| Insider Report from Newsmax.com Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Support Grows for Amendment to Curb Federal Debt
2. Clinton Global Initiative ‘More Credible’ Than U.N.
3. RNC Chairman Steele Won’t Discuss His Re-election
4. Christine O’Donnell: Pelosi Not a True Christian
5. Palestinian Activist Speaks at Obama’s Church
6. Biden: Tea Party ‘Best Thing’ for Democrats
7. Voters Disapprove of Obama on Illegal Immigration 
1. Support Grows for Amendment to Curb Federal Debt With federal debt spiraling out of control, attention has turned to the ultimate weapon to limit spending — the U.S. Constitution. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, is expressing support for invoking the Constitution’s Article V to convene a convention that would consider a balanced budget amendment. Under Article V, a constitutional amendment may be passed if it is approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then sent to the states for approval, or if two-thirds of the state legislatures apply to Congress for a constitutional convention to consider amendments, which are then sent to the states for approval. Since Congress has shown no desire for such an amendment, Cornyn and others are urging state legislatures to invoke Article V to limit the federal government’s ability to take on more debt. “More than three dozen states have petitioned Congress to call a convention to propose reforms, and a recent conference of state legislators brought together many leaders looking to add their states to this movement,” Cornyn wrote in a Fox News piece published on Sept. 13. “A balanced budget amendment has been linked to the idea of a constitutional convention for a simple reason: Congress refuses to restrain government spending. Our national debt is now more than $13 trillion. “A balanced budget amendment would force Congress to keep spending in line with the people’s willingness to pay for it.” During the 1980s, 33 state legislatures invoked their power to apply for a convention to write a balanced budget amendment, but the effort fell short by just one state of the two-thirds needed. At the time, some legislators feared that a convention would not be limited to the specific subject of a balanced budget amendment and could spin out of control. But a report by the Goldwater Institute observes that the language of the amendment makes that fear unfounded, and points out that three-fourths of the states — at least 38 states — would still have to ratify whatever was drafted by the convention. The Goldwater Institute stated that Cornyn and Republican Chuck Gray, Majority Leader of the Arizona Senate, “are right to urge state legislatures to reconsider invoking Article V to limit the federal government’s ability to take on more debt. No matter who controls Congress, the federal government has been incapable of putting its fiscal house in order. Article V gives the states the power to end the federal debt binge.” Cornyn also notes that the threat of a constitutional convention called for by the states “could keep the pressure on Congress to bring the balanced budget amendment to the floors of both houses, and then to the states.” Editor's Note:
2. Clinton Global Initiative ‘More Credible’ Than U.N. The United Nations has been a “signal failure” and could be replaced by private efforts such as the recently concluded Clinton Global Initiative, a New York Sun editorial states. The “occasional gathering” of U.N. members “where envoys of all the various countries can get together and rub shoulders with businessmen and women, intellectuals, writers, journalists, and investors, while useful in a certain way, can be accomplished by private institutions like the Clinton Global Initiative,” according to the Sun. Among the gatherings at the CGI in New York, Bill Clinton met with the head of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Prince Al-Khalifa of Bahrain to discuss economic possibilities following an Israeli-Arab peace treaty. Other discussions centered on reforestation, women and micro-finance. The Initiative concluded its annual meeting with multi-billion dollar commitments from participants to help address poverty, disease and injustice around the world. Clinton told the CGI’s final plenary session that the organization has garnered more than 1,950 commitments now valued at $63 billion, affecting almost 300 million lives in about 170 countries. “The beauty of the Clinton Initiative is that the taxpayers don’t get the bill for it,” the Sun observes. “Right off the beam, that gives the Clinton Initiative more credibility than the Soviet-style confab that takes place at the taxpayers’ expense at the United Nations compound. “It happens that we’re in an age when private companies are running many of our jails and our hospitals and schools. Why in the world couldn’t they run the global gab-fest? The United Nations headquarters buildings, once renovated, could be sold off for commercial uses — or put out to the highest bidder among the Clinton Global Initiative type of organizations.” Editor's Note:
3. RNC Chairman Steele Won’t Discuss His Re-election Controversial Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele dismissed a question about whether he will seek re-election in January, saying voters right now don’t care who fills the post. In a Sept. 19 interview with The Christian Science Monitor, Steele said: “We’ve got a national election that the country’s engaged in. I don’t think anyone’s worried about or concerned about who the RNC chairman is. “I think they’re more concerned about who’s representing them in their state capitals and in Washington, so let’s focus on that.” A decision by Steele not to seek re-election would surely not displease any number of Republicans. His reign as chairman has been marred by financial problems. Since taking office in January 2009, he has suggested that elements in the Republican Party are racist, and sought lucrative book deals without informing senior party members. "Obviously, he’s been a disaster," Republican strategist Ed Rollins said in August. “Michael Steele has failed miserably in the things you’re supposed to do: raise money and basically go out and articulate the message." But Steele is currently on the offensive, traveling the country on a 48-state “Fire Pelosi Bus Tour.” During a stop in Kissimmee, Fla., on Sept. 19, he said: “The reality of it is the people of the country want to move in a different direction. They’ve given the administration, the leadership in Washington, over a year to correct the course, whether it’s on healthcare, whether it’s on job creation, whether it’s in any number of issues, and they failed to listen.” Editor's Note:
4. Christine O’Donnell: Pelosi Not a True Christian Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell called out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her religious practices, saying she doesn’t follow “Christian moral principles.” Tea party favorite O’Donnell appeared on Fox News on Tuesday and decried personal attacks seeking to discredit her. Host Sean Hannity asked her: “Do you think this is an attack on religion? On your religious beliefs?” O’Donnell answered: “They’re trying to paint me as an extremist so that people won’t pay attention to my message. ... They’re not attacking me on my positions. They’re trying to attack me.” Following Hannity’s show, the liberal media outlet Mother Jones dredged up a January 2005 appearance by O’Donnell on “The O’Reilly Factor” that it maintains included a personal attack by O’Donnell on Nancy Pelosi. Then president of a group called the Faith and Flag Alliance, O’Donnell discussed with Bill O’Reilly an HBO documentary on militant Christians made by Alexandra Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s daughter. Asked about the media’s exploitation of the “weird behavior” of militant Christians, O’Donnell stated: “First, let me say that Nancy Pelosi can benefit from making Christians look bad because she touts her Christianity when it’s politically expedient for her, yet she doesn’t follow any of the Christian moral principles.” Pelosi, a Catholic, has taken positions opposed by the Catholic Church. She voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, in favor of lifting the ban on privately funded abortions at U.S. military facilities overseas, against the Defense of Marriage Act, and against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Given Pelosi’s positions on those key issues, O’Donnell asserted that the Speaker is not truly a Catholic. “What I want to point out is that Christianity is not a set of beliefs that you can pick and choose from,” she said. “It’s not a smorgasbord; it’s not a buffet. You either embrace it all and represent it all, or embrace a worldview that says you can do whatever you want.” Editor's Note:
5. Palestinian Activist Speaks at Obama’s Church The mainstream press widely reported that President Barack Obama attended church in Washington on Sunday, Sept. 19, only the third time he has worshipped publicly since taking office. What got little notice was that immediately following Obama and his family’s attendance at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a pro-Palestinian activist delivered an address at the same church. After the 9 a.m. service Obama attended, an “Adult Forum” was held at St. John’s, and Ziad Asali, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), took the podium. His message, according to Israel Today, amounted to a demand for Israel “to surrender its biblical heartland for a phony ‘peace.’” “Asali and the ATFP pretend to want a lasting two-state solution to the conflict, but also advocate the demographic destruction of the Jewish state by supporting the demand that Israel open its gates to millions of so-called ‘Palestinian refugees,’” Israel Today pointed out. “Asali draws moral equivalency between Palestinian terrorism and Israeli counter-terrorism operations.” The ATFP reportedly calls for the re-admittance of not only the relatively few remaining survivors who were among the 725,000 original Palestinian refugees, but also more than 5 million of their descendants. “The right of return is an integral part of international humanitarian law and cannot be renounced by any parties,” the ATFP has stated. Israel Today observed: “Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. mainstream media ignored the fact that a Muslim with a thinly-veiled anti-Israel message was preaching on the day that the Obama family attended church for only the third time in the past year. “Presidents and their staffs don’t schedule things on a whim, and they don’t show up at the same place as someone like Asali by mere coincidence.” Editor's Note:
6. Biden: Tea Party ‘Best Thing’ for Democrats Vice President Joe Biden says victories by tea party candidates have encouraged him and he believes the conservative movement could inspire Democrats to turn out and vote in November. “Maybe the best thing to happen to us is the tea party wins,” Biden said Thursday at a fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Md. “Maybe it’ll shake some of our constituency out of their lethargy.” He also brushed aside assertions that the Republicans will take control of Congress in the November elections, The Hill newspaper reported. “I guarantee you we’re going to have a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate,” he declared. “I absolutely believe that.” He conceded that voters are “angry against whoever is in power,” but added that Democrats “have a heck of a record, a heck of a positive record to run on.” Editor's Note:
7. Voters Disapprove of Obama on Illegal Immigration Americans by an overwhelming margin disapprove of the way President Obama is handling the illegal immigration issue and favor stricter enforcement of immigration laws, a new poll reveals. In the survey of nearly 2,000 voters by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, 60 percent of respondents said they disapprove of Obama’s handling of the issue and just 28 percent approve. Among Republicans, 88 percent disapprove and just 6 percent approve, while independents disapprove by a margin of 66 percent to 20 percent, and Democrats approve by a 54-to-32-percent margin. Respondents were also asked: “Do you think immigration reform should primarily move in the direction of integrating illegal immigrants into American society or in the direction of stricter enforcement of laws against illegal immigration?” The results: 68 percent favor stricter enforcement of the laws, and 25 percent prefer integrating illegals. The poll also disclosed that by a narrow margin, 48 percent to 45 percent, Americans oppose automatically granting citizenship to children born to immigrants who are in the country illegally. “Many Americans want to end ‘birthright citizenship,’ an issue some Republican senators want to explore through congressional hearings,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Polling Institute. “Voters were told that ‘our Constitution and current laws’ blessed the practice, and the prospect of having to change one or both apparently doesn’t faze them. But the support for ending ‘birthright citizenship’ is not overwhelming.” The Insider Report disclosed two weeks ago that according to the Center for Immigration Studies, 300,000 to 400,000 children are born annually in the United States to illegal aliens and automatically recognized as American citizens. This qualifies their families for welfare benefits they would not otherwise be entitled to receive. Editor's Note:
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