"What we need from the next president is somebody who will not just tell you what you want to hear but will tell you what you need to hear." Barack Obama, February 27, 2008.
According to Newsweek's Robert Samuelson, "Barack Obama has failed."
The miseducation has worsened as the healthcare debate approaches its climax.
Samuelson says, "Almost everything you think you know about healthcare is probably wrong."
He says he sees a parallel to healthcare. Housing.
Robert Samuelson, a long time columnist for Newsweek, has written an exclusive article for their website, "A Cost Control Mirage" in which he looks at some surprising healthcare facts and untruths that have been put forward in the effort to get Obama's plan passed.
Our attention and opposition is primarily focused on certain moral aspects of the healthcare bill---specifically federally funded abortion and related life issues, however, the cost aspects of the "plan" are equally moral in nature.
We do not agree with all Samuelson's positions, however he raises some very interesting points and some very revealing facts and studies regarding universal healthcare, affordable healthcare and the uninsured.
He fails to address tort reform as part of a real solution, but I think his column is particularly informative at this time.
I do not believe healthcare is a right. However, if properly reformed, it can be a great blessing to many in this the greatest country in the history of the world.
Obama's plan will not provide that blessing.
Samuelson concludes:
"What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades healthcare's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook. It's a big new spending program when government hasn't paid for the spending programs it already has. 'If not now, when? If not us, who', Obama asks. The answer is: It's not now, and it's not 'us'. Pass or not, Obama's proposal is the illusion of 'reform' not the real thing."
These are perilous times. Much hangs in the balance.
Be prayerful. Be vigilant. Be active. Do not be silent.
God bless you.
________________ Gary Randall President Faith & Freedom
Objections to the Obama healthcare plan is so strong that 95% of Christian doctors may leave medicine.
Here's why.
Yesterday the 17,000 member Christian Medical Association urged members of Congress to vote against the Obama healthcare bill approved by the Senate, H.R. 3590.
The idea of a substantial loss of Christian pro-life physicians is one more reason to strongly oppose the Obama healthcare plan.
The following are their reasons in their own words:
NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release - March 15, 2010
Christian Medical Association Physicians Oppose Healthcare Bill on Abortion, Conscience
Washington, DC, March 15, 2010 --The 17,000 members of the Christian Medical Association [www.cmda.org] today urged Members of the House of Representatives to vote against the controversial healthcare overhaul bill approved by the Senate, H.R. 3590.
In a letter [www.cmda.org/hr3590letter] to all Members of the House, CMA CEO David Stevens, MD noted that "The CMA strongly opposes this legislation because it fails to provide strong conscience protections for healthcare professionals, allows direct federal funding of elective abortions in community health centers and allows federal funds to subsidize health plans covering abortions."
CMA has led a national coalition of 50 organizations, Freedom2Care [www.Freedom2Care.org], to fight for conscience rights for healthcare professionals.
Dr. Stevens noted in the letter, "A national survey of faith-based physicians shows that the failure to protect the rights of healthcare professionals to decline to participate not only in abortion but also in other morally controversial procedures and prescriptions, may cause up to 95 percent of faith-based physicians to leave medicine. Since faith-based physicians provide much of the care for poor patients and those in medically underserved areas, their exodus would lead to a national crisis of access to care of catastrophic proportion."
Dr. Stevens also wrote, "The CMA strongly supports funding for community health centers, and many of our physicians work full-time, part-time and on a volunteer basis caring for the poor. But we cannot support federal funding for abortions that will result in yet more abortions while violating the clear will of the American people who do not want their tax dollars used to pay for them."
On the issue of federal subsidy of abortions, Dr. Stevens wrote, "Such funding, however cleverly designed to obscure the result, clearly violates the longstanding Hyde amendment and related laws. Such funding also violates the President's oft-repeated pledge to maintain the status quo on abortion funding. Besides the obvious moral wrong of funding abortions, this policy will also have negative economic consequences. Incentivized by new insurance subsidies, abortionists will simply raise prices and increase their profits. Increased abortions will rob the country of much of the younger generation that otherwise would help avert the financial strain of a top-heavy older population."
The letter also noted "government intrusion into physician-patient decision making and the allocation of medical resources, the absence of meaningful tort reform that is desperately needed to prevent the loss of some of our best physicians�especially obstetricians and gynecologists, and the lack of bipartisan and public support that should undergird any legislation of this magnitude."
Dr. Stevens urged Members to "pursue a new bipartisan, measured and focused approach to true healthcare reform. Seven key principles our members look for in healthcare reform include cost containment, quality assurance, access for the poor, economic fairness, ethical protection, prevention focus and personal responsibility."
Friday afternoon I got an email from President Obama's "Organizing for America" with the banner message: "Make Sure The People's Voice Is Heard."
The people have spoken and are speaking. They don't want the President's health care bill. What part of the people's voice does he not understand? Or does he just want the folks to speak as a way of releasing their stress?
Today's Rasmussen survey shows 43% favor the Presidents plan, while 53% oppose it. Most, strongly oppose it. The President's approval today is a -16, with 26% strongly approving of his performance and 53% strongly disapproving.
The President told students at Arcadia University, "If you're a young adult, which many of you are, you'll be able to stay on your parent's insurance policy until you're 26 years old."
He is passing out lollipops because a recent PEW Research Poll shows that he is quickly losing support among young people, whom he enchanted during his campaign in 2008.
He is also losing clout among his peers. A Politico article this morning says, "Demand For Obama Wanes Among Moderate Democrats."
The article begins; "Moderate House Democrats facing potentially difficult re-election this fall have a message for President Barack Obama: Don't call us, we'll call you."
So why does the President and his people press on through the night, determined to pass a specific bill that such a large majority of people oppose? Continuing to make statements like, "Make sure the people's voice is heard."
Although support is partisan---resistance is not.
Perhaps there is one driving factor that continues to motivate him.
There can be little question that President Obama is very left leaning, some say socialist, in his beliefs. He has said he is "remaking" America. This health care bill is a leap into socialism.
The New York Times touched the heart of the answer, in an article yesterday afternoon titled "As Health Vote Awaits, Future Of A Presidency Waits Too."
The President's spokesperson has said he would rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. But his spokespeople are also saying he wants to hear the peoples voices.
President Obama has made many promises that he simply has not kept. The bloom, as they say, is off the rose in that respect.
He has put so much of himself into this effort, that should he loose by failing to push this particular bill through, he would likely be unable to "remake" the economy and culture with climate legislation, the homosexual agenda and other priorities.
While there is a great deal of ego involved, for sure, I personally believe his ideology---his core socialistic beliefs trump all of that.
He refined his beliefs through his former relationships that concerned some, but not a majority of Americans, his 20-year membership in his former church and in the classroom, where ideas do not have immediate consequences.
This is his main event. And I believe he has a mission that far exceeds mere service.
It is generally believed that if he can't hear us now, he and his colleagues will hear us at election time.
For the sake of country and the generations who are to come, I pray this is so.
God bless you.
___________________ Gary Randall President Faith & Freedom
Texas Textbook War---A Battle for the Mind of our Kids
As of midnight last night the Washington State Legislature used up their 60 days of regular session. The two chambers, both with big Democratic majorities, have been unable to get it done.
A 30-day special session will cost an additional $18,000 per day. ______________________
Over the next few days what happens in Texas will not stay in Texas. It will affect what your child learns in the classroom over the next ten years.
Texas is in the final stages of adopting their standards for social studies textbooks. Because Texas is such a large consumer of textbooks, the publishers use the Texas standards in printing and distributing textbooks to nearly every state in the country.
That's why what they are doing is such a big deal. And it's why secular revisionists are out in full force trying to influence the process of what your child will learn. And what he will not learn.
FOX NEWS says, "A liberal onslaught has been unleashed to try to influence these education standards."
However, the conservatives and people of faith are standing strong for an accurate account of history.
Here is what's happening. You can't make this stuff up.
A recent survey from Rasmussen finds that 60% of Americans believe that most school textbooks are more concerned with presenting information in a politically correct manner than in accuracy.
They've got that right.
The liberals on the panel tried to remove Independence Day, Neil Armstrong, Daniel Boone and Christopher Columbus from the textbook. They even tried to remove any mention of Christmas, but have a section on Diwali.
Conservatives stood their ground and these decisions were reversed.
The panel then tried to remove Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison and feature Mary Kay and Wallace Amos (Famous Amos Cookies). They said this would offer more "diversity" for the kids.
Einstein and Edison are back in the textbooks and so is "BC" and "AD," rather than the "BCE" designation of time before Christ that doesn't acknowledge Christ.
So far the secularists are prevailing in keeping any mention of America's religious heritage out of the textbooks.
Separation of church and state is now under vigorous debate.
Democratic board member Mavis B. Knight has introduced an amendment regarding the separation of church and state which she says, "was intended to inform students that there is a political and legal doctrine out there that addresses the issue," because she says, "I'm afraid the student won't otherwise know about it."
The conservatives are responding that the kids should be taught the truth of the matter, including the background and evolution of that notion. It is yet to be decided.
Professor Larry Schweikart says there are errors in many of the textbooks. He says the first thing he does when he reviews a textbook is to go to the section where they are discussing Ronald Reagan. He says a majority of the books he has reviewed credit Mikhail Gorbachev with ending the Cold War, not Reagan. That, he says, gives you a good idea where the rest of the book stands.
He says that aside from the political bias, there are many factual errors. I have linked the story where he gives several such errors, such as: New Orleans was settled by the French in the 1600's. Fact: It happened in 1718. The Louisiana Purchase extended America to the Mississippi River. Fact: It extended America all the way to the Rocky Mountains.
It cannot be overstated how important it is for parents to know what their children are being taught in the classroom and what is in the child's textbooks. I know it takes effort---but our kids are worth it.
The secular progressives have a plan for your child's education. If you do not prevail, they will.
The question is simply this: What do we teach our kids? There is an all out battle for the mind of your child. The philosophy in the classroom today is the philosophy of the culture in the next generation.
We have a God given responsibility to raise up our children with proper understanding and a biblical world view.
Census 2010: Big Money, Homosexual "Marriage" & Mary and Joseph
The 2010 Census forms will soon be arriving in homes across the country and the 2010 Census Extravaganza has something for everyone---well, almost everyone. The tax payers get hosed while the Census family of participants party.
The $15 billion budget is three times that of the last Census. And that includes the $3 million Super Bowl ad.
It also includes $200 million for a Chicago-New York based PR firm to oversee the direct marketing efforts, $15 million for the road trip with 13 buses and cargo vans with trailers, traveling to Vegas, the Super Bowl, New Orleans and other exiting events and places. The road trip is creating 223 metric tons of carbon emissions.
The Census Bureau has spent money for 115 focus groups in 37 markets and several billion dollars enlisting 56 million school kids to pester their parents about the Census and create math and social studies lessons that promote the Census.
They have spent $80 million for multi-lingual ads promoting the Census in 28 languages. And a video they produced is teaching a Latin person how to write in his country of origin on the form. Ironically, they have the writing hand misspelling the name of the country.
Mary and Joseph are used for PR purposes and a radical policy shift away from a Bush policy will be used to advance the homosexual agenda of "marriage".
Michelle Malkin has called it, "The Supersized Census Boondoggle."
She says history shows that the more the Census spends on advertising, the lower the response rate is.
Malkin wishes the federal government were as responsible with our money as Pepsi is with theirs. They have been advertising in the Super Bowl for more than two decades, but decided in the present economy it was unwise to spend the $3 million for 30 seconds this year.
She concludes, "The US Census is a decennial census mandated by our Constitution. Should Americans know about it? Sure. Should the p.r. budget become a bottomless slush fund in recessionary times? Surely not."
I recommend you read her column.
This Census Extravaganza reaches beyond the mere waste of billions of dollars. It also has a social and cultural component.
I know you're concerned about the 223 metric tons of emissions from the road trip. Not to worry. Carbonfund.org has partnered with our government and will offset all the carbon from the vehicle emissions. It didn't happen---there is no carbon. All is well.
Literature is being distributed to the Latin community urging people to participate because, "Joseph and Mary participated in the Census."
One can only imagine what else is being said in the various ethnic communities.
On the Census Bureau's own web site a video which gives directions for filling out the form, shows a hand printing the name of a person's Latin country of origin. The hand is printing--C O L U M B I A, however the country is spelled C O L O M B I A.
I know, some are thinking we also have errors on this site from time to time. Keep in mind we don't have a $15 billion budget. The error video was still up this morning, however, it has now been removed.
Some months ago The Washington Post reported a planned shift in policy for the 2010 Census regarding homosexual couples.
The Census is reversing a Bush policy that prohibited the release of gay "marriage" data because DOMA prohibits recognition of marriage as anything other than one-man and one-woman.
While the law has not changed, the beliefs in the White House certainly have.
This administration says, "No," DOMA does not prohibit Census Bureau from releasing data about homosexual "marriage".
This policy shift is considered a victory for homosexual activists.
The New Jersey press says the policy shift could radically reshape demographic profiles of the gay community, because this year the Census will let same-sex couples label themselves as husband or wife even if their relationship is not recognized by law.
The Census is leaving it to responders to characterize their own relationships, regardless of legal status.
Gary Gates, a demographer with the University of California in LA says, "The truth is that the number of kinds of legally married couples in this country is a very complicated situation."
Actually, it is not complicated at all. Under federal law, only one man and one woman are legally married. This is a federal Census.
Gates also correctly says, "Politicians use the Census as a yardstick for a community's power. That in turn affects the enactment of public policies."
Will homosexual numbers be inflated by this, "you decide what you are" policy? Probably.
This "policy shift" is another attempt to confuse the discussion about marriage by creating a problem of sorts, then providing a solution that advances the homosexual agenda of redefining marriage.
It is one of those special "incremental" moments of advancing the re-engineering of marriage that Washington State Senator Ed Murray lives for.
The upcoming 2010 election and the 2012 presidential election is a pivotal time in our country and our culture.
This is not a time for ideas soaked in theory.
It is a time for action. I understand action has risk and it costs in a number of ways. Believe me, I understand that.
However, we are in a time when there is no real alternative for those who truly believe in Judeo- Christian principles and believe that this country can continue to thrive, be free and be blessed only, as it embraces godly principles.
In our blog Monday regarding the lawsuit in which Shirley Dobson was named, we quoted the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization, saying in their court arguments against national prayer that the Constitution was "a god-less document," therefore a call to national prayer is unconstitutional. Particularly, the Presidential Proclamation.
We often hear that. Secularists and atheists declare that we are a secular nation. Even President Obama has said whatever we once were, we are not now a Christian nation.
Whether or not our Founders believed we were a "Christian" nation can be debated, however, it is a fact that those who founded America were predominately Christian, there was a consensus that what they were doing was based on Godly biblical principles and they invoked God's blessing on their decisions and actions.
And they infused biblical principles into every aspect of the culture, including our laws.
When we look at the Constitution in relation to the Declaration of Independence, it puts the matter of whether the Constitution is a god-less document in proper perspective.
Michael Farris, a Constitutional lawyer and founder of the Home School Legal Defense League makes an interesting analogy in his book, "Constitutional Law for Christian Students. Revised Edition." He compares the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to a present day corporation's articles of incorporation and by-laws respectively.
Here's the short version of what he says:
The Declaration of Independence was the charter of our nation. It makes clear what most citizens of the colonies believed.
They believed that they were establishing a new nation based soundly on the Laws of God.
The opening statement of the Declaration expresses these firm beliefs and convictions. "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them..."
They believed freedom was a gift from Nature and Nature's God. They intended to create a government that would protect these God given freedoms---not dispense them.
By basing our right to be a free nation upon God's law, we were also saying by implication that we owed obedience to the law that allowed us to be a separate country from England.
The last paragraph of the Declaration says they are, "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly, publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states;...", ending with, and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
Farris says the Declaration is our charter. It the legal document that made us a nation like all the other nations of the world. It doesn't tell us how we are going to run our country---that is what our Constitution does.
In a corporation, the Charter is higher than the By-Laws and the By-Laws must be interpreted to be in agreement with the Charter. Therefore, the Constitution of the United States must be in agreement with the Declaration of Independence, or as Farris sometimes calls it, " The Declaration of the United States."
The most important statement in our Declaration is that we want to operate under the laws of God and we invoke His blessing.
When the courts today are deciding what the Constitution means in regard to specific issues, they should review and remember the "Charter" or the Declaration in regards to original intent.
The Constitution doesn't specifically mention God, because it doesn't have to. The Declaration is the charter or higher document and it clearly outlines our relationship with God and His laws.
The Declaration makes it very clear that we are a nation under God's laws. Therefore all laws of our country should be consistent with the law of God or they violate our national charter.
It was our Founders intent that this would be a nation under God, that would look to God for blessing and guidance.
Our Founding Fathers knew that you could not have a free people for very long without Biblical morality.
Here's what they said:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." Samuel Adams.
On the merit of President Obama's promise to end the military's ban on open homosexuality in the ranks, the discussion as to what must happen to accomplish it is underway. And it is raising some serious questions and producing some interesting comments.
Some Republicans are asking whether the military will deny housing and medical benefits to homosexual spouses, which will potentially produce a morale and readiness issue. And create a lack of equality.
Evan Wolfson with "Freedom to Marry" says, "Gay people serving in the military, defending our country, should have the same rules and same opportunities as any other Americans, no more no less."
They do. Homosexuals have the same "rules and opportunities " as everyone else. No more---no less.
They are asking that the rules be changed just for them. Special rights. And just because of their particular propensity of behavior. What about polygamists? Do they also have equal rights? And what about other specific behavioral groups?
Mr. Wolfson also told the press, "The irony is that if gay people were saying we should have a special right not to serve, the anti-gay groups would be clamoring to force gay people into the military."
Mr. Wolfson misses the irony. Homosexuals already have the right not to serve. We have an all-volunteer military. If you don't want to serve---don't serve. We all have that right. Does that somehow not matter because it is not a "special" right?
And what about housing? Will homosexuals who are "married" get the same benefits as those in a natural marriage? At present, five states allow homosexual marriage. What about, say, those from Washington State who are almost married---everything but the name?
Perhaps those Republican Senators---Sen. Curtis King, 14th District, Sen. Dale Brandland, 42nd District and Sen. Cheryl Pflug, 5th District---who voted against marriage and for homosexual "everything but the word marriage" could explain.
Here's the heart of the problem. DOMA stands in the way.
The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The 1993 law that bans open gays in the military, also prohibits service members of the same sex from marrying, with the threat of discharge.
How does he deal with that?
If the President keeps his promise to homosexuals, it will create a wide diversity of benefits between homosexuals who are "married" in the five states that allow it, and those from the other states that are not "married" but have some other recognition, such as domestic partners, civil unions, etc.
Are those from Washington State, who are almost married, eligible for more benefits than those from a state that only allows plain domestic partnerships without having made all parental laws gender neutral as the Washington State Legislature is busy doing this session?
Will the military need to create multiple tiers of benefits?
The obvious answer? Abolish DOMA.
Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif. asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates if he will recommend that Congress repeal DOMA to avoid creating these disparities.
Gates' spokesman declined to comment.
Be prepared. The next wave of assault against marriage will come from the President's attempt to keep his promise to the homosexual community and a part of that will be the necessity to repeal DOMA because it is unconstitutional. It discriminates against gays and the military is proof. To not address it could compromise our national security---or something like that.
The assault on everything Judeo-Christian, principles and beliefs upon which our country was founded and has thrived, are under attack.
These are perilous times.
If there is any good news in this, it is that President Obama cannot abolish DOMA by fiat. It is a matter that must come before Congress.
If people of faith and conservatives are active in the upcoming election, perhaps the character of our Congress can be changed for the better before this assault arrives on their desk.
We have a great opportunity to change, not only the character of Congress, but that of the State Legislature in Washington State.
There are some highly qualified people running for office who, I believe, will support and advance our core beliefs.
Faith and Freedom Foundation is preparing an extensive educational campaign regarding the candidates who will be on the ballot this fall. It will be educational, not advocacy.
Our PAC will advocate.
We are in need of funds now so we can have all the preliminary work and research completed so all efforts can be toward distribution of educational information to individuals, churches and community groups across the state.
Last week a federal judge dismissed all claims against Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, in a lawsuit challenging the National Day of Prayer Task Force.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the atheist group who placed the anti-God plaque in the Capitol in Olympia a couple of Christmas' ago and a few months ago held their national convention in Seattle, has filed a suit arguing that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.
Joel Oster with Alliance Defense Fund said, "The lawsuit against Mrs. Dobson was based on the ridiculous argument that a private citizen can violate the law by praying, and it is just another example of one radical organization's allergic reaction to anything involving God."
The FFRF argues that the Constitution was "written to be a god-less document" and they are challenging the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer and requiring a National Day of Prayer Proclamation by the President.
The President is named in the suit as well. The case against the President is still ongoing, however, the court has said that it cannot stop future presidential prayer proclamations from being issued.
I sincerely hope the President does not use this suit as an excuse to further distance himself from scheduled prayer events in the future.
Shirley Dobson, as you likely know, is the chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, which was founded to express the Judeo-Christian view.
The National Day of Prayer for this year is scheduled for May 6, 2010.
Seattle City council member Tim Burgess has a plan that if implemented will hurt Girl Scout cookie sales and categorize the Girl Scouts as panhandlers.
Understandably, even those who donate to their church and other organizations involved in providing for the needy, sometimes find panhandling bothersome. And it is often harmful to businesses.
Councilman Burgess' plan "restricts behaviors used by individuals to threaten and intimidate people into giving money." One of the restrictions is the proximity to grocery store entrances, ATM's, etc.
KOMO NEWS is reporting that there are those now suggesting the panhandling plan should apply to the Girl Scouts and their cookie sales. Girl Scouts are panhandlers? I don't think so.
In fact, these kids are learning how the free market works---work and reward, so they won't become panhandlers.
Let's assume Mr. Burgess did not really set out to put the Girl Scouts out of business or label them as panhandlers, but is only trying to address a specific situation.
This, however, raises a separate and different issue; one that often has profound results.
Unintended Consequences.
Wikipedia says, "Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but will inevitably create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes."
So, what should one do? Nothing, for the sake of safety?
No.
Robert Merton wrote a paper in 1936 titled, "The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action." While I do not agree with some of his writings, he listed five possible causes for creating unintended consequences that worth consideration.
This brings me to what is undeniably the most immediate and value based social issue in our country today.
President Obama's health care plan.
Without judging his motives, it is easy to conclude that he is obsessed with it's passage, regardless of what a majority of Americans want. And it will have devastating long term consequences---intended or unintended.
The Seattle City council will discuss the panhandler/Girl Scout issue on Monday. And they'll probably work something out.
Action is likely on the culturally "transforming" health care plan within the next couple of weeks. The President is absolutely committed to his plan (see picture and story) which will have unimagined consequences. Consequences that cannot be worked out in a Monday morning council meeting, but will change America forever.
Our country needs to reform our health care system. However a "plan" should not reform or "transform" the country and its values.
This issue will either create a new Marxist type euphoria with its passage or will bring us to a time of national restoration with its defeat. I personally believe this issue has that level of consequence.
Take a moment and call your US Senator and Representative or email them and tell them you strongly oppose the Obama health care bill and are asking them to oppose it as well.
Be wise. Be discerning. Be prayerful. Be active. Do not be silent.
President Obama: "If we want to transform the country..."
Not long ago, President Obama, in presenting his "American Agenda," was saying, "If we want to transform the country though, that requires a sizable majority." (Video Link).
That was then---this is now.
Although his notion of a sizable majority has changed, his obsession to "transform" the country has not.
Today, he and his administration are preparing to force a health care plan on our country that a majority of Americans do not want.
They resist it for many reasons including; it provides federal funding of abortions, it could bankrupt the country, will destroy the quality of health care in America and will further move America toward socialism and away from our founding principles.
Indeed his health care plan and apparent decision to use "reconciliation," or the "nuclear option," as it is sometimes called as a method to get the bill passed will "transform the country."
As our far left, so-called progressive President and those who enable him stand poised to "transform the country" using reconciliation, I felt we should take one more look at exactly what reconciliation is and why it is it a threat.
No one is any more qualified to explain it than former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.
Yesterday he explained the matter in his newsletter. I recommend you read it.
I along with many of you am concerned about the direction of our culture and country. There are indeed those who are working tirelessly to "transform" it into something very different than the country that has risen to become the most prosperous, most free, most exceptional and most blessed country in the history of civilization.
Growing numbers of Americans are beginning to resist, not because we resist change, but because we resist the direction of the present change.
James Russell Lowell was once asked by the French historian, Francios Guizot, "How long will the American republic endure?"
Lowell responded, "As long as the ideas of the men who founded it remain dominate."
If we as a nation do not soon return our public policy to the Christian consensus of our Founding Fathers and the Biblical principles of law that have provided the freedoms we have enjoyed for well over 200 years, it will only be a matter of time before we lose those freedoms.
Patrick Henry told his contemporaries, "When people forget God, tyrants forge their chains."
May God help us during these trying times.
God bless you. Thank you for your encouraging words and financial support.
_________________ Gary Randall President Faith & Freedom
A few comments from Gary, James Garfield and Ben Stein.
You remember the series of videos released last September with ACORN employees coaching a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp or boyfriend.
The videos captured ACORN employees discussing how the couple could buy a house for "business" purposes and even how to fund bringing under-age girls into the US from Latin America.
Undercover videos were taken in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Washington D.C., California and a couple of other places, with the same results.
Although the videos were initially ignored by the old media, FOX News and then the Internet launched them and within days the world had seen them, there was a political firestorm and Congress partially de-funded ACORN and called for an investigation. ACORN was already dogged by allegations of fraud and embezzlement.
Yesterday, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said they had completed their 5-month inquiry and "no criminal activity was found."
No criminal activity? Corruption.
ACORN'S response? A threat.
Kevin Whelan, an ACORN spokesman said, "Hopefully today's announcement, and similar results from independent reviews, will make politicians and media examine the facts more carefully the next time a valuable community organization is attacked."
Attacked? I've seen the videos a couple of times and am at a loss to see the attack or ACORN's innocence.
ACORN seems quite self assured, and with good reason. They have a friend.
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported in August 2008 that US Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an "off shoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports."
The Obama campaign first said the "child of ACORN" had helped with polling, advance work, and staging major events. Then reconsidered, and reported, "no" they actually just worked for the good of all and only worked to get out the vote.
At the time some said it looked like "old style" Chicago politics, not the transparency and integrity the candidate was promising.
That was a year and a half ago.
Andrew Breitbart, who funded the video investigation said yesterday he has more videos and they will soon be released.
The depth of hypocrisy and corruption in government is stunning.
How did we get to this place? Who is responsible? What is the solution?
I think the answer is found in part in the words of James Garfield in 1887, 100 years after the Constitutional Convention, and in some comments written recently by Ben Stein titled, "We Figured Him Out."
First, Garfield: "Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature---If the next centennial does not find us a great nation---it will because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."
Secondly, Ben Stien: WE FIGURED HIM OUT
Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?
Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:
The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008.
They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.
They ignored his anti-white writings in his books.
They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.
They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student.
They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.
The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.
Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth. Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East , way beyond na�vet�, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future. The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.
Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.
The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.
These are perilous times.. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has given Iran the go-ahead to have nuclear weapons, an unqualified betrayal of the nation. Now, we face a devastating loss of freedom at home in health care. It will be joined by controls on our lives to "protect us" from global warming, itself largely a fraud if believed to be caused by man.
Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms. There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost. Wake up, beloved America ...
May God help us.
_____________ Gary Randall President Faith & Freedom
Planned Parenthood has been caught, red handed, so to speak, violating the law and attempting to lie their way out of a very serious matter.
Pro-Life activist group "Live-Action" has released another under cover video from a Planned Parenthood facility, where instead of obeying the law and reporting what they thought was a 14 year-old girl, pregnant from her 31 year-old boy friend, they counseled her on how to get the abortion without parental knowledge, and without her boy friend getting in trouble.
When caught, they lied. Their lie is exposed on additional video. Live Action president Lila Rose, posing as a 14 year-old girl, pregnant from her 31 year-old boy friend, is asking the Milwaukee Planned Parenthood about getting an abortion without notifying her parents and not getting her boy friend in trouble. The link above has the video and much more information.
By law, Planned Parenthood is required to report this to the police.
What did they do? They did what seems to be a pattern. They lied.
In the spirit of their "comprehensive health care," instead of reporting the matter to the police as required by law, they are seen and heard on video coaching the young girl on how to obtain a judicial bypass waiver so she can bypass her parents and protect her 31-year-old boyfriend from "getting in trouble."
When the video of this exchange came to light, Teri Huyck, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said publicly, "We were unable to make any report" because the girl didn't give us any identifying information.
A lie.
Now Live Action has released more video which shows the undercover girl giving Planned Parenthood both her name and her birth date.
Note one question in the video that was not forgotten. The issue of who was going to pay for the abortion. Forget the law, but don't forget the money. Don't worry about the girl's well being after being abused by a 31-year-old man, but get that payment.
This is one more profile in the face of evil.
Ignore the law. Lie when caught. Lie again when caught lying. Accuse pro-life pregnancy centers of being incompetent and dishonest. Make regular visits to the White House and prepare to expand the abortion industry with the hoped for $11 Billion from President Obama's health care plan.
A full version of the video has been released to the district attorney and the attorney general. Live Action has conducted several other investigations of Planned Parenthood in other areas with similar results. No parental notification. No information to the police. No problem.
Will elected officials ever find the collective courage to stand in the face of evil and de-fund this expanding enterprise of death?
Likely, no. Not the present class. It is imperative that we elect men and women who believe in life and will act to protect the sanctity of life. And will have the courage to de-fund the face of evil.
Be informed and be inspired to act. Do not be silent.
God bless you.
______________ Gary Randall President Faith & Freedom
The NCAA has pulled a Focus on the Family ad from their website and the Mayor of Beverly Hills is angry because another Miss California contestant in the Miss USA pageant believes in natural marriage---one man-one woman.
All this in the name of tolerance.
The NCAA (National College Athletic Association) has taken a Focus on the Family ad off their website after homosexuals complained.
The ad features a picture of a father holding his young son. The ad is titled, "Celebrate Life. Celebrate Family."
The caption under the picture says, "All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing."
Why is this so controversial that the NCAA would break an advertising agreement made with Focus which included the Tim Tebow ad at the Super Bowl and this ad on the NCAA website?
Is it distasteful or offensive to want the best for your son?
Homosexual activists said the ad had to go because Focus is controversial, because they are pro-life and support natural marriage---one-man, one woman.
Twisted logic. Perverted tolerance.
In another story from Associated Press the mayor of Beverly Hills is angry and is disowning a Miss USA contestant because she does not believe in homosexual marriage.
Lauren Ashley has spoken out against homosexual marriage in recent interviews. She told FOX news she believes same-sex marriage goes against God and the Bible.
Although the pageant rules allow for contestants to choose the area they represent, whether or not they live there, Beverly Hills mayor, Nancy Krasne, is angry saying Ashley doesn't live there and doesn't represent the city in any way, "Which," she says, "has a long history of tolerance and respect."
Tolerance? Respect?
I assure you her address would have never been an issue if she had held the proper beliefs.
Whether it is the NCAA or the city of Beverly Hills or a number of other public entities, there is an increasing trend to re-write or re-define biblical morality, while simultaneously seeking to silence those who believe in it.
It seems tolerance is a one way street and the distaste for biblical Christianity is driving it from the public square, public discourse, education and even the free expression of beliefs in the paid media.
Ironically, intolerance of Christianity and a Christian influenced culture is most often demanded in the name of tolerance.
Christianity must not be tolerated because of the need for greater tolerance. A Perverted Tolerance.
Be informed. Be inspired. Be active.
Thank you for your support of our efforts in this ministry.
_____________ Gary Randall President Faith & Freedom
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