ILLINOIS BEGIN CONSIDERING APPROVAL OF GAY MARRIAGE

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

Poll Shows 'Two-State Solution' Losing Steam Among Israelis

A poll released Thursday shows that, for the first time, a plurality of Israelis now oppose the “two-state solution.”

By David Lev First Publish: 1/3/2013, 10:30 AM-Israelnationalnews

Samaria-Flash 90

President Shimon Peres, who in a speech on Sunday claimed that a large majority of Israelis supported setting up a Palestinian Authority state in land liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, is apparently behind the times. A poll released Thursday shows that, for the first time, a plurality of Israelis now oppose the “two-state solution.”The poll, by the highly respected Geocartographia organization, 45% of Israelis are against the idea of setting up a PA state in Judea and Samaria. Forty percent said they support it, and 14% did not respond to the question.The question was asked as a part of the latest poll by the organization on whom voters plan to choose on Election Day. The poll showed that the Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu list continued to weaken, while the Bayit Yehudi party continued to strengthen. In a defining speech at Bar Ilan University three years ago, Likud leader Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed his solid support for the establishment of a PA state in parts of Judea and Samaria.In his speech Sunday, IPeres said that Israel had “no choice” but to pursue the “two state solution with Abu Mazen (PA chief Mahmoud Abbs) representing the Palestinians, because he is the only Palestinian leader that agrees with many of the basic thing Israel seeks in a settlement.” Peres added that a “final status settlement with the Palestinians must be completed without delay. There is clear majority among Israelis for the two state solution. I know Abu Mazen for 30 years. We do not support every word he has said and we have some criticism, but I know the reality, and the reality is that Abu Mazen is the one and only Arab leader who has said that he is in favor of peace and against terror,” Peres said.Peres was slammed by the Likud and others on the right for expressing a political position on such a sensitive issue, since as President he is supposed to be non-partisan.

Israel Radio Poll Shows Right Running Away With Election

An Israel Radio poll shows the Bayit Yehudi and Oztma Leyisrael party getting a combined total of 24 seats in the next Knesset.

By David Lev First Publish: 1/3/2013, 11:33 AM-Israelnationalnews

Young Bayit Yehudi supporters-Courtesy

In contrast to more “conservative” polls released Thursday, the weekly poll taken on behalf of Israel Radio by the Geocartographia polling organization shows the solid right trouncing the left, and even the center, in the Knesset elections set for two and a half weeks from now. The poll shows Naftali Bennett's Bayit Yehudi party hitting 18 seats, tied for second largest party with Labor – and shows the Otzma Leyisrael Party, led by MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari, as getting six seats in the Knesset.If accurate, the poll indicates that together, Bayit Yehudi and Otzma Leyisrael parties would act as “kingmakers,” making establishment of any government without them virtually impossible.In the Geocartographia poll, the joint Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu list stabilizes its support level at 35, down one from last week. The increased strength for the Bayit Yehudi and Otzma LeYisrael parties seems to be coming from Shas, which, expected to receive 8 seats, weakens noticeably in the poll; last week Shas polled at 12 seats. There was also weakening among center-left parties Hatnua and Yesh Atid, which are polling at 6 and 5 seats respectively. Last week, the Geocartographia poll showed Yesh Atid with 10 seats.Also strengthening is United Torah Jewry, which, according to the poll, would receive 7 seats, as would Meretz. The two Arab parties would receive 3 and 4 seats respectively, and far left Hadash would receive 4, according to the poll. Not making it past the minimum number of votes for Knesset representation are Am Shalem, Kadima, and Koach Lehashpia, the new party of Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak.The poll was taken of a sample of 500 respondents and has a 4.2% margin of error, the polling organization said. Experts said that as the elections get closer, more voters make up their minds, and the polls tend to reflect more realistic results.

Fearing a third intifada, Israel boosts targeted arrests in West Bank

Unnamed security source tells AFP that the decision, a response to a ‘Palestinian awakening,’ follows two widely-reported arrests over the past week

By Michal Shmulovich January 3, 2013, 12:36 pm 2-The Times of Israel

Israel is stepping up arrests of Hamas members and other anti-Israel activists in the West Bank in order to preempt a possible Palestinian uprising, AFP reported Thursday.Quoting an unnamed security official, the French agency said Jerusalem was trying to prevent low-intensity flareups from turning into a mass uprising against Israel.“There is a certain [Palestinian] awakening,” the official told AFP. “As a consequence a decision was taken within the security establishment to increase intelligence activity and arrests among members of Hamas or activists against Israel… It started in the past few days and will increase.”

Flames of unrest in the West Bank — possibly stoked by the Palestinians’ upgraded status at the United Nations, to that of a nonmember observer state, and Israel’s recent war against Hamas in Gaza — have surfaced over the past few weeks.The Shin Bet security service contended in its November monthly report that the increase in violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank was tied to Pillar of Defense, that month’s eight-day Israel-Gaza conflict. The security agency counted 122 Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank, compared with 39 in October — and 44 incidents in Jerusalem, up from 31 the month before.

On Tuesday, a raid by IDF soldiers who disguised themselves as vegetable vendors to seize members of a terror group sparked intense clashes in the northern West Bank. Residents in the town of Tamoun said youths tossed stones and bottles at Israeli troops, while the soldiers responded with rubber bullets.

Military officials said Border Police forces entered the town and arrested Islamic Jihad activist Murad Beni Ouda, as well as another person.In a separate incident last week, the IDF arrested a Palestinian policeman outside Hebron — finally catching a wanted man it had failed twice previously to arrest.Firas Abu Aziza, 27, was detained at a checkpoint near Yatta, a village outside Hebron. It was not immediately clear why he had been sought.Palestinian security officials, who did not want to identify themselves, said Aziza was taken into custody in an unmarked car. They called on the IDF to release him immediately.Aziza had escaped the army’s first attempt to catch him. A second effort, in Hebron on December 6, ended in clashes with some 250 Palestinians during which an IDF soldier was punched in the face by a Palestinian policeman.The first two intifadas (“uprisings”), which started in 1987 and 2000, were characterized by widespread violence, civil disobedience and terror attacks. The second intifada saw an onslaught of suicide bombings that declined as Israel constructed the West Bank security barrier.Times of Israel staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Syria and Hezbollah won’t join the fight if Israel strikes Iran, top-level report predicts

Foreign Ministry says Assad can’t help Tehran for fear of losing power, Israel would launch massive ground operation in Lebanon if attacked

By Times of Israel staff January 3, 2013, 6:48 am 2

The ability of Tehran’s proxies to forcefully respond to an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities has dropped significantly in recent months, according to official assessments in Jerusalem.The deterioration of the regime in Syria and the subsequent weakening of the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon has hurt their ability to join in any conflict, the Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported on Thursday.The predictions, based on a Foreign Ministry paper that was presented to Israeli diplomats at a Jerusalem conference this week, say that in the event of a military conflict between Israel and Iran, the Syrian army wouldn’t spring to the aid of its traditional ally and patron, for fear of losing its highly tenuous grip on power.Hezbollah, in an extension of the same domino effect, would also stay out of the fray, so as not to risk its military and political dominance in Lebanon in an uncertain geopolitical landscape where its main backer, Syrian President Bashar Assad, is incapable of providing support.According to the report, recent developments to Israel’s north heralded no less than the demise of the “Axis of Evil,” a term popularized by then-president George W. Bush in 2002, as the United States prepared to launch an extensive military campaign in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.

“Iran’s ability to harm Israel, in response to an attack from us, has diminished dramatically,” a senior official was quoted as saying. “The Iranian response will be far more minor than what could have been expected if the northern front still existed.”Over the past two years, the civil war has decimated the Syrian army, and severed Hezbollah from vital supply lines that once extended overland from Iran via Syria, providing the Shiite group with a constant flow of missiles and other arms, the report said.Concurrently, Hezbollah has become a major part of Lebanon’s political establishment — much more so than during the 2006 Second Lebanon War — which makes it vulnerable and lends greater credence to the Israeli policy that holds the country’s government responsible for the decisions of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.Thus, the report said, in the event of a Hezbollah attack, Israel would likely invade Lebanon with massive ground forces, in an attempt to eradicate, once and for all, the threat on its northern frontier.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(THE FALSE POPE WHO DEFECTED FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH) causeth all,(IN THE WORLD ) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(MICROCHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,(MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the name of the beast,(WORLD DICTATORS NAME INGRAVED ON YOUR SKIN OR TATTOOED ON YOU OR IN THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the number of his name.(THE NUMBERS OF HIS NAME INGRAVED IN THE MICROCHIP IMLPLANT)-(ALL THESE WILL TELL THE WORLD DICTATOR THAT YOUR WITH HIM AND AGAINST KING JESUS-GOD)
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:(WORLD LEADER) for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM (6006006)OR(60020202006)(SOME KIND OF NUMBER IMPLANTED IN THE MICROCHIP THAT TELLS THE WORLD DICTATOR AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TOTAL ALLIGIENCE TO HIM AND NOT JESUS)(ITS AN ETERNAL DECISION YOU MAKE)(YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN DESTINY)(YOU TAKE THE DICTATORS NAME OR NUMBER UNDER YOUR SKIN,YOUR DOOMED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER,NEVER ENDING MEANT ONLY FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS,NOT HUMAN BEINGS).OR YOU REFUSE THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT AND GO ON THE SIDE OF KING JESUS AND RULE FOREVER WITH HIM ON EARTH.YOU CHOOSE,ITS YOUR DECISION.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYUgVL9PdxM&list=UU4SH8rh0OjYV3zwqnIfqNbA&index=1&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PX-vW4VccY&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/indexes/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfPX59y4KxE&feature=related

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU JANUARY 03,2013

09:30 AM -2.43
10:00 AM -35.65
10:30 AM -21.00
11:00 AM -16.96
11:30 AM -3.11
12:00 PM -5.50
12:30 PM -8.06
01:00 PM +6.70
01:30 PM +11.02
02:00 PM +14.32
02:30 PM -23.25
03:00 PM -10.70
03:30 PM -52.36
04:00 PM -21.19 13,391.36

S&P 500 1459.37 -3.05

NASDAQ 3100.57 -11.70

GOLD 1,662.40 -27.00

OIL 92.62 -0.48

TSE 300 12,470.44 -70.33

CDNX 1226.17 -13.67

S&P/TSX/60 715.37 -3.25

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -45 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -49 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,677.40.OIL opens at $93.02 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -52 points at low today so far.
Dow +14 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -52 points at low today.
Dow +14 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,902.60 (NOT AT CLOSE)

CRUDE OIL +
GASOLINE +
DISTILLATE INVENTORIES
NATURAL GAS-THU 

EU: Magnitsky acquittal will harm Russia's reputation

Today @ 09:22 JAN 3,13 By Andrew Rettman

BRUSSELS - Russia's acquittal of the only man charged over the death of Sergei Magnitsky will harm its international reputation, the EU has said.Magnitsky, an accountant who in 2007 exposed the fact that Russian officials and the mafia were stealing hundreds of millions of euros of tax money, later died in jail after being refused medical treatment for pancreatitis and after being beaten by his guards.His case became a cause celebre when the US last year passed a law in his name that will see up to 60 Russian officials banned from getting US visas.But in what amounts to an extraordinary u-turn for the Russian legal system, a Moscow judge on 28 December said there is no evidence that Dmitry Kratov - the former medical chief at the Butyrka jail, where Magnitsky died - helped caused his death by negligence.A few days earlier the prosecutor himself called for the acquittal despite previously building a case against Kratov.The sudden change came after Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed on TV that Magnitsky died of natural causes.
For Magnitsky's former employer, the UK-based investment fund, Hermitage Capital, the developments show that his killers enjoy protection at the highest level of the Russian state."Russia normally has a 99 percent conviction rate. In this case, there was overwhelming evidence of Kratov's involvement and his acquittal goes against any logic or concept of justice," the company said last month.For the EU foreign service, the trial by TV also shows that Russia is not serious about bringing his killers to justice."If the acquittal of Mr Kratov is to be seen as the final decision signifying the end of the investigation, this would be a negative and disappointing signal to all those who see a need for strengthened rule of law in Russia. It would raise questions about selective justice and have a negative impact on Russia's image internationally," the European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a statement to EUobserver on 2 January.It noted that it is "looking into how to further make clear our expectations that the investigation of this case be taken forward properly."It is not planning to table US-type EU-level sanctions against Magnitsky's suspected killers.But in a sign of escalating bad feeling, the EEAS invited individual EU countries to take action. "Any decision on a matter like this would need to be taken by EU member states party to the Schengen agreement," it added.Under the rules of the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, if one Schengen member red-flags a name in its border control system, all the other Schengnen countries are obliged to keep that person out.Hermitage had in any case said the Kratov prosecution was an attempt to scapegoat a junior official so that high-level figures involved in the conspiracy could get off the hook.It is currently focusing its energies on a money laundering probe in Cyprus, where Cypriot banks allegedly helped Magnitsky's killers to move around €23 million of the stolen tax money out of Russia.But Putin's recent announcement - at an EU-Russia summit just before Christmas - that he is willing to contribute to an international bailout for Nicosia has caused concerns the Russian money will be used to hush up the Cypriot enquiry.

ISAIAH 17:1,12-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Fighting rages around Syrian military air base

By By BASSEM MROUE | Associated Press – 57 mins ago JAN 3,13

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles Thursday around a strategic air base in the country's north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month, activists and state media said.The fighting is part of the escalating violence in a Syrian conflict that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 60,000 people since the revolt against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels stormed parts of the Taftanaz air base in the northwestern province of Idlib before withdrawing. The state-run SANA news agency said government forces protecting the base "repelled the terrorists' attempt to attack the airport" and inflicted heavy losses.The Observatory said rebels resumed their assault early Thursday in an attempt to capture the base, which has resisted several opposition efforts to take the facility in recent months.

The rebels have been pursuing a strategy of attacking airports and military airfields, targeting five air bases in Idlib and the nearby province of Aleppo, trying to chip away at the government's air power, which poses the biggest obstacle to advances by opposition fighters.With its troops struggling to make headway — let alone gain ground — against the rebels in the field, the government has increasingly relied on its warplanes and helicopters to target opposition forces.The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activists group, reported clashes, air raids and shelling in several suburbs of the capital Damascus, including Daraya, which the regime has been trying to capture from hundreds of opposition fighters for weeks.

The pro-government al-Watan daily said Thursday that the army had destroyed rebel strongholds in Daraya and inflicted heavy losses, adding that the area would be declared safe later in the day.Daraya lies in a strategic location, and a government takeover there would provide a boost to the regime's defense of Damascus.The suburb is just a few kilometers (miles) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh in a western neighborhood of the capital. It borders the Kfar Sousseh neighborhood that is home to the government headquarters, the General Security intelligence agency head office and the Interior Ministry, which was the target of a recent suicide attack that wounded the interior minister.Daraya is also less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from the People's Palace — one of three palaces in the capital used by Assad.
Al-Watan said thousands of rebel fighters from the extremists Jabhat al-Nusra group have holed up in Daraya in preparation to storm Damascus. Jabhat al-Nusra, which has been branded a terrorist organization by the U.S. and which Washington claims is affiliated with al-Qaida, has been among the most effective fighting force on the rebel side in the battle to oust Assad.The Observatory reported that rebels attacked a power station in the central province of Hama. Syrian TV said troops protecting the station repelled the attackers.The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees reported fighting and shelling in different areas of the southern province of Daraa, which borders Jordan. Daraa was the region where the anti-Assad uprising began in March 2011.In Jordan, the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday that there has been a steady increase of Syrians fleeing into Jordan over the past two weeks.UNHCR reporting officer Danita Topcagic said the past three days saw an average of 1,200-1,300 crossing the border mainly due to fighting and skyrocketing prices of basic commodities.Topcagic said refugees told UNHCR that the Free Syrian Army was also encouraging them to flee due to increased fighting in the area. Also markets and shops are often shuttered making it difficult for people to find food, electricity and water supplies are intermittent and hospitals in many places have shut.She said that in mid-December a daily average of 757 Syrians had crossed Jordan's northern frontier, while in November the average number daily was around 600.
Syria's civil war has turned more than half a million Syrians into refugees. Most of them have found safe haven in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.___Associated Press writer Dale Gavlak contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.

New law points to Philippine church's waning sway

By By HRVOJE HRANJSKI | Associated Press – 1 hr 17 mins ago JAN 3,13

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Twenty-six years after Roman Catholic leaders helped his mother marshal millions of Filipinos in an uprising that ousted a dictator, President Benigno Aquino III picked a fight with the church over contraceptives and won a victory that bared the bishops' worst nightmare: They no longer sway the masses.Aquino last month signed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 quietly and without customary handshakes and photographs to avoid controversy. The law that provides state funding for contraceptives for the poor pitted the dominant Catholic Church in an epic battle against the popular Aquino and his followers.A couple with links to the church filed a motion Wednesday to stop implementation of the law, and more petitions are expected. Still, there is no denying that Aquino's approval of the legislation has chipped away at the clout the church has held over Filipinos, and marked the passing of an era in which it was taboo to defy the church and priests.Catholic leaders consider the law an attack on the church's core values — the sanctity of life — saying that contraceptives promote promiscuity and destroy life. Aquino and his allies see the legislation as a way to address how the poor — roughly a third of the country's 94 million people — manage the number of children they have and provide for them. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unwanted, according to the U.N. Population Fund, and a third of those end up aborted in a country where abortion remains illegal.Rampant poverty, overcrowded slums, and rising homelessness and crime are main concerns that neither the church nor Aquino's predecessors have successfully tackled."If the church can provide milk, diapers and rice, then go ahead, let's make more babies," said Giselle Labadan, a 30-year-old roadside vendor. "But there are just too many people now, too many homeless people, and the church doesn't help to feed them."Labadan said she grew up in a God-fearing family but has defied the church's position against contraceptives for more than a decade because her five children, age 2 to 12, were already far too many for her meager income. Her husband, a former army soldier, is jobless.She said that even though she has used most types of contraceptives, she still considers herself among the faithful. "I still go to church and pray. It's a part of my life," Labadan said.
"I have prayed before not to have another child, but the condom worked better," she said.The law now faces a legal challenge in the Supreme Court after the couple filed the motion, which seems to cover more ideological than legal grounds. One of the authors of the law, Rep. Edcel Lagman, said Thursday that he was not worried by the petition and expected more to follow."We are prepared for this," he said. "We are certain that the law is completely constitutional and will surmount any attack on or test of its constitutionality."
Over the decades, moral and political authority of the church in the Philippines is perceived to have waned with the passing of one its icons, Cardinal Jaime Sin. He shaped the role of the church during the country's darkest hours after dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law starting in 1972 by championing the cause of civil advocacy, human rights and freedoms. Sin's action mirrored that of his strong backer, Pope John Paul II, who himself challenged communist rulers in Eastern Europe.Three years after Aquino's father, Benigno Aquino Sr., a senator opposing Marcos, was gunned down on the Manila airport tarmac in 1983, Sin persuaded Aquino's widow, Corazon, to run for president. When massive election cheating by Marcos was exposed, Sin went on Catholic-run Radio Veritas in February 1986 to summon millions of people to support military defectors and the Aquino-led opposition. Marcos fled and Aquino, a deeply religious woman, was sworn in as president.Democracy was restored, but the country remained chaotic and mired in nearly a dozen coup attempts. The economy stalled, poverty persisted and the jobless were leaving in droves for better-paying jobs abroad as maids, teachers, nurses and engineers. After Aquino stepped down, the country elected its first and only Protestant president, Fidel Ramos. He, too, opposed the church on contraceptives and released state funds for family planning methods.Catholic bishops pulled out all the stops in campaigning against Ramos' successor, popular movie actor Joseph Estrada, a hero of the impoverished masses who made little attempt to keep down his reputation for womanizing, drinking and gambling.
But few heeded the church's advice. Estrada was elected with the largest victory margin in Philippine history. Halfway through his six-year presidency, in January 2001, he was confronted with another "people power" revolt, backed by political opponents and the military, and was forced to resign.His successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, styled herself as a devout Catholic and sought to placate the church by abolishing the death penalty and putting brakes on the contraceptives law, which languished in Congress during her nine years in power.It mattered little. Arroyo's mismanagement and corruption scandals set the stage for Aquino's election on a promise to rid the Philippines of graft, fix the economy and lift millions out of poverty. The scion of the country's democracy icon took power several years after Sin's death, but it was a different era in which the church was battered by scandals of sexual misconduct of priests and declining family values.

The latest defeat of the church "can further weaken its moral authority at a time when this is most badly needed in many areas, including defense of a whole range of family values," said the Rev. John J. Carroll, founding chairman of the Jesuit-run John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues. He said he wondered how many Catholics have been "turned off" by incessant sermons and prayers led by the church against the contraceptives law, and how much it contributed to rising anticlericalism and the erosion of church authority."People today are more practical," said Labadan, the street vendor. "In the old days, people feared that if you defy the church, it will be the end of the world."___Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

Illinois lawmakers begin considering approval of gay marriage

By Joanne von Alroth | Reuters – 10 hrs ago JAN 3,13

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois lawmakers began considering a measure on Wednesday that would make President Barack Obama's home state the 10th in the nation to legalize gay marriage.Supporters and opponents furiously lobbied lawmakers as a leading sponsor of the proposal pressed for a quick vote in the state Senate. The "lame duck" session is the final meeting before a newly elected legislature takes office later in January.Buoyed by November election referendum victories in Maryland, Maine and Washington state, supporters of gay marriage want to make Illinois the first Midwestern legislature to approve it. Iowa's Supreme Court legalized it in 2009.If approved, Illinois would be the second most populous state to allow gay marriage after New York.Democrats hold a majority in both chambers of the Illinois legislature. But as in Maryland, Washington state and New York, a few Republican votes may be needed to pass a bill in Illinois.

State Republican party chairman Pat Brady was making calls to Republican lawmakers in support of gay marriage, legislative sources said, which could help win some votes for the measure.Obama, a former Illinois state senator, publicly endorsed gay marriage in Illinois over the weekend, a rare occasion when he has weighed in on a state matter.On the other side of the issue, Chicago Cardinal Francis George sent a letter to Catholic parishes saying same sex marriage undermined the "natural family" between a man and a woman.
"The state has no power to create something that nature itself tells us is impossible," he wrote. The letter, signed by George and six auxiliary bishops, urges Catholics to reach out to their state legislators.Last week, Senate President John Cullerton's said through a spokeswoman that he was confident of the votes to pass gay marriage.
CIVIL UNIONS ALREADY LEGAL
But a move on Wednesday to speed consideration of the proposal in the Senate narrowly failed, 28 to 24.

It was not clear if the procedural vote was an indication that the proposal was short of the votes needed to pass or if some lawmakers simply wanted to take more time for debate. The Illinois House will convene later in the week.Even if Illinois lawmakers fail to approve gay marriage before a new legislature takes office, there is a reasonable chance of passage later in the year because Democrats gained seats in the November election and will have super-majorities in both chambers.In June, 2011, Illinois legalized civil unions, which grant some of the rights of marriage to same-sex partners. But gay rights activists said that did not go far enough.All prominent Democrats in Illinois have endorsed gay marriage, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Pat Quinn.A key issue to be resolved is whether Illinois should allow religious groups the option of declining to perform same-sex marriages. New York granted such an exception in 2011 in order to secure the votes to legalize gay marriage there.A bill introduced in the Illinois House offers such a religious exemption.Last week, at least 260 Illinois Jewish and Protestant leaders published a letter supporting same-sex marriage."There can be no justification for the law treating people differently on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity," the letter said.A survey of Illinois voters by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling late last year found 47 percent would allow gay marriage, 42 percent opposed and 11 percent not sure.The poll of 500 Illinois voters from November 26 to 28 had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.In addition to the three states which voted in November to legalize gay marriage, six others allow it - Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire, plus the District of Columbia.

(Additional reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Todd Eastham)