ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100217

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable

Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



"Daily Motivations"

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." -- James Allen

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time." -- Anna Freud

A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug. -- Patricia Neal



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:3)

Through their own ability, human beings cannot advance in their knowledge of God beyond a few biographical facts. But God in His love and mercy has taken steps to make Himself known to us in many ways. Because God is so far above us in every aspect, the process begins with Him as He reveals Himself to those who hunger and thirst to know Him.

The most important place we can turn to find the truth about what God is like is the Bible. It gives us the most accurate picture of who God really is. Although all facets of God's nature are always present, He reveals Himself in three primary ways:

1) He reveals Himself as our great Creator. Genesis 1, the first chapter in the Bible, unveils the Creator's mighty works, His unlimited power, and eternal knowledge.

2) He reveals Himself as our perfect Judge. Throughout the historical account in the Old Testament, God gives laws and promises that establish His nature as one of holiness and integrity. If the people obeyed these laws, they would be blessed and happy; if they did not, they would bring God's wrath and judgment upon themselves.

3) He reveals Himself as our gracious Savior. In the New Testament, God sent His Son to earth as Savior of the world. Jesus is the flesh-and-blood picture of God with whom we can relate. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus prove God's love, mercy, and faithfulness.

The most astounding news we can ever hear is that God, the almighty Creator, Judge and Savior, invites us to have an intimate relationship with Him.

Your View of God Really Matters …

Consider how to relate to God as your Creator, Judge, and Savior. How can you worship God with each of those three aspects of Him in mind.



"The Patriot Post"

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." -- Thomas Jefferson



This Week's 'Braying Jenny' Award

"In [the president's] budget, which we passed 100 days after his swearing-in, he had a blueprint for how we go into the future, create jobs, stabilize the economy [and] do so as we reduce the deficit -- [it's] very central to everything we do -- reduce the deficit." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who contributed to nearly quadrupling the deficit in Obama's first year.



From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File

"You know, I was trying to think about who [Barack Obama] was tonight, and it's interesting: He is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour." --MSNBC host Chris "thrill up my leg" Matthews, with a slobbering sycophantic (and genuinely racist) analysis of the SOTU



Election Preview: Democrats

Democrats have experienced a nearly unprecedented reversal of fortune lately, and the bad news just keeps on coming. Arkansas Representative Marion Berry became the sixth Democrat to announce his retirement, and his district is expected to go Republican in November. He told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he urged the White House not to repeat the mistakes of 1994, when congressional Democrats were defeated resoundingly at the polls. He said Obama fired back, "Well, the big difference here and in '94 was, you've got me."

The arrogance necessary to make that kind of comment suggests that Obama has been tapping the keg of his own Kool-Aid. Given the disastrous results of his efforts on behalf of gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, and on behalf of Ted Kennedy's senatorial heir apparent in deep-blue Massachusetts, he's vastly overestimating his marquee value. His much-vaunted health care plan is all but dead, and now House and Senate Democrat leaders will be lucky to keep more members from retiring early. So maybe the "big difference" Obama was referring to is the loss of even more than 54 seats in the House.

Even Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau has seen the writing on the wall. He announced this week that he would not run for the Senate seat vacated when his father became VP. Beau, who is Delaware's Attorney General, indicated that he's just too busy with a controversial child abuse case to focus on a statewide race. Yeah, right. If the Democrats in Massachusetts can't keep the "Kennedy Senate seat" that they held for half a century, what chance does the vice president's son have in Delaware? Republican candidate Mike Castle, a popular congressman and former governor, raised almost $2 million in campaign cash and has run virtually unopposed while Biden was still making up his mind about whether to run.



Election Preview: Republicans

The political landscape indeed favors Republicans, which also means tight races at the primary level. The contest for Florida's Senate seat has turned into a statistical dead heat between Gov. Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio. The moderate Crist's comfortable lead has faded away in recent weeks, as he continues to take heat for Florida's economic difficulties. The state has double-digit unemployment and was the hardest hit by the housing collapse. Crist's popularity is dropping and Rubio, a solid conservative, is now closing the gap in the polls and in the cash department. Both candidates are comfortably ahead of Democrat Kendrick Meek.

In Arizona, erstwhile presidential candidate John McCain is facing a challenge for his Senate seat. Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth announced his candidacy, claiming he was motivated to take on McCain because the latter was an "enabler" of Obama's fiscal policies. McCain certainly is not as conservative as he or the Leftmedia fancy. To name but a few examples, he co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance debacle that the Supreme Court partly struck down last week; the McCain-Edwards-Kennedy Patient's Bill of Rights imposing a new set of onerous mandates on the insurance industry; the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship cap-and-trade bill; and the McCain-Kennedy Amnesty and Open Borders Act legalizing dozens of millions of illegal aliens. And that's not to mention his opposition to the Bush tax cuts; his vicious attacks and vendettas against South Carolina Christians in the 2000 presidential primary, as well as the Swift Boat Veterans and Club for Growth; and his vote (one of six Republicans) against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Of course, Hayworth's voting record in Congress is nothing worth bragging about, either. He voted for the hefty farm and highway spending bills and also had a penchant for earmarks before he was ousted in 2006. Barry Goldwater, call your office.



National Security

Warfront With Jihadistan: Marines to Leave Iraq

While news from Iraq has been noticeably lacking recently -- definitely a good sign of progress and stabilization -- the country was back in the media this week. On Monday, triple suicide blasts ripped through Baghdad, killing at least 41 people. An al-Qa'ida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility. Iraqi authorities have faced increasing criticism over security lapses, and this attack will certainly increase the pressure on the Shiite-led government before Iraq's March 7 national elections.

In Baghdad, Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraqi leaders to discuss their plans to ban candidates suspected of being a part of Saddam Hussein's regime. The administration believes that any candidate bans could undermine the credibility of the election results, which the U.S. views as important for continuing the U.S. troop pullout, as well as helping to break Iraqi government stalemates over issues such as the sharing of oil revenue.

Concerning the U.S. troop pullout, on Saturday, the Marine Corps wrapped up almost seven years in Iraq and handed its duties over entirely to the U.S. Army. This marked the start of an accelerated withdrawal of American troops, as the U.S. turns away from a quieter Iraq and toward Afghanistan. The Marines formally handed control of Iraq's largest province, the Sunni-dominated Anbar region, to the Army during a ceremony in Ramadi, where some of the fiercest battles of the Iraq war were fought.

If everything remains on schedule, these last remaining Marines will be followed out of Iraq by tens of thousands of U.S. Army soldiers over the coming months. President Obama ordered all but 50,000 troops out of Iraq by August of this year, with the largest group scheduled to leave after the March elections. The remaining troops will leave by the end of 2011. After a job well done by U.S. forces, here's hoping the Iraqi armed forces are ready to fully secure their country and their hard-won security..



"The Web"

We Are the Body: How to Become a Practicing Church

Whitney Hopler

Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer

http://www.crosswalk.com/pastors/11626074/page0/

Editor's Note: The following is a report on the practical applications of Tim Morey's recent book, Embodying Our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church, (IVP Books, 2009).

God wants your congregation to do much more than just come to church, focusing on more than just how they can benefit from what the church has to offer. His people are to be the church toward a world in desperate need of its message -- growing more like Jesus and doing their part to carry out His mission.

In our postmodern world, what lost people need is to see faith embodied in the lives of those who believe. That's how they'll best discover that the Gospel is true.

Here's how your church can learn to better embody faith:

Be a contributor instead of a consumer. Don't approach your faith with the goal of simply seeing how much you can personally gain from it; be willing to make the sacrifices Jesus calls you to make so you can contribute to the world through your faith. Don't reduce the church to just a vendor of religious services; view at as missionary community called to spread the Gospel's message in the world. Rather than thinking of church as just a place to enjoy music and uplifting messages while making friends, think of it from God's perspective - as a place to learn how to become more like Jesus and serve others in need to fulfill His purposes. Pray for the ability to shift your focus from inward to outward. Ask God to help you discover, develop, and use the talents He has given you to help make the world a better place. Be alert to the opportunities He places in your path, and be willing to respond to them.

Become a missionary to your culture. Study the culture that God has placed you in so you can learn how to communicate the Gospel message in the way that people in your time and place will best understand. Stay current on what messages the media (the Internet, movies, music, TV shows, etc.) is presenting, and think critically about how those messages reflect attitudes in your culture. Consider what questions people are asking about life and faith through the culture, and how you can point them toward biblical truth in ways they can relate to well. Remember to approach people as they actually are right now, not as you wish they were. Keep in mind that many people today aren't familiar with what the Bible says and don't view it as an authoritative source. You may need to help them notice how God is showing up in popular culture before encouraging them to read the Bible. When you do present the Gospel message, communicate it in a context suited for the time and place in which you minister to people.

Let people see a faith that's experiential. Ask yourself whether your church's worship services convey a sense of the transcendent reality of God. Give people plenty of opportunities to encounter God's power and beauty through worship practices like songs, prayers, Communion, teaching and proclaiming God's Word, art, and personal storytelling. When visitors witness God meeting people through sincere and passionate worship experiences, they can see the Gospel's truth in action. So show people what it looks like to praise God and invite Him to help you grow to become more like Jesus in the process.

Let people see a faith that's communal. Ask yourself if your church congregation manifests love for one another in such a way that it's an appealing community to people on the outside. People will more readily accept the Gospel's message when they see it embodied in a community of Christians - not just a lone individual. Commit to being shaped into Jesus' image through your relationships in your church community. Participate regularly in worship. Join a small group. Express your love for each other through kind and encouraging words and actions. Forgive each other when you each make mistakes, and reconcile your relationships. Serve the world together. Invite your non-Christian friends to serve alongside you so they can see God's love at work up close. Evangelize through personal relationships. Rather than just inviting people to events at your church, invite them fully into your life. Have them over to your home for meals, pursue common interests together (such as playing on the same sports team on the weekends), and talk about all aspects of your life so they'll see how God is at work throughout your life, not just when you go to church. When your non-Christian friends do come to visit your church, let them see how deeply you and those in your congregation are connected to one another because of how you participate in God's work together.

Let people see a faith that's enacted. Ask yourself if people can see God's purposes enacted in your life as you follow His call to go into the world and serve. Follow God's call into ministry projects of compassion and justice. That may mean volunteering at your local hospital or nursing home, collecting donations for your local food bank, building houses for the poor, delivering clothes and meals to homeless people, watching a single mom's kids so she can get a break, doing yard work for elderly neighbors, giving blood regularly or helping someone who needs a transplant - whatever God leads you to do. When you enact your faith through service, you show people what Jesus' love looks like in a tangible form. Rather than just saying prayers for people in need, be willing to be the answer to those prayers if God calls you to help. Then those who are watching will know that God is real because they'll see the reality of His love working through you.

Move beyond evangelism to discipleship. Don't stop at helping people find salvation. Encourage them to grow to become more like Jesus, as well. Help them mature in their faith. Introduce them to spiritual disciplines such as meditation, prayer, fasting, Bible study, simplicity, and solitude. Challenge them to consider how much more they're able to love God and other people every day through the ordinary decisions they make. Listen carefully to their thoughts and feelings. Be authentic and humble with them. Tell them stories of how God is working in your life and ask them to share what they notice about His work in their lives. Don't shy away from God's mystery and transcendence; capture their imaginations as well as their intellects. Encourage people to much more than just trust Jesus to get them to heaven. Invite them to participate in God's world-changing mission.



Maine considers banning biology-based restrooms

'Transgender ID' in schools under scrutiny by human-righs commission

By Michael Carl
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125176

A proposal by the Maine Human Rights Commission to establish a broad right for "transgender" boys to use girls restrooms in all Maine schools will be the subject of a public hearing scheduled by the commission March 1.

The plan, if given ultimate approval by the commission, will establish mandatory transgender restroom access rules for all Maine schools. The proposal was prompted by a decision last year that found a school in Orono, Asa Adams School, discriminated against a boy by denying him access to the girls' restroom.

Christian Civic League of Maine Administrator Mike Hein said it's worrying because he believes the draft of the proposed regulations was developed in a December closed-door session.

"The Maine Human Rights Commission had a secret, closed-door session in December and the public wasn't notified. But Mary Bonauto (director of the Gay and Lesbian Activist and Defenders) was invited to the meeting and she was allowed to present a legal brief at that meeting," Hein said.

The commission said, in documents obtained through a Freedom of Access Act request by Maine's Christian Action League, the June determination that a school discriminated against a boy by not allowing him access to the girls' restroom was correct.

"The commission has found reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred in a complaint alleging that an elementary school had an obligation to allow a transgender student access to common bathrooms consistent with that student's gender identity, and the commission is a party to a court complaint in that case," the commission concluded.

Another document obtained in the same request details the proposal: "Transgender students must be allowed access to bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity or expression or, if they prefer, to existing single stall bathrooms."

It continues: "With respect to locker rooms and shower facilities that involve undressing in front of others, transgender students must be provided with accommodations that meet their needs and that take into account the legitimate privacy concerns of all student involved."

Bonauto has filed a brief with the commission that says the commission is acting properly in trying to deal with students' "identity" issues.

"Practically speaking, making a transgender student with a female gender identity use the boys' restroom would be stigmatizing and have a serious, negative, emotional consequence for the student as well. It would be no less stigmatizing for that student to have to use the boys' room than it would be for any non-transgender girl to be singled out and made to use the boys' room," she claims.

Bonauto suggests restroom usage should not be based on biology.

"Applying these rules, it is clear, for example, that an anatomy or biology-based rule for bathroom usage cannot be used to bar transgender students from using a facility consistent with their gender identity," Bonauto said.

"Such a rule would fail to give effect to the non-discrimination mandate for gender identity, a result at odds with the plain meaning of the 'gender identity' portion of the statute," she said.

"In addition, such a rule is at odds with the Human Rights Act as a whole, since the act seeks to remove obstacles to education, not to impose them. Finally, such a construction would render 'gender identity or expression' meaningless surplus usage with no intended consequences for how schools deal with transgender students," Bonauto said.

On the issue of sports, Bonauto supports rules that require the schools to open doors based on the students' sense of identity.

"GLAD supports a rule that allows students the opportunity to play sports consistent with their gender identity, with no exceptions. The guidance provides this rule 'in most cases' and also states that, 'In very rare cases, legitimate questions about fairness in competitive interscholastic sports may need to be resolved on a case-by-case basis," Bonauto said.

Bonauto did not respond to a request for comment.

But Hein said the proposals will have a derogatory impact on Maine's schools.

"What it comes down to is that we are completely getting rid of the concept of gender. Gender is being stricken in all forms in Maine if this proposed guideline is adopted as is," he said.

Listen to an interview about Maine's plan:

Hein says the issue of sports competition will be adversely impacted as well.

"It completely turns on its head what we consider boys basketball, girls basketball. Gender normative sports will be completely erased under these guidelines. In addition, if the proposed guidelines are adopted, you will have biological boys in the middle school, high school or college setting showering with girls," Hein said.

The difficulties in sports are also a point of concern with the University of Maine. In a letter obtained through the FOAA request, University of Maine Office of Equal Opportunity Director Karen Kemble said the proposal raises some important questions.

"As the current language acknowledges, there will likely be cases in which allowing a transgender student to participate in gender-segregated sports in accordance with the gender identity or expression will raise legitimate concerns about fairness in competitive interscholastic sports. Although such requests from transgender students may be very rare, among those, fairness of play may become an issue," Kemble said.

The letter obtained in the FOAA request continues.

"The university also wanted to take the opportunity to point out some scenarios that could cause unintended consequences. For example, based on information provided by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on the issue, a transgendered individual's participation on a gender-segregated team could result in the NCAA's treating that team as a mixed team. This would have a number of serious consequences including potentially impacting the institution's compliance with Title IX," Kemble said.

Hein said the proposed regulations also will have an impact on private and Christian schools.

"Any school in Maine whose authority to grant diplomas is authorized by the state will have to follow these guidelines. That includes Christian and private schools," Hein said.

If the state adopts the proposed regulations, private schools may not have many alternatives.

"What has to occur for Christian schools, religious schools and parochial schools, in Maine under these guidelines is that civil disobedience must occur. This situation really rises to the level of Christian schools, schools that confess morality and decency will have to resist the rules and regulations of the state," Hein said.

Currently, Colorado, Iowa, Washington state, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco have rules, policies or laws dealing with transgender restroom accommodations. The Maine rules would make Maine the first state in the U.S. to adopt the policies for elementary and secondary school students and may make Maine the first to extend the rules to private and sectarian schools.

WND has reported on the Christian Civic League of Maine's call for the public to contact state legislators and oppose imposition of the regulations.

This is not the first time the argument has arisen. WND previously reported when the city council of Tampa, Fla., voted unanimously to include "gender identity and expression" as a protected class under the city's human rights ordinance, leading some to fear the council has opened the city's public bathroom doors to sexual predators masquerading as protected transsexuals.

A statement from the American Family Association explained, "Tampa Police arrested Robert Johnson in February 2008 for hanging out in the locker room–restroom area at Lifestyle Fitness and watching women in an undressed state. The City of Tampa's 'gender identity' ordinance could provide a legal defense to future cases like this if the accused claims that his gender is female."

WND also reported on a similar plan adopted by fiat in Montgomery County, Md., which opponents said would open up women's locker rooms to men who say they are women.

The issue also has come up in Colorado, where Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law a plan that effectively strikes gender-specific restrooms in the state.

And city officials in Kalamazoo, Mich., only weeks after adopting a "perceived gender" bias plan, abandoned it in the face of massive public opposition.



Nation’s Top Conservatives Will Sign Philosophical Declaration of War against Big Government

By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61365

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan during the Inauguration Day parade, January 20, 1981. (Wikimedia Commons photo)

(CNSNews.com) - The nation's top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va.—a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm—to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement. It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.

The statement emphatically says no to the type of "change" pushed by political leaders who ignore the Constitution's limits on government power.

“In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics,” says an excerpt from the statement. “The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

“Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new,” says the statement. “But where would this lead--forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?”

“The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles,” it says.

The full document will be posted online at www.themountvernonstatement.com after 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The statement was drafted under the auspices of the Conservative Action Project, a coalition led by Edwin Meese, who served as a top White House adviser and then attorney general to President Ronald Reagan. Other leaders of the coalition include L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center (the parent organization of CNSNews.com); Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner; Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist; Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, American Conservative Union President David Keene, Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright; Coalition for a Conservative Majority Chairman Ken Blackwell; former Reagan Domestic Policy Adviser Ken Cribb; Let Freedom Ring President Colin Hanna, and Al Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator.

More than 80 prominent conservatives from around the country are expected at Collingwood for Wednesday’s signing ceremony. Among them will be people prominent for their efforts on behalf of the conservative cause in economics, social and cultural issues and national security.

The statement intentionally harkens back to the Sharon Statement of 1960, which was signed at the home of William F. Buckley Jr. in Sharon, Conn. That statement of conservative principles helped launch an era of conservative activism that first led to Sen. Barry Goldwater winning the Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and then to Ronald Reagan being elected president in 1980.

“The whole purpose of it is to give an updated version of what are the principles that draw conservatives together,” said Meese, who came with Reagan from California to the White House in January 1981. “And so it was felt both that it was appropriate to draw attention to the Sharon Statement but also to update that in terms of generally how conservatives think today, which is basically the same principles restated in what you might call modern language.”

“At this important time, we need a restatement of constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” says another excerpt of the statement released by the organizers.

After President Barack Obama’s election along with a Democratic majority Congress in 2008, some commentators argued that conservatism had perhaps permanently lost its hold on the American electorate and the American mind. Over the past year, however, the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement has risen up from the grass roots, and Republican candidates have won convincing victories in statewide elections in Virginia, New Jersey and even Massachusetts.

Meese told CNSNews.com that if the Republican Party wants to continue this winning trend it must heed conservative principles. “The Republican Party has been successfully when it subscribes to conservative principles,” said Meese. “You go back to 1980, go back to 1994, those were the guiding principles that provided for Republican successes.”

While a number of conservative commentators and organizations will be publishing policy prescriptions this year that they believe can help lead to conservative victories in 2010, the Mount Vernon Statement will not be a campaign document that focuses on individual issues or one election cycle. Rather, it will focus on broad principles, said Media Research President Brent Bozell.

“It’s a document that we hope is going to serve as a compass for the movement so that when we have a debate such as, for example, on socialized health care, there should not be a degree to which government participates in national health care but whether government has the authority, the right to interfere in this issue,” Bozell told CNSNews.com. “If it doesn’t have the specifically enumerated right and responsibility spelled out in the Constitution, then the federal government should not be involved period.”

“Rather than worrying about the size of the deficit and the debt, why don’t we start asking questions about the size of the government itself,” Bozell said. “We need to have that conversation again. Why do we have a Department of Education? Whatever happened to federalism? You’re not going to have that debate until you’re grounded in first principles again.”

When the Sharon Statement was signed, conservatives had only National Review and Human Events to publicize it, said Bozell. But now conservative Web sites, talk radio shows, and social media will make it possible to quickly spread the word to millions about the Mount Vernon Statement.

“Look at the opportunities today,” said Bozell. “When the statement is released, I will be able to send it instantly to 540,000 members of the Media Research Center, grassroots members. The Heritage Foundation has more than 600,000 members. They will be able to send to their membership who will receive it in a matter of minutes.”



Obama’s Big Plans for Justice Department Nominee Johnsen

by Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski

http://biggovernment.com/kenandken/2010/02/10/obamas-big-plans-for-justice-department-nominee-johnsen/

The Senate is about to act on the nomination of militant leftist Dawn Johnsen to be the chief of the U.S. government’s elite legal team. But that post is a stepping-stone for top judicial offices, including the Supreme Court itself. That’s likely Barack Obama’s plans for Johnsen, and it’s why she must be stopped now.

Ultra-liberal activist Dawn Johnsen, currently a professor at Indiana University School of Law, is President Obama’s nominee to be assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). As the OLC chief, Johnsen would shape the legal positions of the Obama administration on every issue. OLC is the elite legal team for the federal government, giving legal advice on every important issue to the attorney general, other department heads in the government, and to the president himself. That’s why the head of OLC is called “the attorney general’s lawyer.”

The problem is that Johnsen is a radical. As the former legal director for the extremist abortion-rights group NARAL, Johnsen argued in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that denying a pregnant woman the right to demand unrestricted abortion is to subject her to slavery, which was outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment after the Civil War.

She also argues that wiretapping a known terrorist is illegal without first obtaining a warrant, that military detention of terrorists captured on foreign battlefields is illegal, and that being commander-in-chief gives the president no constitutional authority to use wartime measures that would not be allowed against U.S. citizens during peacetime.

And finally, she believes in “economic justice,” which is the euphemistic term of the Radical Left, referring to the concept that government should confiscate and redistribute personal wealth to create a more “just” society. In one word, it’s socialism.

Even worse, Johnsen passionately argues that liberals should, “focus on the courts as the vehicles for desired change.” In other words, her legal advice would not only be advice; she intends to craft legal strategies to cram ultra-left outcomes down America’s throat through judicial activist court decisions.

The normal rule is that the Senate should give tremendous deference to any president when it comes to whom that president wants to assist him in the executive branch. Such appointees serve only at the pleasure of the president, they are there solely to carry out the president’s directions in steering the government, and they go out the door the instant the president does, if not before.

But even tremendous deference is not unlimited deference. The Senate defers, but they do not give a blank check. Otherwise there would be no Senate confirmation process; the Constitution would instead just empower the president to appoint anyone he wants to all executive-branch departments and offices.

And for low-ranking officers, called “inferior officers,” the Constitution does allow for the president to directly appoint without the Senate. But for senior executive officials, called “principal officers,” the Appointments Clause of Article Two of the Constitution requires Senate confirmation as a check on the president’s power.

This is one of those extraordinary circumstances where the Senate should reject a nominee. Comparing being pro-life to supporting slavery is a grossly offensive statement, especially to African-Americans, and her other extremist views are so radical that she is a textbook example of someone who must be denied confirmation.

What’s so important about the head of OLC is that it’s also a stepping-stone to top judicial positions, including the Supreme Court. Antonin Scalia was the head of OLC before he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and then on to the Supreme Court. Samuel Alito was the deputy chief at OLC, before he went on to be U.S. attorney, then a judge on the Third Circuit, and now serves on the Supreme Court.

But former Chief Justice William Rehnquist is the best example. He was the head of OLC in the early 1970s, and then was nominated directly to the Supreme Court. The assistant attorney general at OLC is prestigious enough that a person can go straight from that position to our highest court.

That may be Obama’s plan for Johnsen. She’s a dream judge for the Radical Left. Although she likely wouldn’t go straight to the High Court, she looks like someone being groomed for our nation’s second-highest court, the D.C. Circuit, from which she would be on the top of the short-list for a Supreme Court vacancy.

And even if she never makes it to the Supreme Court, she could do terrible damage to national security and other issues as a judge on the D.C. Circuit. Several former OLC chiefs serve on our nation’s appellate circuit courts.

To the extent that she can be exposed now, she may become too much of a liability for a lifetime judicial appointment. And if she can be stopped now, then she’ll likely never wear a black robe.

Senator Orrin Hatch, who as a principled statesman is consistently deferential on executive-branch presidential nominations, is one of the senators leading the charge against Johnsen. Hatch, the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, knows all too well how OLC is a springboard to our top federal courts, and this is doubtless driving part of his opposition to Johnsen.

Finally, it’s poetic justice to note that this is also Johnsen reaping what she has sown. Johnsen has called on the Senate to refuse confirmation to any judicial nominee who believes in the slightest restriction to abortion, or even to any person who belongs to the legal debating group called The Federalist Society, a mainstream conservative/libertarian legal studies organization. Having taken such a rabid and militant stand against others being confirmed, she can hardly cry foul that the Senate is now applying an even less-severe standard in opposing her.

Dawn Johnsen is a radical who has no business heading OLC. The Senate should stop her from being confirmed to this vitally-important office.



Morning Bell: Don’t Celebrate First Failed Stimulus with a Second One

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/16/morning-bell-dont-celebrate-first-failed-stimulus-with-a-second-one/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or as it is more accurately described, President Barack Obama’s Failed Stimulus. When President Obama signed the now $862 billion deficit-spending bill into law, the unemployment rate stood at 7.6% and the U.S. economy employed 133.5 million people. At the time President Obama promised the American people that, thanks to his stimulus, unemployment would never go higher than 8.2% and the U.S. economy would support 138.6 million jobs by December 2010.

At the one year mark unemployment is now 9.7%, after rising above 10%, and the U.S. economy has lost 4 million jobs leaving the White House 9 million jobs short of the 138.6 million they promised to deliver by December of this year. By any objective measure President Obama’s $862 billion stimulus must be judged as a complete failure. Undeterred by these facts, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) published a report on the economic effects of the Administration’s economic stimulus plan claiming that there are 2 million more jobs in the economy than there otherwise would have been had the President’s stimulus not become law. But as Heritage Policy Analyst Karen Campbell has documented, the CEA report relies on completely arbitrary benchmark projections that fail even basic standards of economic analysis. If the Administration had used other economic forecasts, the results would not have been as impressive – in fact, some would have shown that the economy lost more jobs after the stimulus package was implemented.

Armed with their CEA propaganda, President Obama is dispatching his Cabinet officials to 35 communities across the country this week to try and convince the American people that his Failed Stimulus is in fact, a success. The President faces an uphill climb: according to the latest poll from The New York Times only 6% of Americans believe the stimulus has created jobs and 48% of Americans believe it never will.

One might hope that after $862 billion in failed stimulus spending, that liberals in Washington would take a break from spending other people’s borrowed money. No such luck. The House has already passed a new $154 billion stimulus package and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is pushing a$15 billion plan in the Senate, $13 billion of which is a temporary Social Security payroll tax exemption for new hires. This temporary tax break will further increase our Social Security system’s existing deficits, will cost $1 million per only eight temporary new jobs according to the Congressional Budget Office, and will do nothing to decrease long-term unemployment.

While this would be President Obama’s second stimulus, it would actually be this recession’s third. In February 2008, President George Bush passed an equally useless mix of temporary tax cuts and mortgage grantees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totaling $168 billion. That stimulus did nothing to stop the recession and neither will President Obama’s second stimulus. Our nation simply can’t afford wasting hundreds of billions of dollars and deficit Keynesian stimulus spending every February. Now is a good time to stop.



Lake Erie Frozen over; First Time in 14 Years

Where is Al Bore, I mean Al Gore? I couldn't find the pencil eraser at first!

http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&article=2

Following a cold snap in the Northeast, Lake Erie's surface is virtually frozen over for the first time in about 14 years.

The ice ranges in thickness between paper thin along the northern shore and several inches along the southern shore, where many people are ice skating.

GoErie.com reports that the lake hasn't completely frozen since the winter of 1995-1996.

Although the ice cover is considered complete, prevailing winds have created some cracks in the ice.

There are also reportedly ice chunks floating off the coast of Dunkirk, N.Y., which is one of the deepest parts of the lake and would naturally be one of the last places to freeze.

Lake Erie, with an average depth of 62 feet, is the most shallow of the five Great Lakes, which is why it is the only one that completely freezes over.

Since lake-effect snow depends on warmer lake temperatures compared to the air, the frozen lake will deter large amounts of snowfall to the lee of the lake.

The current cold snap will keep the lake mostly, if not completely, frozen for at least the rest of the month.

Story by AccuWeather.com's Gina Cherundolo



"The e-mail Bag"

SOMETIMES IT DOES TAKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST

Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch standard 4 pound dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains.

Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers. When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's backrest in two, and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow.

The horrified Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the US scientists for suggestions.

NASA responded with a one-line memo

"Defrost the chicken."