Newslinks 07/11/10
July 11th, 2010
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A statewide coalition of atheists and agnostics has placed billboards in six North Carolina cities, including one along the Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte.
Gallup’s most recent “Values and Beliefs” survey shows an even split among Americans on the issue of doctor-assisted suicide.
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council have agreed to merge into the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
In order to make sure doctors reach the correct conclusion in determining brain death, new guidelines that call for a lengthy examination have been developed.
After 43 years of living paralyzed from the neck down and recently learning that she now has breast cancer, Joni Eareckson Tada remains all smiles.
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose agency is charged with securing America’s borders, told an audience in Washington in reference to the U.S.-Mexico border, “You’re never going to totally seal that border.”
(CNSNews.com) – As Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan undergoes her first day of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, the group Military Families United is raising concerns about her fitness to serve on the high court.
(CNSNews.com) – After announcing a rare congress of its ruling party that could signal leadership changes, North Korea on Monday threatened to strengthen its nuclear weapons capability in the face of “continuing hostile U.S. policy and its military threat.” The warning follows a U.S. diplomatic push at the G-8 and G-20 summits in Canada to generate a firm international response to the alleged North Korean sinking of a South Korean warship.
(CNSNews.com) – Pakistan reportedly is moving to broker a peace deal between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and an al-Qaeda-allied terrorist group with longstanding ties to Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency. CIA director Leon Panetta on Sunday voiced doubt that the militants were ready to stop fighting and embrace the political process.
(CNSNews.com) – The House passed new campaign finance restrictions last week, despite complaints from Republicans and some Democrats that the bill is an unconstitutional violation of Americans’ fundamental free-speech rights. The Senate has not yet taken up its version of the legislation, despite some urgency on the part of Democrats who want the new campaign finance restrictions to apply to the upcoming midterm election.
The Supreme Court says a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won’t let homosexuals join.
A conservative university professor and political scientist thinks no one should be surprised by the new poll results showing that Americans are less confident in President Obama’s leadership than at any point since he took office.
General McChrystal’s public criticism of President Obama was not a lapse in judgment. It was unquestionably intentional — and here’s why.
The Supreme Court has handed down decisions today on the ability of government to limit gun rights, and in an appeal from the Vatican in a lawsuit on clergy abuse.
Because of a tight budget, New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie has taken action on state spending for abortion facilities by eliminating their funding.
The United Methodist Church has decided that Claremont School of Theology will retain its denominational affiliation and that embargoed funds will be reinstated.
The Supreme Court has rendered a decision in a religious liberty case — but it may not be the last word.
Two Islam watchdogs have terminated their relationships with a secure payment website after it tried to intimidate them for telling the truth about Islam.
We are witnessing the beginning of the First Amendment’s demise by an overwhelming Islamic ideology that is hell-bent on silencing Christians and Jews from speaking of their faith.
The .xxx suffix has been approved for porn websites — a move that one pro-family leader believes will actually increase pornographic pollution on the Internet.
How sad for the fans who continue to follow her career that Miley Cyrus is now known for sexually provocative photos, clothing, and music videos.
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Citing the country’s trade deficit, President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner each asserted last week that the United States cannot continue to lead the world economy.
(CNSNews.com) – The office of Solicitor General Elena Kagan has delayed responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by CNSNews.com that seeks records that might shed light on whether Kagan would need to recuse herself from certain cases if she is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. Under 28 U.S.C. § 455, a former government employee who becomes a Supreme Court justice is required to recuse himself or herself from any case he or she expressed an opinion about while in government service.
(CNSNews.com) – In 1868, Republican Representative Thaddeus Stevens, who was directly involved in ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was not ambiguous about whether the right to keep and bear arms applied to the states. And in Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, Associate Justice Samuel Alito cited the Fourteenth Amendment, legal precedent, the framers, and the intent of Congress in writing the majority opinion that extends the individual right to keep and bear arms to the states.
(CNSNews.com) – The Second Amendment Foundation, the same group that successfully challenged Chicago’s handgun ban at the U.S. Supreme Court, has now filed a federal lawsuit challenging a North Carolina law that bars private citizens from carrying firearms during declared states of emergency.
(CNSNews.com) – Conservative activists say the U.S. Supreme Court put political correctness above religious liberty in allowing nondiscrimination policies at state-funded schools to trump both freedom of religious speech and freedom of association. The court said state schools may deny funding to religious groups that require their officers and voting members to agree with certain religious beliefs.
(CNSNews.com) – The National Institute on Drug Abuse, a component of the National Institutes of Health, has so far awarded $1.44 million in federal funds to a project that is examining the “social milieu” of male prostitutes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. “This study seeks to address an important public health question: what is the impact of male sex work on the growing HIV epidemics in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam?” says the NIH abstract. It notes that “HIV rates in Vietnam are rapidly increasing.”
(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration says the sinking of a South Korean warship does not justify returning North Korea to the U.S. list of terror-sponsoring states, but experts believe there are other good reasons for the administration to do so, including shipments of weapons allegedly destined for terrorists in the Middle East. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the process of reviewing North Korea’s status was continuing and “never-ending.”
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has told the head of the World Council of Churches of his concerns over the position of some Protestant Churches towards homosexuality.
(CNSNews.com) – One employee used the Federal Emergency Management Agency credit card to spend $4,318 in “Happy Birthday” gift cards. Two other FEMA officials charged the cost of 360 golf umbrellas – $9,000 – to taxpayers. Other FEMA officials used funds allocated for disaster relief in Oklahoma to buy 19 portable ceramic heaters for the office. In all, $247,100 in “improper” expenses was made to the FEMA credit cards, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.
(CNSNews.com) – On Dec. 5, 1996, the government relations office of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists privately provided the Clinton White House with the unreleased draft of a policy statement ACOG was preparing to release on the procedure used in a partial-birth abortion. After reviewing the draft of the ACOG statement, then-Associate White House Counsel Elena Kagan wrote an internal White House memo declaring that the statement would be a “disaster” for the Clinton administration if it were publicly released — because the statement, as drafted, contradicted the argument President Clinton had been making to defend his opposition to a ban on partial-birth abortion.
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday introduced a bill to end corporal punishment in all public and private schools that receive federal funding or services. But at least two school districts, one in Tennessee and one in Texas, want to reinstate corporal punishment on campuses described by one city councilman as “war zones.”
(CNSNews.com) – Given the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling on Monday that the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies to individuals in all the states, gun rights advocates are maneuvering to legally challenge and remove what they view as burdensome regulations on gun ownership and use. “We are already preparing to challenge other highly restrictive anti-gun laws across the country,” said Alan Gottlieb, vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. “Our objective is to win back our firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time.”
(CNSNews.com) – Stepping up efforts to prevent citizens from accessing “blasphemous” material on the Internet, Pakistani authorities have banned more than a dozen Web sites, are closely monitoring others, and reportedly are laying the groundwork to block any site viewed as meeting such vague criteria as harming “national sentiments.” Beyond its borders, Pakistan is a leading force in the campaign at the United Nations to have such material outlawed across the globe.
(CNSNews.com) – Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.N. told a closed meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York this week that the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League ‘have clear demands for representation’ in an enlarged U.N. Security Council, according to reports in Pakistani media. While most concur that reform is necessary, competing agendas and regional rivalries have long stymied any agreement on how to do it.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage” and civil unions.
When Obama promised to “change the way Washington works,” what he really meant was changing where the usual Beltway backroom wheelers and dealers do their business. (Vote in our poll)
The American Family Association is sounding a warning about a campaign finance bill before the U.S. Senate.
A high school valedictorian in Montana who was told to either delete references to God from her commencement speech or not speak at all at graduation is taking her complaint to the state Supreme Court.
Christian author and disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada is recovering after undergoing surgery for breast cancer.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has troubling views on the role of judges, abortion and homosexuality, warned a prominent Southern Baptist policy expert.
Mosab Hassan Yousef — a convert to Christianity, a former agent for Israel, and the son of a Hamas founder — is elated he has been granted asylum in the U.S.
A pro-family spokesperson in Wisconsin labels a losing lawsuit’s argument as “just a sneaky attempt to tear down what the voters clearly wanted.”
Attorney General Eric Holder is under fire from a former Justice Department attorney who resigned his position to protest the government’s refusal to prosecute the New Black Panther Party intimidation case from the 2008 general election.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from some Texas parents who wanted to stop their school district from regulating when students can distribute religious-themed material to their classmates.
Montana State University’s lawyer says MSU-Northern officials don’t have to apologize for inviting a Christian pastor to give the invocation and benediction at the school’s graduation in May.
(CNSNews.com) – On the same day President Barack Obama told a Wisconsin town hall gathering that his policies mean “the economy is headed in the right direction,” the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected that federal debt could reach 87 percent of America’s gross domestic production by 2020, and surpass 100 percent of GDP by 2025. Nevertheless, the president told the crowd in Racine, Wisc. – a town with the second highest unemployment in the state – that the economy is turning the corner.
(CNSNews.com) – While Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s paper trail from her time as associate counsel in the Clinton White House indicates that she thinks abortion is a constitutional right, two top Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee would not say whether this would compel them to vote against her as the next associate justice of the court.
(CNSNews.com) – The man who will administer the claims process for individuals and businesses seeking compensation from the $20 billion fund established by BP in the wake of its oil rig explosion said he will follow federal immigration and tax laws when deciding the eligibility of claimants. When CNSNews.com asked if the claims process would include requiring proof of U.S. citizenship, Kenneth Feinberg said “of course” it would.
(CNSNews.com) – “The President should be focused on solving the problems of the American people — stopping the leaking oil and cleaning up the Gulf, scrapping his job-killing agenda, repealing and replacing ObamaCare — instead of my choice of metaphors,” House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Wednesday. He was responding to President Obama’s attack on Boehner and on Republicans in general at a town hall gathering in Racine, Wis., yesterday.
(CNSNews.com) – Despite some scoffing about a scenario straight out of a Cold War-era spy novel, some U.S. analysts caution that the Russian spy case reveals troubling issues that need to be tackled. “In Moscow, the U.S. is still an intelligence target, not a ‘partner’ the Obama administration believes it is,” one analyst said.
An annual Christian music festival has drawn unexpected controversy over one of its featured speakers – Jim Wallis.
The moral character of America is reflected in its laws and ordinances — both of which bear the distinct markings of Christianity. But it can also evoke God’s response.
A new poll indicates more than half of those in the work force have been negatively affected by the recession, which began 30 months ago, and it shows that spending habits have changed in that same time period.
A city councilor in Massachusetts wants to take a unique approach to fighting against the use of library computers to view pornography.
A Protestant renewal organization is hoping that the Presbyterian Church USA will reject the recommendation of pro-Palestinian activists for the denomination to endorse a resolution calling for divestment from the Jewish state.
Members of a Louisiana church are selling fireworks to raise money.
Known for “intelligent Christian conversation,” prominent theologian and cultural commentator Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., is hosting his final live radio program Friday.
A Sacramento preacher whose organization represents 3,600 congregations says he’s outraged that the California chapter of the NAACP has endorsed a November ballot initiative that would legalize recreational use of marijuana.
A German federal court’s decision in one case has ultimately legalized euthanasia in that country.
The moral character of America is reflected in its laws and ordinances — both of which bear the distinct markings of Christianity. But it can also evoke God’s response.
A Wisconsin court has told a lesbian that legal adoption, not merely nurturing a child, determines parental rights.
A Protestant renewal organization is hoping that the Presbyterian Church USA will reject the recommendation of pro-Palestinian activists for the denomination to endorse a resolution calling for divestment from the Jewish state.
God only knows what will happen to churches and other nonprofit organizations who say they are struggling for survival because of the Gulf oil spill crisis.
Several Christian groups are asking that Comcast’s pornography business be taken into consideration in a proposed merger with NBC.
America currently stands in a very dangerous position, said renowned pastor and author Dr. Charles Stanley. Today more than ever, the country is turning away from God and moving closer toward socialism, he warned.
(CNSNews.com) – When asked whether Harvard Law School would have banned recruiters from the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church does not allow female priests, Supreme Court nominee did not directly answer the question but said that all employers needed to sign a form that said they did not discriminate on the bases of “gender and sexual orientation.”
(CNSNews.com) – A plurality of Americans — 43 percent — believe President Barack Obama’s stimulus package has harmed economic growth, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released on Friday. Less than a third, 29 percent, believe the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus package, improved the economy.
(CNSNews.com) – In the aftermath of yet another suicide bombing targeting its citizens, Pakistani authorities have vowed, once again, to clamp down on terrorists. But years of ambiguous policies have done little to curb the proliferation of jihadist groups whose agendas include killing religious minorities at home, expelling India from Kashmir and fighting American forces in Afghanistan.
(CNSNews.com) – Between Jan. 20, 2009 and July 2, 2010, according to CNSNews.com’s database of Afghanistan war casualties, U.S. military personnel suffered 452 combat-related deaths in Afghanistan. That amounts to more than half of the total of 900 combat-related fatalities suffered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan during the entire nine years of the war.
(CNSNews.com) - Conservatives are more than twice as likely as liberals to express very strong patriotism, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll in which 48 percent of conservatives said they were “extremely patriotic,” but only 19 percent of liberals made that claim.
(CNSNews.com) – Tuesday was a day of mourning in Lebanon for Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a senior Shi’ite cleric who was sometimes described as Hezbollah’s spiritual mentor. Hezbollah said in a statement the death of a scholar like Fadlallah left “a void in Islam that nothing can fill.”
This week’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will consider redefining marriage to include same-sex couples and allowing ministers to perform same-sex weddings.
A California school district has decided in a 5-0 vote to adopt a Bible course that will be available to students in the upcoming school year.
People who remember the old comic strip “Peanuts” will recall an often repeated situation where Lucy offers to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick.
Two national organizations working to reform the U.S. income tax system are calling on Barack Obama to order the IRS to forgo taxes on relief payments by BP to victims of the Gulf oil spill.
A pro-lifer jailed for praying on the sidewalk of a Washington, D.C. Planned Parenthood won’t face charges, but he is considering filing a lawsuit.
In the weeks leading up to the annual Harvest Crusade in Southern California, Laurie is prepping his mega-congregation on the what, why, and how of evangelism.
(CNSNews.com) – According to the Government Accountability Office, the federal government helped pay the home air conditioning bills for more than 11,000 dead people, 1,100 federal employees, and 725 convicts in fiscal year 2009. The payments were made by a $5 billion program known as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. “Our analysis of LIHEAP data revealed that the program is at risk of fraud and providing improper benefits in all seven of our selected states,” reported the GAO.
(CNSNews.com) – In a June 30 memorandum, John Morton, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said that enforcing civil immigration laws is vital to “our national security, public safety, and the integrity of our border and immigration controls.” But Morton also said that ICE only has the resources to remove about 400,000 illegal aliens each year, a little less than 4 percent of the current population of those in the United States illegally.
(CNSNews.com) – The arrest in Singapore of a Muslim soldier who made contact online with Anwar Al-Awlaki provides further evidence that the U.S.-born cleric is making effective use of the Internet to spread extremist ideas to English-speaking Muslims. Awlaki’s reach into Muslim communities in English-speaking countries has prompted increasing concern among law enforcement agencies in recent months.
(CNSNews.com) - Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan would not confirm suggestions by two top Republican senators that, as a lawyer in the Clinton White House, she influenced the language of a key public policy statement on partial-birth abortion issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The 1996 statement affected the debate over a ban on partial-birth abortion.
(CNSNews.com) – Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last week that individuals at the state level have a right to own handguns under the Second Amendment, city officials in Chicago proposed and passed a new ordinance that many observers consider to be among the most stringent gun-ownership regulations in the country. However, gun-rights advocates are moving quickly to challenge the ordinance and provide citizens with information on their Second Amendment rights.
Hawaii’s governor ended months of speculation by vetoing contentious civil unions legislation that would have granted gay, lesbian and opposite-sex couples the same rights and benefits that the state provides to married couples.
A Christian law firm will assist Arizona in its defense against the Obama Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of The Grand Canyon State’s immigration enforcement statute.
The Obama administration’s lawsuit against Arizona, officially unveiled on Tuesday, is an affront to all law-abiding Americans.
An appeals court has ruled that two elementary school principals in Texas can be held liable for restricting religious speech of students.
A Canadian pro-family activist is welcoming the announcement that a media conglomerate is planning to launch what is being dubbed “Fox News North.”
International relief organization Samaritan’s Purse has committed to construct 7,500 shelters for victims still without homes, six months after the massive earthquake in Haiti.
Two leaders in the pro-family movement are applauding Hawaii’s governor for not caving to the pressure of homosexual activists, and instead vetoing a bill that would have put same-gender unions on par with traditional marriage.
Mainline Presbyterians (Presbyterian Church USA) at their General Assembly in Minneapolis could vote today to approve same-gender “marriage” and ordination.
A conservative media watchdog thinks the mainstream media has virtually ignored the NASA administrator’s recent outlandish statement that the “foremost” mission of the space agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.
A Christian cancer specialist believes the medical community needs to remain vigilant about keeping the government out of treatment discussions when a patient is nearing the end of life.
If the new proposed financial regulations weren’t quite a green light for business as usual, it was close enough for Wall Street.
(CNSNews.com) – U.S. Census Bureau Director Dr. Robert Groves told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the Census has “no way, unfortunately, of knowing whether or not homeless individuals were counted twice,” and added, “we may have duplicates.” As CNSNews.com reported on June 10, the Census Bureau’s inspector general published a report indicating that Census workers were instructed to recount people who said they had already been counted.
(CNSNews.com) – Five months before Barack Obama nominated Dr. John P. Holdren as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Holdren called for a global climate-change agreement that would allow wealth to be redistributed from countries in the global “North” to countries in the “South.” “It’s important that we have a global agreement on how we are going to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases going forward, and an agreement … that will include ways to transfer some of the revenues from carbon taxes or carbon emission permits in the North to pay for reduced deforestation in the South,” he told a TV interviewer.
(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama today circumvented the Senate confirmation process by granting a recess appointment to Dr. Donald Berwick to be director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid. Berwick has expressed disdain for free-market medicine and his “love” for Great Britain’s government-run health-care system, while advocating health-care rationing and using the health-care system to redistribute wealth.
(CNSNews.com) – Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah organization say the man who masterminded the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 was a hero. Mohammed Oudeh, better known as Abu Daoud, died in Syria last weekend at the age of 73.
(CNSNews.com) – In an attempt to stave off criticism that the Obama administration is too soft on Russia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tbilisi, Georgia, used the words her hosts wanted to hear when she expressed concerns about the invasion and occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow criticized Clinton Wednesday for her comments on the two breakaway Georgian regions. And if Georgia’s leader regarded Clinton’s statements as a victory, he may have missed the underlying message during her visit that the U.S. can do little beyond speak its mind.
(CNSNews.com) – The House-passed financial regulation bill would allow the government to save the profitable assets of a failing bank and spin them off into a new company – a power that mirrors the government’s action in saving General Motors and Chrysler. The provision is part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which passed the House on June 29.
(CNSNews.com) – “The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable,” said President Barack Obama on Tuesday at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That reaffirmation of U.S.-Israeli commitment is important for the political and security interests of both countries, experts said, because it comes at a time of apparent friction between the historically strong allies.
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have legalized same-sex civil unions. She felt it would be a mistake to allow a decision “of this magnitude” to be made by one individual or a small group of elected officials.
A conservative political activist says President Obama’s pro-Islamic leanings are to blame for radical Islamic groups becoming so emboldened that they are openly holding conferences on U.S. soil calling for the establishment of a global Islamic empire.
A split decision from Presbyterian leaders on two homosexual-friendly measures guarantees even more debate among the U.S. church’s members on an issue they’ve been divided over for years.
Two conservative black activists are deeply concerned about the practice of reverse racism that a whistleblower recently revealed is taking place at the Department of Justice.
Exposing the inflammatory rhetoric of groups like the New Black Panther Party does nothing to help liberal journalists fulfill their true calling — embarrassing the right.
An official with Focus on the Family says Christians — in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling — must be prepared to have their faith challenged at the high school and college levels.
(CNSNews.com) – White House spokesman Robert Gibbs evaded a question on whether President Barack Obama agrees with Dr. Donald Berwick, his newly appointed director of Medicare and Medicaid, who has insisted that health-care systems must redistribute wealth. When asked directly at the July 7 White House press briefing whether Obama agreed with Berwick’s comments, Gibbs would not answer the question. Instead, he parried it with jocular statements about the provenance of the quote.
(CNSNews.com) – The financial regulatory bill approved by the House would give federal bureaucrats the power to subpoena any record from any financial institution without establishing any probable cause that a crime has been committed. The bill now awaits final Senate approval.
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have reintroduced legislation to regulate what they and other pro-abortion advocates claim is questionable advertising by pregnancy resource centers. The bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission to restrict advertising by the pregnancy resource centers, specifically ads that “create the impression that such person is a provider of abortion services if such person does not provide abortion services.” Critics say the bill is designed to steer women away from organizations that provide alternatives to abortion.
(CNSNews.com) – Reps. Barney Frank and John Tierney, both Massachusetts Democrats, say the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shown hostility to the concerns of fishermen and should step down. Among other problems, a recent inspector-general’s report found problems with the way NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement spent money raised through fines and penalties on fishermen.
(CNSNews.com) – The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico “has to convert us and change us,” an evangelical preacher told reporters this week. The Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal religious magazine Sojourners, and other religious leaders recently took a three-hour tour of coastal Louisiana to examine the oil spill damage in the Gulf. Their tour was organized by the Sierra Club.”None of us have done enough,” Wallis says.
(CNSNews.com) – Don’t tax the victims of the Gulf oil spill. That’s the message to President Obama from fair tax activists. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is going to the Gulf Coast next week to make sure the federal government gets its cut from any oil spill compensation checks BP issues to fishermen and others who have been idled due to the Gulf oil spill. “It is akin to kicking someone who’s just been hit by a truck,” said one critic.
(CNSNews.com) - A majority of “likely voters” in America oppose the Justice Department’s recent decision to challenge Arizona’s new immigration law in federal court, says a new Rasmussen poll. When respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the move to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new law against illegal immigration, 56 percent of “likely voters” were opposed to the Justice Department’s decision. Twenty-eight percent agreed that the DOJ should challenge the law. Sixteen percent said they were not sure.
(CNSNews.com) – An online tribute in which Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon praised the Hezbollah-linked Shi’ite cleric after his death this week appears to have been removed from an official Foreign Office Web site. Ambassador Frances Guy on Monday posted an entry on the site describing Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who died the previous day, as the politician in Lebanon she had found most impressive and had most enjoyed meeting.
(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration says a U.N. Security Council presidential statement condemning the sinking of a South Korean warship is “an appropriate response” to the deadly attack, even though it does not directly apportion blame. At China’s insistence, the text stops short of accusing North Korea of responsibility for the March 26 sinking near the disputed maritime border between the two Koreas. Despite repeating three times that the statement was “very clear,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice declined to directly answer the key issue of whether it blamed North Korea.
Four Christians who were arrested at a large Arab festival in Michigan will have their arraignment hearing on Monday.
Traditional marriage proponents are hopeful an appeal will be filed on federal court rulings in Massachusetts declaring part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. An attorney with a traditional values legal firm is lambasting the court’s decision.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments about unemployment, made during her defense of a bill that would extend benefits for more than a million people, have generated a storm of criticism.
Operation Rescue is raising questions about the Iowa attorney general’s handling of a requested Planned Parenthood probe.
A Maryland man who has made a physical change to the opposite gender has filed a lawsuit against his county for reaping “emotional distress.”
The Roman Catholic Church says Cuba’s communist government has agreed to free 52 political prisoners and allow them to leave the country in what would be the island’s largest mass liberation of dissidents in decades.
Leaders in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) narrowly voted Thursday to open ordination to partnered homosexuals.