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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
FOLLOW-UP
Texas House Elections Committee Meeting on Monday
Rep. Leo Berman’s HB-1892 forces third parties into primary elections
ACTION ALERT LINK >>
GOVERNMENT POLICY
The Covenant between the States and the Federal Government
Source: www.americanvison.org, Dr. Archie Jones, April 15, 2009
The Tenth Amendment is a guarantee of the covenant between the states whose representatives framed and ratified the Constitution and the new central government created by the Constitution. The Constitution is the covenant which contains that solemn agreement.
Politics & Religion: Texas Senate Testimony
Source: www.HoustonChristianMagazine.com | Mark Williamson | April 12th, 2009
While most of my focus regards the federal government, God’s design for civil government obviously applies to state and local governments. On March 9, I traveled to Austin to attend a meeting of the Committee of the Whole of the Texas State Senate, and to participate in the public testimony phase. This was somewhat historic in that a Committee of the Whole meeting had not taken place since the early 90s.
When the Mexican Drug Trade Hits the Border
Source: www.texasrepublicnews.com, Fred Burton and Ben West, Stratfor Global Intelligence
For several years now, STRATFOR has been closely monitoring the growing violence in Mexico and its links to the drug trade. In December, our cartel report assessed the situation in Mexico, and two weeks ago we looked closely at the networks that control the flow of drugs through Central America. This week, we turn our attention to the border to see the dynamics at work there and how U.S. gangs are involved in the action.
Big Brother's New Target: Tracking Firearms
Source: www.nraila.org, Friday, January 23, 2009
U.S. Representative Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently sponsored H.R. 45, also known as "Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act." The bill is, at its core and as its name implies, a licensing and registration scheme.
EDUCATION POLICY
Georgia comes to German home schoolers' defense
Source: www.OneNewsNow.com - Pete Chagnon - 4/14/2009
Lawmakers in one U.S. state have passed a resolution in favor of home schoolers in Germany.
The Georgia House of Representatives has adopted House Resolution 850, which calls for Germany to recognize the rights of parents and to allow parents to have the final say in their child's education. Mike Donnelly of the Home School Legal Defense Association explains that the effort was led by home-schooler Tina Liedle, who is leading a home-school folk dance group to Germany in May as part of an exchange program.
Students Urged to Speak Out on Day of Silence
Source: www.charismamag.com, Adrienne S. Gaines, April 17, 2009
Countering the Day of Silence, some 5,000 students are to participate in the Day of Truth on Monday. Christian leaders encouraged students to raise their voices today on the annual Day of Silence, an initiative promoted by a gay activist group to protest harassment of homosexuals in schools
Proof Positive on Gains in the States
Source: www.frc.org, April 17, 2009
While the press is busy magnifying our country's problems, FRC is taking an inventory of encouragement. This week there are a number of positive reports coming from the states that you probably haven't heard or read in the news. In Washington State, parents who homeschool their children may finally get the privacy they deserve to educate their kids as they see fit. H.B. 1228 would make the 20,000 homeschooled students exempt from public disclosure laws, which would keep any sensitive information about these children from being shared.
ECONOMIC POLICY
Tax Day Tea Parties Rock Across Texas
Source: www.TexasRepublicNews.com , James Aalan Bernsen, April 16, 2009
SAN ANTONIO – Declaring “enough is enough,” Texans gathered from the Metroplex, Houston, San Antonio – to small towns between and beyond – to protest against federal government, bailouts, the “Stimulus” plan, high taxes and “generational debt.”
Perry fires up anti-tax crowd
Source: www.DallasNews.com, KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press, 04/15/2009
Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"
Rick Perry: Tea party darling
Source: www.politico.com, | 4/15/09 | ANDY BARR
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s star is rising among a new constituency — the anti-tax “tea party” crowd — in the wake of his recent endorsement of a Texas state House resolution affirming the state’s sovereignty. The resolution urges that “all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.”
Texas House passes two year, $178.4 billion budget
Source: www.DallasNews.com /ROBERT T. GARRETT / Saturday, April 18, 2009
AUSTIN — The House early today passed a two year, $178.4 billion budget that would increase college financial aid, expand electric-bill discounts for the poor and promote creation of a high-speed rail line from Dallas to San Antonio.
The Future for Texas Highways - Or A Multi-Billion Dollar Tax Grab?
Source: www.TexasRepublicNews.com , James Aalan Bernsen, April 2009
The Texas Senate this week passed legislation that allows local governments to levy tax increases on the public for transportation projects with voter approval. The bill, which conservatives across the state have been fighting, is intended to provide local communities with an option to address growing mobility concerns.
Report IDs Capitol Hill 'porkers'
Source: www.OneNewsNow.com - Jim Brown - 4/15/2009
A new report by a taxpayer watchdog group exposes the out-of-control pork-barrel spending by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill and is sure to provide some fodder for today's "TEA Party" events across the country.
Church Pink Slips
Tax exemption means layoffs hit congregations' employees harder.
Source: www.ChristianityToday.com | Bobby Ross Jr. | /13/2009
During the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, grueling choices confront church leaders in places like Granger, Indiana, where the unemployment rate has approached 20 percent. Take Granger Community Church, a megachurch* with 60 staff members
RELIGION
Christian conservatism just getting started
Source: www.OneNewsNow.com, Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist - 4/13/2009
There are some today who suggest that Christian conservatism as a political force is over. Those who make this claim point to the fact that liberal Democrats now control the White House and both houses of Congress; that the number of Americans self identifying as Democrats compared to Republicans has increased; that the direction of public opinion, particularly among young people, on social issues is liberal; and that the Republican Party itself has been divided over the conservative agenda.
Jews for Jesus now free to speak in settlement with City College of San Francisco
Source: www.alliancedefensefund.org, April 16, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — The City College of San Francisco has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by an Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney on behalf of Jews for Jesus. After arresting a Jews for Jesus employee for handing out literature on its campus without a permit, the college will now allow access for the ministry to distribute literature and express its Christian message on its campuses without unconstitutional permit requirements
A Beautiful Day for Baptisms
Source: www.southlandchristian.org Apr 15, 2009
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. - Mark 16:16 (NIV) When Southland Christian Church's leaders asked people to sign up to be baptized in the pond, they trusted the Holy Spirit to work. The result was an unforgettable Easter Day marked by hundreds of people making a decision to follow Jesus Christ. Here are some of the moments captured in photos. If you were baptized in the pond, please sign your name on the outside wall of the Worship Center on the south end.
The Word of God in the Hands of Man
Source: www.ligonier.org, R.C. Sproul, April 2009
It was many years ago when my grandmother related to me games that she played as a little girl in the 1880s. One game she mentioned was one that she and her Methodist girlfriends played with their Roman Catholic friends. In a playful jest of the words of the Mass, my grandmother would say, “Tommy and Johnny went down to the river to play dominoes.”
Most U.S. Christians don't believe Satan, Holy Spirit exist
Source: www.ChristianityToday.com, Jennifer Riley, Tuesday, 14 April 2009
The majority of American Christians do not believe that Satan is a real being or that the Holy Spirit is a living entity, the latest Barna survey found. Nearly six out of ten Christians either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement that Satan "is not a living being but is a symbol of evil," the survey found. Forty percent strongly agreed with the statement while 19 percent of American Christians somewhat agreed.
SOCIAL POLICY
Clergy in the crosshairs
Source: www.OneNewsNow.com - Jim Brown – 4/13/2009
A Texas congressman who is a former judge warns that the "hate crimes" legislation reintroduced in the U.S. House could potentially lead to the arrest of Christian pastors who speak out against sexual immorality.
PepsiCo Opposing Shareholder Resolution on Charitable Contributions
Source: www.afa.net – (Confirmed on PepsiCo Web-site)
Middle school youth as young as 12 engaging in risky sexual activity
Source: http://publicaffairs.uth.tmc.edu, Christine Markham, Ph.D., April 8, 2009
Middle school youth are engaging in sexual intercourse as early as age 12, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health. Results from this study are published in the April issue of Journal of School Health.
LIFE DIGEST: Planned Parenthood’s abortions increase by 15,000
Source: www.erlc.com, Tom Strode - Apr 13, 2009
Business is still booming for Planned Parenthood. The country’s No. 1 abortion provider increased its count of the lethal procedures by more than 15,000 and again totaled $1 billion in revenue, according to its newly released annual report.
Marriage Breakdown Costs Taxpayers at Least $112 Billion a Year
First-Time Research Reveals Staggering Annual Taxpayer Costs for Divorce and Unwed Childbearing
Source: www.americanvalues.org,
WASH. D.C. In first-ever research, a new report quantifies a minimum $112 billion annual taxpayer cost from high rates of divorce and unmarried childbearing. It identifies national, state and local costs which account for more than $1 trillion in the last decade. This landmark scholarly study, entitled “The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and All 50 States,” was released on April 15th at the National Press Club by four renowned policy and research groups—Institute for American Values, Georgia Family Council, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, and Families Northwest.
Rendering Unto Caesar
Source: www.HumanEvents.com, Patrick J. Buchanan, 04/17/2009
At the request of the White House, Georgetown University covered up all the symbols in Gaston Hall, before the Great Man spoke, including IHS, the millennia-old monogram for the name of Jesus Christ.
Have we lost our Christian mind?
Source: www.wnd.com, Dave Welch, April 14, 2009
While Americans watched with disbelief as our president apologized for our "arrogance" to the radical Islamists in Turkey, Socialists in France, etc. – the most visible pastor in America decided to add his apology to the headlines.
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