EarsToHear.net Newsletter
March 24, 2008 - Full circle? Have Americans let their government regress to that of King George? Will American voters respond?  Or is another revolution required?

(Click links for complete columns)

Upfront - Full circle? Have Americans let their government regress to that of King George? Will American voters respond?  Or is another revolution required?

American Minute with Bill Federer March 23 Britain imposed the 1764 Currency Act, 1764 Sugar Act, 1765 Stamp Act, 1765 Quartering Act, 1766 Declaratory Act, 1767 Townshend Act, 1773 Tea Act, 1774 Boston Port Act, 1774 Justice Act, 1774 Massachusetts Government Act, 1774 Quartering Act, 1774 Quebec Act, and 1775 Proclamation of Rebellion. On MARCH 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke to the 2nd Virginia Convention, which was meeting in Richmond's St. John's Church due to British hostilities: "I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery... We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated... We have prostrated ourselves before the throne... Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence." Patrick Henry continued: "There is a just God who presides over the destines of nations...who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

The Republican Party and the "Christian Right:" Let's Be Honest, Folks By Austin Hill - Here is the reality facing social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and the pro-defense hawks, all at once: in order to maximize the wellbeing of our families, we need a stable and thriving economy. And our economy only thrives when sound economic policies are in place. And a thriving economy requires that healthy families are producing healthy, competent children who will be our nation’s future wealth producers. And if our nation’s security is not assured, then our familial and economic objectives are for not. Let’s hope a sufficient number of Americans catch-on to this, even if the “pro-family” leaders don’t.

Republicans should focus on the right, not Wright By Star Parker - ...Sure, Wright's inflammatory sermons, and Obama's longtime association with this man, is important news. But the real story for Republicans is that, for practical considerations, there's no difference between the two left-wing, big-government-loving, morally relativist candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. This is what Sen. John McCain of Arizona and the Republican Party should be running against, regardless of who it turns out to be.  ...Our problem is in our broken families and our broken schools. Not in the ozone layer. Let's hope that McCain will listen to the millions of conservative Christians around this country who are trying to communicate with him. They need McCain and McCain needs them. And the growing masses of struggling, working Americans need both.

See Taxes & Economy.

Take Action - (Alerts, Action, Petitions)

Report (Results of your action): MassResistance.org: HUGE VICTORY: Transgender rights bill, out-of-state "gay marriage" bill, all other pro-homosexual bills stopped in Judiciary Committee after massive pressure by pro-family movement! Homosexual lobby vows to keep fighting this session. Some "good" bills also swept away, unfortunately. ...We published an explosive 125-page report on the bill and exposed exactly what it would do. We went on the media – newspaper, Internet news, and radio – and further exposed the bill and the movement behind it. We made sure that literally thousands of you contacted the Legislature and demanded that this bill not go forward. And we made sure the Judiciary Committee got our explicit testimony at their public hearing (including medical documentation!) even though they clearly didn’t want to hear it.

“Sign Letter of Support to Pastor Turner” Baptist minister, Rev. Hashmel Turner, of Fredericksburg, Virginia.  is a modern day “David” fighting against “Goliaths” like the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, who brought suit against him, claiming he violated the constitution by using the name of Jesus in a public place. Pastor Turner, an esteemed African-American clergyman, who grew up in poverty, was fed by church people, and gave his life to Jesus Christ in a Billy Graham Crusade, is now going to court to defend the right of Christian clergy to pray in public meetings according to their conscience. - For more see: Court challenged to allow Christians right to pray, too Appeal seeks to overturn decision eliminating 'Jesus' - A court hearing is coming in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked to restore to Christians the rights that political correctness in the United States today grants other religions, including the right to pray to their God. The case involves Rev. Hashmel Turner and the city of Fredericksburg, Va., and is being handled by the constitutional experts at The Rutherford Institute. Turner, a member of the city council in Fredericksburg, was part of a rotation of council members who would take turns bringing a prayer at the council meetings, and he ended his prayers "in Jesus name." That offended a listener, who promptly brought several heavyweight activist groups into the picture with their threat of a lawsuit if the elected Christian council member wasn't censored, so the city adopted a policy requiring "nondenominational" prayers, effectively eliminating any reference to "Jesus."

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton Join Senate Against Parental Involvement on Abortion (LifeNews.com) Led by votes from pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Senate rejected a measure on Thursday night that would have promoted parental involvement when it comes to a minor teenager girl who is considering an abortion. The Senate voted on an amendment from Sen. John Ensign of Nevada authorizing funds for the federal government to enforce the prevention of taking teens to another state for a secret abortion. Congress has previously considered the Child Custody Protection Act, a bill to make sure someone can't take a girl to another state for an abortion that violates the parental consent or notification laws of her home state. Because the Senate's pro-abortion leadership won't take up the bill, Ensign structured a budgetary amendment to essentially accomplish the same purpose as the legislation and pro-life groups considered the vote the same as a vote on the bill. However, the Senate defeated the amendment on a 49-49 vote thanks to votes against it from both Obama and Clinton. Most of the chamber's Republicans voted for the measure except pro-abortion Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Also, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who normally votes pro-life, opposed the amendment as well. Democrats opposed the parental involvement amendment except Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Harry Reid of Nevada. Senator John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, and Sen. Robert Byrd, were not present at the time of the late vote. ACTION: See how your members of the Senate voted by going here and then tell them how you feel about their vote.

Time for Real Change on the Economy and Taxes by Newt Gingrich - ...What You Can Do to Learn More about the Optional Flat Tax - Congressman Burgess has recently given two speeches on the House floor detailing his optional flat tax plan. I invite you to read or watch both of them. You can view them here and here. Dr. Burgess has also prepared this mailer that he is sending out to his constituents. It contains a mock-up of what your tax form would look like under an optional flat tax, along with information about the proposal. With this form, filing your taxes would take less than fifteen minutes. I encourage you to share this mailer with your friends who might be interested in the idea of an optional flat tax. You can also learn more about the optional flat tax by downloading this chapter from my book Real Change. In it, I describe the benefits of a one page optional flat tax plan. Then, write your representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor H.R. 1040, the optional flat tax bill. Be sure to let your representative know that you're one of the over 80% of Americans who favors the option of filing their taxes on a single page with one rate of taxation.

The House is in "Spring District Work Break" until March 28, 2008 according to the Majority Whip's office. When the House was controlled by Republicans this was called "Easter recess." The Senate will not take an official recess for Easter. Every few days there will be a "pro-forma" session of the Senate with only one Senator present. The purpose of these sessions is to stop President George W. Bush from making emergency appointments to the hundreds of judicial and other agency vacancies.

08-13 Brief PatriotPost.us - “[I]t’s hideous what liberalism does to the human spirit, it attempts to destroy it, even to the point of making enemies out of people who have achieved something, out of people who have become successful... Conservatism, on the other hand, doesn’t seek to control anybody. Conservatism seeks to liberate. Conservatism believes that the human being, the United States of America citizen, is capable of anything he or she wants. Conservatism believes in the goodness and the greatness and the potential... in every human being and wants to get as much out of the way in terms of obstacles as possible. Conservatism wants to motivate those people. Conservatism wants to inspire those people. Conservatism wants happy, content people pursuing life and liberty. Conservatism believes that the greatest country we can have is where there is as much freedom as possible, as defined by the founding documents of this country when there is as little government as necessary, and when people are free to utilize their own desires and their ambitions.” —Rush Limbaugh

Hypocrisy Hurts: Obama Led Charge for Imus Ouster It took Barack Obama more than a year to repudiate his former pastor's racially charged anti-American tirades, but when it came to denouncing Don Imus for his racial slurs against the Rutgers girls basketball team, it took Obama only a week to demand the shock jock be fired, Fox News notes.

Obama nation: What would an Obama presidency mean? Rev. Clenard H. Childress Jr.- The Democrat Party has been a major contributor to the African American slippery slide down the slope of depravity. It has caused our community to deny the God of our Fathers and ignore the counsel of His Word. This Word brought us up and out of Egypt. This Word broke the chains of a terrible bondage and established us in the path of upward mobility and prosperity. Our loyalty to this political regime has vexed our leaders and organizations. Institutions that were birthed to advance the causes of Afro-Americans, now in their ignorance, lobby for our decline. NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, Rainbow Coalition, Urban League, the list goes on and on. All of these were once heralded groups with a noble past and great historic accomplishment. Today, they are stymied by this ungodly tie. Rev. Jessie Jackson, AL Sharpton, Julian Bond, Joseph Lowery are all allied in party and, in the process, have lost their souls. What happened to the God of Dr. Martin Luther King?

08-12 Chronicle PatriotPost.us - “[Barack] Obama says Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright is no longer among his campaign’s ‘spiritual advisers.’ Obama should not be asked which of Rev. Wright’s outrageous statements he disagrees with, but rather which ones he does agree with. That Obama remains a member in good standing of Trinity United Church of Christ indicates that he prefers the company of many people who have demonstrated that they believe what their pastor has said.” —Cal Thomas

Obama's Speech  Thomas Sowell - Like the Soviet show trials during their 1930s purges, Obama's speech was not supposed to convince critics but to reassure supporters and fellow-travelers, in order to keep the "useful idiots" useful.

Eloquent Speech, Troubling Worldview By Ken Blackwell - Barack Obama just gave an eloquent speech, but one that does not address the underlying nature of Senator Obama's beliefs. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, like Mr. Obama, believes in a state-centered 21st century form of big-government socialism. This 21st century form of socialism is at the heart of the Liberation Theology Rev. Wright preaches from the pulpit. Today, Mr. Obama again made it clear, with all his eloquence, that he still embraces these beliefs that would require dismantling the free-market system that has made our country's economy the most prosperous in all of human history.

It's Not Compassion -- It's Wright-Wing Racism By Michael Reagan - Everything Obama said was directed at suggesting that while Rev. Wright should not have used such inflammatory language, he was somehow justified because of America's white racism. Try as he might, Barack Obama cannot claim the innocence of a lamb in his long years of worshipful association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He was either fully aware of the seething racial hatred that motivated Wright, or something of a blithering idiot who can't spot a racist hater when he spends years genuflecting at his feet. Barack Obama is not an idiot. He is a brilliant orator who exudes charm and arouses near-worship from his host of giddy, hypnotized supporters. He is also a committed socialist and a talented salesman for his brand of Marxist snake oil. Beware of camels bearing gifts, and politicians promising utopia.

A Brief for Whitey by Patrick J. Buchanan How would he pull it off? I wondered. How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people? How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"  My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables. ...Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American. Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Obama's Speech Leaves a Few Question Marks by Charles Krauthammer - Then answer this, senator: If Wright is a man of the past, why would you expose your children to his vitriolic divisiveness? This is a man who curses America and who proclaimed moral satisfaction in the deaths of 3,000 innocents at a time when their bodies were still being sought at Ground Zero. It is not just the older congregants who stand and cheer and roar in wild approval of Wright's rants, but young people as well. Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?

Rev. Wright is Wrong – Conservative Media are Wimps Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue - Barack Obama has pulled the race card (which effectively brings to an end all meaningful conversation) while FOX News and conservative talk radio have proved once again that "conservatism" is pretend salt. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, et. al., cannot see, nor do they dare to portray, the cataclysmic "change" that Barack Obama is espousing. It is a shift from one God and standard of Law to another. It is a shift from the God of the Bible and our Founding Fathers to the false god of Rev. Wright. Rev. Wright serves the god of his own hate-filled, bigoted imagination and calls it "Jesus." Yet our conservative friends dare not call this blasphemy treason. They have yet to call Wright for the apostate he is. Wright is preaching "a different gospel" (2 Corinthians 11: 3-4). The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 1:6- 7, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to 'a different gospel' which is really no gospel at all..." Rev. Wright is wrong about the Jesus of the Bible!  Pastor Jeremiah Wright's church is apostate as are all the United Churches of Christ (UCC) in America. Long ago this institution abandoned its rich Christian heritage and responsibility to stand upon the Word of God. It now follows the god of, "...everyone does that which is right in his own eyes." Abortion, Homosexuality, Islam, and every false religion are welcome in Trinity United Church of Christ. It's one Commandment is, "Don't judge me!" Biblical Christianity is, however, not allowed.

3 candidates for global governance Henry Lamb - Barack Obama, the current Democrat front-runner, is a globalist of the first sort. His recent legislative proposal (S. 2433) is ample evidence. The legislation would comply with the U.N.'s recommendation that the U.S. commit 0.7 percent of GDP to the U.N. for relief of global poverty. ...Hillary Clinton, author of "It Takes a Village," has a clear history of promoting the U.N. and even world government. She went out of her way to congratulate Walter Cronkite upon his receipt of the 1999 Norman Cousins Global Governance Award from the World Federalist Association. Cronkite told the group: "It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict, we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty." Hillary appeared at this gathering by remote TV to applaud Cronkite for not only "telling it like it is," but for "telling us how it could be." ...John McCain is reaching out for the green vote by promising to impose some sort of U.N.- approved, Kyoto-type global warming remedy, despite the growing evidence that manmade carbon dioxide has little or nothing to do with climate change. He is also a proud promoter of NAFTA and other so-called "free-trade" agreements that trade only American prosperity for mounting deficits. He was an open-borders advocate, until he realized his position was a brick wall between him and the presidency. Now he says border security must be first, before granting amnesty to more than 12 million illegal aliens.

Republican Lawmaker Proposes Amendment to Defund Planned Parenthood By Penny Starr CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer - Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) is proposing an amendment to the appropriations bill that funds the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services to prohibit federal funding for Planned Parenthood. "I just think it's wrong that the largest abortion provider in America is the largest recipient of non-abortion funding under Title X," Pence told Cybercast News Service. Listen to audio - Title X is the "family planning" program run by HHS that funds birth control clinics.