Legislative
Update
10/31/2003
THE
SENATE
LEGISLATIVE
UPDATE - WEEK ENDING
October 31, 2003
CONGRESS
IN SESSION
"Gunman"
shuts down Capitol Hill:
RFC Executive Director
Peggy Birchfield was
attending a meeting at
the Capitol Building on
Thursday, October 30th
when the building was
"locked down"
because someone carrying
a "gun" had
penetrated security in
the Cannon Office
Building. All
congressional office
buildings and the
Capitol Building are
connected by tunnels.
Peggy was allowed to
leave the Capitol after
it was discovered that
the "gun" was
part of a Halloween
costume belonging to
congressional staff. The
incident has delayed
both legislation and
hearings.
THE
SENATE
GLOBAL
AIDS BILL
The
deep abiding faith of President
George W. Bush led
him to propose a war on
AIDS in Africa. As I
stated in July,
"The AIDS issue in
Africa has become a
security issue.
Governments are
collapsing and there is
constant warfare.
Warlords and drug
dealers are taking over
entire regions of this
great continent..."
That is still true
today. Unfortunately
good ideas are
frequently corrupted in
Congress by those with a
liberal agenda. Senators
such as Ted Kennedy and
Hillary Clinton wanted
to hang their
pro-abortion,
pro-homosexual,
anti-family agenda onto
the $15 billion Global
AIDS Bill.
In
one version of the bill,
faith-based
organizations would have
been denied funding to
work on the AIDS problem
in Africa unless they
agreed to pass out
condoms. Condoms are not
a cure for AIDS; only
abstinence and
faithfulness to one
lifetime partner can
stop AIDS. In May of
this year Congressman
Joe Pitts (R-PA)
added an amendment that
would allow faith-based
groups who are not
willing to pass out
condoms to participate
in programs. Global AIDS
passed with those
provisions intact in May
of this year. But the
vampire just keeps
coming back to life. A
separate appropriations
bill, the Foreign
Operations bill of 2003,
somehow had language
added to it that
stripped the protections
of faith-based
organizations from the
Global AIDS bill.
On
Tuesday, Majority Leader
Senator
Bill Frist, added an
amendment to the Foreign
Operations bill that
continues to allow
participation by
faith-based groups and
also prohibits any
groups that promote
legalized prostitution
from receiving funds.
Social conservative
groups in Washington
pushed Senators to vote
for the Foreign
Operations Bill with the
Frist Amendment
attached. Senator Diane
Feinstein (D-CA) led a
fight as late as
Thursday night to pass
an new amendment to
Foreign Ops to drop all
abstinence requirements.
Her amendment failed and
the final Foreign Ops
bill was passed by voice
vote. This is the kind
of battle being fought
behind the scenes in the
Senate virtually every
day. Thank you and God
bless you Senator Frist
for continue the good
fight for what is right!
THE
JUDICIAL BATTLE
On
Thursday, October 30th
the Wall Street
Journal ran a
stinging editorial
against liberal
Democrats for blocking
California Supreme Court
Judge Janice Rogers
Brown from moving to the
U.S. Court of Appeals.
The Journal made
it clear that the
Democrat attacks against
her led by Judiciary
Committee member Senator
Richard Durbin were
racial in nature. The
Journal stated: "As
Condi Rice, Colin
Powell, Justice Thomas
and others can attest,
liberals reserve their
harshest and most
personal attacks for
minorities with the
audacity to wander off
the ideological
plantation..."
In his attacks against
Judge Brown, Durbin
questioned her
appointment by the
President because she
was "from
California" and
that was "3,000
miles from Washington,
DC" where her new
job would be. He also
said she was
"insensitive"
to rape victims. The
Senator's real problem
is that she is a black
conservative and
liberals don't want any
of those "kind of
people" to serve in
government. What it
sounds like to me is
plain old fashioned
racism. In case you
would like to drop
Senator Durbin a note
about his position on
black conservatives, his
e-mail address is dick@durbin.senate.gov.
THE
HOUSE
MARRIAGE
PROTECTION
I
am continuing to promote
The Marriage
Protection Act of 2003
proposed by Congressman
Hostettler (R-IN),
who is a member of the
House Subcommittee on
the Constitution. His
bill would strengthen
the already existing
Defense of Marriage Act
passed in 1996 by
restricting the
jurisdiction of federal
courts. In Hill lingo
this is referred to as
the "super-DOMA"
because it uses Article
III, Section I and II of
the Constitution to
restrict the
jurisdiction of federal
courts, including the
Supreme Court.
The
Religious Freedom
Coalition will work on
two tracks to protect
marriage. We will
support an Amendment to
the Constitution and we
will support strong
legislation such as the
Marriage Protection Act.
If nothing else, we can
have Congressman
Hostettler's legislation
in place while the
lengthy process of a
constitutional amendment
plays itself out.
For
background on the attack
on the institution of
marriage and the family
I highly recommend The
Broken Hearth by
Dr. William Bennet.
RESOLUTION
ON PORNOGRAPHY
Congressman
John Sullivan (R-OK)
has introduced a
resolution asking the
Administration and
Justice Department to
vigorously enforce the
nation's pornography
laws. "As the
father of four young
children, I am extremely
concerned about the ease
in which Americans,
especially children,
obtain utterly depraved
material," Sullivan
said. "These images
are a mouse click away,
despite the fact that
they are illegal and
depict scenes that shock
the conscience. We must
enforce current law and
eliminate this
refuse." H.Con.Res
298 was introduced by
the congressman with
more than thirty co-sponosrs.
While a congressional
resolution has no force
of law, it sends a
message to those whose
job it is to enforce
existing laws. To
contact your congressman
and ask him to
co-sponsor HCR-298 go to
www.congress.org.
This week had already
been proclaimed as Protection
From Pornography Week
by President George W.
Bush.
THE
PRESIDENCY
On
Tuesday I debated Dr.
James Zogby of the
Arab-American Institute
on CNN-International.
While James Zogby claims
to represent all
Arab-Americans, he is
actually a Democrat
party activist. He is
the chairman of the
National Democratic
Ethnic Coordinating
Committee. During our
debate he claimed that General
William Boykin
should be fired by
President Bush because
of
"insensitive"
remarks he made at a
church about Islam. The
General had made the
mistake of identifying
our enemy, which is the
Islamic Jihad movement.
I defended General
Boykin's comments about
the war on terror being
a spiritual as well as
physical war, because it
is just that.
Unfortunately the
President is being
pushed by his advisors
to fire General Boykin
for fear that his
remarks have made
Muslims "mad"
at us. I have news for
those advisors; the
Muslims who attacked our
civilians and murdered
them do not have to be
incited. They hate
Christian Americans
because they are
Christian and they hate
secular Americans
because they are
secular. No matter what
we say or do they are
going to continue to
hate us and continue to
want to kill us all
because they are
followers of Mohammed.
Firing General Boykin
who is the Pentagon's
man in charge of the war
on terror would simply
be a victory for the
enemy. If you support
General Boykin please
e-mail President Bush at
president@whitehouse.gov.
NOT
A RELIGION OF PEACE
It
appears that the
Catholic Church has
joined General Boykin in
declaring that Islam is
not a religion of peace.
For decades the Roman
Catholic Church has been
silent on the issue of
Islam fearing that
Catholics who still live
in Islamic countries
would be worse off if
the church spoke up.
But, the treatment of
Christians has become so
unbearable in Islamic
nations that the
Catholic Church may now
understand that silence
helps nothing. In the
October 18 edition of La
Civilta Cattolica, the
Catholic Church broke
that silence by saying,
"Thus, in all its
history, Islam has shown
a warlike face and a
conquering spirit for
glory of Allah ....
convert to Islam or
die." The official
paper of the Roman
Church said that for
"...almost a
thousand years Europe
was under constant
threat from Islam which
twice put its survival
in serious danger."
This is an important
document that every
Christian should read. Original
Italian / English
translation
Europe
is anti-Semitic and
craves the destruction
of Israel. France is a
principle backer of
Yassar Arafat and
President George W. Bush
must speak softly about
Islam to maintain
fragile alliances
against the terror that
stalks us. Each day more
Christian leaders are
speaking out with the
truth about Islam,
making it ever more
difficult for President
Bush to maintain the
official line that Islam
is a "religion of
peace that has been
hijacked by
extremists." Islam
in itself is extreme and
the Catholic Church
paper illustrates this
magnificently.
William
J Murray, Chairman
Religious
Freedom Coalition
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