SCOTTSDALE, AZ – We have been hearing rumblings for months about the new “Noah” movie, starring Russell Crowe, Emma Watson, Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Hopkins. Some believe it is too religious a movie for Hollywood to make, while others deem the completed project not religious enough—straying radically from the Biblical account in the telling.

In fact, the Bible affords us very little information about the antediluvian world, and nearly 2,000 years of intense human history are summed up in precious few Biblical pages. More detail has come to light in the past 150 years as extra-Biblical histories purporting to tell the stories of the early patriarchs and their families have been discovered and translated. Chief among these is the Book of Enoch—on which “Noah” writers and producers obviously relied heavily for much of their material for the movie.

How reliable are the versions of the Book of Enoch that have been discovered? The short answer: not very. However, much useful information can be garnered from their pages if tempered with substantial quantities of religious and scriptural understanding—neither of which is possessed by those who made this movie.

The extra-Biblical parts of the “Noah” story that are probably correct are 1) the help of the Watchers (although not angels, not all fallen, and not tabernacled in stone), 2) the widespread industrialization of the pre-flood era, 3) the powerful abilities of Methuselah (as all of the Patriarchs), and 4) the ark being built in large part by the Watchers.

So what did they get wrong? Pretty much everything else. What is the biggest problem with “Noah”? It is the misunderstanding of the reason for the flood, God’s part in it, and Noah’s attitude and calling in its regard.

One thing that the ancient Book of Enoch clarifies is that God was not vindictive toward His children on earth, and did not will the flood to occur due to some sense of retribution. In fact, the destruction of the coming flood hung over the head of humanity for hundreds of years by their own device, and the powerful angels asked God how long he would stay their hand from allowing the flood to come in on the rebellious children and destroy the massive wickedness that had infected the earth.

¹ And after that he showed me the angels of punishment who are prepared to come and let loose all the powers of the waters which are beneath in the earth in order to bring judgement and destruction ² on all who [abide and] dwell on the earth. And the Lord of Spirits gave commandment to the angels who were going forth, that they should not cause the waters to rise but should hold them ³ in check; for those angels were over the powers of the waters. [I Enoch, Chapter 66]

This abundance of God’s mercy is lost from the Biblical account—to our collective detriment. Indeed, how often have I heard some rube state, “I can’t believe in a God so vindictive that he would kill everyone in the world with a flood.” In fact, humanity had openly rejected God, and engaged Him in hostility. The earth was a miserable, confused cesspool of humanity, and children born into that depth of corruption had no chance.

As a precautionary word, let me share that the world of today is not that much different from the world of Noah, and the same result will occur if the course is not timely corrected—not because a vindictive God will destroy us, but because an ignored Father will eventually allow us to have things our own way.

The movie’s Noah finds himself lacking because he cannot bring himself to ensure the race’s demise. In fact, the mission of Noah was exactly the opposite. ‘A New Beginning’ was the true message and purpose of the Flood, and the movie eventually meanders back to that concept, following a side trip that derails the story entirely.

I cannot in good conscience recommend “Noah,” because it misses the true points of Noah and the Flood entirely. However, I won’t advise you to avoid seeing it, because although flawed and uninspired in many respects (not unlike the corrupted versions of The Book of Enoch that survived), it does convey the enormity of the problem of humanity’s departure at that day and the finality of the cure if repentance is evaded.

J.L. Thompson is a Christian writer, and holds a Juris Doctor degree. He is Editor-in-Chief of Scottsdale Multimedia, Inc., a leading ghostwriting firm.  Volume One of his new novel series “The Coming Flood” has just been released, titled Enoch in the City of Adam. Visit J.L. Thompson on Facebook

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released 68,000 foreign nationals who had criminal convictions and charges last year instead of pursuing deportation, according to newly uncovered documents — a statistic one senator said represents an enforcement “crisis.”

The internal documents were obtained and published by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates stricter immigration enforcement. According to the documents and the group’s analysis, ICE agents reported encountering 193,000 “criminal aliens” in 2013, but only targeted 125,000 for deportation.

A total of 67,879 were released.

CIS called it a “large-scale abuse of authority.”

“The Obama administration’s deliberate obstruction of immigration enforcement, in which tens of thousands of criminal aliens are released instead of removed, is threatening the well-being of American communities,” study author Jessica Vaughan said in a statement. “It’s not a matter of if, but how many families will suffer harm as a result.”

The “criminal aliens” category includes both those charged with and convicted of crimes in the U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement accused CIS of distorting the numbers, and claimed that some of them could represent minor offenses. Further, the agency said a total of 216,000 “convicted criminals” were removed in 2013.

“ICE is focused on the removal of criminal aliens,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “The percentage of criminals removed continues to rise. Nearly 60 percent of ICE’s total removals had been previously convicted of a criminal offense, and that number rises to 82 percent for individuals removed from the interior of the U.S. The removal of criminal individuals is and will remain ICE’s highest priority.”

The ICE documents did not break down the types of criminal activity that those allowed to stay in the country had been convicted of. But a 2012 report by House Republicans tracked 26,000 illegal and criminal immigrants who were re-arrested, and found they were tied to 58,000 crimes and violations — much of them drunken-driving arrests, but also major criminal offenses like murder and rape.

The latest statistics challenge repeated claims by the administration that, when weighing whether to pursue deportation, they are prioritizing cases where the illegal immigrant in question has been convicted of a crime.

Indeed, the documents show that those with a criminal record are far more likely to be targeted for deportation than those without one. But they also show the agency is letting thousands who have a criminal record off the hook.

The CIS report said factors such as “family relationships, political considerations, or attention from advocacy groups” are likely helping to “trump criminal convictions as a factor leading to deportation.”

The report further deepens concerns about the course of an ongoing internal review of the administration’s enforcement and deportation policies. Groups like CIS have warned that this could chip away at an enforcement structure that already has been weakened.

“The preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that immigration enforcement in America has collapsed,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said. “Even those with criminal convictions are being released. [The Department of Homeland Security] is a department in crisis.”

Earlier this month, a DHS spokesman said the internal review of immigration enforcement is a process that is “ongoing” and will be done “expeditiously.”

“Since taking office, the secretary has made clear that he shares the president’s commitment of enforcing our immigration laws effectively and sensibly, in line with our values,” the spokesman said. “As part of that effort he has been taking a hard look at these tough issues, meeting with a range of stakeholders and employees and already has been assessing if there are areas where we can further align our enforcement policies with our goal of sound law enforcement practice that prioritizes public safety.”

CIS also reported that in 2013, ICE charged just 195,000 of the 722,000 “potentially deportable aliens” they encountered.

Further, the agency reported more than 870,000 illegal immigrants have been ordered removed but have remained in the country anyway.

By Judson Berger

One month ago, Reid took to the Senate floor and said that all the horror stories being told by Republicans about Obamacare’s impact on the lives of Americans are ‘simply not true’. Reid caught a lot of backlash for making that statement with the news organization Washington Free Beacon producing a video in response. The video was entitled “50 States of Obamacare Victims” and highlighted the plight of the negative impact of Obamacare across the country.

During a discussion on Harry Reid stating this week that he cannot, to the best of his recollection, remember stepping onto the Senate floor and saying anything about Republican stories of Obamacare, Hughes wondered if Reid had a previous career as a boxer that would negatively affect his memory. She also said that Senator Reid must think Americans are dumb.

To that, Payne said called Reid out even further on the insulting statement that he made and the even more pathetic denial of ever making it. He said, “Scottie, you know, I’ve got to tell you something. I think at some point, this goes beyond politics, and I have to really wonder if this man has a real serious personal problem.”

Hughes responded by bringing to question Reid’s allegiance to beltway circles over doing right by his constituents. To these constituents, she also had a message.

Well, I think because he’s been up in Washington, DC, inside the beltway for so long, he has forgotten what the American people, that we actually have brains and we pay attention, and we allowed him to get away with it for so many years, re-electing him, the people in his own state, that he thinks he can say these things and get away with it.

The real issue is it’s not a lie that almost 7 million people have gotten kicked off their insurance because of Obamacare, that’s almost double than the residents that he represents in his own state.

So, if he’s sitting there, he’s going to call the rest of America dumb and liars, that’s his own call. It’s the people in his state that need to hold him accountable and get him out of office.

Payne then brought to question what could motivate the people of Nevada to continuously send Reid back to DC. He asked, “ What about the people that keep sending him back to Washington? And what does it say about us as a nation when, the Senate Majority Leader has to defend a policy so inept, that he’s willing to take these chances, to say things that hurt people’s feelings, call people liars, call people dummies, and then try to retract, take those statements back?”

Hughes shared that Democrats have been allowed to get away with lies in the past, but that is no longer true due to technology that is clear cut evidence as to what was said. She continued pointing out that Democrats are overall running away from the fiasco of Obamacare with Reid and fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi being the only ones left in Obama’s cheering section.

She reiterated the importance of the people of Nevada getting out the vote to get people like Harry Reid out of office. Payne was in agreement stating that, “Everyone should be held accountable.”

By Jennifer Burke

One of the leading anti-Second Amendment rights crusaders in California, powerful State Senator Leland Yee, has ironically been arrested for (drum roll…) allegations of gun running, along with a host of other corruption charges, including campaign fraud (see video).

Federal agents raided Yee’s home Wednesday while at the same time Yee’s offices were also raided, reports CBS San Francisco. The report states that Lee’s littany of corruption charges involve his current campaign to be California’s next Secretary of State, and that Lee was charged, among other crimes, with a scheme to move guns into U.S. from Russia:

The federal complaint was filed March 24 and unsealed Wednesday alleges Sen. Yee was engaged in soliciting illegal campaign donations in exchange for political favors and was involved in a conspiracy to traffic firearms from Russia.

The complaint also alleges Chow was engaged in money-laundering, conspiracy to transport stolen property and conspiracy to traffic contraband cigarettes.

Leland Yee is the third Democrat from the Democrat-controlled California State Senate to be arrested for criminal charges in the past year, and ironically and hypocritically, was a leading gun control advocate.

Yee attempted to achieve some degree of national notoriety by issuing racism accusations and urging a boycott against popular conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, for a comedy parody Limbaugh did on his show poking fun at the Communist Chinese President in 2011.

Yee, handcuffed and shackled, was released on a $500,000 unsecured bond last night and is scheduled to return to court on Monday.

March 27, 2014 By Matthew Burke

WASHINGTON, D.C.-In a move that was the natural next step in an evolving line of cases that began with Roe v. Wade, the US high court today ruled that “aborting annoying and inconvenient politicians falls within the purview of the Roe line of cases,” finding that “full-term abortions are an acceptable expression of personal sovereignty” under the US Constitution.

In a 5-4 decision penned by Chief Justice Roberts, the court articulated an evolving doctrine of ‘privacy,’ which it ruled, “extends to matters and persons beyond the traditional scope of personal convenience.”

The matter came to controversy when police discovered the bodies of several ‘progressive’ state legislators stacked in the state Capitol building basement in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. During the investigation it was determined that a maintenance worker had been using the bodies of progressive legislators as fuel in the building’s furnace.

Maintenance worker Bernhard Plockhorst was taken into custody and thereafter claimed that his defense in the case was his right to abort anyone who directly inconvenienced him. In fact, Plockhorst’s attorneys produced written and recorded statements from each of the legislative victims wherein they personally supported the practice of aborting the lives of those who were deemed by another to be inconvenient, no matter how far along they were in the developmental process.

Plockhorst claimed that the inconvenience caused him by the state legislators, even though far beyond their second trimester of development, outweighed any right to life or liberty under the Constitution that they might claim, and the high court has agreed.

The State Senate Majority Leader expressed shock and dismay at the court’s ruling today, and said that Plockhorst should at least be prosecuted for burning his victims’ corpses in the capitol furnace. However, a perusal of Pennsylvania law shows no such prohibition.

When asked what he plans to do now that he has been exonerated by the US Supreme Court, Mr. Plockhorst says he isn’t sure, but while held in the county jail he was greatly annoyed by television personality Bill Maher, who appears to be in complete agreement with Plockhorst’s full term abortion philosophy.

PUBLIUS ;-}

Several Democratic senators moved Thursday to “improve” parts of ObamaCare, proposing numerous changes to the law amid concerns that it could cost Democrats House seats and possibly the Senate in November.

The proposals came from a half-dozen senators, some of whom are facing reelection in the fall and most of whom represent moderate-to-conservative states. Since Democrats currently control the Senate, the proposals will put Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in an uncomfortable position — forcing him to decide whether to put the bills to a vote or sideline them, despite the political risks for his party’s incumbents.

“There is more to be done,” the senators wrote in an op-ed in Politico, outlining the proposed changes.

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va.; Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; and Sen. Angus King, I., Maine, are behind the proposals.

Among other ideas, they called for allowing “copper” plans on the government-run health exchanges. The new insurance plans would offer lower premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs than the “bronze,” “silver” and “gold” options currently offered.

“I’ve always been a believer that the law was not perfect, but you should continue to work to improve it,” Begich told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the proposals. “People are seeing that as it’s implemented, there are tweaks you need to do and there’s just nothing wrong with that.”

The senators, while defending the law itself, proposed numerous other fixes, including restoring startup funds for “consumer-driven health insurance cooperatives” and directing state regulators to look at allowing insurance to be sold across state lines. Plus, they called for sparing employers with fewer than 100 workers from being required to offer health insurance to their staff.

Warner, who faces a formidable midterm challenge from former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, said on Fox News earlier this week that he supports allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines.

Earlier this month, Republican David Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink in a Florida special election largely seen as a referendum on ObamaCare. Democrats, however, downplayed the loss in the Republican-leaning congressional district.

Republicans must pick up six seats to win control of the Senate. Conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity are reportedly pouring million into races in which Democratic incumbents have supported ObamaCare.

House Democrats must gain 17 seats to win a majority next fall. It looms as a very steep challenge in view of the traditional midterm headwinds facing a party in control of the White House and a generally sour public mood, now compounded by controversy surrounding the health care law.

It is unclear if Reid, D., Nev., would bring any of the bills aimed at fixing ObamaCare to the floor. Democratic aides told The Journal that the effort has sparked debate about whether making the changes would return public attention to the health law’s flaws.

Democratic strategist Steve Murphy said the fixes could help vulnerable lawmakers more than changes from the Obama administration that are immediately criticized by Republicans.

“Democrats should fight back hard on what eliminating ObamaCare would mean, and they also should demonstrate a willingness to make ObamaCare better,” Murphy told The Journal.

The Health and Human Services Department announced this week that those who’ve started an enrollment application, but weren’t able to finish before the March 31 open enrollment deadline, would get a limited amount of time to sign up for coverage that would take effect May 1.

Additionally, people with 10 general categories of “special” circumstances would also get extra time to apply — up to 60 days. Categories include natural disasters, system errors related to immigration status, computer error messages due to technical difficulties, family situations involving domestic abuse, and other sorts of problems.

The latest administrative tweaks to health overhaul rules drew immediate scorn from Republicans committed to repealing the law.

“The administration has now handed out so many waivers, special favors and exemptions to help Democrats out politically … it’s basically become the legal equivalent of Swiss cheese,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Some Republicans have expressed reservations about helping Democrats improve a law believed to be central to the GOP’s midterm strategy, The Journal reported.

“These folks have voted for that bad piece of legislation [are] now having remorse,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R., Ga., adding that Democrats “want to try to do something political to a very unpopular piece of legislation.”

Massachusetts Juvenile Court Judge Joseph Johnston injured every parent’s rights Tuesday when he awarded permanent custody of teenager Justina Pelletier to the state.

Now, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will decide when and whether she is returned home.

Justina has been held captive by Boston’s Children’s Hospital and DCF because they believe that her parents have kindled in her a psychiatric disorder that makes her believe she has physical symptoms, including difficulty walking. They insist no physical condition can explain her symptoms.

However, doctors at New England Medical Center in Boston disagree. They evaluated Justina and concluded she suffers with a rare illness called mitochondrial disease.

Full disclosure:  I am an assistant professor at Tufts Medical School, which is affiliated with New England Medical Center.  But you can be assured I have no bias, because I have gone to the mat debating other issues with New England Medical Center in the past.

There is no way to immediately prove who is right and who is wrong about the diagnosis. But that’s part of the problem with being called mentally ill.  Once someone in authority asserts that you are, and insists on framing your behavior according to that theory, it can be tough to prove you are not.

Russia has been expert at doing that with dissidents, who were left to languish in locked psychiatric facilities for their “delusional” ideas.

So, in Massachusetts, if Boston Children’s Hospital wants to say that your child’s mysterious physical symptoms are ones you are causing by coaxing your child to act sick, then you, too, could lose custody of your child to the state.  And it won’t matter if academic doctors at another hospital disagree and believe that your child is suffering from a genuine bodily illness.

What’s really interesting here is that Children’s Hospital and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are doing precisely to Justina, for sure, what they theorize her parents were doing: They have deprived Justina of her rights. They have made of her a permanent patient.  They have decided that her theoretical psychiatric disorder should change the course of her entire life.  And they have done it, despite other experts telling them they are just plain wrong.

By the way, Children’s Hospital is also home to Norman Spack, the endocrinologist who began his career using hormones to change the gender of tadpoles and went on to use massive doses of hormones to manipulate the gender characteristics of children—sometimes coaxing parents to go forward with the treatment, when they had serious misgivings.

Bottom line:  Unless your child has a simple infection, and there’s absolutely no way anyone could ever argue that you injected your kid with dirt to cause it, keep your parental rights intact and keep driving right past Boston’s Children’s Hospital. Until the hospital examines its desire to make the most dramatic decisions possible for parents, rather than with parents, there are other very good options for your child’s medical care.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist. Dr. Ablow can be reached at info@keithablow.com.

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday accused President Obama of being “naïve” about Russian President Vladimir Putin agenda and lacking the foresight to have prevented Putin from taking over a Ukraine peninsula.

“There’s no question but that the president’s naiveté with regards to Russia,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And his faulty judgment about Russia’s intentions and objectives has led to a number of foreign policy challenges that we face.”

During Romney’s 2012 presidential race against Obama, the president criticized him for saying Russia — not Al QED — was America’s “number one geopolitical foe.”

“This is not fantasy land,” Romney, also a former Massachusetts governor, said Sunday. “They are not our enemy but an adversary on the world stage.”

He also said the United States should have worked sooner with allies to make clear the penalties that Russia could have faced if it moved into Ukraine.

The political uprising in Ukraine started about three months ago and included citizens last month ousting their Moscow-backed president.

Russian troops began moving into the neighboring Crimea region of Ukraine about two weeks ago and on Thursday officially annexed Crimea.

“This shouldn’t have been a surprise,” Romney said, referring in part to unmarked Russian troops and military vehicles entering the region days before the takeover. “This had been prepared for some time.”

Romney acknowledged that more pre-emptive action had only the potential to prevent the invasion.

But he also blamed of Secretary of State John Kerry and former secretary Hillary Clinton, suggesting that the Obama administration’s so-called “reset” diplomacy was mistake.

“They thought resetting relations with Russia, handing out gifts to Russia, would somehow make Russia change its objectives.  Well, that certainly wasn’t the case,” Romney said. “Russia is not our friend.”

He also called for tougher sanctions against Russia, no cuts to the U.S. military budget and re-installing missile-defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. He called their removal in 2009 a “gift to Russia.”

FoxNews.com  / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

If you’re a mom of grown children, this is for you.

Did you know that the Obama administration and the state of Rhode Island are counting on you to nag your kids into signing up for Obamacare?

Good old-fashioned guilt and annoyance—that’s the ticket, apparently. But just giving your kids a call or sending them an email isn’t enough.

Rhode Island’s newest strategy is urging mothers to sign up for social networking and even online dating sites to send messages to their children.

The state’s Obamacare exchange has put together the “Nag Toolkit.” The website isn’t subtle. It says, “learn how to be where your kids are. And how to nag them mercilessly.”

If your child is on social networks and apps like Twitter, Snapchat, or Vine, the Nag Toolkit encourages you to get on there, too, and “Tweet ‘get health insurance’ @yourkids.” It sure is a lot of trouble to go to just to say that.

But the site goes even further by recommending that you, their mom—regardless of your own relationship status—create a profile on a dating site like OKCupid or Tinder. And then find your child’s dating profile and send him or her a message about health insurance.

Maybe what Rhode Island really wants is young people’s email addresses, though. Because after the tutorials, this message comes up: “If this all seems too confusing, give us your kid’s email address and we’ll do the nagging.”

If you’re not in Rhode Island, the Obama administration will bring in celebrities’ moms and the First Mom to nag your kids.

“Taking care of yourself so your mothers can sleep and have a nice life after all they’ve done for you is not too much to ask in my opinion,” says one of the moms in the Obamacare video above. It includes the mothers of actor Jonah Hill, singer Alicia Keys, actress/singer Jennifer Lopez, and musician Adam Levine.

Michelle Obama makes an appearance, piling on: “We nag you because we love you.”

Young people are saying this is all kind of creepy. Moms, how do you feel about it? (Dads, are you feeling left out?)

By Amy Payne

In a few days, Obamacare’s centerpiece—the individual mandate to purchase government-approved health insurance—kicks in.

Are you “covered,” as the White House keeps asking in its endless advertising? Because if you don’t have health insurance by March 31, you will have to pay a penalty on your income tax form next year.

For 2014, the penalty for not purchasing insurance will be either $95 or 1 percent of your annual income (whichever is greater). But as Heritage expert Alyene Senger explains, “Very few, if any, people will end up paying just $95, because individuals with an annual income of only $9,500 or less would likely qualify for Medicaid or a hardship exemption from the mandate.”

If you don’t make enough income to file a federal tax return, you’re already exempt. Do you think you qualify for a hardship exemption? Check out the application (subject to approval by Health and Human Services) here. For example, did you:

• Receive “a shut-off notice from a utility company”?
• Recently experience the death of a close family member?
• Receive a notice that your health plan was being canceled, and “you consider the other plans available unaffordable”?

At the end of the list, the application form has the catch-all reason “You experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.” To prove it? “Please submit documentation if possible.”

Despite all these possible exemptions, The Fiscal Times reports, “A new study by Bankrate.com shows that about one-third of uninsured Americans are going to remain without coverage and opt to pay the penalty.” In fact, more than half of the uninsured are “unaware of the March 31 deadline.”

If you think the penalty is no big deal right now, Heritage’s Senger warns that “The mandate increases drastically in coming years, rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2015 to 2024, the mandate penalty—which the Supreme Court ruled is essentially a tax—is expected to cost Americans $51 billion.

And that was after President Obama promised not to raise taxes on the middle class.

It’s worth mentioning the official name of this tax—because it just doesn’t get any more Orwellian. Really, it’s the left’s ideal name for all taxes: the “shared responsibility payment.”

Get ready to pay up, comrades.

By Amy Payne

Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings is the second highest-ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. The mission statement of the committee reads as follows:

We exist to secure two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent. And second, Americans deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them. Our duty on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to protect these rights.

Our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers, because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government. We will work tirelessly, in partnership with citizen-watchdogs, to deliver the facts to the American people and bring genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy.

Given the very specific mission of holding government accountable to the taxpayers and ‘working in partnership’ with citizen-watchdogs to deliver the facts to the American people, one is lead to wonder if Cummings is using his leadership role in the committee to obstruct justice. Rather than seek truth and answers, it seems as though Cummings has attempted at every turn to protect the Democrat party and President Barack Obama from any downfall related to facts discovered in the case of the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups.

In February 2014 , TPNN.com reported that “Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General who authored the scathing report that outlined the campaign of harassment” was under intense attack by Cummings. George was one of the few officials who were forthright in his answers during questioning before the committee. For his cooperation in seeking answers and holding government accountable, he was accused by Cummings of misconduct for agreeing to meet with the GOP without a Democrat in attendance.

The Hill reported at that time on a formal complaint lodged against George.

Two Democratic members of that panel — Reps. Matt Cartwright (Pa.) and Connolly — lodged a complaint on Wednesday about George’s original report on the IRS targeting last year, questioning his “independence, ethics, competence, and quality control” with an oversight board for inspectors general.

“If you want to connect the dots, a reasonable observer could be expected to conclude that he colluded with Issa’s staff to limit his report and the path of his investigation,” Connolly told The Hill concerning George. 

On March 5, 2014, TPNN.com reported on the hissy fit thrown by Cummings for apparent political theater as well as the history that Rep. Cummings has had with obstruction of justice.

Obama’s time in the White House has been plagued with numerous scandals. From Fast and Furious to the use of the IRS as a weapon to target those seen as enemies to Obama’s agenda to ‘fundamentally transform America’, Cummings has been there to defend and protect Obama, not search for answers. In fact, his protectionist actions are so blatant, that even Democrats have named him as ‘Obama’s biggest defender’. In August 2013, Yahoo News reported on an Op-Ed written by Democrat strategist Robert Weiner, former White House spokesperson and senior staff for three House committees, and Nakia Gladden, a policy and research analyst, in which they discussed Cummings’ emergence as Obama’s biggest defender against Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s search for truth regarding Obama’s overreach and scandals, which Cummings believes to be phony. 

Weiner and Gladden praised Cummings efforts to block the quest for truth by stating, “Without the leadership role that Cummings as Ranking Member is exhibiting, there would be no counter to Issa’s public relations exploitation.  What Cummings has exposed is that the real scandal is Issa’s waste and abuse of his power.” Perhaps they need to review the role of the committee in seeking answers, not covering for corruption. 

Cummings doesn’t want answers. He wants to assist Obama in his fundamental transformation of America. With Fast and Furious, Cummings distorted the reality of the Obama/Holder gun running scandal by erroneously claiming that it actually began during the Bush administration and, even worse, rather than demanding answers, instead demanded gun control in response to Fast and Furious.

Cummings used his power and influence in following the lead of the IRS in bullying, harassing, and intimidating Tea Party groups by doing the same thing to one specific group. In October 2012, Breitbart reported that Texas based True the Vote, headed by Catherine Engelbrecht, was being targeted directly by Elijah Cummings.

Following the outburst and political theater display by Cummings in which he attempted to continue a hearing that had been adjourned, the Democrat party and the typical race-baiter Jesse Jackson accused Issa of racism.  That is the typical Democrat go-to line when they want to shut someone down and shut that person or group up.

On March 7^th, TPNN.com reported on Issa’s response to said accusations on The Kelly File on FOX News.

Issa responded to charges of racism by Jesse Jackson and others as “sad,” and said that the reason Cummings received his committee appointment was because he promised to stifle Issa’s investigations into Obama’s numerous scandals.

Issa went on to say that he simply followed committee rules adding Cummings knew that the hearing was a continuation of a previous hearing. Therefore, Cummings would not be allowed to make a statement.

On Friday, FOX News reported on a letter it obtained from Issa in which he addressed the numerous the rationale laid out by Cummings and his legal experts as to why Lois Lerner, the now retired IRS official at the center of the investigation into the harassment and targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups, could not be held in contempt of court. Rep. Issa did not hold back.

In it, Issa countered, point by point, a series of claims that Cummings and two legal experts made earlier this week about whether former IRS official Lois Lerner could be held in contempt for refusing to testify. 

Issa went further, effectively accusing Cummings of running interference on behalf of his party and the administration. 

“… rather than pursuing the facts where they lead — which is the function of effective congressional oversight — you have made yourself an obstacle  to effective congressional oversight, in effect, a defense counsel for Lerner and others who acted to deprive Americans of their constitutionally-guaranteed rights,” the committee chairman wrote. 

In another verbal sting, he continued: “Even though the White House helped orchestrate your ascension to Ranking Member, I have encouraged, and continue to encourage, you to subordinate your political loyalties to the institutional interests of the Committee and the House, especially in cases like this where obstructing the Committee’s work risks permanently disadvantaging Congress in its interactions with the Executive Branch.” 

Read the full report on the latest exchange in this feud between Issa and Cummings on FOX News.

By Jennifer Burke

According to the Obama government’s own latest numbers, 4.2 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare. And while the Obama regime twists and spins the number as being a great accomplishment, and with the looming deadline to sign up less than two weeks away, just how successful is the number?

Obama said in August of 2009 that there were 46 million uninsured, telling the nation, “I don’t have to explain to you that nearly 46 million Americans don’t have health insurance coverage today. In the wealthiest nation on Earth, 46 million of our fellow citizens have no coverage.”

According to Joseph Curl, writing in The Washington Times, Obama spouted the number as being factual over a dozen times, including in June of 2013, when he tried to guilt the nation into accepting Obamacare by goading, “We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women and children.”

Given that the stated goal of Obamacare is to provide health insurance to the uninsured who were in a state of “crisis,” gauging the success of the operation demands that it be judged based upon that goal. Using Obama’s number of 46 million (he wouldn’t lie about that number, would he?), and using the regime’s latest enrollment number of 4.2 million, it means that less than 10% of the uninsured have actually signed up.

Generously disregarding the fact that the regime doesn’t actually know how many of those enrolled have actually paid for their insurance, or that a reported 5 million have had their policies cancelled because of Obamacare, that’s over a 90% failure. And a 90% failure is a failure by anyone’s yardstick.

By Matthew Burke

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The United States of America was founded by Christians, and its principles of society and governance were based on a bedrock of Christian ideology.

The nation’s Constitution was written, then interpreted by the US Supreme Court for nearly 200 years, in a manner that upheld a perceived Christian belief system, while maintaining a broad enough construction to encompass the mandates and standards of other religions—so long as they were not at odds with the Christian sense of right and wrong.

In recent decades Christianity has suffered a profound setback, in this country and abroad, and fewer people in the US consider themselves Christian while fewer policies and laws are based on Christian principles. In fact, we see God booed at the convention of a major political party, and most of its leadership is made up of people who consider themselves to be agnostic.

In 1990, 86% of Americans identified themselves as Christian, whereas in 2012 the number was down to 73%. Even that number may be overly optimistic.

Abroad, Christianity is all but dying out, being forced into obscurity by the spread of socialism and Islam. For those who roll their eyes at this statement, former bastions of Christianity like Spain and France now have more mosques than Christian churches, and most of the non-Muslims identify themselves as agnostic. The most popular name for male infants in leading European countries is Mohammad.

Christianity vs. Secularism

Most American universities are staffed by people who consider religion the ‘opiate of the masses,’ as expressed by their spiritual father, Karl Marx. Indeed, most university professors are openly hostile to Christianity, and boisterously embrace every movement that chips away at a family oriented, morality based society. These educators openly penalize any students who do not fall into line with their anti-Christian edicts, and reward those who do, causing a chilling effect on open Christian expression.

Most of the media, headed by graduated students of the anti-Christian university system, is likewise hostile toward traditional family and Christian values, flooding the airwaves with anti-family, anti-male, anti-morality, anti-Christian propaganda.

We who are Christian have been slow to recognize some of the main obstacles to the current generation embracing Christianity. To the extent that we have supported socialist political candidates, albeit in the name of compassion and diversity, we have helped to empower the anti-Christian movement. To the extent that we have allowed US citizens to be divided by class and race by these same politicians, we have enabled them. To the extent that we have supported leftist institutions, universities and media outlets, we have embraced our own destruction.

Dogma is Partly to Blame

Ignorance has also condemned Christianity to decline. I’m referring to silly, outdated notions about science; for example, like those who insist that the earth was created in six actual 24-hour periods (‘days,’ before an earth day even existed), and it all happened 6,000 years ago. Without further information, the uninformed misinterpret ancient scripture.

Accepting this fact should not be impossible for modern Christians, whose scriptures merely state that God (Elohim) created (organized) the world in six creative periods, without mention of the length of these creative periods or the amount of passing time between those periods. Although most world religions believe that this creation took place in an instant, something from nothing (creatio ex nihilo), Biblical scholars are hard-pressed to find support for these notions in the original Hebrew text.  The TRUTH is, that the earth was ‘developed’ through a ‘process’ that required a great deal of time–named six creative periods by God. Christians have many dogmas that are difficult if not impossible for educated people to swallow, e.g., transubstantiation, infallibility of leadership, proving faith, indulgences, covering up sin, the trinity, etc. They would be well advised to return to a God-revealed belief base.

Christians aren’t the only ones whose believes are mired in dogma. Scientists who first considered the Big Bang theory of creation were quite reluctant to accept it as a theory because of its close kinship to creatio ex nihilo. According to the standard Big Bang theory, our universe sprang into existence as a ‘singularity’ around 13.7 billion years ago. This implies that a nonexistent universe suddenly and without provocation sprang into existence, growing instantly from a point only a small fraction of the size of an atom to the entire universe filled with all of its mass and matter in mere seconds. Honestly, the faith required to accept such an unsubstantiated, inconceivable theory as a workable model for the creation of the universe is beyond acceptability. The theory continues to experience tweaking and retooling due to incongruity with ‘the math.’ It doesn’t work. To make the math begin to conform to the theory, scientists have constructed a model that requires 95% of the universe to consist of “dark matter” and “dark energy.” In other words, scientists now mock Christians for failure to believe in unseen worlds and forms of existence. Furthermore, any scientist who refuses to subscribe to this dogma is blacklisted, and not allowed to publish or teach.

No matter how dogmatic most of the parties are, Christians must rethink their attitudes toward science and one another if they are to survive in a world hostile toward them. Truth—no matter its source—must be the prize. I advise Christians and their leaders to revisit their prejudices, and to consider anew the original Hebrew scriptures to determine their divine message, and to eliminate many of the dogmas and traditions that are extra-Christian.

I further advise those ‘shepherds’ who are nothing more than hustlers to find new professions. You know who you are; molesters, thieves, indolent and impure in mind and deed. Get out, before God puts you out—forever.

As Christians, we must re-establish ourselves as the true shepherds over this people, and over this nation; not by constraint, but through dedicated service to all of God’s children under our influence and within the sound of our voice.

Let this edict be our standard: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13

James Thompson is a Christian writer, and holds a Juris Doctor degree. He is Editor-in-Chief of GhostWriter, a leading ghostwriting firm.  Volume One of his new novel series “The Coming Flood” has just been released, titled Enoch in the City of Adam. Visit James Thompson on Facebook