To our Crosstalk Blog readers, may God encourage your heart in a special way this weekend as you remember the supreme sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross. He is risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

January 7, 2010

Mr. President, Tear Down This Wall

President Obama and the Democratic leadership are trying to exclude the American people from important information regarding healthcare, like the former Soviet Union tried to control the media and shut out public participation. This is anything but transparency, which we were promised.

It is time that Americans said to President Obama: “Mr. President, tear down this wall.” The reference draws from President Ronald Reagan’s famous speech to Mikhail Gorbachev, when asking the former leader of the Soviet Union to tear down the wall of Communism.

Obama made numerous campaign promises that he would make the legislative process transparent. At least eight times it was recorded on camera that Obama promised negotiations would be broadcast “on C-SPAN. You can see the recording at http://www.blip.tv/file/3052083.

The purposeful exclusion by President Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of Republicans, moderate Democrats, the media, and the American people from participation in the healthcare debate has resulted in a level of secrecy and deception that completely contradicts what the President promised to the people who put him in office.

Yesterday House Speaker Pelosi said that the final healthcare reform bill will be negotiated “behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats.”

C-SPAN has already expressed interest in televising the healthcare process. Brian Lamb publicly stated that his network “will commit the necessary resources” to broadcast “the critical stage of reconciliation between the chambers.” Yet, Obama and the Democratic leadership are reneging on these promises.

Was Congressman Joe Wilson right? Did President Obama lie to the American people about transparency?

Contact the White House and ask the President to fulfill his promise of transparency and tear down the wall of secrecy that surrounds the health care debate.

WHITE HOUSE CONTACT INFORMATION
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461
Online Comment form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

Read our News Release for more details.

Senator Jeff Sessions is calling on his colleagues to filibuster Judge David Hamilton. Go here and call your Senator. Tell your Senator to oppose cloture on David Hamilton and filibuster his nomination to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Hamilton, a district court judge, is Barack Obama’s nominee to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.  That very court has cited Judge Hamilton for abusing his power as a judge.

In 1994, the 7th Circuit rebuked Judge Hamilton for denying a Rabbi the right to display a Menorah as part of an Indianapolis holiday display.

In 2005, Judge Hamilton prohibited the Indiana House of Representatives from praying if Jesus’s name was mentioned, but said praying in Allah’s name was perfectly fine.

He also is one of the most lenient judges in America when it comes to crime and criminals.

In United States v. Rinehart, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 19498 (S.D. Ind. Feb 2, 2007), Judge Hamilton used his opinion to request clemency for a police officer who pled guilty to two counts of child pornography. The 32 year old officer had engaged in “consensual” sex with two teenagers and videotaped his activities.

In United States v. Woolsey, 535 F.3d 540 (7th Cir. 2008), the Seventh Circuit faulted Judge Hamilton for disregarding an earlier conviction in order to avoid imposing a life sentence on a repeat offender.

Call your Senator. Tell your Senator to oppose cloture on Judge Hamilton and support a filibuster.

Find out more from a past Crosstalk program on David Hamilton.

The Hate Crimes bill could be voted on today. The Christian Post has more information. Additionally, the American Family Association sent out this action alert.

Tell Congress to vote ‘No!’ on ‘thought crimes’ bill

Urgent: E-mail your representative and two senators today!

October 7, 2009

Dear Friends,

In its never-ending quest to shred America’s Judeo-Christian value system, the left is planning to hurriedly push through a “thought crimes” bill.

So-called “hate crimes” laws are really laws that criminalize thought, because they punish an individual not for what he did but for what he thought. Politically incorrect thoughts about homosexual behavior will result in enhanced criminal sanctions under this law.

Everywhere hate crimes laws have gone into effect, they have been quickly used to intimidate, silence and punish people of faith who express deeply held religious objections to the normalization of homosexuality.

Such laws not only punish officially disapproved speech and thought, they create two tiers of victims. Under hate crimes laws, some victims get more protections than others, which violates the fundamental American principle of equality under the law.

In fact, such laws actively discriminate against heterosexual Christians who are victims of crime, since they will get less legal protection than homosexual victims.

And since “sexual orientation” is nowhere defined in the legislation, this law will give pedophiles, voyeurs, and exhibitionists special protections, which is why the bill has correctly been called “The Pedophile Protection Act.”

The left has shrewdly and malevolently attached this so-called “hate crimes” language to a Defense Appropriations bill, and efforts by Republicans in Congress to remove the language from the Defense bill failed Tuesday night on a party line vote.

Though we all support adequate funding for the military, this attachment is a poison pill that makes the Appropriations bill unacceptable.

Take Action!
E-mail your members of Congress today and urge them to vote “NO!” on the Defense Appropriations bill if the “hate crimes” language is not removed.

It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.

Speaker Mike Sheridan’s action “fires” Ziegelbauer from the committee. In addition to losing the committee, Ziegelbauer also loses a part-time staffer, under state rules a committee chair is entitled to a part-time staffer.

From WRTL:

“The Democratic Assembly leadership doesn’t like it one bit when a member of their own party votes for what he believes when the issue is abortion,” said Susan Armacost, Legislative Director of Wisconsin Right to Life. “Bob Ziegelbauer found that out last week when Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan ‘fired’ him for voting to prevent late-term abortions from being performed at the Madison Surgery Center.”

Speaker Mike Sheridan’s phone number is (888) 947-0044.

And speaking of the Madison Surgery Center, Badger Herald reports:

Anti-abortion protestors lined the sidewalks at the Madison Surgery Center Tuesday, demonstrating their discontent over the center’s plans to begin performing late-term abortions.

More than 80 protestors gathered around the surgery center, brandishing signs with anti-abortion messages and eliciting honks from passing motorists.

CAPITOL HILL
Briefing by Bob Powers, Vice President of Government Relations

ENDA Hearing Scheduled for Next Tuesday
The controversial and troublesome Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is coming up in Congress once again. At present, religious broadcasters have a hiring exemption through the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules. However, if ENDA (H.R. 3017) passes, this heavy-handed bill would require employers to hire people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity (sexual preference). If that happens, a Christian ministry or business would then be forced to hire individuals who actively participate in a lifestyle that is in direct opposition to the code of ethics of that ministry or business.

A hearing regarding ENDA will take place next Wednesday, September 23rd, in the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives. NRB’s Senior Vice President of Communications and General Counsel Craig Parshall may testify at the hearing.