FRC Urges Legislative Action Following Iowa Same-Sex 'Marriage' Ruling

Today, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins condemned the decision by the Iowa Supreme Court striking down the state's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and forcing same-sex "marriage" on the state. The ruling in Varnum v. Brien was the fourth in favor of legalizing same-sex "marriage" by a state high court. California's ruling was overturned by the people at the ballot box last November; Massachusetts and Connecticut are the only states which currently give marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

"Same-sex 'marriage' continues to be a movement driven by a liberal judicial elite determined to destroy not only the institution of marriage, but democracy as well. The casual dismissal of the facts of human biology and thousands of years of human history, simply to pander to a small band of social radicals, is bizarre and indefensible," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC).

Perkins pointed out that while four states have attempted to legalize same-sex "marriage" through the judicial process, to date none have done so democratically, while a majority of states have not only defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but have placed that definition in their state constitution. "We need to remember that the marriage amendment movement has been many times more successful than the same-sex 'marriage' movement," Perkins said. "FRC will continue to stand with those states which are seeking to pass marriage protection amendments in order to protect our most fundamental social institution from the kind of judicial activism we saw today in Iowa."

"We urge Iowans to contact their legislators and urge them to move quickly to pass a constitutional amendment protecting marriage, joining the twenty-nine states that have already defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman in their state constitutions," stated Mr. Perkins.

"We hope the legislature will heed the powerful swell of statewide support for an amendment and reclaim from the High Court its rightful place as the state's policy making body. That's the only sure way to protect the institution of marriage from radical social engineering by state judges."

Steve Maloney: We need an American version of Daniel Hannan

What if your country held an urgent auction for its massive debt and no one bought it? That happened this week to Great Britain -- and sooner rather than later, will happen to the United States.

We have Barack Obama flailing about, begging to borrow money from Communist China so that he can pay off his political supporters and turn the U.S. into a one-Party system.

People like Senator Judd Gregg and Congressman Thaddeus McCotter are warning that the U.S., "the land of the free and the home of the brave," is beginning to resemble "a banana republic."

We desperately need an America version of Daniel Hannan, Conservative (Tory) member of the European Parliament from Southeast England. On March 24, he confronted Prime Minister Gordon Brown ("the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued nation") and accused him of misleading the people and bankrupting the nation. He spoke the unwelcome truth to power, something no one has yet fully achieved with the self-absorbed Barack H. Obama.

Is Obama the President of the U.S.? He's much more like what poet Wallace Stevens called "the Emperor of Ice Cream." Of course, ice cream looks great, but it melts under the heat of reality and eventually fades away.

I urge you to watch the YouTube of Hannan's condemnation of Prime Minister Brown. Heck, I beg you to do so. (The transcript of Hannan's remarks is below in boldface.)

Mr. Hannan has become the de facto leader of freedom-loving people everywhere. He's almost certainly made Obama's and Axelrod's long -- and distinguished -- "enemies list." We need you in America, Mr. Hannan.

YouTube link to Daniel Hannan's "stripping the bark off" British P.M. Gordon Brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

Daniel Hannan blogs at: www.hannan.co.uk

Following is a short comment by U.S. News and the transcript of Daniel Hanna's excoriation of the hapless Mr. Gordon Brown:

I don't normally delve into the politics of the European Parliament, but this video of Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan stripping the bark off British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is worth noting. ("The devalued prime minister of a devalued government.") Many American politicians might be hearing the same criticisms next year if the U.S. economy is still depressed even as the national debt soars. Here is a transcript:

Prime Minister, I see you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate.

You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that.

Who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase ‘British jobs for British workers’ and that you have subsidised, where you have not nationalised outright, swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks? Perhaps you would have more moral authority in this house if your actions matched your words? Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the councils of the world if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country?

The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around £20,000. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child.

Now, once again today you try to spread the blame around; you spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls. But not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear their rigging; in other words – to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line under the accumulated weight of your debt.

We are now running a deficit that touches 10% of GDP, an almost unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary; countries where the IMF have already been called in.

Now, it’s not that you’re not apologising; like everyone else I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, wilfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left.

Last year - in the last twelve months – a hundred thousand private sector jobs have been lost and yet you created thirty thousand public sector jobs.

Prime Minister, you cannot carry on for ever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line.

You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2009/03/25/british-mep-daniel-hannen-transcript-of-his-attack-on-gordon-brown.html

Steve Maloney
DraftPalin2012
SteveMaloneyGOP

Message from Mary Tedisco (re: Jim Tedisco election)

Hey everybody,

Thank you all for your support, comments and help over the past eight weeks.

It's hard to believe there are only four days left until election day!

Jim is energized and ready for the last four days of the election!

Jim needs your help with the GOTV effort - If you live in or near the 20th CD, please consider going door to door with us Sat, Sun, Mon or Tue.

Meeting times and locations:
Saturday starting at 9am, 10am
Sunday starting at 9am, 10am
Monday starting at 9am, 10am
Tuesday starting at 9am, 10am

If those times don't work for you, please still come by, there will be plenty that needs to get done!

Meeting locations:
Saratoga County, 1707 Route 9
N Halfmoon Dutchess County, Red Hook - 7509 North Broadway
Hyde Park - 4290 Albany Post Road, at the intersection w/Pine Woods
Poughkeepsie- 181 Church Street, (the office of Michael McCormick)
Warren County, 870 Route 9, in Queensbury

If you don't live nearby you can still help the GOTV effort:
by donating $10 to help feed the volunteers, $50 to house two volunteers, or $60 to pay for one tv spot

https://www.icontribute.us/jimtedisco/initiative/lipstick


If you have any questions - email us at info@jimtedisco.com or call (518) 373-2702

Onward to Victory!
Mary Tedisco

www.jimtedisco.com

Brit Hume's Remarks in Accepting MRC's 'Award for Media Excellence'

Remarks delivered by Brit Hume, commentator for the Fox News Channel and former anchor of FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume, in accepting the third annual "William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence" at the Media Research Center's Gala held on Thursday, March 19, 2009:

Thank you all so much. Well, I think we all may recall where that music came from, I certainly remember that program, Firing Line. So many years on the air. I'm humbled and honored to stand here before you to receive this award in the name of someone whom I admired so much; and thought, as you heard Brent say, was such a remarkably nice person for someone whose wit was so -- and intellect -- were so utterly penetrating.

I wanted to tell you -- the hour is late, and I promise not to be long. You know, one of the first rules of speaking is always be brief. And when you speak last, the idea is to be really brief. I want to say a word, however, of thanks to Brent and to the team at the Media Research Center and all of the contributors who make that work there possible. Not just for this wonderfully, this wonderfully fine award in the name of someone who, as I say, I admire so much -- but also for the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report. I don't know what we would've done without them. It was a daily, sort of, buffet of material to work from, and we certainly made tremendous use of it.

I guess I have two things to be thankful for tonight. One is the receipt of this award, and the second is that I'm not Tim Geithner. I make no judgment here about whether he has done a good job or a bad job, but I think that he is one who seems to be the man in the middle of the spotlight which is shining rather brightly on the Obama administration; which I think, to give a shout out to Joe the Plumber, Joe, you asked a great question last year, and I think, buddy, you've got your answer! Yes sir, your taxes are going up! And so are all the rest of ours.

Let me just reflect for a moment, if I can, on Bill Buckley and how I remember him. Years ago, I used to work for the late syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, and a couple of years after I left -- I worked for him from 1970 through 1973 -- and several years after I had left him -- and I was always very fond of Jack, he was a lovely man -- and he landed an interview during our bicentennial year with then-President Ford. And he went over to the White House and did the interview -- and I guess he had it privately produced -- and he had the idea, I think, that this interview, this exclusive interview with the President of the United States in the middle of our bicentennial year would be, would be a great coup and that any of the broadcast networks would be eager to have it. Well boy, was he wrong.

And Bill Buckley saw this spectacle of Jack, kind of, sort of peddle this interview around the broadcast row and getting no takers, and in his generous way, invited Jack on Firing Line. And he interviewed him on Firing Line and he said, he asked Jack for his thoughts on what might be the reasons why the networks would turn him down. Well, I'm sure Bill Buckley had his ideas about the reasons this Republican President would not be of any interest to them, but Jack was saying how he thought, he thought that anything the President of the United States had to say about America in our bicentennial year ought to be news and interesting to the networks. Well, this was too much for even Bill Buckley, who said, "Well, what if the President were to say, 'Baa baa, black sheep?'" Much as I loved Jack Anderson, I thought "oh, boy!" And Jack said, "Well I'd put that right up at the top of the evening news!" and Buckley said, "Yes, I suppose you would, wouldn't you?"

I'd just like to add one further point, you know, as we sit here tonight, the news industry, and the newspaper business in particular, are in pretty serious trouble. And it is possible to imagine a day where the news landscape won't look anything like what it does today, and these organs of the media that we look at, particularly the newspapers will be transformed, if not gone. And some of you might be wondering, well, what will that leave for the Media Research Center to do? And it's worth recalling that the tradition of neutral reporting, which I was kind of brought up in, from the days I went to work for the old Hartford Times back in 1965, was not arrived at out of any great sense of propriety or honor or integrity by the news business; it was arrived at because newspapers, as they grew as an industry, as the industry grew, needed to appeal to as large a cross-section of the readership, of the public as possible.

And of course, if you recall, you know, a great many of the newspapers in this country were originally party press. You see the names of one party or another reflected in, in newspapers to this day -- the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Waterbury, Connecticut Republican, if it's still around. That was the tradition, they were partisan organs. And you see in the British newspapers these days, most of them have a very clear identity and the news is slanted in one direction or another, and everybody knows it, and everybody expects it -- and to some extent, I guess, respects it. Well that has not been the tradition here, for very sound business reasons.

What is happening now, to all these old organs that once observed this tradition, and I think sadly, to an increasingly lesser extent have followed it in recent years, is that they're going away, they're dying, they're dying for all kinds of reasons; I wish I could stand here tonight and say they're dying because they're unbalanced, but I think there are a lot of other reasons for that. But, what are we getting? We're getting, we're getting bloggers, and Web sites, and all sorts of individual entrepreneurism. We have a vaster menu of choices today than we've ever had. But, I think that we also have the danger that everything will be presented from one political viewpoint or the other and that the media that confront us are going to be more partisan than ever. Which means that the Media Research Center will have a mission for many years to come, and a good thing that is.

So, that's just a final thought from me. The hour is late, I'm honored to be here, honored to be among you. Thanks to the Media Research Center for all it does. Good night.

Video online of these remarks, and those of MRC President Brent Bozell introducing Hume: www.mrc.org
-- Brent Baker

STOP the stupid, wasteful spending spree (aka stimulus package)