Why did no one object to the “Pentagon mosque”?
[Salon.com]
Muslims have been praying inside the Pentagon since Sept. 11 but right-wingers have been strangely silent
[Separation of Church and State in a Military Complex like the Pentagon? What's wrong with this picture?]
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.
The “ground zero mosque” story seems to be dying down, but nothing lays bare the absurdity of what we’ve just lived through quite so much as this Washington Times story, quoted above, from 2007.
Yes, Muslims have infiltrated the Pentagon for their nefarious, prayerful purposes — daring to practice their religion inside the building where 184 people died on Sept. 11, 2001. They haven’t even had the sensitivity to move two blocks, let alone a mile, away from that sacred site.
The “desecration” began shockingly soon after the attacks. Cox reported in October 2001:
Justin Elliott is a reporter for ProPublica. You can follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More Justin Elliott.
Supreme Court orders new look at Liberty University’s health care challenge
[FoxNews.com]
Associated Press
Published November 26, 2012
The Supreme Court has revived a Christian college’s challenge to President Obama’s health care overhaul.
The court on Monday ordered the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., to consider the claim by Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., that Obama’s health care law violates the school’s religious freedoms.
A federal district judge rejected Liberty’s claims, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lawsuit was premature and never dealt with the substance of the school’s arguments. The Supreme Court upheld the health care law in June.
The justices used lawsuits filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business to uphold the health care law by a 5-4 vote, then rejected all other pending appeals, including Liberty’s.
The school made a new filing with the court over the summer to argue that its claims should be fully evaluated in light of the high court decision. The administration said it did not oppose Liberty’s request.
Without teleprompter, Condoleezza Rice brings GOP faithful to their feet
[DailyCaller.com]
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TAMPA, Fla. — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rallied the GOP faithful at the Republican National Convention with a barn-burner speech Wednesday night.
The only speaker of the convention thus far to take the podium without the assistance of a teleprompter, Rice spoke of the challenges facing the country, both foreign and domestic, and the need for a leader.
Commencing with an anecdote about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Rice transitioned to the economic crisis and turmoil abroad. She pointed out that around the world people ask “Where does America stand?” only to find that the answer is ambiguous. To Rice, the country is in need of leadership.
“I know too that there is a weariness I know there is a sense that we have carried these burdens long enough,” she said, noting that the country has no other choice by to be a leader, because “either nobody will lead and there will be chaos or someone else will who does not share our values. We do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead — and you cannot lead from behind.” Rice asserted that Romney and Ryan are the ones who can lead.
Ryan on tap to deliver ‘hard truths’ in VP nomination speech
[FoxNews.com]
Published August 29, 2012
If Chris Christie lit a fire under Republicans last night, it’s now up to Paul Ryan to provide the fuel to keep it burning for what promises to be a hard-fought two-month battle to win the White House.
The Republican vice presidential candidate is teed up Wednesday to deliver the “hard truths” Christie talked about in his rousing keynote address on opening night. While Christie is known as the GOP fighter, Ryan is the point-man for budget-balancing solutions the party claims to represent.
The Wisconsin congressman has been quietly preparing his speech for days. Members of Ryan’s staff contacted by Fox News earlier this week said they couldn’t say precisely how long it would be, but that he has “teased” some of the ideas in it before.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is best known for his controversial plans to overhaul Medicare and the tax system. They are likely the kinds of “hard truths” Christie raised Tuesday night, as the New Jersey governor claimed Mitt Romney and Ryan would lead a “new era of truth-telling” in Washington.
Getting Rid of the ‘Likable’ President
American [Spectator.org]
By Andrew B. Wilson – August 29, 2012 @ 6:08AM
Or is he just an “untouchable” member of the Ruling Class?
Barack Obama floats like a butterfly, even if he lacks the verbal facility to sting like a bee. He was lucky to draw the befuddled John McCain as his opponent in the 2008 presidential race. Rather than exposing Obama’s bloated ego to the ridicule that it so richly deserved, McCain decided to make nice — adding his voice to the hosanna chorus greeting the young Messiah. “And, finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters,” McCain said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National convention. “We’ll go at it over the next two months — you know the nature of this business — and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration.”
RNC Protester Arrested Carrying Machete
[Breitbart.com]
by Breitbart News – August 26, 2012
Police arrested a Tallahassee man protesting at the Republican National Convention for carrying a machete into the Event Zone.
According to authorities, Jason T. Wilson had a “full size” machete (pictured left) strapped to his leg at a Sunday protest.
When deputies approached Wilson, they said he continued to walk away despite orders to stop.
“When deputies caught up to Wilson, he advised he did not have to stop and that he was allowed to carry whatever he wanted,” HCSO spokesperson Larry McKinnon said.
When deputies attempted to physically stop him, Wilson allegedly began resisting arrest and was physically restrained.
The police have not connected Wilson to any particular organization or entity protesting at the RNC.
Although formally organized left-wing protesters promise “non-violent” tactics, they plan to disrupt businesses and not cooperate with police investigating other protesters who may damage property or harass private citizens. An anonymous individual threatened to “legitimately rape” conservative activists Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan at the convention.
Chick-fil-A spokesman dies amid furor over same-sex marriage
[USAToday.com]
July 27, 2012
The chief spokesman for Chick-fil A died early today amid the furor sparked by his boss’ biblical opposition to same-sex marriage.
The Georgia-based fast-food giant did not cite a cause of death for 60-year-old Don Perry, vice president of public relations, but local news reports said he died of a heart attack, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. He had worked for the fast-food giant for 29 years.
“Don was a member of our Chick-fil-A family for nearly 29 years,” the company said in a statement. “For many of you in the media, he was the spokesperson for Chick-fil-A. He was a well-respected and well-liked media executive in the Atlanta and University of Georgia communities, and we will all miss him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”
What? ABC Indignantly Chides Romney’s U.K. Trip: Advisers Question President’s ‘Heritage’
[Newsbuster.org]
By Scott Whitlock | July 26, 2012
ABC kicked off Mitt Romney’s visit to London, Thursday, by hyping “controversial” comments from the candidate’s advisers. A Good Morning America graphic adopted the worst possible interpretation for remarks by anonymous Romney aides that the President doesn’t respect the “Anglo-Saxon heritage.” The network graphic blasted, “Romney Takes London: Advisor Quote Questions Obama Heritage.”
Saying that Romney aides “questioned Obama’s heritage” hints at birtherism or other charges that the operatives clearly did not make. Reporter David Muir included the quote from one adviser who suggested that the White House “doesn’t fully appreciate the shared history” Britain and America have. Other remarks, not mentioned by Muir, include attacking Obama as a “left-winger” and promising to return the bust of Winston Churchill. How, exactly, do these comments question Obama’s heritage?
Parroting the Democratic line, Muir quoted a tweet by David Axelrod: “Mitt’s trip off to flying start, even before he lands, with stunningly offensive quotes from his team in British press.”
Perhaps trying to lower Romney in comparison to Obama, Muir reminded viewers of the Democrat’s 2008 tour of Europe: “A trip that will inevitably be compared to then-candidate Barack Obama’s overseas trip four years ago. A thick crowd of two hundred thousand in Berlin.”
Muir has a pattern with this. On July 1, he hyped Obama’s Bain attacks, insisting that the Republican “can’t escape” attack ads.
Valour-IT 2012 — Saluting all United States Military Personnel; Happy 4th of July!
[FloppingAces.net]
As America celebrates her independence, Soldiers’ Angels Project Valour-IT is fighting to save a program that gives a bit of independence to severely-wounded veterans.
In the last seven years, Project Valour-IT has supplied over 6,000 voice-controlled and other adaptive laptops to severely wounded American troops, but that work could soon come to an end. Every week brings more wounded heroes home from the battlefield, but donations are not keeping pace with their needs. Over 70 wounded warriors are currently waiting for a Valour-IT laptop, with 10 new requests coming in each week.
To address this growing need, military support nonprofit Soldiers’ Angels is conducting a summer-long fundraising drive. The goal is to provide 250 more laptops to help wounded warriors stay connected while they recover or build a new life as they transition out of the military.
From July 4 through Labor Day, patriotic Americans across the country are donating and spreading the word through Social Media and good-old-fashioned word of mouth. Divided among four “virtual teams” named in honor of U.S. military service branches, they are relying on friendly inter-service rivalries to spur them on to at least $100,000 in fundraising.
It’s hard to overstate the impact Project Valour-IT has on those wounded warriors lucky enough to receive a laptop. “This project changes lives,” says Soldiers’ Angels Founder Patti Patton-Bader. “Major Chuck Ziegenfuss, whose experience as a wounded Soldier inspired the project says receiving a voice-controlled laptop said it was ‘the first time I felt whole. ‘”
Cocky, Condescending Journalists Declared ObamaCare Would Be Upheld, Maybe by a 8-1 Vote
[Newsbusters.org]
By Scott Whitlock | June 27, 2012 | 22:48
Although no one knows how the Supreme Court will rule, Thursday, on ObamaCare, journalists over the past few months have dismissed and derided the concept that the President’s signature legislation could be declared unconstitutional. CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin predicted an eight-to-one vote upholding the law. Former New York Times Court reporter Linda Greenhouse said that Americans who think the law is unconstitutional are “wrong.”
Appearing on the March 23 Situation Room, Toobin hyped, “I actually think that Chief Justice Roberts and perhaps even Justice Scalia and Justice Alito might join Justice Kennedy in upholding the law.” He added, “In striking this law down, it would really be a big change in constitutional law, and I’m not sure this court is ready to do it.”
On March 19, Toobin appeared on Starting Point and rejected the anti-ObamaCare argument as “weak”:
ANCHOR SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: So the bottom line is, is making people buy health insurance a legitimate use of the power of Congress?
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Correct, and the challengers in these laws have said, ‘No, this is not something Congress can do.’ What I wrote in The New Yorker this week, what I think is that basically that is a really weak argument, in that the United States Congress has been regulating health care for years, has been involved in this market for years, and this is a perfectly ordinary use of Congress’s power.
(Once he heard oral arguments, Toobin reversed himself. The journalist declared the Obama position a “train wreck” and suggested it would be shot down.)
Is Bill Clinton Sabotaging Obama’s Re-Election?
[PersonalLiberty.com]
June 15, 2012 by Chip Wood
My, my, my. Is it my imagination, or are things starting to get a bit testy between the most popular former Democratic President in America, Bill Clinton, and the current occupant of the White House?
There’s been a rumor floating around Washington for weeks that the Clintons and President Barack Obama are going to cut a deal to make Hillary Clinton the Vice Presidential candidate. Joe Biden would plead health reasons for stepping down, and Hillary Clinton would resign as Secretary of State to run in the No. 2 slot. This would give the Democrats a much stronger ticket for 2012 — and Hillary Clinton a virtual lock to be the Democratic nominee four years from now.
It’s a juicy tidbit, but I don’t believe it for a moment. I suspect Dick Morris was much closer to the truth when he appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV program last week. The glee was obvious in his voice when the Republican pundit declared, “Bill Clinton does not want Barack Obama to win.”
State Department Purges Religious Freedom Section from Its Human Rights Reports
[CNSNews.com]
(AP photo)(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.
The new human rights reports–purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered–are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.
Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role.
Remembering our guardians at the gate
The solemn act of honoring those who have fallen in battle is a custom that seems to have faded in importance to our nation over time.
Nowadays, many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country, the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored, and worse, neglected.
While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died, not just those fallen in service to our country.
Perhaps they do not know how deeply our nation once appreciated those who sacrificed their lives in defense of the principles we hold most dear. Perhaps those very principles of individual sovereignty, freedom and liberty are no longer so important.
It was not always so. In 1868, on May 5th, Memorial Day, originally called “Decoration Day,” was officially proclaimed by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11.
General Logan asked that we cherish “tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes. Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders.”
But times change. In the 1960s our warriors were not welcomed back from battle with parades and cheers, and the fallen were not honored as they had been in the past.
Perhaps reflecting those times, the Uniform Holidays Bill was passed in 1968 as part of a move to use federal holidays to create three-day weekends – time for fun and recreation, rather than remembrance and reflection.
Thus, from 1971 onwards, the Memorial Day holiday was officially observed on the last Monday in May and became the unofficial start of the summer, with barbecues, blockbuster movie openings and mattress sales.
No less than the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization was later moved to say “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”
It was around that time as well that defense spending began a steep decline, and in 1976, for the first time, entitlement spending exceeded defense spending. It is a trend that has rapidly accelerated, with spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid more than double that of national defense, a core constitutional function of government.
Nonetheless, the United States of America still possesses the greatest military force the world has ever known. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen volunteer to protect and defend this country and all its citizens, and do so with honor, integrity and excellence. Our nation continually asks them to do more and more, with less and less.
We must never forget why we have, and why we need our military. Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have “guardians at the gate.”
Those who serve today deserve our gratitude, those who are returning from the battlefield deserve our open arms, and those who will never return deserve our thoughts, tributes and remembrance.
In 2000, President Clinton passed a resolution asking all Americans to observe a “National Moment of Remembrance” at 3 p.m. on each Memorial Day “to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to provide freedom for all.” I know what I will be doing at 3 p.m. this Memorial Day. I hope I will not be alone.
For as General Logan proclaimed, “Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
They were steadfast and loyal.
Congressman Allen West is the U.S. representative for Florida’s 22nd congressional district and a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel.
CBS/NYT: Romney 46, Obama 43 Among Registered Voters
[RedState.com]
Monday, May 14th at 7:59PM EDT
No Spinning This As Good News For Obama
Posted by Dan McLaughlin (Diary)
In a long election season, it’s never wise to get too high or too low over any one poll. Presidential elections are won at the state level, but statewide polling is fairly sporadic at this stage of the race, so we’re stuck reading national polls a lot. But the latest poll is bad news for President Obama.
We all know the major issues by now to look for with individual polls: some polls are adults, and are totally useless, because only registered voters can vote. Polls of likely voters, in turn, are vastly more accurate and less Democratic-biased than polls of registered voters, many of whom also don’t show up to vote. Most polls are also reported after weighting to achieve some guesstimate of the partisan breakdown of the general electorate among Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Even polls that don’t feature egregious hackery are an inexact science, because they rest on the pollster’s current assumptions about the D/R/I split and the ‘screen’ they use to decide who is a likely voter. If the shape of the electorate is not as projected, the poll will be wrong.
Protection of chaplains introduced as amendment to defense authorization bill
The House Armed Services Committee will have a chance later this week to consider a measure that would protect freedom of conscience for military chaplains in the wake of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), Chairman of the HASC Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, introduced an amendment to the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that would protect military chaplains and all service members, he said, from “persecution based on their religious beliefs.”
Earlier this month, Human Events wrote about a bill introduced in January by Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) that would explicitly allow military chaplains to preach and practice their faith without fear of professional reprisal, following the repeal of a longstanding ban on gay troops serving openly, and reports that chaplains with moral opposition to homosexuality were experiencing pressure to stay silent about their beliefs.
The bill, which would also prohibit base chapels from being used for same-sex marriage services, has picked up four sponsors since the article was published April 30 and now stands at 49, but has languished in committee since January.
On NBC, Biden Lauds NBC for Moving America Toward Same-Sex Marriage
[CNSNews.com]
Vice President Joe Biden (AP Photo/William Plowman, NBC)(CNSNews.com) – Appearing on NBC on Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden applauded an NBC entertainment program he believes helped change American culture by moving the country toward acceptance of same-sex marriage.
“My measure, David, and I take a look at when things really begin to change, is when the social culture changes,” Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host David Gregory. “I think ‘Will & Grace’ probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far.”
“Will and Grace” was a sitcom aired by NBC from 1998 through 2006. It featured a main character who was homosexual.
Since 1998, the year “Will & Grace” premiered, voters in 30 states have approved state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. In no state have voters approved a referendum legalizing same-sex marriage.
Obama Campaign: That Mitt Romney Comes From A Strange Family
[RedState.com]
Last week we pointed out the Obama re-election strategy of criticizing his wealth and religion.
After two false starts, one castigating Ann Romney for her decision to be a stay at home Mom — part of their War on Women theme — and another calling into question the reason there is a dog in the White House, one would think that the White House might try to refine their strategy a bit. But the White House is nothing if not consistent.
On Friday they dispatched the hapless Governor Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) to The Daily Beast reprise the War on Women attack and to criticize Romney’s religion.
While discussing swing states, Schweitzer said Romney would have a “tall order to position Hispanics to vote for him,” and I replied that was mildly ironic since Mitt’s father was born in Mexico, giving the clan a nominal claim to being Hispanic. Schweitzer replied that it is “kinda ironic given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy.” Women, he said, are “not great fans of polygamy, 86 percent were not great fans of polygamy. I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.”
This attack is hilariously wrong on many levels.
Chuck Colson: Death on a Friday afternoon
[Townhall.com]
April 21, 2012
Easter for many of us is a day of family gatherings and a celebration, not only of Christ’s resurrection, but also the coming of spring. In this week before Easter, though, let’s not rush the celebration before coming face-to-face with the paradoxes that are at the heart of the Christian faith.
Those paradoxes are the subject of a wonderful book Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus by my friend Father Richard John Neuhaus.
A paradox, as G. K. Chesterton famously put it, is Truth standing on her head to get attention. Our aversion and resistance to the truth is so strong that God often finds it necessary to employ extreme measures to get us to see past the lies we’ve embraced.
Never was this truer than on what Christians call Good Friday. As Neuhaus writes, If what Christians say about Good Friday is true, then it is, quite simply, the truth about everything. That everything starts with telling the truth about the human condition. How? By paradoxically punishing the offended party, instead of the guilty.
As Neuhaus tells us, we are all aware that something has gone terribly wrong with the world, and with us in the world. It is not just history’s best-known list of horribles. It’s also the habits of compromise . . . loves betrayed . . . lies excused . . .
Yet, instead of acknowledging our complicity in the world’s evil, we minimize our own faults and regard our sins as small. Good Friday puts the lie to that claim. If the Son of God had to suffer such a horrible death, then our sins cannot have been small.
Still the Land of Dreams: 150 Million Want to Immigrate to U.S.
[CNSNews.com]
(CNSNews.com) – It has become a cliché for politicians who want to provide some sort of pathway to U.S. citizenship to the estimated 11.2 million illegal aliens living in the United States to say that these illegal aliens will need to “go to the back of the line” first.
However, there are already about 150 million adults living in countries around the world who would migrate to the United States if they could, according to a Gallup survey released on Friday.
That does not count any children these 150 million would-be immigrants might want to bring with them to the United States.
To arrive at this figure, Gallup interviewed 452,199 people at least 15 years or older in 151 countries around the world from 2009 and 2011. Gallup asked: “Ideally, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move permanently to another country, or would you prefer to continue living in this country? To which country would you like to move?”
The 150 million people whom Gallup estimated would like to come to the United States includes 22 million Chinese, 15 million Nigerians, 10 million Indians, 8 million Bangladeshis, 7 million Brazilians, 5 million Filipinos, 5 million Japanese, 5 million Mexicans, and 3 million each from Vietnam, Kenya and the United Kingdom.
In Liberia, 37 percent of all adults want to leave their homeland and move permanently to the United States of America. In Sierra Leone, it’s 30 percent. In Dominican Republic, it’s 26 percent. In Haiti, it’s 24 percent. And in Cambodia, it’s 22 percent.
By far, according to Gallup’s survey, America is still the No. 1 land of dreams for would be immigrants.
No other countries come close.
But the United Kingdom and Canada rank No. 2 and No. 3 after the U.S.—with 45 million people wanting to migrate to the U.K. and 42 million wanting to migrate to Canada. Like the U.S., both the U.K. and Canada are English-speaking nations that have representative governments and relatively free economies.
In 2010, meanwhile, according to a report published in March by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the United States granted Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) status to only about 1,042,625 people–of whom 66.3 percent were relatives of people already in the United States.
Additionally, a majority—54.3 percent—of the foreign nationals who were granted LPR status were already inside the United States and merely had their status “adjusted.” In fact, of the approximately 1,042,625 million people granted LPR status in the United States in 2010, about 566,576 were already inside the United States. Only about 476,049 were allowed to come to the United States as legal immigrants from somewhere outside our borders.
And those who were allowed to immigrate here legally from outside the U.S. borders fit mostly into very narrow categories of legally permitted immigration.
“Four major principles underlie current U.S. policy on permanent immigration: the reunification of families, the admission of immigrants with needed skills, the protection of refugees, and the diversity of admissions by country of origin,” the CRS said in a report published in March. “These principles are embodied in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).”
Even those who fall into the preferred categories of immigrants—such as relatives of people already in the United States—have to wait for many years to get a visa to come to this country as a legal immigrant.
According to CRS, “relatives of U.S. citizens and LPRs are waiting in backlogs for a visa to become available, with the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens now waiting over 11 years, with even longer waits for siblings from Mexico and the Philippines.”
“Married adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens who filed petitions over 10 years ago (December 1, 2001) are now being processed for visas,” said CRS. “Prospective family-sponsored immigrants from the Philippines have the most substantial waiting times before a visa is scheduled to become available to them; consular officers are now considering the petitions of the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens from the Philippines who filed almost 24 years ago.”
The Pew Hispanic Center published a study in February 2011 that estimated there were 11.2 million illegal aliens in the United States in 2010.
Obamacare Goes to the Supreme Court
[Townhall.com]
March 26, 2012
Kate Hicks Web Editor, Townhall.com
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), or Obamacare, is off to the Supreme Court for a three-day marathon of oral arguments. Lawyers representing the federal government will attempt to prove the law’s constitutionality; those representing private individuals, the National Federation of Independent Business, and most prominently, 26 states, will argue that PPACA violates the supreme law of the land.The Court has allotted six hours for arguments, and while it doesn’t seem like much time for such a contentious and crucial issue, bear in mind that the court typically grants a case just one hour. This is the most argument time given in 47 years.
So what questions will the Court answer? What will the lawyers argue? How might the Justices vote? I have a seat inside the courtroom for all six hours of arguments, so expect a full report on the proceedings, as well as a preview each morning of the question before the Court that day. For now, however, we’ll take a general look at the schedule, the questions, and the basic arguments each side will make, in preparation for Obamacare’s big day in court.
[Please Click to follow the agenda this week and pray for our Nation's freedoms...]
Congressional Resolution: Impeachment of Barack Obama
[FrontPorchPolitics.com]
Written on March 10, 2012 at 5:42 pm by Tim
The impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama has begun. The new Congressional resolution filed Wednesday states that using offensive military force, without prior consent violates Congress’ express Constitutional power to declare war. This is exactly what President Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta was promoting the other day in the Appropriations Committee.
The Library of Congress has on file, as of March 7,2012 H. Con. Res. 107 which says,
Expressing the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.
After the Appropriations Committee session I wrote on just days ago, this was introduced.
Mr. Walter B. Jones (Rep. NC) put forth this resolution in preparation for a war in Iran. Why this is not being taken further in regards to the issue of Libya, one can only guess that the administration didn’t call it a “war”. It is possible however, that this will be used to bring charges against the President for the war in Libya and maybe even in Syria as well.
The Concurrent Resolution goes on to state:
Whereas the cornerstone of the Republic is honoring Congress’s exclusive power to declare war under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that, except in response to an actual or imminent attack against the territory of the United States, the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress violates Congress’s exclusive power to declare war under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution and therefore constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.
Freedom is forged from responsibility
[HumanEvents.com]
Now that we’ve all had a few words to say about the inappropriate use of certain words toward certain people, what were we originally talking about, again? Oh, that’s right: forcing Catholic institutions to act against their religious conscience, and violating the economic liberty of people in general, by forcing them to pay for “free” birth control.
Why are we doing this? According to leftist agitator Sandra Fluke, it’s because female students at Georgetown are being driven into penury by the financial burden of paying for their own birth control. She claimed to have conducted a study showing it cost them $3,000 over the course of a three-year law school education for these supplies. As a result, “forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy,” by which she meant those stuffy Catholics refusing to pay for contraception.
Right about the time liberals went mad over radio host Rush Limbaugh’s attempt to satirize Fluke’s demands, people began asking where this thousand-dollar-per-year figure could possibly have come from, since condoms are widely available for little or no cost, and birth control pills were readily available in the Georgetown area for less than $10 per month without insurance coverage.
The very conveniently timed burst of outrage over Limbaugh’s comments short-circuited all attempts to challenge Fluke’s fanciful numbers, ten times higher than the actual cost of contraception. Even a normally fair-minded reporter like ABC’s Jake Tapper simply refused to challenge Fluke’s claims during an interview. When blogger Ace of Spades called him on it, Tapper’s response was, “If you have issues with her testimony, take them up with her. If you have issues with what Rush said, take it up with him.”
Well, okay, Mr. Tapper. Then what do we need reporters for? Have you at least got a number where everyone in America who has questions about Fluke’s testimony can reach her to obtain clarification?
Silencing the Right [and, THE LEFT'S DOUBLE STANDARD!]
[RedState.com]
Posted by Erick Erickson (Diary)
Tuesday, March 6th at 10:31AM EST
Last week, Rush Limbaugh suggested Sandra Fluke was a slut. The left immediately began calling for boycotts of his advertisers. He apologized on Saturday. Fluke refused to accept his apology claiming he did it under duress and the pressure has kept up.
It is organized and it has nothing to do with Limbaugh referring to Sandra Fluke as the same thing Ed Schultz referred to Laura Ingraham as. It has to do with a well executed PR strategy to frame a debate on mandating Americans subsidize the sexual habits of women as a war on women by the GOP. The media, which leans left already on social issues, would much rather focus on Rush Limbaugh than on the left’s PR strategy and Sandra Fluke’s own testimony.
What is happening here is an organized campaign by the left to shut down opposing views from the right. Much of this has to do with the right’s overall success in the past several decades. As more Americans consider themselves pro-life, even California constitutionally banned gay marriage, and most Americans agree with the right on mandates and global warming, the left has resorted to a new tactic — dialing up the outrage to shut up the right.
What’s At Stake in Michigan?
[RedState.com]
Posted by Dan McLaughlin (Diary)
Monday, February 27th at 2:17 PM EST
Here’s why tomorrow’s Michigan primary is so important: it’s about establishment confidence in Mitt Romney and the last outside chance of getting another entrant in the race.
There are, as I’ve noted previously, a number of different types of “establishment” vs “grassroots” divides in the GOP, but you don’t have to have any particular definition of ‘establishment’ to recognize that Romney’s candidacy leans heavily on the support he draws from traditional ‘establishment’ or ‘insider’ sources: money from big-dollar fundraisers, endorsements from big-name elected officials, and covering fire from right-leaning journalists at major mainstream publications and conservative journals. Romney has depended, time and again, on his ability to get out of trouble by having the resources to go more negative than whatever opponent he’s targeting: more money to dump on negative ads and a bigger chorus of voices amplifying those attacks.
Aside from Mormon support – which is somewhat sui generis to Romney – some of Romney’s structural support comes from people who know him personally or identify with him as a fellow wealthy businessman; some comes from people who fear running a bold-colors conservative; and some comes from those who, whether or not they’d support a conservative in theory, fear Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich as electoral liabilities, Santorum for his overly outspoken social conservatism, Newt for his long train of baggage. (It’s obviously Santorum represents a serious threat to Romney at present.)
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