Can Our Nation Afford Mesmerizing Promises of Hope and Change?

ARRA News Service is pleased to present the following guest editorial by a Bradley County, Arkansas conservative Renee Taylor. She is a freelance writer, photographer, home schooling mom and publicist for Joey Holiday. She is a Contributing Editor for Family Security Matters editor/webmistress of American Truckers at War.
by Renee Taylor: "I pledge allegiance to the United Nations, the rulers of the world, one nation under socialism..." Is this really a stretch? How could our once great nation have spiraled into current state of affairs? As we face the upcoming presidential election, we have a charismatic, mesmerizing candidate who has promised "hope" and "change" to a bloc of voters so numbed by years of socialist indoctrination in our school system that they cannot see the disaster that is bearing down at a lightening fast pace.

Our once great nation is careening into a cesspool of immorality and despair brought upon us by a public education system that more and more often does not turn out the best and the brightest, but the dazed and confused.Without the slightest understanding of basic economics and government, they remain glued to the stage, weeping, as their "savior" promises empty words - "hope and change."

It was my nine-year-old son, Lee, who inadvertently described what could be the answer to our nation's decline, as he quoted Newton's Law - "For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction."

We are now paying up to $4 per gallon for gasoline, even more in some areas. What is Washington's "action?" To continue it's refusal to allow offshore drilling and access to ANWR and other oil-rich resources. In their nearly perverse submission to members of the ecological movement (whose apparent goal is to keep us dependent upon foreign oil), refineries have not been built, other nations are now allowed either to lease or drill off our coast, and the average American can ill afford to drive to work, school and the grocery store. Now that we have reached a critical point with our economy, it is the oil companies - not the long standing ban on domestic drilling and stifling restrictions on building new refineries imposed by Washington - that get the blame. Presidential candidate Barack Obama and others refuse to support domestic drilling - something that will not only decrease our dependency on foreign oil, but will create badly needed jobs for American workers. Jobs not "created" by government, but by the private sector. This is contrary to the goal of the "nanny state," which seeks to control every aspect of your lives, from what pay and benefits you receive on your job to what kind of light bulb you use in your home. A generation of voters indoctrinated by "Captain Planet" and photos of seagulls with plastic rings around their necks will ensure that, while the snail darter is safe, America could very well be rationing gasoline.

While America slept, jobs were outsourced and basic goods were no longer manufactured in the United States. In our quest for materialism, we demanded cheap, readily available Chinese made products. Consumers purchased with reckless abandon clothing, electronics and food imported from China, Mexico and every nation in between. While American workers demanded pay and benefits their employers could not afford, Chinese sweatshops were busily sewing designer jeans and assembling substandard plastic toys and household goods. Our customer service jobs were outsourced to the Philippines and Asia as our government funded education system turns out graduates without basic knowledge of math and English.

Immoral behavior is rewarded richly with government benefits at the cost of the American worker via increased taxation. Potential voters cheer at every promise of government-sponsored health care without thought to how the government actually receives its income (the American worker). And why not? Children are not taught consequences for their actions.Recently, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, 17 high school students may have struck a deal with one another to become pregnant. Regardless of the excuse of the girls, one of whom became impregnated by a 24-year-old homeless man, there will likely be no consequence to them.With tax dollars building day care centers in public schools, readily available "free" medical care, food stamps and government assisted housing, we now have 17 single mothers potentially dependent upon the government. Schools, without parental intervention, teach our children not the consequences of sexual activity, but how to do it "safely. "The effect has been undereducated single parents dependent upon a "nanny state" funded by a working middle class already struggling to support their own families.

We have become an empty nation with no moral compass, no national pride, no faith in God and our government. The traditional family - dad, mom and children - has given way to "applicant A and applicant B" as California forces same sex marriages upon voters, boldly disregarding the will of the majority. We are inundated by claims that certain groups are "offended" by our Pledge of Allegiance because of the words "Under God." However, the American people are finally awakening and realizing we are not the great nation of go-getters we once were, but devolving into a country whose citizens are looking to government for help with home heating bills, solutions to the oil crisis our own elected officials created and the burden of supporting broken homes and illegal aliens.

Here in Warren, Arkansas, and across the state, a petition is circulating asking Little Rock to refuse public assistance to illegal aliens. Many families are returning to growing and canning their own fruits and vegetables, tired of contaminated foods from other countries poisoning our citizens. Over one million people have signed a petition at AmericanSolutions.com demanding Washington allow domestic drilling. We are tired of sweating to support our families while children bear children dependent upon government assistance, using funds forcibly taken out of our paychecks via taxation.

Proverbs 12:11 states: "He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding." Will be till our own land - use our vast energy resources, grow food to feed our families and take pride in our hard work and efforts? Or will we blindly follow vain, narcissistic politicians with mesmerizing, empty promises of "hope" and "change"?

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Tags: Barack Obama, God, government, Hope, illegal aliens, nanny state, traditional family, Renee Taylor To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

The New Environmental Priesthood

Iain Murray, Competitive Enterprise Institute: Religion plays a vitally important role in human life. This is especially true in America, and America’s dominant religion has always been Christianity. In 2004, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 71% of Americans agreed with three central Christian statements: “prayer is an important part of my daily life;” “we will all be called before God on judgment day to answer for our sins;” and “I never doubt the existence of God.” That figure was only 54% for self-identified liberals and 52% for selfidentified liberal Democrats. . . .

Just as environmentalism has replaced Marxism as the central economic theory of the far Left, so too has environmentalism begun to replace liberal Christianity as the Left’s motivating religious force. Were it not for the presence of powerful African American Protestant churches in the liberal alliance, environmentalism might have supplanted liberal Christianity already. The causality works both ways: The environmental movement has taken on facets of religion. The movement’s increasingly religious tone has attracted those who are thirsty for spiritual gratification yet averse to traditional religions.

There are two dominant mythical forces in the cosmologies of ancient Indo-European religions: the Weather God (Zeus, Jupiter, Thor) and the Earth Mother (Gaia, Ceres, Freya). The Weather God resides in the sky and lashes down rain, hail, and thunder on those who anger him. The Earth Mother gives her faithful followers her bounty, but when they fail her in some way, she retaliates with famine. Frequently, the two are married. Today, both the Weather God and Earth Mother are central to the global warming issue. The atmosphere is to be protected at all costs, its avatar appeased by the closing of power stations and shutting down of internal combustion engines. Thus, his hurricanes are to be averted and his beneficent winds are to drive turbines. Moreover, the Earth is to be worshipped by returning to her simpler ways, with people shunning biotechnology and nuclear power. She will reward them.

These two gods are supported by a variety of hierophants and augurs. Shamefully, many of them are supposed scientists. A scientist who says that the atmosphere is warming, and cites certain physical processes, is still a scientist. A scientist who argues that people must take certain acts to avoid disaster has become a priest. It is no coincidence that words like prophet, seer, and sage, historically associated with religious figures, now are routinely applied to leading alarmist scientists. The leader of the movement, sermonizer supreme Al Gore, is even adoringly referred to by true believers as The Goracle. . . . [Read More]

Tags: Al Gore, Competitive Enterprise Institute, envionmentalism, Iain Murray, liberals, religion To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Judicial Philosophy of Candidates Affect The Supreme Court

Kerby Anderson, Point of View: The next president will no doubt nominate two or three Supreme Court justices and hundreds and hundreds of appointments to the federal bench. So understanding a candidate’s judicial philosophy will be important. The two presumptive nominees represent two very different judicial philosophies and have two different voting records in Congress concerning judicial appointments.

Senator McCain wants to appoint judges that have a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. His website says: “When applying the law, the role of judges is not to impose their own view as to the best policy choices for society but to faithfully and accurately determine the policy choices already made by the people and embodied in the law.” He also says: “The judicial role is necessarily limited and one that requires restraint and humility.”

Senator Obama says that he wants to appoint judges who have “empathy.” In one of his speeches he said, “we need someone who’s got the heart, the empathy” to understand social circumstances. “The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

Words are one thing, and voting records are another. Senator McCain supported Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito. He voted to confirm both of these men and at the time called them “strict constructionists.”

Senator Obama voted against both men. While he acknowledged their academic and legal qualifications, he said at the time that other issues should be considered. He said: “I’ve seen an extraordinarily consistent attitude on the part of Judge Alito that does not uphold the traditional role of the Supreme Court as a bastion of equality and justice for United States citizens.”

This year the two candidates have two very different views of judicial interpretation and it is reflected in their votes. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Election 2008, John McCain, Kerby Anderson, philosophy, Point of View, Supreme Court Judges To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

How Modern Liberals Think

This is 48 minutes and worth the time to watch!
Evan Sayet, Writer, Lecturer and Pundit speaking at the Heritage Foundation:
How Modern Liberals Think

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Tags: Evan Sayet, Heritage Foundation, How Modern Liberals Think, liberals, news, Politics To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Trans-formers: Frank and Barney Host Cross-Dressers

Tony Perkins, FRC Washington Update: Last year, even those supporting "civil rights" for homosexuals were not willing to include protections for cross-dressers and people who have sex-change operations in the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" (ENDA). Despite this aversion, a House Education and Labor subcommittee yesterday held the first-ever congressional hearing on "transgender" employment protections. FRC VP for Policy, Peter Sprigg was present as two openly homosexual Members of Congress, Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Barney Frank (D-MA), were the lead hitters. Baldwin emphasized that "all of us are created equal -- though how we were created is exactly what transvestites and transsexuals are rebelling against. She admitted that a "gender identity non-discrimination law" has symbolic as well as practical purposes.

One of the main reasons we oppose legislation like ENDA is because it would symbolically declare that anyone who believes a man should remain a man and a woman remain a woman is a bigot. Frank, meanwhile, insisted that the bill is "no license to misbehave or be bizarre," but he was apparently ignorant of the fact that for a man to wear a dress is inherently bizarre. He also praised "transgenders" for having "courageously dealt with" their "deep anguish." But there is nothing "courageous" about indulging these desires rather than resisting them. Glen Lavy of the Alliance Defense Fund brought a note of sanity, reminding the committee that employers have rights too, and should be left alone to exercise them in this area. See Also: McClatchy: Transgenders air their plight on Capitol Hill

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Tags: Barney Frank, ENDA, FRC, homosexual activism, Tammy Baldwin, Tony Perkins, transgender, US Congress, Washington Update To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Ok To Marry One-Year-Old Girl Says Muslim Official

As reported by Middle East Media Research Institute: Saudi Marriage Officiant: It Is Permitted to Marry a Girl Aged One Year, If Sex is Postponed; The Prophet Muhammad, Whose Model We Follow, Married 'Aisha When She Was Six and Had Sex with Her When She Was Nine

Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi marriage officiant Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi. The interview aired on LBC TV on June 19, 2008: To view the clip on MEMRI TV

"There Is No Minimal Age For Entering Marriage...The Prophet Muhammad is the Model We Follow"
Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: "Marriage is actually two things: First we are talking about the marriage contract itself. This is one thing, while consummating the marriage - having sex with the wife for the first time - is another thing.
"There is no minimal age for entering marriage. You can have a marriage contract even with a one-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of nine, seven, or eight. This is merely a contract [indicating] consent. The guardian in such a case must be the father, because the father's opinion is obligatory. Thus, the girl becomes a wife...
"But is the girl ready for sex or not? What is the appropriate age for having sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and traditions. In Yemen, girls are married off at nine, ten, 11, eight, or 13, while in other countries, they are married off at 16. Some countries have legislated laws forbidding having sex before the girl is 18. [...]
"The Prophet Muhammad is the model we follow. He took 'Aisha to be his wife when she was six, but he had sex with her only when she was nine."
Interviewer: "When she was six..."
"If The Guardian is The Father, And He Marries His Daughter Off To a Man of Appropriate Standing, The Marriage is Obviously Valid"
Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: "He married her [when she was] age six, and he consummated the marriage, by having sex with her for the first time, when she was nine. We consider the Prophet Muhammad to be our model."
Interviewer: "My question to you is whether the marriage of a 12-year-old boy to an 11-year-old girl is a logical marriage permitted by Islamic law."
Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: "If the guardian is the father... There are two different types of guardianship. If the guardian is the father, and he marries his daughter off to a man of appropriate standing, the marriage is obviously valid. [...]
"People find themselves in all kinds of circumstances. Take, for example, a man who has two, three, or four daughters. He does not have any wives, but he needs to go on a trip. Isn't it better to marry his daughter to a man who will protect and sustain her, and when she reaches the proper age, he will have sex with her? Who says all men are ferocious wolves?"

ARRA Comment: Some advocate Muslim law being allowed in the U.S. Every pedophile's and sexual deviant's dream at our doorsteps. Have you considered who you wish to President of the United States? Who will protect children and prevent Muslim Marriage laws being allowed in the Untied States? Who will prevent the recognition of marriage to children performed outside the United States.?

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Tags: child abuse, child brides, enslavement, Federal Marriage Amendment, Islamic law, marriage, Mohammad, Muslim, sexual abuse To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Pelosi Confirms She Wants To Censor Talk Radio

William J. Murray: Nancy Pelsoi does not want to censor TV broadcast news because it is controlled by liberals. She does not want to censor major newspapers because they are controlled by liberals. She does not want to censor the Internet where liberal bloggers dominate. BUT ... Nancy Pelosi confirmed this week that she wants to censor talk radio which is dominated by conservatives. Read: Wall Street Journal editorial. This is just the starting point. If Obama is in the Oval Office and Pelosi runs the House next year, they will criminalize what is now free speech. Criticism of abortion or homosexuality will cause confiscation of property and probably even imprisonment. This is the "change" Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi promise, a government much like that of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

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Tags: fairness doctrine, Nancy Pelosi, talk radio, William J. Murray To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

When does life begin for Obama?

In a speech this Father's Day at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois, Senator Barack Obama remarked that "We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception." I applaud the Senator's observation that fatherhood bears great responsibility. However, Senator Obama's record in Congress shows that he has consistently voted to use taxpayer dollars to end life after conception.

Tony Perkins -- along with with my son Samuel -- recorded a video response to this message in which I ask Senator Obama: if my responsibility as a father began at conception, isn't that when the lives of my children began?

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Tags: Barack Obama, Father's Day, fathers, human life, Tony Perkins To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - June 27, 2008

On The Floor: Yesterday, the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 92-6 to pass a war funding bill to fund troops in Iraq and Afghanistan through next year that also included an expanded and updated GI bill (H.R. 2642). The bill provides $164.5 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through June 2009. The Senate also confirmed two district judges last night. A cloture vote on a bill to prevent Medicare pay cuts to doctors (H.R. 6331) failed because Democrats decided they wanted to pay for it by cutting Medicare Advantage programs. Democrats subsequently blocked an effort by Sen. McConnell to pass a bill to postpone the pay cuts until Congress could come to an agreement.

Uncompleted are the compromise FISA bill (H.R. 6304) and the housing bill. After more than four months of reduced surveillance capability because of the intransigence of House Democrats, yesterday a few Democrats stepped in to again delay passage of a compromise FISA bill until July. The delaying tactics by Democrats opposed to the immunity provisions in the bill; Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Pat Leahy (D-VT), and Chris Dodd (D-CT) forced Reid to put off FISA votes until after the Senate returns.

From Senate & News Sources: Consumer Reports has a new survey reflecting the frustration of Americans with high gas prices. According to CNN, “77% of consumers said the root of high gas prices lies with the government’s failure to implement an effective energy policy.”

As reported yesterday, Republican Senators offered the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008 to finally start producing more American energy and take away Democrats’ excuses for opposing any proposals to increase domestic supplies of oil. Democrats can no longer hide behind ANWR or their opposition to clean coal technology. If they are serious about doing anything on gas prices, they should support this bill. Sen. Lamar Alexander said yesterday, “When we say, ‘deep shore exploration,’ they say ‘no we can’t.’ When we say ‘oil shale development,’ they say ‘no we can’t.’ When we say ‘more nuclear power to plug in electric cars and trucks,’ they say ‘no we can’t.’” The American people want Congress to say “yes we can” on domestic oil production and it’s time for the Democrats to step up.

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Tags: FISA, gas prices, troop funding, US Congress, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

SCOTUS Gives Border Fence Thumbs Up

ARRA News Service: The U.S. Supreme Court gave the thumbs up to building the remaining 340 miles of a U.S.-Mexican border fence when the court refused on Monday to hear a case challenging the government's waivers of various laws. Three years ago, Congress gave Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff an unusual power to "waive all legal requirements" that could stand in the way of building the fence. These requirements included the nation's environmental protection laws. The same congressional action took away the authority of judges to review Chertoff's decisions.

The Federal Government's 2005 Secure Border Initiative charges Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff with the responsibility completing 670 miles of border fence and having it in place by the end of the year. Chertoff used his congressional provided authority to waive environmental- and cultural-protection laws, declaring the fence a national-security priority. Chertoff said the waivers were the only way to ensure completion of a 670-mile border-fence project by January. As of June 13, 331 miles of fencing had been built.

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Tags: border control, border fence, Michael Chertoff, Supreme Court To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Obama is Dr. No

Barack Obama is the Dr. No of energy security!

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Tags: Barack Obama, electric car, energy, gas, gas increase, GOP, innovation, John McCain, news, nuclear, offshore oil, oil drilling, Politics, security, tax holiday To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

More Voters Trust McCain to be Commander-in-Chief

A Gallup Poll shows more American believes McCain to be a better Commander in Chief. Gallup reports:

McCain's life experience has earned him a solid national reputation as someone who can serve as the nation's commander in chief, with 80% saying he can handle the responsibilities of this important role. Barack Obama lags well behind on the same measure, but does pass the 50% public confidence threshold. . . [Read More]

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Tags: Commander-in-Chief, Election 2008, Gallup Poll, John McCain, presidential candidate, Why John McCain To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

SCOTUS Strikes Down D.C. Ban on Handguns

ARRA News Service: Today, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision stuck down the District of Columbia's ban on handgun ownership as unconstitutional and ruled that the Second Amendment, one of our guaranteed rights, protects a person's right to own guns for self-defense not just for being in a militia. The court also said that the requirement that lawful weapons be rendered inoperable, by trigger locks or disassembled, was unconstitutional because it rendered the weapons useless for self-defense. Those justices ruling in the majority were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Anthony M. Kennedy, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Antonin Scalia. Resenting were Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and John Paul Stevens.

Some of the key points made by Justice Scalia writing for the majority were:

“The court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

“Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”

Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain previously filed his own brief in support of the plaintiff in the case, DC security guard Dick Heller. McCain applauded the decision: "Today's ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right - sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly." Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has a dismal record supporting gun rights. Last year, a spokesman for his campaign said that Senator Obama felt the tough DC gun law was constitutional. However, in reacting to the Court's decision, Obama said that supporting gun rights and some gun controls was not a contradiction.

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Tags: District of Columbia, gun ban, gun rights, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Judges, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008

Senate Republicans unveiled a new energy plan, the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008, which will open up the outer continental shelf for oil exploration and remove the moratorium on Western oil shale exploration imposed by Democrats last year.

The new bill, cosponsored by 42 Republican senators, is designed to give Democrats another chance to support more American energy and more American jobs. While Republicans in the Senate continue to strongly support environmentally responsible oil exploration in ANWR, the new bill is designed to remove that as an excuse for Democrats to hide behind. If Senate Democrats will not support these sensible ways to increase American access to oil and natural gas, and thus alleviate some of the pressure pushing gas prices higher, they will have to go home next week and explain to their constituents why.

In contrast, Senate Democrats have offered nothing except taxation, regulation and litigation in response to the problem of high energy costs. House Democrats’ continue to fumble on energy legislation, as the continue to put forth proposals that will do nothing to lower gas prices.

Summary of Provisions
TITLE I – DEEP SEA EXPLORATION (OCS)
14 Billion Barrels On Atlantic and Pacific OCS – More Than All US Imports From Persian Gulf Countries Over The Last 15 Years

• State Option Nationwide (except Gulf of Mexico)
• Governor petitions to allow exploration, with concurrence of state legislature
• Exploration must be at least 50 miles from coast
• 50% of revenues to Federal Treasury, 37.5% to States, 12.5% to Land & Water Conservation Fund

TITLE II: WESTERN STATE OIL SHALE EXPLORATION
More Than 3 Times The Oil Reserves Of Saudi Arabia

• 800 billion - 2 trillion potentially recoverable barrels in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming
• Democrat Congress put moratorium on final regulations for development of this resource
• Republican proposal would repeal the moratorium and allow exploration to move forward

TITLE III: PLUG-IN ELECTRIC CARS AND TRUCKS

• We need better batteries to maximize electricity range & use less gas
• Increased R&D for advanced batteries
• Direct Loans for advanced battery manufacturing facilities
• Sense of Senate that the Federal Government should increase its purchases of these vehicles

TITLE IV: STRENGTHENING U.S. FUTURES MARKETS

• Authorizes increased funding/staff for Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
• Directs the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets to study the international regulation of commodities markets
• Codifies CFTC action on position limits and transparency for foreign boards of trade
• Requires the CFTC to gather information on index traders and swap dealers

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Tags: Republican, energy plan, gas price reduction act, gas prices, lowering gas prices, Republicans, Senators To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - June 26, 2008

The big new in Washington D.C. is the Supreme Court (its decisions and the reactions to the decisions). One of the biggest items was the Court striking down of the D.C. Gun ban and affirming that the 2nd Amendment does give individuals the right to bear arm. ARRA News Service will report separately on the Supreme Court decisions.

On The Floor: The Senate resumed post-cloture consideration of the compromise FISA bill (H.R. 6304). Democrats opposed to the FISA bill, including Sens. Barack Obama, Russ Feingold, and Chris Dodd, are hoping to get a vote on an amendment to strip from the bill the critical immunity provisions for telecoms that cooperated with terror surveillance. Yesterday, the Senate voted 80-15 to proceed to the FISA bill and 79-16 to approve the Dodd substitute amendment to the housing bill. Action on any of these bills could occur during the day today, depending on what agreements are reached between senators. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he wants to finish the housing bill (House messages to accompany H.R. 3221), and address FISA, the war supplemental bill (H.R. 2642), and a Medicare payments fix before the Senate leaves for July 4th recess. Reid also has threatened to hold both FISA and troop funding over until July because he considered the housing bill a priority.

From Senate & News Sources: At a press conference this morning, Senate Republicans unveiled a new energy plan, the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008. More on this in a separate ARRA posting. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, are pushing Sen. Reid to let the Senate complete work on FISA reform legislation. Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) have been threatening to hold the bill up and Reid has suggested he could let it slip until after July 4th.

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Tags: FISA, gas prices, medicare, US Congress, US Senate, US Supreme Court, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Freedom - narrated by Fred Thompson (Video)

Preserving the American Dream/ Freedom" -- featuring Ronald Reagan's wisdom, Fred Thompson's narration and John McCain's vision for our future -- lays out the stakes on Election Day and was the feature video for the 2008 President's Dinner.

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Tags: Election 2008, Fred Thompson, Preserving the American Dream, Freedom, GOP, John Mccain, NRSC, political video, Republican, Ronald Reagan, Senate, Senator, video To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

The Other War - Blogs4Borders! 062308

Blogs4Borders! 062308 weekly vlog on illegal immigration and border security issues. In this weeks edition: The Other War: As Mexico melts down are we next? 100% Preventable! Americans continue to pay the bloody price for open borders. When will the madness end? li>John Monti's false accusers take a second bite at the apple, we report and tell you what you can do to help! Tags: Criminal alien, deportation, illegal aliens, illegal immigration, John Monti, MJ, news, open borders, Politics, video To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Postmortem - Why Hillary Clinton Lost

Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum: The post-mortems are rolling in to explain the long-drawn-out and spectacular failure of Hillary Clinton's once-so-promising presidential campaign. She and her supporters are sure they know how and why she was rejected: she was the victim of sexism. Feminist ideology teaches that American women are victims of an oppressive patriarchal society. No matter how rich or prominent or smart or advantaged a woman may be, success and happiness are still beyond her grasp because institutional sexism holds her down.

. . . The feminists are living in an unhappy world of their own making. In truth, 92 percent of Americans say they would vote in a presidential election for a qualified female candidate from their own party, and 55 percent say Yes when asked if America is ready for a woman president. Hillary lost because (a) she simply is not likeable, and (b) the voters (especially Democrats) suffer from Clinton fatigue. The Clintons' offer of two-for-the-price-of-one didn't play particularly well in 1992, and it was even less attractive in 2008. . . .

Another reason Hillary lost was that people resented her sense of entitlement. She believed that the presidency was hers, and that all the people whom the Clintons had appointed or helped, like New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson, should fall in line. Hillary kept repeating that she was the candidate most ready (on day one) to be America's CEO and commander-in-chief. That's hard to believe when she couldn't run her own campaign staff. . . .

Hillary's allies blame the national news media for unfairly terminating her campaign because they are "suffering from sexism" and "Obama mania." Ellen Malcolm of Emily's List and Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood emoted for an hour on C-SPAN about how sexism spoiled Hillary's chances. Contrary to the image Hillary has carefully cultivated, she is not a self-made woman like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or Margaret Thatcher. Hillary got her career the old-fashioned way; she married it. . . . [Read More]

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Tags: Eagle Forum, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, Phyllis Schlafly, Politics To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Arkansas State Representatives Urge Federal Gov't to Lower Gas Prices

Four Arkansas State Republican Representatives are urging the federal government take immediate action in order to lower the price of gasoline. Today, Reps. Dan Greenberg of Little Rock (Dist 31), Bryan King of Green Forest (Dist 91), Roy Ragland of Marshall (Dist 90) and Jon Woods of Springdale (Dist 93) issued the following joint statement:

"We're approaching a scenario where $4.00 a gallon is a cheap price for gas. And when liberals in Congress propose burdening our energy industry with increased taxes and wasteful mandates, they are ignoring the laws of supply and demand by kicking our economy when it's already down. The only way to lower the price of energy is to lower production barriers and inefficient mandates and thereby increase the number of energy suppliers.

The USA is the only country in the world with access to proven oil reserves on its land and off its shores that refuses to take advantage of its resources. If we use reasonable environmental protection measures, technological advances could grant us access to over a trillion barrels of domestic oil – enough to meet our energy needs for a century – without relying on unstable foreign countries and greedy foreign cartels, and while preserving our environment for future generations.

We are just four of the one million Americans who have signed the pledge and support the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" initiative available online at (www.AmericanSolutions.com/DrillNow), which supports the exploration of proven domestic energy reserves and reduces our dependence on unstable foreign countries We ask other other citizens to sign this pledge, so that hard-working Arkansans won't get hit in the wallet every time they go to the gas station. We also believe we need to reduce impediments to energy production on a variety of fronts.

First, we need to expedite the approval process for refineries. The last oil refinery was built during the Ford Administration; none have been built since because of a U.S. legal system that stifles progress and innovation and allows delay for almost any reason imaginable. We are currently forced to import refined fuel from other countries because of insufficient domestic refining capabilities. Second, we need to reduce or eliminate the wasteful fuel mandates and requirements that are driving up both the price of food and the cost of gas. The success we had in cutting the food tax last session has been offset by higher food prices, created by short-sighted government regulations, that we see the results of every time we go through the grocery checkout line. Finally, we need to examine the energy successes of Western Europe that have been based on environmentally friendly nuclear power.

In short, these are much more palatable, serious, and productive solutions than the failed ideas currently on the table in Congress: higher taxes on energy companies, socializing energy production, and unsuccessfully begging Saudi Arabia to pump another half-million barrels of oil every day. We would be much better off increasing our own domestic production capacity, and we urge the federal government to take action on this front immediately.

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Tags: Arkansas, federal government, gas prices, Representative, State To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - June 25, 2008

On The Floor: The Senate - yesterday invoked cloture on the Dodd substitute amendment to the housing bill. They will resume post-cloture consideration of the motion to concur with the Dodd substitute amendment to the housing bill (House message to Senate amendments to H.R. 3221). Later in the day, there will be a cloture vote on the compromise FISA bill (H.R. 6304). Democrats opposed to the bill, including Sens. Barack Obama, Russ Feingold, and Chris Dodd, are hoping to get a vote on an amendment to strip from the bill the critical immunity provisions for telecoms that cooperated with terror surveillance. However, Obama has indicated that he will vote for the final bill. Wonders how he will justify that vote to the ACLU and trial lawyers if the amendment to strip the immunity provisions fails as it is expected. The Senate also confirmed former Clinton appointee Judge Helene White to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The House - yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut and remove funding for proven enforcement measures such as the 287(g) program, which enables local police and sheriffs to enforce immigration laws, and workplace enforcement activities. The measure will, among other things, require ICE to spend $800 million to identify and deport illegal aliens who have committed serious crimes. The committee was not interested in deporting illegals who violated the our laws but who had not yet committed in their definition "serious crimes."

From Senate & News Sources: Senate Republicans are continuing to call for American energy solutions that increase domestic supplies and create jobs. GOP senators also continue to highlight the lack of serious proposals from Democrats on energy issues and the Democrats’ “gradual adjustment” approach to high gas prices. A Senate Democrat aide remarked that passing legislation to curb rising gas prices “would not actually have a tremendous enough impact on gas prices in time for the election” and “can almost hurt you” politically.

Republicans disagree and have been trying for some time to pass legislation to increase available domestic energy supplies. GOP senators will roll out a new energy package tomorrow with the goal of pressuring Democrats to sign on to proposals Americans agree with, such a drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. Republicans, led by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) continue trying to get renewable energy tax credits but Democrats leaders have blocked all attempts on legislations expected to be signed into law.

Unfortunately, the Democrat's liberal leaders have shown little interest in doing anything about energy supplies, and instead have looked for scapegoats like futures traders and oil companies or returned to old hobbyhorses such as price gouging, as House Democrats did yesterday. In particular, Democrats in the Senate have made a great deal of noise about “speculators” in the oil markets. The New York Times notes today, “one of the nation’s best-known energy experts, Daniel Yergin, is expected to tell Congress that the focus on speculation is largely misguided.”

In contrast, responsible Democrats have come together with Republicans on a compromise on reforming FISA. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee explains the importance of the FISA agreement in an op-ed for USA Today: “The agreement also gives vital civil liability protection to companies that answered the call of duty after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Without such protection, it is likely our private partners will refuse to cooperate with future requests for assistance. This is a risk our nation cannot accept." Unfortunately, some Democrat Senators indicated htey will support an amendment to strike these liability protections. The Senate has already rejected a similar amendment and should do so again.

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Tags: US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C., FISA, gas prices To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - June 24, 2008

On The Floor: The House: The House Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY 09 Department of Homeland Security spending bill (no bill number). The measure sets forth how much money the federal government can spend next year on enforcing immigration laws. Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chair David Price (D-NC) said the the bill would direct ICE to spend the $800 million "only to identify and deport illegal immigrant in U.S. communities or jails who have committed serious crimes." His proposed bill would limit funding and force money to be shifted from priorities such as the 287(g) program, which enables local police and sheriffs to enforce immigration laws and workplace enforcement activities. Price is making it clear that democrats do not want what the majority of American want - a comprehensive program to address illegals. Americans want 1) expanded funding for the 287(g) program that trains local agencies to enforce immigration law and 2) ICE to continue to conduct workplace raids on companies with huge illegal workforces. There is still time to contact your representative and members of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

The Senate resumed consideration of the housing bill (Senate amendments to H.R. 3221). After an hour of debate, the Senate will vote on cloture on the motion to concur with the Dodd substitute amendment. Also, today, votes are expected on 3 district court nominees and two circuit court nominees Democrats are pushing. FISA reform has returned to the Senate after a compromise was reached in the House last week. Yesterday, Sen. Reid filed cloture on the compromise FISA bill (H.R. 6304), setting up a vote on Wednesday. Democrats opposed to the bill, including Sens. Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, are hoping to get a vote on an amendment to strip from the bill the critical immunity provisions for telecoms that cooperated with terror surveillance. It remains to be seen whether Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will join Feingold, since he said he planed to support the bill but also promised last year that oppose any bill with telecom immunity provisions. If he opposes the provision, it would be to appease his "trial lawyer" friends helping to fund his campaign.

From Senate & News Sources: Though Democrats have become fond of accusing Republicans of “obstructionism” in the Senate, this week will feature Republicans attempting to overcome Democrat roadblocks on key issues. While Democrats continue to block sensible proposals to create more American energy and American jobs, Republicans will unveil a new package of energy plans. The Senate GOP will also fight objections from the far left to get a FISA bill to the president’s desk after months of lost intelligence. Finally, Republicans will push to get a working FEC, as Democrats’ stall for the purpose of scoring political points.

Senate Republicans will continue this week to pressure Democrats to stop blocking more production of American energy. CongressDaily notes: “[T]he GOP plan will focus on deep sea oil and gas exploration, Western oil shale production and research and development of electric cars.” Unfortunately, Democrats continue to have little to offer in terms of energy solutions. They’re holding press conferences today to tout their proposals of more regulation and investigation of oil companies, but they will do absolutely nothing to produce more energy or alleviate high gas prices.

Meanwhile on FISA, liberal Democrats will respond to the calls of MoveOn.org, the ACLU, and the liberal netroots to attempt to stall a bill which they vehemently oppose. CQ Today reports: “‘We’ll be requiring key procedural votes, and also taking some time on the floor this week, to indicate the problems of this legislation,’ Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Monday of himself and Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., speaking at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. ‘We’re not just going to let it quickly pass.’” This effort is likely to fail, though, since almost all Republicans and many Democrats support the compromise bill.

The third logjam presented by Democrats today is over nominees to the Federal Election Commission. After a long dispute in which Democrat attacks resulted in one of President Bush’s nominees withdrawing from consideration, a full slate of nominees is ready to be agreed on by both sides of the aisle. But Roll Call reports that Sen. Harry Reid stalled confirmation on behalf of Sen. Feingold who supposedly wants to talk to the nominees some more. Roll Call writes: “Senate Republican leaders continued to cry foul on Monday over Feingold’s demand for more time to scrutinize the nominee slate. A Republican Senate leadership aide said Democrats were sandbagging a possible vote in order to buy the Democratic National Committee time to file a lawsuit today involving McCain. ‘I expect that after the lawsuit is filed, Sen. Feingold will drop his hold, and we’ll have an FEC,’ the GOP aide said.”

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Tags: Homeland Security spending bill, FISA, Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd, FEC, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Planned Parenthood funding stripped from war supplemental bill

Thaddeus M. Baklinski, LifeSiteNews: Pro-life groups across the U.S. are celebrating a victory with the removal of an amendment to the 2008 War Supplemental Bill (H.R. 2642) that would have given Planned Parenthood facilities discounted drugs at taxpayer expense. The amendment, tacked on to a bill meant to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, would have allowed for certain Planned Parenthood clinics and university healthcare centers to get drugs at further reduced prices, allowing for easier and cheaper distribution of controversial drugs such as birth control pills and the "morning after pill" or Plan B . The U.S. House of Representatives, however, stripped the Planned Parenthood provision at the last minute and then passed the bill . . . [Read More]

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Tags: abortion, military funding, Planned Parenthood To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

E-Verify is a Working Solution to Illegal Immigration

Bay Buchanan, Human Events: . . . [T]he most effective weapon they found against illegal immigration is E-Verify, an internet-based system operated jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. It allows businesses to check the legal status of its employees -- accurately, cheaply, and timely. It only takes seconds to get the answer! E-verify has literally given the American people the upper hand in the battle against illegal immigration. They have been able to prevail even when the money, power and the press has been against them. And so there is an effort afoot to take the sling shot from David.

E-verify came into existence in 1997 as a limited pilot program and has been expanded, improved, and renewed over the years. But unless Congress acts to renew it, or preferably make it permanent, E-Verify shuts down in November. That will nullify most all the work that has been done in the states. Illegals will have won a huge victory against the people of this country, and our elected officials will have delivered it to them. Today a dozen states have laws requiring some portion of its employers to use E-Verify, Oklahoma and Arizona being the toughest. Businesses in these states who knowingly hire illegals lose their licenses, and Arizona requires all its employers to use E-Verify for new workers. And this month, in a remarkable development, the feds joined the party -- the president signed a directive requiring federal contractors to use E-Verify.

According to Jonathan Scharfen, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “E-Verify has identified 200,000 individuals (nationwide) who were trying to gain work in the United States who were not eligible, legally, to work.” That’s 5% of the 4 million worker screened this year. Over 64,000 businesses participate in the system today, with an additional 1,000 signing up every week. And E-Verify reduces a business’ exposure to lawsuits. Previously to comply with the law companies would check documents of those they thought might be illegal-action that on its own could lead to a bankrupting discrimination lawsuit. E-verify allows businesses to check the status of all employees -- no profiling there. . . . [Read More]

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Tags: Bay Buchanan, e-verify, Human Events, illegal aliens, illegal workers To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Congressional Monkey Business

H/T/ to Patrick Toomey for the following comment in his weekend Club for Growth e-newsletter: Speaking of high gas prices, we'd like to think that Congress is doing something about it. Or perhaps addressing our country's looming entitlement crisis, or perhaps approve some much needed free trade agreements. Nope, not this week. Instead, they voted on a very pressing matter on Tuesday. They voted to spend $5 million of your tax dollars on the prevention of the interstate sale of pet monkeys. Yes, that's right. Monkeys. . . . [Read More]

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Tags: Club for Growth, monkey business, Patrick Toomey, US Congress To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Holding the Left Accoubtable on Energy Prices

Conn Carroll, The Foundry, Morning Bell: The most important thing to remember as the debate over energy prices becomes a major issue in 2008 is that liberals want Americans to pay higher energy prices. That is why they sue to stop natural gas drilling in Wyoming, new refineries in South Dakota and coal power plants nationwide . The whole purpose of the Lieberman-Warner carbon capping bill was to increase the cost of energy to force Americans to use less of it. But now Americans are beginning to catch on to the left’s game, and they are not happy.

According to Rasmussen Reports, 67% of voters believe that offshore drilling should be allowed, and 64% believe lifting the ban on offshore drilling will lead to lower gas prices. A new Reuters poll found that 60% of Americans favor more domestic drilling and refinery construction to cool record prices. Facing an American public increasingly hostile to their energy policy, liberals in Congress are scrambling to find new arguments and policy proposals that can provide them with a patina of political cover. They include:

Lifting bans on domestic oil production will not lower energy prices. This liberal argument comes in two forms: 1) developing X oil well will not lower the price of gas and 2) it will take 10 years for the increased supply to lower prices. These arguments are especially pernicious because applied to each oil project today, they are technically true. However, if the test for developing any single oil field was whether it alone would lower the price of gas, then no oil field would ever be developed. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will not lower gas substantially by itself, but there is so much more oil currently banned from production. Also, as the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein points out: “In energy, as with all commodity markets, prices are set at the margin — based on the last transaction — and short-run demand doesn’t change much in response to price fluctuations. In such markets, even small changes in supply can have a big impact on price.” Finally, liberal complaints that lifting domestic drilling bans today would take years to increase supply are completely unpersuasive since liberals have been making the same argument in support of oil production bans for decades now.

Oil companies leave billions of acres of already leased land idle. This incredibly deceptive argument is new to the left’s anti-energy arsenal. It is true that, as the left claims, oil companies already have 33 billion acres of offshore leases they are not currently drilling on. But these lands are far from idle. Oil production takes time and requires years of exploration and permitting. Oil companies are already paying billions of dollars every year for land they are exploring, and under current law, if they do not begin drilling by the time their lease is up, they lose their right to drill. This does not mean there are not billions of barrels of more profitable oil in banned areas. The Department of the Interior estimates that their are 19.1 billion barrels of oil and 83.9 trillion cubic feet of gas in the banned areas Outer Continental Shelf alone.

Speculators are to blame for the high price of gas. When all else fails, blame the moneychangers. This argument predates not only the environmental movement, but the country itself. As American Enterprise Institute scholar Kevin Hassett points out, Milton Friedman dealt with this specious claim in 1953: “If speculators know that the price of something is going to go up a month from now, they buy today. If they are correct, they make money, and the price change is smoothed by the higher demand today. … If speculators are, as is popularly believed, brilliant tacticians who are making a killing, then their activities are stabilizing. Speculation is good.”

Already there are cracks in left’s unity on the drilling issue. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has co-sponsored a bill with Sen. John Warner (R-VA) to lift the ban on natural gas production off the coast of Virginia. More importantly though, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is refusing to even allow the House to vote on lifting the offshore drilling ban. She must know many from her own party would vote for the measure. After all, they would only be responding to the fact that their constituents are eager to hold them accountable on the issue. [Source]

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Tags: domestic energy, gas prices, Heritage Foundation, Morning Bell, oil drilling, oil prices, The Foundry To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Kennedy & Reagan Agree - It's the Economy Stupid!

Dr. Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: The following insightful words of two former revered Presidents shows clearly the track to National economic success which has developed the most vibrant economic system in the world:

It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now... Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.” — John F. Kennedy

“First, if I may, I’d like to establish the scope of the topic under discussion. For when we speak about the economy, we’re dealing with more than mere numbers, more than statistics about productivity and employment. We’re dealing instead with one of the most basic aspects of human existence: We’re dealing with the way the great majority of men and women spend most of their hours, most days, throughout the most productive years of their lives...I believe it’s important to remind ourselves that in dealing with the economy we’re dealing with human creativity. This insight has represented the underpinning of our economic expansion. We cut tax rates, reduced government regulation, and restrained Federal spending; and we unleashed the creativity of individuals and businesses. We gave them freedom to create; to keep the rewards of their own risk-taking and hard work; and to reach for new, bold ideas.” — Ronald Reagan

Two years ago, Congressional Republicans paid the price for following the wide path of their Democrat colleagues and pursuing the "congressional pork gravy train." Wastefully and increased spending by the Government has eventually slowed our economic growth. If it were not for the Reagan-Kennedy type Bush tax cuts, the economy would have slowed to a stop.

The present liberal Democrat leadership of Congress appears hell-bent on destroying our economy by pursuing increased taxes, spending via redistribution of wealth schemes and restrictions on business. The liberals hatred of President Bush exceeds their ability to do right by and for American citizens. Although Bush will be gone in less than seven months, these liberal, progressive democrats are focusing on the killing America's golden goose - our economy.

Our economy is the envy of the world and has raised the American standard of living to an all time high. To save our economy, our leaders need to listen to the words of Presidents Kennedy and Reagan: cut taxes, retrain government spending, reduce government regulation, and unleash the creativity of individuals and businesses.

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Tags: Bill Smith, economy, government spending, government waste, increased taxes, John Kennedy, liberalism, Ronald Reagan To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Rude TSA Airport Screeners To Read Your Minds

Walter E. Williams wrote in an article on Airport Tyranny: “It’s been at least five years since I’ve flown commercial, and for good reason: I don’t wish to be arrested for questioning actions by often arrogant, rude Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers. .. . . According to the February 2002 Federal Register, people can be arrested if they act in a way that ‘might distract or inhibit a screener from effectively performing his or her duties. . . . in March 2004, airline passengers filed almost 3,000 formal complaints with the federal government over the conduct of TSA screeners. Hundreds have complained about the rudeness of TSA screeners. And yet, none of these passenger complaints resulted in disciplinary measures. . . . But it’s going to get worse. The TSA aims to have 500 ‘behavior detection officers’ (BDOs) in airports by the end of this year. The job of the BDOs will be that of examining passengers for ‘body language and facial cues... for signs of bad intentions.’ They look for what the experts call ‘micro-expressions.’ Fear and disgust are the key ones, he said, because they’re associated with deception. That would make me a prime candidate for scrutiny and possibly trouble because if I ever had to go through airport security procedures, I would have those ‘micro-expressions’ of disgust and fear of arrest. . . . Americans have been far too compliant and that has given the TSA carte blanche to treat travelers any way they wish. I’m staying away. TSA has its rules and Williams has his, and one of mine is to avoid tyrants and idiots.” . . . [Read Article]

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Tags: airport, airport security, behavior detection officers, free expression, free speech, Freedom, liberty, TSA, tyranny, Walter E. Williams To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

America Was a Better Place

Kerby Anderson, Point of View: Do you believe America was a better place in the past? If you said yes, you are part of a large majority of Americans who believe that even though we have had many beneficial technological advances, America was a better place culturally in the past. That was the title of a recent column by Dennis Prager. He said: “When I was a boy, America was a better place.” He says that with the important exception of racial discrimination, “it is difficult to come up with an important area in which America is significantly better than when I was a boy.”

For example, we talk about free speech but there is growing evidence that our speech isn’t quite as free as it used to be. Political correctness dictates that we cannot say certain things if they are not assumed to be politically correct. Religious speech is often constrained or prohibited in the public square. Public safety is another. Some of us grew up in houses where we never locked the front door. I bet you lock the front door now. . . . Can we go back to those days? No we cannot. But we can return to the best values of America by resisting some of the political forces as well as the profound cultural forces that are shaping America in the wrong direction. Adults used to say that when they were young things were hard and difficult. Now adults seem to be saying just the opposite: that things were better when they were young. . . . [Read More] Kirby Anderson is the National Director of Probe Ministries as well as Host of Point of View radio talk show. He is the author of eight books including Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope Moral Dilemmas, Christian Ethics in Plain Language, A Biblical Point of View on Islam, and A Biblical Point of View on Homosexuality.

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Tags: America, culture, Kerby Anderson, Point of View To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - June 23, 2008

On The Floor: The Senate reconvenes at 3 PM today and resume consideration of the housing bill (House message to accompany H.R. 3221). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on the bill Friday, and a cloture vote is scheduled for 11 AM tomorrow. Reid may file cloture on the compromise FISA bill (H.R. 6304) today, which would set up a vote for Wednesday. Floor action is also expected this week on the supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 2642), a Medicare doctor payments fix, and an FAA authorization extension.

The House passed the FISA bill 293-129 on Friday.

From News Sources: Gas / Oil Prices: Saturday, President Bush reminded Americans that Democrats in Congress have long blocked proposals to increase American energy supplies. From offshore drilling, to exploring for oil in ANWR, to tapping western oil shale, Congressional Democrats have blocked them all. Today, Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard, examined Democrats’ excuses for opposing production of more domestic oil and gas: “[D]espite soaring gasoline prices, Democrats are against opening new areas of federal land or offshore for exploitation of oil and natural gas reserves. Instead, they've come up with lame, dubious, or intellectually dishonest reasons for their opposition.”

Iraq: While Democrats continue to ignore realities concerning energy production, the press appears to be waking up to the realities in Iraq. USA Today has a front-page story today acknowledging that “[r]oadside bomb attacks and fatalities in Iraq are down by almost 90% over the last year.” Jason Campbell and Michael O’Hanlon (Brookings Institute) op-ed in The New York Times yesterday pointed to “major progress this spring” which “give[s] reason for hope that the major improvement in security resulting from the surge of American forces may endure even as the surge itself ends this July.” Today, The New York Times reveals that things have apparently improved enough in Iraq that news networks are barely interested in stories from the country any more and correspondents struggle to get stories on the air. It’s quite a contrast from a year ago when The Times and most Democrats wanted to abandon our efforts there.

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Tags: FISA, gas prices, housing assistance, Iraq, mortgages, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Obama Equals Poor Judgement

NFRW: Obama = Poor Judgement
If Barack Obama is elected it is possible that four Supreme Court Justices could be selected during his tenure. Do you trust him to select Supreme Court Judges?
Obama's Words:
When asked what criteria Obama would require when selecting judges he said,
"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges." - Barack Obama, To Planned Parenthood, July 17, 2007
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama on the Confirmation of Judge John Roberts
"Truly difficult cases" should involve "one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy." September 22, 2005

The Supreme Court Oath
According to Title 28, Chapter I, Part 453 of the United States Code, each Supreme Court Justice takes the following oath: "I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God."

NFRW's Words - A Supreme Court Justice is to:

• "do equal right to the poor and to the rich"-not just the poor as Obama believes.
• "administer justice without respect to persons,"-not taking into account if that person is "African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old," as Obama said.
• "be impartial,"-not talking in to account "one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy," as Obama said.

Barack Obama does not honor the Supreme Court Oath and its intent.
Do you trust him to select Supreme Court Justices?
20 WEEKS UNTIL THE 2008 ELECTION

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Tags: Barack Obama, Election 2008, Supreme Court Judges To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!