In This Issue• The Daily Brief
• The Middle East in Focus
• White House Honors Gays
• ObamaCare: Making People Sick
• KOH NOMINATION: URGENT
• URGENT NOTICE
• CALL2FALL: SPREAD THE WORD!
• Today in American History
• The Good News Corner
Greetings!
Capitol Hill Prayer Partners
P.O. Box 5152
Herndon, VA 20172-1970
chpp@patriot.net
The Daily Brief - Thursday, June 25, 2009
"O, Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart . . ." (Psalm 10:17)
URGENT ALERT!!
We learned yesterday that there will be a 'cloture vote' today on the nomination of Harold Koh to be the top lawyer at the State Department. (This Internationalist must be STOPPED in his tracks!!)
Please call (or email) your senator, asking them to vote NO on 'cloture' on Koh today. ('Cloture' means a vote to stop the debate so that a vote on the nomination can be taken. It takes 60 votes for 'cloture'. If 'cloture' doesn't get 60 votes, the nomination will not go forward.)
THIS VOTE MAY TAKE PLACE AFTER 5:00 P.M. TODAY.
You can go HERE
( http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm )
to find and contact your senators. For more information on Harold Koh, please see below -- article titled "Koh Nomination - URGENT." Thank you!! [Source for this alert: Tennessee Eagle Forum]
The Daily Brief
1. Obama to Return U.S. Ambassadors to Syria, Venezuela - Fox News
The Obama administration has decided to return an ambassador to both Venezuela and Syria after a diplomatic hiatus with both countries, FOX News confirmed Wednesday.
• Father, as our nation continues to attempt to negotiate and talk with our enemies, we ask that You guard us from secret agendas and dangerous covenants. Call Your watchmen, Lord, and let us hear Your Voice to pray as You command.
• "Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon." (Nehemiah 4:17)
2. Obama to Meet the Pope While in Italy for G8 - NewsMax
A Vatican spokesman says Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama will hold a much-anticipated meeting at the Vatican on July 10.
• Lord, we ask that You give the Pope wisdom and the Word of the Lord when speaking with Mr. Obama. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will bring conviction and change to Mr. Obama's heart during his time there.
• "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:11)
3. SC Gov. Mark Sanford admits he's had an affair - AP
After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he'd secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he'd been having an affair. He apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.
• Lord, once again we must repent on behalf of our leaders in America. Yet another leader has fallen into sin. We ask Your forgiveness, and ask that righteousness and true conversion begin to take place in every legislator, governor, and leader in the nation. We pray for Mr. Sanford's family, for Your comfort, and we ask that You will turn this situation for the good.
• "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)
4. Climate Bill Set for Vote After Deal Is Reached - Wall Street Journal
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote Friday on a sprawling climate-change bill, signaling the Democratic leadership's confidence that it can overcome objections from Farm Belt Democrats.
Climate Bill Pays Billions for Non-U.S. Trees - The Washington Times
If a tree falls in Brazil, it will, in fact, be heard in the U.S. - at least if a little-noticed provision in the pending climate-change bill in Congress becomes law. As part of the far-reaching climate bill, the House is set to vote Friday on a plan to pay companies billions of dollars not to chop down trees around the world, as a way to reduce global warming.
The provision, called "offsets," has been attacked by both environmentalists and business groups as ineffective and poorly designed. Critics contend it would send scarce federal dollars overseas to plant trees when subsidies are needed at home, while the purported ecological benefits would be difficult to quantify.
• Father, as we watch with chagrin our leaders fall under the spell of the "climate change" mantra, we pray that You will pull the portions out of this bill which are designed to further an agenda that is not productive or effective for America. We ask Your wisdom for us as stewards of Your creation, without using fear or socialist policies to accomplish goals.
• "I have made the earth, and created man on it. I- My hands- stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways;"(Isaiah 45:12,13a)
5. Obama Leaves Door Open for Tax on Healthcare Benefits - NewsMax
President Barack Obama left the door open to a new tax on health care benefits Wednesday, and officials said top lawmakers and the White House were seeking $150 billion in concessions from the nation's hospitals as they sought support for legislation struggling to emerge in Congress.
"I don't want to prejudge what they're doing," the president said, referring to proposals in the Senate to tax workers who get expensive insurance policies. Obama campaigned against the tax when he ran for president last year.
• Lord, the American taxpayers are becoming overloaded with new taxes to pay for government programs. We ask that You reveal the truth behind these plans for government-run healthcare, and stop the passage of the programs.
• "Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice." (Proverbs 16:8)
6. Church's "Gay Exorcism" Video sparks Outrage - AP
The video shows the 16-year-old boy lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church cast a "homosexual demon" from his body."Rip it from his throat!" a woman yells. "Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!"
The 20-minute video posted on YouTube by Manifested Glory Ministries is being called abuse by gay and youth advocates, who are demanding an investigation. But a church official this week denied that the teenager was injured or that the church is prejudiced.
• Lord, we repent for any pride issues, or secret plans of wolves within Your Body that might have led to the posting of this video, or the making of a "show" out of a ministry situation. We ask that You grant Your people wisdom, and remind us all of the times in which we live- -that facts are often twisted and incorrectly perceived by those who do not know You. We pray that You will guard Your people from the scrutiny of unbelievers, and grant them grace, forgiveness, and truth.
• "Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, redeeming the time." (Colossians 4:5)
The Middle East in Focus
This week, for all the headlines cited below, please join us in proclaiming THIS DECREE:
"Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face evermore! Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth, O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance." (Psalm 105:4-11)
1. Netanyahu meets Sarkozy in Paris - Ynet News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
2. Jerusalem expects unprecedented calm at Pride Parade - Ynet News
Thousands are expected to march in the Jerusalem Pride Parade Thursday, and in contrast to previous years no violent threats have been heard from the ultra-Orthodox community, which has a history of aggressively objecting to the parade.
3. Netanyahu trying to reach compromise on settlements with U.S. - Ha'aretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing with efforts to advance compromise formulas that will win support in the Obama administration on the issue of settlement construction. Ahead of the visit to Washington by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Netanyahu is planning to propose that increased construction in the settlements be allowed for "natural growth."
4. Assad: No Israeli partner for peace - Jerusalem Post
The US State Department on Wednesday praised Syria for its "constructive role to promote peace and stability" as it announced plans to return an ambassador to Damascus after a four-year absence.
5. Italy endorses demilitarised Palestine - EU Observer
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has given his backing to Israel's plan for a demilitarised Palestinian state as a solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.
White House Honors Gays
Gay-Activist Movement to be Honored at White House
The Obama administration, which refused to send a representative to a Capitol Hill commemoration of the National Day of Prayer, is hosting a White House celebration of what most gay activists regard as the birth of their movement.
President Barack Obama has invited key leaders in the gay community to the East Room on Monday to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of June 28, 1969, during which hundreds of homosexuals threw bottles and garbage at police and set a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on fire.
Tim Goeglein, Focus on the Family's vice president of external relations and a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, said the White House event is a boon to the gay lobby, which has been becoming impatient with Obama.
"The president of the United State has the largest bully pulpit in the country and clearly gets to pick and choose among the issues that he would want to highlight," Goeglein said. "There's an enormous amount of pressure (to advocate for pro-gay policies). The president has partially extended health benefits to homosexual partners. The president is of course now doing a commemoration, a very important commemoration.
"But I think the larger goals are the ones that he's already committed to doing --- overturning the DOMA , which is the protection of marriage in the states, and lifting the ban on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' " which prohibits "out" homosexuals from serving in the armed forces.
What's interesting about the Stonewall event, Goeglein added, is that it comes just months after the White House did not commemorate the National Day of Prayer.
"It's disappointing," he explained, "that after several years of celebrating the National Day of Prayer in the East Room at the White House, the day unfortunately in this instance does not get equal billing. "It's a mistake not to be able to commemorate the National Day of Prayer at the highest possible levels, and we're very hopeful that this will be rectified next year." (Citizen Link)
ObamaCare: Making People Sick
More Americans Sickened at Thought of ObamaCare
The two Senate committees that have written health care "reform" plans are drawing closer to having their final products ready after the July Fourth recess--despite the fact that the Senate Finance Committee hasn't held a single hearing on its legislation. The bills may be moving quickly, but the drive to find support for them has not.
Conservatives are doing all they can to response to the unusually opaque situation take advantage of the situation on Capitol Hill. This morning, I joined a health care panel discussion on Capitol Hill, sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform and the Media Research Center. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) participated, rolling out his Health Care Freedom Act, a plan that offers more choices, lower cost, and no tax hikes.
Meanwhile, the President's push took another big hit at the hands of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which sent an email blast to members urging them to oppose Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-Mass.) "dangerous proposal." Apparently, even Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was listening. During yesterday's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) mark-up, which Dodd chaired, the Connecticut Senator sounded like a Republican when he said that no one on the HELP Committee would vote for Kennedy's plan if it cost $2.3 trillion to cover 16 million people.
Dodd may have retreated on the HELP proposal, but his committee still made plenty of waves. During yesterday's hearing, Democrats defeated three amendments that should frighten every American. As the Health Care Freedom Coalition describes it, "One amendment would have required health care price disclosure and health care quality results (i.e., which doctors and hospitals are good). Two other amendments sought to ensure that the government could not ration health care..." The Democrats voted against each amendment, meaning that they support the rationing system.
As FRC has argued, rationing would mean limited treatments and delayed service for patients. Under the government-run plans in England and Canada, the countries' sick and elderly aren't getting the care they need. As a result, their system isn't improving lives but prematurely taking them. Here in the United States, Obama's rationing would mean that you and I could be denied basic care while our tax dollars are used to underwrite a mother choosing to end the life of her unborn child.
At least we can all keep our health care plans if we like them, right? Wrong. In this exchange between ABC's Jake Tapper and President Obama, it appears the White House is backing off of that promise too.
JAKE TAPPER: " . . . If the government is offering a cheaper health care plan, then lots of employers will want to have their employees covered by that cheaper plan. And then their employees would be signed up for this public plan, which would violate what you're promising the American people, that they will not have to change health care plans if they like the plan they have. [W]hat about keeping your promise to the American people..."
OBAMA: "When I say if you have your plan and you like it, and your doctor has a plan--or you have a doctor and you like your doctor, that you don't have to change plans, what I'm saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform."
That's quite a shift from last Monday, when the President swore, "No one will take [your plan] away, no matter what." Under Obama, the private sector is dying the death of a thousand cuts, not one killing stroke. More tomorrow . . . (Family Research Council)
KOH NOMINATION: URGENT
Harold Koh Is Too Dangerous for America
[Source: Human Events.]
Does Barack Obama really want to make Americans subject to foreign law and courts? That is the question Senators should ask when they vote on his nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, former dean of the Yale Law School , to be the top lawyer at the State Department.
Koh is encumbered by a long paper trail that proves he is eager to use foreign and international law to interpret American law. He calls himself a transnationalist, which means wanting U.S. courts to "domesticate" foreign and international law, i.e., integrate it into U.S. domestic law binding on U.S. citizens. Koh wants to put the United States under a global legal system that would diminish our "distinctive rights culture" such as our broad speech and religion rights, due process and trial by jury. Koh complains that our First Amendment gives "protections for speech and religion . . . far greater emphasis and judicial protection in America than in Europe or Asia ."
Yes, our Constitution does give individuals more rights and freedom than any other country, and we Americans like those rights and freedoms. But Koh thinks we should bow to foreign rules and court decisions, and to United Nations treaties whether or not we have ratified them.
The State Department's chief lawyer is not just any lawyer. He becomes the voice of the United States on international legal issues such as the negotiation and U.S. interpretation of treaties and UN pronouncements. Importing treaties and foreign law into American law could impose lots of rulings that the American people don't want, such as approval of same-sex marriage, unlimited abortion, legalized prostitution, and abolition of the death penalty. This would be a broadside assault on American sovereignty. . .
During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John G. Roberts pointed out a particular danger of using foreign law. He said that reliance on foreign law wrongly "expands the discretion of the judge" and substitutes a judge's "personal preferences" for the U.S. Constitution. Citing foreign law gives a veneer of respectability to liberals who espouse the "living Constitution" heresy and want to change it without obtaining the approval of the American people through the amendment or legislative processes.
The Senate should reject the nomination of Harold Koh. Then, the Senate should require all judicial nominees to proclaim their adherence to the U.S. Constitution as written, and their rejection of the use of foreign or international law to interpret American law.
URGENT NOTICE
"CAP AND TRADE" VOTE TOMORROW IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Dear Friends,
Another urgent issue for prayer and action is the vote tomorrow in the House of Representatives on the "Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade" bill, otherwise known as the Climate Change Bill; also derisively known as the "cap and tax" bill, or the "knee-cap trade" bill.
This bill is beyond idiocy. As Congressman Ted Poe said this morning, the bill is longer than the Bible, no one has read it in its entirety, and it still includes a ban on ALL DOMESTIC DRILLING! Not to sound alarmist, but that provision alone is an almost unspeakable assault on the American economy and our security. Not only do we cut our own throats on energy availability, but the economic downturn based on the resulting huge increase in unemployment and in fuel prices will likely prove disastrous. Older people on fixed incomes will not be able to pay their electric bills. Gasoline prices will likely increase by at least a dollar a gallon in the fairly short term.
Even democrats are backing off of this, and the votes to pass it are not guaranteed. It is an urgent matter to pray for God's intervention, and to take action yourselves by calling your Representative - regardless of party - and let them know you do NOT want this bill passed!
Mark Williamson, President
Federal Intercessors
• Pray in agreement with these requests. Pray that this vote FAILS in the House tomorrow.
• "He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success." (Job 5:12)
CALL2FALL: SPREAD THE WORD!
SUNDAY, JULY 5TH -- IN EVERY CHURCH IN THE NATION
"Return to Me and I will return to You" -- Zech 1:3
More than 20,000 individuals and churches have registered! "The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, 'Return to Me,' says the Lord of hosts, 'and I will return to you.'" (Zechariah 1:2-3) We are being offered a marvelous and merciful window of opportunity to demonstrate united repentance and prayer on Sunday, July 5. While there are many good movements and agendas of political concern and action asking for attention and participation, the simple Call2Fall on Sunday, July 5 - - the day after the United States celebrates her God-given liberty and freedom - - represents a diverse coalition of leaders spanning many denominations, para-church ministries and ethnic backgrounds. The Call2Fall represents a cross-section of the John 17 unity that IS arising in the body of Christ!
Repentance is the first word of Jesus' gospel! (Matthew 4:17) Re-turning to Abba, our Father, and seeking His forgiveness, cleansing and a life of righteousness through the atoning death and transforming grace of Jesus our Messiah is to be the normal daily lifestyle for every follower and disciple of Christ. Let us "bow low" and seek the face of God together on July 5.
We can teach our children repentance by example on July 5.
(Source: Intercessors for America; Family Research Council)
Today in American History
American Minute with Bill Federer
June 25, 1950: THE KOREAN WAR BEGAN
The Korean War started JUNE 25, 1950.
Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, killing thousands.
General Douglas MacArthur was given command of the U.N. Forces and after a daring landing of troops at Inchon, MacArthur recaptured the city of Seoul.
Political involvement prolonged the war, resulting in high casualties.
President Truman stated in his 1952 Christmas Message:
"Our hearts turn first of all to our brave men and women in Korea. They are fighting and suffering and even dying that we may preserve the chance of peace in the world."
Truman continued:
"Let us remember always to try to act...in the spirit of the Prince of Peace. He bore in His heart no hate and no malice - nothing but love for all mankind.
We should...follow His example...As we pray for our men and women in Korea...let us also pray for our enemies. . .
Through Jesus Christ the world will yet be a better and a fairer place."
To the Salvation Army, December 12, 1951, General Douglas MacArthur said:
"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline.
There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."
The Good News Corner
Tennessee Ends Planned Parenthood Funding
Tennessee lawmakers have decided about $1.1 million normally allocated for Planned Parenthood will now go to local health organizations. Both houses of the Legislature overwhelmingly approved House Bill 1756, proposed by Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Brentwood, which removes a clause in existing law naming Planned Parenthood as the primary provider of family-planning services in the state.
The bill also adds language giving priority for funding to local community health centers. Planned Parenthood would be eligible for some of the money, but only after local organizations' needs are filled.
Tennessee Right to Life President Brian Harris praised legislators for their actions.
"Giving first priority to local health departments strengthens the provision of service to vulnerable populations," he noted, "without favoring an entity which has a significant financial interest in the success or failure of those services."
Passage of the bill caps a successful session for pro-life legislation in Tennessee. Lawmakers also passed SJR 127, a constitutional amendment restoring informed consent, a 48-hour waiting period and regulation of abortion clinics in the state.
