SIGN NEW PETITION - (Jan. 27) American Pastor Saheed Abidini - An Iranian leader has said that clemency for the pastor after almost 1 and 1/2 years being falsely imprisoned. Please sign this new petition at: http://beheardproject.com/ 2/6 - PRAISE GOD that after pastor Abedini has been unjustly imprisoned for over a year and a half, President Obama finally spoke out himself for the pastor's release as well as that of Ken Bae from North Korea (see below)!
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
PRAYER ALERT! - Soci, Russia, Olympics -1) TERRORISM THREAT: Let's be sure to be praying for God to move against all who would bring harm to the athletes and others. Pray that the security forces would be effective in rooting out any terrorist plans and preventing them from being carried out. Pray for the families of the athletes who must be very anxious for their loved ones being in harm's way; 2) EVANGELISM EFFORTS: Let's also be praying that the many efforts being made to share the gospel with athletes and visitors to the Olympic Games will be effective in seeing many respond positively and make decisions for Christ. Pray esp. that athletes and visitors from little evangelized countries will take the gospel back with them and share it with others.
Oct. 23: "Christians Fleeing IRAQ Area Once Considered Safe," - CBNNews.com, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/October/Christians-Fleeing-Iraq-Area-Once-Considered-Safe/ PRAY that believers in Iraq will know God's protection and provision; that believers will know[ whether they are called to flee or remain and persevere; and that their persecutors may come to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. - Stan]
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"- CBNNews.com, Aug 14, 2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/ - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.] Monday,
November 04, 2013 - Saeed's Life in [Greater] Jeopardy After Prison Transfer - CBNNews.com, ; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Saeeds-Life-in-Jeopardy-after-Prison-Transfer/ IRAN - Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world
November 04, 2013 - Saeed's Life in [Greater] Jeopardy After Prison Transfer - CBNNews.com, ; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Saeeds-Life-in-Jeopardy-after-Prison-Transfer/ IRAN - Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world
PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release
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"When Presidents Upheld the Law" - By Rich Tucker,February 17, 2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is known as “President’s Day,” a three-day weekend retailers use to lend an air of Founding-era seriousness to their sales. But its legal name is Washington’s birthday—and how appropriate to reflect on a President who took his bearings from the Constitution while serving in office.
George Washington “understood himself to be the President of a Republic in which the people, through their elected representatives in Congress, make laws,” Heritage’s David Azerrad writes [1]. As the chief executive, Washington recognized that his constitutional charge to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” was a duty rather than an optional responsibility to exercise at will. Laws, no matter how unpopular, had to be upheld, so long, of course, as they were constitutional.
Perhaps no law was more despised in Washington’s time than the excise tax on whiskey. It fell especially hard on farmers on the frontier of Pennsylvania, for whom whiskey was the drink of choice and grain the most lucrative crop. Washington saw the farmers’ violent resistance to the tax—the so-called Whiskey Rebellion—as a direct threat to the rule of law. If “the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity,” Washington noted [2], “nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected hereafter.” The President’s response was therefore swift and forceful: He personally led more than 12,000 troops to western Pennsylvania and quashed the rebellion.
What a contrast to President Barack Obama’s “I can do whatever I want” attitude toward the rule of law. In light of Washington’s constitutional leadership, Obama’s dereliction of duty when it comes to enforcing Obamacare—today’s most unpopular law and the President’s namesake—is especially clear. The President has unilaterally made changes to the law [3] that was passed by Congress.
[Check out: "7 times Obama did “do whatever I want” during his presidency" [4] ]
Other examples of the President’s selective enforcement of laws duly passed by Congress abound. Among those cited [3] by legal experts Elizabeth Slattery and Andrew Kloster:
Abdicating the Administration’s duty to defend and enforce federal laws.
Gutting the work requirement from welfare reform.
Implementing the DREAM Act granting amnesty to some illegal immigrants by executive fiat.
See more Obama overreach [5]
“We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need,” Obama announced last month [6].
It is inconceivable that such words would have ever come out of President Washington’s mouth. The current occupant of the White House may want to take some time today to read up on how our first and greatest President understood his role.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad [7].
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/17/presidents-upheld-law/
URLs in this post:
[1] Heritage’s David Azerrad writes: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/20/morning-bell-washington-the-indispensable-man-of-the-revolution/
[2] noted: http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2416&layout=html
[3] made changes to the law: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/02/an-executive-unbound-the-obama-administrations-unilateral-actions
[4] 7 times Obama did “do whatever I want” during his presidency: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/11/7-times-obama-whatever-want-presidency/
[5] See more Obama overreach: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/14/7-times-obama-ignored-law-impose-executive-will/
[6] Obama announced last month: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/15/executive-pen-ready-imperial-obama-will-limit-congress/
[7] Heritage Libertad: http://www.libertad.org/
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
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[The following is from "7 Times Obama Ignored the Law to Impose His Executive Will" - http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/14/7-times-obama-ignored-law-impose-executive-will/ ]
2. Giving Congress and their staffs special taxpayer-funded subsidies for Obamacare - It was uncomfortable for Members of Congress when they realized that, through Obamacare, they had kicked themselves and their staffs out of the taxpayer-funded subsidies they were enjoying for health coverage. But the Administration said no problem and gave them new subsidies [6]. In this case [4], “the Administration opted to stretch the law to save Obamacare—at the taxpayers’ expense.”
3. Trying to fulfill the “If you like your plan, you can keep it” promise—after it was broken - When Americans started getting cancellation notices from their insurance companies because Obamacare’s new rules were kicking in, the President’s broken promise was exposed. He tried to fix things by telling insurance companies to go back to old plans that don’t comply with Obamacare—just for one year. Slattery and Kloster note [4] that “The letter announcing this non-enforcement has no basis in law.”
4. Preventing layoff notices from going out just days before the 2012 election - There’s a law that says large employers have to give employees 60 days’ notice before mass layoffs. And layoffs were looming due to federal budget cuts in 2012. But the Obama Administration told employers to go against the law and not issue those notices—which would have hit mailboxes just days before the presidential election. The Administration [4] “also offered to reimburse those employers at the taxpayers’ expense if challenged for failure to give that notice.”
5. Gutting the work requirement from welfare reform - The welfare reform that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996 required that welfare recipients in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program work or prepare for work to receive the aid. The Obama Administration essentially took out that requirement by offering waivers to states, even though the law expressly states that waivers of the work requirement are not allowed. “Despite [the law’s] unambiguous language, the Obama Administration continues to flout the law with its ‘revisionist’ interpretation,” write [4] Slattery and Kloster.
6. Stonewalling an application for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain - This was another case where the Administration simply refused to do what was required by law. An application was submitted for nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain [7], but “Despite the legal requirement, the Obama Administration refused to consider the application.”
7. Making “recess” appointments that were not really recess appointments - Slattery and Kloster explain [4] that “In January 2012, President Obama made four ‘recess’ appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, claiming that, since the Senate was conducting only periodic pro forma sessions, it was not available to confirm those appointees.” The catch: The Senate wasn’t in recess at the time. Courts have since struck down the appointments, but the illegitimate appointees already moved forward some harmful policies.
MORE: Slattery and Kloster list even more actions that, while they might not be illegal, are definitely abuses of executive power. That list includes [4] imposing new immigration law by executive fiat and refusing to enforce more than one federal law.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
URLs in this post:
[4] explain: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/02/an-executive-unbound-the-obama-administrations-unilateral-actions
[5] longer if they play their cards right: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/11/obamacare-great-just-cant-wait-oh/
[6] gave them new subsidies: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/08/16/morning-bell-obama-gives-congress-obamacare-relief-illegally/
[7] Yucca Mountain: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/11/19/yucca-mountain-nrc-takes-first-step-follow-law/
Copyright © 2014 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
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