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Reuters
reports. And CitizenLink reports
on how the bill establishes a special legal status for homosexuals. Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) voiced
his concerns that the bill “could have a chilling effect on the religious
expression and the religious freedom of millions of Americans.”
See
how your representative voted on this dangerous bill here.
Thanks
to all who contacted their representatives on this issue! Stay involved as this bill now heads to the
Senate.
Our
friends at FRC have released
a video grading President Obama on his first one hundred days in
office. The president doesn’t make high
grades on pro-life and family issues. LifeNews also reviews Obama’s
100 days on pro-life issues.
Neal
McCluskey grades the president on education reform. Excerpt:
If you look just at dollar signs or
rhetoric to measure the education success of Barack Obama’s first one-hundred
days, then the President should get an A. Base it on meaningful reform,
however, and he’d be lucky to get a passing grade.
George
Will explains a complicated but important Senate procedure which could be
greatly abused in the near future.
David
Limbaugh explains. Excerpts:
Homosexual activists aren't easily
deterred. Unable to persuade even the people of California to change the
definition of marriage to legitimize their lifestyle, they're resorting to a
backdoor approach to accomplish the same thing: pushing federal hate crime
legislation while few are paying attention.
…
“…I think the main purpose of this bill is
to demonize and criminalize thought, especially the politically incorrect
belief that homosexual behavior is either abnormal or sinful. It is to make an
emphatic societal statement that this belief constitutes "hate" and
possibly to lay the groundwork for outlawing speech expressing this belief,
including from the pulpit.”
It’s
official, as Breitbart reports, Senator
Arlen Specter has switched parties.
Stiff opposition from conservative former Congressman Pat Toomey in the
Republican primary was likely the main consideration for Specter who was often
criticized for his liberal positions (especially on abortion).
 Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)
In
a post on his blog entitled “Obama’s
Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids,” black journalist Juan Williams criticizes
President Obama for allowing the successful school voucher program in
Washington, DC to be killed. Excerpt:
This reckless dismantling of the D.C.
voucher program does not bode well for arguments to come about standards in the
effort to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. It does not speak well of the
promise of President Obama to be the “Education President,’ who once seemed
primed to stand up for all children who want to learn and especially minority
children.
And its time for all of us to get outraged
about this sin against our children.
George
Will also comments on this and other misguided
budgetary priorities here.
Mona
Charen explains. Excerpt:
Rep. Smith asked Clinton to respond to
Sanger's views about the "deterioration in the human stock" and
"the perpetuation of defectives, delinquents and dependents." As
Goldberg has observed, conservatives are always asked to "own" their
intellectual forebears and to disavow that which requires disavowal. Yet
liberals skate by without having to distance themselves from the dreadful
opinions and writings of their heroes and heroines.
Congressman
Mike Pence (R-IN) speaks
out against the recent FDA ruling on the “morning after” abortion pill.
Congressional
Quarterly gives us a “heads up” on how the upcoming stem cell battle will
focus on human embryo cloning. Excerpt:
As the Obama administration prepares to
greatly expand the government’s investments in embryonic stem cell research,
the next big biomedical research debate in Congress is shaping up: whether to
allow government funding of experiments using cloned human embryos.
 Today the House Judiciary Committee considered dangerous hate crimes legislation which would add additional penalties to crimes based on the motivation of the criminal. This legislation poses a serious threat to religious freedom and equal rights.
AdvanceUSA staff attended or watched much of the hearings today. Democrats on the committee claimed the bill posed no threats to religious freedom because the bill only deals with violent crime, and compared the move to include sexual behavior as a protected status similar to the protections against crime motivated by race. Republicans pointed out the nebulous nature of many of the categories labeled in the legislation, and made the case that the bill would take action against “thought crimes” because it adds penalties based solely on the perpetrator’s perceived motivation.
Several amendments were proposed which would have attempted to clarify the definitions, speak the truth about the nature of the bill, or try to mitigate the danger to religious freedom and free speech. These substantive amendments were rejected.
The House Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on the hate crimes bill until 10:00am Thursday (April 22). If the bill passes committee, which is likely, concerned citizens will need to contact their representatives and urge them to oppose any expansion of hate crimes.
As
the Independent
and the Mail
Online report, a fertility expert is claiming he will be able to clone
human beings and bring them to birth.
While most people agree that reproductive cloning is wrong, but many
seem to think that cloning human embryos for the purposes of stem cell research
is okay as long as the cloned embryos are killed and not implanted into the
mother’s womb. Really, they’re both just
as wrong.
The
AP reports that the FDA is planning to loosen restrictions on the “morning
after” pill which often acts as an abortifacient and is suspected of causing
severe health problems. Allowing
under-age girls to obtain this drug without consulting a physician (let alone
her parents) is disturbing.
Matt
Barber explains why the hate crimes legislation now in the House Judiciary
Committee is so dangerous. Excerpt:
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Mark Kirk
(R-IL) have quietly re-introduced the federal thought crimes bill, H.R. 1913,
the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. As has proved to
be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the
direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling “hate speech” laws. It
represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law
– morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual
lifestyle. The bill is expected to be marked up Wednesday before the full House
Judiciary Committee.
Concerned
Women for America has issued a
helpful press release on the dangerous hate crimes legislation being considered
by the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow.
It shows how the hate (thought) crimes bill would create a “caste system
of victims,” with some being more equal than others.
OneNewsNow
also reports on the danger this bill holds for religious freedom.
LifeNews reports. The courageous student activists at
LiveActionFilms have done it again, exposing the radical and often illegal
pro-abortion, pro-promiscuity agenda of Planned Parenthood. The newly released undercover footage shows
Planned Parenthood staff in Tennessee trying to cover up what they believe is a
sexual abuse situation. Hopefully,
thanks to the great work of Lila Rose and her partners at LiveAction, people across
the country will start to see a pattern of behavior at Planned Parenthood. Maybe then they will start to ask questions
about how many of their tax dollars support this kind of activity.
Read
our past interview
with Lila Rose here.
See
the video here:
In
an
article for Nature, FRC’s David Christensen provided his expert opinion on
the recently drafted stem cell research funding guidelines for the National
Institute of Health. Excerpt:
Those who oppose the research because
deriving stem cell lines requires the destruction of days-old embryos say that
the guidelines would vastly expand an enterprise they deplore. "It's forcing
American taxpayers to spend their money creating essentially an incentive to
create and destroy more human embryos," says David Christensen, senior
director of Congressional affairs at the Family Research Council in Washington
DC.
Christensen noted that the guidelines don't
require the fertility doctor and the researcher to be different people, but say
only that that this should be the case "whenever it [is]
practicable". "This is really crafted with huge loopholes," he
says.
 The Christian Post reports that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has announced that the House Judiciary Committee will consider dangerous “hate crimes” legislation that would endanger religious freedom and would create special rights based solely on sexual behavior. Such hate crimes constitute punishing people for their thoughts and should rightly be called “thought crimes.”
CitizenLink reports on one specific example of a Christian being persecuted for holding traditional Christian views on homosexuality under the guise of hate prevention. A Christian in Britain lost his job for answering truthfully about his personal beliefs regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Excerpts:
A charity worker has been suspended after telling a colleague about his Christian beliefs on homosexuality, the London Times Online reported.
…
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst at Focus on the Family Action, said the incident highlights what's beginning to show up in America.
"Where laws granting special rights to homosexuals bump into religious freedoms and freedom of speech, religion and speech lose," he said. "Christians are being bullied into silence simply for voicing disagreement with the homosexual agenda."
Call your representative today and urge him or her to oppose any expansion of hate crimes legislation, especially when based on homosexuality or “transgender orientation.”
Correction: This article originally indicated that Rep. Frank was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. This is incorrect. He is not a member of the committee, but is a co-sponsor of the legislation and was likely one of the first to announce that the bill would be considered in committee.
By Daniel Herbster
 I had the privilege to speak to demonstrators at the St. Joseph County T.E.A. (Tax Enough Already) Party in downtown South Bend, Indiana today. Citing the eminent conservative Edmund Burke, I told the crowd that one of the main reasons we were protesting is to stand up for generations “yet unborn.” We have a responsibility to future generations to be good stewards of our finances, tax policy, and free enterprise system, and must not mortgage our children’s futures so we can have irresponsible spending and policies today. This is a pro-family issue because if we make foolish decisions today it will be difficult, if not impossible, to provide tax relief for families in the future.
It was great to see other dedicated pro-lifers and pro-family activists in the crowd exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and engage in free political speech.
Cal Thomas explains the importance of the TEA Party events in his column, while the Business & Media Institute quotes CNBC’s Rick Santelli (one of the inspirations for TEA Parties) as saying the events are “about as American as it gets.”
Reuters
reports. Excerpt:
Patients will receive injections containing
millions of their own stem cells, which have been extracted and multiplied up
in a laboratory, and can regenerate new tissue to repair damaged regions.
More than 1,500 race horses have been
treated using the same process and follow-up data suggests a 50 percent
reduction in re-injury over a three year period, compared with conventional
treatment.
Daniel
Herbster reporting
As
AdvanceUSA
blog reported, the Arizona Supreme Court recently overturned that state’s school
voucher program, ruling the program, which had benefited low-income and
disabled children, unconstitutional. The
Institute for Justice is a libertarian legal
organization which defended the Arizona voucher program in court. Tim Keller, the executive director of the
Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter, has been kind enough to share with us
about the Arizona case and his work for IJ.
DH: Tim, how was the Arizona school voucher
program set up, and what kinds of results was it achieving before the court
made its ruling?
TK: Enacted and implemented in 2006, Arizona’s two
innovative voucher programs, for children with disabilities and children in
foster care, offered a genuine lifeline to many families trapped in schools
that failed to meet their children’s unique educational needs. Teachers’
unions immediately challenged both programs in court. The Institute for
Justice filed intervention papers on behalf of parents and children relying on
the programs to defend against the lawsuits. During the more than two
years of litigation, the programs grew numerically and the children receiving
the vouchers grew both socially and academically. To say that parental
satisfaction soared is an understatement. During the litigation, we
actually filed a number of testimonials
with the Arizona Supreme Court typical of the truly life-changing impact the
programs have had on families.
DH: On what grounds did the Arizona Supreme Court
overturn the voucher program? Why do you
feel they wrongly decided this case?
TK: The Arizona Supreme Court declared that the
voucher programs violate a provision of the Arizona Constitution that prohibits
state funds being appropriated “in aid of” private and religious schools. The Court wrongly decided the case because
the programs were not passed “in aid of” schools. The programs were passed “in aid of”
individuals. Just like food stamps do
not aid grocery stores, school vouchers do not aid schools. For decades, the legal test applied by the
Arizona Supreme Court to similar programs challenged under the so-called “aid
clause” has been the “true beneficiary” test.
In this case, as in prior Arizona school choice cases, parents and
children are the true beneficiaries, not private schools.
Moreover, the decision threatens numerous other educational
aid programs that allow students to use public funds to attend private
schools. For example, at the
post-secondary level, Arizona has no less than three separate programs that
award state-funded vouchers or scholarships to students who can choose to use
those public funds at private, even religious, colleges and universities. The decision also jeopardizes a program that
allows public school districts to place children with disabilities in private
schools and use state funds to pay the tuition to those schools.
DH: Your
press release mentioned a young girl named Lexie. How had she benefited from the voucher
program and what will she have to do once it is discontinued?
Kathryn
Jean Lopez explains at NRO. Excerpt:
"We want fewer and better children . . . and
we cannot make the social life and the world-peace we are determined to make,
with the ill-bred, ill-trained swarms of inferior citizens that you inflict on
us.”
That ghastly message appeared in the
introduction to Margaret Sanger’s 1922 book, The Pivot of Civilization.
In a little-noticed incident, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton recently announced that she is “really in awe” of Sanger.
“The 20th-century reproductive-rights movement, really embodied in the life and
leadership of Margaret Sanger, was one of the most transformational in the
entire history of the human race,” Clinton declaimed upon receiving an award
from the organization that Sanger founded, Planned Parenthood.
The
New York Times reports. Citing
foreign laws in American constitutional cases is just one outrageous example of
judicial activism.
The
Department of Education has released a report
showing the successes of the Washington, DC school voucher program which was recently
eliminated by Congress and President Obama.
The Senior Republican Member of the House Education and Labor Committee issued a
statement in support of the voucher program, indicating our nation needs
more school choice, not less.
CitizenLink also
reports. Suzanne Fields also mentions
the report in
her column today.
The
Washington Times reports. Excerpt:
Democrats in the Iowa legislature killed
efforts Thursday to bring the gay marriage issue to the ballot, rejecting the
pleas of hundreds of demonstrators who flooded the state Capitol in a bid to
get legislators on the record for one battle in a same-sex marriage war brewing
for the 2010 elections.
The
Union Leader reports. What happened
in Colorado is now happening in New Hampshire.
Under these laws, cross dressing men can use the same bathroom as your
wife and daughter. Many liberals would
like to see these kinds of “bathroom bills” enacted in other states and
nation-wide.
 After overriding the veto of the
governor, the
Vermont legislature has successfully instituted same-sex marriage. Vermont now joins states like Connecticut, Massachusetts,
and Iowa which recognize “gay marriages,” but unlike these states, Vermont is
the first state to institute same-sex marriage through legislation.
These
irresponsible actions by courts and legislatures (and the coming action in the
District of Columbia) illustrate the need for a Federal Marriage Protection
Amendment to the US Constitution which would, once and for all, settle the
question of what constitutes marriage in America.
Marriage
is the most fundamental building block of civilization, and must be protected
from redefinition. Furthermore, other
nations which have instituted same-sex marriage are testimony to the decline in
traditional marriage and increase in out-of-wedlock births which are
detrimental to society as a whole. And,
despite what gay marriage advocates might claim, no one’s inalienable or constitutional
rights are violated by plainly declaring what marriage is and is not.
Find
out more about protecting marriage at the AdvanceUSA marriage page.
Find
out more about how the rights of doctors and other medical workers to refuse to
participate in unethical procedures (such as abortion) are being threatened,
and find out how you can help defend “a doctor’s right” at ADoctorsRight.com.
FoxNews
reports on the growing opposition to Obama’s nominee Dawn Johnson, the
president’s radical pro-abortion nominee for the Office of Legal Counsel at the
Justice Department.
OneNewsNow
reports on the potential “bait and switch” in embryonic stem cell language
claiming to allow research only on “leftover” IVF embryos. First, there is no such thing as a “leftover”
human life. But second, if this research
door is opened it is very unlikely it will stop at IVF embryos, but also
include embryos created for the sole purpose of experimentation and death. Excerpt:
"We believe now that the bill that is
likely to come before the House will be even much more expansive than that and
will open the door to federal funding that uses human embryos who are
deliberately created for the purpose of using them in research that will kill
them, including the use of human cloning to create large numbers of human
embryos to be used in research," he [Douglas Johnson of National Right to
Life] says.
Today
the Iowa
Supreme Court ruled that the state’s marriage legislation limiting marriage
to members of the opposite sex is
unconstitutional. The unanimous
ruling constitutes, in effect, court imposed same-sex marriage. Iowa is now the third state in the country
currently allowing “gay marriage.”
Ed
Whelan comments on the ruling at his “Bench Memos” blog at NRO.
Republican
members of the Senate Judiciary Committee boycotted the confirmation
hearings of Obama’s first judicial nominee for the federal courts, David
Hamilton, because they believe Chairman Leahy is rushing the nomination and not
providing nearly enough time to research Hamilton’s rulings before questioning
him effectively. FRC’s Tony Perkins
describes how the hearings were held in an out of way room in the Capitol
building without adequate space or television recording capability. Leahy’s actions beg the question “what is he
trying to hide?”
Considering
Hamilton’s record of opposing any abortion restrictions and ruling that prayers
in the state legislature made “in Jesus’ name” is unconstitutional, it’s not surprising
supporters of the supposed “moderate” Hamilton might want to shield him from scrutiny.
LifeNews also reports on the
walk-out.
The Wall Street
Journal reports. Excerpt:
The Vermont House of Representatives
approved a bill legalizing gay marriage Thursday, a divisive measure that now
faces a veto from the state's governor.
AdvanceUSA
has learned that liberal groups have begun pushing for so-called “hate crimes”
legislation which would create special privileges based on sexual behavior,
violate the constitutional principle of “equal justice under law,” and would
pose a subtle threat to religious freedom since “hate crime” and “hate speech”
laws have often been used to prosecute Christians for lovingly proclaiming
Biblical truth regarding sexuality. It is
possible that hate crimes legislation could be discussed in Congress soon after
the Easter recess.
Call your
representative and both
your senators and urge them to oppose any legislation that expands hate
crimes laws!
CitizenLink reports. Unfortunately, it appears that President
Obama’s State Department will push its abortion agenda overseas, while
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heaped praise on Planned Parenthood founder
Margaret Sanger. Excerpt:
After being honored by Planned Parenthood
with the Margaret Sanger award, Clinton said: “I have to tell you that it was a
great privilege when I was told that I would receive this award. I admire
Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision.”
Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood,
was openly sympathetic to Nazi Germany’s eugenic practices and was strongly
committed to preventing black people and the poor from reproducing.
Sanger once said: "Many of this group
are diseased, feeble-minded, and are of the pauper element dependent upon the
normal and fit members of society for their support. There is no doubt in the
minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be
stopped."
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