"Is it not destruction for the wicked, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Does He not see my ways, and count all my steps? If I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity." (Job 31:3-6)

"For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: but the Word of the Lord endures forever." (I Peter 1:24-25)

The 2011-12 term of the U.S. Supreme Court started on Monday. Many items are being slated for review by this historic U.S. Supreme Court.

1) GPS: Whether police need a warrant from a judge to attach a GPS device to a car to track its movements for extended periods. United States v. Jones. Antoine Jones was a Washington, D.C., nightclub owner and suspected drug dealer. So as part of their investigation, officers attached a Global Positioning Satellite tracking device on a Jeep driven by Jones.

2) Strip Search: Whether jails can strip-search all newly booked inmates without evidence that they are concealing contraband.  

3) Profanity: Whether the Federal Communications Commission's rules on indecency, which prohibit radio and television stations from broadcasting patently offensive words and depictions of sexual activities, are unconstitutionally vague.

 The case, FCC v. Fox Television, will examine whether the FCC's indecency enforcement procedures violate the First and Fifth Amendments. At issue is the government's attempt to police the public air waves to prevent not only obscene material, but also indecent communications offensive to a family-oriented audience.

4) Church and State: In an important case involving the First Amendment's separation of church and state, the justices will consider whether a former teacher at a Lutheran elementary school can sue the church-run school for alleged disability discrimination and retaliation. The case is Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC and Cheryl Perich.  

School officials argue that the lawsuit is barred under the "ministerial exception," a legal doctrine which blocks employment-related lawsuits against religious organizations filed by employees who perform important religious functions.  

5) Disputed Status of Jerusalem: Because Jerusalem is a major source of disagreement in Middle East peace talks, the U.S. government has tried to remain neutral on the Jerusalem issue. As a result, children born in Jerusalem to U.S. citizens are listed on birth documents as having been born in Jerusalem. No country is noted on the State Department documents. Pro-Israeli members of Congress who disagree with this posture, sponsored and passed a law directing the State Department to record the place of birth as Jerusalem, Israel.

Besides these issues, there are several other topics for review.  

"Affirmative Action" at Public Universities - A case that could enable the court's conservative majority to reconsider a 5-4 ruling in 2003 that upheld a limited form of race-based affirmative action at public universities.

Medicaid Expansion - The states are also asking the high court to review the law's expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state health-care program for the poor. The appeals court upheld that provision, rejecting contentions that it improperly coerces states into spending additional money.

Obamacare - States and a business group opposed to the Obamacare overhaul asked the Supreme Court for a speedy ruling that puts an end to the law aimed at extending insurance coverage to more than 30 million people.

The Supreme Court has affirmed the government's broad power over commerce - most recently in a 2005 California case upholding a ban on medical marijuana that had neither been sold commercially nor crossed state lines - but has given little indication of how it would view the health care law. "I don't think it's possible for anyone to predict," said Erwin Chemerinsky, the law school dean at U.C. Irvine, who argues that the law is a valid exercise of government authority over the economy, but is uncertain that the court will agree.  

Affordable Care Act - Did Congress act within its commerce clause powers when it approved the ACA's individual mandate?  

The ACA requires every American to purchase a government-approved level of health insurance or pay a penalty. 

Opponents say never before has the U.S. government required citizens to purchase a private service or face punishment. Supporters say the measure is well within Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce.  

A panel at the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta voted 2 to 1 to strike down the individual mandate as exceeding Congressional authority. A different panel at the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati ruled that the mandate did not violate commerce clause restrictions. A third panel at the Fourth Circuit in Richmond threw the case out on other grounds.  

Probe of Helena Kagan and Obamacare - The Supreme Court hasn't even agreed yet to take the case questioning the constitutionality of the individual mandate -- the centerpiece of Obamacare -- but already arguments are lined up to remove justices from trying to weigh in on deliberations.   

 Justice Elena Kagan's role in the Obama administration as it was formulating the legal defense for the health care law disqualifies her from participating in the decision, say groups who call the former solicitor general incapable of being objective. Kagan says she was not involved in developing the legal strategy of the Affordable Care Act, but opponents of the law have requested records of the administration's deliberation process to see who participated.

Arizona's Bellwether Immigration Law - The court majority suggested this year that it is skeptical of federal government claims of exclusive authority over immigration, the key to the dispute over a bellwether Arizona law awaiting the justices' review. The law, a model for legislation passed by three other states, requires police to demand immigration papers from people they lawfully detain and reasonably suspect of being present illegally.

In a suit by the Obama administration, the federal appeals court in San Francisco blocked the law's central provisions in April, saying the state was turning its police into immigration officers and interfering with federal immigration authority.

In May, however, the Supreme Court upheld another Arizona law allowing the state to revoke the licenses of businesses that repeatedly hire illegal immigrants. The case involved a different issue - the scope of a federal law allowing states to act against the licenses of offending businesses - but arguments that Arizona was intruding on federal turf failed to sway the majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts.  

Before that ruling, said Goldstein of Scotusblog.com, the court seemed virtually certain to strike down Arizona's "show us your papers" law. Now, he said, it's a toss-up.     This Supreme Court docket is shaping up as historic. "The only thing that would be missing from the most incredible term in the history of the court would be gay marriage," which is at least a year away from the docket, said Thomas Goldstein, a veteran Supreme Court litigator. But the court could address gay rights in a case awaiting review involving Louisiana's refusal to recognize a same-sex adoption from New York.  

This Supreme Court is in a position to leave a giant footprint on public policy in the coming year. 

(Contributors: The Washington Times, Jewish World Review, San Francisco Chronicle, MSNBC , East Valley Tribune, Scotusblog.com, Fox News, Forbes, Scrippsnews, Washington Post)

Funding was stopped by three congressional committees in response to the U.N. statehood bid by Abbas and company. 

According to the British newspaper, the freezing of the funds, which were to have been provided in the U.S. fiscal year that ends Saturday, is the most tangible sign yet of the seriousness of Congressional leaders' threats of an even wider halt to funding in the coming year if Abbas continues with his actions at the U.N.

The United States Congress has blocked nearly $200m in aid to the Palestinians, the U.K.'s Independent newspaper reported on Saturday. The aid, which was destined for projects related to food aid, health care, and state building efforts, was to have been transferred to the Palestinian Authority during the U.S. fiscal year that ends today, according to the report. However, following what the Independent described as an "unpublicized block" imposed on funding to the Palestinians since August this year, in response to the Palestinian bid for statehood at the U.N., the remainder of the aid allocated to the Palestinian Authority for the current financial year will not be transferred. The good news is that Obama's administration is unable to commit further funding to the Palestinian Authority unless it persuades Congress to lift the freeze, according to the report.

There have been demands in Congress throughout the year to withhold funding to the Palestinian Authority if it pursues the U.N. route to statehood. Rep. Gary Ackerman, member of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said on Monday at a gathering of Congressmen and leaders of Jewish organizations outside the United Nations headquarters in New York that "there may need to be a total cutoff of all aid to the Palestinians for pursuing this course of action which is very dangerous and ill advised." (Contributor: Haaretz, The Independent, YNet News)  

Ask the Lord to protect the sovereignty of the Land of Israel given not by man, but by the Creator and Ruler of the Universe -- God the Father, His son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Pray that unrighteous rulers that press Israel to do things contrary to His purpose will be dealt with swiftly by His sovereign hand. Pray that eyes of the unrighteous ruler be opened.

And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. (Genesis 13:14-16)

By seeking to force Israel to cease building houses in the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Obama is legitimizing the Islamist zeal for the eviction of 300,000 Jews who live in parts of Jerusalem that were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967.

Obama's administration just blasted Israel for the new homes to be built in Gilo, a Jerusalem neighborhood where 40,000 Israelis live. For 19 horrible years, Jordanians and Palestinians controlled the neighborhoods now under Obama's attack. Jews were summarily expelled. Property was seized. The historic synagogues of the walled enclave were gutted, trashed, and some turned into makeshift barns.

Obama's de-legitimization of Jerusalem's post-1967 neighborhoods is nothing less than a renewed "Judenrein" (empty of Jews) policy. To decide, as a matter of policy, not to endorse the building of Jewish homes within existing Israeli areas is the abrogation of the right of Jews to live wherever they wish in Israel.

If Israel cannot build in Gilo without U.S. approval, then it cannot build in Neveh Yaakov, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze'ev and East Talpiot. Gilo is also a special symbol of the Israeli resistance during the Second Intifada, when Arab snipers fired at Jews from the village of Beit Jala. Gilo was turned into another Ireland. The Jewish residents began to evacuate. Fear, rage and worry dominated their minds. Belatedly, the Israeli government provided cement barriers and bullet-proof glass to protect the neighborhood's residents.

Today, Gilo is a strategic neighborhood for the security of the entire State of Israel: Not building there means accepting a Palestinian belt around the capital of Israel, which could be in a state of siege. Gilo was the laboratory where Palestinian terrorists sought to discover whether they could force Jews into abandoning their homes. They failed. Now Obama is reviving this goal by "peaceful" means.

Yet more surprising is Obama's attack on any inch of land in Jewish neighborhoods built after 1967. In stark contrast to cities like Belfast, Beirut and Sarajevo, Jerusalem under Israeli control is a model of freedom and guaranteed rights for all. -- Giulio Meotti (Source: YNet News)

Ask the Lord to protect the U.S. from any revenge attacks that may be planned by Moslems. Ask that the Lord would give our intelligence sources sharp knowledge and understanding of harmful actions that could be planned. The Lord is our strength and shield. Look to Him as our strong tower. Pray that our justice system remain strong and true in light of these recent decisions.

"Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins." (Psalms 7:9)

Federal authorities are warning that the killing of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a CIA-led strike on his hideout in Yemen early Friday may trigger revenge attacks inside the United States and against U.S. citizens traveling overseas. The death of the cleric, a digital jihadist, who inspired countless plots in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia "could provide motivation for homeland attacks," said a joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin issued late Friday.

And the State Department on Saturday put U.S. citizens across the globe on alert for potential retaliation. "The death of Awlaki, in the near term, could provide motivation for anti-American attacks worldwide from individuals or groups seeking to retaliate against U.S. citizens or interests because of this action," the State Department said in the travel alert. "In the past Awlaki and other members of AQPA have called for attacks against the United States, U.S. citizens and U.S. interests," the alert reads. "Awlaki's standing as a preeminent English-language advocate of violence could potentially trigger anti-American acts worldwide to avenge his death."

The air strike also killed Samir Khan of North Carolina, who edited a Jihadi Internet magainze. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., warned in an interview with Fox News Radio on Friday that the cleric's death was bigger than that of the Al Qaeda network's leader.

"This is as significant as any kill we can imagine. Believe it or not, this is more significant than the killing of Bin Laden," King said, adding that there could be fallout. "It's a great victory for the U.S. in the long run. In the short term though, we have to realize he had a strong following in this country so we have to be very much on our guard as far as a revenge killing," he said.

Crossing the Rubicon - Obama Orders Death of American Moslem Cleric - This week two terrorists Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, were ordered killed by missiles fired from a CIA operated Predator drone in Yemen. Both were natural born U.S. citizens, which poses the question, "What safeguards exist when the man setting the guidelines is the man issuing the death warrants?" The answer of course is that there are none. Because they are U.S. citizens, both men should have been tried for treason in abstensia before a military tribunal. The death sentence should have then been given to the Commander in Chief to carry out. A record would then exist to justify the executions. Rather than that process, we have one single sheet of paper signed by Obama saying, "Kill these guys." The lack of visible due process should and does concern legal experts as well as citizens who are aware. (Contributors: Capitol Hill Prayer Partners, Fox News, William Murray; Religious Freedom Coalition)

Pray for the ongoing U.N. discussions regarding Palestinian statehood. Pray that the contrast between the two speeches will enlighten the international community as to Israel's true security situation and desire for a sustainable peace.

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise . . .There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health . . . Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy." (Proverbs 12:15, 18, 20)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday [September 23] called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to meet with him immediately in the United Nations - an offer delivered minutes after Abbas gave a harsh, distorted, hate-filled address to the U.N. General Assembly.

"I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner for peace," the Israeli prime minister said, after Abbas presented a bid for full membership in the United Nations. "We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let's just get on with it. Let's negotiate peace."

"Now we're in the same city. We're in the same building. So let's meet here today, in the United Nations. Who's there to stop us? What is there to stop us? Let's listen to one another. I'll tell you my concerns. You'll tell me yours, and with God's help we'll find a common ground for peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you."

At the end of an eventful day, the Mideast Quartet of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations issued a joint statement calling on the parties to return to negotiations without preconditions and to reach peace quickly. It proposed convening a preparatory meeting within a month to lay out the agenda and timeframe for a final agreement, which would be not later than the end of 2012.

"The Quartet expects the parties to come forward with comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and to have made substantial progress within six months. To that end, the Quartet will convene an international conference in Moscow, in consultation with the parties, at the appropriate time," the statement said.

Earlier Friday, Abbas submitted his application for U.N. membership knowing that he lacked the votes to bring the matter to the Security Council. He said he was armed with only their hopes and dreams - which brought a quick response from Netanyahu. "Yes, hopes and dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran," Netanyahu said, referring to the vast arsenal of weapons built up by Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and frequently fired at Israeli civilians.

The speeches of the two leaders presented a stark contrast. Abbas blamed the failure of the peace process entirely on Israel. He said he would not return to negotiations unless Israel froze building in the territories. Israel is ready to renew negotiations immediately - without preconditions.

Abbas shocked many observers with the harshness of his speech. He stated that the future Palestine should include East Jerusalem, including the city's Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. And he called for a return to the 1967 lines - which security experts say are impossible to defend. Abbas also mentioned that he came from the Holy Land, a place holy to Muslims and Christians. He totally omitted any mention of Jewish links to the land of the Bible. (Contributor: Capitol Hill Prayer Partners, The Israel Project, September 23, 2011)

Intercede for fraudulent activity by any U.S. officials to be resolved. Ask for wisdom to be given to Congressman Darrell Issa and his investigative team. Pray for the White House to confess any illegal part in this unfolding scandal, if it has had any part in this. Ask that the Lord give wisdom and authority to His chosen vessels to investigate and cleanse the White House of any wrongdoing.    

 "The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived in Jerusalem . . ." (Ezra 8:31)

In a 2009 operation called "Fast and Furious," ATF requested that gun shop owners sell guns, including AK47s, to straw buyers from the Mexican drug cartels. 

Not only do congressional investigators want to "make sense" of details of the operation that allowed more than 2,000 guns to "walk" and later turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, but they want to known why Hurley -- who knew almost immediately the guns found at Terry's crime scene belonged to Fast and Furious -- tried to "prevent the connection from being disclosed."

CBS Video Report (1 min.)

 The audio tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope MacAllister. Listen to the audio of the conversation.

 The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators already noted in this report and to the acting U.S. Inspector General, Cynthia A. Schnedar.

(Contributors: Capitol Hill Prayer Partners, Fox News, American Thinker, CBS News)

"Partnering with CHRIST for REVIVAL 

In the Middle East AND America" 

Saturday Morning, 10.8.11 

7:30-11am Eastern, 6:30-10am Central, 5:30-9am Mountain,
4:30-8am Pacific, 3:30-7am Alaska, 1:30-5am Hawaii   

www.PrayerSurgeNow.blogspot.com       prayersurgenow@gmail.com  

Conference Call Number & Code  

712-432-0075 & 6149782

4:30-6:00 am Pacific & 7:30-9:00 am Eastern
Reading of Leviticus 23:26-32 & Hebrews 9:7
on Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement
with Dick Simmons, DC
www.menfornations.org
&
Operation Prayer Surge Prayer Points for the Middle East & the US Military
with Tom Smith, TN & Al McCarn, VA
www.flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com    

Special Creation Care Panel on Yom Kippur
with Gary Bergel, Mitchell Hescox & Alexei Laushkin 

Honoring God through Stewardship of Creation care
www.creationcare.org   

Prayer Surge NOW! for 2012 Elections  

Provided by Capitol Hill Prayer Partners.  Click below:  

THE 2012 ELECTION CYCLE (PDF) Prayer Guide

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