--- Begin Message ---
- To: borrowdalej@xxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Daily Update - Jan. 12, 2007: Senators Hearing the Grassroots Loud and Clear
- From: "CitizenLink " <citizenlink@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:19:04 -0500
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<td valign="top" width="99%"><font
face="arial,helvetica,verdana" color="#000000" size="2"><font face="Arial"
size="+1"><strong>Senators Hearing the Grassroots Loud and Clear</strong></font>
<p>Opposition to a provision in S. 1 that would
hinder the free speech of grassroots lobbying groups, such as Focus on the
Family Action, has resulted in a tidal wave of faxes, phone calls and petition
signatures from voters.</p>
<p>More than 25,000 faxes have been sent to
Senate offices through the <em>CitizenLink</em> Action Center. About 65,000
people have signed a petition asking for the objectionable Section 220 to be
struck. And insiders on Capitol Hill have described the number of phone calls
as a "deluge" and a "flood."</p>
<p>Focus on the Family Action Founder and
Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is scheduled to be a guest on Fox News
Channel's <em>Hannity & Colmes</em> this evening. Dobson will talk about
how the provision would tie him up in miles of red tape whenever he tells
people about legislation before Congress.</p>
<p>If you have not done so already, we
encourage you to send faxes to your senators via the <em>CitizenLink</em>
Action Center. The message is prewritten and the service is free. Just click on
the blue "Fax Your Senators" button on the right side of this e-mail
to be automatically logged in to the Action Center.</p>
<p>Then sign the petition at
<a target="blank"
href="http://www.focuspetitions.com";>www.focuspetitions.com</a>
. Please share that link with your likeminded
friends.</p>
<p><em>(Paid for by Focus on the Family
Action)</em></p>
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<td valign="top" align="right" width="258"
background="http://www.citizenlink.org/images/email/topstorytabbg.gif";><font
face="Arial" color="#09529e" size="2"><strong>January 12,
2007</strong></font></td>
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<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000003620.cfm";><font
face="Arial" size="+1"><strong>Liberal Groups Fuel the National Council of
Churches</strong></font></a>
<br />
<font face="Arial"
size="2"><!--__CMSDataBegin-->
<p><em>A study of funding reveals politics, not
theology, is the driving force behind the group.</em> </p>
<div class="text">
<p><img alt="" align="left" border="0"
src="http://www.citizenlink.org/images/07/ncclogo.gif"; />The financially
troubled National Council of Churches (NCC) has sold its biblical roots for
money from secular foundations bent on using it to forward a liberal agenda,
according to a report by The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).</p>
<p>John Lomperis and Alan Wisdom, the report's
authors, said for decades the NCC was supported by member denominations -- but
not anymore.</p>
<p>"What was founded as a body comprised
of churches seeking to come together in Christian unity," Wisdom said,
"has become a political-action committee that’s not a creature of
the churches anymore."</p>
<p>The NCC was founded in 1950 and claims more
than 50 "faith groups" are members, including the Episcopal Church
USA, The United Methodist Church, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),
the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church USA.</p>
<p>The report "Strange Yokefellows: The
National Council of Churches and Its Growing Non-Church Constituency"
details how NCC support from those denominations declined in the last
decade.</p>
</div>
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<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003619.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>Students to Celebrate<br />
Religious Freedom Tuesday</strong></font></a>
<br />
<font face="Arial" color="#000000"
size="2">Presidential proclamation supports students' right to worship and talk
openly about faith.</font> </p>
<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003617.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>Clinton, Carter Support Liberal<br />
Baptist Group</strong></font></a>
<br />
<font face="Arial" color="#000000"
size="2">Former chief executives side with renegade Southern Baptists for
liberal activism.</font> </p>
<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003618.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>Census Reports More Parents Setting TV
Limits</strong></font></a>
<br />
<font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2">If
networks aren't willing to crack down on television content, it appears that
parents are.</font> </p>
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<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003616.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>FBI Porn Sweep Under Way</strong></font></a>
</p>
<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003615.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>African Anglicans Snub Pro-Gay
Bishop</strong></font></a>
</p>
<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003614.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>Mohler Released from
Hospital</strong></font></a>
</p>
<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003613.cfm";><font face="Arial"
color="#000000" size="2"><strong>Barbara Boxer's 'Low Blow'</strong></font></a>
</p>
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<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.citizenlink.org/clcommentary/A000003612.cfm";><font
face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"><strong>Still Looking for that Silver
Bullet</strong></font></a>
<br />
<img alt="" hspace="3" align="left" vspace="3"
border="0" src="http://www.citizenlink.org/images/07/xxxdomain.gif"; /> <font
face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2">Your comments are needed to oppose a
dot-XXX domain on the Internet.</font> </p>
<p>
<a class="slink" target="resource window"
href="http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/family_news_in_focus/";><img alt=""
align="left" border="0"
src="http://www.citizenlink.org/images/06/fnifsmall.jpg"; /></a>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><font face="Arial" color="#000000"
size="2"> Listen online to the day's top radio news stories, hosted
by Bob Ditmer.</font> </p>
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CITIZENLINK DAILY UPDATE
Jan. 12, 2007
===========================
To access Web links, simply copy and paste
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computer. Then open it in any word processor.
===========================
----------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE
----------------------------------------------
Senators Hearing the Grassroots Loud and Clear
Opposition to a provision in S. 1 that would hinder the free speech of
grassroots lobbying groups, such as Focus on the Family Action, has resulted in
a tidal wave of faxes, phone calls and petition signatures from voters.
More than 25,000 faxes have been sent to Senate offices through the CitizenLink
Action Center. About 65,000 people have signed a petition asking for the
objectionable Section 220 to be struck. And insiders on Capitol Hill have
described the number of phone calls as a "deluge" and a "flood."
Focus on the Family Action Founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is
scheduled to be a guest on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes this evening.
Dobson will talk about how the provision would tie him up in miles of red tape
whenever he tells people about legislation before Congress.
If you have not done so already, we encourage you to send faxes to your
senators via the CitizenLink Action Center. The message is prewritten and the
service is free. Just click on the blue "Fax Your Senators" button on the right
side of this e-mail to be automatically logged in to the Action Center.
Then sign the petition at http://www.focuspetitions.com. Please share that link
with your likeminded friends.
(Paid for by Focus on the Family Action)
----------------------------------------------
TOP STORY
----------------------------------------------
Liberal Groups Fuel the National Council of Churches
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
A study of funding reveals politics, not theology, is the driving force behind
the group.
The financially troubled National Council of Churches (NCC) has sold its
biblical roots for money from secular foundations bent on using it to forward a
liberal agenda, according to a report by The Institute on Religion and
Democracy (IRD).
John Lomperis and Alan Wisdom, the report's authors, said for decades the NCC
was supported by member denominations -- but not anymore.
"What was founded as a body comprised of churches seeking to come together in
Christian unity," Wisdom said, "has become a political-action committee that?s
not a creature of the churches anymore."
The NCC was founded in 1950 and claims more than 50 "faith groups" are members,
including the Episcopal Church USA, The United Methodist Church, The Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian
Church USA.
The report "Strange Yokefellows: The National Council of Churches and Its
Growing Non-Church Constituency" details how NCC support from those
denominations declined in the last decade.
"What?s happened now," Wisdom said, "is that those churches -- and particularly
the liberal elites in those churches -- have become so weakened that they can
no longer bear the financial load of the NCC."
Then Bob Edgar came on board in 2000 as the NCC's general secretary.
"In 2003, he proclaimed that his salvage work had been successful and that the
NCC was on a firm financial footing," Wisdom said. "Gradually, we were able to
get our hands on some documents that were distributed at NCC meetings that
showed how the council was being saved."
The Washington Post reported that Edgar shook the hands of the report's authors
at the announcement.
"I was brought in to do three things: raise money, raise money and raise
money," he said. "Thank you for highlighting that secular as well as religious
organizations now recognize the importance of the National Council of Churches."
The trail led to millions of dollars in grants from left-leaning organizations
such as the Sierra Club, the Tides Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
-- organizations bent on promoting abortion, same-sex marriage and other
liberal issues.
Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow at Concerned Women for America's Beverly
LaHaye Institute, offered a strong warning.
"When you cloak all of those cultural concerns and left-wing agenda items with
the cloak of religion and with the mainstream churches, then you are giving
them a stamp of approval that they should not have," she said. "Most of the
religious left is arguing for positions that are not based in the scripture."
Crouse said while the NCC purports to speak for mainstream American
denominations, it obviously does not.
"Because their funding comes from far-left foundations and these foundations
are only interested in the political positions of the groups that they
sponsor," she said. "So it's very clear that, rather than representing
Christian causes, they are now representing cultural causes and are far more
interested in the kinds of things that happen in the culture and in the secular
world than they are within the church."
"Follow the money" may be an old cliché, she said, but it holds true.
"When you start following the money," Crouse said, "you discover that the
foundations that are supporting the National Council of Churches are more
interested in a secular agenda than they are in Christian faith."
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To obtain a copy of the Institute for Religion and Democracy report visit its
Web site.
http://www.ird-renew.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=278604
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for
informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement
of the sites' content.)
----------------------------------------------
NEWS
----------------------------------------------
Students to Celebrate Religious Freedom Tuesday
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Presidential proclamation supports students' right to worship and talk openly
about faith.
President Bush declared Tuesday Religious Freedom Day -- a celebration of the
liberties that come with citizenship.
"On Religious Freedom Day, we commemorate the passage of the 1786 Virginia
Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson," Bush said. "We
celebrate the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom."
Eric Buehrer, president of Gateways to Better Education (GTBE), said Americans
are blessed with tremendous freedom to express their faith.
"In light of this blessing," he said, "it is the duty of every church to inform
the children and youth in its care about the freedom they have to express their
faith at school."
Buehrer wants every Sunday school class and youth group to have a copy of the
presidential proclamation, along with a copy of GTBE's handout Free to Speak.
"Give students five extra copies of Free to Speak and tell them to give them to
five other Christian friends they know on campus," he said.
Parents, teachers and school administrators can also have a tremendous impact,
Buehrer said. After Bernadette Gruber's first-grade son was told he couldn't
talk about God, she used GTBE material to educate the entire district.
?Last year my son's first grade class was doing a Martin Luther King, Jr.
activity," she related. "The teacher went around the room and asked each
student what their dream was and then wrote it on the board. When it came to my
son, he said his dream was 'that people would know God.' The teacher said,
'Let's not talk about God,' and made him change his dream."
Gruber went to school officials and pressed them to become familiar with
student rights. The assistant superintendent gave a presentation to all staff
about religious freedom that ultimately benefited more than 10,000 Tucson,
Ariz., students.
Patty Lingenfelter heard about Religious Freedom Day through her Moms In Touch
International group.
"I was surprised when Eric (Buehrer) shared how California Curriculum Standards
and the educational code expect children to be taught about the Judeo-Christian
faith and its integral role in the founding of our country," she said. "We
simply aren?t aware of our freedoms; and those of which we are aware, we often
take for granted."
Many educators, Lingenfelter found, were also unaware of these standards and
feared being politically incorrect.
"I took it to moms who were praying with me weekly," she said.
Then Lingenfelter took action. She passed out materials from GTBE to family,
friends, church members and officials of the Hesperia Unified School District
(HUSD) in California.
"I sent a letter informing her (assistant superintendent) on the history of
Religious Freedom Day, the presidential proclamations, and requesting that HUSD
join the president in acknowledging the day, thereby enhancing students' civic
education," she said. "Our request was granted!"
The district will be distributing information about Religious Freedom Day to
principals along with the presidential proclamations and ideas for educators
from the Religious Freedom Day Web site.
"I hope this will encourage other schools, churches and parents to learn more
about our religious freedoms," Lingenfelter said, "resulting in more courage to
exercise them."
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
You can learn more about religious liberty at school on the Gateways to Better
Education Web site.
http://www.gtbe.org/news/index.php/1/65.html
Find Free to Speak at the Religious Freedom Day Web site.
http://www.religiousfreedomday.com/
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for
informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement
of the sites' content.)
----------------------------------------------
Census Reports More Parents Setting TV Limits
from staff reports
If networks aren't willing to crack down on television content, it appears that
parents are.
The U.S. Census Bureau says parents are increasingly monitoring who and what
comes into their home through TV.
It found 67 percent of moms and dads with 3-to-5-year-old kids have TV
restrictions in place -- a 13-percent increase from 1994.
The statistics come as no surprise to Kelly Sargent, who keeps a very close eye
on the media input her children get.
"We just want to keep them children as long as we can and have that innocence
as long as we can," she told Family News in Focus. "That?s really important to
us.?
Gavin McKiernan, a spokesman for the Parents Television Council, said it is
encouraging that there is a growing majority of parents who monitor viewing
habits.
"Unfortunately, a lot of families use the TV as babysitters or don?t pay much
attention," he said.
Parent monitoring is especially important, McKiernan said, because you can't
always trust the V-chip ratings assigned to programs.
"TV stations and the programmers set their own ratings," he said. "Basically,
the fox guards the henhouse."
Dr. George Wiedmaier, director of adult outreach at Focus on the Family, said
there are three categories to tracking TV viewing.
"What TV programs they watch, when they watch them and how long they watch
them," he said.
Wiedmaier said parents need to instill proper values, so children can make good
choices as they get older.
-------------------------------------------
Clinton, Carter Support Liberal Baptist Group
from staff reports
Former chief executives side with renegade Southern Baptists for liberal
activism.
Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are lending support to next
year?s gathering of the self-proclaimed Moderate Baptists. Their aim, they say,
is to improve the image of Baptists and to broaden the agenda of Baptist
churches.
At a recent gathering at Atlanta's Mercer University, Clinton and Carter told
the group to seek unity on issues like religious diversity, ecology and racism.
But Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, told Family News in Focus it's important to keep in mind
the former presidents' audience was comprised of the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship.
"The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a group of disaffected former Southern
Baptists," Moore said. "They have no confessional statement. They?re really
united around what they don?t believe and what they don?t believe is
essentially everything the Southern Baptist Convention does believe."
He said it's nothing new for left-leaning Baptists to have Carter?s endorsement
-- he left the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. But he said it is news for
them to have Bill Clinton's voice.
"I cannot believe that a group of self-professing Baptists would welcome as a
participant in a convocation a man who vetoed legislation protecting unborn
children from partial-birth abortion," Moore said.
Will Hall, a spokesman for the SBC, warned that we need to watch carefully when
former Democratic presidents ask moderate Baptists to unify in an election year.
"I suspect because of the timing of it, in 2008, that it has more of a
political ring to it than an evangelical ring to it," Hall said. "To me, it?s
not a new voice; it's just rehashing a tired, old saw."
----------------------------------------------
IN BRIEF
----------------------------------------------
FBI Porn Sweep Under Way
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently stepped up raids of porn
studios in Southern California's San Fernando Valley, an area of suburban Los
Angeles considered to be the pornography capital of the world, the Los Angeles
Times reported.
Saying it wants to ensure children are not being sexually exploited, the FBI
sent agents to more than a dozen porn-production facilities in Van Nuys and
Chatsworth, Calif., in the last three months to check on the ages of people who
appear in porn videos.
In 2005, the federal government began requiring pornographers to obtain two
forms of identification from performers in sexually explicit productions -- and
to keep copies of their ID on file indefinitely. Those records must be referred
to on video labels. Violations are felonies.
The Justice Department has only prosecuted one company -- Girls Gone Wild --
under the new law. In September, the company pleaded guilty to 10 counts, and
its founder -- Joe Francis -- pleaded guilty to two felonies.
---------------------------------------------
African Anglicans Snub Pro-Gay Bishop
Leading African bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion say they will not
meet with their counterpart from the American Episcopal Church during a global
church summit set to get under way next month in the African nation of
Tanzania, according to Reuters.
U.S. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the head of the American branch of the
church, is a prominent backer of same-sex marriage and the consecration of
homosexual V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
One of the African church leaders, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, has gone
so far as to form a pact with congregations in the U.S. wanting to split from
the Episcopal Church over the issue.
----------------------------------------------
Mohler Released from Hospital
Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
and member of the Focus on the Family Board of Trustees, was released Wednesday
from a Louisville, Ky., hospital after a two-week stay.
Following extensive abdominal surgery, Mohler spent four days in serious
condition in the intensive care unit battling post-operative blood clots in the
lungs, according to his blog, http://www.AlbertMohler.com
Mohler's family members said they are "deeply grateful for the many prayers
offered and expressions of concern shown" over the past couple of weeks -- and
look forward to the distinguished scholar eventually resuming his duties.
--------------------------------------------
Barbara Boxer's 'Low Blow'
In an editorial in today's edition, The New York Post called U.S. Sen. Barbara
Boxer, D-Calif., "an appalling scold from California."
Why?
During Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's appearance before the Senate this
week to defend the president's change in tactics in Iraq, Boxer quizzed Rice in
a demeaning way.
Boxer asked Rice who will "pay the price" for the president's proposed increase
in troops:
"I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild
is too young." Then, directed to Rice, who is neither married nor has children,
Boxer said: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it,
with an immediate family."
The Post's editorial assessment was strong: "The junior senator from California
apparently believes that an accomplished, seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar
and an adviser to two presidents like Condoleezza Rice is not fully qualified
to make policy at the highest levels of the American government because she is
a single childless woman."
The editors concluded by saying: ". . . (E)ven to suggest that (Rice) is not
fit to serve her country because she is childless is beyond bizarre. It is
perverse. Sen. Boxer needs to apologize. And she needs to do it today."
----------------------------------------------
ALSO OF NOTE
----------------------------------------------
Still Looking for that Silver Bullet
by Daniel Weiss
Your comments are needed to oppose a dot-XXX domain on the Internet.
Horror stories seem to share a common premise: An unholy monster terrorizes
some ordinary folks and they try to kill it. Of course, the monster never dies
by conventional means. Instead, one needs some special magic -- a wooden stake
through the heart or a silver bullet -- to completely and finally put an end to
the foul beast.
It appears that the idea of a XXX top-level domain has this same unholy ability
to survive. Having already been killed several times over, ICM Registry, Inc.,
and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have
resurrected plans to add a dot-XXX domain alongside dot-com, dot-edu and all
the others.
In this latest proposal, ICM claims it has addressed the problems of the
earlier agreement. In fact, what changed was the amount of oversight required
by ICANN to ensure ICM actually complies with the stipulations of its proposal.
I wonder how many other top-level domains need such stringent supervision.
The concerns of pro-family groups continue to be completely ignored in the
revised proposal. Briefly, those concerns are:
? Dot-XXX will create an entirely new pornographic realm on the Internet.
Proliferating pornography will not protect children from pornography. It will
only increase the risk of exposure. Even if some families use filters to block
XXX sites, children in families who don't will be at greater risk of exposure
than before. A key point to remember is that pornographers will not be required
to abandon their dot-com Web sites.
? Creating a dot-XXX domain would confer legitimacy to an industry that
regularly scoffs at the law. It?s like creating a free-market zone for drug
dealers or prostitutes to operate more effectively.
? There are state and federal laws already in place prohibiting the sale
or distribution of hardcore pornography, but many Internet sites currently
violate those laws. Are we to believe they will adhere to the regulations of a
dot-XXX domain, especially since these regulations will not have the force of
law behind them?
? Moving pornographic content to a dot-XXX domain might hamper
enforcement efforts. The problem will be seen as settled, and we could see a
further reduction in federal and local enforcement efforts.
ICM President Stuart Lawley told Computer Business Review that his company
hopes to register half a million sites, generating about $30 million annually.
You've heard the saying about herding cats? Try ensuring 500,000 porn sites
aren't breaking your rules. Lawley told Family News in Focus that he plans to
hire third-party contractors to make sure all sites correctly employ adult
content ratings (in the form of meta tags) but will rely on the complaint
process to identify sites peddling child pornography.
In other words, the porn viewers themselves will police the new domain.
To be fair, some of the regulations proposed by ICM could protect children. If
all pornographic sites accurately rated their material, filters would perform
significantly better. If online pornographers stopped uploading viruses and
other malicious programs, all Internet users would benefit. Putting an end to
fraudulent billing and e-mail spamming would save the business community
hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Apart from the content ratings, most of the items on that list already violate
U.S. law. So, what does the dot-XXX domain provide that we don't already have?
According to Lawley, there will be "a nonprofit foundation that will include
all stakeholders including child-protection advocates, free-speech advocates
and members of the adult-entertainment community that will receive $10 per
domain per year."
With half a million Web sites in the pool, the foundation would receive $5
million per year. One needn't wonder what pornographers and the ACLU will do
with this money. Lawley told Family News in Focus that "a lot of that money
will be spent on parental awareness ? [and] child education in the classroom on
a national basis to make sure the people know what triple X is and, if they
choose to, how to deploy filters and how to make those filters more successful."
Let me get this straight: We're going to protect children by "making sure they
know what triple X is"?
Lawley also assures us that a dot-XXX domain "allows the responsible members of
the adult-entertainment community to identify themselves as such and ?go about
their business without fear of persecution."
That persecution, presumably, is the pressure from pro-family groups to enforce
federal obscenity laws. Fear that the porn industry would finally be free from
prosecution is precisely why the common folks from this nation and around the
world have fought so tirelessly to kill the dot-XXX beast.
TAKE ACTION:
The silver bullet in this case may well be you expressing your opinion. ICANN
has requested and is posting public comments concerning the creation of a
dot-XXX top-level domain. Your input can influence whether ICANN moves forward
with the idea.
Send your e-mail to xxx-icm-agreement@xxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------
Family News in Focus
----------------------------------------------
QUOTEWORTHY
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"God has made us strong and faith has made and kept us free."
--Dwight David Eisenhower, Oct. 24, 1954
CE07ACZL
=======================================================
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