White House open to new tax on health benefits
The White House left open the possibility Sunday that President Barack Obama might pay for his health care overhaul by taxing employer-provided health insurance even though he had campaigned on not raising taxes on middle-class families. President Obama campaigned against raising on middle-class families.

Liberals Pushing for By-the-Mile road tax
Imagine it’s the year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center. What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted. The 15-member National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission unanimously concluded recently that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion.

Layoffs Worsening: Private Sector Shed 473,000 Jobs
Private-sector jobs in the U.S. fell 473,000 in June, according to a national employment report published Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. The expected loss exceeds the 400,000 drop forecast by economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey and suggests that layoffs may be worsening.

Spending Outrage: Libs Buy Off Vote of Ohio Rep with $3.5 Billion Pork Deal
They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the old-fashioned way. They gave her what she wanted a new federal power authority, similar to Washington state's Bonneville Power Administration, stocked with up to $3.5 billion in taxpayer money available for lending to renewable energy and economic development projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states.

Rasmussen Poll: Obama's Popularity Plunging
The latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows that President Barack Obama for the first time has a negative approval index more Americans disapprove of his job performance than approve. In an exclusive Newsmax interview, pollster Scott Rasmussen also disclosed that if the economy does not improve over the next year, Obama's numbers will deteriorate even further and Democrats will suffer in 2010.

More Americans See Democratic Party as “Too Liberal”
A Gallup Poll finds a statistically significant increase since last year in the percentage of Americans who describe the Democratic Party's views as being "too liberal," from 39% to 46%. This is the largest percentage saying so since November 1994, after the party's losses in that year's midterm elections.

Supremes Reverse Sotomayor Decision
The Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor and others that had come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court. The city had thrown out the results of a promotion test because no African Americans and only two Hispanics would have qualified for promotions. It said it feared a lawsuit from minorities under federal laws that said such "disparate impacts" on test results could be used to show discrimination. In effect, the court was deciding when avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another.

Big Draw: Only 100 Folks Turn Out to Watch Vice President Speak!
Vice President Joe Biden visited a small town on the outskirts of Erie today to talk to rural folks about federal stimulus money that can be used to expand broadband access to the Internet for rural areas that typically have poor connections. Apparently stimulus money and broadband are not all that interesting to the local folk here: Only around 100 or so people have showed up so far to hear Biden talk at noon at Seneca High School off Route 8 in Wattsburg. The room looked so sparse that about 30 or so chairs were removed by volunteers to give the illusion of a full house.

Taliban Buying Child Bombers
Pakistan’s top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers in the growing spate of attacks against Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. targets, U.S. Defense Department and Pakistani officials say. A Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said the going price for child bombers was $7,000 to $14,000 - huge sums in Pakistan, where per-capita income is about $2,600 a year.

Democrats refuse to stand for Pledge at NY Statehouse
Democrats refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance! In this case, though, the context actually improves the story. This takes place in Albany, where the New York state Senate remains locked in a power struggle in an evenly divided chamber. Rather than an insult to American patriotism, the Democrats here engaged in an insult to the intelligence of New Yorkers for voting them into office.

It’s Official: Senator Franken
It is U.S. Sen. Al Franken. The Minnesota Supreme Court today unanimously decided that former SNL writer and Uberliberal Al Franken, a Democrat, has won the U.S. Senate race and deserves a signed election certificate.

Press corps now openly laughing at Obama’s backtracking on taxes
It’s a laugh riot, isn’t it? Actually, they might be laughing more at Gibbs’s feeble way of ducking the question than The One’s looming broken promise. Obama rode into D.C. promising Change, and now he is. They borrowed political capital by pledging “no new taxes” to win the election and now down the road the bill’s finally come due.

The Paradox of Liberty
The vigilance demanded to protect freedom is watchfulness over the potential abuses of powerful institutions: political, commercial, and even religious. But it is first and foremost a conscientious scrutiny of our own motives and actions. For it is only when large numbers of individuals become complacent and indolent that those who seek power are able to attain it. July Fourth is a fitting time to recommit ourselves to acting toward the genuine good of ourselves and others--in other words, to remind ourselves always to conform our freedom to what is true. This fundamental connection was articulated long before Phillips, Acton, or Benedict drew breath: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Obama picks Socialist over Democracy in Honduran Coup
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a Socialist and friend of Venezualan President Hugo Chavez, was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed. Last week, the Honduran Supreme Court ruled that President Zeleya had violated the Honduran Constitution by becoming a Dictator. The Supreme Court then ordered the Honduran military to seize power away from the Socialist dictator.

German Chancellor wants tax cuts to stimulate growth
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, cast aside her image as European champion of fiscal discipline on Monday as she launched her re-election bid with a manifesto calling for massive tax cuts over four years. “The question is: How can we ensure Germany emerges stronger once the crisis is over and the cards have been reshuffled in the world,” she told delegates of her Christian Democratic Union gathered in Berlin to endorse the manifesto. “The answer is we need growth, we need tax cuts.”

Obama's new budget for D.C. allows taxpayer funding for abortions
President Obama has issued a budget recommendation for the 2010 fiscal year that would ease the restrictions on taxpayer funds for abortions in Washington D.C., a change that has drawn criticism from pro-life organizations across the nation.

Media Bought By Obama: Washington Post cancels lobbyist event amid uproar
Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Staffer: We Bend the Rules on Sexual Abuse
A new undercover video shows what others have when it comes to Planned Parenthood and how it handles potential cases of sexual abuse. New footage shows a staffer at a Birmingham, Alabama abortion center telling a woman who appears to be a victim of statutory rape that "we bend the rules." In this new video, the Birmingham Planned Parenthood counselor tells Rose, who pretends to be a 14-year-old statutory rape victim that it "does sometimes bend the rules a little bit" rather than report sexual abuse to state authorities.

Catholic leaders protest D.C. funding for abortions, same-sex ‘marriage' decision
Pro-lifers and defenders of marriage reacted critically on Tuesday to an Obama administration proposal to use taxpayer funds for abortions in the District of Columbia and to a federal court's denial of a referendum involving same-sex “marriage.” Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia and chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a Tuesday letter that no one can support funding abortions in the nation’s capital and still claim to support reducing abortions.

Qaeda warns France of revenge for burka stance
Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing threatened on Tuesday to take revenge on France for its opposition to the burka, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported. Earlier this month, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burka, which covers the whole face, was not welcome in the strictly secular country. "Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil)," Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was quoted as saying. "We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal."

Six Men Shot Dead In 24 Hours In Chicago
Shootings claimed the lives of six men in the city in a bloody and violent 24 hours over the weekend.

Duke Official Sells 5 Year Old Son for Sex
Sitting in a Durham County jail cell, Frank M. Lombard, the Duke University researcher accused of offering his adopted 5-year-old son for sex, awaits a trip to Washington, D.C., this week to face federal criminal charges. After waiving an extradition hearing Friday morning, he was locked in the Durham jail Saturday without bail. Federal authorities say Lombard, 42, of 24 Indigo Creek Trail, performed sexual acts on his son and invited an undercover investigator online to fly to North Carolina and do the same. Lombard, associate director of Duke's Center for Health Policy, is a licensed clinical social worker with a master's degree in social work, is a health-disparities researcher who studies HIV/AIDS in the rural South.

Obama Transparency: Even Helen Thomas Finally Gets It
"The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I'm amazed, I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and you have controlled..." veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas said.

Church of England Removes Cross from Student
A Church of England school told a child to remove a Christian cross she was wearing even though it lets Sikh children wear bangles as part of their religion.

Pastor Celebrates Guns in Church Day
Some gun owners proudly wore their weapons into a Louisville, Ky., church Saturday. The "Bring Your Gun to Church Day" was an idea to celebrate guns and God. Brian Thomas, like others at the church was in compliance with Kentucky law as he wore his 1911 Springfield Operator on his belt openly. He brought his family to join about 125 other gun owners to celebrate their second amendment rights inside New Bethel Assembly of God Church.

7 teens wounded near school in Detroit Shooting
Gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school wounding seven including two whom were in critical condition, authorities said. Five of the teens had just left Cody Ninth Grade Academy, where they were taking summer classes, when they were shot at the nearby bus stop.

Pet python strangled child
A 2-year-old girl was strangled by a 12-foot Burmese python Wednesday inside a central Florida home, authorities said. The snake was a family pet, not one of a fast-growing population of nonnative pythons that has been spreading in the wild in southern Florida.

“Lightning Round” with Fred and Jeri
Fred Thompson and his wife Jeri talk about current events in this weeks “Lightning Round.”

Fred Interviews Franken
Fred spoofs the new US Senator from Minnesota Liberal Al Franken.

This week TKF will focus on the Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas Eucharistic Procession through the streets of Northeast Johnson County.

Archbishop leads Eucharistic Procession
More than 1,000 faithful gathered at St. Agnes Parish here for the third annual joint diocesan celebration of the solemnity of Corpus Christi. This was the third year that the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph have joined together for a Corpus Christi procession with eucharistic adoration and Benediction. Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann was the main celebrant and homilist of the noon Mass. Devotions followed the liturgy, with an hour of eucharistic adoration inside the church. ?Archbishop Naumann then led the procession to a station at the halfway mark of the one-mile route, at which point Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph carried the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament the rest of the way to the Bishop Miege High School stadium. The faithful prayed rosaries and sang hymns to the Blessed Mother along the route, which had been closed off by police. Bishop Finn gave a homily at the stadium, and Benediction followed. ?An ice cream social capped off the day.

More Government Bureaucracy: EPA Stalls Sunflower Coal Project
The utility behind a controversial coal plant project in western Kansas must reapply for a state permit, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday. The decision means another delay for Sunflower Electric Power Corp.' s efforts to build an 895-megawatt coal-fired generator near Holcomb.

New Kansas Law: Left Lane for Passing Only
A new legislation is intended to improve safety and traffic flow on Kansas highways. Effective July 1 all motorist on 4 lanes highways must only use the left lane for passing.

Outlaw Cigar Co. to expand to JoCo
One of Kansas City's biggest and most event-oriented cigar bars is expanding. The Outlaw Cigar Co. has purchased the former Romano's Macaroni Grill building at 13700 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park. It plans to open there in October. The 7,200-square-foot location will have smoking rooms, a poker room, event spaces, a host room featuring plasma TVs, leather furniture, wireless Internet, beverage area, and more. "Our primary focus is not selling cigars, it's the club atmosphere, the camaraderie," said owner Kendall Culbertson. "We're excited to get out to Johnson County and have a great time."

Police seek shoplifters who assaulted security guard
Overland Park police are asking for help in finding two shoplifters who assaulted a security worker at a JC Penny outlet store. The two thieves grabbed two pairs of shoes and left the store in the 9400 block of West 75th Street, a security worker tried to stop one and suffered an injury to his hand, police said.

Former KCTV 5 Reporter Sentenced in Federal Court
Former TV personality Arlene “Ally” Francis was sentenced to six months home detention for laundering $652,549 from Associated Wholesale Grocers, federal court officials announced today. Francis, 48, of Parkville, had earlier pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of money laundering. As part of the plea agreement, Francis admitted that she was involved in a scheme to defraud Associated Wholesale Grocers, a Kansas City, Kan., company. Francis had worked for KCTV 5 as a traffic reporter, but she resigned in 2006 about a month before she pleaded guilty to the crime.

Thieves don’t get far with GPS along for the ride
It’s important to stay up with technology in any trade just ask the pair of gunmen who stole two Shawnee vehicles Sunday night. The pickup, however, had a GPS device and police soon found both vehicles parked at a Kansas City apartment complex. The victims “got both their cars back within 90 minutes not a bad rate,” said Capt. Bill Hisle. As for the GPS device, he said, “I don’t think they thought about that.”

KCKPD Speaks on the increasing violence in KCK
Rick Armstrong, deputy police chief in Kansas City, Kan., addresses the spike in violence in that city in the past week. Listen for excerpts from that interview.

Junction City Commissioner indicted
A former Junction City commissioner was charged in a federal indictment today, accused of taking money and gifts from a Lawrence developer. U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said former commissioner Michael R. "Mick" Wunder, 52, is charged with bank fraud, perjury, conspiracy and unlawful monetary transactions. The indictment, which has been under seal since it was filed June 9, charges the former commissioner with 11 counts.

KC’s idle police cars fuel a furor at City Hall
The Kansas City Police Department spent at least $2.1 million in the last 13 months to buy more than 100 vehicles that will take months perhaps years to fully deploy. And some Kansas City Council members, still in the midst of their own budget crisis, are angry. Part of that money, they contend, might have helped keep officers on the streets instead of keeping idle cars in a garage for the future.

Record numbers seek permits to carry concealed weapons
Across the Kansas City area, record numbers of people are applying for permits to carry concealed weapons. The surge reflects the fears of rising crime in a down economy and concerns that the election of President Barack Obama might bring new limits on gun rights.

UMKC adds minor in environmental sustainability
UMKC established the minor last month by pulling together courses relating to environmental preservation that have been offered in various academic departments. Thirty-one faculty members from across the disciplines are teaching courses for this 18-hour minor. Students in the program will be required to do an internship with a community agency that deals in some way with sustainability issues or lead a campus or community greening project.

Backers of Kandu poker game sue officials
The inventors of a card game played for money and the operators of a Wichita card room have filed a lawsuit alleging that officials threatened to prosecute them in order to protect the state's monopoly on gambling. The suit names Attorney General Stephen Six and Gaming Commission Chief Counsel Patrick Martin as defendants, along with Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston and Wichita City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf.

Investigator for Vatican finds enough to continue
The Vatican found enough evidence of a miracle in the survival of Chase Kear of Colwich that it intends to keep studying his survival, with an eye toward declaring it an official miracle, church officials say. Declaring it a miracle would help determine whether Father Emil Kapaun of Pilsen will be canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church.

Wichita lands yet another fee increase on its people
People and businesses with security alarms may soon pay monthly fees and face increasing fines for false alarms under a proposal City Council members discussed today. Though still under discussion, the proposal would create a monthly fee of $1 for residents, perhaps $2 or $2.50 for businesses and $9 for high-rise buildings. City officials previously proposed a $3 monthly fee for residents and $9 for businesses. But council members said they felt that would put the burden of false alarms on people and businesses that don't have any false calls.

Firework Spectacular at Lake Perry
The Perry Lake Association, with the support of local sponsors and agencies, will present its annual Fireworks Spectacular at 10 p.m. Saturday at Perry Lake about 20 miles northeast of Topeka in Jefferson County. Parking will begin at 4 p.m. in the area below the U.S. Corps of Engineers information center off of 39th and Spillway Road. Starting at 5 p.m. vendors in front of the visitor’s center will sell concessions. There also will be children’s activities. The Big 94.5 County will begin a live broadcast from the site at 6 p.m. and will provide a musical simulcast to accompany the fireworks. There also will be a decorated boat contest at 7:30 p.m.

God Bless the USA!

From Proverbs 16:17
The path of the upright avoids misfortune; he who pays attention to his way safeguards his life.

Gospel According to St. Matthew 9:1-8

1 And entering into a boat, he passed over the water and came into his own city. 2 And behold they brought to him one sick of the palsy lying in a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. 3 And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth. 4 And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say, Arise, and walk? 6 But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the man sick of palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. 7 And he arose, and went into his house. ?8 And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men.

A Message for Independence Day

I have fond memories of the 4th of July going back to when I was probably only four or five years old. We remember the parades, the picnics or barbecues, and the happy gathering of families. During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain actually took place on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the resolution of independence previously put forth by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. After debate and revision Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4th.

Of note is the letter John Adams, one of only two Founding Fathers who went on to become president, wrote to his wife Abigail:

"…This day ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever more." (Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society)

Like so many of the Founding Fathers, Adams recognized that the day of deliverance came from the providential hand of almighty God. I am not sure about large numbers of duplicitous politicians and other so-called public servants today, whether elected or appointed.

Freedom is a great thing, and we do well to celebrate it on the 4th of July. That being said, it’s something rooted in truth, and apart from the truth there can be no authentic freedom.

"If you continue in my word [truth] you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)

An individual, a country, or a world that does not remain rooted in objective truth cannot ultimately live in freedom. If you are serious about your faith, my dear friends, I strongly recommend that you read Catechism #1730-1748 as we approach the wonderful celebration of Independence Day, or the 4th of July.

Some highlights of this reality:

1731: Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude [true happiness].

1733: The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes…

One of the most common errors of all time is to confuse freedom and license. Today, frequently under the specious pretext freedom, mankind acts in a manner that is really license. We are not morally free to do whatever we choose to do. Only when rooted in truth and acting in objective truth can we hope to be free. No one has the moral right to do evil. No one has the moral right to choose to take an innocent life or to engage in actions that are out of accord with right reason or any objective standards of morality we have ever known.

The inevitable consequence of abusing freedom is losing freedom. Soon, if we do not alter our present course, the United States will no longer be the home of the brave and the land of the free. Loss of personal freedoms, one at a time, is already well underway. One day we shall awake from our moral slumber and find that we have become slaves.

We must live in truth and act in truth if we are to remain free. Abuse it and I assure you we shall lose it! Wake up America! God is not a disinterested spectator. Let’s thank God for our freedom, but let’s not sit by idly while the forces of darkness divorce freedom from truth. For, as Jesus says, “The man who sins is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34)

I’ll leave you with the motto of the United States Army Special Forces on this 4th of July:

De oppresso liber! (To free the oppressed)

Indeed, Jesus came to set the captives free. Let’s do our part for our country and our world that we might all remain free in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

God Bless You.