In This Issue· The Daily Brief
· The Middle East in Focus
· Biden, Palin on Israel
· Bailout
· American Minute - Oct. 3
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The Daily Brief Friday, October 3, 2008
"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the days." (Matthew 28:20)
The Daily Brief
1. Bush Signs $700B Bailout - FoxNews.com
President Bush signs $700 billion bailout bill after House approves, 263-171, clearing way for Treasury Department to buy up bad debt crippling financial system.
· While there still is much pork - probably the arm twister for many Congressmen - Congress seems to have decided that this bill is the lesser of two evils, the second being the potential financial collapse of our economy. In these very difficult and trying times, ask the Lord to protect the mind and spirit of President Bush. The Lord can move the economy as He desires, especially if we beg for His mercy.
· "Riches and honor are with Me; yea, durable riches and righteousness." (Proverbs 8:18)
2. Biden: Bush Israel policy a failure; Palin: 2-state solution tops our agenda - Ha'aretz
The U.S. vice presidential candidates were both effusive in their support for Israel during their debate in St. Louis on Thursday. [For more on this, see the third article, below.]
· The mouth can offer all the support for Israel it wants; however, it is the action taken that matters. A two-state solution is not God's plan, which He has so clearly delineated in His Word. Israel is His - one nation. The Lord commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem: He does not tell us to find our solution with our limited human view. Pray for both of these politicians so that neither one does harm to the USA by dividing Israel.
· "For the Lord shall have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and will set them in their own land and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob." (Isaiah14:1)
3. Palin Performance Helps McCain Regain Political Footing - FoxNews.com
Analysts say Sarah Palin, with a cool and confident performance at Thursday night's debate, helped running mate John McCain regain his footing going into the final month of the presidential race. Both presidential campaigns hit the trail Friday claiming victory in the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, but it was Palin's cool and confident performance that prompted analysts to suggest that after more than a week of bad news for Republicans, John McCain can ride a new wind into the final month of the race. Meanwhile, Biden, by putting a hold on his gaffe-prone tongue and showing restraint against Palin, helped Barack Obama's campaign, analysts said. But even as many declared Biden the actual winner of the debate, several analysts renewed their praise of Palin and suggested that the first-term Alaska governor's defying expectations is a much bigger moral victory.
· So much of the direction of this country depends upon this election - whether we move toward socialism with greater speed, approve same-sex marriages, extend Roe vs, Wade and the abortion movement - WE SIMPLY MUST CONTINUE TO "PRESS IN," DAILY, IN PRAYER for God's perfect will to be done at the polls on November 4th. May our vote reflect our saying, that we ARE "one nation under GOD."
· "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." (Prov. 14:24)
4. "Gay Day" Bill Vetoed in California - CNSNews.com
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have designated May 22 as "Harvey Milk Day," named after the homosexual San Francisco supervisor who was murdered in 1978.
· We thank You, Lord, for granting wisdom to the Governor of California on this bill. We pray that You will prevail in the battle against the agenda of those who do not know You.
· "Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (Psalm 2:8)
5. Doctors Urge FDA to Recall Cold Medicines for Children - AP
With a new cold season coming, the government is trying once more to decide what to do about over-the- counter medicines for kids' coughs and sniffles. Doctors question the drugs' benefits and worry about their risks.
· Lord we know that You are Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. So we declare that no matter what medicine may or may not be available, You will guard and protect our children from harm.
· "If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home." (Psalm 91:9,10)
6. US Combat Deaths Down 86% Since Last September - CNSNews.com
U.S. monthly combat casualties are down 86 percent from where they were a year ago for September, making it one of the least deadly months since the war began, according to a CNSNews.com analysis of U.S. Defense Department data leading up to Sept. 30.
· Thank You, Lord, for a continued good report from Iraq. We praise Your name for protection over our troops.
· "Say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be strong and do not fear', for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you." (Isaiah 35:4 NLT)
7. U.S. general wants help in Afghanistan now - AP
The U.S. and its allies should rush more troops "as quickly as possible" to Afghanistan, the top American commander in that country said Wednesday, warning that the fighting could worsen before it get better. Trying to meet Gen. David McKiernan's urgent need for weapons and equipment, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked the military for additional surveillance drones and armored vehicles right now for Afghanistan.
· Pray for wisdom for Gen. David McKiernan so that he may know the best strategies for wiping out the Taliban and militant Moslems in Afghanistan. Pray that President Bush will follow the wisdom of the Lord as direction is given for this battle. The ultimate battle is, of course, for the minds and spirits of those deceived by the brutality and violence of Islam trying to gain dominance in Afghanistan.
· "Then Thou bring down the noise of the strangers; as the heat of a dry place, even the heat with the shadow of the cloud. The branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low." (Isaiah 25:5)
The Middle East in Focus
The Middle East in Focus This week, for all the headlines cited below, please join us in proclaiming THIS DECREE: "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." (Psalm 50:1-2)
1. Hezbollah: Ghajar, Shaba Farms will soon be freed - Ha'aretz
Hezbollah has warned that it will "soon liberate" the contentious Shaba Farms and the divided village of Ghajar, Lebanon's Daily Star reported on Friday.
2. Why Syria Will Keep Provoking Israel - Time
Oddly enough, Saturday's car bombing in Damascus will serve Iran's interests. Tehran thrives on chaos, which presents it an opportunity to come to the aid of friendly regimes and causes in the Middle East that need backing. More than likely, Iranian leaders were on the phone with counterparts in Damascus all Saturday, telling the Syrians not to lose heart. The Iranian message to Damascus is simple: If Israel and the United States see any weakness in the Assad regime, they will drive a truck through it and bring it down. And, if history is anything to go by, that's a message Damascus will listen to.
3. 'Israel fears US radar base in Negev will reveal IDF secrets' - ICEJ News
According to Israeli officials on Thursday, Israel is worried that the US's newly deployed radar facility in southern Israel will be used to spy on the IDF. "It's like a pair of golden handcuffs on Israel," said a senior official in a Time magazine interview. IDF officials are concerned that it might disclose IDF secrets to the US because the radar will be able to monitor any movement in Israeli airspace, "even a bee," said a senior Israeli official who asked to remain anonymous.
4. American tunnel detectors reduce Gaza smuggling - ICEJ News
An advanced tunnel detection system developed in America has enabled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to recently uncover 42 smuggling tunnels running between Egypt and Gaza in less than a month. US experts quietly arrived in the region a few weeks ago, keeping a low profile by wearing civilian dress. They deployed on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border and used the secret new technology, thought to rely on sonar, to identify underground tunnels used by Hamas and other Palestinian terror militias to bring in weapons
5. Israel opposes Syria on IAEA board - ICEJ News
Israel will be closely monitoring the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on whether the UN nuclear monitoring agency will allow Syria to join its Board of Governors. According to recent reports, Syria is lobbying to join the board as the representative of the Middle East and South Asia regional group.
6. Galilee water level drops two meters this year - ICEJ News
According to Israel's Water Authority on Thursday, the water level of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) has fallen two meters this year, the largest drop to date in any given year. The lake fell below the so-called "red line" in July, in which the water becomes more polluted. It is now near the "black line" of 214.87 meters below sea level, when the lake's pumps are open to the air and are unable to pump water into the National Water Carrier.
Biden, Palin on Israel
Biden, Palin agree on supporting Israel in lively VP debatePalin urges moving US embassy to JerusalemPalin: "A two-state solution is the solution"
During their much anticipated US vice presidential debate on Thursday, both Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin declared their support for Israel but disagreed over whether the Bush Administration has pursued the right approach to resolving the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.
After Biden pronounced himself as second-to-none in his congressional backing of Israel, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said, "I'm so encouraged to know that we both love Israel, and I think that is a good thing to get to agree on, Senator Biden. I respect your position on that."
Biden, the running mate of Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, had also asserted that the Bush Administration's policy concerning Israel and the region had been an "abject failure" that has bolstered Hamas' power via Palestinian elections, and Hizbullah by failing to protect southern Lebanon with NATO forces.
Palin disputed Biden's assessment of President Bush's policy and declared that she and her running mate Sen. John McCain would focus on reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement like the Bush Administration has done. "A two-state solution is the solution," she said, falling back on the conventional view of the problem. "Trying to forge that peace, that needs to be done, that will be a top-of-the-agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration."Palin also said it was time to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Meantime, Biden stated that Obama would engage in "thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understands that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation, and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has." He said that Bush's Middle East stance has only bolstered Iran. "Speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the march is Iran," he said. "It's closer to a [nuclear] bomb. Its proxies now have a major stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas."
When asked during the debate which would be a bigger threat, a nuclear Iran or a volatile Pakistan, Biden said both situations would be "dangerous" and "game-changers." Pakistan has arranged nuclear arms that "can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean," and "Iran getting a nuclear weapon would be very, very destabilizing," but noted that "they are not close to getting a nuclear weapon that's able to be deployed."
Palin agreed both situations would be "extremely dangerous." She also said that Iran "cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons," and that we cannot allow "a second Holocaust." "Israel is in jeopardy, of course, when we're dealing with Ahmadinejad as a leader of Iran, Iran claiming that Israel, as he termed it, [is] a 'stinking corpse,' a country that should be wiped off the face of the earth," she said, reiterating McCain's comments from last week's debate with Obama. "Now a leader like Ahmadinejad, who is not sane or stable, when he says things like that, [he] is not one whom we can allow to acquire nuclear energy, nuclear weapons," she insisted. (ICEJ News)
· The mouth can offer all the support for Israel it wants; however, it is the action taken that matters. A two-state solution is not God's plan, which He has so clearly delineated in His Word. Israel is His - one nation. The Lord commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem: He does not tell us to find our solution with our limited human view. Pray for both of these politicians so that neither one does harm to the USA by dividing Israel.
· "For the Lord shall have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and will set them in their own land and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob." (Isaiah14:1)
Bailout
What do NASCAR, the Motion Picture Association, and Puerto Rico rum makers have in common? They all stand to benefit from the Senate's $700 billion economic bailout plan. Hoping to entice the bill's skeptics with some familiar bait, the upper chamber sweetened its deal with more than a billion dollars in tax breaks for special interests.
As the Dow plummets, unnerving investors from coast to coast, the House has approved the Senate's bill. With the economy hanging in the balance, more responsible members were faced with the question-to pork or not to pork? And while the Senate managed to slip in relief for manufacturers of toy arrows, its quiver contained little for American families.
As the sun sets on President Bush's tax cuts in 2010, leaders may use these amendments to leave the impression that the major tax issues have been addressed. They couldn't be more wrong. To restore confidence we must actively pursue tax simplification and permanent tax relief. Energizing the economy means expanding the IRS's grace not to a handful of niche markets, as the Senate suggests, but to all Americans, especially American families. If our leaders are this determined to bail out Wall Street, how much more concerned should they be with rescuing the family from our suffocating tax policy? (FRC Action)
American Minute - Oct. 3
American Minute - Oct. 3 First Amendment & Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation
On OCTOBER 3, 1789, from the U.S. Capitol in New York City, President George Washington issued the first Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to Almighty God, as just one week earlier the first session of the U.S. Congress successfully approved the First Ten Amendments limiting the power of the Federal Government. The First Amendment begins: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
In his Proclamation, President Washington stated: "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God . . . .we may...unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations . . . " Washington continued:
"and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our . . .duties properly . . .to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws . . .and to bless them with . . . peace and concord . . ..and the increase of science . . . and . . . to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best." (Source: The American Minute, with Bill Federer)
