THIS WEEK'S ''EDITORIAL COMMENT". . . while ANC has
become more of a "Commentary" than a "Newsletter," it is the
trend of items in the day's news that sets the theme for each week's
Commentary. Now after a a year and a half of the Obama
administration and the strong support of it by the newly named and
identified "Journolists" (some 400 of the nation's most active media
representative who are dedicated to shaping their news coverage to
favor the Obama socialistic liberalism, and to ridiculing and
disparaging any Conservative elements in the news) this has become
a rule of life for America. Thus the theme which is under discussion
this week is defined by the very reasonable question: "Who (or what)
are you going to believe?" Anything even approaching a complete
answer would take far more space than we have available, but we
will offer just a few thoughts, and leave you to take it from there.
Perhaps we have been influenced by one of our Founding Fathers
whom we quote so often: "Nothing can now be believed which is
seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put
into that polluted vehicle." (Thomas Jefferson, 1816)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TRUTH AND GOVERNMENT HAVE LONG BEEN A
DESIRABLE COMBINATION, BUT OUR CURRENT
EXPERIENCE PROVES IT IS ONE WHICH IS NOT
BEING REGULARLY ACHIEVED
It is interesting that the importance of a union of truth and
government is not relegated to America's Founding Fathers in
expressing their concept of how a nation should operate. More
recent government leaders both in America and Britain spoke of
the importance of truth. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said,
"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -
deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent,
persuasive and realistic." And in 1916, Sir Winston Churchill,
then a young Member of Parliament, said, "Truth is
incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may
deride it, but, in the end, there it is."
The British seem more open to speak of abuse in this area. As
recently as 2003, Gaby Hinsliff, Chief Political Corespondent,
wrote in the British journal, the Observer: "They may prefer to
call it being 'economical with the actualité.' But it's official:
politicians just can't help telling lies...A new study of the art
of telling political whoppers, concludes what cynical voters
have long suspected -- that it is almost impossible for modern
politicians to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth." And in 2005, Peter Osborne, political editor of the
Spectator, wrote: "Britain now lives in a post-truth political
environment." But hundreds of years before them, in the 15th -
16th centuries, the Italian philosopher who is considered the father
of modern political science, Niccolo Machiavelli, theorized that if
politicians did not lie, they would surely fail, because lying is
fundamental to politics.
And the lack of truth in the way our present government and the
strongly supportive media operates, gives strong credence to the
fact that America -- like our friends in Great Britain -- is living in
a "post-truth political environment."
Where do we start? Illustrative of this unfortunate and
undesirable situation is the fact that the two most powerful
political figures in Washington are President Obama and Speaker
of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Both have demonstrated that the truth
is not paramount in their thinking or actions, and both have lost the
confidence of the American people. Both, when they stepped into
their present positions of power, made almost identical pledges to
the American people. Nancy Pelosi got started in this "post-truth
environment" earlier than Mr. Obama did, and in November 2006,
after the change in control of Congress took place she said, "You
must drain the swamp if you are going to govern for the people."
A few days later, in a TV interview with Brian Williams she was
asked what she meant by "Drain the swamp." Her response: "Drain
the swamp means to turn this Congress into the most open and
honest Congress in history. That's my pledge -- that is what I
intend to do." Enlarging upon those claims, she spoke of "a need
for more honesty and integrity in government. Also more civility
and bipartisanship. And that, again, is part of our way -- we'll go
forward with civility, with honesty, with integrity and with fiscal
discipline. No new deficit spending, heaping mountains of debt
on our children."
It is not necessary to point out that word by word those promises
have not been adhered to, with the result that American voters, by
every poll, have expressed themselves concerning her performance
with an overall 57% disapproval rating and only a 35% approval
rating.
The other axis of power at the federal level centers on Barack
Obama. Nancy Pelosi had a two year head start on him in making
false pledges to the American people, but Mr. Obama caught up
very quickly. On the day after his inauguration, he began making
promises about directing "the most transparent government, the
most transparent administration" in history. His words on that
opening day of his administration: "Let me say it as simply as I
can: transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of
this presidency." Expanding upon that statement, he went on to say
that "The way to make government responsible is to hold it
accountable, and the way to make government accountable is
make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly
what decisions are being made, how they're being made, and
whether their interests are being well served."
The "transparency" pledge was soon cast aside -- one random
example being the passage of "Obamacare," the health care reform
plan that the majority of the American people did not want, the plan
that was crafted behind closed doors of the Democrat leadership,
and rammed through without being read -- prompting this comment
by Speaker Pelosi: "We have to pass this bill so you can find out
what is in it."
And then there are the specific falsehoods . . . such as those during
his campaign, as on Sept. 12, 2008 in Dover, NH: "I can make a
firm pledge; under my plan, no family making less that $250,000
a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax,
not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your
taxes." And if that were not clear enough, as president, in speaking
to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, 2009, he said: "If your
family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your
taxes increased a single dime. I repeat, not a single dime."
Without going into specific detail, just in Obamacare alone there
are at least a dozen increases in taxes, even for those taxpayers
under the $250,000 break-point . . . to say nothing of other tax
increases to help offset some of the trillion dollar deficit spending
that Ms. Pelosi pledged would not occur.
So with only minuscule examples, the premise of Machiavelli, cited
above has been confirmed: "lying is fundamental to politics."
As usual, our answer to "What can we Christians, do about it?"
is the same . . . we have a two-fold responsibility; first to pray for
our nation and our leaders, that they may be given wisdom to govern
wisely, as instructed by Paul (whose writings Obama refers to as
"obscure") in I Timothy 2:1-2, that prayers be made for all that are
in authority. Second, on Nov. 2 -- now just 90 days from today --
we must exercise one of our most valuable rights as Americans: go
to the polls and vote to replace the Liberals who dominate Congress.
Remember: every member of the House of Representatives will be
standing for election, as will about one-third of the members of the
Senate. Some have suggested that this Election Day could be called
"Get out the trash day," but an even newer suggestion is "Drain the
swamp day." Obviously Nancy Pelosi didn't do a very good job in
fulfilling her pledge -- she is left with two of her key people,
Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters, facing ethics trials. We must
take both of our responsibilities on Nov. 2 seriously. There is no
point in complaining about our government if we do not do our part
to correct its faults.
Lest anyone wonder why Christians are concerned about the
direction in which our government is headed, this portion of a news
release from the weekend provides one more reason: "It took the
help of the United States, but the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has gained official status
at the U.N., which is 'an important step forward for human rights,'
according to U.S. President Obama." Commenting on this
development, Matt Barber, head of cultural affairs at Liberty Counsel,
said: "This once again just highlights the fact that President Obama
is fully in the tank of the radical homosexual activist lobby." No
one should wonder why we are concerned.
Just one "One Liner" this week: but it is so good and meaningful
it can stand alone:
"Americans deserve a government that actually works."
-- Vice President Joe Biden, July 27. (We totally agree, Joe, and
will be looking forward to such a government, someday, sometime.)
As always, it is important to read "What Others Are Saying."
Lori Ziganto (Conservative political columnist): "President
Obama gave an interview to CBS wherein he attempted to explain
his stance against Arizona's SB 1070 Immigration bill. Still no
word on whether or not he's actually read the bill yet, but based
on his inane murmurings I'd have to go with No. But to be fair
during the interview he did display a few things that he does
quite well: shameless lying and absolute hypocrisy. You see,
President Obama had the utter gall to say we shouldn't
demagogue nor politicize a national problem like immigration
reform. No, really. My jaw dropped and I thought to myself,
'could he possibly be that shameless?' Apparently, yes."
Newt Gingrich: "Radical Islamism is more than simply a
religious belief. It is a comprehensive political, economic, and
religious movement that seeks to impose sharia --Islamic law --
upon all aspects of global society. They say they're interfaith,
but they didn't propose the building of a mosque, church and
synagogue. Instead they proposed a 13 story mosque and
community center that will extol the glories of Islamic tolerance
for people of other faiths, all the while overlooking the site
where radical Islamists killed almost 3,000 people in a
shocking act of hatred. Building this structure on the edge of
the battlefield created by radical Islamics ... is a political
statement of shocking arrogance and hypocrisy. We need to have
the moral courage to denounce it. It is simply grotesque to erect
a mosque at the site of the most visible and powerful symbol of
the horrible consequences of radical Islamist ideology."
Robert Ringer: "It's becoming harder and harder to watch
television. It's no wonder they called it the 'boob tube' in the days
of yore. But let's focus on what are supposed to be serious news
and commentary shows. In this area, it pretty much gets down to
Fox News as a rational person's only meaningful choice. But even
on Fox, one has to put up with a cast of lame characters ... I don't
believe that any of these talking heads are evil. Nor are most of
them ignorant. I think it's more a matter of their realizing they
have a role to play (as in, defend progressive policies at all costs),
so they become adept at keeping themselves in self-delusive
trances."
Col. Bob Pappas (USMC ret): "This is to those who blindly accept
Islam/Muslims as a healthy, contributing part of American society,
including Barack Hussein Obama, who some argue convincingly,
is a Muslim. The media, mainly CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and to a
lesser extent FOX, are willing dupes in the hoax that Islam/Muslims
are peaceful; perhaps within a very narrow context may be minutely,
partially true. However, in the aggregate, there is nothing peaceful
about Islam."
And now a few random Afterthoughts which occur to us . . .
An aspect of Fox News Robert Ringer didn't mention: a recent
Public Policy Polling (PPP) nationwide survey found that 49% of
Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points above any other
network. CNN was the second most trusted network, with 39%
expressing confidence in it. The three major networks were all
trusted by less than 40%, with NBC ranking the highest at 35%,
trailed by 32% trusting CBS and 31% trusting ABC.
A further thought on the proposed mosque at Ground Zero:
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who is in charge of erecting the Islam
mosque almost on the site of the twin towers which were destroyed,
along with nearly 3000 innocent people 9/11, is funded by the same
radical Islamists who were behind that attack. Imam Rauf's views
are expressed in his words: "The United States and the West must
acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before
terrorism can end." The opening of the proposed Mosque is
scheduled to take place on the 10 year anniversary of that murderous
attack -- on September 11, 2011. It almost seems that the Islamists
plan to make this a new Muslim holiday to celebrate their
accomplishment on that date in 2001.
Concerning the Arizona immigration law, an Arizona blogger,
known only as ExJon, offered this perceptive comment: "It's kind
of hilarious that they keep referring to the law as 'controversial,'
when 70% of the population approves of it...Plus, how can we in
good conscience require people here illegally to abide by the
same rules as those here legally?"
It's always good to keep the polls in mind. A few random results
from the polls of the past few days. In spite of all of Mr. Obama's
blaming George W. for every problem we face, this week for the
first time ever Obama received more blame for our financial
problems than Bush, by 48% to 47%. Obama's performance overall
earned a 45% approval, with a 54% disapproval, and his daily
approval rating remained in negative double digits. On the
Obamacare health reform plan, 57% feel it is bad for the economy,
and 59% favor its repeal. (The new TV ad featuring Andy Griffith
and touting Obamacare, cost $700.000 and was paid for by Medicare
- that's from your contributions to Medicare.) And the final, and most
decisive poll result from Allstate/National Journal shows that if the
election were held today, on;y 39% of voters said they would vote to
re-elect Obama, with 50% saying they would vote for someone else.
Obama's reason for dissing the Boy Scouts 100th anniversary to
appear on The View finally surfaced. When asked why, he said, "I
was trying to find a show that Michelle actually watched." Nielsen
Media research discloses that 79% of The View's audience is female.
Opinion Dynamics polling shows that in 2009 Mr. Obama enjoyed a
59% approval rating among women, but that rating has dropped to
45% by July, 2010. That 14 percentage point drop explains why the
Boy Scouts were slighted, and The View got the president. (Plus, it
is very obvious that he enjoys being on TV.)
Anti-Christian prejudices seem to be more prevalent in education.
This isn't a particularly new, or even an unusual situation, but in view
of the pro-homosexual trends in so many areas of our life, from main-
line churches to our federal government, this next item seemed to merit
our attention. A graduate student at Augusta State University in Augusta,
GA, is suing the college for threatening to expel her unless she alters
her "central religious beliefs on human nature and conduct." The
graduate student, Jennifer Keeton has communicated, both within and
outside the school that she holds Christian ethical convictions on
matters of human sexuality and gender identity. The threat of expulsion
is not based on poor academic achievements or any failures in
performance, but is based solely on her Christian beliefs. The school
is demanding that she take part in a remediation program, to alter her
convictions. The Alliance Defense Fund is undertaking the lawsuit in
her behalf.
As we run out of time and space, a potpourri of good news and bad:
Not so good is the updated report on the nation's economy - facts, not
hype from the administration . . . our economy lost, rather than gained,
any momentum in the 2nd quarter, as growth slowed to 2.4% pace, the
worst showing in a year, and too weak to reduce unemployment. The
main factors in the dramatic slowdown: weaker spending by consumers;
less growth from companies replenishing stockpiles and a greater drag
from the nation's huge trade deficits. Much better news is the report
that just last week the United States Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia ruled in a unanimous 3-0 decision that the National Motto
"In God We Trust" is constitutional and does not violate the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. And this is a mixed item
-- we here in California always seem to have something to brag about
with respect to our state. Now out of all the nation's colleges and
universities, 20 have received the highest rating (five star) for campus
attitudes toward LGBT members of the student body -- and 3 of those
20 are in our state.
It's not difficult to find a Founding Father's quote applying to now:
"The states can best govern our home concerns and the general
government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore ... never to see all
offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from
the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at
market." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1823
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and
it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian
nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
-- John Jay, first Supreme Court Chief Justice, 1816
: 10:36 AM 
