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| Dave Marlett, Editor | theconservative@usa.net | Number 36 |
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/tcn | ||
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| Dave Marlett, Editor | theconservative@usa.net | Number 36 |
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/tcn | ||
"Have we as a people been so dumbed down we can't see it? Well, this is what happens, I'm afraid, in a postmodern culture where all values are equivalent and all truth is relative. One moment the President browbeats Congress to pass a trade bill with China. Forget Christians being persecuted. The same day the same President moments later angrily demands sanctions against Japan for hunting whales. There are no principles, just momentary preferences, and everything depends on what's to be gained by those in positions of power. ...[W]hat's good enough for whales ought to be good enough for persecuted Christians." --Charles Colson
[ The Federalist ]
"The property of the country belongs to the people of the country. Their title is absolute. They do not support any privileged class...they ought not to be burdened with a great array of public employees. They are not required to make any contribution to Government expenditures except that which they voluntarily assess upon themselves through the action of their own representatives. Whenever taxes become burdensome a remedy can be applied by the people; but if they do not act for themselves, no one can be very successful in acting for them." --Calvin Coolidge
[ The Federalist ]
On being overtaxed: "One day in 1968...the state finance director came to my office to tell me...he expected the state to have a budget surplus of more than $100 million the following fiscal year.... No legislators knew about the projected surplus yet and he asked me if I had any ideas on how I wanted to spend it.... I think you ought to decide now (he said) before the legislature hears about the money and starts thinking of its own ways of spending it. I already know what we should do with the money, I said. Let's give it back to the people, give them a tax rebate.... When the legislators heard that, they went wild. But it was too late; the people knew about the surplus. They wanted it back--and they got it back." --Ronald Reagan, "An American Life"
[ The Federalist ]
TCN - If you didn't plan to vote for GW, this might change your mind.
MUNICH, Germany (AP) - If George W. Bush wins the U.S. presidential election this November, he may not be the only one moving into a new house.
Kim Basinger said her husband, actor and Democratic party activist Alec Baldwin, was serious when he said he would leave the United States if the Republican wins.
``Alec is the biggest moralist that I know,'' she was quoted as saying in Focus magazine, which hits newsstands Monday. ``He stands completely behind what he says.''
Asked if she'd move with him, Basinger said: ``I can very well imagine that Alec makes good on his threat. And then I'd probably have to go too.''
TCN - Note that it came from Germany. Maybe they are house hunting!
Uh-uh, not Alec Baldwin.
The actor has denied a report by The Associated Press published earlier today saying that he had vowed to leave the United States if Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush wins the upcoming election.
News of the denial came by way of the Drudge Report, which published a retraction (of sorts) late this afternoon stating that the actor has blasted the news Web site for providing a link to the original AP story.
In the piece, AP used a couple of quotes from Kim Basinger -- Baldwin's wife -- from an interview with Focus magazine in support of the actor's alleged declaration.
TCN - We knew it was too good to be true.
Vice President Al Gore was asked by the Democratic National Committee in 1995 to solicit $600,000 in donations from not one, as previously reported, but six wealthy Texas personal injury lawyers, just weeks before President Clinton was to veto a bill limiting cash awards in product-liability cases.
The solicitation requests are listed on telephone call sheets prepared by the Democratic National Committee and, according to documents obtained by The Washington Times, were sent to Mr. Gore two days after he attended a November 1995 fund-raiser at the Houston home of John Eddy Williams, a Texas personal-injury lawyer, who has given $550,000 to Democrats since 1995.
The Nov. 30, 1995, call sheets were followed up on at least one occasion by DNC Chairman Donald L. Fowler, who asked Beaumont, Texas, lawyer Walter Umphrey for a $100,000 donation. That request, outlined in a Dec. 13, 1995, call sheet prepared by DNC aide Erica Payne, contained the notation:
"Sorry you missed the vice president. I know [you] will give $100k when the President vetoes tort reform, but we really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible."
Mr. Gore's White House office has denied any wrongdoing and accused Republicans of making "recycled partisan charges."
The office said the vice president did not make any calls for cash in exchange for a veto by Mr. Clinton on tort reform.
On May 2, 1996, Mr. Clinton vetoed a tort reform bill that passed the House 259-158 and the Senate 61-37. The bill would have given defendants protection against damages for harm due to the plaintiff's own use of drugs or alcohol, reduced manufacturers' liability, required plaintiffs to prove the harm they suffered was the result of gross negligence or intentional conduct, and limited punitive damage awards.
The six lawyers and their firms, along with Mr. Williams and others who attended the Houston fund-raiser, eventually contributed $4 million to the Clinton-Gore 1996 Re-election Campaign. They actively opposed tort reform, although linking donations to specific legislation is improper and, according to authorities, can be illegal.
The Justice Department's campaign-finance task force, which is investigating suspected abuses during the 1996 election, has begun a preliminary inquiry into the solicitation efforts, according to law enforcement authorities. The probe was ordered by task force chief Robert J. Conrad Jr., who previously called for a special counsel to determine whether Mr. Gore lied to investigators about his fund-raising activities.
Attorney General Janet Reno, who rejected the Conrad recommendation, declined during her weekly press briefing yesterday to say whether the Justice Department was investigating the new Gore and DNC accusations.
In addition to the federal probe, two of the lawyers on the call sheets, Mr. Umphrey and Houston's John O'Quinn, along with Mr. Williams, at whose home the fund-raiser was held, are the focus of an ethics inquiry by Texas Attorney General John Cornyn into fees they charged to negotiate a $17.3 billion settlement between Texas and the tobacco industry.
The lawyers recently returned $6.9 million in expenses they claimed as part of the settlement. In 1998, they were awarded $3.3 billion in legal fees, including $40 million for expenses from the tobacco industry in 1998.
"After 18 months of assuring the people of Texas their expenses were justified in every way, and claiming they acted ethically, these tobacco trial lawyers are now returning millions of dollars with no satisfactory explanation as to why," Mr. Cornyn said in a recent statement.
The lawyers returned the expenses, with interest, after Mr. Cornyn´s office sought to question them under oath about the charges.
Mr. Fowler, who runs a South Carolina consulting firm, did not return calls to his office yesterday for comment. He told reporters earlier this week he did not remember making the call to Mr. Umphrey, although he did not deny it occurred.
Mr. Umphrey was not available yesterday, and his secretary refused to take any messages. He previously has said his donations were not linked to the president's veto and he did not remember receiving a call from Mr. Gore.
Five others listed on the call sheets were Richard Mithoff, G.P. Hardy, Ronald D. Krist, Joe Jamail and Mr. O'Quinn, all of Houston. Mr. Mithoff, Mr. Krist, Mr. Jamail and Mr. O'Quinn did not return calls to their offices for comment.
Mr. Hardy said he was "absolutely certain" Mr. Gore did not make any call to him to request cash.
He said such a call would have been "fruitless," although he now supports Mr. Gore and believes "he will be a fine president."
The DNC call sheets not only list the lawyers, their addresses and telephone numbers, but the names of their assistants and associates, their contribution history, and their legal specialties.
Each of the sheets says the lawyers should be asked for "$100k" for the DNC's media fund - unlimited "soft money" donations used for issue ads and party-building activities. The use of soft money to help elect specific candidates is illegal.
TCN - Many of the subscribers to TCN are faithful Christians. The following letter was received by a retired pastor who reads TCN and sends in many timely comments. It carries a very simple yet very important message.
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"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people."
John Adams Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I'm writing this as a grassroots citizen, a father of four. I'm not paid to do this, and I'm not working for anyone's campaign. Did you know that in this Presidential election one single "special interest group" can determine who sits in the White House? It is simply that close. Did you know that who sits in the White House will determine the judicial makeup of our Supreme Court for the next twenty to thirty years? Right now it is supposed the next President will have three or four appointments. Those appointments will be crucial to determining the way the laws of our land are written and interpreted literally for generations. This may be the single most critical election since Lincoln, with the man elected to begin his term in 2001 having more impact on our children's futures through these judicial appointments than any other President before him. The way the two major candidates say they will determine who sits on the bench is worlds apart. It makes every single other issue argued this campaign pale in comparison in terms of long-term impact on Christians and the morality of our blessed country. One more fact: Christians do not make a statistical difference in the number of votes cast. They vote in the same percentage as the rest of the population. Therefore, if 20% of registered voters cast a ballot, the number of registered Christians who voted is about 20%. If that percentage were raised just 5%, Christians would determine our next President of the United States because of the sheer number of additional votes. It would not be close. If the believers who DID NOT vote last election DID vote this time, they would determine every single race in the country. What I'm saying is simple: Christians can be the "special interest" that makes a difference in this election if they will simply REGISTER and VOTE. If you pray to be a light in our country, here's your opportunity. Do what is right. Vote for what is right. To make our vote make a difference beyond what it is today something else must happen: Christians who haven't voted are the single key to this close election, but ONLY if they get themselves REGISTERED, then to the polls to VOTE. What I'm asking you to do if you have received this e-mail is to forward it to at least two other Christians. Just two will do, but more is better. For our future. For our children. For our blessed land. Do what is right. REGISTER To Vote NOW. Then, as if you and your children's future depended upon it, V-O-T-E. ++ "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace." Exodus 18:21-23 ++ "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." --George Washington ++ "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson ++ "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president...." --Theodore Roosevelt ++ "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." -- Barry Goldwater ++ "The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him..." --Ronald Reagan ++ "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king." 1 Peter 2:13-17
"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." Proverbs 21:1
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