- The Senate adjourned Friday afternoon without considering
Sen. Kennedy's hate crimes amendment to the military appropriations bill.
But they will resume consideration of the bill on Monday. Freedom of speech
in America is at the greatest risk in the history of our country. Yet,
alarmingly, an NPN survey Friday revealed that relatively few calls of
protest went in to Senate offices last week.
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- This is true although for two weeks
I have been on total alert, warning that unless lovers of freedom protest
loudly the hate bill could well slip through. On 15 radio interviews and
<http://www.rense.com/>www.rense.com I addressed close to a million
patriotic Americans, yet during this period I was disturbed at how little
feedback came in at <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org.
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- This lack of concern is largely a result
of widespread agreement among many Christian/conservative leaders that
Pres. Bush, by his promise to veto the hate bill, has neutralized its threat.
Last week, my friend Guy Adams, who knows scores of new right leaders,
found that most now consider the hate bill no longer an imminent danger.
Their strategy is to praise and support Pres. Bush, confident that he
will respond to their loyalty by remaining true to his veto promise. It
seems as if, regardless of his intentions, the President's promise has
effectively destroyed most organized opposition to the hate bill.
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- On Friday, Sept. 14, Sen. Kennedy audaciously
tried to attach his hate bill to the military appropriations bill, calling
for a unanimous consent agreement from the Senate, omitting debate. Sen.
McCain blocked Kennedy on Friday, but it is sobering that five days passed
before any timely internet warnings came out from most of the largest leaders
of the evangelical right -- a period which might have seen victory for
the hate bill.
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- Yet, why should people exert themselves
to save free speech when the President has promised to save it for us?
These organizations, while describing how threatening to freedom is the
hate bill, do not give an answer to that question. It is not surprising,
then, that instead of a protest of millions, only the tiniest minority
seem to have responded.
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- New Tactic against the Hate Bill
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- Gravely concerned at this deadly threat
to freedom, I recently tried something new. I clearly defined to my e-alert
readers the two main reasons why we, the people, not Pres. Bush, must defeat
the hate bill in this Congress.
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- First, if the hate bill succeeds, it
will acquire great prestige as legislation passed by both houses of the
Congress of the United States. Even if the President vetoes it, it will
still win: This accomplishment will make it very easy in little more than
a year for the Democratic Congress and the next, probably pro-hate bill
President to approve it. In contrast, if the hate bill is defeated in
the Senate now, it will continue into the next administration crippled,
as it has been since 1998, by its reputation as legislation that is hard
to pass, failing after five attempts. 1
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- Secondly, busy distracted Republican
Senators need a groundswell of encouragement to do battle against the hate
bill as soon as it comes before the Senate. They, too, have probably been
infected with the "let the President do it" mentality.
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- These two simple ideas seem at last
to have gotten through to many Americans. Immediately after they were
posted in an article published at <http://www.rense.com/>www.rense.com,
thousands of people came to <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org
for the names of 37 Senators whom we consider best bets for persuading
against the hate bill. (See, <http://truthtellers.org/alerts/libertytobeuncivil.html>Liberty
to be Uncivil)
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- Challenge to New Right Leaders
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- New right leaders, we may yet have a
very brief period of opportunity to powerfully impact Senators to oppose
the hate bill. But to do that, your constituents must know why it is necessary
that the people, not the President, defeat the hate bill:
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- 1. Defeat of the hate bill in the Senate now will
weaken its chances in the next Congress with a potentially pro-hate bill
President.
- 2. Senators need encouragement from the American
public to fight hard this week to save free speech.
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- Send out an immediate alert calling
as passionately as you can for massive protest! Everyone must know that,
even if the President vetoes the hate bill, this devastating legislation
will win big time if approved by Congress. It will have an even bigger
win when a Hillary or Rudy move into the White House.
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- But the loss for free speech and Christianity
will be incalculable.
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- Endnote
- 1. Focus on the Family has done much to remind Senators
of the people's wishes by delivering to them more than 100,000 names on
a "Hate Crimes and ENDA" petition.
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- Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National
Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watch dog organization.
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- Let the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
teach you how they have saddled 45 states with hate laws capable of persecuting
Christians: <http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp>http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
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- Learn how ADL took away free speech in Canada
and wants to steal it now in the U.S. Congress. Watch Rev. Ted Pike's <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7217700265038533779>Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians at video.google.com. Purchase this
gripping documentary to show at church. Order online at <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org
for $24.90, DVD or VHS, by calling 503-853-3688, or at the address below.
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- TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on
this subject. Call (503) 631-3808.
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