"If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be....If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed." -- Thomas Jefferson
Current Political Issues
Welcome,
"The federal government's gross debt as of September 2004 was about $7.4 trillion, or about $25,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. But that number excludes such items as the gap between promised and funded Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans' health care, and a range of other unfunded commitments and contingencies that the federal government has pledged to support. If these items are factored in, the current dollar burden for every American rises to about $145,000 per person, or about $350,000 per full-time worker. ...[T]he fiscal policies in place today -- absent substantive entitlement reform or unprecedented changes in tax and/or spending policies -- will result in large, escalating, and persistent deficits that are economically unsustainable over the long term. Without reform, known demographic trends, rising health care costs, and projected growth in federal spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will result in massive fiscal pressures that, if not effectively addressed, could cripple the economy, threaten our national security, and adversely affect the quality of life of Americans in the future." --David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States quoted in The Patriot, January 7, 2005.
Bias in the Media:
"Of course it is....These are the social issues: gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental regulation, among others. And if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any of them, you've been reading the paper with your eyes closed." -- New York Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent in a July 25 column which appeared under a headline asking, "Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?" Source: Media Research Center
American Values& the Culture War:
Wayne E. Baker, America's Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception, Princeton University Press, 2005.
"I began to see the abuse of abortion. I saw women crying." -- Norma McCovey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade. Dallas Morning News, January 22, 2005, 5G.
"As a minister, I can think of little better than for everyone to read and obey the Ten Commandments; as a lawyer, I can think of little worse than for governmental officials to tell us to do it." -- J. Brent Walker, executive director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Dallas Morning News, January 22, 2005, 5G.
"In your re-election God has granted America a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. Don't equivocate. You owe the liberals nothings. They despise you because they despise your Christ." -- Bob Jones, president of Bob Jones University, a letter to President Bush, Dallas Morning News, January 22, 2005, 5G.
Death Penalty:
Sister Helen Prejean, "Death in Texas," New York Review of Books, January 13, 2005.
Immigration:
"We will keep working to make this nation a welcoming place for Hispanic people, a land of opportunity para todos (for all) who live here in America." -- President George W. Bush, to League of United Latin American Citizens, 2004 in Tom Raum, "Bush Faces GOP Fighter Over Guest Workers," AP, December 27, 2004 in Findlaw.com.
Gay Marriage:
"We're going to have to see additional court cases come down" supporting gay marriage before congressional sentiment shifts dramatically, predicted
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who supports the amendment that failed in both houses of Congress this year.
-- David Espo, "Gay
Marriage Not Coming Soon," AP,
December 27, 2004 in Findlaw.com.Findlaw.com Special Coverage: Same Sex Marriage Cases, Commentary, Legal Analysis
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/samesexmarriage/index.html
State Marriage Laws
Texas
Marriage LawsTerrorism & War:
"THE LONG WAR: Definitions are not just a matter of semantics. Correctly defining a problem is the first step toward solving it..... Immediately after 9/11, we spoke of the War on Terrorism, recognizing that terrorism was a threat we had long ignored. ...The phrase was next modified to the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), a way of discriminating between "terrorism with a global reach" and terrorist movements that were confined to a single region. But as scholar Dan Pipes repeatedly has pointed out, terrorism is a weapon, so a war against terrorism is no more logical than a war against poison gas, kamikazes or nuclear missiles. Historian Eliot Cohen, social critic Norman Podhoretz and former CIA director ... Jim Woolsey... began speaking of World War IV, a way of suggesting that this conflict was as serious as the First and Second World Wars, and the Cold War (A.K.A. WWIII). Even more recently, Jim Woolsey has been talking of the 'Long War,' signaling that the fight to defeat the aggressive forms of fascism that have taken root within the Islamic world will be both transformational and generational. Now, Gen. John Abizaid, America's top military commander in the Middle East -- a soldier, a scholar and, by the way, an Arab-American -- is using that phrase as well. ...[I]t's worth recalling who first used this phrase in regard to the clash that had begun without most Americans realizing it: 'We have seen in the last decade the decline of the American government and the weakness of the American soldier who is ready to wage Cold Wars and unprepared to fight long wars.' Yes, that was Osama bin Laden in 1998." -- Clifford D. May, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
"Our struggle is not about land or water... It is about bringing, by force if necessary, the whole of mankind onto the right path." -- (01/01/1980) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Late Iranian leader
"Remember, the main duty of Muslims is jihad in the name of God, to raise arms against the infidels, especially the United States and its allies." -- (12/14/2004) Imam Samudra, Convicted and sentenced to death for engineering the Bali nightclub bombings
"Muslim and Arab intellectuals and opinion leaders must confront and oppose any attempt to excuse the barbaric acts of these [terrorist] groups on the grounds of the suffering endured by Muslims." -- (09/23/2004) Osama El-Ghazali Harb, Editor-in-Chief of the Egyptian quarterly Al-Siyassa Al-Dawlia (International Politics)
"[T]he clash of civilization is among Muslims themselves. Muslims are fighting each other; they are killing each other. There are no human rights in Islamic countries. People are thrown in prisons, beaten to death." -- Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, Chairman of the (Sufi) Islamic Supreme Council of America
"The clear military lesson of Afghanistan is that we cannot allow the enemy to establish a safe haven anywhere." -- (12/26/2004) Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command
"We must do all we can to develop a military designed to meet the challenges of this era." -- (12/21/2004) Donald H. Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary.
Source: The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Terrorism: Questions & Answers
The 9/11 Commission Report
Findlaw.com: IRAQ AFTERMATH http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/iraq/index.html
THE WAR ON TERRORISM http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/index.html
Stem Cell Research:
Stem Cell Research Politics
"It's not too late at all. You just do not yet know what you are capable of." -- Mahatma Gandhi
