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Obama Administration Moves to Strike Down Defense of Marriage Act
Aug 17th, 2009
Daily NewsJim Brown (OneNewsNow) and Associated Press
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

A pro-family leader says the Obama administration is playing dishonest "Chicago-style politics" by defending the Defense of Marriage Act while undermining the law in a court filing.

The Obama Justice Department today filed court papers claiming the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act discriminates against homosexuals. In the meantime, the DOJ lawyers are seeking to dismiss a suit brought by a homosexual California couple challenging DOMA. (See Associated Press story below)
 
Gary Bauer, president of American Values, says President Obama is committed to repealing DOMA -- but does not want to take the political flak that would come along with it.

 "What the White House wants is for a court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act so that the White House and the president don't have to take the political damage for undermining a law that protects normal marriage," he explains.
 
Bauer argues Obama is contradicting a campaign pledge. "President Obama ran promising he would be open and transparent, and no longer practice the usual politics of Washington, DC," he notes. "Millions of people voted for him because they thought he would be more honest and more open in the way he governed."
 
According to Bauer, that is not happening. "What we're seeing here is something more reminiscent of the way they do politics in the wards of Chicago -- saying one thing and then doing something else behind the scenes," he states.
 
If the Defense of Marriage Act is overturned by White House maneuvering or a federal court, every state would be forced to recognize same-sex "marriages" that are now legal in states like Massachusetts.

WASHINGTON, DC - The Obama administration filed court papers Monday claiming a federal marriage law discriminates against homosexuals, even as government lawyers continue to defend the law.

Justice Department lawyers are seeking to dismiss a suit brought by a same-sex California couple challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The administration's response to the case has angered homosexual activists who see it as backtracking on campaign promises made by Barack Obama.

In the court papers, the administration urges the repeal of the law but says in the meantime, government lawyers will continue to defend it as a law on the books.

The government's previous filing in the case angered homosexual rights activists who supported Obama's candidacy in part because of his pledge to move forward on repealing the law and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prevents homosexuals from serving openly in the military.

"The administration believes the Defense of Marriage Act is discriminatory and should be repealed," said Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, because it prevents equal rights and benefits.

The Justice Department, she added, is obligated "to defend federal statutes when they are challenged in court. The Justice Department cannot pick and choose which federal laws it will defend based on any one administration's policy preferences."

The law, often called DOMA, denies federal recognition of same-sex "marriage" and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Obama has pledged to work to repeal the law.

Monday's court filing was in response to a lawsuit by Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, who are challenging the federal law, which prevents couples in states that recognize same-sex unions from securing Social Security spousal benefits, filing joint taxes, and benefiting from other federal rights connected to marriage.

Justice lawyers have argued that the act is constitutional and contend that awarding federal marriage benefits to homosexuals would infringe on the rights of taxpayers in the 30 states that specifically prohibit same-sex marriages.

Earlier this year, Massachusetts became the first state to challenge the law in court.

Huckabee: Would Israel Tell Obama Who Can Live in the Bronx?
Aug 17th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Monday that the United States should not be telling Jewish people where they can and cannot live in Jerusalem, and he compared such a policy with racial segregation.

“My question is how would the government of the United States feel if Prime Minister Netanyahu began to dictate which people could live in the Bronx, which ones could live in Manhattan, which could live in Queens, and say, ‘We only allow certain people to live in those neighborhoods,’” he said. “How would that go over? It wouldn’t go over very well.” Huckabee spoke with reporters as he toured the ancient remains at the City of David (Ir David) in eastern Jerusalem Monday.

“The position that our government has taken recently is far more harsh [than the previous administration’, even halting peace talks until there is compliance with these demands,” he noted. “I’m not sure where we would get the authority to demand of the Israelis what they should do in their own country.”

After touring the Pool of Shiloach (Silwan) and Hezekiah’s Tunnel, the governor said, “I think that there is some concern that many of us have who have been coming to Israel for many years. I’m not Jewish, so I am not trying to stand up for the Jewish people but for the freedom of the Israeli people who I feel have an organic relationship to the United States as the only democracy in the Middle East, as the only place where freedom and liberty and personal capacity to make choices really thrives. It’s in the vital interest of not just the Middle East but the world that freedom exists.”

Asked if he would support an Israeli military strike against Iran, the man touted as the leading candidate for the Republican presidential ticket in 2012 stated he “would support Israel doing whatever Israel needs to protect [itsel.” He added that the United States would never want anybody to tell it the boundaries of how it can protect itself. “I think we can certainly advise as a friend to Israel,” he explained, “but we have no right to dictate and outright tell another country what it should or shouldn’t do. Heck, we don’t do that with North Korea!

“I’d like to think that the rights of Jewish people in their own homeland would be the same as the rights of American people in their homeland,” Huckabee said. “We take our rights very seriously.”

Cabinet Ministers Yishai, Yaalon: Outposts not Illegal
Aug 17th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hillel Fendel
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 
Four Cabinet ministers toured several of the outposts that were termed “unauthorized” in a report by Meretz Knesset candidate Talia Sasson, and said that a new report is needed. Sasson prepared the report seven years ago at the request of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The four ministers who were hosted by leaders of the Jewish settlement enterprise in the Shomron (Samaria) are Moshe Yaalon and Yuli Edelstein of the Likud, Eli Yishai of Shas, and Daniel Herskovitz of the Jewish Home.  They were hosted by Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, and Amanah settlement organization head Zev Chever (Zambish) and veteran Yesha Council leader Pinchas Wallerstein were on hand as well.

The tour took place in Rechelim, Bruchin, and Nofei Nechemiah – all listed as illegal or unauthorized outposts that must be destroyed. Rechelim, near Tapuach, was established in 1991 and has 45 families; Bruchin, 1999, west of Ariel, has 100 families; and Nofei Nechemiah, founded in 2002-3, has 21 families.

Minister Edelstein recalled that in the previous Knesset, he established the "Homesh First" forum: "It was a mistake to destroy Homesh, and the government should now rebuild it," he said. Minister Herskovitz said, "No other country would allow other countries to let it determine where its citizens should live."

Yaalon on Homesh, Outposts, and the Conflict

The ministers also visited the Gilad Farm, as well as Homesh, the full-fledged town that was destroyed in the Disengagement four years ago. Former residents and other supporters have attempted to resettle the site over the past two years, facing opposition and repeated evacuations on the part of the army. Yaalon, Minister of Strategic Affairs, stated that he thinks that rebuilding Homesh should be considered.

He added, “We were mistaken in thinking that the battle [with the Arab is over part of the Land of Israel. It is over the entire Land of Israel.” He explained how important it is that Israel control the mountain ridge heights.

Speaking from Homesh with Voice of Israel Radio, Yaalon explained that the only reason many of the outposts are not yet legal is because of missing paperwork: “The people who live there received government mortgages, and water and electricity were hooked up by Israel’s water and electric companies, and the Housing Ministry built many of the housing projects. Israel must explain to the Americans that they are legal.”

Understandings with the U.S.

Analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA writes, “A reading of the exchange of letters between Israel and the United States finds that Israel did not commit to physically remove the ‘unapproved’ outposts, but just to end the existence of ‘unapproved’ outposts. This can be achieved by changing their status to ‘approved.’ This is not a new concept; negotiations between Defense Minister Barak and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria always were on the basis that the status of some outposts would be changed to ‘approved’ and thus removed from the list.”

Interior Minister Yishai said, “There is no such thing as an illegal outpost. We must tell the truth to the public and to the Americans. These are sites that were established by the Government of Israel, and they should be further developed.”

A new Jewish interfaith group says the Jewish temple can be built on Jerusalem's Temple Mount without the destruction of the Islamic Dome of the Rock
Aug 17th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

Recently, a new Jewish interfaith group launched a project to diffuse religious strife by showing that the end of times vision of the Jewish people, a temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, could be fulfilled without destroying the Islamic Dome of the Rock. Yoav Frankel, director of the initiative, believes that the Jewish temple can be built alongside the Dome of the Rock and this would transform the Temple Mount from a place of contention to a place of worship shared by Jews, Moslems, and Christians.

Islamic cleric Sheik Abdulla Darwish says that as long as there is one Moslem alive, there will be no Jewish temple and the Jewish activist Baruch Ben-Yosef, made it clear that the Temple must be built where the Dome of the Rock now stands.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

The continuing debate between Moslems and Jews about what has the right to occupy the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock or a Jewish Temple, is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

3000 years ago the Jewish King Solomon built the first Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. A second Jewish temple was also erected there after the Babylonian captivity and Jews returned to Jerusalem some 2500 years ago.

The destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple by the Romans in 70AD left the Temple Mount empty of a Jewish worship center. The Moslems, in 691AD, built the Dome of the Rock on the site where the two Jewish temples had once stood. For the last 2000 years, Jews have prayed daily for the temple to be rebuilt on the exact spot where the first two temples stood and where the Islamic building now stands. A growing number of religious Jews are preparing to erect the third temple on the Temple Mount and they believe that the Dome of the Rock must come down.

Many ancient Jewish prophets wrote of the temple being rebuilt in the last days - Daniel, (Daniel 9:27) Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 40-46) Zechariah, (Zechariah 1:16,6:12-13) and even the Apostle John (Revelation 11:1-2).

Any suggestion of building the Jewish temple alongside the Islamic Dome of the Rock contradicts prophecy.

Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.