I’ve known Colin Powell since his fellow left-winger Frank Carlucci brought him into the White House staff and subsequently aided his career every step of the way.

When Powell was on the National Security Council staff of President Reagan, about once every week I argued with him about U.S. policy concerning Nicaragua. Powell was overly sympathetic to the Sandinistas, and wrong on a great many other issues, including abortion.

He and his wife have been vehement pro-aborts throughout his public career and he indicated his concern about the appointment of Supreme Court justices as a reason he had decided to support Barack Obama.

Birds of a feather do flock together.

Americans oppose merging the United States, Mexico and Canada into a North American Union (NAU) similar to the European Union, according to a poll conducted by The Conservative Caucus (TCC). Political leaders from the three governments have been working since 2005 through the "Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)" to bring about what the Mexican government has called a "major integration" of North America.

All poll respondents agreed that a North American Union is unnecessary.

Specific aspects of the NAU did little better at winning support. A common currency (possibly to be called the Amero) was opposed by 100% and the building of a NAFTA Superhighway (beginning with construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor) also received unanimous opposition.

Those responding to the poll did not believe that President Bush has the Constitutional authority to carry out the creation of a North American Union (98% no and 2% undecided) without Congressional approval. However, they also look unfavorably on Congressional action, with 98% saying they would be less likely to support a candidate who backs the North American Union (NAU) scheme.

The poll was conducted by mail during the spring and summer with about 5,000 responses.

The Conservative Caucus (TCC) is a grass roots action organization, formed in 1974. It was active in defeating the SALT II Treaty, repealing the Catastrophic Coverage Act, blocking the Clinton health-care takeover, and impeaching President Clinton.

POLL SAYS "NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY" SHOULD NOT BE BUILT

Security concerns cause many Americans to oppose the construction of a "NAFTA Superhighway" according to a poll conducted by The Conservative Caucus (TCC). Ninety-eight percent of respondents believe it would "greatly increase" the possibility of a major terrorist attack in the United States. All respondents believed that the lack of inspection by U.S. customs officials could produce a major terrorism threat.

Concern over border control policies was shown in the unanimous answer of "no" to a question asking whether "law enforcement agencies are currently doing enough to keep out illegal immigrants and terrorists?"

The poll was conducted by mail during the summer with about 3,000 responses.

The Conservative Caucus (TCC) is a grass roots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. TCC organized the Coalition to Block the North American Union in 2006. It was active in defeating the SALT II Treaty, repealing the Catastrophic Coverage Act, blocking the Clinton health-care takeover, and impeaching President Clinton.

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Americans want English to be the nation’s official language according to a poll conducted by The Conservative Caucus Foundation (TCCF). Ninety-eight percent of those responding to the poll supported making English the official language.

There was also 98% support for revoking Executive Order 13166 (issued by President Clinton) which required Federal, state and local government agencies to conduct more of their business in other languages. Ninety-nine percent agreed that it is "patriotic and for the good of all immigrants to learn our nation’s unifying language."

The tax burden of illegal immigrants who do not speak English was a concern to 99%, and 99% opposed continuing to provide government forms in a language other than English. The EEOC prosecution of the Salvation Army for requiring employees to speak English on the job was opposed by 89%.

The poll was conducted by mail during the summer and received about 4,000 responses.

The Conservative Caucus Foundation (TCCF), founded in 1976, has published studies on many public policy issues, including some concerning Red China, the Panama Canal, the START treaties, and SDI.

Americans are not willing to accept a North American Union (NAU), merging the United States, Mexico, and Canada into a single political unit, according to a poll conducted by The Conservative Caucus Foundation (TCCF).

Nearly all respondents (98%), agreed that the NAU would be "an assault on our way of life". Defending the border with Mexico, instead of opening it, enjoyed 97% support. Putting Americans under the authority of a trilateral bureaucracy was described by 99% as a "betrayal of our Constitution".

Proceeding with the NAU without getting the approval of Congress or the American public was labeled as "wrong" by 100%. Speaking as taxpayers, 100% of respondents expressed concern over the cost of social programs if the NAU were implemented.

The poll was conducted by mail during summer and received about 2,000 responses.

The Conservative Caucus Foundation (TCCF), founded in 1976, has published studies on many public policy issues, including some concerning Red China, the Panama Canal, the START treaties, and SDI.

It is a sad fact that Senator Joseph Biden, the former chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a Constitutional ignoramus.

In his debate with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on October 2, Biden said: "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had.… The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that.… The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous." Source: Transcript of Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debate on October 2, 2008.

Article I, Section 3 says "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided."

Article I is all about the Legislative Branch and its powers. It is Article II which establishes that "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years … together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term…."

"OTTAWA, September 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his strongest statements in support of unlimited abortion on demand in Canada, Prime Minister Harper today told reporters that his government would not only not open the abortion issue itself, but would prevent anyone else from raising it." 

"Asked by a reporter if Harper could give assurances to pro-abortion groups, who are accusing the Conservatives of engineering a stealth pro-life campaign, Harper said that he could."

" ‘The answer is yes.  This government will not open, will not permit anyone to open the abortion debate. Our position is clear,’ he said, speaking in French.

  "Another French-speaking reporter sought clarification, asking if Harper was prepared to promise that he would not tolerate the reopening of the abortion debate.  ‘That's absolutely correct,’ replied Harper emphatically. ‘It's the position we took in the last parliament. Our position in the future is that this government will not open the abortion debate and will not allow another opening of the abortion debate.’"

  "Jim Hughes, President of Campaign Life Coalition - the political arm of the pro-life movement - told LifeSiteNews.com that Harper's statements proved once again that pro-life advocates must vote for the pro-life candidate in their own ridings regardless of the party they represent.  Hughes said that he has told people for years that Harper would not protect the unborn.  ‘I'm sorry that there are people out there who have believed that he was waiting for a majority before acting on the issue,’ said Hughes." Source: LifeSiteNews.com, 9/29/08, John-Henry Westen

There is overwhelming support for returning the U.S. military to bases in Panama, according to a poll conducted by The Conservative Caucus Foundation.

An overwhelming 96% expressed support for "returning U.S. military forces to Panama", from which they could counter growing Red Chinese influence at the strategically crucial isthmus. Only 1% were opposed, while 3% were undecided.

The U.S. abandoned all its Panama bases at the end of 1999. Panama has no army or navy, leaving it unable to effectively defend the Canal against a terrorist attack.

TCCF President Howard Phillips has traveled frequently to Panama to review the security situation and discuss the possibilities of a U.S. return with Panamanians.

The Panama poll was conducted by mail during the summer, and received about 500 responses.

The Conservative Caucus Foundation, founded in 1976, has published studies on many foreign policy and defense issues, including China policy, the Panama Canal, the START treaties, and SDI.

I am persuaded that Thomas Jefferson was, in fact, the father of at least some of the children born to his slave, Sally Hemings.

Sally and Jefferson’s wife shared the same father, and Mrs. Jefferson made Thomas promise not to remarry after her death.

For me, the deciding factor is a personal relationship I had with Madison Denniston, who was my Vice Chairman when I was Chairman of the Republican Party in Boston. Madison was the spitting image of Thomas Jefferson with a dark tan, and he recounted to me stories passed from generation to generation, including comments by his late mother, regarding their direct descent from the third President of the United States, the author of the Declaration of Independence.

Anyone meeting Madison Denniston would be hard pressed not to believe that Mr. Jefferson was his progenitor, several generations before.

It is worth reading Annette Gordon-Reed’s new book, "Jefferson’s Other Clan":

"Jefferson’s Other Clan – A Book Explores a Founding Father’s Rumored Affair [by Annette Gordon-Reed].

"You could write every known fact about Sally Hemings on the back of an envelope.

"She was definitely a mulatto slave owned by Thomas Jefferson. According to people who knew her, she was ‘attractive,’ ‘good-natured,’ ‘industrious’ and ‘orderly.’ She served in the widowed Jefferson's Parisian home when he was minister to France and later at Monticello. She never married but gave birth to a half-dozen children; of the four who lived to adulthood, at least two were light-skinned enough that they could pass for white, and did.

"But history can't say with certainty whether Jefferson fathered any or all of those children during the 38 years he and Hemings worked under the same roof. Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor at New York Law School and author of the new book ‘The Hemingses of Monticello,’ believes Jefferson and Hemings had a kind of shadow marriage, although only Jefferson could have walked away. Assembling the few scraps of data about Hemings that survive, and leaning heavily on both logic and conjecture, Ms. Gordon-Reed makes the case that Jefferson was a man, not a saint, and Hemings was a woman, not a ‘slave girl.’

"Ms. Gordon-Reed came to a similar conclusion in an earlier book, ‘Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy,’ published in 1998. As promised, the book was controversial. Historians, biographers and descendants of the family attacked her as an ideologically motivated revisionist. For Jefferson to have had children with Hemings was a ‘moral impossibility’ -- the Jefferson they knew was incapable of such perfidy. Even when results of genetic tests were published in 1998, showing a DNA link between Jefferson and Hemings's last-born child, some scholars declared the evidence inconclusive because other Jefferson males shared the same chromosome.

But combined with Ms. Gordon-Reed's comprehensive research, it's hard not to be convinced. Jefferson was a product of 18th-century Virginia, and in that time and place, Ms. Gordon-Reed points out, slaves and their owners often had sexual, occasionally romantic, liaisons. Sally Hemings's own father was a white plantation owner, her mother a slave. Furthermore, records show that Jefferson was in the same location as Hemings nine months before each of her children's births.

It’s disappointing to see so many key Republicans support a $411 million cut in the missile defense agency budget.

The Republican defectors were Bennett of Utah, Collins of Maine, Corker of Tennessee, Gregg of New Hampshire, Sessions of Alabama, Snowe of Maine, Stevens of Alaska, Sununu of New Hampshire, and Warner of Virginia.

One Democrat bucked his party and supported SDI. It was Bayh of Indiana.