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Do I agree with Obama's interpretation of Luke 12:48? No. Do I agree with Obama in his 2004 interview "I have a deep faith" in which he said that there many paths to heaven/the Father and his words which were contrary to Jesus saying He is the "Way, Truth, Life...no man comes unto the Father but by me." Absolutely not. Do I agree with Mormon teaching that Jesus and Satan are brothers? Again, absolutely not. (link below in comments section.) The point of the this thread is to point out that Orrin Hatch was wrong. In fact, I believe that...

GOP's Hatch: Someone needs to remind Obama he's not Jesus ChristBy Josiah Ryan - 02/02/12 06:43 PM ET Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Thursday evening said President Obama needs a reminder that he is not Jesus Christ. "In 2008, the president declared that his nomination was the world historical moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal," Hatch said in a a speech from the Senate floor. "Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water and he did not occupy the Oval Office." Hatch...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Two pro-gun conservatives recently announced they were running against Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. This is welcome news for gun owners. In a Senate career that has lasted more than thirty five years, Hatch has not been a particularly good friend of the Second Amendment. During negotiations over the 1986 McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act – designed to protect gun owners from abuses of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- Hatch sat at the negotiating table next to officials of the ATF and argued against the pro-gun positions of Sen. Jim McClure. Though a senior member...

WASHINGTON - Recognizing the need to revamp outdated and restrictive gun laws, U.S Senators Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have introduced the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act. The bill allows for the interstate sale of firearms and removes several antiquated and unnecessary restrictions imposed on interstate firearms transactions.“Utahns and Americans everywhere have a right to bear arms, and this legislation ensures that onerous and outdated restrictions on everyone’s Second Amendment rights are no longer in place,� Sen. Hatch said. “By removing these restrictions, we can ensure that the constitutional freedoms we seek to protect remain intact.�“Current laws restricting interstate commerce of firearms...

Sen. Mike Lee's bold, outspoken conservatism isn't sitting well with many of his more senior Republican colleagues in a chamber where even the staunchest of rivals tend to refer to each other as "my good friend." The freshman Utah Republican's willingness to offer opinionated advice on policy and political strategy during closed-door Conference meetings has irked Members accustomed to Senate tradition, which values the input of tenured Members and expects the newly elected to maintain a deferential profile. Lee ousted Sen. Bob Bennett last year in a GOP primary, a factor that might have contributed to the tension. "He's not...

While Obama’s out there pointing at bridges that might need repair, Orrin Hatch reveals that there were 35 states that got less stimulus money for their roads, highways, and bridges than Solyndra did in a guaranteed loan for their green jobs scam.

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is asking National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member and former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) official Craig Becker to explain his involvement in alleged union intimidation efforts. Hatch wrote to Becker in response to the SEIU's "Contract Campaign Manual" document that went public. The handbook instructs union members to purposefully ...

Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, asked National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Craig Becker on Tuesday if he helped the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) write its “intimidation manual.” “According to several recent news reports, some controversial documents have come to light in the course of SEIU’s current litigation with Sudexo, Inc., [sic] including a ‘Contract Campaign Manual,’ which provides details regarding the strategies employed by the union during organizing and contract campaigns,” Hatch wrote to Becker. “Among other things, the manual explicitly advises union members to engage in tactics designed to attack the reputation of an employer as well...

Yes, Tea Party organizer David Kirkham is “very seriously” considering running against Sen. Orrin Hatch for the GOP Senate nomination next year. But not until after Track Day on Sept. 10. What’s Track Day, one may ask? It’s Kirkham’s power car restoration business’s annual event at the Miller Sports Park where his customers from around the world come to enjoy the fun and trills of driving a high-performance automobile on a professional racetrack. “This really is a big event for my company,” said Kirkham, talking to UtahPolicy by phone from his auto shop with banging and hissing noises in the...

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Republican Senator Orrin Hatch doesn't think Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson will run against him next year. What's more, Hatch isn't ruling out yet another run in 2018. (snip) Senator Hatch, not surprisingly, thinks Jason Chaffetz made the right decision to stay in the House of Representatives. Not that the senator was worried about getting the boot from the former BYU kicker. ABC 4: "I always got the impression you were confident you could beat him?” Senator Hatch: “Well, let's put it this way. I am a hard worker and no one is going...

Not only are factions of the Tea Party working to dump Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, but now they're attacking the movement's darling, Sarah Palin, for going all lovey-dovey over Hatch.

GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz had raised the hopes of grass-roots conservative activists outside the Beltway for months with strong indications that he would mount a David vs. Goliath challenge to the four-decade incumbent Hatch: The Chaffetz calculus is not simple. On one hand, Hatch is widely seen as vulnerable to a conservative challenger and Chaffetz is well-known and liked among Utah’s tea party base. However, Chaffetz was a leading spokesman for House conservatives during the recent debt ceiling debate and sponsor of the Cut, Cap and Balance proposal, which advocated slashing government spending and requiring Congress to pass a balanced...

Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch may have dodged a conservative primary challenge — at least from one possible opponent. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that sources say Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who has acknowledged that he is considering challenging Hatch for the GOP nomination, will announce Monday afternoon that he is not going to campaign for Hatch’s Senate seat. Chaffetz did not immediately return a message from The Daily Caller left on his cell phone.

Link only, per FR posting rules

New documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent over one million taxpayer dollars promoting Obamacare in coordination with the 2010 mid-term elections. The documents include correspondence between HHS officials and representatives from The Ogilvy Group, the public relations firm hired to drive web traffic to an HHS site promoting Obamacare as "the Affordable Care Act." On October 25, 2010, HHS New Media Communications Director Julia Eisman sent an email to Ogilvy Senior Vice President Imani Green, reading, "Given the high performance, we're wondering if...

In a bombshell accusation, the government watchdog group Judicial Watch announced today that the Obama administration used taxpayer money to help orchestrate an internet search engine manipulation campaign specifically promoting Obamacare. Judicial Watch obtained 2,328 pages of records pursuant to a March 23, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The FOIA information included correspondence between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Ogilvy Group, the public relations fire hired by the White House to push Obamacare on the American people. Judicial Watch listed the following as major points of interest from the FOIA request (all bullets quoted):...

As faithful readers of this blog know, I was reporting on the Tea Party movement long before it was even called the Tea Party movement — and long before a legion of Johnny-come-latelys in Washington had grabbed their fiscal conservative costumes and joined the parade. I can remember not being able to get mainstream media coverage on the day of one of the first taxpayer protests in Denver in February 2009. We’ve come a long way, baby. From day one, I emphasized that the grass-roots activists leading the Tea Party charge have been as opposed to Big Government Republicans as...

I am not a Sarah Palin hater. As an Alaska native, I have some appreciation for the political skill needed to knock off Frank Murkowski and Tony Knowles in the same election – political skill that simply isn’t possessed by idiots. And I’ve watched with admiration as she has continually kept herself in the news while shaping the national conversation in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways. But over the last several months, Palin’s unique brand of activism seems to have shifted – whether consciously or unconsciously – towards the will of the Republican Establishment. Consider: Palin’s first break with grassroots/TEA...

I just read a very bizarre blog post about entrenched incumbent Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch by Fox News anchor Greta van Susteren and then watched an equally distressing interview van Susteren conducted last night with Sarah Palin regarding Hatch. First, the title of van Susteren’s blog post: “Is someone trying to manipulate the UTAH Tea Party vote unfairly away from Senator Orrin Hatch?” Van Susteren absurdly suggests that dark, sinister, unnamed, and uninformed forces in Utah with outside backing are somehow trying to take away Hatch’s seat through nefarious means. She’s clearly talking about D.C.-based fiscal conservative groups like FreedomWorks...

Calling himself a tea party true believer, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Tuesday in the same interview both praised the debt ceiling deal and said he plans to vote against it. Hatch, who faces a looming primary challenge from the right from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), took to Fox News’s “Fox and Friends” to tout his own tea party credentials. “Look, I think the tea party people deserve a lot of credit,” he said in response to a question about Democrats and Vice President Joe Biden reportedly calling freshman GOP members of Congress terrorists. “We wouldn’t be where we are...

Hannity endorses Hatch during the same interview that Hatch praises McConnell and Boehner for extracting "significant cuts" from Obama. Hatch also endorsed Romney during the interveiw. His conservative votes lately are so transparent. Jason Chaffetz for Senate.

Utah U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch blasted President Obama in the weekly GOP address, calling for a balanced budget amendment in exchange for supporting an increase in the debt ceiling. "Instead of sending that amendment to the states for ratification, and addressing the need for fiscal balance, 14 years later, our nation faces a debt crisis of epic proportions," Mr. Hatch said. "Our national debt has gone from roughly $5 trillion in 1997 to over $14 trillion today." The Utah Republican, who has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the debt talks, said congressional Republicans should limit Washington's ability to...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) doesn’t yet have an official primary opponent, but he might as well be running against the Club for Growth. A nasty war of words has erupted between the two sides, setting the stage for what appears to be a likely effort by the Club to unseat Hatch next year. (snip) The Club earlier this week released ads in Utah and Indiana (where it is also considering targeting GOP Sen. Richard Lugar), urging the two men to resist raising the debt limit, while also taking some shots are their records on government spending. But as we’ve written...

...MYTH: Tax Expenditures are Loopholes FACT: This is deliberately inaccurate. A loophole is something that Congress did not intend and would generally shut down, at least going forward, once it learned of the loophole. Tax expenditures, by contrast, were generally placed by Congress into the tax code deliberately. For example, the largest tax expenditure is the exclusion for employer-provided health insurance and benefits. The second-largest: the home mortgage interest deduction. Whether you agree with a particular tax expenditure or not, an honest debate requires recognition that tax expenditures were designed by Congress with economic or social goals in mind and...

A new TV ad campaign from a conservative anti-tax group seeks to harden key Republican lawmakers against compromising with Democrats on a deal to raise the debt ceiling. The ads by the Club for Growth target two key Republican senators trying to ward off primary challenges from the right and another ad, which will run nationally on cable TV...

SALT LAKE CITY — A majority of Utah voters believe Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has been in office too long and should be replaced, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows. The poll by Dan Jones & Associates found only 38 percent of registered voters agree that it's important to re-elect Hatch in 2012 because of his seniority. Fifty-nine percent said after 36 years, it's time for someone new.(snip) Hatch's most likely GOP challenger appears to be Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. In a primary race, 40 percent of poll respondents said they would vote for Hatch and 41 percent for Chaffetz....

Conservative PAC FreedomWorks, a prominent Tea Party group chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is targeting Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch in the 2012 Senate race. The group, arguing Hatch has insufficiently conservative economic views, is launching the so-called "Retire Orrin Hatch" campaign at Utah's Republican Convention on Saturday. "It's clear that Senator Hatch is trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Tea Party movement by reinventing himself as a fiscal conservative," said Russ Walker, Vice President of Political and Grassroots Campaigns for FreedomWorks PAC, in a statement. "But his recent rhetoric and actions in favor of limited...

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is apparently telling associates he will run against Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday in an above-the-fold A1 story that "five Utah politicos, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chaffetz has told them directly in recent weeks that he will contend for the Republican (senate) nomination." The story is attracting national attention, including pieces from Politico, MSNBC.com, UPI, and National Journal.

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) issued a press release today stating his intention to introduce a resolution next week disapproving of the policy concerning Israel that President Barack Obama announced on Thursday. “Israel is the United States’ strongest friend and ally,” Hatch said in the statement. “By calling for a return to the pre-1967 borders, President Obama has directly undermined her.”

Senate Republicans have successfully filibustered the nomination of Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The final vote on cloture was 52 to 43, with one Senator (Orrin Hatch of Utah) voting “present,” well short of the 60 votes required to end a filibuster. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) voted yes, while Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) voted no. Sens. Bauchus, Hutchison, Moran and Vitter did not vote.

In my ward yesterday, there was an over-the-pulpit announcement plugging an anti-pornography gathering by...UCAP, or the Utah Coalition Against Pornography. Also mentioned was...the LDS Church’s top media guy, will be speaking. I was also reading...that Sen. Orrin Hatch has co-signed a letter demanding that U.S. AG Eric Holder prosecute adult pornography crimes. My church has been on a huge anti-pornography campaign lately via its media outlets, including the Deseret News. It’s no coincidence to me that it started soon after an academic study noted that Utah had the highest ratio of online pornography subscribers, read. It’s not an outlandish stretch...

Editors note: This piece was co-authored by Ken Blackwell. As part of the debate over the final Fiscal Year 2011 continuing resolution, members of Congress faced a choice — whether to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, or to continue sending taxpayer dollars to this group. The question was simple. Should American families be required to provide millions of dollars in funding to an organization responsible for over 300,000 abortions in 2009? The organization’s funding survived by a thread. Though the House voted overwhelmingly to defund Planned Parenthood, in the Senate, every single Democrat voted...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) may be in the sights of Tea Party activists ahead of 2012, but the Utah Republican has given help to two of his Senate colleagues who face conservative primary challengers themselves. Hatch's political action committee — OrrinPAC — donated to both Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) during the first quarter of the year, according to the PAC's March filing with the Federal Election Commission. Both Republicans are Tea Party targets in 2012. Hatch's PAC donated $1,000 each to Lugar and Snowe in February. Asked about the donations, Hatch campaign manager Dave Hansen said...

No one should ever accuse Utah's senior U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, in office 34 years, of not being a hard worker. But lately, Hatch seems to be expending much of his soon-to-be 77-year-old body and intellect toward a desperate effort to convince a small portion of Utah Republicans that he is Tea Party-approved. As a result, the distinguished-looking senator is beginning to look very unserious. He's reversed a longstanding tradition of being a conservative statesman with the political skills to work with Democrats to reach compromise. Common-sense positions Hatch once espoused on issues such as immigration and health care reform...

Hatch: Health law a 'dumb-ass' programBy Jordan Fabian - 02/28/11 01:43 PM ET GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) reportedly directed a few profane insults toward President Obama's healthcare law in a speech late last week. During at an appearance at an event sponsored by the Utah State University College Republicans, Hatch was asked whether he thought the nation's healthcare system needs serious reforms. He acknowledged that states have different problems when it comes to healthcare, but called the federal law Democrats passed last year a "dumb-ass program" that will not solve them. "Every state has different demographics, every state has...

LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Sen. Orrin Hatch says he would support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for president in 2012, citing Romney's efforts on behalf of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Hatch told a newspaper in Logan that even though he likes Huntsman "very much" and is close to the Huntsman family, he has always been a Romney supporter and fully expects him to seek the White House again. He praised what he called Romney's economic background and ability to make decisions, including his role as chief executive of the...

Sen. Orrin Hatch tells conservatives he regrets his vote for the bailoutBy Shane D'Aprile - 02/11/11 03:27 PM ET Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) addressed his bailout vote head-on Friday in his appearance before conservative activists. He said he regrets voting in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) but added that he believes it prevented the nation from descending into an economic depression. "I probably made a mistake voting for it," Hatch said, but then went on to justify the vote. "We were in trouble and it looked like we were heading for a depression. I believe we would...

The more things change, the more they stay the same with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). The late Paul Weyrich wrote an April 5, 2004 article for Newsmax reviewing the philosophically erratic actions of Hatch, going all the way back to his election to the Senate in 1976. You can read Weyrich’s insightful article at http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/4/5/115946.shtml One caveat: The title of the article, “Senator Hatch: Provoking a Split Within Conservatism…Again,” refers to what Weyrich believed at the time would be rival proposed constitutional amendments to protect marriage. As things worked out, perhaps as a result of the article, Hatch co-sponsored the...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) showed up at tonight's Tea Party Express town hall in downtown DC to take a few questions about the budget and push his tea party cred by sharing a stage with movement heavyweights like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Allen West (R-FL) and Sen. Mike Lee, the tea party Republican who booted Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) last cycle. Hatch rose to the occasion, offering up the kind of anti-tax, anti-big government, anti-Obamacare messaging that the tea party thrives on. It's clear why Hatch was there -- he wants to avoid the fate...

Sen. Orrin Hatch: Elena Kagan should sit out health care caseBy Associated Press Saturday, February 5, 2011 - Updated 1 day ago WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, an opponent of the recently enacted health care overhaul, says Justice Elena Kagan should not take part in the widely expected Supreme Court consideration of the new law. Hatch’s call is part of the broad legal and political maneuvering on both sides for the most favorable conditions surrounding court review of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy accomplishment. His comments came the same week that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said he...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) spoke with National Review Online about the (presumed) 2012 presidential candidacy of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman. Will Huntsman, who recently resigned his post as U.S. ambassador to China, run for president? “I think he will, yes,” Hatch tells us. “He hasn’t spoken to me about it, but all the moves seem to be in that direction.” What does he think of Huntsman as a candidate? “I think he’d be excellent,” Hatch says. “He’s articulate, he’s photogenic, he’s smart, he was a good governor and served in one of the most important diplomatic posts on...

The buzz in Utah is that Sen. Orrin Hatch may be vulnerable in 2012, especially if a Tea Party insurgent mounts a campaign to snag the nomination at the Utah Republican convention. Last year, Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater knocked off Sen. Bob Bennett on the second ballot, sending the Beehive State into a political tizzy. Lee, of course, now holds the seat and is making an early name for himself as a fiscal hawk. (snip) Sal Russo, the group’s chief strategist, tells National Review Online that the Tea Party Express will not tangle with Hatch in 2012. “In 1976,...

Over at National Review Online, an interview with a Tea Party Express leader reveals that that organization will not support any challengers to Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2012. Sal Russo, the group's chief strategist, tells National Review Online that the Tea Party Express will not tangle with Hatch in 2012. (snip) "I think he was an original tea partier," Russo says. "He has been talking about our issues from the beginning. Orrin is a Reagan conservative, as far as I'm concerned, and that's as good as it gets."

Six-term Republican Senator Orrin Hatch is trailing in a hypothetical primary challenge. The Utah Republican just saw his counterpart Bob Bennett knocked out of office last year in a Republican primary. Hatch ran for President in 2000, but did not get more than 3% nationwide. Hatch's last competitive race for Senate was in 1982. Utah Policy came out with a new poll of that state's Republicans, in which Hatch was placed third against former Governor John Huntsman and current representative Jason Chaffetz.

...The moderate Republican had once been considered a rising star in the GOP and a likely 2012 contender, with David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign mastermind, even identifying Huntsman as the only Republican who made him “a wee bit queasy” about the next race. But speculation ended abruptly in 2009 when Obama tapped Huntsman for the ambassadorship. National pundits called the appointment a shrewd move by the White House to sideline a potential rival, and then promptly forgot about him—which is probably why last fall’s Beehive State buzz was drowned out on the national stage by the noise of the midterms....

(RTTNews) - A prominent Tea Party group sent a message to members on Monday identifying five current Republican Senators that they intend to target in 2012. Tea Party Nation named Sens. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as Republicans that need to be sent into retirement, accusing them of being Republicans In Name Only, or RINOs. The message cited Lugar's vote against a ban on earmarks as well as a his votes in favor of the DREAM Act and the START Treaty. Hatch was also criticized for being a "pork...

A news report out of Chicago says that a daughter of former Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch was found dead over the weekend in her Magnificent Mile condo. WBBM Radio in Chicago is reporting that Anne Hatch, 27, was pronounced dead at 4:52 p.m. Sunday, after being found in her home, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. The manner of death for Hatch was listed as natural, but the exact cause has not been learned, the radio station added. Police said Hatch was found in her apartment by a building employee who was checking on her welfare, WBBM...

Speaking in reverential tones, Sen. Orrin Hatch went to the Senate floor Tuesday to mark the end of the 18-year career of his colleague from Utah, Sen. Bob Bennett. With Bennett sitting just a few feet behind him, Hatch gave a 10-minute address that included Bennett’s complete personal history, from his high school graduation to his first election to the Senate in 1992. Bennett, who lost his re-election campaign earlier this year, will leave office in early January. Hatch called Bennett “a fighter for the people of Utah” who helped secure money to modernize roads and bring commuter trains. “Every...

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a leading Republican on the tax-writing Finance Committee, says the GOP will insist on extending all the Bush tax cuts the same way: A top Republican in the U.S. Senate said on Wednesday that his party would block any Democratic deal on extending Bush-era tax cuts if rates for the middle class and wealthy are not extended together. “Are you kidding, of course we would,” said Senator Orrin Hatch,

Introduced by Dick Durbin of Illinois, the bill has moved through the usual phases of amalgamation and deal-making. The monstrosity advancing to the floor on Wednesday is not so much "food safety" as it is the decadence of the rights of small farmers, hobbyist food producers, garden-variety farmers markets, and your average small producer of foodstuffs. Under the rubric of safety, this Senate proposes a bill that establishes such new and sweeping powers over how you and I produce and consume foodstuffs that even the Pew Charitable Trusts are calling S510 a clear and present danger.