Daily Archives: April 26, 2011

LifeSiteNews: The governor of Kansas has taken up the effort to defund Planned Parenthood in his state, putting forward budget proposals that would withhold federal taxpayer funds from going to the abortion giant.

Boston Globe: For the first time, American women have passed men in gaining advanced college degrees as well as bachelor’s degrees, part of a trend that is helping redefine who goes off to work and who stays home with the kids

National Review: “I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?” Trump told the Associated Press in an interview.
Obama has not released his college transcripts. And Trump thinks there’s something strange about Obama’s academic success.

Telegraph: The Strasbourg-based European Court has been heavily criticised for a range of judgements which appear to overrule the United Kingdom Parliament, including the granting of votes to prisoners and an extension of privacy laws which paved the way for super injunctions.

LifeNews: HB 1970 requires that abortion providers dispense abortion-inducing drugs only in the way tested and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and outlined in the drug’s label.

WWLTV.com: State Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, is sponsoring a bill in the legislature that would ban abortion in the state.

Christian Newswire: “Whether this was an intentional violation of our clients’ constitutional liberty or whether this was an act of ignorance on the part of the CHP, this lawsuit is important in order to preserve the liberty to read the …

Leeds-based Catholic Care wanted exemption from the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations, which require it to consider gay and lesbian couples as prospective parents.

LifeNews: The statewide pro-life group in West Virginia says that each of the Republican candidates for governor is pro-life as is Democratic primary election candidate Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

LA Times: DOMA is a regressive law. But both sides in any case are entitled to “hired guns.”

MSNBC: The White House struck back at Christian evangelical leader Franklin Graham on Monday for suggesting that President Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States.

LifeNews: “The House of Representatives may vote as early as next week on legislation that would institute a government-wide ban on any direct taxpayer funding of abortions in any federal departments or programs.”

AP: Holder told reporters Tuesday that Clement is “doing that which lawyers do” to take on the responsibility of representing the lawmakers who wrote the ban. “Paul Clement’s a great lawyer” . . .

Breitbart’s Big Goverment: This afternoon, Big Government will break additional exclusive video clearly demonstrating the anti-American, anti-Capitalist nature of a University of Missouri (UM) course on Labor and Politics . . . On page 394 of this pdf file, note the Governor of Missouri is requesting $400 million for UM this budget year . . .

TIME: Meanwhile, Cooper’s motion has triggered revulsion in some corners. The motion is “offensive” and has “no chance of success,” says Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law scholar who leads the law school at the University of California, Irvine. A Catholic judge, he said, would never be asked to step aside from an abortion ruling, even though he might face excommunication if he ruled in favor of terminating a pregnancy.

Adam Serwer at the Washington Post: After all, supporters of the same-sex marriage ban are arguing that marriage equality is so damaging to the institution of marriage that the government has a vital interest in making sure gays and lesbians can’t get married. That means that a straight, married judge couldn’t be expected to be impartial, either — after all, according to supporters of Prop 8, “the further deinstitutionalization of marriage caused by the legalization of same-sex marriage,” would directly impact married heterosexuals. Therefore, a heterosexual, married judge could be seen as having just as much “skin in the game” as Judge Walker.

Chuck Colson at LifeSiteNews: The supreme irony here of course, is that liberal elites, including professors at Brown University, my alma mater, have been leading the charge for sexual license, feminine autonomy, and of course, so-called same-sex “marriage.” And now, suddenly, they are bumping up against reality and the logical consequences of their own ideas. In this case, polygamy’s exploitation of the women who have been promoting sexual freedom.

Des Moines Register: Alons additionally said he is encouraged by Paulsen’s comments because the Speaker also said he agrees with much of the reasoning behind the impeachment resolutions. “I just want to remind people that this is not dead. It will be in committee and there are a lot of folks that want this to move forward,” Alons said, noting a Web site where people can sign a petition for impeachment: www.commonsenseia.org

Washington Post: While Democrats in Congress blocked Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood earlier this month, some states have responded with their own measures to pull funding for the nonprofit. One such state is Indiana — putting to the test Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’s call for a truce on social issues.

AP on Yahoo: “The nation’s largest firefighters union and one of the Democrats’ most reliable sources of campaign money says it will quit donating to federal candidates this year because members of Congress are not doing enough to support organized labor.”

Boston Herald: “A group of Massachusetts lawmakers is calling on Gov. Deval Patrick to cut off state funding for a sexual education web site aimed at teens, saying it uses “disgusting” language to describe sex acts and downplays the risks of abortion.”

Press and Guide: Jones was thrown in jail before he said anything because of what may have happened. Thompson has said what happened in Jones’ case was a complete breach of the first amendment and that it cries for appeal. “It is ironic when an American citizen is arrested for wanting to say something, and the reason why they are arrested is because people are afraid of what other people might do when the man speaks and that makes it wrong.”

WVGazette.com: Now 23, Milam is the first full-time staffer for Fairness West Virginia, a group founded in 2009 that advocates for gays and lesbians. One of his biggest challenges as program director, he said, is to show state leaders that rural communities have a stake in gay-rights issues.

NY Times: Federal authorities last week arrested and charged a Tennessee pastor with aiding in the “international parental kidnapping” of a girl who has been missing since late 2009 and is at the center of a lengthy custody battle between her two mothers — a onetime lesbian couple who were in a civil union.

Inside Higher Ed.: The Texas House of Representatives has passed a budget bill that would require any public college with a student center on “alternative” sexuality to provide equal funding to create new centers to promote “traditional values.”

Japan Times: penly gay candidate Taiga Ishikawa won a seat in the Toshima Ward Assembly in Tokyo in Sunday’s election, marking a historic first.

Las Vegas Review Journal: Senate Bills 368 and 331, which would outlaw transgender discrimination in housing and public accommodations, were approved on votes of 13-8 and 11-10.

LifeNews: Abortion has become such a pervasive form of birth control that the nation is seeing worker and population shortages that are already beginning to take an economic toll. The nation’s Duma is considering legislation to address the problem.

LifeNews: The House Judiciary Subcommittee B will soon hold a hearing on the Woman’s Right to Know bill, H 854, that other states have passed and that has been proven to reduce abortions . . .

LifeNews: While the movement in the rest of the nation for revoking taxpayer funding of the Planned Parenthood abortion business is growing, lawmakers in Washington state are considering increasing taxpayer funding . . . On Tuesday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee will hold a public hearing on SB 5912 . . .

Sources with knowledge of the backlash confirm that one of King & Spalding’s top clients, Coca Cola, also based in Atlanta, directly intervened to press the firm to extricate itself from the case.

KFYI: The documents indicate al-Qaida terrorists reportedly planted a nuclear device somewhere in Europe and threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” if Osama bin Laden is caught or assassinated, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported. The Telegraph also received access to the documents that WikiLeaks obtained.

David L. Hudson at the First Amendment Center: Conservatives are often portrayed as hostile or indifferent to First Amendment freedoms. But in the arena of free speech Roberts has not been a disaster — far from it . . .

Wall Street Journal: The likely story here is that King and Spalding began to fear a political backlash after activists at the Human Rights Campaign launched a campaign to “educate” (read: intimidate) the firm’s clients about “King and Spalding’s decision to promote discrimination.” Clients include Coca-Cola and other Fortune 500 giants that prefer to avoid hot-button social issues.

AP: A majority of Egyptians believe laws in their country should observe the teachings of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, according to the results of an opinion poll by a U.S.-based research center.

ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Once again, those who demand that same-sex “marriage” be the law of the land have taken their bigotry and narrow-mindedness to new heights. No longer, in their eyes, can we have a free and fair debate about this topic, and never has the intolerance of this ideology been more evident than last week. When the U.S. House of Representatives hired former Solicitor General Paul Clement to defend the Federal Defense of Marriage Act in federal court, the viciousness of the attacks upon both General Clement and his law firm were unprecedented.

The First Amendment does not protect pornography viewing in public libraries according to the US Supreme Court, contrary to statements by New York City library spokespersons.

Ken Klukowski at Townhall: Everyone should have access to a lawyer. The U.S. Constitution empowers the courts to decide whether a law is unconstitutional, but also requires that a court only do so if arguments are presented on both sides. Our constitutional system of government calls for both parties putting their best arguments on the table, so that a judge has everything necessary to arrive at the correct decision. But leftist zealots evidently don’t care about a court reaching the right decision, calling for punishing anyone who has enough faith in the American legal system to wage an honorable contest in court.

One News Now: In a Texas case filed against the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), the high court ruled that jail inmates who successfully file a religious discrimination claim under the law cannot collect damages. But Liberty Institute Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford believes that violates Congress’ intent.

One News Now: “The reality is that civil unions, like all homosexual activist legislation, [are] incompatible with religious freedom,” LaBarbera points out. “So in Illinois, it looks like they’re going to be going after private business owners [and Christian] bed and breakfast owners…who don’t want to have homosexual celebrations on their own property, and it looks like they’re going to be going after religious-based adoption agencies.”

AP on One News Now: “If at any time while this case was pending before him, Chief Judge walker and his partner determined that they desired, or might desire, to marry, Chief Judge Walker plainly had an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding,” wrote attorneys for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that put Proposition 8 on the November 2008 ballot.

Rasmussen Reports: In fact, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 23% of Likely U.S. Voters are aware that most of the current deficit is the result of spending commitments made by Congress in the 1960s and 1970s. Forty-nine percent (49%) incorrectly believe that’s not the case. Twenty-nine percent (29%) more are not sure.

Eric Giunta at Renew America: he economy being what it is, I beg (and trust in) my readers’ indulgence as I engage in what follows: a shameless exercise in self-promotion . . . In the Fall of 2010, I interned full-time at the Washington, DC offices of the Alliance Defense Fund . . . I spent the Summer of 2009 studying international and comparative law at the University of Oxford’s St Edmund Hall, and (simultaneous with my externship at ADF) studying executive agency rulemaking and legislative advocacy, in Washington, DC, under the aegis of Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Among my work at ADF, I performed research for the case Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, and drafted a motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of a Young Americans for Freedom chapter, whose free speech rights were being violated by school officials at Palm Beach State College . . .

Dakota Voice: The 2011 National Day of Prayer is coming up on May 5 . . . The video below from the Alliance Defense Fund and Alan Sears providing an update on the courts’ rejection of the lawsuit against the National Day of Prayer. The second video is a promo video from the National Day of Prayer . . .

William McGurn at the Wall Street Journal: Before we extend too much sympathy, however, it’s worth asking how much our colleges and universities have brought this upon themselves. In days past, the dean responsible for standards of student behavior was a figure of great sport (see “Animal House”). Of course, that was understood to be part of the job: the willingness to be the adult. Today deans have given way to lawyers.

AP: The passions that filled the Wisconsin Statehouse with protests have cast a long shadow across the state’s political landscape, influencing even small-time races for mayor and village boards.

AP: “The National Labor Relations Board says it will move ahead with lawsuits seeking to invalidate state constitutional amendments in Arizona and South Dakota that require workers to hold secret ballot elections before a company can be unionized.”

Washington Times: The International Monetary Fund says the “Age of America” will end in the ash heap of history in 2016, give or take a year or so, to be replaced by the “Age of China.”

Reuters on Yahoo: “When it comes to differences between China and the United States over human rights, the two sides can enhance mutual understanding on a basis of equality and mutual respect,” Hong told a regular news conference. “We oppose any country using human rights issues as an excuse to interfere in China’s domestic affairs.

Heritage Foundation Morning Bell: “The IMF’s assumption that our economy will be weak indefinitely is all too reasonable. China might run its economy into the ground, but we are running our economy into the ground. Reasonable people can sharply disagree over what to do, but what’s killing U.S. leadership is obvious to the IMF and anyone looking at the global picture: our budget deficit.”

The ProtectMarriage.com legal team, which is defending the California marriage amendment in federal court, filed a motion Monday to throw out the district court decision that struck down the amendment. The motion argues that now-retired Chief District Judge Vaughn R. Walker violated federal law by not recusing himself from the Perry v. Brown case.