The Washington Times reports:

Nearly a hundred top Republican donors and Bush administration officials sent a letter to the House GOP on Tuesday urging lawmakers to pass a bill that legalizes illegal immigrants, arguing that the current system is already allowing them to stay and so it makes sense to register them and bring them into the system.

The donors, led by former Bush administration Cabinet officials Carlos Gutierrez and Spencer Abraham, also said that immigrants are potential Republican voters who can be won over -- if the party can be seen as welcoming to immigrants. . . .

Also signing Tuesday’s donor letter were Karl Rove, who was Mr. Bush’s political adviser; a number of ambassadors who served Mr. Bush; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; former Vice President Dan Quayle; and several former governors.

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Daniel Greenfield writes at Frontpagemag.com:

Shortly, New York may be ruled by a governor who helped cause the financial meltdown, while New York City may have a mayor who was forced to resign from Congress and its comptroller will be a former governor who was forced to resign for transporting a prostitute across state lines. He will be replacing the current comptroller who may go to jail for campaign finance fraud. . . .

New York State has the 33rd highest unemployment rate in the country. New York City’s unemployment rate is even higher at 8.3%. In June, New York City, with a population of 8 million, added just 3,100 jobs. Most of those jobs were in the city’s tourism trade which bulks up during the summer.

While Bloomberg was playing hooky, using city resources to push gun laws in other states, the specter of Motown was creeping over the Big Apple.

Meanwhile, "New York City comes in second on the list of cities with the largest unfunded pensions," Greenfield notes. "After Detroit."

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Amid Bankruptcy, Detroit Leaders Talk Zimmerman
Toxic Government by Democrats: Minneapolis 
Unions Bankrupting the Country -- Using Taxpayer Dollars

Clint Bolick at the Hoover Institution writes:

By now it is well-known that public employee contracts with generous wage [sic] and benefits are bankrupting state and local governments across the country and encircling the necks of future generations with an anvil of debt. What is almost completely unknown is that the hard-nosed union officials who negotiate lavish contracts for government workers are often paid to do so with taxpayer dollars.

That is part of a widespread practice called “release time,” in which public employees are paid full-time wages and benefits by taxpayers, yet they report and answer not to government officials (or taxpayers) but to their unions. In turn, release time can be used for lobbying, campaigning, soliciting grievances, union recruiting, and negotiating for higher wages and benefits -- all at taxpayer expense. . . .

More than half of unionized workers today are public employees. They already exercise outsized influence as they negotiate their contracts with fellow public employees. The taxpayers should not foot the bill for the rope with which the unions are hanging them. 

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Amid Bankruptcy, Detroit Leaders Talk Zimmerman 
Toxic Government by Democrats: Minneapolis

Bosch Fawstin writes at Frontpagemag.com:

"Phony scandals," Mr. President? No, your scandals are as real as can be, it’s the GOP’s investigations into them that are phony.

Speaker of the House John Boehner has refused to appoint a special prosecutor to the Benghazi massacre investigation. Why? Because he made a deal with Obama? Because he simply doesn’t give a d---? Whatever the reason, he’s obstructing the ability to get to the bottom of it once and for all.

When the IRS scandal hit, Boehner came out to the media and burped out, "Who’s going to jail?" He’s done nothing to answer his own question. . . .

Not only do we have the most lawless administration in American history at this moment in time, but we have the most gutless opposition a party in power has ever had. The only way we can get to the bottom of these scandals is if the next midterms replace the current Republican leadership with those who understand what’s at stake and who are willing to fight the b------- in both parties, tooth and nail. No more phony leadership.

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Is the Republican Party Finished? 
Obama Honors Trayvon Martin, Ignores Fort Hood Killed

"Bill and Hillary Clinton are angry with efforts by mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner and his campaign to compare his Internet sexcapades -- and his wife Huma Abedin’s incredible forgiveness -- to the Clintons’ notorious White House saga," reports the New York Post.

"The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging -- that Huma is 'standing by her man' the way Hillary did with Bill, which is not what she in fact did," a leading New York Democrat reportedly said," according to the Post.

But I still say: What's to forgive? All that may be happening -- if one adopts the "liberal" theory about life -- is that most of the voting public is still clinging to their Bibles (what remains of them) and have not yet allowed their "America" to be sufficiently "fundamentally transformed" to realize further progress is required down the "progressive" road of reimagining "family," "faithfulness," "forgiveness," "marriage," "orientation," and the wonders of the sexual revolution.

On this view, in 15-20 years, with more "education," "advocacy," and "equality" from the White House, and with toothless Republicans yipping and faithful media yapping, Weiner may yet be recognized for the courageous trailblazer that he is. He could then go to Hillary's house and demand she bake a Weiner Orientation Cake of Pride, Respect, and Celebration for him, Huma, and internet friends with benefits.

They can kiss and make up on Oprah. Celebrate at the Playboy mansion and ensure that whoever replaces Hef shows up.

It's not easy introducing a new sexual orientation to a bigoted nation in need of evolution from its discriminatory ways. And yet, the culture is pregnant with opportunity for "Carlos Danger" to reveal himself as "Nietzsche Superman."

In almost every respect, for orthodox liberals and secularists (Republicans included), God does not exist -- except when they need Him to create and justify immoral behavior by useful politicians in this broken world (not to mention His usefulness in propagandizing understanding wives and agreeable girlfriends).

Problem is, that pathetic, non-existent "god" of secularist believism also creates "haters" -- that is, people who disagree with the "settled" relativistic opinion of the month, campaign cycle, and other tidbits of mere tradition.

Mind you, "haters" are not to be judged, O ye intolerant of little faith. More simply: It's evil to judge. 

There may be a slight downside to such "fundamental change." As revolutions throughout history have shown, the yang of oppressed haters (we know they're haters because MTV and HBO say so) will demand their "rights," too -- to be won by the edge of the guillotine or through the barrel of a gun, when required. Obamacare data collection and NSA spying could also come in handy. They may help smooth out bumps in the road.

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The Pervert Party 
Hillary Clinton: Personal "Religious Beliefs" Are "Obstacles Standing in the Way" of "Gay Rights"

David Carton writes at American Spectator:

Among the most offensive features of the ironically titled "Affordable Care Act" is its designation of the Internal Revenue Service as the main enforcer of the law’s many mandates, taxes, penalties, and reporting requirements.

It exponentially increases the power of a group of bureaucrats notorious for repeatedly abusing their authority.

Now, . . . these IRS enforcers are asking their congressional representatives to spare them the indignity of enrolling in Obamacare’s insurance exchanges.

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Obamacare Will Share Personal Health Info With Federal, State Agencies 
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Nothing Better to Do? "Detroit's City Council has come under fire for spending time this week writing, voting and passing a resolution supporting a federal investigation into George Zimmerman instead of focusing on its own financial blunders and ballooning crime rate," reports FoxNews.com.

"The unanimous vote by the members of the Detroit council on a crime that took place six states and hundreds of miles away came just two days after the Motor City’s latest gun-related death -- its 176th homicide of the year," according to Fox. "Last week, Detroit, once hailed at as a symbol of American pride, was forced to declare bankruptcy."

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Shelby Steele: Decline of the Civil Rights Establishment

You probably already know which political party is "the pervert party."

And higher-information voters will likely not be surprised that this well-earned description has something to do with a certain Anthony Weiner. 

This, after all, is the guy running for mayor of New York City who, among other recently exposed indiscretions, reportedly had plans for a "secret sex bunker."

Unfortunately, there's more to the story. Far too much more, as Robert Stacy McCain discusses at The American Specator while answering the question: "Do liberals really mind Anthony Weiner’s interest in 'smooth' girls?"

Decent parents may be shocked by what they read here because they are, in a word, decent.

That's good for them, and for their kids. But this could be bad news for the pervert party.

Kirsten Andersen reports at LifeSiteNews:

An Evangelical pastor in Sioux City is requesting the removal of a newly-appointed member of the city’s Human Rights Commission because of hateful and threatening comments the official posted to the pastor’s Facebook page in 2010.

Pastor Cary Gordon of Cornerstone World Outreach says that Human Rights Commissioner Scott Raasch, who is homosexual, wrote on Facebook that because Gordon had encouraged voters to toss out three Supreme Court judges whose court order made same-sex "marriage" legal in Iowa, he was a "hater" and a "bigot" and that he should "burn in hell" along with his entire family.

"I advocated for the removal of our state supreme court judges in 2010, because they violated their oaths of office while pretending to be lawmakers, forcing gay 'marriage' on our state," Gordon recounted in a blog post. "Thankfully, a significant majority of Iowa citizens agreed with my advocacy for the rule of law and the restricted jurisdiction of judges and responded by firing the 3 who were up for the Iowa retention vote."

The pastor argues that a "man who gives 'death wishes' to a local pastor's wife and children at Christmas guarantees an atmosphere where prosecutorial powers of the HRC are likely to become abusive and threatening to people of faith in Sioux City."

Says Gordon, "Let's hope our City Council will do the right thing and remove Scott Raasch from this unmerited position of authority posthaste."

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"Democrats and Republicans largely heaped praise upon Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after she announced she would resign her post later in the year, but a longtime constitutional attorney says there is not much to applaud -- especially for anyone concerned about preserving freedom and limiting government intrusion in their lives," reports WND.

"What the Department of Homeland Security became under Janet Napolitano is this monstrous surveillance and very intimidating group," said John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, according to WND. Whitehead, who was appearing on Radio America, is the author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, which was published last month. Whitehead noted that he "criticized George Bush’s policies" but that "under President Obama, we’re zooming."

An example of this zooming, according to Whitehead, is a Homeland Security program called Operation Vigilant Eagle. Whitehead described Vigilant Eagle as a surveillance program conducted "on all returning veterans from overseas" and that it includes watching "Facebook posts, text messages," and "emails of returning veterans to see if they’re going to be disgruntled."

Whitehead said his group helped one such veteran file a "major lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security." According to Whitehead's description of the events leading up to the lawsuit, DHS agents showed up at the veteran's door, "arrested him," and "put him in a mental institution for his Facebook posts criticizing the government. We got him out, and then we sued the government."

WND also reports that "another outrage, according to Whitehead, is the harassment of Americans living on or somewhat near our national borders with Mexico and Canada. He said law-abiding citizens have been forced to hand over their laptops while the government officials download the information."

Also of great concern is the use of border drones against Americans. These drones "are flying inland, photographing, and watching what American citizens are doing" and providing "surveillance on American towns," Whitehead said. Drones coming in 2015 will have "scanning devices, rubber bullets, sound cannons," Whitehead reportedly said. "They can look through the walls of your home. They’re just going to bypass the Fourth Amendment, and they already are doing that."

Whitehead also "said that sort of activity will only get more common and more intrusive until the American people stand up and refuse to accept what he considers a major infringement on our constitutional liberties," WND reports.

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As the bankrupt city collapses, people are taking matters into their own creative hands: 

The language of budget cuts, austerity, and sequestration seem to dominate the media's landscape these days, instilling fear into Americans of vital government services being cut and chaos ensuing if governments aren't allowed to spend and borrow infinitely. Conservatives decry supposed cuts to the military-industrial-complex, and liberals bemoan that without government welfare transfer programs, there would be social Darwinism. . . .

[But] one needs to look no further than the city of Detroit to find the spontaneous order, civic cooperation, and peaceful market forces that take over when government simply isn't around.

Just one example:

Dale Brown and his organization, the Threat Management Center (TMC), have helped fill in the void left by the corrupt and incompetent city government. Brown started TMC in 1995 as a way to help his fellow Detroit citizens in the midst of a rise in home invasions and murders. While attempting to assist law enforcement, he found little but uninterested officers more concerned with extracting revenue through traffic tickets and terrorizing private homes with SWAT raids than protecting person and property.

In an interview with Copblock.org, Brown explains how and why his private, free market policing organization has been so successful. "The key to effective protection and security is love," says Brown, "not weapons, violence, or law. It sounds a bit corny, yes, but the results speak for themselves."

Read about more projects to restore the city here.

HT: Cathe Ellis Cleveland

Mr. Steele, senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and author of White Guilt, writes at the Wall Street Journal:

The verdict that declared George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin was a traumatic event for America's civil-rights establishment, and for many black elites across the media, government and academia. When you have grown used to American institutions being so intimidated by the prospect of black wrath that they invent mushy ideas like "diversity" and "inclusiveness" simply to escape that wrath, then the crisp reading of the law that the Zimmerman jury displayed comes as a shock. . . .

Today's black leadership pretty much lives off the fumes of moral authority that linger from its glory days in the 1950s and '60s. The Zimmerman verdict lets us see this and feel a little embarrassed for them. Consider the pathos of a leadership that once transformed the nation now lusting for the conviction of the contrite and mortified George Zimmerman, as if a stint in prison for him would somehow assure more peace and security for black teenagers everywhere. This, despite the fact that nearly one black teenager a day is shot dead on the South Side of Chicago -- to name only one city -- by another black teenager. . . .

The civil-rights leadership rallied to Trayvon's cause (and not to the cause of those hundreds of black kids slain in America's inner cities this very year) to keep alive a certain cultural "truth" that is the sole source of the leadership's dwindling power. Put bluntly, this leadership rather easily tolerates black kids killing other black kids. But it cannot abide a white person (and Mr. Zimmerman, with his Hispanic background, was pushed into a white identity by the media over his objections) getting away with killing a black person without undermining the leadership's very reason for being.

"The purpose of today's civil-rights establishment is not to seek justice, but to seek power for blacks in American life based on the presumption that they are still, in a thousand subtle ways, victimized by white racism," Steele explains. "This idea of victimization is an example of what I call a 'poetic truth.' Like poetic license, it bends the actual truth in order to put forward a larger and more essential truth -- one that, of course, serves one's cause. Poetic truths succeed by casting themselves as perfectly obvious: 'America is a racist nation'; 'the immigration debate is driven by racism'; 'Zimmerman racially stereotyped Trayvon.' And we say, 'Yes, of course,' lest we seem to be racist. Poetic truths work by moral intimidation, not reason," Steele continues.

"One wants to scream at all those outraged at the Zimmerman verdict: Where is your outrage over the collapse of the black family?," Steele asks. "Today's civil-rights leaders swat at mosquitoes like Zimmerman when they have gorillas on their back. Seventy-three percent of all black children are born without fathers married to their mothers. And you want to bring the nation to a standstill over George Zimmerman?"

Steele concludes: "There are vast career opportunities, money and political power to be gleaned from the specter of Mr. Zimmerman as a racial profiler/murderer; but there is only hard and selfless work to be done in tackling an illegitimacy rate that threatens to consign blacks to something like permanent inferiority. If there is anything good to be drawn from the Zimmerman/Martin tragedy, it is only the further revelation of the corruption and irrelevance of today's civil-rights leadership."

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Nancy and I are about halfway through the new thriller Hidden Order, by bestselling author Brad Thor (I'm reading portions of it to her at night).

This book grabs you from the very first page of the excellently crafted "Prologue" (set in Sea Island, Georgia), the first sentence of which reads: "Clarie Marcourt should have gone to bed hours ago."

From the inside front flap:

The most secretive organization in America operates without any accountability to the American people. Hiding in the shadows, pretending to be part of the United States government, its power is beyond measure.

Control of this organization has just been lost and the future of the nation thrust into peril.

When the five candidates being considered to head this mysterious agency suddenly go missing, covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is summoned to Washington and set loose on the most dangerous chase ever to playout on American soil.

But as the candidates begin turning up murdered, the chase becomes an all-too-public spectacle, with every indicator suggesting that the plot has its roots in a shadowy American cabal founded in the 1700s.

With the United States on the verge of collapse, Harvath must untangle a web of conspiracy centuries in the making and head off the greatest threat America has ever seen.

This is thriller writing at its absolute best, where the stakes have never been higher, nor the line between good and evil so hard to discern.

For more on the book and Thor, see "Chilling: Author Brad Thor Reveals the Extremely Powerful Agency Behind New Book Hidden Order" at The Blaze.

Here is a review by Joe Hartlaub at Bookreporter.

Included in this article is video of a "Testy TV Exchange" in Chicago, also published at The Blaze.

Arnold Ahlert writes at Frontpage.com:

In a shameless display of the Left’s romance with the murderous enemies of America, Rolling Stone magazine has put a picture of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of its August issue, being released to newsstands today.

An outcry of national proportions has ensued, best expressed by bombing survivor James "Bim" Costello, 30, of Malden, MA, who needed several pigskin grafts, and has three friends who lost legs in the atrocity. "I think whoever wrote the article should have their legs blown off by someone, struggle through treatment and then see who they would choose to put on the cover," he said. . . .

For decades, getting one’s picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone was considered the ultimate affirmation of rock stardom. So much so, the phenomenon was immortalized in a song "Cover of the Rolling Stone," written by Shel Silverstein and performed by Dr. Hook.

It is virtually inconceivable that Rolling Stone publisher Jan Wenner would be oblivious to the obvious connection most people would make with regard to giving a jihadist bomber the "star treatment."

"Conspicuously missing from the article? Any details about the victims of the bombings," Ahlert writes. "The victims are the real face of this atrocity. That Rolling Stone chooses to ignore such an obvious reality in favor of giving an Islamic jihadist the so-called 'rock star treatment' is a utter disgrace."

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Congratulations to Kelly Kullberg, co-author of Finding God at Harvard and organizer of Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, for this good write-up in Breitbart on her letter to the House on immigration. 

Nancy Pelosi had claimed that evangelicals -- she called them "the Bible folks" -- supported the Senate's version of immigration reform.

Kullberg writes:

On average 70% of Americans, across all ethnic and faith groups but Islam, oppose this bill for its influx of foreign labor. The bill is unfair to twenty million unemployed Americans including lower-skilled workers, college graduates, veterans and the elderly with disappearing savings thus still needing work. The bill is unkind to our children who are already facing an unconscionable seventeen trillion dollar national debt which the "Gang of Eight" bill will escalate by trillions of dollars.

Kullberg's letter continues:

The "Gang of Eight" immigration bill will increase debt and danger in America for both citizens and guests, thus further precipitating the decline of the America we love and steward. In Scripture we are taught to make wise distinctions between the well-meaning sojourner (the "ger" in Hebrew) and the foreigner who does not advance a nation’s faith, values and story (the "goyim'').

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At Investor's Business Daily:

The jury has been selected and the trial date set for the jihadist accused of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 of attempted premeditated murder acting, as he says, in defense of the Taliban.

Army Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford has not received a phone call from Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. . . .

Thirteen people, including a pregnant soldier, were killed and 32 others shot Nov. 5, 2009, at the Killeen facility during Hasan's rampage against soldiers being processed for deployment to Afghanistan. Hasan has said he did it in defense of the Taliban, a self-admitted act of terrorism on behalf of a foreign entity. . . .

Meanwhile, "Attorney General Eric Holder has refrained from filing terrorism charges in the case and is currently busy in Florida announcing his intent to find George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman found innocent of murdering Trayvon Martin, guilty of something, anything, to satisfy the racial grievance industry," notes IBD.

"Not only am I disappointed (in Holder), I'm embarrassed. Mr. Holder needs to understand the repercussions of his actions," Sgt. Lunsford is quoted as saying.

"Lunsford also expressed outrage at the fact that some victims are financially struggling, but that because of the categorization of the shooting as a 'workplace shooting,' he and those other victims are not entitled to combat-related benefits they would have received had they been injured overseas," IBD observes. "Meanwhile," however, "Hasan has continued to receive paychecks over the past four years, amounting to $287,000."

Kimberly Munley is "one of two police officers who confronted Hasan when he opened fire," IBD continues. Munley "sat next to first lady Michelle Obama at the 2010 State of the Union address" and "now says 'betrayed is a good word' to describe her feelings after being laid off from her job with the base's civilian police force."

"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she is quoted as saying. "In fact, they've been neglected."

"President Obama said that if he had a son he'd look like Trayvon Martin and that to honor him we must surrender our Second Amendment right of self-defense against the assault Martin committed," states IBD. "Well, if he had a son, he might also look like Alonzo Lunsford, who proudly wears his uniform in court, unlike Maj. Hasan, who refused."

How might Obama honor "Lunsford as well as the other survivors and the dead of Fort Hood"?

"The commander in chief should end this 'workplace violence' charade and publicly declare it an act of terrorism (kinda like Benghazi) so they can get the benefits they deserve," IBD recommends. "And be there when Nidal Hasan is executed for his crimes."

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What Is Killing the Western World? 
Alveda King: NAACP Is "Race-Baiting" Against Zimmerman

Patrick Howley reports at the Daily Caller:

The gay-rights advocacy group GLAAD has yet to respond to new revelations that Trayvon Martin may have been under the impression that George Zimmerman was a "gay rapist" at the time of their tragic fistfight.

"And people need to understand, he didn’t want that creepy a-- cracker going to his father or girlfriend’s house to go get -- mind you, his little brother was there. You know -- now, mind you, I told you -- I told Trayvon it might have been a rapist,” Jeantel told CNN host Piers Morgan.

"Jeantel made clear that she was not referring to general fears of a neighborhood rapist but specifically to the sexual orientation of men who are 'that kind of way'," the DC reports. "Morgan, the low-rated British replacement for beloved talker Larry King, declined to draw her out on the point."

"Definitely after I say may be a rapist, for every boy, for every man, every -- who’s not that kind of way, seeing a grown man following them, would they be creep out?," Jeantel is quoted as saying.

The DC notes that "GLAAD did not return a Daily Caller request for comment."

This is despite GLAAD's having "spoken out against the 'gay panic' defense used by defendants accused of violent acts against people they perceive to be gay," the Daily Caller reports.

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"Apparently there is a monolithic paradigm known as 'Black Thought.' It’s supposedly what we blacks think as a unit. Like a uni-mind of sorts," writes Stacy Washington of Stacy on the Right.

"That Uni-mind requires us to be leftists with our allegiance solidly pledged to the Democrats," Washington explains. This allegiance is to be maintained "even though" Democrats "are the party of the KKK and fought to keep us enslaved."

Equally so, fidelity to Democrats must be maintained "even though they fight school choice initiatives and are the champions of abortion which has destroyed almost a third of the black population since Roe v. Wade."

In return for turning a black eye away from black genocide, the faithful can revel in how Democrats "advocate the destruction of the black family through the redistribution of earned money to welfare."

Stacy Washington apparently enjoys thinking while black: "I’ve broken free of the Borg Uni-mind. I’ve cut the cords. I’ve freed a few other blacks through my work. More will follow."

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Newsmax reports:

The niece of Martin Luther King believes the NAACP and other groups are race-baiting with their call for a federal civil-rights case to be lodged against George Zimmerman, and believes they may be getting paid to do so.

"It is not helpful to race-bait," Dr. Alveda King told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"[The] NAACP and all of the organizations . . . We need to wonder why they're doing that, what kind of checks and money they're getting behind the scenes to stir us up into racial anarchy. . . .

"King said her uncle, the beloved civil-rights leader, had always called on the world to live together as brothers -- or perish as fools," Newsmax reports.

"There’s no black race, white race, yellow race and red race," King is quoted as saying.  

"The other thing is, Mr. Zimmerman is not a Caucasian. He’s a Hispanic. The media is somehow forgetting that, so [there are] all of these nuances, all of the race-baiting, all of the pain."

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Controversy continues to brew over a Sam Adams beer commercial. 

Released on Independence Day, the advertisement quotes from the Declaration of Independence but omits the crucial words, “by their Creator.”

In the ad, an actor says, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Endowed by whom? With the reference to God censored out, the wording does not even make sense.  Thomas Jefferson, who originally penned the Declaration, knew that rights cannot be "inalienable" unless they come from a transcendent source.

If rights come from the state, then they are not inalienable -- because what the state gives, the state can take away.

As Jordan Ballor says on the Acton Institute blog, "In such a radical separation of faith from public life, Sam Adams the beer company has done something that Sam Adams himself would never have stood for."

Of course, the reason Adams would not have stood for it is that the founders did not think of "faith" the way modern societies do, as merely personal experience and private feelings. They lived in an age that viewed Christianity as a philosophy or system of thought that spoke to every area of reality.  That's why, for them, references to God belonged rightfully in public, political documents like the Declaration of Independence.

Today the fact/value separation that I describe in Total Truth is being imposed with a vengeance -- even to the point of falsifying the founding documents of the American republic.

To read "Secularizing Sam Adams" by Jordan Ballor, go here.

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Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

A Catholic mother who was brutally murdered by a gay man because she challenged him about his homosexual lifestyle "died as a martyr for her faith," according to Bishop Thomas Paprocki, head of the Catholic diocese in Springfield, Ill., who also said the woman’s "murder was widely ignored by the media," apparently for political reasons.

The woman, Mary Stachowicz, a 51-year-old mother of four children and devout Catholic, was beaten, stabbed, raped, and strangled to death by then-19-year-old Nicholas Gutierrez on Nov. 13, 2002. He then wrapped her body in plastic and stuffed it under the floorboards of his apartment. After his arrest, Guttierrez gave a videotaped statement to police saying "he attacked Stachowicz after she confronted him for being a homosexual," reported the Chicago Tribune.

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Judson Phillips writes at the WTimes:

George Zimmerman was acquitted . . . by a jury that did the job the prosecutors did not do: It examined the evidence and found it woefully wanting. . . .

It is painfully obvious to any fair observer that [Florida State's attorney] Angela Corey played to the mob and forgot her duties as a prosecutor. The Sanford Police Department and Seminole-Brevard County State’s Attorney Norm Wolfinger originally determined Zimmerman had acted in self-defense. That was not good enough for the racist mob, and Governor Rick Scott appointed Corey as a special prosecutor.

She immediately said her job was to “seek justice for Trayvon.” No, her job was to seek justice, period, and that meant not prosecuting a man when the evidence did not support the prosecution.

Once Corey had played to the mob by having Zimmerman charged, that was not enough. She had to get him convicted. Corey’s office hid evidence, refusing to release photographs showing Zimmerman’s injuries, which were consistent with the claim of self-defense.

Making the case even worse, Corey’s office hid other evidence. . . .

"Angela Corey is singularly unfit to be a prosecutor or a lawyer," Phillips continues. "In most states, the State Supreme Court can summarily suspend the law license of a lawyer who poses an imminent threat to the public safety or welfare. Corey is the textbook definition of a lawyer who is a threat to the public.

"The Florida Bar should take immediate disciplinary action against her, and the Florida Supreme Court should immediately suspend her law license before they disbar her," Phillips concludes: "It is time for more justice in Florida."

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Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze:

Christian rock bands don’t often find mainstream media outlets profiling them. But Skillet, a popular group among the faithful, was the focus of an intensive New York Times article this week.

Perhaps it was Skillet’s record sales that attracted attention. After all, as the Times notes, only three bands had albums that sold over one million last year. Black Keys and Mumford & Sons were the first two. The third? Skillet.

Here is video of Skillet on Conan last night performing "Rise," from their new album. Here is video of Skillet performing "Rise" in concert.

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Andrea Billups reports at Newsmax:

A coalition of youth groups is creating a national organization for boys as an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America, following the Boy Scouts' decision to allow openly gay members to join, the Washington Examiner reported.

The new organization will officially launch on Jan. 1, 2014, but will begin chartering new units around the country in November, according to a statement released Tuesday by the as-yet-unnamed group's interim executive director, Rob Green of Spartanburg, S.C.

Now that the Boy Scouts have caved to homosexualist hatred against the "laws of nature and of nature's God," and thereby now embrace discrimination against the verifiable Creator's norms for liberating human sexuality, marriage, and family living, courageous folks are stepping up provide a positive, life-affirming alternative. 

Human beings are called to excellence in every area of life, and it is terrific to see people reject apathy and instead create new alternatives to the relativism and pretended absolutes that homosexualists are trying to impose upon society. Intelligence revolts.

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John Hayward writes at Human Events:  

If our fat, bumbling, economy-crushing colossus of a central government has seemed particularly ineffectual over the past year, it’s because the federal worker bees have all been ordered to spy on each other, and it’s probably very time-consuming.

McClatchy News takes a look at President Obama’s amazing Insider Threats Program, "an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for 'high-risk persons or behaviors' among co-workers." And they might be looking at criminal penalties if they don’t file timely spy reports. . . .

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At History.com:

On this day in 1940, the Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which will last three and a half months, begins.

"A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population," states History.com. "Britain’s decisive victory saved the country from a ground invasion and possible occupation by German forces while proving that air power alone could be used to win a major battle."

At LifeSiteNews:

A national pro-life organization is outraged after three major American newspapers rejected a pro-life ad as "too controversial."

The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and the LA Times refused to run an advertisement created by Heroic Media.

The ad features a hand holding a 20- to 24-week-old baby with the quote, "This child has no voice, which is why it depends on yours. Speak Up."

Heroic Media Executive Director Joe Young said he was shocked and angered that the media outlets were willing to talk about the issue but were unwilling to show the reality of life at 20 weeks.

"I am disturbed that these papers would run article after article promoting the notion that abortion is a victimless act without consequences," Young is quoted as saying. "The fact remains, children who are unique individuals -- never again to be duplicated -- are being killed in the most violent way imaginable and they feel the excruciating pain of that death."

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Liz Klimas writes at The Blaze:

Many municipalities set up checkpoints for law enforcement to cut down on drunk driving over the Fourth of July holiday, but one stop in particular is getting national attention.

The now viral video posted to YouTube showing a man getting stopped at a DUI checkpoint in Rutherford County, Tennessee, has more than 2.8 million views as of Monday morning after being posted the night of the event.

The video includes what the driver believes to be a unconstitutional search of his car where an officer is even recorded saying the man is "perfectly innocent and he knows his rights."

"The Tennessean reported Rutherford County Sheriff’s public information officer Lisa Marchesoni saying the incident is being reviewed 'to determine if there are any policy or procedure violations'," according to the Blaze.

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Rowan Scarborough reports at the Washinton Times:

A third pair of female Marine lieutenants has failed to complete the Corps' Infantry Officer Course at Quantico, Va.

The Marine Corps Times embedded a reporter with the latest class of candidates. It reported Wednesday that one of the women was pulled for falling behind schedule. The other made it to the course’s end but did not meet its standards, as did six men, the newspaper said.

Corps commanders have said they will not lower standards to ensure that women can qualify for direct ground combat units. . . .

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David Klinghoffer writes at Evolution News and Views:

Stephen Meyer's new book, Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design, will debut this coming Sunday in the #7 place on the New York Times hardback nonfiction list. . . .

The Times even has a remarkably accurate summary of what's in the book -- something to which we're not entirely accustomed when dealing with the media:

DARWIN'S DOUBT, by Stephen C. Meyer. (HarperOne.) The theory of intelligent design best explains the appearance of animals in the fossil record without apparent ancestors.

That is referring to the geologically sudden eruption of complex animal life in the Cambrian explosion, about 530 million years ago, a thread that Meyer pulls in the first third of the book and that results in the conclusive unraveling of Darwinian theory in the final two-thirds.

Stephen C. Meyer holds a Cambridge University Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science and is director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute.

Nancy Pearcey, editor at large of The Pearcey Report and director of the Francis Schaeffer Center for Worldview and Culture at Houston Baptist University, is also a fellow at the Discovery Institute.

Congratulations to Stephen Meyer!

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Bob Unruh writes at WND:

The U.S. Department of Justice has revealed in a court filing it agrees with the philosophy of the German government that bureaucrats can punish homeschooling parents.

And the agency explained parental rights to keep their children free from instruction that violates their faith essentially are negligible when the government’s goal is an "open society."

The arguments were made in a pleading before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that encourages the judges to send a German homeschooling family, the Romeikes, back to Germany where members likely would face persecution.

"The goal in Germany is for an 'open, pluralistic society,'" wrote the government’s pleading, signed by Senior Litigation Counsel Robert N. Markle in Washington. So, he said, there is a law requiring attendance by all at government schools and punishment is levied against anyone failing to comply, whether they are truant or have religious objections to the indoctrination at the public schools. . . .

The Home School Legal Defense Association, which is fighting on behalf of the family, said, Germany’s actions amount to persecution -- a platform on which the Romeikes should be granted asylum.

"'Silencing the "intolerant" to promote tolerance is not only illogical; it is antithetical to any theory of freedom of conscience,' the organization argued earlier," reports WND.

WND also reports that a "Nazi-era law in Germany in 1938, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, eliminated exemptions that would provide an open door for homeschoolers under the nation’s compulsory education laws."

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Neil Munro reports at the Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama toasted the founding dictator of post-colonial Tanzania on Monday, who collectivized the nation’s low-tech agricultural sector, established a one-party state and left that African nation’s economy in ruins.

"[Y]ou might say an American child is my child. We might say a Tanzanian child is my child," Obama said after quoting the Tanzanian saying "my neighbor’s child is my child."

"In this way, both of our nations will be looking after all of our children and we’ll be living out the vision of President [Julius] Nyerere," Obama continued.

"The core values that he proclaimed for Tanzania also describe what both our countries seek -- wisdom, unity, and peace -- Hekima, Umoja, na Amani," Obama said at a state dinner, held at 9:00 p.m. local time.

"Nyerere 'led a one-party state that nationalized key industries and created ujamaa, a rural, collective village-based movement of "African socialism" and "self reliance,"' according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service," the Daily Caller reports.

"That ujamaa policy was very fashionable among U.S. and European progressives in the 1980s, when Obama was attending Colombia University and Harvard University," according to the Daily Caller.

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Terry Jeffrey writes at CNSNews.com:

The Department of Health and Human Services [June 28] released the final text of the final adjustments to the Obamacare regulation that requires virtually all health-care plans to provide cost-free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs [see, Why Pro-Abortion Is Anti-Science].

Catholics and Evangelical Christians have objected to the regulation, arguing that it violates their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. The Catholic Church teaches that sterilization, contraception and abortion are all intrinsically immoral. Evangelical Christians believe that abortion takes an innocent human life and is thus wrong.

The final regulation issued today provides no accommodations at all for individual Catholics and other Christians who morally object to the mandate. It also makes no accommodations for private for-profit employers who morally object to the mandate.

"The First Amendment says Congress can make no law 'prohibiting the free exercise' of religion," Jeffrey writes. "The Obama administration now says to Catholics and other Christians who oppose sterilization, contraception and/or abortion: You are not free to exercise your faith. You must act against its teachings. You must do what we say, not what your conscience says."

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