The Scriptorium

When will the Americans that voted for Obama fully wakeup and realize they elected a big spending Marxist. Socialism/Marxism has never worked anywhere that it’s been tried throughout history. A government takeover of much of the economy is just the beginning of our Presidents plan to spread his social justice philosophy, and we will all pay a huge price for believing the lying MSM, and excepting socialism. Unless, more independents and Democrats begin to suffer under the Obama economy and decide progressivism helps ho one but the elitist rulers in Washington.

More Americans now disapprove of President Barack Obama than approve of him as high unemployment and government spending scare voters ahead of November’s congressional elections, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday.

In the latest grim news for Obama’s Democrats, 72 percent of people said they were very worried about joblessness and 67 percent were very concerned about government spending.

….

Obama’s disapproval rating was 52 percent in Tuesday’s poll, overtaking his approval rating for the first time in an Ipsos poll. Only 45 percent of people said they approved of the president’s performance, down from 48 percent last month.

That number, coupled with a hearty 62 percent who think the country is going in the wrong direction, could spell trouble for Democrats, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

Pray for an awakening in this country, and a return to God. We are not endowed with our rights and freedoms by government. They come from God. Our founders understood this. Our current leaders do not. Let’s get rid of all of them in November. Perhaps firing all of them will wake them up to the fact that we the people run this country, not corrupt politicians.

The Tea Party protest in Washington D.C. today went beyond a huge success! It’s possibly the largest protest to ever rock the Capitol. Naturally, the MSM did it’s best to under report the events and then under estimate the number of protesters. When Democrats protest the numbers get grossly inflated, but when somewhere between several hundred thousand and a million or more protesters converge on Washington, the Press calls it “tens of thousands of people”. WHAT? More like tens of hundreds of thousands. Let us not be discouraged by the Lame Stream Media though. Obama got to fly over the “mob” of “astroturfers” he’s been whining about in every speech lately in Marine One, as he escaped to his own puny rally, and he got to see how huge the opposition to his socialism and over spending is.

Congress better be paying attention. The protest in D.C. was just one of 200 protests that took place around the country, all with equally gratifying turnout. Can you hear us now, Congress? I’m betting they did when the throngs of “Bible totin, clingin to their guns and religion” protesters shouted those words together at the conclusion of todays march on Washington. If they heard that thunderous roar from the streets, they would be wise to pay attention and remember who they work for.

Link

It looks as if the Cap and Trade (AKA Tax and Trade) bill will likely pass and be signed into law. I wonder how many Americans really know what this portends for their future, and are aware of how much it is going to cost them, not only in dollars, but in their standard of living? If you don’t think it will affect you, consider that one entry in the bill called for the funding and erection of “SHARE THE ROAD WITH BICYCLES SIGNS” with the stated goal of encourage people to drive slower, and preparing drivers to accept the coming bicycle age. The coming bicycle age? Why don’t we just skip right to the stone age? How many of you elderly Democrats, disabled Obama voters, or yuppy liberals who have long commutes to work are ready to start using your government issue bicycle to get around?

It’s not a joke folks. The cost of energy and price of gas are going to skyrocket with this bill. Remember Obama’s campaign promise that he would make us less dependent on foreign oil. It was yet another lie! Cap and Trade will make it more expensive, because of CO2 emission taxes, to buy domestic fuel than to buy from refineries overseas. The bill will actually tax domestic production at a higher rate than Obama’s Arab buddies. The Heritage Foundation’s cost estimate report on Cap and Trade predicts that a large percentage of refineries in the states will be forced to shut down. I would venture to guess this is the reason the Republicans tried to pass an amendment that would end Cap and Trade if gas prices reach $5.00 a gallon. The Democrats voted it down. They admittedly want gas prices and energy costs higher, in order to force Americans to use less energy. Not only do they not care about the millions of jobs that will be lost as our GDP plummets and companies go out of business, they want more power and control over our lives by way of taxing us into government dependency.

Our government is no longer afraid of the people that elect them. As Thomas Jefferson said, “When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have freedom.” We are living under a tyrannical government that no longer cares how many calls they receive at their offices from angry voters. They fear the threats of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who warned Democrats that “anyone who voted against this bill would pay”. Elections have consequences, and the consequence of the last election is that we gave up the right to govern ourselves. We handed any influence we might have had over to Socialist politicians who see economic crisis as an opportunity for more government control.

Every American should seriously read this report and start preparing for what our government is about to do to us. A real resistance to Obama’s planned destruction of this country better begin soon, or it will be too late. I fear, by the time people wake up, our government will have also woken up to the importance of taking away our second amendment rights. See the current massacre in Iran for an example of what happens when an unarmed populace tries to fight for their freedom.

Wasn’t it President Obama who recently commented in a media interview that we in the U.S. are currently OUT OF MONEY? And, wasn’t it Obama who admitted we are operating in deep deficits? This IS the guy whose budget will add TRILLIONS, with a T, to the national debt, right? This is also, the guy who chastised hedge fund managers as being speculators for being unwilling to “sacrifice” like the rest of us, simply because bond holders didn’t appreciate being totally ripped off in favor of the Unions who benefited from Obama’s government takeover, instead of a bankruptcy plan for Chrysler that would have protected the investments of many every-day, middle class Americans. How dare they complain when Obama redistributes their money!! They are just a part of the peasantry, and don’t need to have money for their families, or for date night with their wives! This is a privilege reserved for the tax evaders, lobbyists, and Elitists in Washington.

The One must not be criticized for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (some have estimated into the millions) on fuel, security, etc. to jet his wife across the country, and take in a Broadway show. All wealth must be redistributed fairly (stolen from those who earned it) so that our tax dollars can pay for Michelle’s night out. What would the media report, if they couldn’t analyze Michelle’s latest hideous outfit, or $500 dollar pair of shoes? Certainly not a nuclear North Korea who has now withdrawn from the Cease Fire agreement that ended hostilities in the Korean War.

Just like all Marxists, Obama’s vision of fairness, wealth redistribution, tax laws, conservation, and sacrifice doesn’t include the ruling class. They are exempt from his form of social justice.

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, flew to New York City today for dinner and a Broadway show.

“I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all over,” Obama, 47, said in a statement.

The Obamas dined at the Blue Hill restaurant near Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

The restaurant’s menu includes spinach soup with pickled shiitake mushrooms for $14, grass-fed lamb with asparagus, broccoli rabe and fiddlehead ferns for $36, and chocolate bread pudding for $12.

After spending about two-and-a-half hours at the restaurant, the Obama’s motorcade drove up 6th Avenue to the theater district to see the Broadway play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Belasco Theatre. The first couple received a standing ovation when they arrived.

Republicans seized on the Obamas’ night as an opportunity to criticize the president for living a life of leisure while much of the country struggles.

Link

Zero and his wife have ZERO class. It’s embarrassing as an American.

President Obama could have long ago put to rest the concerns that he’s not legally allowed to be president of the United States by showing an actual, certified copy of his birth certificate. The “copy” he posted on his website was not authentic. Now, two soldiers are adding themselves to the list of plaintiffs demanding to know if Barack Hussein Obama is constitutionally allowed to be President. For all Americans this is an issue of great importance, but for those who wear the uniform of the armed forces, the ramifications are even greater. The President of the United States is also their Commander-in-Chief. At least two soldiers want to know if the orders given by Obama are actually lawful orders. Read more here.

During the last eight years, liberals protested anything that moved, breathed, or displayed the American Flag. Conservatives have not been known for public protests and demonstrations…until recently. President Obama’s Porkulus bill stirred conservatives to demonstrate in Seattle, Denver, Mesa, and other places. If you are missed out on those and want to try your hand at sign-making and peaceful protesting, never fear. Friday (2/27) will see a new version of the Boston Tea Party held in cities throughout the U.S. Liberal protests tend to be well attended, as the protesters don’t need a good excuse to get out of Mom and Dad’s basement and get rowdy. After all, it’s not like they actually work for a living. So we need to put forth that extra effort. In Seattle, the Tea Party demonstration will largely be held during the lunch hour to accommodate those of us who otherwise have to keep the economy rolling. If you can get time out of work, so much the better. Make some creative signs, show up, enjoy fellowship with other conservatives, have some fun, and make sure this country knows that we’re not all sheeple willing to quietly let this administration lead us from recession into depression. We’re not willing to mortgage our future and our children’s future for a folly that will stimulate nothing but indebtedness and socialism. Hope to see y’all out there! For a list of Tea Parties around the U.S., click here.

By the way, Birkenstocks are okay, but leave tie-dyed shirts to the libs. And the black bandanas? Those are for the anarchists, so don’t wear those either. Oh, and since liberal protests are usually marked with rampant obscenities and vandalism, let’s show that protests can be fun and relevant without being vulgar or illegal.

This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in quite some time. A group home counselor in Orange County, CA has been suspended for six weeks for – oh, the horror – allowing kids in her charge to overhear Christian music. This is just insane! The Pacific Justice Institute is representing the counselor and has the details:

A lawsuit has been filed against Orange County by a veteran group home counselor who was suspended six weeks for exposing four teenagers to Christian music. The counselor is represented by affiliate and staff attorneys of Pacific Justice Institute.

The lawsuit states that, in the summer of 2006, the counselor took four teenage girls from the Orangewood Children’s Home on an approved field trip to a 5K run and then to the beach. At the beach, the group encountered a “Surf Jam” taking place at the Huntington Beach pier. The group also overheard Christian music for about ten minutes while they were eating.

Following the beach outing, the counselor, an eighteen-year employee, was summoned to a disciplinary meeting focusing on the Christian music. Several months later, the same incident was brought up again and the counselor was slapped with a six-week suspension for “exposing children to unapproved religious activities.”

After many months of exhausting state administrative remedies, the counselor filed suit late last week in Orange County Superior Court to recover the financial losses she suffered from the suspension and to vindicate her constitutional rights. The counselor is represented by John and Laurie Messerly Stewart, attorneys in Orange, California, and the Pacific Justice Institute.

He who controls the money…. This is really scary folks. Our government is buying out bank after bank. The latest “bailout” makes the Fed the largest shareholder in Bank of America. We are on the fast track to socialism and there isn’t a conservative in site that has a spine.

Last fall, as Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials rode to the rescue of one financial institution after another, they took great pains to avoid doing anything that smacked of nationalizing banks.

They may no longer have that luxury. With two of the nation’s largest banks buckling under yet another round of huge losses, the incoming administration of Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve are suddenly dealing with banks that are “too big to fail” and yet unable to function as the sinking economy erodes their capital.

Particularly in the case of Citigroup, the losses have become so large that they make it almost mathematically impossible for the government to inject enough capital without taking a majority stake or at least squeezing out existing shareholders.

And the new ground rules laid down by Obama’s top economic advisers for the second half of the $700 billion bailout fund, as explained in a letter submitted to Congress on Thursday, call for the government to play an increasing role in the major activities of the banks, from the dividends they pay to shareholders to the amount they can pay executives.

“We are down a path that this country has not seen since Andrew Jackson shut down the Second National Bank of the United States,” said Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “We are going to go back to a time when the government controlled the banking system.”

Link

In Brighton, Michigan the First Amendment has been rescinded in favor of a more tolerant interpretation of freedom of speech. Choose your words wisely when in Brighton, or you could be cited and fined for annoying someone. I kid you not. Annoying speech has been banned. All that’s needed to find yourself on the wrong side of the law is a complaint from someone who is annoyed by you, or a Brighton police officer catching you in the act of saying something that annoys him, or her. I’m guessing something like a pro-life opinion would be deemed annoying by the liberal chief of police. Eventually, someone will point out to them that the courts have already ruled viewpoint discrimination is unconstitutional. Lawsuits in 3..2…

Brighton, Michigan, apparently wants to stop “annoying” free speech.

The Brighton City Council recently passed a strict code for public conduct, and those who violate the law, including those who annoy someone else, could be cited and fined. LivingstonDaily.com reports Brighton Police Chief Tom Wightman issued the ordinance. Even though the edict features the word “annoy” at least twice, he contends it “is not for somebody that says something annoying” but rather for “some course of action for repeated acts.”

Gary Glenn, head of American Family Association of Michigan, disagrees. “I think this ordinance in Brighton is clearly unconstitutional in that it attempts to restrict people’s exercise of their free-speech rights based on the content of their speech,” he says. “That’s clearly viewpoint discrimination.”

Police Chief Wightman says the ordinance would apply more to verbal interactions than an upsetting or annoying T-shirt, for example. However, Glen believes it could have a negative effect on individuals and pro-family groups.

“If someone dared, in a public place in Brighton, expressed their sincere religious conviction — for example, that homosexual behavior is sinful — obviously if someone was offended or insulted or even ‘annoyed,’ as the ordinance says, they might try to bring charges against somebody for merely expressing their sincerely held Christian beliefs,” he points out.

The town is ripe for a lawsuit, says Glenn, if officials try to enforce the new decree.

Link

A court rightly decided that a business has the right to put a sign on private property and that right cannot be taken away, and the business own punished simply because the message on the sign is Christian in nature. It’s absurd that the State of New York thought they could treat this man like a criminal, and deny him the rights other business owners have under the constitution, just because of his religious beliefs. Christians must take a lesson from this gentleman and fight back when the left tries to make us accept being second class citizens. Don’t wait until your rights are taken away to realize how important they are to you.

A New York man has won a battle with the New York Department of Transportation over a trailer he parked on his private property along a public highway that was targeted because of its Christian message.

Daniel Burritt installed a tractor-trailer for his company, Acts II Construction, Inc., on private business property along U.S. Route 11 in 2007.

In May he got a letter from the New York State Department of Transportation stating that his trailer violated a state law and constituted a “public nuisance.” The NYDOT said a permit had to be obtained or the trailer would be forcibly removed and legal action would follow, even though the agency does not require permits for commercial messages being displayed.

Burritt’s legal counsel objected to the NYDOT’s requirement for a permit, saying it penalized him because of his faith.

“Christians shouldn’t be singled out and penalized for sharing their beliefs,” Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said. “We are pleased the court recognizes that displaying a religious message on private property has always been protected under the First Amendment.”

Bowman said the state violated the Constitution by treating religion in a less favorable manner than business because it did not take into account that a central aspect of the Burritt’s construction business is evangelism.

ADF attorneys
filed suit on behalf of Burritt in June and reached an agreement with the NYDOT to allow the trailer to stay until a decision could be reached. A state district court decision now has ordered the state to allow the sign to remain.

Link to Worldnet Daily Article

Yet another example of how the Bush Administration kept us safe from another Jihadist attack on the homeland.

A federal jury on Monday convicted five men of conspiracy to kill American soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder, according to the Associated Press.

The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against three brothers — Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka — and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.

The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs, face a maximum of life in prison.

Federal prosecutors said that the five men were planning to attack Fort Dix and the military personnel within it, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. During the men’s trial, prosecutors argued that evidence, including hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and F.B.I. informants, jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer, and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns, showed they intended to carry out an armed assault on the base.

Link

They are living among us, and we can’t afford the Left’s denials that the War on Terror even exists.

This, from the party that likes to claim their for free speech! If Obama wins (pray that he doesn’t), and the Democrats take over both houses of Congress, the Democrats are set to reimpose the “fairness doctrine”. This doctrine basically takes away Conservative free speech in the name of “fairness”, and demands that liberal talking points be given the same amount of time on talk radio programs, and other Conservative forums. You can bet this law won’t apply to NPR, PBS, and the other publicly funded liberal talk shows and television programs. It boggles my mind that some Americans can not see the obvious unconstitutionality of our government dictating what people on the radio, TV, and probably the internet are allowed to talk about and share with their listeners. Since the failure of Air America and the dismal ratings of liberal talk radio shows have continued, despite liberals best efforts, they are itching to force Conservatives to take up their talking points for them. It’s an obvious violation of the First Amendment to mandate “fairness”, and a loss of freedom for all of us.

Maybe this kind of censorship is what it will take for people to wake up and realize who they have elected to run their country. When blogs, internet media sites, and all things Conservative are once again regulated by liberal censorship, a few people might just regret not fighting harder against the Socialist, Marxist leaders of the Democrat party. Unfortunately, it will be too late. It’s time for churches, Christians, and every Conservative in this country to start fighting again, before we haven’t the freedom to do so. And, the next time we have the opportunity to elect Conservatives back into power (when the democrats are finished ruining our economy and defecating on our Constitution), lets elect some leaders with the backbone to actually do what we demand of them.

SHOULD Barack Obama win the presidency and Democrats take full control of Congress, next year will see a real legislative attempt to bring back the Fairness Doctrine – and to diminish conservatives’ influence on broadcast radio, the one medium they dominate.

Yes, the Obama campaign said some months back that the candidate doesn’t seek to re-impose this regulation, which, until Ronald Reagan’s FCC phased it out in the 1980s, required TV and radio broadcasters to give balanced airtime to opposing viewpoints or face steep fines or even loss of license. But most Democrats – including party elders Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Al Gore – strongly support the idea of mandating “fairness.”

Fairness in who’s eyes? In the eyes of Nancy Pelosi, that’s who.

Would a President Obama veto a new Fairness Doctrine if Congress enacted one? It’s doubtful.

The Fairness Doctrine was an astonishingly bad idea. It’s a too-tempting power for government to abuse. When the doctrine was in effect, both Democratic and Republican administrations regularly used it to harass critics on radio and TV.

Second, a new Fairness Doctrine would drive political talk radio off the dial. If a station ran a big-audience conservative program like, say, Laura Ingraham’s, it would also have to run a left-leaning alternative. But liberals don’t do well on talk radio, as the failure of Air America and indeed all other liberal efforts in the medium to date show. Stations would likely trim back conservative shows so as to avoid airing unsuccessful liberal ones.

Then there’s all the lawyers you’d have to hire to respond to the regulators measuring how much time you devoted to this topic or that. Too much risk and hassle, many radio executives would conclude. Why not switch formats to something less charged – like entertainment or sports coverage?

I guess when you can’t win listeners just based on your ideas, you have to use lawyers to get your way. Disgusting.

Read the rest here.

I believe McCain was the clear winner in the debate tonight. Fox News seems to be the only media source who must have watched a different debate. Even the AP is giving it to McCain.

McCain finally decided to fight back, and show the American people why Obama deserves a closer look before voters make the mistake of trusting him. Ayers and Acorn were given a brief mention this time, and I felt Obama’s response was severely lacking. Regarding the ACORN vote fraud that is becoming a huge problem in states all over the country, Obama was dismissive. He half heartedly gave an explanation that basically over simplified it and made it seem like Obama didn’t think it was a big deal. He said something like, “um, uh, basically some volunteers for Acorn were supposed to get some registration forms filled out and they filled out more than they were supposed to.” He said it in a way that made it seem like it’s nothing we really need to be concerned about. That won’t help him with the American people in my opinion. The Acorn scandal is all over the news, and it’s making a complete shambles of our voting system, to the extent that it may cause something even worse than the Florida debacle of 2000. Dismissing vote fraud of this magnitude is a big mistake. He also never really addressed McCain’s statement that Obama paid ACORN over 800,000 for what his campaign erroneously labeled “staging and lighting” in their campaign’s financial reporting. Obama later corrected it to reflect the truth. It was given to ACORN for “get out the vote activities” – the very activities that generated hundreds of thousands of fraudulent voter registrations for the Democrats.

On Ayers, I thought Obama also looked weak and a little flustered. But, McCain was probably wise not to push it any further. He said enough to get the American people curious and interested, and Obama said enough to make it look like a legitimate complaint about Obama’s connections, character, friends, and judgment. I was left feeling like a whole lot of Americans just might feel compelled to go to their computers after the debate, and read up on Obama’s relationship with Ayers, and others. I do wish McCain had pointed out that Obama flat lied when the controversy first came up by saying that he didn’t even know Ayers. When Obama confessed in the debate that he did work with Ayers on the Annenberg project, McCain should have pointed out that Obama was obviously lying again when he claimed earlier not to know him, and later said he was just a guy in his neighborhood. But, we can’t have everything we want, and I think overall McCain handled it well.

On issues, McCain spanked Obama. I really don’t see what the media Obamanoids love so much about Barrack’s speaking abilities. To me, he sounds clueless far too often, and he does far too much um, um, uuuuuuuuh, uuuuuh, becuuuuuuuuuuuzzzz, becuuuuuuuuzzzzz. He added to that, in this debate, a lot of smirking, laughing, and condescension. He acts like a man that thinks he’s got the election in the bag, and he doesn’t need to prove anything.

There was another winner in the debate tonight, though, and that was Joe the plumber. McCain got off his best argument by reminding viewers of Joe’s question to Obama on taxes. He repeated several times Obama’s comment that “he didn’t want to punish Joe for his success, but he just wanted to spread the wealth around”. Obama admitted to wanting to redistribute wealth, which to many voters is nothing less than Socialism. America may be getting more liberal in some areas of the country, but most Americans do NOT want to become a socialist country, and they don’t support socialist policies. Obama handed McCain a bat with Obama’s name on it when he admitted his plan is to take money from those who have, and give it to those he things deserve it more, even though they already don’t pay taxes.

Probably the best line of the night, though, was when McCain, accidentally I believe, referred to Obama as “Senator Government” when discussing his big government plans. It’s a fitting name for a guy who wants government run healthcare, wants the government to decide whose money should be taken away and given to someone else, and who thinks government is the answer to everything.

I hope McCain didn’t wake up too late, but I’m glad he finally did. He should have learned that the media will be against him whether he fights or not, so he might as well fight.

Better late than never, I guess. Palin has finally been turned loose to speak for the common folks, and say what John reach-across-the-isle McCain is too afraid to say. Those who bypass the MSM filter and get their news from the internet have known for a long time that Obama’s ties to Bill Ayers (domestic terrorist of Weather Underground fame), are far, far more than just “a guy in Obama’s neighborhood”, as Obama tried to claim. Ayers sat on Boards with Obama, and was Obama’s employer for four years during his community organizing days. Obama launched his political career from Ayers house, and even headed one of Ayers main non-profit organizations, as was proven by documents recently released regarding Ayers’ non-profit Chicago “Annenberg Challenge”. The Annenberg papers reveal a very close working relationship between the two, and Obama has even been quoted as saying that the Marxist, domestic terrorist Ayers is “mainstream”!

At a rally/fund raiser in California this morning, Palin gave the crowd some straight talk about Obama’s shady past, and effectively took away the MSM’s ability to continue shielding Obama from these facts. Even the New York Times was forced to write about the Ayers connection in today’s edition, albeit in the form of a pro-Obama, puff piece, severely lacking in facts that can easily be obtained by any journalist who really wants to find them.

It’s about time McCain stopped being afraid of Obama’s inevitable whining that always ensues any time a political opponent actually goes on the offensive against him.

Now watch as the MSM, who referred to Obama’s recent attacks on McCain as a “fiesty response” to negative campaigning, shriek and whine about the evil, “Swiftboat tactics” of a desperate McCain/Palin campaign. Only Liberals are allowed to point out the “failed policies” and “disastrous years” of the Bush Administration and his clone McCain. Conservatives must remain silent, or submit politically correct comments to the MSM filter for the appropriate amount of spinning, mocking, finger pointing, and indignant wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Good luck with that this time, MSM. With Sarah loosed to speak the truth the way we all wish we could, the American people are going to start taking another look at “The One”. They’re going to google some of this new uncensored information, and find out that we don’t want Obama’s kind of change! Go Sarah!!

Read the Weekly Standard Article

Here’s further proof that the unconstitutional policy of “separation of church and state” in our public schools is only enforced when it comes to Christianity. In Minnesota, a public school is openly operating as an Islamic school, complete with mandatory Islamic prayer, and Quranic studies after school that are not optional. Yet, the ACLU has seen no problem with this use of tax dollars to teach religion in school. Only after a substitute teacher called attention to the schools curriculum, did the ACLU begin an investigation. If Christian pastors had been offering prayers at assemblies and holding Bible studies at the end of the day, you can bet the ACLU would be screaming that the religious right is taking over the country and establishing a theocracy.

A Minnesota teacher who substituted for two fifth-grade classes at a publicly funded school located in the same building as an Islamic mosque says religion appears to be a significant focus of the education.

Amanda Getz of Bloomington, Minn., told a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune her duties at Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights included taking students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform “their ritual washing.”

Then, the teacher told columnist Katherine Kersten, “teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day,” was preparing to lead prayer.

Beside him, another man “was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered,” the teacher said.

The Star-Tribune previously documented that the charter high school for kindergarten through eighth-grade students is named after a Muslim warlord, shares the address of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, is led by two imams, is composed almost exclusively (99 percent) of blacks and has as its top goal to preserve “our values.”

And it’s all funded by the taxpayers of Minnesota. . . . .

continue article

Freedom of speech doesn’t apply to Christian students, apparently. A Tomah High School student was given a zero on an art project because it had religious content…correction…Christian content in it. The teacher felt other student’s depictions of demons and satanic imagery were perfectly acceptable, proving that liberals don’t have a problem with religion in our schools. Islam, Satanism, and any other cult that opposes Christianity are welcome. Christians, however, must obey the unconstitutional, made up wall of separation between Church (Christianity) and State. Hypocritical liberal bias, as usual.

A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference.

The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw “demonic” images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional.

“We hear so much today about tolerance,” said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. “But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message.”

Continue Article…..

I wonder how many liberals would maintain their position that American’s are the real terrorists if they knew what’s in store for them should the terrorists win the war on terror. “Schmoozing with Terrorists”, a new book by Aaron Klein, documents the terrorist’s plans for America in their own words, as recorded in numerous interviews with terrorist leaders. If Hollywood only knew that they are at the very top of a long list of American’s who would be immediately stoned to death, should Al Qaeda win the war and conquer America for Islam. Would liberals be so eager to blame America for the Muslim world’s evils if they knew their sympathy and support is to be rewarded with a mandatory head covering for all women as a means for stopping “public nudity”, and public stoning for engaging in premarital sex? Secular society thinks that exposing someone to even the IDEA of abstinence is a form of persecution and intolerance. Maybe they’d prefer men having four wives as the “obvious solution to prostitution (premarital sex)”, as one terror leader proposed. Sadly, the secular liberals in this country will have to learn this lesson the hard way. Terrorists have been admitting to their evil acts for decades, and liberals still think they’re being compassionate and tolerant for disbelieving them.

Madonna and Britney Spears stoned to death? Bars and clubs closed down? Church bells banned? That’s just a taste of what Americans have to look forward to if terrorists ever took over the U.S. and imposed Islamic law, according to a new book.

In one chapter of the recently released “Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, JIhadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!” author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein petitioned Mideast terror leaders to describe day-to-day life in the U.S. if al-Qaida won the war on terror.

“Once Islam dominates, anyone living inside the Islamic state must abide by our rules. There is no choice. You will abide or face the punishment,” said Muhammad Abdel-El, the spokesman and a senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

Sheik Abu Saqer, a prominent Gaza-based preacher, a founder of the Sword of Islam terror group and a subscriber to the ideology of al-Qaida, explained if Islam controls the U.S., all American women, whether Muslim or not, must cover their hair.

“This is the demand of our religion. Being and walking naked doesn’t mean that you are enjoying more freedom; it means that you are going against Allah’s laws and you are serving the enemies of Islam who want to empty our Islamic society from its values. Uncovered heads is a form of nudity.”

While I agree that Bush has finally started to take the border situation seriously, I still don’t believe it’s enough. Illegals are still crossing the border in droves, and the National Guard should be out there doing what the Minute Men proved could be done, instead of filling desk jobs and covering for border agents who’ve never been able to control the borders. It only takes one terrorist to blow up a market or a school.

Presidential press secretary Tony Snow today defended his boss’ level of commitment to border security, saying President Bush is “cognizant” of the fact terrorists may be entering the U.S. illegally.

“The president has made his views on border security well-known,” WND told the spokesman, “and my question: Would the president make border security a higher priority if he were convinced it was being used as an entry point by terrorists like those who are part of Hezbollah and al-Qaida?”

WND Exclusive WND AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Bush worried about border-hopping terrorists
Tony Snow says president ‘already very concerned about it’
Posted: July 20, 2006
3:00 p.m. Eastern

By Les Kinsolving
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Presidential press secretary Tony Snow today defended his boss’ level of commitment to border security, saying President Bush is “cognizant” of the fact terrorists may be entering the U.S. illegally.

“The president has made his views on border security well-known,” WND told the spokesman, “and my question: Would the president make border security a higher priority if he were convinced it was being used as an entry point by terrorists like those who are part of Hezbollah and al-Qaida?”

Responded Snow: “Think of it this way. The president committed as much money to the borders already as the House of Representatives was planning on doing in five years. So, he was serious before – he’s perfectly cognizant of the possibility there may be terrorists crossing over. We have intelligence assets deployed in the area, and so he’s not going to be anymore concerned because he’s already very concerned about it.”

Yesterday, Snow indicated the president “is already putting National Guardsmen in positions where they can relieve the Border Patrol” – part of a $1.9 billion supplemental appropriation.

We’re seeing more and more arrests and indictments like this, and it makes me wonder how long it will be before we’re suffering the same attacks and suicide bombings the Israeli’s have been dealing with for years. Probably, not long. Somehow, I don’t think our government will exercise the same level of restraint we expect from Israel though.

A federal grand jury indicted two U.S. citizens on Wednesday on charges of plotting “violent jihad” and undergoing paramilitary training in northwest Georgia to prepare themselves for terrorist acts.

Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, born in Pakistan and a student at Georgia Tech, was arrested in March. Wednesday’s charges superseded an earlier indictment against him, adding three counts of material support of terrorism and a foreign terrorist organization.

FBI officials in April arrested Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, born in 1986 in Bangladesh. He was also added to the indictment.

Both men developed contacts with other supporters of jihad, traveling to Toronto, Canada, and made video clips of “potential terrorist targets” in Washington including the Capitol building, the indictment said.

“Ahmed, Sadequee and another person known to the Grand Jury engaged in physical and rudimentary paramilitary training including activities with paintball guns in northwestern Georgia,” said the indictment filed at Atlanta district court.

It said Ahmed traveled to Pakistan to get paramilitary and religious training with the aim of fighting in
Kashmir, while Sadequee went to Bangladesh in part to support jihad.

The case is one of several in which U.S. justice officials have prosecuted suspects whose alleged plots were in their very early stages.

I hope the federal governments figures this illegal immigration thing out soon. The states are taking matters into their own hands in order to protect their citizens and legal immigrants.

State lawmakers approved a measure late Monday that would force a million people receiving state or federal aid to verify their citizenship, part of a package of bills dealing with illegal immigration that Democrats called the toughest in the nation.
The measure would deny most non-emergency state benefits to illegal immigrants 18 years old and older _ forcing people to prove legal residency when applying for benefits or renewing their eligibility. The measure passed the state Senate 22-13 and the House 48-15. Both are controlled by Democrats.
“At the end of the day, everybody who serves in this building as senators or representatives knows we’re making Colorado history,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald. “We want to be able to look in the mirror and say we did legislation that is tough, enforceable and humane.”
Republicans said the bill didn’t go far enough, and left glaring loopholes, including allowing benefits for minors and denying voters the chance to have a direct say on the issue.
The bill would apply to Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, energy assistance programs and aging and adult services. Republican Gov. Bill Owens said an estimated 50,000 illegal immigrants could be thrown out of those programs.
“It simply puts teeth into existing federal regulations,” Owens said.
Sen. Dan Grossman was one of the four Democrats to vote against the measure.
“I don’t think the poor people of the state of Colorado or businesses of the state of Colorado should have to pay because we want to play politics with immigration,” Grossman said.

Original Link.

I really don’t have a problem with protecting the flag. The right to free speech is trodden on any time a Christian wants to talk in public, so don’t give me that old song and dance. People can use other methods of protest to get their point across.

(CNSNews.com) – As a flag protection amendment nears a vote in the U.S. Senate, the Bush administration issued a statement Monday applauding congressional efforts to protect the flag — a “cherished symbol of national unity and of the sacrifices so many Americans have made in defending the nation,” the statement said.
Senators began debate on the amendment Monday afternoon and a vote is expected this week. The House of Representatives passed the amendment in July 2005 for the sixth consecutive time.
S.J. Res. 12 reads, “The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.” The amendment itself does not criminalize flag desecration but it does give Congress the authority to do so.
A constitutional amendment is needed in light of a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that overturned state laws against flag desecration. The Supreme Court ruled that flag burning, for example, is constitutionally protected free speech, and there are people across the political spectrum who support that free-speech argument.
Supporters of the flag protection amendment note that every state has passed resolutions urging Congress to pass the measure and send it back for ratification.

Original Link.

Thanks to Steve from www.worshippingchristian.org for blogging for us yesterday. We apologize that our blogging has been hit and miss lately. Jen will return to blogging shortly, now that she’s got the right heart medication and is starting to feel better. Thanks to those who have kept her in your prayers.

Most Americans with cognitive abilities know that there is no such denomination of U.S. currency as a $1 Million bill. However, because one person who apparently lacks such cognitive prowess allegedly tried to deposit a gospel tract with a fake $1,000,000 bill on one side into her bank account, the U.S. Secret Service is going after the ministries who distribute this tract.

If and when the Secret Service visits the offices of Living Waters Ministry in Southern California to collect more “counterfeiting evidence” in the form of gospel tracts disguised as $1 million bills, agents better be armed with a warrant.

Ray Comfort, the world-renowned evangelist and head of the ministry, says he is not inclined to turn over any more copies of one of his most effective tools for witnessing his faith just because some Treasury agents demand them.

Comfort was advised by his attorneys not to hand over the same gospel tracts seized Thursday in a raid on Living Waters’ partner ministry in Denton, Texas.
…
The controversy began Thursday about 1 p.m. when Secret Service agents visited the Great News Network in Texas and threatened with arrest Tim Crawford for hiding evidence in a counterfeiting investigation and seized 8,300 gospel tracts designed as “million-dollar bills.”
…
Before he got off the phone, Rudus was convinced the agents were going to drop their demand for the Great News Network’s tracts.

But later, he reports, the agents again demanded them from Crawford, threatening him with arrest for “concealing evidence.” Rather than face arrest, Crawford turned over the approximately 8,300 million-dollar tracts the group had stored. The agents left a receipt and their business cards.

Comfort told WND he was stunned by the action of the Secret Service and expects agents to visit his offices soon. He said he has no plans to abandon the use of the tracts, which are among the most popular of the many his organization distributes. Living Waters is known for its television program, “The Way of the Master,” and an association with actor Kirk Cameron.

“I’m not going to stop printing them,” Comfort said. “How can you possibly counterfeit something that is not real – a $1 million bill?”
…
The tracts are also clearly marked on the front: “This bill is not legal tender.” It also includes the message “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” the words “Department of Eternal Affairs” and a picture of President Grover Cleveland. The website address for the radio program of Comfort and Cameron, “The Way of the Master,” is also emblazoned on the “bill.”

That’s the million dollar question (pun intended) – how can anyone counterfeit something that doesn’t exist?! As Comfort’s attorney pointed out, by the logic used in this case, if someone tried to deposit their Monopoly money into the bank, the Secret Service would have to go after all the Monopoly money out there! I’m typically a huge supporter of law enforcement – federal, state, or local. However, I think the Secret Service is bordering on harassment here.

The (Ir)reverend Barry Lynn (of Americans United for Separation of Church and State) rides again. He’s conned another activist judge - one Robert Pratt – into trampling the first amendment under the auspices of enforcing it. In a lawsuit filed by Barry and AU, Judge Pratt has ruled that Prison Fellowship Ministries must repay the state of Iowa about 1.53 million dollars and vacate Iowa prisons. PFM’s Innerchange Freedom Initiative was aimed at improving prisoner behavior and reducing recidivism (repeat offenders), and was successful in doing so.

A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates.

Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was sued in 2003 by an advocacy group, was ordered Friday to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility and repay the state $1.53 million.

“This calls into question the funding for so many programs,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed the suit. “Anyone who doesn’t stop it is putting a giant ‘sue me’ sign on top of their building.”
…

A press release by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley says it well:

DES MOINES, Iowa, June 2, 2006—For over 10 years, the InnerChange Freedom Initiative has produced dramatic results in changing the lives of hardened criminals and stopping the revolving door of crime. A holistic and Christ-centered faith-based program, it equips prisoners to successfully re-enter society. The program presents viable solutions to challenges that state and local governments have struggled with for decades, with the vast majority of funds provided privately. It is surprising that the court has ruled against one of the few programs that offers real hope for stemming the tide of habitual crime.

This decision, if allowed to stand, will enshrine religious discrimination. It has attacked the right of people of faith to operate on a level playing field in the public arena and to provide services to those who volunteered to receive them. In addition, the decision fosters a “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” approach to fighting crime. It assumes by warehousing criminals and providing no services to help them change, that society will be safer when they get out. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The courts took God out of America’s schools, now they are on the path to take God out of America’s prisons.

It is our belief that The InnerChange Freedom Initiative is constitutional and well within the framework of the safeguards of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We firmly believe that the 8th Circuit will overturn the decision of Judge Pratt and protect the rights of all Americans, even those in prison.

The InnerChange Freedom Initiative looks forward to appealing the case to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals next week.

Google continues its campaign against free speech, thought, and expression. Opposing views are not allowed when it comes to politics, religion, terrorism and Islam, even if those views oppose murder, suicide bombings, forced conversions, genocide, mercy killings, and human rights violations in the Muslim world. However, Nazi sites, anti-Semitic sites, and terrorist supporting websites are okay. I hope someone will take advantage of google’s bad business sense and give them some real competition. They’re communist supporting, terrorist loving, liberal political tools and I’m so tired of their censorship.

Search engine giant Google has cut off its news relationship with a number of online news publications that include frank discussions of radical Islam – the New Media Journal becoming the latest termination, as its owner just discovered.

Frank Salvato, who began the agreement with Google News last September, said he received a reply from the company’s help desk Friday indicating there had been complaints of “hate speech” on his site, as first reported by media watchdog Newsbusters.org.

WND Exclusive Google dumps news sites
that criticize radical Islam
Search giant axes another news page,
calls terrorism discussion ‘hate content’
Posted: May 23, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Search engine giant Google has cut off its news relationship with a number of online news publications that include frank discussions of radical Islam – the New Media Journal becoming the latest termination, as its owner just discovered.

Frank Salvato, who began the agreement with Google News last September, said he received a reply from the company’s help desk Friday indicating there had been complaints of “hate speech” on his site, as first reported by media watchdog Newsbusters.org.

The e-mail, which cited three articles that dealt with radical Islam and its relationship to terrorism, read:

Hi Frank,

Thanks for writing. We received numerous reports about hate content on your site, and after reviewing these reports, decided to remove your site from Google News. We do not allow articles and sources expressly promoting hate speech viewpoints in Google News (although referencing hate speech for commentary and analysis is acceptable).

For example, a number of the complaints we looked at on your site were found to be hate content:

http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/peck/05102006.htm

http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/stock/05082006.htm

http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/imani/04222006.htm

We hope this helps you understand our position.

Regards,
The Google Team

Newsbusters says it has observed a pattern of intolerance toward conservative sites that deal with radical Islam and terrorism.

Rusty Shackleford, owner of The Jawa Report, received a similar e-mail message March 29 informing him: “Upon recent review, we’ve found that your site contains hate speech, and we will no longer be including it in Google News.”

[. . .]

When Google News launched its beta site in April 2002, it said its mission was to construct an unbiased news engine free of human intervention using new methods of aggregating news from sources worldwide.

The Houston Chronicle reports on an Elementary School that has gone to great lengths to eradicate God – airbrushing our national motto from the image of a nickel on their yearbook:

COLLEYVILLE — A yearbook cover that omits the words “In God We Trust” from a picture of an enlarged nickel has angered some parents.

Liberty Elementary, a new school in suburban Fort Worth, chose the coin because the nickel’s new design prominently features the school’s name in cursive.

The coin also has “In God We Trust” along the right edge, but the phrase was removed from the yearbook. Instead, the $16 book came with a sticker that gave students the choice of putting the phrase back on the nickel.

Some parents say the school’s decision was political correctness gone too far.

“I think it’s really ridiculous,” said Debi Ackerman, who has a 10-year-old daughter at the school. “Now it has come to this. … When is it going to end?”

Keller ISD spokesman Jason Meyer said a parent’s group at the school approved the decision before the book was published. Liberty Principal Janet Travis wanted to avoid offending students of different religions, Meyer said.

“It’s not always easy to make everybody happy when we are making decisions,” Meyer said.

Ahhh, those crazy schools. They desperately want to shield students from religion. Well, not exactly. If that religion is Islam, the schools will push it. We reported earlier about the Ninth Circus (Circuit) Court of Appeals decision allowing a school district in California to force students to engage in an Islam education curriculum that had students say Muslim prayers, wage a “jihad”, recite the shahada, etc. That’s okay. Now Seattle schools are getting in on the act. Sound Politics has more on this:

The Seattle Public Schools are forming a committee to examine prayer in school, particularly to “support the needs of our diverse students and families.” But the committee is not organizing to examine the full diversity of the student body, only the needs of Muslim students:

Committee will propose guidelines for issue of prayer
The SPS Department of Race and Equity is looking for SEA members to participate in a “Prayer in Schools Committee,” the charge of which is to look at how to address this issue District wide and to provide information about our Muslim students that will help teachers and building leaders make decisions that support the needs of our diverse students and families. The next meeting is scheduled for May 30th, 3:00 – 4:30. Contact Dr. Hollins at cdhollins1@seattleschools.org

In the course of browsing recent 9th Circuit COA decisions, I came across another couple of winners. On May 17th, the 9th COA rejected a petition for an en banc review of their previous decision in Fields et al v. Palmdale School District. The court stood by their November 2005 decision holding that schools can administer sexually explicit surveys to students, and parents have no right to opt out or be notified in advance. Real nice. In April, this same court held that the Poway Unified School District had the right to force a student to remove his pro-life t-shirt. His shirt had “BE ASHAMED, OUR SCHOOL EMBRACED WHAT GOD HAS CONDEMNED” handwritten on the front, and “HOMOSEXUALITY IS SHAMEFUL” handwritten on the back. The court referred to this message as “demeaning” and “offensive.” Some more quotes from this decision:

…the School had a valid and lawful basis for restricting Harper’s wearing of his T-shirt on the ground that his conduct was injurious to gay and lesbian students and interfered with their right to learn.
…
Perhaps our dissenting colleague believes that one can condemn homosexuality without condemning homosexuals. If so, he is wrong. To say that homosexuality is shameful is to say, necessarily, that gays and lesbians are shameful.

This is YOUR judiciary and YOUR public school system at work. Are you satisfied with how your tax dollars are spent?

Praying according to the tenets of one’s faith seems like an obvious guarantee of the first amendment. However, this right has been the subject of attack among the military chaplaincy. One group is opposed to measures meant to guarantee chaplains have the first amendment freedom to pray according to their faith. Ironically, it’s a group of chaplains!

An organization representing evangelical Christian chaplains is criticizing a larger group — whose members hail from various faiths — for not supporting a proposed law guaranteeing chaplains the right to pray according to their conscience.

The law, included May 11 as part of the House Armed Services Committee 2007 national defense bill, was backed by the International Conference of Evangelical Christian Endorsers (ICECE), but not the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces (NCMAF).

The Rev. Billy Baugham, executive director of ICECE, called the national group’s position against the provision frightening.

“NCMAF’s stated position is now its defining moment,” Baugham said in a May 19 press release. “NCMAF ignores what several of its ecclesiastical endorsers believe to the contrary, and the faith and practice of the chaplains they represent.”

ICECE was formed in 2004 after its members broke away from NCMAF over the issue of prayer; ICECE maintains that chaplains should be allowed to invoke Jesus’ name when they pray, regardless of the venue.

NCMAF believes chaplains should use nonsectarian prayers during public events and when attendees include people of other faiths.

NCMAF, in a May 5 letter to members of the House Armed Services Committee, said it did “not agree that chaplains should be guaranteed to act ‘according to the dictates of their conscience’.” Conference executive director Jack D. Williamson said that such a law would remove a chaplain’s accountability to their endorsing agency.

The conference suggested new language calling on commanders and chaplains to avoid activities or statements that would suggest an establishment of religion. It stipulated that chaplains would not be compelled to take part in any religious activity inconsistent with their beliefs.

NCMAF’s language was not picked up, and the committee also rejected an amendment offered by U.S. Rep. Steven Israel, D-N.Y., that called for chaplains to show sensitivity and tolerance to members of other faith groups.

NCMAF’s members represent about 70 percent of all military chaplains.

Just as the Kentucky grads proved that civil disobedience can be a good thing (see story below), a Navy chaplain will get a chance to show that orders to not pray in Jesus’ name should not be followed.

An evangelical Navy chaplain who attended a press conference and offered a prayer “in Jesus’ name” at the event while in uniform will be court-martialed for disobeying his commanding officer’s order not to do so.

Chaplain (Lt.) Gordon J. Klingenschmitt, who on May 3 rejected an administrative hearing on two charges, now faces a single charge of disobeying a lawful order from a commissioned officer, according to Lt. Cmdr. Bob Mehal of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.

“I am innocent,” Klingenschmitt said May 19. “And I will prove my innocence at court-martial.”

Klingenschmitt, an evangelical Episcopal priest assigned to the chaplain’s office at Norfolk Naval Station, has protested what he says is his right to lead evangelical Episcopal prayers, rather than nonsectarian prayers, when speaking to sailors of all faiths. The Navy has said he has the right to pray in his own faith but that chaplains have been asked since 1988 to make their prayers inclusive.
…
A date for the trial has not yet been set. Under military law, Klingenschmitt can waive the panel and have his case heard by a military judge alone. He said he doesn’t yet know what he’ll choose.

If found guilty, Klingenschmitt’s punishment would be administrative in nature. An officer convicted at a special court-martial cannot be dismissed from the service or confined, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Just when young people were making me fear for our future, some graduates from a Kentucky High School helped assuage some of that fear. Sometimes peaceful civil disobedience is a good thing:

(AgapePress) — A Kentucky school superintendent says he’s proud of the Russell County High School students who recited the Lord’s Prayer at Friday’s graduation ceremony.

Earlier in the day, a federal judge had banned prayers from the ceremony in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. But during the principal’s opening remarks, about 200 students prayed aloud, drawing thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd.

Associated Press reports the “revival-like atmosphere” continued when graduate Megan Chapman shared during her opening remarks that God had guided her since childhood. Chapman, who said the challenge by the ACLU unified the entire senior class, was interrupted several times by cheering as she urged her classmates to trust in God as they go through life, says the report.

“More glory went to God because of something like that than if I had just simply said a prayer like I was supposed to,” she said.

Superintendent Scott Pierce says the graduates showed that the schools had taught them how to make “compelling decisions on their own.” The students “exhibited what we’ve tried to accomplish in 12 years of education,” said Pierce. Their response, said the superintendent, demonstrated the students have an ability to be “critical thinkers.”

“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” Matthew 18:15-27

This is the biblical model on conflict resolution that churches have been practicing for two thousand years. It is a matter of faith – of following the directives of our Lord and Savior. Nearly six years ago, Pastor Buddy Westbrook of Crossland Community Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, implemented this model and ultimately disfellowshipped a church member who did not repent from her sins. The church member sued. This case, now before the Texas Supreme Court, carries the weight of whether or not pastors can be sued for implementing biblically prescribed disciplinary practices. By the way, THIS is what Jefferson was referring to when he talked of a wall of separation between church and state.

The Texas Supreme Court has announced it will hear a case that could determine whether courts have the authority to interfere with matters such as church discipline.

The case known as Penley v. Westbrook dates back nearly six years to when Buddy Westbrook, pastor of Crossland Community Bible Church of Fort Worth, Texas, disassociated female church member Peggy Penley over divorce and adultery. Pastor Westbrook was sued after sending a letter to church members informing them of the situation.

Hiram Sasser is with Liberty Legal Institute, which is representing the church in the matter. He maintains that the U.S. Constitution protects churches and pastors when it comes to internal matters such as church discipline, and he says this case is “extremely important,” in that it deals with this fundamental First Amendment issue.

According to Sasser, Pastor Westbrook followed the three-step model for conflict resolution outlined in Matthew, Chapter 18, and was left with no other choice but disassociation after Penley refused to repent of her sin.

The attorney says Westlake had approached Penley about her inappropriate relationship with another man as well as her decision to terminate her marriage without any biblical basis. It was only after these efforts failed and Penley refused to repent that Crossland Community Bible Church’s pastor wrote the letter to congregation members outlining the reasons for Penley’s removal.

Increasingly over recent years, Sasser notes, a pattern has existed “of new lawsuits against pastors for following biblical principles and following the Bible.” One of Liberty Legal Institute’s goals in this case, he points out, is “to make sure that we establish clear precedent that pastors are immune from suit under the Constitution of the United States.”

A reminder that there ARE terrorists among us:

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a 23-year-old man of supporting terrorists by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan three years ago.

Hamid Hayat, a seasonal farm worker in Lodi, an agricultural town south of Sacramento, was convicted of one count of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of lying to the
FBI.

His attorney said she would seek a new trial. “Hamid Hayat never attended a terrorist training camp. This fight is not over,” Wazhma Mojaddidi said.

The verdicts came hours after a separate jury hearing a case against the man’s father deadlocked, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

The father, 48-year-old ice cream truck driver Umer Hayat, is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI about his son’s involvement in the training camp. Defense attorneys and prosecutors will meet in court May 5 to decide whether he will be retried.

Jihad Jr. faces a minimum of 30 years.

Almost every Christian realizes that the ACLU is not concerned so much with civil liberties as it is with obliterating any public reference to God. That’s why satirical names such as the Anti-Christian Lawyers Union are so commonly applied to the ACLU. However, the ACLU has been losing lately. Case in point is the recent decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the Ten Commandments display at the Mercer County, Kentucky courthouse.

Pro-family attorneys are hailing the decision of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a three-judge panel’s prior ruling allowing the Ten Commandments to remain on display at Kentucky’s Mercer County Courthouse.

Last December the Sixth Circuit panel unanimously ruled the Mercer County Ten Commandments display constitutional on the grounds that its purpose is historical rather than religious. The Sixth Circuit Court has jurisdiction over Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan.

In yesterday’s 19-5 vote by the full court, the majority of the judges refused to rehear the case of ACLU of Kentucky v. Mercer County, Kentucky, rejecting arguments by the American Civil Liberties Union that the Commandments display violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court’s ruling allows the panel’s previous decision to uphold the constitutionality of the display to stand.

According to an Associated Press report, in the December 2005 ruling the panel cited the fact that the courthouse’s biblical laws are displayed alongside replicas of nine other historic documents, including the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. The judges also noted that the font size is the same for all the documents, and no attempt was made to put the religious document at a higher level.
…
Mercer County was also represented by Liberty Counsel, another legal organization that specializes in defending religious freedom. Mathew D. Staver, Liberty Counsel’s president and general counsel, is hailing the Sixth Circuit’s decision as a great victory that has begun to “turn the tide against the ACLU.”

The ACLU has been on what Staver calls a “search-and-destroy mission to remove all vestiges of our religious history from public view.” But whether that liberal civil liberties organization likes it or not, he asserts, “history is crystal clear that each one of the Ten Commandments played an important role in the founding of our system of law and government.”

The Liberty Counsel spokesman believes federal courts are beginning to reject extreme notions of the so-called separation of church and state. After all, he notes, the Sixth Circuit expressly rejected the ACLU’s “repeated reference” to the Establishment Clause, saying that this “extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome” and noting, “The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.”

It is about time, Staver insists, that courts start interpreting the Constitution of the United States according to its original purpose. And with the recent changes of personnel on the nation’s highest court bench, he says, “the trend toward a more historical approach to the First Amendment is well under way.”

An elementary school in Massachusetts is standing by a second grade teacher’s decision to read a story to her class about… a gay romance and gay marriage. The school’s response to concerned parents? We don’t have to tell you before or after, and you don’t have the right to opt-out your kids. This school is just hankering for a lawsuit! AGAIN!

Some parents in Massachusetts are fed up with Lexington school officials who are defending a second-grade teacher’s decision to read students a book about homosexual romance and “marriage” in class.

Estabrook Elementary School teacher Heather Kramer read her students the book King & King, a story about a prince who spurns a number of eligible princesses to marry another prince. The story ends with the two men marrying and sharing a kiss. When parents Rob and Robin Wirthlin complained about what took place, the school’s principal told them no parental notification was required, nor would it be given before future discussion on homosexual “marriage.”

Brian Camenker with the Article 8 Alliance in Massachusetts says Kramer and school officials violated the state’s parental notification law, which he wrote. “At this meeting the teacher and the principal were rather insulting,” he says. Camenker contends the school officials basically told the Wirthlins “We’re not going to give you notification on this — we’re not even going to tell you after it happened, and you can’t opt your child out.”

The Alliance spokesman says the approach being taken by the school toward the law is ridiculous.

“The law talks about human sexuality issues,” he explains. “[School officials are] saying ‘Well, homosexuality isn’t a human sexuality issue, it’s a human rights issue.’ So they’re saying it doesn’t apply here, ‘and so we’re not going to notify you.’
…
One year ago, Estabrook Elementary School was the site of an arrest of the father of a kindergarten student who had been attempting for several months to get his son opted-out from discussions portraying homosexuality as acceptable. Last April, following a meeting with the school principal, David Parker was handcuffed, spent the night in jail, and appeared before a judge the next morning. Trespassing charges were eventually dropped against Parker, but a ban preventing the six-year-old’s father from school property remained in effect.

Liberals keep telling us that Muslims in the U.S. are moderates. I’m confused. Why are these moderate Muslims holding up signs telling us that the “mushroom cloud is on its way”, and cheering for another holocaust? Maybe it’s just me, but their protest looks an awful lot like those Al Qaeda tapes Al Jazeera runs periodically. Signs also read “Islam will dominate” and one featured a picture of the White House with an Islamic flag flying on top.

The clueless half of the country better wake up. The terrorists are living among us and it’s only a matter of time before they start using suicide bombers here. The “activists” at this protest wouldn’t hesitate to volunteer for such a mission.

A New York rally by the Islamic Thinkers Society outside the Israeli consulate yesterday featured chants of “The mushroom cloud is on its way! The real holocaust is on its way!”

The demonstration by the Queens-based group was monitored by the Investigative Project on Terrorism whose members noted signs including “Islam will Dominate” and a picture with an Islamic flag flying over the White House.

The chants were in Arabic and translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, headed by Steve Emerson, a former reporter for CNN.

Here are some excerpts from the chants:

Leader (in Arabic): “With our blood and our lives we will liberate al Aqsa!”

[The rest also respond in Arabic:] “With our blood and our lives we will liberate al Aqsa!

Israeli Zionists What do you say? The real Holocaust is on its way”

“Takbeer!”

Response: “Allahu Akbar!”

“Takbeer!”

Response: “Allahu Akbar!”

“Zionists, Zionists You will pay! The Wrath of Allah is on its way!

Israeli Zionists You shall pay! The Wrath of Allah is on its way!

The mushroom cloud is on its way! The real Holocaust is on its way!”

“Israel won’t last long … Indeed, Allah will repeat the Holocaust right on the soil of Israel”

“Takbeer!”

Response: “Allahu Akbar!”

According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the Islamic Thinkers Society is an offshoot of London’s Al-Muhajiroun, a group that celebrated the 9/11 attacks, referring to the hijackers as “the Magnificent 19,” and posting a burning picture of the Capitol on its website.

I love the minutemen! They’re sending a message to our government that this is OUR country and, if they won’t do the job we elected them to do, Americans can and will do it for them. The minutemen have taken it upon themselves to do something about the border problem and are promising to build a security fence along the Arizona border. Congress and the President stand to look very bad if the minutemen do what the government has thus far been incapable of doing, and for a fraction of the cost.

This should be a lesson to all of us. We don’t have to hand over all of our money to incompetent rulers, and hope that they will take care of us. The men and women who settled this great country didn’t wait for someone to do it for them, and neither should we. We’re in a war for our lives with Islamic terrorists, and there’s no time for partisan bickering and politics-as-usual.

Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox has a message for President Bush: Build new security fencing along the border with Mexico or private citizens will.

Simcox said Wednesday that he’s sending an ultimatum to the president, through the media, “You can’t get through to the president any other way,” to deploy military reserves and the National Guard to the Arizona border by May 25.

Or, Simcox said, by the Memorial Day weekend Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers and supporters will break ground to start erecting fencing privately.

“We have had landowners approach,” Simcox said in an interview. “We’ve been working on this idea for a while. We’re going to show the federal government how easy it is to build these security fences, how inexpensively they can be built when built by private people and free enterprise.”

Simcox said a half-dozen landowners along the Arizona-Mexico border have said they will allow fencing to be placed on their borderlands, and others in California, Texas and New Mexico have agreed to do so as well.

“Certainly, as with everything else, we’re only able to cover a small portion of the border,” Simcox said. “The state and federal government have bought up most of the land around the border. I suspect that’s why we’ll never get control of the border.”

But he said the plan is to put up secure fencing that truly will be an effective deterrent, and to show how easily it can be accomplished.

While students in public schools are failing on national tests, teachers (products of our liberal Universities) are teaching them about gay weddings. Sadly, parents aren’t even allowed to opt their children out of the indoctrination session. If only parents would wake up and send a strong message to our public schools that we aren’t paying them to indoctrinate our kids and turn them into little “progressive” robots with no hope of getting through college or getting a good job. Better yet, everyone who can should be homeschooling their children.

While two parents in Lexington, Mass., are upset about the fact their second-grade son was read a fantasy book in school about two princes getting married, what makes them even more angry is the fact the boy’s teacher said because same-sex marriage is legal in their state there is no way a mother or father can opt out a child from such experiences.

“We are outraged,” parents Rob and Robin Wirthlin told the local Article 8 Alliance. “This is a highly charged social issue. Why are they introducing it in the second grade? And we cannot present our family’s point of view to our children if they don’t tell us what they’re saying to them.”

According to a statement from the traditional-values organization, March 24 the Wirthlins’ second-grade son came home from Estabrook Elementary School and repeated to his mother the story read to him earlier that day about men getting married to each other. His teacher had read the book “King and King” to the class, in which a prince doesn’t want to marry any princesses, but instead falls in love with a princess’ brother and marries him in a big palace wedding.

The Wirthlins say they immediately contacted the teacher, Heather Kramer, who acknowledged she had read the book to the class and admitted that it was not part of the curriculum.

It was explained to the couple that since same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, discussion of the matter is fair game — parents do not have to be informed before or after the issue is presented. Kramer reportedly told the Wirthlins that the theme of the day was “weddings” and the teacher wanted to present all points of view on the subject.

The recent attacks on Don Rumsfeld by 6 retired Generals is nothing more than an egotistical temper tantrum by 6 generals who didn’t get what they wanted in the military’s transformation from a Cold War fighting force to a force capable of fighting the new terrorist enemy of the 21st century. Generals are used to getting what they want. They are set in their ways, and they don’t like change, especially when that change affects who and what falls under their command. Their coordinated media campaign against the Secretary of Defense is revenge for damaged egos and having their conventional military toys taken away in favor of a lighter more mobile military.

I also find it interesting that the media is eagerly putting so much stock in a tiny fraction of the retired generals in this country, while downplaying the 4 retired generals who’ve come out in support of Rumsfeld’s handling of the Iraq war and the military realignment.

The most prominent of the retired generals calling for the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appears to have reversed his estimation of the former Saddam regime’s threat to the world.

Anthony Zinni, former CENTCOM commander in the Clinton administration, says now that in the Iraq, “What bothered me … [was that] I was hearing a depiction of the intelligence that didn’t fit what I knew. There was no solid proof, that I ever saw, that Saddam had WMD.”

But as noted by Fox News Channel host Brit Hume, Zinni told Congress in 2000, “Iraq remains the most significant near-term threat to U.S. interests in the Arabian Gulf region.”

The general told lawmakers that Iraq “probably is continuing clandestine nuclear research, [and] retains stocks of chemical and biological munitions.”

Even if Baghdad “reversed its course and surrendered all WMD capabilities,” Zinni said in 2000, “it retains scientific, technical, and industrial infrastructure to replace agents and munitions within weeks or months.”

Zinni is one of six retired generals calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation.

Today, President Bush defended his Pentagon chief, saying he’s doing a “fine job.”

The president told reporters in the Rose Garden after introducing his choice for budget director, Rob Portman, he was issuing a vote of confidence to stop the rampant speculation.

“I listen to all voices, but mine is the final decision,” Bush said. “And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He’s not only transforming the military, he’s fighting a war on terror. He’s helping us fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld.”

[. . .]

The generals accuse Rumsfeld of ignoring advice from senior officers on how to execute the war in Iraq. In response, four retired generals came to Rumsfeld’s defense in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal Monday.

Lt. Gen. John Crosby, retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, retired Maj. Gen. Buron Moore and retired Maj. Gen Paul Vallely contended Rumsfeld’s critics don’t understand the war on terror.

“Much of the acrimony expressed by Secretary Rumsfeld’s military critics appears to stem from his efforts to ‘transform’ the military by moving to a joint expeditionary force that is lighter and more mobile in nature to meet the nation’s current and future threats,” the generals said.

“Many senior officers and bureaucrats did not support his transformation goals – preferring conventional weapons of the past … which prove practically useless against lawless and uncivilized enemies engaged in asymmetric warfare,” the writers continued.

That last paragraph is the key. They’re having a hissy fit over lost pet projects, and changes that put control in the hands of a younger, more technologically advanced military

Acting on a tip, coalition forces stormed a house and found the three remaining “Christian” peace activists alive (the fourth, Tom Fox, had been executed earlier). These activists were part of the group Christian Peacemaker Teams. Did CPT bother to thank the soldiers who rescued their activists? No. In their press release, they stated that the activists had been “releases safely”, rather than freed or rescued. Moreover, they blamed the kidnapping on the very military forces that risked their lives to save them!

“We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq,” Pritchard said.

UPDATE: Apparently the outrage at CPT’s press release hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. They’ve added the following addenda to the press release:

We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we offer these paragraphs as the first of several addenda:

We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply grateful that they fired no shots to free our colleagues. We are thankful to all the people who gave of themselves sacrificially to free Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom over the last four months, and those supporters who prayed and wept for our brothers in captivity, for their loved ones and for us, their co-workers.

We will continue to lift Jill Carroll up in our prayers for her safe return. In addition, we will continue to advocate for the human rights of Iraqi detainees and assert their right to due process in a just legal system.

Perhaps if these people weren’t so “overwhelmed”, they would have realized that the kidnappings and violence are merely an extension of the terrorist attacks that struck the U.S. before we were in Iraq. I wonder what the addenda would have read had the coalition forces been forced to kill the kidnappers to effect the rescue.

Every now and again, the courts do something right. In this case, they forced Le Moyne college to readmit a conservative Christian graduate student they had previously expelled for expressing his conservative views. I doff my hat to this young man for taking a stand for his rights and his beliefs.

An army veteran and graduate student at Le Moyne College in upstate New York who was expelled from his degree program because of his conservative philosophy of education is back in the classroom and speaking out.

Last year Le Moyne College, a Jesuit school located in Syracuse, dismissed Scott McConnell from its masters of education program for writing a paper in which he advocated the use of corporal punishment and criticized multiculturalism. The head of the school’s education department told the “A” student his expulsion was the result of a “mismatch” between his personal beliefs and the school’s program goals.

McConnell, an evangelical Christian as well as a conservative, filed a civil rights lawsuit, and his attorney argued that his dismissal was “a gross violation of McConnell’s rights to freedom of expression.” An appeals court subsequently ordered Le Moyne to reinstate the education student, and both sides in the dispute have since agreed to stop suing each other.
…
The teacher-in-training says he is not concerned about the future. He contends, “I base everything on my faith in the Lord, and because of that, it’s like the song He’s the Rock of my Salvation. Well, that’s my rock. I stand upon it, and I have nothing to worry about.”
…

I have a theory as to why President Bush has been so silent on the Dubai Ports deal. As he said in one of the first speeches he gave after the story broke, he’s “trying to conduct diplomacy here”. I’m starting to think that Bush didn’t want to be the one to nix a business deal with the U.A.E. because his relationship with that country will affect our national security and the war on terror. Maybe it’s true that a U.A.E. company shouldn’t be trusted, or maybe it’s not, but it’s a fact that the U.A.E. has been a valuable ally in the war on terror since 9/11, and in the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq. We need their ports, we need their cooperation on intelligence, and we will need the military base we have in the U.A.E. should we have to use the military option against Iran.

Bush could have defended the deal. I’ve heard several news analysts, government officials, and former and present political advisers say that he could have made a convincing case to the American people. The fact that he didn’t even try tells me he’s more concerned about the diplomatic fall out if Dubai Ports is stopped from doing business in the U.S. than he is about the deal going through. That’s understandable. Our war ships are currently using ports in the U.A.E. that are run by Dubai Ports World, and we need to keep using them. If Congress ends the deal and the President at least gave the impression that he tried to save it, perhaps diplomatic efforts will be able to continue uninterrupted and unaffected. He’s got to know that any veto of legislation to stop the deal will likely be over turned by a two thirds vote in Congress. Maybe, he’s counting on that.

Republican congressional leaders told President Bush Thursday the House and Senate both appear ready to block a Dubai-owned company from taking over operations at several U.S. ports, officials said.

The GOP leadership delivered the assessment in a private meeting at virtually the same time White House spokesman Scott McClellan reiterated Bush’s vow to veto any legislation to interfere with the deal.

The developments came one day after a GOP-controlled House committee voted 62-2 to block the transfer, which has prompted an unusual, election-year Republican revolt against the administration.

Across the Capitol, Senate Democrats demanded a vote on the issue, placing Republicans on the political defensive as they tried to prevent the roll call from occurring.

A company spokesman said DP World officials were not present at the discussions between congressional leaders and the White House.

Senate GOP leaders had been hoping to prevent any votes until the conclusion of a 45-day review of the deal. At the same time, administration officials were using the time to try and ease the concerns of lawmakers.

That strategy collapsed in dramatic fashion on Wednesday, when the House committee overwhelmingly signaled its opposition to the deal.

BREAKING NEWS UDATE:

The whole problem may be a mute point, anyway. Fox News is reporting that Dubai Ports has announced it will sell the U.S. piece of deal to another investor.