- Last week the Washington Blade online newspaper, quoting
the Human Rights Campaign and a high-ranking staffer in Senate Majority
Leader Reid's office said Senate Democrats are planning to attach the federal
hate crimes bill, S. 909, as a rider to the 2010 Department of Defense
bill. The DOD bill is scheduled to begin Senate floor action at 11 a.m.
EDT on Monday. Since S. 909 is an "omnibus bill," Sen. Reid
or any cosponsor might introduce it as an amendment. Amendments could
be offered any time next week!
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- Nearly two years ago, Sen. Kennedy requested immediate
vote on his hate bill amendment at the very onset of Senate floor action
on the DOD bill. He wanted it approved as a "uniform consent agreement,"
bypassing debate. It was blocked by an alert Sen. John McCain, but the
same could happen Monday.
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- Over the past several decades, passing shaky or unpopular
bills by quietly attaching them as amendments to the underbelly of big
"must pass" legislation has become very popular, particularly
with Congressional Democrats. But this practice has become increasingly
unpopular with the American people, who view it as underhanded. Here's
how the Democrats keep getting away with it: If the bill to be added has
no relevance to the host bill, every effort is made to contrive some thread
of relationship. If that can't be done, the incongruous package must be
passed very quietly.
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- Several weeks ago, the Democrats scheduled a news conference
to announce attachment of their hate bill amendment to the travel promotional
bill. Yet, at the last minute, they changed their minds. Why? Probably
because violent hate crimes and travel are about as unrelated as can be
imagined. Already under intense fire by bad publicity and public protest
(primarily instigated by the National Prayer Network), Reid feared withering
scorn from Senate Republicans, with possible agreement and defection of
Democrats. As a result, the travel/hate bill could neither be legitimized
nor passed quietly.
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- Two years ago, Senate Democrats, such as Kennedy and
Republican Gordon Smith, passionately argued for the relevance of a hate
crimes amendment attached to that year's military appropriations bill.
They said that, especially with advent of unpopular wars, our servicemen
and women have become vulnerable to hate crimes. After Vietnam, many returning
service personnel endured insults and even bias-motivated assaults for
wearing the American uniform. Passage of a federal hate bill, they argued,
ensured military personnel would receive the same federal hate crimes protection
granted other beleaguered groups.
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- Now fast forward to the testimony of Attorney General
Holder in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on June 25, 2009. Holder
boldly contradicted the claim that our military need special protection
under S. 909. He said an American serviceman, recently killed by a Muslim
terrorist motivated by hatred and bias against the American military, was
not the victim of a hate crime! The soldier's Islamic assailant, according
to Holder, will not be tried as a hate criminal if the federal hate bill
is passed. Only historic civilian members of oppressed groups, such as
homosexuals, blacks, Native Americans, Jews and women, will be protected.
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- Holder, as the nation's top law enforcement authority,
says the federal hate crimes bill has absolutely no relevance to a military
appropriations bill! No American service personnel will in any way benefit
from it.
-
- Clearly, Reid and Senate Democrats are presently failing
to satisfy the two essential criteria for successfully attaching a controversial,
unrelated bill to one sure to pass. They have not the thinnest thread
of relevance between the two, and passage would have to occur under the
intense floodlights of public scrutiny and criticism -- the worst possible
environment for shaky legislation.
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- We Can Back Down a Hate Bill Amendment!
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- At 6 a.m. PST on Monday, when Senate offices open, we
must put overwhelming pressure on the Democrats to back off with their
hate bill amendment. We shouldn't wait even until later in the day. Call
toll-free 1-877-851-6437 or toll 1-202-225-3121 (<http://www.truthtellers.org/actionplan.html>names
available HERE at www.truthtellers.org).
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- Tell Senators: "Attorney General Holder says the
federal hate bill, S. 909, will not protect members of America's military.
Yet Democrats may attach a hate bill amendment to the arms bill this week.
This is dishonest. The hate bill has nothing to do with the military."
You can add: "Have you watched the video at <http://www.truthtellers.org>www.truthtellers.org
in which Holder says soldiers are not protected under the hate bill?"
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- Republican Senators also need to be notified that they
may have to rise to debate the hate bill early next week. (Most didn't
two years ago, and the hate bill passed.) My calls to some of their offices,
including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, reveal they seem quite unaware
that Reid may launch a "sneak attack," bypassing the usual amenity
of significant advance notice.
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- Don't Listen to Dobson's Defeatism
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- In contrast to this workable plan to restrain hate bill
passage, on Thursday, Focus on the Family's James Dobson and Tom Minnery
along with Family Research Council's Tony Perkins covered themselves with
shame by announcing to Dobson's vast audience that it is now impossible
to defeat the hate bill. Everyone, they agreed, will just have to endure
the swing of a far left pendulum, which will involve persecution of Christians.
Eventually, social/religious pressures will swing the pendulum back to
the right. Meanwhile, prayer is our only recourse.
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- Focus on the Family and FRC, perhaps the two most powerful
evangelical "watchdog" groups, have done virtually nothing of
real significance to fight the hate bill since January. Dobson finally
came out with an alert three days before the hate bill passed the House
on April 29, 2009. FRC overflowed with at least biweekly alerts through
the winter and spring on every conceivable piece of legislative mischief
in Congress. But it almost entirely failed to effectively warn its constituents
of the hate bill threat, by far the greatest danger! At last, the reason
for this silence is clear: They gave up long ago!
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- These derelict watchmen precisely correspond to the ten
spies who searched out the land of Canaan and came back with their discouraging
report. They said that because the Hebrews were outnumbered it was impossible
to conquer the Canaanites and occupy God's promised land. Seeing only
horizontally and with fleshly eyes, Dobson, Minnery, and Perkins likewise
compute that because the Democrats in the Senate outnumber conservatives
by a handful of votes it is now impossible for Almighty God to intervene,
as He has done five times since 1998, confounding the Democrats and defeating
the hate bill.
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- What blasphemy against God and His Son Who said, "If
you believe, all things are possible!" (Matt. 17:20) Jesus said that
if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed and it corresponds with God's
will, this "mountain" (the hate bill) will slide into the sea
(the Potomac)!
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- How different from the young Jonathan and his plucky
armor bearer as they scaled a Philistine rampart against all odds, saying
that with God there is no restraint to save by many or by few. (I Sam.
14:5) These evangelical leaders are exactly like the elders of Israel
in the time of Samson when they came to bind him, saying, "Don't you
know that the Philistines are rulers over us!" (Judges 15:11)
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- The truth is, we are not hopelessly outnumbered in the
Senate. Even the top aide to Sen. Reid conceded to the Washington Blade,
"It's going to be very, very close.as it has been in the past."
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- Two years ago, doomsayer Dobson also said all was lost.
Because of the irrefutable fact of numerical superiority of the Democrats,
he said the hate bill would surely pass. Yet, even after he was proven
wrong and the hate bill defeated, he seems to have learned nothing about
God's power to save.
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- Are we a minority? Are we in the midst of crisis --
just as the Hebrews were on the shores of the Red Sea with the armies of
pharaoh bearing down on them? Yes, we are, yet God flourishes in times
of our weakness and extremity. He actually prefers such seeming hopelessness
so that when His people finally believe in His awesome power to save and
take action, and He makes the way of escape, no man will be able to claim
credit. All the glory must properly go to Christ, our only Savior.
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- Unlike the dismal report of "Dr. Do Nothing"
and his cohorts, I hope that my words and yours embody the spirit of faithful
Joshua and Caleb who said, "Let us go up at oncefor we are well able
to overcome." (Num. 13:30)
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