At a time in our nation’s history when our religious values are under assault, we at Amato For Liberty would like to wish our readers a joyful celebration of the season with your family and loved ones.

ADVERTISEMENT

For those of us who believe in liberty, we won a victory this week when a Massachusetts elementary school reversed it’s decision to replace “God bless the USA” with “we love the USA” in the popular Lee Greenwood song that was planned for an upcoming school concert.

As reported by The Washington Times, the school district’s Superintendent acknowledged in a statement that “political correctness” was the motivation behind a proposed change, but the school ultimately decided against booting “God” from the song.  He went on to say,

“Students will be allowed to sing or not sing ‘God Bless the USA.’ … No other words will be substituted,” he said. “We believe the use of the word ‘God’ is acceptable in patriotic songs. The district has no intent to censor any patriotic songs. We are certainly sorry if this approach was perhaps considered as disrespectful. That was never the intent.”

Have a happy Easter and Passover weekend everybody.

While soaring gas prices continue to hit American families in the pocketbook and President Obama makes his constant pitch that hard budget times call for ending tax breaks for American oil companies, his two top energy advisers were found enjoying tax-payer-funded junkets in Tokyo and Paris.

ADVERTISEMENT

Energy Secretary Stephan Chu— yes, the same Stephan Chu one who once called for European level gas prices of $10 per gallon in America—took in Major League Baseball’s opening day game at the Tokyo Dome, some 7,000 miles away, in a venue few average Americans could afford to visit. Chu’s outing at the ballpark occurred during his week-long taxpayer-funded visit to Asia.

He apparently was so taken with the experience that his spokesman even used Chu’s official government Twitter account to post a picture of Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki, a Japanese fan favorite, and tweeted that he had never seen that many flash-bulbs before.  Oh my.

Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Lisa Jackson, enjoyed Paris in the springtime as she took a taxpayer-funded multi-day trip to discuss urban sustainability and participate in a multi-nation discussion on global economic development.

Captured image on Stephan Chu’s government Twitter account.  The Energy Secretary’s spokesman had never seen so many flash bulbs before.

Jackson’s trip came just days after top Democrats in West Virginia accused the EPA of wrecking the future of that state’s vital coal industry with new regulations on power plants. Included in the criticism was Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, who accused the Obama administration of trying to “end the use of coal as we know it.”

Her Paris trip is a precursor to the upcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which she will be attending in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.

Whether it’s declaring that Republicans are waging a war on women while accepting $1 million in campaign contributions from Bill Maher or calling on everyday Americans to tighten their belts while top administration advisers enjoy overseas trips, it is clear that with this White House it’s do as I say not as I do.

This story was first reported by John Solomon as an exclusive for the recently launched news site, The Washington Guardian.

San Diego County District Attorney, Bonnie Dumanis, has dropped all charges against Michael Kobulnicky, the former Tea Party spokesman who was charged 10 days ago for kidnapping and forcible rape.  He will be released from jail sometime this evening.  On March 23rd, I sent you a newsletter with the then-breaking story, which you can read here.

ADVERTISEMENT

The alleged victim, still anonymous, originally told police that a man fitting Kobulnicky’s description, had offered her a ride on February 25th, and then took her to Fiesta Island and forcibly raped her.

When the victim later saw Kobulnicky’s image on television, she phoned police and told them they had arrested the wrong man.  Then, on Wednesday of this week, the victim denied that she was kidnapped and raped.

Kobulnicky’s attorney, Kerry Armstrong, will be appearing soon as my guest on The Rick Amato Show.

A Massachusetts-based pastor has become the first American citizen to be charged by a foreign group for crimes against humanity, accusing him of using speech to incite murder, torture and other civil rights violations against gays in Uganda.  This news broke last week, but in light of other recent headline stories it perhaps hasn’t received the media attention it deserves.

ADVERTISEMENT

A George Soros-funded group, The Center For Constitutional Rights (CCR), has filed a 47-page lawsuit against Pastor Scott Lively of Springfield, Massachusetts, and his Abiding Truth Ministries, accusing him of the crimes and other civil rights violations as a direct result of his pro-family and biblical speeches in Uganda.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a gay activist group in Uganda under a U.S. statute, the Alien Tort Statute, which dates back to the 1700’s, and allows for non-U.S. citizens to sue in U.S. courts, to prosecute for human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by an American while in a foreign country.

The lawsuit claims that Pastor Lively’s meetings with church leaders and public officials on pro-family issues in 2009 caused the Ugandan Parliament to introduce a harsh anti-gay law. Though the bill was never passed, they claim it led to attacks on the gay community in Uganda.

Pastor Scott Lively charged with crimes against humanity by a foreign court.

Pastor Scott Lively, who recently appeared as a guest on my radio show, flatly denies the allegations and is essentially accusing the media of conducting a campaign of misinformation.  He told me that in the 1990’s Uganda began a Christian revival movement, and he was invited to be a keynote speaker at a 1992 event.  He became known in Uganda as the father of the “Pro-Family Movement.”  Meanwhile, George Soros, according to Lively, had begun a sexual revolution there by buying media and introducing porn and a sexually liberal lifestyle to the public.

Pastor Lively claims that when the Ugandan government introduced what became known as the “Kill the Gays bill” in 2009, which was their attempt to stop the sexual revolution, he did not advocate punishment of gays, emphasizing instead on what he termed “rehabilitation.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights, whose name is itself ironic, admits that this is the first time the Alien Tort Statute has been used to punish First Amendment speech rights here for speaking in a foreign country, and they also admit that he has broken no laws in Uganda.

You can hear my AmatoTalk.com interview with Pastor Scott Lively in podcast here.

Last weekend it was reported that ex-San Diego TEA Party spokesman Michael Kobulnicky had been arrested on charges of rape, kidnapping and forcible sex with a foreign object on a 56 year old woman.  The story of his alleged actions received national media coverage, including The Huffington Post and many others.

ADVERTISEMENT

Now, in a dramatic development, criminal defense attorney Douglas Holbrook—who is not Michael Kobulnicky’s attorney—says that the victim contacted him after watching local television news coverage and says the man arrested is not the man she identified to police!

“The victim contacted me and said they arrested the wrong man,” Holbrook told me. “She said she never knew who was actually arrested until she watched the local television news and the man shown on TV is not the man she identified to police. I have relayed the information on to his attorney.  The victim did say that she has called the police but has yet to hear back.”

A Friday morning 9:30am Pacific Time press conference has been scheduled by Kobulnicky’s attorney.  Those close to the case say we can expect more new, dramatic information to come out.

Victim says Michael Kobulnicky (above) is not the man she identified to police.

Holbrook appeared as a guest on my radio show Thursday evening.  You can visit the podcast section of AmatoTalk to hear the full interview.

Michael Kobulnicky was booked into the San Diego County jail and is being held without bail.  We will continue to keep you updated.

Mitt Romney was expected to win Illinois, which he did handily, taking 47% of the vote and defeating Rick Santorum by 12 percentage points. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul drew less than 10% each.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the movie, “Ground Hog Day,” actor Bill Murray woke up in the same day every day.  Romney might well have been Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day, because the day played out as a near repeat of Iowa and Michigan.  Once again, exit polls showed that Romney won the urban vote while Santorum took the rural vote.  Once again, moderate Republicans chose Romney while conservative and evangelicals voted for Santorum.  And, once again, the economy was the #1 issue for voters, and electability was the #1 candidate issue.

What tipped the scales for Romney was that the greater Chicago area comprises 40% of the Illinois population, and he won Chicago and Cook County suburbs easily.

In the movie “Ground Hog Day” Bill Murray wakes up to the same day every day

For Mitt Romney, who will most likely lose Illinois to Barack Obama in November, the value of the Illinois win was in gaining delegates.  Romney is still less than half way to the 1,144 delegates required to win the nomination, and neither Rick Santorum nor Newt Gingrich are dropping out.  Gingrich released the following statement Tuesday evening:

“To defeat Barack Obama, Republicans can’t rely on a candidate who outspends his opponents 7-1.”

Rick Santorum‘s speech, which you can watch here gave no indication that he plans to drop out.

What can we predict from this?  John Solomon, Director Of News with Newsweek Online and President of Packard Media Group, told me Tuesday night on the radio show that Romney has been building statewide campaign organizations for eight years and, with backing from the traditional GOP party, he has a large advantage.  He believes that pressure will mount on Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race, because he is splitting the conservative vote.

Stay tuned.  Next up, the Louisiana primary this Saturday.

When Rush Limbaugh referred to Sandra Fluke as a “slut,” the reaction from the left, which remarkably even included President Obama himself, was, of course, fast and furious.

ADVERTISEMENT

But as Hannity and others have pointed out, the left and the White House are hypocrites, because they never condemned Bill Maher for his past use of far more offensive language describing Sarah Palin and her children.

Now we learn that former Obama campaign advisor David Axlerod has suddenly canceled his scheduled guest appearance on Maher’s HBO TV show, and an opinion piece has appeared at CNN.com calling on democrats to “reject Bill Maher’s money.”  Is the tide changing?

POLL QUESTION:
Do you believe the democratic party will now begin to view Bill Maher as being too ‘radioactive’ and feel compelled to systematically distance themselves from him?

YES

NO

CAST YOUR VOTE HERE!

Liberal comedian Bill Maher has drawn fire for his hate-filled comments towards Sarah Palin

Last week a collection of women’s groups in Alabama, led by radio talk show host, Dr. Gina Louden, called on the the Alabama Democratic Party to cancel Bill Maher’s appearance from their upcoming fund raiser.  Last word we heard was that Maher’s name had been scrubbed from their website but he would likely still appear.  This was astounding news given the fact that besides mocking conservative women and children he has also ridiculed Southerners as being “toothless.”

Dr. Gina Louden joined me on The Rick Amato Show recently to talk about her plea to the Alabama Democratic Party to drop Maher from their fund raiser. You can listen to that interview here.

In a surprise upset, Rick Santorum won both Alabama and Mississippi primaries, increasing his recent surge and proving himself to be more than a “blue collar” and regional winner, while at the same time weakening Romney’s “electability” argument.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Alabama vote count was:  Santorum 35%, Gingrich 30%, Romney 28%.  In Mississippi the vote count was:  Santorum 33%, Gingrich 31%, Romney 30%.  In both states, Ron Paul finished with less than 10%.

Exit polls in both states showed that, although nearly 50% of voters feel Mitt Romney is the most electable candidate, they voted for who they felt is the most conservative candidate.  The effect of this was a split conservative vote between Santorum and Gingrich.

All indications are that Newt Gingrich will be staying in the race for the long haul, which will only add to the speculation that Republicans may be facing a brokered convention in Tampa, where the 100+ uncommitted delegates could play a key role.

Santorum wins 3-way photo finish in Alabama and Mississippi

After Tuesday’s primaries, the proportioned delegate count, according to RealClearPolitics, will likely be Romney 476, Santorum 229, Gingrich 140, Paul 64, which is still a long way from the 1,144 delegate count needed for one of them to win the nomination, and 1,384 delegates remain to be assigned.

Up next will be results from Hawaii and American Samoa caucuses, followed by the Missouri caucus and Illinois and Puerto Rico primaries.  These total another 173 delegates.

ADVERTISEMENT

Embracing social media with both arms he empowered and inspired grassroots conservatives to take on the mainstream media and its’ conventional wisdom by exposing its’ hypocrisy through the genre of citizen journalism.  Andrew made it a personal point to lead the charge on behalf of those who he believed were being unfairly maligned by the mainstream media.

Click image above to listen to our tribute to Andrew Breitbart.

Last night The Rick Amato Show paid a special tribute to Andrew Breitbart.  We invited those individuals who played a special role in Andrew’s life to join us and share their behind-the-scenes stories and memories:

James O’Keefe the disguised pimp who helped take down ACORN, Anita Moncrief the former ACORN employee turned whistle-blower who testified on Capitol Hill against ACORN, Alexander Marlow Andrew’s long time personal assistant and now Managing Editor of Breitbart.com, singer song-writer Jon David Kahn and young film maker Christian Hartsock.

The tribute was listened to by his followers across America and the podcast is now available for you to listen HERE.
PS:
On Tuesday March 6th Andrew Breitbart was laid to rest at a private memorial funeral service attended by family and friends in Los Angeles. Stirring heartfelt stories, many of them humorous, were shared by those closest to him.  The most emotional words were delivered by the quivering voice of Larry Solov, Andrew’s trusted business partner and childhood friend since four years old. Among those in attendance to pay their respect included Herman Cain, Matt Drudge, Dennis Miller, Dennis Prager, Jon Voight, Greg Gutfeld and Rep. Thad McCotter.  Fittingly the service concluded with the singing of the Star, Spangled, Banner.

At CPAC in January, before his untimely death last week, Andrew Breitbart announced that he had tapes of Barack Obama from his college years that would be damaging. “I’ve got video from his college days that show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008 – the videos are going to come out…”

ADVERTISEMENT

Steve Bannon, award-winning director, who also sits on the Board of Directors of Breitbart Companies, was my guest on AmatoTalk TV today to announce the kick-off of an election season effort to properly vet Barack Obama before the 2012 election.

According to Bannon, the release of those tapes, obtained from Boston media—footage that has been hidden by Obama’s allies in the mainstream media and academia—will be released on the Sean Hannity TV show today at 6PM PST, 9PM EST.  Bannon told me these videos will be damaging to Obama’s reputation and re-election campaign.  “It’s what David Axelrod (Obama’s 2012 campaign manager) has feared for a long time.”

Bannon went on to say:

This is not about Gotcha videos.  This is about his deepest beliefs, his people associations, his intellectual ideas that formed him in his mid to late twenties… This is just the opening salvo of a very thorough and systematic drill down regarding who Obama is and what he stands for.

Video:  Click on above image to watch my interview with Steve Bannon on Amato Talk TV, as he reveals details never heard before.

Beitbart’s new website will roll out the vetting process.  According to Steve Bannon, the process will leave “no stone unturned.”