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Archive for June 2012
Israel 365 days (a picture for each day)
June 29, 2012No! to this health tax…
June 29, 2012
Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
Today we learned from the United States Supreme Court that ObamaCare is – no matter what the President said or Congress intended – the largest tax increase in U.S. history!
Because Liberty Counsel has been so intensely involved in this case and has received such generous support in our battle from friends like you, I have written a substantial initial review of this astounding ruling for you.
Bob, please take the time to read this message to the end – we are witnessing one of the most important events in American history. I firmly believe that you can still play a vital role in how all of this will ultimately turn out! God bless you as you read – Mat.
Bob,
Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court on ObamaCare is stunning, to say the least. However, there is a silver lining to the general disappointment we all feel which I will explain a bit later. But first, I will address the decision.
As I said, you deserve more than a “sound-bite” treatment on this amazing event, so please read this entire message. I am shocked, but am in no way discouraged, by today’s ruling. I want you, Bob, to share in my underlying certainty that God is going to turn this lamentable situation into a good thing for America and her people.
If you would prefer, you can also listen to the special audio message I have recorded for you by clicking here:
++First, the bad news.
As you doubtless know, by a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare as being a permissible tax under the Constitution’s Taxing and Spending Clause.
This is a truly shocking outcome for several reasons. Congress stated in the law that its authority was derived from the Commerce Clause, not the Taxing and Spending Clause. The statue designates the monetary imposition for failure to obtain insurance as a penalty, not a tax.
There are other provisions in the law where Congress intended a tax, like the much-ridiculed tax on tanning beds. But, the individual mandate was always denominated as a penalty, and not a tax.
In fact, the statute itself says that Congress relied on the Commerce Clause to pass the law.
Further, President Obama said publically on many occasions (and quite emphatically) that the individual mandate penalty was not a tax. Congress did not promote the law as a tax. It would have been politically unpopular to do so, especially when President Obama was saying he did not want to raise taxes on the middle class.
The arguments in the lower courts were primarily focused on whether Congress had the authority under the Commerce Clause because it was well-understood that the Department of Justice raised the argument of Taxing and Spending only as its THIRD backup argument.
The Government arguments in the order of preference for the law being constitutional were the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and finally the Taxing and Spending Clause – only if all else failed!
At the Supreme Court, the oral argument probably contained no more than 50 words on whether the mandate was authorized under the Taxing and Spending Clause, and the government’s written brief was similarly almost silent on this issue. The argument at the Court clearly focused on the Commerce Clause.
++Chief Justice Robert’s ruling is quite troubling.
Chief Justice Roberts did a huge disservice to this ruling by siding with the liberal Justices on the Tax issue (Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer, and Ginsburg). When he realized he was leaning this way, he should have reset the case for oral argument to focus on this specific issue.
As it came down, there was very little focus on this issue at all! It is incomprehensible why the Chief Justice would not have the case reargued on this point.
++Justice Kagan’s role in the decision is also troubling.
The ruling upholding ObamaCare now brings into sharp focus the issue of Justice Elena Kagan’s refusal to recuse herself. Had she done so – and I believe she should have recused herself based on her substantial participation in the Government’s case in her earlier role as U.S. Solicitor General – the vote on the Taxing and Spending Clause would have been 4-4, meaning there would have been no majority.
The case would then have turned on the Commerce Clause, in favor of ruling the law unconstitutional.
++If the mandate is a tax, what about the Anti-Injunction Act?
Another problem with the Taxing and Spending ruling is, frankly, that it makes no legal sense! The Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) is a federal law that prevents suits involving taxes from being considered until the tax is paid and a refund sought. Until that time, the courts lack jurisdiction to entertain a challenge to the law.
Yet here, the Court says the AIA does not apply, but the mandate is actually a tax. This is nonsense! If it is a tax, then the AIA applies, and suit could not be brought until the tax is imposed, which will not be until 2014 or thereafter. Until that time, the courts lack jurisdiction to rule.
++A silver lining to this bewildering, disturbing ruling.
Here is the good news: By a 5-4 majority, the Court ruled that Congress lacks the authority under the Commerce Clause to pass the individual mandate. In other words, Congress lacks authority to force people to buy health insurance. Congress cannot regulate noncommercial inactivity (failure or refusal to buy health insurance).
Actually, this part of the Court’s decision is great news because had ObamaCare been upheld under the Commerce Clause, Congress would have unlimited authority to regulate our lives. If that was their ruling, today Congress could force you to buy health insurance, and tomorrow or any subsequent day, to join a health club, eat vegetables, or buy a certain kind of car.
There is good language in the opinion about how Congress lacks such authority, which was the main focus of the case. Chief Justice Roberts sided here with Justices Kennedy, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas.
And, there is more good news: This ruling will hang a millstone around President Obama’s neck during this election year because he can no longer say he does not want to tax the middle class!
As 2008 gave us ObamaCare, I think 2012 will take it away!
I believe this ruling will powerfully activate the American people to throw out Big Government socialists and give a tremendous boost to candidates who run on a platform that includes repealing ObamaCare.
Here’s the best news: I believe we will see the repeal or defunding of ObamaCare in 2013 with the seating of a new Congress.
++This enormous mess CAN be undone!
Repealing or defunding ObamaCare will undo this mess since the case was decided on the Taxing and Spending Clause. That part of the case will not have ongoing negative consequences once ObamaCare is repealed or defunded because passing a future tax is very politically unpopular and such legislation must always involve enormous tax increases.
In other words, while congressional authority to tax and spend is very broad, it cannot force you to do certain activities other than to pay the tax. Saying it slightly differently, you can be taxed for Medicare/Medicaid, but cannot be forced to accept such coverage.
However, IF the Court had upheld ObamaCare under the Commerce Clause, you could still repeal the law, but the expansive power would remain for future Congresses to use. The authority of Congress to regulate and to force us to act would have been unlimited!
Bob, this is the bullet we dodged with this ruling. Shockingly, there are four people on the Court (all appointed by liberal Democrats) who actually think that Congress has such expansive authority. Elections do have consequences!
++The Supreme Court undermined the people’s confidence in the rule of law with this ruling.
At the end of the day, this ruling badly undermines the Supreme Court’s credibility, but will greatly energize the grassroots to get involved and vote. This will result in new faces in Washington, DC, in 2013.
Thank God, we dodged the Commerce Clause bullet, which would have been disastrous! The ruling is both stunning and is a major surprise, but it could have been far worse (one more vote and we would have a radically different America).
Bob, I believe we can clean up the mess left by the Court’s perplexing and disappointing ruling! That must be our task moving forward.
++Liberty Counsel’s case will now go forward again!
One final note: Our case of Liberty University v. Geithner will be conferenced at the Supreme Court and sent back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
We still have the First Amendment Free Exercise argument regarding forced abortion funding to be decided! You have doubtless been watching many recent lawsuits on the HHS mandate over forced abortion funding.
Our case squarely addresses that issue and we will continue to pursue that claim! Before we finish litigating, however, we fully intend to fight to change the composition of Congress and the administration and repeal the entire law. We will be intensely working BOTH fronts, I assure you!
++Liberty Counsel’s promises to you.
Thank you for taking the time to read my rather long initial impression of today’s historic Supreme Court ruling. You deserve nothing less than a full perspective on this very complex issue today!
Now, here are my iron-clad promises…
We will NOT surrender critical healthcare decisions for our families to power-hungry bureaucrats!
We will NOT cave in to arrogant statists who are using every opportunity to seize entire industries at a time!
We will NOT bow to the liberal “progressive” political machine that shamelessly betrayed the constitutional trust that was given to the Obama administration as elected officials!
We will NOT stand by and allow anti-life, ant-family and anti-liberty mandates to define our American culture and undermine the very pillars of our society.
Bob, because of friends like you, Liberty Counsel has become one of the leading voices for faith and freedom in the nation. Together, we must continue making a powerful impact on the nation’s legal and public policy processes.
Will you consider making a tax-deductible gift right now so our team can recast our strategies to deal with this astounding decision and continue to fight against the rise of Big Government, radical pro-homosexual forces, anti-faith initiatives, the attacks of the ACLU, and other activist legal groups?
Click here to support Liberty Counsel’s ongoing litigation efforts, especially our never-say-die (and I mean that with all of my heart) fight to rid our nation of ObamaCare once and for all:
Please continue standing with us! We may have lost a major skirmish today, but the battle is still ours to win!
Your prayers and sacrificial giving make it possible for us to continue. We depend on friends who give $30, $50, $100, $500 – whatever the Lord leads – so we can stay involved and eventually win this battle against statists who want to recast America into a socialist nation.
Please click here to continue your personal fight against the President’s healthcare “reform” law. You can also hear my special audio recording on this ruling:
God bless you and God bless America!
Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
P.S. Again, thank you for taking the time to hear me out on this crucially important event. Today’s challenges to liberty, life, and family can sometimes seem overwhelming. But I believe that God has raised us up for such a time as this!
PLEASE help us continue our God-ordained work with a generous gift today. Click here to say, “Yes Mat. I stand with you and Liberty Counsel in the defense of our religious liberties – those same values that I hold dear – and I want to continue the fight until we win the war!”:
Do you belong to G-d?
June 27, 2012WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012
YOU BELONG TO HIM!
by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]
In Song of Solomon, the Lord says of his bride: “How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love, for delights!” (Song of Solomon 7:6). Three of the Hebrew words
in this verse are synonymous: fair (meaning “precious”), pleasant (indicating
“pleasure”), and delights.
These words describe Jesus’ thoughts toward His bride as He beholds her. He
looks at her and says, “How beautiful, sweet and delightful you are. You are
precious to me, O love!” And in turn, the bride boasts, “I am my beloved’s, and
his desire is toward me” (verse 10). The meaning here is, “He runs after me with
delight. He chases me because I am so precious to him!”
These same thoughts are found throughout the Psalms. “The Lord taketh pleasure
in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Psalm 147:11). “For
the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with
salvation” (149:4).
Now, I can try to convince you of God’s delight in you by telling you, “You are
precious to the Lord!” Yet you may think, “Well, that’s a lovely thought. How
sweet.”
This truth is much more than a lovely thought, however. It is the very key to
your deliverance from every battle that rages in your soul. It is the secret to
entering into the rest God has promised you. And until you lay hold of
it—until it becomes a foundation of truth in your heart—you will not be
able to withstand what is ahead in this wicked time.
Isaiah had a revelation of God’s great delight in us. He prophesied to Israel
this word from the Lord:
“O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name;
thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee”
(Isaiah 43:1-2).
Isaiah was not talking about a literal flood or fire. He was talking about what
the people were going through spiritually and mentally. They were in captivity
at the time and their floods were trials, their fires were temptations, their
rivers were testings. It was all the devil’s attempt to destroy and overwhelm
God’s people.
Isaiah’s words were a message of pure mercy to Israel. They were in captivity
because of their own stupidity and foolishness and they deserved nothing. But
God sent them a weeping, brokenhearted prophet who said, “God wants me to
tell you that you belong to Him!”
Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/18558?src=devo-email
A letter by Rand Paul
June 27, 2012Last week, President Obama outrageously asserted “Executive Privilege” on tens of thousands of documents relating to the disastrous Operation Fast and Furious.
As you may know, under this program, the administration “walked” guns to Mexico so they could blame the increase violence on why they had to ramp up gun control here in the states.
Over 2,000 guns were “lost,” and in a horrible tragedy, Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed by drug cartels, and two of the weapons were discovered at the scene of the crime.
Last year, administration officials wrote a letter to Congress claiming any guns ending up in the hands of Mexican cartels was unintentional.
In a stunning admission, that letter was later retracted when it was proved to be false.
And for months, the administration has been stonewalling a congressional investigation attempting to get to the bottom of what the administration knew and when they knew it.
Over 100,000 documents were requested by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, but the White House has turned over less than 10,000.
This is a major scandal that can’t afford a whitewashing.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusal to turn over crucial documents this week.
Congress, the American people and, most importantly, the family of Brian Terry just want the truth about Operation Fast and Furious.
But President Obama and Eric Holder are barking back that we aren’t allowed to have it.
I want answers,
Rand
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To much poop
June 25, 2012Leave it to Maxine to come up with a solution For the mess that America is now in economically.
It on my back porch and filled
It with seed. What a beauty of
A bird feeder it was, as I filled it Lovingly with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds
Taking advantage of the
Continuous flow of free and
Easily accessible food.
But then the birds started
Building nests in the boards
On the patio, above the table,
And next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was
Everywhere: on the patio tile,
The chairs, the table ..
Everywhere!
Then some of the birds
Turned mean. They would
Dive bomb me and try to
Peck me even though I had
Fed them out of my own
Pocket.
And others birds were
Boisterous and loud. They
Sat on the feeder and
Squawked and screamed at
All hours of the day and night
And demanded that I fill it
When it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn’t even
Sit on my own back porch
Anymore. So I took down the
Bird feeder and in three days
The birds were gone. I cleaned
Up their mess and took down
The many nests they had built
All over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like
It used to be ….. Quiet, serene….
And no one demanding their
Rights to a free meal.
Now let’s see.
Our government gives out
Free food, subsidized housing,
Free medical care and free
Education, and allows anyone
Born here to be an automatic
Citizen.
Then the illegal’s came by the
Tens of thousands. Suddenly
Our taxes went up to pay for
Free services; small apartments
Are housing 5 families; you
Have to wait 6 hours to be seen
By an emergency room doctor;
Your child’s second grade class is
Behind other schools because
Over half the class doesn’t speak
English.
Corn Flakes now come in a
Bilingual box; I have to
‘press one ‘ to hear my bank
Talk to me in English, and
People waving flags other
Than ‘Old Glory’ are
Squawking and screaming
In the streets, demanding
More rights and free liberties.
Just my opinion, but maybe
it’s time for the government
To take down the bird feeder.
If you agree, pass it on; if not,
Just continue cleaning up the poop!
Stop this man from destroying America
June 22, 2012
Obama is Destroying the United States of America
This article and book recommendation is written by Townhall News Editor and New York Times best-selling author, Katie Pavlich.
—————————-
David Limbaugh is the author of the #1 New York Times Best Seller Crimes Against Liberty, which documents the atrocities of President Obama’s first half of his first term. Now, he’s back with the rest of the story, with his newest book, The Great Destroyer. which can be yours FREE with a subscription to Townhall Magazine.
In The Great Destroyer, Limbaugh documents the many different wars Obama has been waging against America: the war on the Right, the war on those who disagree, the war on the economy, the war on our culture and values, the war on oil, the war on other energy, the war on our future, the war on business, the war on America’s National Security, the war on guns, and the war on the dignity of the office of President. He also completely rips apart the idea of President Obama as the great uniter who believes not in a “red America,” not in a “blue America,” but in the “United States of America.”
Limbaugh proves this administration is constantly attacking the things that make America great — and that Obama is doing it on purpose. He documents extensively the destructive policies and actions that have landed America where it is today.
“It is my hope that the sheer volume and nature of Obama’s misdeeds documented herein with will shock the conscience of fair readers and demonstrate the gravity of the condition in which America now finds itself after nearly four years of his socialistic and lawless behavior, and underscore the urgency that he can be defeated in 2012,” Limbaugh writes.
Order Townhall Magazine today and get David Limbaugh’s new book: The Destroyer for FREE!
Limbaugh’s book, combined with Crimes Against Liberty, is really an encyclopedia of Obama’s radical actions and lawless presidency. It’s easy to forget the many failures and crises this administration has created for political gain, but Limbaugh gives the reader many reminders without pulling any punches, and without watering down the Obama presidency.
“It’s all together and I really think that’s very beneficial for people to see, because if you don’t see it all together, you don’t have any idea of the magnitude of what’s going on,” Limbaugh tells Townhall. “They keep us busy. There are so many things we have to fight and they’re operating on all of these different fronts at one time that we don’t have the man power and the attention span.”
Get David Limbaugh’s new book: The Destroyer for Free!
Limbaugh makes it crystal clear in his book that President Obama’s bad decisions aren’t simple mistakes with no consequences; in fact, he argues defeating Obama is crucial to the survival of America as we know it.
“He does intentionally want to impose policies that will inevitably take us over the financial cliff,” Limbaugh says. “I am so concerned about the future of the country. I’ve got five kids who I want to inherit the same glorious nation, the same Constitutional Republic and robust freedom and strong nation that I inherited from my parents and their parents and their ancestors and I am very fearful that if we don’t turn this guy around, his policies around very quickly, we’re not going to be able to and we’re going to lose the America we love. We are approaching $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, we are growing those at a rate of $10 trillion a year, we are growing our deficit at a rate of $1 trillion a year at the same time Obama says he isn’t adding a dime to the deficit.”
Fresh. Intelligent. Conservative. — Townhall Magazine.
Townhall Magazine is exclusively in print and coverage features investigative journalism, in-depth reporting, heavily researched analysis, interviews with the heavy hitters and powerful exposes–all exclusive to the magazine.
No other magazine offers you this brilliant combination of smart, conservative, in-depth reporting and opinion that truly reflects your values.
SUBSCRIBE TO TOWNHALL MAGAZINE AND GET YOUR CHOICE OF A FREE BOOK!
Townhall Magazine is taking “conservative magazines” to new heights with its investigative reporting and stories, conservative humor, photography, culture, and commentary from your favorites.
Keep up with Townhall Magazine to get the inside scoop on exclusive interviews and more!
Save Israels kids
June 22, 2012By now you should be aware of the nearly 100 missiles that exploded in Israel this past week.
We have been notified by local officials about the URGENT need for Kindergarten Bomb Shelters in Nitzan, a coastal Israeli town near Ashkelon. Children are living in fear of attack and have literally no where to run when the “Code Red” sirens blast. We are turning to YOU – our global community of Israel supporters for immediate help.
Nitzan is a community of refugees from the once thriving Jewish communities of Gush Katif (in the Gaza Strip). Nearly 10,000 Jewish residents were forced to abandon their homes during one of the most painful and tragic episodes in Israel’s history, the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. Instead of leading to peace, the Disengagement led to a sharp increase in rocket attacks into southern Israeli towns.
In Nitzan, there are two adjacent kindergartens that need shelters immediately. When asked if one shelter could be installed first, the reply was a resounding NO! The children and teachers expressed the incredible emotion that they “would prefer to suffer an attack and die together”, rather than choose which kindergarten would get the first shelter. “They must be installed together, at the very same moment”, we were told.
CLICK BELOW TO JOIN US IN BUILDING KINDERGARTEN BOMB SHELTERS
http://unitedwithisrael.org/build-shelters
