The Pro-Abortion Feminist Scouts

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

Back in February, Hans Zeiger penned a great piece on the Girl Scouts' transformation into what he termed "a pro-abortion, feminist training corps." Recently the Family Research Council set up a CapWiz action alert focusing on the Girl Scouts' relationship with Planned Parenthood and the distribution of sexually explicit materials to girls as young as ten:

Over the past few weeks, parents have been furious after learning of a cozy alliance between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest provider of abortions.

The Girl Scouts have been giving their seal of approval to an explicit sex ed pamphlet, distributed by Planned Parenthood, to children as young as 10 years-old. The literature includes information on masturbation as well as diagrams of adults having sex and a boy putting on a condom.

Planned Parenthood is not only the nation's most prolific provider of abortions, they are inundating young children with graphic information about sex that has no place in the hands of a 10 year-old. Fifth-grade girls do not need Planned Parenthood telling them about sex, condoms and diseases.

Send an email to Girl Scouts' CEO Kathy Cloninger and tell her to end the Girl Scouts-Planned Parenthood alliance!

STOPP International also has a page to help you contact your local Girl Scout council to determine if it has a relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Punditry and News

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

Charles Krauthammer exposes John Kerry as a man with no plan: Going Back to the UN? For What?:

No one can understand how, with the president being pummeled daily on the front pages by Richard Clarke, the Sept. 11 hearings, the Woodward book, and the eruption of Iraq into open warfare again, Bush nonetheless has gained over Kerry on the issue of national security.

The answer is simple: Americans are a serious people, war is a serious business, and what John Kerry is offering is simply not serious. Americans may be unsure whether Bush has a plan for success in Iraq. But they sure as hell know that going to U.N. headquarters, visiting foreign capitals and promising lots of jaw-jaw is no plan at all.

The "This is London" section of the Evening Standard takes a revealing -- and revolting -- look at Terror On The Dole:

Four young British Muslims in their twenties - a social worker, an IT specialist, a security guard and a financial adviser - occupy a table at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Luton. Perched on their plastic chairs, wolfing down their dinner, they seem just ordinary young men. Yet out of their mouths pour heated words of revolution. "As far as I'm concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the better," says Abdul Haq, the social worker. "I know it's going to happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey, like Madrid - I pray for it, I look forward to the day."

"Pass the brown sauce, brother," says Abu Malaahim, the IT specialist, devouring his chicken and chips. "I agree with you, brother," says Abu Yusuf, the earnest-looking financial adviser sitting opposite. "I would like to see the Mujahideen coming into London and killing thousands, whether with nuclear weapons or germ warfare. And if they need a safehouse, they can stay in mine - and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb], I'll tell them where to get it."

Oppose California A.B. 1967

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

The Campaign for California Families has set up a comprehensive "take action page" for opposing California A.B. 1967:

April 20, 2004: Today, at an early morning hearing at the State Capitol in Sacramento, the Assembly Judiciary Committee passed AB 1967, which would create full-blown homosexual "marriage" and reject 4.6 million Californians who voted for Proposition 22, the Protection of Marriage Initiative, just four years ago. AB 1967 advances to the Appropriations Committee.

The vote in the Democrat-controlled committee was 8 to 3 to pass the "gay marriage" bill. Voting "yes" on AB 1967 were all 8 Democrats present, including four Democrats who are termed-out of office: Ellen Corbett of San Leandro (chair), Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, John Laird of Santa Cruz, Lloyd Levine of Van Nuys, Sally Lieber of San Jose, John Longville of San Bernardino, Cindy Montanez of San Fernando, and Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento. Democrat Loni Hancock of Berkeley was absent. Voting "no" on AB 1967 were all three Republicans on the committee: Tom Harman of Huntington Beach, Patricia Bates of Laguna Niguel, and Ken Maddox of Costa Mesa.

Testifying against AB 1967 in the 90-minute hearing were representatives from Campaign for California Families, Traditional Values Coalition, Capitol Resource Institute, Responsible Citizens, and the California Catholic Conference.

Randy Thomasson, Executive Director of Campaign for California Families, was questioned by and sparred with pro-homosexual-marriage Democrats Darryl Steinberg and Lloyd Levine. Holding up a blue-and-yellow Proposition 22 yard sign to remind the committee that 61.4 percent of Californians voted in March 2000 to demand marriage be protected, Thomasson told the committee, "AB 1967 is illegal, unconstitutional and immoral. This bill turns marriage upside down and utterly rejects the vote of the people to protect marriage for a man and a woman. This should have never been introduced or even had a hearing. AB 1967 is corrupt and any legislator who votes for AB 1967 is corrupt too."

The Alert has all the information necessary to call, fax, e-mail or snail mail every California legislator, each legislator on the Assembly Judiciary Committee, the Assembly Speaker and Governor Schwarzenegger.

Support The Troops Central

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

The Department of Defense's DefendAmerica.mil site has a page aggregating the various military support programs:

How You Can Help

Thousands of Americans are asking what they can do to show their support for service members, especially those serving overseas in this time of war.

Listed here are Web sites for several organizations that are sponsoring programs for members of the armed forces overseas. While it would be inappropriate for the Defense Department to endorse any specifically, service members do value and appreciate this support.

The page includes a nice collection of organizations worthy of your time and financial contributions. At a minimum, be sure to add your electronic signature to the thank you note to the troops.


Quality Punditry

More fine Dennis Prager analysis: People Are Beautiful, The World Stinks

News

A warning from Family News in Focus: Hollywood Readies Liberal Film Blitz

A least there is a new weapon for parents who want to keep graphic violence, sexual content and objectionable language off their TV screens: ClearPlay. Too bad it doesn't filter out left-wing propaganda.

California Gas Tax Hike

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

Bad news for Californians from the National Taxpayers Union:

. . . [S]ome members of the California Legislature are seeking to add yet another ten cents per gallon by raising your gas taxes. That's a 55.5% increase in the taxes you currently pay. Of course, when the measure is debated on the floor of the Legislature, they could decide to increase the tax even more!

The politicians in Sacramento claim that they need more of your money to pay for transportation needs, which should have been funded under the terms of Proposition 42. Proposition 42, enacted through referendum in March 2002, sets aside a special transportation account which is supposedly funded from the present 18 cents per gallon tax.

Unfortunately for you and other California motorists, the Legislature concealed an escape clause in Proposition 42's fine print. Upon recommendation of the Governor and a 2/3 vote of both houses, Proposition 42's requirements can be suspended and the gasoline tax monies collected can be diverted into the General Fund. Former Governor Gray Davis proposed, and both Houses approved, a partial suspension of Proposition 42 in the two years since the measure was enacted.

State Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) is the proponent and driving force behind the new gas tax hike. He claims that nine of the ten cents collected will be used to build and maintain highways and city streets, while the remaining penny will be used for transportation-related environmental air impact programs.

But you and I know better. With the pols in Sacramento continually raiding voter-established transportation funds, you're still stuck in traffic jams while they claim they don't have enough money to solve the problems that they've made worse... Give them even more money and they'll simply waste that, too.

The NTU has set up an online petition, and you can also contact your California state legislators at the using the following links:

For All Assembly Members Websites and Emails please go to: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

To find your Assembly Member or Senator directly click this link and then enter your zip code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

New Nukes
Topic: Nuclear Terrorism

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

The Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com reports on canny analysis by the Defense Science Board:

Rethinking Armageddon - The Case for Low-Yield Nukes

No one likes to consider the possibility of nuclear war. But somebody's got to do it, and that sober duty fell recently to a special task force of the Defense Science Board, which has just recommended useful changes to the U.S. strategic arsenal to fit our post-September 11 world.

First we should note what the task force does not want to change--the high threshold for use of nuclear weapons. "It is, and will likely remain, American policy to keep the nuclear threshold high and to pursue non-nuclear attack options whenever possible. Nothing in our assessment or recommendations seeks to change that goal," the panel writes. "Nevertheless, in extreme circumstances, the president may have no choice but to turn to nuclear options."

The scenarios the task force envisions aren't, regrettably, all that extreme. High on the list would be eliminating an enemy's weapons of mass destruction before it has a chance to use them on us. (Think rogue states and assorted terrorist groups.) Or removing an adversary's regime while saving a country (North Korea). Or ending a WMD war quickly (India-Pakistan).

The task force argues that we need a better nuclear doctrine than the mutually assured destruction, or MAD, of the Cold War. Current plans to refurbish the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons from the 1970s and '80s "will not meet the country's future needs," the report says. Large, high-fallout nuclear weapons designed to obliterate cities won't deter terrorists who might doubt that a President would use them in response to an attack.

Rather, the task force wants to see the U.S. nuclear arsenal expanded to include more precise, lower-yield weapons--especially those that could penetrate targets buried deep underground where conventional weapons can't reach. The idea is to give a President the option of incinerating enemy weapons, leaders and command-and-control systems with as little damage as possible to civilians. Having the option of highly precise nuclear weapons with greatly reduced radioactivity would also make the threat of their use more believable to terrorists contemplating attacks on the U.S. or allies.

WSJ notes there are critics in Congress who deem any proposed change in nuclear policy provocative, and who are already on record as opposing the Bush Administration's push for development of new, low-yield nuclear weapons. That these new weapons are designed to save innocent lives doesn't seem to impress them. Use our Take Action page to ask your elected representatives for their position on the Board's recommendations.

H.R. 2671 - The CLEAR Act

(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)

Agape Press reports on important immigration reform legislation:

Proposed Bill Lets Local Police In on Enforcing Immigration Law

A Colorado congressman says it's time to stop playing politics, pointing fingers, and passing the buck when it comes to addressing the illegal alien crisis. The Republican lawmaker wants to see state and local law enforcement agencies do more to help address the situation.

Congressman Tom Tancredo, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, says the United States should not be in the business of "in-sourcing" criminals. That is why he is working hard on a bill called the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act of 2003, or the CLEAR Act.

The representative from Colorado says the CLEAR Act, which was introduced last year to address the illegal alien problem, is gaining momentum in Congress. He feels the bill, if passed, would make it clear that state and local law enforcement agencies have jurisdictional authority to enforce the law.

While the U.S. Border Patrol reports it has a workforce of 9,500, Tancredo says there are only about 2,000 Border Patrol agents in the United States. "That means at any given time, you've got about 650 people on the job throughout the nation, pitted up against the 15 million people who are here illegally and the 500,000 that are already convicted felons who have walked away from the courtroom," he says. . . .

The proposed CLEAR Act would mandate that state and local police investigate and enforce civil immigration laws, and authorize them to investigate, apprehend, detain or remove aliens in the U.S., including transporting them across state lines to detention centers.

The bill currently has 120 cosponsors. Use our Take Action page to make sure your representative is one of them. For more on the threat of open borders in a time of terror, see our March 3, January 23 and January 8 entries.

Federal Non-Discrimination Policy - Race, Religion, . . . Sexual Practices?

The latest alert from the Family Research Council focuses on an under-publicized, unhealthy instance of mission creep in federal policy:

"Sexual Orientation" Should Not Be a Protected Class

During the previous administration, President Clinton issued an executive order making "sexual orientation" a protected class in the federal government's discrimination policy. Clinton's order went way beyond any act of Congress or U.S. law and raised "sexual orientation" to the level of race and religion. This was clearly a move to satisfy the homosexual political lobby.

When Scott Bloch took over as new head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for the Bush Administration, he accurately pointed out that "sexual orientation" is not a protected class and directed the OSC to start removing the Clinton-imposed regulation from federal documents.

However, the current White House didn't have the stomach for the public relations battle that would likely ensue. The homosexual lobby began putting pressure on Bloch and eventually forced him to retreat.

Send the White House an email today, and tell them to drop "sexual orientation" from the list of protected classes.

You can find this alert, plus a list of all the Family Research Council alerts here. All include the handy CapWiz form for communicating with the relevant elected officials.


Quality Punditry

Charles Krauthammer offers a workable plan in Iraq is Vietnam not on the ground, but in our heads:

The first George Bush once said he thought the Gulf War would cure America of the Vietnam syndrome. He was wrong. There is no cure for the Vietnam syndrome. It will only go away when the baby-boom generation does, dying off like the Israelites in the desert, allowing a new generation, cleansed of the memories and the guilt, to look at the world clearly once again.

It was inevitable that Iraq would be compared to Vietnam. Indeed, the current comparisons are hardly new. During our astonishingly fast dash to Baghdad, taking the capital within 21 days, the chorus of naysayers was already calling Iraq a quagmire on Day 8! It was not Vietnam then. It is not Vietnam now. . . .

This is no time for despair. We must put down the two rebellions -- Fallujah's and Sadr's -- to demonstrate our seriousness, then transfer power as quickly as we can to those who will inherit it anyway, the Shiite majority with its long history of religious quietism and wariness of Iran. And antagonism toward their former Sunni oppressors. If the Sunnis continue to resist and carry on a civil war, it will then be up to the Shiites to fight it, not for Americans to do it on their behalf.

Hardly the best of all possible worlds. But it is a world we could live with.

The Heritage Foundation has an interesting analysis of How Washington Spends Your Taxes.

(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.)

More on California AB 1925

A TVC alert:

AB 1925 UPDATE: VOTE EXTENDED TO APRIL 16th!!

AB 1925 MAY BE THE TARGET OF LAST MINUTE EFFORT TO KILL OUR BILL!!!

PHONE CALLS, EMAILS AND FAXES ARE A MUST TO ENSURE AB 1925 PASSES THE STATE ASSEMBLY!!

DUE TO LAST MINUTE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE LEGISLATURE AND GOV. SCHWARZENNEGER ON WORKER'S COMP REFORM, THE SCHEDULED VOTE FOR OTHER BILLS HAS BEEN MOVED TO FRIDAY, APRIL 16th!!
WE NOW HAVE ONE MORE DAY TO FLOOD THE CAPITOL WITH PHONE CALLS, FAXES AND EMAILS IN SUPPORT OF AB 1925.

AB 1925 NEEDS A WAVE OF PUBLIC SUPPORT TO ENSURE IT PASSES THE STATE ASSEMBLY!!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE TVC ALERT:

http://capwiz.com/traditional/issues/alert/?alertid=5526446

YOUR ACTION IS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY
Thank you and God bless!

While TVC's "We WILL stop others from harming themselves" rhetoric grates against my sort-of-libertarian leanings, I do like some of the bills they sponsor. This is one of them.

Bias

The White House correspondents ought to offer a Richard Clarke-like apology to the nation for their behavior at President Bush's April 13 press conference, but don't hold your breath waiting for it. It was as if the president were being questioned by the Committee to Elect John Kerry, and for all practical purposes, it was. Fully nine of the 15 questions were attempts to harvest a sound bite of Bush admitting failure, either as to Iraq or 9-11. The offenders included reporters from the New York Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, Time Magazine, the AP and, of course, NPR.

The media research center summarized it this way:

White House Press Pound Bush to Admit Errors, Apologize for 9/11

At Tuesday night's presidential news conference, White House corespondents for major national news outlets pounded away at President Bush in an effort to get him to identify errors he's made either before 9/11 or in going to war in Iraq, and urged him to follow Dick Clarke's lead and apologize for the September 11 terrorist attacks. New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller delivered the most obnoxious question of the evening, demanding in an accusatory manner: "Do you feel any sense of personal responsibility for September 11th?" Similarly, John Roberts of CBS News recalled how Clarke offered "an unequivocal apology to the American people for failing them prior to 9/11" and queried Bush: "Do you believe the American people deserve a similar apology from you, and would you be prepared to give them one?"

If you would like to call the news outlets on the carpet for their blatant partisan bias in questioning President Bush, the Media Research Center has a comprehensive database of news and media contact information, available 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.)

California's AB 1925

California's parental rights education bill is to be voted on by the full assembly on April 15. Traditional Values Coalition lobbyist Ben Lopez reports:

AB 1925 NEEDS A WAVE OF PUBLIC SUPPORT TO ENSURE IT PASSES THE STATE ASSEMBLY!!

Currently, I am in Sacramento at the State Capitol testifying and lobbying on a variety of critical bills. However, I have been privately briefed about a potential effort from some liberal Democrats in the Assembly to kill our bill, stopping the progress we made on AB 1925.
You may recall that we reported last week that AB 1925 passed the Assembly Education Committee on March 31st. Ten of the 11 members of the committee voted for our parental rights bill. We were successful in getting 7 liberal Democrats, including Committee Chair Jackie Goldberg (a lesbian and Democrat from Los Angeles) to support of our bill. Unfortunately because the bill received one no vote in Committee, AB 1925 will not be placed on the Assembly's consent file but rather must now go through a formal debate and vote by the entire Assembly.

Because of this, some of the more liberal Democrats will likely conduct debate against the bill. Attempts to even amend the bill to change it might even be attempted. We cannot let this happen!
A lot of time and negotiating went into passing AB 1925 from the Education Committee. 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.

At the suggestion and promise of committee Chair Jackie Goldberg, I spent weeks working with Goldberg's staff, Senator Sheila Kuehl's staff (Kuehl wrote SB 71) and aides from Assemblyman Ray Haynes office on language that would give us what we were asking for and the votes needed to pass our bill. An agreement was reached which resulted in groups like the ACLU removing their opposition to our bill and got the votes of 7 liberal Democrats on the committee who had voted against our first bill AB 950 but now voted for AB 1925. This agreement must be respected by all other Democrats in the Assembly.

If all 32 Republicans support our bill being carried by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, and the same 7 Democrats who voted for the bill in the Committee vote for it on the floor as well, we will have 39 votes. It takes 41 to pass bills from the entire Assembly so they can move to the Senate. That is why we need you to contact your Assembly Member without delay.

I am personally meeting with as many staff members, legislative directors and Chiefs of Staffs of Assembly Democrats in an effort to get the votes we need to pass AB 1925. But I need you to help me and reinforce the work I am doing her on your behalf.

AB 1925 would still require that schools first notify parents at the beginning of the school year identifying guest speakers or organizations coming into the classroom to address students on HIV/AIDS education and related sexual issues. The notice must list the name of the speaker and the group they are affiliated with. If the school changes the speakers after the start of the school year, they must inform parents of the change no less than 14 days prior to give parents a chance to remove their child from the lecture or assembly.

Remember, schools currently do not have to notify parents about who comes into the classroom to give lectures, show films or talk about sexual issues. AB 1925 seeks to have schools give parents fair notice before speakers and organizations address their child in the classroom.

TVC needs your help in ensuring AB 1925 passes. This is a vital and simple measure that must be restored into law.

Please do not assume others will act for you. We need YOU to take action without delay.
This is a battle we can win. I just need you to support our direct efforts here in the Capitol. Please take action today.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!
SPECIAL ACTION TO TAKE TODAY!!!

For All Assembly Members Websites and Emails please go to: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

To find your Assembly Member directly click this link and then enter your zip code:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

TVC also has a CapWiz form for the bill here.

To sign up for California TVC action alerts or to receive the complete AB 1925 alert, which includes fax and phone numbers for the relevant legislators, contact Ben Lopez at blopez@traditionalvalues.org.

(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.)

The "Support The Troops" Project

Freedom Alliance is offering a way to express tangibly your thanks to the troops:

Last year on Veteran's Day, we had more reason to reflect on the bravery of our soldiers and their families than ever before. Historically, we remembered them with parades and ceremonies, but Freedom Alliance, which honors and encourages military service, launched "Support the Troops," and asked Americans to remember our vets particularly the active duty injured soldiers by sending donations of phone cards, gift certificates and magazines to the Freedom Alliance headquarters in Dulles, VA.

"We had the opportunity to tour the amputee facility of Walter Reed Hospital, and while there was no doubt in our minds that these soldiers were receiving fantastic treatment, it was obvious that donations were needed," said Tom Kilgannon, President of Freedom Alliance. "While America has pledged to 'never forget' what our heroic soldiers, firefighters and police did on 9/11, many are unaware of the injuries sustained in Afghanistan and Iraq since then."

A news article was published (November, 2003) that said all but 20 of the 250 beds at Walter Reed were taken up with casualties of the war. Fifty of them had lost limbs, often more than one. The newspaper also said that during the course of the Iraq War, more than 1,875 U.S. soldiers received treatment at Walter Reed, which works out to an average of about 10 a day, 300 a month.

We are currently collecting:

Phone Cards: Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital are from all over the United States, and Walter Reed staff says phone cards are always needed and appreciated.

Clothing Gift Certificates: Many soldiers are admitted with only the clothes on their backs. Please send certificates to clothing stores such as Old Navy or national department stores volunteers will shop for the wounded troops.

Cash Donations are also accepted and are used to meet the special needs of our service members.

Thank you in advance for your support of our men and women in uniform.

You can mail your contribution to:

Freedom Alliance
Support the Troops Campaign
22570 Markey Court, Suite 240
Dulles, VA 20166-6919

Quality Punditry:

Still another superb Victor Davis Hanson piece: The Fruits of Appeasement

Imagine a different November 4, 1979, in Teheran. Shortly after Iranian terrorists storm the American embassy and take some 90 American hostages, President Jimmy Carter announces that Islamic fundamentalism is not a legitimate response to the excess of the Shah but a new and dangerous fascism that threatens all that liberal society holds dear. And then he issues an ultimatum to Teheran's leaders: Release the captives or face a devastating military response.

When that demand is not met, instead of freezing Iran's assets, stopping the importation of its oil, or seeking support at the UN, Carter orders an immediate blockade of the country, followed by promises to bomb, first, all of its major military assets, and then its main government buildings and residences of its ruling mullocracy. The Ayatollah Khomeini may well have called his bluff; we may well have tragically lost the hostages (151 fewer American lives than the Iranian-backed Hezbollah would take four years later in a single day in Lebanon). And there may well have been the sort of chaos in Teheran that we now witness in Baghdad. But we would have seen it all in 1979 and not in 2001, after almost a quarter-century of continuous Middle East terrorism, culminating in the mass murder of 3,000 Americans and the leveling of the World Trade Center.

The twentieth century should have taught the citizens of liberal democracies the catastrophic consequences of placating tyrants. British and French restraint over the occupation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss, the absorption of the Czech Sudetenland, and the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia did not win gratitude but rather Hitler's contempt for their weakness. Fifty million dead, the Holocaust, and the near destruction of European civilization were the wages of "appeasement" a term that early-1930s liberals proudly embraced as far more enlightened than the old idea of "deterrence" and "military readiness."

(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.)

Check The "No" Box

At CNSNews.com, Peter Flaherty shows us why the presidential campaign fund is just one more government spending fiasco:

Tell the Taxman No to Subsidizing Politicians

You may think that checking "no" on your tax return for the presidential campaign fund means your tax money won't go to candidates with whom you disagree on the issues. Think again. The tax form clearly states that checking "yes" does not increase one's tax or reduce one's refund. So the money has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is the general fund of the U.S. Treasury, financed by all U.S. taxpayers. Those who check yes are simply telling the government to allocate more U.S. taxpayer money to the presidential campaign fund than would otherwise be the case. . . .

True to form, many members of Congress now want to raise the check-off amount to as much as $10. And into what kind of campaigns would this enlarged pot of money go?

This year, both George W. Bush and John Kerry have opted out of the taxpayer funding system, releasing them from the spending limits that comes with it. That leaves candidates like conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, who has received more than $5 million over the years. Among other things, LaRouche blames the September 11 attacks on "Jewish gangsters" and "Christian Zionists."

Lenora Fulani, an avowed Marxist whose New Alliance Party the FBI deemed "armed and dangerous," has collected $2.9 million. John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party has cashed in to the tune of $1.6 million. Hagelin advocated achieving peace in Kosovo entailed dispatching "Yogic flyers" to generate a "quantum-mechanical consciousness field."

Al Sharpton received $100,000 this year, which he seems to have quickly blown on fancy hotel stays and limo rides. Based on a complaint from my organization, the Federal Election Commission recently announced that Sharpton may have to give back the $100,000 amid allegations that he was ineligible to receive it.

Why should Americans be forced to subsidize the political speech of a bunch of nuts and hustlers?

To qualify for funding, all these fringe candidates have to do is raise over $5,000 in each of 20 states in contributions of $250 or less. The resulting federal matching funds enable them to disseminate their zany notions even farther and wider.

Taking minimum action on this issue is easy -- check the "No" box. But let's not stop there. Use our Take Action page to ensure that your representatives are not among the "many members of Congress" who want to raise the check-off amount to as much as $10. Tell them to nix the question instead.


Quality Punditry:

At OpinionJournal's Political Diary (subscription required), Holman Jenkins highlights the cruel consequences of being "nice" in Iraq:

It will be a long time before the average Iraqi does not believe he risks death or imprisonment for choosing the losing side in any political dispute. The only political judgment Iraqis have been conditioned for decades to make is "Who's stronger?" There's no "good will" that can be won that can solve our problem for us. What we offer--prosperity, democracy and rule of law--may be things most Iraqis desire, but Iraqis will fall into line with our plans not from idealism but from conviction that we are the stronger force. If he's serious about our mission, [President] Bush should seize the opportunity to show with finality that the U.S. military intends to remain the arbiter in Iraq. If not, he might as well figure out who the next Saddam is and hand the place over to him.

At the Washington Times, Pete Du Pont offers some historical perspective: A Bargain at the Pump -- Gasoline is $1 Cheaper Than in 1920.

(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.)

Commend Condoleezza

In this week's column, the always clear-headed Victor Davis Hanson observes:

After eight years of appeasement that saw repeated attacks on Americans, Pakistani acquisition of nuclear weapons under Dr. Khan, and Osama's 1998 declaration of war against every American, we are suddenly grilling, of all people, Condoleezza Rice -- one of the few key advisers most to be credited for insisting on using our military, rather than the local DA, to defeat these fanatics.

Over the last two years, each time a U.S. senator in panicked and wild-eyed passion screamed that we could not win in Afghanistan, she proved resolute and confident. On every occasion that an ex-general, a dissatisfied bureaucrat, or a wannabe journalist-strategist pontificated about what the United States could not do, she was unwavering in her determination to take the war to rogue regimes in the Middle East with a history of hostility against Americans and a record of providing easy sanctuary for terrorists. This present charade would be like holding public hearings on the eve of the 1944 election about the breakdown of intelligence and missed opportunities before Pearl Harbor -- and then blaming Harry Hopkins and Secretary Stimson for laxity even while the country was in the very midst of a two-front war.

If you would like to commend Dr. Rice for yesterday's dignified and professional performance in the face of partisan, rude, smug, harassing questioning by Democrat poseurs, you can contact her by fax at (202) 456-2883 or by phone at (202) 456-9491.

(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.)

Supreme Arrogance

Family News in Focus reports on a House effort to oppose the Supreme Court's bizarre, illegal practice of relying on foreign law in deciding cases before it:

High Court May be Reined In

Some in Congress want the Supreme Court to stop citing decisions by other nations' courts.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently said the U.S. Supreme Court will increasingly rely on international and foreign courts when examining domestic issues. Some in Congress, however, are saying "Not so fast."

U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., has introduced H. Res. 568 to remind the Supreme Court and other courts of a simple fact: Article VI of the Constitution states clearly that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. . . .

H. Res. 568 would not have the force of law, but it would be an official communication from Congress to the Court about the appropriate interpretation of our laws and our Constitution.

The article contains a link to further information on the bill. Use our Take Action page to urge your representative to cosponsor and/or support H. Res. 568.

(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.)

Save Welfare Reform

From Family News in Focus:

Welfare Reform Bill Stalled

Politics threatens to sideline a plan that's been exceptionally successful.

You can thank the welfare reform bill of 1996 for getting a lot of people out of the straitjacket of government assistance and into stable jobs. However, the continuation of that good work is being jeopardized by Senate Democrats who are pushing their own agenda.

Democrats have stalled the legislation over two amendments -- one raising the minimum wage and the other involving overtime pay.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a member of the Senate Republican leadership, said there is no excuse for shelving one of the greatest welfare reform successes in history.

"We have a 60 percent reduction in welfare, 2.8 million families moved out of poverty," he said. "And yet there are a great many on their (the Democratic) side of the aisle -- the Ted Kennedys, the Barbara Boxers, and the Tom Daschles -- who simply still don't believe in this program, still want to go back to the old way of doing it."

. . . Tom McClusky, director of government affairs at the Family Research Council, said the Democratic blockade spotlights the extreme ideological divide in Washington.

"I'm not saying it doesn't happen on both sides," he said, "except never (has there been) so glaring an example as the Democrats are willing to put politics before policy and politics before people."

For now, the bill remains shelved. Though Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said welfare reform will pass at some point, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is quoted as saying the bill's chances are "nothing -- nada."

The article links to a CapWiz utility you can use to contact your Democrat senators and urge them to end their blockade.

Quality Punditry:

At FrontPage Magaine, Robert Spencer gives helpful insight into the Iraqi Uprising:

From its inception, Islam has presented itself not just as a religion in the Judeo-Christian sense of the term, but as a comprehensive set of laws for the ordering of society, including political life. Pious Muslims generally believe these laws to be the laws of Allah himself, and therefore immediately superior to any societal structures arrived at through elections: you don't vote on the law of God.

Secularism entered the Islamic world only as a Western import, and has always encountered considerable resistance on Islamic grounds -- most notably from radical Muslim theorists who laid the intellectual and theological groundwork for today's jihadist terror groups. The Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, executed by the strongman Nasser in 1966 as a threat to his relatively secularist regime and revered by radical Muslims around the world today as a martyr, heaped contempt on Western notions of freedom as illusory. True freedom, he insisted, could come only from obedience to the laws of Allah, not from the constructs of the secularists, which were ipso facto idolatrous -- and it was every Muslim's duty to wage war against these idolatrous regimes until Allah's laws were obeyed.

Al-Sadr is proceeding from the same assumptions. Until such assumptions are taken seriously, there will be more and more Al-Sadrs.

(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.)

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.)