It’s Already Started: Liberal Congress Seeks Land Grab
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is calling up for an under-the-radar Senate vote. The 1200-page, pork-laden, $10 billion proposal locks up millions of acres of energy-rich property by designating it as environmentalist-friendly “federal wilderness” area where not even as much as a bicycle would be permitted to travel across the land. Many of these areas recently became available when the ban on domestic drilling in Western states expired last fall and the liberal left couldn’t muster the courage to keep it in place due to rising energy prices. Then, as to be expected in an omnibus bill, there’s the pork. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.) is requesting $461 million to legally settle a dispute over the San Joaquin River with the environmentalist group. Money would go to restoring salmon to the rivers. Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D.) wants $5 million to fund a “Wolf Compensation and Prevention Program” to assist property owners use “non-lethal” measures to prohibit wolves from killing their livestock. The lands bill chief opponent Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) argues it’s foolish to add acreage to the federal government’s responsibility when it can’t even properly manage treasured properties like the Statue of Liberty or National Mall appropriately.

Another Broken Promise: Obama Breaks Pledge on Inauguration Donations
A full 90 percent of donations to fund Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration have come from well-heeled fundraisers, including Wall Street executives whose companies have received federal bailout money. Earlier Obama made a promise to keep special interests out. A total of 207 fundraisers have collected $24.8 million of the $27.3 million in donations disclosed by Obama.

Europe is headed for Muslim future, says Czech Cardinal
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the head of the Czech Roman Catholic Church, is adamant that behind the failure to adopt the euro-treaty is the absence of what Europe feels natural about - Christian values. "When the Irish said No to the Lisbon Treaty, they said it because the European Union and Lisbon Treaty have dropped their Christian roots," said Cardinal Vlk. The Cardinal expressed strong disapproval of Islamic fundamentalism. "It is abuse of the Quran in the name of power. "I do not want to sound negative... but in Islam a religion assumes the position of the state power and rules the people. Our European Christian experience proved that it is not the right way."

Dems to Push ‘Green’ Policy with Stimulus Spending
Democrats may try to use the stimulus spending package Congress is crafting this week to impose unwanted “green” policies on the American public, Republican lawmakers told CNSNews.com at the Capitol on Thursday. Congressional Democrats, however, say that while making America more environmentally friendly is one of the major objectives of stimulus spending, they intend to advocate green initiatives rather than force them on the American public. “I am quite sure Democrats are going to use the stimulus to force green initiatives,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told CNSNews.com. “I am quite sure that’s going to happen. You can call it anything you like, but it’s not stimulus, if that’s the case. It’s making policy and making policy in a way that you are not very deliberative about it.”

Michelle Malkin blasts GOP Leadership for Lack of Fiscal Discipline
Conservative writer Michelle Malkin blasts the liberal side of the GOP for not taking on the deficient issues with strong fiscal discipline. Good for you Michelle!

PBS Host: 'We're All Working For Barack Obama'
The host of Tavis Smiley on PBS was a guest on Morning Joe. Reacting to Harry Reid's claim last week that he doesn't work for Barack Obama, Smiley said Reid should "put down the crack pipe." Smiley added "we're all working for Barack Obama." It soon became clear that was no passing quip, but a literal description of how he sees his role.

D.C. Metro Tickets Now Bear Image of Obama
Metro started issuing paper fare cards bearing Obama's picture two weeks ago to celebrate the presidential inauguration that takes place on Jan. 20. This week it also started selling a plastic Metro card that bears Obama's image. The only other president to be honored this way on a Metro card was Bill Clinton in 1993. President George W. Bush’s face was not put on the Metro fare card in 2001 because his inauguration did not generate enough positive public attention, Angela Gates, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Metro.

New CNA column examines bias behind mainstream media
CNA is unveiling a new column, which analyzes the media’s coverage of Catholic issues to uncover what is really hidden between the lines. For each posting, “Under the Glass” will feature an article from the secular or religious media and place it under a magnifying glass to expose media bias and lead readers to the truth on the issues.

Under the Glass: Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics," Mark Twain said, quoting Benjamin Disraeli. But Twain would have probably added a fourth type of lie to Disraeli’s list after reading the recent Washington Post article "Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds," phony science used to push ideology. What the author of the piece, Rob Stein, tries to lead his readers to believe, is clear from the subtitle: "Teenagers Who Make Such Promises Are Just as Likely to Have Sex, and Less Likely to Use Protection, the Data Indicate." But reading through the article, the much promised "data" actually evaporates.

Birth Control Pill Chemist Apologizes for Invention
The chemist who made a key discovery leading to the invention of the birth control pill has written a commentary calling demographic decline in Europe a “horror scenario” and a “catastrophe” brought on in part by the pill’s invention. Mr. Carl Djerassi, now 85 years old, was one of three researchers whose formulation of the synthetic progestagen Norethisterone marked a key step in the creation of the first oral contraceptive pill. In a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, Djerassi said his invention is partly to blame for demographic imbalance in Europe. On the continent, he argued, there is now “no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction,” due to the use of birth control.

Muslim Extremist Group Funded Congressmen’s Pilgrimage to Mecca
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison's groundbreaking pilgrimage to Mecca last month was paid for by an American Muslim organization that has ties to Islamic radicals and is "the Muslim equivalent of the neo-Nazi party," his critics say. Ellison, a Democrat, became the first U.S. congressman ever to make the hajj pilgrimage when he visited Islam's holy city in December. The trip was funded by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, a non-profit interfaith group that is one of 55 branches of the MAS nationwide. The pilgrimage was hailed by Muslim activists in the U.S.

Florida QB makes 'John 3:16' hottest Google search
In an interview last year with the Florida Baptist Witness, Tebow said football is not even the third most important thing in his life. "I am fortunate to have family members, coaches and teammates around who can help me stay focused on the right things for us to be successful," he said. "For me, every day includes four things: God, family, academics and football, in that order." William Lobdell, author of "Losing My Religion” concluded: "I have to wonder if his coaches or NCAA officials would allow him to have it in the future. "I imagine that these personal slogans will soon be banned," he wrote.

Downs Patient Staved to Death by UK-Managed Hospital
A vulnerable patient starved to death in an NHS hospital after 26 days without proper nourishment. Martin Ryan, 43, had suffered a stroke, which left him unable to swallow. But a 'total breakdown in communication' meant he was never fitted with a feeding tube. It was one of a number of horrific cases where the NHS fatally failed patients with learning difficulties.

Birth-control pill is linked to male infertility
The birth-control pill is causing "devastating" environmental damage and plays a role in rising male infertility rates, said the Vatican newspaper. "We have sufficient evidence to argue that one of the considerable factors contributing to male infertility in the West -- with its ever decreasing numbers of spermatozoa in men -- is environmental pollution caused by the byproducts of the pill" released in human waste, the article said.

Pepsi Generation
One of America's favorite soft drink brands has donated more than a million dollars to homosexual groups – and refuses to give to organizations opposes to homosexuality, one group claims. Pepsi gifted $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, a group that described itself as "America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality,"

Global Warming Update: Coldest Weather in 15 Years
Bitterly cold air bottled up over the depths of the Arctic will plunge southward next week, gripping the eastern two-thirds of the nation. The frigid air will likely arrive in two waves. The first shot will blast the Midwest and Northeast early next week. The second, which will prove to be the harshest, will encompass virtually all places east of the Rockies by next weekend.

Another Democrat Indicted for Pay for Play
Baltimore Mayor Sheila A. Dixon, a Democrat, was charged in a 12-count indictment. Dixon was charged with four counts of perjury and two counts of theft over $500, as well as theft under $500, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office. The charges stem in part from gifts she received from a developer.

Public School Kids become a Living Obama Art Work
"The kids are esctatic. They are so happy because they want to be part of everything that was going on and they're here on the southside and they're like 'what can we do, what can we do to make Barack Obama know we'll behind him and we want everything to be wonderful?' I said 'we're going to do this portrait.'"

Madoff fallout drains funding of abortion advocacy groups
Fallout from the exposure of investment manager Bernard Madoff’s massive $50 billion Ponzi scheme threw many individuals and charities into financial distress. The fraud has also deprived funding from several pro-abortion rights groups and projects. The Florida-based Picower Foundation, listed as the 71st-largest in the nation by the Council on Foundations, claimed assets of $1 billion, the New York Times reports. It was forced to close in December due to financial problems with its assets, which were managed by Madoff.

Get Ready for Crime to Spike! Budget Woes means Released Inmates
Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision. Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up to one of biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into place liberal correctional reforms that have struggled to win political support in the tough-on-crime climate of recent decades. Thomas Sneddon, a former Santa Barbara, Calif., prosecutor who is now executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, said he and his colleagues worry constantly that dangerous criminals will be released unwisely. "I don't think the public at large has any idea of who's in these prisons," Sneddon said. "If they went and visited, they'd say 'My God, don't let any of these people out.'" One important variable is the role of private prisons, which some advocacy groups consider less accountable that state-run prisons. Elizabeth Alexander of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project expressed concern that fiscally struggling states would rely increasingly on private operators. The largest private prison firm, Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, operates in 20 states and says some of them have asked if CCA can expand its capacity so more beds don't need to be added to the state-run system. "Of the states we do business with, none have made prison construction a priority in this economic environment," said Tony Grande, CCA's executive vice president. "Our partnership with the states will become even stronger. We want to be a part of their financial solution.

USS George H.W. Bush Gets Commissioned
The George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. It was commissioned this week and is the finest carrier in the fleet. This evolutionary ship will pave the way to a new class of carriers. Named after the nation’s 41st president and the WWII Navy pilot that was shot down in the Pacific. This powerful warship of the 21st century will feature numerous improvements and modernizations and is one of the finest warships in the world. Congratulations President Bush and thanks for serving our country!

Hospital could force staff to 'dismember preborn babies'
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Matt Bowman has sent a letter to officials at the hospitals and clinics about implementing a secret and potentially illegal plan to perform the abortions with a jointly-operated clinic. "In Wisconsin there's a plan to take a legitimate medical facility and impose upon it -- by its leadership at the University of Wisconsin -- late-term, second-trimester abortions," he explains, "and pro-life health professionals at the facility who object are in danger of being required to participate in some way." According to an ADF press release, the plan could force reluctant employees to "[dismember] preborn babies," regardless of firmly held religious views they might have against it. The act could also be determined as illegal funding of abortion by the state.

New Speaker Shows Fiscal Leadership
Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, said with Kansas facing gaping budget holes in the next two years, it’s time for the Legislature to get creative in looking for ways to cut costs. “The bad news is we’re facing a budget crisis,” O’Neal told Kansas Liberty Friday. “The good news is we have a two-year window of opportunity to look at doing things fundamentally differently. If we don’t have the will to do it now with the budget situation the state is in, then we will have missed a golden opportunity.” O’Neal said he would like to see lawmakers, when they convene later this month, at least begin discussing two possible initiatives – one that would study the feasibility of consolidating school district administrators and another that would make it easier for cities, counties and other units of government to consolidate services.

Sebelius Continues Pay to Play Judicial Appointments
Gov. Sebelius announced she was appointing Neil B. Foth to be the new District Judge of the 10th Judicial District, which is Johnson County, as a replacement for Judge John Anderson III, who is retiring. One news source announced the Governor appoints another political ally to bench, with comments that Foth and Democrat Lt. Gov. Mark Markinson once were partners in the law firm Parkinson, Foth & Reynolds. Foth through his law firm, Foth & Orrick LLP, gave $2000 to Sebelius and $2000 to Morrison in 2006. Foth’s law parner, Tim Orrick, was also a big Sebelius contributor. Orrick and his wife Nancy gave Sebelius a total of $8000.

KCK Reduces Violent Crime Lowest in 22 years
Kansas City, Kan., which long has battled a reputation for excessive blight and crime, received welcome news Thursday: Violent crimes have dropped to their lowest number in 22 years.

KC Star Columnist says White Athletes Resurging Because Blacks in Jail
KC Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock opined, “We’re witnessing a resurgence of great white athletes in football and basketball. Well, now here comes Tim Tebow, and it appears everyone is ready to fall in love with Touchdown Timmy, the half-man, half-monster quarterback. He appears to be a novelty, a white athlete with limitless athleticism. No doubt, it’s time we reassess our stereotypes of athletes based on race. Too many young black men are rotting in jail. America’s out-of-control incarceration rate has devastated the black community in many ways. Athletics has not been immune. Athletics used to be a poor black kid’s ticket to education and out of poverty. You can’t punch that ticket if you’re saddled with felony convictions before you get out of high school. You can’t participate in state-of-the-art training methods if you’re locked up.”

Bond’s impact on federal money to KC will be remembered
“He has used the federal treasury as his own personal ATM to send as much money back home as possible,” said David Williams of Citizens Against Government Waste, which once awarded Bond a “License to Pork.” The group connected Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) with more than $309 million of what it called “pork barrel projects” in 2008, more than double the spending of Sens. Pat Roberts, Sam Brownback and Claire McCaskill combined. “Taxpayers across America are going to be better off with Bond not being in the Senate,” Williams said. Bond, of course, disagreed vehemently. “The Citizens Against Government Waste are absolutely nuts,” Bond said Thursday. “Earmarks don’t add anything to the budget. It’s a question of who makes the decision of where the dollars go.”

Moore wants Seventh Term
In a Dec. 23 letter mailed to supporters, Moore announces: "I want you to be the first to know that I am officially running for my seventh Congressional term in 2010.

Judge agrees to serve without pay
Ron Keefover, education and information officer for the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration, said the budget for retired judges who have continued to work on a per diem basis was eliminated from the state budget and money allocated for temporary court workers was cut 30 percent because revenue has fallen short of what was anticipated. Previously, per diem judges had received the same pay as legislators -- about $198 for each day worked, Keefover said. Judge John Weckel, who presides at hearings involving appeals from Salina Municipal Court to Saline County District Court, served the past year on a per diem basis. Not wanting to leave the court in a bind, Weckel told Chief Judge Daniel Hebert he would continue to serve, regardless of the pay. "I've done it because I enjoy the work, and the people I'm in contact with," Weckel said. "I've agreed to continue my work for the time being." Keefover said the state expects to save about $77,000 by eliminating per diem pay for judges during the second half of the current fiscal year. Whether the cuts become permanent remains to be seen, he said.

Armed resident defends home against burglars
A home intruder got more than he bargained for Thursday morning at a residence in rural Wellsville. Miami County Sheriff’s deputies responded to 37895 W. 239th St. after a resident reported hearing a break-in at his home, according to a sheriff’s office news release. The lone resident hid in the closet on the second floor until he heard the suspect enter the room and open the closet door. The resident then declared he had a firearm, and the suspect fled the house, according to the release.

So what have we learned in 2 millennia?
“Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion"
– Father Richard Neuhaus, Catholic Priest and Conservative Icon

From Proverbs 15:21
“Folly is joy to the senseless man, but the man of understanding goes the straight way.”

Gospel according to Mark 1:7-11

7 And he preached, saying: There cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
8 I have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
9 And it came to pass, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
10 And forthwith coming up out of he water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descending, and remaining on him.
11 And there came a voice from heaven: Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Sebelius New Energy Plan Lacks Energy

Governor Kathleen Sebelius unveiled weak and pathetic energy proposals that she hopes will help Kansas capitalize on renewable energy. Standing beside her at the major news event was Lt.Gov. Mark Parkinson, whom has already announced he is not running for running for office. The Sebelius four-point legislative plan calls for:

• Net Metering! Which would allow Kansas consumers to generate their own electricity, then sell the surplus they create back to the power companies. (The only energy I can produce on my own is Methane and she wants to tax that one! Maybe I can capture all the squirrels in my yard and place them in the wheel cage for energy. There is plenty since we can’t hunt varmints in the city. Oh, by the way, they tried this “Net Metering” idea in Missouri but consumers could not get insurance to cover liability of producing their own energy.) Next!

• Setting into law the state's existing voluntary renewable portfolio standard! The standard initially called for 10 percent of the state's energy to come from renewable resources by 2010, a goal the state has already met. (If we have already met it and we are in a billion dollar deficient then what’s the benefit of making this into law? Except that liberals like laws, regulations and portfolios.) Next!

• Requiring all new state buildings or leases meet energy-efficiency standards! (Which will actually cost more to taxpayers due to the capital improvements that will have to be done in order to change energy systems. And there also is a difference between energy efficient and green. Green is not always efficient.) Next!

• Creating energy bond programs! So Kansas can attract solar and wind manufacturing jobs to our state. (How about tax abatements, low business taxes, low capital gains taxes and less business regulation instead? How about Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Bio-Fuels?) Next!

  This is the best energy proposal that our liberal government leaders can come up with? You have got to be kidding me! "It's time we take the next step toward a clean energy future," said Sebelius. No Governor, it’s time to lead! And this ain’t it!

  Lead, follow or get out of the way! The citizens are waiting!