11 states oppose North American Union

WorldNetDaily: Eleven states are working on resolutions that would oppose not only the implementation but the idea of a "North American Union," or other plans that would lead to the integration of the United States into a larger structure." Americans are rapidly learning the new vocabulary of the globalists," Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum told WorldNetDaily, "and they don't like it."While President Bush, many members of Congress, and Bush administration bureaucrats deny there are plans for a North American Union, under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, those in state legislatures are taking no chances . . . [Click for more]

See Also: - Drivers association tells Senate committee NAFTA pilot plan unsafe
- Mexican truck monitoring raises doubts

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Tags: NAU, North American Union, Security and Prosperity Partnership, trucking To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Arkansas Second Amendment Related Bills

Help Protect Arkansas' Hunting Heritage! Please continue contacting members of the Senate and House Committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs, and urge them to co-sponsor Senate Joint Resolution 7 (SJR 7). State Senators can be reached at (501) 682-2902 and State Representatives can be reached at (501) 682-6211.

"Castle Doctrine" to be Heard by Arkansas Committee! The House Judiciary Committee will soon be taking House Bill 1027, self-defense legislation, also known as "Castle Doctrine," into consideration. Please contact committee members and respectfully urge them to support your right to self-defense by approving HB1027. Contact information for the House Judiciary Committee can be found by clicking here.

Governor Signs Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Reform! Governor Mike Beebe signed SB 268. This legislation will now recognize all valid RTC permits issued by another state as long as the other state recognizes an Arkansas RTC permit.

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Tags: Arkansas, Castle Doctrine, House Judiciary Committee, hunting, right to carry, second amendment

D.C. Gun Ban Ruled Unconstitutional, Violates Individual Right To Own A Gun

NRA-ILA: This week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Second Amendment is an individual right and concluded that the District of Columbia’s ban on guns in the home is unconstitutional. According to the majority opinion, "[T]he phrase 'the right of the people'...leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual." Read the majority opinion here

In its ruling, the Court also rejected the argument that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia, which has had a gun ban on the books for decades, because it is not a State. The majority opinion concludes that the D.C. prohibition on gun ownership in the home, "amounts to a complete prohibition on the lawful use of handguns for self-defense. As such, we hold it unconstitutional." The ruling was not unanimous, and the dissenting judge makes it clear in her dissent that opponents of the Second Amendment are still pervasive throughout our federal court system. Today's ruling is the second time a federal circuit court has upheld the individual nature of the Second Amendment in recent years. [Read More]

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10 reasons to oppose illegal immigration protection policies

Arkansas Republican Assembly President Dr. Pat Briney, President has issued a pamphlet detailing 10 reasons to oppose illegal immigration protection policies." The document was released in response to those Arkansas and US lawmakers who are proposing actions that both support and advance the enticement for more illegal immigrants, who have violated the law, to come and bring their families to Arkansas!

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10 reasons to oppose illegal immigration protection policies

by Patrick Briney, Ph.D, President Arkansas Republican Assembly

It is the duty of government to protect and secure the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of its citizens. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has been charged to protect United States citizens from harm caused by non-U.S. citizens. To this end, aliens, “… may be denied admission on the grounds of health, criminal history, security or terrorism concerns, the likelihood of their ‘becoming a public charge,’ their seeking work in the United States without proper labor certification and qualifications, prior illegal entry or violations of immigration law, lack of proper documentation, or previous removal from the country.” (Immigration Policy in the United States, February 2006, The Congress of the United States/Congressional Budget Office).

The United States welcomes and accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than the rest of the world combined. However, there are an estimated twenty million or more illegal aliens residing in the U.S. in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Such blatant contempt for U.S. laws, its law abiding citizens, and its legalized immigrants should not be tolerated. Rather these criminals should be punished and banned from enjoying the privileges of U.S. citizenry.

Illegal immigrants should be treated as criminals because:

1. Illegal activity should be punished not rewarded.
1. Failure to punish illegal activity encourages more illegal activity, emboldens criminals, breeds public cynicism, and discourages others from obeying laws.
2. Illegal activity, unpunished, threatens American values of law and order. Criminal behavior should not be tolerated.
3. Illegal aliens show contempt for the values and laws that make America the land of opportunity and desirable to reside in. They abuse the generosity and compassion of the American people. They belittle all immigrants who reside in America legally.
2. Illegal aliens are a threat to national security.
1. “The greatest threat to U.S. homeland security comes from illegals who enter the country through its porous borders in order to attack…. It is all too easy for illegal immigrants to slip in beneath the radar, eschewing the legalization process and never being detected and deported…. Europe is now paying the price for open borders, past and present non-enforcement of immigration laws, and overly generous asylum policies.” (Jan C. Ting, professor of law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. July 12, 2005, Immigration and National Security, Published by Elsevier Limited on behalf of Foreign Policy Research Institute).
2. Based on figures in 2000, “The Census Bureau estimated that perhaps 115,000 people from Middle Eastern countries live in the United States illegally.” (Steven A. Camarota, January 22, 2002, Census Bureau: Over 100,000 Illegal Aliens from the Middle East, New Government Report Raises Concerns in Light of Terrorist Threat, Center for immigration Studies).
3. "While the vast majority of illegals from the Middle East are not terrorists, the fact that tens of thousands of people from that region and millions more from the rest of the world can settle in the United States illegally means that terrorists who wish to do so face few obstacles. We can’t protect ourselves from terrorism without dealing with illegal immigration." (Ibid.)
4. The border security report delivered by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office states that, "The Triborder Region is a focal point of Islamic extremism," the report states. "Al Qaeda leadership plans to use criminal alien smuggling organizations to bring terrorist operatives across the border into the U.S." (Kevin Mooney, August 21, 2006, Texas Sheriffs Say Terrorists Entering US from Mexico, Cybernews Service, accessed 2/26/2007).
5. “… a Pakistani man living in the U.S. illegally has been indicted for aiding the Taliban and training with firearms for jihad against Americans.” (U.S. Department of Justice, November 28, 2006, Two charged in plan to aid Taliban, 2/26/2007).
3. Illegal aliens hold down the pay of American workers. “The National Research Council, in a 1997 study entitled ‘The New Americans,’ estimated that immigration reduced the wages of workers with less than a high school degree by about 5 percent. These workers roughly correspond to the poorest 10 percent of the workforce.” “Non-whites appear to lose jobs to immigrants and their earnings are depressed by immigrants." A 1997 report published by the Rand Corporation, entitled ‘Immigration in a Changing Economy: California's Experience,’ and authored by Kevin McCarthy and Georges Vernez (1997) estimated that in California between 128,200 and 194,000 people were unemployed or withdrawn from the workforce because of immigration. Almost all of these individuals either are high school dropouts or have only a high school degree. Additionally, most are either women or minorities.” (Steven A. Camarota, August 29, 2006, Immigration's Impact On American Workers, Testimony Prepared for the House Judiciary Committee, Center for Immigration Studies).
4. The influx of cheap, illegal labor favors unscrupulous business owners, illegal workers and their families, and discriminates against the low income, law-abiding US citizens with cheaper, illegal labor.
5. Illegal aliens add a tax burden on citizens.
1. Illegal aliens drain on tax monies that would otherwise be spent for law-abiding citizens. Social services for illegal aliens were estimated to cost the law-abiding American taxpayers, in 2004, over $70 billion annually (Federation for American Immigration Reform, 2004, accessed 2/26/2007). Most current estimates for costs of illegal alien services since 1996 is almost 400 trillion dollars (ImmigrationCounters.com, accessed 2/26/2007).
2. New Jersey spends more than $2.1 billion annually on public expenditures for education, medical care, and incarceration for the estimated 372,000 illegal aliens residing in the state. Governor Jon Corzine admitted, that illegal aliens are, "one of the worst tax burdens in the United States." The Costs of Illegal Immigration to New Jerseyites.
3. Officials in California report that providing illegal immigrants these social services costs the state $3 billion annually. (Close Up Foundation, accessed 2/26/2007).
4. Illegal aliens increase poverty. Most “lack a high school education resulting in increased poverty and expanded government expenditure.”
5. Most illegal aliens occupy low income employment and are more affected by downturns in the economy, which in turn sends them to social welfare services.
6. “Low-skill immigration siphons off government anti-poverty funding and makes government efforts to shrink poverty less effective.” (Robert E. Rector, October 25, 2006, Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of Charts, Heritage Foundation).
7. “Low-skill immigrants pay little in taxes and receive high levels of government benefits and services.” (Ibid.)
8. “The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that each immigrant without a high school degree will cost U.S. taxpayers, on average, $89,000 over the course of his or her lifetime.” (Ibid.)
9. The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states nearly $12 billion annually, …when the children born here to illegal aliens are added, the costs more than double to $28.6 billion. (Jack Martin, 2005, Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red, Federation for American Immigration Reform).
10. Most illegal aliens do not have health insurance and need to resort to public assistance more often. “Uninsured people receive medical care in hospital emergency departments (EDs) under the coercive Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985 (EMTALA), which obligates hospitals to treat the uninsured but does not pay for that care.” “Even ambulances from Mexico come to American EDs with indigents because the drivers know that EMTALA requires accepting patients who come within 250 yards of a hospital.” “EMTALA rewards them with extensive, expensive medical services, free of charge, if they claim an emergency need for care.” “In 1994, 74,987 anchor babies in California hospital maternity units cost $215 million and constituted 36 percent of all Medi-Cal births. Now they account for substantially more than half.” (Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Ph.D., Esq., Spring 2005, Illegal Aliens and American Medicine, Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 10 Number 1).
11. State and local governments spend some $4 billion a year to provide health care to illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children and $20 to $24 billion to educate children from illegal alien households (Steven A. Camarota, August 24, 2006, Immigration's Impact on Public Coffers, Testimony Prepared for the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, accessed 2/26/2007).
12. According to House Concurrent Resolution 95, which passed the U.S. Senate on March 26, 2003, the "costs associated with the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens" cost state and local governments more than $13 billion in FY'02.
13. The drain by illegal aliens on American tax monies lowers the quality in education and services that belong to legal American citizens.
6. Illegal aliens are siphoning the resources out of the U.S. to other economies.
1. 10 billion dollars annually are sent from U.S. to Mexico.
2. Almost 22 trillion dollars have been wired to Mexico since 1996 (ImmigrationCounters.com, accessed 2/26/2007).
7. Illegal aliens lobby for policies favoring criminals and against the best interests of legal U.S. citizens.
1. In response to an illegal alien lobbying demonstration, Tom Tancredo stated that, "Amnesty is an affront to American law and America's tradition of legal immigration," Tancredo said in a written statement. "If the protesters really want to honor America's values, they would stand up to lawbreakers and embrace an enforcement-first approach to fixing our broken system." (Allan Chernoff, Monday, April 10, 2006, Rallies across U.S. call for illegal immigrant rights, CNN.com, accessed 2/26/2007).
2. In 1997, then-President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico said in Chicago: “I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders.” Phyllis Schlafly, Nov. 28, 2001, Is it Assimilation or Invasion? )accessed 3/1/2007).
8. Illegal immigrants do not assimilate into U.S. society and are causing a splintering of society along racial and cultural lines.
1. The BBC reported May 30 that, “The Latinization of California is nothing short of a revolution. California will become a predominantly Spanish-speaking state within the next few years. And, as the majority population, there is really no need, or incentive, for them to assimilate into mainstream American society as their predecessors have always done. Whether Latinos then decide to push for greater autonomy, to seek a political agenda of their own with closer ties to Mexico and Central America is very much up for grabs.” (Yeh, Ling Ling, May 4, 2006, Amnesty's impact on future of U.S., WorldNetDaily.net, accessed 3/1/2007)
2. President Clinton cautioned that, "Within five years there will be no majority race in our largest state, California." ... "In a little more than 50 years" ... "there will be no majority race in the United States." ... "The driving force behind our increasing diversity is a new, large wave of immigration. It is changing the face of America." ... "No other nation in history has gone through a change of this magnitude in so short a time." ... "What do the changes mean? They can either strengthen and unite us, or they can weaken and divide us. We must decide... But mark my words, unless we handle this well, immigration of this sweep and scope could threaten the bonds of our union." (Bill Clinton, 1998, Portland State University's Commencement, accessed 3/1/2007).
9. Illegal immigration threatens America quality of life. It is linked to drug smuggling, human sex trade, murder, and other crimes, which threaten the safety of Americans and increase the burden on the US law enforcement system and resources.
1. “After a steady annual reduction in crime, the annual FBI Uniform Crime Report reveals a slow but sure yearly increase in crime, especially violent crime. Some criminologists attribute the rise in crime to illegal aliens who come into the United States with a criminal background.” (Fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police Jim Kouri, June 22, 2006, Illegal aliens linked to rise in crime statistics, Renew America, accessed 2/26/2007).
2. Based on a one-year study analyzing 1500 cases from January 1999 through April 2006, Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta estimates that there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each. (WorldNetDaily.com, Posted: May 31, 2006, Study: 1 million sex crimes by illegals, accessed 2/26/2007).
3. “In the population study of 55,322 illegal aliens, researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990.” (Jim Kouri, June 22, 2006, Illegal aliens linked to rise in crime statistics, Renew America, accessed 2/26/2007).
4. U.S. agents discovered an elaborate drug-smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego. “The tunnel runs 2,400 feet through sandstone and compacted sand and is equipped with lighting, ventilation and groundwater drainage systems. The tunnel was the work of a well-funded and determined drug-smuggling group.” “Mexican agents seized 2 tons of marijuana on the Mexican side. Their U.S. counterparts found 200 pounds.” No one knows how many tons of drugs were transported through the tunnel. (Onell R. Soto and Leslie Berestein, January 27, 2006, Builders of passage were well-funded, investigators say/a>, Union-Tribune, San Diego, CA, accessed 2/26/2007).
10. There is nothing right about being illegal.

References: 

Camarota, Steven A., January 22, 2002, Census Bureau: Over 100,000 Illegal Aliens from the Middle East, New Government Report Raises Concerns in Light of Terrorist Threat, Center for immigration Studies.

Center for Immigration Studies, Illegal immigration, accessed 2/26/2007.

Close Up Foundation

Congressman Tom Tancredo

Dan Stein, An Immigration Policy Needs Objectives

ImmigrationCounters.com

NumbersUSA

The Federation for American Immigration Reform

In addition to what is occurring on the Federal levels, some local legislators are proposing actions that are continued enticements for illegal immigrants (aliens). One such action is SB981 - Tuition for Illegal Aliens currently in Arkansas Legislature. Another bill deferred in committee by senators is the Voter ID Act - HB2120 would have helped control voting by illegal aliens.< Read the "10 reasons to oppose illegal immigration protection policies." Arkansas has one of the nation’s fastest-growing immigrant populations. The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D. C., a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that 40, 000 illegal aliens of different ethnic backgrounds lived in Arkansas in 2004. It is critical that voters understand the problems associated with supporting or promoting illegal immigrations. After reviewing the info, please contact your Arkansas State Representatives and Senators about your concerns and various bills associated with benefits for illegal immigrants.

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Tags: Arkansas, Arkansas Republican Assembly, ARRA, illegal immigration, Patrick Briney To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Ford appears to be pulling back homosexual support

OneNewsNow: The pro-family group that initiated a business boycott of Ford Motor Company last spring is calling a recent move by Ford -- dropping sponsorship of an awards show held by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) -- one of a series of steps by the automaker to "silently" move away from its support of the homosexual agenda. American Family Association (AFA) founder and chairman Don Wildmon says he believes Ford's cancellation of its sponsorship of the Annual GLAAD Media Awards is another direct result of the Boycott Ford efforts by AFA, other pro-family groups, and many Americans in response to the automaker's institutional support of homosexual causes and ideology . . . [Read more] See Also: Ford drops sponsorship of GLAAD Media Awards because of boycott

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Tags: American Family Association, boycott, Ford Motor Company, gay agenda To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Want Your Tax Dollars to Kill Human Embryos?

Oppose proposed law that will FORCE YOU to fund research that kills human embryos. FRC: Next week, the U.S. Senate will consider a bill to fund research that requires the killing of human embryos. Sponsored by Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), S. 5 will federally fund research on human embryos that supposedly are “leftover” from in vitro fertilization. Instead of promoting the adoption of these human embryos, this bill would require their death. ... Just as abortion is currently legal, killing human embryos this way is completely legal. The debate for now is about federal funding. We don’t federally fund abortion even though it is legal. Likewise, we should not force U.S. taxpayers to fund research that requires the destruction of embryos. Last July, President Bush vetoed the same bill and the House upheld the veto. However, S. 5 would overturn the Bush policy and create a direct incentive to create and kill human embryos for research with your taxes! Please contact your Senators and let them know that you strongly oppose S. 5 and want them to Vote NO on S. 5 . Click here to take action now!

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Tags: federal funding, FRC, killing human embryos, Senate, US Congress

Marriage Leads to Prosperity--not Vice Versa

Tony Perkins, FRC Blog: The Washington Post reported yesterday on statistics which show that married couples have higher incomes than single people or cohabiting couples, and that children raised by married couples are less likely to live in poverty than children raised by single or cohabiting parents. This should come as no surprise. FRC has been reporting on this "wealth" of data for years, in publications like The Family Portrait. What is surprising is how the Post spun this story. Instead of praising marriage as a ticket to prosperity, it lamented the prosperity of those who wed, saying that marriage is "becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent," a "luxury item" that is "helping to drive a well-documented increase in income inequality." When the Post says that "the marriage gap appears to be driven primarily by education and income," the cart is pulling the horse. Economic prosperity and educational advancement (especially for children) are driven by the decision to marry (before having kids) and staying married--not the other way around. The cost of a marriage license is the best investment most couples ever make.

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Tags: FRC, marriage, prosperity, Tony Perkins

What Hillary didn't do

by Dick Morris: When pressed about her qualifications for the presidency, Sen. Hillary Clinton falls back on her husband's domestic-policy record -- claiming credit for the good economy, welfare reform and the balanced budget.It's a very fine record, indeed -- but it's Bill's, not Hillary's.Hillary was the moving force behind the Clinton presidency in 1993 and 1994 -- with primary responsibility for the disastrous health-care plan, which helped hand Congress to the Republicans. After that, her husband sent her into a polite exile . . . Hillary takes credit for what she didn't do and avoids responsibility for what she obviously was involved in. [Click for more]
Dick Morris was the valued political advisor to Bill Clinton for 20 yrs understands the inner Bill Clinton, that creature of endless and vexing contradiction. In the wake of Clinton's memoirs, Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, set the record straight -- check out Because He Could

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Tags: Bill Clinton, Dick Morris, Hillary Clinton To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

9th Circuit endorses censoring Christians

Ruling says 'family values' is hate speech that scares city workers

WorldNetDaily: A ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that municipal employers have the right to censor the words "natural family," "marriage" and "family values" because that is hate speech and could scare workers.The ruling came in a case being handled by the Pro-Family Law Center, which promised an appeal of the drastic result."We are going to take this case right up the steps of the United States Supreme Court," said Richard D. Ackerman, who along with Scott Lively argued the case for the Pro-Family Law Center . . . [Click for more]

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Tags: censorship, Christianity, free speech, hate speech To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Tuition for Illegal Immigration (Aliens') in Arkansas Legislature (SB981)

by Laura Kellams, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Sen. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, on Monday filed SB981 what he’s calling the “Access to Postsecondary Education Act of 2007,” which requires that resident tuition status at public universities be granted to illegal immigrants' (aliens’) children who’ve attended high school in Arkansas at least three years. ... Massachusetts rejected a similar proposal last year. [editor note: Arkansas also previously rejected this measure]

Ira Mehlman said such laws say to illegal aliens, “If you come here illegally, we’ll reward your child with a subsidized college education.” Betsy Hagan, president of Eagle Forum of Arkansas, “It’s about the rule of law.... I realize that the state problem goes back to the federal government, but we need to stop it here, where we’re not encouraging them to come here."...

A 1996 federal law bars illegal aliens from obtaining financial benefits at a public college that are not allowed to all U. S. citizens. ... Arkansas has one of the nation’s fastest-growing immigrant populations. The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D. C., a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that 40, 000 illegal aliens of different ethnic backgrounds lived in Arkansas in 2004. [Read More]
Email legislators or at least all senators since SB981 is in the Senate Education Committee. Call and leave a message for your senator at 501-682-2902. Ask your senator to vote against Wilkins bill SB981 to give instate tuition costs to illegal immigrants (aliens). You may leave a message for two people - your senator and some person on the committee would be a good start.
Note: this bill does not apply to children born in the United States to illegal aliens because these children are under current law legal citizens.

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Tags: Arkansas, illegal immigrants, tuition

SB959 - Protect the Children who Are Most Vulnerable

by Jerry Cox, Family Council: The Family Council very much supports Arkansas Senate SB959 by Senator Shawn Womack (R-Mountain Home), which prevents state foster parenting or adoption by couples who are not married, or who are single with a live-in boyfriend or girlfriend, or singles who are homosexual. It is before the Senate Public Health, Welfare & Labor Committee and is expected to come up for a vote in the Arkansas Senate any day. This bill will be a battle, but we believe this is the year it will pass, but not without your help. Thank you for helping us with this very important bill." We really need to support this bill! Email your senator and ask him to support and vote SB959. Also, call and leave a phone message for him at the Senate switchboard in Little Rock at 501-682-2902.

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Tags: adoption, Arkansas, Shawn Womack To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Twelve Students Suspended for Praying Before School

Lawsuit threatened after Washington state high school kids punished for praying on their own time.

by Wendy Cloyd, CitizenLink: The non-profit legal group Liberty Counsel is asking Heritage High School officials, Vancouver, Wash., located on the state’s southern border, to reverse their suspension of 12 Christian students for meeting in the cafeteria during non-instructional time to pray. After a Satanist student approached school administrators to complain about the prayer group, Vice Principal Alex Otoupal told the Christians they could no longer meet.

Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, said the students might not have been punished if they had met for just about any other reason. "These are students who, if they wanted to gather together and talk about American Idol or talk about whatever subject they wanted to and [there would be] no problem," Staver said. "But in this case they were told not to gather anymore -- ever -- because they wanted to gather together and pray." What the school did is clearly and blatantly illegal . . . . [Read More]

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Tags: education, prayer, religious freedom, school To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Huckabee Joins Five Other Candidates Signing the Presidential Taxpayer Protection Pledge

Gov. Huckabee joined Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Gov. Jim Gilmore, and Rep. Tom Tancredo as other presidential candidates to sign the Presidential Tax Pledge for the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Huckabee officially delivered a signed Presidential Taxpayer Protection Pledge to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) President Grover Norquist during ATR's "Wednesday Meeting" in Washington, D.C. this morning.

The Pledge binds signers to “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses … and oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates." ATR has offered the Pledge to all candidates for federal office since 1987. Every Republican nominee for President since 1988 has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. To date, President George W. Bush, 43 U.S. Senators, and 196 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed the Pledge. Seven Governors and over 1,100 state legislators have signed the Pledge as well. Copies of the Pledge are available at Americans for Tax Reform [Read More]

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Tags: Duncan Hunter, GOP, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, presidential candidate, Republican, Sam Brownback, tax pledge, Tom Tancredo, Election 2008

HB2120 - Voter ID Act - Deferred -- Rejected??

HB2120 - Voter ID Act - was deferred my a majority vote in the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. The bill would have required voters to show photo ID issued by the Arkansas or US government at the polls. The deferment may be the death for this bill if it is not taken up and reconsidered. Current state law requires poll workers to ask voters to provide identification. However, a voter may bring an electric bill, phone bill or other type bill to prove who they are to vote. Voters may show a voter registration card which offers no picture or signature. It can be printed on a home computer. Voters may show their business id badges as proof even though these again may be forged or invalid. Voters can still cast a ballot even if they do not provide identification.

Loop holes to fraudulent voting need to be stopped especially with 11 to 20 million illegal immigrants (aliens) living in the U.S. The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D. C., a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that 40, 000 illegal aliens of different ethnic backgrounds lived in Arkansas in 2004. Also past historical experiences of dead people and others voting improperly, evidences it is time for proper identification. Some fear that the Federal Court would override such legislation. Regardless, our legislators must take "right actions" to protect the registered voters by assuring they are the only ones voting on election day. Every vote by legally registered voter who can be properly identified at the polls should count! Contact your Representatives and let's get HB2120 to the House for a full discussion and vote on this issue.

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Tags: Arkansas, illegal immigrants, voter fraud, voter id, voting

U.S. House may act within weeks to restrict "grassroots lobbying" and right to communicate with federal officials

National Right to Life: The U.S. House of Representatives may act within weeks on legislation that would restrict so-called "grassroots lobbying," and also on legislation that would restrict the right of private citizens to communicate with officials of the federal Executive Branch. Please communicate immediately with your representative in the U.S. House in opposition to restrictions on "grassroots lobbying" and in opposition to the Waxman-Davis "Executive Branch Reform Act" (H.R. 984). For essential details on what is happening, and to access easy-to-use tools to transmit appropriate e-mails and phone calls on these bills, go to the NRLC Legislative Action Center here . . . [Click for more]
Contact your senators! Contact your representatives!

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Tags: congress, free speech, grassroots, lobbying

Hillary Clinton delivers private pro-'gay marriage' speech to homosexual activists

OneNewsNow.com: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that she intends to make sure "nothing stands in the way of loving couples, gay or straight, who want to adopt children." Peter LaBarbera, a conservative activist known for his staunch opposition to the homosexual agenda, says even he was surprised by what the New York senator and presidential hopeful had to say while addressing America's most powerful and well-funded homosexual activist group.During her address to HRC, Clinton also reaffirmed her support for homosexual civil unions by announcing her co-sponsorship of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, which would grant the same benefits to homosexual partners of federal workers as those given to legal spouses . . . [Click for more]

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Tags: Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, homosexual activism, presidential candidate To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Pryor Voted to Weaken Homeland Security

A Payback for Nearly $400,000 in Campaign Contributions

NRSC: “Senator Pryor had a chance to choose between our nation’s security and big money campaign contributors. He chose money over Arkansas’ security,” said Rebecca Fisher, NRSC Communications Director.

Union Bosses Payback vs. Nation’s Security: Democrats vote weaken national security in order to pay big labor back for Election Day win: “It's getting to be a full-time job keeping track of the favors that Democrats in Congress are doing for Big Labor. . . Democrats also keep trying to impose collective bargaining rights for all 43,000 screeners at the Transportation Security Administration. Congress expressly denied such organizing ability when it created TSA in 2001, on the sensible grounds that union work rules would compromise security.” (“Unions vs. Security,” Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 3/6/07)

Pryor has taken in almost $400,000 in contributions from big labor: Total PAC contributions from organized labor: $374,460 (Center for Responsive Politics website, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 2/28/07) [Read More]

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Tags: Homeland Security, Mark Pryor, unions

World has more oil than far left environmentalists admit

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Far-left environmentalists claim that the World Oil reserves are running out. However, reported new discoveries, advanced technology and untapped oil reserves (save the caribou program) prove they are again expressing fiction. In a left leaning biased New York Times article the truth "gushes out. the article, Oil Innovations Pump New Life Into Old Wells , revealed that "engineers here started injecting high-pressured steam to pump out more oil. The field, whose production had slumped to 10,000 barrels a day in the 1960s, now has a daily output of 85,000 barrels. In Indonesia, Chevron has applied the same technology to the giant Duri oil field, discovered in 1941, boosting production there to more than 200,000 barrels a day, up from 65,000 barrels in the mid-1980s. ... Within the last decade, technology advances have made it possible to unlock more oil from old fields, and, at the same time, higher oil prices have made it economical for companies to go after reserves that are harder to reach. With plenty of oil still left in familiar locations, forecasts that the world’s reserves are drying out have given way to predictions that more oil can be found than ever before." And this technology can be applied to American oil fileds when the extraction of oil slows down in the Arab oil fields (figure at right).

A BusineesWeek article in 2005 (Is There Plenty Of Oil?) reported:

"The four giant oil fields ... located under thousands of feet of water off the coast of Louisiana, are just beginning to pump their first barrels. At their peak rates later in the decade, they'll produce some 500,000 bbl. per day, an amount akin to floating a small Middle Eastern country such as Syria or Yemen into the Gulf of Mexico. "Add them together, and it's a massive step change," says David Eyton, BP's vice-president for deepwater in the Gulf. "The investment we're making will more than offset declines we're seeing in Alaska and the Continental Shelf."

And we have not even detailed the oil fields where the left-wing don't want us to drill. Well excuse us and get out of the way!


New Life for Old Oil Fields

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Tags: environmentalists, oil, oil reserves To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Arkansas' US Senator Mark Pryor Details Programs to Protect Families [Video]

Arkansas U.S. Senator Mark Pryor (March Newsletter): "Government can and should be a better partner when it comes to standing up for families. That’s why, over the past few weeks, I’ve introduced several initiatives designed to empower parents and consumers."

• Protecting Kids from Indecency on TV: The Child Safe Viewing Act will requires the Federal Communications Commission to provide parents with more effective technology to filter inappropriate material on television. There is a new generation of options available that are so advanced they can filter inappropriate scenes and language, even when they are live.
• Cleaning Up the Internet: For too long, government has turned a blind eye to online pornography, which has allowed this industry to expand. I wish the solution to protecting kids on the Internet was as easy as shutting every one of these sites down, but it’s not. In the next few weeks, I plan to introduce the Cyber Safety for Kids Act as part of a multifaceted approach to combating online pornography. The bill will require adult sites to provide secure log-ins requiring age identification, clean home pages and the ability to be blocked through filtering technology.
• Preventing Identity Theft: The Consumer Identity Protection and Security Act to allow consumers to place a “security freeze” on their financial information. This option offers the single, most effective solution to help consumers protect themselves from becoming an identity theft victim.
• Protecting Phone Records: The Consumer Phone Record Security Act bans any person from obtaining another person’s private phone information, requires phone service providers to better protect customer information and it creates strong enforcement mechanisms.
• Keeping the Peace: The Do-Not-Call Reauthorization Act that would allow the FTC to continue to collect fees from telemarketing companies to operate the registry. The national Do-Not-Call Registry is set to expire this year.

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Editorial Note: Although the ARRA does not promote Democrats, it will identify info from elected officials regardless of party that highlights their actions to seek to promote or to protect traditional families. Readers can then follow the proposed actions. We commend Senator Pryor in introducing the above legislation.

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Tags: Arkansas, Mark Pryor, Senator, video

Watch Live the Gingrich, Cuomo, Russert - A Lincoln Debate

We previously announced the special 90 minute debate that was held at Cooper Union on Feb. 28th. It was between Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Rep. and U.S. Representative for Georgia for 20 years, and Mario M. Cuomo, former governor of New York). The moderator was "Meet the Press" Tim Russert. If you missed the exceptionally formatted debate you can watch it now right on your computer (of course free): Click to Watch

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Tags: Cooper Union, Mario Cuomo, Newt Gingrich, Tim Russert

Conservatives Blast Federal Response to Illegal Immigration

CNSNews.com: As Congress considers how to deal with the illegal immigration issue, conservatives on Saturday discussed how they are handling the debate within their own movement. "Powerful business interest want cheap labor and they found a loophole -- not in the law, but in the federal government's lack of enforcement," Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said during a forum on immigration at the Conservative Political Action Conference." Cheap labor is a commodity. If you flood the market with any commodity, it will drive wages down. For unskilled American workers, their purchasing power is down." The problem extends far beyond economics, according to Georgia State Sen. Nancy Schaeffer, a Republican, who said the violent crimes in her state, including murders and sex crimes, were committed disproportionately by illegal immigrants. . . . [Click for more]

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Tags: conservative, CPAC, 2007, illegal immigration To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Comic Relief & Wiley Miller

A recent comment by a reader caused us to reflect that even though we address serious issues to our state and the nation, it is is good to laugh. Regardless of their political affiliation or belief system, cartoonists are able through humor to cause each of use to reflect on what is the realty of a situation. One such artist is Wiley Miller who said that he has but one simple goal: "Produce the funniest, best-drawn cartoon possible, regardless of theme, subject matter or setting." He does Non Sequitur, which is his wry look at the absurdities of everyday life. It is read by fans of all ages, and syndicated to more than 700 newspapers.

Although Wiley Miller did not post his March 6th comic in response to the CPAC 2007 convention, it is appropriate considering the comments expressed by many over various potential candidates in both major parties. Visit "The Non Sequitur Homepage."

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Tags: political humor, Wiley Miller To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

HB 2120 - Voter ID Act

HB2120, "An Act to Require that a Voter provide Proof of identity When Voting," is scheduled to be heard Mar 7th by the Arkansas House State Agencies & Gov't Affairs Committee. The bill was proposed by Rep. Jon Woods (Dist. 98). It is a sets forth a requirement that most Arkansans thought existed but does not exits - proof that a voter is who they say they are when voting. Even airports now require that minimum requirement before boarding a plane.

The bill sets for that a voter be required to present a government issued photo identification card before receiving a ballot. You may ask why is this law needed. Currently, a voter may bring an electric bill, phone bill or other type bill to prove who they are to vote. Voters may show a voter registration card which offers no picture or signature. It can be printed on a home computer. Voters may show their business id badges as proof even though these again may be forged or invalid. These loop holes to fraudulent voting need to be stopped especially with 11 to 20 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. In Arkansas, there is historical evidence of dead people voting and others voting for their spouse and others. It is time for every voter to show a government identification which may be a drivers license or Arkansas DMV id card, military ID card, government passport, etc.

Note that even if this bill passes and the voter does not show the required id, they will not be denied the right to vote. In these situations, voters who can’t show identification will vote by provisional ballot and have six days to show proof of identity. Our goal is to make sure every registered voter gets a vote, but only one vote. Our right to vote is diminished and diluted by voter fraud and this legislation will help stifle fraudulent balloting. Take Action: Contact your State Representatives & Senators to support this bill.

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Tags: Arkansas, voter id, voting

Democrat House Leadership Assault to Begin on Grassroots Activists [Video]

by TVC: The House began hearing debate on S. 1, the “Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 including consideration of grassroots lobby reform legislation. While Section 220 was stripped on the Senate floor, it appears that the Democrat House leadership will include similar language in the House lobby reform package. Section 220 would have imposed strict and complicated reporting requirements on non-profits and provide both civil and criminal penalties for failures to report on time or making mistakes in reporting! Section 220 would have created a fearful situation that would have discouraged many smaller grassroots lobbying groups from communicating with Members of Congress and other leaders in the federal government. Free speech would be stifled because of the chilling effect on grassroots activism! There is strong opposition from both liberals and conservatives to legislation that regulates grassroots lobbying, and specifically to Section 220-type language.

This grassroots lobbying provision is an assault on the First Amendment’s right of free speech and of the right of Americans to petition their government for a redress of grievances. It will stifle the ability of grassroots groups to communicate with their members and create a climate of fear over the draconian and unneeded reporting requirements. TAKE ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative at 202-224-3121 and urge them to oppose any attempts to regulate grassroots lobbying through unconstitutional provisions which subvert free speech and the right of all Americans to freely petition their government. [Read More]

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Tags: First Amendment, free speech, grassroots, Tradional Family Values Coalition, video To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Toward the American Ethnic

by Richard Engle, President NFRA (3/3/07): On Friday Rudy Giuliani told the Conservative Political Action Conference that America is a nation not made of a single ethnic group. He said a lot of other things, many of them good, but this one stuck out.

The upcoming election presents an unprecedented number of non-WASP candidates for President. The statement by the Mayor appears to be indisputably true, on the surface. I would challenge the premise. Not so much because it is in error but because it ought to be errant. An ethnic group is something very specific. The word “ethnic” comes from the Greek word (roughly transliterated, as Greek uses a distinct alphabet) “ethnos” which means “nation." Is America a single ethnic? A single nation?

My intent is not to take issue with the former Mayor of New York. If it were then I would certainly go after him on a far less trivial matter. In fact, I merely utilize his comment as an opportunity to discuss the premise that America should become one ethnic group, one nation in every way. So many discuss the idea that America is a nation of immigrants, but it isn’t. It is a nation of descendents of immigrants. Eventually those descendents must abandon their hyphens and look at themselves as Americans first, foremost and only as Americans. Without casting aside our individuality and the heritage of our own ancestors we can become one “ethnos.” We can, and we should.

How do we do so? Abandon all remnants of racism, all official and institutional recognitions of race. We must insist that black, white, Hispanic, aboriginal, oriental and any other generalized reference to some apparent percentage of a person’s ancestry be unimportant. No government or institutional form should ever even ask people to identify themselves by race. We also should promote in every societal mechanism the premise that citizens of the United States are Americans.

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Tags: American Ethnic, National Federation of Republican Assemblies, NFRA, Richard Engle To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Arkansas Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act, HB1671, is on the Senate agenda

Arkansas Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act, HB1671 proposed by Lindsley Smith (D-Fayetteville ), who may be the most liberal legislator in Little Rock, has passed the Arkansas House and is being considered by Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development. As an aside, it is interesting to note that as a first term legislator, Ms. Smith has introduced a significant number of liberal bills. It also seems that busy house members did not address the issue of protecting the interests of Arkansas land owners. Various Arkansas conservative groups and land owners oppose HB1671 because they note that the Act "is too broad of an expansion of power for the Director of the Natural Resources Commission without sufficient oversight and includes all aquatic resources ."

Several emails received have expressed, "It is one of those bills that is worded so subtly that in a court of law it could be interpreted to mean a number of things and has to do with our preserving our property rights. It could endanger everyone's property rights in some form or other. " People should contact the Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee members and their State senator to express their concerns in regard to amending the bill or defeating the bill so that it can be properly written to address protecting the land owners in the future. There is no need to rush passage of this bill!

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Tags: Arkansas, property rights, wetlands

Anger on Display Among Conservative PAC Audience

FoxNews: America's conservatives are mad and they're not going to take it anymore. That was the message the movement's leaders delivered throughout the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. last week. One after another, conservatives told FOXNews.com that they are angry, irritated, frustrated and in some cases depressed. And the target of their angst and ire is none other than the Republican Party, which wants and needs their support to win the 2008 presidential election and avoid losing more seats in the Senate and House next election. ... [Read More]

See Also:Romney Tops Straw Poll of GOP Activists

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Tags: CPAC, 2007, presidential candidate, Republican To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

ARRA Commemorates Women's History Month

The Arkansas Republican Assembly (ARRA): Women's History Month is a tribute to women who have contributed to the greatness of American culture, a time to remember the significant role so many have had in promoting the rights and virtues of womanhood.

It is not possible to overstate the importance of the many courageous women who have prayed, struggled, and fought for their families and for their communities; who have stood up to the hypocrisies and fallacies of radical feminism and have refused to allow a small, noisy group of women speak for the majority of other women. We can thank God for the women who have loved, protected, and nurtured their babies; and have raised their voices in protest against the slaughter of millions of unborn babies.

While some women have made the world worse according to Kate O'Beirne in her book, Women Who Make the World Worse, there are others like Abigail Adams who had both the ear and heart of her husband and provided insights on the formation of our government while advocating for the right of women to participate in that government. Another was Susan B. Anthony who worked for the emancipation of the slaves, fought for women's rights to vote and to own property, was a strong voice for the sanctity of life, and a fierce opponent of abortion. Today, women like Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum and Beverly La Haye of Concerned Women of America are helping to give the majority of women a voice in upholding and defending traditional values such as the importance of a traditional family, that every child needs a nurturing mother, that men and women are different, that mothers cannot be fathers and fathers cannot be mothers, that most working women do prefer to stay at home and that it is alright to do so, that a woman does not have to be a man in order to be fulfilled in life. Thank you to all the women who have trained the next generation to cherish God, family, and country.

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Tags: Abigal Adams, Arkansas Republican Assembly, Beverly La Haye, Black History Month, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum, Katie O'Brien, Phyllis Schlafly, Susan B. Anthony To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

McCain, Kennedy Work on Stealth Amnesty Bill

by Bobby Eberle: The debate over so-called “immigration reform” is beginning to heat up again in the U.S. Senate. However, rather that putting issues on the table for discussion, the leading pro-amnesty senators, such as Ted Kennedy and John McCain, are working on the bill behind closed doors. This action has not only angered other senators but sends up a huge red flag on what will be contained in the bill. [Read More]
See also (added 3/6/07):
Close the Immigration Vault with Employer Enforcement
Senate Democrats preparing push for illegal alien amnesty

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Tags: amnesty, illegal immigration, John Mccain, presidential candidate, Ted Kennedy To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

'Lost Tomb of Jesus' is old news, scholars say

Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal: For three decades, Joseph Trafton has been studying artifacts like the Dead Sea Scrolls, and he keeps up on what has been dug up in the Holy Land. So the Western Kentucky University professor was amazed at this week's breathless news reports on something scholars had known about for years -- a tomb near Jerusalem containing burial boxes engraved with names that appear to include Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

The uproar stems from a new documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," which airs on the Discovery Channel -- and makes claims that challenge the traditional Christian belief in the Resurrection. But Trafton notes that most archaeologists have largely rejected the claims. The names Jesus, Joseph and Mary were common among ancient Jews, for example, and finding them in an ancient tomb is like going to Cave Hill Cemetery and seeing names like "John" and "Smith," said Joel Drinkard, professor of Old Testament, Hebrew and archaeology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. ... When the tomb was first discovered years ago, he said, it "may have gotten a brief notice in one of the journals somewhere, but no more attention until someone comes along and says, 'Here's a way I can sensationalize it.' I don't think it's accidental it comes just as we're leading up to Easter." [Read More]
See Also: The fruit of thy tomb
Rebuttal to the Claims of the Lost Tomb of Jesus

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Tags: Christianity, Discovery Channel, James Cameron, Lost Tomb, Jesus Christ