Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

John 14:23-24 (New International Version)

See Mr. Westbrook’s Bible Story Murals here.

If your church is looking for a unique way to bring the Word of God to it’s children and young people, take a look at Doug Westbrook’s Bible Story Murals. Each wall sized mural is based on the hand painted originals Mr. Westbrook created at Central Baptist Church in Houston, Texas and represents a different well known Bible story.

There’s no surprise in this. The NEA is massively liberal. The homosexual activist have been trying to get this into the schools for years. What better way to indoctrinate our children than when they are young.

The NEA is currently holding its annual convention in San Diego, California. Educator and conservative activist Jeralee Smith called OneNewsNow from the convention to report that the executive council has approved language that will throw the full support of the NEA behind same-gender marriage, homosexual adoption, and other issues surrounding the homosexual agenda.

“They will help to overturn legislation that is discriminatory against same-sex couples,” she notes. “And then there is one little bullet about [how] they will recognize that marriage has a religious connotation and it’s not compatible with beliefs and values — because of that they recognize that certain churches should not be forced to conduct same-sex marriage.”

Smith says the resolution could be voted on as early as midday Friday or as late as Tuesday of next week. She points out this is not the first political issue the NEA has undertaken. The NEA gave $50 million to help elect President Obama in 2008.

Original Link.

More information is emerging on the so-called “Hate Crimes” legislation, also being titled as the “Pedophile Protection Act”.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says a homosexual activist who is attacked following a Christian minister’s sermon about homosexuality would be protected by a proposed new federal law, but a minister attacked by a homosexual wouldn’t be.

The revelations come from Holder’s recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was taking comments on the so-called “hate crimes” proposal. It also was the subject of discussion on talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh’s show today.

“This is the question,” Limbaugh said. “[Sen.] Jeff Sessions [R-Ala.] presents a hypothetical where a minister gives a sermon, quotes the Bible about homosexuality and is thereafter attacked … by a gay activist because of what the minister said about his religious beliefs and what Scripture says about homosexuality. Is the minister protected?”

No, said Holder.

“Well, the statute would not – would not necessarily cover that. We’re talking about crimes that have a historic basis. Groups who have been targeted for violence as a result of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, that is what this statute tends – is designed to cover. We don’t have the indication that the attack was motivated by a person’s desire to strike at somebody who was in one of these protected groups. That would not be covered by the statute,” Holder stated.

Continued Limbaugh, “In other words: ministers and whites are not covered by the hate crime statute because we’re talking about crimes that have a historic basis, groups who have been targeted for violence as a result of their skin color, sexual orientation. So hate crimes are reserved exclusively for blacks and homosexuals. Everybody else can get to the back of the bus on this one. ”

Holder also fumbled repeatedly in searching for answers to questions from several of the senators. He repeatedly failed to cite cases when asked to by senators that in recent years have been “improperly prosecuted,” a video reveals.

The recent hearing, featuring Holder as the principal witness, was more than two hours long and is posted online by the committee.

On the VDARE blog, Patrick Cleburne wrote about what he called “Holder’s chilling blunders.”

“Holder attempted to justify passage of the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Instead, he worked against it. Holder emphatically said most Americans are not given equal protection with homosexuals (and homosexual pedophiles) by the hate bill. Holder also presented no evidence that states are failing to prosecute hate crimes and need big government to get involved!

Here’s the outline of why Christians are being silenced across America. Get it now!

“This is a desperately serious matter. With a politicized judiciary, who knows where it will go?” Clenburne continued.

Sessions was unchallenged in his assessment that the law, dubbed by opponents “The Pedophile Protection Act,” would provide “special protections” for only some people in the United States. Holder confirmed that, identifying, blacks, homosexuals and others.

WND has also reported, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as it formally is known would provide special protections to homosexuals, essentially designating them as a “protected class.” However, it could leave Christian ministers open to prosecution should their teachings be linked to any subsequent offense, by anyone, against a homosexual person.

It earned its nickname when Rep. Steve King suggested an amendment during its trek through the U.S. House that would specify pedophiles could not use the law to protect their activities.

Majority Democrats flatly refused.

Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention, has said such a law – by definition – requires judges to determine what those accused of crimes were thinking.

“This could create a chilling effect on religious speech, connecting innocent expression of religious belief to acts of violence against individuals afforded special protections,” he wrote. “The criminalization of religious speech, such as speech against the practice of homosexuality, has already been seen in other countries with similar hate crimes legislation in place.”

Limbaugh has also warned his audience about the advancing threat of “hate crimes” laws.

“Some people are going to be put in jail for things that they say,” he said. “Hate crime legislation. That’s where they determine what’s in your mind when you commit a crime. That’s when they decide what you were thinking … If you were thinking unapproved thoughts, that would make the crime you committed even worse.”

President Obama, supported strongly during his campaign by homosexual advocates, has indicated that he would like to see the legislation become law.

“I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance.”

Under questioning from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Holder admitted that “hate” was involved in a recent case in which a Muslim man attacked and killed a U.S. soldier. Still, soldiers are not among the protected classes.

“There’s a certain element of hate in that, I suppose,” Holder admitted, leading Coburn to conclude, “What we’re willing to do is elevate those crimes (verbal or physical attacks on homosexuals) over this very intended hate crime (a murder.)”

“There are lots of other groups, decent people who might need additional protection if the federal government had all the money in the world and the time to investigate,” Sessions added.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was specific, asking what crimes have developed that have not been addressed adequately by current laws and prosecutions.

Holder avoided a direct answer, saying, “Well, I have some in my prepared remarks.”

Coburn tried again, “Do we have good stats telling us we’re not (prosecuting) these crimes?”

“Do we have stats that states are failing? Which states are regularly or systematically failing to prosecute?”

“I don’t think we can say there is a trend among the states or local jurisdictions for failing to go after these kinds of crimes,” Holder admitted.

To other questions, Holder responded, “I don’t know.”

Sessions said, “I’ll ask you again. Cite me some cases of significance that have not been properly prosecuted in the last five years.”

Again, Holder deflected the question.

According Rick Scarborough of Vision America, voters should rise up en masse and contact their senators to oppose the plan.

Stephen Di Benedetto writing at Infozine, reported on a request from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that the senators reject the plan.

“I see little evidence that there is a trend among state law enforcement officials to ignore violent crimes motivated by prejudice,” Hatch told Holder.

It was only in Holder’s written statement where he cited cases where state’s allegedly failed to prosecute cases to his satisfaction.

Coburn also noted the 45 states that have hate crime legislation. Only Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Wyoming and Indiana do not. He asked of those five states are failing to prosecute hate crimes.

Holder said he did not have the information.

David Rittgers wrote on the Cato-at-Liberty website the hearing revealed “the dark underbelly of the Senate.

“The road to undermining the rule of law is being paved with the best of intentions and casual disregard (if not outright hostility) for the principles of limited government and equality under the law,” he wrote.

Original Link.

Emperor Obama made the following comment yesterday (July 2nd, 2009):
“It took years for us to get into this mess and it will take more than a few months to turn it around.”

I’m going to offer a rebuttal of sorts.

I think the “months” is optimistic. I think “years” is a better term.

Mr. Emperor, wasn’t your “stimulus” plan, that your fear mongered on Americans and got passed by congress and the senate before anyone had read it, supposed to help our economy? Did you hear any of us when we told you it would take years for the majority of the stimulus to reach the average person? Of course not. You not only didn’t listen, you told us to “shut-up”. In your mind, you are “The One”, the “Messiah of America”, a true Emperor at heart. You don’t need to listen. You think you know it all. We, the masses are ignorant idiots, placed here to do your bidding.

Mr. Emperor, you were dead wrong on every account.

Several times, I stated on this blog that the only way to stimulate the economy immediately was to slash taxes on small businesses and the working, tax paying, American; the “average” wage earner.
Give back our money, and we, the working people, would go out and spend it. Giving it back to the small businesses made sense because they are the only ones in a position to spend it immediately, adding employees and services. This in turn would generate orders for manufactured goods and the larger companies would begin to feel the benefit within several months.

Mr. Emperor, you botched it. You have delayed our economic recovery by months, if not years. Any recovery we have will be a “natural” improvement and will have nothing to do with anything you spawned.

Mr. Emperor, you are a failure, and it didn’t take you any time at all to get there.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday there were signs that the “economic storm” that has made millions jobless was waning, but warned that it would still take the United States many months to recover.

“It took years for us to get into this mess and it will take more than a few months to turn it around,” Obama said at the White House.

Original Link.

Emperor Obama’s Department of Propaganda, aka the Mainstream News Media, is still, for the most part, sticking stubbornly to their quest to advance all things Obama. But there do appear to be some cracks forming in their resolve. Maybe the Obama love-fest is coming to an end.

The unemployment rate in June jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since 1983, as 467,000 jobs were lost, yet the CBS Evening News managed to air a story that didn’t mention President Barack Obama or his “stimulus” bill while the NBC story only touched Obama’s policies by running a soundbite of the President defending the lack of positive impact so far from his policies: “It took years for us to get into this mess and it will take us more than a few months to turn it around.” CBS reporter Anthony Mason remarked: “Hopefully it’s a one-month blip.”

In contrast, ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased Thursday’s World News: “Tonight, job jolt. Unemployment reaches a 26-year high. Where are all those jobs the economic stimulus was supposed to produce?” Setting up ABC’s lead (CBS and NBC began with Michael Jackson), Gibson proposed: “The rising unemployment raises questions about the economic stimulus, which was supposed to create jobs.”

(Refusing to hold Obama accountable for his economic policies is nothing new. See the early June post, “Finding the ‘glass half full,’ nets and newspapers find good news about job loss, ignore failure of stimulus to halt rising unemployment,” from the MRC’s Business & Media Institute.)

From the start of the story on Thursday’s NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: We turn to tonight’s news on the U.S. economy and new numbers that prove what a lot of Americans already know, employers are continuing to fire and not hire. The unemployment rate now at 9.5 percent. Hasn’t been that high in 26 years. 467,000 more jobs disappeared in the month of June alone, a surprise to a lot of the experts because May hadn’t been that bleak. On Wall Street, the Dow, NASDAQ, S & P were way down on today’s trading. CNBCs Trish Regan has more on the numbers and some of the real people behind them.TRISH REGAN: In New York City some instructions for the newly unemployed. It’s become an increasingly popular class. And now news today that unemployment is at a 26-year high.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It took years for us to get into this mess and it will take us more than a few months to turn it around.

REGAN: With the recession in its twentieth month, nearly 15 million Americans are out of work….

The complete CBS Evening News coverage:

KATIE COURIC: Turning to the economy now, while there have been signs the recession is easing, unemployment is only getting worse. The Labor Department reported today it’s up to 9.5 percent now. That is the highest in 26 years. And 467,000 more jobs disappeared last month. Anthony Mason has the story.ANTHONY MASON: With another brutal month of job cuts, nearly 15 million Americans were out of work in June, disappointing analysts looking for green chutes.

STUART HOFFMAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP: Right now, we need more than chutes. We need branches, leaves, and flowers to get the economy to look better.

MASON: Already a dozen states and the District of Columbia have unemployment rates above ten percent with Michigan the highest at more than 14 percent. Only two states, Nebraska and North Dakota, have rates lower than when the recession began. Many businesses are trying desperately to hang on to workers. At Tri-Star Industries, a metal working factory in Connecticut, owner Andrew Nowakowski laid off six of his 36 employees and was going to cut more until the state came to the rescue.

ANDREW NOWAKOWSKI: The program allows us to maintain our full-time workforce intact.

MASON: Under Connecticut’s work share program, Nowakowski he has cut back his workers to three and four-day weeks, but the state makes up half of their lost wages with unemployment funds. Seventeen other states have similar programs.

JAMES CASSIDY, TRI-STAR EMPLOYEE: If I didn’t have this, I’d probably be trying to get on the welfare line.

MASON: But rising unemployment has retailers hurting. At Stride-Rite and Payless shoes, CEO Matthew Rubel says he doesn’t expect to see a rebound for at least another year.

MATTHEW RUBEL, CEO, COLLECTIVE BRANDS: There’s still one out of every 10 people looking for a job, so you can do whatever you want with Wall Street numbers. Main street, they’re still looking for work. Until we get them back working, they’re not going to go out and spend.

MASON: And the picture gets worse when you add those people who settled for part-time work or given up looking. The so-called underemployed rate, is now a record 16.5 percent. Katie.

COURIC: Some very unwelcome news tonight, Anthony.

MASON: Hopefully it’s a one-month blip.

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center

Original Link.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20 (New International Version)

In regards to the news coverage of a Duke University official accused of raping his adopted 5-year-old son and offering the child to someone else for sex:

“Did you hear there has been an actual rape at Duke University? An actual rape in Durham, North Carolina. It’s not a phony one. Not a false charge. An actual rape. A guy sold his adopted 5-year-old son to a sex practitioner. A 5-year-old kid, yeah. There’s a problem with this, too, because the guy is gay, a gay adoption.”

“This is why you haven’t heard about it. This does not fit the template. A false charge of rape at Duke when you had the poor, black, down-on-her-luck dancer and the rich, white, lacrosse players, oh, that fit the template. They were guilty before any evidence. This you haven’t heard about because this doesn’t fit the template here of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

-Radio host Rush Limbaugh

Read the complete article here (warning: graphic language).

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s domestic agenda is losing steam in an increasingly contentious Democratic Congress amid growing public doubts about the veracity of raising taxes in a deep recession.

The economy remains sick. The stimulus plan isn’t working. Investment capital, the lifeblood of a vigorous economy, is still on strike. More than 40 House Democrats voted against his energy tax bill, which barely passed by a seven-vote margin, and now faces huge obstacles in the Senate. His healthcare plan is on shaky ground. His promise not to tax middle class workers is in shreds, and massive deficits are piling up as fears mount that the economy may face months, if not years, of anemic growth.

The White House fashions new, defensive arguments weekly on behalf of Obama’s stimulus. The latest argument coming out of the president’s economic advisers is that they never actually expected the stimulus bill to trigger growth this early in the year. It’s going to take a lot longer to show results, they now say.

The Gross Domestic Product, the measurement of all the goods and Services the economy produces, shrank at an annual rate of more than 5 percent in the first quarter. It is expected to shrink further in the second quarter but at a slower pace.

Americans are not spending, they’re saving. The savings rate jumped to 6.9 percent in May, a 15-year high, while spending barely budged by 0.3 percent. “As the first half of ‘09 ends, investors are growing more anxious about whether the economy can bounce back later this year,” AP reported last week.

Holding the economy back is unprecedented borrowing and a raft of higher taxes that Obama intends to impose on the country — from energy taxes that will increase the cost of everything we buy to healthcare taxes to pay for the president’s grandiose national health insurance plan.

None other than billionaire financier Warren Buffett spoke out disapprovingly last week about the Democrats’ so-called “cap-and-trade” energy plan, calling it a “huge tax” and “fairly regressive” one that all of us will pay — hitting low-to-middle income people the hardest. From turning on your light switch, to heating or cooling your home, to all the products we purchase and consume — no one will be spared.

That makes a mockery of Obama’s campaign promise that taxpayers who earn less than $250,000 would not see “any form of tax increase, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” That’s why David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser, avoided any mention Sunday of the president’s campaign tax pledge on ABC’s “This Week.” Indeed, he pointedly would not rule out taxing employer/employee health insurance premiums that are now fully tax-deductible — an idea that is being increasingly pushed by Democrats as the only way to finance his $2 trillion healthcare scheme.

Some Democrats say that would be the kiss of death for health care this year, but Obama may be willing to agree to it if it’s the only way to get his plan through Congress, say policy insiders. Notably, the president does not want to engage in “drawing lines in the sand” beyond which he will not go in setting higher taxes, Axelrod said.

The president is willing to consider “a lot of different formulations” to finance his healthcare plan, he added. In other words, he’s keeping his tax options open.

Therein lies the rub, With this year’s budget deficit likely to surpass $2 trillion before Obama even begins to pay for his health, energy and other domestic initiatives, he’s going to need a lot of tax revenue to pay for the costliest domestic spending legislative wish list in American history.

Read the rest of the article here..

Koran 47:36 says “Therefore do not falter or sue for peace when you have gained the upper hand.”

The passage from the Koran says it plainly. The majority of the Arab nations will not ever willing commit to normalizing relations with Israel. If they do, it will be suspect because of the very same passage.

The U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, a senior source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

The source said U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia did not produce a commitment to encourage the other Arab states to begin normalization.

“In such a situation, the Americans can’t continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand that Israel freeze settlement construction,” the source said.

In response, a senior White House source said talks with the Arab states are continuing with the aim of obtaining a commitment to make gestures toward Israel, and there is still hope for progress.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak returned to Israel on Wednesday from a meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell. A senior White House official confirmed reports that progress was made on the issue of settlements, though no agreement had been reached. He added that similar progress had been made in contacts with Arab countries.

Haaretz has learned that the talks with Mitchell included discussions of a package deal to include a curb on settlement construction. Barak reportedly argued that any steps taken by Israel would have to be accompanied by assurances that the Arab states would also move forward. This would lay the groundwork for resumed talks on a final regional peace agreement.

Within the next two weeks or so, Mitchell is expected to visit Israel to continue talks.

A senior diplomatic source said that even if a meeting between Mitchell and the prime minister doesn’t resolve the settlement issue, it will narrow the gap, and the prime minister may request a meeting with Obama in Washington in the coming months to seal an agreement.

Barak noted that if a package deal is reached, Israel might agree to a temporary construction freeze in the settlements, but this would not apply to more than 2,000 housing units already being built.

Also yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the traditional Independence Day reception at the residence of the American ambassador, James Cunningham. Netanyahu spoke of shared values with the United States but did not address the settlement issue. Although many senior Israeli politicians attended the event, turnout was lighter than usual.

By attending, Knesset members ignored the call by Likud MK Danny Danon, who wrote a letter to his parliamentary colleagues this week urging them to boycott the event. He said America “was trying to call into question the State of Israel’s independence” by pressuring it to halt construction in the West Bank and agree to territorial concessions to the Palestinians.

A senior diplomat said he was puzzled by the logic behind Danon’s proposal. He said that despite any disagreements, the event was meant to honor the American people, not any administration.

In his address, Netanyahu highlighted the democratic traditions of Israel and the United States, which he said united them in the face of tyranny. Referring to Obama’s recent speech in Cairo, he noted the president’s reference to the unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States.

Original Link.

Emperor Obama’s Department of Propaganda was doing “The One’s” bidding again, this time at a health forum (a “town hall” style meeting). How heartfelt and loving was the emperor’s response to cancer sufferer Debby Smith; or was it? Turns out the entire audience was made up of handpicked Obama supporters. It was all staged. It was a farce. You were all duped yet again. In addition to that, as a cancer patient, I’m ultra critical of anyone who uses their condition to earn cheap political points. Debby Smith moderated a health care related town hall meeting connected with then President Elect Obama, back in December of 2008.
Fake, false, lies and deception; all standard mode of operation for Emperor Obama and his worshipping followers.

Network reporters swooned over President Barack Obama hugging a woman, who has cancer and lacks insurance, at his Wednesday “town hall” on health care, as both CNN — where Suzanne Malveaux heralded the hug as “a bold display of presidential concern” — and NBC failed to point out how all the questions (just seven in total) were pre-selected or from members of pro-Obama groups. Instead, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie showed a kid in a video (“My mommy and daddy have small businesses, and we need health care”) before she touted how Obama “solicited questions on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and in person, with a hug for a woman who says she cannot pay her medical bills,” while CNN’s Ed Henry related “he fielded questions from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and a live audience.”

CBS’s Katie Couric showcased “an emotional moment” when “a 53-year-old cancer patient described her battle to get treatment she can afford.” Couric relayed how Obama “called her exhibit A in a system that’s too expensive and too complicated,” but at least, unlike NBC and CNN, Couric noted the woman “is a volunteer for Mr. Obama’s political operation Organizing for America” and “the White House invited her to attend.”

Filling-in as anchor on CNN’s The Situation Room, Suzanne Malveaux painted Obama as a combination of General Patton and Oprah as she set up Henry in the 6 PM EDT hour:

President Obama has a message for some critics. He will get his way. Today he made a bold promise regarding health care reform. And, in a bold display of presidential concern, the President comforted a sick and emotional woman.

ABC’s World News on Wednesday night only mentioned the event in passing during a story on increased obesity.

NBC anhor Brian Williams set up the report on his newscast by trumpeting the “big deal” of Wal-Mart’s support for Obama: “Today a big American name swung its support to President Obama. Wal-Mart has endorsed a key part of the President’s plan to overhaul health care. And, as U.S. employers go, that’s a big deal.”

Major Garrett, on FNC’s Special Report, pointed out how the forum presented Obama with “a pre-screened audience and pre-screened questions.” At the end of his piece he elaborated:

The Debby we just saw in that piece is Debby Smith. She’s a volunteer for the political arm of the President’s Democratic National Committee Organizing for America. The President took another question from a member of the Service Employees International Union and yet another question from someone who participated in a healthcare rally on Capitol Hill last week on behalf of the President’s program. Nevertheless, the White House denied it controlled today’s event.

After Malveaux’s intro, CNN’s Ed Henry reported: “The President was bullish about the prospects for health reform but warned critics are lining up to kill it. So he used a town hall in Virginia to urge the public to rise up as he fielded questions from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and a live audience.”

Henry did note that Obama is “facing a skeptical public” as a new CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll found 51 percent favor Obama’s efforts, but 45 percent are in opposition.

From the CBS Evening News:

KATIE COURIC: There was an emotional moment today during President Obama’s town meeting on health care reform in Virginia. A 53-year-old cancer patient described her battle to get treatment she can afford.

DEBBY SMITH: I’m no longer able to work, and I have no health insurance. Now I have a new tumor. I have no way to pay for it.

COURIC: Debby Smith is a volunteer for Mr. Obama’s political operation Organizing for America. The White House invited her to attend. The President called her exhibit A in a system that’s too expensive and too complicated. One of his solutions would change the way doctors are reimbursed. Here’s Wyatt Andrews.

Andrews provided a fairly favorable review of Obama’s wish to pay doctors for outcomes instead of for each service provided. He concluded: “So when the President calls for payment reform, almost every health care expert says he’s right. But the amount he can save, no one knows that for certain.”

The MRC’s Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide a transcript of the story on the Wednesday, July 1 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: And now to another big-ticket item — this nation’s health care system. Today a big American name swung its support to President Obama. Wal-Mart has endorsed a key part of the President’s plan to overhaul health care. And, as U.S. employers go, that’s a big deal. The President was out making the case on health care again today. Our White House correspondent, Savannah Guthrie, with us from there, with more on this tonight. Savannah, good evening,

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Good evening, Brian. With Congress in recess, the President’s trying to move this health care debate out of Washington. And today, he didn’t have to travel very far to do that. The President took his health care message out of town — Annandale, Virginia, near Washington, and online.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL IN VIDEO: My mommy and daddy have small businesses, and we need health care.

GUTHRIE: The President solicited questions on YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, and in person.

DEBBY SMITH: Now I have a new tumor. I have no way to pay for it.

GUTHRIE: With a hug for a woman who said she cannot pay her medical bills.

BARACK OBAMA: I don’t want you to feel all-

GUTHRIE: The President hoping this message will speak more powerfully to Congress than any other.

OBAMA: When the American people decide that something needs to happen, nothing can stop us. So I hope you’ll join me.

GUTHRIE: The President has launched a full-court press on health care. His old grassroots campaign machinery is mobilized, soliciting personal health care horror stories. And in contrast to 1993’s famed health care reform failure, industry is getting on board, promising to cut costs. And, in a letter to the President yesterday, Wal-Mart said it could support a government requirement that employers provide health care, a major change of heart for the nation’s largest private employer. Still, on Capitol Hill, it’s been a bumpy ride, even with a commanding Democratic majority. The battle lines are drawn over the President’s plan to have government offer an insurance plan. And with costs estimated at least $1 trillion, a key fight looms on how to pay for reform. White House advisors won’t rule out a tax on some health care benefits, potentially violating a key campaign promise not to raise taxes on middle class families.

ROBERT LASZEWSKI, HEALTH CARE POLICY ANALYST: This is a very pragmatic White House and a very pragmatic President, and we know that, to get health care reform, they’re going to have to give some things up. I think it’s too early to tell exactly which things they’re going to have to give up. You don’t want to start giving things up too early.

GUTHRIE: Well, the President has made his own suggestions on how to pay for reform without taxing benefits. The trick, of course, is getting Congress to buy in. Some members have been cool to some of his ideas. Either way, the White House wants to get health care reform done this year, Brian. The feeling is it’s now or never.

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center

Original Link.

By Rick Saunders & Jeff Schreiber
America’s Right

Maybe, just maybe, there is the slimmest of slim chances that the torrid love affair between mainstream media journalists and the Squatter-in-Chief at 1600 Pennsylvania is cooling off. Let us hope, for the sake of our children and our children’s children, that the infatuation keeps chilling.

For that reason, it was absolutely glorious to see Chip Reid, CBS White House correspondent, and Helen Thomas, Frodo Baggins’ great-grandmother, expose White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to be the doofus he really is. Watching and listening to the entire video clip is very revealing as to the depths to which The Guy from Chicago and his minions have gone to package, control, manipulate and dictate–perhaps “suggest” would be a more palatable verb?–to persons deemed worthy of posing questions the questions they should pose.

Reid’s comments are particularly good, and Thomas’ additions are even better. When Gibbs tried to deflect Reid’s question of how he and the White House could justify the control of participants and questions to be posed at “town hall meetings,” she interrupted him to object to the nature and degree of control being imposed by the Obama regime over press conferences and town hall meetings: “The point is the control from here,” she said. “We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I’m amazed, I’m amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and you have controlled . . . it’s shocking.”

Careful, Helen. With that attitude, you might be next in line to get the “evil eye.”

Even better, when Gibbs suggested that the discussion be continued until after the town hall meeting at issue had been completed, Thomas actually piped up and insisted that “no, no, no . . . we’re having it now.” And Gibbs’ response? “Well, I’ll be happy to have it now.” Yeah, right. Gibbs then asked if there was any evidence “going on” that he or anybody else “was controlling the press,” to which Thomas responded that “formal engagements are pre-packaged . . . by calling reporters the night before to tell them they’re going to be called on. That is shocking.”

A wounded Gibbs subsequently dismissed her by saying that, “well, we’ve had this discussion ad nauseum,” and then pointed off to another reporter.

But Helen didn’t give up. “Of course you would [move on],” she said. “Because you don’t have any answers.”

She almost sounds like a Republican. And these Saturday Night Live-like escapades can only get better as the destruction of the economy, the decimation of America’s security and the frenetic dash to a collectivist landfill orchestrated by the Obama regime continues. Even more so because the only thing the average journalist loves more than the Barack Obama is their ego, their career, and their access. The more the White House pushes them out, the more they’ll push back. And, speaking of Saturday Night Live-esque buffoonery, with Sen. Al Franken–does that sound weird, or what?–now likely to be placed on the Judiciary Committee just in time for the Sotomayor investiture, the lunacy will only deepen. Stay tuned to that particular sideshow, and keep a barf bag nearby.

As it turns out, Thomas and Reid had reason to be critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the health care town hall meeting earlier today. After all, the White House has a history of manipulating audiences and questions, especially in the town hall format, a style designed to bring the president as close to everyday Americans as possible. A March 27, 2009 piece at the Washington Post details exactly who was “randomly” chosen to participate in another East Room town hall meeting, going so far as to contrast how the questioners presented themselves with who they really were. Here’s an excerpt — but read the whole thing . . . it’s fascinating:

[T]he five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama’s campaign in 2008.

Ooh . . . tough room. Shockingly, today’s town hall meeting on health care was no different, with the White House micromanaging everything just the way Helen Thomas and Chip Reid knew they would do. Consider the similarity of the March 27 report with this one, published today by the Washington Post:

In the highly stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration’s own new-media team.

Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his own staff from people who submitted videos on the White House Web site or who responded to a request for “tweets” from the administration.

The president called randomly on three audience members. Each turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the SEIU union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. Barack Obama and his flunkies believe that regular ole’ Americans like us are stupid. After all, they banked on blanket political ignorance to put them in the White House.

In one touching moment, a downtrodden-looking woman named Debby Smith stood up with the microphone and explained to a nodding, empathetic president that she suffers from kidney cancer, has a new tumor, and has no health insurance and therefore no way of paying for it. President Obama, “Compassionate Collectivist” to George W. Bush’s “Compassionate Conservative,” embraced Ms. Smith and assured her that he would “find out what we can do within existing law” and touted her as the perfect example of why we need to spend nearly two trillion dollars borrowed from the Chinese, destroy our health care system, eliminate jobs and devastate our economy for a net gain of 16 million newly covered Americans.

What Barack Obama did not explain, however, is that Debby Smith was part of a carefully hand-picked audience and had not only previously volunteered for Obama’s campaign, but has been a longtime healthcare activist. Not only that, but back in December Smith actually moderated a healthcare-related town hall meeting connected with then President Elect Barack Obama — so it’s fair to say that he has known of her plight for a while now.

It’s this kind of blatant dishonesty that has worked so far for this president but, perhaps thanks to an apparently sobering White House press corps, it may not work for much longer. Regardless of the average American’s political knowledge base, people simply do not like to be lied to. And, from the beginning of his disastrous presidency on to now, it’s difficult to find a single day where Barack Obama was telling America the truth.

—————
Rick Saunders is a freelance writer who splits his time between endeavors in southern California and the American southwest. He began writing for America’s Right in December 2008. Jeff Schreiber established America’s Right in January 2008

Original Link.

President Obama says government will make health care cheaper and better. But there’s no free lunch.

In England, health care is “free” — as long as you don’t mind waiting. People wait so long for dentist appointments that some pull their own teeth. At any one time, half a million people are waiting to get into a British hospital. A British paper reports that one hospital tried to save money by not changing bedsheets. Instead of washing sheets, the staff was encouraged to just turn them over.

Obama insists he is not “trying to bring about government-run healthcare“.

“But government management does the same thing,” says Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute. “To reduce costs they’ll have to ration — deny — care.”

“People line up for care, some of them die. That’s what happens,” says Canadian doctor David Gratzer, author of “The Cure“. He liked Canada’s government health care until he started treating patients.

“The more time I spent in the Canadian system, the more I came across people waiting for radiation therapy, waiting for the knee replacement so they could finally walk up to the second floor of their house.” “You want to see your neurologist because of your stress headache? No problem! Just wait six months. You want an MRI? No problem! Free as the air! Just wait six months.”

Polls show most Canadians like their free health care, but most people aren’t sick when the poll-taker calls. Canadian doctors told us the system is cracking. One complained that he can’t get heart-attack victims into the ICU.

In America, people wait in emergency rooms, too, but it’s much worse in Canada. If you’re sick enough to be admitted, the average wait is 23 hours.

“We can’t send these patients to other hospitals. Dr. Eric Letovsky told us. “Every other emergency department in the country is just as packed as we are.”

More than a million and a half Canadians say they can’t find a family doctor. Some towns hold lotteries to determine who gets a doctor. In Norwood, Ontario, “20/20″ videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor.

Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery “elective.”

“The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live,” she said.

It’s true that America’s partly profit-driven, partly bureaucratic system is expensive, and sometimes wasteful, but the pursuit of profit reduces waste and costs and gives the world the improvements in medicine that ease pain and save lives.

“[America] is the country of medical innovation. This is where people come when they need treatment,” Dr. Gratzer says.

“Literally we’re surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You’ve got to pay a price for that type of advancement.”

Canada and England don’t pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying for health care, but we’d get 2009-level care — forever. Government monopolies don’t innovate. Profit seekers do.

We saw this in Canada, where we did find one area of medicine that offers easy access to cutting-edge technology — CT scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, etc. It was open 24/7. Patients didn’t have to wait.

But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Animal care is the one area of medicine that hasn’t been taken over by the government. Dogs can get a CT scan in one day. For people, the waiting list is a month.

Original Link.

The title says it all.
We no longer require commentators to enter a CAPTCHA phrase in order to post a comment.
If Spam gets out of control, I may have to put it back, but in the meantime, enjoy the new found freedom.
-Steve

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:6 (New International Version)

Last week we posted that the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia was prepared to unveil the actual Ark of the Covenant, that was reportedly removed from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago, and secretly relocated to Ethiopia.
It now turns out that he will not actually be showing it to anyone, but was merely reporting what he had seen.

If initial reports were to be believed, the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia would have unveiled the Ark of the Covenant by now. Friday June 26, is almost over in Ethiopia. According to one blogger’s account, it appears there is some misunderstanding between what was first reported in Italian and later translated to English. It appears that, adnkronos, the Italian paper that first reported the news, run a clarification in Italian, which you can read here.

Here is what Abuna Pauolos has said as reported in adnkronos

“Non sono qui per dare delle prove che l’Arca sia in Etiopia, ma sono qui per dire quello che ho visto, quello che so e che posso testimoniare. Non ho detto che l’Arca sarà mostrata al mondo. E’ un mistero, un oggetto di culto.”

Translation courtesy of Google as follow. Another translation of the above statement is also posted here

“I am not here to give evidence that the Ark is in Ethiopia, but I am here to say what I saw, what I know and I can testify. I did not say that the Ark will be shown to the world. E ‘a mystery, an object of worship.”
via Google Translation

Another translation

“I am not here to give proofs that the Ark is in Ethiopia, but I am here to say what I saw, what I know and I can attest to. I didn’t say that the Ark would be revealed to the world. It is a mystery, an object of veneration.”
Translation from freerepublic.com

Another interesting read is from Baltimore’s Examiner, you can read it here.

The story has generated huge interest in cyberspace which caused nazret’s server to crash several times, we had a huge traffic spike that crippled our server in the past 24 hours. So there you have it, The Ark of the Covenant will NOT be revealed.

Now the other story, perhaps of interest to Ethiopians is, did Abune Paouls really see the Ark of the Covenant? Or is that a misunderstanding as well?

So we continue to wait for God to reveal Himself to us, in His time.

Original Link.

Previous Posts:
Ethiopian Patriarch Tells Pope He Will Show ‘Ark of the Covenant’ to the World.
Is the “Ark of the Covenant” Real – That is the Question.

For the fourth time in six cases, the Supreme Court of the United States has reversed a decision for which Judge Sonia Sotomayor voted on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. If this nominee were a white male, would this not raise questions about whether he should be elevated to a court that has found his previous decisions wrong two-thirds of the times when those decisions have been reviewed?

Is no one supposed to ask questions about qualifications, simply because this nominee is Hispanic and a woman? Have we become that mindless?

Qualifications are not simply a question of how long you have been doing something, but how well you have done it. Judge Sotomayor has certainly been on the federal bench long enough, but is being reversed four out of six times a sign of a job well done?

Would longevity be equated with qualifications anywhere else? Some sergeants have been in the army longer than some generals but nobody thinks that is a reason to make those sergeants generals.

Performance matters. And Judge Sotomayor’s performance provides no reason for putting her on the Supreme Court.

Although the case of the Connecticut firefighters is the latest and best-known of Judge Sotomayor’s reversals by the Supreme Court, an even more revealing case was Didden v. Village of Port Chester, where the Supreme Court openly rebuked the unanimous three-judge panel that included Judge Sotomayor for “an evident denial of the most elementary forms of procedural due process.”

Longevity is not the only false argument for putting Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court. Another is the argument that “elections have consequences,” so that the fact that Barack Obama won last year’s elections means that his choice for the Supreme Court should be confirmed. This is a political talking point rather than a serious argument.

Of course elections have consequences. But Senators were also elected, and the Constitution of the United States gives them both the right and the duty to say “yes” or “no” to any president’s judicial nominees.

It is painfully appropriate that the case which finally took the Sotomayor nomination beyond the realm of personal biography is one where the key question is how far this country is going to go on the question of racial representation versus individual qualifications.

Too much that Sonia Sotomayor has said and done over the years places her squarely in the camp of those supporting a racial spoils system instead of equal treatment for all. The organizations she has belonged to, as well as the statements she has made repeatedly — not just an isolated slip of the tongue taken “out of context”– as well as her dismissing the white firefighters’ case that the Supreme Court heard and heeded, all point in the same direction.

Read the rest of the article here.

There’s a video currently making the rounds among schools (and on the Internet) [called "The Story of Stuff", created and narrated by Annie Leonard], which purports to explain to children how America’s consumption of “stuff” is destroying the planet. Specially made to appeal to kids, with child-like animation, enough adults have bought into the message that it’s being shown in classrooms across the country.

First, the civics lesson — a la Leonard. It’s the government’s job to watch out for us and take care of us. But the government has become more interested in taking care of big, bad corporations. The government is naughty for not doing enough for us. And big business is just plain evil.

Now the story of how stuff is made. We start with extraction which, according to Leonard, “is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation which is fancy word for trashing the planet.” Trees get chopped down, mountaintops are blown off so we can get metals out, and “we use up all the water and we wipe out the animals.” Hmmm. I guess I missed the news that we’d used up all the water and wiped out the animal population. But just in case any school children in the audience were having the same thoughts, Leonard assures them that despite the fact that it’s hard to hear, “it’s the truth.”

Next we move on to the lesson in anti-Americanism. We, apparently, use up more than our share of natural resources. “My country’s response to this limitation [of natural resources] is simply to go take somebody else’s,” says Leonard. “This is the Third World.” Evidently American are just plain selfish. And cruel to poor countries, too.

Read the complete article here.

Awesome!! More baby killers put out of business. Praise God!!

Seventy-two years ago Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger visited El Paso, Texas, delivered a speech proclaiming the need for the acceptance of birth control and helped found the city’s first family planning clinic.

But last week, Analinda Moreno, Planned Parenthood of El Paso’s interim executive director, announced all seven of the organization’s clinics in the El Paso area would permanently close today. She cited financial reasons.

“There were many factors that came into the decision,” Moreno told the El Paso Times. “We knew eight days ago that there was just absolutely no other way other than to close.”

Rita Diller, national director of the American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood project, was encouraged by the closings, and sees them as part of a larger trend.

“We expect many more closures in the days to come as people become aware of Planned Parenthood’s sex-crazed birth control and abortion business,” Diller said in a statement. “One by one, with hard work and prayer, these facilities are closing down, no matter how entrenched Planned Parenthood may seem to be in a particular community.”

El Paso’s reaction to the news was mixed:

“I was sick to my stomach,” said Kathleen Staudt, a political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. “I was shocked. How could the 21st largest city in the United States – El Paso – not have Planned Parenthood clinics?”

Barney Field, an abortion protester and executive director of El Paso for Jesus, however, told the El Paso Times that even though the Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t active medical abortion providers, the organization’s advocacy for abortion overshadows its other offered services.

“I am sure Planned Parenthood has done a lot of good, but they also recommend and encourage abortions,” Field told the newspaper. “From that perspective, it seems very good news that they are closing. It seems miraculous.”

Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, further explained to WND why his organization celebrates the closing of the clinics’ doors.

“They didn’t perform medical or surgical abortions, what the general public considers ‘abortions,’” Sedlak said, “but … they did distribute various drugs and devices that prevent implantation of a conceived child in the womb, which causes what we call ‘chemical’ abortions.

“Our STOPP project focuses on every Planned Parenthood facility in country, regardless of whether they do medical, surgical or chemical abortions,” he continued. “Our objective is to cause such discontent with Planned Parenthood programs that it will have no choice but to close its doors. The reason we do that is Planned Parenthood is the financing behind the abortion industry in the country. They hire the lawyers and bring the cases that keep the abortion industry thriving.”

Original Link.

Weekly I highlight items being offered by the Jerusalem Gift Shop. Today it’s the The Ten Commandments in Hebrew and English Made from Holy Land Olive Wood.

The Ten Commandments in Hebrew and English

Display stand sits on a desktop, table or shelf

Laser engraved on olive wood in Bethlehem

* size: 6 x 5.5 inches

In these days when the Ten Commandments is being removed from public view in many places, put The Word of God back on display in your home, office or workplace

Take a moment to see all of the other interesting items they stock.

Christian Gifts from Israel – The Jerusalem Gift Shop

As Jennifer suggest below; let a Christian group attempt this and see just how fast it would be shot down by the “separation of church and state” groups.

CAIR was so inspired by Obama’s recitation from the Quran during his Cairo speech that they have launched a campaign to give all state and federal leaders in the U.S. a copy of the Quran in English. They say the move is purely educational, and is in no way proselytizing or a campaign or project to convert people to Islam. Sure it’s not. And I’m sure the ACLU will see that way, as well. Christian organizations should organize a campaign to do the same with the Bible, and see how fast the ACLU files a “separation of church and state” law suit against everyone involved. Of course, such a Christian campaign would never happen. Christians are too busy not reading their Bibles, not teaching their kids, and being afraid to contend for their faith. Sad, but true.

Prompted by President Obama’s speech directed to the Muslim world in Cairo in early June, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today launched its “Share the Quran” campaign distributing free Qurans to local, state, and national leaders across the United States.

The organization’s spokesperson said it will also send a copy to Obama and Vice President Biden.

“This is pure educational. I want to make it clear that this is not proselytizing or a campaign or project to convert people to Islam,” said CAIR’s director Nihad Awad today at a press conference. “We want people to be aware and informed about Islam.”

Awad said the idea to gift high-end Qurans ($78 each) to American legislators, law enforcement officers, media leaders, governors, local elected and public officials, was directly inspired by Obama’s Cairo speech:

“We were astonished he quoted the Quran.” Awad told ABC News. “We know it. But I think the majority of Americans have no idea that maybe these quotes are direct from the Quran, they’re unequivocal, and they cover the issues of . . . values we need today, in order to work together, fight extremism and terrorism, and turn the page. And bring the relationship to its rightful position between the American and Muslim world.”

The “rightful position”, according to the Quran, is for Islam to be the only religion on Earth. Bringing this about is to be every good Muslim’s goal. I’d say they are off to an effective start, wouldn’t you? Just look at the number of Sharia courts now established in Britain.

Article Link

Original Link.