And, more importantly, can you sing it the “right” way — the way one Indiana lawmaker thinks the national anthem should be sung?

Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, has introduced a bill that would set specific “performance standards” for singing and playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at any event sponsored by public schools and state universities.

Read the whole story at Indianapolis Star

The first five questions below (in Part 1) lean more toward who the candidate is rather than what he or she can do. The last five questions (in Part 2) lean more toward what they must be able to do rather than who they are.

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Based upon the characters and track records of the GOP candidates:

10) Who is most committed to follow and lead by the U.S. Constitution?

I’m not talking about someone with merely a verbal commitment to the Constitution, but one who actively quotes and supports it. It’s one thing to take the presidential oath of office, but who has the strongest track record of citing and standing by the Constitution?

James Madison, America’s fourth president and one regarded as the “Father of the Constitution,” explained: “The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.”

Strictly following the Constitution includes restoring a Tenth Amendment balance of power to our states and shifting solutions away from an “only government” savior (to which Obama committed early in his presidency) to encouraging local communities, agencies and even neighborhoods across our nation to rally together, strategize and resurrect the Golden Rule in caring for their own, just as it was done in America’s heydays.

9) Who has the greatest leadership ability to rally, unify and mobilize citizens across political and societal spectrums?

Everything rises or falls on leadership. It’s true for a family, company or nation, and I believe it is a particularly quintessential ingredient in our next president because of the increasing political and social divisions (including class warfare) across our land and around our world.

I believe our country was duped to interpret our current president’s charisma as reflecting leadership abilities. Pitting political parties and polarizing social classes against one another isn’t leadership.

In November 2008, I warned of this leadership crisis and peril if Obama was elected in an column I wrote titled, “A personality profile of Obama’s leadership,” based upon a professional personality profile conducted by a Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, which concluded Obama was a conciliating people pleaser.

As I wrote then, “It’s one thing to be political, but it’s quite another to be a chronic people pleaser under pressure. Swaying [others] based on political expediency is not a leadership quality we need in tough times. Sooner or later, that character flaw will bite Obama big-time – and us, too, if we elect him president.”

I believe America’s woes have been exacerbated by Obama’s inexperience and lack of executive leadership, and our country and world are suffering for it.

More than ever, we need a new president who has a proven track record to rally a team of Washington rivals as well as a diversified American public and world. As I’ve written extensively in a previous column, I firmly believe that the candidate who extends a public invitation to all his GOP rivals to be a part of the same administration could start a chain reaction leading to their nomination and election?

8) Who has the best working comprehension of America?

John Adams, America’s second president, said, “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”

I believe a mastery of American history and politics is a must for any president, for it is a record of how others have led the country since its founding. To the degree to which one comprehends America’s ebbs and flows parallels one’s proficiency to lead. As the adage goes, if one doesn’t know history, he or she is doomed to repeat its mistakes.

Again, Thomas Jefferson offered a wise word here: “History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.”

Nothing could be more essential for this next president than a working knowledge of the past. The same is true for his or her knowledge of other nations, as it will reflect upon how they move America’s chess pieces on a global scale.

7) Who has the best ability to influence a volatile world away from its brink of destruction?

These are dangerous times. Mexican cartels are clashing at our borders. Global terrorists have taken their jihad to the borderless Internet. China has become the new global super power. European and global markets are bouncing up and down. Arab springs have sprung unrest across the Middle East. Syria is in utter turmoil. Countries like Egypt, Libya and now North Korea have unclear futures. Iran is determined to add nuclear energy among its arsenal, heightening its strained relations with the West. America is still in a war with extremists in Afghanistan. We’re also in a new warless battle to quell violent uprisings back in Iraq, etc.

Now is not the time for political novices, wimps or sheepish patriots in the Oval Office. More than ever, we need a profoundly wise Thomas Jefferson, who moved along a flailing new republic while maneuvering a war with Tripoli, or a Ronald Reagan, who was savvy and tough enough to build up the economy while toppling the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall.

6) Who has clear and present moral fortitude?

Samuel Adams was correct when he wrote in his essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749, “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

For our founders, moral fortitude was dependent upon the liberties of religion, not the laws of men. For example, John Adams, our second president, explained: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Benjamin Franklin put it this way: “That wise men have in all ages thought government necessary for the good of mankind; and, that wise governments have always thought religion necessary for the well ordering and well-being of society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the ministers of it, paying them the highest public honours, that their doctrines might thereby meet with the greater respect among the common people.”

Temptations are abundant when power is combined with position, and none is greater than the presidency. That is why it is mandatory that the next occupant of the White House demonstrate a life mastery over themself and the wiles of evil and corruption.

That doesn’t mean the next president is perfect, but definitely a moral model, including the ability to admit faults and learn from mistakes.

I believe what George Washington said: “[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man.” But I also believe what Washington also said: “We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.”

While character is preeminent to leadership, we must never penalize one’s past from progressing forward into a forgiven and fruitful future; lest we forget that some of the greatest national leaders in human history, like King David of Israel, committed heinous acts of immorality.

The dilemma for many in this race for the GOP nomination is discerning whether to choose the unblemished and relatively inexperienced youthful shepherd in the field or the veteran of war who battled Goliath long ago but slung mud on his face when doing so.

(Next week in Part 2, I will discuss the remaining five questions, including the critical economic ones, which address vital actions of the best candidate. Until then, for further study of where each GOP candidate stands on these and other critical issues, check out the Family Resource Council’s Voter Guide and this “Know the Candidate” chart.)

WND’s Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein was the first reporter to predict the “spontaneous” movement known as Occupy Wall Street and expose its well-orchestrated efforts to destroy capitalism.

WND was the first news agency to unmask the Saul Alinsky-style radicals whose organizational tactics date back to the 1960s and who comprise a major part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Klein’s reporting documents how the Occupy Wall Street movement is well-planned by seasoned extremists and not the spontaneous uprising it claims to be, while alleging the radicals behind the movement maintain White House connections.

WND reveals how the movement is orchestrated at the highest levels of American power – with the goal of expediting a coup that has been under way, in earnest, since Obama took the oath of office.

Klein and researcher Brenda J. Elliott also co-authored the book “Red Army: The Radical Network That Must Be Defeated To Save America” in response to the movement. With nearly 2,000 endnotes, the book is billed as a monumental expose of the U.S. progressive establishment and is one of the most extensive investigations into the American radical left ever to be published.

Among WND’s many other “Occupy” exclusives:

‘Day of Rage’: Union protesters to ‘occupy’ Wall Street

Is revolution hitting U.S. streets tomorrow?

Protesters begin ‘Day of Rage’ against capitalism

Who’s really behind Wall Street protests?

Wall Street protesters accuse feds, biz of infecting food supply

Meet the Obama link to Wall Street terror

It’s another Soros link to Occupy Wall Street

Is Barack Obama eligible to be president?

WND has been reporting since before the 2008 election on questions – and lawsuits – raised over Obama’s birth and eligibility.

Among the highlights of WND’s exclusive 2011 reporting on Obama’s eligibility:

WND broke the news that Sheriff Arpaio was going to investigate the Obama birth certificate and eligibility controversies.

The former Hawaii elections official who maintains there’s no long-form birth certificate for Barack Obama in the Aloha State is now saying the president and his aides have been “caught fibbing” about Obama’s background, and the “embarrassing” situation is making it difficult to fess up to the truth.

Are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal natural-born citizens of the United States, and thus eligible for the presidency? It’s a simple question, but the answer may not be so easy, and in fact, may be no.
 
Obama’s Social Security Number does not pass E-Verify.

WND published a long list of articles reporting on various experts concluding the long-form birth certificate released by the White House on April 27 was a forgery.

A series of articles by WND exposed the radical Obama supporters — known as “Obots,” for Obama-robots — who have forged birth certificates and conducted a disinformation campaign designed to protect Obama from serious birth certificate and eligibility inquiry.

WND documented proof that instead of an authentic short-form birth certificate or COLB posted by the White House on the White House website on April 27, 2011, the White House posted a forged document that research expert Ron Polland had created to demonstrate how a forged COLB could be created.

An analysis of the registrar stamp proved the Obama long-form birth certificate is a forgery.

Released Immigration and Naturalization Service documents prove Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham’s marriage was a sham.

Other exclusive WND reports in 2011:

The Isaiah 9:10 prophecy: Is U.S. under God’s judgment?

Christian church teams up with high priestess of Isis

Mormon bishop’s daughter spills Romney’s ‘secrets

Man ordered to surrender guns – just for blogging!

Secret U.S. experiments to prompt 2nd Coming?

It’s Jesus, Mary … and Josephine?

‘Nazi’ police ‘kidnap’ woman at town hall

Finally! American companies that don’t promote ‘gayness’

Christian author: Glenn Beck actually New Age ‘anti-Christ’

Are you eating food sacrificed to idols?

Military praises ‘fantastic’ new post-traumatic stress therapy

President’s newest scandal becomes laughing matter

How 1 single prayer launched radio miracle

Are kids in Christian classes coming out less Christian?

‘Gay’ hate vandalizes church, threatens even more violence

Jesus’ name ruled ‘unconstitutional’

Since 2006, the cartels have maintained an encrypted DIY radio network that stretches across nearly all 31 Mexican states, even down south into Guatemala. The communications infrastructure of the narco-gangs that have turned Mexico into a gangster’s paradise consists of “professional-grade” radio antennas, signal relays and simple handheld radios that cost “millions of dollars” – and which the Mexican authorities haven’t been able to shut down.

Read the whole story at Wired.

Read the whole story at ABC News.

The lamps (CFLs) use electricity to heat an element in the lamp’s base that leads the mercury vapor gas in the coils to emit light.

But when a CFL can no longer produce light, the electronics in its base will still try to function, sometimes leading to overheating, smoke and fire.

Read the whole story at London Daily Mail

Saudi Arabian security forces have arrested and detained 35 members of an Ethiopian Christian prayer group in the western city of Jeddah, according to ministries that monitor religious persecution in the restricted Islamic nation.

International Christian Concern says their sources tell them the Ethiopian immigrants were beaten and threatened by Saudi security forces before being taken into custody.

The present location of the Ethiopian Christians is unknown.

ICC Middle East analyst Jonathan Racho said the treatment of the Ethiopian Christians is ironic, because Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, sent his followers to Ethiopia for refuge when they were persecuted by pagans in Saudi Arabia in the seventh century. 

“He said, ‘Go to Ethiopia. There is a Christian king in Ethiopia who will give you refuge,” Racho said.
“So Islam survived because of the hospitality of the Christians in Ethiopia.
Now look what they’re doing to Christians who are going to Saudi
Arabia.”

Racho reported that the 35 Christians assembled Dec. 15 for their regular Thursday night worship service.

“As they were gathered, the Saudi officials came in and arrested them. And, they’ve been imprisoned. It’s very outrageous,” he said.

Saudi Arabia forbids any religious expression except for Islam, and the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam is the only officially recognized religion.

“Christians in that country are immigrants from other countries who are forced to worship in their homes. That’s what they were doing when they were arrested,” Racho explained.

Listen to an interview with Racho:

Writing about the incident, a commentator at Jihad Watch said the Saudis’ show of brute force reveals weakness.

“Behavior like this from the Saudis does not create the image of a strong, confident faith. Their paranoia conveys a sense of fragility and fear. Even by ‘winning,’ by trying to show who’s boss, they lose,” the commentator said.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations generally go unreported. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2009 that a delegation from Human Rights Watch traveled to Saudi Arabia, not to condemn the regime’s treatment of religious minorities and women, but to raise money from the Saudi royal family.

As WND reported in January, an Open Doors report included Saudi Arabia as one of the world’s chief violators of religious liberty.

The report said the top offenders were Iran, which clamps down on a growing house church movement; Afghanistan, where thousands of believers cluster deep underground; and Saudi Arabia, which bans conversion from Islam.

Even with the documented religious persecution by the Saudi regime, the United States continues to import an average of 1,100 barrels of oil daily from Saudi Arabia.

The State Department did not respond to WND’s request for comment.

WASHINGTON – A messianic rabbi from New Jersey is stunning audiences nationwide by revealing the striking parallels between the fall of ancient Israel and what he suggests are God’s early judgments of America.

Jonathan Cahn of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne, N.J., says an otherwise obscure passage in the Book of Isaiah is since Sept. 11, 2001, being uncannily re-enacted in the U.S. just the way it originally played out in the time of the great prophet of Israel leading to the nation’s captivity and dispersions.

In a new book, “The Harbinger,” Cahn reveals what he calls “an ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future and the collapse of the global economy.”

Read “The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future” for yourself!

“Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning,” he says. “The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy.”

The key to decoding the harbingers, he says, is found in understanding the seemingly innocuous words of Isaiah 9:10 (King James Version), what it meant to Israel and how the history seems to be repeating itself in America today.

“The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”

These words were first uttered by leaders in Israel and in response to a limited strike by Assyria on the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali – an attack the prophet makes clear is actually part of a limited judgment by God against apostasy. It wasn’t meant to destroy the nation, but to awaken it, according to most commentaries.

But, says Cahn, Israel didn’t take the cue. Instead, the response from the people in Isaiah 9:10 is one of defiance. The brick buildings were toppled, but they vowed to build bigger and better. The little sycamore trees may have been uprooted, but they vowed to plant bigger and better cedars in their place.

God, speaking through Isaiah, explains what will happen as a result of their pride and arrogance and failure to heed the harbinger: Bigger and more potent attacks will follow. Because neither the northern kingdom of Israel nor the southern kingdom of Judah truly repents, the first is eventually swept away by Assyrian invaders and the latter is carried off into captivity by the Babylonians for 70 years.

But what does this have to do with the United States of America – particularly what the U.S. experienced on 9/11 and since? Cahn has found some eerie parallels.

“In the aftermath of the attack, the nation was stunned,” said Cahn, “Everyone was trying to make sense of what had happened – this unprecedented attack on America. The very next day, September 12, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle presented America’s response to the world. And what did he say?”

Daschle said: “America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from all adversity – united and strong. Nothing … nothing can replace the losses of those who have suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this.”

He then went on to read Isaiah 9:10:

“Daschle has no idea what he is doing here,” explains Cahn. “He thinks he’s offering comforting words to a grief-stricken people, but he is actually embracing the spiritually defiant and arrogant words of the children of Israel, proclaiming the ancient and ominous vow of the leaders of that nation. He doesn’t realize it, but he is actually inviting more judgment on the nation.”

It might be of some significance that Daschle, one of the most powerful men in the nation when he spoke those words, later fell into disgrace – to the point where he couldn’t even serve in Barack Obama’s Cabinet.

That might have been the end of the story – if no other top leader in the nation uttered those strange and obscure words after 9/11. But that’s not the case.

On the third anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another powerful U.S. senator running for vice president that year and who would famously run for the presidency four years later, gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.

This time, John Edwards’ entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah 9:10: “Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s Word to get us through,” he said. He then read Isaiah 9:10. He went on to talk about how America was doing just that – rebuilding with hewn stone and planting cedars:

“Like Daschle, Edwards thinks he’s invoking inspirational and comforting words from the Bible, but he’s actually inviting judgment on America,” says Cahn. “He’s repeating the vow that provoked God to bring calamity on ancient Israel.”

Daschle and Edwards were hardly alone among U.S. leaders in making similar statements, as Cahn’s “The Harbinger” reveals.

But aside from such statements, which could be chalked up to political talk and coincidences, is there anything else linking Isaiah 9:10 to 9/11?

The book is full of shocking parallels. There was actually a very famous sycamore tree felled in the attack on the World Trade Center. It was replaced by trees in the same genus as the cedar. There have been many plans made to rebuild the twin towers bigger and better and a large “hewn stone” was actually quarried out of the Adirondack Mountains in New York and brought to Ground Zero as a cornerstone.

“The parallels are truly stunning,” says Joseph Farah, founder of WND, who is producing a video documentary about Cahn’s findings. “They are too numerous and too powerful to relate in news story form. In fact, they are overwhelming in their number and their exactitude. I am persuaded God is trying to tell America something and Rabbi Cahn has found the key to unlocking the message.”

Farah says events continue to unfold that seem to link directly to the message of Isaiah 9:10 right here in the United States.

Get Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s “The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future.”

One of today’s most divisive and emotional issues, the abortion pill is the focus of a popular online drama “Red Elephants Café” – a topic made all the more urgent by the Food and Drug Administration’s recent attempts to make the “morning-after” abortion pill available to girls of any age – over the counter and without a prescription.

The “Red Elephants Café” story line revolves around liberal city manager Vel and her relationship with Britney Miller, her 16-year-old niece. Because Vel is “liberated” and Britney’s parents are not, Britney turns to Vel for advice about her unplanned pregnancy.

 In the latest episode, Britney, in desperation, has gone to Planned Parenthood and been referred to an abortion doctor who instructed her to take the RU-486 abortion pill.

Now home in bed, bleeding, vomiting and in pain, Britney tells Vel that she’s supposed to go back to the doctor the next day for a follow-up abortion pill to complete the process. But, sobbing, she tells Vel, “I can’t do this.”

To which Vel replies, worriedly: “Britney, I don’t think this is reversible.”

New episodes of “Red Elephants Café” are posted on WND on Tuesdays.

This week’s episode is here:

Previous episodes:

Webisode 4: Twilight zoning: More government, fewer jobs

Webisode 3: New business and running for office

Webisode 2: Aunt Vel and the hidden price of promiscuity

Webisode 1: Vanishing Credit

Trailer introducing Red Elephants Café

Podcast is 1:16:58.