June 27, 2008

Week Ending June 27, 2008 - Washington, DC

Speaker Pelosi confirms she wants to censor talk radio / Senate finally fills the FEC slots / Marriage Protection Amendment filed anew / Senate Dems vote more money to Planned Parenthood / The Supreme Court's "evolving standards of decency" / Saudi official says marriage to one-year-old girl is OK / New update on Israeli evangelist's son injured in bombing. More on Iraqi Christian refugees

THE CONGRESS

PELOSI CONFIRMS SHE WANTS TO CENSOR TALK RADIO - Nancy Pelsoi does not want to censor TV broadcast news because it is controlled by liberals. She does not want to censor major newspapers because they are controlled by liberals. She does not want to censor the Internet where liberal bloggers dominate. BUT ... Nancy Pelosi confirmed this week that she wants to censor talk radio which is dominated by conservatives. Read more. This is just the starting point. If Obama is in the Oval Office and Pelosi runs the House next year, they will criminalize what is now free speech. Criticism of abortion or homosexuality will cause confiscation of property and probably even imprisonment. This is the "change" Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi promise, a government much like that of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

SENATE FILLS ALL FEC SLOTS - Last week I hit the Senate Leadership for blocking the Bush appointments to the Federal Election Commission leaving it so short handed that no quorum existed to hold Board meetings. This week under orders from Barack Obama, Senator Reid allowed three Republicans and two Democrats to fill the open slots. Obama wants the FEC to throw up road blocks to the McCain campaign and he hopes that the FEC will be of some help to him.

MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT - On Wednesday my old friend Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced the Marriage Protection Amendment which would amend the Constitution to protect marriage as a union between one man and one woman. A similar bill has been introduced in the House. With the Senate run by a radical left leadership that does not even condemn polygamy, there is little chance of a vote on Sen. Wicker's Constitutional amendment. Read more at the Senator's site.

MORE MONEY FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD - Democrats in the Senate added language to the Labor-Education-HHS Bill (LHHS) for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to acquire and sell reduced-price drugs on university and college campuses. The provisions would help Planned Parenthood (which reported $1 billion in annual revenue and a $115 million surplus last year) in the purchase and distribution of harmful drugs like Plan B (also known as the Morning-After Pill) and RU-486 to college students. Read more and contact Congress

CULTURE AND RELIGION

EVOLVING STANDARDS OF DECENCY - This week the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion stating that child rapists can't be executed for the crime. As usual Justice Anthony Kennedy was the swing vote and his reasoning for not allowing the execution of a man who had tortured and raped a little girl was astounding. Kennedy wrote that he took into account the nation's "evolving standards of decency." According to him since our society is more "tolerant," those who torture and rape children should not be executed. This falls in line with allowing public acts of homosexuality. My prediction: Polygamy will be found to be legally protected by the Constitution by the end of this decade. Read more

NEW JUNE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT - An all new edition of the Religious Freedom Coalition Chairman's Report is now available in PDF format. The Jun 18, 2008 edition includes details of the RFC outreach program to Iraqi Christians. There is other RFC material never before posted at our site including a photo of our evangelist's bombed apartment. Read new Chairman's Report

INTERNATIONAL

OK TO MARRY ONE-YEAR-OLD GIRL SAYS MUSLIM OFFICIAL - The actual quote: "There is no minimal age for entering marriage. You can have a marriage contract even with a one-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of nine, seven, or eight. This is merely a contract [indicating] consent. The guardian in such a case must be the father, because the father's opinion is obligatory. Thus, the girl becomes a wife..." Read more

NEW UPDATE ON AMI'S CONDITION - (On March 20th, 2008 16-year-old Ami Ortiz was severally wounded when a bomb hidden in a gift fruit basket delivered to the apartment of Evangelist David Ortiz exploded. Ami has been hospitalized for three months and is still undergoing operations. The latest update on his condition from Israel was received on June 26, 2008. Read update.

IRAQI CHRISTIANS - Hope is all but lost that the United States government will do the right thing by the hundreds of thousands of Christians who have been persecuted and forced from their homes in Iraq. Our government still slams the door of our embassies in the faces of Christian refugees and tells them to go beg for food and shelter from the United Nations. I will personally travel to Amman, Jordan in July to work on a program to assist Christian refugees. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED. Click here to help

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William J. Murray, Chairman Religious Freedom Coalition, PO Box 77511, Washington, DC 20013 - (202) 742.8990 This publication is a service of the Religious Freedom Coalition (RFC). Links to political and other sites are for informational purposes and do not constitute endorsement. No statement is intended to assist or defeat any candidate running for public office. Religious Freedom Coalition * Copyright - 2008