And The Hypocrisy Award Goes To…

Gary L. Bauer

AMERICAN VALUES

When it comes to finding winners for hypocrisy awards, Washington politicians are always frontrunners, followed closely by Hollywood and media elites. But today's hypocrisy award goes to a corporate executive.

Now, I'm a fan of free enterprise. But I have never understood the corporate chieftains who back liberal policies. If I could, I would gladly raise only their taxes!

So let's consider today's winner -- Costco CEO Jim Sinegal. You may recall that Mr. Sinegal gave a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention this year. Presumably, he's all in for tax increases, right? Well, it doesn't appear that way.

This week Costco announced that it was giving shareholders a special dividend of $7 a share at a total cost of $3 billion. Costco is in such a hurry to rush this dividend out the door by the end of the year that it is actually borrowing the cash to make it happen.

Why the rush? Dividends are currently taxed at 15%. But new tax rates as high as 43.4% on dividends will kick in starting January 1st.

Now get this: Mr. Sinegal owns two million Costco shares, and his wife owns nearly 85,000 shares. He stands to make at least $14 million from the dividend. After taxes, he'll keep about $12 million. But if he waited until next year, he'd get only $8 million. By cashing in this year, he's avoiding $4 million in higher taxes. So much for "shared sacrifice."

Perhaps Joe Biden needs to have a talk with Mr. Sinegal about his "patriotic duty."

Congressman Robert Hurt's November Video Address

"The issues we now face are not Republican or Democrat issues, they are American issues, and throughout history, Americans have never backed down from a challenge. As your representative, I maintain my commitment to working toward finding bipartisan solutions to the great challenges that we face."

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Robert Hurt (R-Virginia) today released his November monthly video address to Virginia's 5^th District. You may view the video by clicking the image below:

[You may click HERE or above to view the November Address]

Quote of the Day

"The ultimate triumph of truth rests in the hands of a King Whose
guidance of time and history often is mysterious and Who alone has the
power to ensure that right prevails. Until He chooses to consummate our
fallen human affairs, it is out duty always to champion righteousness
and justice in the public square."

Rob Schwarzwalder
Family Research Council

Democrats Still Trying To Close GITMO

Gary L. Bauer

Campaign for Working Families

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has commissioned a report to determine whether the terrorist held at the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be relocated to U.S. prisons. The Government Accountability Office study concludes it would be possible.

CNN reports that the GAO identified "six Defense Department facilities within the U.S. and more than 2,000 facilities holding individuals convicted of federal crimes that could hold Gitmo detainees."

The feasibility of doing so was never the issue. The main concern was always the logic of doing so -- the additional security risks posed to the communities housing these jihadists, and whether foreign terrorist thugs would be afforded the rights of U.S. citizens and tried in our civilian courts.

While liberal politicians are often unfazed by logic, the American people get it. A February ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 70% of Americans favor keeping Guantanamo Bay open.

Email of the Day

As you know, America is the first country to send aid when other countries are in trouble.

It is highly appropriate that we now send THANKS to all of the countries that reciprocated for our help with their disasters, misgivings, social turmoil, & poverty by sending to the United States of America monetary and physical help when Sandy ravaged our East Coast leaving dead, homelessness, and pure disaster.

Listed below are all the Countries and World Organizations that are giving us gracious assistance. Please assist in thanking these entities by passing on this email so people all over America can join in and THANK our neighbors, to whom we have invested BILLIONS!

First on the list is...

 

 

Obenshain for Attorney General Campaign Kickoff in Richmond Tomorrow

WHAT: Senator Mark Obenshain will formally kick off his campaign for Attorney General, accompanied by former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, former Allen administration official and conservative leader Kay Cole James, and others.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26th at 10:30 AM

WHERE: House Briefing Room, General Assembly Building, Richmond

Mark Obenshain has served in the Senate of Virginia since 2004, and has been recognized as a conservative leader in that chamber. At this event, he will formally kick off his bid for Attorney General of Virginia.

ON THE WEB:

Mark's campaign website: http://www.markobenshain.com
Mark's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/markobenshain
Mark's Twitter feed: http://www.twitter.com/markobenshain

During Revival, Media Still Atone Deaf

Tony Perkins
Family Research Council

While America grows increasingly hostile to faith, Uganda is showing the world what can be accomplished when leaders embrace it. During the 50^th anniversary of his country's independence, President Yoweri Museveni stood before the world and publicly led Uganda in a prayer of personal and national repentance. " I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to repent. We ask for your forgiveness," he said. "We confess [our] sins, which have greatly hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic transformation." After a lengthy confession that included everything from sexual immorality to pride, bitterness and rebellion, Museveni took the very powerful step of dedicating Uganda to God. "We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfill what the Bible says in Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. A people you have chosen as your own."

It was an inspirational moment for the nation, which has stood--often alone--for traditional values, abstinence, and families despite tremendous pressure from the West. "The Museveni prayer is a model for all Christian leaders in the world," Rev. Scott Lively believes. Unfortunately, the media is so threatened by religion that it refuses to leave another country alone to pursue its own views on sexuality and faith. Since Museveni's speech, the press has ridiculed Uganda for bending its knee to a higher power--the same higher power that Americans have to thank for our great nation. In times like these, President Musevni's humility should be emulated, not criticized. It is faithfulness like his that will raise Uganda's status as a new power in Africa.

Remembering The Gettysburg Address

Congressman Robert Hurt
Weekly Column 11.26.12

At this pivotal time in our nation’s history, we face a great challenge of putting an end to unacceptably high unemployment and getting the American people back to work. And for the future of this country, we face an even greater challenge of getting back on sustainable fiscal footing so that we may preserve the American way for our children and grandchildren.

 

Millions of Americans are without work and double-digit unemployment persists in Virginia’s 5th District due to uncertainty caused by Washington. And as I travel the 5th District, it is clear that Central and Southside Virginians are not only concerned about the present, but they are also concerned about the more than $16 trillion dollar debt amassed by the federal government that threatens the very future of this great nation.

 

While the current path we are on is unsustainable, we must not forget that Americans have always prevailed over the challenges we have faced. Just last week, on November 19, we were reminded of President Lincoln’s historic address in Gettysburg at the height of one of our nation’s most important crossroads – the American Civil War. As our nation stood on the brink of collapse in November of 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on the field where so many soldiers had been laid to rest as they fought to preserve this nation.

 

During the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln said, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” And as we think about the challenges we have faced as a nation throughout the generations, and as we remember the sacrifices made by Americans throughout the years in the name of preserving this great nation for those who would come after them, I remain hopeful that we too will step up to the plate to address the challenges that we now face.

 

 As we return to Washington this week, I look forward to working with my colleagues to get our nation back to a fiscally sustainable path and get Central and Southside Virginians back to work. As your representative, I remain committed to returning to our founding principles so we may preserve this great nation for our children and grandchildren. 

 

If you need any additional information, please visit my website at hurt.house.gov or call my Washington office: (202) 225-4711, Charlottesville office: (434) 973-9631, Danville office: (434) 791-2596, or Farmville office: (434) 395-0120.   

Obamacare: Killing Jobs, Cutting Wages

By Gary Bauer

As the nation continues to digest the results of the 2012 elections, the stark reality of Obamacare is coming into sharp contrast with all the hype. The fears of critics about job losses, bigger government and a weakened economy are being borne out, with many struggling families and hourly workers bearing the brunt.

Here's one example: The Orlando Regional Medical Center has begun its "largest staff reduction in its nearly 100-year history," according to the Orlando Sentinel. It is cutting hundreds of positions across "all departments and all eight of the system's hospitals."

The reason for the layoffs: Obamacare. According to ORMC's CEO, Sherrie Sitarik, "Health-care reform mandates and changes in reimbursement structures for Medicare and Medicaid are forcing health-care organizations … to confront new challenges."

ORMC is not alone. The Sentinel wrote that "Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina announced that it would cut 950 jobs by June. … Louisiana State University announced it would cut 1,495 positions as well as programs across its seven hospitals."

Academia is now feeling the effects of Obamacare. Following the example of many large and small businesses, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Community College of Allegheny County is cutting hours for 400 adjunct professors and support staff "to circumvent the national health care legislation that goes into effect in January 2014."

One adjunct biology professor said, "It's kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don't have the money to pay for it."

Implementing Obamacare is proving to be a nightmare. So far at least 16 states are refusing to set up insurance exchanges, instead leaving the task to Washington bureaucrats. According to The Hill this is creating "major logistical and financial challenges" for the Obama Administration.

And here's another headache for the administration: Today the Supreme Court reopened a case by Liberty University against Obamacare's contraception mandate. Read more here.

Tweet of the Day

David Limbaugh ‏@DavidLimbaugh

The Establishment Clause originally meant Congress was not to establish a national church, a far cry from where the courts have taken it

Facebook Pics of the Day

A Prayer for the Protection of Israel

We pray to your our Heavenly Father, the Creator of the Universe and all that is within it to give you praise and to ask for Your Blessings upon us and upon our wonderful county. We live in dangerous and troubled times but we will never cease to love and honor you and trust that you will keep and protect us from the evils in this world.

 

We give thanks that the only (and perhaps) last soldier from Madison County serving in Afghanistan has returned home safely, and we pray for the safe return of all our troops as their mission is accomplished.

 

We ask for Your Guidance as we do our own work for our Republican Party and lastly, we ask for Your Divine Protection for the State of Israel and all its people.

 

We ask this in Jesus’ name,

 

Amen

 

Jim Gains

MCRW Chaplain

A Thanksgiving Prayer by Rev. Peter Marshall

This Thanksgiving, I hope you are gathering with family and friends over some turkey to celebrate the blessings in our lives. I am particularly grateful this year for the health and safety of my loved ones and the brave men and women of our armed services overseas protecting our freedoms and our nation.   

 I wanted to share this Thanksgiving Prayer by Dr. Peter Marshall, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, delivered on the Senate floor on November 26, 1947. Despite national challenge and discord and the personal struggles that many Americans face this Thanksgiving, the spirit of this prayer still resonates today:

 Our Father in Heaven,

If ever we had a cause to offer unto Thee our fervent thanks, surely it is now, on the Eve of our Thanksgiving Day, when we, the people of this Nation, are comfortable, well fed, well clad, and blessed with good things beyond our deserving. May gratitude, the rarest of all virtues, be the spirit of our observance.

Let not feasting, football, and festivity end in forgetfulness of God. May the desperate need of the rest of the world, and our own glorious heritage, remind us of the God who led our Fathers every step of the way by which they advanced to the character of an independent nation.

May the faith and conviction of George Washington be renewed in us as we remember his words:

...there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exits in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained...

For if we do not have the grace to thank Thee for all that we have and enjoy, how can we have the effrontery to seek Thy further blessings? God, give us grateful hearts. 

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

- Dr. Peter Marshall, Chaplain from the United States Senate - November 26, 1947


Happy Thanksgiving,

Congressman J. Randy Forbes

To Give Thanks

Gary L. Bauer
Campaign for Working Families

Tomorrow the nation will pause as we spend time with friends and family in a day of thanksgiving for the tremendous blessings of this land. Some years, when things are going well and life glides along smoothly, celebrating is easy. But this year thanksgiving may be tough. Our country faces difficult times, economically and politically, and we are facing tremendous threats to our national security.

But giving thanks is especially important in tough times. During times of instability and peril, our minds and hearts are focused more sharply on the important things in life, the things that truly matter -- faith, family and freedom.

I love this uniquely American holiday. Thanksgiving traces its origins back to the Pilgrims -- those hardy pioneers who arrived on the shores of North America and, against all odds, carved a nation out of the wilderness. They came to the New World not seeking fortune, but in search of freedom, and, more specifically, the freedom to worship God as they wished.

Testifying to the strong religious foundation of this country, thanking God for His blessings was a routine experience in our early years. The first official National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was issued by the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777 in celebration of the victory against the British at the Battle of Saratoga. In 1941, as America confronted a world at war, Congress voted to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

In his first Thanksgiving proclamation as president, Ronald Reagan wrote:

"America has much for which to be thankful. The unequaled freedom enjoyed by our citizens has provided a harvest of plenty to this Nation throughout its history. In keeping with America's heritage, one day each year is set aside for giving thanks to God for all of His blessings. …

"As we celebrate Thanksgiving … we should reflect on the full meaning of this day as we enjoy the fellowship that is so much a part of the holiday festivities. Searching our hearts, we should ask what we can do as individuals to demonstrate our gratitude to God for all He has done. Such reflection can only add to the significance of this precious day of remembrance "Let us recommit ourselves to that devotion to God and family that has played such an important role in making this a great Nation, and which will be needed as a source of strength if we are to remain a great people.
In spite of the challenges we face today, I believe all of us can be thankful to be Americans. We are the descendants of the patriots who declared that "All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

As Carol and I reflect on what we are thankful for, we thank God first for His gift of three wonderful children, two incredible sons-in-law, and four grandchildren.

We are especially thankful for the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform and for the sacrifices of their families. We are grateful that America still produces patriots who are willing to "give up their todays for our tomorrows."

And we are so very thankful for each of you. Our partnership has created bonds deeper and closer than we ever expected and blessings far beyond what we ever can express. We wish for you and your family all of God's blessings at this special time of year. And we thank you for the continued friendship and support that make possible my work in defense of our values.

Email of the Day

 
Decyphering the Mayan calendar

And here the rest of the story……….

 

Action Alert: Demand that Twitter Ban Hamas!

Last week, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense to stop the rocket fire from Gaza onto Israel’s towns and cities.  Since that time, it has been waging a war on two fronts.  The Israeli armed forces are fighting Hamas on the traditional military front with targeted strikes against terrorists and arms caches.  And Israeli spokesmen are fighting an increasingly intense war for public opinion on the internet. 

Referring to social media sites such as Twitter, Israeli military spokeswoman Col. Avital Leibovich said that in the four years since Israel and Hamas last fought, an “additional war zone” has developed.  This battle for public opinion is one which Israel may well be losing.  According to the Washington Post, “Israel might not actually be winning the Twitter war.  By one metric, it’s losing 150 to one.” 

When it comes to Israel’s military campaign, there is little that we in America can do to help.  But when it comes to this second conflict -- the so-called “Twitter war” -- there is something important we can do.  The fact is that it’s illegal for an American company like Twitter to provide services to Hamas in the first place.  We must demand that Hamas be banned from Twitter. 

The United States government has designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.  Under federal law, it’s illegal for any American company to provide “material support” to terrorists.  The law specifically notes that material support includes the provision of any “service” or “communications equipment.”  Twitter is currently providing Hamas terrorists with an important “service” and with powerful “communications equipment” that are crucial to furthering its primary terrorist objectives.    

The fact that a terrorist organization like Hamas with so much Israeli and American blood on its hands can use a service like Twitter is outrageous.  But there’s something you can do to stop it.  Click here now to ask Twitter and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to ban Hamas from Twitter!

Let’s make sure that Israel wins the Twitter war.

May God Bless You and Those that You Love,
Pastor John Hagee                   David Brog
Chairman                                 Executive Director

CUFI                                       CUFI  

An Up-Close Look at America’s Fiscal Cliff

The term "fiscal cliff" was coined by Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, in early 2012, when he testified before Congress saying, "Under current law, on January 1st, 2013, there is going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases."  The phrase quickly gained popularity as a useful catch-all to describe a combination of year-end policy events including significant impending tax increases, sharp sequestration budget cuts, and the expiration of several stop-gap provisions ranging from doctor reimbursements to unemployment benefits.

Today, the term "fiscal cliff" dominates the local headlines, national news, and blogosphere.  But what exactly is the fiscal cliff and how does it impact you? I have put together this primer to break down the fiscal cliff, to share facts on how these policies might impact you and your job, and to offer my views on how we can avert our nation's most pressing and significant challenge.

Please share this primer with others that might find it informative.  Then, weigh in on my blog, take my instapoll, join the discussion on Facebook or e-mail me.  Your voice is important.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours in Service,

Randy

Pausing to give thanks

We have so many things to be thankful for in America.

In spite of the difficult economic times of the past few years, we still enjoy a standard of living that most of the world can only dream of ever having.

We enjoy freedoms that even most other Western nations don't enjoy. For instance, you can still speak out against radical Islam in America and not fear being arrested, as is the case in Europe.

And of course, each and every one of us has many personal reasons to be thankful.

We at the national office of ACT! for America are thankful for the opportunity and the privilege we have to stand up for freedom and fight for our national security.

We are thankful to our many donors and faithful monthly giving Patriot Partners.

We are thankful for every member of our email newsletter list.

We are thankful for every chapter leader and volunteer.

We thank you for believing in us and the ACT! for America mission.

We read encouraging emails every day from you that cause us to pause and reflect on what an honor it is to serve you.

We know that there are many challenges facing the country we love. We know that the challenge of radical Islam threatens much of the globe.

But for this week, we urge you to join us in pausing to give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy rather than dwelling on the many challenges that confront us.

We will tackle the challenges anew next week.