Daily Archives: February 17, 2011

LifeSiteNews: “One-year-old Joseph Maraachli of Windsor, Ontario will have his life support removed Monday at 10 am. after the Ontario Superior Court today rejected an appeal by the parents to bring him home where he can die under their care.”

Daily Mail: “Whatever else this Government might achieve I was not expecting a reassertion of Parliamentary sovereignty to be on the list. My pessimism was based on the coalition with the Lib Dems – a party which regards fighting for our national independence as a thoroughly outdated concept. But even the Lib Dems are not entirely immune from public opinion. Do they really want to be shown up as the Party that forces us to bow down and accept votes for convicted thugs and a Paedophiles Charter? Is that really something they want to insist on as the junior coalition partner? . . . ”

Moscow Times: “After twin attacks by female suicide bombers killed 40 people in the Moscow metro last March, media reports warned that women sporting a Muslim headdress in public may face verbal or even physical attacks.’

AP on Google: “Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said he will not implement the federal health care overhaul after a judge in Florida struck down the law as unconstitutional.”

Blog of the Legal Times: In Legend Night Club v. Miller, [No. 09-1540] the panel majority affirmed a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law that was imposed in 2009 by a federal district court . . . The law limits the range of permissible conduct, attire and entertainment at establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages . . . Writing for the panel majority, Judge James Wynn said, “The statute imposes restrictions that extend well beyond strip clubs and other establishments primarily offering adult entertainment.”

AP: “But in a news release, he said he defaulted on his match with Herkelman because he doesn’t think boys and girls should compete in the sport.”

WV Gazette: “Sam Hall, the gay miner who sued a Massey subsidiary in December, will be at the Statehouse on Monday. He’s scheduled to appear at a 9 a.m. press conference organized by the group Fairness West Virginia to push for a pair of bills (SB226 and HB2045) that would add age and sexual orientation to the state’s Human Rights Act.”

Christian Newswire: “In response to videos produced by Live Action showing Planned Parenthood workers willing to conspire in sex trafficking, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) joined other members in calling for the defunding of that organization. At a news conference last week hosted by Live Action and Susan B. Anthony List, Stearns stated that he plans to call the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, to testify on taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and that organization’s tolerance of sex trafficking and other criminal activities.”

WDBJ7.com: “The Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday killed bills to regulate abortion clinics and prohibit health insurance plans established through the federal health care legislation from covering abortions.” | Related Life News report: Virginia Senate Kills Bill to Cut Abortion Funds in Obamacare

Boston Globe: “Massachusetts education commissioner Mitchell Chester today endorsed 17 out 23 applications to launch new charter schools, including 10 in Boston.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Capitol Tonight report says the audit shows Conlin used NARAL’s credit cards to purchase over $5000 in clothing from retailers like Giorgio Armani, a $17,000 summer rental in the Hamptons in 2009, and $22,000 in meals.”

Stuart Shepard reports at Citizen Link (Audio).

TPM: “Only 45% of respondents in the poll said they viewed unions favorably, while nearly as many, 41%, said they had an unfavorable opinion of unions.”

The Supreme Court will decide on Friday whether to hear two campaign finance cases filed by the James Madison Center for Free Speech to protect vital First Amendment rights.

Bloomberg: “The first bill seeks to prohibit so-called ‘project labor agreements’ that require contractors to forge pacts with unionized workers as a condition of winning a government construction job . . . Under the second bill, unions would be prohibited from using dues to subsidize member wages to help union-shop contractors win projects.”

University says definition will either be revised or eliminated in wake of concerns expressed in letter from ADF-allied attorney

Lexington Herald-Leader: “All Kentucky public schools would have to set aside time each day for students to face the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance under a bill backed by Republican senators. Senate Bill 15 . . . ”

Christian Today: “A Baptist pastor has accused the Cuban government of deliberately targeting him and his church.”

Christian Post: Masih’s relatives believe that Cheema – seeing the young Christian man as a “soft target” whose family had little standing or legal recourse in the predominantly Muslim society – killed him for taking a day off without informing him.

“This week the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates adopted a resolution urging “federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local officials to prevent and remediate the existence and dangers of bullying, including cyberbullying and youth-to-youth sexual and physical harassment.”

NY Times: “The Obama administration said Wednesday that it had granted broad waivers to four states allowing health insurance companies to continue offering less generous benefits than they would otherwise be required to provide this year under the new federal health care law.”

Delco Times: “The first school voucher bill with a chance to become law since the Tom Ridge administration has the backing of three state senators with Delaware County constituencies. Dubbed the “Opportunity Scholarship and Educational Improvement Tax Credit Act” . . . ”

Houston Chronicle: “The Texas Senate hears debate on a bill that would require doctors to conduct a sonogram before performing an abortion and to describe whether the fetus has arms, legs or internal organs.”

Irish Times: “All political parties with the possible exception of Sinn Féin have “sold out to a European secular agenda”, according to the Christian Solidarity Party (CSP) which has unveiled its eight election candidates, seven men and one woman.”

The State: “One, which the House has approved several times before, would expand the definition of a “person” and “child” in S.C. laws to include premature babies born, no matter what stage of development, and those who survive abortions.
The second bill would allow healthcare workers to refuse to perform work tasks that they object to on moral or religious grounds.”

“The bill, which also bans collective bargaining rights for teachers, requires educators to contribute 5.8 percent to their pensions and 12.6 percent to their health care. Currently, educators pay 0.2 percent for their pensions and 4 to 6 percent of their health care costs.”

Christian Newswire: “The half million members of Concerned Women for America (CWA) demand that Congress immediately cease all funding of Planned Parenthood and we call on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Planned Parenthood’s role in aiding and abetting the sex trafficking of minors . . . ”

Washington Post: “Maryland senators should expect a long week ahead of debate on same-sex marriage, the chamber’s president said Thursday.”

Susan B. Anthony List: “Catherine Foster . . . She is currently working part-time as a law clerk on the Alliance Defense Fund’s life team, and has also worked as a summer intern for Americans United for Life and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.”

AP: “The British government on Thursday announced plans to allow gay couples to hold civil partnership ceremonies in houses of worship – a move gay rights activists say is a step in the right direction towards marriage, but falls short of affording full equal rights.”

Politicians should not be able to nullify a democratic act of the people by refusing to defend it,” said Alliance Defense Fund Litigation Staff Counsel Jim Campbell. “The people of California have a right to be defended, so the official proponents of Proposition 8 must be allowed to step in and defend that law. Otherwise, state officials will succeed in indirectly invalidating a measure that they had no power to strike down directly.”

The Hill: “House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday ruled out a short-term government-funding bill that maintains “current levels” of federal spending, escalating a showdown with Democrats and President Obama.”

“. . . the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld, as applied, Burlington, Vermont’s noise ordinance that was invoked by a police officer to issue a written warning to plaintiff, a street preacher, who was preaching in a loud voice outside places of business on a pedestrian mall.”

“Ohio Senate Republicans announced details Wednesday of a bill that would sharply limit the power of public employees to negotiate with state and local governments and institutions of higher learning, The Columbus Dispatch reported.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In International Church of  the Foursquare Gospel v. City of San Leandro, (9th Cir., Feb. 15, 2011), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court and held that a city’s zoning decision made under a neutral, generally applicable zoning law can impose a “substantial burden” on a church’s exercise of religion under RLUIPA.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Public Religion Research Institute yesterday announced the results of a poll (full results) of 1,015 adults completed last week seeking the views of Americans on the Muslim community in the U.S.”

Rasmussen Reports: “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% of Likely U.S. Voters think voters are more willing to make the hard choices needed to reduce federal spending than elected politicians are. Just 17% say the politicians are more willing to make the tough spending cut decisions, while 13% more are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here).”

AP: “China on Thursday warned the United States not to use calls for uncensored access to the Internet as a pretext to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.”

LifeNews: “In a new interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, says there should be no truce on social issues like abortion.”

AP: “Austria says it is granting asylum to 30 Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution in their homeland.”

The Hill: “Rep. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) said Wednesday he would introduce legislation after next week’s break that would require Supreme Court justices to publicly disclose why they have recused themselves from cases. Murphy said the bill would also require the Supreme Court to develop a process that would allow parties to a case to “request the court to decide whether a particular justice has a conflict of interest.”

SCOTUS Blog: “California’s Supreme Court agrees to rule on the status, under state law, of backers of the Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage as defenders of the ban’s constitutionality.”

LifeNews: “Instead, while they attacked during debate the pro-life provisions in the bill to cut Title X family planning funds, restore and make permanent the Mexico City Policy, and yank funding for the pro-abortion UNFPA, they introduced none of the expected amendments.”

Hugh Hewitt writes at Townhall: “House Republicans lost the first round of the messaging battle over the budget last week with a lame attempt to cut less than $40 billion against the Pledge to America’s goal of at least $100 billion, but then President Obama forfeited round two with an absurd budget that elicited a genuine bipartisan reaction of scorn for his fecklessness. Proving themselves equal to the challenge of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the new GOP majority promptly proceeded to block what looked like a clean attempt to defund Obamacare sponsored by Representative Steve King of Iowa . . . ”

Howard Rich writes at Townhall: “Washington politicians have worked themselves into a fine lather lately debating spending cuts. Yet as familiar rhetorical jabs are exchanged over proposed reductions to things like NPR and the National Archives, the real spending debate is being ignored. I’m referring of course to the debate over “entitlements” – decades worth of multi-trillion dollar promises made by former Congresses that had no intention whatsoever of keeping any of them . . . ”

“What is the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and why would they work with the liberal news media to make Texas the laughing stock of the nation by awarding Texas’ new Social Standards with a D?”

Ed Fulner writes at Townhall: “There are many ways to improve air travel. Unionizing the TSA isn’t one of them.”

Heritage Foundation Morning Bell: “Over the next decade, every citizen will be paying more than $2,500 a year in interest alone. Simply put: Our current spending habits are bankrupting our children. This must stop. The culture of overspending must change, and this week’s debate over the remaining months over the FY 2011 budget is the beginning of that fight.”

Americans U. for Separation of Church and State: “The U.S. Senate should reject a push to revive a controversial school voucher scheme in the District of Columbia, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State . . . ”

Wall Street Journal: “President Obama’s 2012 budget is not a serious governing document. It’s a political one, designed to boost his re-election chances. By repeatedly saying that his budget reduces the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years, he hopes the numbers make him sound fiscally conservative. But he puts off 95% of the deficit reduction until after his term ends in 2013. And he assumes that economic growth in the next few years will be at least 25% higher than credible economic forecasters estimate.”

Westlaw News & Insight: “For the opponents of gay marriage: James Campbell of Alliance Defense Fund; Charles Cooper, Nicole Moss, Jesse Panuccio, David Thompson and Peter Patterson of Cooper & Kirk; Andrew Pugno; Brian Raum.”

World Net Daily: But the letter, from ADF-allied attorney Tim Swickard, explained, “It is patently clear that UC Davis’s definition of religious discrimination is blatantly unconstitutional under both the federal and California state constitutions. The policy singles out some faiths for official school protection while denying the same protection to others solely on the basis of their particular religious views….. Moreover, the UC Davis policy is simply nonsensical given the environment on most university campuses where Christian students, if anything, are among the most likely to be subjected to discrimination because of their faith.” [more ADF quotes in the article]

One News Now: The university has issued a policy statement, asking students to adhere to its definition of “community.” David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), tells OneNewsNow the Christians on campus have discovered that the school’s policy, which defines “religious/spiritual discrimination” as “the loss of power and privilege to those who do not practice the dominant culture’s religion,” does not protect them from religious discrimination as — in his words — it is “institutionalized oppressions toward those who are not Christian.” . . . [quote continues]

LifeNews: Pro-life student groups should not be singled out to pay fees that others do not have to pay. The type of fee assessed to Students for Life has been repeatedly ruled unconstitutional,” said ADF Senior Counsel David French. “A very basic and clear constitutional principle is that the government cannot place this sort of price tag on free speech simply because that speech might offend somebody.” The ADF letter explains: “The Supreme Court has made clear that the government may not charge speakers for the security costs driven by listeners’ response to that speech.”

Christian Post: In a letter to university officials Wednesday, Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Timothy J. Swickard voiced objections to the university’s definition of religious discrimination as listed in the glossary section of the UC Davis campus community relations website . . . “Christians deserve the same protections against religious discrimination as any other students on a public university campus,” said ADF Senior Counsel David French in a statement released Wednesday.

Foreign Policy: The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity,” a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.

Middle East Forum: “In short, America needs to stop praising democracy—a means—and start supporting freedom and universal rights—the desired end. If that end can best be achieved by a “philosopher-king,” as opposed to popular support, so be it; if that end can be achieved by supporting secularists while openly suppressing Islamists, so be it. Rather than offer lip service to any specific mode of governance, the U.S. should support whoever and whatever form of government is best positioned to provide for the overall good of a people.”

Any Kessler writes at the Wall Street Journal: “Technology is eating jobs—and not just toll takers. Tellers, phone operators, stock brokers, stock traders: These jobs are nearly extinct . . . So which jobs will be destroyed next? Figure that out and you’ll solve the puzzle of where new jobs will appear.”

The Hill: “Neither the White House budget nor the congressional Republican spending plan are focused on the long-term drivers of the budget deficit, the co-chairmen of President Obama’s debt commission write in Thursday’s issue of The Hill.”

Telegraph: “Gay couples will be able to marry for the first time under a radical plan to overhaul marriage laws, the Coalition announces today.”

KC Star: “A new survey shows that 61 percent of American teens want to be virgins at marriage, yet 34 percent have little problem with sex before marriage.”

“The Hawaii Senate passed on Wednesday a bill that would legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. The legislation passed with an 18-5 vote and now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie.”

Boston Globe: “A big crowd is expected in Concord, N.H., when the House Judiciary Committee considers two bills that would repeal New Hampshire’s same-sex marriage law.”

San Francisco Chronicle: The 13 lawmakers want permission to file a “friend of the court” brief with the Wyoming Supreme Court. They’re represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian civil rights group that has litigated against same-sex marriage in California.

“The court, meeting in closed session at its San Francisco headquarters, decided unanimously to rule on whether sponsors of ballot initiatives have special authority under state law to defend the measures in court when state officials refuse to do so.”