Obama’s declaration of war on religious freedom
I commend the Catholic bishops of America for rallying in opposition to President Obama's declaration of war on religious freedom and conscience rights. Obama's anti - "of, by, and for the people" decision to force religiously affiliated organizations like hospitals and churches, to include coverage of sterilization, contraception and abortifacients in their employee health insurance plans represents an act of treason: The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Four years ago Obama campaigned for the "audacity of hope" appearing as an "angel of light." Since becoming president he has militantly and forcefully fought to establish and entrench in the minds, hearts, souls and behavior of Americans, the dark evils of abortion, sterilization, homosexuality, contraception and embryonic stem cell research. He has gone so far as to promote these atrocities in other nations.
Americans can no longer sit on the sidelines and allow themselves to be ruled by a President drunk with power. They must engage Obama's challenge. They must take up the good fight to ensure that he is not given another term in which to destroy the very soul of America with his anti-life, anti-family, anti-religious policies.
Paul Kokoski
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Regarding that "scathing" Dept of Justice report
Regarding that "scathing" Dept of Justice report being used as a club against Sheriff Arpaio, isn't this the Dept of Justice, under Eric Holder, who attacked SB1070 before he had even read the bill?
Isn't Eric Holder under investigation for Fast and Furious for deliberately allowing guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels, and that resulted in the death of Arizona Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?
Isn't the Civil Rights Division, under Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, the same one that has been sanctioned for more than $4 million for frivolous lawsuits and misconduct?
Thomas Perez once served as president of Casa de Maryland, a radical open borders group that encourages ILLEGAL aliens not to speak with the police and urges local governments not to enforce federal fugitive warrants against them.
Thomas Perez fought to mandate that Mexican ID be recognized as valid photo ID in the United States, even though two thirds of Mexico's states and districts don't accept them because they are so rife with fraud.
It was Thomas Perez who demanded the dismissal of charges of voter intimidation against the New Black Panthers, despite videotape evidence and documented testimony from Bartle Bull, a civil rights activist who supported Robert Kennedy.
Thomas Perez's Voting Section suppressed the military vote in 2010 by dragging its feet, so that many of our fighting men and women overseas don't have a place to register to vote, and don't get their ballots in time for their votes to be counted.
The barrage of "investigations" against Arpaio began 49 days after Barack Obama was inaugurated, and you don't think these attacks are politically motivated? Do you believe that the DOJ cares about the Civil Rights of US citizens? I think it spends most of its time subverting our country's immigration and voting laws.
Anita Christy
Gilbert
A m e r i c a n P o s t - G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
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Take action now!
On Feb. 2 in the Senate Government Reform Committee, the majority members voted in favor of four important bills that would reform powerful government-worker unions:
SB 1484– Paycheck Protection for Government Employees – Prohibits government employers from taking money from employee's paychecks for union activities without express annual authorization.
SB 1485 – Prohibition on Government Collective Bargaining – Prohibits government employers from engaging in collective bargaining (including "meet and confer") with government unions.
SB 1486 – Prohibition on Government Union Release Time – Prohibits government employers from paying employees to do union activities on the taxpayer dime.
SB 1487 – Prohibition on Withholding of Dues for Government Unions – Prohibits government employers from withholding any portion of public employee wages to pay for labor organization dues.
To send quick thank-you emails to the members of the Committee, click here. For Goldwater Institute fact sheets on the above bills, click on the bill titles, above.
Senate Bills 1484, 1485, 1486 and 1487 will be heading soon to floor votes in the full Senate. Please help us rein in Arizona's powerful government unions by sending an email to your state Senator in support of these bills.
You can also customize your message and take action by clicking here.
To learn more about AFP-Arizona's 2012 Legislative Agenda, visit www.americansforprosperity.org/arizona.
Tom Jenney,
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
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What do you think?
Is anyone else offended that we are paying the President of Arizona State University (* paid $728,750 per year) to support the violation of the Second Amendment? He is worried about ASU Police, SWAT and citizens in a "crossfire?” What about the students? I suggest he study previous university shootings. Dozens of dead students, the murderer commits suicide and police showing up after the fact (Virginia Tech - 32 dead). I cannot think of one of these incidents that campus police stopped a massacre at a university. What do you think?
Name withheld by request
Cave Creek
Statement by Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow on Guns on Campus Bill January 31, 2012
Arizona State University, like any major research university, is a very special and very complex learning environment. In addition to more than 70,000 of our own college students, we have day care centers, elementary school programs and thousands of elementary school age visitors in a given week as well as thousands of out-of-state teenagers and their parents visiting.
The bill (SB1474) to permit guns on campus is a misguided attempt to increase school safety without a shred of evidence to support the assumption that schools are safer if students are armed. In fact, a study by the World Health Organization found that the very opposite is true.
I don't oppose gun ownership. Own all the guns you want, I would say to anyone. But please leave them in your car if you bring them to school, which is our present policy.
Our ASU police, the Phoenix SWAT and all the other professional law enforcement chiefs we have talked to are opposed to this bill and say that it will reduce safety.
Can you imagine a crowded college lecture hall in which one student pulls a handgun and fires a shot, then a dozen more students untrained in the use of firearms and how to handle potentially deadly situations all pull out their guns? Innocent people would be caught in a deadly crossfire of panicked students firing in every direction. And what does the SWAT team do when it arrives? How do they know which of a dozen or more armed and possibly firing shooters is the bad guy? Or do they take out everyone with a gun?
There are places where guns are not conducive to public safety. Schools surely must be on that list.
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Real unemployed rate rises to 11.01 percent, underemployed to 17.6 percent
FAIRFAX, Va. – Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson, the third of February, issued the following statement on the continued decline of the civilian labor force participation rate that dramatically alters the unemployment outlook by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
"Once again, the civilian labor force participation rate has declined, from 64 percent to 63.7 percent in a single month. Since January 2009, it has declined from 65.7 percent, resulting in approximately 4.7 million people no longer being counted towards the unemployment rate. If they were included, the real rate of unemployed working age adults would be 11.01 percent, and the underemployed would be 17.6 percent.
"Overall, that includes the 12.7 million people that BLS says are actually unemployed, and then 4.7 million who have given up looking for work, plus another 10.5 million who can't find full-time work. All together, there's 28 million working age adults who simply cannot find work in the Obama economy."
Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call 703-383-0880 or visit www.GetLiberty.org.
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ALG to Obama: Put up or shut up on unemployment extensions
FAIRFAX, Va. – Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement urging Congress to restore unemployment benefits extensions back to 27 weeks:
"It's time for Obama to put up or shut up on unemployment benefits extensions up to 99 weeks. He wants to claim that the apparent drop in the jobless rate means the economy is turning a corner. If he really believes that the emergency is over, then it is time to rescind these extensions that have cost taxpayers an additional $275 billion since 2009.
"A failure by Congress to roll back this welfare program will be seen as an acknowledgement that the most recent jobs report is much weaker than Obama is suggesting. 4.7 million Americans who were a part of the labor force have simply given up on looking for work since Obama took office, which is artificially keeping the unemployment rate down. If those people were included, the real rate of unemployed working age adults would be 11.01 percent, and the underemployed would be 17.6 percent.
"Even if one were to look at the data honestly, 99 weeks of unemployment benefits have already run out for millions Americans anyway and the program should be repealed. The welfare state has failed to restore real growth to the economy.
"The solution to the problem is not perpetual extensions of welfare, but for government to enact pro-growth policies that will have a job-creating effect. These include rolling back the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, undoing the harsh regulatory climate in health care, the environment, and energy, lifting restrictions on capital creation, and restoring sound money."
Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call 703-383-0880 or visit www.GetLiberty.org.
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Interesting article
I just received an email re: the "Obama" eligibility court hearing in Georgia. I am sure you have probably heard of this but if not, here is a link to the article.
http://www.thenationalpatriot.com/?p=4138#more-4138
Have a great week and keep up the good work.
Name withheld by request
Email
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Speaker Tobin addresses need for Alternative Maps
In ordinary circumstances, the most politically safe and easy course of action is to do nothing. On the other hand, it’s especially risky to foment actions that would alter the outcomes of voter initiatives. In the case of the Redistricting Commission, it’s important to conclude one way or another whether the intent and desires of the voters have been violated. If they have been, we should provide voters the mechanism with which to fix the situation. It’s obvious to me the process was hijacked. That being the case, it is more than appropriate to give voters a chance to remedy this injustice.
The voters approved the creation of a transparent, fair and open process with give and take on both sides. It was to be chaired by someone willing to give deference to all sides. There was to be as much political balance as possible and, of course, adherence to the Constitution and to the law. The commission was supposed to include two Republicans, two Democrats and one independent chair. Considering how the final version of the maps turned out, it is impossible to argue that the IRC followed that model. It is a fact that the Chair voted 100% of the time with Democrats and only twice with the Republicans, one of those times only because a Republican Commissioner was threatened to vote yes or “the maps will get worse.” The Chair voted with Democrats to enlist the services of Strategic Telemetry (a firm with established ties to high profile Democrats, including President Obama) and approved the Democrat legal counsel while rejecting counsel recommended by Republicans.
The original Prop 106 language approved by the voters prescribed a process to avoid this type of partisan outcome. Any reasonable, non-partisan and fair-minded person would have to conclude that the process has failed. How independent can the Chair be with that kind of voting record? In reality there were three Democrat votes, no rural representation and no Independents. Financial discrepancies were also apparent so the House had to request an explanation of the IRC budget. Given these facts, if the voters had known this would happen, it’s doubtful they would have passed the initiative in the first place.
Even now there are outstanding issues with the partisan IRC maps, as they have yet to even be submitted to the Department of Justice for pre-clearance. To this day, Arizona still has no official IRC legislative or congressional maps. How long will Arizonans be forced to wait for the maps to be submitted?
At no time should greater effort be expended than when ensuring the transparency and legitimacy of our electoral process. It would be best to simply allow the people to choose: the IRC draft or the Alternate Map. Vote Yes or No. Did the IRC violate the voters trust or not? At the very least the public will finally get transparency.
For my efforts to shed light on the process, Democrat leadership has sent out a series of vitriolic and abusive emails in an effort to personally attack me. Apparently the idea of debating issues and refraining from the use of abusive attacks, in the name of civility, only applies to Republicans.
Speaker Andy Tobin
District 1
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New school food guidelines
I was delighted to read the new USDA guidelines requiring schools to serve meals with twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less sodium and fat, and no meat for breakfast. The guidelines were mandated by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act signed by President Obama in December of 2010 and will go into effect with the next school year.
The new guidelines offer a welcome change from USDA's tradition of using the National School Lunch Program as a dumping ground for meat and dairy surpluses. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of American children are consuming excess fat, only 15 percent eat recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, and one-third have become overweight or obese. These early dietary flaws become lifelong addictions, raising their risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
In recent years, Hawaii, California, New York, and Florida legislatures asked their schools to offer daily vegetarian options, and most school districts now do. The Baltimore public school system offers its 80,000 students a complete weekly break from meat.
Parents should continue to insist on healthful plant-based school meals, snacks, and vending machine items. They can consult www.fns.usda.gov/cnd, www.healthyschoollunches.org, and www.vrg.org/family.
Carl Devlin
Cave Creek
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