A City Commits to Prayer and Repentance to Fight Crime

I was very impressed with Birmingham, Alabama’s Mayor Larry Langford address to the City Council - a call to prayer and repentance. This is an example of good leadership. I thought it was a very Christian approach.

I pray the Lord bless him and his city, and rids it from the disease of crime. The devil comes only to steal and kill and destroy, Jesus came so that we may have life, and have it to the fullest. (See John 10)

Mayor Langford said to the enemy and those who like to criticize, “If you don’t want to pray, fine. Just keep your evil self away from me. If you’ve got a problem with God take it up with Him. The destruction of all of us will come when we think we know so much that we’ve got all the answers.”

God bless the people of Alabama and its leadership. Make it a great day!

Credit: Image courtesy of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Update: City Turns to God in Face of Crime, from CBN News

House Says No to Government’s Warrantless Spying on Citizens

The historical closed session of the United States House of Representatives was reported¹ to be driven by passionate debate culminating in a vote that said no to warrantless spying of the government on its people, you and me.

One thing I am happy about is holding the massive telecommunications corporations responsible for violating our rights and breaching our privacy and trust.² Moreover, I am glad the President and the secret government agencies are being stopped from acting omnipotent, from thinking they can ignore portions of the Constitution, and for thinking they can rule and act as they please.

However, this is what the President had to say:

Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service, not subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future. The House bill may be good for class action trial lawyers, but it would be terrible for the United States.

Please understand I am not a fan of the litigious system in the United States. I do not like the fact that people without common sense can sue corporations and win because the coffee was too hot. duh I think the issue at hand is greater than the interest of protecting corporations exclusively.

If I had to choose which party to protect the rights of, the people or the corporations, I would chose the people. That’s partly why I’m against giving corporations immunity. I would prefer there be a balance in legislation where the rights of both people and companies be protected, while the interests of our nation be served.

I do not have a problem with warranted spying, that is spying after obtaining a warrant. Therefore, I did not agree with the President’s argument that the judicial process, or the court system, was cumbersome (perhaps he meant slow and ineffective). I don’t agree with that statement because if the court approval process is the problem, then a legislature or a committee should look into modernizing and improving our judicial system. Do not get me started on that topic…

I did search Google News and Slashdot for confirmation of this news. I recommend you look at news outlets like these and others (MSNBC, Fox News, etc) as a vehicle to expose you to the news. However, you should try as much as possible to go to the the source. In this news story, I went to the House of Representatives website and searched for the the vote count and then the resolution by name. It seems like the major news outlets think I’m stupid because they just included the vote count but not the resolution number. Some provided neither. So after I searched the House website for the vote  213-197, I found the resolution was called H.R. 3773 - FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

The legislative process continues. The debate is only starting to heat up. The House resolved an amendment to a Senate legislation. But what will happen next? What do you think should be the Senate’s response? How should the President and the Supreme Court respond?

All in all, I think we have the right to differ in opinion. However, we do not have the right to hate each other, or draw separating lines between people. I respect the President, both parties, and the judges. God loves them all, and so do I.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If so, please consider contributing to my writing efforts by purchasing an item from my Amazon.com Wishlist. Thank you so much and God bless!

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1. The reported sources referenced here are: New York Times @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/us/15fisa.html, and Slashdot @ http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/14/2033212 [↩]
2. Class action lawsuits are being filed against companies like AT&T and Verizon. Please refer to the first footnote to better understand both sides of the debate and then refer to CBS News reference @ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/23/national/main3868291.shtml [↩]

Tonight: A Historical Closed Session for the House of Representatives

I am very much opposed to the warrantless spying the government, corporations, and agencies have been allowed to do in the name of security and to fight terrorism. I don’t understand why the government these days wants to exert much control over everything. Government was not assembled to rule our lives. Government is a servant of God and represented by the voices of the people - all people, not corporations, not only the wealthy, nor to serve the greed and visions exclusive of lawyers and lobbyists.

This evening I was very excited to read that the United States House of Representatives of the 110th Congress would have a historical closed session on the matter of the Eavesdropping Bill (alternate source), also known as FISA, immunity, wiretap, and surveillance bill/legislation. It can go either way, but at least I feel like they are going to have an honest and open discussion/debate on the proposed legislation. Weeks ago, I sent my Florida delegates an email stating my point of view. They both responded, one favorably. I hope the interests of the majority of The People, like you and me, is preserved.  In God we trust.

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I’m not very happy about the actions, the leadership, and the role the United States government has taken during my lifetime. I’m only twenty five. I hope in the future I can positively influence this system. How? Not sure yet, but I desire to serve my people and help our people by being their strong voice. Even more, I want to glorify God in whatever capacity he desires me to be in.

I am a Christian, and yes, that is my foundation and Jesus is the Christ is my bias. I can’t bare the thought of watching my nation’s current leadership bring us down the path of monarchy, communism, destruction from within, deception, greed, lust, and ultimately, revolution. To the Democrats and Republicans: did you forget the famous speech by Mr. Abraham Lincoln?

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other. (quote with my emphasis)

Dear sirs and madams serving in places of our government. If the word slavery seems too strong or out of our present context, duly replace it with whatever the issues dividing our people, our society, and our livelihood as a nation.

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A warm and sincere thank you to all of you who serve with a clear conscious, conviction, and humble spirit. Check out the U.S. House of Representatives website for the latest information on this and any pending matter. Please continue to pray for our nation’s leaders. Hope you have an awesome evening. God bless.

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Judges Should Not Legislate

Judges should pass judgment on their cases, but they should not have power to pass laws. Even if judges deem something unconstitutional, legislature should be given the power to debate intelligently and pass good law.

Judges should not escape the vote of the people. Judges should honor Scriptures and the law of God. Judges should not pass law based on what other judges outside the country are doing, for there is no other country like the United States on this earth, and probably will never be.

I think we have let judges grab too much power in this country. Just who is higher than the judges? Who regulates them? Are they above the law? I’m thinking out loud, but something’s gotta be done. God bless our country.

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Sir, May I See Your Passport?

I had the fantastic opportunity to apply for a passport today. I applied for the Passport Book and Passport Card. The new passport card will be available in the spring and basically allows a person to travel to and from bordering countries by land or sea without having to use the traditional passport book.

The passport card contains a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. As a citizen who values privacy I went ahead and did some reading on the subject. As written on Wikipedia,

RFID is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders.  An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radiowaves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.

The U.S. Department of State says that while the RFID chip will allow Customs and Border Protection inspectors to access my photos and biographical information, my privacy will be maintained because “no personal information is written on the electronic chip itself. The chip will have only a unique number linking the card to a stored record contained in secure government databases.” Scary isn’t it? On a final, more reassuring note, the U.S. Department of State is at least “taking every care to ensure that this passport card is as secure as current technology permits.”

So why get passport now, you ask? I hope to travel to different countries on business and for pleasure. A passport is a necessity for international travel by air, land, and sea. Make it a great day and happy traveling!

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State of the Union Address Recap

Even though I had it in mind to watch the State of the Union Address last night, I completely forgot about it. Instead I kept working through the presidential address. Sorry Bushy, I didn’t mean to. Look at it this way, I was helping solve problems with the economy by working.

No, but seriously. For those who missed President Bush’s last State of the Union Address, Michael F. Haverluck from CBN News was kind enough to provide us with a brief summary. If you prefer, the full transcript and video are available from the White House website. I’ll make it a point to watch the video sometime before Friday.