A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Four Republican senators are demanding changes to a GOP proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, and warned just hours after the bill was released that they “are not ready to vote” on the proposal until it is altered.

It’s enough to sink the bill because Republicans can only afford to lose two Republicans in order to pass the measure with a simple majority. Republicans have a narrow 52-48 majority in the Senate.

“The current bill does not repeal Obamacare.” Paul said. “It does not keep our promises to the American people. I will oppose it coming to the floor in its current form, but I remain open to negotiations.” [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – In a huge victory, a California court today dismissed almost all of the criminal charges abortion activists filed against the pro-life advocates who recorded undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood selling the body parts from aborted babies.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 felony charges against both David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Becerra is a longtime abortion advocate with financial connections to the Planned Parenthood abortion company that the two pro-life Advocates exposed in the videos for selling body parts such as fetal brains and livers.

The San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday dismissed 14 of 15 criminal counts but the pair are still charged with one count of conspiracy to invade privacy. However, the court dismissed the charges with leave to amend — meaning Becerra could re-file the charges with additional supposed evidence against the pair.

Liberty Counsel argued that the criminal complaint for illegally recording supposedly “private” conversations (in restaurants, hotel lobbies and other public places) – the first ever filed against undercover journalists – was legally deficient for numerous reasons, not the least of which was the Attorney General’s decision to prosecute Merritt in secret proceedings, without identifying even the names of her accusers or purported “victims.” The complaint did not provide Merritt with the minimum notice required by the Constitution and California law as to what she supposedly did wrong, so that she can mount a proper and vigorous defense. The complaint was also vague and full of inconsistencies. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – The Trump administration acknowledged Wednesday that Russian hackers targeted election systems in nearly half the country during last year’s presidential race, offering the largest on-the-record accounting yet with respect to the scope of Moscow’s alleged interference.

“As of right now, we have evidence that election-related systems in 21 states were targeted” last year by Russian government cyber actors, Jeanette Manfra, the acting deputy undersecretary of cyber security for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a Wednesday hearing involving Moscow’s involvement in the 2016 White House race.

Ms. Manfra declined to identify which states were specifically targeted or the degree to which the hackers were successful, citing confidentiality agreements between the federal government and affected parties. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – Israel would use all its strength from the start in any new war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the chief of the Israeli air force said on Wednesday, sending a firm warning a decade after their last conflict.

At the annual Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv, Major-General Amir Eshel said qualitative and quantitative improvements in the air force since the 2006 Lebanon war meant it could carry out in just two or three days the same number of bombings it mounted in those 34 days of fighting.

“If war breaks out in the north, we have to open with all our strength from the start,” he said, pointing to the likelihood of international pressure for a quick ceasefire before Israel can achieve all its strategic goals. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – For the second time this week, American warplanes downed an armed Syrian aircraft — this time an Iranian-built drone — threatening U.S.-backed forces battling the Islamic State terror group in the war-ravaged country.

Pentagon officials confirmed Tuesday that an Iranian-built Shaheed-129 aerial drone advancing on U.S. and coalition positions in southern Syria was destroyed by U.S. fighters. The drone had “dirty wings,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said, using the military colloquialism for an aircraft carrying weapons.

The strike took place near the U.S. and coalition training camp near the Syrian city of At Tanf, which straddles the Iraqi, Syrian and Jordanian borders. It was near the U.S. special operations camp where a foreign drone fired on joint U.S.-Syrian patrol on June 8, which was the first direct attack against coalition forces by the regime in Damascus. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – A research group in New Jersey has taken a fresh look at postelection polling data and concluded that the number of noncitizens voting illegally in U.S. elections is likely far greater than previous estimates.

As many as 5.7 million noncitizens may have voted in the 2008 election, which put Barack Obama in the White House.

The research organization Just Facts, a widely cited, independent think tank led by self-described conservatives and libertarians, revealed its number-crunching in a report on national immigration. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – A group of evangelical Christian organizations and others have sent a letter to the Trump administration in protest of the potential deportation of Iraqi Christians from the United States.

Evangelical leaders, including Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference President Samuel Rodriguez, and National Association for Evangelicals President Leith Anderson, signed a Monday letter from the Evangelical Immigration Table to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

“We write urgently and with grave concern that Christians will be removed from the United States to face potential persecution, and even death, in the Middle East,” reads the letter.

“Recent reports … indicate that a number of these Chaldean Christians face an immediate threat of deportation back to Iraq, a country where, as a result of their faith, they are likely to face oppression, persecution, and possibly even death at the hands of extremists.” [ Source ]