer of "Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story" at http://www.StoneWallFilm.com.
Alan Stang / Ether Zone:
I have written many times about the fact that corporate Christianity worships Communist world government traitor Jorge W. Boosh, our first “Latino” President. If corporate Christianity gets any hint that you do not, it is quite likely to call down the fires of Lenin upon you. You could even wind up out on the street. I do not exaggerate. In some of these celebrity churches, el presidente’s name is spoken almost as reverently as the name of Jesus, and emerods be upon you if you say something else. Which recalls the fact that in Nazi Germany some high church leaders actually wore Nazi uniforms and heiled each other in the name of Hitler at high church meetings.
Bruce Schreiner / The Associated Press:
The Episcopal Church isn't the only mainline Protestant group shaken by open conflict between theological liberals and conservatives. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing similar trials, with traditionalist congregations planning to bolt and a conservative denomination preparing to take them in. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the country's ninth-largest Christian group, but its membership has shrunk from about 3 million in 1986 to 2.27 million at the end of 2006.
Ralph Blumenthal / The New York Times:
A suit filed by three former professors charges financial, political and personal irregularities by the president of Oral Roberts University, including a claim that he illegally mobilized students to campaign for a Republican mayoral candidate. The president, Richard Roberts, the son of the university founder, the television evangelist Oral Roberts, has offered a series of denials. But he declined yesterday to respond in detail to the accusations in the suit. The ex-professors, citing a secret internal report by an official of the Oral Roberts Ministries, linked to the university in Tulsa, Okla., sued on Oct. 2. They also contended that the Roberts house on the campus had been remodeled 11 times in 14 years, that the university jet took family members on trips and that the family’s university-paid cellphones sent text messages to "under-age males — often between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m."
Haaretz:
Dozens of Evangelical Christians gathered in Jerusalem last Sunday to celebrate 5th annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem. There has been a growing alliance in recent years between right-wing Israeli groups and some evangelical Christians who believe Jews must return to the biblical Land of Israel to facilitate a Second Coming of Christ.
Related: Israeli Rabbis to Shun Christian Event Israel has laws against missionary work USA TODAY:
JERUSALEM -- Israeli rabbinic authorities have abruptly called on Jews to shun a major Christian tourism event, baffling and upsetting evangelical groups that traditionally have been big supporters of the Jewish state. More than 6,000 Christians from over 90 nations are expected to arrive in Jerusalem this week to take part in the 28th annual Christian celebration of the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles, according to the event's organizers, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Chief rabbinate urged Jews to stay away from the event, saying some of the groups want to convert them to Christianity. Israel has laws against missionary work. "According to information that has reached the chief rabbinate, there are participants in this conference who convert Jews to Christianity and perform missionary activity throughout the year," Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook. [But] Rev. Malcolm Hedding said, "the ICEJ (International Christian Embassy Jerusalem) has never conducted any missionary programs in Israel and we clearly instruct our Feast pilgrims against such activity during their stay here."
Editor: "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son." I John 2: 22
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." I John 4: 3
"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." II John 1: 7
Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
The Christian Right gets more than its share of blame, usually by TV talking heads who are even more to blame. The obvious example is the commitment of the Christian Right to Bush's war in Iraq. These Establishment-based critics were in positions of influence to challenge Bush's war in 2003, yet they were on board with great fervency. So were liberal Democrats in Congress, who licked their index fingers, stuck them into the wind, and voted for the war. The Christian Right does not control America's media. It does not control positions of leadership inside the Washington Beltway. Its leaders do not get invited to become members of the Council on Foreign Relations or the Trilateral Commission. It listens to Rush Limbaugh, who is not a Christian.
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
It seems President George W. Bush will stop at no lengths to appease Mexico and place the United States under international authority. His latest fiasco, however, twists logic, mocks justice, and defies decency. I am referring to the fact that President Bush is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the death penalty of an illegal Mexican alien convicted of brutally raping and murdering two Houston, Texas teenagers back in 1993.
Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
The U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing of the case, Medellin v. Texas, has reminded the American people of President Bush’s terrible tendency to put the foreign interests of Mexico above those of the United States. But the case, being heard on October 10, is significant for another reason. It demonstrates the dangers of passing global treaties and getting involved with international courts and tribunals.
WorldNetDaily.com:
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton says the Bush administration is caving in to global opinion by siding with Mexico and the International Court of Justice in their attempt to overturn the death penalty of an illegal alien convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls. It's "a bad mistake, but one of many mistakes, I'm sad to say, the administration has made recently," Bolton said in an interview with nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham.
Patrick J. Buchanan / VDARE.com:
Have the Bush Republicans ceased to be reliable custodians of American sovereignty? So it would seem. President George W. Bush began well. He rejected the Kyoto Protocol on global warming negotiated by Vice President Al Gore as both injurious to the economy and rooted in questionable science. He refused to allow the armed forces and diplomats of the United States to be brought under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
WorldNetDaily.com:
The U.S. dollar might be destined to disappear, replaced by a regional currency called the amero, reports the Tokyo correspondent for the Singapore Business Times. "Truth is said to be stranger than fiction sometimes, and what I hear about the future of the U.S. dollar may sound like pure fiction, but the sources from whence the reports spring are, as they say, 'usually reliable' ones, and so they do have a ring of truth to them," writes Anthony Rowley. Rowley says the slide of the U.S. dollar in relation to other foreign currencies makes such a transition more likely.
Wesley Pruden / The Washington Times:
Al Gore is standing by in Oslo this morning (unless he went to Stockholm by mistake), waiting for the Nobel Peace Prize committee to tell him whether he won it. It's not clear what Al has done to make peace, but the committee often chooses someone who doesn't have anything to do with peace, a vain and foolish fancy of men besotted by vanity. Wise men seek justice. Vain men, the Scriptures warn us, "cry peace, peace, when there is no peace."
Dana Milbank / The Washington Post:
In the wildly popular "Left Behind" series of evangelical Christian novels, the Antichrist takes the form of the secretary general of the United Nations, sets up an abortion-promoting world government and becomes the Global Community Supreme Potentate. Last night, the National Association of Evangelicals met for dinner at the Sheraton in Crystal City. The keynote speaker? Why, the Antichrist himself. Actually, the NAE, the umbrella group for the nation's evangelical denominations, brought in the real U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, not his fictional satanic equivalent, Nicolae Carpathia of Romania. But for the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE official who invited Ban, it was just about as daring. Evangelical Christians regard the United Nations' blue helmets with about as much enthusiasm as Satan's red horns.
Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
With one glaring exception, there is one major issue that every candidate is in full compliance with Dr. Dobson: his continued support for the unconstitutional, immoral invasion of Iraq. Dr. Dobson has called this destruction of Iraq a "noble war." The lone voice of sanity and reason, Ron Paul, voted against the use of our military against Iraq. In other words, every GOP candidate except Ron Paul supports Dr. Dobson on this continued war mongering by Bush. Could that be the reason Dr. Dobson has remained silent on Ron Paul's candidacy and not Dr. Paul's high moral standards?
Lee Duigon / The Chalcedon Foundation:
The New York Times recently reported—erroneously—that the church in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, had been stripped of a tax exemption worth $500,000 a year. In the same article, the Times reported—misleadingly—that "A federal district court judge refused last month to halt the investigation" by the state into the church’s supposed violation of a lesbian twosome’s "civil rights." In fact, the tax exemption on the building is less than $200 a year; and the federal court will hear the church’s case on October 15.
Darrell Dow / The Backwater Report:
In my last post, I wrote about the current divisions racking the GOP and how that discord plays into the hands of Ron Paul. One constituency that hasn’t quite settled on a candidate is the leadership of the Religious Right. James Dobson, who has been frequently criticized here in the past, is standing up and saying “No” to Giuliani and Thompson. It is interesting that he was blowing kisses to Newt Gingrich, but we’ll set that aside for another day. My concern with Dobson is that he has criticized Thompson, McCain, and Giuliani because he’ll wind up backing Mitt Romney.
Ralph Z. Hallow / The Washington Times:
Two social conservatives "leaders" — in surprise moves yesterday — criticized fellow evangelical and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, while praising another party hopeful, Mitt Romney, a Mormon. Still, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and American Values President Gary Bauer hope the former Massachusetts governor will passionately express his pro-life views at the Values Voter Summit Oct. 19 and 20 at the Washington Hilton. Many evangelicals have shunned Mr. Romney, a Mormon who evolved from being pro-choice to pro-life on abortion.
Log Cabin Republicans make Pro-Choice ad for Mitt
Romney's Real Record - Log Cabin Republicans TV Ad Campaign sets the record straight about Mitt Romney.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
Nica Lalli is an atheist, but she doesn’t want to be lumped in with all atheists. Welcome to the club. Not all Christians want to be lumped in with all who call themselves Christians or with those who are religious in some way. The militant atheists—Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and to a lesser degree these days, Sam Harris—condemn all religious people for being religious. Nica objects to such sweeping generalizations. She’s willing to carry on a dialogue with religionists.
Steve Watson / Infowars.net:
In a series of interviews to promote his new book, Revolution of Hope, former Mexican leader Vicente Fox has trumpeted rampant globalization and has declared anyone who opposes such "harmonization" and diminishment of sovereignty "racist" and "xenophobic". Over the course of a week Fox has called for a North American Union, a single North American currency and a complete overhaul of the U.S. immigration policy to allow more Mexicans to legally enter the country.
Jerry Seper / The Washington Times:
A federal judge in San Francisco yesterday blocked plans by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued an order saying the agencies could not go forward with plans announced in August to send letters warning employers they face stiff penalties — including fines of up to $10,000 — if they hire workers whose Social Security numbers do not match their names. Judge Breyer, appointed by President Clinton in 1997, said the new work-site rules likely would impose hardships on businesses and their workers, adding that the plaintiffs had "demonstrated they will be irreparably harmed" if the rules are enforced.
Texas: Global Courts, Bush Have No Say In State Case
The Associated Press:
Neither the president nor an international court can tell Texas how to treat criminal defendants, the state's top Supreme Court advocate told the justices in arguments yesterday over the fate of a Mexican citizen on death row. Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz said Jose Ernesto Medellin received a fair trial and adequate representation even though he was not notified of his right under the 1963 Vienna Convention to request help from Mexican diplomats when he was arrested on suspicion of raping and killing two teenagers in Houston.
Justices Debate Death Penalty By Mark Sherman / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, with a bit of dramatic flair in the packed courtroom Wednesday, whipped out his pocket-size Constitution and began reading to the lawyer from Texas the pertinent section on international treaties.
Treaties "shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state," Breyer said, pausing briefly, "I guess it means, including Texas, `shall be bound thereby."'
His little joke aside, Breyer was probing a question at the heart of a complicated dispute over the role of international law and claims of executive power in the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder.
Cliff Kincaid / Freedom.org:
Do you think our "adversary press" is on the lookout for government lies? Consider the false testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on behalf of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This is a treaty that our media want passed by the Senate. So they are letting his lies go completely unchallenged. One of the most audacious lies was that, despite the fact that the treaty carries the name "United Nations" in its title, it is not a U.N. treaty.
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Is the image of a terrorist? Well, according to Planned Parenthood, the Left-wing, psychotic, fraudulent, Christ-hating, vampires of baby blood, Rev. Michael Bray is exactly the kind of terrorist that they want neutralized. To do that, they've enlisted the assistance of the Federal government to seize the property of Michael Bray and his family. They will lose their home and several household items as part of a judgment brought down on the Bray's by a federal court in Columbus, Ohio. The case against Michael Bray was made by Planned Parenthood. You can hear an upcoming interview with Rev. Bray on The Political Cesspool this Thursday (Oct. 11). The radio program runs from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Central Time.
Paul Proctor / The Covenant News:
What do you suppose it means when a 2008 presidential candidate named Barack Obama tells an evangelical church on the campaign trail, "I am confident we can create a kingdom right here on Earth," even though Jesus Christ told Pilate shortly before His crucifixion: "My Kingdom is not of this world"? (John 18:36)
Lucas Mafaldo / LewRockwell.com:
If conservatives drop the second-tier candidates and start campaigning for Ron Paul, they will avert a new Clinton administration. They also will avert a false-conservative administration; who would not only betray conservative’s principles, but - worst of all – would give conservatism a bad name. If conservatives want to restore the republic, pass conservative reform, and advance their principles, they should back Ron Paul right now. A broad-base grassroots effort combining Paul's supporters plus traditional conservatives would be unstoppable. No multi-million dollar RINO campaign could stop it. Think about: a true pro-life, small-government, pro-gun, pro-market president? How does it sound? This is the true conservative message. Ron Paul is the man to restore the true conservative movement – not the false neocon variety.
Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
With our country's finances stretched thin, our credit limit fast approaching, and our currency inflated to the breaking point, there is no indication yet of any urgency on the part of Congress to rein in spending. The predictable answer to the government's voracious spending habits is this week’s proposal by some Democratic Congressional leaders for tax increases to pay for operations in Iraq. Here at home, however, there are promises our seniors heavily rely upon. We must keep these promises.
Telecommunication industry wants immunity from
federal lawsuits and 'criminal prosecution' for
eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants.
by Eric Lichtblau / The New York Times:
Whether telecommunication utilities should have legal immunity for having helped the National Security Agency conduct eavesdropping without warrants emerged on Tuesday as the pivotal issue in the debate over wiretapping powers. The Bush administration, urged by the telecommunication industry, is pushing hard for Congress to include immunity for past actions in any package to protect them from a series of civil suits. House Democrats promised on Tuesday to block any deal for immunity unless the White House agreed to turn over internal records showing the utilities’ role in the eavesdropping. President Bush secretly approved the program weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The telecommunication industry, while keeping a low profile on its role, has mounted a vigorous campaign behind the scenes to win over Congressional supporters. The effort has considerable support among Republicans, but winning over moderate Senate Democrats may ultimately prove critical. The companies, including AT&T and Verizon, face numerous federal suits by privacy advocates and others who say they participated in what amounted to illegal eavesdropping. If the administration and the utilities succeed in gaining retroactive immunity from Congress, that would make the suits essentially moot.
Mark Radulich / 411mania.com:
"Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas," by Daniel J. Flynn. Though it was written in 2004, the subject matter covered in this book is timeless. Each chapter is dedicated to a person or group of people who perpetuated or invented an ideology devoid of serious scholarship and facts by simply lying about it in order to serve a political end. Flynn tackles the advent of the Sexual Revolution (Alfred Kinsey), Abortion (Margaret Sanger), Environmentalism (Paul Ehrlich), Animal Rights (Peter Singer), Multiculturalism (Rigoberta Menchu), Anti-Americanism (Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal), Leo Strauss, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alger Hiss, Objectivism (Ayn Rand), Betty Friedan (Feminism) and Deconstructionism (Derrida).
The Associated Press:
Oral Roberts was blind-sided by allegations that the university he founded was being exploited by his son and daughter-in-law, the aging televangelist said Tuesday in his first public comments on the case. Roberts phoned CNN's "Larry King Live" to weigh in on the accusations leveled in a lawsuit by three professors who claim they were fired from Oral Roberts University for questioning the school's spending and students' involvement in a political campaign.
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
In an interview with Al Arabiya reporter Elie Nakouzi, President Bush said, "I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, pray to the same God." Bush has made this same statement throughout his Presidency. The statement obviously reflects a deep-seated belief. Every true Christian knows that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to God the Father. Jesus is not "a" way of salvation. He is the only way of salvation, and His is the only name whereby we are saved. No man comes unto the Father except through Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). This is Christianity 101. We have pre-kindergarten children in our Sunday School that apparently understand more about Bible truth than our supposed "Christian" President. However, the Scriptures are even more explicit. For example, 1 John 2:22,23 states unequivocally, "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father."
Robin Shulman / The Washington Post:
After leading his team in prayers for 23 years, Marcus Borden, a football coach in East Brunswick, N.J., is involved in a legal battle that is pushing the courts to decide the boundaries of acceptable religious activity for coaches and other educators in public schools. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit heard arguments on whether Borden has the right to bow his head and kneel while his players pray around him.
Murray N. Rothbard / LewRockwell.com:
In the spring of 1970, a new political term – "the hard hats" – burst upon the American consciousness. As the hard-hatted construction workers barreled their way around the Wall Street area, beating up college kids and peace demonstrators, earning the admiration of the right wing and a citation from President Nixon, one of the banners they raised summed up in a single phrase how remarkably the right wing has changed over the past two decades. For the banner said simply: "God Bless the Establishment."
Patrick J. Buchanan / VDARE.com:
What is it that distinguishes Bush Republicanism from the Coolidge, Taft, Eisenhower and Reagan varieties? Four major issues come to mind. Bush is a "Big Government conservative" who repudiated the "government-is-the-problem" philosophy of Reagan. His No Child Left Behind program, doubling the size of the Department of Education, and his vast expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs so testify. Second, Bush believes in Wilsonian interventionism, including the use of military force, to advance a "global democratic revolution" and "end tyranny on earth." Third, Bush believes in open borders, amnesty and "a path to citizenship" for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens, and smoothing the way for untold millions more to come and "do the work Americans will not do." Fourth, Bush is a NAFTA-CAFTA man who believes in throwing America's doors open to goods from all over the world, regardless of the protectionist practices of our trade partners. To Bush, free trade is an article of faith and faithful observance its own reward.
Julie Mason / Houston Chronicle:
In separate rooms on overlapping morning hours at the National Press Club this week, two very different groups were launching the next rounds in the simmering immigration fight. In the Zenger Room, named for German immigrant John Peter Zenger, who helped establish free speech law, Californians for Population Stabilization released a study claiming there are 20 million to 38 million illegal immigrants in America, not the 12 million the federal government says.
Michael Cutler / NewsWithViews.com:
In enumerating all those who favor those who see some form of benefit to be derived by our nation's failure to secure its borders just about everyone makes out on the deal except for one group of people. A group of people who, while large in number, are finding that the government is increasingly less willing to represent them and their best interests. This group of people have one name: American citizens (We the People)!
Ellen Nakashima / The Washington Post:
House Democrats plan to introduce a bill this week that would let a secret court issue one-year "umbrella" warrants to allow the government to intercept e-mails and phone calls of foreign targets and would not require that surveillance of each person be approved individually. The bill is likely to resurrect controversy that erupted this summer when Congress, under White House pressure, rushed through a temporary emergency law that expanded the government's authority to conduct foreign surveillance on U.S. soil without a warrant. The Protect America Act, which expires in February, has been criticized as being too broad and lacking effective court oversight.
Walter Pincus / The Washington Post:
The Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 is the grand title attached to the bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week with bipartisan support. It is better known as the reporter's shield law. While the proposal has progressed much further in Congress than past efforts, it is far from a sure thing and continues to draw opposition, at least in its current form, from the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). One of the biggest issues is just who is a journalist, or in the phrase the bill uses, a "covered person." What the Senate bill also includes, though, is a list of who is not a covered person.
The American View Radio:
John Lofton: This program focuses on the new Naturalization Test for would-be citizens just released by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services agency. I read it all and my head still hurts – and my wallet! But, I suspect my head does not hurt as much as the head of the USCIS media spokeswoman I interviewed about this new test. I suspect that even as you read these words she is filling out the paperwork for my immediate deportation.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
The annual "Crystal Clear Atheism" event was held in Crystal City, Virginia, and was sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International, "the only democratic national atheist organization in the United States." The unholy trinity of Atheism were in attendance—Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris, and journalist Christopher Hitchens—as well as the named and no-named. Edward Tabash was there as well. I debated Mr. Tabash several years ago on the Christian history question. Darwin's great-great-grandson was also in attendance, as well as the self-proclaimed "black Carl Sagan," rapper Greydon Square. I had the same response. Who?
Sara A. Carter / The Washington Times:
A military watchdog group says the Pentagon is failing to uphold laws that protect women in the Army from combat and that the Rand Corp.'s recent report is meant to "whitewash" the whole issue.
Lew Rockwell / LewRockwell.com:
It's Tuesday October 9th in Michigan, at 4:00pm ET on CNBC (to be rebroadcast at 9:00pm ET on MSNBC). For the first time, Fred will be there, to be refuted by Ron along with the other jokers.
WorldNetDaily.com:
President George Bush has repeated his belief all religions, "whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God" – an assertion that caused outrage among evangelical leaders when he said it in November 2003. Bush made the statement Friday in an interview with Al Arabiya reporter Elie Nakouzi.
Jim Kouri / NewsWithViews.com:
In the midst of the current presidential race, American voters are being denied information regarding alleged plans to merge the three nations of North America -- the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Not only are most political leaders in both major parties failing to discuss allegations of an impending North American Union, but the mainstream news media are failing to examine what promises to be THE major news story of the 21st Century.
By Gary Benoit / JBS.org:
The Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, recently released a report acknowledging that the Bush administration is using the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to integrate the United States, Canada, and Mexico and that it is doing so without congressional approval or oversight. The fact that the report is pro-SPP makes its admissions all the more significant.
Judicial Watch:
A Bush cabinet member recently investigated by the agency he heads for illegally granting contracts based on political affiliation is now under FBI investigation for getting a friend a lucrative no-bid government deal. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson evidently helped a friend get $392,000 over a period of a year and a half as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
Modern Christianity suffers from the illusion that politico-social action can change man’s condition by institutional change in the political or economic spheres. The truth is that material change can never bring about a genuine change of heart, life, and reality. Economic and political transformation can bring about no fundamental changes at all.
Stiles J. Watson / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Biblical Self-Government: The desire and the ability to willingly submit to God-given authority without being forced, coerced, or constantly reminded to do so. When man refuses to be self-governed, he asks to be a slave. This sums up the whole history of mankind. It started in Eden, and it is still true, even in our country today.
Alan Stang / NewsWithViews.com:
I have written many times about the fact that corporate Christianity worships Communist world government traitor Jorge W. Boosh, our first "Latino" President. If corporate Christianity gets any hint that you do not, it is quite likely to call down the fires of Lenin upon you. You could even wind up out on the street. I do not exaggerate. In some of these celebrity churches, el presidente’s name is spoken almost as reverently as the name of Jesus, and emerods be upon you if you say something else.
Al Cronkrite / The Covenant News:
Confronting evil is the leading edge of God’s Will. Righteousness cannot prevail when God’s servants fail to challenge evil. If the government began arresting Christians would your minister be included? Would there be enough evidence that he was attempting to supplant the kingdom of man with the Kingdom of God to warrant his arrest? Is your minister overtly at odds with abortion, homosexuality and dishonest, treasonous government; does he noticeably abhor the denigration of Christianity that regularly fills our media and press? What does he preach? Does he preach a save ‘em and enslave ‘em message? Is he a gifts and praise preacher? How about the end times? Does he preach a paralyzing apocalyptic message? Maybe he is using expository preaching to evade his responsibility to confront a deteriorating social order.
Nathan Baca / KESQ-TV NewsChannel 3:
The male escort responsible for the downfall of Christian evangelist leader Ted Haggard is now alleging that embattled Senator Larry Craig also came to see him. While promoting his new book during a radio interview with KNWQ-AM in Palm Springs Wednesday night, Mike Jones hesitated from making the allegation on the air. Management for the radio station says Jones told them he would reveal something about Idaho Senator Larry Craig on the "Bulldog Bill Feingold Show." While he hesitated doing so on the air, a NewsChannel 3 camera was rolling when he made the accusation during a commercial break. Feingold asked whether the Senator had seen Jones in a hotel room. Jones responded, "No, he came to see me."
Brian Clark / KXLY.com:
Reaction from GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has been swift and mostly negative following Idaho Senator Larry Craig's decision to renege on his resignation after a Minnesota judge ruled Craig couldn't withdraw his guilty plea Thursday [Here's link to the pdf file of the ruling]. Senator Craig was charged with lewd conduct for a June 11th incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport where he allegedly tried to solicit gay sex from an undercover police officer. He later pled guilty to a lesser charge but has since maintained that he's innocent and the plea was a mistake.
Larry Craig Lies, Should Resign
Jeff Crouere / Bayou Buzz
The controversy surrounding U.S. Senator Larry Craig will not go away anytime soon. The disgraced politician is now vowing to remain in the U.S. Senate despite his pledge to resign. He lost a court attempt to withdraw his guilty plea for disorderly conduct. Craig was arrested in a bathroom sex sting operation at a Minneapolis airport back in June. It became public in August when Craig vowed to resign by September 30. Now that deadline has come and gone and Craig wants to stay in the U.S. Senate. Of course there are many problems with this strategy. First and foremost, it proves that Craig is a liar.
Craig Will Join State Hall of Fame
Meghann M. Cuniff / The Spokesman Review
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig plans to attend an Oct. 13 ceremony in Boise at which he and 11 other Idaho residents will be inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame. The nonprofit organization that maintains the hall of fame picked Craig in March, months before the Republican senator's well-publicized arrest and guilty plea to disorderly conduct, stemming from a sex-solicitation sting in an airport men's bathroom. But some local Republicans say the honor is inappropriate in light of Craig's June 11 arrest by an undercover police officer in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "They ought to change their minds, whoever they are," Duane Rasmussen, president of the North Idaho Pachyderm Club, said about the hall of fame induction. "Sen. Larry Craig is an embarrassment to all of Idaho, and he needs to resign from office."
Jerome R. Corsi / WorldNetDaily.com
The Bush administration, having been rebuffed on plans to advance a Free Trade of the Americas Act that would open a free trade market to the tip of South America, now is working on the expansion one nation at a time, according to critics. The Bush administration is pushing Congress to pass a new "free trade" NAFTA-like agreement with Peru, amid growing opposition among Republican voters.
Emily Bazar / USA TODAY:
Illegal immigrants are getting driver's licenses and identification cards in cities and states that are bucking the national trend to take official documents and public benefits away from them. New Haven, Conn., began issuing municipal ID cards in July to all residents, including illegal immigrants. New York will join eight other states in giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, starting in December.
Sara A. Carter / The Washington Times:
A military watchdog group says the Pentagon is failing to uphold laws that protect women in the Army from combat and that the Rand Corp.'s recent report is meant to "whitewash" the whole issue.
April Marciszewski / Tulsa World:
In response to allegations that Oral Roberts University money was misspent, regents decided on Friday to strengthen the university's financial accountability by retaining an additional independent auditing firm. President Richard Roberts said he pays for his family's personal expenses, contrary to allegations in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tulsa County District Court.
Uncle Raisin:
Kutztown, PA -- Because most of the current students weren't even born by March 15, 1986, they will think the first time preachers were arrested on campus occurred this past April 18 - not true. -- March 15, 1986, Kutztown University: Arrest the Christian Preachers. On March 15, 1986, Valerie Hildebeitel, reported in The Morning Call that two men were arrested for "harassing" students. She cited a complaint by a Jew who felt "excluded." Indeed, the Message the preachers bring is that folks who go to hell are "excluded" from heaven. Is this doctrine "excluded" by the "diversity" doctrine?
Erika Bolstad / McClatchy Newspapers:
Sen. Larry Craig said Thursday that he had no intention of leaving the Senate until the end of his term, despite a setback in his effort to clear his name of a sex-related guilty plea. Craig will now face the full glare of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation and the ire of Republican Senate leaders, who say they feel as though he's gone back on his promise to step down after news broke of his arrest on charges that he solicited sex from an uncover police officer in the men's room of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.
Related:
The Lying Queer Senator Puts Himself
Ahead of His Party and His Constituents
By Dana R Pico / RS REDSTATE
Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for soliciting a same-sex quickie in a public restroom, said that he would resign his seat on September 30th, if his guilty plea wasn't reversed. Yesterday the judge refused to vacate the guilty plea, and today Mr Craig is breaking his word, and, apparently, staying in the Senate. -- But the problem isn't the misdemeanor conviction; the conviction is simply the symptom. The problem is that Larry Craig is a liar.
White House won't comment on their Queer GOP Senator
The Associated Press
WHITE HOUSE -- The White House is staying out of it. There's no comment on the decision by Senator Larry Craig to stay in office. A deputy press secretary says, "We think this is a decision between Senator Craig, his constituents, his colleagues in the Senate."
The Republican Party's Recurring 'Faggot Problem'
Charles Babington / The Associated Press
Facing untimely resignations, an unpopular war and a troubling 2008 election landscape, Senate Republicans didn't need another headache this week. But they got one anyway when Sen. Larry Craig vowed Thursday to serve out the last 15 months of his term, despite a court ruling that left intact his guilty plea in a sex sting operation.
John Lofton / The American View:
Call it The Murderer Litmus Test. It would go something like this: I will always vote against any nominee for any public office who has murdered innocent human beings and sees nothing wrong with such murder. Sound reasonable to you? Well, Fred Thompson didn’t think so on at least one occasion and said so explicitly. But, I’m getting ahead of myself on this important and widely-ignored story.
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
Let me say it plainly: a Hillary Clinton administration would be no worse than a Rudy Giuliani administration. In some ways, it might not be as bad. At least, with a Democrat in the White House, conservatives might try to act like conservatives and muster the energy to actually oppose some of her liberal proposals. The record is clear: when a Republican is in the White House, conservatives not only lose their backbone, they also lose their brain cells. They walk around in a daze without the ability to even see what is going on right before their eyes. They become "mind-numbed robots" with no commitment to principle whatsoever.
Michael S. Rozeff / LewRockwell.com:
The biggest obstacle to living altogether without political government as we now know it is the fear or reluctance to live in freedom. The second biggest obstacle is the risk of changing from the present condition of society to a condition of freedom. Consider the second obstacle. No one knows what conditions will prevail if government suddenly disappears, or even if a serious cutback is made in its size. There is an infinite range of possible future outcomes that anyone might face, and they are uncertain. Should a person choose doing away with or limiting government or not?
Ludwig von Mises Institute:
This remarkable piece of history will change the way you look at American politics. It shows that the corruption of American "conservatism" began long before George W. Bush ballooned the budget and asserted dictatorial rights over the country and the world. The American Right long ago slid into the abyss. Betrayal of the American Right is the full story, and the author is none other than Murray N. Rothbard, who witnessed it all first hand. He tells his own story and reveals that machinations behind the subversion of an anti-state movement into one that cheers statism of the worst sort.
James C. Dobson / The New York Times:
Colorado Springs - Reports have surfaced in the press about a meeting that occurred last Saturday in Salt Lake City involving more than 50 pro-family leaders. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss our response if both the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate standard-bearers who are supportive of abortion. Although I was neither the convener nor the moderator of the meeting, I’d like to offer several brief clarifications about its outcome and implications.
KMBC TV-9 News - Kansas City Channel:
Focus on the Family leader James Dobson has made it official: his organization will not support any front-runner in the Republican race for the party's presidential nomination unless that man takes a vow supporting "the sanctity of life." His position puts him at odds with Rudy Giuliani, who currently leads national opinion polls on the Republican ticket. Giuliani supports abortion rights.
Wesley Pruden / The Washington Times:
Nothing defines the difference between politicians and real people like the occasional renewal of the Incumbent Protection Act, which always appears disguised as something else. This congressional session's Incumbent Protection Act is the so-called S-CHIP, which extends "free" (i.e., government-paid) health insurance to millions of middle-class children whose parents can afford to buy the insurance that the rest of us have to pay for.
William N. Grigg / Pro-Libertate:
Carol Anne Gotbaum did not strangle herself with the handcuffs that were used to restrain her. Thus it follows that the Phoenix Police Department, which claimed that the tiny, 45-year-old mother of three small children somehow choked herself on the cuffs, is concealing the truth about what killed her.
Related:
Surveillance Video: Gotbaum's Last Moments At Phoenix Airport
NEW YORK -- CBS 2 HD has obtained surveillance video showing three different angles of last week's arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The video shows the daughter-in-law of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum reacting after learning she had missed her flight. It also shows Phoenix police officers move in on her, take her to the ground and arrest her. Different angles show officers taking Gotbaum to a holding cell, where she later died mysteriously.
The Associated Press:
A Minnesota judge on Thursday rejected Sen. Larry Craig's bid to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport sex sting, a major setback in Craig's effort to clear his name and hang onto his Senate seat. "Because the defendant's plea was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and because the conviction is supported by the evidence ... the Defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea is denied," Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter wrote. Craig can appeal Porter's ruling, but it wasn't immediately clear if he would.
Coach Dave Daubenmire / NewsWithViews.com:
When was the last time your church sang some of the old hymns? So much of what qualifies as "praise and worship" music is nothing more than Christian bubble-gum music. -- Today we sing "Open our eyes Lord, We want to see Jesus," sissified music, for a sissified Church. There was a time when the Church knew there was a war and they sang songs that celebrated it. Today we want to "feel" spiritual and our music reflects the effeminization that permeates Christianity.
David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
While the anti-Iran rhetoric heats up and the impending air war with Iran looms ever closer, what are my thoughts? The issue that keeps returning to me in prayer again and again is this: Our heavenly treasure, our citizenship above, our relationship and fellowship with God and our fellow Christian – we had better make sure of all of these, no matter what our earthly circumstances might be. The reason why most people today are not prepared for trouble is because they have invested everything down here and have no other resources. They cannot draw on the bank of heaven even though they are bankrupt on earth.
Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
"In terms of this evolutionary perspective, science is not so much the understanding of things as the controlling of things. The government and providence of God are replaced by the government and providence of man, and the divine predestination gives way to predestination by scientific planners." ~ R. J. Rushdoony, The Mythology of Science
Bob Unruh / WorldNetDaily.com:
A professor whose research could be the foundation for a major challenge to Darwin's theory of evolution and his historically Christian employer are at odds over that work, with Baylor University ordering Professor Bob Marks' work taken off the Internet. Maybe it's because for so many years the logical alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution, which is grounded on such foundations as random selection and survival of the fittest, has been disregarded and ridiculed by the scientific community. And intelligent design, as it is called, presumes the existence of God, or at least an outside intelligence influencing life, according to a critic of the university.
Dr. Richard A. Jones / American Vision:
Following a recent article, several of you emailed to ask why I appear to prefer homeschooling (HS) as the best educational weapon in this battle for the mind of fragile (5 to 18 year olds) Christian kids instead of opting for a two-way mix of homeschooling and private Christian schools (PCS.) In fact, one person put it this way: “To you, are private Christian schools just so much ‘chopped liver?’” Well, no, they are not chopped liver because they have a key role to play in this notable do-or-die mission of equipping and blessing the next generation of adults-to-be (our Christian replacements) with a culture-impacting biblical worldview. I’ll get to more details about the HS vs. PCS debate in my next article, but for now, and more importantly, please consider a not unreasonable metaphor underscoring the principle that Christian parents must come to understand—big picture-wise—no matter which of the two alternatives they finally chose.
Paul Proctor / NewsWithViews.com:
On August 24th, the Baptist Press posted Part 1 of a commentary by Union University's president, David S. Dockery, on its website titled, "Unity, Truth and Love." What I found most disturbing about this piece is the author's dialectic solution to increasing dissention and division among Southern Baptists.
United Press International:
Mesa, Ariz. -- The sight of an old man being hit by a truck in Arizona touched off a feeding frenzy among witnesses who allegedly stole the dying victim's groceries. Not only were the man's groceries taken, but the only person who tried to help him also had his own bags taken. Mesa police told KPHO-TV in nearby Phoenix that the scavengers could face theft charges if they are eventually tracked down.
Suspect Identified In Fatal Hit-And-Run Thieves Steal Dying Victim's Groceries
KPHO-TV
MESA, Ariz. -- An elderly man was struck by a hit-and-run driver and as he lay dying, thieves made off with his groceries. Mesa police said the victim was waiting for a bus after grocery shopping Tuesday evening. Witnesses said the driver of a dark GMC pickup, later identified as 23-year-old Alan Ricardo Flores-Ocon, swerved off the road and onto the sidewalk near Main Street and Horne. Flores-Ocon fled the scene after crashing through the bus stop, police said.
Steve Watson / Infowars.net:
A Veteran from Reno, Nev. has hit headlines after he took matters into his own hands yesterday and tore down a Mexican flag that was being illegally flown above a U.S. flag at a local business. Local news station krnv News 4 had received calls yesterday afternoon from angry residents complaining about the Mexican flag. When the station sent a reporter to investigate the Veteran took the opportunity to make a statement in front of the cameras.
John Lofton / The American View:
Since Richard Viguerie and other so-called Christian/conservative "leaders" are in the news talking about Third Party possibilities, I thought you'd be interested in reading or re-reading this interview of Viguerie by me about a year ago. At the time, he was pushing his book "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush And Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked The Conservative Cause." For those who would like to hear this interview, it is program 79 on this site, TheAmericanView.com. Comments welcome.
Joe Dumas / The Chattanoogan:
Why must the Republican Party nominate a 72-year-old grandfather from the Gulf Coast of Texas, until the past few months little known outside his district, as its 2008 standard-bearer? Very simple: the alternative is eight years of President Hillary Clinton. That ought to be enough to get the attention of every conservative who happens upon these words, so let me explain. It should come as no big revelation to anyone inside or outside of the Republican Party that the GOP has lost touch with its conservative roots. -- Only Ron Paul can keep the Libertarians and Constitution Party members from splintering off to support their own third-party nominees rather than another neo-con, Bush clone Republican.
Rep. Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
This week Congress is again grasping for more control over the health of American children with the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Parents who think federally subsidized health care might be a good idea should be careful what they wish for. Despite political rhetoric about a War on Drugs, federally-funded programs result in far more teenage drug use than the most successful pill pusher on the playground. These pills are given out as a result of dubious universal mental health screening programs for school children, supposedly directed toward finding mental disorders or suicidal tendencies. The use of antipsychotic medication in children has increased fivefold between 1995 and 2002. More than 2.5 million children are now taking these medications, and many children are taking multiple drugs at one time.
David Gordon / LewRockwell.com:
A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency. By Glenn Greenwald. Crown Publishers, 2007. Xiv + 303 pages. The key passage in Glenn Greenwald's masterly book appears on page 186: "Iran is a rational state actor, which, like most other countries in the world – including American allies – will eagerly cooperate with the United States when their interests coincide with ours…. To know that a country and its leaders act rationally is to take a huge and critical step toward realizing that that country – no matter how internally repressive it might be – cannot and will not be a threat to the U.S."
Matt Apuzzo / The Associated Press:
Presidents don't have indefinite veto power over which records are made public after they've left office, a federal judge ruled Monday. In a narrowly crafted ruling, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated part of President Bush's 2001 executive order, which allowed former presidents and vice presidents to review executive records before they are released under the Freedom of Information Act. By law, the National Archives has the final say over the release of presidential records and Kollar-Kotelly ruled that Bush's executive order ``effectively eliminates'' that discretion. It allows former presidents to delay the release of records ``presumably indefinitely,'' she said.
WorldNetDaily.com:
The expressed intention of a state lawmaker in Oklahoma to halt any NAFTA Superhighway project at his state line has failed to draw a meaningful response from the White House. Spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked by Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, about the comments from state Sen. Randy Brogdon, who told a meeting in Tulsa that "The NAFTA Superhighway stops here at the border with Oklahoma."
Sara A. Carter / The Washington Times:
Navy imam Chaplain Abuhena M. Saifulislam lifted his voice to God as he called to prayer more than 100 Department of Defense employees Monday at a celebration of Ramadan at the Pentagon. "God is most great," sang the lieutenant commander and Islamic leader, in Arabic, as iftar — the end of the daily fast began. Uniformed military personnel, civilians and family members faced Mecca and knelt on adorned prayer rugs chanting their prayers in quiet invocation to Allah. As the Pentagon celebrated Ramadan, the White House is in preparations for an iftar feast tomorrow, said Lt. Cmdr. Saifulislam, who will be participating at the White House events.
Alan Stang / NewsWithViews.com:
Some readers of my new book – Not Holier Than Thou: How Queer Is Bush? – about the homosexual takeover of the Republicrud Party engineered by Communist world government traitor Jorge W. Boosh, have bridled at my characterization of Ronald Reagan as a "homosexualist." They shudder at the section headed Dick’s Dykes, about the rampant lesbianism in the Cheney family. A homosexualist is someone who may or may not be homosexual, and who vigorously works to advance homosexuality. In Not Holier, I show that Ronald Reagan became a Log Cabin Republican hero when he vigorously denounced the Briggs Initiative that would have prevented homosexuals from teaching in California government schools. Homosexuals are there today because of him. In fact, Reagan’s rejection of Briggs inspired Republicrud homosexuals to create Log Cabin and they give an annual award in his name to a leading homosexualist.
Flashback ~ September 7, 2007
Thoughts On The Larry Craig Scandal By Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News
"The real problem that this scandal unearths is the widespread influence that homosexuality has within the GOP. Ladies and Gentlemen, the GOP elephant is not red; it is pink. That is a fact that rank and file conservatives within the GOP either don't know or don't want to know. But it is getting harder and harder to keep that fact a secret."
Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
Let me remind readers that our directory of Black Regiment pastors is now online. We also have a list of cities in which people have told us they are looking for Black Regiment pastors. We have even listed a few Black Regiment pastors who are looking for churches. Be sure to visit this page often, because we are constantly adding new pastors to the directory.
Gary DeMar / American Vision:
The first rule of economics is TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. While something might appear to be free (e.g., education, healthcare, etc.), there is always a cost to someone. Ignore this law, and all economic hell breaks loose. Of course, politicians believe they can ignore and even break any law because they consider themselves to be gods. They believe they can create economic prosperity ex nihilo, "out of nothing," simply by legislating it. Most Americans don’t care about these economic realities any more than the politicians who propose them because they are the first-in beneficiaries.
S.A. Miller / The Washington Times:
The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly approved a $648 billion defense authorization bill that faces a veto by President Bush over a provision that protects homosexuals under federal hate-crime laws. The bill, which sets Pentagon policy but does not provide funds, included authorization for about $142 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, an amount untouched after Democrats' failed bids to force a U.S. pullout from Iraq. The defense authorization bill passed in a 92-3 vote. The "no" votes were cast by two prominent antiwar Democrats, Sens. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
It appears Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) will remain in the Senate for at least a few more days. Early last month, his Washington spokesman said Craig "intends" to resign his seat on Sept. 30 unless charges stemming from the bathroom incident in Minnesota could be cleared before then. While a hearing on the matter took place last week, the judge isn't expected to rule until later this week. Today, Craig spokesman Dan Whiting said in an e-mailed response to questions, "Senator Craig continues to work for Idaho in the Senate. I don't expect another announcement about his future in the Senate until after the judge rules on his case in Minnesota."
Related:
Idaho Gov. to pick Craig's successor
Idaho Business Review
With a Minneapolis judge putting off the decision on Larry Craig's guilty plea appeal, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter gets a bit of a reprieve on whom to pick should the senator decide to resign. Craig, advocate of the state for more than 30 years, was involved in a sex sting operation conducted in the Minneapolis airport in June of this year. Since the senator has suggested his resignation may be forthcoming, Gov. Otter has been in the throes of selecting a possible successor.
Did Craig Tap His Foot to Keep the Beat?
By Garrett M. Graff / Washingtonian.com, DC
The Singing Senators - where are they now? A decade ago, the quartet called the Singing Senators was on top of the world. In 1998 the group—bass Trent Lott, tenor James Jeffords, baritone John Ashcroft, and lead vocalist Larry Craig—released an album, Let Freedom Sing, after three years of singing at GOP fundraisers. They’d appeared on the Today show and rehearsed harmoniously in Lott’s Senate hideaway.
New Stalls for Craig's Airport Restroom
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS -- The infamous airport men's room where Sen. Larry Craig was arrested is getting new stall dividers that drop nearly to the floor to make it a less inviting spot for sexual liaisons. Web sites had touted that restroom as a popular site for sex with strangers, and police reports over the summer described several cases of men ducking their heads under the dividers into adjoining stalls, allegedly in search of sex.
Simon Walters / Daily Mail:
Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior "women" officials: "I hate all Iranians." And she also accused Britain of "dismantling" the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon. The all-party group of MPs say Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, made the comments this month.
Teno Groppi / The Covenant News:
The main issue that keeps much of the Christian right from supporting Dr. Ron Paul is his position against the war on Iraq. A few are bothered by some of his libertarian slants, but even most Christians recognize we all win with his freedom message. A few more don't understand the concept of Federalism, erroneously thinking that supporting the removal of jurisdiction of things from the federal level to State and local governments equates support of things like drug abuse or prostitution. Still, that doesn't keep as many Christians from supporting Rep. Paul as the war issue does.
David D. Kirkpatrick /
The Caucus / NYTimes.com:
Alarmed at the chance that the Republican party might pick Rudolph Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential "Christian conservatives" is threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop him. The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for a written resolution that "if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate."
Related:
Religious Right Loosing It's Grip on GOP
Proud Parenting
The Sacramento Bee reports on a curious development within the GOP voting block. It seems as if evanglists aren't getting the attention they're use to from right wing politicians. Some pundits believe the war - and shifting priorities since 9/11 - have taken attention away from religious conservative worries like abortion and marriage equality. But high-profile evangelist dinosaurs like Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell are loosing ground to new preachers such as Joel Osteen and Rick Warren, who shun partisan politics or are willing to embrace Democrats.
Christian Conservatives Weigh Abandoning GOP
By Jake Tapper / ABC News
A group of highly influential Christian conservative leaders met over the weekend to discuss their rising dissatisfaction with the Republican Party and their willingness to consider supporting a third-party presidential bid should a supporter of abortion rights — specifically, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — earn the GOP presidential nomination.
The Religious Right's Third-Party Plans
The Carpetbagger Report
Following up on an item from the weekend, the highly-secretive Council for National Policy, made up of many heavy-hitters from the religious right and conservative movement in general, met over the weekend in Utah. While participants at these gatherings are usually tight-lipped, yesterday, attendees were dishing quite a bit about the CNP's thoughts on the 2008 presidential election. The message wasn't subtle: they won't support the Republican ticket if Rudy Giuliani is the nominee, even if that means backing a third-party candidate.
The Dreaded "Religious Right" Rears Its Head
PowerLineBlog.com
SALON reports breathlessly that the "Religious right may blackball Giuliani." This is, of course, the kind of headline that liberals delight in; it reflects their conviction that the Republican Party is dominated by a sinister cabal of Christians. That's an odd way to think of Christians, in my opinion, but there you have it. The actual story is less dramatic than Salon's headline. A meeting of the Council for National Policy, a "powerful shadow group" that I'd never heard of, is taking place in Salt Lake City. A side meeting of approximately 50 people "including Focus on the Family's James Dobson, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer" took place. A participant leaked news of the meeting, evidently for the purpose of discouraging the nomination of a socially liberal candidate.
Christians Will Bolt GOP if Giuliani Leads
NewsMax.com
Christian conservatives are considering supporting a third-party candidate for president if Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination. According to the New York Times, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives opposes Giuliani because of his support for abortion rights. The group includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie.
Christian 'leaders' threaten to abandon Republicans
WorldNetDaily
WASHINGTON -- Some of the top leaders in Christian pro-family activism – including James Dobson of Focus on the Family – met in Salt Lake City yesterday to plot a strategy should Rudy Giuliani or another supporter of legalized abortion be nominated by the Republican Party as its presidential candidate.
Flashback ~ January 13, 2005 The Council on National Policy
Should Christian Leaders Be Involved?
By Al Cronkrite / The Covenant News
Many Christians have never heard of the Council on National Policy (CNP). This organization holds great sway over the ministries of Christian leaders whose followers may number in the millions. Founded in 1981 by author and Evangelical leader Tim LaHaye, the membership includes such Christian icons as James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Phyllis Schlafly, D. James Kennedy, H-Bomb creator Dr. Edward Teller (died 2003), (Alan Keyes), former Attorney General Ed Meese, Jack Kemp, Amway founder Richard DeVoss, several members of the oil-rich Texas Hunt clan who were involved in the founding, several members of the Coor family of beer fame, Delaware politician Pierre du Pont, and Alan Gottlieb who is connected to Rev. Sun Myong Moon's Unification Church. The membership is extensive numbering over two hundred with scores of famous names.
David Espo / Capitol Hill Blue:
It is gallows humor time for Republicans in Congress, where one lawmaker jokes that "there's talk about us going the way of the Whigs," the 19th century political party long extinct. "That's not going to happen," Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., hastens to add, although a little more than a year before the 2008 election, the major leading political indicators still point downward for a party abruptly turned out of power in 2006.
Paul Craig Roberts / VDARE.com:
Shame has vanished from Western "civilization." Hypocrisy has taken its place. On September 28, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown could be heard on National Public Radio decrying the use of violence against democratic protesters by the government in Burma. Brown declared the British people’s revulsion over the violence inflicted by the Burmese government on its people. But Brown said nothing about the violence the British government was inflicting on Iraqis and Afghans. George W. Bush also struck the blameless pose when he declared: "The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom, and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals." [Junta Restricts Protesters, Communications in Burma, By Edward Cody, Washington Post September 29, 2007]
Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. / NewsWithViews.com:
Recently, you have probably read a spate of justifiably angry Internet commentaries and watched some truly shocking and sickening videos reporting on and recording the scandal of the ever-increasing instances of senseless, sadistic rogue police brutality throughout the United States. Being provided with a badge, a gun, and a para-military uniform has apparently become a license for their holders to run amok—intimidating, threatening, terrorizing, assaulting, even killing innocent citizens.
Jerome R. Corsi / WorldNetDaily.com:
"The NAFTA Superhighway stops here, at the border with Oklahoma," Randy Brogdon, a Republican state senator who has championed the fight to keep the Trans-Texas Corridor out of Oklahoma, told a packed 300-person audience at the first public meeting of OK-SAFE in Tulsa on Saturday. Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise, Inc. is a non-profit, Oklahoma corporation set up to oppose the NAFTA Superhighway and the North American Union, as threats to the sovereignty of the United States.
WorldNetDaily.com:
President Bush is comfortable when the United States, Mexico and Canada work together on issues facing the continent, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino, even though Congress is considering a warning that the nation's sovereignty could be threaten by such efforts. She was responding to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House. He asked: "Inspired in part by The New York Times best-selling book, "The Late Great U.S.A.," a resolution in the House of Representatives opposing work on any NAFTA superhighway or moves towards merging the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a North American union now has 27 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. Do you support such legislation?"