Governor Mike Huckabee		Senator Sam Brownback

Tim Rude,a pastor at Walnut Creek Community Church in Windsor Heights, recently sent an e-mail to a number of Iowa evangelicals asking them to reconsider their support for Brownback, a Catholic, and to back Huckabee, who Rude wrote is "one of us (an evangelical)."

Rude did not expect the private e-mail to become public and issued an apology while defending that his comments were not actually anti-Catholic.

"But I do apologize for my statements because it could be taken as anti-Catholic which isn't the case at all," said Rude. read more

Evangelicals Have No Sure GOP Pick

Brownback Campaign Again Calls Huckabee to Denounce 'Anti-Catholic' Slur

Huckabee Campaign To Brownback: Quit Crying

Catholics and Evangelicals United: A Formidable Force
"Together, Catholics and Evangelicals make up a voting group (not bloc) of over 30 million. A formidable force to be reckoned with.
Bottom line: Catholics and Evangelicals can profit from working with each other. Evangelicals have a high level of passion and a solid record of engagement.  Catholics have a natural law perspective that enables them to translate their faith into the language of politics." DealWHudsonblog

Poll: Three Democrats Tied in Iowa

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats in Iowa

THE NUMBERS
Barack Obama, 27 percent

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 26 percent

John Edwards, 26 percent

Bill Richardson, 11 percent

Presidential Candidates' Religions

The Associated Press asked the 2008 presidential candidates what religion they practice, whether they are a member of a particular church, and how often they attend services. read more

House Passes SCHIP - Triples Funding

The Democrats' bill proposes a $50 billion spending increase for the program over five years, for a total of about $75 billion. The plan would add an estimated 5 million children to the 6 million already enrolled in the program, which expires Sept. 30.

The House bill to extend the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) passed by a vote of 225-204. Only five Republicans voted for the bill, with 10 Democrats voting against it.

Republicans support the program but oppose expanding it to middle-class families. Republicans say the legislation would undermine the marketplace by offering coverage to children already insured privately.

To pay for the plans, House Democrats proposed a 45-cent per-pack cigarette-tax increase and cuts to the Medicare Advantage program for seniors.

SCHIP, which is a joint federal-state partnership, subsidizes the cost of insuring children living in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. The federal government pays for about 70 percent of the program, and the states pay the rest.

SCHIP Passes in Senate Excludes Funding for Unborn

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted, 68-31, to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program.

With control of Congress, pro-abortion lawmakers have revised the program under SCHIP and dropped the Unborn Child Rule authorized by President Bush in 2002; in favor of language saying that pregnant women can be covered, but not their babies.

Sen. Wayne Allard, a Colorado Republican, attempted to include unborn children again, but his amendment was defeated Thursday on a 50-49 mostly party-line vote. view voting records for this amendment

The Senate needs to negotiate final legislation with the House before CHIP expires in September. Citing the exclusion of "coverage for certain unborn children and their mothers" and numerous other issues, the president indicated today he would veto the bill if it made it to his desk in its current form.

Earlier This Week Before Passage

WHAT IS SCHIP ANYWAY? - In 1997 the Republican Congress passed a law to provide insurance for "poor" children. The program has grown to the point that many middle class families have taken their kids off of private insurance to get the free insurance. Now Democrats want to increase the program to cover all kids in families up to four times the poverty rate. The President has said he will veto the increase because even some wealthy families would qualify.

PROBLEM: While this is a move toward socialized medicine, the American people are so fed up with greedy health care insurance executives who cheat doctors and get multi-million dollar salaries for themselves, that the President is finding little support in the public for his veto. RFC

Read: Fixing SCHIP and Expanding Children's Health Care Coverage Heritage Foundation

How do you spell Hillarycare? SCHIP.

State News

Maryland OKs Outrageous Sex-Ed Curriculum
Under a decision by the state Board of Education, Maryland students soon will learn that homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism are normal sexual variations.

As part of the new curriculum, 90 minutes of course material would be added to the current health class schedules. In the fall for eighth and tenth graders, students would learn about differing sexual orientations and accepting alternative lifestyles. Tenth graders would also watch a DVD on the correct use of a condom. read more

Colorado: State panel approves group's ballot push to define personhood as a fertilized egg

Colorado for Equal Rights wants voters to amend the constitution in November 2008 to define a person as any human being from the moment of fertilization for the purposes of protecting inalienable rights to life and liberty, equality of justice and due process of law. read more

OHIO ABORTION BILL TAKES DIFFERENT APPROACH GIVING FATHERS A SAY

Ohio lawmakers are taking a different approach to the issue of abortion by proposing a bill that would prohibit abortions unless the father of the unborn child also provides his consent to it. The measure could draw attention to the lack of a voice fathers have, but it will likely encounter constitutional roadblocks. read more

$450M New Jersey Taxpayer Loan to Clone Referendum Opens Door to Increased Property Taxes NJRTL

A Quinnipiac University poll released this morning reveals an irony that New Jersey voters are likely unaware of due to deceptive omissions in the wording that citizens will see in the voting booth.  The irony is that while 66 percent of voters plan to support a separate November referendum which calls for lowering New Jersey's highest-in-the-nation property taxes, 49% of those polled also say that they support a $450 million "stem cell" referendum that unbeknownst to the voter, authorizes an increase in property taxes.

Since 2000, the Congresswoman from Minnesota has accepted over $135,000 from the pro-abortion advocacy group Emily's List, a top contributor.

 

 

This Weeks Headlines

Feinstein’s flip sends Southwick to the floor Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) surprised both liberal and conservative activists Thursday by voting with Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to move a controversial conservative judicial nominee to the Senate floor.

Sudan Divestment Bill Passed in House of Representatives by Overwhelming Majority

United States Senate votes to reauthorize CHIP

Ethics Reform Sham
“A Landmark Betrayal” The majority abandons real ethics reform.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R, S.C.) fought to attach amendments strengthening rules governing earmarks while the bil was in the Senate.
In the House, though, the bill was substantially rewritten — at the behest of Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid, Republicans insist — to water down the earmarks provisions that DeMint added. The House passed this bill on Tuesday, 411-8, and sent the new version of S. 1, sans earmark reform, back to the Senate. NRO read more

 

 

 

From Our Shepherds

Catholic Church refuses invitation to join condom campaign for WYD 2008
Catholic Church officials said they will not cooperate with a safe-sex campaign directed at the 500,000 pilgrims expected to attend World Youth Day in Sydney next year, reported The Sydney Morning Herald. CNA read more

Catholic Adoption Agency in Scotland Will Close Before Giving Children to Homosexual Parents, Bishop States
The Catholic Bishop of Motherwell, Scotland, Reverend Joseph Devine, stated that a Catholic adoption agency would close rather than comply with the recent UK Sexual Orientation Regulations (SOR) and allow children to be adopted by homosexual couples. lifesite read more

California bishops back two of three proposed marriage-protection initiatives

Commentary

The False Choice Between Development and Daughters
Right now, in almost any corner of the world, a baby girl is being killed just because she is a girl. Her mother may be rich or poor, educated or uneducated. One thing is certain: She is not alone. She is part of a growing global trend of sex selective abortion and infanticide that favors sons and proves deadly for daughters. firstthings read more

Environmental Voters - Has the God Gap Closed?
A recent media report on a reliably conservative channel indicated that the God gap going into the 2008 election is now even because both parties have pursued the religious vote. ...What NAE’S Vice President for Governmental Affairs, Rich Cizik and others did was to change the context of values voters. Thus, adopting the environmental agenda became as important as supporting the pro-life movement. FreeCongress read more

Drafting Our Daughters
Do Clinton and Obama want to see the combat exemption for women eliminated?
During last week’s CNN/YouTube debate, they both explained that they oppose a draft but believe that, if there is one, both men and women should be conscripted. NRO read more

Women in Combat Debate: Should Women Fight?

Proposal to Expand Size of Supreme Court Draws Fire
The number of justices on the Supreme Court should be increased because the "current five-man [conservative] majority persists in thumbing its nose at popular values," a legal expert has proposed, sparking debate and criticism. read more
57 percent view Supreme Court favorably (AP)

Noteworthy

Group to Tell Knights' Leader, "Act Now or Resign. End These Shocking Scandals."
"As the Knights of Columbus hold their annual convention in Nashville, August 7-9, we fellow Catholics are demanding they end their hypocrisy," said Kenneth M. Fisher, founder and chairman of Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc. (CRCOA). "We call upon the Knights, especially Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, to practice the Catholic principles they brag about upholding and kick out all the pro-'gay,' pro-abortion politicians they've welcomed into their ranks." read more

Good News from ABC: American Liberals Leaving for Canada
Who says the MSM only report bad news? An online ABC News story reports that emigration from the US to Canada has increased dramatically . . . and that the departees are largely liberals. Newsbusters