The tea party radio network

The talkers: From Rush to Rusty

In addition to Beck, at least four other hosts have entered into advertising arrangements of various sorts with tea party groups aiming to upend the 2014 primaries:

By KENNETH P. VOGEL and MACKENZIE WEINGER | 4/17/14 5:08 AM EDT

Glenn Beck worked the crowd like a preacher at a rally this month in Louisville, Ky., declaring that God had responded to conservatives’ prayers by sending a slate of tea party candidates to wrest control of the Republican Party from Mitch McConnell.

But there was a more earthly benefit to the arrangement that brought Beck to the rally. It was organized by the tea party nonprofit group FreedomWorks, which had endorsed the candidates — and which has paid more than $6 million in recent years to have Beck promote the group, its initiatives and events.

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(TIMELINE: Evolution of the tea party-talk radio alliance)The FreedomWorks-Beck relationship is just one example of a powerful and profitable alliance between the conservative movement’s most aggressive groups and the most popular radio hosts. The details of the arrangements are little-known, but they have been lucrative for the recipients, and, in turn, have helped ensure that the groups get coveted airtime from hosts with a demonstrated ability to leverage their tens of millions of listeners to shape American politics. It’s an alliance that helped spawn the anti-establishment tea party and power Republicans to landslide victories in the 2010 midterms. It’s also exacerbated congressional gridlock by pushing a hard line on the budget, immigration and Obamacare, and it is roiling the Republican Party headed into critical midterm elections.

A POLITICO review of filings with the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission, as well as interviews and reviews of radio shows, found that conservative groups spent nearly $22 million to broker and pay for involved advertising relationships known as sponsorships with a handful of influential talkers including Beck, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh between the first talk radio deals in 2008 and the end of 2012. Since then, the sponsorship deals have grown more lucrative and tea party-oriented, with legacy groups like The Heritage Foundation ending their sponsorships and groups like the Tea Party Patriots placing big ad buys.

The power of the tea party-talk radio nexus will be tested headed into the pivotal 2014 midterm elections. It has already played a key role in boosting tea party heroes like Matt Bevin and Chris McDaniel — both of whom attended FreedomWorks’ Louisville rally and have made multiple appearances on Beck’s shows — in their increasingly bitter long-shot primary challenges to powerful incumbents Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, respectively.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/tea-party-radio-network-105774.html#ixzz2z9eE2DQR



The tea party radio network

What Big Oil Companies Don't Want You Yo Know

What caused America to go from being a leading exporter of oil to the world's largest importer? What are the economic and sociological forces that have contributed to that change and impede its solution?

Gashole is an eye-opening documentary about the history of oil prices and sheds light on a secret that the big oil companies don't want you to know – that there are viable and affordable alternatives to petroleum fuel! It also provides a detailed examination of our continued dependence on foreign oil and examines various potential solutions - starting with claims of buried technology that dramatically improves gas mileage, to navigating bureaucratic governmental roadblocks, to evaluating different alternative fuels that are technologically available now, to questioning the American Consumers' reluctance to embrace alternatives.

Narrated by Peter Gallagher, hear from a wide range of opinions from representatives of the US Department of Energy Representatives, Congressional leaders both Democrat and Republican, Alternative Fuel Producers, Alternative Fuel Consumers (including actor Joshua Jackson), Professors of Economics and Psychology and more. Anyone who buys gas should see this film!

Welfare States Of America

The map above is striking. It is a perfect illustration that politics and facts at times seem mutually exclusive. In short, with just a few exceptions, the states whose politicians preach small government are much more dependent on it than other states.

States in green or closer to green on the map above are less dependent on the federal government. States in red or closer to red on the map above are more dependent on the federal government.

John S Kiernan, a senior writer & editor at Evolution Finance wrote an excellent piece on state federal government dependency. He compiled data from the Internal Revenue Service, the Census Bureau, Transparency.gov, US Department of Commerce – Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is a striking political & economic statement in his article that should be digested.

The extent to which the average American’s tax burden would vary based on his state of residence represents a significant point of differentiation between state economies.  But it’s only once piece of the puzzle.

What if, for example, a particular state can afford not to tax its residents at high rates because it’s receiving disproportionately more funding from the federal government than states with apparently oppressive tax codes?  That would change the narrative significantly, revealing federal dependence where bold, efficient stewardship was once thought to preside.

The conclusion of the report is something many have written about over the last several years; Red States by far are more dependent on the federal government and are poorer. In the aggregate these states take back much more from the federal government than they put in. More of their gross domestic product is also more dependent on direct and indirect government outlays. This turns the takers vs makers debate on its head as those pushing that message represent the end they portend to despise.

Do they really want a small federal government? It would kill their states’ economies.

Many of the southern states that have no state income tax or have low taxes do so on the backs of the states that pay much more in federal taxes. Governors like Texas Rick Perry make the rounds attempting to bring business to their states. They do it under the pretext of these states having better business environments because of low taxes and regulations. They should note they can have low taxes because they are subsidized by the federal government and the poor.

Articles like this are very important. Most Americans get their perspective from 10 second, 15 second, and 30 second sound bites. Data like this helps remove the blinders and rose colored glasses.

Source: http://egbertowillies.com/

Top Ten Countdown Out Right Lies The GOP Tell Their Base

10) Obama Doubled the Deficit.

This was a favorite of the Mitt Romney campaign. Throughout 2012, Romney repeatedly said, "The president promised to cut the deficit in half. He's doubled it!" No. No he hasn't. First of all, this line depends entirely on voters not understanding the difference between the deficit and the debt. See previous "simpleton" remarks. Indeed, the president has absolutely cut the deficit by way more than half in his first five years. When he took office, the deficit for 2009 was projected to be $1.4 trillion. The deficit at the end of 2014 will be $514 billion, just three percent of GDP. That's a nearly $1 trillion reduction in five years. Not only that, but the administration boasts the lowest year-over-year increase in government spending since Truman, and it'll be one of just three administrations in the last 50 years that will have ended with a lower deficit than when it began. The last Republican do leave the White House with the same record was Eisenhower.

9) Man-Made Climate Change Is a Hoax.

According to a clearly liberal agency called "NASA," a full 97 percent of scientists with specific expertise in climate science agree that climate change is real and humans are causing it. We shouldn't really have to say anything else. Of course if you're Lloyd Christmas from Dumb & Dumber, and "one-in-a-million" means "there's a chance," then the three percent of scientists who aren't sure about climate change obviously indicates that it's a hoax.

8) Cold Weather Disproves Climate Change

Second in our trifecta of climate change myths is an annual favorite. Every time it snows, you know the drill. Whenever there's a snow storm everyone from Matt Drudge to Rush Limbaugh suddenly achieves nipple erections hard enough to cut glass. And out comes the myth that climate change can't possibly be real because it's snowing somewhere. What they fail to explain to their disciples is that New York City or Minnesota or Washington, D.C., isn't, you know, the globe. Climate scientists base their global warming observations on global temperature averages. So while it might be snowing outside Sean Hannity's house, average temperatures year-over-year are growing progressively higher.

7) Tax Cuts Do More to Stimulate The Economy Than Food Stamps and Unemployment Benefits.

According to Moody's Analytics:

• Every dollar spent on unemployment benefits generates 1.61 in economic growth.
• Every dollar spent on food stamps generates 1.74 in economic growth.
• But every dollar spent on rolling tax rates back to Bush-era levels only creates .32 in economic growth — that's a 68-cent loss on investment.

6) Cars Kill a Lot of People and No One Wants to Ban Them Like Guns!

Unlike firearms, cars aren't explicitly designed to kill or wound living beings (humans, animals, etc). They're designed to move you from one place to another. Yet unlike firearms, cars and drivers are heavily regulated by the government, from emissions standards to annual inspections to safety features, and so forth. You can't legally drive a car that doesn't feature seatbelts, or a car that spews too much exhaust into the air. You have to take both a written and a behind-the-wheel test to get a license to operate a car. You often have to renew that license at regular intervals and, if you're older, you have to prove that you're physically capable of driving a car. You can't drive a car while drinking alcohol or impaired by other chemicals. There are thousands of police officers patrolling our roads and, as most of us have experienced at one time or another, they will penalize or arrest you for improper handling of a car — with literally hundreds of laws to abide, and considerable penalties, ranging from fines to imprisonment to the government stripping you of your right to drive a car at all. So if the NRA and its supporters are going to keep using this car analogy, then let's talk about regulating guns and gun owners the same way we regulate cars and drivers.

5) The Affordable Care Act Covers Abortion-Inducing Emergency Contraception.

Admittedly, there are so many Obamacare myths to choose from: death panels, IRS goon squads raiding homes, it's a "job killing" law, it's a "government takeover," etc. It's all a pile of hooey and definitely worth mentioning here. But this lie about emergency contraception coverage is so insidious that it even managed fool some liberals. Contrary to lawsuits by various religious businesses and organizations, the various forms of emergency contraception covered by the law do not, in fact, block implantation of a fertilized egg. If these medications were indeed abortifacients, they wouldn't be covered because it's illegal for the government to do so. But they're not abortifacients, so they're covered. Simply put: while some emergency contraception blocks implantation, the emergency contraception that's covered in the law blocksovulation — not implantation. Of course that won't stop the lawsuits or likely factor into the opinions of perhaps five Supreme Court justices when the first major Obamacare contraception decision drops this Summer.

4) Obamaphones!

Okay, just stop it with this. No, the Obama campaign wasn't handing out free phones in exchange for votes. However, there's definitely a program that offers low-cost telephones to citizens who can't afford one. The truth is the Lifeline program has been around since 1984 when, that's right, Ronald Reagan helped to create it. In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set up a non-profit outfit called the Universal Service Administrative Company, which receives financial backing via the Universal Service Fund. According to its website, money for the program is contributed entirely by "long distance companies, local telephone companies, wireless telephone companies, paging companies, and payphone providers," and none of the funding comes from taxpayers via the federal government. It's all privately donated money.

3) It's Safer to Have a Gun in the House, or a Concealed Weapon on Your Person.

I'm going to step aside and let an actual Republican debunk this one. Here's David Frum:

A gun in the house minimally doubles the risk that a household member will kill himself or herself. (Some studies put the increase in suicide risk as high as 10 times.) An American is 50 percent more likely to be shot dead by his or her own handthan to be shot dead by a criminal assailant. More than 30,000 Americans injure themselves with guns every year.

2) Exhaling Releases "Dangerous" CO2.

This is so dumb, it easily ranks as the most ridiculous climate change lie. Yes, more ridiculous than the blizzard thing. It's truly astonishing that anyone with half-a-brain actually believes it. Speaking of half-a-brain, here are some prime offenders:

Glenn Beck:

"Carbon dioxide is basically this. (Exhales.) Look at how much pollution I just put out."

Rush Limbaugh:

"We exhale CO2. If were a poison, it wouldn't be part of the way we stay alive."

Michele Bachmann:

"Carbon dioxide is a natural byproduct of nature."

Mitt Romney:

"Now I know there is also a movement to say that carbon dioxide should be guided or should be managed by the Environmental Protection Agency. I disagree with that. I exhale carbon dioxide. I don't want those guys following me around with a meter to see if I'm breathing too hard."

The stupidity is, pardon the pun, breathtaking. On the surface, this "exhaling" silliness sounds like it might be true — if you're really into uneducated, simplistic explanations for very complex topics. Not only does human breathing not even makethe list of greenhouse gases but, chiefly, the ecosystem wasn't designed to scrub out unprecedented levels of CO2 released by the burning of fossil fuels. Therefore all of that excessive CO2 is just lingering in the atmosphere, trapping heat and scrambling our weather patterns.

1) Voter Fraud Is a Serious Issue That Requires Strict New Voter ID Laws.

Nope. Not even close. Once again, this falls into the Lloyd Christmas category. Successful prosecutions of voter fraud cases barely amount to one one-hundredth of one percent of total votes cast in a single general election. In Ohio, for example, Secretary of State Jon Husted ballyhooed his war against fraud by nabbing a whopping 20 potential cases. 20 out of nearly six million votes cast in that state in 2012. The Bush Justice Department found that there were as few as 80 successful prosecutions of voter fraud cases out of hundreds of millions of votes cast since 2000. For this ratio of possible-fraud-to-votes-cast we're told we need laws that make it more difficult to vote. By the way, some Republicans came right out and said it: this isall about electing Republicans.

That's it. It's of course foolish to think the Republicans will drop these lies and myths any time soon. But as long as various Republicans continue to repeat these transparently obvious falsehoods, they should expect that the rest of us will continue to think they're either idiots or that they're deliberately trying to deceive their own people — or maybe a little of both.

Cross-posted at The Daily Banter.

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BobCesca.com Blog with special thanks to Steve Duckett.

Belgian newspaper faces backlash for picture of the Obamas as apes

A Belgian newspaper Monday responded to intense backlash for printing a picture of President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

De Morgen ran the photoshopped image in Saturday’s edition, calling the feature a satire that was poking fun at the ongoing tension facing the United States amid the crisis in Crimea. The image was printed days before the president’s visit to the Netherlands to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I.

“Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia,” the newspaper wrote. “He sent us this attachment at our request, and chose to send pictures instead of text ‘because he doesn't have a lot of time.’”

Next to the image of the Obamas as apes, a photo of President Obama was also printed with the caption “First black president of the USA starts selling weed.”

The newspaper apologized for the image on Monday, writing that they showed “bad taste.”

“When you consider the fragment apart from its context, which is a properly worked out satirical section, then you don’t see the joke but just a picture evoking sheer racism,” the newspaper said. “We wrongly assumed that racism is is no longer accepted, and that in this way it could be the subject of a joke.”

Author Chika Unigwe, who lives in Belgium, tweeted the photo on Saturday.

A spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid 'unhinged'

"A spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid 'unhinged'on Monday, after Reid charged Republicans may have had a helping hand in emboldening Russia to annex Crimea. 'Since a few Republicans blocked these important sanctions last work period, Russian lawmakers voted to annex Crimea and Russian forces have taken over Ukrainian military bases,' Reid said Monday, according to The Associated Press. 'It's impossible to know whether events  would have unfolded differently if the United States had responded to Russian aggression with a strong, unified voice.' Reid was referring to the stalling of a Ukraine aid package in the Senate, after Republicans objected to a provision that contained reforms to the International Monetary Fund. But House and Senate GOP aides noted the Republican-controlled House had passed similar legislation without the IMF provisions, which Republicans have said is not a necessary attachment to a Ukraine aid bill. 'The Senate Majority Leader sounds completely unhinged,' Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told Business Insider in an email." Reid is probably still hinged, according to our sources. [Business Insider] 

Globalizing Homophobia

The Winter Games weren’t all that was going on in Russia this month… if you’ve been following the news, you know that some serious anti-gay bigotry has been on the rise, even at the highest levels of government. What you might not know is how much of a role American right-wing leaders have played with efforts to make homophobia a national export. PFAW’s new Right Wing Watch: In Focus report, “Globalizing Homophobia: How the American Right Supports and Defends Russia’s Anti-Gay Crackdown,” released this month, examines how American right-wing leaders have played an important role in promoting anti-gay policies not just in Russia, but around the world, working to inflame the passions of bigotry in Africa, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. We also hosted an informative telebriefing on the subject for PFAW members led by PFAW senior fellow Peter Montgomery. Read the Report>> Listen to the Telebriefing>>

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

Washington Hilton

Washington, D.C.

9:11 A.M. EST

     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Please, everyone have a seat. Giving all praise and honor to God, who brought us here this morning. 

Thank you so much for our two outstanding co-chairs, Louie and Jan.  And I have to say, I would have enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at the two of these folks getting this breakfast organized this morning.  (Laughter.)  But there does seem to be that sibling thing a little bit, Louie.  (Laughter.)  They love each other, but they’ve got to go at each other a little bit.  I, by the way, have always found Louie to be unbelievably gracious every time I’ve seen him.  Now, I don’t watch TV, I’ve got to admit.  (Laughter.)  But he is a good man and a great storyteller, and Janice was just reminding me the first time we saw each other was at one of my first events when I first ran for office. 

It’s wonderful to see all of the dignitaries and friends who are here today.  To the Presidents, and Prime Ministers, the leaders of business and the nonprofit community; to my incredible friend and Vice President, Joe Biden; to my Cabinet members who are here and members of the administration who do such great work every single day; to my fellow Hawaiian, it is wonderful to see you.  I should tell you that my surfing is not that good.  (Laughter.)  I just want to be clear.  But my bodysurfing is pretty good.

SENATOR HIRONO:  Bodysurfing is fun.  (Laughter.) 

THE PRESIDENT:  It is.  (Laughter.)  And to Raj Shah, who is just such an incredible young leader and is out there every single day, I could not be more proud of his outstanding leadership at USAID.  And it’s a good reminder -- (applause) -- it’s a good reminder of the dedicated public servants that I have the chance to interact with every single day.  And they do great work, don’t always get a lot of credit, sometimes get subject to the sort of criticism that you do when you’re in public life, but Raj is single-minded in terms of trying to help as many people as possible all around the world and is an extraordinary representative for our country.  So I’m very, very proud of him -- although he does always make me feel like an underachiever whenever I listen to him.  (Laughter.)  I’m thinking, I should have been working harder and not slouching.  (Laughter.) 

Dale Jones and everyone else who worked on this breakfast this morning, thank you, and obviously I’m thrilled to be joined by my extraordinary wife and she does a great job every single day keeping me in line.  (Applause.)

Just two other thank-yous.  To our men and women in uniform all around the world, we pray for them.  (Applause.)  Many of them doing such great work to keep us safe.  And then there is one colleague of mine who is missing today.  A great friend of mine who I came into the Senate with, Senator Tom Coburn.  Tom is going through some tough times right now but I love him dearly even though we’re from different parties.  He’s a little closer to Louie’s political perspective than mine but he is a good man and I’m keeping him and his family in my prayers all the time.  So just a shout-out to my good friend, Tom Coburn.  (Applause.) 

So each time we gather, it’s a chance to set aside the rush of our daily lives; to pause with humility before an Almighty God; to seek His grace; and, mindful of our own imperfections, to remember the admonition from the Book of Romans, which is especially fitting for those of us in Washington:  “Do not claim to be wiser than you are.” 

So here we put aside labels of party and ideology, and recall what we are first:  all children of a loving God; brothers and sisters called to make His work our own.  But in this work, as Lincoln said, our concern should not be whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God’s side.

And here we give thanks for His guidance in our own individual faith journeys.  In my life, He directed my path to Chicago and my work with churches who were intent on breaking the cycle of poverty in hard-hit communities there.  And I’m grateful not only because I was broke and the church fed me, but because it led to everything else.  It led me to embrace Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  It led me to Michelle -- the love of my life -- and it blessed us with two extraordinary daughters.  It led me to public service.  And the longer I serve, especially in moments of trial or doubt, the more thankful I am of God’s guiding hand.

Now, here, as Americans, we affirm the freedoms endowed by our Creator, among them freedom of religion.  And, yes, this freedom safeguards religion, allowing us to flourish as one of the most religious countries on Earth, but it works the other way, too -- because religion strengthens America.  Brave men and women of faith have challenged our conscience and brought us closer to our founding ideals, from the abolition of slavery to civil rights, workers’ rights. 

So many of you carry on this good work today -- for the child who deserves a school worthy of his dreams; for the parents working overtime to pull themselves out of poverty; for the immigrants who want to step out of the shadows and become a full member of our American family; for the young girl who prays for rescue from the modern slavery of human trafficking, an outrage that we must all join together to end. 

Through our Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, led by Melissa Rogers, we’re proud to work with you on this and many other issues.  And I invite you to join us in a new initiative that I announced in my State of the Union address -- an effort to help more young men of color overcome the odds, because so many boys in this country need that mentor to help them become a man and a good father.

I’ve felt the love that faith can instill in our lives during my visits to the Holy Land and Jerusalem -- sacred to Jews and Christians and Muslims.  I’ve felt it in houses of worship -- whether paying my respects at the tomb of Archbishop Romero in San Salvador, or visiting a synagogue on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul or a Buddhist temple in Bangkok.  And I’ve felt the compassion of so many faith leaders around the world, and I am especially looking forward to returning to the Vatican next month to meet His Holiness, Pope Francis, whose message about caring for the “least of these” is one that I hope all of us heed.  Like Matthew, he has answered the call of Jesus, who said “follow me,” and he inspires us with his words and deeds, his humility, his mercy and his missionary impulse to serve the cause of social justice.

Yet even as our faith sustains us, it’s also clear that around the world freedom of religion is under threat.  And that is what I want to reflect on this morning.  We see governments engaging in discrimination and violence against the faithful.  We sometimes see religion twisted in an attempt to justify hatred and persecution against other people just because of who they are, or how they pray or who they love.  Old tensions are stoked, fueling conflicts along religious lines, as we’ve seen in the Central African Republic recently, even though to harm anyone in the name of faith is to diminish our own relationship with God.  Extremists succumb to an ignorant nihilism that shows they don’t understand the faiths they claim to profess -- for the killing of the innocent is never fulfilling God’s will; in fact, it’s the ultimate betrayal of God’s will.

Today, we profess the principles we know to be true.  We believe that each of us is “wonderfully made” in the image of God.  We, therefore, believe in the inherent dignity of every human being -- dignity that no earthly power can take away.  And central to that dignity is freedom of religion -- the right of every person to practice their faith how they choose, to change their faith if they choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do this free from persecution and fear.

Our faith teaches us that in the face of suffering, we can’t stand idly by and that we must be that Good Samaritan.  In Isaiah, we’re told “to do right.  Seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.”  The Torah commands:  “Know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” The Koran instructs:  “Stand out firmly for justice.”   So history shows that nations that uphold the rights of their people -- including the freedom of religion -- are ultimately more just and more peaceful and more successful.  Nations that do not uphold these rights sow the bitter seeds of instability and violence and extremism.  So freedom of religion matters to our national security.  (Applause.) 

As I’ve said before, there are times when we work with governments that don’t always meet our highest standards, but they’re working with us on core interests such as the security of the American people.  At the same time, we also deeply believe that it’s in our interest, even with our partners, sometimes with our friends, to stand up for universal human rights.  So promoting religious freedom is a key objective of U.S. foreign policy.  And I’m proud that no nation on Earth does more to stand up for the freedom of religion around the world than the United States of America.  (Applause.)

It is not always comfortable to do, but it is right.  When I meet with Chinese leaders -- and we do a lot of business with the Chinese, and that relationship is extraordinarily important not just to our two countries but to the world -- but I stress that realizing China’s potential rests on upholding universal rights, including for Christians, and Tibetan Buddhists, and Uighur Muslims.  (Applause.) 

When I meet with the President of Burma, a country that is trying to emerge out of a long darkness into the light of a representative government, I’ve said that Burma’s return to the international community depends on respecting basic freedoms, including for Christians and Muslims.  I’ve pledged our support to the people of Nigeria, who deserve to worship in their churches and mosques in peace, free from terror.  I’ve put the weight of my office behind the efforts to protect the people of Sudan and South Sudan, including religious minorities.

As we support Israelis and Palestinians as they engage in direct talks, we’ve made clear that lasting peace will require freedom of worship and access to holy sites for all faiths.  I want to take this opportunity to thank Secretary Kerry for his extraordinary passion and principled diplomacy that he’s brought to the cause of peace in the Middle East.  Thank you, John.  (Applause.) 

More broadly, I’ve made the case that no society can truly succeed unless it guarantees the rights of all its peoples, including religious minorities, whether they’re Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan, or Baha’i in Iran, or Coptic Christians in Egypt.  And in Syria, it means ensuring a place for all people -- Alawites and Sunni, Shia and Christian.

Going forward, we will keep standing for religious freedom around the world.  And that includes, by the way, opposing blasphemy and defamation of religion measures, which are promoted sometimes as an expression of religion, but, in fact, all too often can be used to suppress religious minorities.  (Applause.) We continue to stand for the rights of all people to practice their faiths in peace and in freedom.  And we will continue to stand against the ugly tide of anti-Semitism that rears it's ugly head all too often. 

I look forward to nominating our next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom to help lead these efforts.  And we’re moving ahead with our new strategy to partner more closely with religious leaders and faith communities as we carry out our foreign policy.  And I want to thank Shaun Casey, from the Wesley Theological Seminary, for leading this work at the State Department.  Shaun I think is here today and we want to thank him for the outstanding work that he’s doing.  (Applause.) Thank you, Shaun.  (Applause.)

So around the world we’re elevating our engagement with faith leaders and making it a regular part of our diplomacy.  And today, I invite you to join us in focusing on several pressing challenges.  Let’s do more together to advance human rights, including religious freedom.  Let’s do more to promote the development that Raj describes -- from ending extreme poverty to saving lives, from HIV/AIDS to combating climate change so that we can preserve God’s incredible creation.  On all these issues, faith leaders and faith organizations here in the United States and around the world are incredible partners, and we're grateful to them.

And in contrast to those who wield religion to divide us, let’s do more to nurture the dialogue between faiths that can break cycles of conflict and build true peace, including in the Holy Land. 

And finally, as we build the future we seek, let us never forget those who are persecuted today, among them Americans of faith.  We pray for Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary who’s been held in North Korea for 15 months, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.  His family wants him home.  And the United States will continue to do everything in our power to secure his release because Kenneth Bae deserves to be free.  (Applause.) 

We pray for Pastor Saeed Abedini.  He’s been held in Iran for more than 18 months, sentenced to eight years in prison on charges relating to his Christian beliefs.  And as we continue to work for his freedom, today, again, we call on the Iranian government to release Pastor Abedini so he can return to the loving arms of his wife and children in Idaho.  (Applause.)

And as we pray for all prisoners of conscience, whatever their faiths, wherever they’re held, let’s imagine what it must be like for them.  We may not know their names, but all around the world there are people who are waking up in cold cells, facing another day of confinement, another day of unspeakable treatment, simply because they are affirming God.  Despite all they’ve endured, despite all the awful punishments if caught, they will wait for that moment when the guards aren’t looking, and when they can close their eyes and bring their hands together and pray. 

In those moments of peace, of grace, those moments when their faith is tested in ways that those of us who are more comfortable never experience; in those far-away cells, I believe their unbroken souls are made stronger.  And I hope that somehow they hear our prayers for them, that they know that, along with the spirit of God, they have our spirit with them as well, and that they are not alone. 

Today we give humble thanks for the freedoms we cherish in this country.  And I join you in seeking God’s grace in all of our lives.  I pray that His wisdom will give us the capacity to do right and to seek justice, and defend the oppressed wherever they may dwell.

I want to thank all of you for the extraordinary privilege of being here this morning.  I want to ask you for your prayers as I continue in this awesome privilege and responsibility as President of the United States.  May God bless the United States of America, and God bless all those who seek peace and justice.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)