CovenantNews.com

Wisdom the Principal Thing

Christopher J. Ortiz / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Take a glance around the room where you're sitting. What do you see? If you're in your home, you see what you're accustomed to seeing. If you're somewhere else, you see whatever the owner of that space has filled the room with. Do you see anything else? Look hard. Anything? Don't be afraid to say "no"-this is not a trick question. However, if you look with Biblical eyes, you will see something much greater-you will see the incalculable abundance God has hidden in this world. If you allow the Bible to change your view of creation, you will realize how you may be living far below your God-given potential; and you will discover one of Christianity's most paralyzing defects.

Whose Common Sense?

Gary DeMar / American Vision:
For some time now I have been receiving emails from a belligerent atheist. Some of his emails are so vile that to describe them in general terms would be enough to offend you. Atheists are like a tube of toothpaste. The harder you squeeze them to be consistent with their operating assumptions, the more they spill what is really contained deep in their God-hating soul. Jesus described it this way: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:19). For all their claims that atheists can be moral without God, this particular emailer proves that the more consistent an atheist becomes with his worldview assumptions, the more ethically unhinged and irrational he becomes.

Real Estate Doom

Gary North / LewRockwell.com;
There are today over 18 million empty houses in the United States today. Of these, 650,000 are in foreclosure. Under these circumstances, lenders should be aggressively negotiating to get new buyers to take over the payments. They should be dropping prices to market levels. If they don't, vandals will strip these houses of everything movable. But the foreclosure system is paralyzed. The locals have no authority to negotiate. The distant bureaucrats are insulated from reality.

Home Mortgage Hijinks

Jon Christian Ryter / NewsWithViews.com:
The home mortgage default and foreclosure figures are in for February. The Bush Administration was not anxious to release them. The figures don't look good. The home mortgage crisis has become contagious. It's spreading from the subprime home market into the prime loan market. Approximately 2.3% of the holders of prime rate mortgages were at least 60 days late. That number is up 1.4% from a year ago. It is the highest level of delinquencies from prime rate borrowers in a decade. Prime rate mortgages are given only to the "A" list of credit worthiness.

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

Vincent Bugliosi / Information Clearing House:
There is direct evidence that President George W. Bush did not honorably lead this nation, but deliberately misled it into a war he wanted. Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public — lies that have cost the lives of more than 4,000 young American soldiers and close to $1 trillion.

McCain Freaks Out

Phil Brennan / Ether Zone:
Senator John McCain has confirmed his dedication to the holy crusade against global warming, now known to the initiates as climate change. He's told the world that nobody is more determined than he to take steps to stop Mother Nature's alleged plan to deep fry the planet. His views on global -- oops -- climate change -- have been no secret, but his latest pledge to take strong action to stop the planet from heating up dangerously puts him squarely in the ranks of Al Gore's cohort of climate change alarmists, a group known for their fanaticism.

McCain Backer John Hagee Apologizes to Catholics

Elizabeth Holmes / The Wall Street Journal:
John Hagee, the controversial evangelical pastor who endorsed John McCain, will issue a letter of apology to Catholics today for inflammatory remarks he has made, including accusing the Roman Catholic Church of supporting Adolf Hitler and calling it "The Great Whore." In the letter, addressed to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League and one of Hagee’s biggest critics, Hagee pledges "a greater level of compassion and respect for my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ." Hagee met with 22 Catholic leaders in Washington on Friday to apologize for his comments, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Related:
Catholic League accepts Hagee apology
by Foon Rhee / Boston Globe
The Rev. John Hagee -- who in some eyes threatened to become to John McCain what the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. became to Barack Obama -- has apologized for remarks that offended many Catholics. Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement today that he accepted the apology and any dispute is over. Ever since the Texas televangelist endorsed McCain for president, the presumptive Republican nominee, has sought to distance himself from the controversial comments, arguing that just because he accepts an endorsement doesn't mean he agrees with all that person's views.

Will Hagee Now Apologize to The 'Gay' Community?

Think Progress:
Since February, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) accepted the long-sought endorsement of controversial Pastor John Hagee, the two have come under criticism for Hagee's past descriptions of Catholicism as "'The Great Whore,' an 'apostate church,' the 'anti-Christ,' and a 'false cult system.'" On multiple occasions, McCain has distanced himself from Hagee's anti-Catholic comments while still maintaining that he is "glad" to have his endorsement. But anti-Catholic comments are not the only reason Hagee has sparked controversy. Just last month, he reiterated his prior claim that Hurricane Katrina was punishment to New Orleans for hosting a gay pride parade. Though he appeared to back away from the claim after McCain called it "nonsense," he re-embraced it last week on a conference call with religious supporters. Will Hagee issue a similar letter to the gay community pledging "a greater level of compassion and respect for my gay brothers and sisters in Christ?"

Huckabee: Novak's Column Is 'Total and Absolute Nonsense'

Jake Tapper / ABC News:
Bob Novak has a column suggesting that some "U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as 'God's candidate' for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course...

How they view Obama
The Campaign Spot on National Review

Alan Keyes

Timothy J. Harris / First Word:
At its national convention Saturday April 26 in Kansas City, the Constitution Party avoided permanent disaster by declining to nominate Alan Keyes for its Presidential candidate. Losing this was a serious blow to Keyes, who left the Republican Party a couple weeks earlier, evidently with an eye on just this prize. His bitter colloquy to supporters after the vote was taken strongly suggests his exit will be as precipitate as his entrance. Grand opening; grand closing. Now the question is whether he will keep his hint of leaving politics for good, or, like a bent nickel, will he come back into circulation again, perhaps when one is least expecting it?

Birds of A Feather

Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
There is an old adage that, for the most part, has proven itself to be true: "Birds of a feather flock together." In other words, one can discern much about a person by the company he or she keeps. Accordingly, here is a sample of the quirky company of Senator John McCain. As Jerome Corsi recently reported, John McCain has long enjoyed sizeable funding from the ultraliberal gazillionaire George Soros, and from liberal Massachusetts Senator John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

McCain, Huckabee and Some 'Evangelicals'

Robert Novak / SignOn San Diego:
John McCain, who has spent the last two months trying to consolidate right-wing support as the Republican candidate for president, has a problem of disputed dimensions with a vital component of the conservative coalition: the evangelicals. The biggest question is whether Mike Huckabee is part of the problem or the solution for McCain. An element of the Christian community is not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regards the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as "God's candidate" running for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course.

Related:
McCain Still Failing To Close With GOP Voters
Peter Dreier / Huffington Post
"McCain Can't Close the Deal." If the mainstream media were truly being evenhanded, that's the headline that would appear in newspapers and news magazines around the country. Why? Because even after he became the presumptive Republican presidential candidate on March 4 -- when Ohio, Texas, Vermont, and Rhode Island held their primaries and Mike Huckabee dropped out -- McCain can't seem to rally GOP voters behind him. In the past two months, despite McCain's status as the designated nominee, GOP primary voters have delivered significant protest votes to Huckabee and Ron Paul (who has made few campaign appearances), as well as other candidates who ended their campaigns long ago. In states as different as Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina, McCain only attracted between 73% and 79% of primary voters -- hardly the groundswell one would expect once the field had been cleared.

Voting for Yellow Dogs, Again

Henry A. Clemens / The Covenant News:
A special note: I would like to say at the very outset that I have the highest respect and admiration for Congressman Ron Paul. In past years, I have supported him with campaign contributions. I wish him well. However, it is my hope that Congressman Paul will soon resign from the Republican Party. The Republican Party is not worthy of him. In the past, the South was once referred to as the "Solid South." It got that name because of the fact that the South, as a whole, always voted Democratic.

GOP's Presence in Washington Shrinking Fast

John F. McManus / JBS.com:
Two recent interim elections for vacant House seats should have been won by Republicans. But Democrats took both and forecasts for the fall elections expect many more GOP losses. Two months ago, the Illinois seat held for many years by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert went to a Democrat in a special election. It hadn't been in Democratic hands in decades.

The Ordinary Face of Everyday Evil

William N. Grigg / Pro Libertate:
The unremarkable face of unspeakable evil: A Sheriff's Deputy stands ready to use whatever force may be required to compel an FLDS mother to surrender her children to the State. Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends… [I]n periods when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object.
(Published by The Right Source)

An Evangelical Response to 'An Evangelical Manifesto'

Dr. Albert Mohler / AlbertMohler.com:
Who are the Evangelicals? The issue of Evangelical identity and definition has been central to the Evangelical project from its very beginning in America. Given the nature of the movement, definition is elusive and constantly contested. The release of "An Evangelical Manifesto" on May 7 caught the attention of the national media, and thus it represents yet another opportunity for evangelical definition. The document, released May 7, also represents a challenge, for its framers hope to redefine the movement in the context of our unsettled times. The Manifesto, released at a press conference at the National Press Club, represents an agenda. The press release offered by the organizers makes that clear.

Come On, You Call This a Manifesto?

Professor Alan Jacobs / The Wall Street Journal:
Another group of evangelicals released "An Evangelical Manifesto: The Washington Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment." Like the Lausanne Covenant, it restates much basic Christian doctrine, proclaims the need for evangelism and contains passages of penitence. ("We must reform our own behavior.") So how does this document add to, or differ from, the Lausanne Covenant? I had read much of it -- it runs to 20 pages -- before I began to understand what it's all about. If Lausanne was an international document based on international concerns, the Manifesto is a very American document, the product of an election year, and a strong reaction against a quarter-century of evangelical identification with the Republican Party. But one thing the document is not is a manifesto...The true manifesto is bold, even extreme: It leaves us in no doubt about its commitments...The Evangelical Manifesto, by contrast, is both long and insistently moderate.

The Truth About Veteran Suicides

Aaron Glantz / LewRockwell.com:
Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas. These are statistics that most Americans don't know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.

The Results of Christian Activism

Bigger Government, Deficits, Wars Without End.
by Bob Strodtbeck / The Covenant News:
I have a great fascination for people who believe that because we live in America and that they claim to be Christian and that they can somehow wrap Biblical language around their decisions, actions, and attitudes, that all the indicators that foretell serious social, political, and economic disasters are suddenly going to disappear like a bad dream. Or else we're just going to be raptured and the tribulation will proceed without us. To whit, might I borrow from a great guru from the athletic world, Lee Corso, by intoning, "Not so fast!!!"

All in the Family

Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Here's just a foretaste of what's soon to come in the great theocratic conspiracy. Secular journalist, Jeff Sharlet, is soon to release his book (The Family) on the secretive Washington-based group, The Fellowship. Doug Coe, longtime leader of The Fellowship, apparently had no communications director, because Coe often cited history's most infamous leaders as models for power and cultivating commitment. This has brought the religious political group significant criticism. Sharlet had spent some time with the group and actually "lived" to tell about it.

The Constitution Protects Us from Them

Jacob G. Hornberger / The Future of Freedom Foundation:
The Framers understood the most important point about the nature of government: It constitutes the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the citizenry. Unfortunately, it is a point that has been lost among many modern-day Americans, who have come to view government as their friend, protector, provider, and savior. If the Framers had viewed government the way that many modern-day Americans do, why would it have been necessary to limit the powers of the president, the Congress, and the judiciary to those specifically enumerated in the Constitution?

WWJD? What Would Jefferson Do?

Roderick T. Beaman / Ether Zone:
In The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "...Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed..." The American War for Independence had just begun a little more 14 1/2 months before he wrote that. That excerpt is telling and each word and phrase should be contemplated. It's obvious that Jefferson wants the reader to know that the action of that Congress was not a rash one, arrived at in the heat of the moment. No, the colonies had endured a host of abuses and could endure them no longer. Jefferson also, tellingly, observes that people tend to bear the indignities that are heaped upon them. It is an observation of human behavior that rings true today from that great hall in Philadelphia down our history to us today. It is obvious that the abuses of our American government and our state capitals far outstrip any were being heaped upon us by King George III.

The Jeffersonians Were Right After All

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. / LewRockwell.com:
To the casual eye, Kevin Gutzman has written a scholarly book about Virginian political thought and practice from revolutionary times through 1840. But its scholarly merits do not exhaust the merits of Virginia's American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840. Readers are also treated to the incidental pleasure of watching the Straussian rendering of American history dismantled piece by piece.

How Military Analysts Control News Coverage

Glenn Greenwald / Salon.com:
On the question of whether the Pentagon maintained an illegal covert domestic propaganda program -- and on the broader question of whether the American media's political coverage is largely shaped and controlled by the U.S. Government -- I don't believe it's possible to obtain more conclusive evidence than this: These are excepts from a memorandum sent on January 14, 2005 -- just before President Bush was to be inaugurated for his second term -- from Capt. Roxie T. Merritt, the Director of DoD Press Operations, to several top Pentagon officials, including Larry Di Rita, the top aide to Donald Rumsfeld (pp. 7815-7816 (.pdf)). It reports on Merritt's conclusions and proposals in the wake of a Pentagon-organized trip to Iraq for their military analysts.

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Guns In National Parks: Let's Make It Permanent

Gun Owners of America:
The Bush administration, after more than seven years, has finally issued regulations permitting the carrying of firearms in national parks. Gun owners will soon be able to carry firearms according to the laws of the state in which the park is located. While not perfect, the proposed regulations, which are likely to take effect at the end of June 2008, represent a sharp contrast with the steadfast refusal to allow for self-defense in national parks.

The Amtrak Security Scam

J. H. Huebert / LewRockwell.com:
Amtrak's draconian new security measures. These reflect a drastic change from Amtrak's heretofore easygoing policies that allowed you to pretty much just show up and board - no searches, no wandings, no pat-downs. Whatever one might say about Amtrak otherwise, this was its great advantage over air travel in the months and years following September 11, 2001. Now, though, Amtrak is sending police to perform random screenings of passengers' carry-on bags. It's also deploying bomb-sniffing dogs and police armed with automatic weapons to patrol trains and platforms.

Hate Crimes Charges Against Teen

Rev. Ted Pike / Uncle Raisin:
The State of Illinois has indicted 18-year-old Brett Van Asdlen for the "hate crime" of pushing a homosexual, Steven Velasquez, backward to the ground, allegedly causing trauma. Under Illinois enhanced hate crimes penalties, Brett is charged with a Class 4 felony, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Bush's Sodomite Enablers Attack Special Counsel

Carrie Johnson and Christopher Lee / The Washington Post:
Nearly two dozen federal agents fanned out in the agency's building on M Street, where they sequestered Office of Special Counsel chief Scott J. Bloch for questioning, served grand-jury subpoenas on 17 employees and shut down access to computer networks in a search lasting more than five hours. Bloch, who was nominated to his post by President Bush in 2003, is the principal official responsible for protecting federal employees from reprisals for complaints about waste and fraud. He also polices violations of Hatch Act prohibitions on political activities in federal offices.

A Kansas lawyer who previously worked at the Justice Department's Task Force on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Bloch repeatedly clashed with his own workforce and with other Bush administration officials he targeted for improper behavior. By his own account, the White House twice asked him to resign.

Since Bloch's confirmation 4 1/2 years ago, he has been fighting calls for his ouster by independent watchdog groups. He drew fire quickly for removing from the OSC Web site references to the agency's authority to hear complaints by federal employees who alleged discrimination based on their sexual orientation, said Debra S. Katz, a lawyer representing OSC whistle-blowers.

Related:
FBI Raids Office Of Special Counsel
Sodomite Publication
Bloch, the man responsible for protecting whistleblowers and investigating complaints of discrimination by federal workers, has for more than five years refused to take on complaints of discrimination based on sexuality. Bloch's stonewalling complaints of discrimination by LGBT federal workers dates to February 2004 when he ordered references to sexual orientation removed from the Office of the Special Counsel website. Since 1998, when President Bill Clinton issued an executive order prohibiting bias in the civil service, the OSC has taken that to include sexuality.

What, Exactly, Is President Bush's Religion?

John Lofton / The American View Radio:
This program is a respectful, in-depth, well-documented look at many of the things Mr. Bush has said and done as President, things said and done which are viewed from the perspective of the Bible, God's Word.

Redestined to Be a 4-Point Missionist

David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
I've begun to notice how repetitious my public speaking has become. Ethiopia or some other faraway mission field I have visited always seems to creep into the conversation, regardless of the topic at hand. I've asked myself why. Here's the best answer I can come up with. The meaning of Christianity is ministry and mission, disciple-making at home and in actual "missionary" lands. This to me has become a settled conviction. But it was only after I began my personal studies of the Scriptures, not merely on an academic level but on a more devotional level – I dislike the term, but it must suffice – that I was "redestined," as one might say, to become a 4-point missionist, that is, a world Christian. (The number "4" refers to the points of the compass: north, south, east, and west.)

Florida Revival Attracts National Attention

Michelle Bearden and Billy Townsend / Dothan Eagle:
Whether healing in a medical sense is delivered here may be hard to measure, but more people each night are finding reason to believe and pouring into the 7,000-seat arena. The Lakeland movement, still in its first month, is drawing comparisons to the "Toronto Blessing" in 1994 and the Pensacola Brownsville Revival that fired up the next year.

Bentley's Lakeland Revival Keeps Moving Spirits, Closing Date
Michelle Bearden & Billy Townsend / The Tampa Tribune:
LAKELAND -- Cassandra Serine and her two teenage children already were planning to leave Thomasville, Ga. They say they wanted more from their lives and their church there. They found it on God TV, live from Lakeland. Eight days ago, the Serines joined the inflow of pilgrims drawn by coverage of what organizers are calling the "Florida Outpouring," evangelist Todd Bentley's monthlong healing revival. Since then, they've slept each night in a tent in a Lakeland-area campground. They spend the rest of their days moving between Lakeland's Ignited Church, where the revival started in early April, and the larger local venues where it's playing now.

Lakeland Revival Miracle Healings Continue
CBN.com:
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Since April 2, what appears to be a powerful move of God is shaking Lakeland, Fla. And maybe the most interesting thing about what's happening in Lakeland is that it isn't just happening here, but all over the earth simultaneously. Revivalist Todd Bentley, 32, of Canada has been the leading figure when it comes to the thousands of healings. "We're in 214 nations a night. Potential audience of 400 million. And 10 hours a day we're literally around the world, people are seeing what's happening here in Florida," Bentley said.

The Law As Standard

Bret McAtee / The Backwater Report:

"This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh." - Galatians 5:16

"We ought to mark the word fulfill; by which he means, that, though the sons of God, so long as they groan under the burden of flesh, are liable to commit sin, they are not its subjects or slaves, but make habitual opposition to its power."

John Calvin
Commentary On The Epistle To The Galatians – pg.162

It is imperative to note that the Apostle writes this letter to a group of Christians. It is Christians who must be warned to not fulfill the 'lust of the flesh.' This reminds us that our eschatology must always retain a flavor of the 'not yet' about it. It is true that we are not what we once were but it also remains true that this necessity of contending against the lust of the flesh reminds us that we are not yet what we will one day be. While here, we have only entered heaven's vestibule and so must continue to seek to press in to the inner sanctum.

God's Law: The Standard Yesterday, Today, Forever

Brandon Vallorani / American Vision:
There's great confusion and even debate in Christian circles today as to the role of God’s Law in our personal lives and in society as a whole. Is God's Law the standard for everyone or just for Christians? Should Christians seek to make civil laws conform to God's Law? Some Christians, known as antinomians, ignore God's Law altogether. Antinomianism, meaning anti-Law, is a dangerous doctrine that Christians are exempt from the obligations of God's Law. Some Christians hold antinomian views because they believe that seeking to obey God's Law is legalism or salvation by works.

A Review of 'Blasphemy'

Lee Duigon / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Blasphemy: How the Religious Right Is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence by Alan Dershowitz (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007). First let's see who's really guilty of blasphemy. Quoting Thomas Paine, Dershowitz frequently calls the Bible "a pious fraud" (p. 22), belief in an afterlife "false" (p. 33), and Jesus Christ "the first Reform rabbi" (p. 35) and "a great moral teacher" (p. 58), but nothing more than that—failing to explain how anyone can be a great moral teacher while telling lies about himself being the Son of God. He lauds Thomas Jefferson for not believing in "the virgin birth or any of the other alleged miracles surrounding the birth of the very human Jesus" (p. 73).

Allow Intelligence!

James Perloff / The New American:
Traditionally minded Americans don't often cheer Hollywood products. We gladly report an exception: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (rated PG). Charles Darwin's theory of evolution transformed Western culture. The Bible taught that life forms are creations of God, with man the centerpiece, made in God’s image. Darwin introduced a new doctrine: random interactions of chemicals had created life, and man was just an animal, evolved from lower life forms through survival of the fittest. Sold to the public as scientific fact, "Social Darwinism," with its view of man as beast, helped spawn unprecedented cruelties under communism and Naziism.

Strictly Personal

Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
Since I just celebrated my 56th birthday (on May 3), it is time for my annual "Strictly Personal" column. I think it only fair that readers should have an opportunity to learn a little something about the person who writes the words they read. Today's column is designed with that goal in mind.

Chuck Baldwin Acceptance Speech
Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Candidate
Delegates to the 2008 Constitution Party National Convention held in Kansas City, Missouri April 23-26 voted to elect Dr. Chuck Baldwin to serve as its 2008 Presidential candidate. Listen to his acceptance speech. Spread the word by emailing the address to this page far and wide.

Chuck Baldwin Site Goes Live!

Baldwin2008.com:
"It will not just be conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats, people of faith or unbelievers that restore America. It will be individuals from all walks of life, all backgrounds, and all political persuasions who love liberty enough to fight to maintain it."

Report Pushes Passage of Thought Crimes Bill

Lee Rogers / RogueGovernment.com:
The Internet is now becoming a new front in the phony terror war. Legislation like the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 that is in the forms of HR 1955 and S 1959 which seek to give the government powers to define thoughts and belief systems as homegrown terrorism, is on the brink of being pushed down our throats. HR 1955 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 404-6 and now it appears as if the U.S. Senate is attempting to justify its future passage.

The Republican Dictatorship

Glenn Greenwald / LewRockwell.com:
Ever since Ronald Reagan famously declared in his 1980 inaugural address that "government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem," Republicans have masqueraded as the party of limited government. Its leaders reflexively pledge to keep government off the backs of regular, hardworking Americans. Homage is paid to the wisdom and insight of the American people, which, Republicans endlessly insist, is far superior to the judgment of government officials.

Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Fuel, Big Fascism

Alan Stang / NewsWithViews.com:
What form of government are we supposed to have? The Founders of this country bequeathed us a system we used to call Free Enterprise, in which the government was supposed to leave business alone. Because of that system, endorsed by scripture, we became the greatest nation known to history. Now, what kind of system do we actually have today? Because the original system has been perverted – first by ordinary criminals, then by the conspiracy for world government – the system we have now, the perversion, began as "mercantilism" and today is best described as Fascism.

Will Independent Truckers Survive?

Isabel Lyman / The New American:
Think you've got it tough? Spending up to $80 bucks to fill your tank with gasoline? Consider my husband's numbers. Last May it cost Wid $800 to fill up his big rig with 300 gallons of diesel fuel. Today it costs him $1,200 -- that's over $4 per gallon for an 18-wheeler that gets 7 miles to the gallon. Ouch.

McCain's Pastor Problem: The Video

David Corn / Mother Jones:
During a 2005 sermon, a "fundamentalist pastor" whom Senator John McCain has praised and campaigned with called Islam "the greatest religious enemy of our civilization and the world," claiming that the historic mission of America is to see "this false religion destroyed." In this taped sermon, currently sold by his megachurch, the Reverend Rod Parsley reiterates and amplifies harsh and derogatory comments about Islam he made in his book, Silent No More, published the same year he delivered these remarks. Meanwhile, McCain has stuck to his stance of not criticizing Parsley, an important political ally in a crucial swing state.

'But He's No Mike Huckabee'

Isabel (Izzy) Lyman / USA Daily.com:
At its nominating convention in Missouri, the Constitution Party selected Dr. Chuck Baldwin as the party's 2008 presidential candidate (384 votes) over bombastic orator and former Reagan administration appointee Dr. Alan Keyes (126 votes). Eight candidates were vying for the top-of-the-ticket spot. Shortly after his landslide victory, Baldwin told me that he is "thrilled and honored" to receive the nomination and praised Keyes as "articulate and intelligent." The 56-year-old Baldwin of Pensacola, Florida, is a Baptist preacher, but he's no Mike Huckabee. Baldwin is the antithesis of a glib showman. He's forthright and humble in manner; think Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Baldwin won't be wooing the Religious Right, either, by playing the Christian card. The pastor, a prolific writer (ChuckBaldwinLive.com features his columns.), often criticizes the sycophantic tendencies of his church-going brethren who have habitually supported Wall Street-enabling, wire-tapping, debt-enlarging Republican administrations.

Illegals From 'Special Interest Countries'

Michael Cutler / NewsWithViews.com:
Two news articles recently appeared in their respective newspapers. Both articles deal with the same news story but the difference in the way that the stories were written is significant. The first article makes it clear that the aliens who attempted to procure driver's licenses through fraud were from so-called "special interest countries," that is to say, countries that are linked to terrorism. The second article describes these aliens as coming from "New Jersey!"

An American Gulag

William N. Grigg / Pro Libertate:
Sixty years ago a young American named Alexander Dolgun was accosted on the streets of Moscow by a couple of affable fellows working for the Soviet secret police (known at the time as the MGB). Assuming he was the victim of mistaken identity or some innocent bureaucratic bungle, Dolgun -- who worked as a file clerk at the U.S. Embassy -- offered neither resistance nor objection when he was taken to the Lubyanka Square headquarters of the secret police.
(Published by The Right Source)

Posted by Editor at 05:25 AM