40th March for Life crowds could top Obama Inauguration

The biggest crowds ever for the annual March for Life protest are expected to hit Washington January 25 as hundreds of thousands attend the 40th anniversary rally to protest the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, according to organizers.

The march, expected to attract tens of thousands more than the record 400,000 two years ago, could rival President Obama’s Inauguration Day crowd, propelled by the growing youth support of efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, which the president has embraced with open arms. Obama drew 1.8 million in 2009. Just 600,000 are expected January 21st.

One critical sign of how big the march will be: Hotels pre-booked for participants sold out a month ago while many Washington hotels report lukewarm interest for rooms during the Inauguration. In 2009, hotels sold out months in advance as an excited nation readied to welcome the first black president.

Jeanne Monahan, president of the March organizer, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told Secrets, “We’re going to have record breaking crowds.”

The events will start Thursday January 24 with a youth rally. Two new events will also take place: A Saturday 5K race and a legal summit for law students interested in abortion law. What’s more, for the first time the March organizers plan to place Jumbotrons on the March route. And the March is also debuting a new website.

Monahan said that the focus will be on young supporters. “The spirit will be much more youth focused,” she said. About 85 percent of marchers in the past have been students. Monahan added that the number of political speakers is being scaled back, though House Speaker John Boehner is expected to make a video address and the leaders of the congressional pro-life caucus will also speak.

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White House petition asks Obama to shun gun-control executive orders

A petition launched Wednesday on the White House’s “We the People” Web page may put new pressure on President Barack Obama as his administration considers using executive orders to institute nationwide gun-control measures.

Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that executive orders — decrees from the White House that neither require nor invite the approval of Congress — will play a role in the administration’s response to the Dec. 14 massacre that left 20 children dead at a Connecticut elementary school.

“The president is going to act,” Biden said, seated next to Attorney General Eric Holder, before meeting with victims of gun violence and gun-safety groups Wednesday. Groups represented included Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Arizona for Gun Safety and the Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus.

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Brennan: Don’t use ‘jihad’ to describe Islamic terrorists

While concern has mounted that former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense should be blocked because of past expressed hostility for Israel, little attention has been given to CIA-nominee John Brennan’s view of Islam.

In a speech delivered Aug. 9, 2009, to the Center for Strategic and International Studies that is archived on the White House website, Brennan said using “a legitimate term, ‘jihad’ – meaning to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal” – to describe terrorists “risks reinforcing the idea that the United States is somehow at war with Islam itself.”

As WND reported, Brennan advised in the speech that U.S. foreign policy should encourage greater assimilation of the Hezbollah terrorist organization into the Lebanese government.

In a July 2008 article in The Annals, a publication of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Brennan argued it “would not be foolhardy, however, for the United States to tolerate, and even to encourage, greater assimilation of Hezbollah into Lebanon’s political system, a process that is subject to Iranian influence.”

Brennan argued Hezbollah “is already represented in the Lebanese parliament, and its members have previously served in the Lebanese cabinet, reflections of Hezbollah’s interest in shaping Lebanon’s political future from within government institutions.”

“This involvement is a far cry from Hezbollah’s genesis as solely a terrorist organization dedicated to murder, kidnapping and violence,” he said.

At the August 2009 press conference for the CSIS, Brennan declared: “Hezbollah started out as purely a terrorist organization back in the early ‘80s and has evolved significantly over time. And now it has members of parliament, in the cabinet; there are lawyers, doctors, others who are part of the Hezbollah organization.”

Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah frequently maintain civilian units of doctors and lawyers to emphasize their outreach with local politicians and to increase their political acceptance in the international arena.

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Rahm Emanuel Attempts to Revive Gun Control After Failure in Illinois Assembly

After the Illinois General Assembly failed to bring a bill amounting to a near-total statewide gun ban in last week’s lame duck session, Rahm Emanuel said today he isn’t willing to wait any longer for new gun control laws.

Emanuel told reporters he feels confident he can pass expanded gun regulations:

Waiting isn’t a strong suit of mine… First of all, I believe there’s, I know there’s a majority in the state, an overwhelming majority in the city for a ban on assault weapons, clips, and comprehensive background checks on all sales, wherever they take place, wherever the location may be. And there’s also a majority in the legislature.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel plans to introduce the legislation at next week’s city council meeting but refused to give any details. Last month, the state of Illinois’ ban to conceal and carry firearms in public was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.

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Judge Napolitano: Obama Administration Wants to Go Beyond Current Gun Control Proposals

Beating Government Tyranny Concerning The Second Amendment

A number of Wyoming lawmakers are proposing legislation intended to protect gun owners from any future federal ban on semi-automatic rifles or high capacity magazines, KTWO reports.

Introduced last week, the “Firearms Protection Act” would make any federal law banning semi-automatic rifles or limiting magazine capacity unenforceable in Wyoming.

In fact, under the proposed bill, anyone who tried to enforce a federal gun ban could be charged with a felony. The Wyoming Attorney General’s office would also be permitted to defend any state resident against a federal gun ban.

“An act relating to firearms; providing that any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming; proving a penalty; and providing for an effective date,” the bill states.

“Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming shall be guilty of a felony,” the proposed legislation adds.

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