News Blog for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & the USA. Upholding the rights granted by God & guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, "republican" principles / ideals, transparent & limited "smaller" government, free markets, lower taxes, due process of law, liberty & individual freedom. Content approval rests with the ARRA News Service Editor. Opinions are those of the authors. While varied positions are reported, beliefs & principles remain fixed. No revenue is generated for or by this "Blog" - no paid ads - no payments for articles.Fair Use Doctrine is posted & used. Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year] Contact: editor@arranewsservice.com (Pub. Since July, 2006)Home PageFollow @arra
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Stop the Anchor Babies – HR 1868
The United States currently grants automatic U.S. citizenship to almost all children born in the United States, regardless of whether the parents are U.S. citizens. This policy encourages women to come to the United States illegally to give birth so their children can have citizenship. Their babies are called “anchor babies” because, at age 21, as U.S. citizens, they become eligible to sponsor as legal immigrants most of their relatives, including their illegal-alien mothers, thus becoming the U.S. "anchor" for an extended immigrant family. According to the 2005 edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, doctors reported that between 300,000 and 350,000 anchor babies annually become citizens!
The Birthright Citizenship Act - HR 1868 (Nathan Deal, R-GA) would eliminate this automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens. HR 1868 would establish that the "subject to the jurisdiction" clause of the 14th Amendment awards birthright citizenship only if one of the parents is: (1) a U.S. citizen or national; (2) a lawful permanent resident alien in the United States; or (3) an alien on active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.
So far there are 47 sponsors (46 Republicans and 1 Democrat). It is interesting that 8 Texas Congressmen (R) have signed on as sponsors but Ron Paul is not yet one of the co-sponsors. In the neighboring State of Arkansas, Rep. John Boozman (R) is a co-sponsored of the bill. You can keep track of the bill, its sponsors, and your US Representative at Open Congress. Contact your U.S. Congressman and ask them to support HR 1868. Tags:anchor babies, Birthright Citizenship Act, illegal aliens, immigration, Open CongressTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann: Obama’s liberal philosophy dictates that when the news is bad, shoot the messenger. The newest data from Arbitron, the company charged with measuring the size of radio audiences, suggests that listenership to hip hop, inner city, and minority radio has been overstated in the past and that the popularity of conservative talk radio has been under-reported. . . .
The opening barrage in Obama’s efforts to reign in talk radio was fired by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week when its acting Chairman Michael J. Copps announced an investigation of Arbitron’s radio measuring technology . . . . What is really at work here is an effort by the FCC to stack the deck to help left-wing and minority stations earn higher advertising revenues than those to which their real market share would entitle them. Solicitous of the financial viability of its liberal allies on radio and anxious to undermine the balance sheets of conservative stations, the FCC is lending itself to the president’s political agenda.
This investigation is, of course, only the first shot of the war against conservative radio. Soon the FCC will try to strip right wing stations of their licenses or impose fines on them payable to National Public Radio. In our forthcoming book, Catastrophe, we explain how this offensive will work and what will be its likely consequences.
But the opening salvo has been fired by the FCC which is willingly lending itself to stations with Democratic bias in an effort to swell their advertising revenues and to stop the growth of talk radio. Because the FCC will do much more to try to destroy the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Neil Boortz, we must be vigilant if we hope to keep free speech alive, even if it comes from the right side of the stage.Tags:Barack Obama, bias, Dick Morris, Eileen McGann, FCC, liberal, talk radioTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
American Solutions: President Obama has said that cap and trade would cause electricity prices to skyrocket. Do you have an extra $1,500 a year to spend on energy? Tags:American Solutions, cap-and-trade, energy taxTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Phyllis Schlafly: Does Barack Obama really want to make Americans subject to foreign law and courts? That is the question Senators should ask when they vote on his nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, former dean of the Yale Law School, to be the top lawyer at the State Department.
Koh is encumbered by a long paper trail that proves he is eager to use foreign and international law to interpret American law. He calls himself a transnationalist, which means wanting U.S. courts to "domesticate" foreign and international law, i.e., integrate it into U.S. domestic law binding on U.S. citizens. Koh wants to put the United States under a global legal system that would diminish our "distinctive rights culture" such as our broad speech and religion rights, due process and trial by jury. Koh complains that our First Amendment gives "protections for speech and religion ... far greater emphasis and judicial protection in America than in Europe or Asia."
Yes, our Constitution does give individuals more rights and freedom than any other country, and we Americans like those rights and freedoms. But Koh thinks we should bow to foreign rules and court decisions, and to United Nations treaties whether or not we have ratified them. The State Department's chief lawyer is not just any lawyer. He becomes the voice of the United States on international legal issues such as the negotiation and U.S. interpretation of treaties and UN pronouncements.
Importing treaties and foreign law into American law could impose lots of rulings that the American people don't want, such as approval of same-sex marriage, unlimited abortion, legalized prostitution, and abolition of the death penalty. This would be a broadside assault on American sovereignty. Foreign law is fundamentally different from American law. Whereas our Constitution sets forth limited governmental powers and recognizes broad individual rights against government (such as freedom of religion and speech), European constitutions proclaim entitlements to government services such as education, health care, maternity leave, housing and environmental protection.
We certainly don't want to import law from foreign countries that recognize polygamy, arranged marriages between cousins, so-called honor killings of women who reject such arrangements, cutting off hands as punishment for theft, stoning women to death as punishment for adultery, and prohibiting the private ownership of guns. As Judge Robert Bork has written, international law is really not law as Americans understand the term; it is just international politics. Not passed by any legislature, international law is often written ex post facto and administered by foreign or UN bureaucrats pretending to be judges.
Unfortunately, Harold Koh's views are not unique among leftwing lawyers or even among Supreme Court justices, and it's long past time for us to rise up and put an end to this un-American nonsense. The confirmation of Koh would give legal support to the Supreme Court justices who have already said they favor using foreign law.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who calls himself a "comparativist," suggested in a dissent in Knight v. Florida that it was "useful" to consider court decisions in India, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe on allowable delays of execution. Zimbabwe may have much experience with executions, but we don't need its guidance about due process.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been making speeches advising lawyers that "your perspective on constitutional law should encompass the world. . . . Our island or lone ranger mentality is beginning to change."
While still on the High Court, Sandra Day O'Connor told a Georgetown University audience that international law "is vital if judges are to faithfully discharge their duties. . . . International law is a help in our search for a more peaceful world."
Even Justice Anthony Kennedy invoked foreign "authorities" when he couldn't find any language in the U.S. Constitution to justify overturning the Texas sodomy law in 2003. His decision cited non-American sources including a committee advising the British Parliament, decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, a brief filed by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and "other nations, too." Kennedy emphasized the "values we share with a wider civilization." In fact, most other countries do not share American values, and we certainly do not want to share theirs.
During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John G. Roberts pointed out a particular danger of using foreign law. He said that reliance on foreign law wrongly "expands the discretion of the judge" and substitutes a judge's "personal preferences" for the U.S. Constitution. Citing foreign law gives a veneer of respectability to liberals who espouse the "living Constitution" heresy and want to change it without obtaining the approval of the American people through the amendment or legislative processes.
The Senate should reject the nomination of Harold Koh. Then, the Senate should require all judicial nominees to proclaim their adherence to the U.S. Constitution as written, and their rejection of the use of foreign or international law to interpret American law.Tags:Barack Obama, Eagle Forum, foreign law, Ginsburg, Harold Koh, international law, John Roberts, Judge Robert Bork, judicial activism, Phyllis Schlafly, SCOTUS, Yale Law SchoolTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” - Judge Sonia Sotomayor [What about Justice is Blind? Would there be an outcry if a white male had said these same words only reversing the words "Latina woman" and "white male" and adjusting the gender references?]
“Court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know — I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I’m not promoting it. I’m not advocating it. I’m — you know.” - Judge Sonia Sotomayor [What about the Constitution &Separation of Powers - Courts don't make policy!]
If Sonia Sotomayor is so great, why the negativity? Why let facts and issues stand in the way of Obama's "feel good" nomination? Below are some other people's thoughts:
Tags:commentary, news, Sonia Sotomayor, SCOTUS, nomineeTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Waxman & Markey Designated May Porkers of the Month #pork
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and House Energy and the Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) its May Porkers of the Month. They are the ringleaders behind H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA), the Waxman-Markey bill. As the negative economic realities of the bill have become clear, negotiations have degenerated into a circus as Reps. Waxman and Markey frantically jump through hoops, adding and altering provisions to placate special interests and buy the votes of appropriately skeptical members of Congress from states which stand to lose if the bill passes. For cracking the whip behind this Cirque du Disarray and for ballyhooing a bill that deserves to collapse under the weight of its own faulty assumptions, byzantine structural flaws, and astronomical costliness, carnival con-men Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey are CAGW’s May Porkers of Month. Read more about the Porker of the Month.Tags:2009, CAGW, Citizens Against Government Waste, Ed Markey, Henry Waxman, May, pork, porker of the monthTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Gary Bauer: There is a lot of buzz on the blogosphere suggesting that Washington may be on the verge of the biggest political scandal since Watergate. The Wall Street Journal has noticed the developing story too.
As we all know, the Obama Administration has taken extraordinary steps to nationalize the auto industry – firing the head of General Motors, publicly attacking bondholders and giving preferential treatment to the unions. As Chrysler is struggling through reorganization, dealer franchise owners are taking a very hard hit. Nearly 800 of them were recently notified that their franchises are being revoked and their stores are being shut.
But the dealer pink slips appeared to be rather arbitrary. So much so that some dealers are suing. Leonard Bellavia, an attorney for the disgruntled dealers, recently deposed the president of Chrysler and issued the following statement: “It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers. It really wasn’t Chrysler’s decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President’s automotive task force.”
What possible considerations could be at play in deciding which dealerships survive and which don’t? To paraphrase a famous movie quote from the Godfather, “It’s not business, it’s just politics.” There appears to be some evidence to support the contention that the dealerships are targeted based upon the political philosophy of the individual owners. Consider the following two examples.
Vern Buchanan is the owner of the 23 dealerships in Florida and North Carolina. In the past decade, Mr. Buchanan donated more than $175,000 to Republican candidates and party committees. He also happens to be Representative Vern Buchanan, a pro-family conservative endorsed by Campaign for Working Families, representing Florida’s 13th Congressional District. His dealerships are being shut down. (Read more about GOP donors on the dealer “hit list.”)
Now, consider the example of RLJ-McLarty-Landers. According to the Washington Examiner, “the RLJ-McLarty-Landers chain of Arkansas and Missouri dealerships aren’t being closed, but many of their local competitors are being eliminated.” The “RLJ” in the partnership refers to Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who has given more than $100,000 to Democrat candidates and party committees in the past decade. If “Arkansas” and “McLarty” ring a bell, you’ve got a good memory because that is Mack McLarty, Bill Clinton’s former White House Chief of Staff.
It’s too soon to say whether “Dealergate” will make it onto the front pages of the New York Times or Washington Post. But given the way the Left works, it’s not too much of a leap to think politics might be at work. After its loss at the ballot box last year, the militant homosexual movement wasted no time in targeting businesses that supported Proposition 8. It even published an online list of Proposition 8 donors. ACORN is well known for targeting businesses and busing protestors to the homes of corporate executives. And liberal economics is all about politicians and Big Government picking winners and losers, rather than letting the free market decide. See also:Shock! Big Dem Donor Group Allowed to Keep Their 6 Chrysler Dealerships Open ...Update: Their Local Competitors Eliminated!! and Furor Grows Over Partisan Car Dealer Closings Tags:Arkansas, auto dealers, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, car dealer, Chrysler, dealergate, Mack McLarty, Republicans, RLJ, Robert L. JohnsonTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by William Warren, NetRight Nation: Tags:nominee, political cartoon, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court, William WarrenTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Every week, the greatest challenge I face as editor of The Patriot Post is determining which subject among all the current news and policy issues concerning liberty and constitutional integrity should be the target of an essay. I mention this because deep into this week's treatise and just a few hours ahead of deadline, I received a message from one of our Patriot readers that offered a far more powerful perspective on where we are as a nation than anything I'd been writing
That message was from Mike McGinn, and began: "Only under the administration of a former 'community organizer,' a product of the corrupt Chicago political machine, who never served a day of his life in uniform, could a 20-year retired Marine Corps Officer be prohibited from visiting the Arlington National Cemetery resting place of his father, a 30-year retired Marine Corps Officer with distinguished combat service, on the most hallowed of days for our fallen and deceased military servicemen and women -- Memorial Day."
Interred at Arlington, Section 68 Site 113, are the remains of Mike's father, Marine Colonel James Arthur McGinn.
Col. McGinn was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy's Class of '57. His USNA yearbook notes, "It was virtually impossible to be in Jim's presence for more than five minutes without laughing, even if you had just flunked a double-weight Electrical Engineering quiz. He was a farmer turned city boy who loved a party, a good book, and lots of romance, if and when he could separate himself from the arms of Morpheus."
After graduation, McGinn completed the requisite flight schools and flew the F-8U Crusader out of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California. As the war in Vietnam was heating up, then Capt. McGinn transitioned to an aircraft that would move him closer to the action -- the UH-1 Huey helicopter gunship. He flew two tours in Vietnam and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1969 . . .
After serving in Vietnam, Col. McGinn was Commanding Officer of HMA-169 at MCAF Camp Pendleton and flew AH-1 Cobra helicopters. A year later, he became CO of HMM-165 afloat flying CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. He served additional O-6 billets until his retirement in 1987.
Col. McGinn died on 21 July 2004, at age 69, after waging a 16-month battle with a brain tumor.
Like his father before him, Mike McGinn is a retired Marine aviator. He flew F/A-18 Hornets from 1988 to 2004, including combat tours over Bosnia and during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He writes, "Each Memorial Day, we go to visit Dad and pay our respects, driving up from Southern Maryland. This is the first time I've been turned away from the Cemetery grounds."
Mike and his wife left their home early Monday morning, expecting to encounter the usual entry delay into the Cemetery grounds for Memorial Day. Inching their way through traffic that morning Mike and his wife made it to second in line at the entrance checkpoint, with an Arlington National Cemetery access pass and a DoD military officer vehicle sticker clearly displayed on his windshield, when they were abruptly waved off and directed to leave the area immediately. Apparently, Barack Hussein Obama's motorcade was en route for the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns and the area was being locked down for security.
The McGinns were not turned away on previous Memorial Days when President George Bush arrived to place a wreath at the Tomb, but a lot has changed in the last year.
For the record, while James Arthur McGinn was serving his country and flying Crusaders for the Marine Corps, Ann Dunham was giving birth to her son, BHO, Jr., somewhere between Nyanza Province, Kenya, and Honolulu, Hawaii. As Capt. McGinn was preparing for combat in Vietnam, young Barry O was on his way to Indonesia with his mother and her second husband, Lolo Soetoro. As Maj. McGinn was earning his DFC, BO was converting to Islam, even though his mother was an avowed atheist. As Maj. McGinn was returning from Vietnam, BO was returning from Indonesia for an elite private school education in Honolulu, where he was mentored by Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis. As Col. McGinn was completing his Marine billets, BO was attending Occidental College and then Columbia University; a period of Obama's life that to this day remains shrouded in mystery and devoid of college transcripts.
In 1994, as Mike McGinn was launching in his F/A-18 for combat tours over Bosnia, Obama was in Chicago, being mentored by Jeremiah Wright, and Marxist Weather Underground terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were, in turn, launching BO's political career. In 2003, when Mike was flying missions over Iraq, the "community organizer" was on a mission to be elected to the U.S. Senate with the help of John Kerry and other . The rest is, as they say, history...
So, as combat veteran Mike McGinn was in line to visit the gravesite of his heroic father this week, a wastrel and hard-left community organizer was having lanes cleared for his presidential motorcade.
That notwithstanding, let me say to both James and Mike McGinn, on behalf of your fellow Patriots across this grateful nation, Fideli Certa Merces -- "to the faithful there is certain reward," as noted on all Marine Honorable Discharge orders. May the "consciousness of having discharged that duty" be and remain, "superior to all other considerations." Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Tags:Arlington National Cemetary, Barack Obama, Marine Corps, Marines, Mike McGinn, The Patriot Post, veteransTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
We are Americans just like you. We believe patients and doctors should make health care choices, not Washington bureaucrats. We know America needs real health care reform focused on delivering affordable, quality choices to all Americans. And we know that a government takeover of our health care will hurt American patients by delaying – and denying – critical treatments.
Guiding Principles We Support: Nothing is more personal or more important than the health of our families. Our health is too important to gamble on a system designed and run by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
As an American, you deserve the right to make all your own health care choices – and those choices should never be limited by government bureaucrats.
• YOU should have the right to choose the doctor that is best for you.
• YOU should have the right to choose who can see and keep your personal health information.
• YOU should have the right to choose what care is needed and best for your family.
• YOU should NOT be forced into a “one-size–fits-all” government-controlled health insurance system
If you agree, Join Patients United Now. Add your voice against a Washington takeover of your family’s health care and support real health care choices for every American. Become part of our team and spread the word. Help stop government controlled health care. Patients United Now lunched a public service spot in which Shona Holmes, a survivor of brain cancer, addresses her first hand experience with government run Canadian healthcare system almost killed her. She was interviewed on Fox News --->
EVENTS Already Scheduled - More Being Planned:
Bring your family and friends out on the Patients United Now Tour and make sure your voice is heard against policies that will lead to a Washington takeover of your family’s health care, and support real health care choices for every American. Free food for the family, top-notch speakers, entertainment for the kids, and free blood pressure testing.
For many in D.C., cutting costs means cutting care – your care. Join the Patients United Now Tour - and let Washington know that a one-size-fits-all government plan doesn’t fit all because patients have different needs.
Arkansas Jonesboro, AR
Date: Thursday, May 28th - Time: 5:30-7:00pm
Location: Old Courthouse, 511 South Main St.
Speaker: Rick Crawford
Russellville, AR
Date: Thursday, June 11th
Little Rock, AR
Date: Monday, June 15th - Time: 5:30-7:00pm
Location: Old Courthouse, 511 South Main St.
Speaker: Rick Crawford
Montana Philipsburg, MT
Date: Tuesday, May 26th - Time: 5:30pm
Location: Granite County Museum. 135 South Sansome
Speakers: Dr. Michelle Corbin, Dr. Stu Prichard, Will Selph
Helena, MT
Date: Friday, May 29th - Time: 5:30pm
Location: Women’s Park, 616 Helena Avenue
Speakers: State Senator Dave Lewis, Loriena Pettit, Steve Daines
Nebraska Lincoln, NE
Date: Wednesday, June 3rd - Time: 5:00pm
Location: Antelope Park, Off of 30th and A Streets
Speakers: State Senator Tony Fulton, Lincoln City Councilman Adam Hornung, State Board of Education Member Bob Evnen
Norfolk, NE
Date: Thursday, June 4th - Time: 5:30-7 pm
Location: Central Park, 705 S. 6th Street
Virginia
Richmond, VA
Date: Saturday, May 30th - Time: 7:00 am
Location: Hilton Garden Inn, 501 E. Broad Street
Food offered: Breakfast
Speakers: Del. Brenda Pogge, Tim Phillips – President, Americans for Prosperity, Ben Marchi – Virginia State Director, Americans for Prosperity Kay Coles James
Chesapeake, VA
Date: Saturday, June 13th
Tags:AFP, Americans for Prosperity, Arkansas, events, healthcare, Montana, Nebraska, Patients First, private healthcare, VirginiaTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
He said countries will be more apt to cooperate with the United States on tough issues, even if only on the margins. Resistance based on anti-American conceptions of the past will fall away.MSNBC
Evidently N. Korea sees things a little differently.
Last month they fired a long range missile in spite of Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's threat of "consequences." Yesterday, the communist country defied Obama and the international community by detonating a nuclear device. The leader of the free world says this action poses "a grave threat" to the world community. And today the defiant Kim Jong-Il fired off more short-range missiles to dispel Obama's naive vision of a world in which all nations smoke a peace pipe and sing songs of unity and cooperation.
But what would give the N. Korean tyrant pause? Why would he feel the least bit hesitant about challenging the most powerful nation in the world? ... Read full article Tags:Barack Obama, foreign policy, Kim Jong Il, N. Korea, North Korea, nuclear, WMDTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
NetRight Nation: by Wall Street Journal, 05/27/2009 From the WSJ:
In making Sonia Sotomayor his first nominee for the Supreme Court yesterday, President Obama appears to have found the ideal match for his view that personal experience and cultural identity are the better part of judicial wisdom. This isn't a jurisprudence that the Founders would recognize, but it is the creative view that has dominated the law schools since the 1970s and from which both the President and Judge Sotomayor emerged. In the President's now-famous word, judging should be shaped by "empathy" as much or more than by reason. In this sense, Judge Sotomayor would be a thoroughly modern Justice, one for whom the law is a voyage of personal identity. . . . [Get the Full Story] See also:Advice to Republican Senators on Sotomayor Nomination and Justice Sotomayor? Tags:empathy, NetRight Nation, nominee, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme CourTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: Today, President Obama announced Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to replace retiring liberal Supreme Court Justice David Souter. We know Judge Sotomayor is a liberal who once declared that the courts are “where policy is made.” Obama assured us during the campaign for the presidency that he would appoint judges with “empathy” – judges who knew, in the president’s words, “what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.” Sotomayor certainly fits that description.
Sotomayor has a compelling biography – a true American success story. Sotomayor is a Hispanic woman who grew up in the Bronx. Her father died when she was young, but her mother pushed her to excel in school. She graduated from Princeton and finished at the top of her law class at Yale. She now serves on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. But the classic “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” bio found little favor among Senate Democrats during Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings.
And far from believing the ideal of a meritocracy, where one succeeds based on their merits, Sotomayor appears to have very radical ideas when it comes to affirmative action and quotas. A case pending before the United States Supreme Court involves a suit brought by Frank Ricci, a white firefighter in Connecticut.
In that case, Ricci took and passed a promotion exam, but the city of New Haven refused to promote Ricci, and, according to one press account, “threw out results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough.” Of that injustice, liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote, “Ricci is not just a legal case but a man who has been deprived of the pursuit of happiness on account of race.”
A liberal columnist saw the injustice of the Ricci case, but Sotomayor sided with the city of New Haven, and her opinion was thrashed by a fellow judge for “ignoring the constitutional claims at the core of the case.” How could she so easily ignore the constitutional issues at stake? Because it’s all about “empathy.” She, like Obama, seems to care more about desired political results and her sense of “fairness.”
And what are we to make of this Sotomayor statement: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Can you imagine the reaction of Senate liberals if a white male candidate had dared to suggest that well-educated men could reach better conclusions than black or Hispanic women?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life fighting for the day when we would judge one another based on the content of our character, not the color of our skin. Americans of all political persuasions and ethnic backgrounds should be repulsed by Sotomayor’s comment and deeply concerned about her commitment to colorblind justice.
You can read more of my thoughts on the Sotomayor nomination in a column posted today at Politico.com. Tags:Gary Bauer, nominations, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme CourtTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
According to the letter, "Speaker Pelosi has chosen to politicize the CIA and to demoralize its employees in order to take one more parting shot at the Bush administration, and to try to distract the public from her potentially career-ending exercise of bad judgment. By politicizing the intelligence community, Speaker Pelosi is reviving one of Washington's most tired and ugly old ways."
The controversy began when Pelosi said on April 23rd in reference to a 2002 intelligence briefing that "At that or any other briefing… we were not, I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used."
The CIA Director, Leon Panetta—appointed by Democrat Barack Obama—defended his agency, saying, "It is not our policy to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values."
Wilson, Meese, and other national leaders in their letter wrote that "The national security of the United States is more important than politics."Wilson explained, "If it comes down to Pelosi keeping a powerful political position or protecting the security of the nation, security comes first, and Pelosi has to go."
"Pelosi, number two in line to succeed the Presidency, has completely destroyed her credibility with the intelligence community, and on intelligence-issues central to protecting the security of the United States," Wilson declared.
"And anyone who cannot be trusted to protect the security of the nation has no place in a leadership position in any branch or office of our representative government," Wilson concluded.
The letter's signatories are: Edwin Meese, former Attorney General
David Keene, Chairmain, American Conservative Union
Frank J. Gaffney, President, Center for Security Policy
Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women for America
Alfred Regnery, Publisher, American Spectator
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
Brent Bozell, President, Media Research Center
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Becky Norton Dunlop, President, Council for National Policy
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Ken Blackwell, former U.S. Ambassador, U.N. Human Rights Commission Tags:ALG, Americans for Limited Government, Bill Wilson, liar, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the houseTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Advice to Republican Senators on Sotomayor Nomination
This morning President Barack Obama announced U.S. appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York as his nominee for appointment to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Preciously, ARRA News posted comments and a videoabout her potential nomination and prior legal position. Regardless Judge Sotomayor appears to be more centrist than many of the potential nominees which Obama passed over and Sotomayor also has an early background working to put criminals in jail. Today, her comments were endearing especially her deference to her extended family and especially her mother and her step-father.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor will most likely be easily confirmed. Regardless of this fact, a dialog is still needed in the confirmation process to clarify issues and facts. It is obvious that the liberal Democrats will not lead in the efforts to clarify except possibly to potentially embarrass Judge Sotomayor because of Obama's passed over their choices for the nomination. It will be for the Republican Senators to do due diligence in the confirmation process. Already comments are surfacing that Senate Republicans should lay down and rollover because if they don't then Republican Party will lose the future vote of the Latino community. These type comments from the liberal media are beyond credibility, and the making race or gender an issue again denigrates both the nominee and the process. Discussions on past performance and past decisions are another matter. For example, Sotomyor has made a public statement that she believes more in the power of judges to make policy than the U.S. Constitution [See video].
K. Ryan James offers the following advice to Republican Senators:
Memo to Senate Republicans -Don’t go wobbly on Sotomayor: My response, and message to Senate Republicans, is don’t be intimidated about her ethnic identity and attack her with her “erroneous” ruling on copyright law where she stuck it to free-lance writers (which was overturned at the appellate and Supreme courts) and her belief thatpolicy is made in appellate court.
If the actual facts still don’t embolden you to kowtow and rubber stamp Barack Obama’s nomination, please let us turn back the page and focus on the Democrat reactions to the nominations to Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, and Miguel Estrada to the DC Court of Appeal. . . .
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued the following statement regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor:
Senate Republicans will treat Judge Sotomayor fairly. But we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences.
Our Democratic colleagues have often remarked that the Senate is not a ‘rubber stamp.’ Accordingly, we trust they will ensure there is adequate time to prepare for this nomination, and a full and fair opportunity to question the nominee and debate her qualifications.
Tags:Barack Obama, nominations, Republicans, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme CourtTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Memorial Day Address at Maumelle Veterans Memorial by Rep. Ed Garner: Freedom is a covenantal estate, ordained by God, wherein a person must dwell if they are to fully express their gifts and talents. We who choose to dwell in the light of Freedom are held accountable for what we produce with the gifts given us by God our maker and what we will return to him in praise. The blessings poured upon us for choosing the covenant of Freedom are manifold and the envy of tyranny and oppression.
The mortgage on this estate is a great price, often paid in Sacrificial blood. God freed his people from slavery to a new nation by exodus through doors marked by the blood of a sacrificed lamb. He frees us from spiritual death by the sacrifice of his own son's life and blood on the Cross. He has revealed by these examples both the great price and blessings of liberty.
Our founding fathers were clear in the Declaration of Independence that we are a nation of free and equal people who firmly rely on the protection God will provide and grateful for his endowment of inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
This Declaration of Freedom afforded no guarantee or status save that of a War of Revolution. The blood of patriots would continue to be sacrificed for over five years and from that victory an additional six years would pass before our government was formed by The Constitution. We are made free by our maker who has woven the need for freedom into the very fabric of our being as much as the need to breathe air and take food and water. Freedom is not granted by our government which we have in turn created to serve us and rule by our continual consent.
Today we meet as free people who choose to pause from the conduct of our lives to memorialize those who have sacrificed their freedom to pay that great price. Among us are the families of those have served and serve today as we are a nation at war. Gathering with us are those who currently serve and veterans of service. As well, on the stones of this memorial, are some of the names of those who have been willing to sacrifice some measure, or all, of their freedom for ours.
Know that you are a great people, a great nation. Your attendance today is not by command but by choice. We choose to come here to honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women and offer grateful thanks. We are reminded that, in addition to their service, the burden of Freedom is borne by We the People for whom this sacrifice is made. We affirm and accept our duty, as each generation must, to challenge each and every threat to our endowment.
Today we free citizens resolve to hold the torch of freedom ever higher, so that the shadows cast by terror, tyranny and oppression do not grow to threaten us from abroad or from within.
In honor of those who have sacrificed, we affirm today
that we are endowed and empowered by Almighty God and not by the by government of our own construction
that the rule of want shall not replace the rule of law
that our government shall not further conscript or devalue the fruits of those who earn or have earned, to purchase the allegiance of those who want
that we will never compromise the sovereignty of this nation of free people to the opinion of tyrants or yield to their aggression
that as a fire cannot burn without air, the flame of freedom cannot burn in this nation without the presence of God
Americans of each generation have proven that Freedom is more precious than gold, more desired than comfort, or convenience and to secure it for our friends and families, worth our lives. This is the witness of those we gather to memorialize.
As you join with those gathered here and all over this great land, know that because you choose righteous pursuits, because you choose offer thanks for these sacrifices and choose accept the duty of free citizens, blessed by God as he wills, you are, and will be, a great nation.
As Americans raise the torch of Freedom ever higher, know what is revealed to those who would challenge or question our future…..more Americans. And that we stand to inspire mankind in every land to take up the standard of Freedom for all the world.
------------------- Ed Garner is a business owner and State Representative (District 41), Arkansas General Assembly. Although he directly represents Pulaski County, he also represents all Arkansans with public stands for limited, transparent and responsible government. Tags:Arkansas, Ed Garner, Freedom, Honor, Memorial Day, Representative, SacrificeTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Remembering Our Veterans & Active Duty Military - Memorial Day 2009
ARRA News Service:Remembering Our Veterans & Active Duty Military Please set it aside in reverence for all those who have served with honor and are now departed. And please join us for a moment of silence at 1500 hours your local time, for remembrance and prayer.
Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Today, many will gather with friends and family and enjoy a day of fun and fellowship. Some will recall a "special" person or memory related to Memorial Day. However, all of us can share in the remembrance of the brave Americans who serve or served and especially those who sacrificed their lives to preserve our values of freedom and liberty.
Most of us know a veteran: a son, a daughter, a spouse, a parent, a friend, a lover, a neighbor, etc. As for me, I must have inherited "a military gene." My birth father, Harvey Stewart, enlisted in the Army from Ohio and served in WWII. As an infantryman he received the Silver Star in the Battle of the Bulge and then fought in the Korean War. My father (dad), Wayne Smith, dropped out of high school to enlist in the Army from Illinois "to fight" in WWII. He was assigned to an engineering unit in the Army Air Corps. He was one of the youngest in his unit and was in several military "campaigns" in the South Pacific.
Both returned to different lives. Harvey Stewart, like many veterans, never fully recovered from the effects of the memories of war. However, Wayne Smith returned, married and in a few years they adopted me as their first son. Dad never shared about the trauma of war until after I entered the service. But, he did instill in me a love and respect for America. On Memorial Day, we attended parades (when community parades were fashionable), we visited the graves of veterans, and he shared about his war buddies. He loved sharing about the welcome of the Filipino people when the Philippine Islands were liberated.
By the time I graduated form high school, the Vietnam War was raging. At 19, and newly married, I received my invite (draft notice) and enlisted in the Air Force. Little did I know that it would become 22 year career (enlisted for 5 1/2 years; an officer for 16 1/2 years). My bond with my father became closer, and dad shared with me his experiences previously reserved to be shared with fellow comrades-in-arms.
While I wish that the world was different, it is not. I would that no man or woman would need to serve in the military. But I am very proud of those that do! In saying this, I was blessed to have experienced the continued military bond with my son, Brian Smith, who served as an Air Force officer and who now works in a civilian position helping to protect America.
Memorial Day remains for me a special day remembering! Dad has now joined his comrades and rests in peace. My day will come quick enough. Until then, my duty is to remember those who served faithfully, to remember those who serve presently, to remember my oath as an officer to defend the Constitution, and to remember to stand for liberty and justice and against tyranny.
God bless America, its veterans and those who presently serve and protect it!Tags:2009, ARRA News Service, Bill Smith, Blogburst video, Memorial Day, NRCCTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Great song for military spouses called "The Rock" by Amy-Jayne McCabe. It is dedicated to women who presently care for and have cared for their families and homes while waiting for the hopeful safe return of their brave men deployed protecting this country.
Tags:Air Force, Marines, Memorial Day, military, Navy, song, spouses, WomenTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tomorrow we remember our fallen heroes but today remember their families. Our fallen heroes and their families give more than we could fathom in the name of freedom. This is a poem in salute to that dedication.
9/23/2011 - Editor's Note: The YoutTube video identified with this 5/24/09 is no longer available by YouTube. It was marked as private on YouTube and the link to the video hs been removed from this post. We are leaving posts in place to avoid error notices on search engines. As always, shared YouTube videos are posted under the Fair Use Doctrine on this blog.
According to a notice by the Law Offices of Supance and Howard (Tiffin, Ohio), the author of this poem and music was Andrew Dean. We have not spoken to the author. According to the law firm, Dean's song and words were used to create the formerly linked YouTube video by an unauthorized source. We may post more about this situation at a later date. Tags:Air Force, Army, Combat, Honor, Marines, Memorial Day, Mom, Navy, Soldiers, tribute, warTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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The United States currently grants automatic U.S. citizenship to almost all children born in the United States, regardless of whether the parents are U.S. citizens. This policy encourages women to come to the United States illegally to give birth so their children can have citizenship. Their babies are called “anchor babies” because, at age 21, as U.S. citizens, they become eligible to sponsor as legal immigrants most of their relatives, including their illegal-alien mothers, thus becoming the U.S. "anchor" for an extended immigrant family. According to the 2005 edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, doctors reported that between 300,000 and 350,000 anchor babies annually become citizens!
