Twelve Anti-Family Gifts from Congress

The Heritage Foundiation

As Congress wraps up its final business for the year, there are at least a dozen detrimental policies included in the omnibus spending bill recently signed into law by the President. Taken as a whole, these policies devalue human life, weaken civil society, and undermine the family. Unfortunately, these provisions have largely gone unnoticed by the general public.

The Dirty Dozen
The Fiscal Year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill passed by Congress includes a slew of offensive items:

1. Elimination of abstinence education. Despite polling showing the vast majority of parents want their children to be taught that abstinence is best, the omnibus defunds the abstinence-based education program. In its place Congress creates another condom-based sex education program.

2. Spreading the wealth. The omnibus bill, as well as the other appropriation measures that have passed this year, represent a fulfillment of President Obama’s promise to “spread the wealth.” His 2010 budget reflects a 30 percent increase over President Bush’s last year in office on means-tested welfare programs such as housing, food stamps, and health care. Unfortunately, these programs do little or nothing to help recipients move off of the welfare rolls and into jobs where they can achieve independence and provide for their families.

3. Needle exchange. Tucked into the health portion of the bill is an allowance of federal taxpayer funds to be used for needle exchange programs whereby drug addicts can get new needles for turning in used needles. Ostensibly to prevent the spread of infection, these programs settle for “harm reduction” rather than overcoming drug addiction. The provision does allow local health agencies and local law enforcement to “opt-out.”

4. Planned Parenthood funding. Despite the country’s towering deficit, the omnibus bill boosts Title X family planning funding by $10 million to $315.5 million. The largest recipient of Title X funds is Planned Parenthood.

5. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Despite its stated mission to “ensure that every pregnancy is wanted,” the UNFPA would receive $5 million more from U.S. taxpayers to, among other things, support China’s mandatory one-child policy, under which millions of wanted pregnancies have been ended.

6. International family planning. Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama rescinded the “Mexico City policy,” which banned funding to organizations that promote and/or perform abortion overseas. The omnibus bills would give these groups an additional $103 million.

7. Limiting free speech. The omnibus bill drops a ban on federal funds being used to enforce or implement the “Fairness Doctrine.” This policy would have the effect of shutting down conservative talk radio programs.

The section of the bill that funds the District of Columbia includes these disturbing provisions:

8. Ending the D.C. Scholarship Program. For five years, thousands of D.C. families have been able to send their children to safe and effective private schools. But the omnibus bill allows no new entrants into the program–despite a 2009 Department of Education report showing a statistically significant increase in reading scores for scholarship students.

9. Public funding of abortion. The bill lifts a ban on D.C. using local funds to promote and fund abortions for District residents.

10. Taxpayer-financed domestic partner benefits. The bill lifts a longstanding ban on the use of federal taxpayer funds to pay for health care benefits for domestic partners of D.C. employees. Federal funds would also now be used for domestic partnership registration.

11. Legalized medical marijuana. The bill gives D.C. the ability to use local funds to start and implement a medical marijuana program. This comes at a time when, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles is attempting to reel in its program. Medical marijuana dispensaries have become one of the fastest-growing industries in the city, with some 1,000 dispensaries cropping up since 2004.

12. Needle exchange for drug abusers. A decade-long ban is lifted in the bill to allow D.C. to use local funds to run a needle exchange program for drug addicts. Unfortunately, a provision keeping these programs from within 1,000 feet of any school, day care, or youth center was stripped out in the final bill.

Unwelcome Christmas Gifts
The Christmas season is a time when Americans celebrate life, family, and community. Unfortunately, the 12 unwelcome Christmas gifts in the omnibus bill, signed into law by President Obama last week, undermine these pillars of American civil society

Obama Takes $4000 a Day Vacation During a Recession (cost just to rent the house)

by DefendUSx December 25, 2009

Isn’t that what all Dictators do (i.e Kim Jong Il)? Spend everyone else’s money and direct to their partners in crime while those who pay taxes are about to be taxed more and many can barely make “ends meet”.

The actual cost is undoubtedly higher. The $4000 a day is just the cost of renting the $8.9 million house.

NewsBusters reported:
Imagine the outrage if any Republican President went on vacation during a recession and spent $4,000 a night on accommodations. On ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday, correspondent Yunji de Nies seemed to suggest that President Obama’s family will be spending such an amount renting expensive living space at an estate house in Hawaii for Christmas vacation. De Nies: “Christmas trees here aren’t cheap – neither is staying in this $8.9 million house, which runs $4,000 a night. The Obamas rented this one and the two next door for family and friends. When you spend that kind of money, people pay attention to detail.”

Illegal Alien Murders Teen for Speaking English in America

BRENT BATTEN
Naples News

I swear we don’t plan this stuff out.

But no sooner than does a series of articles about the Collier County Sheriff’s Office program to deport troublesome illegal aliens conclude than an illegal alien is in the headlines, and not in a good way.

The sheriff’s program, as outlined in stories Sunday and Monday, targets illegal immigrants who run afoul of the law. Deputies, through extra training, are empowered to enforce federal laws and begin deportation proceedings as they see fit. In places without the program, local authorities have to rely on federal agents to undertake the deportation process against known illegal immigrants residing in their jails, a demand the feds are not always prepared to meet.

The program and the articles about it elicited the predictable responses from good-hearted people who see tragedy in the separation of families. They fret over the anxiety experienced by those who skirted the rules to find a better life in the United States yet are one traffic stop away from losing it.

Then along comes Mauricio Escalante. The 33-year-old illegal immigrant was arrested Saturday for stabbing to death a 17-year-old on the streets of Immokalee.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 

The teenager’s affront that set off the fatal confrontation — daring to speak English in America.

According to Sheriff’s Office reports, around 3 a.m. Saturday Charlie Guzman and some friends gathered at the laundry of an apartment complex on Colorado Avenue. Three others, including Escalante, were already there and the two groups began talking until a dispute erupted over the victim’s group speaking English, not Spanish.

Escalante went to a nearby apartment, got a knife, and fatally stabbed Guzman, according to reports.

So much for the notion that illegal immigrants are universally a hard-working, law abiding set committed to doing the jobs Americans won’t do, all while trying to assimilate.

While plenty of people in the community of illegal immigrants, a majority, no doubt, fit that description, there are bad actors in the group.

The bad actors are the ones targeted by the sheriff’s program. For proof of that, one need look no further than Escalante. A year ago, he wound up in jail because deputies found him so drunk he was deemed to be a threat to himself or others.

But being drunk out of your mind in public isn’t the sort of thing that gets you deported under the sheriff’s system.

“Until the murder, he didn’t have a criminal history with us,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Karie Partington said.

In two years, about 2,200 illegal immigrants have been either deported or are awaiting deportation through the sheriff’s efforts. Among that many cases, there are bound to be a few where the triggering offenses seem minor or the hardship upon family members here legally seems great.

But there are hardships to be borne by turning a blind eye toward illegal immigrants among us.

Ask the family of Charlie Guzman.

Muslim terrorist attempts to detonate explosive aboard Detroit bound plane

Canada Free Press

By Doug Hagmann  Friday, December 25, 2009

An Islamic terrorist reportedly of Nigerian origin attempted to detonate a crude explosive device aboard Delta-Northwest Airlines Flight 253, flying from Amsterdam to Detroit as the plane was beginning to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.  According to a law enforcement source close to the Northeast Intelligence Network who spoke to this investigator approximately 45 minutes after the man was taken into custody, the man who attempted to blow up the plane over U.S. soil is on numerous “watch lists and a no-fly list” and is known to have al Qaeda connections and contacts in the U.S. and abroad.

According to our law enforcement source, the Airbus 330 was carrying 238 passengers and was in final preparations for landing at Detroit Metro at approximately 11:30 am local time.  “As the passengers were being prepared for final approach, the suspect successfully lit a small, crudely fashioned powder-filled device. It is believed that the device malfunctioned, although there was a relatively small popping noise heard throughout the cabin that amounted to what some described as a firecracker,” stated this source.  “Almost immediately, passengers near the suspect physically subdued him, and were assisted by two members of the flight crew,” the source added.

More…

WHY HAVEN’T THESE STATE LEGISLATORS BEEN INDICTED?

© 2009 – NewsWithViews.com

Illegal: forbidden by law or statute

The outlaws in Congress are gearing up for a new amnesty push to reward criminals for breaking our laws by smuggling themselves into our country, stealing our jobs and draining resources (medical, education, law enforcement). Ethically bankrupt individuals like Sens. Harry Reid, Juan McCain and Reps. Joe Baca and Luis Gutierrez will be the ring leaders in this upcoming battle.

Political correctness and outright cowardice in dealing with the invasion of close to 20 MILLION illegal aliens, regardless of country of origin, has brought nothing but misery and pain to this nation. It hasn’t mattered one bit to these professional politicians that the word illegal means forbidden by law.

It hasn’t mattered one bit to federal judges who have ruled that criminals who break our laws have some sort of “right” to free health care, free education and other financial benefits paid for by the sweat of your labor. Those federal judges should have been impeached by Congress. Instead, their rulings have wrecked havoc on our people and nation while Congress has sat on their corrupt backsides and done nothing.

But, what about state legislators who have voted to give these criminals driver’s licenses so they can work? Remember what the usurper in the White House, Obama/Soetoro said, “When I was a state senator in Illinois, I voted to require that illegal aliens get trained, get a license, get insurance to protect public safety. That was my intention. The problem we have here is not driver’s licenses. Undocumented workers do not come here to drive. They’re here to work.”

They’re here to work? They have no right to even be in this country, much less help themselves to jobs that belong to Americans. Comrade Obama wants to reward them by stealing the fruits of your labor to train them, give them driver’s licenses and steal American jobs. This is the morally bankrupt individual people voted for to bring “change” and “hope.” Marxist Obama brought more of the same and worse. Juan McCain stands right next to him on this issue.

This rot has seeped into the state houses as well. Four states of the Union allow these criminals to have driver’s licenses: Hawaii, New Mexico, Washington and Utah. Those state legislatures are aiding and abetting criminals who have violated federal laws. Those legislators and the governors have signaled loud and clear that it’s a good thing to reward those who break the law and rub it in our faces. What happens when an illegal with a Utah driver’s license hits and kills an American citizen in San Diego and then skips across the border? Are we then supposed to thank Utah’s legislature for the carnage they let loose?

At a time when unemployment is running at 17 million out of work and 37.2 million on food stamps, those MILLIONS of jobs held by illegal aliens should be going to Americans:

Illegals build F-22 hangers on Air Force base

Real good for national security. And, don’t try to feed me the horse crap that illegals do jobs Americans won’t:

1,200 Illegal Workers Fired in Minnesota. “First of all, it is clear that illegal aliens are, indeed, doing the work Americans and lawful immigrants very much want to do. The fact that when 1,200 illegal aliens were fired as a result of a field investigation conducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) all of those jobs were quickly filled, presumably by United States citizens and lawful immigrants. This makes it abundantly clear that as I noted in a recent commentary, “A job freed up by removing an illegal foreign worker creates a job for an American worker.”

How about the citizens of Nevada – a state on the brink of financial collapse?

No. Of Illegal Aliens On Welfare Doubles In Nevada. There is no such thing as an “anchor baby.” It is hogwash that must be stopped. Legal research on Fourteenth Amendment is in this file. “It is clear the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment had no intention of freely giving away American citizenship to just anyone simply because they may have been born on American soil. Again, we are fortunate enough to have on the record the highest authority tell us, Sen. Lyman Trumbull, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee… and the one who inserted the phrase.”

Should this surprise anyone? Rewarding criminals only brings more:

“A new survey by Zogby International finds that people in Mexico think that granting legal status to illegal immigrants in the United States would encourage more illegal immigration to the United States….A clear majority of people in Mexico, 56 percent, thought giving legal status to illegal immigrants in the United States would make it more likely that people they know would go to the United States illegally.”

Can anything be done? The now discredited, hypocrite Lou Dobbs, brought something out on his show years ago which I wrote about:

Should Officials of the FDIC be Prosecuted?

“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is encouraging banks to sign up illegal aliens in the banking system, calling the growth of the market “a compelling incentive for U.S. banks to enter this largely untapped market.” And the FDIC program demonstrates that unbanked Latin American immigrants can be brought into the financial mainstream.

“But there are clear laws on the books for the integrity of the immigration system. United States criminal code, “It is a crime punishable by 10 years in jail for aiding and abetting someone in this country illegally for commercial gain.” And the Bank Secrecy Act of 1972 makes it clear banks must know their customer, and any illegal activity must be reported to the government.”

“The FDIC, this “independent” government operation is knowingly and willfully encouraging their organization and its employees to break the law and they are openly and blatantly violating federal immigration law.”

Nothing was ever done to those lawbreakers.

No one is above the law, so why are these state legislators getting away with passing laws that reward criminals and thumb their noses at our immigration laws?

Are state legislators given immunity to break federal laws? I say no, they should be held accountable. How many state legislators have voted for laws to allow illegal aliens to attend state colleges – at the expense of taxpayers in those states? It’s sickening. Illegal alien students, regardless of country of origin, have no “right” to attend any school in this country. They suck the fruits of your labor while you struggle to help your child with college expenses. Just because these individuals are elected to a state legislature does not give them carte blanche to simply violate federal laws. I’m not a lawyer, but someone show me where it says state legislators can simply break federal laws without any legal consequences?

I did some research on this and found:

“Section 274 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides criminal penalties for any act that “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.” [2]

“Encourage” and “induce” include actions that permit illegal aliens to be more confident that they could continue to reside with impunity in the United States, or actions that offer illegal aliens “a chance to stand equally with all other American citizens.” [3]

“To prove that a state or local government agency “encouraged or induced” illegal Mexican aliens, all the government needs to establish is that the agency knowingly helped or advised the aliens, or emboldened them, or made them more confident in their continued illegal residence in the United States. [4]

“The courts have held that INA §274 is to be broadly construed both as to those persons subject to criminal liability under the statute, [5] and as to the types of activities covered therein. [6]”

By giving illegal aliens driver’s licenses, those state legislators have encouraged illegals to come to, enter and reside in the U.S. in violation of the law. Those state legislators have “emboldened them” and have made illegals more “confident” in their continued illegal residence in the U.S.

Where is the Federal Department of Justice? They are supposed to ensure federal laws are enforced and when violated, go after the lawbreakers. Well, the answer to that question is simple: The DOJ has become so politicized, the Attorney General (past and present) does what his/her masters tells them and we the people suffer. Eric Holder should have been indicted for obstruction of justice. Instead, he’s Obama’s top lap dog.

Make no mistake: The battle to reward illegal aliens for breaking into our country, stealing jobs and drowning us in crime is about to heat up once the outlaws come back from their Christmas recess. We defeated these lawbreakers in Congress before and we must do it again.

There should also be a loud outcry by the people of those four states to their U.S. Attorney (which has jurisdiction over their area) to indict every single member of those four state legislatures who voted to give illegal aliens driver’s licenses. Silence is not an option. My daughter is a victim of illegal aliens driving on our roads and highways. Don’t think your family member won’t be next. The actions of those legislators and Congress has spread now to a college professor who should be charged under Section 274:

“Ricardo Dominguez, a University of California, San Diego tenured visual arts professor and activist, designed the Transborder Immigrant Tool, an application much like a global-positioning system used in cars, to help illegals find the best locations for food, water and groups to assist them as they sneak into America.”

Hey, if Congress condones and supports illegals as well as state legislatures, why not a college professor aiding and abetting? If you live in California, that dirt bag’s salary is paid for by the fruits of your labor. Here’s more insanity:

S.F. to ease up on unlicensed drivers. “Beginning Sunday, cops will no longer impound cars the first time drivers are pulled over without a license. The reason: Many such drivers are in the United States illegally – and thus unable to get a license – and the officials pushing the change think that impounding their cars is an unfair hardship.”

An “unfair hardship”? These are illegal aliens who have violated federal immigration law and should be deported immediately. Live in San Francisco? I won’t even visit that city any more.

In 2010, the people of Utah, Washington, New Mexico and Hawaii should drown out the militant pro-illegals organizations and push to boot out any legislator who voted to reward illegal aliens. If you live in one of those states and your state legislator (rep or senator) voted to reward illegals, make it a campaign issue and work to get them thrown out of office. The same applies to so-called sanctuary cities. Throw out mayors like Gavin Newsom (SF) and restore the rule of law and order.

I have no sympathy for illegal aliens. They need to be picked up and deported whether they’ve been here five minutes, five years or fifteen years:

ALTOONA — “Miguel Padilla, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, visited Altoona one night and murdered three people after being denied admission to a social club.

He had been in the United States for 17 years and had accumulated an arrest record before he shot his victims.”

Three lives taken and all the family members who will grieve the rest of their lives. THIS is what supporters of amnesty and those state legislators condone and support. I’ve heard the bleeding heart rhetoric that most illegals are “good” people who just want to come here and work. Good people don’t deliberately dump in our face by smuggling themselves across our borders when they know it’s against the law. Good people respect the laws of other nations, not break them. Good people don’t set out to steal someone else’s job when they have no legal right to that job.

Illegals know when they sneak across our borders like theives in the night, they have no legal right to be in our country. And, just like any other criminal, they should not be rewarded. You don’t get to go home and gather your belongings or anything else. You’re arrested, thrown in lock up and then deported. Too bad what you have to leave behind. Had this been done decades ago (after Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 law which opened the flood gates), we wouldn’t have this problem on such a grand scale.

This is what state legislators and members of Congress who support amnesty want to reward:

Marine Cpl. Brian Mathews, 21, was killed by a drunk illegal alien Thanksgiving evening, 2006. This young man on leave from serving eight months in Iraq and having completed a tour of duty in the Pacific, was out on his second date with young Jennifer Bower, age 24.

They Died For “Cheap” Labor: “Employers of America: the blood and suffering of innocents is on your hands because you want cheap labor. How cheap are the lives of the above and the tens of thousands of others who have suffered because of this massive, unchecked invasion? Does your bottom line feel good, now? Will you go to church on Sunday and then hob nob outside after services feeling warm and fuzzy while you have been knowingly violating federal immigration laws which has led to so much death and suffering?

“Did you save so much money hiring illegals that you own a nice boat and can be a big shot with the boys or yuk it up on the golf course a few extra days a week? The same goes for every member of Congress, the four border governors and all the state legislatures who have allowed themselves to be bribed by big business and turned a blind eye for three decades. How does “cheap labor” feel now?