Senator Al Franken

H/T Michelle Malkin

Tuesday's Child is Full of Grace, June 30

..I believe that dispensing God’s grace is the Christian’s main contribution. As Gordon MacDonald said, the world can do anything the church can do except one thing: it cannot show grace. In my opinion, Christians are not doing a very good job of dispensing grace to the world, and we stumble especially in this field of faith and politics.
~ Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?

It’s been difficult to keep up with the news in the past few days. Mark Sanford, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Honduras…not to mention Iran and North Korea. There’s a lot of pain, a lot of ugly a lot of scary stuff going on.

When the Sanford story hit last week I wrote:

What I am not, and what Mark Sanford may not be much longer, is a keeper of the public trust. That doesn’t make Sanford more of a sinner than I am. We both need grace. Lots of it.

Does Sanford deserve grace? No, not any more than you or I. But that’s why it’s grace. That’s why it’s God’s marvelous infinite matchless grace. It’s God’s unmerited favor. None of us deserve it. We don’t want to get what we really deserve. But God’s grace is freely bestowed.

When the news of Michael Jackson’s death hit and the media began their “news” frenzy, a friend on another forum said:

Though why people care about some creepy pedophile being dead…

To which I responded:

Perhaps, because while the suspicions will always remain, he was acquitted of any charges.

Perhaps because, while he was a shining example of all the weirdness the entertainment industry has to offer he was an incredible and revolutionary performer.

Perhaps because, no matter who you are, 50 is way too young.

Or perhaps just the simple fact that none of us deserve Grace.

Grace doesn’t excuse Mark Sanford. Grace doesn’t excuse Michael Jackson. But it speaks to us in a broken world where sin entered through one man, and through that one man all have sinned. And even through grace, sin has consequences.

Not to go off on a theological tangent, but I believe God’s grace is freely offered to all, and it’s up to us to accept it or reject it. He’s patient. That’s part of His grace as well.

Mark Sanford has admitted that he needs grace. An email earlier today asked those of us who considered supporting him to forgive him. I can do that. For his wife, his sons and the people of South Carolina, that may be more difficult.

Was grace available for Michael Jackson? I believe it was. Yes, even with all the weirdness and accusations, grace was there. We may never know if he embraced it.

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving,
even though we have rebelled against him.
~ Daniel 9:9 (New International Version)

For those of us who are followers of Christ, it may be painful for us to admit, but we are no better than, nor any less deserving of condemnation than Sanford, Jackson or anyone else. We all need grace. We all need a Savior.

Over 2000 years ago, our sins were nailed to the cross. There Jesus said the work was finished. Now, what are we going to do with it?

“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.”
C.S. Lewis, In Mere Christianity

Tuesday Morning Reading: The Incredible Shrinking President

Obama’s Poll Numbers are Falling to Earth
The Wall Street Journal
Polling data show that Mr. Obama’s approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001. Rasmussen Reports data shows that Mr. Obama’s net presidential approval rating — which is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve — is just six, his lowest rating to date.
Read more.

Video: Press corps now openly laughing at Obama’s backtracking on taxes
Hot Air
It’s a laugh riot, isn’t it? Actually, they might be laughing more at Gibbs’s feeble way of ducking the question than The One’s looming broken promise, but in Gibbs’s defense, what’s he supposed to say? Obama pounded McCain for wanting to pay for health care by taxing benefits, rode into D.C. promising Change, and now he’s going to eat a crap sandwich by reversing himself because it turns out personal charisma doesn’t work on hard economic numbers.
See the video.

Sen. Inhofe Calls for Inquiry Into ‘Suppressed’ Climate Change Report
Republicans are raising questions about why the EPA apparently dismissed an analyst’s report questioning the science behind global warming.
Fox News
A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.
Read more.

Four Justices Unable To See Beyond Race
George F. Will, IBD Editorials
Scalia, concurring separately, said Monday’s ruling “merely postpones the evil day” on which the court must decide “whether, or to what extent,” existing disparate-impact law conflicts with the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law.
Read more.

In the battle between good and evil, Barack Obama endorses evil
Whether Hamas, Hezbollah, Chavez, or Castro, Barack Obama faithfully sides with American enemies over American interests.
Erick Erickson, RedState
And now Barack Obama is standing with Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and a host of communist regimes and sympathizers in Central and South America on the issue of Honduras.
Read more.

And, finally, Hawkins has a point…

3 Reasons To Stop Obsessing Over Obama’s Birth Certificate
John Hawkins, TownHall
Of course, if Barack Obama was born in Hawaii as he says, you might have some very basic questions. For example, why hasn’t he bent over backwards to dispel the notion that he may have been born elsewhere? Well, why would he at this point? He has a significant number of conservatives wasting enormous amounts of time on a side issue that can never bear any fruit and, as an added bonus, it makes them look somewhat unhinged to many Americans. When your political enemies are making fools of themselves, why stop them?
Read more.

On this Date in History, June 30, 1936

June 30, 1936 – Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind” is published.

More Monday Reading

Overturned!

Video: Energy Czar hasn’t read cap & tax, either
Hot Air
Barack Obama’s energy czar appeared on Fox & Friends this morning to discuss the cap-and-tax bill passed by the House last week on a razor-thin margin. Carol Browner got stumped by Fox’s Steve Doocy while questioning her ability to speak to the subject, which prompted her to declare Doocy “unfair” for blindsiding her. You be the judge — should Doocy have wondered whether Browner had bothered to read the bill she was promoting on national TV, or is that “unfair”?
See the video.

The Pelosi Republicans
Michelle Malkin
Pelosi had no qualms meeting with turncoat Republicans before Friday’s vote. Happy now, Rep. Cantor?
Read more.

Racism rejected: SCOTUS reverses Sotomayor in firefighters case
Michelle Malkin
President Obama applauds the decision as a victory for equality under the law. Not.
Read more.

The Senate: Where the Energy Tax and ObamaCare Go to Die
The Patriot Room
The Sunday shows gave us a pretty good glimpse of how much trouble Obama’s big-ticket Socialist agenda is in. Though the Democrats are flush from their bloody House victory on Knee-Cap and Trade, Republican Senators wasted no time in trashing its prospects in the Senate.
Read more.

Democrat Says Gov’t Doesn’t Have to ‘Live Within Our Means’
Warner Todd Huston, Publius Forum
Well, apparently California Budget Conference Committee Chairman Noreen Evans (D, Santa Rosa) has decided to cast away the mask of fiscal responsibility. She has publicly announced that she believes that government does not have to “live within our means.” In fact, it is a duty to spend on just any old thing that government wants to spend on.
See the video.

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We’d be happy for them to wait a little longer.

Mitt Romney’s team awaits 2012
Politico
Mitt Romney says publicly he’s not considering another presidential campaign, most recently on Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” But many of his loyalists expect one and remain at the ready for 2012.
Read more.

Virginia Campaign 2009: Monday, Monday

H/T Republican Party of Virginia

Va. Gov: McDonnell and Deeds talk to school principals in Williamsburg
The Shad Plank
High school principals from across Virginia are meeting in Kingsmill for an annual conference and they’re going to get a chance to hear from both the men running for governor. McDonnell takes the stage first – early tomorrow morning – while Deeds is expected to speak later in the week.
Read more.

Creigh Deeds raises taxes
Brian Kirwin at Bearing Drift
But Deeds does have a record, a long, long list of voting for tax increase after tax increase. Deeds voted for regional tax increases for Hampton Roads the same time he voted for massive tax increases across the state (we in Hampton Roads got a double whammy).
Read more.

Virginia Gentleman
A prospective state attorney general goes back to the founders.
Michael Warren, National Review Online
Will strong grassroots efforts put Cuccinelli over the top in November? Although the races are separate, he’ll run with the GOP’s nominee for governor, Bob McDonnell, who is polling roughly even against Democrat Creigh Deeds. A good election for McDonnell —the state’s former attorney general — will help Cuccinelli’s odds. Even so, the prospective attorney general says he won’t be counting on McDonnell’s coattails. He believes he has the secrets to success: “I’m willing to lose, and I won’t abandon my principles.”
Read more.

H/T Tertium Quids: National Review Catches Up with Cuccinelli

Even the Washington Post gets it
The right-wing liberal
Turns out that even the Post’s need for balance couldn’t get the paper past Creigh Deeds’ massive tax-hike record.
Read more.

WashPo Places Focus Squarely On Deeds’ Record of Tax Hikes
Virginia Virtucon
Let it ring out throughout the Commonwealth — Creigh Deeds is a tax hiker.  He’s done it before and if history is any sort of guide, he would most certainly do it again.  Especially in these tough economic times, Virginia can’t afford to have someone as reckless on taxes and spending as Deeds is as our Governor.
Read more.

Creigh is No Mark, But is Bob Really George Redux?
Tertium Quids
I’m not sure whom Gizzi is talking to in Virginia (aside from Ed Gillespie), but this is the first I’ve heard of Bob McDonnell being the next coming of George Allen.
Read more.

Creigh Deeds Goes Into Hiding
Virginia Virtucon
RICHMOND – Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins today repeated his call for Creigh Deeds to reveal his position on the massive energy tax boondoggle known as “Cap-and-Trade” following its approval in the U.S. House of Representatives Friday evening.
Read more.

We’d “Ask Governor Kaine” to comment if we could find him…

State GOP Disappointed in Kaine
The Washington Post
The Post reported last week that Kaine has been to North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio in recent months and has often attended fundraisers in Virginia and the District. He was in Philadelphia last week and is in New York today.
Read more.

Monday Morning Reading

Well, the president said not long ago in an interview quote-unquote, “we are out of money.” With all due respect, Mr. President, if we’re out of money, quit spending it.
~ Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) on CNN’s “State of the Union” via CQPolitics.

Honduran Military Ousts President During Pre-Dawn Siege
FoxNews.com
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras —  Soldiers seized the national palace and flew President Manuel Zelaya into exile Sunday, hours before a disputed constitutional referendum. Congress appointed a successor, but Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said he was the victim of an illegal coup.
Read more.

What we Hondurans want
ireport.com
Finally, I want to remind everyone that this was not a military coup, this was the arrest and destitution of a criminal president, with the help of the military. Proof that it is not a coup, is that as of this moment we already have the Constitutional State of Right re-established, with a new president, and new cabinet. Let us Hondurans be, we have already defenestrated what was causing us such stress, division and unrest, and we will reunite ourselves, to again perform our right of suffrage in 5 months.
Read more.

In Honduras, Freedom Restored
Net Right Nation
Unfortunately, Barack Obama, after encouraging the Zelaya coup with his complicit silence, has now condemned the people’s move to uphold their Constitution and preserve their freedom. And, as expected, the mainstream media has joined Mr. Obama in censuring the restoration of democracy by censoring the full story.
Read more.

Losing His Mojo? Bam’s Magic Run Could Stall
Rich Lowry, The New York Post
The international scene threatens to play into this sense of hopefulness gone astray. The world shows no signs of vindicating Obama’s belief in the power of speaking softly while carrying a dubious stick.
Read more.

Climate Bill Faces Long Odds in Senate
Jay Cost, Real Clear Politics
If the vote in the House on this bill had been calculated like the vote for President in the case of no majority winner in the Electoral College – where each state gets one vote – the climate bill would not have passed. Twenty-two state caucuses voted in favor of it while twenty-eight voted against. The bill passed in large part because of strong support from California and New York, which accounted for more than 26% of the total votes in favor of the bill.
Read more.

Closer to home…

Virginia’s financial Bull Run?
Lt. Governor Bill Bolling in The Washington Times
The basic problem in Richmond is that we are spending more money than we are taking in, and we cannot continue to do that. We cannot continue to balance our budgets through gimmicks. That is not how we became the best-managed state in the nation, and it is not how we earned a AAA bond rating.
Read more.

EDITORIAL: Democrats’ FOIA problems
A lack of transparency in the majority party
The Washington Times
Mr. Kaine refuses to release his trip itineraries, claiming security and privacy concerns. He maintains that revealing such details as whether there was taxpayer-funded security could endanger the governor’s life. We find these arguments dubious as Mr. Kaine never before raised such objections related to public events that he attended as governor.
Read more.

Today’s Verse to Ponder

Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
Mark 13:6-8 (New International Version)

On this Date in History, June 29, 1964

June 29, 1964, Republicans pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. President Johnson signed the Act on July 2, 1964.

Credit Where Credit Is Due: The Republicans Passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act
By Michael Zak, October 27, 2003
Via GOPUSA
In the Senate, Minority Leader Everett Dirksen had little trouble rounding up the votes of most Republicans, and former presidential candidate Richard Nixon also lobbied hard for the bill. Senate Majority Leader Michael Mansfield and Senator Hubert Humphrey led the Democrat drive for passage, while the chief opponents were Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, of later Watergate fame, Albert Gore Sr., and Robert Byrd. Senator Byrd, a former Klansman whom Democrats still call “the conscience of the Senate”, filibustered against the civil rights bill for fourteen straight hours before the final vote.
Read more.

You can't go home again

The New River, Giles County, Virginia

But I tried this past weekend.  Actually I visited my Mom and Stepdad and at the same time took the nine-year-old for an extended summer visit.  He’ll come home later in the week.

It was a good visit, and a good time to be back home in Giles County.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but for the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, I began to see what a wonderful area of the Commonwealth that really is.  Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps it was just sentimental.

But we took a walk along the river down below Ripplemead and I saw the New River with fresh eyes.  Later driving the old school bus route, I saw Angel’s Rest Mountain framed by trees and I realized, I grew up taking that mountain and the surrounding area for granted.

On the way out of town this morning I made the obligatory stop at the cemetary.  I don’t always, sometimes I’m rushed, sometimes it just doesn’t feel right.  My dad and most of his brother’s and sisters are buried along the same hillside.  I stood there at my grandparent’s grave, and my dad’s.  Then I visited with my uncles.  For some reason this time I was struck by the listing of the military service.  I’d known it all my life, but this time there was a diferent resonance.  World War II, Korea, Vietnam.  I realized there was a depth in these men that I never saw as a child or a teenager.  And I was grateful for their service.

Around other parts of town I relived some of my own history.  I thought the town looked a little sad, perhaps a little run down.  Certainly the economic times are no easier in small town Virginia than elsewhere.

For me, it’s always seemed as if I’d left there because there was nothing there.  Granted job opportunities are scarce.  But there’s plenty there.  There’s heritage.  There’s home.

And while it may have taken me a long time to get here, for that I will always be thankful.

Apparently while I was out of town this weekend…

…the House of Representatives lost their collective minds and passed the “Cap and Trade Bill.”

Here’s some coverage from The Jeffersoniad.

Cap and Tax Passes
Bearing Drift
Final passage of the Cap and Tax Bill (”American Clean Energy and Security Act” (H.R. 2454)) passed the House today 219-212 with 8 Republicans voting in favor and 43 Democrats voting against. The bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration.
Read more.

Federal GOP Fights to the End to Defend US Jobs and USA’s Future from ‘An Inconvenient Myth’
On the Spot
The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.
Read more.

Cap and Trade Passes the House
Crystal Clear Conservative
The Waxman-Markey Amendment (H.R. 2454) passed the House today, 219-212. This bill is headed to the Senate, where many do not expect this bill to pass. Here’s what needs to be done to prevent this bill, which will raise taxes on working Americans and more harm on the economy. Call your Senator and urge him to strongly oppose Cap and Trade. You can contact your Senators by calling 202-224-3121 or visit the Senate website to find your Senator’s website.
Read more.

Friday made me proud to be Republican
Bearing Drift
But for a day, Democrats were their same old Washington DC telling the country how to run every aspect of their lives, and Republicans were pointing out how insipid, corrupt and tawdry the whole mess has become.
Read more.

Did the House Know What It Was Voting on Yesterday?
Tertium Quids
According to this, the House really had no idea what was in the cap and tax bill it narrowly approved last night…
Read more.

Cap and Trade
The Virginia Conservative
Thank you Bob Goodlatte for taking a stand against the further regulation and expansion of the federal government. I truly hope that enough Senators heed your words.
Read more.

The fight, and perhaps our last hope for sanity, now goes to the Senate.