"Daily Motivations"
If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance a lot less. -- Tom Feltenstein
"The Patriot Post"
"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." -- John Adams
GOP learning lesson at last?
Those in charge at the Republican National Committee may slowly be awakening to the fact that straying from principle led to the drubbing Republicans took in both 2006 and 2008. Our idea of "change" is constitutional conservatism, and perhaps this awareness is signified by two recent events leading up to the RNC meeting in late January.
In response to the outgoing president and his policies, the RNC's vice chairman and other officials are sponsoring a resolution that will oppose the Bush White House's support of seemingly bottomless bailouts for Wall Street and the auto industry. "We can't be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries," noted resolution co-sponsor Solomon Yue of Oregon.
Another unprecedented event occurred earlier this month when all six candidates for RNC Chairman (current chairman Mike Duncan, Michael Steele, Saul Anuzis, Ken Blackwell, Katon Dawson and Chip Saltsman) came together to debate issues the party faces going forward. Sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, topics discussed included the technology gap between Democrats and the GOP, fealty to party principles by candidates and elected officials, and building a "farm team."
The task for movement conservatives is to develop, engage, and, most important, educate those who haven't developed or are amenable to change their political philosophy by actually limiting government while explaining why this is to the public's benefit; the anti-bailout resolution can be helpful in this regard.
Principle over politics need not be unpopular. 2009 could be the year we begin the recovery -- not just an economic one but one of constitutional government as well.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Warfront with Jihadistan: Israel defends herself
The Israeli offensive in Gaza continues this week as Israel targets Hamas' terrorist strongholds, though Israel is receiving the usual international pressure to agree to the same kind of ceasefire as the ones ignored by the Palestinians for most of recent memory. Israel now faces a two-front war with the latest rocket attacks coming from Southern Lebanon, an area under the control of Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah. The attacks against Israel are a continuation of the proxy war waged by Iran and the Islamofascists against Western democracies.
However, the recent humanitarian approach to war fighting in the Middle East by the U.S. and Israel has produced nothing but contempt and a version of the old Chinese torture known as "death by a thousand cuts." Time and again Israel was poised to annihilate its enemies and yet it stopped for political and humanitarian reasons. This latest Israeli counterattack on Hamas is in danger of faltering as well, despite strong initial talk of "conclusive battle" and "decisive strikes." Still, it would not be surprising to see Israel land a decisive blow against Iranian nuclear efforts since they are well aware of who is pulling the Hamas strings and what the real threat will soon be. Israel should be aiming for nothing less than a convincing victory and needs to strike Hamas a deathblow. What they have successfully done is set the policy table for the incoming Obama administration.
Meanwhile, all this follows the recently confirmed link between a Pakistani spy agency and the Mumbai attack in India. Indeed, we may soon see two democratic allies drawn into regional war, all ignited by the common flame of Islamofascism. With at least three nuclear powers involved in this escalating military activity, the U.S. had best be prepared for every eventuality as these most dangerous scenarios play out.
"The Web"
“In view of the overwhelming mass of authentic and well-attested evidence now available, as I thought of the skeptical criticism which from the eighteenth century onward would fain have demolished the Bible altogether, there kept hammering in my brain this one sentence: The Bible is right after all.” -- Werner Keller
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan
"Associated Press"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hLTGrhkyU5qHismzrglBB6jJY_1AD95NQS180
Judge won't order Obama not to use 'God' in oath
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has refused to stop President-elect Barack Obama from using the words "so help me God" when he takes the oath of office Tuesday.
A group of atheists and agnostics had sued in federal court in Washington hoping to prevent Obama from adding those words to the 35-word inaugural oath outlined in the Constitution.
The lawsuit also sought to prohibit Obama's chosen inaugural ministers, the Revs. Joseph Lowery and Rick Warren, from offering prayers at inauguration.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton refused to issue an order preventing the ministers from praying or Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts from administering the oath.
Obama already has told Roberts he wants to use the words "so help me God" when he takes the oath.
"Washington Times"
KUHNER: Obama's culture war
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/11/obamas-culture-war/
Jeffery T. Kuhner
Sunday, January 11, 2009
COMMENTARY:
Social conservatives are mobilizing to prevent President-elect Barack Obama's nominee, Thomas Perrelli, from becoming the next U.S. associate attorney general - the No. 3 post at the Justice Department. In a Jan. 6 story in The Washington Times, veteran reporters Stephen Dinan and Jerry Seper show that prominent special interest groups, such as the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council, are urging Republicans to oppose Mr. Perrelli's appointment.
It is rare for a sub-Cabinet nominee to generate such fierce criticism, but Mr. Perrelli deserves it. He was one of the lawyers responsible for the death of Terry Schiavo. While representing Mrs. Schiavo's husband, Michael, Mr. Perrelli played a key role in having the Florida woman's feeding tube forcibly removed. The 2005 landmark right-to-die case rightly outraged the pro-life community. As Mrs. Schiavo lay in a coma, her parents and siblings repeatedly said they were willing to take full responsibility, including paying for her medical care. Mr. Schiavo refused. He ordered her feeding at the hospital to be terminated - an act of coldblooded murder.
When the Florida courts and the state legislature refused to save Mrs. Schiavo's life, President Bush and congressional Republicans sought to intervene. They asked for a transfer of jurisdiction, so that federal courts could review the case. Yet, Mr. Perrelli, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, worked tirelessly to prevent this and prevailed. Thus, the forces of death won. Mrs. Schiavo was slowly starved to death.
Contrary to the claims of Mr. Schiavo's supporters, the issue at hand was not about the "government intervening in a private family matter" or a husband's prerogative to decide his wife's fate in such circumstances. By then, Mr. Schiavo had relinquished his moral authority by hooking up with another woman. While his wife was still alive, he abandoned her. More importantly, the Terry Schiavo case was about the most basic and sacred rights of all: the right to life - a right that is the government's overriding duty to protect.
Mr. Perrelli's active involvement should disqualify him from a top job at the Justice Department. If "Piranha Perrelli" (as he is known in pro-life circles) can't protect a defenseless, incapacitated woman from a ruthless, amoral husband - in fact, goes out of his way to help finish her off - then he certainly cannot oversee the enforcement of America's laws.
The selection of Mr. Perrelli is symptomatic of Mr. Obama's radicalism on social issues. He is staffing his administration with hard-core liberals bent on promoting a pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, pro-euthanasia agenda. The president-elect has tapped the likes of Dawn Johnsen, the former legal director of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), to head the Office of Legal Council. He has chosen a fiercely partisan pro-choice Democrat, Tom Daschle, as health and human services secretary. Mr. Obama's intended secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is a pro-abortion feminist, who will use the power of the State Department to promote a secular humanist agenda abroad.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama vowed that one of his first acts as president will be to pass the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) - a sweeping law that will entrench Roe v. Wade and eliminate state restrictions on abortion and parental notification laws. He is a fierce critic of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits use of federal Medicaid dollars for abortions except in cases of rape, incest and when the mother's life is in jeopardy. The law has saved countless lives. Yet, Mr. Obama and liberal Democrats plan to repeal it.
Mr. Obama regularly throws a few crumbs to so-called "values voters" - Catholics, evangelicals, Protestant Southerners, Orthodox Jews - by inviting a pro-life pastor, such as the Rev. Rick Warren, to deliver the invocation at the inauguration or talk about the need to "reduce the number of abortions."
But this is cheap symbolism and crass political pandering. His actions - and policy proposals - tell a different story: He is filling key positions with rabid pro-choice social liberals; he has openly said abortion is a matter of "reproductive justice." He has promised the pro-abortion lobby to nominate justices to the Supreme Court that will ferociously defend Roe v. Wade; and he has expressed "regret" for not opposing the GOP on the Schiavo case.
Mr. Obama is a prophet, but a prophet of the culture of death. He refuses to lift a finger to protect the most vulnerable and innocent in our society - the unborn. He now wants to appoint Mr. Schiavo's lawyer to a senior Justice Department position and he must be stopped in his tracks. Conservatives must vociferously object: Mr. Obama needs to know Terry Schiavo has not been forgotten - and that her death was not in vain.
"OneNewsNow"
A porn industry bailout? It's laughable... - Or is it? - oyh
http://www.onenewsnow.com:80/Culture/Default.aspx?id=383380
Charlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow - 1/14/2009 6:00:00 AM
A requested $5-billion bailout for the pornography industry is likely a joke, says one pro-family leader.
Several news outlets reported last week that pornographers Larry Flynt (Hustler) and Joe Francis (Girls Gone Wild) stated their intentions to ask Congress for a $5 billion bailout of the "adult entertainment" industry.
"The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out -- from the banks to the Big Three [automakers]," a Flynt spokesman told CNN. "The porn industry has been hurt by the [economic] downturn like everyone else..." Added Francis: "[T]he U.S. government should actively support the adult industry's survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people."
Bob Peters, president of Morality in Media (MIM), argues that not all "employment" -- he offers casinos and prostitution as examples -- is helpful to society. In addition, he finds it difficult to believe Congress would take the pornographers' request seriously.
"My honest response is that they're hoping to get Congress and the next president to laugh about the problem of pornography and -- quote, unquote -- 'adult entertainment,' with the hopes that the next president and the next Congress will turn a blind eye to this problem just as the Clinton and Reno people did back in the 1990s."
Peters suggests what he thinks would be a more productive use of the taxpayer money.
"I think that if Congress took $5 million and told the Justice Department [to] spend [it] over the next two years enforcing federal obscenity laws -- in the long run, we the American people would save more than $5 billion," says the MIM leader.
In a public statement about the bailout request, Larry Flynt said the economic downturn has made people "too depressed to be sexually active," and therefore "it's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America." And the only way to do that, he argued, is through a bailout to the porn industry.
"NewBusters"
Milblogger Michael Yon Considers Suing Michael Moore
http://newsbusters.org/
By Noel Sheppard | January 15, 2009 - 11:51
Having just won the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Military Blog, Michael Yon is considering filing a lawsuit against schlockumentarian Michael Moore.
Since last May, Yon has been trying without success to get Moore to remove from his website an award-winning picture the milblogger took back in 2005 (photo available here).
Yon explained the situation to his readers on Monday (photo courtesy AP via NYP):
"The email Bag"
This Just In !!
Playboy just offered Sarah Palin $1 Million to pose nude in the March issue...
Michelle Obama got the same offer from National Geographic
Here's a story you've probably read before, but, excuse me, you just may need to read it again!
GOD'S WINGS
A little something to put things in perspective...
After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage.
One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes. It was perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree.
Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he did so, three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise.
She could have easily flown to safety, but had refused to abandon her babies. Then when the blaze arrived, and as the intense heat scorched and burned her small body, the mother remained steadfast .... Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.
'He will cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you will find refuge.' (Psalm 91:4)
What a place to be! Abiding under His wings.
Being loved this much should make a difference in your life. Just remember the One who loves you, and then be different because of it.
I'm sending this to people so that God can bless them as they pause to reflect on Him and His promise(s).
Please pass this on to people you want to be blessed.
Time waits for no one. Treasure every moment you have. You will treasure it even more when you can share it with someone special.
To realize the value of a friend... lose one.
No comments:
Post a Comment