From Our Mail: Great Victory for Conservatives - CNN Fires Roesgen

From: Our Country Deserves Better PAC

Re: Great Victories

We have some great victories to pass along to our fellow conservatives - further evidence that your efforts and activism are paying off!

1st: CNN is dumping their liberal, anti-Tea Party correspondent, Susan Roesgen. Roesgen was the reporter who decided to harass those who attended the April 15th Tea Party in Chicago, IL, instead of serving as an unbiased journalist (yes, we know -- a bit of an oxymoron there). In response, we here at the Our Country Deserves Better Committee launched an online grass roots effort that flooded CNN's offices with tens of thousands of phone calls and emails. And CNN felt the heat - first sending Roesgen on leave for a suddenly scheduled vacation, and now deciding to part ways with Roesgen altogether.

2nd: Polls show a further drop in support for the Barack Obama/Nancy Pelosi socialistic health care plan. We here at the Our Country Deserves Better Committee are working on a new TV ad that we will unveil this week that will push further to defeat this awful, big-government montrosity. If you want to help us fight back to defeat Obamacare, please make a donation to our TV ad campaign by - CLICKING HERE.

3rd: Our TV ad, "It's Not Iran, It's Obama's Administration" continues to attract attention from across the nation. More than 227,000 people have watched the ad online at YouTube alone in addition to the broadcasts of the ad so far!

4th: And that's just the beginning. In about 40 days we will launch the "Tea Party Express" that will take the tea party movement to the next level - bringing real change to government as we take back our country from the far Left, tax-spend-bailout liberals who currently control Congress and the White House. Be sure to sign up and get involved for this huge national effort at: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org

The President's Power Grabs

From RealClearPolitics
By Diana West

At some point of embittering clarity, Americans will open their eyes to the glaring significance of the Obama era and see the Power Grab Years for what they are. Whether this realization comes in time to stave off the eradication of the United States as we thought we knew it, or whether it comes too late, I predict it will surely come.

If it comes in time, the realization that the nation dodged history's bullet will produce massive waves of relief. If it comes too late, the understanding of our fallen state will live on as the lost lore, not of a subject people exactly, but of a self-subjected people. That's because in this strange historical instance, the American people, beginning with but not limited to those of us who voted Barack Obama into the White House, seem to have agreed to shoulder the heavy, costly yoke of exponentially increasing government control of our lives.

Make that exponentially increasing executive branch control of our lives -- even more alarming given the cult of President Obama's personality already evident. With a rubberstamp Democratic Congress, it is the Obama White House that calls the shots, and it doesn't let dissenters forget it. As much as anything else this week, what cast me into this particular abyss of speculation was the stunning news that after Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., declared the Obama administration's stimulus spending plan ineffective and urged a halt to further stimulus spending, the White House dispatched four Cabinet secretaries -- Transportation's Ray LaHood, Agriculture's Tom Vilsack, Housing and Urban Development's Shaun Donovan, Interior's Ken Salazar -- to write letters to Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer enumerating every dime of federal monies that would no longer flow to her state if Sen. Kyl had his way.

As LaHood snarkily put it to Gov. Brewer, "If you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know."

What did the White House expect the governor to do next? Make Sen. Kyl an offer he couldn't refuse? Or, as Mark Steyn, detecting the whiff of extortion in the air, asked: "Why not just break his (Kyl's) legs in the Senate parking lot?"

Muscular politicking on steroids is the Obama way, whether the administration is bullying Chrysler bond-holders, wresting control of the Census from the Commerce Department, or empowering, at last count, as many as 31 "czars" to oversee various aspects of federal policy, from Gitmo closure "czar" Daniel Fried to executive pay "czar" Kenneth Feinberg, many without Senate confirmation. In explaining the full White House press on government-controlled health care, top Obama strategist David Axelrod could have been describing the Obama White House m.o. in general: "Ultimately, this is not about a process, it's about results." Which is just another way of saying the ends justify the means.

But what are those ends? My guess is that socializing the engines of wealth and creation in this county is itself a means to an end -- the consolidation of a new power structure derived from a government-dependent population and animated by the kind of identity politics exemplified by Sonya "wise Latina" Sotomayor, whose self-contradictory Senate testimony this week, by the way, perfectly tracks Axelrod's playbook. In the meantime, however, as the administration expands its control over the private sector, as it formulates foreign policy in harmony with that of Castro's Cuba, Chavez's Venezuela, and Ortega's Nicaragua, it's no stretch to say that Barack Obama is reshaping the USA in a distinctly socialist mold, something closer to a dictatorial workers' paradise than to cowboy-friendly Reagan Country.

But there exists a potent taboo against the S-word and other terminology essential for analysis. Jeb Bush's aversion to the term is typical. "Is Obama a socialist?" Tucker Carlson recently asked him in Esquire magazine.

Bush said he didn't know, and called the president a "collectivist." Same difference? Perish the thought. "Socialism is pejorative in America," Bush explained. "So people stop listening. People are tired of it. That word won't stick. It's a turnoff. It doesn't help."

"It's a turnoff"? It had better not be a turnoff. Because if we don't talk about it, we won't think about it -- until it's too late.

Diana West is the author of the "The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization."

Fiscal Ruin of the Western World Beckons

For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state.

From The Telegraph
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap.

A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year.

Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.

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Rosa Elvira Sierra - "Pie Jesu" - Requiem by Gabriel Fauré

ObamaCare Is Anti-Life and Compromise Will Not Make It Acceptable

A coalition of pro-life leaders has announced what is being billed as the largest ever conference call and webcast to oppose abortion provisions contained in the Obama health care legislation. The live webcast will be held this coming Thursday, July 23.

It is good to see Americans uniting against the culture of death. ObamaCare is morally reprehensible because it will increase the number of abortions in the United States, force every taxpayer to fund them, and coerce medical professionals to perform the grisly procedures in violation of their consciences. But this coalition should vigorously oppose the legislation even if all provisions pertaining to abortion were eliminated.

The fundamental concept of ObamaCare is anti-life in that it will ration health care at every stage of life, and particularly threatens the weak, the disabled, the elderly, and all those who may be deemed by government as less than useful, contributing members of society. This utilitarian philosophy is inherent wherever socialized medicine has been implemented. Can we expect a political regime facing the most staggering debt ever known to mankind to operate the system in a compassionate and humane way? Do we really want to entrust to bureaucrats life and death decisions involving our parents, grandparents and children?

Finally, it is incomprehensible how the American Catholic bishops could support such a plan were all references to abortion stricken. Catholic social teaching has not only opposed the fundamental errors of socialism, it upholds the principle of subsidiarity, the idea that nothing should be done by a higher, more complex organization that can be done at a lower, smaller, more personal level. In his landmark 1991 encyclical, Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II said that the welfare state “leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.” To take health care out of the hands of consumers and providers and turn it over to massive government bureaucracy violates the principle of subsidiarity, the Catholic natural law tradition, and will ultimately be seen as an enormous loss for the "culture of life."

So many political battles are lost because Christians elect to do the pragmatic thing and fight on the enemy's terms, with the enemy's tools. ObamaCare needs to be opposed in its totality. This is not a time for small compromises, but for a radical, counter-cultural commitment to the truth. Certainly the Obama administration is not one of incrementalism and compromise. If this evil is to be defeated, Christians need to be equally bold and uncompromising in promoting a culture of life.

NASA Commemoration of the Apollo Moon Landing

NASA has unveiled this site to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing. Included are superb documentaries, videos, photos, including the following restored video of Armstrong and Aldrin raising the American flag on the moon.

Mexican Agents Headed for U.S.?

We have serious misgivings about this, but would welcome some international observers for the 2012 presidential election.

Federal drill to focus on response to terror

From WorldNetDaily
By Bob Unruh

Agents for Mexico soon could be roaming the roads of several southern states – along with representatives of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom – under a Federal Emergency Management Agency exercise that is going to focus "exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection."

The event is called National Level Exercise 2009 and is part of an annual series of exercises formerly called TOPOFF, for Top Officials, under the National Exercise Program that "serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises."

The idea has some bloggers stunned.

"Imagine, armed Mexican troops protecting us from 'terrorism' in the United States! Don't you feel safer already? ¿Dónde están sus documentos?" wrote an alarmed blogger at TargetFreedom.

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A Reagan Forum with Peggy Noonan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation

House Approves Publicly-Funded Abortions in D.C., Cans D.C. School-Vouchers

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has passed a bill that allows the District of Columbia to fund abortions and legalize the consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but phases out a school-voucher program designed to help lower-income class parents send their children to a school of their choice.

Despite the opposition of a coalition of pro-life Democrats and Republicans, the Financial Services Appropriations bill passed Thursday evening by a 219-208 margin. The measure allocates $768 million in federal funding for the D.C. government, but reversed a long-standing Congressional ban that prohibited the federal district from using public money to subsidize abortions for lower-income women.

The Financial Services Appropriations bill also dropped a decade-long provision that prevented the federal district from legalizing medical marijuana through the initiative process. The bill also establishes a needle-exchange program for drug-users in order to slow the spread of HIV, but slashes $50 million from the government's anti-drug media campaign, reducing its budget to $20 million.

Although lower-income families may soon have public assistance to obtain abortions, the measure eliminates by 2010 the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provided parents a voucher of $7,500 per child that gave them the freedom to send their children to the private school of their choice. The policy affected the education of 1,716 low-income students, but was opposed by teachers unions and the Obama Administration.

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Another Legal Victory for Traditional Marriage as Challenge to Proposition 8 is Tossed by Federal Judge

From Christian Newswire

A federal judge granted another strong legal victory for Proposition 8 today by throwing out the challenge that directly attempted to overturn the measure on federal constitutional grounds.

United States District Court Judge David Carter threw out the challenge to Proposition 8 and dismissed the state of California as a defendant in the case of Smelt vs. United States. The judge indicated in his ruling that since the plaintiffs in the case were legally married before the enactment of Proposition 8, and because the California State Supreme Court recently held that such marriages would remain intact, they had no "injury" or standing to challenge the measure. Portions of the case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) will be heard in August.

"This is another great day for marriage in California," said Andrew Pugno, Chief Legal Counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, the official campaign committee for Proposition 8 and for the proponents of the measure. "The twice-expressed will of the people of California for traditional marriage is under assault from many lawsuits, but our recent string of victories in both state and federal courts is very gratifying."

The challenge to the Federal DOMA law will move forward with the U.S, Department of Justice as the official defendant. The next hearing is scheduled for August 3.

"ProtectMarriage.com will continue to fight for marriage and fight to defend the will of the people, no matter what course and no matter what legal theory they conjure up," said Pugno.

Senate Votes to Expand Federal 'Hate Crimes;' Senator DeMint Speaks in Opposition

From OneNewsNow

WASHINGTON- People attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender would receive federal protections under a Senate-approved measure that significantly expands the reach of "hate crimes" law. The Senate bill also would make it easier for federal prosecutors to step in when state or local authorities are unable or unwilling to pursue those acts deemed to be hate crimes.

Senate Democrats insist the hate-crimes amendment (S. 909) they attached to the defense appropriations bill won't criminalize preaching or speaking out against homosexuality.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray suggested the measure could actually protect people of faith by boosting penalties for hate crimes motivated by anti-religious bias. "Burning down a building is a crime -- but that crime takes on a new character when that building is a church or a synagogue or a mosque," she stated. "It's wrong when one person attacks another person on the street, for sure; but it has a different meaning when violence occurs because a victim is a different race or religion or sexual orientation."

But Sen. Jim DeMint said that since opposition to homosexuality is "a biblical concept," the measure could "serve as a warning to people not to speak out too loudly about their religious views lest the federal law enforcement come knocking at their door." The South Carolina Republican asked, "Can priests, pastors, rabbis be sure that their preaching will not be prosecuted?

Michigan Democrat Carl Levin responded that only biased acts of violence, and not speech, would be prosecuted as hate crimes.

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Judge Sides with Christian Student Professor Called "Fascist Bas**rd" over Views on Marriage

Whether it's in the South Carolina blogdom, academia, or politics, the homo-fascists themselves make the most compelling case for natural law and Christian morality. May they continue to show America what they represent in all its darkness and evil.

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

A US District Judge has blocked the Los Angeles Community College District from enforcing its sexual harassment policy, which the judge ruled had promoted a hostile environment for the free speech rights of a Christian student.

U.S. District Judge George H. King agreed with Jonathan Lopez, a student attending Los Angeles City College (LACC), that the District's policy as written had created the environment that emboldened his speech professor to call Lopez a "fascist ba***rd" for explaining his Christian beliefs and how they related to his views against same-sex "marriage."

King stated in a ruling handed down last week that key sections of the policy were "unconstitutionally overbroad" and then issued the preliminary injunction on the policy, saying that the way the policy was constructed meant it "cannot be rendered constitutional by excising words or severing sections."

Represented by lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund, Lopez had filed a lawsuit against the District and LACC back in February after he had been censored and threatened with expulsion by Professor John Matteson, who had assigned the members of his public-speaking class in mid-November to give an informational speech on any topic.

Lopez decided to give an informational speech to students on his own Christian beliefs, including Christian views on marriage. Lopez had read aloud the definition of marriage from the dictionary and had also quoted two verses from the Bible, when Matteson interjected in the middle of the speech and called Lopez a "fascist ba***rd" before his classmates.

Matteson refused to let Lopez finish, and instead invited other students to leave if they felt offended. But with no student taking up Matteson's invitation to depart, Matteson ordered the class dismissed. Instead of giving the assignment a grade, Matteson mocked Lopez on his written evaluation, taunting, "Ask God what your grade is."

A week after the incident, Matteson threatened to see to Lopez's expulsion after he saw Lopez speaking with the college's dean of academic affairs.

Faced with legal action, the District disciplined Matteson, and gave Lopez an A in the course; however the ADF argued that the District's sexual harassment policy had created an environment in which Matteson felt comfortable to intimidate Lopez from stating his beliefs.

Judge King agreed that the policy violated First Amendment protections of free speech by silencing viewpoints that others would find offensive, because it failed to contain "both a subjective and objective requirement." King pointed to the District's website indicated any conduct involving sexuality could fall under the heading of sexual harassment including "sexist statements." In this context, the site stated, "If [you are] unsure if certain comments or behavior are offensive do not do it, do not say it. ... Ask if something you do or say is being perceived as offensive or unwelcome."

"Thus, the Policy reaches constitutionally protected speech that is merely offensive to some listeners, such as discussions of religion, homosexual relations and marriage, sexual morality and freedom, polygamy, or even gender politics and policies," wrote King. "While it may be desirable to promote harmony and civility, these values cannot be enforced at the expense of protected speech under the First Amendment."

King paid particular attention to one passage from the policy that included under the sexual harassment code "conduct [of a sexual nature that] has the purpose or effect of having a negative impact upon the individual's work or academic performance, or of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work or educational environment."

"The Policy reaches speech unrelated to a class, such as discussions in any public and common areas at LACC. Even speech related to a class can be restricted by the Policy if the speech is not an intrinsic part of the course content," King wrote in his order.

King's order forbids the LA Community College District and the LA City College from carrying out or even promulgating the sexual harassment policy and to remove all references to the policy from its websites within fourteen days of the injunction.