Category Archives: Religious Freedom

An Interview with The Arizona Conservative

Isn’t the Conservative movement all about legislating morality?

In a word – no. All legislation, all lawmaking is someone’s morality. Those who say we’re imposing our morality on them are trying to impose their morality on us.

The Conservative movement is about advocating commonsense principles which have stood the test of time and which offer society the greatest opportunities of health and well-being.

Americans have the freedom to do a lot of things which were once considered harmful to the person, to others – and immoral. Rather than ask themselves “Can I do xyz,” people should ask themselves “Should I do xyz,” and “what are the consequences?” They don’t need government to decide that or ask for them. If everyone did this more often, we’d have  fewer social problems, less crime, fewer divorces, less gambling addiction, less drug and alcohol addiction, less crime, and fewer socially transmitted diseases. And the bottom line is that we would then see healthier families, neighborhoods and communities, and far less government spending on trying to pick up the broken pieces. It’s a matter of personal accountability.

Aren’t we as a nation progressing by doing away with so-called “archaic” morality laws?

We are not progressing as a nation, period. American society is in a tailspin. We are going in reverse; progressives just aren’t willing to admit it. It is not possible to progress given the current direction and worldview of those shaping the culture.

C.S. Lewis wrote: “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function.”

We have removed the Judeo-Christian morality as the source of morality and decision making at the highest levels of state and federal government. But we act shocked when someone commits a horrible crime.  We’ve said “no more of that old morality, we’ll take it from here.” But they’re taking it all in the wrong direction.

Sign of violence seen at a Mesa movie theater

Sign of violence seen at a Mesa movie theater

So we’re teaching children – through government and the influence of the mass media culture – that it’s not only okay, but preferential, to kill the defenseless and treat people with incivility. Look at the titles of movies and TV shows: Everybody Hates Chris, Kill Bill, The Weakest Link. And we’re surprised children are killing children? You can’t expect a high level of civility when the foremost messages presented to the public are negative and destructive.

And then there are the special interest pressure groups raising huge sums of money to buy politicians and demand judges fabricate special privileges radically altering society. Anyone who opposes them, no matter how civil the opposition, is demonized and called “hater.” Many of them are threatened. The radicals are demanding opponents lose their jobs just for having a different viewpoint. This is disturbing. And it’s not the recipe for a civil society.

The real story of “progressivism” can best be described as man’s inhumanity to man.

Should Conservatives support influential Republicans who are supporting amnesty and same-sex “marriage”? They don’t have anywhere else to go, do they?

No, no and yes they do.

We as a nation should never abandon the rule of law. If we do, we get chaos – everyone just doing their own thing. It will be a nation in great conflict. Every self-respecting, orderly nation must control its borders. Mexico certainly does, though it criticizes those in the U.S. who demand we control ours.

It is not fair to legal immigrants for people to walk across the border illegally, going around the U.S. points of entry, and then demanding legal recognition and taxpayer benefits. Most people who immigrated here oppose illegal entry. Democrats only want to use these people’s votes: let them in, legal recognition and control over them and then demand their votes at election time.

Only about 2 percent of the population struggles with same-sex attraction, less than that in Arizona. Why should a tiny segment of the population be allowed to re-define marriage and subject more children to fatherlessness or motherlessness? The kids are not all right with this. In states where same-sex “marriage” is legal, very, very few homosexuals get married. For the most radical of the homosexual activists, it’s not really about marriage. It’s about destroying the traditional notion of family and marriage. We re-define marriage only at our own peril and a monumental loss of freedom. We opt for adult happiness over the well-being of children at our own peril and reap the social whirlwind. Homosexuality is not genetic, and same-sex “marriage” is not a civil right. That’s offensive to the people who truly suffered the indignation of slavery and denial of civil and human rights.

Republican leaders who want to join others by walking over the social cliff and into the moral abyss are absolutely undiscerning of what the end results will be. Conservatives must never acquiesce, must never join them or approve of this. There are more than enough conservative Republicans, independents and members of the Constitution Party to uphold principles and policies that will point this nation in the right direction.

Senator Harry Reid, other Democrats and many media and educational elites claim Conservatives are polarizing the nation. Is this accurate, and did conservatives create the culture war?

This is pure propaganda intended to direct attention away from those pushing for the most radical departure from U.S. history and tradition. The biblical explanation for this is calling evil good and good evil.

For most of America’s history, Judeo-Christian morality was the dominant worldview. But when those disagreeing with that worldview – John Dewey, Roger Baldwin, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and others – moved the nation in a different direction, Christians and Conservatives were slow to defend the nation’s traditional ideals. By the time Dr. James Dobson, President Ronald Reagan and many others began to respond, the moral center had collapsed. Christians had been lulled to sleep by how things had always been; they were the frogs in the pot who were boiled before they what hit them.

Now the Conservative movement is organized and defending the worldview that enabled America’s greatness and freedom. But the recent decades of indoctrination by educators and the mass media culture, along with the government’s shift to the secular humanist religion and animosity toward Judeo-Christian morality have taken a terrible toll on the country. It will be a long, hard climb to get out of this mess. It will not happen through politics. It will take a cultural shift. Everything else flows through the culture, and our culture is weak, decadent and in turmoil. We cannot allow leftists to steal our children’s hearts and minds and turn them against us. Every year millions of our kids are graduating from indoctrination in school and college and moving us further away as a nation from where we need to be. Our focus needs to be on salvaging our youth and saving this nation from the policies and worldviews that are poisoning our culture. We must change the direction our young people are being led into following. It’s that simple. If we do not accomplish this, our culture will only continue to deteriorate.

Obama’s Losing Streak

SHOCKING MUST READ: Don’t Let Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Advocates Institute Cultural Madness and Turn America on its Head

Sky Fall: Gender Ideology Comes to the Schoolhouse

The Witherspoon Institute
March 1, 2013

In our discussions with advocates of redefining marriage, we often hear that defenders of marriage and sexual difference are overreacting to cultural and legal changes. “You run around yelling that the sky is falling,” we’re told. “We’ve had same-sex marriage for a decade now in Massachusetts, and guess what: The sky is not falling.”

This is not an argument, of course, but an attempt to end any discussion of what it would mean to remove sexual distinctions from the law. As it did to James Bond’s psychiatric evaluation in the recent hit movie, the mention of the phrase “sky fall” is supposed to terminate the proceedings.

No serious participants in the current marriage discussion are running around like Chicken Little. Defenders of marriage are concerned primarily about the long-term implications of redefining the institution. We might not expect the redefinition of marriage to alter cultural practices dramatically right away. After all, it took nearly two generations to realize the full effects of the divorce revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. But strange things are nevertheless happening in Massachusetts, where sexual difference was eliminated from marriage laws in 2003.

Two years ago, the Massachusetts legislature enacted a statute prohibiting, among other things, discrimination in public schools on the basis of “gender identity.” The law defines gender identity as “a person’s gender-related identity, appearance or behavior,” which is not determined by “the person’s physiology or assigned sex at birth.”

On the basis of that statute, the Massachusetts Department of Education (MDOE) has now eradicated sexual distinctions from public schools. MDOE’s new directive requires schools to let children use bathrooms and play on sports teams according to the gender they personally identify as theirs, not their anatomical sex. The directive also admonishes schools to eliminate sex and gender distinctions in graduation garb, physical education, and other practices.

Under Massachusetts law, the connection between gender identity and sexual distinction is now considered a historical accident, the result of arbitrary (at best) or mistaken documentation at birth. MDOE’s directive explains:

One’s gender identity is an innate, largely inflexible characteristic of each individual’s personality that is generally established by age four, although the age at which individuals come to understand and express their gender identity may vary based on each person’s social and familial social development. As a result, the person best situated to determine a student’s gender identity is that student himself or herself.

Because the child is solely responsible for identifying his or her own gender, the regulations require school officials to seek the student’s permission before disclosing the student’s gender identity to his or her parents.

That’s not all. The regulations suggest that students who don’t endorse a fellow student’s gender identity may be subject to punishment. After condemning bullying, the directive endorses a memorandum that a Massachusetts school principal sent to teachers instructing them to discipline students who intentionally refer to a transgender student by his or her given name, or the pronoun corresponding to his or her anatomical sex. Such behavior “should not be tolerated.”

MDOE justifies these regulations on pedagogical grounds: “All students need a safe and supportive school environment to progress academically and developmentally.” By “all students” MDOE must mean all students who share MDOE’s conception of sex and gender as an individual choice.

It is not difficult to imagine who will embrace MDOE’s conception. The regulations state, “A student who says she is a girl and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day and throughout every, or almost every, other area of her life, should be respected and treated like a girl” (emphasis ours). The caveat that the student might want to be treated like a boy for some purposes seems an implicit admission that gender identity is not, in fact, an inflexible characteristic, as MDOE insists, but rather can adjust over time. And the directive states that the law “does not require consistent and uniform assertion of gender identity” (emphasis original).

While we doubt that teenage boys will take much interest in the provenance of gender personality, it’s not a stretch to suppose that they will welcome its implications for co-ed activity.

Perhaps this is why many parents in Massachusetts find these regulations shocking. We must confess that we are not so surprised. Massachusetts lawmakers have for many years been eradicating sexual distinctions from the law. This result seems to us the logical consequence of those efforts.

Redefining marriage to eliminate sexual complementarity as an essential characteristic doesn’t automatically commit a state to forcing girls to share locker rooms with boys. But there is a logical connection. One of the premises justifying the redefinition of marriage also grounds these new regulations, that is, the view that sexual difference is irrelevant to the practice of marriage.

But if sexual difference is irrelevant to marriage, then how can it be relevant to any practices? Once the state has determined that sexual difference is no longer a legitimate reason to extend special recognition to man-woman monogamy, there is no reason in principle to maintain sexual distinctions in less intimate practices. If one’s anatomical reality isn’t relevant to one’s marriage, it’s even less obvious why it should be relevant to one’s bathroom choice.

To be sure, there are prudential implications of eradicating sexual distinction from education laws. But if letting people identify their own gender is a matter of justice, then it’s the job of law to solve the practical problems of implementation. (That is a key lesson of civil rights legislation.)

Though future practical problems might seem obvious, the law makes it far from clear that there are any. If a boy who identifies as a girl really is a girl, as the law declaims, then any perceived harms resulting from his presence in a girls’ locker room are illusory. No wonder the Commonwealth exhorts school officials to discipline students who object to the arrangement.

There are other indications that those who perceive inherent differences between men and women will increasingly be marginalized from public life in Massachusetts. A few months ago, a federal court in Massachusetts ruled that the United States Constitution requires the Commonwealth’s Department of Corrections to pay for a sex-change surgery requested by an inmate who is serving time for murder. It is cruel and unusual punishment, the court reasoned, to force the prisoner to keep his anatomy intact while he is incarcerated.

This ruling might seem unrelated to removing sexual distinctions from law, but for the court’s reasoning. The court discredited the Commonwealth’s expert witnesses, who expressed doubt that a sex-change surgery is medically necessary, and who recommended treating the prisoner’s psychological and emotional disorders instead.

The court ruled that these recommendations are “not within the range that would be acceptable by prudent professionals.” In other words, the court decided that no prudent professional would deny sex-change surgery to a male prisoner who identifies himself as a woman.

The lesson is clear. If you think male and female are two distinct sexes determined by your anatomy at birth, then don’t bother serving as an expert witness in the United States District Court in Massachusetts. Nor can you in good conscience send your children to public school in the Commonwealth. A view of human nature that until very recently was understood to be obvious is becoming a source of disqualification from participating in public life.

As lawyers, we perceive the logic of this latest regulatory innovation. But as fathers, we think that those who are dismayed by MDOE’s regulations are the only Massachusetts residents who can plausibly claim to be in their right minds. If the sky is not falling then it is at least showing ominous fissures.

Adam MacLeod is an associate professor at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law and a 2012-2013 Visiting Fellow of the James Madison Program at Princeton University. Andrew Beckwith is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Phoenix ready to take a radical left turn

If you own a business, please be sitting down when you read the latest proposal. The new ordinance being fast-tracked by Mayor Stanton is a disaster for local small businesses in the City of Phoenix. For the first time, any business with one or more employee will be subject to criminal penalties of up to a Class 1 misdemeanor, the highest misdemeanor one can receive.

The proposal requires all businesses that operate in Phoenix to accommodate any individual that wants to express their personal gender or identity. If for example, a man wanted to use the woman’s bathroom in order to express himself then the business owner will be required to allow him to do that or face a criminal penalty and civil litigation. A criminal penalty that will be enforced by the City of Phoenix.

This is a difficult thing to discuss. It opens the door to individuals claiming you are a bigot, old fashioned and someone who condones discrimination. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe in full transparency and you, the citizens, have every right to know what your leaders are up to. And, you need to know about it before it passes next week. Click here to read the ordinance (see “2013 Proposed Human Relations Ordinance changes”)

The language of the ordinance is so broad; the floodgates of litigation against businesses will be opened. What’s worse, the business community has not even been made aware of this and almost all of the elected leaders in the City were unaware of these proposed changes until last week. This tactic of ramming through such dramatic changes without input from community that will be impacted the most, our local small businesses, shows a total disregard for our business community. This lack of transparency must stop immediately. I have sent a letter and called on the City Manager to immediately notify all businesses in the City of Phoenix of these changes-before the vote next week. Click here to read the letter.

This proposed ordinance should be continued to allow all affected parties an opportunity to comment and have their voices heard. Discrimination is deplorable and we should not stand for it. However, the proposed changes are poorly crafted and go after a non-existent problem.

If this ordinance passes as it is expected to do, business will be forced to hire more lawyers than employees.

My best to you and your family,

Sal DiCiccio, City Council member, Phoenix

The Obama Inauguration Speech YOU Heard

Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution – which our “progressive” judges and justices are attempting to re-write.

We affirm the promise of our democracy – when it suits our needs.

We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” – Life when it is wanted. Unalienable rights with the exclusion of religious freedom.

Today we continue a never-ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time – revisionist reality according to secular humanists.

For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. – And you must secure it in court if you can beat me in your lawsuits against my HHS mandate.

The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. – until I arrived here to destroy that.

And for more than two hundred years, we have. – My mob friends with SEIU and other unions are enforcing my wishes.

Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.

Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce, schools and colleges to train our workers.

Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play. – The rules of socialism and excessive government regulation and control.

Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune. – Except for the preborn, the disabled, and the elderly (who should think about hospice).

Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. – But they can be dictated by government, against the will of the people.

Our celebration of initiative and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character. – But which we rejected in the last election campaign when we promised government control from cradle to grave.

But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. – Or better yet, collectivist actions at the expense of those founding principles.

For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. – Nor can the people be left alone to take initiatives through churches, ministries and charitable organizations to feed and clothe the poor, the destitute, the starving, and those whose lives have been uprooted by natural disasters. Nor can all meet the demands of today’s world with rising taxes and unsustainable debt, amidst excessive government regulation and control. Now you must overlook liberal fascism here at home.

No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. – No person has ever suggested building the transcontinental railroad or reaching the moon alone. And now innovation and achievement is being denigrated, discouraged, and hampered by the growing tentacles of big government.

Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people. – Actually, comrades, as one growing centralized government bureacracy.

This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. – American and allied forces have substantially reduced the capabilities of Islamic terrorists. Yet no real recovery has begun except in the campaign mode mind of the president.

America’s possibilities are limitless, — with the freedom from excessive government regulation

…. for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands – Especially the southern U.S. border which I’m attempting to dissolve.

youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. – Especially for those industries moving out of the reach of tax monsters in California and New York.

My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it — so long as we seize it together. – Or I’ll seize it alone as I enact policies and executive orders unpopular with the people.

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. – Courtesy of tax increases and demonization of the achievers who take risks investing their wealth to create jobs allowing many to feed their families.

We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. – Micromanaged by my ever-growing administration, undermined by my demolition of America’s business climate.

We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; — Despite my demands that all be dependent on government their entire lives, “independent” people like Julia. For when I refer to America, I’m talkin’ big government, baby.

when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. – But not from overly burdensome taxation.

We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own. – If she is allowed to leave her mother’s womb without dismemberment, and to experience a life directed by the “god” of big government.

We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. – Such as government programs encouraging dependency, teen pregnancy, and risky, life-altering behavior.

So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, reach higher. – So they can give more of what’s theirs to a government which will waste the fruits of their hard-earned labor on failing businesses. So they can more fully indoctrinate students in schools failing to educate, so citizens can settle for mediocrity while surrendering their God-given, Constitution-affirming rights to big government.

But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. – Yes, I thought this line would get a laugh!

That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed. – The creed I learned from Frank Marshall Davis and Saul Alinsky.

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. – Unless they oppose my secular worldview and my policies and executive orders. As long as you give more of your money to Planned Parenthood. As long as more of you substitute pain pills and hospice for medical treatment.

We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. – While I continue to raise the debt ceiling and put deficit reduction out of reach forever.

But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. – Wait a minute. I’m the first person to suggest this.

For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. – And now we proudly observe that 90 percent of preborn children with Down syndrome are not allowed to live.

We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. – Or those who take risks and invest their resources to create industries employing millions and feeding families.

We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. – Or job-killing fines for not funding abortion pill mandates.

The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. – Especially those of us raiding those funds!

They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great. – Though some would argue that those who took the risks, who employed people who provided for their families, now have a right to their social security as retired folks.

We, the – GOVERNMENT — people, still believe that our obligations as – CONTROL OF — Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, — No matter how well it’s been proven a fantasy.

knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. – And fail to increase tax coffers and close down the coal industry.

Some may still deny the overwhelming –UNDERWHELMING – judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging

fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms. – Fires caused by arsonists and by lightning. We still haven’t slowed the rise of the oceans and healed the planet; how can we control the weather?

The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. – And cost taxpayers billions to reward Solyndra and other green companies even though we knew they were going under.

But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. – We will lead by downsizing our military and economic capacities. By killing jobs and increasing food stamp rolls.

We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise. – I don’t care how many Solyndras I give your money to.

That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality – And sustain this slumping economy while repeating the myth of recovery ad nauseum.

and our national treasure — our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. – It’s okay to bring religion into this now, even though I’ve long entertained doubts about my faith.

That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared. We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. – But our Army has recognized conservatives as terrorist threats and we will stockpile bullets and take their guns and religious freedom away.

Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. – And the raging passions of homosexual lust in the barracks.

Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. – Not counting those Islamic forces I’ve befriended and given hundreds of millions of your dollars to.

But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war; who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends — and we must carry those lessons into this time as well. – Like my Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood buddies.

We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. – Starting by gutting the United States Navy and refusing to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act. By befriending the detainees at Gitmo.

We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully –-  After the election, since I have more flexibility now.

not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. – So don’t worry about any appropriate responses to future Benghazis.

America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe. – Except for the Middle East, Fort Hood, Pakistan and a few other strategic locations

And we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. – That would be the nation of Russia, which I’ve entrusted to take over as the world’s leading power.

We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. — And we’ll support communism in Cuba, Venezuela, and Kenya.

And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice –- not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice. – With the exceptions of the preborn, the Christian owners of businesses, my domestic enemies, and all who oppose the homosexual agenda.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall – Stonewall, where lawless homosexuals threatened the lives of police officers doing their duty

just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth. – And where people, even my white grandmother, should be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. – Unless they work for me and accept our pay scale: 18 percent less for women.

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law –- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. – And our heterosexual brothers and sisters are treated equally as well, until anti-bullying laws and hate crime laws apply equally to all.

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. – I promise an executive order allowing everyone voting for me to go to the head of the voting line, even if they arrived 10 minutes prior to the closing of the polls. And even if they can’t prove they are a citizen.

Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity – And who still come here legally and assimilate, unlike those cheating and flouting immigration law by entering the country illegally, or those who smuggle humans or drugs across our borders.

until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. – Never mind the law; I need voters now!

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit – who escape the murder and violence

to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm. – Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, your guns. Your government will guarantee you a chicken in every pot and continued safety from all evil-doers.

That is our generation’s task — to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American. – Pursuant to the laws cheapening life and liberty and polarizing this great nation.

Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life. – Especially the First Amendment.

It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness. – Certainly not us Alinskyites.

Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time. – And act with impunity against the will of the people.

For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. – We must proceed with the worst possible “solutions” to the problems of our time. We cannot take the time to actually read the bills that will impact your lives for decades to come. We must pass them to see what is in them and then move forward and act upon them.

We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, — If you don’t count my refusal to negotiate with Republicans, grandstand, or diss Supreme Court justices to their face.

or treat name-calling as reasoned debate – Even if I do identify my opponents as ENEMIES. I’m justified doing that. You’re not.

We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. – I’ve never spoken truer words!

We must act, knowing that today’s victories – Well they are actually ATTACKS on life, liberty, Republicans and successful business owners.

will be only partial and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall. – And which were just rejected by about 99 percent of the voters from inner Philly.

My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God – BUT AS MY OWN PARTY DETERMINED LAST SUMMER, IT WILL NOT BE THE GOD MOST AMERICANS WORSHIP. NO. IT WILL BE MINE: ALLAH — and country, not party or faction. — And this is why I kept the Republicans out of health care negotiations.

And we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service. – Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!

But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty or an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride. – The same flag I refuse to look at.

They are the words of citizens and they represent our greatest hope. You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. – To set it correctly despite my radical agenda.

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – Though my friends and I actually know the debate is over.

not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals. – Those ancient values and enduring ideals I set into motion four long years ago.

Let us, each of us, now embrace with solemn duty and awesome joy what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. – The freedom to worship your federal government. Long live the government!

Thank you. MY GOD, NOT YOURS  – ALLAH — bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America. – And the great downsizing project we are today embarked on today, some with us, many not.

Arizona Exit Polling–Presidential Race

Republican Mitt Romney carried Arizona in the 2012 election. Following is the Fox News exit polling for Grand Canyon State voters:

Exit PollPresident – ArizonaSample: 1682 respondents Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Are you: Total Obama Romney

Male

49% 40% 57%

Female

51% 46% 53%

Sample: 1682 respondents

In which age group are you? Total Obama Romney

18-29

26% 63% 36%

30-44

29% 37% 59%

45-64

32% 38% 61%

65 or over

12% 29% 71%

Sample: 1672 respondents

In which age group are you? Total Obama Romney

18-24

13% 66% 32%

25-29

13% 59% 39%

30-39

20% 37% 58%

40-49

19% 40% 58%

50-64

23% 36% 64%

65 or over

12% 29% 71%

Sample: 1672 respondents

Are you: Total Obama Romney

White

74% 32% 66%

Black

4% - -

Hispanic/Latino

18% 74% 25%

Asian

2% - -

Other

2% - -

Sample: 1642 respondents

Sex by race Total Obama Romney

White men

37% 30% 67%

White women

37% 35% 65%

Black men

2% - -

Black women

2% - -

Latino men

8% 71% 27%

Latino women

10% 77% 22%

All other races

4% - -

Sample: 1642 respondents

On most political matters, do you consider yourself: Total Obama Romney

Liberal

19% 86% 12%

Moderate

42% 51% 46%

Conservative

39% 12% 87%

Sample: 1615 respondents

No matter how you voted today, do you usually think of yourself as a: Total Obama Romney

Democrat

26% 87% 12%

Republican

35% 7% 93%

Independent or something else

39% 45% 51%

Sample: 1651 respondents

What was the last grade of school you completed? Total Obama Romney

No high school diploma

2% - -

High school graduate

19% 46% 54%

Some college/assoc. degree

36% 42% 56%

College graduate

29% 36% 63%

Postgraduate study

15% 54% 42%

Sample: 1640 respondents

What was the last grade of school you completed? Total Obama Romney

College graduate

44% 42% 56%

No college degree

56% 44% 55%

Sample: 1640 respondents

What was the last grade of school you completed? Total Obama Romney

More than high school graduate

80% 42% 56%

High school graduate or less

20% 46% 53%

Sample: 1640 respondents

2011 total family income: Total Obama Romney

Under $30,000

21% 49% 49%

$30,000 – $49,999

23% 45% 54%

$50,000 – $99,999

33% 41% 57%

$100,000 – $199,999

18% 37% 61%

$200,000 – $249,999

2% - -

$250,000 or more

3% - -

Sample: 1499 respondents

2011 total family income: Total Obama Romney

Under $50,000

45% 47% 51%

$50,000-$99,999

33% 41% 57%

$100,000 or more

23% 43% 56%

Sample: 1499 respondents

2011 total family income: Total Obama Romney

Under $50,000

45% 47% 51%

$50,000 or more

55% 42% 56%

Sample: 1499 respondents

2011 total family income: Total Obama Romney

Under $100,000

77% 44% 54%

$100,000 or more

23% 43% 56%

Sample: 1499 respondents

How often do you attend religious services? Total Obama Romney

More than once a week

10% - -

Once a week

23% - -

A few times a month

12% - -

A few times a year

29% - -

Never

27% - -

Sample: 319 respondents

How often do you attend religious services? Total Obama Romney

Weekly

32% 17% 80%

Occasionally

40% 36% 63%

Never

27% - -

Sample: 319 respondents

Religion, combined Protestant and other Christian Total Obama Romney

Protestant or other Christian

53% 29% 70%

Catholic

20% 50% 50%

Jewish

1% - -

Something else

7% - -

None

19% - -

Sample: 616 respondents

Religion among whites Total Obama Romney

White Protestant/Other Christian

44% 20% 79%

White Catholic

13% - -

White Jewish

1% - -

White something else

4% - -

White none

15% - -

Non-white

24% 71% 27%

Sample: 609 respondents

Church attendance by Religion Total Obama Romney

Protestant/Attend weekly

8% - -

Protestant/Do not attend weekly

15% - -

Catholic/Attend weekly

8% - -

Catholic/Do not attend weekly

11% - -

All Others

58% 45% 53%

Sample: 319 respondents

White evangelical or white born-again Christians Total Obama Romney

White evangelical or white born-again Christian

21% - -

All others

79% 43% 56%

Sample: 317 respondents

Which comes closest to your position? Abortion should be: Total Obama Romney

Legal in all cases

26% - -

Legal in most cases

37% 43% 54%

Illegal in most cases

27% - -

Illegal in all cases

8% - -

Sample: 319 respondents

Which comes closest to your position? Abortion should be: Total Obama Romney

Legal

64% 51% 48%

Illegal

35% 10% 89%

Sample: 319 respondents

How do you feel about the Tea Party movement? Total Obama Romney

Support

21% - -

Neutral

50% 28% 71%

Oppose

22% 85% 14%

Sample: 319 respondents

Which ONE of these four issues is the most important facing the country? (CHECK ONLY ONE) Total Obama Romney

Foreign policy

7% - -

Federal budget deficit

19% 20% 72%

The economy

58% 43% 57%

Health care

13% 75% 25%

Sample: 689 respondents

Which ONE of these four candidate qualities mattered most in deciding how you voted for president? (CHECK ONLY ONE) Total Obama Romney

Shares my values

28% 32% 67%

Is a strong leader

17% 31% 67%

Cares about people like me

19% 77% 17%

Has a vision for the future

34% 44% 55%

Sample: 689 respondents

Which ONE of these four is the biggest economic problem facing people like you? (CHECK ONLY ONE) Total Obama Romney

The housing market

7% - -

Unemployment

34% 43% 57%

Taxes

10% - -

Rising prices

45% 43% 52%

Sample: 338 respondents

What should happen to the 2010 health care law? Total Obama Romney

Expand it

23% - -

Leave it as is

13% - -

Repeal some of it

22% - -

Repeal all of it

35% - -

Sample: 340 respondents

What should happen to the 2010 health care law? Total Obama Romney

Expand it or leave it as is

36% 89% 8%

Repeal some of it or repeal all of it

57% 9% 88%

Sample: 340 respondents

Should income tax rates: Total Obama Romney

Increase for all

7% - -

Increase only on income over $250,000

46% 60% 35%

Not increase for anyone

45% 22% 77%

Sample: 342 respondents

Should most illegal immigrants working in the United States be: Total Obama Romney

Offered a chance to apply for legal status

61% 51% 47%

Deported to the country they came from

33% - -

Sample: 319 respondents

Who is more in touch with people like you? Total Obama Romney

Barack Obama

50% 83% 15%

Mitt Romney

45% - 100%

Sample: 340 respondents

Who would better handle the economy? Total Obama Romney

Barack Obama

39% 98% -

Mitt Romney

58% 4% 94%

Sample: 340 respondents

Who would better handle Medicare? Total Obama Romney

Barack Obama

40% 96% 2%

Mitt Romney

53% 1% 98%

Sample: 340 respondents

Who would better handle the federal budget deficit? Total Obama Romney

Barack Obama

39% 98% -

Mitt Romney

59% 4% 94%

Sample: 342 respondents

Which is closer to your view: Total Obama Romney

Government should do more to solve problems

38% 88% 12%

Government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals

58% 20% 80%

Sample: 351 respondents

Do you think the condition of the nation’s economy is: Total Obama Romney

Excellent

- - -

Good

13% - -

Not so good

44% 52% 46%

Poor

42% 17% 77%

Sample: 338 respondents

Do you think the condition of the nation’s economy is: Total Obama Romney

Excellent or good

13% - -

Not so good or poor

86% 35% 61%

Sample: 338 respondents

Is the U.S. economy: Total Obama Romney

Getting better

39% 89% 9%

Getting worse

26% 4% 96%

Staying about the same

30% - -

Sample: 338 respondents

Economic Conditions Are… Total Obama Romney

Getting better

39% 89% 9%

Good and staying the same

1% - -

Poor and staying the same

29% - -

Getting worse

26% 4% 96%

Sample: 338 respondents

Compared to four years ago, is your family’s financial situation: Total Obama Romney

Better today

32% 92% 8%

Worse today

39% 7% 92%

About the same

28% 57% 43%

Sample: 351 respondents

Do you think things in this country today are: Total Obama Romney

Generally going in the right direction

47% 86% 14%

Seriously off on the wrong track

46% 8% 90%

Sample: 315 respondents

Who is more to blame for current economic problems? Total Obama Romney

Barack Obama

42% 4% 96%

George W. Bush

47% 83% 15%

Sample: 338 respondents

Do you think the U.S. economic system generally: Total Obama Romney

Favors the wealthy

49% 64% 31%

Is fair to most Americans

46% 17% 83%

Sample: 340 respondents

Should taxes be raised to help cut the budget deficit? Total Obama Romney

Yes

33% 84% 16%

No

65% 20% 75%

Sample: 338 respondents

Which comes closest to your feelings about the Obama administration: Total Obama Romney

Enthusiastic

17% - -

Satisfied, but not enthusiastic

24% - -

Dissatisfied, but not angry

38% 13% 81%

Angry

20% - -

Sample: 342 respondents

Which comes closest to your feelings about the Obama administration: Total Obama Romney

Positive

41% 89% 10%

Negative

58% 8% 88%

Sample: 342 respondents

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? Total Obama Romney

Strongly approve

22% 93% 3%

Somewhat approve

21% - -

Somewhat disapprove

10% - -

Strongly disapprove

46% - 98%

Sample: 340 respondents

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? Total Obama Romney

Approve

43% 91% 7%

Disapprove

56% 3% 94%

Sample: 340 respondents

Is your opinion of Barack Obama: Total Obama Romney

Favorable

54% 87% 12%

Unfavorable

44% 1% 98%

Sample: 315 respondents

Is your opinion of Mitt Romney: Total Obama Romney

Favorable

51% 4% 96%

Unfavorable

44% 95% 2%

Sample: 315 respondents

Do Barack Obama’s policies generally favor: Total Obama Romney

The rich

14% - -

The middle class

44% 87% 12%

The poor

29% - -

Sample: 315 respondents

Would Mitt Romney’s policies generally favor: Total Obama Romney

The rich

48% 85% 13%

The middle class

39% 15% 83%

The poor

4% - -

Sample: 315 respondents

Do you trust Barack Obama to handle an international crisis? Total Obama Romney

Yes

47% 84% 13%

No

53% 3% 94%

Sample: 340 respondents

Do you trust Mitt Romney to handle an international crisis? Total Obama Romney

Yes

60% 13% 85%

No

35% 86% 10%

Sample: 340 respondents

Do you trust _____ to handle an international crisis? Total Obama Romney

Only Barack Obama

29% 100% -

Only Mitt Romney

45% - 100%

Both of them

15% - -

Neither of them

6% - -

Sample: 340 respondents

Which best describes your vote for president today? Total Obama Romney

I strongly favor my candidate

52% 39% 60%

I like my candidate but with reservations

26% - -

I dislike the other candidates

19% - -

Sample: 323 respondents

When did you finally decide for whom to vote in the presidential election? Total Obama Romney

Just today

1% - -

In the last few days

5% - -

In October

11% - -

In September

9% - -

Before that

74% 47% 53%

Sample: 351 respondents

When did you finally decide for whom to vote in the presidential election? Total Obama Romney

Just today or in the last few days

6% - -

In October or in September or before that

93% 48% 52%

Sample: 351 respondents

When did you finally decide for whom to vote in the presidential election? Total Obama Romney

Just today or in the last few days or in October

16% - -

Before that

82% 47% 53%

Sample: 351 respondents

Are you currently married? Total Obama Romney

Yes

55% 32% 67%

No

45% 58% 40%

Sample: 1319 respondents

Gender by marital status Total Obama Romney

Married men

30% 29% 68%

Married women

26% 35% 64%

Non-married men

19% 56% 42%

Non-married women

25% 60% 39%

Sample: 1319 respondents

Do you have any children under 18 living in your home? Total Obama Romney

Yes

34% 48% 51%

No

66% 42% 57%

Sample: 970 respondents

Married with children: Total Obama Romney

Married with children

22% 38% 61%

All others

78% 46% 53%

Sample: 971 respondents

Parents Total Obama Romney

Men with children

18% 39% 59%

Women with children

15% 59% 41%

Men without children

32% 44% 55%

Women without children

34% 41% 59%

Sample: 970 respondents

Does anyone in your household belong to a labor union? Total Obama Romney

Yes

11% - -

No

89% 50% 48%

Sample: 311 respondents

Do you work full-time for pay? Total Obama Romney

Yes

66% 51% 48%

No

34% 42% 56%

Sample: 318 respondents

Should your state legally recognize same-sex marriage? Total Obama Romney

Yes

57% 55% 44%

No

42% 10% 88%

Sample: 323 respondents

Are you gay, lesbian or bisexual? Total Obama Romney

Yes

7% - -

No

93% 42% 56%

Sample: 621 respondents

In your vote for president, how would you rate the importance of Obama’s hurricane response? Total Obama Romney

The most important factor

14% - -

An important factor

28% - -

A minor factor

23% - -

Not a factor at all

32% - -

Sample: 140 respondents

In your vote for president, how would you rate the importance of Obama’s hurricane response? Total Obama Romney

Important

41% - -

Not important

55% - -

Sample: 140 respondents

In your vote for president, how would you rate the importance of Obama’s hurricane response? Total Obama Romney

Factor

64% - -

Not a factor

32% - -

Sample: 140 respondents

Population of area, five categories Total Obama Romney

Over 500,000

17% 55% 45%

50,000 – 500,000

33% 50% 47%

Suburbs

40% 35% 64%

10,000 – 50,000

3% - -

Rural

7% - -

Sample: 1682 respondents

Population of area, three categories Total Obama Romney

City over 50,000

50% 52% 46%

Suburbs

40% 35% 64%

Small city and Rural

10% 33% 65%

Sample: 1682 respondents

 

Preserve Religious Liberty in America

The Arizona Conservative calls on all Arizonans, all Americans to vote for life, liberty, and marriage in this election.

What Happens to You if Obama Gets Re-elected?

Vernon Parker’s Great Story Aims to Add a Congressional Chapter

Report Card Time, President Obama

ECONOMY

Obama tried to “stimulate” the economy by borrowing and printing money, spending trillions of dollars; the president advocates for a progressive tax system

Results: Failure; unemployment has ranged from 8-10 percent and 23 million Americans are out of work; the president has added trillions of dollars to the national debt, took over General Motors and bailed out banks and corporations; Obama keeps saying the rich need to pay their fair share, but the wealthiest Americans are already paying the vast majority of the tax revenues taken by government; this is not surprising since Obama’s late father advocated for a 100-percent tax rate

BORDERS

Obama and DOJ tried to stop flow of guns into Mexico; the president is pushing for amnesty and wants to fast-track illegal aliens to voting status and give them government benefits

Results: Failure; violence escalated and Americans were killed

FOREIGN POLICY

Obama tried to re-set foreign policy to make the world community like America

Result: Failure; the Arab world is inflamed and American embassies are under attack; the president supported the “Arab Spring” takeover of Muslim nations by the Muslim Brotherhood, but now these nations are being torn apart by violence and anti-American protests; Afghanistan is in the hands of terrorists; the U.S. agreed to decrease nuclear missiles, but other nations have not, leaving us vulnerable; North Korean missiles can reach the U.S., and Iran is developing nuclear weaponry; Obama has alienated our ally Israel and given their enemies millions of dollars; Obama’s administration is blaming their violence in Egypt and Libya on an obscure, amateur video–instead of taking responsibility for its own foreign policy failures

NATIONAL DEFENSE

Obama has slashed national defense budget; federal spending has been cut far more on the military than anything else

Result:Failure; U.S. Navy is at smallest level since World War I, putting national security at risk

ENERGY

Obama said he would develop alternative energy sources

Result: Failure; the president is blocking offshore drilling and development and distribution of domestic oil and gas; but he gave billions of tax dollars to foreign nations for offshore drilling; the president wasted more than a half-billion dollars by giving it to a company that was going out of business (Solyndra); gas prices have more than doubled since Obama took offic

HEALTH CARE

Obama said he would improve healthcare, lower the costs, and allow people to keep their own plans

Result: Failure; ObamaCare is increasing medical costs; mandates are taking religious freedom away from Christian-owned businesses and individuals; millions of Americans will lose insurance plans they are now satisfied with; Obama is taking $716 billion from Medicare and funneling it to ObamaCare; Obama’s putting together a panel (IPAB) that will ration medical treatment and deny it to some; the president suggested people denied medical treatment take pain pills, and also suggested they go to hospice and die

EDUCATION

Obama favors total federal control of public education

Result: Failure; Obama is forcing the radical homosexual agenda on public school students; he chose Kevin Jennings, an extremist who had previously encouraged the “queering” of America’s schools to spearhead “safe schools”; education in the U.S. continues to perform well below potential; thousands of college graduates are unable to find work in the failing Obama economy

FIRST-TERM GRADE: F

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