--- The largest threats [to religious liberty] as I see them today can be placed into two broad categories: threats to religious minorities and non-believers, and efforts to radically redefine religious liberty. Threats to the Christian majority are few, far between, and sometimes, frankly, untrue.
Non-believers and adherents to less popular faiths are still denied the basic rights that many of us practicing a majority faith take for granted every day. They face religious coercion, harassment, exclusion, and overt religious employment discrimination.
Another threat is the mounting attempts to radically redefine religious liberty. To me, religious freedom means having the right to practice your religion free of harassment and undue influence from governments at any level. Categorical religious or “faith specific” exemptions to law and other generally applicable rules and regulations should be granted only where they will not unduly burden the legitimate rights of others. But what are often described as threats to religious freedom today are really attempts to obtain sweeping exemptions that could deny others fundamental rights to make lawful moral choices and exercise their own individual conscience; efforts to seek privileges reserved for religious entities by organizations that are engaged in commercial enterprises or that serve as a government provider of services; and attempts to use the machinery of government to promote particular religious beliefs, often resulting in the coercion of others to follow those doctrines. Ironically, under these circumstances, the accommodations and privileges sought in the name of religion become a real threat to religious freedom overall. ---
That’s the view of a person who truly respects religious liberty for everyone.
Last week, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) wrote a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a dire warning: Some of the child refugees streaming across the southern border into the United States might carry deadly diseases. "Reports of illegal immigrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning," Gingrey wrote. "Many of the children who are coming across the border also lack basic vaccinations such as those to prevent chicken pox or measles."
Now we get to the part where Phil Gingrey tuns out to have a rather curious stake in all this. You see, he's one of the people demanding Americans not vaccinate their kids.
Gingrey has long-standing ties to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a far-right medical group that opposes all mandatory vaccines. The organization touts access to Gingrey as one of its membership perks. (The AAPS has, incidentally, taken the lead in pushing the idea that migrant children are disease carriers.) In 2007, he wrote an amendment that would allow parents to block their children from receiving HPV vaccines, which are designed to combat cervical cancer.
[A]s The Texas Observer‘s Rachel Pearson noted [ http://www.texasobserver.org/disease-threat-immigrant-children-wildly-overstated/ , in full the fourth item in the post to which this is a reply], children from Guatemala — where vaccines are provided free of charge by the government’s universal health care system — are more likely to be vaccinated against those diseases than children in Texas, where the rate of parents who “opt out” of vaccinations citing “reasons of conscience” has increased every year since 2003. [...]
According to the World Health Organization, there have been no reported cases of measles in Guatemala or Honduras since 1990, whereas anti-vaccination efforts in the United States have led to multiple outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So there you go. You're more likely to get measles from hanging out with Rep. Phil Gingrey's friends than from a Central American refugee. Probably more likely to get Ebola, too.
The humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied minors from Central America arriving at our Southwest border has brought out the worst in some of our politicians.
The amount of double-speak coming from fork-tongued conservatives on this issue is sickening. It wraps faux-concern around unwavering, and even emboldened, anti-immigrant, border-militarization rhetoric.
On his show this week, Sean Hannity interviewed Senator Ted Cruz. Hannity ended one statement by asking:
“This is getting out of hand, all because the government refuses to send people home. I’m not sure why we refuse to enforce our laws.”
Cruz responded:
“Sean, it’s a terrific question. What is happening with these children is heartbreaking. And, the president is right that it’s a humanitarian crisis, but it is a crisis of his own creation. This is the direct consequence of President Obama’s lawlessness.”
One of the things Cruz pointed out as Obama’s “lawlessness” was a 2012 executive order that allows Dream Act-eligible students to be taken out of the deportation process and granted work permits.
“This grant of deferred action is not immunity… It is not amnesty. It is an exercise of discretion so that these young people are not in the removal system. It will help us to continue to streamline immigration enforcement and ensure that resources are not spent pursuing the removal of low-priority cases involving productive young people.”
But amnesty is precisely what conservatives called it, and they were — and remain — furious about it. So, they are using this crisis to hammer the president, and Democrats in general, on immigration policy
Furthermore, they basically argue that because the administration is enforcing the law, one signed by President George W. Bush and meant to protect children from human trafficking, the administration is encouraging more people from Central America to send their children here.
But one can’t call the president and his administration lawless on the one hand, then blame them for proper law enforcement on the other.
If Congress wants to change or tweak the law about unaccompanied minors arriving in this country — and many conservatives are itching to do so — it can, but it would be creating a “solution” to a “problem” that Congress itself created.
To follow that line of reasoning, one must also accept the premise that the whole of a law designed to protect children arriving alone from dangerous parts of the world is not noble and humane. I reject that logic.
These are children we are talking about, not just numbers, not just data, not political pawns. And, although most may not meet the refugee threshold needed to stay in the United States, many may. How are we supposed to hold our heads high on humanitarian issues if, in our haste for a fix and our fixation on deterrence, we return even a few children to a place where their lives are in danger?
According to Customs and Border Protection [ http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children ], 52,193 “unaccompanied alien children” were apprehended on the Southwest border of the United States from the beginning of the 2014 fiscal year through June (Oct. 1, 2013 to June 15, 2014). That was nearly twice the number apprehended during the same period in the last fiscal year.
And, as The New York Times reported last month:
“According to an internal draft Homeland Security document, officials recently revised their projections on unaccompanied minors. They now expect more than 90,000 in the 2014 fiscal year, an increase of nearly 20,000 from the previous projection.”
“For example, many Guatemalan children come from rural areas, indicating they are probably seeking economic opportunities in the U.S. Salvadoran and Honduran children, on the other hand, come from extremely violent regions where they probably perceive the risk of traveling alone to the U.S. preferable to remaining at home.”
Ask yourself this: If in fact, these children were simply arriving due to the attraction of amnesty, why haven’t we seen the same surge from other nations, including other countries south of us, like Mexico
Many of these children are not safe at home or on the run. There are no easy answers for them and their families, no safe happy places where childhood innocence is protected.
To be sure, sending an unaccompanied child, alone, with a “coyote,” for a treacherous trip hundreds of miles long, is not safe. The children are vulnerable to all manner of mistreatment, and may in fact not even make it.
But that is precisely why we must treat the children who do arrive with compassion. Children aren’t caught up in the politics of this. They are just doing as they’re told, many no doubt shadowed by fear, moving surreptitiously through unknown lands toward the dream of a brighter tomorrow. They dream as any child dreams — of happiness and horrors.
And their parents are no doubt like any parents, forced to make the most wrenching of decisions, sometimes about whether to leave a child in a never-ending hell or have them risk a hellish journey to a better place.
“He’s been president for five and a half years! When is he going to take responsibility for something?”
The suggestion in the question — that the president doesn’t take responsibility for anything — is so outrageously untrue that it demands strong rebuttal.
President Obama hasn’t taken all the blame Republicans have ascribed to him, nor should he have. But he has often been quick to take responsibility.
“Ultimately I’m responsible. I’m the president of the United States. We’ve got a big mess that we’re having to clean up. Nobody here drafted those contracts. Nobody here was responsible for supervising A.I.G. and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in. We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me.”
After the failed bombing plot on Christmas Day in 2009 by a young Nigerian man with plastic explosives sewn into his underwear, the president took responsibility [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31259.html ] for intelligence lapses, saying the next month:
“Moreover, I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me.”
“Well, here’s what I remember, is that when I came into office, I knew I was going to have a big mess to clean up and, frankly, the mess has been bigger than I think a lot of people anticipated at the time. We have made steady progress on these fronts, but we’re not making progress fast enough.
“And what I continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. I’m going to be accountable. I think people understand that a lot of these problems were decades in the making. People understand that this financial crisis was the worst since the Great Depression. But, ultimately, they say, look, he’s the president, we think he has good intentions, but we’re impatient and we want to see things move faster.”
“Well, here’s what I know, we were just talking about responsibility, and as president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and, you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.”
“Well, look, ultimately, the buck stops with me. And so any time we are not moving forward on things that should be simple, I get frustrated.”
In an interview [ http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/07/obama-walks-away-from-sebelius-claims-buck-stops-with-me-video/ ] with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd after the health care rollout, the president took responsibility for the problems rather than simply pin them on Kathleen Sebelius, then the health and human services secretary, saying: “My priority right now is to get it fixed. ... Ultimately, the buck stops with me. I’m the president. This is my team. If it is not working, it is my job to get it fixed.”
(The site is now fixed, the law is working, and according to a Gallup report issued Thursday the uninsured rate has dropped to “the lowest quarterly average recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008.”)
This president is a habitual blame-taker. This is the anti-George W. Bush. The fess-upper in chief. He is the antidote to the eight previous years of obfuscation, fault-dodging and flat-out denial.
This is one of the traits that made Obama an attractive candidate, and it is one of his best traits as a president.
But taking his share of responsibility does not mean he must acquiesce to his opponents and absolve them of guilt, particularly not an intransigent Congress that would rather do nothing than something, particularly not Republican leaders who envision opportunity in opposition. The president has a duty to himself and the country to call them out for the part they play in our problems.
The real question, Mr. Boehner, is not when the president will take personal responsibility for something. He has. Many times. The real question is, When will you?
Jose Antonio Vargas Released From Border Patrol Custody
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
by Igor Bobic Posted: 07/15/2014 6:04 pm EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 11:59 am EDT
Jose Antonio Vargas, the nation's most prominent undocumented immigrant, was released from U.S. Border Patrol custody on Tuesday. He had been detained for several hours [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/jose-antonio-vargas-detai_n_5587763.html ] after attempting to board a flight in the small border town of McAllen, Texas.
"I’ve been released by Border Patrol. I want to thank everyone who stands by me and the undocumented immigrants of south Texas and across the country," he said in a statement. "Our daily lives are filled with fear in simple acts such as getting on an airplane to go home to our family. With Congress failing to act on immigration reform, and President Obama weighing his options on executive action, the critical question remains: how do we define American?"
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a former HuffPost editor, flew to the border last week to interview and film undocumented immigrants who have fled their home countries in Central America due to escalating violence. But what he didn't know is that in order to leave McAllen, he would need to pass through an interior U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.
A TSA agent at the McAllen-Miller Airport initially cleared Vargas' Philippines-issued passport when he attempted to board a flight Tuesday morning. He was placed into custody soon after, however, when he couldn't produce a U.S. visa at the request of a border patrol agent.
"Do you have your visa?" the agent asked, according to audio of the exchange.
"No, there's no visa," Vargas replied.
The agent then placed him in handcuffs and escorted him to the McAllen Border Patrol station for further questioning.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Vargas was processed at the McAllen Border Patrol station, provided with a notice to appear before an immigration judge, and ultimately released after consultation with ICE.
"Mr. Vargas has not previously been arrested by ICE nor has the agency ever issued a detainer on him or encountered him," DHS said in a statement. "ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the agency’s resources to promote border security and to identify and remove criminal individuals who pose a threat to public safety and national security."
A call to Vargas about the incident was not immediately returned.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to comment on Vargas' detention during the daily White House briefing on Tuesday. But several politicians, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), called for his release [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/bill-de-blasio-jose-vargas_n_5589021.html ] Tuesday afternoon.
The McAllen incident is not the first time Vargas has been detained by authorities over his undocumented status. In 2012, Minnesota State Police officers stopped Vargas while he was driving down a highway outside Minneapolis because he was driving with headphones on. He was taken to a county jail where he was questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but no immigration charges were filed against him.
“Mr. Vargas was not arrested by ICE nor did the agency issue a detainer,” said Gillian Christensen, an agency spokeswoman, according to The New York Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/us/no-immigration-charges-filed-against-jose-antonio-vargas-in-traffic-stop.html ]. “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of public safety threats, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”
You're not in the United States. Oh sure, look around at the fog lifting over the New England countryside or the diamond deserts of Arizona, but this land isn't your land, not anymore. It’s a place controlled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and your constitutional rights do not apply on their territory. CBP can, and does, detain Americans, search them without warrant, and physically mistreat them in what has become, for our 9/11 sins, a Post-Constitutional legal purgatory. You are neither outside their grasp in a foreign land, nor protected from them by being inside America.
But the fairness of the old rules no longer applies, particularly in the face of a constantly metastasizing CBP, anxious to expand its place in the already expansive Homeland Security ecosystem. On its website, CBP boasts of making 1,100 arrests [ http://www.cbp.gov/about ] a day as, in its own words, the “guardians [id.]” of America. Do the math: that's 401,500 a year, and those arrests are not limited to dangerous foreigners. Americans who hold certain beliefs and affiliations are swept up as well, whether they are prominent journalists [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Poitras ], activists [ http://www.salon.com/2010/11/09/manning_2/ ], or simply (as in today's piece) angry spouses of men beaten nearly to death by CBP agents. The agency now insists that its jurisdiction does not end at the physical border, the line on the map that separates say the United States from Mexico, but extends 100 miles inland.
Building on his successful new book, Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319 , http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319#reader_0872866319 ], TomDispatch regular Todd Miller brings us more examples of CBP lawlessness and brutality, while asking crucial questions about its larger meaning to our nation. Get ready to be scared. If you live near the border, cross the border after a trip abroad, or attract the attention of roving CBP patrols in New England or Arizona within 100 miles of the line, this land belongs not to you and me, but in Post-Constitutional America [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/ ], increasingly to our so-called guardians. Peter Van Buren
*
Border Wars in the Homeland
"Stop Stepping on the Pictures"
By Todd Miller July 15, 2014
Shena Gutierrez was already cuffed and in an inspection room in Nogales, Arizona, when the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent grabbed her purse, opened it, and dumped its contents onto the floor right in front of her. There couldn’t be a sharper image of the Bill of Rights rollback we are experiencing in the U.S. borderlands in the post-9/11 era.
Tumbling out of that purse came Gutierrez’s life: photos of her kids, business cards, credit cards, and other papers, all now open to the official scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security. There were also photographs of her husband, Jose Gutierrez Guzman, whom CBP agents beat so badly in 2011 that he suffered permanent brain damage. The supervisory agent, whose name badge on his blue uniform read “Gomez,” now began to trample on her life, quite literally, with his black boots.
“Please stop stepping on the pictures,” Shena asked him.
A U.S. citizen, unlike her husband, she had been returning from a 48-hour vigil against Border Patrol violence in Mexico and was wearing a shirt that said “Stop Border Patrol Brutality” when she was aggressively questioned and cuffed at the CBP’s “port of entry” in Nogales on that hot day in May. She had no doubt that Gomez was stepping all over the contents of her purse in response to her shirt, the evidence of her activism.
Perhaps what bothered Gomez was the photo silkscreened onto that shirt -- of her husband during his hospitalization. It showed the aftermath of a beating he received from CBP agents. His head had a partially caved-in look because doctors had removed part of his skull. Over his chest and arms were bruises from Tasering. One tooth was out of place, and he had two black eyes. Although you couldn’t see them in the photo, two heavily armed Homeland Security agents were then guarding his hospital door to prevent the father of two, formerly a sound technician and the lead singer of a popular band in Los Angeles, from escaping -- even in his comatose state.
Jose Gutierrez Guzman's has become an ever more common story in an American age of mass expulsions. Although he had grown up in the United States (without papers), he was born in Mexico. After receiving a letter requesting his appearance, he went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Los Angeles and was promptly arrested and deported. Customs and Border Protection agents later caught him crossing the border in San Luis, Arizona, near Yuma, in an attempt to reunite with his wife and children.
As she tells the story, Agent Gomez looked at her shirt for a second, then looked up at her and said, “You have that mentality about us. You think we go around abusing.” His tone remained faux-friendly, but his boots didn’t -- and neither did those cuffs another CBP agent had put on her. Forcing her hands behind her back, they cut uncomfortably into her wrists. They would leave deep red circular marks.
On display was a post-9/11 world in which the usual rights meant to protect Americans from unreasonable search and seizure and unwanted, as well as unwarranted, interrogation were up for grabs.
While such constitutionally questionable intrusions into people’s privacy have been increasing at border crossings in the post-9/11 years, this type of hardline border policing has also moved inland. In other words, the sort of intrusions that once would have qualified as unconstitutional have moved in startling numbers into the interior of the country.
Imagine the once thin borderline of the American past as an ever-thickening band, now extending 100 miles inland around the United States -- along the 2,000-mile southern border, the 4,000-mile northern border, and both coasts -- and you will be able to visualize how vast the CBP’s jurisdiction has become. This “border” region now covers places where two-thirds of the U.S. population (197.4 million people) live. The ACLU has come to call it a “constitution-free zone [ https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights-constitution-free-zone-map ].” The “border” has by now devoured the full states of Maine and Florida and much of Michigan.
In these vast domains, Homeland Security authorities can institute roving patrols with broad, extra-constitutional powers backed by national security, immigration enforcement, and drug interdiction mandates. There, the Border Patrol can set up traffic checkpoints and fly surveillance drones overhead with high-powered cameras and radar that can track your movements. Within 25 miles of the international boundary, CBP agents can enter a person’s private property without a warrant. In these areas, the Homeland Security state is anything but abstract. On any given day, it can stand between you and the grocery store.
“Border Patrol checkpoints and roving patrols are the physical world equivalent of the National Security Agency,” says attorney James Lyall of ACLU Arizona puts it. “They involve a massive dragnet and stopping and monitoring of innocent Americans without any suspicion of wrongdoing by increasingly abusive and unaccountable federal government agents.”
Before she was so unceremoniously stopped and held, Shena Gutierrez shared [ http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/052314_nogales_vigil/photos-nogales-border-vigil/ ] the story of her husband at that 48-hour vigil. It was another story of the kind of pervasive abuse reported by people in the 100-mile zone. There were no cameras that night to record how 11 agents “subdued” Jose Gutierrez Guzman, as the CBP put it in its official report on the incident. Its claim: that Jose “struck his head on the ground,” a way perhaps of accounting for the hospital’s eventual diagnosis of “blunt force trauma.”
“Stop stepping on my pictures!” Gutierrez insisted again. But much like the CBP’s official complaint process, the words were ignored. The only thing Gomez eventually spat out was, “Are you going to get difficult?”
When Shena Gutierrez offered me a play-by-play account of her long day, including her five-hour detainment at the border, her voice ran a gamut of emotions from desperation to defiance. Perhaps these are the signature emotions of what State Department whistleblower Peter Van Buren has dubbed the “Post-Constitutional Era.” We now live in a time when, as he writes [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175861/ ], “the government might as well have taken scissors to the original copy of the Constitution stored in the National Archives, then crumpled up the Fourth Amendment and tossed it in the garbage can.” The prototype for this new era, with all the potential for abuse it gives the authorities, can be found in that 100-mile zone.
On the border, never before have there been so many miles of walls and barriers, or such an array of sophisticated cameras capable of operating at night as well as in the daylight. Motion sensors, radar systems, and cameras mounted on towers, as well as those drones, all feed their information into operational control rooms throughout the borderlands. There, agents can surveil activity over large stretches of territory on sophisticated (and expensive) video walls. This expanding border enforcement regime is now moving into the 100-mile zone.
Such technological capability also involves the warehousing of staggering amounts of personal information in the digital databases that have ushered in the Post-Constitutional Era. “What does all this mean in terms of the Fourth Amendment?” Van Buren asks [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175861/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_what_we%27ve_lost_since_9_11_%28part_2%29/ ]. “It’s simple: the technological and human factors that constrained the gathering and processing of data in the past are fast disappearing.”
The result is a permanent, low-intensity state of exception that makes the expanding borderlands a ripe place to experiment with tearing apart the Constitution, a place where not just undocumented border-crossers, but millions of borderland residents have become the targets of continual surveillance. If you don’t see the Border Patrol’s ever-expanding forces in places like New York City (although CBP agents are certainly present at its airports and seaports), you can see them pulling people over these days in plenty of other spots in that Constitution-free zone where they hadn’t previously had a presence.
They are, for instance, in cities like Rochester, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania, as well as in Washington State, Vermont, Florida, and at all international airports. Homeland Security officials are scrutinizing people’s belongings, including their electronic devices, from sea to shining sea. Just ask Pascal Abidor, an Islamic studies doctoral student whose computer was turned on by CBP agents in Champlain, New York.
Despite all this, the message politicians and the media generally offer is that the country needs more agents, new techno-gadgets, and even more walls for our “safety.” In that context, President Obama on July 7th asked Congress for an additional $3.7 billion [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/us/obama-seeks-billions-for-children-immigration-crisis.html ] for “border security.”
Make no bones about it, every dollar spent this way works not just to keep others out of this country, but to lock American citizens into a border zone that may soon encompass the whole country. It also fortifies our new domestic “standing military force” and its rollback of the Bill of Rights.
Resistance Inside the 100-Mile Zone
The first thing Cynthia (a pseudonym) asks the supervisory agent with the green Border Patrol hat and wrap-around sunglasses who stops her car is: “Can I have your name and agent number please?” She’s been halted at a checkpoint approximately 25 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border on a road running east-west-running near the small town of Arivaca, Arizona, where she lives.
The agent pauses. He looks like he’s swallowed a hornet before he barks, “We ask the questions here first, okay? Do you have some ID on you?”
This starts a tense exchange between the two of them that she videotaped [ http://vimeo.com/92093104 ] in its entirety. She is only one of many challenging the omnipresence and activities of the Border Patrol in the heart of the 100-mile zone. Like many locals in Arivaca, she is sick of the checkpoint, which has been there for seven years. She and her neighbors were fed up with the obligatory stop between their small town and the dentist or the nearest bookstore. They were tired of Homeland Security agents scrutinizing their children on their way to school. So they began to organize [ http://phparivaca.org/?page_id=7 ].
This Arivaca Border Patrol road barricade, one of at least 71 in the southwest, functions as a de facto enforcement zone away from the border. In Border Patrolese [ http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/bp_checkpoints_2.pdf ], it’s “an additional layer in our Defense in Depth strategy.” This particular checkpoint isn’t exactly impressive -- just a portable trailer with an attached tarp for shade, but it still qualifies, according to one of the Patrol’s informational brochures [id.], as “a critical enforcement tool for securing the nation’s borders against all threats to our homeland.”
The agents manning it stop every car on the road, do a quick visual check of its interior, and ask the driver and passengers their citizenship. There are also dogs available to sniff each car for traces of drugs or explosives. “Our enforcement presence along these strategic routes reduces the ability of criminals and potential terrorists to easily travel away from the border,” the brochure explains.
at the Greyhound bus terminal or the Amtrak station to question people arriving in town. These are all places where the Border Patrol was all but unknown before 2005. In Detroit, simply being at a bus stop at four in the morning en route to work or fishing [ http://forums.officer.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-168556.html ] in the Detroit River is now “probable cause” for an agent to question you.
Or perhaps it is simply the color of your skin. Arrest records [ http://www.nyclu.org/files/publications/NYCLU_justicederailedweb_0.pdf ] from both bus terminals and railway stations in Rochester, New York, show that of the 2,776 arrests agents made between 2005 and 2009, 71.2% were of “medium” complexion (likely of Latino or Arab background) and 12.9% “black.” Only 0.9% of those arrested were of “fair” complexion.
Back in Arivaca, the agent with the wraparound sunglasses tells Cynthia that she needs to get out of her car. Much like Senator Leahy, she responds that she doesn’t “understand why.”
“You don’t have to understand,” he says. “It’s for my safety. And yours. Do you understand that?”
Then his tone gains an angry edge. He clearly doesn’t like having his authority challenged. “We don’t have time for this. We have criminals here, okay? If you have a political or an emotional situation here” -- he makes an emphatic chopping motion with his hand -- “I don’t want to hear about it. I want to see your ID.” He pauses. “Now!”
The adrenaline is obviously pumping and he is about to edge up on the limits of what an agent can do, even with extra-constitutional powers. He thrusts his hand through the open window and into the car and unlocks it. With a yank, he pulls the door open from the inside. When Cynthia is out of the car, he asks, his voice rising, “What do you think we’re looking for here?”
“I don’t know,” Cynthia responds.
“That’s where I’m gonna educate you a little bit. Okay?”
“Okay,” she says.
“What happens through this checkpoint is that we catch smugglers of aliens, smugglers of drugs, child molesters, murderers, and everything else. Okay? Does that make sense?”
This rural area of Arizona, he insists as they stand under a vast cloudless blue sky, is infested with bandits, criminals, and drug dealers. “We have methamphetamine being made and manufactured,” the agent explains. “Do you think methamphetamine is a good thing?”
“Personally, no,” she says.
“Personally, I don’t think so either. I think they’re poisoning our world, okay? So when we ask you just to do something simple, like uncover something, do it! It’s a relief for us that it’s not something dangerous or something else.” By now, the agent is making the full-blown case for Homeland Security’s rollback of the Bill of Rights: the world’s a dangerous place, too dangerous for us not to have a free hand searching wherever we want whenever we want -- and it’s your job to understand that new twenty-first-century American reality. He ends with a final dig at her for her initial resistance: “You’re destroying your rights, because what happens is, is that the criminals take your rights away, okay? Not us. We’re here to protect you.”
According to the ACLU’s Lyall, the fact is that the abuses of Customs and Border Protection in that Constitution-free zone are “massively underreported” and “far more prevalent than anyone has been able to document.” Many people, according to him, are simply afraid to come forward; others don’t know their rights.
In Shena Gutierrez’s case, she returned to the same Nogales “port of entry” with two other activists to lodge a complaint about the purse incident. When she refused to leave federal property (for which she now faces [ http://www.kpfknews.org/_socal_border_activist_claims_abuse_at_arizona_border ] charges), the CBP arrested and detained her for hours. This time they did what she described as “an invasive body search.”
“I told them that I had not given my consent to be touched.” They nonetheless made her take off her wedding ring “for safety.” When she resisted, they said that they “would force it off her.” Again, the handcuffs cut into her wrists. This time, an agent kicked her in the ankle from behind. A female agent searched her thoroughly, from head to toe and in her private parts, because she “might have drugs or contraband or documents.”
As the agent groped her, she told me, she began to think yet again about what her husband had gone through. If this can happen to a U.S. citizen, she told me, “Imagine what happens to a person without documents.”
Imagine what can happen to anyone in a realm where, increasingly, anything goes, including the Constitution.
Justin Gray @grayjustin @TSA Agent in Orlando never heard of "District of Columbia." Demanded passport because he didn't believe my drivers license was from US!? 4:32 AM - 12 Jul 2014
At the time, a TSA representative told The Huffington Post that licenses from Washington, D.C., should pose no problem for its agents: "A valid Washington, D.C., driver's license is an acceptable form of identification at all TSA checkpoints. When issues arise at the checkpoint, TSA officers work to make sure facts are gathered and quickly resolved to avoid future confusion."
You May Not Know About The First Chinese Americans, But You Should This 1950 watercolor by artist Jake Lee depicts Chinese laborers laying the transcontinental railroad track through the Sierra Nevada mountains, a pivotal project in the development of America. 07/07/2014 [...] These early accomplishments happened despite landmark barriers. Among them was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, "the nation's first-ever exclusionary immigration policy," Mirrer writes. At its worst, the law took advantage of poor Chinese laborers, allowing them entry without naturalization. At its best, it treated Chinese Americans like criminals, demanding they register their identity with the government (the only other Americans subject to the rule were, in fact, criminals). Even movie stars were subject to the law. Above, the government-issued identification card for Anna May Wong, the silent film actress. Starting in 1909, Chinese entering or residing in the U.S. were required to carry such ID at all times. If it all sounds a little familiar -- calling to mind modern border state politics [ https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/court-places-limits-sheriff-arpaio-prevent-future-racial-profiling ] -- that's not by accident. ... [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/chinese-american-exhibit_n_5528081.html [with comments]
Bill O'Reilly Wants To Build A Berlin Wall On The Southern Border
By Katherine Fung Posted: 07/17/2014 9:42 am EDT Updated: 07/17/2014 9:59 am EDT
The debate about how to fix America's immigration system is raging, but the solution, according to Bill O'Reilly, is simple.
He proposed on Wednesday night building something like the Berlin Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Because we all know how well the Berlin Wall went.)
"Nobody could get through that fence," O'Reilly said to Karl Rove. "Nobody. It was a formidable obstacle. The Israelis have done the same thing to keep out terrorism there. We haven't done that on the southern border. That's mistake number one."
“Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to this country,” declares the wealthy, rakish, silver-haired Newport Beach white guy to his small group of perfectly tanned 50-something females sitting just a few feet away from us at a stunning restaurant patio overlooking the sun-kissed California coastline, just off of Highway 1, as he sipped his pinot and adjusted his wraparound Ray Bans, flush from the economy’s spectacular recovery that has benefitted his exact demographic most of all, stroking his purebred dog and taking various selfies with their $500 phones, oblivious to the furious swirls of irony and hypocrisy fluttering just above their heads.
I laughed out loud. Couldn’t help it; I had just overheard Mr. Newport Beach say something about how Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster (despite how, of course, it’s not [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/17/fact-sheet-affordable-care-act-numbers ]), and if America were to somehow actually develop a health care system similar to, say, Canada’s, that would be the end of America for certain; we’d never recover from such a devastating blow. Or something. And then came the “worst thing to ever happen” quip, and I couldn’t hold back.
They didn’t hear me, of course; the orgasmic thrum of their perfect lives drowned out my chuckle, and as I turned and looked at this beautifully entitled, happy crew from my vantage point only a few feet away but a million light years in perspective, we all shared one of the most spectacular, envied locales in the world and all of us sipped superb regional grape and not a single one of us suffered the slightest personal, social or economic indignity, every first-world need instantly met, every crab cake perfectly formed, the sunshine as flawless as Jesus on toast and no lines at the restroom and lots of free parking for his Lexus SUV.
A few thoughts struck me, all at once. The first was how nice this group all seemed – and of course they probably were – and I imagine if we had all had met under different circumstances and been chatting about, say, the weather or the soul-exploding coastline, I’m sure we would have been fast, easy friends – noting that, if we wanted to remain that way, we’d never talk about politics. Or religion.
Even so, I desperately wanted to ask Mr. Newport Beach what his stock portfolio looked like a mere six or seven years ago, when Bush & Co. ravaged the country and led us into one of the deepest, most brutal social and economic pits in modern history. Did he lose half his net worth? More? Was he worried he couldn’t feed his family or pay his mortgage? Did he lose his house? His job? Did he blame Bush? Clinton? Islam? The gays?
And by the way, how does he like the recovery so far? Which of his three perfect, multimillion-dollar homes was he on his way to, right now?
I also wanted to know, when Bush/Cheney lied to the world, openly violated the tragedy of 9/11 and invaded Iraq, killing tens of thousands, was he furious? What about now, when even Fox News is calling out Cheney and declaring Iraq invasion a colossal mistake, a lie from which we’re still unable to extricate ourselves?
Nevertheless, Obama ended Bush’s disastrous war, just like he said he would, on time and under budget. Does it matter?
And what of Newport’s female companions? I wonder if he knows that upwards of 99 percent of sexually active women have used some form of contraception. Is he in line with the GOP’s recent spate of nasty misogyny and anti-abortion spew? What about the awful SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision, further bashing women, and Obama’s immediate moves to defend women’s rights? Is he aware? I bet those women are. Or surely, their daughters [ http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/01/slut-shaming-for-the-righteous/ ].
And really, what about the stock market? The Dow dances around record highs, Wall Street snorts rails of finely chopped gold every day, the income gap between the 1% and everyone else [ http://www.salon.com/2014/07/06/the_god_that_sucked_how_the_tea_party_right_just_makes_the_1_percent_richer/ ] is more demeaning than ever and the banks haven’t fundamentally changed in the slightest. Why isn’t Mr. Newport Beach positively orgasmic about the Obama Administration’s generally wealth-favoring policies that made it all happen? Say what you like, but Obama managed to do what nearly all economists and pundits thought impossible back in 2008: reverse the ugliest, GOP-led social and economic tailspin in modern history, and make guys like Mr. Newport richer than ever.
My new friend looked good. Healthy. Fit. Good teeth, thick head of silver hair, that prostate cancer scare a couple years back easily nipped by a few wildly expensive treatments he never paid a dime for. Who did pay for his insurance? His company? Medicare? Did he have any idea what it was like not to be able to afford it, or be offered any in the first place?
I sipped my rosé, took a deep breath, enjoyed the magnificent landscape as one final, predominant thought swam into view: how? How can there be such a radical disconnect between Mr. Newport’s engorged portfolio, his fantastic insurance plan, low mortgage rate and grotesque corporate privilege – most of it born of the past six years – and Obama’s overall policy successes? Does he consider it all just a fluke [ http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-get-obama-reelected-2012-10 ]? Dumb luck? Is he drunk on Limbaugh and Fox News, unable to see actual facts?
Did he know federal discretionary spending is well below average? Or that the poverty rate has stabilized? And the stock market is, as mentioned, breaking records, benefitting rich white dudes more than ever?
Of course, it’s all pretty shaky. Flawed and imbalanced and could give out at any second – but that’s just the nature of the excruciatingly complex, unstable world economy these days. And while corporations are raking it in, workers are seeing less and less of their fair share. There are still myriad problems, and Obama’s policies are far from perfect. No party’s ever are. Regardless, given the impossible economic hell-pit Obama was left with, it’s unlikely any president could have possibly done better.
Clearly I’m missing something, a huge bed of terrifying data to prove all these respectable charts and graphs wrong. But where is it? I’ve heard Mr. Newport Beach’s bizarre lament a thousand times, but I’ve yet to see a solid batch of evidence that proves Obama’s outright failure, or the nation’s savage decline. I see a blip about food stamps, I see a few weak economic signs here and there, but mostly, since 2009, it all’s been somewhere between timidly and shockingly positive. Did God smite us for gay marriage? Did the abortion factories, death panels and Nazi Kenyan socialist brain-washing farms steal my very soul? Hard to tell with all this perfect sunshine in my eyes.
The bottom line seems obvious: Much to the GOP’s bitter revulsion, it turns out a calm, intellectual black man really can run an entire country – certainly far better than an inarticulate Texas bumbler, and even in the face of what is easily the most obstructionist, hateful, acidic and often downright racist Congress in modern memory. Quite an achievement, really.
It’s curious, no? The unmitigated hate for Obama comes from the right, but the real disappointment comes from the left. It’s we liberals who seem to have the most legitimate gripes with a man we all thought would be far more radical and revolutionary. From the NSA to drone warfare to a shocking lack of transparency, a shameless kowtowing to Wall Street, a lack of serious education reform and barely a blip about the environment (until very recently) – Obama has been a far more mixed bag for the left than anyone wants to admit.
Revelation 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
Revelation 3:11 "Behold I AM (JESUS CHRIST) Coming Soon!" Hold Fast to what you have that no man take your crown."
Acts 2:11 "Whomsoever shall call upon the name of the LORD (JESUS CHRIST), shall be saved.
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Our bodies are referred to as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, we are once again (through Christ's sacrifice) a habitable dwelling place for the Spirit of the Living God, a divine connection that had been cut-off since Adam & Eve in the Garden. Well, we all know Satan mimics the nature and character of God, thus, the passage from Daniel 9:27 says "and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation".
We would argue that this verse is talking about the Temple body becoming desolate, hacked into by Satan and his demons. Wherein the Mark of the Beast would ultimately unleash this dark potential within the human genome, with the spirit of fallen angels descending onto Earth, and Lucifer himself ultimately setting up residence in the flesh of the willing Antichrist: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." REVELATION 12:9
--------------------------------------- LINKS referenced in Video --------------------------------------- "Obama Satanic Cult Clone: The Renegade President" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zVHl5GPtTI
"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." 1 PETER 5:8
"As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 CORINTHIANS 4:18
There are spiritual entities that are able control the human race, if you are not protected by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you are a target whether you realize it or not. This video shows some real-world manifestations of these Spiritual Hosts of wickedness in high places, foul spirits who seek only to confuse and destroy mankind.
This is why we must receive a new SPIRIT from the Father, through Christ, the Holy Spirit- so that we can be protected from these pervasive and foul spirits that roam the Earth, seeking whom they can devour.
"In which in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:" EPHESIANS 2:2
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." EZEKIEL 36:26
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" For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." EPHESIANS 6:12
#VVS14 SEPT. 26-28, 2014 OMNI SHOREHAM HOTEL WASHINGTON, D.C. $99 Registration | $50 Students (Scholarships Available)
VVS2014 - Schedule SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (As of September 15, 2014) An asterisk (*) indicates confirmed.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
3:00 - 7:00 p.m. EXHIBITS OPEN - Ambassador Ballroom and Birdcage Walk
3:00 - 9:00 p.m. REGISTRATION OPENS - West Registration Area
5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Washington Watch Radio Show - Ambassador Foyer
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. Screening of To Have and to Hold [ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2133360/ ] - Empire Room A storybook fantasy, in an age of gallant chivalry, about a woman of unparalleled beauty and a man of unyielding courage. A timeless tale of romance and adventure. Honor was their measure of wealth and faith was their source of strength. Together they embarked on a perilous journey and battled for true love. They vowed to love and to cherish, to honor and to protect, but above all, To Have and To Hold.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
7:00 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. REGISTRATION - West Registration Area
7:15 - 8:30 a.m. LIBERTY COUNSEL/LIBERTY COUNSEL ACTION BREAKFAST (ticketed event) - Diplomat Room "The Pelletier Story and the Assault on Parental Rights"; Speakers - Mat Staver*, Founder, Liberty Counsel; Rev. Pat Mahoney*, Director, Christian Defense Coalition
8:00 - 7:00 p.m. EXHIBITS OPEN - Ambassador Ballroom
8:45 a.m. - Noon OPENING OF VALUES VOTER SUMMIT 2014 AND MORNING PLENARY SESSION - Regency Ballroom
America Abroad: Our Role in the Global Quest for Freedom Panel • Lt. General William Boykin - Executive Vice President, FRC; Former Commander, Delta Forces* • Gen. James Conway - Former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps* • Major Gen. (Ret.) Robert Dees, Associate Vice President for Military Outreach, Liberty University* • Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.)*
12:05 - 12:30 p.m. Book Signings - Oliver North, General Jerry Boykin, and General Bob Dees - Palladian Foyer
12:15 - 1:45 p.m. AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION ACTION LUNCHEON (ticketed event) - Diplomat Room Speakers: George Barna*, American Culture & Faith Institute, A Portrait of America; Tim Wildmon*, President, American Family Association Action A Portrait of America: What is the macro-view of where America stands today on the many challenges it faces? In this session author and researcher George Barna describes the latest research about America's views related to patriotism, governance, leadership, critical issues, values, morality, and faith. That breadth of the research provides a coherent perspective on people, process, and potential as the nation seeks to move forward.
Marriage in America: The Road Ahead Panel • Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)* • Aaron and Melissa Klein, Owners, Sweet Cake Bakery* • Dr. Jerry Johnson, President & CEO, National Religious Broadcasters* • Eric Teetsel, Executive Director, Manhattan Declaration*
9:30 - 11:00 p.m. Screening of UnFair Movie - Exposing the IRS [ http://www.unfairmovie.com/ ] - Empire Room This is the first major theatrical documentary to shed light on the certain damage the Income Tax and the IRS have wrought on our liberties, our businesses, our families, and our religious, charitable and civic organizations, while empowering a political agenda contrary to America's heritage.
9:30 - 10:00 p.m. Book Signings - The Duggar Family and Duggar Sisters - Diplomat Foyer
9:30 - 10:30 p.m. Worship Concert by Jordan and Jessa Anderson - Regency Ballroom
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. REGISTRATION - West Registration Area
7:00 - 8:30 a.m. LIBERTY INSTITUTE BREAKFAST (ticketed event) - Diplomat Room Empowering Students to Reclaim Schools for Religious Freedom Speakers - Kelly Shackelford, President and CEO; Brooks Hamby, Liberty Institute Client, Graduation Censorship Case* Students of faith generally aren't aware of their lawfully protected religious rights. As a result, they aren't standing up for these rights. But now that is changing. Begin your day with inspiring accounts of students who are standing up and moving others to do the same. Present will be Brooks Hamby, who defied his school's unlawful demand to censor God from his graduation speech.
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EXHIBITS OPEN - Ambassador Ballroom and Birdcage Walk
8:15 - 8:40 a.m. MORNING WORSHIP - Led by Jordan and Jessa Anderson - Regency Ballroom
Common Core: The Government's Classroom Panel • Lindsey Burke, Will Skillman Fellow in Education, The Heritage Foundation • William Estrada, Director of Federal Relations, Home School Legal Defense Association* • Dr. Neal McCluskey, Associate Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute* • Sarah Perry, Common Core Coalition Manager, Family Research Council*
Glenn Beck, #1 NY Times Best-Selling Author, host of the Glenn Beck Radio Program and Founder of TheBlaze, a multi-platform news, information and entertainment network*
A TIME TO SPEAK & THE LIBERTY PROJECT - Diplomat Room Buddy Smith, Executive Vice President, American Family Association Action; Ed Vitagliano, Director of Research, American Family Association The freedom of religious expression was chief among America's founding principles. However, today there is an unprecedented effort to deny this most basic of human rights in almost every area of American life. A TIME TO SPEAK is a new documentary film from American Family Association highlighting the urgent need for Christians to pray, speak out and vote. It's a clarion call for the Church to break the silence and preserve this freedom for the coming generations. THE LIBERTY PROJECT includes vital resources for the local church surrounding the religious freedom documentary including a guide for small group study, sermon resources and a comprehensive voter guide for the 2014 general election.
THE ASSAULT ON CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS UNDER A NANNY STATE - Palladian Room Harry Mihet, Senior Litigation Counsel, Liberty Counsel; Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel; Mark Trammell, Legal Director and Attorney, Liberty Counsel The war on the Constitution is no longer an academic debate within the ivy towers of elite liberal universities. It's now out in the open and being waged by our own government. Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves our constitutional freedoms are being threatened. The First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment and other guaranteed rights are being chiseled away by federal and state bureaucrats who believe they know what's best for our families. From gun free zones to Free Speech areas and from NSA spying to IRS snooping, Obama's nanny state government seeks to control all aspects of our lives. It's time to rise up and reclaim our rights!
SOLUTIONS 2014: IDEAS TO UNITE AMERICA - Empire Room Derrick Morgan, Vice President of Domestic & Economic Policy; Jennifer Marshall, Director of Domestic Policy Studies; James Carafano, Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy; and David Azerrad, Director, Simon Center, Heritage Foundation In the war of ideas being waged over America's future, the ability to clearly articulate our shared conservative values to fellow citizens is what wins battles. Join this interactive session with leading Heritage Foundation scholars as they offer innovative solutions to our nation's challenges. For this wide-ranging Q&A discussion on issues that win, topics include protecting life and conscience, transforming the welfare state, keeping America secure against terrorism, and increasing local control. You'll learn the keys to unite Americans behind a strong economy, strong society, and a strong nation - leading to a better life for all.
PRO-LIFE BATTLEGROUND 2014: A LOOK TOWARD ELECTION DAY - Executive Room Marilyn Musgrave, VP for Government Affairs, SBA List; Tami Fitzgerald, North Carolina State Director, Women Speak Out; Carlyle Gregory, President, Carlyle Gregory Company A poll released by POLITICO shows that 70% of voters in key battleground states say that the issue of abortion is "very important" or "important" in deciding which candidate they'll vote for. The upcoming 2014 midterm elections in November present the pro-life movement with a huge opportunity to kick Majority Leader Harry Reid and his pro-abortion friends out of power in the U.S. Senate, and build on our pro-life majority in the U.S. House. This break-out session will examine how the issue of abortion has played out thus far in key races across the country, what the prospects are for big pro-life victories in November, and how YOU can help.
THE FUTURE OF MARRIAGE: TO THE SUPREME COURT AND BEYOND - Congressional Room Brian S. Brown, President, National Organization for Marriage; Dr. John Eastman, Chairman, National Organization for Marriage; Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service, Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University; Dr. Patrick Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI); Frank Schubert, President, Mission: Public Affairs, LLC The left and the mainstream media have written the obituary for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and they gleefully predict that it is only a matter of time before the United States Supreme Court confirms its demise. Yet the American people continue to support marriage with their votes and their actions, and polling shows a strong majority of voters continues to believe that marriage can only be between one man and one woman. This panel will explore the politics of marriage in America, and consider the paths forward for preserving it. Panelists will also discuss possible Supreme Court outcomes, including the very real possibility that the Court will affirm the right of the states to define marriage in the traditional way.
STOP LOSING ELECTIONS: IT'S TIME TO RECLAIM BLUE COLLAR CONSERVATIVES - Cabinet Room Senator Rick Santorum (via Skype); Boyd Matheson, Chief of Staff, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT); Shelley Ahlersmeyer, National Grassroots Director, Patriot Voices; Jessica Colón, Political Director, Patriot Voices; Nadine Maenza, Executive Director, Patriot Voices In 2012, a mass of blue collar voters, enough to have tipped the balance of the electoral college in favor of the Republican candidate, simply stayed home on election day. Despite their deeply-held conservative values, they had lost faith that the Republican Party spoke for them and had their backs. In his recent book, Rick Santorum calls for the GOP to get back in touch with this base by focusing on the American worker. Don't miss this unique session! We'll lay out a plan to regain the trust of the hard-working members of every family and community across America, whose most immediate problems are lack of jobs and opportunity.
WE ARE WINNING! HOW TO SAVE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY - Diplomat Room Jeff Mateer, General Counsel, Liberty Institute; Michael Berry, Senior Counsel and Director of Military Affairs, Liberty Institute; Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel, Liberty Institute; Dr. Eric Walsh, Liberty Institute Client, Removed as Commencement Speaker at Pasadena City College; Brooks Hamby, Liberty Institute Client, Graduation Censorship Case; Pastor Telsa DeBerry, Liberty Institute Client, Opulent Life Church, Holly Springs, MS Discover how we are winning critical legal battles to keep religious liberty. Learn the inside story the media won't tell you. The experts at Liberty Institute - the largest legal organization exclusively dedicated to defending religious liberty in America - will give you a frontline report from four arenas of battle: (1) Education. (2) The Military and Veterans. (3) Churches and Ministries. (4) The Public Arena, including government and the workplace. Also hear from clients at the center of legal drama: Dr. Eric Walsh - a leading public health expert unlawfully denied work due to his faith. Brooks Hamby - a student who defied his school's order to censor God from his graduation address. Pastor Telsa DeBerry - a clergyman whose church won a major victory over government discrimination. Don't miss this exciting session!
MORAL DECLINE CAUSES BIG GOVERNMENT: WHY LIBERTARIANS SHOULD JOIN THE PRO-FAMILY/PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT - Palladian Room Kellyanne Conway, Republican Strategist and President/CEO, the polling company, inc. & WomanTrend; Maggie Gallagher, Author and Conservative Commentator; Kristi Hamrick, Media Consultant, KSH Media, Inc. (Moderator); Doug Stafford, Executive Director, RANDPAC Our Founding Fathers gave us a system of limited government because they believed virtue and morality would restrain human passions. As Benjamin Franklin put it: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Today we are seeing the confirmation of that wisdom. As out-of-wedlock births increase, as marriage declines, as more children go to sleep at night in fatherless homes the demand for bigger government grows. As Judeo-Christian values decline, the heavy-hand of government fills the vacuum. If Libertarians want to achieve the goal of reducing the size and scope of government, they should join with social conservatives and support the pro-family agenda.
ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH: HOW THE LETTER, AND THE SPIRIT, OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT ARE UNDER SIEGE - Empire Room Dr. Jerry Johnson, President, National Religious Broadcasters; Craig Parshall, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, National Religious Broadcasters; Dr. Charles McVety, President, Canada Christian College; Other Speakers to be announced. At no time in American history have our rights to religious expression, free speech, and a free press been at greater risk. The Founding Fathers would be outraged, and they would push back with zeal. So should we. The IRS has blatantly targeted conservative groups applying for 501(c)(3) status, the FCC recently advanced an effort to intrude into newsroom practices, efforts persist to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, American oversight of the Internet's "back door" has been relinquished to a yet-to-be-determined international body, and even private industry censors politically incorrect views. We cannot be silent while our First Amendment freedoms are at risk in unprecedented ways.
HOW CONSERVATIVES CAN WIN WITH MILLENNIALS AND WOMEN - Executive Room Kristan Hawkins, President, Students for Life; Katherine Lopez, Editor-at-Large, National Review Online; Catherine Rodriguez, Programs Director, Booth Policy Institute Conservatives need both Millennials and women to have a winning, conservative coalition. Yet, often these two important demographics are left out of the discussion. Polls consistently show Millennials to be more pro-life than their previous generation, and it's a key social issue that conservatives must message to and embrace in order to include this generation. And women especially are the keys to a successful conservative coalition - they are graduating college at higher rates than their male counterparts and when they marry, they typically handle their families household, healthcare, and are concerned immensely about economic issues. Despite what the other side may say, they aren't reduced to one particular issue. Join our panel as we explore how to explain and relate conservative principles to these important voters.
SEXUALITY IN THE "HOOK-UP" CULTURE - Congressional Room Valerie Huber, President, National Abstinence Education Association; Chelsen Vicari, Evangelical Program Director, Institute on Religion and Democracy; David Knopp, Project Manager, Understanding the Times Revision Project, Summit Ministries; Arina Grossu, Director, Center for Human Dignity, FRC (Moderator) In a Modern Family culture that has flatlined, sexual promiscuity is the New Normal. The challenge for today's young adults to navigate the Blurred Lines of sexual identity and conduct can feel like an incoming Wrecking Ball. Why wait when you Love Somebody? Are we Born this Way? Why hold back when we can just Come and Get It? Join us as we tackle these questions and promote a shock to a desensitized culture.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE - THE BIBLICAL MANDATE AND CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR JUSTICE REFORM - Cabinet Room Craig DeRoche, President, Justice Fellowship; Delegate Michael Hough, Maryland House of Delegates; Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church, Beltsville, MD; Chris Shank, Executive Director, Justice Fellowship Network and Maryland State Senator Jesus Christ began and ended his ministry about those who were in prison or being punished for their crimes. America comprises 5% of the world's population, yet our prison population totals 25% of those who are in prison world-wide. A growing number of those incarcerated are those who are non-violent drug crimes, many of whom have been broken by addictions. It is estimated that the federal and state governments spend a total of $80 billion dollars a year on corrections, yet the national recidivism rate in some states still hovers at close to 60%. Is there a better way to manage our public safety system and provide for real justice? Join experts who have worked on effective reforms to reduce recidivism, transform lives, and improve public safety. State legislators and governors have taken the lead. Many federal legislators are responding and joining the cause. This panel will explore what works, why Christians should care, and how you as a Christian political activist can get involved in these efforts.
7:30 - 10:00 p.m. FAITH, FAMILY AND FREEDOM GALA DINNER HONORING MARIAM IBRAHEEM WITH THE INAUGURAL COST OF DISCIPLESHIP AWARD (ticketed event) - Regency Ballroom (black-tie optional) Speakers: Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.)*
9:00 - 10:00 a.m. WORSHIP SERVICE - Palladian Room Worship Led by Jordan and Jessa Anderson Tony Perkins, President, FRC Action and Family Research Council*
Speaking at Engage 2009: Engineers Without Borders National Conference Eric Campbell is one of Australia's most experienced international reporters. In a 20 year career he has worked in more than 50 counties and covered some of the biggest breaking stories of the past decade.
Eric was the ABC's Moscow correspondent from 1996 to 2000, covering upheavals in the former Soviet Union as well as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Kosovo. His stories include the coming of the Taliban to Afghanistan and their ousting five years later, both of Russia's wars in Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and the overthrow of Milosovic.
Eric has won a Logie Award for news reporting and two New York Festivals world medals for environmental reporting. He was a two-time Walkley Awards finalist for his coverage of the Kosovo war.
In 2005 his book 'Absurdistan' was published, documenting the highs and lows of being a reporter in some of the strangest, most dysfunctional places on Earth.
Here Eric gave an amazing account of 'reporting on the world' - drawing on his extensive experience as a veteran journalist.
Category Nonprofits & Activism License Standard YouTube License
it's an easy watch .. funny short stories, one re US Special Ops about 7min i think .. lots of info much of which most of us know, yet new, too .. you will laugh, you could have some feelings of slight despair 'cuz corruption most everywhere in governments is still so true, yet that's not new and .. lol .. has to be getting better ..
he mentions as among the most deadly .. he talks of foreign aid, is for it yet reminds there is much corruption and waste in the giving and taking of it .. his views on Iraq and Afghanistan, most all will appreciate .. he says, in speaking with many, NGOs over years tend to rate Australia and China about on par for bastardry
.. and lol, what does he think of the Australian Defence Force (ADF)?, well, 'i'm sure they do some good things, but how would i know, i'm just a journalist and they don't tell me anything' .. in his opinion they are "a pack of bastards" .. chuckle, that's at 19:26 ..
please give him at least up to, think it was about 7min .. hope many of you enjoy the wit and insight of this top journalist as much as i do .. :)
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