HOUSE AND SENATE IN SESSION

THE PRESIDENCY

THE UNITED NATIONS

Newspaper headlines across the nation announced that President George W. Bush defended his Iraqi policy in a major address to the United Nations on September 21st. Even in the conservative newspapers such as the Washington Times the reporting on the president’s speech centered on Iraq. One problem  …. the main focus of the President’s speech to the United Nations was social issues and not Iraq. Indeed the President did not even bring up Iraq until the end of his address. He began by talking about  “widening the circle” of democracy and the “bright line between justice and injustice – between right and wrong.” He talked of terrorists and the “death of the innocents” in the attacks on a Russian school. He then reminded the United Nations of the $15 billion the United States had put forward to fight AIDS in Africa and then using the term “because we believe in human dignity” over and over again he pleaded with the member nations to protect life, to ban human cloning, to stop human trafficking and to stop religious and ethnic violence. Our President asked for intervention to stop the crime of genocide by the government of the Sudan and to protect all innocent human life. He then turned to Afghanistan and the progress of women and democracy in general since American intervention. After all of this, only then did he turn to the situation in Iraq before quickly turning his attention to the situation in the Holy Land. Does this sound like the same speech you read about in your local newspaper or heard about on radio or TV? I urge you to read the President’s UN speech of this past week which is located at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040921-3.html

THE BUSH TAX RELIEF

The Bush tax relief package that saved our nation from a deep recession after the 9-11 Jihad attack against us was set to expire at the end of this year. On Thursday, with the help of virtually every Senator and most of the House, the most popular of the President’s tax relief programs including the $1,000 child tax credit were extended.  The House overwhelmingly passed the measure by a vote of 339-65, with 125 Democrats joining 213 Republicans. All 65 votes against the bill were cast by Democrats.  The Senate passed the bill by a 92-3 vote. Neither Senator Kerry nor Senator Edwards voted. In a statement Senator John Kerry, who is running for the presidency, said he was for some parts of the tax relief package and against others parts, but did not make it very clear as to which part he was for and which part he was against.   The tax package that was passed affecting 94 million Americans would:
    •Keep the per-child tax credit at $1,000, instead of letting it drop to $700, for the next five years.
    •Continue the expanded 10 percent tax bracket for six years, through 2010.
    •Extend "marriage-penalty" relief for four years.

THE CAMPAIGN

John Kerry was first elected to public office in Massachusetts as a radical anti-war candidate back in the Vietnam era. He has been “anti-war” ever since and to prove the point has voted against virtually every military package since becoming an elected official at the federal level. Indeed he voted against the Apache attack helicopter that is the main battle platform of the Army and the Marine Corps and against virtually every new aircraft including the Stealth fighter and Stealth bomber. Over the past two months as his campaign has floundered and George W. Bush has come up in the polls, Kerry’s team has changed focus several times; however, they have now gone back to Kerry’s political birth. John Kerry will run for the last six weeks of the Presidential campaign as an anti-war candidate, using the same anti-war rhetoric that elected him to his first office in Massachusetts. But, does this anti-war, pro-United Nations, “we need France to help us” message sell in the heartland of America? The answer is, not so far. The anti-war message has brought him up slightly in the polls in very liberal states such as Massachusetts, but the gambit does not seem to be working so far in the Midwest and South. Yesterday he once again brought up Vietnam, comparing the situation in Iraq to his war experiences in the 1960’s.

THE CBS CAMPAIGN

CBS has announced that it will investigate itself to see how obviously faked documents were used by Dan Rather in an attempt to affect the election. It has hired two men to form a commission to investigate itself. One of the men hired, former US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, failed to pay Karl Rove a consultant bill in the early 1990’s and the two men fought in court for years. Karl Rove eventually won a settlement. This is the CBS view of hiring someone who is totally impartial. No one with a “history” with anyone in the White House should have been hired. The “investigation” is looking more and more like a whitewash. What about justice? Meanwhile Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie has listed the obvious coordination between CBS and the Kerry campaign in a recent interview. He pointed out that the Kerry camp somehow had the ability to begin an anti-Bush campaign based on the CBS “secret” documents before they aired on CBS. For a full transcript of Gillespie’s remarks see: http://gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=4731. THE CBS attacks on George W. Bush, obviously coordinated with the Kerry campaign, have driven the credibility of the entire news media to an all time low. A Gallup poll found that only 9% of the public has a “great deal of confidence” in the media. In fact, 39% said they had “little confidence” and 16% said they had “none at all.” See story at: http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040924-012406-9162r.htm. There has been a long standing pattern of bias in the mainstream media, particularly at CBS and it has been documented in Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News by Bernard Goldberg.

FAITH IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Many pastors are showing the video documentary, George W. Bush, Faith in the White House to their congregations. A very large church in my area not only showed the video last Sunday night, but offered copies for sale as well. The documentary is not a campaign piece that sells the President, it is an honest investigation of how this man moved from a barstool to a church pew and how the faith he found in Jesus Christ affects his private and public life. I would urge not only conservative, but moderate pastors as well to show this video to their congregations. At the very least, an option should exist for Sunday School teachers to show the video in their individual classrooms. George W. Bush, Faith in the White House, is a genuine Christian testimony message that should be of interest to all. The DVD has features that the VHS version does not …. PLEASE BE ADVISED … Because of orders from churches having only VHS capacity we have had difficulty in keeping the VHS on hand to ship and are currently running about 5 days behind. We expect all VHS orders, including those coming in this weekend to be shipped by next Wednesday. DVD orders are shipped within 24 to 48 hours. The retail price of the DVD is $14.95 and can be purchased at many different Internet outlets. Because I believe the distribution of this documentary is important, it is offered at the Internet store operated by our ministry organization for $12.95. We offer free shipping if you order two or more copies. Order at www.faithofgeorgewbush.com or click on the image.

THE SENATE

DASCHLE DEAD ZONE

In South Dakota, Minority Leader Tom Daschle is running ads for his reelection that feature him hugging President George W. Bush. The ads tell the fantasy tale of how the Democrat Senator supports most of what George W. Bush does. Actually, Senator Daschle has made the Senate a dead zone of House passed legislation. The House passed Welfare Reform by a margin of 230 to 192 on February 13, 2003 and it is still held up by Daschle in the Senate. Also passed in 2003 and held up by Daschle are the Human Cloning Prohibition Act; Medical Malpractice Act; Bankruptcy Reform Act; Pension Security Act; Death Tax Repeal; Head Start Reform; and the Energy Bill that would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Also tied up are several appropriations bills to run our government passed by the House and stalled by Senator Daschle. He is also still blocking judges appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001.Learn more at: http://www.nrsc.org/nrscweb/daschle_watch/

THE HOUSE

PLEDGE PROTECTION

On Thursday the House passed the Pledge Protection Act (HR 2028) by a wide margin of 247 to 173 with many Democrats crossing party lines to vote for it. The bill was sponsored by Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO). The bill would prevent all courts, even the Supreme Court of the United States, from ruling on the legality of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The bill now moves to the “Daschle dead zone” in the Senate. The extreme leftwing spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Barry Lynn, said that the Senate would “…bury this bill, as it richly deserves.” The “Rev” Barry Lynn does not believe there should be any public display of religious belief and threatens churches with the loss of their tax exemption during election years should they mention the name of a conservative candidate. On the other hand the bill is supported by most Catholic, Jewish and Protestant leaders. The Religious Freedom Coalition has supported the Pledge Protection Act since its introduction. Please contact your Senators and advise them that the bill has passed the House and ask them what they intend to do about it in Senate.

MARRIAGE

The vote in the House on the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) has been moved to Thursday, September 30^th which is only thirty-two days before the election. Pro-gay Democrats will have the opportunity to vote against it just before going home to their constituents to campaign for reelection. The American Family Association has created an Internet site that lists how congressmen stand on the FMA. The site also shows how much money congressmen who oppose the FMA have accepted from homosexual political action committees. Click here to view this congressional information. Contact your congressman on this issue at http://www.house.gov/writerep/

INTERNATIONAL

KOSOVO 

This past week I presented a copy of the RFC White Paper on Kosovo I authored to John Handford, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom at our State Department. I have been working with contacts furnished to me in the State Dept. by a US Senator, to shed light on the very wrong opinions of our “Interest Office” in Prestina, Kosovo. There is real ethnic and religious bigotry in Kosovo that has led to the destruction of 150 churches and the ethnic cleansing of more than 250,000 Orthodox Christians. During our short conversation the Ambassador stated that he was aware that official reports from Prestina seemed to be at variance with the facts on the ground and promised me a full reading of the conclusions of our White Paper on Kosovo.

HOLY LAND 

There was yet more violence as Muslim Palestinians once again fired from the Gaza Strip and killed innocent civilians. There is a lack of understanding in the West that Christian Palestinians are not involved in the violence against Israel. The RFC helps Christian Palestinians who have been forced from their homes because they have converted from Islam and are under death warrants. Some of these families support themselves by producing handmade olive oil soap which we sell for them in the United States . For some of these families it is their only income. Because of terror attacks and other problems we do not always have this very popular item available and we apologize for that. However, we did receive a new shipment last week and the soap is once again available. For more information on the handmade complexion soap click here or on image

SRAEL, PRESBYTERIANS AND ANTI-SEMITISM

The Presbyterian Church, USA is moving forward to “divest” from any company doing business with Israel and it appears the Anglican Church may follow. The Church leaders say they want to harm Israel to force it to give better living conditions and “rights” to Palestinians. The Presbyterian Church, USA has no problem doing business with companies that work in Saudi Arabia which has no women’s rights and will jail any Christian found praying. Neither does the church seem to have problems doing business with dictators and those nations who commit genocide such as the Sudan. They have singled out only Israel for church punishment. There is a stink coming from the Presbyterian Church, USA that should cause its members to flee for fear of smelling themselves up with the wretched odor of anti-Semitism. See story at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40603

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition , P.O. Box 77511 , Washington , DC 20013 Phone: (202) 543-0300

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Religious Freedom Coalition * Copyright - 2004