What Media Bias? Part 142

The MSM story on the Tea Party movement:

…McAlindon and others frustrated by the federal government’s decision to spend hundreds of billions of dollars financing public projects and shoring up failing companies are making their feelings known. As a result, McAlindon is leading a slightly different push to dump tea in protest.

She is behind one of a handful of protests around the country that aim to bombard the White House with tea bags and protest notes in time for the nation’s April 15 tax filing deadline. (emphasis added)

Handful? Michael Silence over at KnoxNews blog dissents:

Let’s count ‘em: Cincinnati, Nebraska, Tampa, Lexington, Ridgefield, Conn., Raleigh, Orlando, D.C., Staten Island, Pasadena, Boston, Rochester, N.Y., Jacksonville, Minnesota, Cleveland, Columbus, Mo., Little Rock, Ark., Philadelphia, Kansas City, Harrisburg, Green Bay, Salt Lake City, Fullertown, Lafayette, Boise, Monterey, Maui, Yonkers, Utah, Tucson, Phoenix, Hoboken and Chicago, to name a few.

Yeah, that is just a handful…if you’re the Jolly Green Giant.

Ron Silver, RIP

Quite a shock that this good man has been called home:

I am terribly saddened to report that the great actor and political activist, Ron Silver, died this morning at his home in New York. Ron was 62 and had been bravely battling esophageal cancer for the last two years. He leaves two children, Adam and Alexandra, his parents and his two brothers, as well as countless friends and admirers.

May God bless Mr. Silver’s family and friends and strengthen them in this time of trial.

Silent No More

Moving testimony:

I attended the annual March for Life in Washington, DC this year for the first time. I marched with the Silent No More Awareness campaign and gave my testimony with hundreds of other women in front of the Supreme Court building.

The Silent No More women led the march and were the first to arrive at the Supreme Court. When we got there, standing up against the black fence surrounding the building, I saw five women holding pro-abortion signs. I looked at these women. I wanted to see their faces. You see, I used to be one of them.

I was a militant, pro-abortion, anti-catholic feminist who had experienced two abortions of my own. I was a member of NOW, NARAL and I volunteered at Planned Parenthood. I participated in marches and protests wearing my “pro-choice” button. I screamed at pro-lifers who I believed were religious fanatics. I assumed these “religious fanatics” just wanted to keep women barefoot and pregnant. I also believed the Catholic Church (who in my opinion was the worst of the religious fanatics) was full of evil, misogynistic men who oppressed women. I would argue vehemently with anyone who disagreed with me.

A rush of memories greeted me as I watched those five women standing against that fence. While I gave my testimony and told the crowd a little bit about my former self. It struck me. Feminists groups do not care about women. They care about abortion…

…The feminist’s very identity is wrapped up in abortion, not women’s rights or welfare. For example, do you ever hear from a feminist group when women are being forced to have abortions against their will in China? Do you ever hear from NOW or NARAL when only baby girls are aborted in China or India? Do you ever hear from them when women here in this country are coerced or pressured by their employers, husbands, parents or boyfriends to have an abortion? Did you hear from one feminist group when Laura Smith of MA was killed by an abortionist?

It was some magnificent ladies from Silent No More who convinced me that I, as a man, have a bound duty to fight against abortion. While I have been pro-life most of my adult life (I was a bit pro-choice early on), I always shied away from getting too directly involved in it for fear that the fact of my male sex would paint me as some sort of hypocrite, or someone who just didn’t know enough to make a judgment. That is all over with for me, and has been for years – I was instructed in that part of being a man where a man will do everything he can to protect women and children, even if they aren’t his wife and child. Listening to the testimony of the Silent No More ladies, I was moved to the depths of my soul and at that moment became a man who would, also, be silent no more.

Crumbling Pakistan

When our military commanders say that the situation in Afghanistan will get worse before it gets better, here’s why:

The Asia Times highlights the greatest proximate danger from fast-breaking developments in Pakistan. The truce between the Taliban and the fracturing Pakistani government has released thousands of fighters to begin an offensive in [Afghanistan].

In addition, after striking peace deals with the Pakistani security forces, the newly formed United Front of Taliban in the Pakistani tribal areas is ready to pump at least 15,000 to 20,000 fresh fighters into Afghanistan. These are expected to start crossing the rugged – and unmanned – border in April.

Bill Roggio describes how the fight seems to have drained out of some parts of the Pakistani armed forces, who have now resorted to try and buy the Taliban off.

The military ceased operations in Swat in February 2009 after it failed to dislodge the Taliban. … Javed and the military have refused to respond to the Taliban infractions. Javeed even went out of his way to praise Mullah Fazlullah. He described Fazlullah as a “good human being,” Daily Times reported.

Javed’s [the Malakand Division Commissioner] proposal to integrate the Taliban into the security forces comes as the US Congress is debating a $20 billion aid package to Pakistan. Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar have proposed giving Pakistan a one-time $5 billion grant plus a 10 year aid package worth $15 billion. Some of this money is slated to improve the security forces in Paksitan’s Northwest Frontier Province and the Taliban-controlled tribal agencies.

As a side note and as illustration for how long this problem really has been going on, one of Winston Churchill’s first books was entitled The Malakand Field Force, describing a punitive expedition Churchill participated in back in 1897. The only difference between then and now is that the screwballs in the area can reach out and cause death and destruction in our area of the world, too. And any attempt we make to clean up the mess will be a long, drawn out and tediously difficult task.

But we must do it – we cannot permit Pakistan to disintegrate, at least not without careful control by ourselves and complete accounting of Pakistan’s nuclear program. So, what should we do?

Part of it we’re already doing – sending more troops to Afghanistan in order to prepare for battle against the greatly increased Taliban forces we’re likely to meet from Spring forward. We’re also, from what I understand, stepping up nation-building activities in order to improve Afghan government authority and control, as well as build up the Afghan national army. But sitting in Afghanistan and fighting the Taliban won’t do the trick – we’ll have to get at the source of the trouble.

As long as the government of Pakistan is working to defeat the Taliban and associated tribal forces, then we must apply ourselves, as difficult as it is, to the Pakistani government. But if, as it appears, the Pakistani government becomes unwilling or unable to assist us, we’ll have to do it on our own. And if the government of Pakistan disintegrates, then we’ll have to be ready to move into at least substantial areas of Pakistan in order to defeat our enemies and control those part of the Pakistani military arsenal which can be used by the terrorists to attack the United States and our allies.

If we fail to do our part, as necessary, then we can look forward to, at best, parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan becoming a safe-haven for terrorists where they can gather forces, plot attacks and launch them against us. At worst, Pakistan will become a completely failed State, easy prey to highly organized Islamist minorities who are willing to use whatever cruelty proves necessary to assert their control – including control over Pakistan’s nuclear force. Furthermore, we must pay close attention to the needs of India in this – the Pakistani government, of itself, is a difficult enough entity to deal with, but if India faces radical Islamists in control of nuclear weapons minutes away from major Indian metropolises, India might feel – very justifiably – compelled to act.

In order to preserve our allies and secure peace, we might have to steel ourselves to a protracted and bloody campaign in south central Asia – and the big question: does Obama perceive the risks? Does he have the courage to stick it out, should it all fall apart?

Putting Teeth Into the First Amendment

It becomes ever more necessary, as this news story indicates:

Thousands of Connecticut Catholics rallied at the state capitol on Wednesday to protest a proposed state law which would have reorganized the financial and pastoral structure of the Catholic Church.

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport had warned that the bill “directly attacks the structure of the Roman Catholic Church.” The bill itself requires that parish pastors report to the board of directors about all “administrative and financial matters.” The archbishop or bishop would serve as an “ex-officio” member and would lose his voting rights.

Bishop Lori argued the bill, S.B. 1098, would remove any real relationship between the parish and the bishop and would turn pastors into “figureheads.”

S.B. 1098 was pulled on Tuesday, following protests from Catholics and others who saw it as a clearly unconstitutional proposal.

The bill was introduced by two openly homosexual members of the Connecticut legislature who are strong supporters of gay marriage and long-time critics of the Catholic Church. The bill was allegedly submitted at the request of constituents who wanted more accountability in the use of Church funds. At bottom, however, it was an attempt to make the Catholic Church illegal in the State of Connecticut – and thus the bill, had it been turned into law, would have either been struck down by the State courts, or by the US federal courts, if that proved necessary. But this is just one of many attacks on religious freedom, and we need to counter it. The best way to do this is to enact a “Religious Liberty Restoration Act”.

Such an Act would spell out just what governments are prohibited from doing regarding religion – and I think the law should clearly state that outside of concerns for public health and safety, government must not interfere in religious practices at all. For too long now religious liberty has been chipped away at to the point where now we see this clear attempt to wreck a particular religion. It is only a matter of time before someone re-writes a hate crimes law to state that Christian teaching on subjects such as marriage, birth control, abortion and homosexuality are “hate speech”. Think it can’t happen in a free country? Its already happening in Canada and Europe – those places so admired by our own left.

To really put teeth into such an Act, what it must do is provide sanctions – civil and criminal – for anyone who seeks by legislation or judicial action to limit the scope of free exercise outside the needs of public health and safety. So, when some busybody of an atheist tries to force a school to prohibit a church group from using the facilities – as other groups are allowed to do – that busybody would be liable for jail time and punitive damages. Such provisions would make busybodies pause – they like using the courts and back-channel legislative action in order to harass religion, but I doubt very much they’d like to put their own money and liberty at stake over such a thing.

Liberals have given us all the freedom we want – provided that freedom is the freedom to have sex, view pornography and kill unborn children. The rest of liberty – the real liberty – liberals have steadily curtailed. Our freedom of association, speech, property rights, rights of self defense and a host of other liberties have been been hemmed about with progressively greater restrictions, and its time we take a stand and insist that even if liberals are afraid of freedom, we’re not and we’re not going to let them take it away from us.

"We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter"

Nothing like getting down to brass tacks:

Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.

A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats’ message that Rush Limbaugh is the Republican Party leader. “We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter,” the official said.

David Plouffe, manager of Obama’s presidential race, helped design the strategy, which includes the most extensive activation since November of the campaign’s grassroots network. The database—which includes information for at least 10 million donors, supporters and volunteers—will now be used as a unique tool for governing, with former canvassers now being enlisted to mobilize support for the president’s legislative agenda.

Others involved in the planning included White House senior adviser David Axelrod; the DNC chairman, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine; and DNC Executive Director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon.

The plan follows the private complaints of some Democrats that Obama let the GOP get the better of him during the debate over pork in the budget bill he just signed, and growing concerns among some Democrats that charges of big spending could stick to the president.

Democrats, after being reflexively political, are now going to claim that we GOPers are reflexively political. Just when you think the Democrats can’t sink any lower, down they go. And the worst part of it: for the Obamaniacs, this will all pass un-noticed. A sock-puppet collective, when Obama and Co shove it up and shake their fingers, Obama’s core supporters will be thrilled to be used in a sick, political game.

The deal here is that Obama and his Democrats are not so much trying to gain support for Obama’s asinine and destructive policies but, instead, trying to make the GOP so odious that when the wheels come off the Obama Express, the voters will become apathetic rather than turn to the GOP. Always keep in mind that for Democrats is doesn’t matter how you win, just as long as you win – and if they can win by continuing to poison the political atmosphere, they’ll do it. And, as a matter of fact, its probably the only thing they’ve got left – remember, their politics of personal destruction worked against President Bush. You just relentlessly attack everything the other side does, never give an inch and allow a friendly MSM to fly cover for you.

Can we thwart them? Yes, but it will be difficult – and it will take fresh leadership in the GOP willing to go toe to toe every day, in every way, with the Democrats along with a complete GOP turn-away from the MSM. We can’t win on their field – but the “Tea Party” movement shows that we can win on our field, which is genuine grass roots efforts to bring real change to government. We go to the people, we’ll clobber these corrupt and dishonest Democrats from Obama on down.

Russian Bombers to Venezuela and Cuba?

The disturbing news story:

Russia could use bases for its strategic bombers on the doorstep of the United States in Cuba and Venezuela to underpin long-distance patrols in the region, a senior air force officer said Saturday.

“This is possible in Cuba,” General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force’s strategic aviation staff, told the Interfax-AVN military news agency.

The comments were the latest signal that Moscow intends to project its military capability in far-flung corners of the globe despite a tight defence budget and hardware that experts consider in many respects outdated.

Zhikharev indicated that Russia was looking only at occasional use of the facilities — not setting up permanent bases in the region.

In all cases, entirely unacceptable – we cannot tolerate that a non-American power shall have strategic forces based within the Americas, even for a short period of time. Putin seems bent on pretending that Russia is a super-power, and he’s playing with fire here.

Should such a thing happen, I urge that President Obama take the most strenuous action possible to prevent, including intercepting the Russian planes and forcing them down in US territory.

Forgive Them–They Know Not What They Do…

Or at least I hope they don’t.

What happens when liberalism mixes with religion is nothing less than Frankensteinian; a grotesque, satanic abomination that masquerades as good intentions and good works:

Caritas Christi, the health-care agency administered by the Archdiocese of Boston, has joined in a successful bid for a government contract to provide health services for low-income clients. The program requires coverage for abortion, sterilization, and contraception.

State officials on March 13 awarded the contract for low-income coverage to Commonwealth Family Health Plan, a joint venture set up by Caritas Christi and the Centene Corporation, a Missouri-based company which currently has no facilities in Massachusetts. The Commonwealth Family Health Plan program will be centered around the Catholic hospitals of the Caritas Christi network.

The involvement of the archdiocesan health-care system in a program that provides abortions drew protests from Boston Catholic activists. The Catholic Action League called the contract “a significant defeat for the pro-life movement, inflicted not by secular society, but by the Catholic Church in Boston.”

Oh, of course, the liberal neo-marxists who have infiltrated the middle levels of the Church heirarchy will always have an “ends justify the means” explanation at the ready:

Last week, in a response to such criticism, Cardinal Sean O’Malley asserted: “Caritas Christi will never do anything to promote abortions, to direct any patients to providers of abortion or in any way to participate in actions that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching and anyone who suggests otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church.”

Which, of course, is nothing more than a bald-faced lie that could have come from Lucifer himself:

However, the cardinal’s claim was contradicted by representatives of Commonwealth Care, who assured state officials that their program would provide “ready access” to all of the services mandated by the government program, including abortion.

Under the Commonwealth Family Health Plan system, abortions will not be performed at the Caritas Christi hospitals. But women who wish to procure abortions will be given a telephone number to call for information on where abortions are performed, and, if necessary, transportation to those sites.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, with all due respect, you’re full of sh*t. I have nothing but disdain for you and the rest of your neo-marxist komrades in Roman collars who have turned your back against GOD and His flock and toward your new god called “government” to create your sick sense of utopia here on Earth. For that reason, you saw it fit to vote for and to advance the agenda of the biggest pro-abortion senator, ever; again, to advance your twisted vision of “social justice,” which, to the detriment of our civilization, has no application to the most innocent and helpless among us, the unborn. And you continue the work of Satan to this day, with your abject rejection of the sanctity of life in your unholy march toward your advancement of his agenda of death.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, you had better be thankful that it is not I who will be dispensing ultimate justice; for if it was, you surely would spend eternity rotting in hell. It is because of traitors of the cloth such as yourself that I and many other formerly devout Catholics have left the fold.

Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares (Jeremiah 12:10).

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares Yahweh. Therefore this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares Yahweh. “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number (Jeremiah 23:1-3).

Nuff said.

Governor David Paterson's (D-NY) Popularity Collapses

From Rasmussen:

The botched Caroline Kennedy-for-Senate affair? Proposing a slew of unpopular new taxes? These issues and more have prompted a 26-point dive in New York Governor David Paterson’s approval ratings over the last two months.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of New York voters now approve of Paterson’s performance as governor, including just seven percent (7%) who Strongly Approve, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) disapprove of the job the Democratic governor is doing, with 30% who Strongly Disapprove. Only one percent (1%) don’t have an opinion.

Patterson is up for re-election in 2010, and that starts to look dicey. On the whole, I perceive a general drop in overall support for Democrats – not, at this point, enough to change the balance of power, but with the GOP starting to look good in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and many other places which went Democrat in 2008, we can see that unless things start to perk up for the nation, Democrats might be in for a very long 2010.

President Obama Still Seeking a Church

The news story:

Nearly a year after a painful break from his Chicago church, President Barack Obama and his family are considering joining several churches of various denominations in the nation’s capital but have yet to settle on one, and aides said that they’re unlikely to decide before Easter.

I would like to kindly suggest to President Obama and family that they may find the Church to be an excellent spiritual home. Its going to be a long four years for President Obama, and I honestly think that a regular series of Divine Mercy novenas for a person in full communion with the Church will help him enormously.

Plus, when the girls take first communion they’ll get to dress up real nice – I know, in the grand scheme of things, not the most important…but there’s nothing quite as adorable as little girls dressed up in their Sunday best.