Grab Your Pen, Mr. President

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, reports on the pile of pork headed to George W. Bush's desk:

CCAGW Blasts House for Pork-Stuffed Highway Bill

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today blasted the House of Representatives for passing the $275 billion Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (HR 3550), which exceeds the ceiling set by the White House. The bill funds thousands of projects in lawmakers' home districts and states and requires Congress to consider adding more money two years from now. House negotiators will now head to conference to hash over differences with the Senate's $315 billion version that passed last month.

"Members of Congress have raided the Treasury without any regard for fiscal prudence," CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. "It is time for President Bush to walk the walk and protect taxpayers from the big spenders in Congress. Barring a miraculous turnaround in conference, this bill cries out for a veto."

Both the House and Senate versions exceed the $256 billion limit set by President Bush. The Senate bill, S. 1072, also calls for adjustments in the tax code to increase revenue. The House companion, H.R. 3550, is partly financed through an increase in the federal gas tax. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Treasury Secretary John Snow announced the administration's veto threat a day after President Bush submitted his budget to Congress in February. The White House reiterated its intentions on Tuesday. The House measure includes approximately 3,000 parochial projects for home districts--double the number approved in the previous six-year highway bill, passed in 1997. . . .

The bill's generous list of parochial projects include: $15 million to build a road to a gold mine in Alaska; $8,000,000 to replace the Edward N. Waldvogel viaduct in Ohio; $250,000 for Appalachian traditions for the construction of outdoor facilities along the Music Heritage Trail in Josephine, Va.; and $250,000 to construct a transportation museum at a Cleveland high school.

Use our Take Action page to encourage President Bush to make good on his threat.

Quality Punditry:

Run, don't walk to Victor Davis Hanson's website to read his gutsy piece, The Mirror of Fallujah. If he had written it in Britain, he'd be jailed.

I support the bold efforts of the United States to make a start in cleaning up this mess, in hopes that a Fallujah might one day exorcize its demons. But in the meantime, we should have no illusions about the enormity of our task, where every positive effort will be met with violence, fury, hypocrisy, and ingratitude.

If we are to try to bring some good to the Middle East, then we must first have the intellectual courage to confess that for the most part the pathologies embedded there are not merely the work of corrupt leaders but often the very people who put them in place and allowed them to continue their ruin.

So the question remains did Saddam create Fallujah or Fallujah Saddam?

While I certainly don't always agree with him, Christopher Hitchens has proven once again that he's one smart atheist: Fallujah - A reminder of what the future might look like if we fail.

I debate with the opponents of the Iraq intervention almost every day. I always have the same questions for them, which never seem to get answered. Do you believe that a confrontation with Saddam Hussein's regime was inevitable or not? Do you believe that a confrontation with an Uday/Qusay regime would have been better? Do you know that Saddam's envoys were trying to buy a weapons production line off the shelf from North Korea (vide the Kay report) as late as last March? Why do you think Saddam offered "succor" (Mr. Clarke's word) to the man most wanted in the 1993 bombings in New York? Would you have been in favor of lifting the "no fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq; a 10-year prolongation of the original "Gulf War"? Were you content to have Kurdish and Shiite resistance fighters do all the fighting for us? Do you think that the timing of a confrontation should have been left, as it was in the past, for Baghdad to choose?

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Barbarians With Nuclear Weapons, Part 8
Topic: Nuclear Terrorism

More not-so-great news on the Mad Mullahs' Manhattan Project:

More Bomb-Grade Uranium Found in Iran

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic watchdog has found traces of bomb-grade uranium in Iran at sites other than the two already named, but diplomats say it is unclear if this boosts U.S. claims that Tehran wants an atom bomb.

"They found highly-enriched uranium at more sites than Kalaye and Natanz," a Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday on condition of anonymity. The diplomat did not specify how many sites, where they were or when the traces were found.

Last year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported finding traces of uranium that had been enriched to a point where it contained about 90 percent of the fissile uranium atom U-235 at the Natanz enrichment plant and a workshop at the Kalaye Electric Company.

Uranium with such a high concentration of U-235 has few civilian uses but is the ideal purity level for a nuclear bomb. . . .

Iran says its atomic ambitions are limited to the generation of electricity.

I suppose that with this "Barbarians" series I'm starting to sound like The Prophet of Nuclear Doom -- an alarmist. But so be it. Shouldn't someone trip the alarm when there actually is a fire?

The Islamic Bomb today ranks as the gravest threat to Western civilization, with the Barking Lunatic North Korean Dictator Bomb running a very close second.

The issue is not complicated. Anyone, including a rogue state or a terrorist network, can win a war if they possess nuclear weapons and are willing to strike first.

Somewhere between 40- and 50 million Americans have seen Mel Gibson's The Passion since its Ash Wednesday opening. Suppose today each of those good folks decided to send a message to their elected officials, letting them know that they too consider barbarians with nuclear weapons to be the public affairs issue that trumps all others, and that should military action to remove the threat become necessary, they will support President Bush in doing whatever is required.

A hundred years from now, perceptive historians would remember it as the beginning of religious conservatism's successful campaign to save Western civilization in the early 21st century.

Use our Take Action page to send that message to your elected officials, then urge everyone you know who has seen The Passion to put their faith to work and do the same.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Broadcast to The Broadcasters

A nifty new feature at CitizenLink:

Talk radio is growing in its reach and influence each day -- good news for conservatives since it is the one medium in which the top voices share our values.

Have you ever wished there was an easy way to contact those voices? To let them know your views on the issues, to suggest topics for them to cover, to send them interesting news you think needs to be reported?

Well, wish no longer. We've created this page as a one-stop shop of contact information for the top five conservative hosts in talk radio: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham and Michael Reagan. . . .

The page includes phone and fax numbers, plus a CapWiz e-mail form for broadcasting one message to all of the hosts with one click.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Keep The Internet Tax Free

From Citizens Against Government Waste:

Since the previous Internet tax moratorium expired last fall, the Senate has debated whether to continue that moratorium for two more years or establish a permanent ban on Internet access taxes. Continuing the moratorium only leaves the door open for eventual taxation. The House passed a permanent ban on Internet taxes in September, 2003, and it is critical for our nation's economic growth and the continued development of Internet technology for the Senate to do the same.

Senator George Allen (R-Va.) is sponsoring S. 150, the Internet Tax Non- discrimination Act, which would permanently ban taxes on Internet access services and prevent states or other local governments from imposing discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.

The Internet has become a vital part of our economy and keeping its use tax- free is essential for economic growth. Taxing Internet access services would hurt low-income Internet users, as well as many small businesses, and reward over- spending by state and local governments. Keeping the Internet tax-free will provide much-needed consumer and business confidence and help force the states to rein in wasteful spending.

Drag out your phone bill and take a look at the taxes slapped on by local, state and federal authorities. Now imagine those added to your Internet service bill. Ultimately the amounts would be higher of course, because the Net would be considered a "luxury," not a necessity like phone service.

Governments, like children, need limits. Now is the time to establish a ban on Internet taxes, before the bureaucrats develop any bad habits that will be tough to cure.

The alert links to a an e-mail utility which includes a sample message to your senators.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Throw Out The Trash TV, Part 3

Family News in Focus reports on the push for consumer choice in cable TV programming:

Members of the Senate Commerce Committee last week warned cable operators that new regulations may be in the offing unless consumers are allowed some input into lineup decisions -- and prices come down.

Some consumer groups want an "a la carte" option, which would let customers buy only the channels they want. Melissa Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Parents Television Council, said that's the best option available.

"Right now, there's an inherently unfair system," she said, "where parents are forced to pay for channels they not only don't want but that they find morally offensive."

. . . The Consumers Union said requiring cable operators to offer a la carte programming would unleash the power of the consumers' pocketbook -- which would, in turn, help lower costs, increase incentives for quality fare and give families the power to not pay for extra channels they find objectionable or too expensive.

The a la carte option is the best one for both consumers and the cable industry itself. For the industry, it curbs the trend toward government censorship. For consumers, it removes financial support for channels they find morally objectionable or just desperately dull. (Most basic cable channels fall into one of those two categories, unfortunately.) It was a dark day in my house when Adelphia removed the classic movies channel and gave us SoapNet instead. How about some good, old-fashioned free-market choices?

Quickly, while we have the Senate's attention, use our Take Action page to urge your senator to support an a la carte purchase option.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Victory for Unborn Victims of Violence

Focus on the Family's CitizenLink reports on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act's passage:

President Bush has pledged to quickly sign into law the bill classifying preborn children as victims in attacks on their mothers.

. . . Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James C. Dobson applauded those senators who voted to defend "the most innocent victims in our society."

"Today's vote affirms in law what is common sense to more than 80 percent of Americans," he said. "There are two victims in violent crimes committed against pregnant women."

Carrie Gordon Earll, bioethics analyst at Focus on the Family, said the bill's passage "helps to rectify the schizophrenia in our culture regarding the value of preborn life."

"Either young human life has value in our culture and is worth protecting," she said, "or it's not."

So now, federally speaking, if you're a fetus the only person who can legally murder you is, well, your mom.

OK, sorry. Too sarcastic. We should all rejoice that this bill passed, especially without the two poison pill amendments, one of which was voted down by only a one vote margin.

The full article has CapWiz links you can use to thank all of the senators who spoke on the Senate floor in defense of the unborn.

Some Analysis and Outrage:

Charles Krauthammer's searing rebuke of Richard Clarke is a must read.

Click here for reason number 10,042 why the U.S. should not want to become more like Europe.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Barbarians With Nuclear Weapons, Part 7
Topic: Nuclear Terrorism

From the LA Daily News:

North Korea rejects U.S. nuke demand

Saturday, March 27, 2004 - SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea on Saturday rejected a U.S. demand for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of its nuclear weapons programs, calling it a plot to start a war and overthrow the government.

. . . North Korea's state-run Radio Pyongyang, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, said Saturday that it would never accept the U.S. demand that it first dismantle its nuclear facilities.

"Complete nuclear dismantling is a plot to overthrow the North's socialist system after stripping it of its nuclear deterrent at no cost at all. 'Verifiable nuclear dismantling' reflects a U.S. intention to spy on our military capabilities before starting a war," it said.

"'Irreversible nuclear dismantling' is nothing other than a noose to stifle us after eradicating our peaceful nuclear-energy industry," it added.

North Korea says it will allow nuclear inspections and dismantle its atomic facilities only if the United States provides economic aid and written guarantees that U.S. forces will not invade.

The country also insists that it will keep a nuclear program for power generation.

Washington demands that North Korea first dismantle all its nuclear facilities, saying it has previously broken international agreements not to develop nuclear weapons in return for oil and other economic aid.

In a brilliant October 2003 essay, Gabriel Schoenfeld observed that "If Pakistan is a stick of dynamite, North Korea is a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse."

Today the instant question is: does the US have the political will to extinguish that fuse?

The CIA estimates Kim Jong Il now has enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons. If his nuclear ambitions remain unchecked, North Korea will soon produce dozens of nukes annually. It currently boasts a missile capable of hitting the US West Coast and is developing one able to reach any US city. Yet, even if its psychopath dictator in fear of massive retaliation elects to refrain from attacking the US, he likely will open a clandestine Nukes "R" Us outlet and sell to any rogue state or terrorist group.

Attempts at diplomacy and appeasement (most notably the Jimmy Carter-brokered Yongbyon Agreed Framework) have proved predictably disastrous. In October Schoenfeld observed that it would be "something of a miracle" if the six-nation negotiations succeeded, and recent developments confirm his prescience.

So, what to do? It is clear preemption, or at a minimum pervasive inspections under the credible threat of preemption, are the only reasonable strategies. Yet a preemptive strike against North Korean nuclear facilities would not be pretty.

In 1981 the Israelis destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor before it "went critical," killing only one person and creating no radioactive contamination. North Korean facilities, however, contain radioactive elements that would create some level of contamination when attacked. Moreover, some facilities are concealed deep inside mountains, making them difficult to destroy from the air with conventional munitions. And any attack would of course encompass only known facilities.

The US would certainly prevail in any resulting hostilities, but the price of extinguishing the "lit fuse" on North Korea would be extremely high. The price of allowing the fuse to burn to detonation would, however, be inestimably higher. As President Bush noted in a June 2002 address at West Point, the US

. . . can no longer solely rely on a reactive posture as we have in the past. The inability to deter a potential attacker, the immediacy of today's threats, and the magnitude of the potential harm that could be caused by our adversaries' choice of weapons, do not permit that option. We cannot let our enemies strike first.

In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul reminds all of us that we will one day "give an account" of our lives before God's judgment seat. I expect believers alive today will be asked the following question:

In the early 21st Century, when communists and Islamists joined forces in a [successful?] attempt to destroy Western civilization with nuclear weapons, what did you do to stop them?

Personally, I'd like to be able to give a good answer.

Our leaders will take bold action only if they are sure the electorate supports it. Use our Take Action page to inform President Bush and your representatives of your support for a preemptive strike against North Korean nuclear facilities, should the regime continue to reject demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Know Any Nascent Republicans?

Focus on the Family and CitizenLink recently launched a new project:

Voter Registration and Education Project Information Center

Come inside and discover the resources that will help you make a difference this Election Day.

This is a crucial year in the history of our country -- with a presidential election coming in November and dozens of other races for important positions at every level of government.

Every vote really will count -- as 2000's impossibly close battle for the White House proved. That's why Focus on the Family and CitizenLink have launched a Voter Registration and Education Project -- to spotlight the importance of participation in the electoral process and to help churches and individuals spread that message to others.

The center includes a CapWiz utility for creating a completed voter registration form, ready to mail. If you know any of the estimated four million Evangelicals who sat out the last presidential election, this would be the first place to send them.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Support the House Budget Committee Plan

An alert from the National Taxpayers Union:

Although NTU strongly supports a freeze in overall spending until Congress gets its fiscal house in order by making President Bush's tax cuts permanent and reducing the rapidly rising federal deficit, that option is unfortunately not being considered. President Bush proposed a budget for 2005 that would have increased federal spending by 5.65 percent over the already high 2004 numbers. The Senate Budget Committee then produced a budget that would have made it very difficult to keep most of the President's tax cut package in place, let alone make it permanent.

Fortunately, the House Budget Committee has approved a fiscally responsible budget that should be able to pass the Senate as well. The House budget would curb spending by ensuring that Congress must "pay" for expansion of Medicare or other "mandatory" programs by cutting spending elsewhere; it allows most of President Bush's tax cuts to be kept in place, it reduces the deficit faster than the President had proposed, it accounts for the $50 billion in funding needed for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it keeps a tighter lid on spending than the President's plan. Although the budget proposal still contains $2.4 trillion in spending -- a number that is far too high for taxpayers -- the spending caps and budget enforcement measures, also proposed by the House Budget Committee but contained in separate legislation, make this the best available option by far.

The alert includes a quick and easy e-mailing utility and sample message you can customize.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Foggy Bottom's Foggy Morality

FrontPage Magazine reports on another biased annual human rights report on Israel by the U.S. State Department:

Ever since the days when the Carter administration required that the U.S. oversee human rights policies and practices that remain an integral part of the policies of all nations abroad, the U.S. State Department has issued an annual country-by-country report to evaluate the human rights practices of nations throughout the world. By law, that annual report is submitted by the U.S. State Department to the U.S. Congress during the third week of the month of February.

. . . What has consistently characterized these reports has been the tendency of State to rely without question on the reports of left-wing Israeli political organizations. This year's report was no exception.

Why is the State Department unable to find the names of murdered Israeli children in their analysis titled "Country Report on Human Rights Practices, 2003--Israel," released on February 25, 2004? The report, put out to the U.S. and worldwide media, shows a significant bias against Israel and openly is in favor of Palestinians throughout its entire 50 pages.

Consider this, from the introduction, which sets the tone for the entire report:

"Since 1991, the Israelis and the Palestinians made repeated attempts at negotiating peace. Despite meetings between high-level Israeli and Palestinian officials, efforts to resolve the conflict yielded few results..."

Such a statement gives the distinct impression that both sides made equal effort. The reality, which is glossed over, is that during the course of the Oslo process, from 1993 to 2000, Israel met its obligations and turned over significant areas to the control of the Palestinian Authority, while the PA failed to meet its obligations. No less a participant than former President Clinton laid the blame for failure of the process squarely on PA President Arafat. Yet the State Department chooses not even to suggest that this might have been the case.

The article details many more misrepresentations, and is well worth reading in full.

The fog got particularly thick this week when State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the assassination of Hamas founder and "spiritual leader" Ahmed Yassin was "deeply troubling," would increase tensions in the region, and could make it harder to pursue peace in the Middle East.

What should be "deeply troubling" is Yassin's murderous record, which the Israel National News recounts:

[Yassin] oversaw a total of 425 attacks - including the Park Hotel Seder massacre - that killed 377 Israelis and wounded 2,076.

Among the worst Hamas attacks in the past 3.5 years of the Palestinian Authority-initiated Oslo War were the following ten, which ended the lives of a total of 186 people:

June 1, 2001 - Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, 21 killed - mostly new-immigrant teenagers from the former Soviet Union

Aug. 9, 2001 - Sbarro's Pizzeria in Jerusalem, 15 killed, including the parents and three children of the Schijveschuurder family

Dec. 2, 2001 - Haifa bus, 15 killed

March 27, 2002 - Park Hotel in the midst of the Passover Seder, 30 killed, including six husband-and-wife couples

March 31, 2002 - Matza Restaurant in Haifa, 15 killed, including two sets of a father and two children

May 7, 2002 - Rishon Letzion hall, 16 killed

June 18, 2002 - #32 bus from Gilo, Jerusalem, 19 killed

March 5, 2003 - #37 bus in Haifa, 15 killed

June 11, 2003 - #14 bus, Jerusalem, 17 killed

Aug. 19, 2003 - #2 bus from Western Wall, 23 killed, including a mother and baby; father and son; and four other children

To express opposition to the State Department's bias against Israel, contact the Department and Secretary of State Colin Powell here.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Engagement or Escape?

What, then, is the biblical basis for social concern? Why should Christians get involved? In the end there are only two possible attitudes which Christians can adopt towards the world: Escape and Engagement...'Escape' means turning our backs on the world in rejection, washing our hands of it...and steeling our hearts against its agonized cries for help. In contrast, 'engagement' means turning our faces towards the world in compassion, getting our hands dirty, sore and worn in its service, and feeling deep within us the stirring of the love of which cannot be contained....

If we truly love our neighbors, and because of their worth desire to serve them, we shall be concerned for their total welfare, the well-being of their soul, their body and their community. And our concern will lead to practical programmes.

-- John R. W. Stott, Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 1995), pp. 14, 19.

If you would you like your pastor to speak on the importance of civic involvement, or if you are a pastor who wants some help in developing a sermon on the subject, Focus on the Family's Parsonage.org site has a sermon outline developed by its Pastoral Ministries team:

Citizenship: Christians in the Public Square

Many Christian people want nothing to do with public life because it seems corrupt and dirty. Yet, is it possible that political life has degenerated because people with strong moral standards have shunned it? The Bible has some surprising messages for us about duty to our government. . . .

The Outline includes scripture references, quotations from prominent thinkers and a collection of interesting, relevant facts.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

FMA Hearing Alert

Focus on the Family's CitizenLink has issued an important alert on tomorrow's hearing on the Federal Marriage Amendment. I was unable to find a link to this on their website, so I'm reproducing the e-mail alert as I received it. (To use the referenced links, you'll need to cut and paste them into your browser's address window.)

**CITIZENLINK ACTION ALERT**

Your Calls, E-Mails Needed to Ensure Success of Tuesday's
FMA Hearing

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear
testimony Tuesday on the Federal Marriage Amendment -- but
your help is needed to ensure the hearing's success.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, will chair the session, the
third of its kind this congressional term, but his
conservative colleagues must attend, as well. The prior
two hearings did not include many conservative members of
the Judiciary Committee; that's a problem because
conservative voices are needed to ask witnesses questions
that will stress the importance and value of traditional
marriage. Without them, the weight of the evidence will
tip in favor of homosexual activists seeking to redefine
marriage to include same-sex couples.

Please contact -- regardless of the state you live in --
the conservative Judiciary Committee members below, by
phone first, and then by fax and e-mail, and urge them to
attend tomorrow's hearing on the Federal Marriage
Amendment. Also urge them to support the FMA, as
introduced by Sen. Wayne Allard, and to prepare questions
for the witnesses and statements in support of the
amendment.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah
Phone: 202-224-5251
Fax: 202 224-6331
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=586

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa
Phone: 202-224-3744
Fax: 202-224-6020
E-Mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=248

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Phone: 202-224-4521
Fax: 202-224-2207
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=203

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio
Phone: 202-224-2315
Fax: 202-224-6519
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=456

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
Phone: 202-224-4124
Fax: 202-224-3149
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=269

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Phone: 202-224-5972
Fax: 202-224-1189
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=531

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho
Phone: 202-224-2752
Fax: 202-228-1067
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=206

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
Phone: 202-224-3521
Fax: 202-224-0103
E-mail: http://capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=197

Chinese to Order Out . . . to Europe

Think Islamist barbarians with nuclear weapons pose the only existential threat to Western civilization? Think again.

Last week Charles Krauthammer opined on the danger of a European surrender to al Qaeda, and now the Heritage Foundation warns of more European Union treachery against the US, but this time in alliance with a different enemy:

Washington Must Head Off European Arms Sales to China

Recent moves to lift the European Union (EU) embargo on arms sales to China have caused consternation on both sides of the Atlantic, and Washington should be more concerned about it than it appears to be. Under pressure from France and Germany, EU leaders will likely lift the arms embargo at the March 25-26 summit in Brussels, although some EU member nations have expressed concerns over human rights in China and China's policy toward Taiwan.

The EU members need to ask two questions: Which country is the most likely adversary against which China would employ advanced European military systems, and have the conditions that justified imposing the EU ban changed significantly?

. . . Press commentary in Europe charged that President Chirac's drive to ease sanctions was motivated not only by the prospect of commercial sales, but also by Chirac's hope of drawing China into strategic multipolar alliance with the EU to counter American hegemony.

. . . China is most likely to use advanced weaponry from European defense firms against the United States. (China's existing arsenal is already sufficient to take on Taiwan and more than enough to meet any other security threat on its borders.) China's acquisition of European arms, therefore, should be a matter of the gravest national concern in Washington.

China's $65 billion defense budget is the second largest in the world after the U.S., and China is aggressively modernizing its military to increase combat capability. It seeks to acquire the most modern military technology available, including French Mirage fighter jets and German stealth submarines.

The author recommends the Administration take the following steps to protest the impending European action:

Reminding the EU why the embargo exists,

Pointing out that lifting the embargo could threaten U.S. forces and could be interpreted as an unfriendly act, and

Excluding from defense technology cooperation those companies that sell arms to China.

Use our Take Action page to urge the President and congress to do so.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Slice Some Pork From The Transportation Bill

Another Taxpayer Action Alert from Citizens Against Government Waste:

We need your help today to stop the House of Representatives from enacting a pork-laden, budget-busting transportation bill!

President Bush requested $256 billion in transportation spending in his fiscal 2005 budget, but the House is considering passing a six-year surface transportation bill that would cost as much as $375 billion--and include an increase in the federal gas tax! . . . [T]ell your U.S. Representative today to display fiscal responsibility and stick to the President's original $256 billion proposal.

The Senate has already passed a $318 billion transportation bill that, among other things, would adjust the tax code to increase revenue--in clear violation of the President's requirements that any highway bill under consideration should not increase taxes or add to the deficit, or resort to accounting gimmicks that hide its true costs.

Now, we must hold the line in the House.

Transportation bills have traditionally been vehicles for Members of Congress to bring home the bacon, and many lawmakers are squealing at the spending restraints imposed by the President. But with the nation facing a $521 billion deficit this year, taxpayers simply can't afford any more special-interest projects. What's more increasing the gas tax, which currently stands at 18.4 cents per gallon, at a time of record-high gas prices will only strain the economy and punish hard-working taxpayers.

Click here to tell your U.S. Representative to exercise fiscal restraint and oppose any transportation bill that exceeds the President's budget request. Transportation lobbyists and their allies in the House will not give up easily on passing a transportation bill that will bust the budget with special interest earmarks. Please act today!

Bonus Links:

For another in the series of great moments in public education, click here .

If you haven't already read Charles Krauthammer's speech to the American Enterprise Institute on Democratic Realism, do!

Recently, Brent Bozell had some poignant fun with critics of The Passion.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

A New Attack on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act

Family News in Focus reports on what are now two attempts to attach a poison pill amendment to the Unborn Victims of Violence Act:

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is likely to come up for a vote in the Senate next week, and it's still anybody's guess what final form it will take by the time that happens.

That's because liberal senators, while promising not to filibuster the legislation, are expected to introduce a pair of amendments that would water it down. One comes from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and would remove the bill's key provision -- classifying a preborn child as a victim in an attack on his or her mother. Feinstein's proposal would merely increase penalties in such attacks -- while not recognizing the child in the womb as a separate victim.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, said what Feinstein hopes to do runs counter to what Americans want done.

"We believe, and over 80 percent of the public believes, that that criminal is claiming two victims, the mother and the unborn child," he explained. "So there's a great fundamental divide between the Feinstein amendment and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act."

The other provision liberals hope to add to the bill has been offered by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. It is an attempt to promote domestic violence programs by requiring employers to spend millions on them, and it does so by spelling out 157 pages of procedural issues.

"This huge bill is being offered as an amendment only for the purpose of trying to mire the Unborn Victims bill in a host of unrelated issues and to get it into a procedural dead end," Johnson said. "Therefore, we regard a vote for the Murray Amendment as a vote to kill the bill."

Jayd Henricks, director of congressional relations for the Family Research Council, said the votes on the amendments are going to be close.

The article contains a link to the CitizenLink Action Center where you can ask your senators to vote for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act but against the Feinstein and Murray amendments.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Important California Legislation

The Traditional Values Coalition, which can at times be a little, well, shall we say, strident in their social conservatism rhetoric nonetheless has some interesting coverage of pending bills in the California legislature. Here's two noteworthy ones involving parental consent:

AB 1925 (by Assemblyman Ray Haynes-- R):

AB 1925 is a bill directly sponsored by Traditional Values Coalition. This bill is a result of our last sponsored bill from last session, AB 950.

AB 1925 would require that schools first notify and get parental permission prior to guest speakers or organizations addressing students on HIV/AIDS education.

You may recall that Senate Bill 71 was signed into law and took effect January 1, 2004 and it removed from law four parental rights provisions regarding schools and education. Our first attempt to restore those provisions back into law was through AB 950, which was killed by the Assembly Education Committee back on January 7th. AB 1925 seeks to restore the one deleted provision we mentioned above.

Currently, schools are only required to notify parents about sex Ed teachings and curriculum once at the beginning of the school year. Parents can then choose to remove their child from such teachings if they wish, but it is the duty of the parent to put that request in writing. The burden is on the parents to pro-actively review the schools sex-ed curriculum and voluntarily remove their children from questionable teachings.

But while the curriculum must be set in stone at the beginning of the year for parents to review should they wish, the issue involving a guest speaker or outside organization coming into the classroom to talk about HIV/AIDS and sexual issues is left unresolved now.

Schools no longer have to notify parents about who comes into the classroom to give lectures, show films or talk about sexual issues. AB 1925 seeks to force schools to give parents fair notice before speakers and organizations address their child in the classroom.

AB 1925 is currently in the Assembly Education Committee and may be heard on March 31st.

SB 1221 (by Senator Bill Morrow--R):

SB 1221 is another well-deserved, common sense bill aimed at restoring parental consent in the schools.

Currently, schools are allowed to remove a child from school to seek and obtain confidential medical services and counseling without parental knowledge. The only notification the schools are required by law to give is the simple statement at the beginning of the year that their child can be removed for medical services if the child requests it. There no is right for parents to object or even be informed of their child's actions.

TVC's good friend, Senator Bill Morrow of Oceanside, is seeking to reverse this absurd trampling of parental discretion.

SB 1221 would require schools to "attempt to notify the pupil's parent or guardian of the absence."

Senator Morrow's bill is yet another attempt to restore into law common sense parental rights provisions that have been eroded over time by the liberal legislature.

SB 1221 is currently assigned to the Senate Education Committee, however no hearing date has been set.

The page for this and several other bills has comprehensive links for contacting the various legislators and committees.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

High Ratings for The Waltons

No, not Mama, Daddy, John-Boy, Mary-Ellen and the rest of the brood. We're talking Helen, Alice, Jim, John and Rob-- heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune. USA Today reports:

Wal-Mart's founders transformed U.S. business. Now they are taking on a very different subject: the nation's public schools. The Waltons -- the USA's richest family -- have quietly become top philanthropists in education reform, including controversial charter-school and school-voucher causes.

. . . [T]he Waltons' giving could soar to as much as $1 billion a year as they shift more riches to charity. How much more? John Walton, one of founder Sam Walton's four children, says the family expects to donate as much as 20% of its $100 billion in Wal-Mart stock.

The shift could spur far-reaching education reform, say experts on philanthropy and education. "That could totally transform public education in this country. It's a mighty thumb on the scale," says Chuck Collins, co-founder of Responsible Wealth, a group critical of the influence of the megarich.

. . . Allies say the family's giving is injecting competition between public and private schools that will produce better-educated children, and so reduce unemployment, crime and other social ills. . . .

The education oligarchy's apparatchiks are in agony over this of course:

Critics say the Waltons could . . . weaken public schools by encouraging the flow of tax dollars to less-regulated charter schools and to religious and other private schools through vouchers. The prospect of the Walton billions is "alarming," says Marc Egan, head of anti-voucher efforts at the National School Boards Association.

Critics, such as People for the American Way, say charter schools are sometimes weaker than public schools because they are less regulated in areas such as student testing and teacher certification.

. . . [John] Walton says critics of vouchers and other "school-choice" programs aren't paying enough attention to dropout rates among inner-city high school students.

"They're choosing the streets over a school that apparently doesn't work for them," Walton says. "If choice destroys the public system, then why are we so sanguine about the choices those kids make?"

To express your appreciation for his family's efforts to bring free-market competition to the scandal that is the public schools system, contact John T. Walton at this address:

John T. Walton, Director
c/oWal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

I used the opportunity to also put in a good word for charitable giving in support of home schooling, which growing evidence indicates is the best environment for educating happy and successful citizens.

Update: And here's a new article with some of that evidence.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Support Lifetime Savings Accounts and Retirement Savings Accounts

From Americans for Tax Reform:

LSAs and RSAs can allow more Americans to save more tax- free!

In President Bush's budget proposal, he's asking that new LSAs be allowed to be used for any type of savings, allow an individual to contribute up to $5,000 a year and make penalty-free withdrawals at any time. Participants will be able to save for any purpose without being double-taxed on savings, including for their children's education, home purchasing, healthcare needs, or to start their own business. Retirement Savings Accounts, or RSAs, will allow individuals to contribute up to $5,000 a year (in addition to the amounts contributed to an LSA) and works like a Roth IRA. The proposal greatly simplifies existing IRA rules, which will encourage more savings and hence be used to supplement social security and labor earnings in retirement.

The double tax on savings coupled with complex rules has led to a significant decline in America's personal savings rate. Removing the discriminatory double tax on savings and simplifying the existing rules will increase the number of savers, enhance the personal savings of working families, and bolster the productive capacity of America's economy. With the economic expansion set to take off, it is imperative that Congress immediately pass this proposal to ensure families can save throughout the entire expansion.

The ATR Action Alert has a Capwiz utility with a sample message you can customize to send an e-mail or print a hard copy letter.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

Intolerance of Parental Rights

Family News in Focus reports on the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) effort to usurp parental authority and propagandize in public schools:

. . . The public school activist arm of the homosexual community recently published a curriculum called "At Issue: Marriage," available as a free download off of its Web site for use in public school classrooms. The curriculum presents a biased, extreme activist view of marriage, proposing radical views that leave only one conclusion for students and teachers to reach: same-sex marriage must be instituted.

Even more disturbing than the conclusion the curriculum promotes, though, is the assumption its writers make about the role of parents in the education process. The curriculum guide starts by quoting an ad placed by conservative readers in the largest newspaper in Iowa. It read:

"When educators subject students to politicized lessons about homosexuality, they infringe upon the rights of parents to provide moral instruction to their children. I pledge, therefore, to oppose the promotion of homosexuality as normative in America's public schools, recognizing that this issue is best discussed at home."

The first sentence of the curriculum, following right after the quote above, reads: "It was a dispiriting moment when Iowa's largest newspaper printed this statement . . . calling upon Presidential candidates to pledge their opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality." The next statement is stunning: "Though the pledge reflects a decidedly anti-gay stance on a wide range of LGBT civil rights issues, the real danger exists in its underlying affront to democracy." Let's be clear. What the GLSEN curriculum writers are saying here is that they expect to have access to influence our children in the name of democracy.

But what exactly is democratic about circumventing state's curriculum approval processes by issuing this propaganda directly to teachers via the Internet? And make no mistake, "At Issue: Marriage" is pure propaganda. It is revisionist in its presentation of the civil rights movement. It is poor sociology -- statistics are inaccurate and anecdotal, and conclusions are made with no reference to what most researchers are finding on the dangerous experiment that same-sex families is to children.

. . . It's clear from this curriculum that GLSEN understands -- perhaps better than we Christians do -- that this is a battle for our children. The authors smugly note, in discussing Proposition 22 in California, which defined marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman, that "Every march for equality is three steps forward and one step backward, and this is a step backward. But the vast majority of voters under 40 voted against the initiative. This is a generational issue. We're patient."

This effort is another example of how the gay agenda has transitioned from seeking tolerance to an aggressive campaign of demanding forced acceptance and celebration of a lifestyle incompatible with traditional Judeo-Christian teaching.

It's sort of an education version of the Left's popular strategy of legislating from the judicial bench. Someone is going to vote on whether same-sex marriage will be the law of the land. The question is whether the vote will be cast by a handful of judges or by all the American people through their legislators. The people overwhelmingly oppose same-sex marriage, therefore its proponents, who know what is "right" for all of us, are attempting to usurp the process by judicial fiat.

In this instance, GLSEN knows what is "right" for your children, and your assertion of parental rights is undemocratic and anti-"civil rights." Parents teaching "wrong" values to their own children will not be tolerated.

Focus on the Family asks readers to take action by writing their local school districts and voicing opposition to use of the GLSEN curriculum. The article also includes links to an opinion survey and other articles from the Focus on Social Issues website.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)

A Spending-Slashing Budget Resolution

An alert from Citizens Against Government Waste:

The U.S. House of Representatives is right now beginning consideration of the fiscal 2005 Federal Budget. House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) has proposed a budget resolution that would halve the budget deficit in four years by freezing non-defense, discretionary spending at fiscal 2004 levels and banning earmarks for pork-barrel projects for one year.

. . . Nussle's fiscal 2005 budget resolution . . . would hold the line on spending, avoid new tax increases, and make the recently passed tax cuts permanent.

Prohibiting any pork-barrel spending, new entitlements, and budget waivers and freezing or cutting spending on government programs wherever possible are not just prudent, but essential measures to restore fiscal discipline in Washington and eliminate the tide of red ink.

The CAGW have set up a handy e-mail utility here, complete with a sample letter you can customize.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)