Free Republic

MADISON — Members of the Government Accountability Board seemed impressed. Armed with language from a Wisconsin statute and GAB regulations, Mary Ann Hanson earlier this week spoke out against the policy of allowing voters who have submitted an absentee ballot to vote at a polling place on election day. It's a long-held practice, according to the GAB, predating the board itself, which was created in 2007 to replace the State Elections Board and the State Ethics Board. If the absentee ballot hasn’t been “cast” — processed and tabulated — the person who filed the absentee ballot can vote in person,...

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. Titus 2:11 Yes In this world where God creates with deep beauty and profound mystery. In this world where so many yearn for God’s healing and peace. In this world where some have thought God has forsaken us: Yes Here, in this world, the grace of God has appeared. Not just in this world but for you. Yes For you, weary from trying to meet the expectations of others. For you, worrying about an uncertain future. For you, wondering if you are worthy. Yes For you, the grace of...

A Teen-age President in Search of an Adult Identity Barack Obama keeps looking for a presidential identity not his own. In 2008, he wished to be JFK — whom he often referenced as a youthful and charismatic figure supposedly similar to himself. So we heard references to Obama’s father’s arrival to the U.S. during the golden Kennedy Camelot years. Caroline Kennedy herself came out of seclusion to assure us that Obama had the same Kennedy zest, and she flirted with a Senate run to help restore the lost age of grandeur. And at the Brandenburg Gate, Obama would have liked...

Useful idiot is a derogatory adage, describing a person either too naïve or ignorant to understand that their advocacy of malevolent organizations only allows those organizations to conduct their business with impunity. Confused and misguided, the “occupy” movement is used by the labor unions and left wing radicals to conduct their bidding, disrupting the very business activity they need to support them. Gay rights advocates lobby to legitimize behavior that is contrary to God’s will, rather than loving their neighbor enough to lead them back to the Lord. Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, soviet sympathizers used their...

The presidency of Barack Obama is full of funny things that need not follow any sort of logic. Images and ideas just pop in and out, without worry of inconsistency, contradiction, or hypocrisy. It’s a fascinating mish-mash of strange heroes and bogeymen, this imaginarium of our president. In the imaginarium there are no revolving doors, earmarks, or lobbyists. So Peter Orszag did not go from being OMB director to a Citigroup fat-cat. Once chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel did not make $16 million for his well-known banking expertise. The more you damn the pernicious role of lobbyists and the polluting role of...

There Is No There There Zero jobs last month — a net change of zero job growth? It was just announced that last month’s unemployment is still above 9% — despite the nearly five trillion dollars in Keynesian pump-priming, the near zero interest rates, the expanded unemployment and food stamp support, and the government takeovers and subsidies of businesses. There is a scary sort of deer-in-the-headlights look about Obama and Biden that is quite disturbing, as if they are thinking, “This was not supposed to happened to us. Geithner, Goolsbee, Orszag, Romer, Summers assured us that all this borrowing would...

Compared to the last several ELCA churchwide assemblies, the Orlando 2011 assembly was in some respects uneventful. There were very few con- troversial and heated discussions. The assembly overwhelmingly approved all recommendations from the churchwide organization, including all of the amendments to the constitution that make it more difficult for congregations to disaffiliate with the ELCA. The lack of controversy may account for far fewer visitors or con- gregational observers this year. There appeared to be at most about two dozen people seated in the congregational observers section, propably at least less than half the number at the last several...

With very little controversy, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly met August 15-19 in Orlando. The assembly overwhelmingly approved all rec- ommendations from the churchwide organization, including all of the amendments to the constitution that would make it more difficult for con- gregations to disaffiliate from the ELCA. Also approved were the anti- bullying legislation proposed by Lutherans Concerned/North America, the proposed genetics social statement, and the LIFT (Living into the Future Together) ELCA reorganization plan. Memorials from South Carolina, South Dakota, and Western Iowa re- questing the ELCA rescind the 2009 sexuality decisions were not brought to the floor for discussion....

President Barack Obama is more exasperated than ever as polls dip, critics multiply, and none of his massive borrowing seems to jump start a stalled economy. He seems bewildered that House Republicans did not immediately agree to his tax increases proposals, and confused over why his serial calls for civility are noted—but quickly forgotten. Obama is also perplexed that businesses—in theory flush with cash after massive layoffs and budget trimming—do not listen when he presses them to start hiring. He cannot quite fathom why his conservative critics do not fully appreciate his achievement of eliminating Osama bin Laden. And the...

Obama in unprecedented meeting with ELCA presiding bishop, faith leaders 11-102-MG CHICAGO (ELCA) - Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), along with other faith leaders, asked President Barack Obama to protect funding for programs that benefit people living with hunger and poverty in the ongoing budget debate and in any deal concerning the debt crisis. Hanson was part of a gathering of national Christian leaders who attended a meeting with Obama and senior White House staff on July 20. The select but diverse group represented evangelical, mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and...

Chris Hanson Of “To Catch A Predator” Caught Cheating On His Wife [Rumor]James Johnson Posted: June 30, 2011 NBC’s To Catch A Predator may have a cheater in their midst. Rumors are circulating that show host Chris Hanson, 51, has been caught cheating on his wife during a four-month affair with Kristyn Caddell. The National Enquirer broke the story and PEOPLE is reporting that Caddell, a 30-year-old news anchor at NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach, Fla., have been “hooking up for months.” According to Caddell’s station bio she started working at the network six years ago, then left...

He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings. But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end of his own hidden camera tactics, after the married NBC anchor was secretly filmed on an illicit date with a blonde television reporter 20 years his junior. Hansen, 51, has allegedly been having an affair with Kristyn Caddell, a 30-year-old Florida journalist, for the last four months. Last weekend he was recorded taking Miss Caddell on a romantic dinner at the exclusive Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, before spending the night at her...

<p>It really happened. The NASA scientist who lit the bonfire of the global warming vanities with his flamboyant congressional testimony 14 years ago, has turned the hose on its dying embers.</p> <p>There is now no reason for the Bush administration to give an inch on climate change. Sure, energy efficient technologies (like my Honda hybrid) are worth exploring. But there is absolutely no scientific reason for any expensive policy like the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Mr. Bush led the world by being the first to walk away from Kyoto, and science has proven him correct.</p>

Obama Announces Intention to Appoint ELCA Presiding Bishop to Council 11-016-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- President Barack Obama announced Feb. 4 his intention to appoint the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The advisory council brings together religious and secular leaders, as well as scholars and experts in fields related to the work of faith-based and neighborhood organizations, to make recommendations to the government on how to improve partnerships, according to a White House news release. "I am pleased to announce that these...

Dr. Victor Davis Hanson’s quietly chilling article, “Two Californias,” in National Review Online, ought to be read by every American who is concerned about where this country is headed. California is leading the way, but what is happening in California is happening elsewhere— and is a slow poison that is being largely ignored. Professor Hanson grew up on a farm in California’s predominantly agricultural Central Valley. Now, as he tours that area, many years later, he finds a world as foreign to the world he knew as it is from the rest of California today— and very different from the...

Rock around the Christmas tree with us TONIGHT for Sunday evenings Freedom Radio at 8 pm est with two of the most unashamedly fearless activist American patriots on earth, Bev Perlson, founder of Band of Mothers and Jim Hanson,aka "Uncle Jimbo" of Blackfive and Big Peace. And always tune in to hear the National Security Update with Tim Sumner, co-founder of 911 Families for a Safe and Strong America. Mix your cocktails and pop the corn in advance because you will NOT want to miss a moment!

2010 Christmas Message from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson 10-296-JB "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation!" Isaiah 52:7 When Jesus was born, angelic messengers broke the still calm of a Galilean night to sing joyously and proclaim, "This very day in David's city a Savior is born for you -- God's Promised One, your Lord." Glad tidings of great joy! Common shepherds were the first and heartiest heralds of the promised Savior's arrival then, and today the joy in Jesus' birth fills every corner of...

ELCA Presiding Bishop Responds to Members in Third 'Town Hall' of 2010 10-292-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In his third online "Town Hall Forum" with members this year, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) addressed a variety of ELCA topics and concerns, such as outdoor and campus ministry, immigration reform, contemporary worship, the place of people who are gay and lesbian in the church and interfaith relationships. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson answered 21 questions in the hour-long forum Nov. 21, which was broadcast live on the ELCA website. Questions were posed by online viewers, many...

What Question Do You Have for the ELCA Presiding Bishop? 10-282-MRC CHICAGO (ELCA) -- If you could ask the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) a question, what would it be? The Rev. Mark S. Hanson is ready to receive questions live during the online ELCA Town Hall Forum Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. EST. The forum is an hour-long event designed to inform ELCA members about the life-changing mission and ministries of the ELCA. According to Eric Peterson, congregations should not think of the forum as "a show to be watched. Congregations should prepare and...

The Inexplicables October 30, 2010 - by Victor Davis Hanson More debt, please? 1. Please explain this: Barack Obama entered office; nationalized health care; ran up record $1 trillion deficits; promised to hike taxes on the rich; pushed cap and trade through the House; took over large chunks of banks, insurance companies, and auto corporations; made hard-left appointments from Van Jones to Sonia Sotomayor — and in 21 months saw his positives crash from near 70% in January 2009 to little above 40%, with the specter of near record Democratic losses in the Congress just two years after the anti-Bush/anti-Iraq...

ELCA Presiding Bishop Tells ELCA Leaders it's Time to Move Forward 10-261-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In a report to leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, said it is time for the church to move forward and get over being "timid" about mission and ministry. "In the name of Jesus Christ our days of timidity are over," Hanson told the ELCA Conference of Bishops, ELCA synod vice presidents and ELCA seminary presidents Oct. 2. "I just think we have to say it. And we have to say it with the...

On his latest speaking tour, the president has continued to talk about a traditional midterm election — in which the country assesses the sitting administration’s agenda — as if it were some epic Manichean struggle, something akin to race relations: Jim Crow, civil rights, and now, most recently, the abolition of slavery. At best, Obama is implying that a referendum on his policies is of similar magnitude to an existential battle like the Civil War; at worst, he implies by analogy that he is the crusading abolitionist and his opponents the forces of slaveholding evil. And all of this from...

< snip > Financial issues Two retired pastors, across the country from each other, each asked about the same question, one of several queries about the declining finances of the ELCA: What about the recent announcement that pensions of pastors and other ELCA employees will be reduced 9 percent a year for three consecutive years? “That’s a difficult question,” Hanson said. The downturn in the economy in recent years means pension investments haven’t done well, and adjustments were needed, he said. Hanson reminded the retired pastors that “many people sitting in pews are struggling,” with loss of jobs and income,...

The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America responded to plans for a rival church body, urging fellow Lutherans to avoid slander. "We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, as he recited words from the Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Hanson made the statement in a pastoral letter Tuesday, days...

Unemployment is still high, growth low, deficits huge. States are cutting out everything from streetlights to paving. Public pensions are exploding everywhere. A class war looms between retirees who want their sweet-heart obligations honored, and strapped, poorer taxpayers who feel about those bloated payouts as they do their underwater mortgages. What Did You Expect? In a progressive culture, where ads blare hourly about skipping out on credit card debt, shorting the IRS, and walking away from mortgages, did the public employee unions really think they were exempt from a Chrysler-like renegotiation? In the age of Obama, there is no real...

Click here to find out more! Weren't we supposed to enter a new age of tolerance with the election of President Barack Obama? His half-black, half-white ancestry and broad support across racial lines suggested that at last Americans judged each other on the content of our characters -- not the color of our skin or our tribal affiliations. Instead, in just 18 months of the Obama administration, racial discord is growing and relations seem to have been set back a generation. Black voters are galvanizing behind Obama at a time of rapidly falling support. White independents, in contrast, are leaving...

(To the reader)I admit that something just said “Enough already!” as I read Mark Hanson’s (Presiding Bishop of the ELCA) release regarding the Gaza strip. This came only days after news that the Tanzanian, Ethiopian and Chinese church leaders would be engaging in ongoing, private conversation with him regarding their concerns with the ELCA’s actions last August at the churchwide assembly. Bold public witness based on the Word of God and the historical, confessional Christian teachings were met with an invitation to continue to engage in deep conversation in private behind closed doors. Even if money on or under the...

A German remarked today to some of us that he found it odd that, given all the graffiti one sees, there is never any defacement on the great stone stage at Nuremberg (patterned by Albert Speer after the Pergamon altar) that is immortalized in so many film clips of Hitler screaming to the masses in the 1930s. The German government has done a wonderful job in creating a museum inside the uncompleted Speer-design coliseum not far away from the parade ground. One leaves Nuremberg with the reminder that the fantastic and impossible are just a blink away when the planets...

Anyway, what is the general philosophy that guides this President abroad? I think there are four or five elements, and I’d like to just go briefly through them and then apply them to specific policies and countries—and see if we can spot their presence. One, of course, is that he’s a post-modern President. That’s a fancy word for saying a culture that arose after the modern period, the so-called the post- modern period. And within it is a belief system that incorporates things like utopian pacifism. He seems to believe that as a child of the Enlightenment that if very...

ELCA NEWS SERVICE April 6, 2010 ELCA Presiding Bishop Attends Easter Prayer Breakfast at White House 10-107-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said he "very much appreciated" comments by U.S. President Barack Obama April 6, in which the president spoke of "the significance of Christ's death and Resurrection for his life and faith, and for our witness." Hanson was among some 50 Christian religious leaders who attended an Easter Prayer breakfast hosted by Obama at the White House. Also attending were the Rev. David H. Beckmann, ELCA...

The United States has brought millions of dollars and many tons of aid to Haiti, but one thing we brought is not welcome: the American flag. For awhile, it flew over the compound where the Joint Task Force Haiti was operating, but no more. Apparently, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive thought...

MILLCREEK — An assistant preschool teacher was shot and killed Friday by her 70-year-old former mother-in-law, police said. Tetyana Nikitina, 34, was shot by Mary Nance Hanson about 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Hal J. Schultz facility of the Salt Lake CAP Head Start school at 336 E. 3900 South, said Unified Police Lt. Don Hutson. Hanson then reloaded and allegedly fired several more rounds as Nikitina was driving away. According to Utah State Court records, Nikitina filed for divorce from Dale Jankowski in February 2005. Police say they believe Jankowski is Hanson's son.

NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way. When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and...

A former NAACP executive was charged in Fulton County, Ga., with embezzling $275,000 from the U.S. civil rights organization, NAACP officials say. The Rev. Amos Brown, administrator for the NAACP's Atlanta chapter, said former NAACP official Judith W. Hanson and Hanson's former assistant, Saundra Douglass, are accused of embezzling funds during their time with the Baltimore-based organization, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tuesday. Authorities allege Hanson, who served as the executive director of the NAACP's Atlanta chapter, and Douglass used NAACP funds for personal expenses during a six-year period. The alleged embezzlement was uncovered by an internal investigation of the chapter's...

Christmas Message 2009 A message from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us... -- Titus 3:4-5a Into this shadowed world light shines and joyous voices sing. Glad tidings cheer the heart and liberate hope. “A child has been born for us, a son given to us” (Isaiah 9:6). God our Savior has appeared! God’s saving goodness and loving kindness have arrived in Jesus, the Word made flesh. Though hidden in the humility of a manger, and later in the scandal of the cross, God’s promise is being...

Thousands of people logged on to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's first-ever online town hall forum to hear the denomination's head tackle some tough questions. Many of the questions on Sunday addressed the pro-gay actions of the churchwide assembly in August. "Can you give a good, solid reason why we, the dissident traditionalists, should remain in the ELCA as a decreasing minority instead of moving our memberships to other Lutheran bodies?" George Erdner of Lawrenceville, Ga., asked through an online submission. ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson first made plain, "Don't call yourselves dissident minorities." Hanson stressed that the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) hosted a "Town Hall Forum" here Dec. 6, fielding a variety of questions on topics such as leadership, mission, evangelism, anti-racism and racial justice matters, funding, churchwide staff reductions and actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson responded to 19 questions -- posed by a live audience and members watching online -- during the hour-long forum. Carlos Peña, ELCA vice president, Galveston, Texas, introduced Hanson and posed questions from viewers. Hanson had said he wanted to use the forum to speak directly...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said he will share priorities and hopes for the ELCA, and wants to hear stories from members about the church's work in their own contexts, when he hosts an online "Town Hall Forum" Sunday, Dec. 6. The hour-long forum begins at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time (4:30 p.m. Central Time). The program will be webcast live from Chicago, where Hanson will be joined by an audience of ELCA members. The audience will ask questions of the presiding bishop. Web viewers can watch the...

The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reported that 40 positions may be cut as the denomination struggles financially. "These have been very painful days in this organization," ELCA Presiding Bishop the Rev. Mark S. Hanson told the Church Council Friday, according to the ELCA News Service. Lutherans are looking to reduce their 2010 budget by 10 percent due to decreased giving over the past 30 years, the economic downturn, and the decision by some congregations to withhold funding. Several congregations have decided to cut all funding to the ELCA following the controversial vote in August by the...

Honest welcomes back Uncle Jimbo of Black Five of the Warrior Legacy Foundation and Bob Weimann of Defend our Marines, specifically the Sins of the Generals Series to layout the truth about the Fort Hood Terrorist Massacre. Join us at the link below at 8 pm est, Tonight Call in at 646 478 5613

I am re-posting because I provided the incorrect URL for National Review. Sorry about that.

Victor Davis Hanson writes that America's obssession with Obama may finally be lifting, due, in large part, to the fact that the American people are finally waking up and realizing that Mr. Obama is not the man they thought he was.

So Tom Cable walks. That's how you'd have figured it to play given the other characters and circumstances involved. But more than that, Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein said that Raiders assistant coach Randy Hanson couldn't satisfactorily explain to Lieberstein's conviction rate how his jaw was broken. And that, ultimately, is the lesson here. Nobody told enough of a believable story for us ever to figure out what Cable, the Raiders head coach, actually did to Hanson's face, let alone what his intent was when he did whatever it was he did. With that kind of iron-clad certitude, is...

Raiders defensive assistant Randy Hanson continues to push his assault charges in public, this time challenging Raiders coach Tom Cable to a lie-detector showdown. "I will take a lie-detector test and a drug test, and I will pay for it - and I'll pay for Tom Cable to take those tests as well," Hanson told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. Cable was asked if he had any response. "None whatsoever," Cable said after practice Friday. Hanson has accused Cable of assaulting him and fracturing his jaw Aug. 5 during training camp. Napa police concluded their investigation last week and handed over...

Raiders defensive assistant Randy Hanson finally interviewed with the Napa police, telling them Friday that Raiders coach Tom Cable struck him and broke his jaw Aug. 5 at training camp, his attorney told NFL.com on Monday. Napa police confirmed (again) the potential felony case remains under investigation more than a month since the story broke. Hanson's attorney said Hanson handed over medical records showing he has a broken jaw. When the investigation ends, the district attorney will decide whether or not to press charges. Only then should anyone expect the NFL to take any disciplinary action in the matter --...

Our National 9/11 Schizophrenia The great debate over 9/11 and the American response — is it coming to an end? By Victor Davis Hanson Ninety-six months ago, 19 Islamic terrorists — led by Mohamed Atta, organized by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and ordered by Osama bin Laden — hijacked four American airliners. They destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and murdered 2,974 people. The al-Qaeda–planned attack was the most lethal on the American homeland in our history. In response, the United States quickly attacked and removed the Taliban government that had offered sanctuary to the killers. About 15 months...

By 1930 Verdun had been transmogrified almost into a dirty word in French schools. Throughout the late 1920s, the First World War was increasingly reinterpreted in the West as a futile bloodletting. International “Merchants of Death” and greedy capitalists, not the Kaiser’s aggressive Prussian militarism, were now seen as the true causes of that recent horrific war. A punitive Versailles Treaty — and not the failure to invade, occupy, democratize, monitor, and transform a defeated Germany — was seen as the real mistake on the part of the victors. Britain and France all but disarmed. The Maginot defensive line, England’s...

Why does President Obama want to implement all at once radical changes in American foreign policy, environmental policy, education, health care and the tax code? The answer is easy: If he does not achieve these initiatives soon, he never will. Almost none of Obama's proposed policies any longer enjoy majority support among voters -- and many of them were not clearly outlined to voters during the campaign. Current polls show more Americans are against than in favor of his version of health-care reform. Nearly seven in 10 are wary of government takeovers of the economy, like the bank and car...

snip "Yes, he talks about change in America, but never tells the world exactly how an America of many races and faiths never descends into the hatred and violence we see most elsewhere in diverse societies. How, after all, does one apologize for success? (”I am sorry we are not killing as in the Balkans; so sad we do not follow the Rwandan model; schucks, no Kurd-Shiite-Sunni troubles here.”) It used to be cute to talk about how “Bush turned off the Europeans.” Perhaps. But beneath all the public demonstrations and burning effigies, the old guard knew that Bush, like...

We are beginning to see that the media is about to add humiliation to its moral failure, as it grasps that once you worship a Messiah, you cannot leave the cult. Mr. Obama tolerates no dissent among the believers. The recent Obama press conference showed what happens to the shunned New York Times or Washington Post once you even consider climbing over the fence of the compound. What were these sycophants thinking as they watched Obama produce all sorts of bogus figures in assuring that tripling the deficit, then halving it will translate into lessening the present red-ink? Again, imagine...