Pope: We have drifted into a desert of godlessness
Pope Benedict XVI attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'. The Bavarian-born Pontiff will use his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to purge religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified. He will say said that 'religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and held up to scorn and ridicule. 'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' he will tell the congregation as he meditates on the stations of the cross at an evening ceremony at the Coliseum, Rome. 'Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today – when things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialized, the sense of the sacred are allowed to erode,' he will say. 'Everything in public life risks being desacralized – persons, places, pledges, prayers, practices, words, sacred writings, religious formulae, symbols, ceremonies. Our life together is being increasingly secularized.

Muslim Terrorist Plotted Easter Day Bombing of St Ann’s Sqaure
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west of England on Wednesday were linked to a suspected plan to launch a devastating attack this weekend. Some of the suspects were watched by MI5 agents as they filmed themselves outside the Trafford Centre on the edge of Manchester, the Arndale Centre in the city centre, and the nearby St Ann's Square. All but one of the men arrested were Pakistani nationals who came to Britain on student visas. This suggested a possible new tactic by al-Qaeda, which had previously used British-based extremists who traveled to Pakistan for training.

Muslim Terrorist truck bomb kills 5 US soldiers in Iraq
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a sandbagged wall Friday in northern Iraq, killing five American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen in the single deadliest attack against U.S. forces in more than a year. A sixth American soldier and 17 Iraqi policemen were wounded in the blast that took place near the national police headquarters in southwestern Mosul — Iraq's third-largest city and al-Qaida's last urban stronghold.

Obama is Two-Faced on War Funding
President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress on Thursday for an extra $83.4 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, citing threats from al Qaeda and a resurgent Taliban. But in the past has voted against such funding. May 2007: Congress approved a roughly $100 billion spending measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and domestic projects, including hurricane relief. Obama voted no. December 2007: Congress cleared a $555 billion catchall spending bill that included $70 billion for U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama did not vote. As a US Senator, Obama chastised President Bush for this kind of funding mechanism for the war.

Sunday Just Another Day to President
Despite his vow to find a new church after disassociating himself with Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery rhetoric, President Obama reportedly has not attended a single church service since he took office. "We probably won't make any firm decision on this until January, when we know what our lives our going to be like," Obama told reporters in May when he announced his split with Trinity United, his church of 20 years.

Act forces Congress' return to limited government
As a reminder of the federal government's limited powers, 20 representatives want to ensure that every single piece of legislation passing through Congress includes a statement citing specific constitutional authority for enacting it. Sponsored by Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., H.R. 450, or the Enumerated Powers Act, states, "Each Act of Congress shall contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that Act. The failure to comply with this section shall give rise to a point of order in either House of Congress. …" When he introduced the proposal Jan. 9, Shadegg gave a House floor speech reminding his colleagues of limited authority granted in the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution. It states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Governor Sanford Is Fighting Back
“South Carolinians need to know that using this stimulus money on new spending will rob future generations of a dividend that comes through debt repayment, and it will rob every South Carolinian of precious time that could be spent updating our government structure. This effort is about reminding our residents of the very real benefits of what we’re suggesting on the stimulus and restructuring, versus the consequences of simply using the money to further grow government,” Governor Sanford said.

Pirates Put Obama in Bid
A ragtag band of pirates has put President Barack Obama in a bind: He commands overwhelming firepower in the form of a growing flotilla of U.S. warships, but he doesn't want to use it.

Area Businesses don't wait for state to repair road
Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii's Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park -- for free. Ivan Slack, co-owner of Napali Kayak, said his company relies solely on revenue from kayak tours and needs the state park to be open to operate. The company jumped in and donated resources because it knew that without the repairs, Napali Kayak would be in financial trouble. So Slack, other business owners and residents made the decision not to sit on their hands and wait for state money that many expected would never come. Instead, they pulled together machinery and manpower and hit the ground running.

Captain held hostage rescued by US Navy
U.S. Navy snipers opened fire and killed three pirates holding an American captain at gunpoint, delivering the skipper unharmed and ending a five-day high-seas hostage drama on Easter Sunday. The pirates were pointing AK-47s at Capt. Richard Phillips and he was in "imminent danger" of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.

Muslim Pirates Hijack Another Ship
A U.S.-owned, Italian-flagged tugboat reported hijacked in the Gulf of Aden has 10 Italian citizens among its 16-member crew, according to NATO alliance officials on a warship in the region.

Obama’s Brown Shirts Plan Tea Party Counter Protest
With only one week left before citizens in 2,000 U.S. cities take to the streets in protest of government spending this Tax Day, will ACORN and the Huffington Post crash the party? ACORN spokesman Charles Jackson told WND his group will be rallying on the same day. "ACORN is going to be engaged in a series of rallies across the country on April 15 in support of the priorities outlined in President Obama's first budget – investments in education, health care, and getting Americans back to work," Jackson said.

Incredible! Cities Charging for Police Response other fees increasing
Winter Haven became one of a few dozen cities in the country to start charging “accident response fees.” The idea is to shift the expense of tending to and cleaning up crashes directly to at-fault drivers. Either they, or their insurers, are expected to pay. With the economy flailing and budgets strained, state and local governments are being creative about ways to raise money. And the go-to idea is to invent a fee — or simply raise one. Ohio’s governor has proposed a budget with more than 150 new or increased fees, including a fivefold increase in the cost to renew a livestock license, as well as larger sums to register a car, order a birth certificate or dump trash in a landfill. Other fees take aim at landlords, cigarette sellers and hospitals, to name a few. Wisconsin’s governor, James E. Doyle, has proposed a charge on each animal slaughtered at a slaughterhouse. He also is raising hunting fees. Washington DC’s mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, has proposed a “streetlight user fee” of $4.25 a month, to be added to electric bills, that would cover the cost of operating and maintaining the city’s streetlights. New York City recently expanded its anti-idling law to include anyone parked near a school who leaves the engine running for more than a minute. Doing that will cost you $100.

Public support for gun control laws at an all-time low
Fears that the Obama administration may attempt to impose radical gun control measures have spiked unparalleled demand for firearms and ammunition, and helped fuel the highest sentiment against gun control ever recorded by Gallup. According to Gallup’s just-released October Crime Survey, just 29 percent of Americans said they would favor a ban on handgun possession by citizens, the lowest percentage recorded in a half-century of polling by Gallup.

Brooke Corp. sued for racketeering
More than 80 former insurance agents for bankrupt Brooke Corp. have sued the company's lending arm, accusing company officials of civil racketeering and fraud. The lawsuit against Aleritas Capital Corp. was filed in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., Wednesday. Aleritas financed the plaintiffs' purchase of their insurance agencies from Brooke. The lawsuit alleges that Aleritas and Brooke inflated the price of the franchises and didn't provide the help they promised, forcing many of the franchisees to pay continued high fees or go broke. The suit claims this was intentional so that the company could resell the agencies again.

And Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned
Another busy day at the White House: First Lady Michelle Obama hosted students from Bancroft High School in Washington, who helped her plant and water the brand-new White House garden. She and Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack spoke to the students about the healthy fruits and veggies that would grow there. “It’s all brain food,” Obama said. She cheered the kids for bringing good weather and then sent them (and the press) home with cookies. The weather was so nice in fact, that, after President Obama received his economic briefing and met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Oval Office, the POTUS and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to hold their 4:15 meeting out behind the White House—next to the swing set installed for the Obama girls in March.

Michelle gets taxpayer funded full time makeup artist
Michelle Obama is the nation's first first lady to add a full-time makeup artist to her traveling entourage, according to stylists who have worked with presidential wives over the past 16 years. Makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, helped create Obama's signature look on her inaugural trip to Europe last week. This is the first time a make up artist will be employed by the Whitehouse.

Wednesday, April 15 Taxpayer Tea Parties
Burlingame -- Donna Silver, 785-654-3309
Burlington -- Jay Atkin, 785-817-6934
Burns -- TC Mosier (620) 725-5581
Caney -- Terry Gason (620) 879-2469
Chanute -- Pat Houser (620) 449-2121
Dodge City
El Dorado
Ellis -- Gerold Kester (785) 726-1065
Emporia
Fort Scott -- Gayle Sackett (620) 223-4211
Garden City -- Stacey James, (620) 276-3362
Goodland -- Ken Klemm (785) 899-9274
Hutchinson
Independence -- Norma Christy (620) 331-1220
Iola
Junction City -- Linda Teeter, (785) 762-2207
Madison -- Sarah Luthi (620) 437-2992
Manhattan
Marysville -- Greg Krips (785) 268-1156
Meade -- Sondra Clay (620) 873-8481
Mission -- Tereasa Gilmore (913) 677-6663
Mulvane -- Jerry Ray Wood (205) 617-1444
Ogden -- Belinda Beltran (785) 539-2562
Olathe -- Lana Balderas (913) 484-0137
Overland Park
Parsons -- John Barney (425) 501-6722
Pittsburg
Saint Paul -- Patricia Houser (620) 449-2121
Salina
Spring Hill -- Cindy Edwards (785) 418-4024
Topeka
Westmoreland
Wichita
Yates Center -- Cecilia Sanaie (620) 625-8584

As the private sector sheds jobs, government jobs continue to increase in Kansas
Separate analyses by two organizations show that Kansas, which has seen private sector jobs vanish as economic doldrums continue, has one of the highest populations of government workers among the states. Americans for Prosperity – Kansas, in a fact sheet released last week, pointed out the Kansas private sector lost 14,600 jobs over the past year. “However,” the fact sheet added, “the taxpayer-paid government workforce does not seem to be sharing in the pain that private workers face. During the last year, taxpayer supported jobs in Kansas increased 7,500. In fact, government employment is at an all-time high in Kansas: 267,000 jobs.”

State’s budget situation goes from bad to worse
“There’s no joy in Mudville.”
That was the summation of House Majority Leader Ray Merrick in the wake of worse than expected revenue projections released last week by Kansas Legislative Research. In an interview with Kansas Liberty, Merrick reiterated his oft-stated belief that the Legislature erred in relying so heavily on federal stimulus funds, which run out after fiscal year 2011, to plug budget holes in the FY 2010 budget and to hold K-12 education harmless.

Illegal Alien Faces Deportation after 6 previous deportation hearings
Rosendo Lugo-Castro apparently really wants to be in the United States. The Mexican national was charged Tuesday with illegal entry after deportation after authorities found him in Wichita on March 30. A criminal complaint alleges he has been prosecuted three times previously for illegal entry to this country. He has been deported six separate times to Mexico. Immigration authorities have recorded 41 previous encounters with him.

Millions in Pork to pour into poor KC neighborhoods for Greening
Within a couple of years, Kansas City could become a green model for turning around some of its poorest neighborhoods, officials said Thursday. Up to $200 million in federal stimulus money will weatherize every home that needs it in a 150-block area, upgrade bus services and provide much more help, they said. “I’m so excited, I’m trying to calm down,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat who came up with the idea for a Green Impact Zone. “This is a perfect storm of opportunity.” One of the main goals is to weatherize every home that needs it. That includes replacing windows and furnaces with energy-efficient ones and making other improvements that will reduce energy bills for residents.

Crime Escalates in KCMO but city lays off officers
Facing a $15 million budget shortfall, Kansas City police board members on Thursday announced their intention to lay off 31 police recruits and use payouts to encourage early retirements. Police Chief Jim Corwin said the department also would leave 42 officer positions vacant and avoid hiring additional officers for a year. The 42 vacancies and lack of hiring could leave the department with 100 fewer officers next year, depending on the number of officers who retire or leave over the next budget cycle. Ten officers are facing mandatory retirement.

Utilities on guard against power grid foes
Like electronic termites — some domestic, some exotics from foreign lands — cyber hackers are trying to penetrate America’s power grids. In 1997, Kansas City Power & Light saw about 10,000 such “events” each month. Now it’s 10 to 20 every second. “It’s one of those things that we never want to take for granted,” said Michael Deggendorf, a KCP&L vice president. That the nation’s utilities do not would seem to be proven by the lights being on at this moment. But The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that cyber hackers in China, Russia and other countries have not only penetrated the U.S. grids, but left behind mechanisms that could enable them to disrupt service during a crisis. Security and military expert John E. Pike wasn’t shocked that the nation’s power grid — a patchwork built by private and public interests — would be vulnerable. “In China, buildings and entire towns are full of computer hackers trying to break into American computers. “It’s mostly industrial espionage — from a developing country trying to steal the good stuff.

Police: Beware prepaid credit card scam
Local law enforcement officials today urged merchants and their employees to watch out for scammers trying to use defrauded prepaid credit cards for transactions.
Scammers are printing stolen credit card numbers on long, narrow strips of paper and pasting them onto the back of the cardboard credit-card holders, police said.
"It's not negotiable," Lt. Rusty Leeds, who heads the financial crimes section of the Wichita Police Department, said of the green dot cardholder. "It has no value."
The doctored numbers won't scan properly in a card reader, so the scammers ask the clerk or cashier to manually enter the number into the system. Several clerks and businesses in Wichita, Valley Center and Park City have done just that.

Municipal layoffs will have an effect on public services
Kansas City’s municipal layoffs will affect some basic services, but an even bigger impact will come from vacancies that were eliminated, City Manager Wayne Cauthen says. The city a week ago announced that it was reducing its work force by 10 percent as it copes with one of the most difficult economic downturn in decades. Of the positions eliminated, 141 were filled and 275 were vacant. People targeted for layoffs included water engineers, property code enforcement supervisors and investigators, construction assistants and park employees.

Several fountains are back on in KC
Kansas City’s signature fountains are reawakening. After a winter hibernation and nearly falling victim to the city’s budget woes, five public fountains sprang back to life Friday with more scheduled to be turned on in coming weeks.

Ex-deputy charged in civil rights case
Federal prosecutors have charged a former Jackson County sheriff’s deputy with violating a teenager’s civil rights by forcing her to perform a sex act in his patrol car. Steven W. Burgess, 35, of Independence, pleaded guilty in December 2007 in Jackson County Circuit Court to statutory sodomy and deviate sexual assault and was sentenced three months later to 14 years in prison. Circuit Judge Robert M. Schieber suspended the sentence, however, and put Burgess on probation for five years. Under the new federal charge, a prosecutor said, Burgess could get a life sentence if convicted. According to state court records, Burgess was working as a deputy on July 24, 2007, when he found a group of teenagers partying after hours in a park near Fort Osage. He rousted the group except for a 15-year-old girl. When the others had gone, Burgess put the girl in the passenger seat of his patrol car and had her perform a sex act on him. According to the federal charge, that assault violated the girl’s right “not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, which includes the right to bodily integrity.”

Woman: Accused Pastor Coached Kids' Hoops
A metro grandmother said the minister charged with enticing a child for sex also coached young girls to play basketball. Lillian Orlando said she didn't know what to think when she heard about Robert Black's arrest on suspicion of trying to arrange a sexual liaison with an undercover officer that he thought was a 13-year-old girl. "My daughter and I were sitting there watching it when he came across the screen," she said. "It just floored both of us, and we couldn't believe it had happened." She said Black also coached her granddaughter and several other fourth-grade children in an after-school basketball league in Fort Osage.

Wichitans rekindle their faith at Easter
Kendra Foltz's Easter celebration today will be different than any other she has observed.
For the first time in her adult life, Foltz, 24, will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus as a practicing Catholic. She had fallen away from the church about 10 years ago but just completed a program that brought her back. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, or RCIA, is a nine-month program that teaches the Catholic faith to people who are new to the Catholic Church or who -- as in Foltz's case -- are returning to the church. Foltz was among an estimated 150,000 new and returning U.S. Catholics who joined the church Saturday during the Easter Vigil Mass at their respective parishes.

Gov. Sebelius’ $12,450 response to Senator Kyl only wrong by $26,000!
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ responses to written questions asked of her by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as part of her nomination to be HHS Secretary. But, one of her responses is wrong by $26,000 and newspapers are not reporting the correct figures.

KMBC Editorial: Tax Codes
Kan. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has become another in a long line of Cabinet nominees to admit underpaying income taxes. Assuming the errors were unintentional, as she claims, it raises the question of whether our tax code is just too complicated. Highly educated people have to hire accountants to prepare their returns. The tax code was intended to raise money to finance the functions of government. But it has become a way for government to encourage or penalize actions of businesses and individuals. With thousands of provisions for every imaginable purpose, the code has become so complicated that even IRS experts get things wrong. A flat tax or a tax on consumption could reduce a huge government bureaucracy and save taxpayers billions in accounting fees. Most elected officials go to Washington, D.C., claiming they want to simplify the tax code. After you file your tax returns next week, you should send them a message that the time for simplification is now.

'Religious life grows diffident. Thus we see the most momentous matters placed among trifles, and trivialities glorified. Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed.'
– Pope Benedict XVI

From Proverbs 16:4
“The LORD has made everything for his own ends, even the wicked for the evil day.”

Gospel according to John 13:1-15

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
2 So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
3 Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.
4 They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first;
5 and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying,
7 and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9 for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Are you attending a Tea-Party on April 15th?

Do our elected representatives in Washington really understand John Q. Public’s growing anger with the entire political establishment, it matters not the party? Do they understand, or care, that they are creating chaos, giving those who want to dismantle our constitutional republic the opening they need? AIG bonuses were the catalyst for bringing the growing anger to the surface, but the people I talk to are focusing on:

- - a dissembling President who says A but does B, the tax-cheating con men in his Administration, and the lying, sanctimonious hypocrites in Congress who will vote for bills that they have not read.

- - Congressmen voting for what amounts to bills of attainder, casting aside any semblance of conformance with the restraints placed upon them by the Constitution, thereby violating their oath of office.

- - the President firing a company president, an unprecedented, un-constitutional act, and taking actions to nationalize the banking industry;

- - the funneling of humongous amounts of dollars to people and organizations with no ability to be able to report who got how much or the controls, if any, on the use of the dollars;

- - the idiotic notion that the nation can spend its way out of the mess with phony money and trillion dollar national debts, debts being laid at the feet of our children and grandchildren;

- - "stimulus" appropriations whose only function is to grow the size of government and increase its control over them;

- - the other economic and societal shoes that will be dropped - collapsing commercial real estate markets, insurance companies, and pension funds are mentioned; and

- - the fear that all the current actions are leading to hyperinflation and what that will mean for society.

All this is exacerbated by the realization that the President is tearing asunder the social contract that has stood us in good stead for two hundred plus years and is taking actions that will eliminate freedom and surrender our sovereignty across the board: the nationalization of health care; enshrining in law the murder of the unborn or aged; eviscerating the 2nd Amendment; opening the borders to hordes of immigrants who he will naturalize with a stroke of the pen; taking complete control of their children's education; establishing a "Brownshirt" service to be his enforcer thugs on the streets; the use of a scientific fraud, man-caused global warming, as an excuse to impose large tax increases on the use of energy; bowing to the Saudi king - the list goes on and on.

The world is a tinderbox of conflict. There exist Jihadists who would like nothing better than to strike, or see a strike against our homeland. The Bear and Dragon are shaking off years of hibernation. In the face of these threats, the President is cutting the size and capability of our military. His defense budget contains a shortfall of $141B over the next two years, a shortfall that will, in the words of Rowan Scarborough writing in Human Events On-line, "...milk the military to help offset soaring domestic spending that will create trillion-dollar annual deficits ... the military will suffer combat readiness problems as it did under Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who both inflicted deep wounds in defense spending." This past few weeks, while Iran marches towards nuclear weapon capability, Russia extends the service life of its Topol M ICBM, and North Korea launches a long-range nuclear-capable missile, the President announces that he will not support the needed modernization of our nuclear weapons, a step needed to maintain their reliability - and their deterrence impact in the minds of would-be aggressors.

Topping it all off is the concern that there is no concerted effort to fight the President and the reigning Socialists in Congress every step of the way. There is no concerted effort to educate the public about what they are trying to pull off - Republicans are flailing - some voting in lockstep with Pelosi and Reid - and the third-parties just nibbling at the edge. Without such a fight, Obamanation will be so entrenched by 2010 that it will be impossible to throw them out and salvage our constitutional republic.

We are close to a disastrous tipping point. Colonel Bob Pappas concluded his 29 March "Destruction from Within" column: "Otherwise, stand by for the fast ride into a Cuba, Russia, China, or some other "workers paradise."" If we cannot get our act together and derail the Obama Express, we who believe that the governing philosophy executed by The Founders is still valid will be forced to kiss our freedoms good-bye and consign ourselves to living in a morally dark and dreary socialist dungeon.

Are you attending a Tea-Party on April 15th?