On Friday Christian leaders from across the country unveiled the Manhattan Declaration, which “call[s] upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike” to protect human life, marriage, and religious liberty, which the nearly 150 signatories say, is becoming increasingly vulnerable.

“The three issues that we’re talking about today do not constitute the entirety of Christian moral concern,” said Beeson Divinity School professor Timothy George, who spoke at the press conference. “They are threshold issues, on which everything else that we do is related. Our concern for the poor, for peacemaking in our world, for the care of creation, our concern for all of the issues of nurturing children into faith…”

The Manhattan Declaration, according to the speakers, was not intended to align with the House and Senate health care bills, and was described as being nonpolitical. However, the document does say that the signatories will commit “fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them” in their effort to defend human life, marriage, and religious liberty.

U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was the featured speaker at the sixth annual Latina Luncheon Series in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Solis discussed challenges faced by Latinos throughout the country, such as jobs.

Green jobs, said Solis, are going to be the key to putting minorities, including Latinos, African-Americans, American Indians, women, farm-workers and lower-class Whites to work.

Solis said that millions of dollars in grants from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, passed earlier this year, are helping working families get back on their feet and find jobs in green industries.

“Through the Recovery Act and other investments, $220 million was made available to help dislocated workers transition into new high-growth sectors like allied health and information technology,” said Solis. $114 million has been awarded to community groups nationwide to educate and train young people, she added.

“By providing the job training that will revamp blue-collar jobs into secure 21st century green-collar jobs, we are paving a pathway out of poverty, strengthening urban and rural communities and protecting the health of our citizens and planet,” boasted Solis.

Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund and Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation shared their differences over the costs and benefits of health care reform during a briefing held Friday at the Alliance for Health Reform headquarters in Washington, D.C..

The Commonwealth Fund recently released a study on how effective the system reform provisions are in the House and Senate bills. They found that both bills are practical and contain key provisions that target cost and quality.

“Both bills substantially expand coverage to 94-96% of people…the major effect is on the uninsured,” said Collins.

Butler disagreed, arguing that both bills will create “troubling areas of affordability in legislation.” Specifically, Butler expressed disapproval over proposals involving higher taxes and employee insurance mandates.

“We will soon see pressures to afford other things in our economy,” said Butler. “The cost is squeezing out funds to have for our education and other goals that we have in our society.”

A United Nations resolution is quickly making its way through the highest ranks of the General Assembly. The resolution, L.37, condemns the Islamic Republic of Iran for the massive human rights abuses the government committed on students, activists, protesters and journalists following a widely perceived rigged June 12th Presidential election. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered on the streets of major cities and towns in Iran to condemn the re-election of President Mahmood Ahmadinejad over his opponent Mir Hussein Mossavi.

Iranian authorities have confirmed approximately 4,500 arrests surrounding the post-election unrest, with 89 convictions in post-election trials, 5 of which were capital sentences. Other reports cite up to 72 people killed in detention or in clashes with security services.

The protests garnered worldwide support and jumpstarted the “Green Movement” which has mobilized thousands in favor of a reformed Iran.  Police and Basij militia jailed, raped, beat and murdered journalists, students and protesters who demanded action be taken to formulate a recount of votes. Some 20-30 journalists, writers and bloggers remain behind bars.

Resolution L.37 was brought forward by the government of Canada in an appeal for action by  the 192 member UN body. The resolution was co-sponsored by 42 other countries, and calls on Iran to better cooperate with UN human rights monitors–by allowing them to make visits to Iran, and requests the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon,  to report back next year on Iran’s progress in fulfilling its human rights obligations.

Robert Wood, Deputy Spokesperson from the US Department of State added:

“The resolution also calls on Iran to cooperate fully with and admit entry to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance. It calls on the Government of Iran to abolish torture and arbitrary imprisonment, as well as any executions, including stoning, carried out without due process of law.”

Canada has led the drafting of resolutions on alleged human rights abuses in Iran every year since the 2003 torture and murder while in Iranian custody of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi. A prominent Canadian-Iranian Newsweek reporter, Maziar Bahari was freed recently after spending 118 days in jail. Many of the victims (both men and women) sent to Iran’s notorious prisons reported being raped.

“This is the toughest resolution on the human rights situation in Iran,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.

“The adoption of this resolution is another clear signal of the international community’s concern for the human rights of people in Iran. With this resolution, and those presented in previous years, international attention has been drawn to the unacceptable human rights situation in Iran, and the Government of Iran has been forced to account for its actions. We continue to invite the Iranian government to take meaningful steps to respect the human rights of all people in Iran,” he added.

The adoption of the resolution sends a clear message to Iran to act quickly to investigate these crimes committed during the election coup and to uphold due process of the law.  Iran has rejected several requests from member-states including Canada, to visit the country and investigate the abuses.

The resolution was  approved by a vote of 74 to 48 by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly.

The resolution also expresses concern over the treatment of  minority communities inside Iran including Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims.

“The nuclear issue has been used by the Islamic Republic to avoid international scrutiny of its fraudulent election and mounting human rights violations,” said Akbar Atri, a leading student activist and democracy advocate who served on the board of the Office for the Consolidation of Unity, Iran’s most prominent student organization. ”While it seeks a solution on the nuclear front, the international community must pressure the regime to release political prisoners and allow the full spectrum of liberties, including free and fair elections.  Anything less will amount to a validation of a regime fast losing all semblance of legitimacy.”

The Iranian mission representative to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, issued a statement in response the adoption of the resolution:

“No Government including my own can claim perfection. Nonetheless, we believe that the old worn-out policy of introducing resolution on Iran is not only an unfair and unjustified action, but also a disservice to the Iranian policy of cooperation with the UN human rights mechanisms.  The move is, therefore, doomed to fail and should be categorically rejected.”

In a phone interview with Talk Radio News Service Thursday, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Research Fellow Brian W. Walsh said that language used in the federal cyber-bullying bill, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), is overly broad.

“The terms [in the bill]…don’t have a precise, clear, accepted, generally agreed upon definition in federal law,” said Walsh.

Sanchez drafted the “The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act” in response to the death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Missouri who committed suicide in 2006 after being cyber-bullied on the social networking site MySpace by a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of one of Meier’s classmates. Drew was indicted and convicted on charges stemming from the incident in 2008, but was later acquitted in 2009.

The bill has received mixed reviews from a handful of members of Congress who have argued that it uses vague terms and would cause potential violations of free speech rights.

“We need to be extremely careful before heading down this path,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) during a House subcommittee hearing on the legislation back in September.

The bill would amend the federal criminal code to allow criminal penalties to be levied upon anyone that “transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, by using electronic means.”

“We are going to end up criminalizing conduct that shouldn’t be criminal in the first place…it’s easy to draft an overbroad criminal law,” said Walsh.

As the Senate prepares for a Saturday vote on whether or not to bring its health care bill to the floor, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says he will be working feverishly to try to muster up 60 votes, including at least one from the other side of the aisle.

“It would be a real break if we get one Republican to join us and say yes, this is an issue worth debating,” said Durbin. “I’m not assuming a thing, we’re working hard to bring all 60 Democrat votes together to proceed with this historic debate.”

Durbin refused to divulge any information about the status of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), a moderate who has remained quiet as to how she will vote on Saturday night.

“She’s told Senator Reid,” said Durbin.”You’ll have to ask Senator Reid.”

On Thursday Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to remove raising of the national debt ceiling language from the Defense spending bill. Lance said he’d like the Speaker to allow for a separate vote on the issue.

Currently, the national debt ceiling stands at $12.104 trillion. On Tuesday U.S. Treasury officials confirmed that the U.S. debt has hit it’s highest level since World War II at $12 trillion.

“The recent news that our nation’s debt has for the first time topped the $12 trillion mark should be of grave concern to every American…I stand here today with my colleagues to call on Speaker Pelosi to allow on the floor of the House of Representatives such a debate and a clean up-or-down vote on raising the debt ceiling,” said Lance.

Lance addressed a letter he sent on November 6 2009 to the Speaker asking for a stand-alone vote on raising the nation’s debt ceiling. 27 other House Republicans have joined with Lance in his efforts, including Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas).

“I will vote against a needed increase in the limit the federal government can borrow unless Congress creates a commission to come up with proposals to bring the deficit and debt under control,” said Lance.

The New Jersey Republican said that he is waiting to hear back from Pelosi.

Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) displayed concern over the high cost of the Senate health care bill during a press conference Thursday.

According to statistics Gregg obtained from the Senate Budget Committee, the bill increases federal spending by $1.2 trillion between now and 2019, and if fully implemented, it would cost over $2.5 trillion over the next ten years.

“This representation that it’s an $850 million dollar bill is simply wrong,” said Gregg.

Republicans opposed to the legislation say taxes will go up by nearly $500 billion, Medicare will be cut by $465 billion and that 24 million people will still be left uninsured.

“Revenues shouldn’t go to create a new entitlement, they should go to reduce the out-year already contingent unfunded liability that we have in Medicare,” stated Gregg.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill this coming Saturday.

During her weekly press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lauded abortion language in the Senate’s health care bill on Thursday.

The Senate bill, which was posted online Wednesday night, grants the secretary of Health and Human Services to decide if federal funds will be allocated for those who obtain insurance from the public plan. It would also require that private insurers split premiums from subsidies used to pay for abortion coverage.

“We have all agreed on all sides of this issue that we would maintain the status quo. There will be no federal funds for abortion,” said Pelosi. “I think the Stupak Amendment goes beyond maintaining the status quo. I’m pleased with the language in the Senate bill. I think it’s pretty clear that no federal funds will be spent on abortion,” she added.

The “Stupak Amendment” in the House bill would ban elective abortions for those covered by the public health insurance plan and would prohibit private insurers to offer abortion coverage to those who receive federal subsidies for health care premiums.

“I believe there is plenty of common ground to be found to do that [maintain status quo]… Conversations continue, and we will find common ground,” said Pelosi.

The Senate is expected to bring its bill to the floor for debate this Saturday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) along with Democratic leaders on Thursday unveiled their health care bill, complete with a state opt-out government-administered public option.

During the press conference, Reid invoked former President Harry Truman, who wrote to Congress 64 years ago today that “we should resolve now that the health of this nation is a national concern, that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed.”

The 2,074 page “The Patient Protection and Affordable Act,” ensures that over ten years, the $849 billion bill will produce a net deficit of over $130 billion, cut future Medicare spending and ban insurance companies that decline coverage to anyone with a “pre-existing [medical] condition.”

Coverage will be extended to 94% of eligible Americans, close to the 96% of Americans covered in the House Affordable Health Care For America Act.

When asked about the abortion amendment in the bill, Reid answered “This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill.”

Reid and his fellow Democrats now need 60 votes in order to pass the bill. When asked about the chances of that happening, Reid responded by saying, “We’ll find out when the votes are taken.” He added that he will not use reconciliation as a means of passing the bill.