Obama cabinate sends Chicago style intimidation

Press Release

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
http://republicans.oversight.house.gov

U.S. House of Representatives
News Release
Issa to Emanuel: Back Off!

August 4, 2009
WASHINGTON. D.C. – Following reports that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been orchestrating an effort to intimidate members of Congress and Governors who raise legitimate concerns regarding the effectiveness of the stimulus, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Emanuel saying “While this type of scare tactic may work In Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.”

“I and others have dared to bring these facts to the attention of President Obama, the Congress and the American people,” Issa wrote. “You’ve unfortunately reacted by once again resorting to the playbook of the Chicago political machine.”

Last month, Politico reported that Emanuel had “launched a coordinated effort to jam” Senator Kyl and other Administration critics… “[A]fter seeing Kyl and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) again paint the legislation as a failure on Sunday talk shows, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel directed that the letters from the Cabinet secretaries be sent to [Governor] Brewer, according to two administration officials.”

Issa noted, “The fact that the letters were coordinated by you to maximize the level of intimidation is supported by the timing, structure, and content of each letter. Not only were the four letters all sent the day following Senator Kyl’s remarks, but they were also remarkably similar in tone and sentence structure.”

Letter from Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation:

On Sunday, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl publicly questioned whether the stimulus is working and stated that he wants to cancel projects that aren’t presently underway. I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country. However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know [emphasis added].


Letter from Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior:

Some key Republican leaders in Congress have publicly questioned whether the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is working and suggested cancelling all projects that are not currently in progress. I believe they are wrong. The stimulus funds provided through the Recovery Act are a very effective way to create job opportunities throughout the Country. However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to Arizona, please let me know [emphasis added].


“At what point do you believe your practice of Chicago-style politics violates a public official’s right to speak out in favor of alternative policies,” Issa asks. “The American people have a right to know what role you played in developing the threatening letters to Governor Brewer and whether you intend to continue to engage in these tactics in the future.”

In order to assist the Committee with its investigation of this issue, please provide the following information by close of business on Tuesday, August 11, 2009:

1.
Your response to Politico’s report that “White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel directed that the letters from the Cabinet secretaries be sent to [Governor] Brewer, according to two administration officials.”

1.
A full and complete explanation of the development of the four July 13 letters from the cabinet secretaries to Governor Brewer, including but not limited to the role you or any other White House official played in writing the letters or encouraging the writing of the letters.

1.
All records and communications between you and Secretary LaHood, Secretary Salazar, Secretary Donovan, and Secretary Vilsack referring or relating to the decision to send the July 13 letters to Governor Brewer.

1.
A full and complete explanation of the role of the Democratic National Committee and the White House Office of Political Affairs in authoring, encouraging, facilitating, or directing the four July 13 letters from the cabinet secretaries to Governor Brewer.


You can view a copy of the full letter to Emanuel by clicking here
http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/News/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=625

Obama Health Care Plan Details

Obama Health Care Plan Details
Mathew D. Staver*
Founder and Chairman Dean and Professor of Law
Liberty Counsel Liberty University School of Law
Offices in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Lynchburg, Virginia
(800) 671-1776 - Telephone (434) 592-5300 - Telephone
www.LC.org &nb sp;
www.law.liberty.edu

*Licensed in Florida and the District of Columbia

HR 3200 currently under consideration in the House of Representatives

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit the books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your benefits for you. You have no choice!

Pg 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill – Gov’t will have real-time access to individual’s finances & a National ID Health care card will be issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access to your banks accts for electronic funds transfer.

Pg 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange to bring priv HC plans under Govt control.

Pg 84 Sec 203 HC bill - Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private Health Care plans in the Exchange

Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration your Healthcare!

Pg 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services.

Example - Translation for illegal aliens.

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps to sign up individuals for Govt HC plan

Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your Health Care WILL be rationed

Pg 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Individual will be automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.

Pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue Govt on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monopoly.

Pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what you can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer w/ payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

Pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt provide public opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC according to Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay).

Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans financial and personal records.

Pg 203 Line 14-15 HC - “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that. Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, it does not matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same.

Pg 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

Pg 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries.

Pg 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs.

Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals – Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals for what Govt deems preventable readmissions. (Incentives for hospital to not treat and release.)

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission-Govt will penalize you.

Pg 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand.

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can you say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Govt mandates established of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing.

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans (Part B), HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Govt plan.

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy - Telehealth Advisory Committee. HC by phone/Internet?

Pg 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance [Death] Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life.

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory!

Pg 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Gov’t provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death.

Pg 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program for orders for end of life. The Gov’t has a say in how your life ends.

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.

Pg 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life
(NOTE FROM RJ: The above really does give the government the authority to determine who lives and dies, and when. A government bureaucrat really will be making this decision for you and your loved ones.)



Pg 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?

Pg 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment to a community-based org. Like ACORN?

Pg 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. They will insert Government into your marriage. Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining, creating, rationing those svcs

PG 502 Sec 1181 Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research Established. – Hello Big Brother – Literally.

Pg 503 Lines 13-19 Gov’t will build registries and data networks from YOUR electronic med records.

Pg 503 lines 21-25 Gov’t may secure data directly from any depart or agency of the US including your data.

Pg 504 Lines 6-10 The “Center” will collect data both published & unpublished (that means public & your private info)

PG 506 Lines 19-21 The Center will recommend policies that would allow for public access of data.

PG 518 Lines 21-25 The Commission will have input from HC consumer reps – Can you say unions & ACORN?

PG 524 18-22 Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund set up. More taxes for ALL.

PG 621 Lines 20-25 Gov’t will define what Quality means in HC. Since when does Gov’t know about quality?

Pg 622 Lines 2-9 To pay for the Quality Standards, Govt will transfer $$ from to other Govt Trust Funds. More Taxes.

PG 624 “Quality” measures shall be designed to assess outcomes & functional status of patients.

PG 624 “Quality” measures shall be designed to profile you including race, age, gender, place of residence, etc

Pg 628 Sec 1443 Gov’t will give “Multi-Stake Holders” Pre-Rule Making input into Selection of “Quality” Measures.

Pg 630 9-24/631 1-9 Those Multi-stake holder groups incl. Unions & groups like ACORN deciding HC quality.

Pg 632 Lines 14-25 The Gov’t may implement any “Quality measure” of HC Services as they see fit.

PG 633 14-25/ 634 1-9 The Secretary may issue non-endorsed “Quality Measures” for Physician Services & Dialysis Services.

Pg 635 to 653 Physicians Payments Sunshine Provision – Gov’t wants to shine sunlight on Docs but not Govt.

Pg 654-659 Public Reporting on Health Care-Associated Infections – Looks okay.

PG 660-671 Doctors in Residency – Gov’t will tell you where your residency will be, thus where you’ll live.

Pg 676-686 Gov’t will regulate hospitals in EVERY aspect of residency programs, incl. teaching hospitals.

Pg 686-700 Increased Funding to Fight Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. You mean like the Gov’t with an $18 million website?

PGs 701-704 Sec 1619 If your part of HC plan isn’t in Gov’t HC Exchange but you qualify for Fed aid, no payment.

PG 705-709 SEC. 1128 If Secr gets complaints (ACORN) on HC provider or supplier, Gov’t can do background check.

PG 711 Lines 8-14 The Secretary has broad powers to deny HC providers/ suppliers admittance into HC Exchange. Your doctor could be thrown out of business.

Pg 719-720 Sec 1637 ANY Doctor who orders durable med equip or home med services MUST be enrolled in Medicare.

PG 722 Sec 1639 Gov’t MANDATES Doctors must have face to face with patient to certify patient for Home Health Svcs.

PG 724 23-25 PG 725 1-5 The same Gov’t certifications will apply to Medicaid & CHIP (your kids)

PG 724 Lines 16-22 Gov’t reserves rt to apply face to face certification for patient to ANY other HC service.

Pg 735 lines 16-25 For law enforce. proposes the Secretary-HHS will give Atty General access to ALL data.

PG 740-757 Gov’t sets guidelines for subsidizing the uninsured (Thats your tax dollars people)

Pg 757-762 Fed gov’t will shift burden of payments to Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) to States. (Taxes)

Pg 763 1-8 No DS/EA hospitals will be paid unless they provide services without regard to national origin

Pg 765 Sec 1711 Gov’t will require Preventative Services including vaccines. (Choice?)

Pg 768 Sec 1713 Gov’t – Nurse Home Visitation Svcs (Hello union paybacks)

Pg 769 11-14 Nurse Home Visit Svcs include-economic self-sufficiency, employ adv, school-readiness.

Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Services - “increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.” Govt ABORTIONS anyone

Pg 770 SEC 1714 Fed Gov’t mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services. Abortion & State Sovereign.

Pg 789-797 Gov’t will set, mandate drug prices, controlling which drugs brought to market. Bye innovation.

Pgs 797-800 SEC. 1744 PAYMENTS for graduate medical education. The government will now control Drs’ education.

PG 801 Sec 1751 The Govt will decide which Health care conditions will be paid. Say RATION!

Pg 810 SEC. 1759. Billing Agents, clearinghouses, etc req. to register. Gov’t takes over private payment sys.

Pg 820-824 Sec 1801 Govt will identify individ. ineligible for subsidies. Will access all personal financial information.

Pg 824-829 SEC. 1802. Govt Sets up Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund. Another tax black hole.

PG 829-833 Gov’t will impose a fee on ALL private health ins. plans incl. self insured to pay for Trust Fund!

PG 835 11-13 fees imposed by Gov’t for Trust Fund shall be treated as if they were taxes.

Pg 838-840 Gov’t will design & implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids & families expect kids.

PG 844-845 This Home Visitation Prog. includes Gov’t coming into your house & telling you how to parent!!!

Pg 859 Gov’t will establish a Public Health Fund at a cost of $88,800,000,000. Yes that’s Billion.

Pg 865 The Gov’t will MANDATE the establishment of a National Health Service Corps.

PG 865 to 876 The NHS Corps is a program where Drs. perform mandatory HC for 2yrs for part loan repayment.

PG 876-892 The govt takes over the education of our Med students and Drs.

PG 898 The Govt will establish a Public Health Workforce Corps to ensure supply of public health prof.

PG 898 The Public health workforce corps shall consist of civilian employees of the U.S. as Secretary deems.

PG 898 The Public health workforce corps shall consist of officers of Regular & Reserve Corps of Service.

PG 900 The Public Health Workforce Corps includes veterinarians.

PG 901 The Public Health Workforce Corps WILL include commissioned Regular & Reserve Officers. HC Draft?

PG 910 The Govt will develop, build & run Public Health Training Centers.

PG 913-914 Govt starts a HC affirmative action program thru guise of diversity scholarships.

PG 915 SEC. 2251. Govt MANDDATES Cultural & linguistic competency training for HC professionals.

Pg 932 The Govt will estab Preventative & Wellness Trust fund- initial cost of $30,800,000,000-Billion.

PG 935 21-22 Govt will identify specific goals & objectives for prevention & wellness activities. Control YOU!!

PG 936 Govt will develop “Healthy People & National Public Health Perform. Standards” Tell me what to eat?

PG 942 Lines 22-25 More Gov’t? Offices of Surgeon General -Public Health Svc, Minority Health, Women’s Health

PG 950- 980 BIG GOV’T core pub health infrastructure including workforce capacity, lab systems; health info sys, etc

PG 993 Gov’t will establish school based health clinics. Your kids won’t have a chance.

PG 994 School Based Health Clinic will be integrated into the school environment. Say GOVT Brainwash!

PG 1001 The Govt will establish a National Medical Device Registry. Will you be tracked?



Mathew D. Staver*
Founder and Chairman Dean and Professor of Law
Liberty Counsel Liberty University School of Law
Offices in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Lynchburg, Virginia
(800) 671-1776 - Telephone (434) 592-5300 - Telephone
www.LC.org &nb sp;
www.law.liberty.edu

*Licensed in Florida and the District of Columbia

Now do you understand why we have to stand up today against this bill and declare with all of the courageous souls who are sounding the alarm and let us say to the bill—

“YOU SHALL NOT PASS.”


Click here to search for your local Representative

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The Only Statue That Is Smiling

The Wall Street Journal
June 5, 2009

The Only Statue That Is Smiling
Ronald Reagan, cast in bronze, arrives at the Rotunda.

“You are there.” The rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, that great, sandstone-walled, light-filled hall ringed with statues of the great of American history—Jefferson, Washington, proud Andrew Jackson in his flowing cape, Eisenhower, U.S. Grant, his eyes surveying the terrain as if he sees something out there in the wilderness. It’s 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 3, 2009, and Ronald Reagan marches in, surrounded by his peers. Actually his newly installed statue is unveiled there, in a ceremony attended by officials of both parties (including the speaker of the House and the leaders of the minority), his wife, Nancy, and a few hundred of his friends, appointees, staffers and cabinet members. It was standing room only.

The mood: mellow, proud and modest with the increased modesty of age.
“How lucky was I to walk into history when Ronald Reagan was in the room?” The speeches ranged from the heartfelt to the appropriate, with two (James Baker and Mrs. Reagan) being outstanding. It is usual, after formal ceremonies with their frozen rhetoric, to come away feeling that no cliché was left untouched. In some cases here they were quite thoroughly molested, but no matter. The general feeling was that Ronald Reagan restored America to itself, and that’s what people more or less said.

It was a great day and almost a decade in the making. Each of the 50 states is allowed two statues in the Capitol, they are sometimes but not frequently changed, and the changing process is complicated: Both chambers of a state legislature must vote, the governor must agree, the federal government is petitioned. A California congressman told me the hardest part was explaining to the people who the man being replaced was. (Thomas Starr King, a Universalist minister; he helped keep California in the Union during the Civil War.)

The statue was covered by a blue felt drop cloth. The dignitaries walked to the platform—Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, the Republican senate leader, John Boehner of the House. Mrs. Reagan walked slowly onto the platform in a bright white suit. At public events Mrs.
Pelosi always tries to look engaged, a pleasant half-smile on her face. This is a courtesy women in their middle years unconsciously give to the world. It is precious and largely unremarked. You see it on the street in small towns. Mr. McConnell had a good speech. Rather than recite a history lesson, he said, he’d note that in the 1980s, when the world said America was over, America said not quite, and when they said freedom was yesterday, America said I don’t think so.
Reagan “stood taller than any statue.”

The colors were presented. The U.S. Army chorus sang the national anthem so beautifully, with such harmonic precision and depth, that some dry eyes turned moist, including those of the crusty journalist to my right. Congressmen hear choirs sing patriotic songs all the time and grow used to it. The rest of us do not and are stirred.
Tourists walk through the Rotunda and think to themselves that they’d die for the signs and symbols of this place. Lawmakers experience the Rotunda as a connecting point between House and Senate that’s too often clogged by overweight tourists in shorts from Bayonne. We need term limits. When the music no longer moves you, you should leave.
When you cannot leave, you should be pushed.

James Baker, who served as Reagan’s Treasury secretary, was elegant in his remarks. To Mrs. Reagan he said, “You created that secure space from which he ventured forward to change the world.” And, “If anyone deserves to be in Statuary Hall it is Ronald Reagan,” a “principled pragmatist” who would fight for the right, push hard, get the best deal possible, accept it at a crucial moment, “declare victory and move on.” The Reagan that Baker presented was a romantic who lived in the real. The nation said goodbye to him when he lay in state in the Rotunda five years ago, but he stands now “a silent sentry in its hallowed halls.”

Mrs. Reagan had a bit of a one-minute masterpiece. Her face said it all. It was her first time in the Rotunda since her husband lay in state. History had come to endorse what she and her husband’s supporters long thought: that he was great. “The statue is a wonderful likeness of Ronnie, and he would be so proud.” And at the end she said, simply, “That’s it,” and the crowd erupted in applause.
She turned, helped pull the big blue drop cloth down, and there he was. That was his posture, that was the way he held his arms as he walked, that was the two button suit. The Gipper will be the only statue in the rotunda that is smiling. (In Statuary Hall, Will Rogers bears a look of wry amusement.)

Mrs. Reagan looked up at the statue, leaned forward, patted the right knee, and wiped her eyes.

The sculptor, 42-year-old Chas Fagan, was in college when Reagan was in the White House. Mrs. Reagan, he said, had input. She wanted a “positive, upbeat visage.” Mr. Fagan studied pictures, campaign videotapes and old films of the president making speeches, telling jokes. A smile on a statue can look frozen; he wanted to get Reagan on the way to a smile, the moment before it is “fully expressed.” He worked on the model in the Reagan library. It was made from clay and then translated into bronze, with a high patina. “He’s in his brown suit again,” Mr. Fagan laughed.

. . . .

That night there was a candlelit dinner in Statuary Hall. Mrs. Reagan told me of being in the Rotunda again, after five years. “That was hard,” she said in a soft voice. A line of well-wishers spontaneously formed around her chair, and she greeted senators, governors, former cabinet members and old White House staffers by name. She embraced Mrs. Pelosi. There was a lot of happiness at the dinner, but a lot of concern expressed too, privately, about the economy and our security.
There was a feeling of well-wishing toward President Obama—it is a difficult world he faces—but concern as to his decisions and direction. Does he understand, fully, all that is at stake in his new approaches to the Arab world? Are we spending ourselves into bankruptcy? Will California’s government be the first terrible test case of the new era?

There were a number of toasts. Ronald Reagan had been rightly lauded all day, but my thoughts were on what a beautiful bipartisan moment we had all experienced, for Republicans and Democrats together had formally embraced the Gipper’s memory, and a Democratic House had made the ceremonies possible. “This is one of those nights when you remember, when the information pierces you, that we are a great nation, a vibrant, peaceful nation of two parties and much bipartisan affection.” My thoughts too were on California, the Golden State, where he’d come to full adulthood, where he came first to see himself as a leader as a union president. California, full of pioneers and originals and artists, which was open to him as he entered politics, which elevated him to two terms as governor, and which had sent the statue of its beloved son to grace our Capitol. And my thoughts were on Mrs. Reagan, whose contribution had been summed up by James Baker.
Looking back, she made it all possible. Without her there was no him.

______________________________________
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Lessons From the Recovery of 2001

The Wall Street Journal
April 10, 2009
Peggy Noonan

Lessons From the Recovery of 2001
Not so long ago, there were heroes on Wall Street.

Wall Street, or what remains of it, has dealt a catastrophic blow to its reputation in the past eight months of bonuses, bailouts and bankruptcies. What its current leaders, and the young who are lucky enough to be entering business, have to do now is begin rescuing and restoring that reputation.

This will, in fact, be the great work of a generation of American business leaders.

More is at stake than their standing. At stake is the standing of a free-market system that has flourished since America’s founding and made it the wealthiest nation in the history of man.

In his classic “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism,” the philosopher Michael Novak noted that capitalism is good because, of all the economic systems devised by man, it is the one that lifts the greatest numbers out of poverty. Capitalism is itself not selfish, exploitative, unequal; it wants to grow and produce, bringing more services, more creativity, more opportunity, more ferment and movement—more life. It is not just an economic system, it is a public good.

To Mr. Novak, business is a vocation, a deeply serious one. But it cannot exist in a void. It requires an underlying moral edifice, a knowledge of right and wrong, “a sense of sin.” Greed is not good.
Wall Street is a stage, a platform on which men and women can each day take actions that are ethical or not, constructive or not. When their actions are marked by high moral principle, they heighten their calling—they are not just “in business” but part of a noble endeavor that adds to the sum total of human happiness. The work they do strengthens the ground on which democracy and economic freedom stand.
“The calling of business is to support the reality and reputation of capitalism.”

Noble. Constructive. Admirable.

When was the last time anyone thought of Wall Street like that?

There was a moment, a very public one well within memory, that was all of those things. And it might help the coming generation of business leaders to keep its lessons in mind.

It had to do with the last time Wall Street was in ashes—literally.
It had to do with how they brought it back.

“There was this huge, thunderous bang, and the entire building shook.
The skies darkened, there was nothing but ash and smoke.” That’s how Arthur Cashin remembers it. He was on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as a broker for UBS PaineWebber.

“The floor turned dark,” said Rich Adamonis, a vice president at the exchange. “It was worse than night.”

They were remembering the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the towers came down. You know what it looked like—the smoke and debris, the demonic cloud that chased people down the streets.

The exchange never opened that morning, and by the end of the day no one knew when it would. Downtown New York looked like a battlefield, the World Trade Center still burning. There was heavy debris on the roof of the exchange. The entire building was coated in ash.
Catherine Kinney, a vice president at the NYSE, thought the facade looked “like nuclear winter.”

On Sept. 12, the heads of the NYSE member firms met uptown at Bear Stearns. All the giants were there—Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS PaineWebber, Salomon Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase—and representatives from all levels of government, including the Treasury and the mayor’s office. Dick Grasso, chairman of the NYSE, convened and addressed the damage. How many dead in the firms?
Who lost their offices? Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Lehman had offices at the Trade Center—all gone. Firms offered to house other firms. Ms. Kinney: “There was an incredible esprit de corps among all the CEOs. They all sat side by side. They gave each other space on their trading desks and phones.”

To stock exchange staff, it didn’t look as if they could get back up and operating quickly. But they had to. Wall Street was a symbol of America, the exchange an icon of freedom. For Mr. Grasso it was about the bell: when that thing rang, freedom rang. Reopening “was a way for the entire financial community to clasp hands and say, ‘We’re gonna bring a message to the terrorists.’” That message? “You lose.”

They would do the impossible and open the following Monday, five days away. Herculean labors lay ahead. They had to clean up a huge debris field, get generators, reroute and throw in new phone and data lines.
Verizon had lost its central switching station, and part of its central office. Public transportation was down, so they’d have to create a shuttle-bus system and get up to 5,000 people downtown, past police cordons and military checkpoints. Tunnels into the city and subway stations had to be tested, support services and food brought into lower Manhattan.

Verizon rerouted circuits, and when they had to, they laid lines in the streets and covered them with rubber. They put huge electrical and phone cables on Broad Street, Exchange Place, New Street.

They exchange knew there would be a huge wave of selling when trading resumed, so they had to be ready for massive volume. If there were any glitches, it would be demoralizing. It all had to work. The world was watching. And this was America.

People slept in their offices, on cots in the medical area, on the floor of the chairman’s office, on the couches of a restaurant called the Luncheon Club. They worked overnight and all day.

And all the time they were doing this, they were hearing about friends and relatives who’d died. “The only smiles on Wall Street were in the posters of the missing that the families put up,” said Mr. Cashin.

They tested all the new systems on Sunday the 16th. One after another the big firms reported in from wherever they’d set up shop: Their lines were working.

And so the next morning, Monday, Sept. 17, 2001, the New York Stock Exchange opened with a podium full of firemen, cops, emergency medical workers and elected officials. A Marine Corps major sang “God Bless America.” There was silence. Then a Port Authority police officer, one of the last guys to come out of the pile, began to ring the bell. The others on the podium joined in. And as the bell rang out in triumph, the traders on the floor began to cry and cheer and shout themselves hoarse. Catherine Kinney was below the podium. “Was there a cheer—oh my God, you wouldn’t believe. I cried, I did. And prices start to go across the tape . . .”

America was open for business again.

It was a great moment in Wall Street history.

We all know what followed. A bubble grew, and then burst, and Wall Street was forever altered. In fact it’s not there anymore; it exists merely as a metaphor for “business” and “investing.” Many of the firms that helped Dick Grasso are gone, their CEOs humiliated, as was Mr.
Grasso himself, in a salary scandal.

In the years after 2001, they took care of themselves. But that bright shining week, Sept. 11 through 17, they took care of tradition, the exchange and their country.

So maybe wisdom begins there for them, and for those entering and living out lives in business in America: Look only to yourself and wind up with ashes. Know it’s bigger than you and wind up a hero.

But then it begins there for everyone.

12 Values

* Honesty
* Reverence
* Hope
* Thrift
* Humility
* Charity
* Sincerity
* Moderation
* Hard Work
* Courage
* Personal Responsibility
* Gratitude

9 Principles

9 Principles
1. America Is Good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
God “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the external rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” from George Washington’s first Inaugural address.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
Honesty “I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” George Washington

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
Marriage/Family “It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is known. By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family.” Thomas Jefferson

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
Justice “I deem one of the essential principles of our government… equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.” Thomas Jefferson

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness “Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.” Thomas Jefferson

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Charity “It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer.” George Washington

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
On your right to disagree “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly without thinking.” George Washington

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
Who works for whom? “I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation as the source of all authority in that nation.” Thomas Jefferson

Introduction to The Constitutional Sources Project

The Constitutional Sources Project is creating ConSource, the first, comprehensive, online library of Constitution-related source materials. The project provides the public with free online access to the Constitution as well as authoritative transcripts and high-quality digital images of original documents directly relating to the Constitution. This new medium will give the Founders, Reconstructionists, and original Feminists a voice in the classroom and courtroom, providing everyone from the sixth grader to the Supreme Court justice the best history of the Constitution. The Constitutional Sources Project was incorporated in May 2005 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, public charity and is headquarterd in Washington, D.C.

ConSource is the only online library to house a complete set of James Madison’s handwritten notes of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers, the Anti and Pro-Federalist Papers, the state ratification debates for seven states, and the legislative history of the Bill of Rights. Over the next year, ConSource will add Constituiton-related papers written by George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. In the past 30 years, Congress has spent over $72 million to transcribe these papers, together with those of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Yet based on a survey performed by The Constitutional Sources Project in 2006 of 201 publicly-funded libraries at the city, state, and university level, not one had a complete collection of these books. ConSource will make all of these sources available on ConSource.

America’s national treasures that are and will be housed on ConSource are scattered across multiple institutions, states, and even countries. In addition to the vast holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress, there are over 400 private archives in the U.S., France, and England that house early American documents relating to the Constitution. One of the largest private holders of early American documents, The Pennsylvania Historical Society, houses over 19 million document collections containing over 1 billion pages.

America’s Lack of Knowledge of the Constitution is Shocking

Only 6% of Americans can name all four rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. (24% cannot name even one. 27% can only name one. 43% can name two or three.)

62% cannot name all three branches of the Federal government.

Only 7% can correctly identify the Constitutional Convention delegates as the authors.

4 in 5 do not know how many amendments there are to the Constitution. 1 in 5 do not know that the President is Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

84% believe that the U.S. Constitution is the document that states that “all men are created equal,” thus confusing it with the Declaration of Independence.

32% believe that John Hancock had a hand in drafting the Constitution.

(Source: The National Constitution Center Survey, http://www.constitutioncenter.org/CitizenAction/CivicResearchResults/NCCNationalPoll/index.shtml)

Neither a Hedgehog Nor a Fox

The Wall Street Journal
March 18, 2009

Neither a Hedgehog Nor a Fox
The unbearable lightness of Obama’s administration.

He is willowy when people yearn for solid, reed-like where they hope for substantial, a bright older brother when they want Papa, cool where they probably prefer warmth. All of which may or may not hurt Barack Obama in time. Lincoln was rawboned, prone to the blues and freakishly tall, with a new-grown beard that refused to become an assertion and remained, for four years, a mere and constant follicular attempt. And he did OK.

Such impressions—coolness, slightness—can come to matter only if they capture or express some larger or more meaningful truth. At the moment they connect, for me, to something insubstantial and weightless in the administration’s economic pronouncements and policies. The president seems everywhere and nowhere, not fully focused on the matters at hand. He’s trying to keep up with the news cycle with less and less to say. “I am angry” about AIG’s bonuses. The administration seems buffeted, ad hoc. Policy seems makeshift, provisional. James K.
Galbraith captures some of this in The Washington Monthly: “The president has an economic program. But there is, so far, no clear statement of the thinking behind the program.”

This in part is why the teleprompter trope is taking off. Mr. Obama uses it more than previous presidents. No one would care about this or much notice it as long as he showed competence, and the promise of success. Reagan, if memory serves, once took his cards out of his suit and began to read them at a welcoming ceremony, only to realize a minute or so in that they were last week’s cards from last week’s ceremony. He caught himself and made a joke of it. One was reminded of this the other day when Mr. Obama’s speech got mixed up with the Irish prime minister’s. Things happen. But the teleprompter trope has taken off: Why does he always have to depend on that thing?

There is a new Web site where the teleprompter shares its thoughts in a breathless White House diary. It’s bummed that it has to work a news conference next week instead of watching “American Idol,” it resents being dragged to L.A. in Air Force One’s cargo hold “with the more common electronic equipment.” It also Twitters: “We are in California! One of the interns gave my panels a quick scrub and I’m ready to prompt for the day.” And: “Waiting for my boss’s jokes to get loaded for Leno!”

The fact is that Mr. Obama only has two jobs, but they’re huge. The first is to pull us out of an economic death spiral—to save the banks, get them lending, fix the mortgage mess, address unemployment, forestall inflation. TARP, TALF, financial oversight and regulation of Wall Street—all of this is enormously complex, involving questions of scale, emphasis and direction. All else—windmills, green technology, remaking health care—is secondary. The economy is the domestic issue now, and for the next three years at least.

So one wonders why, say, the president does not step in and insist on staffing the top level of his Treasury Department, where besieged Secretary Tim Geithner struggles without deputies through his 15-hour days. Might AIG and the bonus scandals have been stopped or discovered sooner if Treasury had someone to answer the phones? Leadership is needed here. Not talkership, leadership.

Mr. Obama’s second job is America’s safety at home and in the world.
Dick Cheney this week warned again of future terrorism and said Mr.
Obama’s actions have left us “less safe.” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs reacted with disdain. Mr. Cheney is part of a “Republican cabal.” “I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy.” This was cheap.

A journalist, watching, said, “They are like two people fighting over a torn bag of flour.” It may be hard cleaning it up.

Mr. Cheney’s remarks, presented in a cable interview, looked political and were received as partisan. The fact is he was wrong and right, wrong in that a subject so grave demands a well documented and thoughtful address. It’s hard to see how it helps to present crucial arguments in a cable interview and in a way that can be discounted as partisan. Nor does it help to appear to be laying the groundwork for a deadly argument: Bush kept us safe, Obama won’t. It is fair— and necessary—to say what the new administration is doing wrong, and to attempt to correct it, through data and argument. The Bush administration made a great point of saying, when they were explaining what U.S. intelligence is up against, that the challenges are constant and we only have to be wrong once, fail once, for the consequences to be deeply painful. What the Bush administration was doing, in part, was admitting that they might be in charge when something happened. The key was to do remain focused and vigilant.
This is still true.

But Mr. Cheney was, is, right in the most important, and dreadful, way. We live in the age of weapons of mass destruction, and each day more people and groups come closer to getting and deploying them.
“Man has never developed a weapon he didn’t eventually use,” said Reagan, without cards, worrying aloud in the Oval Office.

What can be used will be used. We are a target. Something bad is going to happen—don’t we all know this? Are we having another failure of imagination?

A month ago former FBI director Robert Mueller, in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, warned of Mumbai-type terrorist activity, saying a similar attack could happen in a U.S. city. He spoke of the threat of homegrown terrorists who are “radicalized,”
“indoctrinated” and recruited for jihad. Mumbai should “reinvigorate”
U.S. intelligence efforts. The threat is not only from al Qaeda but “less well known groups.” This had the hard sound of truth.

Contrast it with the new secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, who, in her first speech and testimony to congress, the same week as Mr. Mueller’s remarks, did not mention the word terrorism once. This week in an interview with Der Spiegel, she was
pressed: “Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?” Her reply: “I presume there is always a threat from terrorism.” It’s true she didn’t use the word terrorism in her speech, but she did refer to “man-caused” disasters. “This is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear.”

Ah. Well this is only a nuance, but her use of language is a man-caused disaster.

Our enemies are criminals, and criminals calculate. It is possible they are calculating thusly: America is in deep economic crisis and has a new, untested president. Why not move now?

Mr. Obama likes to say presidents can do more than one thing at a time, but in fact modern presidents are lucky to do one thing at a time, never mind two. Great forces are arrayed against them.

These are the two great issues, the economic crisis and our safety.
In the face of them, what strikes one is the weightlessness of the Obama administration, the jumping from issue to issue and venue to venue from day to day. Isaiah Berlin famously suggested a leader is a fox or a hedgehog. The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing. In political leadership the hedgehog has certain significant advantages, focus and clarity of vision among them. Most presidents are one or the other. So far Mr. Obama seems neither.

Words of caution

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005 ~~~~~

Gingrich Speech

Sobering words
We'd better start talking about the shape of the table now because this country doesn't have the stomach to face what is coming!

Gingrich Speech in New Hampshire . Apparently it is causing a firestorm.

NEWT GINGRICH : The third thing I want to talk about very briefly is the genuine danger of terrorism, in particular terrorists using weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass murder, nuclear and biological weapons. And I want to suggest to you that right now we should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of if it weren't for the scale of threat.


Let me give you two examples. When the British this summer arrested people who were planning to blow up ten airliners in one day, they arrested a couple who were going to use their six month old baby in order to hide the bomb as baby milk.

Now, if I come to you tonight and say that there are people on the planet who hate you, and they are 15-25 year old males who are willing to die as long as they get to kill you, I've simply described the warrior culture which has been true historically for 6 or 7 thousand years.

But, if I come to you and say that there is a couple that hates you so much that they will kill their six month old baby in order to kill you, I am describing a level of ferocity, and a level of savagery beyond anything we have tried to deal with.

And, what is truly frightening about the British experience is they are arresting British citizens, born in Britain , speaking English, who went to British schools, live in British housing, and have good jobs.

This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear or biological weapons.

And, my prediction to you is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.

This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement.

And, I further think that we should propose a Geneva convention for fighting terrorism which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are in fact subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous.

This is a sober topic, but I think it is a topic we need a national dialogue about, and we need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until actually we lose a city which could literally happen within the next decade if we are unfortunate.

This is a very sober description of the Islamic terrorist threat we are faced with . We are NOW at war with a culture that wants, not to take over our land, but to KILL us.

If this has meaning to you, please pass it on to those on your list

Ireland Gets It

STEVE FORBES, Forbes magazine (1/12/09): If the incoming Obama Administration is serious about squeezing more money from businesses, it should follow the example of Ireland and slash corporate tax rates. The U.S. has one of the highest profits levies in the developed world: 35% at the federal level, with another average of 5% from state and local taxes. Only Japan has worse. In contrast, Ireland's rate is a mere 12.5%. Imagine the howls from congressional Democrats if Barack Obama were to suggest enacting such a low corporate tax rate in the U.S.

But the accompanying table tells an eye-opening tale: Ireland's corporate tax take as a portion of its economy is higher than that of the U.S. High rates breed pressure for ever more complicated exemptions and ever more ingenious ways to avoid Uncle Sam's tax bite. But an Irish-like rate leaves companies to focus brainpower on growing their businesses instead of on jousting with tax collectors. A general flat tax, such as Yours Truly has been advocating for decades, would give just such a benefit to both individuals and businesses. Alas, misbegotten populist ideology still trumps fairness and common sense.

The Obama White House is pushing a massive stimulus plan that will do little to reinvigorate the recessed economy. Government spending does not create prosperity. If it did, the Soviet Union would have won the Cold War. Low tax rates positively change incentives: Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investors are induced to take more risks; businesses become more expansion-minded; and individuals positively adjust their own behavior, knowing that they can keep more of what they earn and that success will not be punished.

Up-Front: A Perspective for 2009

What I see… By Shirley Weaver

I thought it important to share concerning the presidential election season that just ended and wrote my impressions below on my last flight from Washington. I have compared my views with those of others –a check for balance sake - and offer it to you as my perspective to begin 2009.

There are three foundational pillars to our ministry: 1) Prayer, 2) Discipleship & 3) the Nations. Realizing there are many ways in which we each extend ourselves into the places where the Lord sends us when I read our position with a critical eye it is the ‘big picture’ that concerns me. This month we begin our 20th year (1989-2009) and it is the overview—the composite image—that I question. As a group, much of what we do reminds me of baby steps—small, small, small—too little, too late; as a group we are sluggish, moving only as fast and as far as the least can move. We have GOT to “get it” – all of us!

Besides this ministry, I am amazed generally with the silly operation of faith in the church. Members operate as believers in the same way they might as astronauts—they do not operate. Instead, something else is going on.

First, faith has become another word for Christianity - or any other religion - as though by the term faith I describe religious preference. Of course that is not faith; faith is power—faith is power to establish what we have been sent to establish and it is not working well for us. I believe the reason is that the minds of people of faith and the words they speak contradict the very thing they say they mean to establish, a schizophrenic approach.

Secondly, Bible studies and group meetings are now so me-centered they blind the Body to what is at stake—there is no actionable result that impacts the lifestyle of the members, only short-term mission outreaches designed to add that part of the model to the resume. Worldview is not a dynamic for us, it is a topic of conversation; and if the ability to converse on just the obvious worldview issues is a measure, the score is painful, shallow to the point of boredom—the hearer is bored, not the one speaking; the one speaking is stimulated to the max to hear themselves carry on and on in terms gleaned from someone else, with opinions they have no historical basis or measure of well-rounded information.

Third - multiply the condition to include homes, congregations, places of power and we see the nation is in a soup of words and opinions that produce little in places of power where worldview is shaped. We are talking to hear ourselves talk and apparently do not intend to do the hard part – to step into the soup and speak up.

Thankfully, those who are serious understand that faith is power, that worldview is Jesus’ model to shift the individual, the home and the nations for the Gospel, and that our work has a window of time, after which the window closes. But not enough believers get it and it is shocking that today is another day in our future in which we fail to convey as one voice, with clear and impressive reality, that the Son of God is Lord – that besides Him there is no other lord, that we are ministers of, and ambassadors of His, that we are not whispers, heavy breathers, or empty-headed wanderers, but are strategic, focused and determined.

In my view…

I explained in last month’s letter that I believe we have squandered a critically historical season in which the United States was given a two-term leader whose relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob guided him. Among other things, President George W. Bush boldly put his foot on the head—one head, many expressions—of partial birth abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and a heaven-earth alignment of spiritual forces against our national future—our children. There are many serious issues our government faces but only a few of those pivot us toward blessing or curse. For example, despite the fact that for decades no one could slow the momentum of a literal culture of death—its guns aimed squarely at changing America’s future as a Christian nation once and for all—President Bush’s unpopular leadership in other policy areas provoked a surge of words of doubt, impatience, contempt, despising. Even from the church, those with God-given power of the spoken word to advance the Kingdom utilized that same power against God’s man. The spiritual battle that ensued, I believe, made confusion the rule: north appeared to be south, up to be down, and wrong received the nod to be right; confusion ruled sufficiently to overwhelm and outclass righteous effort. Though many were praying it is obvious that a contradiction of prayer emerged: How it is that something so certain in the excitement of the prayer meeting is – possibly by morning—questioned, doubted and all but counted down, and out without so much as a fight. How can we be so glad one minute and so sad the next? Perhaps the equilibrium thing is the problem – no wonder many are so medicated.

Question: Do we have the spiritual guts to stay the course with guarded hearts and words? Armies in battle and under command do not shift and twist with the battle—they stay in the battle, “keep the faith”; lives are laid down in the process because the object of the battle is worth the battle. If we cannot decide what we believe, or how to proceed, we are not sufficiently spiritual to be in uniform-- much less in the battle.

Conclusion
So, if we were given a godly man to stand spiritually against the spirit-battle, and against terrorism in the natural—forces most of us can only imagine—why did WE step back; or should I say backward? The tendency is that we do not know what we are talking about, but present our opinions as those who know a great deal. Our knowledge of history is pitiful, and our knowledge of current events often from sources whose agenda is devastating to everything we value; we are narrow-minded, uninformed and silly—we do not study, do not grow, and are content to settle for what we can get instead of the vast territory believers were meant to occupy. Our prayers are nullified by doubt and speculation, sometimes before the amen is said. More and more, I carefully choose who to join in prayer since often it is religious, repetitious, simple-minded, uninformed and worst of all, without faith—meaning without power. Too many pray with out-dated mindsets and prayers often are little more than a report to God of imaginary facts with suggested ways in which He should handle the situation. If it does not happen the way we prescribe and preferably immediately, we change out of our giant suits and into something else—discouraged, oppressed, needing prayer, cannot go on, do not know what to think, guess I missed it—blah, blah, blah.
To balance this I must say that some do step up—single-minded, steady, articulate, confident, clear about prayer, not fainting; others do not.

Reposition…
We have been sidelined to some extent since, as has been said, often we simply do not know what we are talking about and are shallow in our understanding; we have been dull spiritually and have not realized the full weight and gravity of the main issue – that death is a spirit and once the door is opened, everyone is game—even you.

#1 - We must speak to the misinformation but also we have to do it better than we have so far--wiser, sharper, and in terms the non-believing world can understand. If those who ridicule our values throw a fit, throw one back—tell them the truth but tell them in words they understand.

#2 - We need to change our approach—less willing to wait and more exacting. For starters, we should not be patient with absurd misinformation like the mark placed on our president—that our strongly Christian president is “that way” because he is unlearned, not savvy. The protest was difficult to hear.

#3 - How will we respond as the same mocking and perception are applied more and more to you and me—that an intelligent, educated, experienced person would never think like we do; that we are too simple and unsophisticated to compete in the American newly-being-created-culture that craves religion with a European flair and a renaissance mindset concerning which god.

#4 - We can reposition. Each person needs to gather ten others to disciple and help them understand that we can change the momentum of the problems we are faced with, many of which are foreign and domestic doors that have been opened by abortion, the taking of innocent life. We need to speak clearly and often but our increase of influence comes with increase of those who have been discipled and trained.

#5 - What we do we must do quickly.

Shirley Weaver
A Clear Trumpet
January 1, 2009

Volition!

Four days ago I watched a short film called "Volition" that is extremely powerful and well done. It's a great investment of fifteen minutes. I watched it twice. I highly recommend that you grab a cup of coffee and view this, undistracted. Maybe have your family watch it together after dinner. I really like this one!

It was filmed mainly in three days in August on a small budget, to be entered in a short film contest. There's not much info on it on the web yet, so likely you haven't heard of it. But when you see it, I think you'll join me in wanting to spread the word.

If you don't want advance info, just watch the film now, then come back to the rest of this blog to learn more about it. To watch "Volition," go to www.thedoorpost.com/hope/Volition/ When you go to the site it starts playing immediately, so be sure you don’t miss the beginning.

If you want to know more about it either before or after you watch it, read what follows.

"Volition" masterfully places its unnamed central character in the context of three of the greatest human rights violations in history: the holocaust, slavery, and abortion.

The film's synopsis explains its name: "Volition (n)- The act of making a choice. Sometimes the choice of inaction has consequences stronger than we could ever imagine. Throughout history, men have been faced with difficult choices in a world that makes it easy for them to conform. This film explores the hope that lies behind every decision made in the face of adversity; the hope that is buried in the heart of those that look beyond themselves and see something bigger worth fighting for."

The film was produced by brothers Tim and Matthew Morgan, who created it when they were chosen as finalists for The Doorpost, an online short film competition. The brothers' ages are themselves an achievement: Tim Morgan, who directed the film, is only twenty-three years old, and his brother Matthew, who composed all the music, is twenty.

Tim shared with http://www.lifesitenews.com/ that although for most of his life he had always been “pro-life,” he had never given much thought to the issue until last year when he attended a massive prayer rally, “The Call.” “That’s when it really hit me, hit my heart,” he says, “that there is a need for just some sort of voice in the arts, in the entertainment world, in defense of these unborn babies.”

The Christian community, he says, "has kind of left the art world on the back burner. My vision would be them treating the art world, the film world, with the same sense of urgency as they’re treating, for instance, an overseas mission."

"This is an emergency for our culture, to be able to influence our film, our arts, the American pop culture in this way."

Okay, if you haven't done it yet, to watch "Volition," go to www.thedoorpost.com/hope/Volition/ Again, it starts playing immediately, so don’t miss the beginning.

On a mostly unrelated subject, check out this response from Robert Gagnon to the December 15 cover story in Newsweek, "Our Mutual Joy," written by Religion Editor Lisa Miller and strongly endorsed by Managing Editor Jon Meacham. As you may have heard, the article claimed that there are no good arguments from Scripture for refusing to support “gay marriage.” Interesting when a major news magazine shows an interest in biblical interpretation, and very sad when they misrepresent Scripture so badly.

But don't let the Newsweek media downer distract you from appreciating Volition, which is exactly the kind of media accomplishment we need. May God raise up more of these gifted young people to make these kinds of films! And may the church lay hands on them and send them out as Christ's ambassadors, with the same sense of God's calling and anointing we have when sending out missionaries.

Post a note of encouragement to producers Tim and Matthew Morgan (or email them at info@rockyfarmstudio.com), and pass the word about Volition!

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves...defend the rights of the poor and needy" (Proverbs 31:8-9).


http://www.epm.org/
This is syndicated from Eternal Perspectives (Randy Alcorn's blog), and written by noreply@blogger.com (Randy Alcorn).

G-20...heads up! Please ASK for God's help!

"We want a new world to come out of this." -Nicolas Sarkozy

Today, November 14 and Saturday, November 15, a G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy is convened in Washington D.C. The emergency summit was called two months ago by President George W. Bush to discuss the international financial crisis. Most of the discussions will take place behind closed doors, with much of the focus on reducing the economic influence of the United States and coerce the U.S. into new global financial alignments, similar to those of the "Bretton Woods System" established in 1944. (See below)

Leading up to the Summit, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society." Brown wants to bring economic decisions into alignment with social needs around the world. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, after meeting with European leaders in Paris on October 4th, called for the global summit to implement "a real and complete reform of the international financial system." Sarkozy said, "We want a new world to come out of this." Oh my gosh.

In announcing the summit in early October, Bush said, "We live in a globalized world. We want to make sure that we're effective at what we do. Once we made the decision that there is a role for the federal government to move to stabilize the markets we want to make sure that all of us move in the best coordinated way as possible." The President of the European Union agreed with Bush during an October 18th meeting at Camp David. Jose Manuel Barroso said, The international financial system -- its basic principles and regulations and its institutions need reform. We need a new global financial order." We need to be in serious prayer this weekend.

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent nation-states. Preparing to rebuild the international economic system as World War II was still raging, 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. The delegates deliberated upon and signed the Bretton Woods Agreements during the first three weeks of July 1944. Setting up a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, the planners at Bretton Woods established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (now one of five institutions in the World Bank Group) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These organizations became operational in 1945 after a sufficient number of countries had ratified the agreement.

It is important that we intercede about this meeting and ask the Holy Spirit to intervene on behalf of the sovereignty and Constitutional identity of the United States.

To intercede with understanding and pray into the aftermath of this G-20 Summit, you are encouraged to study about the Bretton Woods conference. This weekend's G-20 meeting is being referred to as "Bretton Woods II." Generals of Intercession has posted a historic study by Martha Lucia on the Bretton Woods System.

http://generals.org/home/individual-view/article/bretton-woods-system/?tx_ttnews[backPid]=1594&cHash=f8bfa15639

What's This World Coming To? G20

When we were discussing this morning the summit of world leaders meeting today, what the history is of our banks, commerce, the feds. The Bretton Woods System read “Trading with the Enemy” written by Charles Higham, copyright 1983. 1995 published by Barnes and Noble books

Was lead to this verse.


II Timothy 3:1-9 2 Timothy 3
Godlessness in the Last Days
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.




What is this world coming to? The Word of God let's us know exactly what will take place with regard to this world, the end time events, and the glorious future for the children of God. Last week we spoke of the dangers of any study of prophecy.

* Setting Dates and Making Predictions.
* Interpreting Scripture in light of Headlines.
* Trying to Answer Unanswerable Questions.
* Ignoring the Practical Application of Scripture.

With that in mind, we want to continue this evening with a message that will answer the question of 'What this world is coming to'.

Read: 2 Timothy 3:1-9

I. Signs of the Times

A. The Last Days are described as "Perilous Times" (v.1).

1. How do we know we are near the end?

2. We look to the signs of the times.

3. In this passage we learn that the last days will be "perilous times."

4. "Perilous" comes from a word that means "violent, dangerous or savage."

5. It's only other usage in the NT is in Mt.8:28 where the demon-possessed men are described as "exceedingly fierce."

Mt 8:28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

6. Though evil has been with us in every generation, it seems that standards of morality and decency are ignored more and more as time goes on.

7. This wickedness will reach an 'exceedingly fierce' point as the last days draw to an end.

B. People Will Lack Character (v2-3).

1. The people will be "lovers of themselves."

a. Never in history has our society been so motivated by self-gratification.

b. Me-first has become the American way of life.

c. What's in it for me? Whether it is work, play, or even worship.

2. The people will be "lovers of money."

a. The refusal to deny self anything has already brought on enormous debt.

b. Christians lament that they 'can't afford' to tithe or give to missions.

c. The reason? They have over-extended themselves with things.

3. The people will be "boasters, proud" and "blasphemers."

a. 'I don't need God…I don't need anyone!'

b. They are self-made and arrogant.

4. The people are described as "disobedient to parents, unthankful."

a. Isn't amazing that Paul could see into what the world would become? NO

b. Remember, God inspired the Scripture.

c. The Lord revealed to him a future time when the family unit would be broken down.

d. He certainly could be writing about the conditions of our young people today.

e. Oh, how we need to pray for our children's workers and youth workers.

f. Children are so bombarded with the philosophy of the world that our church is on the frontline of this battle!

5. People are "unholy" or profane.

a. You cannot watch TV without hearing explicit profanity.

b. We aren't visiting Mayberry anymore.

c. Even cartoons are vile…the Simpsons, South Park, etc.

d. Beyond profane language, are the profane subject matters addressed as normal!

6. People are "unloving, unforgiving, slanderers."

a. Our court system is clogged with frivolous litigation.

b. Class action suits are being filed on everything from tobacco to McDonalds.

c. I heard a couple of weeks ago about a guy who was suing Atkins because he developed heart trouble.

d. Neighbors sue one another over where the leaves drop…

7. People shun "self-control."

a. They are "brutal, despisers of good."

b. Instead of uplifting what is pure and good, our culture uplifts what is filthy and wicked.

c. Look at the heroes placed before our children.

C. People Will Have No Conviction (v4-5).

1. People are "traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."

2. You would think that people would flock to worship God?

3. They have "a form of godliness but deny its power."

a. There are many who profess to be religious but deny God's power.

b. They deny His creation, His Word, His Son and His coming.

c. Paul tells us that we are to "turn away" from them.

D. People Will Have No Conscience (v6-9).

1. Paul talks about these false religionists "who creep into households."

2. One common strategy of the cults is to speak first to the woman of the house.

3. Why do you think that is true?

a. Because it is in direct opposition of God's plan for the family.

b. God established the man to lead the family…especially in spiritual matters.

c. He specifically forbids women to be leaders within the local church, but note the increase and acceptance of women pastors today.

4. Such deceived people are "always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

5. In v.8-9, Paul gives the illustration of the two Egyptian priests who "resisted Moses."

a. Though they could replicate some of Moses' miracles (snakes, water to blood)

b. They could "progress no further."

c. So it is with the deceivers of today, they may mimic and counterfeit the work of God, but they are limited in how far they can go.

What should be our response as we read and consider these verses? Realize that our time is short. What we do for Christ must be done today! We cannot sit back and think we have plenty of time. We are living in perilous times. People are bound in sin and we have the key! Jesus!

Paul challenges us to be not unwise…but understanding the times…take full advantage and do all we can to see others brought to a saving knowledge of Him. We can see the condition of our society, we can see the need of those around us, but what will we do?

Look at the rest of this chapter. Paul admonishes Timothy with regard to the last days, but also with regard to Timothy's responsibility to live godly in the midst of a darkened world. We must be the light! We must shine that others might see our good works and glorify God. What do others see when they look at us.