Congress
In Session
Sort Of
As
of Wednesday, January
15th, every committee in
the Senate was still run
by Democrat chairmen.Se
nator Lieberman (D-CT)
still held the gravel as
chairman of the
Committee on Government
Affairs and
Senator Inhofe (R-OK)
still had not taken over
from
Senator Jeffords (D-VT)
at the Environment and
Public Works Committee.
Was there a Democrat
coup in the Senate? Sort
of. The Senate Democrats
were refusing to vote on
an "organization
plan" under the new
Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist.
Despite losing the
election in November the
Democrats are demanding
that they receive equal
committee funding to the
Republicans. This was
despite the fact that
the tradition has always
been for the winning
party to have 2/3 of
committee funding.
On
Wednesday evening an
agreement was finally
reached by Majority
Leader Frist and chief
Democrat obstructionist,
Senator Tom Daschle.
Under the plan the
Democrats will receive
40% of the funding and
office space instead of
the traditional 33%.
Also, two important
committees will be
evenly split rather than
having a Republican
majority. The committees
in question are
Intelligence and Ethics.
The committees will have
Republican chairmen.
Senator
Frist is in a hurry to
move forward with the
conservative agenda,
including a
partial-birth abortion
ban and I believe this
is why he made the deal.
It was far better than
allowing the Senate to
be shut down by the
Democrats while they
insisted on having 49%
of committee funds.
Although some social
conservative groups were
at first skeptical of
Frist on abortion, his
statements on NBC's
Meet the Press
on Sunday, January
12th brought him cheers
from pro-lifers and the
anger of the Hillary
Clinton crowd. Below is
his answer to a question
on abortion by Tim
Russert:
MR.
RUSSERT: Abortion—what
will happen with
abortion in this
session?
SEN.
FRIST: Well, I don't
know exactly what will
happen. We are just
beginning sort of all
the planning in terms of
what particular bills. I
think things like
partial-birth
abortion—and I can
tell you as a physician
who has been in the
operating room for
thousands of days and
hundreds of thousands of
hours, the whole concept
of partial-birth
abortion offends the
sensibilities of me as a
physician. It's a rogue
procedure. It's not in
the medical textbooks.
Something like that
where we've got not
consensus but broad,
broad support among the
American people, I can
see that coming very,
very quickly.
MR.
RUSSERT: Let me turn to
Iraq. Are we on the cusp
of war? ... Please note
that as soon as Frist
came out strongly
against abortion Russert
changed the subject.
THE
HOUSE
Not
much going on here
either. Social
conservative groups,
including
representatives of the
Religious Freedom
Coalition, were
to meet with
congressional leaders on
Thursday, January 15th.
Late on Wednesday we
were notified that the
House was adjourning
early this week.
THE
WHITE HOUSE
The
horror of legal abortion
began in the United
States on January 23,
1973. Since then, more
than 42,000,000
Americans have died at
the hands of abortion
doctors. Under President
Ronald Reagan the public
funding of abortions was
stopped, and this saved
many lives. However,
Bill Clinton overturned
much of what Reagan had
done. President Bush has
done much to undo the
damage done to the
pro-life movement during
the Clinton
Administration. For the
second year in a row
President George W. Bush
has issued a
proclamation declaring
the anniversary of the
Row V. Wade case as Nat
ional Sanctity of Life
Day.
In
his proclamation
President Bush cites his
signing of the
Born-Alive Infant
Protection Act as an
important contribution
to efforts to care for
human life. Prior to the
passage of the law, if a
child was born alive
during an abortion
procedure he was placed
aside in a steel pan and
allowed to die. In one
infamous case it took
many hours for the child
to die.<
u> To see the full
text of the proclamation
click here.
MEANWHILE:
All six Democrat
candidates for president
have agreed to appear at
a pro-abortion event on
the anniversary of Roe
V. Wade put on by
NARAL (the
National Abortion and
Reproductive Rights
League). They include
Sen. John Edwards (D-NC),
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA),
Rep. Richard Gephardt
(D-MO),
Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT),
Rev. Al Sharpton
and professed Orthodox
Jew,
Senator Joe Lieberman
(D- CT). One
Orthodox rabbi said of
Lieberman, "He is
not an Orthodox Jew; he
is an orthodox
liberal."
ALSO:
Have you seen the abortion
map of the
United States showing
how many people are
missing from America
because of abortion? God
hates this murder of the
unborn. Some say America
will be punished, but
this is not quite true.
America is being
punished now-- by
recession, unemployment
and illegal immigration.
Those 42,000,000
murdered babies
represent 21,000,000
houses that will never
be built and 21,000,000
beds that will never be
slept in. There would be
no room nor would there
be a reason for illegal
immigrants to come to
the United States for
jobs because those
millions of Americans
who have been murdered
by abortion would be
employed in those jobs.
Abortion
has harmed America
spiritually and
economically. If America
becomes a Spanish
speaking nation the true
reason will have been
the abortions that
opened up the jobs for
illegal aliens. Think
about the damage that
has been done to our
faith, our nation and
our culture in the name
of abortion on demand.
THE
MIDDLE EAST
The
Religious Freedom
Coalition and
Congresswoman Jo Ann
Davis have been<
u> front page news
around the world. The
story broke this week
that Congresswoman Davis
had written a letter to
the
Israeli Ambassador
on behalf of the
Religious Freedom
Coalition asking for
help in saving the lives
of two Palestinian
Christian brothers. The
brothers, Nasser and
Saeed Salame, are under
a death sentence from
the Palestinian
Authority. Their crime?
They were Muslims who
converted to Christ and
then led their families
to the Lord.
Saeed
was held in a hole dug
in the ground for seven
months by Yassar
Arafat’s
"police"
hoping this would return
him to his Islamic
roots. When it didn't he
was sent home with the
understanding that a
member of
FATAH would
track him down and kill
him outside of the
police station. (Saeed
was a member of FATAH as
a youth. He renounced
the violence of the
organization when he
became a Christian. This
was yet another reason
for his death sentence.)
He escaped to Israel, as
did his brother Nasser.
Both brothers have
received temporary
status in Israel because
they are under the
threat of death, but the
permits are expiring.
Congresswoman Davis
asked the Ambassador to
help extend those
permits to asylum status
so the brothers could
bring their families to
Israel until another
nation would accept
them.
The
14-year-old nephew of
the brothers was
murdered at school on
November 14th. He was
detained after school by
a teacher. An
18-year-old student then
stabbed him to death in
front of the teacher.
The police were not
called; the family was
merely told to come and
pick up the body. We
believe the teenager was
murdered in hopes Nasser
and Saeed would come to
the funeral where they
could be murdered.
Officially the
Palestinian Authority
says they are condemned
for being Israeli
collaborators. In
reality they have been
condemned to death for
converting other Muslims
to Christ.
Read
the front page story
about our efforts to
save the brothers at
Worldnetdaily. The
Israeli and other
foreign press have
reported the story but
the liberal press in
America has ignored it.
Why?
We
continue to seek
families in the United
States who will sponsor
legal immigration of
Palestinian Christians
who have been persecuted
by Yassar Arafat and his
Islamic gangs. If you
are in a position to
sponsor the families of
these brothers or others
please call my office at
1-202-543-0300 in
Washington, DC.
Had
the 14-year-old,
Abdullah Rauf, been in a
Christian school in the
West Bank he would still
be alive. His family did
not have the money to
place him in a private
Christian school. The
RFC supports several
Christian schools in the
West Bank. If you would
like to contribute to
our work in the West
Bank please contribute
online.
You
can also help by telling
others about the
situation of persecuted
Christians under Islamic
rule. Please forward
this e-mail to your
friends. If this
Legislative Update has
been forwarded to you
and you would like to
sign up, you can do so
at our Internet
site. Also, you
can purchase our latest
documentary,
Holy Land Terror:
Islamic Persecution of
Christians
for just $20.00 postage
paid at our online
store. This documentary
has actual scenes from
Palestinian TV and
Palestinian schools run
by Yassar Arafat. Please
order a copy and show it
to your Sunday School
Class.
William
J Murray, Chairman
Religious
Freedom Coalition
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