During "Safe Schools Week" Kevin Jennings ACTS UP
If this is "Safe Schools Week," where exactly is Kevin Jennings? Try Harvard University, where the President’s safe schools czar is endorsing a pornographic exhibit. For more on this shocking discovery, take a look at this week’s video.
** If you’re in the nation’s capital this weekend, come out and support the Stand4MarriageDC campaign. My good friend Bishop Harry Jackson and his coalition will be hosting "The People’s Rally" at Freedom Plaza in downtown D.C. from 3:00-5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Help us demand a vote for the families under attack in Washington, DC! If you can’t be there but would like to contribute to the cause, visit the Stand4MarriageDC website. **
Senate Crime Scene
The Human Rights Campaign will have to come up with a new fundraising pitch, since they can no longer claim that this Congress has done nothing to advance their agenda. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate gave away the store by passing "hate crimes" (68-29) as part of the Defense Authorization bill, effectively opening the floodgates to sweeping social change. From the floor, Senators like John McCain (R-Ariz.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) showed their disgust that our troops were being used as political pawns by the leadership to pass a proposal that couldn’t stand on its own.
Democrats like Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.) fired back, arguing that "we’ve seen a marked increase in hate crimes." But the data doesn’t support his claim. The FBI’s statistics on hate crimes actually show a decrease in the number of hate crimes being reported. In the most recent year for which statistics are available, 2007, the FBI found that 7,624 hate crime incidents were reported. Racially motivated incidents were 50.8% of the total, followed by religiously motivated incidents at 18.4%, then ones motivated by "sexual orientation" bias at 16.6%.
In 2007, there were 90,427 forcible rapes and 16,929 murders reported. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the national crime total for those offenses consisted of "hate crimes." This does not constitute a serious national problem or warrant federal interference. Bear in mind that the Hate Crimes Reporting Act of 1990 required that the FBI interpret hate crimes more broadly to include acts of intimidation. Of the hate crime offenses reported, 28.5% of them were intimidation related, and when it came to crimes against persons, 47.4% of them were intimidation related. To use these statistics and claim that there’s a hate crimes crisis is misleading.
Keeping Their (Public) Options Open
Getting creative with the "doc fix" didn’t work, but Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) believes that trying some resourcefulness with the public option will. Together with his liberal friends, the Majority Leader is trying to reinvent government-run health care with a devious twist. Unlike the House version, his public option would allow states to opt-out. With the help of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama, the public option–which was dead on arrival just a few weeks ago–could find new life. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about America ‘s unborn, which, under this plan, would still be aborted with federal dollars. In the public option, there’s still no option but abortion coverage.
Despite how Sen. Reid portrays his opt-out, the subtle shift may not give the states as much autonomy as the language suggests. No doubt any state that refuses to play along will be pressured by Washington to either join in or face losing their federal funding streams. Another problem with the leadership’s new approach is that Democrats don’t necessarily have the votes to pass it. For something as controversial as government-run health reform, Sen. Reid will need 60 votes to move the bill forward. Right now, the biggest hurdle for Democrats is within. The "Blue Dogs" are loudly opposed to any sort of public option (also called a government takeover option). Others, like Sen. Mary Landrieu (R-La.) of my home state, are apparently listening to your calls. "I think if you asked, do you want a public option but it would force the government to go bankrupt, people would say no," she told NPR.
In the end, however, their hands are tied. Once Sen. Reid has passed a bill–any bill–he knows the leadership is halfway home. As they have in the past, liberals will just exploit the conference committee process to get what they want. They’ll rewrite the final bill making it into our worst nightmare–new taxes, abortion coverage, and a radical public option that strips away freedom, conscience, and choice. Passing anything means accepting everything–and we can’t allow that to happen. Join FRC in the push to expose the President’s health care "reform." Please consider partnering with us as we expand our ad campaign across America.
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