Politics

2008 / NOW / Minnesota plan [ PLAN ] : Clone embryos and kill them!

State House would force taxpayers to fund program

Minnesota house turns down
Rep. Emmer's Cloning Ban

Minnesota - Model Legislation soon for YOUR STATE ????

The Kahn Cloning Bill — SF 100 — proposes that Minnesota taxpayer dollars be used to pay for the cloning and killing of human embryos. This legislation, which was introduced in the 2007 legislative session, is the deadliest bill Minnesota has ever seen.

Representative Tom Emmer (19b) offered a minority report that would have banned all human cloning and directed the U of M to focus on non-destructive adult stem cell research. However the vote was taken on a day when several pro-life house members were absent and Rep. Emmer's Minority report was lost on a narrow (62-68) margin.

The Kahn Cloning Bill could be brought up at any time.

It is important that you continue to contact your representatives asking them to vote in the matter of cloning and killing of human embryos for highly speculative research that SF 100 promotes and funds with your tax dollars.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty issued a statement in opposition of the Kahn Cloning Bill. In a letter to all 201 state legislators, the governor urged lawmakers to support ethical adult stem cell research, which has produced proven lifesaving research without the destruction of human life. The U of M has already made progress using stem cells derived from human adults.

Conservatives believe in Personal Liberty, Smaller Government, Freedom of Conscience, FREE SPEECH, and Thinking for yourself.

More: YOUTUBE : McCain Endorses Nafta & Free Trade Agreements

Remember: Free Trade Agreements make up the [USA REPLACEMENT] NORTH AMERICAN UNION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86QwI-6TWic

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Christian leader declares he couldn't support senator 'under any circumstances'

RE: M.I.A / P.O.W. / A special message from
former Congressman John Leboutillier

The Alliance is the only family organization to represent POW/MIA families from all wars.

RINO = REPUBLICAN IN NAME ONLY

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO"

Ted Guy, a former Air Force Colonel held 5 1/2 years by the Vietnamese and McCain's senior ranking officer (SRO) in the POW camp, told the U.S. Veteran Dispatch...

Wikipedia Entry - [House] Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007

It's All about La Raza - The Race
By Sher Zieve

May 1, 2006

May 1/06 - The May Day illegal alien “Great American Boycott” and Communist Workers’ Day strike/boycott/protests/demonstrations (you pick your favorite) are all about “the race”—the Hispanic race, that is. Mexicans who would be arrested—or even shot—if they attempted to protest in their homeland against their own government’s corruption, which keeps a vast number of its population in continued impoverishment, have decided to demand that to which they are not entitled in the United States.

Other than Muslims who have been told by various Islamic organizations to join the protests (recent history—worldwide—has shown us that many Muslims will join any and all protests in order to “vent”), do you see or hear of any other ethnic groups joining the “we’ll-shut-down-the-US-if-it-doesn’t-meet-our-demands” movement? Where are the Poles, Swedes, Australians and Germans who have applied for “legal” immigration? We haven’t seen any of these or other groups carrying flags from their home countries and waving banners reading that the United States of America really belongs to them, as have many of the Hispanic marchers and protestors. And we haven’t heard US immigrants from other countries demanding that their illegal status immediately be recognized as legal.

These protests against the US are purely, simply and quite realistically about La Raza (“the race”). And if one disagrees with the illegals’ tenets of “the US is ours!” and “the US is stolen land” he or she is called “racist” by the invaders. Note: The insanity of American political correctness has now reached its logical lunatic conclusion: “If we don’t allow our country to be invaded by a foreign power, we’re being discriminatory. Oh, and by the way, if you don’t support the overthrow of your country by these invaders—you’re a racist!”

Full Story Here

Growing Domestic Surveillance and the Patriot Act

December 26, 2005

Ron Paul - Recent revelations that the National Security Agency has conducted broad surveillance of American citizens' emails and phone calls raise serious questions about the proper role of government in a free society. This is an important and healthy debate, one that too often goes ignored by Congress.

Public concerns about the misnamed Patriot Act are having an impact, as the Senate last week refused to reauthorize the bill for several years. Instead Congress will be back in Washington next month to consider many of the Act's most harmful provisions.

Of course most governments, including our own, cannot resist the temptation to spy on their citizens when it suits government purposes. But America is supposed to be different. We have a mechanism called the Constitution that is supposed to place limits on the power of the federal government. Why does the Constitution have an enumerated powers clause, if the government can do things wildly beyond those powers-- such as establish a domestic spying program? Why have a 4th Amendment, if it does not prohibit government from eavesdropping on phone calls without telling anyone?

We're told that September 11 th changed everything, that new government powers like the Patriot Act are necessary to thwart terrorism. But these are not the most dangerous times in American history, despite the self-flattery of our politicians and media. This is a nation that expelled the British, saw the White House burned to the ground in 1814, fought two world wars, and faced down the Soviet Union. September 11th does not justify ignoring the Constitution by creating broad new federal police powers. The rule of law is worthless if we ignore it whenever crises occur.

The administration assures us that domestic surveillance is done to protect us. But the crucial point is this: Government assurances are not good enough in a free society. The overwhelming burden must always be placed on government to justify any new encroachment on our liberty. Now that the emotions of September 11th have cooled, the American people are less willing to blindly accept terrorism as an excuse for expanding federal surveillance powers. Conservatives who support the Bush administration should remember that powers we give government today will not go away when future administrations take office.

Some Senators last week complained that the Patriot Act is misunderstood. But it's not the American public's fault nobody knows exactly what the Patriot Act does. The Act contains over 500 pages of detailed legalese, the full text of which was neither read nor made available to Congress in a reasonable time before it was voted on- which by itself should have convinced members to vote against it. Many of the surveillance powers authorized in the Act are not clearly defined and have not yet been tested. When they are tested, court challenges are sure to follow. It is precisely because we cannot predict how the Patriot Act will be interpreted and used in future decades that we should question it today.

Illegal Immigration and the Creation of a Permanent Underclass
By Sher Zieve

May 9/06 - There are myriad and escalating problems created by the arrivals of unbridled immigrants who are illegally entering the US, by the thousands, each and every day. These unlawful incursions, primarily breaches affected at the US’ Southern border, have instigated and are continuing to cause multitudinous more problems than those they, ostensibly, solve.

The problems inherent with this onslaught include the injuries to US states’ (predominantly the Southwestern states) healthcare systems, schools and the displacement of US citizen-workers [1]. Arizona, California and Texas have been hit the hardest, in regards to healthcare, and many hospitals have been forced to close due to the unpaid treatment of illegals. In California, a State audit uncovered “…the county [Los Angeles] treats five times as many undocumented immigrants as required by state law.” In regards to healthcare, schools and illegals immigrant prisoners in US jails, NewsMax reported that the Federation for American Immigration Reform found: “total uncompensated educational, health care and incarceration costs were estimated to be 10.5 billion.” However, one of the even more insidious consequences of the illegal aliens’ invasion is the apparent attempt to establish a permanent illegal Hispanic underclass in the US.

If the illegal immigrants become “legal”, they will no longer be constrained to accept low wages and, in turn, their employers will have to raise their compensation. If said compensation is raised to US citizen-standards, the use of illegal workers will no longer be a viable option to those now employing them. If wages are forced upward, there will be no incentive to US employers to hire legal Hispanics over US citizen-workers. But, that is not the way the issue is developing in the US Senate. Instead, this US governmental body appears to be bent upon maintaining the aliens’ illegal status—or at least to allow them to enter the country by maintaining the porous US-Mexico border.

Although the US House of Representatives passed a Border Protection and Immigration bill that is actually pro-US citizens, the US Senate (our version of the British “House of Lords”) along with interested employers of illegals are proceeding to gut the House version in favor of maintaining the status quo.

Full Story Here

CATHOLICS CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS : immigration

Apr 4, 2006

First of all they have committed a crime. They are called "illegals." That means NOT legal.

Secondly, the Christian Church is bound by the Bible to uphold biblical ethics. Any compromise will answer at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

That has to do with the apostates in the Episcopal Church and United Church of Christ (Congregational) cutting up the Scripture for their homosexual conveniences. And it has to do with the Roman Catholic Church disregarding what is righteous and law-abiding for supporting illegals.

One either adheres to the divine revelation the best as one can or one finds ways to rationalize why particular passages don’t apply in real life, real time. But no matter, the divine revelation is just that: divine. And its beginnings have none. They are eternal for it’s just — from the everlasting.

Mexico pours the criminals through our porous borders. Why should Mexico have to put up with them? Send them to the Saint — our own Statue of Liberty with torch raised high. And why should Muslims be barred from the hospitable Mexican invite? Why they are mortals, aren’t they? And in search of freedom to bring down our republic.

With that the Catholic Church is now preaching that immigrants are the poor of our time. So to the poor box we send them to find there amnesty, health care, tuition to college and anything else our silly country can come up with.

"The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been particularly critical of a provision in his bill making it a felony for undocumented workers to remain in the United States and another clause that might make it a crime for church workers to assist or encourage illegal aliens.

"’Denying aid to a fellow human being violates a law with a higher authority than Congress - the law of God,’ Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony wrote last month in The New York Times.

Imagine: a Cardinal espousing breaking the nation’s laws. Where would the Cardinal stop with such pastoral counsel: adultery, murder, incest, molestation, thievery?

How sweet a churchman can sound when gowned and slipping from his tongue what his audience wants to hear. Reminds me of the Pharisees of the first century. And we all know what they did with Jesus.

That advice from the Catholic leader is in response to a Congressman who is sick of the present immigration mess. So he’s speaking out on behalf of biblical morality while the churchman speaks willy-nilly saccharine syrup that is both illogical and, more seriously, contrary to biblical ethics.

It is disgusting.

There is no law of God in Scripture that would support the Cardinal’s statement. None. Yet of course he wants the numbers — and they are there in the Catholic illegal immigrants. Those fill the sanctuary. They put money in the plate. They fill in the church committees.

Does not the Cardinal realize that by his counsel he is opening up the old accusation that the Catholic Church will do anything to keep its numbers flush?

Full Story Here

Sam Brownback, a Republican U.S. Senator from Kansas, converted from Methodism to Catholicism while in office.

From: Chris Suellentrop, "The Rev. John McCloskey: The Catholic Church's K Street lobbyist", posted 9 August 2002 on Slate.com (http://slate.msn.com/id/2069194/; viewed 24 October 2004):

In late July, a tiny item in the Washington Post announced some surprising news: Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican and former United Methodist best known for his opposition to cloning, converted to Catholicism on June 27. But just as notable as Brownback's conversion was the man who performed it, the Rev. John McCloskey. Brownback is the third political celebrity to convert to Catholicism under McCloskey's guidance... The priest, who operates out of Washington's Catholic Information Center a couple of blocks from the White House, has made himself a spiritual K Street lobbyist.
What's he lobbying for? Souls, but also the soul of the Catholic Church... It's a two-pronged strategy: Bring in conservative evangelical Protestants like Brownback while at the same time casting out liberal Catholics of all stripes...

"Hey, it's a big church, there's plenty of room for them," says Michael Sean Winters, who writes about Catholicism for the New Republic and other publications. "I only wish that they would feel that way." Winters is right: The problem isn't that McCloskey is conservative or that he wants to bring in conservatives like Brownback. It's that he wants to throw everyone else out.

http://www.adherents.com/people/pb/Sam_Brownback.html

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, FREE SPEECH RIGHTS UNDER PRESSURE FROM RADICAL ISLAM
Intimidation factor is real following riots and death threats

By Mark Ellis
Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

WASHINGTON (ANS) - Feb 7/06 - Riots throughout the Middle East in response to cartoons published in a Danish newspaper increase the climate of intimidation slowly suffocating free speech rights, one terror consultant believes.

A dozen cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste in September, then reprinted by a Norwegian newspaper last month, launched a violent wave of recent protests against the two countries throughout the Middle East.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Washington D.C.-based counterterrorism consultant, says the rationale behind the publication of the cartoons is misunderstood. “A lot of people don’t understand the context, including the U.S. State Department and Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary,” he suggests. “There’s a very real pattern of people criticizing Islam being threatened and physically assaulted, so there is a resulting self-censorship.”

The newspapers were not attempting to bash Islam, but to affirm free speech rights, he believes. “This was not an Islamophobic outburst,” Gartenstein-Ross says. “The Danish newspaper wanted to test this article of self-censorship in order to reaffirm the primacy of free speech.”

Europeans have been going down the wrong path, according to Gartenstein-Ross, by asking if self-censorship might be an acceptable accommodation to maintain social peace. Religious vilification laws, which make the slander of a religion punishable as a crime, have been passed in several European countries. A number of other countries are considering such laws in hopes they will produce social harmony.

“Religious vilification laws are part of the problem,” Gartenstein-Ross believes. “It sends a signal to Muslims that criticism of a religion can be punished through the legal system,” he notes. “We don’t want the state to be the arbiter of acceptable religious discourse.”

“Christians who engage in apologetics will be silenced,” he predicts. “This is happening in both Europe and the U.S.”

Gartenstein-Ross cites the example of Pastor Daniel Scot, convicted of violating Victoria, Australia’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act passed in 2002. Scot fled his native Pakistan in 1987 after they adopted a far-reaching blasphemy law, which prohibited any speech that directly or indirectly defiled the Prophet Muhammad.

Believing Australia would allow him more freedom of expression, Scot engaged in a series of lectures exploring the differences between Christianity and Islam, where he pointedly criticized Islam’s treatment of women and jihad movements. “Whether you agree with his points about the status of women or jihad, they were all legitimate arguments appropriate for religious debate,” Gartenstein-Ross notes. “These were within the bounds of apologetics.” But Scot was convicted—his case is currently under appeal.

In France, actress Bridgette Bardot was fined in 2004 for her outspoken comments against the “Islamization of France” and the “underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam.” Noted Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci will go on trial in June over charges she defamed Islam in her book “The Force of Reason.”

While religious vilification laws may dampen religious dialogue, threats of violence may produce an even greater self-censoring effect. Author Salman Rushdie was forced into hiding after the publication of his book “The Satanic Verses” led to a fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, requiring Rushdie's execution for blasphemy against Islam. Last year, Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After the fatwa, Rushdie’s Japanese translator was stabbed and killed in Tokyo, and his Italian translator was beaten and stabbed in Milan. Rushdie’s Norwegian publisher William Nygaard was shot in an attack outside his home in Oslo.

In 1993 Rushdie’s Turkish translator, Azia Nesin, was attacked by a mob who gathered around the Madimak Hotel in Sivas, Turkey, where he was staying. The crowd set fire to the hotel and 37 died as a result, but Nesin managed to escape.

Last October, actor Omar Sharif—a Muslim convert—was threatened with death after he played St. Peter in an Italian television film and made positive comments about the role. An al Qaeda web posting said: “Omar Sharif has stated that he has embraced the crusader idolatry…I give you this advice, brothers, you must kill him.”

Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 on a street in Amsterdam after he directed the film “Submission,” which criticized the treatment of women in Muslim families. Islamic radical Mohammed Bouyeri shot Van Gogh eight times before slitting his throat with a kitchen knife and stabbing him in the chest.

The murderer was born in Amsterdam, well-educated and appeared to be well-integrated into Dutch society, but he also had terrorist ties with the Dutch Hofstad terror network.

Gartenstein-Ross does not expect riots in the U.S. because the Muslim population is smaller and better integrated socially, but he does expect more terror attacks. “There is less chance of dramatic attacks like 911, but there is a greater chance of attacks like the ones in Britain on July 7,” he says.

“We must dramatically reassert the importance of free speech and the notion that in a society with vibrant free speech no religion can be above insult.”

PLAYERS ONLY:
Where Media and Foreign Policy Elites Talk Geopolitics

BY CAMILLE FINEFROCK

CJR - For here stands The Council on Foreign Relations, a private think tank founded in 1921 by the grandfathers of the Eastern Establishment to foster discussion about international affairs. The council's 3,800 members are people of influence. Diplomats, academics, and politicians gather together here in off-the-record meetings to discuss and develop the economic and social policies that shape the world. The council is also the intersection of the foreign policy and media elite. Its current president, Leslie Gelb, is a former journalist, and journalists make up a part of the membership.

Housed within its walls are the offices of Foreign Affairs, the official though autonomous publication of the council. As the century turns, the magazine's imposing facade is crumbling a bit, under the heavy weather of competition, and as the council itself deals with the end of the cold war and the rise of globalism.

The backdrop is notable. Here Henry Kissinger, while a young professor at Harvard, took his first steps into the world of foreign policy with his article "Reflections on American Diplomacy" and later wrote about Vietnam as secretary of state....

Perhaps the realm in which Foreign Affairs is most clearly influential is overseas. The journal has launched a number of foreign-language editions, and non-U.S. readership has doubled since the early '90s, according to publisher David Kellogg. In China, Hoge says, students are accessing ... through the Web.

Victory for Freedom of Speech: Statements/False Accusations Against Police Protected

By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Nov 3/05

SAN FRANCISCO - Nov 3/05 - AP - A federal appeals court on Thursday nullified a California criminal law adopted after the Rodney King beating that made it unlawful for citizens to knowingly lodge false accusations against police officers.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law was an unconstitutional infringement of speech because false statements in support of officers were not also criminalized.

The decision, hailed by civil liberties groups and opposed by state prosecutors and law enforcement groups, overturns the California Supreme Court, which in 2002 ruled that free speech concerns took a back seat when it came to speech targeting police officers.

Lawmakers enacted the law after a flood of hostile complaints against officers statewide following King's 1991 taped beating. The 1995 law is punishable by up to six months in jail.

The imbalance generated by the law "turns the First Amendment on its head," Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.

Darren Chaker, 33, of Beverly Hills, challenged the law after he was convicted in San Diego County in 1999 of making a false complaint against an El Cajon police officer.

Chaker appealed to California's courts, to no avail. A federal judge had ruled against him as well, so he went to the San Francisco-based appeals court.

"It was up to the police department to determine if the speech was false," Chaker said. "I made a complaint against a police officer for twisting my wrist and was charged as a criminal."

The American Civil Liberties Union hailed the decision.

"To us, it was a clear example to cut off criticism of the government," said ACLU attorney Alan Schlosser.

Full Story Here

Comments to "Expel Illegals" within a year part of attempt to Start Push for Amnesty...AGAIN !!!

WASHINGTON

Oc 18/05 - AP- President Bush sought support Tuesday for his guest worker plan for foreigners, hoping to win over skeptical conservatives with a pledge to clamp down on illegal immigration - one of a growing number of issues causing friction between the White House and fellow Republicans.

Bush and his advisers are caught between their business supporters, who believe the economy needs foreign workers, and conservatives whose priority is to get tough on illegal immigration. The right flank of the GOP also is upset about federal spending and Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"As we improve and expand our efforts to secure our borders, we must also recognize that that enforcement cannot work unless it is part of a larger comprehensive immigration reform program," Bush said. "If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis."

[Please Note that THIS METHOD would be the VERY BASIS USED TO CONTINUE TO UNDERMINE AMERICAN WAGES ]

Bush made the pitch for his immigration policy at the White House just before signing the $32 billion homeland security bill, which includes large increases for patrolling borders but fewer grants for local emergency first responders and a freeze in transit security funding.

Bush said the bill includes $82 million to improve and expand Border Patrol stations and $70 million to install and improve fencing, lighting, vehicle barriers and roads. He said it provides $3.7 billion for immigration and customs enforcement so illegal immigrants can be found and returned home. It also will fund the hiring of 100 new immigration enforcement agents and 250 criminal investigators and add 2,000 new beds to detention facilities.

"This will allow us to hold more non-Mexican illegal immigrants while we process them through a program we call `expedited removal,'" Bush said. "Putting more of these non-Mexican illegal immigrants through expedited removal is crucial to ending the problem of catch-and- release."

The "catch and release" policy has allowed tens of thousands of non- Mexican illegal aliens to disappear within the United States.

Earlier in the day, administration officials appeared on Capitol Hill to promote Bush's guest worker plan, saying action is needed beyond improving border patrols to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

"We're going to need more than just brute enforcement," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We're going to need a temporary worker program as well."

Bush last year introduced a plan that would allow undocumented workers to get three-year work visas. They could extend that for another three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit. The president called his proposal a necessity for an economy that needs employees for jobs many Americans don't want.

GOP leaders in both the House and Senate have suggested that Congress should first take up the enforcement issue, putting off debate on the more complex issues of undocumented workers and the demand for low- skilled labor in this country.

[Please Note: The Actual Demand is not for LOW SKILL, but rather LOW WAGES]

But Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said that with reports of larger numbers of illegal immigrants _ often estimated around 11 million _ than legal immigrants, his panel would address comprehensive change. "It is a matter of very, very substantial urgency," he said.

Several members [of the Judiciary Committee ]are sponsoring legislation that, in addition to strengthening border security and workplace enforcement, would set up guest worker programs.

Tired of the Double Standard !: Joan Rivers fury over Darcus Howe 'racism' claims
(Filed: 19/10/2005)

UK - Telegraph - Oct 19/05 - The airwaves turned blue today after broadcaster Darcus Howe and comedienne Joan Rivers clashed over accusations of racism live on radio.

Joan Rivers took exception to Mr Howe's accusations of racism
The row happened on Radio 4's Midweek programme after Mr Howe suggested Rivers had a problem with the term "black".

Story Here

[NOTE: ANOTHER KENNEDY-MC CAIN BOONDOGLE]

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has a bill that would provide visas for up to six years, after which the worker must either leave the country or be in the pipeline for a green card.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., have a rival bill that would require illegal aliens to return to their home country to apply for the temporary worker program.

Story Here

BUSH WORKS WITH OLIGARCHS TO SUPPORT LIBERAL COURT NOMINEE
Bush pick supported International Criminal Court, homosexual adoptions, women in Active combat, tax hike

By Joseph Farah

WASHINGTON – WND - Oct 3/05 -Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, is on record as supporting the establishment of the International Criminal Court, homosexual adoptions, a major local tax increase and women in combat, WorldNetDaily has learned

According to Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, Miers has taken positions as White House counsel that violate the law banning women in combat.

"As White House counsel, Ms. Miers either approved of the Department of Defense's illegal assignments of women in units required to be all-male, which is still continuing in violation of the law requiring notice to Congress in advance, or she was oblivious to the legal consequences of those assignments," she said.

Donnelly believes the actions of Miers could lead directly to a future court ruling requiring women to register with the Selective Service for the draft because they are now being, against the wishes of Congress, assigned to land combat.

FRC - Oct 14/05 - Texas leaders of the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual organization within the G.O.P., are headlining Grover Norquist as their main speaker at a fund-raiser tomorrow night. Norquist is the well-respected leader of Americans for Tax Reform

Supreme Court: Miers was a Democrat throughout the 1980s during the Reagan Revolution

WND - Oct 3/05 - Miers' record shows that in November 1988, the nominee gave $1,000 to the DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee. In February of that year, she donated $1,000 to then-Sen. Al Gore's presidential primary race. And in March 1987, Miers gave $1,000 to the primary campaign of Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, who went on to become Michael Dukakis' running mate in the 1988 presidential election.

Beginning in 1990, Miers' political giving all went to Republicans or special-interest groups.

WASHINGTON - Oct 12-14/05 - AP - U2's Bono says he is not involved in efforts by U.S. lawmakers to use his band's concerts to raise campaign money.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and other politicians have scheduled fundraising events in private suites during shows for U2's North American Vertigo tour, which runs through the end of December.

Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, an Africa advocacy group that Bono helped found, said in a message posted on the band's Web site: "Neither DATA nor Bono are involved in these (fundraisers), and they cannot be controlled. The U2 concerts are categorically not fundraisers for any politician; they are rock concerts for U2 fans."

Full Story Here

Too soft for a new kind of war?
By Victor Davis Hanson
September 2, 2005

Wash Times - Sept 02/05 - Not long ago Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, an authentic American hero, was shot three times and wounded in Mosul, Iraq, as he led his men into a terrorist enclave.

The jihadist who shot him survived and was given first-rate American medical care for his wounds. It turns out the terrorist was captured earlier in December 2004, on suspicion of being involved in a deadly suicide attack on an American base. Then he was turned over to the Iraqis, sent to the notorious Abu Ghraib jail and released. Once free, he returned to killing Americans and his rendezvous with Col. Kurilla.
For bickering Americans back home, Abu Ghraib is a "Stalag," but for the terrorists it's apparently a rest stop before resuming their hunt for Americans.

This recent incident once more reflects how confused we are in the West over the proper way to obtain the needed ends. While we worry we have gone too far in our harshness, our enemies are convinced our softness has us too far gone to win this war.

This fight is quite different from past conflicts. The jihadists have no uniforms. Their first, not last, resort is terrorism. They know they cannot win unless they murder and demoralize civilians, preferably in the U.S., as we saw September 11, 2001.

But there is another difference that involves us and not just the enemy. In the past, a poorer and less sophisticated United States largely embraced a tragic vision of dealing with the world as it was rather than what we hoped it might be.

Our forbears believed they did not have to be perfect to be good. To them, war, like poverty and depression, was another of the tragedies of the human experience where there were no good choices -- the least ghastly being victory at all costs.

So this war against Islamic fascism is a perfect storm of sorts, involving an enemy that uses stealth and counts on Western society's own liberty and magnanimity to destroy itself at the pinnacle of its affluence and sensitivity.

Story Here

US Held Secret Meetings with Taleban (Taliban) in 1998
By VOA News
20 August 2005

VOA News - Aug 20/05 - Declassified documents reveal the U.S. State Department held secret meetings with top Taleban officials in 1998 and discussed assassinating or expelling al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan.

Documents declassified Thursday show diplomatic efforts between Washington and the Taleban rulers took place a few months after deadly terrorist bombings at U.S. Embassies in Africa. That also places the meetings nearly three years before the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The documents show that a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan met with a top aide to Taleban leader Mullah Omar twice in late 1998. During the meetings, the aide suggested the U.S. either kill or arrange for Osama bin Laden to be assassinated.

The aide expressed concern that the Afghan people would reject the Taleban if it expelled the al-Qaida leader and allowed him to be turned him over to the Americans.

A U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taleban in October 2001.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

The Worship of a VERY DIFFERENT god: Consequences of State Promotion of Islam

How London brought terror on itself
By B Raman

July 16/05 - That three of the suspected perpetrators of the bomb attacks on London on July 7 were British youths of Pakistani origin should not only have been no surprise to British intelligence, it should have been anticipated: the radicalization of Britain's Muslim youth of Pakistani origin began in the mid-1990s with the full knowledge and complicity of British and US intelligence agencies.

In the mid-1990s, the Pakistan-based jihadi group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM - previously known as the Harkat-ul-Ansar, HUA ) sent a contingent to help Bosnian Muslims in their fight against the Serbs. They were sent by the government of Benazir Bhutto at the request of the Bill Clinton administration. The contingent, which was raised and trained by Lieutenant General (retired) Hamid Gul, former director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who himself used to visit Bosnia, included a large number of British Muslims of Pakistani origin.

According to estimates, about 200 Muslims of Pakistani origin living in the United Kingdom went to Pakistan, received training in the camps of the HUA, and joined the HUA in Bosnia with the blessings of London and Washington. Among them was Omar Sheikh, who went on to mastermind the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Former president hosting private summit aimed at solving problems facing mankind

WND - July 12/05 - Former President Bill Clinton is gearing up to host a private summit in New York aimed at solving what he believes are the top challenges in the world.

The Clinton Global Initiative slated for Sept. 15-17 is attracting some of the biggest names in politics and the private sector, including News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Full Story Here

Eugenics By Abortion
Is perfection an entitlement?

By George F. Will
Thursday, April 14, 2005

WP - Ap 14/05 - In Britain, as in Europe generally, abortion law has not been made by judges proclaiming glistening, hard-edged rights that cannot be compromised. Rather, abortion law has been made by lawmakers -- imagine that -- seeking to accommodate clashing sensibilities. That is one reason why British law is less extreme than America's essentially unlimited right to abortion on demand.

In Britain, after the 24th week of pregnancy -- "viability," when the child presumably can live outside the womb -- an abortion is permitted only when "there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped." But in 2001 an unborn 28-week-old child was aborted because new techniques for detecting fetal abnormalities indicated ...

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AgapePress - Ap 14-17/05 - Although House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been the subject of an ethics investigation, Gary Bauer of the group American Values says the probe has virtually nothing to do with any ethical failures of DeLay's, but everything to do with left-wing attempts to block the conservative agenda. Bauer says it would be "a disaster" for the pro-family and pro-life movements if DeLay were forced out of office, because he is "one of the Republican leaders that is serious about the social issues and the values issues -- which is one of the reasons, I think, that people want to get him."

The American Values spokesman predicts that the attempt to oust the majority leader is "going to be a brutal battle, but I believe Mr. DeLay will in fact survive it." Bauer adds that he is not surprised that moderate Republican Chris Shays of Connecticut has called for DeLay to step down. "There's always some moderate-to-liberal Republican that's ready to earn the praise of the New York Times and the Washington Post in exchange for him abandoning one of the Party's leaders," the pro-family leader comments. Meanwhile, Bauer says the Democrats will continue to go after prominent conservatives as long as billionaire George Soros supports them financially. ...

AgapePress - Ap 14-17/05 - Washington, DC, lawyer Cleta Mitchell says Democrat money makers are funding a number of attacks on Republican leaders, and they are funding the defense of the activist judiciary and critics of Bush policies and reforms as well. And according to Mitchell, these liberal funding sources all have one goal: to eliminate people from the political process. The attorney contends that many of the so-called "527" corporations formed during the last election in hopes of beating George W. Bush are now raising money to attack other prominent Republicans; meanwhile, she says Democrat millionaires are funding efforts to attack Republicans and manipulate the political system. Mitchell notes that one of the major funders of campaign finance reform happens to be George Soros -- the financier who "single-handedly funded the most egregious speech restraints in any state, the Arizona Clean Elections Law, which absolutely prohibits normal people from participating in the process." According to the conservative Mitchell, these liberal money makers are doing all they can to prevent the American populace from making their own decisions.

Alabama Gambling Interests Accused of Trying to Stifle Free Speech
Christian Leader reveals HB 75 Will Leave Pro-Family Supporters Vulnerable to Intimidation
By Ed Thomas
April 25, 2005

(AgapePress) - April 25, 2005 - For the last four weeks, a group of 10 state senators in Alabama has been filibustering a bill that the lawmakers believe is backed by the gambling lobby, and the head of the state Christian Coalition believes the legislation is designed to hurt the political efforts of groups like his that are working against that lobby.

John Giles is president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama. He says the bill known as HB 75, which was approved in the State House last year, would require the donor list of his and other issue advocacy nonprofit groups be disclosed -- a requirement which he believes would open those on the list up to attack.

"HB 75 was a bill that was basically created about three years ago by the gambling interests in Alabama," Giles asserts, "because they wanted to try to intimidate the donors of the Christian Coalition, to get us out of the way so they could pass gambling legislation in the State of Alabama."

The Christian Coalition spokesman maintains that the intent of the bill is to quash free-speech rights by pressuring the donors on the list until they withdraw their support from the Christian organization. He says publicizing the donors' list would essentially put the pro-family group and its supporters "in a posture of being retaliated against," which would undoubtedly cause donors to withdraw and ultimately limit free speech.

htp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/252005d.asp

Pro-Life Pharmacy Worker Wants Court to Cancel Contraceptive Order

(AgapePress) - April 19, 2005 - The Christian Legal Society's Center for Law and Religious Freedom has joined with the Alliance Defense Fund, Americans United for Life, and other legal representatives to file suit on behalf of a Christian pharmacist being compelled by the State of Illinois to violate his conscience.

Pro-life pharmacy employee David Scimio is challenging Governor Rod Blagojevich's "emergency rule," which requires all Illinois pharmacists to dispense various birth-control drugs "without delay." That directive includes the dispensing of so-called emergency contraceptives such as the "morning-after pill" or "Plan B," even if providing clients with these drugs goes against the healthcare worker's beliefs.

Scimio, a pharmacist at a Chicago-area Albertsons grocery store, says the emergency rule does not allow him to practice his profession without compromising his religious beliefs. As a Christian, he believes human life is sacred and begins at conception, and that the destruction of a fertilized human ovum -- which many contraceptive drugs can cause -- ends a human being's life.

Albertsons accommodated its pharmacy worker's religious beliefs, up until April 1 when the "emergency rule" went into effect. Afterward, however, management was required to order Scimio to comply with the rule and, against his conscience, start dispensing the contraceptives on demand.

htp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/192005b.asp

TEXAS: Plano Parents Counter with Plan to End Religious Discrimination Lawsuit

By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
April 26, 2005

(AgapePress) - Ap 26/05 - Christian families in Plano, Texas, are rejecting the terms of an offer by the local school district to settle a religious discrimination case. A Christian attorney says officials with the Plano Independent School District (ISD) don't understand that the civil rights of parents are not for sale.

The Plano ISD has offered to pay the attorneys' fees and monetary damages of several families in the district who have had their religious freedom rights violated. However, as part of the settlement offer, the district would not admit liability in several cases involving censorship of students' and parents' free speech. The district has offered each family $100 in return for admitting no wrongdoing.

Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Legal Institute, says his clients are rejecting the district's offer -- and are responding with a counter-offer.

"Instead of the damages they were willing to pay to our clients, we offered to take only one dollar for the clients and to cut [in half] the amount of attorneys' fees that we would be able to recover," Sasser explains. "So we offered to take a whole lot less money. In return they just have to admit what they did was wrong, agree to a court order that they'll never do that again, and train their employees appropriately."

According to LLI, the families have said they cannot accept the district's settlement offer because it does not offer "future protection against the same type of violations, and, in fact, denies all wrongdoing and that any violations have occurred."

The case stems from what the Liberty Legal Institute has described as a "large amount of evidence that demonstrates the pervasive religious hostility" in the school district for well over a year. Among examples cited by LLI are: a third-grader was prohibited from handing out "goody bags" that included candy canes with a religious message; a young girl was prevented by school officials from distributing pencils with "Jesus" written on them; another student was told she could not invite friends to an Easter event at her church; and a letter was sent home requesting that parents not send their children to school with anything red or green during the holiday season.

htp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/262005a.asp

KN - Ap 8/05 - For starters, many major metropolitan areas have passed laws requiring special summer blends of fuel that are less likely to evaporate in hot months and cause smog. These special blends generally are introduced about now, in early spring, and trigger price increases of roughly 30 cents a gallon during the warmer months in many parts of the country.

Big oil companies posted record profits last year and should grow even flusher this year. Oil companies will occupy three of the top 10 spots when Fortune magazine releases its ranking of the top 500 publicly traded companies Monday.

Exxon Mobil Corp. ranks second, behind only Wal-Mart. Exxon posted sales nearing $221 billion in 2004, a figure roughly equivalent to the economy of Greece. Fortune ranked it the most profitable company on its list, with $21.5 billion in profits, a staggering figure larger than the economies of Madagascar and Iceland combined.

ChevronTexaco Corp. and ConocoPhillips ranked 7th and 8th, respectively. ChevronTexaco saw its net income - or profit - jump to $13.3 billion in 2004, almost twice its 2003 take.

Out of Touch !!! Bush Declines to Endorse DeLay's Comments

Fri Apr 8/05 - White House - AP

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - President Bush on Friday said he supports "an independent judiciary" and declined to endorse comments by House Majority Tom DeLay that were critical of judges.

"I believe in proper checks and balances," Bush said.

The president, speaking with reporters as he flew to Texas from Rome, where he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, was reacting to statements made after the death of Terri Schiavo.

DeLay, R-Texas, suggested an impeachment case could made against judges who rebuffed Congress' will in the Schiavo case. As the severely brain-damaged Florida woman faded, Congress passed a law allowing federal courts to review the decisions of state judges who turned down her parents' efforts to resume her feeding. But federal judges all the way up to the Supreme Court held up those decisions.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," DeLay said when Schiavo died.

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Out of Touch !!! Bush drags Clinton to Attend Pope Funeral

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ap 5/05 -Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton will accompany President Bush to Friday's funeral of Pope John Paul II, but former President Jimmy Carter bowed out after he was told the size of the delegation was limited.

Carter spokesman Jon Moor said the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was in the White House when John Paul was elected, had "expressed to the White House a desire to attend the pope's funeral."

"He was quite willing to withdraw his request when he was subsequently informed that the official delegation would be limited to just five people, and there were also others who were eager to attend," Moor said Tuesday.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will be honoring the pope "in spirit," he added.

Carter, a Democrat, was a harsh critic of Bush in last year's U.S. election campaign. The White House had no immediate reaction to Carter's statement.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan earlier said the administration had invited Carter to join the delegation but that he would not be going. Carter's spokesman said the decision was not related to the 80-year-old former president's health.

Bush, who will also be accompanied by first lady Laura Bush, said in Parkersburg, West Virginia, that the pope had shown that "one man can make an enormous difference" and he looked forward to honoring his memory.

"What a great man," Bush told reporters at the White House later. "It will be my honor to represent our country at a ceremony marking a remarkable life, a person who stood for freedom and human dignity."

Bush leaves for Rome Wednesday. Thursday he is to meet Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close Bush ally on the Iraq war.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also be part of the U.S. delegation.

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WASHINGTON - Ap 5/05 - A former White House official says "widespread congressional apathy and a desire for political gamesmanship" doomed the president's tax incentives for charitable giving.

In testimony prepared for a hearing on charities, David Kuo, former deputy director at the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, also criticized Republican efforts to repeal the estate tax because of its potential drain on charitable giving.

Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, called Kuo to testify Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee as part of an investigation into abuses at tax-exempt charitable organizations. Grassley has said he wants to pass a bill clamping down on the problems this spring.

Kuo's prepared testimony was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday night.

The Bush administration has defended the president's record on faith-based initiatives from Kuo's criticism. Kuo argued earlier this year that the White House gained politically from Bush's vow to include religious organizations in federal funding to help the needy but lacks commitment to the cause.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said at the time that the faith-based program remains at the top of the president's priorities.

Turning his criticism to lawmakers, Kuo said Congress sidelined the president's effort and ignored ideas that had support from Republicans and Democrats.

"I have been astonished by the lack of interest in these matters by your colleagues," he said.

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AllAfrica - Mar 4/05 - Women's groups celebrated their victory here Friday after a United States envoy declared that her government would not press for any changes in an international document that reaffirms what world leaders had pledged at a major summit on women's rights 10 years ago.

"We'll be withdrawing the amendment," said Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. ambassador to the Commission on the Status of Women, referring to a widely derided proposal by the United States that member nations specifically omit the "right to abortion".

"We'll be joining consensus today on the Declaration. We look forward to working in a very constructive way," she told reporters hours before the release of the U.N. Declaration reaffirming the Beijing Platform for Action agreed to in China in 1995.

Her comments were reportedly met with jeers and catcalls from the women activists -- altogether numbering about 6,000 -- who came from around the world for the high-level conference.

"We have stated clearly and on many occasions ... that we do not recognise abortion as a method of family planning, nor do we support abortion in our reproductive health assistance," Sauerbrey said.

The delegate was also loudly booed when she described Washington's "ABC" approach to HIV/AIDS prevention -- "abstinence, be faithful, and correct and consistent condom use where appropriate" -- with an emphasis on "the promotion of abstinence as the healthiest and most responsible choice for adolescents."

TOPEKA, Kan. -AP 6/06 - AP - Kansans overwhelmingly voted to add a ban on gay marriage and civil unions to their state constitution, but both sides predicted court battles over the amendment.

The ban reaffirms the state's long-standing policy of recognizing only marriages between one man and one woman. It also declares that only such unions are entitled to the "rights and incidents" of marriage, prohibiting the state from authorizing civil unions for gay couples.

With final, unofficial results from 104 of the state's 105 counties on Tuesday, 414,235, or 70 percent, voted "yes," and 178,167, or 29 percent voted "no."

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a national ID bill last week that masqueraded as “immigration reform.” The bill does nothing to address immigration policy, however, nor does it propose deporting a single illegal alien already in our country. It does nothing to address the porous border between the U.S. and Mexico, which is the fundamental problem. In reality, the bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to con a credulous Congress into sacrificing more of our constitutionally protected liberty.

Supporters claim the national ID scheme is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to fly or to take a train. In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist. It is absurd to call this voluntary, and the proponents of the national ID know that every state will have no choice but to comply. Federal legislation that nationalizes standards for drivers’ licenses and birth certificates creates a national ID system pure and simple.

It is just a matter of time until those who refuse to carry the new licenses will be denied the ability to drive or board an airplane. Such domestic travel restrictions are the hallmark of authoritarian states, not free republics. </