Obama beer summit, Eric Holder, Black Panthers, Journolist
Our “Post-Racial” or “Most-Racist” President?
By Jayme Evans Sunday, July 25, 2010
For years now, Barack Obama’s media lapdogs have been repeating the lie that Obama was America’s first, “post-racial president”, whatever that means. Well, it didn’t take long for America’s first Beer Summit to shatter that myth.
Although his supporters in the media believed that he would somehow unite the civilized world under the banner of racial harmony, their attacks and his continued silence -considering the racially-charged actions of his Justice Department- show the direction that race relations have taken in the age of Obama. Remember, these attacks didn’t begin with the Shirley Sherrod controversy, they began during the Obama campaign.
Remember when John Murtha disparaged an entire Pennsylvania demographic as too old and mired in ignorance to vote for a black person? Remember when Obama himself stereotyped Pennsylvanians as clinging to their bibles and guns out of fear?
Remember back in February 2009, when America was lambasted by America’s first black Attorney General, Eric holder, as a nation of cowards on matters of race?
Obama-sponsored, face-saving, Beer Summit?
Remember Obama’s next racial gaffe, when he took to the podium in July of 2009, wading chest-deep into a local law-enforcement issue he knew nothing about and chastising the Cambridge Police for “Acting stupidly” before he knew all the facts? Remember the Obama-sponsored, face-saving, Beer Summit?
Remember the ineffective attacks on the Tea Party during the August, 2009 congressional recess and the heated town hall meetings, which was the birth of that movement?
Remember the spectacle that accompanied the signing of ObamaCare and the scripted attempt by Nancy Pelosi, along with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to gin up visions of the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington DC, equating health care with the generational struggle to overcome bigotry?
Now we have Eric Holder’s Justice Department thumbing their noses at the Constitution and practicing the most inflammatory kind of racial politics imaginable at Obama’s behest, suing Arizona for upholding federal immigration law while turning a blind eye to San Francisco and other self-declared “sanctuary cities” that openly refuse to enforce those very same federal laws.
Holder also refuses to prosecute the Black Panthers and their two thugs who stood outside of a Philadelphia polling station in 2008 brandishing batons. He threw out charges against one Panther and the organization and reduced the injunctive relief imposed on another after a default judgment had already been rendered. Holder has also allegedly refused to prosecute any black-on-white civil rights complaints his agency may uncover, a gross violation of his oath of office and ample grounds for his resignation.
Finally, we have the Daily Caller’s expose on the so-called “Journolist”, a loose amalgamation of liberal-minded, mixed-nuts in the media who spew hatred, manufacture racism where none exists, and bury stories critical of Obama and his associations while putting forth lies about those who oppose him in an effort to bolster Obama and discredit the opposition.
Hate spewed by the NAACP’s aptly-named Ben Jealous towards the Tea Party
Throw in the hate spewed by the NAACP’s aptly-named Ben Jealous towards the Tea Party while he ignores Reverend Wright and black-on-white racism, add the Shirley Sherrod controversy, and it’s hard to argue that Barack Obama has done anything but harm US race-relations. In fact, his eagerness to get out in front of the Sherrod story actually damaged his credibility on race immensely when it backfired.
Obama’s occupation of the White House would not be possible without the support of white, middle-class voters. Yet, with only one exception I’m aware of, he has stood there mute every time those same white voters who trusted him to represent all Americans are ostracized as racist lynch mobs due to their vehement opposition to his socialist ideology.
These tactics will not diminish, they will only escalate, the product of a strategy born years ago, necessitated by the birth of the Tea Party and their refusal to go along quietly with a complete national transformation. While these attacks are not necessarily orchestrated by Barack Obama or his underlings, the Journolist proves that they don’t necessarily need to be. Obama’s failure to condemn them does show his approval.
Although I initially found Eric Holder’s comments about us being a nation of cowards on matters of race quite offensive, perhaps he was right. Perhaps it is time for a national dialogue on race. But leadership and national dialogue both begin at the top. If, in his unique position as the nation’s first half-black, half-white Chief Executive, Barack Obama lacks the leadership to get the discussion started, then perhaps it is up to ordinary Americans. If so, then the first question I would ask is:
Based on what I’ve outlined above, do you think Barack Obama is, as the media suggests, the “post-racial”, or “most-racist” president?
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Got to love this woman!
Obama's Poll Numbers Down, Imaginary Racism Up
by Ann Coulter
07/21/2010
The Democrats are depressed about their collapsing poll numbers, so it's time to start calling conservatives "racist."
As we now know from the Journolist list-serv, where hundreds of liberal journalists chat with one another, and which was leaked to Daily Caller this week, journalists cry "racism" whenever they need to distract from bad news for Obama. (Ironically, this story did not make headlines.)
When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal broke during the 2008 campaign, the first response of Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent was to demand that they start randomly picking conservatives -- "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares -- and call them racists."
Ackerman, frequent guest on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," continued on Journolist:
"What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically."
This is what "racism" has come to in America. Democrats are in trouble, so they say "let's call conservatives racists." We always knew it, but the Journolist postings gave us the smoking gun.
This explains why we've heard so much about Tea Partiers being "racists" lately.
But despite a frantic search, the media have been unable to produce any actual evidence of racism at the Tea Parties. Even the trace elements are either frauds or utterly trivial.
For example, there was blind terror last week over a Tea Party billboard in northern Iowa that showed a picture of Adolf Hitler, Obama and Vladimir Lenin under the headings: "National Socialism," "Democratic Socialism" and "Marxist Socialism."
Overheated? Perhaps. Racist? No. Unless liberals are about to break the news that Lenin and Hitler were black, what we have here, gentlemen, is not racism.
I'm not even sure why liberals are so testy: As an aficionado of liberal talk radio, I've heard both Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes repeatedly say socialism is terrific. (Given their ratings, this is understandable.)
Most sickeningly, the mainstream media continue to spread the despicable lie that someone called civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis the "N-word" 15 times during the anti-ObamaCare rally in Washington. Fifteen times!
That turned out to be another lie. About a week after the protest, Andrew Breitbart offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who could produce a video of Lewis being called the N-word even once -- forget 15 times. (That's the most we can afford. Hey, who do we look like over here, George Soros?)
Plus, the winner might have his video appear on the new hit TV show, "America's Most Racist Home Videos."
With hundreds of news cameras, cell phone cameras and camcorders capturing every nook and cranny of the Capitol Hill protest -- and news media hungry for an ugly, racist act -- it defies possibility that someone called Lewis the N-word once, much less 15 times, without one single camera capturing the incident. And yet, to this day the reward remains unclaimed.
Democrats did their best to provoke an ugly confrontation by marching a (shockingly undiverse) group of black Democrats right through the middle of the anti-ObamaCare protest. But they didn't get one, so the media just lied and asserted Lewis was called the N-word. (If they wanted to hear the N-word so badly, they should have sent the congressional delegation to a Jay-Z concert.)
Indeed, news anchor after news anchor has indignantly claimed to have footage of the incident, teasing viewers by saying, "We'll get that right up" or claiming personally to have seen the video -– and then you watch the whole program without ever seeing footage of anyone calling Lewis the N-word.
Dateline: April 18, 2010, CNN's Don Lemon: "We have the tape here at CNN. I saw it on CNN's 'State of the Union.'" And yet, Lemon never got around to showing viewers that tape. IF YOU HAVE THE TAPE, DON, CLAIM YOUR $100,00 REWARD!
And now this week, with the NAACP accusing the Tea Partiers of harboring racists, and conservatives demanding proof, the George Soros-backed Center for American Progress ran a 45-second video allegedly showing racism at the Tea Parties.
One of the videos shows an obvious liberal plant announcing, "I'm a proud racist!" Apparently this was their best shot, because they had to work this video into the montage twice, amid utterly innocuous posters, for example, saying, "God bless Glenn Beck." So I guess they didn't have anything better.
Here's the part Soros' people didn't show you: In the fuller video shown on the Glenn Beck show, the Tea Partiers surrounded the (liberal plant) racist, jeering at him, telling him he's not one of them and to go home. In a spectacularly evil fraud, all that was edited out.
Just hours later on MSNBC, Chris Matthews was loudly proclaiming that he would believe the Tea Partiers weren't racist when he sees "just one of those Tea Party people pull down one of those racist signs at the next Tea Party rally. I'm going to just wait. Reach over, grab the sign and tear it out of the guy's hands. Then I will believe you."
Well, here it was. The (liberal plant) racist was driven from the Tea Party by the Tea Partiers. But you won't see that. Like USDA official Shirley Sherrod's apparently racist comments excerpted this week from what was, in fact, a commendable speech about racial reconciliation, the alleged Tea Party racism was, literally, "taken out of context."
by Ann Coulter
07/21/2010
The Democrats are depressed about their collapsing poll numbers, so it's time to start calling conservatives "racist."
As we now know from the Journolist list-serv, where hundreds of liberal journalists chat with one another, and which was leaked to Daily Caller this week, journalists cry "racism" whenever they need to distract from bad news for Obama. (Ironically, this story did not make headlines.)
When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal broke during the 2008 campaign, the first response of Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent was to demand that they start randomly picking conservatives -- "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares -- and call them racists."
Ackerman, frequent guest on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," continued on Journolist:
"What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically."
This is what "racism" has come to in America. Democrats are in trouble, so they say "let's call conservatives racists." We always knew it, but the Journolist postings gave us the smoking gun.
This explains why we've heard so much about Tea Partiers being "racists" lately.
But despite a frantic search, the media have been unable to produce any actual evidence of racism at the Tea Parties. Even the trace elements are either frauds or utterly trivial.
For example, there was blind terror last week over a Tea Party billboard in northern Iowa that showed a picture of Adolf Hitler, Obama and Vladimir Lenin under the headings: "National Socialism," "Democratic Socialism" and "Marxist Socialism."
Overheated? Perhaps. Racist? No. Unless liberals are about to break the news that Lenin and Hitler were black, what we have here, gentlemen, is not racism.
I'm not even sure why liberals are so testy: As an aficionado of liberal talk radio, I've heard both Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes repeatedly say socialism is terrific. (Given their ratings, this is understandable.)
Most sickeningly, the mainstream media continue to spread the despicable lie that someone called civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis the "N-word" 15 times during the anti-ObamaCare rally in Washington. Fifteen times!
That turned out to be another lie. About a week after the protest, Andrew Breitbart offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who could produce a video of Lewis being called the N-word even once -- forget 15 times. (That's the most we can afford. Hey, who do we look like over here, George Soros?)
Plus, the winner might have his video appear on the new hit TV show, "America's Most Racist Home Videos."
With hundreds of news cameras, cell phone cameras and camcorders capturing every nook and cranny of the Capitol Hill protest -- and news media hungry for an ugly, racist act -- it defies possibility that someone called Lewis the N-word once, much less 15 times, without one single camera capturing the incident. And yet, to this day the reward remains unclaimed.
Democrats did their best to provoke an ugly confrontation by marching a (shockingly undiverse) group of black Democrats right through the middle of the anti-ObamaCare protest. But they didn't get one, so the media just lied and asserted Lewis was called the N-word. (If they wanted to hear the N-word so badly, they should have sent the congressional delegation to a Jay-Z concert.)
Indeed, news anchor after news anchor has indignantly claimed to have footage of the incident, teasing viewers by saying, "We'll get that right up" or claiming personally to have seen the video -– and then you watch the whole program without ever seeing footage of anyone calling Lewis the N-word.
Dateline: April 18, 2010, CNN's Don Lemon: "We have the tape here at CNN. I saw it on CNN's 'State of the Union.'" And yet, Lemon never got around to showing viewers that tape. IF YOU HAVE THE TAPE, DON, CLAIM YOUR $100,00 REWARD!
And now this week, with the NAACP accusing the Tea Partiers of harboring racists, and conservatives demanding proof, the George Soros-backed Center for American Progress ran a 45-second video allegedly showing racism at the Tea Parties.
One of the videos shows an obvious liberal plant announcing, "I'm a proud racist!" Apparently this was their best shot, because they had to work this video into the montage twice, amid utterly innocuous posters, for example, saying, "God bless Glenn Beck." So I guess they didn't have anything better.
Here's the part Soros' people didn't show you: In the fuller video shown on the Glenn Beck show, the Tea Partiers surrounded the (liberal plant) racist, jeering at him, telling him he's not one of them and to go home. In a spectacularly evil fraud, all that was edited out.
Just hours later on MSNBC, Chris Matthews was loudly proclaiming that he would believe the Tea Partiers weren't racist when he sees "just one of those Tea Party people pull down one of those racist signs at the next Tea Party rally. I'm going to just wait. Reach over, grab the sign and tear it out of the guy's hands. Then I will believe you."
Well, here it was. The (liberal plant) racist was driven from the Tea Party by the Tea Partiers. But you won't see that. Like USDA official Shirley Sherrod's apparently racist comments excerpted this week from what was, in fact, a commendable speech about racial reconciliation, the alleged Tea Party racism was, literally, "taken out of context."
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Communists(Liberal Democraps) at work
-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.
And there are still idiots, that are willing to vote for the Democ-rats. WHY????
ALL OF THE FREE-BEE'S THEY PROMISED, ARE NOT FREE, AND YOU HAVE GIVEN UP YOUR AMERICAN FREEDOM AND AMERICA RIGHTS.
THAT SHOWS WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU TAKE YOUR FREEDOM FOR GRANTED.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.
And there are still idiots, that are willing to vote for the Democ-rats. WHY????
ALL OF THE FREE-BEE'S THEY PROMISED, ARE NOT FREE, AND YOU HAVE GIVEN UP YOUR AMERICAN FREEDOM AND AMERICA RIGHTS.
THAT SHOWS WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU TAKE YOUR FREEDOM FOR GRANTED.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Can you read this mr Stupak?????
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obamacare to Pay for Abortions under New $160 Million Pennsylvania Program
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WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the first known instance of direct federal funding of abortion under the new health care legislation, the Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new "high-risk" insurance program - and has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of Governor Edward Rendell (D) under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.
The high-risk pool program, which will be funded entirely by the federal government, is one of the new programs created by the sweeping health care legislation President Obama signed into law on March 23. The law authorizes $5 billion in federal funds for the program, which will cover as many as 400,000 people when it is implemented nationwide.
Although an earlier version of the health care legislation prevented federal funds from subsidizing abortion, that protection was not included in the bill signed into law. Although the president's Executive Order regarding funding for abortion was touted as the solution, the White House later admitted the Order simply "reiterated" what was already in the bill. Nonetheless, the mainstream media continues to portray the Executive Order as having effectively blocked federal funds for abortion.
"This is just the first proof of the phoniness of President Obama's assurances that federal funds would not subsidize abortion - but it will not be the last," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has emphasized that the high-risk pool program is a federal program, and that the states will not incur any cost. On May 11, 2010, in a letter to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on implementation of the new law, DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote that "states may choose whether and how they participate in the program, which is funded entirely by the federal government."
Details of the high-risk pool plans for most states are not yet available. But on June 28, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario issued a press release announcing that the federal Department of Health and Human Services had approved his agency's proposal for implementing the new program in Pennsylvania. According to the release, "The plan's benefit package will include preventive care, physician services, diagnostic testing, hospitalization, mental health services, prescription medications and much more, with subsidized premiums of $283 a month."
Examination of the detailed Pennsylvania plan (posted here), reveals that the "much more" will include insurance coverage of any legal abortion.
The section on abortion (see page 14) asserts that "elective abortions are not covered." However, that statement proves to be a red herring, because the operative language does not define "elective." Rather, the proposal specifies that the coverage "includes only abortions and contraceptives that satisfy the requirements of" several specific statutes, the most pertinent of which is 18 Pa. C.S. § 3204, which says that an abortion is legal in Pennsylvania (consistent with Roe v. Wade) if a single physician believes that it is "necessary" based on "all factors (physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age) relevant to the well-being of the woman."
Indeed, the cited statute provides only a single circumstance in which an abortion prior to 24 weeks is not permitted under the Pennsylvania statute: "No abortion which is sought solely because of the sex of the unborn child shall be deemed a necessary abortion."
As a result, "Under the Rendell-Sebelius plan, federal funds will subsidize coverage of abortion performed for any reason, except sex selection," said NRLC's Johnson. "The Pennsylvania proposal conspicuously lacks language that would prevent funding of abortions performed as a method of birth control or for any other reason, except sex selection - and the Obama Administration has now approved this."
Responding to NRLC's discovery, Tom McClusky, Family Research Council Action's Senior Vice President, said: "Never have we so regretted being right on an issue, but this $160 million for an abortion insurance program in Pennsylvania validates the arguments FRC Action made throughout the health care debate: Taxpayer dollars will fund abortions. For our efforts to remove the bill's abortion funding, we were called 'deceivers' by President Obama and 'liars' by his allies."
"Now we know who the true deceivers and liars really are."
Obamacare to Pay for Abortions under New $160 Million Pennsylvania Program
TODAY'S HEADLINES | SEND NEWS TIPS | DONATE
SHARE: E-MAIL PRINT
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the first known instance of direct federal funding of abortion under the new health care legislation, the Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new "high-risk" insurance program - and has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of Governor Edward Rendell (D) under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.
The high-risk pool program, which will be funded entirely by the federal government, is one of the new programs created by the sweeping health care legislation President Obama signed into law on March 23. The law authorizes $5 billion in federal funds for the program, which will cover as many as 400,000 people when it is implemented nationwide.
Although an earlier version of the health care legislation prevented federal funds from subsidizing abortion, that protection was not included in the bill signed into law. Although the president's Executive Order regarding funding for abortion was touted as the solution, the White House later admitted the Order simply "reiterated" what was already in the bill. Nonetheless, the mainstream media continues to portray the Executive Order as having effectively blocked federal funds for abortion.
"This is just the first proof of the phoniness of President Obama's assurances that federal funds would not subsidize abortion - but it will not be the last," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has emphasized that the high-risk pool program is a federal program, and that the states will not incur any cost. On May 11, 2010, in a letter to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on implementation of the new law, DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote that "states may choose whether and how they participate in the program, which is funded entirely by the federal government."
Details of the high-risk pool plans for most states are not yet available. But on June 28, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario issued a press release announcing that the federal Department of Health and Human Services had approved his agency's proposal for implementing the new program in Pennsylvania. According to the release, "The plan's benefit package will include preventive care, physician services, diagnostic testing, hospitalization, mental health services, prescription medications and much more, with subsidized premiums of $283 a month."
Examination of the detailed Pennsylvania plan (posted here), reveals that the "much more" will include insurance coverage of any legal abortion.
The section on abortion (see page 14) asserts that "elective abortions are not covered." However, that statement proves to be a red herring, because the operative language does not define "elective." Rather, the proposal specifies that the coverage "includes only abortions and contraceptives that satisfy the requirements of" several specific statutes, the most pertinent of which is 18 Pa. C.S. § 3204, which says that an abortion is legal in Pennsylvania (consistent with Roe v. Wade) if a single physician believes that it is "necessary" based on "all factors (physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age) relevant to the well-being of the woman."
Indeed, the cited statute provides only a single circumstance in which an abortion prior to 24 weeks is not permitted under the Pennsylvania statute: "No abortion which is sought solely because of the sex of the unborn child shall be deemed a necessary abortion."
As a result, "Under the Rendell-Sebelius plan, federal funds will subsidize coverage of abortion performed for any reason, except sex selection," said NRLC's Johnson. "The Pennsylvania proposal conspicuously lacks language that would prevent funding of abortions performed as a method of birth control or for any other reason, except sex selection - and the Obama Administration has now approved this."
Responding to NRLC's discovery, Tom McClusky, Family Research Council Action's Senior Vice President, said: "Never have we so regretted being right on an issue, but this $160 million for an abortion insurance program in Pennsylvania validates the arguments FRC Action made throughout the health care debate: Taxpayer dollars will fund abortions. For our efforts to remove the bill's abortion funding, we were called 'deceivers' by President Obama and 'liars' by his allies."
"Now we know who the true deceivers and liars really are."
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes drives away last of conservatives in Parish.
Not being satisfied with all of the people Msgr
has driven away, and then bemoaned the fact that they left, he has driven the last nail in, by "suspending the Latin Mass. Even though the priest that is saying the Latin Mass, is willing to continue doing it, and doesn't mind it, Msgr is obsessed with driving more and more people away from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. Why you ask? Inorder for the Bishop to have his reason to close the parish. It doesn't take an Einstein to see what has happened to a vibrant parish. This Pastor,who was assigned to the job of Shepherding,
the congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, has been vindictively, and systematically, driven the flock he has sworn to protect away. Had the Pastor been around the parish to take up his duties, there would never have been the need to first remove the children's mass, take away the late Saturday night confession, take away the children's confessions once a month in the school, CLOSE DOWN THE SCHOOL,
move the Latin Mass to a time slot, destined to drop the attendance, and the tithing, inorder to claim that is one of the reasons to do away with the Latin Mass. We could have been sent Barack Obama to do all of that, he probably would have had more time to devote to the parish.
That will be the next attempt. Make a false showing at trying to raise more money, and failing to do that, the Bishop will announce the Closing of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.
Those that have left the parish, still feel that they were driven out of their home, of 32 years. Seems like the leaders of the church in the United States have become the new Pharisees and
Sadducees, and Money Changers, that Our Lord had
driven out of the Temple.
The Leaders of DRVC can make all of the excuses they want for what has happened but the Truth is,
THEY DID NOT CARE FOR THEIR FLOCK, AND SHEPHERD THEM AS THEY WERE SWORN TO DO.
GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEIR SOULS.
has driven away, and then bemoaned the fact that they left, he has driven the last nail in, by "suspending the Latin Mass. Even though the priest that is saying the Latin Mass, is willing to continue doing it, and doesn't mind it, Msgr is obsessed with driving more and more people away from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. Why you ask? Inorder for the Bishop to have his reason to close the parish. It doesn't take an Einstein to see what has happened to a vibrant parish. This Pastor,who was assigned to the job of Shepherding,
the congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, has been vindictively, and systematically, driven the flock he has sworn to protect away. Had the Pastor been around the parish to take up his duties, there would never have been the need to first remove the children's mass, take away the late Saturday night confession, take away the children's confessions once a month in the school, CLOSE DOWN THE SCHOOL,
move the Latin Mass to a time slot, destined to drop the attendance, and the tithing, inorder to claim that is one of the reasons to do away with the Latin Mass. We could have been sent Barack Obama to do all of that, he probably would have had more time to devote to the parish.
That will be the next attempt. Make a false showing at trying to raise more money, and failing to do that, the Bishop will announce the Closing of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.
Those that have left the parish, still feel that they were driven out of their home, of 32 years. Seems like the leaders of the church in the United States have become the new Pharisees and
Sadducees, and Money Changers, that Our Lord had
driven out of the Temple.
The Leaders of DRVC can make all of the excuses they want for what has happened but the Truth is,
THEY DID NOT CARE FOR THEIR FLOCK, AND SHEPHERD THEM AS THEY WERE SWORN TO DO.
GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEIR SOULS.
Monday, July 5, 2010
U.S Economy: Dismal News, Dismal Outlook
WELCOME TO THE DEFEAT-O-CRATS "IMAGINED RECOVERY", AND "STIMULUS OCONOMY"! OR "HOW TO SPEND YOUR WAY TO DESTRUCTION"! THE BEST RECOVERY WOULD BE TO THROW OUT OF OFFICE EVERY DEMOCRAT THAT IS IN OFFICE, AND SHUT THE DOOR ON ANY NEW DEMOCRATS.
NOTICE THAT THE LAST FOUR LETTERS IN THEIR NAME IS "RATS".
Some Really Dismal Numbers
The unemployment numbers from Friday morning were just bad, even though the spin doctors were out in force. Of course we knew that because of census workers being laid off the number would be negative, and it was, down 125,000. But the "bright spot" we were told about was that private payrolls came in at 83,000 new jobs. Let's look at what you did not see or hear.
First, last month's dismal (there's that word again) private job-creation number was revised down from 41,000 to 33,000. So in two months, total private job creation is 116,000 jobs. We need 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth.
But it is worse than that. The headline number we look at is from the Establishment Survey. That means they call up existing businesses they know about and ask them how many people are working for them, etc. One of the first things I do when the employment numbers come out is look at the birth/death assessment on the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) web site.
For new readers, the birth / death assessment has nothing to do with people dying, but rather is the BLS's attempt to estimate the number of new businesses that have been created or have "died" within the last month, and they use these numbers to adjust the employment total. They use historical, seasonal numbers to create a model from which they make these estimates. There is nothing conspiratorial about the numbers - they have to make an attempt at such an estimate, otherwise the employment number would be badly off. But the birth/death number can skew the totals a lot more than is typically realized.
Take the last two months. Using the birth/death model, the BLS assumes that 362,000 jobs were created somewhere. That is three times the number of jobs in the headlines we read. Those extra jobs were added into the total because that is what the model told them to do. And over a complete business and employment cycle, those numbers will average out to be pretty close to right. But as I said, they can also be misleading in the short term. Let's look closer at some of the details.
Click to enlarge
The B/D adjustments say that we added 65,000 construction jobs in the last two months, over half the total number of jobs created. Really? US single-family homes set an all-time low sales number this week. Mortgage applications are way down. Home construction is off. Commercial real estate construction is down. Where are those construction jobs?
158,000 new jobs have supposedly been created in the hospitality and leisure industry in the last two months. And that is consistent with what normally happens in summer time. Typically, these are lower-paying jobs. (I worked a few myself while in college.) In the actual numbers, as surveyed, they estimated only 33,000 new jobs in L&H, so the B/D adjustment accounted for nearly all the positive number.
But what happens is that most of those L&H jobs go away in the fall, so then the B/D adjustment goes negative. Further, I am not sure we can assume a typical cycle here, to base the B/D number on.
(One more thing to complicate all this. The headline number we see is seasonally adjusted, but the B/D assessment isn't. And we just won't go there. That's way too much "inside baseball" sort of trivia.)
But look at this chart from my favorite data maven, Greg Weldon. It shows that the number of people planning vacations is way down, dropping by over 35% in the last three years, for the second lowest number ever. Ever.
That is not consistent with a typical hospitality and leisure job-growth pattern. I have three kids working in that field, and the talk is not of robust job creation or lots of overtime.
Unemployment Went Down?
We were told that the unemployment number dropped from 9.7% to 9.5%. That's a good thing, right? Well, no, not really. The number dropped because the number of people counted as being in the labor force dropped. If you haven't looked for work for four weeks, you are not counted as unemployed. If you add those who were taken off the rolls back in, the unemployment number would have risen to 9.9%. In the past two months nearly one million people have dropped out of the labor market.
If you counted all the people who would take a job if they could find one as unemployed, the unemployment number would be closer to 11%. As an aside, if I have any real beef with the BLS over how they create their data, it is this last point. If you would take a job if you could get one, you should be counted as unemployed. Period.
The Household Survey was rather dismal. (This is where they call households and ask about their employment situation.) The survey showed a loss of 301,000 jobs, or 363,000 jobs if you adjust it to match the Establishment Survey. Not pretty.
Maybe a better way to look at unemployment is to look at the percentage of the total population that has a job. That number has been rising off and on for almost 50 years as more and more women have moved into the labor force. But notice the large drop over the last year - almost 5% of working people in the US have lost their jobs.
Click to enlarge
The initial unemployment claims 4-week moving average stubbornly refuses to go down any further. It has essentially gone sideways for over 6 months.
Click to enlarge
If you go back and look at the data from the last 45 years, the current level is typical of recessions.
Click to enlarge
Earnings Take a Hit
No, not business earnings, which seem to be holding up, but personal earnings. Average hourly earnings dropped 0.1% in June, something that David Rosenberg notes is a 1-in-50 event. The trend is downward, with annual growth of less than 1.7%. Average hours worked were also slightly down.
My friend Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Businesses, has produced his monthly survey, and there was not much to cheer about from a future employment perspective. Over the next 3 months, 8 percent of the businesses surveyed plan to reduce employment (up 1 point), and 10 percent plan to create new jobs (down 4 points), yielding a seasonally adjusted net 1 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, unchanged from May and only the second positive reading in 20 months - but barely so.
From Dunk's email:
"Since January, 2008, the seasonally adjusted average change in employment per firm has been negative in every month, with a seasonally adjusted loss of 0.3 workers per firm reported in June for the prior three month period. Most firms did not change employment, 5% (down 3 points from May) increased average employment by 3.4 employees, but 15% (down 5 points) reduced their workforces by an average of 3.3. "Job creation" still hasn't crossed the 0 line in the small business sector. Government (including health care and education) and manufacturing (a large firm activity) has been providing what few jobs are created, weak given the magnitude of employment loss during the recession. And now the elimination of temporary Census jobs will make the picture look more bleak, although more accurate. A few more private sector jobs is not enough, we need 225,000 every month for 3 years to re-employ 8 million workers who lost their jobs and another 125,000 a month to keep up with population growth."
A few more data points from this week, and then let's look at some of the implications. The numbers from the Conference Board survey were weak. The total of people planning to buy a major appliance is at an almost 16-year low. Car sales were low last month, and the survey says they may go lower, as plans to buy a car are down from 6% to 3.7%. In fact, in almost all categories plans to buy were down. Which makes sense, as 17% of people say their incomes are decreasing.
New home inventory is back up to 8.5 months of supply. As noted above, single-family sales hit an all-time low, as anyone who wanted to buy a home did so in order to get the government incentive. Just as with Cash for Clunkers, all we did was bring buying forward; we did not create actual new buyers, at least not in any significant numbers.
"Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
- Frédéric Bastiat
I'll finish with this thought. This financial reform bill should be thrown out and they should start over. So much has been tagged onto this bill that has nothing to do with reform but is all about political agendas. It is also far too vague. Essentially, they create all these new committees or empower the bureaucracies that missed it last time to come up with the actual details of regulation. For all intents and purposes, a small number of unelected individuals will be given almost total control to write new rules overseeing a huge part of our economy. No matter how well-intentioned, this is not something that should be done in closed rooms.
We need major reform, of course. And when are we going to get to Freddie and Fannie, which are totally ignored but will cost the taxpayer the most? Local Congressman Jeb Hensarling has it right. He estimates there are about 3 unintended consequences on every page of that 1,200-page bill.
NOTICE THAT THE LAST FOUR LETTERS IN THEIR NAME IS "RATS".
Some Really Dismal Numbers
The unemployment numbers from Friday morning were just bad, even though the spin doctors were out in force. Of course we knew that because of census workers being laid off the number would be negative, and it was, down 125,000. But the "bright spot" we were told about was that private payrolls came in at 83,000 new jobs. Let's look at what you did not see or hear.
First, last month's dismal (there's that word again) private job-creation number was revised down from 41,000 to 33,000. So in two months, total private job creation is 116,000 jobs. We need 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth.
But it is worse than that. The headline number we look at is from the Establishment Survey. That means they call up existing businesses they know about and ask them how many people are working for them, etc. One of the first things I do when the employment numbers come out is look at the birth/death assessment on the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) web site.
For new readers, the birth / death assessment has nothing to do with people dying, but rather is the BLS's attempt to estimate the number of new businesses that have been created or have "died" within the last month, and they use these numbers to adjust the employment total. They use historical, seasonal numbers to create a model from which they make these estimates. There is nothing conspiratorial about the numbers - they have to make an attempt at such an estimate, otherwise the employment number would be badly off. But the birth/death number can skew the totals a lot more than is typically realized.
Take the last two months. Using the birth/death model, the BLS assumes that 362,000 jobs were created somewhere. That is three times the number of jobs in the headlines we read. Those extra jobs were added into the total because that is what the model told them to do. And over a complete business and employment cycle, those numbers will average out to be pretty close to right. But as I said, they can also be misleading in the short term. Let's look closer at some of the details.
Click to enlarge
The B/D adjustments say that we added 65,000 construction jobs in the last two months, over half the total number of jobs created. Really? US single-family homes set an all-time low sales number this week. Mortgage applications are way down. Home construction is off. Commercial real estate construction is down. Where are those construction jobs?
158,000 new jobs have supposedly been created in the hospitality and leisure industry in the last two months. And that is consistent with what normally happens in summer time. Typically, these are lower-paying jobs. (I worked a few myself while in college.) In the actual numbers, as surveyed, they estimated only 33,000 new jobs in L&H, so the B/D adjustment accounted for nearly all the positive number.
But what happens is that most of those L&H jobs go away in the fall, so then the B/D adjustment goes negative. Further, I am not sure we can assume a typical cycle here, to base the B/D number on.
(One more thing to complicate all this. The headline number we see is seasonally adjusted, but the B/D assessment isn't. And we just won't go there. That's way too much "inside baseball" sort of trivia.)
But look at this chart from my favorite data maven, Greg Weldon. It shows that the number of people planning vacations is way down, dropping by over 35% in the last three years, for the second lowest number ever. Ever.
That is not consistent with a typical hospitality and leisure job-growth pattern. I have three kids working in that field, and the talk is not of robust job creation or lots of overtime.
Unemployment Went Down?
We were told that the unemployment number dropped from 9.7% to 9.5%. That's a good thing, right? Well, no, not really. The number dropped because the number of people counted as being in the labor force dropped. If you haven't looked for work for four weeks, you are not counted as unemployed. If you add those who were taken off the rolls back in, the unemployment number would have risen to 9.9%. In the past two months nearly one million people have dropped out of the labor market.
If you counted all the people who would take a job if they could find one as unemployed, the unemployment number would be closer to 11%. As an aside, if I have any real beef with the BLS over how they create their data, it is this last point. If you would take a job if you could get one, you should be counted as unemployed. Period.
The Household Survey was rather dismal. (This is where they call households and ask about their employment situation.) The survey showed a loss of 301,000 jobs, or 363,000 jobs if you adjust it to match the Establishment Survey. Not pretty.
Maybe a better way to look at unemployment is to look at the percentage of the total population that has a job. That number has been rising off and on for almost 50 years as more and more women have moved into the labor force. But notice the large drop over the last year - almost 5% of working people in the US have lost their jobs.
Click to enlarge
The initial unemployment claims 4-week moving average stubbornly refuses to go down any further. It has essentially gone sideways for over 6 months.
Click to enlarge
If you go back and look at the data from the last 45 years, the current level is typical of recessions.
Click to enlarge
Earnings Take a Hit
No, not business earnings, which seem to be holding up, but personal earnings. Average hourly earnings dropped 0.1% in June, something that David Rosenberg notes is a 1-in-50 event. The trend is downward, with annual growth of less than 1.7%. Average hours worked were also slightly down.
My friend Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Businesses, has produced his monthly survey, and there was not much to cheer about from a future employment perspective. Over the next 3 months, 8 percent of the businesses surveyed plan to reduce employment (up 1 point), and 10 percent plan to create new jobs (down 4 points), yielding a seasonally adjusted net 1 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, unchanged from May and only the second positive reading in 20 months - but barely so.
From Dunk's email:
"Since January, 2008, the seasonally adjusted average change in employment per firm has been negative in every month, with a seasonally adjusted loss of 0.3 workers per firm reported in June for the prior three month period. Most firms did not change employment, 5% (down 3 points from May) increased average employment by 3.4 employees, but 15% (down 5 points) reduced their workforces by an average of 3.3. "Job creation" still hasn't crossed the 0 line in the small business sector. Government (including health care and education) and manufacturing (a large firm activity) has been providing what few jobs are created, weak given the magnitude of employment loss during the recession. And now the elimination of temporary Census jobs will make the picture look more bleak, although more accurate. A few more private sector jobs is not enough, we need 225,000 every month for 3 years to re-employ 8 million workers who lost their jobs and another 125,000 a month to keep up with population growth."
A few more data points from this week, and then let's look at some of the implications. The numbers from the Conference Board survey were weak. The total of people planning to buy a major appliance is at an almost 16-year low. Car sales were low last month, and the survey says they may go lower, as plans to buy a car are down from 6% to 3.7%. In fact, in almost all categories plans to buy were down. Which makes sense, as 17% of people say their incomes are decreasing.
New home inventory is back up to 8.5 months of supply. As noted above, single-family sales hit an all-time low, as anyone who wanted to buy a home did so in order to get the government incentive. Just as with Cash for Clunkers, all we did was bring buying forward; we did not create actual new buyers, at least not in any significant numbers.
"Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
- Frédéric Bastiat
I'll finish with this thought. This financial reform bill should be thrown out and they should start over. So much has been tagged onto this bill that has nothing to do with reform but is all about political agendas. It is also far too vague. Essentially, they create all these new committees or empower the bureaucracies that missed it last time to come up with the actual details of regulation. For all intents and purposes, a small number of unelected individuals will be given almost total control to write new rules overseeing a huge part of our economy. No matter how well-intentioned, this is not something that should be done in closed rooms.
We need major reform, of course. And when are we going to get to Freddie and Fannie, which are totally ignored but will cost the taxpayer the most? Local Congressman Jeb Hensarling has it right. He estimates there are about 3 unintended consequences on every page of that 1,200-page bill.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
GOD BLESS AMERICA
As I write this, (author unknown, for now) we're heading into the July 4 weekend, 2010. And I don't intend to refer to it that way again.
We're heading toward Independence Day, and that's what we're supposed to be celebrating. July 4 is just another day, like July 5 or Oct. 17. What gives the Fourth of July its significance is that our Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776.
It was in Philadelphia, and the signers of that document, composed by Thomas Jefferson, knew that this declaration of independence from the dictatorial rule of Great Britain might also be – literally – their death sentence.
They knew full well that the wrath and might of the British army would be sailing across the Atlantic to descend on the relatively defenseless colonies. They knew their scattered "states" didn't have the numbers or arms or training to stand against the British, much less defeat them militarily. Yet they put their signatures – and their lives, their families, their destiny – on that parchment.
And so, against all odds, and even against reason, that Declaration told the world that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The only importance of the fourth day of July, then, is that it marks the birth of the United States of America.
Say it again. The United States of America. The very words should send awe-filled shivers up your spine, as they do mine. Until that day, that hour, there was no United States, no nation called America. And had it not been for the incredible bravery and vision of those ordinary-seeming men, there likely never would have been.
There had never been anything like it, and the very idea seemed impossible. But most of the people living in those colonies had simply had enough of British domination, of working and virtually existing at the pleasure of a king they didn't know and who obviously considered them his indentured servants. They wanted to be free, to make their own decisions, to govern themselves and breathe the sweet air of liberty.
So they staked their very lives, on that fourth day of July 1776, on an outrageous gamble, an impossible dream of freedom. And in the next few days, they began to taste what being free might be like.
The first celebration of American independence took place four days later in Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was still meeting. The ceremony began with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Then, from the tower of the State House, now called Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell rang out.
The coat of arms of the king of England was taken down. And there was a parade. And cannons boomed. The people, though aware of what lay ahead, cheered! A new nation sprang to life.
That's what this day is meant to be about.
Not just another day off work. Not just a day to have a barbecue, or a steak grilled in the back yard or a family picnic in the park. Not just an excuse to set off loads of fireworks, though all those things are fine in themselves.
John Adams, himself a signer of the Declaration, thought that Americans should henceforth celebrate a "great anniversary festival." In a letter to his wife, Abigail, he wrote, "It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."
So it began. The first anniversary was celebrated in Philadelphia the following year. It included the pomp and parade, the guns, bells, bonfires … and plenty of speeches emphasizing the miracle that was under way. A more elaborate celebration was held there in 1788, after the new Constitution had been ratified. Then there was a much larger parade, speeches and a dinner. During the dinner many toasts were proposed, accompanied by fanfares of trumpets and cannons. Some of the toasts were to "the People of the United States," "General Washington," and "The Whole Family of Mankind."
But between those two celebrations, in 1776 and 1788, there was much horrible fighting, rivers of bloodshed, the deaths and bankruptcies of many of the signers of the Declaration, families torn apart and businesses and farms destroyed. The freedoms declared by the Declaration – and ushered into fact by the Constitution – were secured at a terrible cost.
Soon, across the growing nation, at sunrise on July 4, salutes were fired and bells were rung. Flags were flown from buildings, from homes and along the streets. Shop windows were decorated with red, white and blue. Churches held special services. There were parades followed by public readings of the Declaration of Independence. National songs were sung, marches were played, speeches were made … and fervent, grateful prayers were offered to God.
What's Independence Day like today? Do most people you know actually make time to purposely celebrate our independence in meaningful ways? Do you? Even while we're again locked in a deadly combat on foreign soil – still involving hundreds of thousands of our finest young men and women?
What are they fighting for now? Is it anything like what motivated our Revolutionary Army? Is it "freedom from religion," the necessity to take "under God" out of our pledge, or even to do away with it altogether? Is it the "right" to end the lives of unwanted babies, or the "right" for two men or two women to "marry"?
Or is it still the impossible dream of a nation under God, with unalienable rights endowed equally to all – among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Surely this weekend is a time for all of us who really cherish that original dream, the one for which so many have died, to individually and collectively redeclare our independence from tyranny, despotism, taxation without representation and debts that no free society should ever bear. And allegiance to the blood-bought foundation of government of, by and for the people … people who are determined to live free.
Pat Boone
We're heading toward Independence Day, and that's what we're supposed to be celebrating. July 4 is just another day, like July 5 or Oct. 17. What gives the Fourth of July its significance is that our Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776.
It was in Philadelphia, and the signers of that document, composed by Thomas Jefferson, knew that this declaration of independence from the dictatorial rule of Great Britain might also be – literally – their death sentence.
They knew full well that the wrath and might of the British army would be sailing across the Atlantic to descend on the relatively defenseless colonies. They knew their scattered "states" didn't have the numbers or arms or training to stand against the British, much less defeat them militarily. Yet they put their signatures – and their lives, their families, their destiny – on that parchment.
And so, against all odds, and even against reason, that Declaration told the world that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The only importance of the fourth day of July, then, is that it marks the birth of the United States of America.
Say it again. The United States of America. The very words should send awe-filled shivers up your spine, as they do mine. Until that day, that hour, there was no United States, no nation called America. And had it not been for the incredible bravery and vision of those ordinary-seeming men, there likely never would have been.
There had never been anything like it, and the very idea seemed impossible. But most of the people living in those colonies had simply had enough of British domination, of working and virtually existing at the pleasure of a king they didn't know and who obviously considered them his indentured servants. They wanted to be free, to make their own decisions, to govern themselves and breathe the sweet air of liberty.
So they staked their very lives, on that fourth day of July 1776, on an outrageous gamble, an impossible dream of freedom. And in the next few days, they began to taste what being free might be like.
The first celebration of American independence took place four days later in Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was still meeting. The ceremony began with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Then, from the tower of the State House, now called Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell rang out.
The coat of arms of the king of England was taken down. And there was a parade. And cannons boomed. The people, though aware of what lay ahead, cheered! A new nation sprang to life.
That's what this day is meant to be about.
Not just another day off work. Not just a day to have a barbecue, or a steak grilled in the back yard or a family picnic in the park. Not just an excuse to set off loads of fireworks, though all those things are fine in themselves.
John Adams, himself a signer of the Declaration, thought that Americans should henceforth celebrate a "great anniversary festival." In a letter to his wife, Abigail, he wrote, "It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."
So it began. The first anniversary was celebrated in Philadelphia the following year. It included the pomp and parade, the guns, bells, bonfires … and plenty of speeches emphasizing the miracle that was under way. A more elaborate celebration was held there in 1788, after the new Constitution had been ratified. Then there was a much larger parade, speeches and a dinner. During the dinner many toasts were proposed, accompanied by fanfares of trumpets and cannons. Some of the toasts were to "the People of the United States," "General Washington," and "The Whole Family of Mankind."
But between those two celebrations, in 1776 and 1788, there was much horrible fighting, rivers of bloodshed, the deaths and bankruptcies of many of the signers of the Declaration, families torn apart and businesses and farms destroyed. The freedoms declared by the Declaration – and ushered into fact by the Constitution – were secured at a terrible cost.
Soon, across the growing nation, at sunrise on July 4, salutes were fired and bells were rung. Flags were flown from buildings, from homes and along the streets. Shop windows were decorated with red, white and blue. Churches held special services. There were parades followed by public readings of the Declaration of Independence. National songs were sung, marches were played, speeches were made … and fervent, grateful prayers were offered to God.
What's Independence Day like today? Do most people you know actually make time to purposely celebrate our independence in meaningful ways? Do you? Even while we're again locked in a deadly combat on foreign soil – still involving hundreds of thousands of our finest young men and women?
What are they fighting for now? Is it anything like what motivated our Revolutionary Army? Is it "freedom from religion," the necessity to take "under God" out of our pledge, or even to do away with it altogether? Is it the "right" to end the lives of unwanted babies, or the "right" for two men or two women to "marry"?
Or is it still the impossible dream of a nation under God, with unalienable rights endowed equally to all – among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Surely this weekend is a time for all of us who really cherish that original dream, the one for which so many have died, to individually and collectively redeclare our independence from tyranny, despotism, taxation without representation and debts that no free society should ever bear. And allegiance to the blood-bought foundation of government of, by and for the people … people who are determined to live free.
Pat Boone
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