MILITARY VOTE: Despite the military vote's tendency to lean conservative and Republican, the Bush Pentagon does not seem inclined to do much to make sure our boys in uniform get to exercise the franchise this November. A report from the Department of Defense Inspector General says that it's business as usual at the military's absentee voting program. The DoD IG's report indicated that worldwide, the military voting program has continued long-standing problems. The March 31 report said that it surveyed military bases and found considerable deficiencies. "Opportunities exist to improve the DoD voting assistance program, as evidenced by the three partially effective and seven ineffective programs at the ten installations we visited," it said. Also, "about 65% of uniformed absentee voters who completed our questionnaire stated that they had at least one problem with the absentee voting process during 2003."
FLEE: At this June's Southern Baptist Convention, attendees may have the chance to vote on a resolution urging parents to withdraw their children from the public schools. Says the resolution: "Whereas, the Bible commands that fathers are to bring up their children in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), and all parents have an obligation to strive by all means to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and whereas, all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus, and He has commanded us to make disciples of our children and teach them to observe everything He has commanded (Mt. 28:19-20), and. . . whereas, the millions of children in government schools spend seven hours a day, 180 days a year being taught that God is irrelevant to every area of life. . . be it resolved that the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention encourages all officers and members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the churches associated with it to remove their children from the government schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education."
COWARDLY CARDINAL: After a talk to young professionals at an Irish pub in Washington on April 20, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., was pelted with political questions from the audience. Some wanted to know why church authorities did not discipline pro-abortion politicians who claim to be Catholic, such as Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.), who will be the Democrats' presidential nominee this year. McCarrick, head of a new task force that is supposed to devise guidelines for dealing with Catholic politicians who dissent from fundamental moral teachings, gave vague answers that seemed to indicate that no disciplinary action would be forthcoming.
OIL-FOR-FRAUD: The United Nations' oil-for-food program-supposedly designed to provide the Iraqi people with food while Saddam Hussein's regime labored under sanctions-was not only rife with corruption, funneling money to 270 different people and groups, it may have funded the very terrorists our troops are dying to defeat in Iraq right now. "One of the most chilling aspects of the scandal was brought out by Rep. Doug Ose (R.-Calif.) who noted that among the 270 names included in the list of recipients of illegal funds, was that of the late Abu Abbas, one of the world's most-wanted terrorists. Another listed recipient is a U.S.-designated terrorist group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-and now we know that we are fighting terrorists in Fallujah," said Fred Gedrich, Senior UN and Foreign Policy Analyst at Freedom Alliance. Gedrich asked, "How many terrorists and terrorist organizations benefited from the $10 billion plus ripped off from the Iraqi people by Saddam? How much of this money is being used to finance the terrorists activities occurring in Iraq and the broader Middle East today?"
FREE CHINA: On April 26, Rep. Chris Cox (R.-Calif.) marked the second anniversary of the imprisonment of human rights activist Dr. Yang Jianli by China's Communist government. "It has been exactly two years today that Dr. Yang has been imprisoned," Cox, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said. "It has been exactly ten months and one day since the House of Representatives enacted House Resolution 199, by a unanimous vote of 412-0. This legislation condemned and deplored the detention of Dr. Yang Jianli and the lack of due process afforded him."
