House Minority Leader John Boehner and 44 other Republican lawmakers have joined a legal crusade to keep “In God We Trust” inscribed above the newly constructed visitors’ entrance to the U.S. Capitol.
In July, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a federal lawsuit to block the engravings at the visitor center. The group claims the phrase and the Pledge of Allegiance violate the separation of church and state.
Earlier this week, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed a brief in U.S. District Court arguing the lawsuit borders on the frivolous.
“The fact is that Congress acted appropriately and consistent with the Constitution with the inclusion of the national motto and the Pledge of Allegiance in the Capitol Visitor Center,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ. “These expressions echo the sentiments found in the Declaration of Independence and recognize the undeniable truth that our freedoms come from God.”
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said she hopes to have the Supreme Court eventually decide whether the national motto violates the First Amendment.
“The engraving at the Capitol Visitor Center is an affront to the 15 percent of Americans who do not believe in God,” she said. “The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The GOP lawmakers argue that the intent was to prohibit a state-sponsored religion – not to remove all references to God from government.
The daily is pounding its drum again. If you are new to Arizona and unacquainted with the technique, the newspaper often resembles a nagging ex-wife. The editorial staff can’t offer an opinion. They harp. They badger. They stridently repeat. And often they rewrite the same thoughts with a slightly different skew.
Today’s editorial, Let’s energize Arizonans to push for changes, is a case in point.
The latest mission of the daily is government reform — which they want to accomplish from the top down.
Like lovesick swains, they have fallen hook, line and sinker for Sandra O’Connor ‘s namesake effort, the O’Connor House Project which is teamed up with the liberal Morrison Institute and the Center for the Future of Arizona. These groups and their overreaching concepts were represented at the recent Arizona Town Hall, which issued a report calling for a state Constitutional Convention to — among other things – allow these elites to revamp state government, raise taxes, and alter the methods of voting for elected officers by removing the citizen’s ballot component and replacing it with appointments by other elected officials.
The report also points to impediments to raising revenue and suggests the Constitutional Convention implement these major changes. The full report and its recommendations can be found here.
Designed to appear benign they nonetheless conclude these “barriers to effective government” need their wisdom and oversight. A clue that all is not as presented is contained in these words deprecating the current system, which they say “encourages extremist candidates” and the practice of ballot initiatives which they opine “has created dedicated funding streams that cannot be touched, even in times of severe need.” That translates to limits on taxation which the people support and the Town Hallites want lifted.
Don’t be fooled by the high-sounding rhetoric. This is a fundamental takeover of state government by a liberal cabal, with the blessing of the left-wing Arizona Republic.
They don’t intend to tarry. We can’t afford to ignore the massive power-grab they envision and intend to implement.
The 7th annual Goldwater Institute Legislative Report Card considers how well Arizona legislators are fulfilling their constitutional obligation to uphold liberty. The report scores legislators on 305 votes across four categories: education, constitutional government, regulation, and tax and budget. The primary criterion is whether a vote for or against each bill expands or restricts liberty.
The Executive Summary and Report Card link can be read here.
Individual legislators can also be located by zip code, district, and last name.
The Arizona Legislature considers nearly 1,500 bills each session.
The annual VA Veterans Day Parade will kick off this morning at 11 A.M.. This year’s parade theme is “Home of the Free, Because of the Brave,” honoring veterans who have fought in the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, also referred to as the Global War on Terror.
The parade is one of the nation’s premier Veterans Day parades, with more than 200,000 people expected to attend. The Phoenix-based commemoration is one of the largest such events in the nation and has been designated as a Regional Site for celebrating the holiday.
It will feature approximately 100 entries, including historic military vehicles; numerous Veterans Service Organizations, marching units, color guards, canine and equestrian units, floats, giant helium balloons and bands.
The Parade runs northbound from the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center, beginning at Seventh Street and Montecito, turning westbound on Camelback Road, then northbound on Central Avenue to Bethany Home Road, where it will conclude at North Phoenix Baptist Church.
The Phoenix VA Health Care System’s Veterans Day Parade began in 1997 with 50 entries and approximately 10,000 spectators. The Parade is designed to commemorate and honor our veterans and to educate Americans about the service and sacrifices our veterans have made to protect our freedoms.
For additional information, including the listing of Grand Marshals, check here. A photo display of participants and floats from the 2008 parade and events can be seen here.
Purely political motives are the driving force behind the senate Democrats vote to block a requirement that next year’s census forms ask respondents whether they are U.S. citizens. The politically lopsided senate ensured the 60-39 procedural vote, making the issue ineligible for attachment to a bill funding the census.
The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding illegal aliens from the crucial population totals that are used to calculate the number of congressional representatives for each state. Vitter’s state of Louisiana stands to lose one of its seven congressional seats.
Democrats disingenuously argued that the plan would be too expensive and also said that it’s long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people in each state, regardless of citizenship status. And if that doesn’t convince you, they added that Vitter’s proposal is “immoral and divisive.”
The good news: ”A Conversation on the Constitution: Principles of Constitutional and Statutory Interpretation,” a discussion between Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Stephen Breyer, takes place Monday, Oct. 26 at 11:30 a.m. at the Leo Rich Theatre in Tucson.
The bad news: Tickets are no longer available to the public.
However, the discussion will broadcast live on PBS World, the 24-hour PBS channel from Arizona Public Media. Southern Arizona residents can access PBS World on digital broadcast Channel 27-3, Cox Channel 83 and Comcast Channel 203. The event also will be webcast live on the Arizona Public Media Web site.
Justice Antonin Scalia was appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan.
The U.S. Census Bureau has finally severed its ties with ACORN – a radical left-wing, government-subsidized group with a history of voter-registration fraud.
“We do not come to this decision lightly,” Census director Robert Groves wrote in a letter to ACORN.
The question is why not?
In terminating the partnership with ACORN, (the acronym for the disreputable Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Groves appears to downplay negative publicity that the partnership will taint the 2010 head count. “It is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with the 2010 census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 census efforts,” Groves wrote.
Previously, the Census Bureau had defended ACORN’s involvement, maintaining it was but one of 80,000 unpaid volunteer groups that the Bureau hoped would be able to enlist to do the job the Bureau itself is constitutionally entrusted to fulfill. In his letter, Groves said it no longer had confidence that ACORN was effectively managing its partnership.
Read syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin’s exposé of this group last year in Blowing the whistle on ACORN, here. And here on ObamACORN.
Just days ago Seeing Red AZ covered an ACORN official giving advice on defrauding the Internal Revenue Service to a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp. They were counseled to claim as dependents underage El Salvadoran girls they said they would be using as prostitutes.
The U. S. Constitution mandates a once-a-decade reliable headcount of citizens to establish congressional districts based on an accurate accounting of population. This is not a duty that should be ceded to unaccountable, agenda-driven, volunteer groups. This crucial duty is the sole function of the government agency and should be handled impartially.
During a Town Hall meeting in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA.) said there is “no place in the Constitution” that mentions health care or education, or even gives individuals the right to own a telephone.
Questioner: “I realize that there are a lot of people that don’t have medical care and it’s necessary for those things to change to help those. I think that a lot of people are upset, not necessarily because of medical care, though that is a huge part of it, but I think larger is what’s happening to our government. It’s being destroyed in my personal opinion. I am a government, high school government teacher and I have taught these kids the Constitution, and I would like to know specifically, article and section of the Constitution, that gives the government the right to run our health care.”
Sen. Warner: “So I take, I take by your question, I take by your question, I take by your question that you would get rid of Medicare and Medicaid or would you, are you, let me make sure I understand: You’re advocating doing away with Medicare, right? Because that’s a government program. I just want to make clear that you are suggesting doing away with Medicare? But one thing, listen, there is, there is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care. There’s no place in the Constitution that specifically says education. There is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution that talks about you ought to have the right to get a telephone, but we have made those choices as a country over the years.”
This CNSNews report contains the video of the wild response to the high school teacher’s question, and the exceedingly odd response from Democrat Sen. Mark Warner.
Joining the Republic’s boorish clamor, travel expert Arthur Frommer, 80, says he is “shocked beyond measure” by the gun-toting “thugs” and “extremists” in Arizona, and is now refusing to travel to our beautiful state. In his blog, Frommer repeatedly raises the question of a national boycott of the Grand Canyon state.
The Republic used the word “thugs” in yesterday’s editorial, describing Arizonans who openly carry firearms.
“I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there,” he added.
“And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.”
Frommer should stick to recommending cut-rate lodging and occasionally pick up a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
Upon hearing the news of Frommer‘s dismay, Mayor Phil Gordon rushed back to Phoenix from whatever trip he was currently on, to say he planned to call Frommer immediately and invite him to Phoenix to clear up any misperceptions that his city is not safe. “I want to show him the perceptions of what he saw in the news are not a reflection of what Phoenix and the state are all about,” Gordon said.
UPDATE:
What a non-surprise to find that Arthur Frommer is a longtime, high-dollar donor to the Democrat Party, giving thousands to the DNC and the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, John Kerry and Bill Clinton. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, another committed liberal, is also a recipient of his generosity. ActBlue has also received funds from Frommer.
Posted by seeingredaz 
Posted by seeingredaz 
Posted by seeingredaz 
