The Presidential Debates

The worst debate ever-"The Politico reports: “With the country at one of its most interesting — not to mention terrifying — moments in a generation, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for what was surely one of the dullest and least satisfying presidential debates in memory.”

NBC’s Brokaw Asks No Questions on Iraq, Immigration, Abortion or Same-Sex Marriage-"Neither Tom Brokaw of NBC News, who moderated Tuesday night’s presidential debate, nor any of the “townhall” audience members Brokaw pre-selected to ask questions of the two presidential candidates asked a single question about immigration, abortion, same-sex marriage or the war in Iraq."

Pro-Life Advocates Upset Second Presidential Debate Didn't Address Abortion-"Most political observers were disappointed by the second presidential debate -- with much of the blame placed on moderator Tom Brokaw. Pro-life advocates were disappointed Brokaw didn't allow any questions related to pro-life issues when the candidates have huge differences on abortion. Analysis shows the town hall debate format allowed just 15 percent of the questions to focus on social issues, and Brokaw never allowed an abortion question. Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, told LifeNews.com the debate was "boring" and that even the post-debate coverage failed to point out the differences between the candidates on abortion....The African-American pro-life leader also blamed Brokaw and the media for ignoring the issue of Barack Obama's votes against bills in the Illinois legislature to provide medical care for newborns who survive abortions. "Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that due to the blatant effort by the liberal media to cover up the outlandish stand of Barack Obama on infants born alive and the cowardice of Mr. Obama, who folds under the pressure of the nation's largest abortion chain, [babies] will continue to die these horrible deaths," Gardner said....Had the abortion issue come up, Dannenfelser said "it would reveal not only a contrast between the McCain and Palin families’ approach to arguably the most vulnerable human beings on earth" but "a contrast in their characters which will serve McCain-Palin well.”

Abstinence, Family and Education

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”-"
C. S. Lewis wrote, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” This point was echoed two years ago in a Dallas Morning News article under the apt heading, “All Brains, No Soul” (August, 20, 2006). The author, Thomas Hibbs, a philosopher and dean of the Honors College at Baylor University begins by quoting Plato’s Apology, in which Plato, quoting Socrates’ defense of himself at trial, says:
You are an Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city with the greatest reputation for both wisdom and power; are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation, and honors as possible, while you do not care nor give thought to wisdom or truth, or the best possible state of your soul?
Hibbs makes the point that we Americans are becoming like the Athenians Socrates is addressing, especially when it comes to the object and aim of higher education today."

Abstinence

Good News: Congress Renews Federal Funding for Abstinence Education-"The U.S. Senate passed a bill Saturday that extends Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) through September 2009.
Recipients of CBAE funds — the largest funding stream for abstinence education — include pregnancy centers throughout the country and charitable organizations.
Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said this is good news for U.S. students.
"We are pleased that the abstinence-until-marriage funding remains in place through next September, but we understand that the work to keep the funding in place will continue with a new Congress," she said.
The U.S. House passed the bill last week. It now goes to the president."

REAL Act Would End Federal ‘Abstinence-Only’ Policy-"A bill that would overturn the abstinence-only sex education policy of the Bush administration may get the push it needs to get out of Congress, should Democrats extend their control of the House this November, some abstinence proponents claim. The federal government currently allots funding for state sex-education curricula provided that states teach sexual abstinence until marriage. Millions of dollars have gone to states whose curricula take that approach...."

Family

Family Structure and Expulsion or Suspension from School-"Adolescents who live in an intact married family are least likely to be expelled or suspended from school. According to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Waves I and II, 20 percent of students in Grades 7-12 who live with their married, biological parents have ever been suspended or expelled from school. By contrast, more than 50 percent of adolescents who live with a single, never-married parent have ever been suspended or expelled. In between are those who live with two biological cohabiting parents (34.3 percent), those living with a step-parent (35.9 percent), those whose parents are divorced (37 percent), and those who live with one biological cohabiting parent (40.8 percent)."

School choice

ADF attorneys fight ACLU in defense of Arizona’s corporate tax tuition program-"The state program for corporate taxpayers allows tuition scholarships to be used by students at public or private schools, including religious schools. The ACLU filed suit contending that the inclusion of religious schools is a violation of the so-called “separation of church and state.”
In October 2007, ADF attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Arizona Court of Appeals after the ACLU appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit by a trial court (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4275).
Prior to the trial court’s ruling in March, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that donations made by individuals to non-profit student tuition organizations are constitutional.
A fact sheet on the lawsuit is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/GarriottFactSheet.pdf."

Demand for charter schools increases: 17,000 on Texas wait list-"Ed News carries this report featuring an interview with Brooke Dollens Terry is an education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. It includes this Q&A:
1) Brooke, in a recent public policy paper, you seem to indicate that the demand for charter schools is going to increase fairly substantially in the future. What led you to this conclusion?
Last year, nearly 17,000 students were on a waiting list to attend a public charter school in Texas. We expect that number to increase as the last five charters will most likely be handed out by the state this fall and Texas will hit the legislative cap limiting the number of open-enrollment charters to 215."

Entertainment

Good News: Fireproof Keeps its Spot in Top 10 at Box Office-"Fireproof, the pro-marriage movie from the producers of Facing the Giants, remained in the Top 10 at the box office for a second weekend by bringing in more than $4 million.
The movie, which cost less than $1 million to make, has brought in a total of $12.5 million. Director Alex Kendrick said that's a reason to praise God.
"We tried to make a movie that speaks to your middle-American family and couple facing all the common issues in marriage," he told ABCNews.com. "Hollywood is good at reflecting the values and lifestyles of people in California and New York, but there are so many of us who have a standard of morality and faith that is rarely reflected in films coming out of Hollywood."
The mainstream media, though puzzled by the film's success, agree there is a growing market for Christian films.
The New York Times said the film included "that rarest of creatures on the big (or small) screen: characters with a strong, conservative Christian faith who don’t sound crazy.”
ABCNews.com added: "It's a sign that the strength of the evangelical community has not waned."
FOR MORE INFORMATIONRead an interview with the Fireproof cast, and watch Turn Signal.
Read the Plugged In review of Fireproof."

Pro-Life

Good News: Remarkable Pro-Life Women Share Their Stories-"Feminists for Life (FFL), which counts Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin among its members, is rolling out a series of seven videos featuring Remarkable Pro-Life Women.
The videos will premiere one by one during the coming school year on FFL's Web site.
The first video features Melissa Ohden, who survived an abortion at just 5 months' gestation. Today, she works for a social welfare agency in the Midwest.
Like other Feminists for Life speakers, Ohden promotes pro-woman solutions, especially on college campuses. "My biological mother was in college when she chose to abort me," she says. "I deserved better. My biological mother deserved better, too."
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)"

Unholy Messaging: Obama’s faith-based try vs. his positions.-"Douglas Johnson has this article on National Review that begins: “The Barack Obama ‘messaging machine’ is now in full overdrive mode, seeking to mislead religiously committed Americans into thinking that Obama has a middle-of-the-road position on abortion policy and will promote ‘abortion reduction.’”

California Parental Notification Measure Tops 50 Percent in Latest State Pol-"LifeNews.com reports: “. . . A new poll from Survey USA indicates growing support for Sarah’s Law. With less than a month before the election, the survey found 52 percent of California residents plan to support the measure.”
Yes on 4 - http://www.yeson4.net/"

Can’t Force Doctors to Act Against Their Beliefs, Australian Group Insists-"As Australian state lawmakers debate the most contentious abortion legislation to come up in years, a group of doctors is urging the prime minister to block a move they say will violate human rights law. If passed, the bill before the Victoria State Parliament will effectively ban conscientious objection, argued the group, Doctors in Conscience Against Abortion Bill."

Ireland

Ireland: Pro-abortion group to lobby Westminster MPs-"The Irish Times reports: “FORTY MEMBERS of the Alliance for Choice group from Northern Ireland are to travel to London tomorrow to lobby MPs and peers for the extension of the 1967 British Abortion Act to Northern Ireland . . . The 40 women will be telling MPs that saying ‘Leave abortion to the Northern Ireland Assembly’ is like saying ‘Leave it to the Taliban to sort out women’s rights’,” said Ms Horgan.”

Spain

Open letter asks King of Spain not to sign decree allowing aborted babies to be ground up-"Father Joan Manuel Serra, a priest of the Diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, has asked King Juan Carlos of Spain not to sign a royal decree that would modify mortuary policies and would make it legal to use “baby crushing machines” that would be used on the remains of babies aborted up to the seventh month of pregnancy in abortion clinics."

First Amendment Concerns, Cases, Victories and Presidential selections of judges?

Erwin Chemerinsky: The candidates and the Supreme Court-"Erwin Chemerinsky has this commentary in the LA Times. He begins:
Why are the two major presidential candidates virtually ignoring the importance of this election in determining the composition of the Supreme Court and the future of constitutional law? One of a president’s most long-lasting legacies is in the judges he places on the bench. Justice John Paul Stevens, now 88 years old, was appointed by President Ford in 1975. If John G. Roberts Jr. remains on the court until he is 88, he would be chief justice until 2043 . . ."

“The President and the Supreme Conscience”-"GetReligion.org has this report that begins: ”Three major American newspapers published articles in the last two days on the significance of the president’s power to appoint Supreme Court justices and how that significance is impacting, or not impacting, the current presidential election. The underlying issue these articles attempt to highlight is the power the Supreme Court has in shaping the lives of Americans and how people often forget that when they consider for whom they will vote.”

Banned Book Week and Intelligent Design Part 2: Attempts to Ban ID from Public Schools-"The Discovery Institute has posted this report that begins:
Last week, I recounted successful attempts to censor pro-intelligent design (ID) books from public school libraries, with high praise for such efforts from academia. But libraries, of course, aren’t the only location where Darwinists have tried to ban pro-ID materials. In 2005, Darwinists successfully banned both pro-ID books and pro-ID viewpoints from both the library and the classroom in Dover, Pennsylvania. While public support for ID has remained high even after the Dover trial, this incident sadly motivated other Darwinists around the U.S. to go out and recreate little Dovers within their own spheres of influence . . ."

Atlanta: Bars, restaurants welcome, but churches—look elsewhere-"In November 2007, Kingdom First Ministries leased property in Atlanta’s West End, which was zoned for churches. In the process of applying for a business license the next month, the church was told the area was rezoned and required a special use permit, which the city subsequently denied.
The lawsuit argues that the city of Atlanta has been illegally prohibiting Kingdom First Ministries from using its property for nine months, in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. RLUIPA is a federal law that protects churches from discrimination in land use disputes with local governments.
“Atlanta is full of hurting people,” said ADF-allied attorney John Mauck, of the Chicago law firm Mauck & Baker, LLC. “Should government spend millions on police and social services while spurning the offer of churches such as Kingdom First to provide the compassion and healing of Jesus Christ?”
With tens of thousands of dollars spent on the lease and furnishings, along with a severe drop in attendance due to its current substandard meeting place, KFM has had to cancel most of its ministries and is on the brink of shutting down.
A copy of the complaint in the lawsuit Kingdom First Ministries v. City of Atlanta, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/KingdomFirstMinistriesComplaint.pdf."

ADF: U.S. Supreme Court clears way for specialty plates featuring ‘Choose Life’ message-"The Arizona Life Coalition, a 100,000-member organization, applied for a specialty license plate with the slogan “Choose Life” in 2002. The Arizona License Plate Commission, which oversees such requests, denied the application.
In September 2003, ADF attorneys filed suit jointly with the Center for Arizona Policy on behalf of the coalition. In January 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in Arizona Life Coalition v. Stanton that the commission had violated Life Coalition’s First Amendment right to free speech when the commission denied the request to create the license plate (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4371).
“The government is not permitted to play favorites when it comes to free speech,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer. “It may not deny a pro-life group access to a public forum, while allowing other groups to have access to that forum. That’s viewpoint discrimination, and that’s unconstitutional.”

City Receives Early Christmas Present In Legal Victory Over Anti-Religious Group-"Yesterday afternoon, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) against the City of Green Bay. Liberty Counsel successfully represented the City of Green Bay in a controversy over last year's Christmas display with a Nativity scene at City Hall. On September 15, David Corry, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, argued the case on behalf of the city. FFRF did not file suit until after Christmas, once the Nativity had already been removed. Judge William Griesbach dismissed the FFRF's case, stating that the group does not have standing to bring the claims, which he described as "so fleeting and slight that they do not warrant pursuing in federal court." Judge Griesbach also noted that there is "a strong incentive for budget-conscious local governments to accede to demands from groups like the plaintiffs that government buildings and other property be cleansed of all signs and symbols of the country's religious heritage." In this case, the city refused to be intimidated by FFRF and requested that Liberty Counsel defend the city in the lawsuit.
FFRF uses intimidation and threats of attorney's fees against local communities who take any action that might acknowledge religion...."

Skepticism greets non-union fees case-"Tony Mauro has reports on the First Amendment Center: “The Supreme Court seemed skeptical yesterday of the argument that the First Amendment rights of non-union members should include refusing to pay fees that support certain kinds of national union litigation.”