New Mexico Watchman

A friend of ours remarked that the tri-color “Hope” poster of candidate Obama reminded him of posters dictators promulgate in public to insure a vision of themselves as great leaders. This being the climate of our times, it is with concern that Christian families faced the prospect of having the President of the United States address their children directly.

The President, of course, dismissed the concerns as “silly.” But there appears to be a legitimate concern and need for vigilance facing Christian families today. The following is a list of why concern was and is warranted:

1. School protocol was not followed with regard to the president’s speech. School boards are elected by their communities and are in charge of what occurs in the classroom. It is the responsibility of these duly elected representatives to oversee all classroom activities. The Obama administration sent the program directly to school administrators, by-passing all school boards.

2. The Obama Administration’s Department of Education prepared responses for the program asking students how they might help support the president. Having the president as the object of support makes the speech political rather than motivational.

3. The National Education Association, a major teachers union, in their July 2009 Representative Assembly in San Diego, passed a resolution in support of same-sex marriage and against employment discrimination based on “sexual orientation and expression.” The resolution read in part, “NEA recognizes that the term ‘marriage’ has religious connotations and that same-sex marriages may not be compatible with the beliefs, values, and/or practices of certain religions.”

In promoting “sexual orientation and expression,” a male transvestite teacher would be encouraged to wear a dress to his classroom.

4. Kevin Jennings is the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Mr. Jennings is also the co-founder of Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educational Network (GLSEN), a group that promotes forced acceptance of homosexual and transsexuals in schools to children as young as 5 years old.

5. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), last week released its “Guidelines on Sexual Education.” The report calls for teaching masturbation to children as young as 5. It calls for making children as young as 9 years old aware of abortion and its legal status “locally and globally.” At 15-18 years of age, the report encourages instructors to teach “advocacy to promote the right to and access to safe abortion.” UNESCO described the report as age appropriate education.

In our opinion, concern was far from “silly.” Please pray for our children, all those in our education system and please pray for our president.

In the name of Jesus,

Jose Vasquez

Dear Friends,

If the Governor Richardson’s Pay-to-Play scandal were murder, the Governor would have to be a serial killer to be indicted by the Obama administration according to the current findings.

More than anything else Governor Bill Richardson wanted to be President of the United States. Getting elected president requires millions of dollars. The question became, “How are you going to raise those dollars?” The Governor presides over state contracts, lucrative, billion dollar state contracts. One such deal involved $1.6 billion in bonds that included New Mexico’s Rail Runner commuter train.

A California company, CDR Financial Products, had three strikes against it in the bidding process for the management of New Mexico’s funds: CDR had never done this kind of fund management before and has not done so since, CDR was not a top-ranked advisory firm competing for the contract, and CDR submitted a lousy proposal for job.

On the other hand, CDR Financial contributed $100,000 to Governor Richardson’s Presidential campaign. As a little “thank you,” CDR threw in dinner and tickets to a Los Angles Lakers’ basketball game for the “investigating” New Mexico officials.

Richardson, of course, went nowhere as a presidential candidate and bowed out of the campaign early.

Remember that Governor Richardson had been plucked from the obscurity of “just another congressman” by then President Bill Clinton. Richardson was appointed both Secretary of Energy and US Ambassador to the United Nations by the Clintons. Then the former-nobody-until-the-Clintons, endorsed candidate Barack Obama – not Hillary.

Fast-forward to last fall; questions were raised about the CDR contract. The contract netted CDR a million and a half dollars for the work. What was the bid-scoring process? Was CDR given a no-bid contract?

What followed was the Barack Obama/Attorney General William Holder “investigation.” At the time, the pay-to-play question ended Richardson’s nomination as Commerce Secretary in their administration.

All these months later, the Obama administration has reached a verdict; The federal government would not prosecute Governor Richardson. The reason seemed to be a lack of a discernable pattern of corruption. The Obama administration felt it did not have a case. In other words, a one time only obvious “pay-to-play” scandal is not to be considered government corruption.

The outcome yields many positives for the Obama administration: first, a fellow Democrat is not indicted. Second, Governor Richardson becomes available for an Obama administration appointment (pay off ?), and, if that happens, Diane Denish advances to the governorship, giving this Democrat a better chance at being elected in 2012.

We are called to pray for our leadership, both locally and nationally. This situation appears to require much prayer. God bless America. God bless the state of New Mexico.

Jose Vasquez
New Mexico Watchman

The National Day of Prayer, a Christian event, began with the Eisenhower administration in 1952. Every president since Eisenhower has proclaimed a National Day of Prayer.

This year the prayer day was honored everywhere, all across America on May 7, 2009. Everywhere that is except - in the Obama White House. Breaking with tradition, heads were not bowed in Christian prayer on that day in our nation’s Capitol.

This evening (September 2), however, a feast following a day of fasting as required by Muslim Sharia law during the holy month of Ramadan was held in the White House. Ramadan will be observed almost nowhere* in America - except in the Obama White House.

President Obama, who has declared himself a Christian, writes in his autobiography titled “Audacity of Hope”:

They (Arab and Pakistani Americans following 9/11) have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

Indeed tonight he is standing with them.

God bless America. God bless President Obama.

Jose Vasquez

*Estimates of the number of Muslims living in the US vary considerably but are probably between 0.5% to 2% of the population. Christians are now estimated to be at 76%.