by
Peter Sprigg
October 31, 2007
Regardless of party, recent Maryland governors have one thing in commonan addiction to gambling as a source of new state revenue. Marylands new Democratic Governor Martin OMalley has followed in the footsteps of the Republican he defeated last year, Robert Ehrlich, by calling for legalization of slot machine gambling in the state.
OMalley has apparently broken a deadlock between the House and Senate leaders with his proposal to put the issue of slots on the ballot in November of 2008.
This is modestly good news, because such referenda have a poor record at the polls. But it would be better for the legislature to reject the slots proposal immediately. On this issue, conservatives who know that gambling destroys families are united with liberals who know that gambling preys on the poor. The revenue generated by gambling is far outweighed by the social costs it imposes (see The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling).
by
Family Research Council
October 31, 2007
According to a recent report by ABC News, “One in 10 Men Has Multiple Sex Partners.”:
At any given time, a significant percentage of men are engaging in multiple sexual partnerships with women — a situation that may facilitate the spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
The headline is dramatic but buried in the details reported is that the actual percentage was 6.6 and they “adjusted” the numbers to come up with “as high as” 11. The article also makes a number of sweeping generalizations designed to convey the idea that this is an issue the public needs to be worried about.
But then, the truth, buried near the end, comes out:
Adimora agrees that other factors could be at play, as men who engaged in concurrent sexual relationships also seemed to have other behaviors in common.
“Men who did have concurrent relationships were more likely to be intoxicated on drugs and alcohol, to have relationships with women who had multiple partners, and to have had sexual relationships with men in the past,” she said.
And then the clincher - the policy recommendations that go with all this:
“We need approaches that will remove health disparities caused by poverty, stigma and discrimination, poor access to health care and education,” Coleman said. “We need to develop a sexual health approach to HIV infection which will provide sexuality education, access to sexual health care, all which is culturally sensitive and relevant.”
In other words, this kind of aberrant, dangerous behavior is confined to easily identified subgroups of the population, but we are going to use it as a club to bring graphic sex ed straight to your kids.
What I want to know is why doesn’t “cultural sensitivity” extend to our values?
by
Jared Bridges
October 24, 2007
After what seems like a battle without end, Judge Leslie Southwick has now been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 59-38 vote.
Here is FRC’s press release on Judge Southwick’s nomination:
FRC Praises Confirmation of Judge Southwick
October 24, 2007 - Wednesday
Washington, D.C.- Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, made the following comments following Senate confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:
“We are pleased that Judge Leslie Southwick, a veteran of the Iraq war with 11 years of judicial experience, can finally move forward after struggling for a simple up-or-down vote. However, the unconstitutional use of judicial filibusters continues as other well-qualified judicial nominees are vilified and blocked by Senate leadership and their liberal allies. I urge the Senate to end the backlog of judicial nominations and allow a fair up-or-down vote for each nominee.
“I thank President Bush and Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Trent Lott (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Arlen Specter (R-PA) for their hard work to overcome stalling tactics and confirm this highly-qualified nominee to the bench.”
by
Jared Bridges
October 23, 2007
The FRC Action Values Voter Straw Poll has been making lots of news, but one of the poll questions that hasn’t yet gained as much attention was question #3, which asked participants to rank the order of importance among a set of issues. Here are the results:
Here’s the statistical breakdown:
| ISSUE |
VOTES |
PERCENTAGE |
| Abortion |
2398 |
41.52% |
| Same-sex “Marriage” |
1141 |
19.76% |
| Tax Cuts |
626 |
10.84% |
| Permanent tax relief for families |
563 |
9.75% |
| Federal “hate crimes” legislation |
331 |
5.73% |
| No vote on this question |
181 |
3.13% |
| Taxpayer funding for abortions |
151 |
2.61% |
| Prayer in schools |
93 |
1.61% |
| Reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine” |
88 |
1.52% |
| Public display of the Ten Commandments |
57 |
0.99% |
| Enforced obscenity laws |
54 |
0.94% |
| Embryonic stem cell experiments |
48 |
0.83% |
| Voluntary, student-led prayer in schools |
44 |
0.76% |
| Total |
5,775 |
100% |
Now that you’ve got the numbers, feel free to crunch away.
by
Family Research Council
October 20, 2007
Which of the following candidates for President would you be most likely to vote for?
Total Straw Poll Results
| Mitt Romney |
1595 |
27.62% |
| Mike Huckabee |
1565 |
27.15% |
| Ron Paul |
865 |
14.98% |
| Fred Thompson |
564 |
9.77% |
| Undecided |
329 |
5.70% |
| Sam Brownback |
297 |
5.14% |
| Duncan Hunter |
140 |
2.42% |
| Tom Tancredo |
133 |
2.30% |
| Rudy Giuliani |
107 |
1.85% |
| John McCain |
81 |
1.40% |
| Not Voting |
67 |
1.16% |
| Barack Obama |
9 |
0.16% |
| Joe Biden |
5 |
0.09% |
| Hillary Clinton |
5 |
0.09% |
| John Edwards |
4 |
0.07% |
| Dennis Kucinich |
4 |
0.07% |
| Christopher Dodd |
2 |
0.03% |
| Bill Richardson |
2 |
0.03% |
| Mike Gravel |
1 |
0.02% |
| Total |
5,775 |
100% |
Onsite Straw Poll Results
| Mike Huckabee |
488 |
51.26% |
| Mitt Romney |
99 |
10.40% |
| Fred Thompson |
77 |
8.09% |
| Tom Tancredo |
65 |
6.83%% |
| Rudy Giuliani |
60 |
6.30% |
| Duncan Hunter |
54 |
5.67% |
| John McCain |
30 |
3.15% |
| Sam Brownback |
26 |
2.73% |
| Ron Paul |
25 |
2.63% |
| Undecided |
11 |
1.16% |
| Not Voting |
7 |
0.74% |
| Barack Obama |
5 |
0.53% |
| Christopher Dodd |
2 |
0.21% |
| Dennis Kucinich |
2 |
0.11% |
| Joe Biden |
1 |
0.11% |
| Hillary Clinton |
0 |
0.00% |
| John Edwards |
0 |
0.00% |
| Mike Gravel |
0 |
0.00% |
| Bill Richardson |
0 |
0.00% |
| Total |
952 |
100% |
by
Jared Bridges
October 20, 2007
**UPDATED 10/22** We’ve got a full slate of bloggers here at New Media Row, which is sponsored by our friends at Americans United for Life
PoliPundit.com
Randy Thomas is posting at randythomas.org
Erick Erickson of Redstate
Ana Marie Cox from Time’s Swampland Blog
Jim Geraghty of NRO’s Campaign Spot
Anastasia Uglova and J.P. Freire from NBC Universal’s Politalk Blog
Matthew Anderson of Mere Orthodoxy
Dan Nejfelt from Faith in Public Life
Justin Hart of Race 4 2008 and mymanmitt.com
Melinda Penner and Amy Hall from Stand To Reason
Democratis
Nathan Bradfield from Church and State Blog
N.Z. Bear from The Truth Laid Bear
Mark Ambinder of The Atlantic
Byron York from NRO’s The Corner
Philip Klein of The American Spectator’s AmSpecBlog
Jill Stanek of JillStanek.com
Sharon Soon from Conservatives With Attitude
The gang from Townhall.com
Soren Dayton from eyeon08.com
The group from Evangelicals for Mitt
Jon from Huckabee 08 - A Man of Hope
David Weigel of Reason magazine’s Hit and Run blog
Jack Yoest from Management Training of DC
Bob Ellis of Dakota Voice
There are many more, and I’ll continue to add links as I get them, but this should get you started.
If you’re here blogging and are not yet listed, please alert me in the comments and I’ll add your link.
by
Jared Bridges
October 20, 2007
**UPDATE: SAT. AFTERNOON** Voting is now closed, and results are being tallied. Stay tuned this afternoon for results.
It’s Saturday morning here at the Washington Briefing, and before all the activities commence today, I wanted to remind everyone that there’s still time to vote in the online version of the Values Voter Straw Poll.
Online voting will be cut off at 1:00pm EDT sharp, so make sure to give yourself plenty of time to get through the sign-up process and hit “submit” before the clock rolls over to 1:00pm EDT!
by
Family Research Council
October 19, 2007
Transcripts of the speeches from each of the Presidential candidates available for download as a PDF:
by
Jared Bridges
October 19, 2007
I’m here in the ballroom of the Hilton Washington, as the Briefing began just over an hour ago. We’ve already heard from Sen. John McCain, Sen. Sam Brownback, and Rep. Tom Tancredo is speaking now.
If you want to watch the coverage online, you can view streaming content (both live and archived) at AFA.net, who is webcasting the event.
Also C-SPAN is here and is covering the event live today from 10 AM until 5:30 pm. They will pick up coverage again at 7:30 PM on C-SPAN 2.
by
Jared Bridges
October 18, 2007
With the FRC Action Washington Briefing 2007 just about to get underway, now would be as good a time as any to vote in the Brieifing’s Straw Poll. You can vote here in person if you’ve registered for the Briefing, or you can become a member of FRC Action and vote online.
Voting will end soon, so what are you waiting for? Go ahead and vote…
UPDATE: I’ve confirmed the time, and voting will be closed at 1:00p.m. EDT on Saturday.
