• The Act would mandate the scope of information that private, non-profit associations must divulge to their own members. That not only represents a violation of the First Amendment principle against “compelled speech,” but also signals a massive intrusion in the relationship between non-profit organizations and their supporters and members.
• The DISCLOSE Act would impose substantial civil and even criminal penalties for any non-profit or other advocacy group that makes a misstep. To say that this legislation would create a “chilling effect” on issue-advocacy groups is an understatement. The regulations are comprised of a byzantine mosaic of complex rules set forth in a bill that is 117 pages long.
  
  Speaking of disclosure, what I would really like the Congress to DISCLOSE about this bill are all the hidden quicksand traps that exist for unwary members of the public who might be sadly fooled into thinking that this legislation actually has something to do with improving America’s federal election process.
   
  Latest Legislative Update:
  On Tuesday, July 27th, the U.S. Senate took a cloture vote on the DISCLOSE Act. It failed 57-41. This was a procedural vote that would have allowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to bring the DISCLOSE legislation up for a final Floor vote immediately. Any cloture vote requires 60 votes to pass, but the failure of the cloture motion does NOT signal that the DISCLOSE Act has died. In fact, Leader Reid realized just before the cloture vote was taken that he did not have the requisite 60 votes, so he voted against it to give himself the procedural leverage to bring the legislation to the Floor at a later time. Capitol Hill Insiders tell NRB that this was a significant victory for those grassroots organizations who have vocally opposed the DISCLOSE Act in recent weeks, but the battle is not over. Those who support the DISCLOSE Act are working very hard to gain the few additional votes needed to reach a 60-vote majority and end any Republican filibuster. NRB will alert you to any action on this legislation in the next several months.

According to Dr. Yoest, when the partial-birth abortion issue (PBA) came up for discussion in the Clinton White House where Kagan was working, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said they “could identify no circumstances under which [partial birth abortion/D&X] procedure…would be the only option to save the life or preserve the health of the woman.” The AUL report cites a memo where Kagan called ACOG’s definition “a disaster” in light of the Clinton Administration’s policy work on the matter. Later it was discovered that Kagan actually added a sentence to ACOG’s definition, with the effect of profoundly altering the meaning of the ACOG statement. Her sentence, which followed the original ACOG statement (above), said: “An intact D&X, however, may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.” Apparently, ACOG’s Executive Board accepted the addition, without input from their organization’s “select panel” (which had drafted the original medical report on PBA), and without a vote from members of the organization. The additional language Kagan added to ACOG’s definition remained an important part of the defense of partial-birth abortion from that point forward, and was used by those who filed suit against state partial-birth abortion bans in the years that followed.

During the recent confirmation hearing for Kagan, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) was clearly disturbed by these revelations. He questioned Kagan about them, and she essentially told the Senator that she doubted that her involvement had influenced ACOG. Yet the AUL report makes it clear that Kagan did, in fact, lobby ACOG while working for the Clinton Administration. Click here to read the full AUL report.

Another parallel (one which will hopefully be temporary) lies in the fact that the best efforts to stop the gushing oil are seemingly ineffective. And at some point there may be nothing left to do except clean up the damage.

As this relates to our national debt, eventually we will reach a tipping point where the trillions of debt being inexorably added will make it difficult, if not impossible to pay the accumulated interest.  The cost of debt service will become such a large portion of the federal budget that we will have insufficient funds to pay.  An unexpected spike in interest rates might bring that day on faster than we might imagine.

I also see a parallel in the underwater camera that dramatically shows the well head spewing the brown crude oil into the surrounding water.  This visual evidence helps us understand the problem far better than we otherwise would.

Well, we have another visual recording device in the form of our National Debt Clock (www.usdebtclock.org).  I watched it for a while today.  Using the stopwatch on my iPhone, the Debt Clock revealed $1 million added to our national debt every 22 seconds.  In the brief time it took to write this piece, our national debt increased by $123 million. And just this week the Treasury Department announced that the U.S. budget deficit for the first nine months of the year is $1 trillion. Every penny of that will be added to the national debt.

What will the outcome of all this be?  I am no prophet, but the Scripture says the borrower is servant to the lender.  That has implications for both individuals and nations.  As a friend of mine says: Get out of debt and buy a little gold.  It may not be that simple, but that could end up being good advice.