(Updated: If you want something really confusing then try to figure out where to go with this now after the show “This Week” with Christiane Amapour on ABC April 10th came out. On that show Mike Pence says that he will PROBABLY NOT VOTE FOR THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION this week.)
Mike Pence on Feb 8 on Planned Parenthood
Mike Pence says it is time to pick a fight (in March)
Rep. Pence spoke on the House Floor April 7, 2011. (In this speech Mike Pence finishes by saying “If Democrats here in Washington would rather political games and shut the government down than support our troops and defend our treasury and respect our values then I say shut it down. These last few words upset me because it appears that even though Pence promises to vote to shut down the government if Democrats don’t “respect our values” he ultimately caved on that!!!)
I am a little confused by the vote of Mike Pence in favor of the continuing resolution passage when on American Family Radio Show “Today’s issue” with Tim Wildmon he said the Republicans would stick to their position to remove all the funding for Planned Parenthood. Then the Republicans caved on that and Pence still voted for the compromise?
Washington, D.C.— The following statement was issued by Matt Lloyd, Communications Director for U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, today regarding the Pence Amendment that would deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates: “It has been erroneously reported in the media that Congressman Pence has signaled a willingness to accept a compromise on the Pence Amendment in the negotiations over a long-term Continuing Resolution. These reports are inaccurate. Congressman Pence has made no statement concerning the ongoing negotiations and remains committed to the Pence Amendment and will continue to work with colleagues to include this measure in any final legislation.”
On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment: H R 1363 Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes
Cartograms give an equal area in an image to an equal number of votes by distorting the image. Senate vote cartograms are shown with each state stretched or shrunk so that the states each take up an equal area because each state has two votes. For House votes, it is each congressional district which is stretched or shrunk.
Congressman Steve Pearce addresses the House of Representatives on April 7, 2011, on the eve of a government shutdown. Video clip part 1
I was very disappointed to learn that the Republicans did abandon their plans to cut the 364 million that Planned Parenthood got from the federal government. I knew that Planned Parenthood was the largest provider of abortionists in America and they only had a budget of about a billion dollars.
A cut like this would cripple them in many ways. Yes, it is true that none of the 364 million goes for the actual abortions, but it goes to pay for the counselors that tell young ladies that they can solve all their problems by getting an abortion.
I am big fan of the conservative Republicans and I have included three excellent video clips from Republican Steve Pearce, Representative from New Mexico.
The story of Capitol Hill’s week on the brink — which brought Washington within an hour of a government shutdown — is a narrative of three men, each with a confining sense of his own limitations.
House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) entered budget negotiations at the head of a rambunctious Republican majority. Quietly, though, he worried that conservative lawmakers might desert him if the deal he struck didn’t meet their expectations.
President Obama had his own problem: He was trying to change his public image in midstream, from America’s top Democrat to a chief executive immune from partisan squabbling.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had watched his party lose its momentum. For all his power, his job had shrunk to defending Democrats’ past gains.
Last week, their first big public fight since Republicans took over in November played out in 3 a.m. meetings, angry press conferences and tense sessions at the White House — which hit their boiling point late Thursday night when Vice President Joe Biden lost his temper at Boehner. It ended with a late-night handshake at the Capitol and Republican cheers in a crowded basement.
The detailed story of that week — relayed Saturday by aides invested in portraying their man as the hero — shows that all three were trying to camouflage weaknesses with bluffing and public confidence. They settled only in the face of a shutdown — the one thing they feared more than giving in.
In the end, Boehner got the huge budget cut conservatives wanted. Obama got to take credit for bringing the sides together. And Reid got a chance — in a dispute over funding for women’s health groups — to rally a beleaguered Democratic base.
Outside the White House and Capitol, their long staredown had a serious cost.
For days, a city had been creakily, and expensively, preparing to shut itself down. And a country had watched in amazement: Was the U.S. government really fighting over whether to reauthorize itself?
Boehner’s problem
For Boehner, last week was a chance to prove his toughness, and conservative bona fides, to the fractious Republicans he leads.
His problem had been made clear a month ago. The House was set to vote on a stopgap budget to keep the country running, but 54 members of his caucus pressed the red button for “no.” The bill passed, but they sent Boehner a message: He didn’t have the unqualified support of all 241 House Republicans.
“If you don’t have 218, you’re not speaker,” one of Boehner’s close friends said, adding that they “cut his legs off.”
The roots of Boehner’s problem stretched back to last fall’s elections, which propelled him to power. On the campaign trail, Republicans promised that they would cut $100 billion from Obama’s budget proposal.
Now, there were 87 new freshmen in the Capitol, and many of them believed that would happen.
But it was a promise Boehner couldn’t keep. Democrats in the Senate rejected it out of hand.
As the last week began, Boehner was determined not to seem wobbly. In private meetings with Democrats, he repeated a mantra: “Nothing will be agreed to, until everything is agreed to.”
And so, nothing was.
‘This is it’
As the stalemate dragged on into Thursday night, President Obama summoned both Reid and Boehner to the White House. All week, Obama had sought to appear as Washington’s peacemaker, not as a partisan warrior on the Democratic side.
But there was a problem: Boehner wouldn’t give in and make peace.
With almost 24 hours to go until the government shut down, Obama gave Boehner an ultimatum on the speaker’s push to include abortion-related restrictions in the bill.
“John, I will give you D.C. abortion. I am not happy about it,” Obama said, according to a Democrat and Republican in the Oval Office. Boehner had been pushing to include both the restriction of government funding on abortions in the District of Columbia and a provision that would have placed limits on funds going to nonprofit groups that provide abortion services nationwide, including Planned Parenthood.
With the D.C. provision in hand, Boehner continued to push the president, aides said.
“Nope, zero,” Obama told Boehner. “Nope, zero. John, this is it.”
And that was it — for a little while. Later, White House aides said, Boehner returned to the issue. Evidently, he had pushed Biden too far.
If Republicans didn’t buckle on this provision, an angry Biden warned, “We’re going to have to take it to the American people.”
Nonetheless, they were close to agreeing to a dollar amount, or so the White House thought. By the next morning, though, White House aides said Boehner’s staff appeared to be asking for more cuts.
So Obama called Boehner. Where Biden had been threatening, Obama tried to appeal to Boehner’s sense of responsibility.
“I am the president of the United States and you are the speaker of the House. We are the two most consequential leaders in the U.S. government. We had a discussion last night and the staff negotiations don’t reflect that,” Obama told Boehner, according to White House staffers.
“The president believed Speaker Boehner was always there,” in understanding the gravity of the situation, a senior Obama aide explained. Boehner “did not want this to come to a shutdown.”
Reid’s voice
In the last days of negotiations, Reid suddenly found an issue — and a voice.
But as the Planned Parenthood issue emerged as a key sticking point, Reid took the spotlight.
“The numbers are extremely close,” Reid said Thursday morning. “If this government shuts down, and it looks like it is headed in that direction, it is going to be based on my friends in the House of Representatives, the leadership over there, focusing on ideological matters that have nothing to do with funding the government.”
Immediately, his own caucus rallied behind him. Democrats raced to the floor one after another denouncing the Republicans for threatening to shut down the government over abortion politics. Female Democratic senators held press conferences, and at one point Friday Democratic staff set up a podium off the Senate floor so that they could hold rolling press conferences attacking Republicans.
Reid also began trying to play hardball with Boehner, telling him that they wouldn’t compromise on the abortion issue and there were no more cuts to be made, according to a senior Democratic leadership aide.
On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who largely stayed out of the talks — called Reid and asked for a final favor for Boehner.
Reid said no. But he later gave in, in exchange for Boehner’s decision to drop the Planned Parenthood demand. Reid and Obama said they would allow for an additional $500 million in spending cuts.
Across town, OMB was preparing three memos to be sent to federal workers. One announced a shutdown. Another said the government would stay open. The third, anticipating a deal that came after midnight, would allow for a continuation of a few hours.
The Capitol’s own tourist-jammed hallways emptied out, leaving just milling reporters and scurrying lawmakers. After 10 p.m., with less than two hours remaining, Boehner called his fractious group of Republicans in for a meeting.
He told them there was still no final deal. But then he began to outline, in a calm voice, what a potential deal might be.
“That was the first time in weeks that they’ve told us specifics,” said Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), one of the most conservative members of the freshman class. Pearce knew what it meant: “You never reveal things in negotiations until it’s done.”
In fact, as they talked in the basement, aides to Boehner, Obama and Reid were shaking hands in the Speaker’s ornate office two floors up.
They had finally reached a deal: Boehner dropped his demand to take Planned Parenthood’s funds. In return, he got $78 billion in spending cuts — the $38 billion in cuts from last week’s deal, plus $40 billion in increases to agency budgets proposed by Obama that were never agreed to. And he got the D.C. abortion provision Obama had offered the night before.
Later, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray expressed outrage.
“The District of Columbia’s right to govern itself has, once again, been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency,” Gray said in a statement afterward. “This is ludicrous. . . .Hypocrisy is alive and well in the United States Congress.”
Calls went out. In the basement, Boehner was handed a slip of paper.
“There’s a deal!” he said. The room cheered.
Then, they had to hustle out to vote. By arriving at his deal with only minutes remaining before a shutdown, Boehner had allowed his rebellious conservatives little time to react.
But there may be more rebellions to come.
When House members rushed in to vote for a short-term budget measure — designed to allow a few days for the final deal to be approved next week — 28 Republicans voted no.
It was another sign: They were happy that Boehner had pushed the Democrats to the brink. But some conservatives thought that maybe they could have pushed Boehner even further.
“I voted against it. But I also appreciated the fact that it got solved,” Pearce said. He said his “no” vote was a message for Boehner, “to let the speaker know that, ‘You can take a little tougher position. We’re going to be behind you.’ ”
Staff writers Ed O’Keefe, Philip Rucker and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.
Congressman Pearce addresses the House on the national debt and other pressing issues facing the US.
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself at 11:07 pm CST on April 9th.
Health and Human Services, the home of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is a spending behemoth. Yet if this bureaucracy has any legitimate role, it is a small one. The principal social services safety net should be private. If government steps in, it should primarily be at the state and local level. If there’s any cause for federal intervention, it should be very limited.
For instance, Social Security and Medicare are middle class welfare. Politicians have lied about the programs being social insurance in order to win political support: there are no real trust funds, individual accounts, or legal obligations to pay. Yet the programs are fiscal time bombs, with trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. Individuals should save their own money for retirement; retirees should buy their own health insurance. People who are poor should be helped because they are poor.
Not much else the federal government does makes much sense. The Agriculture Department is a special interest bureaucracy par excellence, enriching people because they are farmers. Why do the rest of us owe farmers a living? They work hard, but so do most other Americans. Welfare should be for poor people, not influential people. Department buildings should be sold off for condos.
The same principle applies to the Commerce Department. While some bits of the bureaucracy perform legitimate functions (such as conducting a census for legislative apportionment), most of the department’s programs are forms of corporate welfare. American business should make money from customers, not steal money from taxpayers.
The analysis is similar for the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior. Most federal subsidies for energy have been the equivalent of flushing money down toilets at the DOE headquarters. Big Oil and little green like their respective subsidies, but taxpayers have gotten no benefits commensurate to their forced generosity.
18. 1991 Duke-UNLV
One year after losing to UNLV 103-73 in the championship game, Duke avenges that humiliating by knocking off the undefeated and defending national champion Runnin’ Rebels 79-77 as Christian Lattener hits two free throws with 12.7 seconds left.
Duke would win the national championship two nights later as they defeated Kansas 72-65 to give coach Mike Krzyzewski his first national title after five trips to the Final Four.
My brother in law Robert Parks once met Mike Krzyzewski when Mike spoke at a convention he attended for his business. His son Jeremy Parks went to high school with Elliot Williams at St Georges in Memphis and Elliot played for Coach K at Duke, but later transferred to Memphis and now is in the NBA.
1980 Presidential Debate Carter v Reagan
MR. ELLIS
Governor Reagan, Americans, through conservation, are importing much less oil today than we were even a year ago. And yet, U.S. reliance on Arab oil as a percentage of total imports is much higher today than it was during the 1973 Arab oil embargo. And the substantial loss of Arab oil could plunge the United States into depression.
The question is whether the development of alternative energy sources, in order to reduce this dependence, can be done without damaging the environment, and will it mean for American families steadily higher fuel bills?
GOVERNOR REAGAN
I’m not sure that it means steadily higher fuel costs, but I do believe that this Nation has been portrayed for too long a time to the people as being energy-poor when it is energy-rich. The coal that the President mentioned: Yes, we have it, and yet one-eighth of our total coal resources is not being utilized at all right now. The mines are closed down; there are 22,000 miners out of work. Most of this is due to regulations which either interfere with the mining of it or prevent the burning of it. With our modern technology, yes, we can burn our coal within the limits of the Clean Air Act. I think, as technology improves, we’ll be able to do even better with that.
The other thing is that we have only leased out and begun to explore 2 percent of our Outer Continental Shelf for oil, where it is believed by everyone familiar with that fuel and that source of energy that there are vast supplies yet to be found. Our Government has, in the last year or so, taken out of multiple use millions of acres of public lands that once were — well, they were public lands subject to multiple-use exploration for minerals and so forth. It is believed that probably 70 percent of the potential oil in the United States is probably hidden in those lands, and no one is allowed to even go and explore to find out if it is there. This is particularly true of the recent efforts to shut down part of Alaska.
Nuclear power: There were 36 powerplants planned in this country — and let me add the word “safety”; it must be done with the utmost of safety. But 32 of those have given up and cancelled their plans to build, and again, because Government regulations and permits and so forth make it take more than twice as long to build a nuclear plant in the United States as it does to build one in Japan or in Western Europe.
We have the sources here. We are energy-rich, and coal is one of the great potentials were have.
This photo, taken on 11 March and released on 23 March, shows waves forming in the sea after the tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1.Attend the Hope Watermelon Festival and buy cold slices of watermelon for all of your friends. (Back in 1977 I drove my grandparents from Memphis, TN to Crosy, TX to spend Thanksgiving with my cousins. My grandfather Everette Hatcher Sr. told me that he read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Hope Arkansas having the largest Watermelons in the world. I continued to drive that same path from 1977 to 1982 for my grandparents and every year we passed through Hope, my grandfather repeated that trivia fact. It is about time I get down there and check out the Watermelon festival. I am probably one of the few Arkansans that has not got around to it.)
2.Eat a watermelon from Hope and Cave City on the same afternoon before beginning a debate on which one is better.
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself at 10:05 am CST on April 9th. I am on the way out the door to see my 14 yr old son Wilson play a soccer game in Searcy. I know Mark’s kids are about the same age since we taught in the 4 yr old dept Learning Center at church together about 10 yrs ago when our sons were about the same age.
Are we so blind as to not be able to see that we need to put everything on the table, that this is a time for great leadership and sacrifice and we all have to give up something to get this done?
Yes I do agree that everything should be on the table. Our founding fathers did know what “great leadership and sacrifice” was. Senator Pryor brought them up in this speech. However, I just don’t see actions. All I see is the proper words. If someone says they want the federal government to sacrifice like the normal American family is, then THAT MEANS BALANCING THEIR BUDGET!!!! I could not imagine the founding fathers sitting around arguing over cutting 1 or 2% out of a bloated budget that needs to be balanced immediately. Earlier in Pryor’s speech he talked about the difference between Statesmen and Politicians. I wish we had some more statesmen, but they are hard to come by.
Not much else the federal government does makes much sense. The Agriculture Department is a special interest bureaucracy par excellence, enriching people because they are farmers. Why do the rest of us owe farmers a living? They work hard, but so do most other Americans. Welfare should be for poor people, not influential people. Department buildings should be sold off for condos.
The same principle applies to the Commerce Department. While some bits of the bureaucracy perform legitimate functions (such as conducting a census for legislative apportionment), most of the department’s programs are forms of corporate welfare. American business should make money from customers, not steal money from taxpayers.
The analysis is similar for the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior. Most federal subsidies for energy have been the equivalent of flushing money down toilets at the DOE headquarters. Big Oil and little green like their respective subsidies, but taxpayers have gotten no benefits commensurate to their forced generosity.
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Johnny Cash was one of my favorite Famous Arkansans.
June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at the age of seventy-one. June had told Cash to keep working, so he continued to record and even performed a couple of surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. (The July 5, 2003 concert was his final public appearance.) At the June 21, 2003 concert, before singing “Ring of Fire”, Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage. He spoke of how June’s spirit was watching over him and how she had come to visit him before going on stage. He barely made it through the song. Despite his poor health, he spoke of looking forward to the day when he could walk again and toss his wheelchair into the river near his home.
Johnny Cash died less than four months after his wife, on September 12, 2003, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He was buried next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
One of Johnny Cash’s final collaborations with producer Rick Rubin, entitled American V: A Hundred Highways, was released posthumously on July 4, 2006. The album debuted in the #1 position on Billboard Magazines Top 200 album chart for the week ending July 22, 2006.
Dr Price, who directs excavations at the Qumran plateau in Israel, the site of the community that produced the dead sea scrolls some 2,000 years ago, expertly guides you through the latest archaeological finds that have changed the way we understand the world of the bible. (Part 6 of 6 in the film series The Stones Cry Out).
The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
My sons Hunter and Wilson got to visit our friend Sherwood Haisty in California and they got to visit Yosemite National Park and I have put up some pictures below. Sherwood actually bought my son Wilson a McArthur Study Bible and he got it signed by John McArthur when he saw him at Grace Community Church. (I have put a clip of McArthur on the Larry King Show.)
From time to time you will read articles in the Arkansas press by such writers as John Brummett, Max Brantley and Gene Lyons that poke fun at those that actually believe the Bible is historically accurate when in fact the Bible is backed up by many archaeological facts. The Book of Mormon is blindly accepted even though archaeology has disproven many of the facts that are claimed by it. For instance, wheat and barley did not exist in North America when they said they did.
“Barley” is mentioned three times in the Book of Mormon narrative dating to the 1st and 2nd century BC.[59] “Wheat” is mentioned once in the Book of Mormon narrative dating to the same time period.[60] The introduction of domesticated modern barley and wheat to the New World was made by Europeans after 1492, many centuries after the time in which the Book of Mormon is set.
Could this tablet mention the name of one of Jerusalem’s most famous kings…Uzziah?The Bible mentions Uzziah or Azariah as the king of the southern kingdom of Judah in 2 Kings 15. The Uzziah Tablet Inscription is a stone tablet (35 cm high x 34 cm wide x 6 cm deep) with letters inscribed in ancient Hebrew text with an Aramaic style of writing, which dates to around 30-70 AD. The text reveals the burial site of Uzziah of Judah, who died in 747 BC. The inscription on the ossuary tombstone reads:“The bones of Uzziah, King of Judah, rest here … Do not open!”The Uzziah Tablet Inscription was discovered in Jerusalem in 1931 by Professor. E. I. Sukenik of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Uzziah Tablet is an important discovery in the study of Biblical Archaeology because it mentions one of the kings of Judah, and the Jewish authorities would not have crafted such a piece unless there was an original work to draw from. It is interesting that the Tiglath-pileser inscription mentions Uzziah four times (Azariah the Judean). Tiglath-pileser was the Assyrian ruler who deported the Jews of the northern kingdom of Israel away into captivity.Isaiah 6:1 “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
Office workers look out at the devastation after today’s earthquake. Photo: Xinhua/ Gamma-Rapho
John MacArthur on “Larry King Live” show in clip below:
Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1. Hang out in downtown Hot Springs on St. Patrick’s Day and attend the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
2. Float around in Skinny Dip Cove on Lake Hamilton on a summer Sunday afternoon.
My sons had a great trip to Yosemite from March 21 to March 27. Here are some of their pictures. Wilson pictured above.
I just can’t stop posting things about Johnny Cash. He was so special. I am so proud that he was from Arkansas. Here is his last song.
Johnny Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Primarily a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll (especially early in his career), as well as blues, folk and gospel.
In 1997, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome. The diagnosis was later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. This illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The albums American III: Solitary Man (2000) and American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002) contained Cash’s response to his illness in the form of songs of a slightly more somber tone than the first two American albums. The video that was released for “Hurt”, a song by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, fit Cash’s view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from American IV, is now generally recognized as “his epitaph,” and received particular critical and popular acclaim.
Written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore
Recorded by Johnny Cash on 3/25/63
Number one – County Chart; Number 17 – Pop Chart
Love Is A Burning Thing
And It Makes A Fiery Ring
Bound By Wild Desire
I Fell Into A Ring Of Fire
CHORUS:
I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire
I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire
The Taste Of Love Is Sweet
When Hearts Like Ours Meet
I Fell For You Like A Child
Oh, But The Fire Went Wild
CHORUS
I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher
Cool New Version of Johnny Cash
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire
I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down(down), Down(down), Down(down)
And The Flames Went Higher Higher Higher
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire
On Thursday I got to hear Congressman Mike Pence tell the listeners of the show “Today’s Issues” on American Family Radio that the Republicans were not going to back down on the issue of defunding Planned Parenthood from the federal government. Therefore, since I am very much pro-life, I wanted to follow the developments of this story very closely.
I am little perplexed by this development concerning the CR and I did stay up late in the night to try to get to the bottom of this mess. Evidently the Republicans caved on their demand that Planned Parenthood should be defunded by the federal government and passed a temporary CR. At least there will be another debate next week before the April 14th CR is finalized. However, I am not very hopeful that the Planned Parenthood issue will be revisited.
4-8-2011 – Statement from Pence Press Office Regarding Continuing Resolution and Pence Amendment
Washington, D.C.— The following statement was issued by Matt Lloyd, Communications Director for U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, today regarding the Pence Amendment that would deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates:
“It has been erroneously reported in the media that Congressman Pence has signaled a willingness to accept a compromise on the Pence Amendment in the negotiations over a long-term Continuing Resolution. These reports are inaccurate. Congressman Pence has made no statement concerning the ongoing negotiations and remains committed to the Pence Amendment and will continue to work with colleagues to include this measure in any final legislation.”
Rep. Mike Pence defended his amendment to defund Planned Parenthood in order to reach a budget cut compromise. He also claims troops will still be funded if a government shutdown takes place.
7th Continuing Resolution, funding through April 14, 2011, passed on April 8, 2011. This continuing resolution followed a deal on the full annual budget which was made with just hours remaining before a government shutdown.[6] It itself contains an additional $2 billion in cuts.[7] The previous day, the House had passed a Republican-backed resolution which would fund the government for another week and cut an additional $12 billion from 2010 levels, which was rejected by Democrats and not taken up by the Senate.[22]
Deal curbs D.C. abortions, includes other social issues
President Barack Obama said the budget negotiations weren’t the place to deal with contentious social issues — but the agreement doesn’t completely sidestep abortion.
Democrats beat back Republican attempts to cut funding for women’s health services, including for organizations like Planned Parenthood.
But Democrats did agree to ban the District of Columbia from using federal and local taxpayer funds on abortions — a move already being cheered by abortion opponents as a noteworthy victory.
The deal also includes a guarantee that the Senate will vote on bill that would end federal funding for Planned Parenthood, according to a House Republican summary.
Such a bill is unlikely to make it through the Senate, but the vote will put moderate Democrats and Republicans, particularly those facing tough reelections next year, on the spot.
“The Speaker said repeatedly he was going to fight for the most policy provisions – and most spending cuts – possible and he did,” said Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Speaking from the White House late Friday, Obama suggested the agreement didn’t deal with abortion.
“We also made sure that at the end of the day, this was a debate about spending cuts, not social issues like women’s health and the protection of our air and water,” Obama said. “These are important issues that deserve discussion, just not during a debate about our budget.”
In fact, the deal is filled with several non-budget policy “riders” that bring some of the House Republicans’ favored causes into the budget agreement. Here is a list provided by the House Republicans:
— Guarantees Senate debate and vote on repeal of Obama’s health reform law. The House passed such a bill in January.
— Requires numerous studies of health reform that Republicans say “will force the Obama administration to reveal the true impact of the law’s mandates,” including studies on the law’s affect on premiums, the number and cost of contractors hired to implement the law and “a full audit of the waivers that the Obama administration has given to firms and organizations – including unions – that can’t meet the new annual coverage limits.”
— Denies additional funding to hire more IRS agents.
— Requires mandatory annual audits of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, by both the private sector and the Government Accountability Office. The audits will examine the effects of the agency’s actions on the economy, including its impact on jobs.
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself at 3:28 pm CST on April 8, 2011.
I’m also reminded in the New Testament when Jesus is talking to political and religious leadership of his day. He says “Are you so blind?”
Are we so blind that we can’t see the forest for the trees here, that we can’t understand how important it is for this country to get our debt and deficit where it needs to be?
Sometimes I wonder if some politicians are blind. They realize they are elected by the voters back home, but then they go out and try ignore these same voters when they vote. For instance, clearly the voters rejected the big government type of Democrat in Jan of 2010 when Scott Brown was elected to take Ted Kennedy’s senate seat, but what does President Obama do? He rams through healthcare anyway.
What bugs me most about this congressional redistricting nonsense in Little Rock is that Democrats have been trying to save themselves artificially through imaginative gerrymandering rather than by ideas, issues and honest policy debate.
Sustaining success can never be achieved in politics by running from the people. It can only come from persuading the people
I think that the liberals in Congress can not see what is happening to European countries like Greece? Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute wrote a fine article called “The Greek Tragedy…America’s future?” He states:
In my darker moments, I have sometimes warned audiences of what will happen when a majority of voters in a country or a state become dependent on government. In such an environment, it obviously becomes much more difficult to put together an electoral coalition that will lead to fiscal changes that shrink the burden of government and curtail the predatory state. This is what has happened to Greece, and what is soon going to happen in other European nations (and, barring reform, what will eventually happen in the United States).
Health and Human Services, the home of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is a spending behemoth. Yet if this bureaucracy has any legitimate role, it is a small one. The principal social services safety net should be private. If government steps in, it should primarily be at the state and local level. If there’s any cause for federal intervention, it should be very limited.
For instance, Social Security and Medicare are middle class welfare. Politicians have lied about the programs being social insurance in order to win political support: there are no real trust funds, individual accounts, or legal obligations to pay. Yet the programs are fiscal time bombs, with trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. Individuals should save their own money for retirement; retirees should buy their own health insurance. People who are poor should be helped because they are poor.
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Johnny Cash is too big a figure to just have one post about.
Live @ San Quentin Prison
This film footage was shot at a high school prom in Texas 1955 with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Elvis and Buddy Holly.
When I think of the things that make me sad concerning this country, the first thing that pops into my mind is our treatment of unborn children. Donald Trump is probably going to run for president of the United States. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council recently had a conversation with him concerning the issue of abortion. Trump said he realized that changing his position on abortion had to concern many. Perkins said that did not matter as long as you were changing to the right view. Trump said that it was technology that caused him to change to the pro-life view.
“Given Donald Trump’s background in the gambling industry and his flamboyancy, one would not think he would be a fit with Evangelical voters. However, given the wide open field of candidates, strong statements that Trump has recently made on core social issues combined with an overarching desire to see a new occupant in the White House, he may find support among social conservatives.“
“Embryos are Dependent Creatures. So are fetuses. So are we all dependent; on the kindness or tolerance of others, and on various biological and medical devices…Surely, dependency is not a measure of moral standing…” p. 128.The Silent Scream. By 1984, however, I had begun to ask myself more questions about abortion: What actually goes on in an abortion? I had done many, but abortion is a blind procedure. The doctor does not see what he is doing. He puts an instrument into a uterus and he turns on a motor, and a suction machines goes on and something is vacuumed out; it ends up as a little pile of meat in a gauze bag, I wanted to know what happened, so in 1984 I said to a friend of mine, who was doing fifteen or maybe twenty abortions a day, “Look, do me a favor, Jay. Next Saturday, when you are doing all these abortions, put an ultrasound device on the mother and tape it for me.”He did, and when he looked at the tapes with me in an editing studio, he was so affected that he never did another abortion…The tapes were amazing…weren’t of very good quality… and began to show it pro-life gatherings… p. 141Nathanson then recounts Silent Scream, the movie:
I was speaking at pro-life meetings around the country on weekends, and the response to the tape was so intense and dramatic that finally I was approached by a man named Don Smith, who wanted to make my tape into a film. I agreed that it would be a good idea. That is how The Silent Scream, which generated so much furor, came to be made. We showed it for the first time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on January 3, 1985. The reaction was instantaneous. Everybody was up in arms because The Silent Scream represented an enormous threat to the abortion forces and because it escalated the war (it’s not really a debate–we don’t debate each other; we scream at one another). For the first time, we had the technology and they had nothing. p.141 Emphasis mine.
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1. Drive the length of Arkansas Highway 7 from the Louisiana border in the south to Bull Shoals Lake in the north. (I have driven on Hwy 7 from I-40 to Bull Shoals and I have driven from I-40 down Hwy 7 but I have not gone all the way to Louisiana on Hwy 7. )
2. Take U.S. Highway 71 rather than Interstate 540 from Alma to Fayetteville just for old time’s sake. Get out and stretch your legs atop Mount Gaylor. (I have done this many times but not since 540 opened. The funny thing is that I have thought about doing that on several occasions.)
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself at 9:18 am CST on April 8, 2011.
I’m reminded many times in the Bible, we’re always encouraged to do right, to do justice, to show mercy. We want to be upright and true. I think that’s what they call us to do and what they want us to do.
I also believe the Bible just like you do. However, I believe that the Bible has directed both individuals and churches to help the poor. The federal government has done a horrible job of helping the poor.
Welfare may have started with the best of intentions, but it has clearly failed. It has failed to meet its stated goal of reducing poverty. But its real failure is even more disastrous. Welfare has torn apart the social fabric of our society. Everyone is worse off. The poor are dehumanized, seduced into a system from which it is terribly difficult to escape. Teenage girls give birth to children they will never be able to support. The work ethic is eroded. Crime rates soar. Such is the legacy of welfare…
Private efforts have been much more successful than the federal government’s failed attempt at charity. America is the most generous nation on earth. Americans already contribute more than $125 billion annually to charity. In fact, more than 85 percent of all adult Americans make some charitable contribution each year.
Even the Justice Department is a dubious creature. The duty of ensuring “justice” is real, but the bureaucracy of justice — laws, police, prosecutors, courts — primarily belongs at the state and local levels. Federalization of the criminal law, under Republicans and Democrats alike, and support for social engineering, such as de facto racial quotas, have increasingly sacrificed Americans’ liberties. Much of the bureaucracy should be shut down.
The Treasury Department, or something like it, is necessary as long as Uncle Sam collects taxes and spends money. But it should do far less of both. Moreover, much of Treasury’s work would be criminal if conducted by anyone else — invading taxpayers’ privacy, enforcing economic sanctions, conducting financial spying.
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I have been doing a series on Famous Arkansans. Johnny Cash is one of my favorites. I grew up with a guy named Paul Garrett who went to my school and church. His uncle was Johnny Cash. I went to the 1978 Billy Graham Crusade in Memphis and got to hear Johnny sing. Right there sitting on the stage right behind him was Paul.
A 23 years old Johnny Cash performing “I walk the Line” live at The Tex Ritter Show.
This is the real roots of so many things.
I WALK THE LINE.
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine,
I walk the line
I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I’ll admit I’m a fool for you
Because you’re mine,
I walk the line
As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I’ve known proves that it’s right
Because you’re mine,
I walk the line
You’ve got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can’t hide
For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide
Because you’re mine,
I walk the line
(1932-2003) – This “Man in Black” was born to a Kingsland, Arkansas sharecropper on February 26, 1932. His first big hit was “Folsom Prison Blues” which rose to the Top Five in country singles in 1956. “I Walk the Line” became Cash’s first No. 1 hit. In 1957, he made his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, and by 1958, he’d published 50 songs, sold more than six million records and moved to Columbia label. Some of his other well-known recordings include “A Boy Named Sue,” “Orange Blossom Special,” “Ring of Fire” and “Jackson,” which he recorded with his wife June Carter Cash. He starred in “The Johnny Cash Show” (ABC, 1969-71) and “Johnny Cash and Friends” (CBS, 1976). He also appeared in the movie “Gunfight” (1970), the television miniseries “North and South” (1985), and made guest appearances on various television shows. His 11 Grammys include a Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1998 Grammy for Country Album of the Year for “Unchained.” Cash was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1980), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992). www.johnny-cash.com
Johnny Cash Hurt what Makes this Song and Video so Great is that Its possibly the Saddest Song ever he sang before he died and singing about his life like When june died and Same Clips of his life one of my favourite Songs
H.R. 1363: Department of Defense and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
My sons had a great trip to Yosemite from March 21 to March 27. Here are some of their pictures. 
Wilson pictured above.
The Daily Hatch 