In one of the lesser-known manipulations of U.S. law to advance the pro-abortion agenda, the President’s Department of Justice has for several years been availing itself of a statute originally written to stop violence to instead seek massive fines and injunctions against peaceful pro-life advocates who offer alternatives to women on public sidewalks. But this politicization of the law in favor of abortion yielded a mixed record this week.

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Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

In Holder v. Pine, the U.S. Attorney General brought a legal attack against Mary Pine of West Palm Beach, Florida, who the federal court says is “a pro-life advocate who believes, based on her past unfortunate experience with abortion, that women who are considering abortion should be made aware of the available alternatives and assistance programs.”

Pine’s alleged federal offense is that she “offer[s] information and literature about ‘life-affirming’ alternatives to abortion” to people entering and leaving abortion centers

One single time, according to the Attorney General’s complaint, Ms. Pine approached a car entering the abortion facility driveway that crosses the sidewalk, and she slightly, momentarily, may (or may not) have been there before the car was, so that the Department of Justice claims she blocked the car. But she “immediately” walked to the car’s side, where the participants talked to her at length, wanting to hear her message.

The very next day, several DOJ representatives were at the abortion center to “investigate,” but not as most of us would define it. The abortion center has a video camera running all the time, which would have shown what really happened. Yet the DOJ agents decided not to copy the video, and instead let it be destroyed. The judge called this “rather curious” and “hard to believe,” making him wonder out loud “whether this action was the product of a concerted effort between the government and the PWC, which began well before the date of the incident at issue, to quell Ms. Pine’s activities.”

Ms. Pine’s attorneys with the pro-life firm Liberty Counsel filed a motion for summary judgment, which the federal court granted last week. The judge declared that the DOJ had failed to follow the law in stretching the text of it to cover this “innocuous incident,” and that no jury could find that Ms. Pine had the required motive, actual obstructing activity, and actual interference with someone getting an abortion, as the law requires.

The Court rejected the Obama administration’s contention that merely wanting to convince people to choose life instead of abortion qualifies as an illegal motive to “obstruct” abortion under FACE, and ruled instead the First Amendment thoroughly protects Pine’s desire. So plainly agenda-driven was the administration’s case, it led the judge to declare that “The Court is at a loss as to why the Government chose to prosecute this particular case in the first place.”

The DOJ has apparently not learned its lesson. It brought another action against sidewalk counselor Dick Retta in Washington, D.C. Once again, the complaint contends that in one mere incident, as Mr. Retta was walking alongside a woman to convince her not to enter a Planned Parenthood facility, he stepped in between her and the door momentarily, according to the abortion center’s employees. In this case, Mr. Retta’s attorneys from the pro-life law firm ACLJ moved to dismiss the complaint before discovery and the interviewing of witnesses. An Obama-appointed federal judge denied the motion last week. But Mr. Retta will be able to seek summary judgment after discovery just as Ms. Pine did, and hopefully the court will follow the Florida judge’s lead.

These are just two of several instances of the Obama administration using federal law enforcement to protect abortion and suppress speech rather than deal with actual threats to public safety. Last year, Senator Rand Paul investigated evidence produced by ADF-allied attorney Herb Grey from training seminars conducted by the FBI and DOJ in partnership with abortion organizations. The FBI distributed a “report” at the seminars, which was produced by the abortion groups and was attached to the DOJ officials’s presentation outline. The report placed pro-life free speech in the category of violence and listed numerous pro-life websites in its detailing of potential threats. Similarly, in April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report on the threat of domestic terrorism by “rightwing extremists,” specifying that such extremism “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion.”

These instances demonstrate in real time that President Obama prioritizes abortion as one of the most urgent activities that law enforcement must protect, even (or especially) by targeting pro-life free speech. And it also shows that there is one group of people who can call this administration and make them come running: abortionists.

President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.

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Iniquity Abounding

“And because iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
—Matthew 24:12

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama “Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports,” according to details provided by Harper’s office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country’s “financial security.”
The “decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market,” Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.
Currently, 99 percent of Canada’s crude exports go to the U.S., a figure that Harper wants to reduce in his bid to make Canada a “superpower” in global energy markets.
Canada accounts for more than 90 percent of all proven reserves outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data compiled in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Most of Canada’s crude is produced from oil-sands deposits in the landlocked province of Alberta, where output is expected to double over the next eight years, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
“I am sure that if the oil sands production is not used in the United States, they will be used in other countries,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said in an interview before a speech at Imperial College in London today.
‘Profound Disappointment’
Harper “expressed his profound disappointment with the news,” according to the statement, which added that Obama told Harper the rejection was not based on the project’s merit and that the company is free to re-apply.
Canada this month began hearings on a proposed pipeline by Enbridge Inc. to move crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast, where it could be shipped to Asian markets.
Environmentalists and Canadian opposition lawmakers welcomed the Obama administration’s decision. Megan Leslie, a lawmaker for the opposition New Democratic Party, said the Keystone pipeline project was harmful to Canada’s energy security.
“What I’m opposed to is continuing the unchecked expansion of the oil sands,” Leslie said by telephone.
New Flashpoint
Enbridge’s pipeline may now become the new flashpoint between Harper and the opposition. Harper has said building the capacity to sell the country’s oil to Asian markets is in the national interest, and the government will review regulatory- approval rules for new energy projects so they can be done more quickly. Harper has also said he will look more closely into complaints that “foreign money” is being used to overload the regulatory process.
“We have to have processes in Canada that come to a decision in a reasonable amount of time, and processes that cannot be hijacked,” Harper said at a press conference Jan. 6 in Edmonton.
The Keystone decision is the latest of several U.S. moves that have irked Canadian policy makers. Canada objected to “Buy American” provisions in the Obama administration’s $447 billion jobs bill that was blocked by Republicans in Congress, as well as the restoration of a $5.50 fee on Canadian travelers arriving in the U.S. by plane or ship.
Approval of Keystone is a “no-brainer,” Harper said in a Sept. 21 interview with Bloomberg.
Cornerstone of Development
Yesterday’s rejection “certainly introduces new uncertainties into the economic relationship,” said David Pumphrey, deputy director of the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “This is a cornerstone of economic development for the country.”
The denial came before a Feb. 21 deadline set by Congress after Obama postponed a decision in November. TransCanada said the 1,661-mile (2,673-kilometer) project would carry 700,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf coast, crossing six U.S. states and creating 20,000 jobs.
“I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my administration’s commitment to American-made energy,” Obama said today in a statement. “We will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security.”
Canadian policy makers said they remain optimistic TransCanada will eventually be able to proceed.
Still Supporting
Alberta Premier Alison Redford said in a press conference in Edmonton that it is still “entirely possible” the pipeline will be built and said it was good news that TransCanada planned to apply again.
Canada will continue to support TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said, adding that it is in the best interests of both Canada and the United States.
“We strongly believe that Keystone’s in the best interests of both countries,” he said. “We’ll continue to be an active supporter of the project.”

Many church-affiliated institutions will have to cover free birth control for employees, the Obama administration announced Friday in an election-year move that outraged religious groups, fueling a national debate about the reach of government.

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Iniquity Abounding

“And because iniquity•Strongs 458:anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness: — iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness. shall abound, the love•Strongs 26:agape, ag-ah´-pay; from 25; love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast: — (feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love. of many shall wax•Strongs 5594: psucho, psoo´-kho; a primary verb; to breathe (voluntarily but gently, thus differing on the one hand from 4154, which denotes properly a forcible respiration; and on the other from the base of 109, which refers properly to an inanimate breeze), i.e. (by implication, of reduction of temperature by evaporation) to chill (figuratively): — wax cold. cold.”
—Matthew 24:12

In a concession, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said nonprofit institutions such as church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have one additional year to comply with the requirement, issued in regulations under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

“I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services,” Sebelius said in a statement.

Yet the concession was unlikely to stop a determined effort by opponents to block or overturn the rule. If they fail, some predicted that religious employers would simply drop coverage for their workers, opting instead to pay fines to the federal government under the health care law.

“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience,” said New York Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”

Officials said the administration’s ruling was carefully considered, after reviewing more than 200,000 comments from interested parties and the public. The one-year extension, they said, responds to concerns raised by religious employers about making adjustments. Administration officials stressed that individual decisions about whether or not to use birth control, and what kind, remain in the hands of women and their doctors.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the decision, Obama personally spoke with Dolan on Friday to inform him of the announcement, an administration official said.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a powerhouse law firm based in Washington that tackles religious freedom issues, predicted in a statement that religious groups “will never pay for abortion drugs in violation of their religious beliefs.” Many religious conservatives consider the morning-after birth control pill to be an abortion drug.

Liberals and women’s rights groups praised the decision, saying that women who work for religious employers should not have to accept a lower standard of health coverage.

“The administration stood firm,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “As a result millions will get access to contraception, and they will not have to ask their bosses for permission.”

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of Senate leadership, said, “The president made the right decision by putting access and the reproductive rights of women first.”

Birth control use is virtually universal in the United States, and most health insurance plans cover the pill, usually with copays. Still, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned.

At issue is a provision of the health care law that requires insurance plans to cover preventive care for women free of charge to the employee. Last year, an advisory panel from the respected Institute of Medicine recommended including birth control on the list, partly because it promotes maternal and child health by allowing women to space their pregnancies.

Sebelius agreed, issuing a new federal regulation last summer.

That rule, however, exempted houses of worship and their employees, as well as other institutions whose primary purpose is to promote religious belief. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other places would not be required to cover contraceptives, it specified.

It was a different story for religious-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies.

Although many of those employers had not traditionally covered birth control, the new regulation required them to do so. Catholic hospitals, which at a critical moment had defied the bishops to back Obama’s health care law in Congress, immediately sought a broader exemption. On Friday they were denied.

Representing some 600 hospitals, the Catholic Health Association expressed disappointment.

“The challenge that these regulations posed for many groups remains unresolved,” said Sister Carol Keehan, president of the group. “This indicates the need for an effective national conversation on the appropriate conscience protections in our pluralistic society, which has always respected the role of religions.”

The administration says between 1 million and 2 million people work for religious-affiliated institutions, though it’s not clear how many would be affected. Some states already require religious employers to cover the pill.

For religious-affiliated employers, the requirement will take effect August 1, 2013, and their workers in most cases will have access to coverage starting January 1, 2014.

Women working for secular enterprises from profit-making companies to government will have access to the new coverage starting January 1, 2013, in most cases.

Workplace health plans will have to cover all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration, ranging from the pill to implantable devices to sterilization. Also covered is the morning-after pill, which can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex and is considered as tantamount to an abortion drug by some religious conservatives.

However, the new regulation does not require coverage of abortions.

Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Scientists seeking to fight future pandemics have created a variety of “bird flu” potentially so dangerous that a federal advisory panel has for the first time asked two science journals to hold back on publishing details of research.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

In the experiments, university-based scientists in the Netherlands and Wisconsin created a version of the H5N1 influenza virus that is highly lethal and easily transmissible between ferrets, the lab animals that most closely mirror human beings in flu research.

Members of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which was created after the anthrax bioterrorism attacks of 2001, worried that such a hazardous strain might be intentionally or accidentally released into the world if directions for making it were generally known.

After weeks of reviewing papers describing the research, the NSABB said Tuesday it had recommended that the experiments’ “general conclusions” be published but not “details that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm.”

“Censorship is considered the ultimate sin of original research. However, we also have an imperative to keep certain research out of the hands of individuals who could use it for nefarious purposes,” said Michael Osterholm, a member of the board who is also director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It is not unexpected that these two things would clash in this very special situation.”

The board cannot stop publication. Its advice went to the Department of Health and Human Services, whose leaders asked the authors of the papers and the journals reviewing them — Science, published in Washington, and Nature, published in London — to comply.

The journals’ responses to the request were chilly, although both hinted they were willing to go along under certain conditions. Dutch researchers said they “are currently working on a new manuscript that complies with the recommendation.” The scientists at the University of Wisconsin could not be reached.

The work was paid for by the National Institutes of Health as part of a large portfolio of research aimed at “pandemic preparedness.”

The recommendation from the board puts the federal government in a distinctly controversial and embarrassing position.

It calls for a limit on the free exchange of information, something viewed as anathema by most scientists. It also suggests there wasn’t sufficient forethought about what might happen if the experiments actually worked.

The board reached the decision unanimously, Keim said.

The substance of the experiments has been known to some members of the influenza research community since early summer. There are strong and widely divergent views of what should be done with the results. A few scientists say the work should never have started.

About 600 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, have become ill from the H5N1 virus since 1997. About 60 percent have died. The virus is rarely passed from person to person. In most cases, infection requires close contact with sick birds.

Because of its extreme virulence, H5N1 has been the flu strain most feared as the source of a possible influenza pandemic. What it lacked were the genetic changes permitting easy transmission by coughing, sneezing and touch. The new research has apparently produced those changes for the first time, at least in ferrets.

Exactly how the key new mutations occurred is unclear, although it seems in part to be the product of chance. Influenza viruses are constantly changing in small ways. Simply infecting ferrets enough times with the virus may have been sufficient to allow mutations favoring easy transmissibility to emerge by chance and then be “saved” by natural selection.

The 63-foot Sierra White Fir lighted at the U.S. Capitol Grounds on Dec. 6 as the official 2011 Capitol Christmas Tree includes a prominently displayed ornament paying homage to President Barack Obama, but includes no ornament readily visible to a person standing near the tree’s base that uses the word “Christmas,” or includes an image of the Nativity, or bears the name or image of Jesus Christ.

To view popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

On the north side of the tree–at a height of about 4 feet and easily visible to people standing near it—there is an ornament that says: “I ♥ President Obama.”

When asked whether the tree included any ornaments that mention or depict Christmas or the birth of Jesus, the office of the Architect of the Capitol, which is responsible for the tree, told CNSNews.com that it “does not have a policy nor any restrictions concerning the themes for the ornaments” that go on the tree. The office could not say, however, whether or not this year’s Christmas tree does in fact include even a single ornament that directly references or depicts Christmas or Christ.

The office of the Architect of the Capitol also did not directly respond to the question of whether any other elected official—in addition to President Obama—is mentioned on any ornament hung on the tree.

“There may be ornaments like those you describe near the top of the tree, or they could have been obscured or moved due to wind or weather,” the architect’s office said in a written statement to CNSNews.com.

Each year since 1964, Congress has been decorating a Christmas tree on the Capitol Grounds. Until 1968, the decorated tree was a live tree planted on the Grounds. Since then, the tree has been cut down—usually in a National Forest–and brought to the Capitol from somewhere in the United States. Since 1970, the U.S. Forest Service has been responsible for providing the tree.

Over the years, the Capitol Christmas Tree has come from an irregular rotation of states—including, not exclusively, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, and California. The state that sends the tree in any given year, according to the Architect of the Capitol, chooses the theme for the ornaments it will bear. People from that state create the ornaments and donate them to the government.

This year’s tree came from the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, Calif., which sits on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, due East of San Francisco.

The theme for this year’s ornaments was “California Shines.”

“Ornaments should be designed to reflect our theme ‘California Shines’ by showing how the rich cultural and ecological diversity of this state make it shine,” says the tree’s official website, which was funded by corporate sponsors. ”From the Pacific Ocean to the sparkling deserts, from the high mountain peaks to its forests, rivers and abundant Central Valley, the diversity of nature and the people who live here are what make the great state of California shine.”

While the website said that all Californians were invited to submit ornaments, it put a special emphasis on getting students to participate.

“We invite participation from all Californians,” said the website. “From individuals, artists, crafters, young and old alike, any and all are invited to create and send in an ornament.”

But a flyer distributed by the website said: “Although anyone can participate, a special invitation goes out to school classes, after-school programs, home school groups, scout troops and all other interested youth groups to create the ornaments for the outdoor tree.”

In keeping with this special invitation to students, the official website also produced some environmental “lesson plans” that teachers could use in helping their students create ornaments.

“We ask that all ornaments for the Capitol Christmas Tree be made out of natural or recycled materials,” said the introduction to the lesson plans. “Please share the thoughts in our mini-lesson ‘There is No Away’ with your students when they create an ornament for the Tree.”

“Ask students where they think that trash goes when they throw it away,” said this introduction. “Work with them until they understand that trash eventually ends up in a landfill. Show students the image of a landfill.”

Although the Capitol Christmas Tree, as it stood on the morning of Dec. 19, included no readily visible ornament that mentioned or depicted Christmas or Jesus, it did include one ornament that pointed to the Bible and Psalm 19. This ornament, made from an aluminum pie tin, shows a miner panning for gold with a Bible behind him. There is a gold cross on the cover of the Bible. Around the interior wall of the pie tin, these words are written with what appears to be a blue marker: “More precious than Gold” and “Psalm 19.”

Psalm 19 says in part: “The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold.”

The tree also includes an ornament that from a distance looks like it could be a cross–but closer up turns out to be a road sign, pointing the direction not to California—but 4837 miles to Hawaii.

Other prominent ornaments on the tree tout Disneyland, Hollywood, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The tree also includes a number of ornaments representing Christmas gift packages. The ribbons on these packages are arranged in a cross pattern–but all of them have “Happy Holidays” ensribed on them.

The official website of the Capitol Christmas Tree has posted 87 photos of Californians making ornaments or posing with ornaments they have made. One of these photos shows a young girl holding an ornament that depicts one of the missions founded in California in the 18th century by Spanish Franciscan missionaries. It is unclear whether this ornament was placed somewhere on the 63-foot tree.

CNSNews.com sent a series of question about the ornaments to the U.S. Forest Service office in Tuolumne County, Calif., that was responsible for securing the tree and collecting the ornaments and sending them to Washington, D.C. These questions asked if any ornaments had been excluded because of their content and if there were any ornaments actually hung on the tree that expressly mentioned or depicted Christmas, or the birth of Jesus, or any Christian cultural site in California, such as the California missions.

Along with these questions, CNSNews.com sent the Forest Service a photograph of the ornaments that said “I ♥ President Obama” and that quoted Psalm 19, and asked if there were any other ornaments on the tree that mentioned an incumbent elected official or that cited a biblical passage from either the Old or New Testament.

The Forest Service said that it had simply sent all ornaments that had been donated by Californians–along with the 63-foot White Sierra Fir–to Ted Bechtol, who works under the Architect of the Capitol as the Superintendent of the Capitol Ground. The Forest Service also said it had forwarded CNSnews.com’s questions to Bechtol.

Separately, CNSNews.com sent the questions and photos directly to Bechtol and Eva Malecki, communications officer for the Architect of the Capitol. Malecki responded with this statement:

Thank you for your inquiry. The Office of the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) does not have a policy nor any restrictions concerning the themes for the ornaments donated for the Capitol Christmas Tree. Each state determines its own theme each year, and the U.S. Forest Service collects the ornaments from communities throughout the state from which the tree is donated. (For more information about the types of ornaments collected and collection process, I recommend you speak with the U.S. Forest Service.) Thousands of ornaments are delivered by the U.S. Forest Service to the U.S. Capitol in large boxes along with the Capitol Christmas Tree. There is no selection process to determine which ornaments were to be placed on the Capitol Christmas Tree and which were not based on theme or content. Rather, the Capitol Grounds crew has to decorate a 65-foot tree in a matter of days, therefore they place ornaments on the Capitol Christmas Tree until it is fully decorated. Their only concern is that the ornaments stand up to the weather (durable and waterproof). We cannot provide you with the information you requested as to the location of specific ornaments on the Capitol Christmas Tree. As I noted earlier, the Capitol Grounds crew placed thousands of the hand-crafted ornaments on the 65-foot tall Capitol Christmas Tree. There may be ornaments like those you describe near the top of the tree, or they could have been obscured or moved due to wind or weather. The Capitol Christmas Tree has been a wonderful tradition on Capitol Hill for more than 45 years, and it is not the AOC’s policy or practice to exclude the display of donated ornaments on the Capitol Christmas Tree because of any viewpoint of those individuals who created them.”

The domestic ban didn’t end horse slaughter but instead shifted the site of butchery to Mexico and Canada – which meant increased abuse or neglect as the horses were shipped out of the country and beyond the reach of U.S. law.

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Iniquity Abounding

“And because iniquity•Strongs 458:anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness: — iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness. shall abound, the love•Strongs 26:agape, ag-ah´-pay; from 25; love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast: — (feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love. of many shall wax•Strongs 5594: psucho, psoo´-kho; a primary verb; to breathe (voluntarily but gently, thus differing on the one hand from 4154, which denotes properly a forcible respiration; and on the other from the base of 109, which refers properly to an inanimate breeze), i.e. (by implication, of reduction of temperature by evaporation) to chill (figuratively): — wax cold. cold.”
—Matthew 24:12

“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
—Proverbs 12:10

President Obama last month quietly signed into law a spending bill that restores the American horse-slaughter industry, just a few months after a government investigation said the ban on slaughtering was backfiring.

The domestic ban didn’t end horse slaughter but instead shifted the site of butchery to Mexico and Canada – which meant increased abuse or neglect as the horses were shipped out of the country and beyond the reach of U.S. law.

The ban had been imposed in 2006 when Congress defunded the government’s ability to inspect plants that butchered horses for consumption. Without inspections, the meat couldn’t be sold, and the industry withered.

But the Agriculture spending bill Mr. Obama signed the week before Thanksgiving dropped the prohibition on inspections, and the administration said it now stands ready to conduct them should anyone open a horse-slaughter plant.

“While we have a long way to go, responsible processing represents a vital first step in reversing the unintended consequences to blame for the dismal state of neglected horses and their frustrated caregivers across our country,” said Rep. Adrian Smith, a Nebraska Republican who fought for the change. “Reinstating a humane, accountable and legal management tool is good for horses, good for owners and is good policy.”

All sides agreed that the backdoor ban was a failure.

A June report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress‘ chief investigative branch, said the ban depressed prices for horses in the U.S. and led to a surge in reports of neglect or abuse as owners of older horses had no way of disposing of them, short of selling them to “foreign slaughtering facilities where U.S. humane slaughtering protections do not apply.”

In unusually blunt language, GAO suggested that Congress and Mr. Obama revisit the ban.

The options facing Congress were to further ban the export of horses for slaughter or lift the domestic slaughter ban. Congress chose the latter.

The move got a tepid stamp of approval from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which said it had always been worried about the way Congress went about its initial ban. PETA said it predicted that horses would be shipped to foreign slaughterhouses.

“A law doesn’t change what’s in people’s hearts, and if business people view horses as commodities, ignoring their sensitive natures in favor of the few dollars that their flesh might bring, the horses were sunk from the start,” said David Perle, a spokesman for the group. “To reduce suffering, there should be a ban on the export of live horses, even if that means opening slaughterhouses in the U.S. again. But the better option is to ban slaughter in the U.S. and ban the export of live horses so that no one is slaughtering America’s horses.”

Horse meat is regularly used for consumption by circuses and zoos, and it is now sent to countries in the Eastern Hemisphere where it is an accepted food. But slaughter has been a prickly issue in the U.S.

A bill to ban horse slaughter and export of horses for slaughter has been introduced in the House and Senate, and the Humane Society of the United States said it would redouble its efforts to try to enact that legislation.

In the meantime, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said there are no horse slaughterhouses operating in the U.S. that produce meat for human consumption, but the agency would be ready for inspections if a facility opens.

Another factor is that many states have laws banning horse slaughter.

Michael Markarian, who oversees the Humane Society Legislative Fund, which lobbies for animal protections, said any state that allows a horse-slaughter plant to open will face pressure.

“People will not be happy about their community potentially bringing in one of these plants,” he said. “Americans don’t eat horses, and don’t want them butchered and shrink-wrapped and sent to France or Japan as a delicacy.”

In 2010, about 138,000 horses were exported for slaughter, and another 30,000 horses were shipped for other purposes, though some of those likely were sent to feedlots to be fattened for slaughter.

Congress never banned horse slaughter outright, but gave inspection powers to the Agriculture Department in 1996. In 2006, it voted to halt federal inspections, which essentially ended the industry.

This year, the House version of the Agriculture spending bill maintained the slaughter-ban language, but the Senate did not. When the two chambers reconciled their bills, the language was not in the final version.

Mr. Obama signed the spending bill by autopen on Nov. 18. He was traveling in Asia at the time the bill was presented to him, so he used the automated signature machine for the second time in his presidency.

A cyber strike launched from outside the United States hit a public water system in the Midwestern state of Illinois, an infrastructure control systems expert said on Friday.

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Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

“This is arguably the first case where we have had a hack of critical infrastructure from outside the United States that caused damage,” Applied Control Solutions managing partner Joseph Weiss told AFP.

“That is what is so big about this,” he continued. “They could have done anything because they had access to the master station.”

The Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center disclosed the cyber assault on a public water facility outside the city of Springfield last week but attackers gained access to the system months earlier, Weiss said.

The network breach was exposed after cyber intruders burned out a pump.

“No one realized the hackers were in there until they started turning on and off the pump,” according to Weiss.

The attack was reportedly traced to a computer in Russia and took advantage of account passwords stolen during a hack of a US company that makes Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software.

There are about a dozen or so firms that make SCADA software, which is used around the world to control machines in industrial facilities ranging from factories and oil rigs to nuclear power and sewage plants.

Stealing passwords and account names from a SCADA software company was, in essence, swiping keys to networks of facilities using the programs to control operations.

“We don’t know how many other SCADA systems have been compromised because they don’t really have cyber forensics,” said Weiss, who is based in California.

The US Department of Homeland Security has downplayed the Illinois cyber attack in public reports, stating that it had seen no evidence indicating a threat to public safety but was investigating the situation.

Word also circulated on Friday that a water supply network in Texas might have been breached in a cyber attack, according to McAfee Labs security research director David Marcus.

“My gut tells me that there is greater targeting and wider compromise than we know about,” Marcus said in a blog post.

“Does this mean that I think it is cyber-Armageddon time?” Marcus continued. “No, but it is certainly prudent to evaluate our systems and ask some questions.”

System crunches prez’s data, determines ‘likely fraudulent’

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Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

A private investigation reveals that the Social Security Number being used by Barack Obama does not pass a check with E-Verify, the electronic system the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has created to verify whether or not prospective employees have the required authorization to work legally in the United States.

Over the past few years, the E-Verify system has received national attention because of its ability to determine if prospective employees are illegal immigrants who have entered the United States without the legal authority to work.

Autographed copies of Jerome Corsi’s “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” are available only from the WND Superstore

By flagging fraudulent documents, including faked Social Security Numbers, the E-Verify system can assist an employer in the effort to make sure all prospective hires have authentic identification papers, including valid Social Security Numbers, issued to them and not to someone else.

Now WND has obtained a copy of an affidavit from Linda Jordan, a private citizen who entered Obama’s Social Security Number into the “Self Check” section of the E-Verify website, only to find out that Obama’s Social Security Number was flagged by E-Verify as likely being fraudulent.

Jordan told WND she is a wife, mother and homemaker. She described herself as “an average citizen with reasonable research skills.”

She said she became concerned when she realized that Congress was not willing to investigate issues concerning Obama’s identity, including whether or not he currently is using a fraudulent Social Security Number, and that federal law enforcement authorities also were doing nothing.

“Between October 2008 and May 2011, I submitted several requests to agencies and people with the legal responsibility and authority to investigate the use of forged documents and election fraud, concerning Obama’s birth records and Social Security Number,” she stated in her affidavit. “To date no one with the legal responsibility and authority has responded to any of these requests.”

Jordan told WND she finally decided to investigate Obama on her own initiative.

“I did my own research and I found allegations that Obama was using a fraudulent Social Security Number and that his birth certificate had been forged were more than credible,” she said. “Then I saw many brave people putting their reputations on the line to get the truth concerning Obama, including military officers like Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, and I decided I could no longer just sit back and watch.”

Jordan finally decided to take matters in her own hand.

“I considered myself to be one of the employers of the president of the United States,” she said, “so I decided to sign up for E-Verify and see if I could determine whether or not I could find out something about his true identity.”

In May 2010, WND reported two private investigators working independently were asking why President Obama was using a Social Security Number set aside for applicants in Connecticut while there is no record he ever had a mailing address in that state.

In addition, the records indicate the Social Security Number Barack Obama is using was issued between 1977 and 1979, yet Obama’s earliest employment reportedly was in 1975 at an ice cream shop in Hawaii.

E-Verify reports suspected fraud

As seen in Exhibit 1, after Jordan entered Obama’s Social Security Number into the E-Verify Self Check, the system indicated Obama’s Social Security Number produced a mismatch that warranted a visit to the Social Security Administration to investigate the discrepancy.

To view popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

Are you wondering why the U.S. economy has now stagnated — despite the largest government stimulus, bailouts, and money printing of all time?

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Iniquity Abounding

“And because iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
—Matthew 24:12

Are you puzzled why the real income of American households has just suffered its worst plunge in recorded history — despite the so-called “recovery” of 2009-2011?

Do you want to know why it now takes 40.5 weeks for the average unemployed worker to find a new job — also the worst in recorded history?

And are you flabbergasted by the utter failure of the U.S. Congress to do anything about trillion-dollar federal deficits for years to come?

Then, let me tell you precisely what’s causing this mess.

The fundamental source of the nation’s troubles is DEBTS that are far larger and more destructive than Washington admits.

Indeed, the U.S. government is covering up the magnitude of the nation’s debt disasters with three major deceptions:

Debt Deception #1
Washington Excludes the Massive
Debts of Federal Government Agencies

“As long as the government’s debt burden is under 100 percent of GDP,” they say, “we can handle it. It’s only when it surpasses the 100 percent threshold that we’ll be in danger.”

True or false?

Let’s look at the numbers:

• U.S. GDP is $14.6 trillion. And …

• According to the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds, U.S. Treasury debts outstanding are $9.7 trillion.

• So that means the debts are well under the 100 percent danger threshold, right?

Wrong! The authorities conveniently ignore a massive $7.6 trillion of additional government debts that have piled up on the books of U.S. government agencies, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

These agencies were created by the U.S. government, have always been controlled by the U.S. government, and now, after the federal bailouts of the last debt crisis, are even owned by the U.S. government.

How in the world anyone could possibly exclude their debts from the U.S. government’s books is beyond me. And yet that’s precisely what Washington does.

Add those debts to the government’s total burden … and guess what! Instead of $9.7 trillion in federal government debts outstanding, the actual total comes to $17.3 trillion — a whopping 118.3 percent of GDP!

How bad is that?

Well, back in 1970, about eight months before President Richard Nixon devalued the dollar and abandoned the gold standard, all U.S. government debts (even including government agencies) was only 32.9 percent of GDP.

Now, at 118.3 percent, the nation’s debt load is nearly FOUR times worse — in an economy that’s far less competitive than it was in the 1970s.

Moreover, at 118.3 percent of GDP, the U.S. federal government now has roughly the same horrendous debt burden as Greece had before its collapse and as much as Italy has today!

Debt Deception #2
Wall Street and Main Street Are
Also Swimming in Excess Debts

The current debate in Washington seems to be focused almost exclusively on federal government debts and deficits.

However, the debt burden of U.S. households and corporations is also the biggest in history.

In fact, throughout more than two centuries of American history, total U.S. debts (including consumer debts, corporate debts AND government debts) never exceeded 200 percent of GDP; and when it did, it was invariably a cause for grave alarm.

Now, it has mushroomed from 154 percent of GDP in 1970 to a nosebleed level of 360 percent of GDP this year.

Needless to say, this is a massive, inescapable burden that pervades nearly every aspect of American life — via mortgages, credit cards, bank loans, municipal debt, and corporate debts of all kind.

Debt Deception #3
The Government Has Failed to
Admit that America’s Private-Sector
Credit Engine Has Collapsed

Since 2009, the giant U.S. engine for the creation of new PRIVATE-sector credit has utterly collapsed.

Sure, the federal government and its agencies continue to borrow money at a torrid pace — to finance their massive deficits. But …

In nearly all U.S. sectors outside of the federal government, instead of new credit being created, old credit is being destroyed.

I have never seen this happen before in my lifetime! Nor did my father, J. Irving Weiss.

Dad began compiling statistics on the creation of new credit in the early 1940s. And he introduced his methodology to the Federal Reserve’s research department soon after World War II, which they later adopted, calling it the Flow of Funds.

So if anyone could have been in a position to track this phenomenon, Dad would have been the one. But he told me — emphatically and repeatedly — that in all the years he tracked it, he never saw a sustained, outright NET contraction of credit.

During the Great Depression? Perhaps. But we have no reliable data from that period.

Now, though, it’s happening — and in a big way. Here are the facts …

Until the housing bust, the massive private-sector credit engine in the U.S. was robust and booming: At its peak in 2006, the U.S. added a net of $3.5 trillion in new mortgages, consumer credit, and other nonfederal debts.

And in 2007, it added another $3.3 trillion, according to the Fed’s Flow of Funds.

Then, suddenly, in 2008, banks began cutting back on new loans. Hundreds of billions of mortgages went into foreclosure. And combined, the net overall expansion of credit outside of the federal government plunged by a shocking 83 percent from the prior year — to a meager half-trillion dollars!

Can you imagine that?

Think about what the impact would have been of an 83 percent plunge in the stock market … or in any sector of the economy!

Yet here you had precisely that kind of a collapse in THE most fundamental source of stimulus for the U.S. economy — credit!

But if that sounds bad, wait till you hear the rest of the story …

In 2009, as millions of Americans defaulted on their mortgages, auto loans, or credit cards … and as thousands of banks tightened up their lending standards for new credit … we actually witnessed a massive liquidation of private credit.

When the dust settled, the Fed tabulated a net destruction of credit to the tune of $1.99 trillion in mortgages, consumer credit, bank loans, and other nonfederal debts.

It was literally the biggest decline of credit outstanding in recorded history.

If it ended there, it would have been bad enough. But it didn’t. The credit carnage continued in 2010 and is still taking place now in 2011:

All told, in the 30 months between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2011, the U.S. has witnessed the net destruction of nearly $3.2 trillion in nonfederal credit.

Remember: Credit is the stuff that drives the U.S. economy … that millions of American families are addicted to in order to maintain their spending habits and lifestyle … that businesses count on to keep their sales and earnings flowing.

So now do you understand why the economy is stagnating? It’s quite simple when you think about it:

Washington is hogging nearly all the new credit available to finance its out-of-control deficits. But nearly everyone else is sucking hind teeth or, worse, getting kicked out of the pen entirely!

No wonder households are suffering such huge income declines despite the “recovery”!

No wonder it’s taking an average of 40.5 weeks for folks losing their job to find a new one!

No wonder Congress is hopelessly deadlocked on budget fixes! With households and small businesses already suffering massive credit withdrawal, no politicians in their right mind would to go to their home district to impose even more pain.

Bottom line:

1. Don’t count on the Treasury or the Fed to rescue the U.S. economy. Even with the biggest bailouts and lowest interest rates in American history, we are still witnessing net destruction of credit RIGHT NOW!

2. Don’t count on Congress to make any major progress in reducing our nation’s massive federal deficits.

3. Don’t expect an end to the liquidation of private credit — and the damage it’s doing to the economy — anytime soon. So …

4. Stay on course with the safety-first approach we’ve been urging here!

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

Dr. Weiss founded Weiss Research in 1971 and has dedicated the past 40 years to helping millions of average investors find truly safe havens and investments. He is president of Weiss Ratings, the nation’s leading independent rating agency accepting no fees from rated companies. And he is the chairman of the Sound Dollar Committee, originally founded by his father in 1959 to help President Dwight D. Eisenhower balance the federal budget. His last three books have all been New York Times Bestsellers and his most recent title is The Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recesssion and Depression.