December 20, 2005

Christmas Quiz
http://christiananswers.net/quiz/christmasquiz/home.html

True meaning of Christmas
http://christiananswers.net/christmas/home.html

Alaska Man Builds 16-Foot Snowzilla
Dec 20 ANCHORAGE, Alaska - With the help of his kids and neighbors, Billy Ray Powers built more than just a snowman _ they've dubbed his 16-plus-foot-tall creation "Snowzilla." After using up all the snow in the family's yard, they turned to neighbors' yards and carried buckets on sleds. They hand-packed the snowman like an ice-cream cone...It took a month to complete the project. It was too big to use buttons for its eyes, so Snowzilla gazes over the neighborhood from beer bottles... http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/20/D8EJVN5O2.html
photo at
http://www.happynews.com/news/12202005/alaska-man-builds-sixteen-foot-snowzilla.htm

Banned 'Jesus Dancers' file federal suit
December 19, 2005 Six girls barred from performing in a city's holiday show because they wore "Jesus Christ Dancers" shirts filed a federal lawsuit in San Diego today.

…the girls, ages 8 to 12, were scheduled to perform a hip-hop dance routine Dec. 3 at a "Holiday Festival" in Chula Vista, Calif., but a city official prevented them from going on stage because of the Christian message on their T-shirts and their accompanying Christian music. The black shirts, bearing a silver cross, had the words "Jesus Christ Dancers" on the front.

The American Family Association Center (AFA) senior trial attorney Brian Fahling said "The city allowed a Hawaiian prayer dance, a belly dancer and other 'holiday' performers, and there was a tree-lighting ceremony afterward where a rabbi lighted a menorah, but six young girls wearing T-shirts with 'Jesus Dancer' and a cross silk-screened on them was too offensive."

Specifically, the complaint says the city prohibited "the name of Jesus being displayed and the songs with words that praise the Christian God from being played while permitting other religious and secular songs and expression."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47982

Feds Need to Address Religious Discrimination in Nursing Homes at Christmastime
December 20, 2005 The president of Liberty Counsel says the federal government should issue guidelines designed to prevent religious discrimination in nursing homes and assisted living centers during the Christmas season.

Senior citizens in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts will now be able to celebrate Christmas, thanks to the intervention of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based law firm that specializes in religious liberties. Officials at senior citizens' centers in three communities -- Winter Park, Florida; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; and Melrose, Massachusetts -- had placed restrictions on Christmas programs or displays. In the Winter Park case, for example, residents of an assisted living center were told neither they nor outside groups could sing Christmas carols.

But in all three cases, those policies were reversed after Liberty Counsel interceded. While pleased with those outcomes, the firm's president and general counsel, Mat Staver, says there are numerous similar cases pending nationwide. "To see the elderly deprived of the joy of Christmas breaks my heart," says Staver, whose 88-year-old mother now lives with his family after having spent several months in an assisted living facility.http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/202005a.asp

Grinches working overtime in schools
'Silent Night' silenced, 'Merry Christmas' censored, candy-cane story spiked
December 19, 2005 The war on Christmas continues to rage in America's public schools, but so does the counteroffensive... http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47993

University rejects Christian student group
December 20, 2005 A state university in California refuses to recognize a Christian student organization because it requires members to live according to the group's religious faith.

The Christian Student Association at California State University at San Bernardino submitted a constitution pledging it will not discriminate on the basis of "race, color, national origin, gender, or physical disability" but reserve the right to restrict membership based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE.

In October, however, a university administrator said although the group "would not be required to admit members who did not support the purpose of the organization," it could not exclude students "because of their status as a non-Christian or as a homosexual."

...FIRE argues student groups at public universities have a right to ensure that their members "share their central beliefs."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47985

Canadian health-care — nothing close to paradise.
Canada’s universal-health-care system has long been a darling of the nanny-state Left… In practice, sadly, this high-minded endeavor has hit a few snags. The pesky fetters of reality have imposed stingy budget constraints on the enterprise, while the promise of free service for all has increased the demand for treatment. The Canadian government has thus struggled to treat more patients while spending as sparingly as possible on each of them, causing waiting lists to swell and the quality of care to sag. Not helping matters have been some medical professionals, who have fled the public system in search of better compensation. With shaking heads and sullen spirits, everyone involved agrees: It’s just not fair... More at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/dick200512200840.asp

Local Theater Company puts on pedophile musical
Tuner's subject matter is anathema to ticket buyers
Around the holidays, the biggest challenge for many theater companies is convincing audiences to care about yet another staging of "A Christmas Carol." This season in Atlanta, however, Actor's Express wants to stir up buzz about a less familiar property -- namely, a pedophile musical....
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=upsell_article&articleID=VR1117934920&cs=

Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches
In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has "inherent authority" to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without any warrant or permission from any outside body. Even after the administration ultimately agreed with Congress's decision to place the authority to pre-approve such searches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, President Clinton still maintained that he had sufficient authority to order such searches on his own.

...The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes," Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick [under Clinton] testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, "and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General."

"It is important to understand," Gorelick continued, "that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities." Entire article at: http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200512200946.asp

Clinton Used NSA for Economic Espionage
During the 1990s, President Bill Clinton ordered the National Security Agency to use its super-secret Echelon surveillance program to monitor the personal telephone calls and private email of employees who worked for foreign companies in a bid to boost U.S. trade, NewsMax.com has learned.

In 2000, former Clinton CIA director James Woolsey set off a firestorm of protest in Europe when he told the French newspaper Le Figaro that he was ordered by Clinton in 1993 to transform Echelon into a tool for gathering economic intelligence.

...As NewsMax reported exclusively on Sunday, Echelon had been used by the Clinton administration to monitor millions of personal phone calls, private emails and even ATM transactions inside the U.S. - all without a court order.

The massive invasion of privacy was justified by Echelon's defenders as an indispensable national security tool in the war on terror.

…But Clinton officials also utilized the program in ways that had nothing to do with national security - such as conducting economic espionage against foreign businesses…
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/19/114807.shtml

Jimmy Carter Assumed Same Spy Power As Bush
By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and 104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act for the authorization of electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1-101. Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.

1-102. Pursuant to Section 102(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(b)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve applications to the court having jurisdiction under Section 103 of that Act to obtain orders for electronic surveillance for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information.

Jimmy Carter 1978

Gonzales: Bush Did Not OK “Blanket” Surveillance
Some quotes from Monday's press briefing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Gen. Michael Hayden, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, about the National Security Agency's program that eavesdrops on Americans' communications:

Gonzales said one party to the communication must be outside the United States and linked with al-Qaida or an affiliate organization. "The president has not authorized ... blanket surveillance of communications here in the United States."

Gonzales would not provide the documents laying out the legal arguments for the program, but he didn't rule out releasing more information later. "We're engaged now in a process of educating the American people ... and educating the Congress."

Hayden asserted the program has worked in combatting terrorists, although he wouldn't offer specifics: "I can say unequivocally ... that we have got information through this program that would not otherwise have been available."

Gonzales said "we'll just have to wait and see" whether there is an investigation into who leaked information about the program.

...Judgments on who to monitor are made at the NSA, approved by an NSA shift supervisor and carefully recorded, Hayden said. "The reason I emphasize that this is done at the operational level is to remove any question in your mind that this is in any way politically influenced," he said.

On the importance of the intelligence, Hayden said, "There are probably no communications more important to what it is we're trying to do to defend the nation ... than those communications that involve al-Qaida and one end of which is inside the homeland."http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/12/19/175112.shtml

Attorney General Gonzales: Congress OKd Spying
WASHINGTON -- Responding to a congressional uproar, the Bush administration said Monday that a secret domestic surveillance program had yielded intelligence results that would not have been available otherwise in the war on terror.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Congress had essentially given President Bush the authority for domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.

At a White House briefing and in a round of television appearances, Gonzales provided a more detailed legal rationale for President Bush's decision authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails of people within the United States without seeking warrants from courts.

Gen. Michael Hayden, deputy national intelligence director who was head of the NSA when the program began, said, "I can say unequivocally we have got information through this program that would not otherwise have been available."

Gonzales said he had begun meeting with members of Congress on the Bush administration's view that Congress' authorization of the use of military force after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ample authorization for the surveillance.

"Our position is that the authorization to use military force which was passed by the Congress shortly after Sept. 11 constitutes that authority," Gonzales said.

It was the most detailed legal explanation given by an administration officials since the New York Times reported Thursday that since October 2001 Bush had authorized the NSA to conduct the surveillance. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/12/19/100309.shtml

Thank You for Wiretapping
Why the Founders made presidents dominant on national security.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005 … What we really have here is a perfect illustration of why America's Founders gave the executive branch the largest measure of Constitutional authority on national security. They recognized that a committee of 535 talking heads couldn't be trusted with such grave responsibility. There is no evidence that these wiretaps violate the law. But there is lots of evidence that the Senators are "illegally" usurping Presidential power--and endangering the country in the process...

...The allegation of Presidential law-breaking rests solely on the fact that Mr. Bush authorized wiretaps without first getting the approval of the court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. But no Administration then or since has ever conceded that that Act trumped a President's power to make exceptions to FISA if national security required it. FISA established a process by which certain wiretaps in the context of the Cold War could be approved, not a limit on what wiretaps could ever be allowed....

...The mere Constitution aside, the evidence is also abundant that the Administration was scrupulous in limiting the FISA exceptions. They applied only to calls involving al Qaeda suspects or those with terrorist ties. Far from being "secret," key Members of Congress were informed about them at least 12 times, President Bush said yesterday. The two district court judges who have presided over the FISA court since 9/11 also knew about them...
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007703

A president can pull the trigger
By John Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, is the author of "The Powers of War and Peace"
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-yoo20dec20,0,4832707.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Courts hit parents with triple whammy
By Phyllis Schlafly
Dec 19, 2005 Federal …Two appellate courts held that parents have no right to stop offensive, privacy-invading interrogation of their own children in public schools. In a third case, the U.S. Supreme Court indicated that it is not going to do anything to protect parental rights concerning schools.

It has become clear that many courts have adopted the notion that a village - in these cases, schools - should raise children. Judges prefer to side with schools and against parents.

...At issue was a 156-question survey called "Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors," which probed students about their personal lives and activities. The survey included questions about sex, drugs, suicide, incriminating behavior, spirituality, tolerance and other personal matters...

...The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals went further, marking the school door as the line where parents' rights end and the "village" takes over. In Fields v. Palmdale School District in November, the judges ruled that the right of parents "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door."

...Teachers are not required to answer these intrusive questions, so why are children? Evidently, parents are the only ones who do not benefit from equal protection of the law.
Find this story at: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/phyllisschlafly/2005/12/19/179728.html