LEGISLATIVE UPDATE - WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 17, 2006
HOUSE IN RECESS / SENATE IN RECESS
THE PRESIDENT
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TO THE MAD HOUSE
On Sunday, February 12th, former Vice President Al Gore told an audience of Wahhabi radical Islamists in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia that the United States was indiscriminately rounding up Muslims and holding them in "unforgivable" conditions. Keep in mind that riots, in which people have been killed, have been going on because of cartoons depicting Mohammed in a Danish newspaper last September. Now a former Senator and Vice President of the United States has received a large honorarium from the Islamists to slam and betray his own nation. The event at which Gore spoke was financed by Osama Bin Laden's family. His remarks were so outrageous that even CBS reported on the speech. As Vice President this man was just one heart beat away from becoming President for eight long years.
TREASURY DEPT. AND THE PORTS
While Al Gore was in Saudi Arabia telling Muslims that his nation "indiscriminately" abuses them, the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush agreed to hand over the management and security of six major U. S. ports to a company owned by the Muslim government of the United Arab Emirates. No, this is not a joke! The ports are the weakest security link in our nation to external terrorism. If a nuclear or biochemical weapon is to be smuggled into the USA it will be in one of the millions of cargo containers coming into the nation each year that are not inspected. Can we trust the U.A.E.? The major planning for the 9-11 Jihad attack against the United States was done in that nation. Democrat and Republican senators have now asked the President to step in and stop the sale. Click here for WND story.
THE SENATE
SENATOR TALENT MOVES LEFT
Cloning is big business in Missouri. There are several large biotech firms that want to clone in that state including the Stowers Institute in Kansas City. Governor Matt Blunt, son of the Majority Whip, Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO), opposes abortion but he has alienated his pro-life supporters by endorsing cloning research. Biotech firms have forced a measure onto the ballot that would make Missouri a cloning paradise. The push for cloning in Missouri has gained such momentum that Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) has removed his name from Senator Brownback's anti-cloning bill although he had been an early co-sponsor. Talent has taken this action because he is in a close election in Missouri and he is afraid that with the pro-cloning measure on the ballot he could be defeated for taking the other side. The Senator still claims to be anti-cloning, but is splitting hairs saying that the Brownback legislation may also stop cloning that doesn't produce a human embryo - something called Altered Nuclear Transfer (ANT). Sound confusing? It is, and that is why this update does not report on the many meetings on cloning attended by our staff. The language alone used in the cloning battle here in Washington is mind boggling and virtually impossible to report on. Many aging Americans, including many Christians, hope to extend their lives on Earth through medical "miracles"--even those derived from cloning. This puts great pressure on congressmen and Senators to vote to allow experimentation on and destruction of innocent human life. Because virtually all cloning experiments require the harvesting of human eggs from human females in a dangerous and invasive procedure, many far left feminists have joined Christian conservatives in fighting cloning. The feminists fear that poor women in particular will be forced to sell their eggs to these unethical biotech firms, where Frankenstein like experiments will be performed on their eggs and embryos. (Also see National Review story)
MARRIAGE VOTE SCHEDULED
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has set the first week of June for debate and vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment which was authored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-MO). This is not a bill, but rather an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would declare marriage in the United States as being between one man and one woman. Because this is an Amendment to the Constitution, it would bring an end to the lawsuits demanding homosexual and polygamous marriages.
THE DEATH TAX
Majority Leader Frist has also announced that he plans on a final vote to "bury the death tax" within the next two months. This is an effort led by my good friend Jim Martin, president of the seniors' organization 60 Plus. Indeed, Jim was the man who coined the phrase "death tax" to describe the inheritance tax. Men and women work all their lives to build up an estate, all the while paying income and other taxes. Despite the fact that they have paid income tax on their earnings, a huge part of their savings is taken from their estate when they die. It is a double taxation that is hard to fight when you are dead. Anyone who has worked hard and saved well looks forward to the demise of the death tax.
THE HOUSE
MARRIAGE LEGISLATION AND AMENDMENT
While the Senate plans to vote directly on a Constitutional Amendment to protect traditional marriage, the House is taking a different approach. The Amendment offered by Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave has not even been entered in the 109th Congress and may not be until later this year. In both the House and the Senate a two-thirds majority vote is required for passage. More than fifty Democrats would have to vote for the Amendment, which is not likely. The House Leadership has, therefore, decided to first submit legislation to protect marriage. Two bills will be voted on in the House to "test the waters" on the Amendment and also record the votes of those opposed to traditional marriage. The two bills offered are Congressman Hostettler's Marriage Protection Act and Congressman Istook's legislation, the Definition of Marriage Act. Congressman Istook's bill would define marriage for all other legislative purposes while that of Congressman Hostettler is a jurisdiction act that restricts the courts from finding that marriage is anything other than between one man and one women.
PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF RELIGION
Congressman Hostettler's Public _Expression of Religion Act is moving forward. The bill would deny the ACLU and other liberal groups the attorney fees they now get paid by state and local governments when they bring forward church-state lawsuits. Under the provisions of the bill, the ACLU would have to pay for the lawsuits they file. Since the main business of the ACLU is blackmail and greenmail resulting in outrageous settlements for legal fees, the organization's finances would be greatly hurt. Your congressman needs to hear your opinion on this legislation.
FDA TAKES ANOTHER LOOK AT ABORTION PILL
Largely because of pressure from Congress and pro life groups, the FDA is reluctantly reviewing reports of infection and death among women who took RU-486 to terminate early pregnancies. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, sponsor of Holly's Law (H.R. 1079) which would ban sales of RU-486 in the U.S., pointed out that if this were any other kind of medication which was causing death and injury, there would be immediate action and the media would be warning the public. But because it is an abortion pill, it gets special treatment. To read Congressman Bartlett's press release about the abortion pill battle at his website, in which he quotes the Religious Freedom Coalition, click here.
INTERNATIONAL
JUSTUS WEINER ON PERSECUTION
Several times in these updates Professor Justus Weiner has been mentioned. He is a scholar in residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in Israel, and I have visited his office on many occasions. As a human rights attorney and professor he has a keen interest in persecution. Although he lives in Jerusalem, he was unaware of the persecution of Christians in nearby Bethlehem until eight years ago when full time evangelist David Ortiz brought several instances to his attention. The David Ortiz ministry which is supported by the Religious Freedom Coalition is located in Ariel, Israel. Following up on these instances of persecution Justus Weiner began writing White Papers for various prestigious journals on the condition of Christians in the West Bank. This week Justus Weiner visited Washington, DC and spoke at several events including some organized by the Religious Freedom Coalition. We were also able to arrange an appointment for him with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS). A private lunch was also arranged for Weiner at the Capitol Hill Club that was attended by religious leaders and congressmen. Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) spent some time with Professor Weiner and may read his new book, Human Rights of Christians in the Palestinian Society, dealing with the persecution of Christians, into the Congressional Record. He also spoke to numerous social conservative groups while in Washington. Eyes were opened as this scholar disclosed what the liberal media in the United States hides, persecution of Christians in Muslim dominated areas.
NOVAK ATTACKS ISRAEL AGAIN
Once again conservative columnist Robert Novak has attacked Israel and what he calls the "Christian right." In a column distributed on the 15th and dated the 16th titled "Menaced Holy Land Christians," Novak blamed Israel's "fence" for the plight of Palestinian Christians. REALITY: Israel pays Palestinian farmers and businessmen for any property taken to build the defensive barrier. Israel also makes annual payments to Palestinian farmers if they are not able to use land as a result of the barrier. Many times these payments are far greater than what the land would produce. Novak chose the week to publish this column when Professor Weiner was in Washington, DC exposing the brutal treatment of Christians at the hands of the Islamic majority in the Palestinian territories. I immediately responded to Novak's column with a news release. Click here for our news release.
THE BBC
This week a production unit of the British Broadcasting Company arrived in our Washington, DC office to conduct lengthy interviews on "religion in American politics." My interview with the BBC lasted more than an hour and excerpts will be used for a series of specials to be broadcast in the UK and European Union. At one point in the interview as I talked about the effects of abortion on American society I thought the commentator was going to cry. Abortion is highly regulated in the UK and the rest of Europe, with abortion after the first trimester rare. Many Europeans are stunned when they learn that a woman can have an abortion in the USA right up to the time she goes into labor.
BETHLEHEM
Some of the Christian schools in Bethlehem are now more than 50% Muslim simply because there are no Christian children to teach, Justus Weiner told Senator Sam Brownback when he visited the United States. The schools supported by the Religious Freedom Coalition in the Bethlehem, Beit Jala area are still majority Christian. The Religious Freedom Coalition also supports individual Christian students who attend several different Christian schools in that area. The unemployment among Christians is very high and help is needed to keep those Christian children who remain in the Bethlehem area in Christian schools. Last year I personally distributed thousands of dollars in scholarship funds to Christian children while I was there in August. Again this year I will be traveling to the Holy Land to distribute scholarship funds and once again I am asking your help. Please begin to think about a contribution to the Religious Freedom Coalition's Bethlehem Project to help Christian kids go to Christian schools in Bethlehem. A special Internet site dedicated to our work in the Holy Land is located at http://www.thebethlehemproject.org.
OLIVE OIL SOAP IS BACK!
We just received a small shipment of olive oil soap from the Holy Land. This 100% olive oil soap is handmade by Christian families in Samaria. The men of these families are converts from Islam and have been accused of being "collaborators" with Israel. As a result they have death warrants against them and cannot return to their villages. We have great difficulty in getting the soap out of Palestinian controlled areas and into Israel so we can ship it to our Virginia facility and for this reason we must often remove it from our Internet store. The funds go to the men and their families, not to us. The soap is available to individuals for just $3.95 per bar! To learn more about this handmade olive oil soap click here or on the image. Our store is located at www.rfcstore.com.
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William J. Murray, Chairman
Religious Freedom Coalition , PO Box 77511, Washington, DC 20013 - (202) 543-0300
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