Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Graham Kendrick - "Shine, Jesus, Shine"







Ed Feulner on the Death of Jack Kemp



Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner tonight issued the following statement on the death of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp:

“Jack Kemp was a leader – whether it was in a football huddle, a national political campaign or a policy discussion about the Austrian school of economics.

“I first met Jack nearly 40 years ago, during his freshman year in Congress. When he introduced The Jobs Creation Act – a major legislative advance of supply-side economics – I knew I had found an ally. That ally soon became my friend

“Jack was a ‘bleeding-heart conservative.’ He wanted to make it possible for every American to succeed and eagerly worked with people of all races, colors and creeds toward that end.

“Across-the-board tax cuts and ‘enterprise zones’ for blighted neighborhoods are now common economic prescriptions – especially during these hard times. But to make these ideas respectable, Jack had to fight for them constantly during his years in Congress, as Housing and Urban Development secretary, as chairman of a national tax reform commission, and during his presidential and vice presidential campaigns.

“He won those fights, and millions benefited. The tax cuts that Jack helped engineer in the 1980s gave Americans unprecedented prosperity for decades. His commission also boldly proposed a national flat tax. Those policies also helped spread freedom around the world.

“I remember standing with him in Moscow’s Red Square in 1990. The Cold War was starting to thaw, but few even suspected that the Soviet Union’s days were numbered. Jack knew. As we stood on the square, in view of the Kremlin, he pointed out an astonishing sign: The line for the new McDonald’s restaurant was longer than the line for Lenin’s tomb.

“Many people will remember Jack as a great football player – and rightly so. But he was also a great player in the world of ideas, with a mind as strong as his arm. I will miss his strength and friendship greatly.”


Saturday, May 2, 2009

Pro-Abortion Arlen Specter's Move to Democrats Could Hurt Supreme Court Pick


From LifeNews.com
By Steven Ertelt

In an ironic twist of fate, the defection of pro-abortion Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to the Democratic Party could have an effect on the upcoming battle over a Supreme Court nominee. The battle will likely see pro-life advocates opposing a pro-abortion nomination from President Barack Obama.

When Obama nominates a replacement for retiring pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice David Souter, that nomination will head to the Senate Judiciary Committee for hearings and a vote.

The committee requires the consent of at least one Republican to end debate and move a nominee to the full Senate for a vote.

Specter, the former ranking minority member of the Republican Party on the committee, would have been the most likely GOP lawmaker to sign off on Obama's nomination.

Without his presence and vote, the rest of the members of the GOP on the panel could band together to oppose a pro-abortion nominee and prevent the confirmation process from moving ahead. In such a case, Democrats would likely have to present a motion to change the Senate's rules to block the option of the minority to exercise its opposition -- a move that could result in significant political fallout.

William Jacobson, a professor of law at Cornell University, told FOX News, "I think, in narrow terms, it could present a procedural problem at the committee level, unless the Democrats are going to change the rules of the committee midstream."

"Most people presume in a controversial nomination that Arlen Specter would have been the one most likely to vote with Democrats, since he prides himself on being independent of Republicans. But now that he moves over to the Democratic side, the president and Democrats lost their most likely minority vote," Jacobson explains.

Changing the rules could also prompt a backlash from Specter himself, who enjoys the traditions of the Senate and could vote to support his former party colleague if they see their rights taken away by ruling Democrats.

With Specter not able to provide the needed Republican vote, speculation turns to pro-life South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Graham was a member of the Gang of 14, a group of seven Democrats and seven Republicans who worked together to prevent filibusters of President Bush's high court picks.

With Specter's switching parties, all of the rest of the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are pro-life on abortion.

In another twist, Specter's party switch also means he will no longer be the ranking minority member of the panel and GOP lawmakers will have to decide on a replacement. They could support Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has been a committee chairman before and would need a waiver, or they could support the next senator in line, Charles Grassley of Iowa.



'Jane Roe' of Roe v Wade Attacks Notre Dame Decision to Honor Pro-Abortion Obama


From The Telegraph
By Damian Thompson

The woman whose pregnancy provoked the Roe v Wade court case that legalised abortion in the United States in 1973 has condemned the decision by Notre Dame University to invite the fiercely pro-abortion Barack Obama to deliver its commencement address on May 17.

Norma McCorvey - the "Jane Roe" of Roe v Wade - is now a Catholic pro-life campaigner. And she has joined 60 Catholic bishops in condemning the university 's decision to honour the most "pro-choice" politician ever to sit in Congress.

"Obama is not the ideal person to speak to a young bunch of kids that are going out into the world for the first time," she told me.

"These people will have to remember that it was him who spoke at their graduation for the rest of ther natural lives. We have many in the pro-life movement that are better qualified to do this.

"I am really surprised more parents haven't pulled their kids out. I have heard that many of them will not show up this reason."

Norma is a brave lady: in the 1980s she revealed herself to be the "Jane Roe" of the famous case, and in the 1990s she converted to Christianity. In 1998 she became a Catholic and now campaigns for civil rights "for everybody, including the unborn". (Incidentally, she never had an abortion: the case took so long that she had the child, which was adopted.)

As I wrote the other day, "Notre Shame" is is turning into one of the biggest PR disasters of Barack Obama's presidency, and is quickly eroding his fragile support among American Catholics.

Fr John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, is now the most unpopular priest in America. He and his liberal friends simply cannot see that a Catholic university cannot hold up a campaigner for partial-birth abortions as a moral exemplar for young people, even if he is the first African-American President of the United States.

Notre Dame had been planning to give its Laetare Medal to Mary Ann Glendon, former US ambassador to the Vatican. She has now declined the honour and won't be attending. Surely the President should now do the decent thing and withdraw from this occasion. Of course many of the students would be disappointed – I imagine that most of them are pro-Obama. But it could be explained to them that Notre Dame is a Catholic university, and that actually means something.

As it is, however, I reckon this shameful event will go ahead. And you won't need to tell the students about the consequences of being at a Catholic university because, frankly, Notre Dame won't be one any more.



Friday, May 1, 2009

Percentage of Americans Approving Abortion Dropped 8% since August: Pew Poll


From LifeSiteNews
By Tim Waggoner

Despite President Barack Obama's strong promotion of abortion in his first 100 days as president, a new study has revealed an overall increase in the number of Americans believing abortion should be illegal in most cases.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted from March 31-April 21, among 1,521 adults.

The survey found that the overall support for legal abortion dropped from 54% last August to 46% this month, with the number of people supporting the illegalization of abortion rising 3% to 44%.

The slide in abortion support is due mainly to a change in the persuasion of men, with the percentage of males believing abortion should be legal falling 10% to 43% and the proportion feeling it should be illegal rising 4% to 46%.

The greatest change among religious groups was found among white mainline Protestants, with 54% believing abortion should be legal, compared with 69% in August. Only 23% of Evangelical Protestants thought abortion should be legal, making them the most pro-life religious group.

Support for abortion also declined by 24% among moderate and liberal Republicans. The Center reported that 67% of liberal and moderate Republicans said abortion should be legal in August 2008. In this month's survey, that number had fallen to only 43%.

Support for abortion declined by 11% among independents. The Center reported 55% of independents said abortion should be legal in August 2008. In this month's survey, that number had fallen to 44%.

See the full Pew Research report here:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1212/abortion-gun-control-opinion-gender-gap


The Death of Christian Europe and a Call to Action


This video presents the shocking demographics that will lead to a Europe comprised of Islamic republics within a generation.



(If video fails to work, please try clicking on "HQ" above.)


Barbara Bonney - "Ave Maria" - Franz Schubert