One Week - One Thousand Dollars Update

Just a quick reminder, our on-line fundraiser is still going on:

I'm looking for contributions of just $10. We're asking our on-line pro-life friends to help make a difference. And believe me, $10 right now can really make a difference. If you can't afford $10 comfortably, make it $5.

Here's the donation button (if you can't see it, click the logo above to go to the campaign website and you'll see it there. Or send a check to: Committee to Elect Paul Mitchell, P.O. Box 153, Grayslake, IL 60030):

It's time to chip in, folks. My opponent has already spent more money just on opposition research than what I've raised so far. But with your help, I can beat her.

A Judicial Victory For Reason In Illinois

For immediate release - July 14, 2009

State Rep Candidate Applauds Parental Notification Ruling

Lake County, IL-Today, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling barring enforcement of 1995 Illinois law that (in the words of the Sun-Times) “says minors can’t get abortions without telling their parents or getting a court’s OK to bypass the requirement.”

Paul Mitchell, a Hainesville man seeking the Republican nomination for State Representative in the 62nd District in central Lake County, applauded the ruling.

“Let’s be clear,” Mitchell said. “This ruling is not about abortion. It’s about one of the most basic principles of healthcare: that parents are responsible for the care of their minor children, and that they have a right to be informed about medical procedures being performed on them. Finally, 14 years after its passage, this much-needed law can be enforced.”

Mitchell’s opponent, State Representative Sandy Cole, voted in committee for a bill that would have had, among other provisions, the effect of repealing this law. “That’s an extreme position on abortion that the people of Illinois rejected long ago, and that the courts have now rejected as well,” Mitchell said.

More information:

Committee to Elect Paul Mitchell: http://www.Paulfor62.com

An Indescribable Feeling

As a Catholic father, I experienced something new last week that I've never felt before.

For quite some time, my son, the Extraordinary Boy, aged not-quite-eight, has been telling me that he'd like to be an altar-server. Last week, he was scheduled for his first training session.

Our parish is run by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. They are ... well, I hope precise is an appropriate way to describe their approach to the liturgy. Reverent and beautiful, but certainly precise.

I and two other parents waited in the church while one of the brothers took my son and two other boys back to the sacristy. I could hear them discussing the liturgy, and more that I couldn't understand. After fifteen or so minutes, they all came out.

The boys were wearing cassocks.

Seeing my son in a cassock for the first time, I felt something rise up inside me. I wanted to shout for joy, cheer with pride, or simply weep.

I watched with great pleasure as they spent the next 45 minutes walking through the motions of the mass: how to walk, where to sit, how to turn, when and how to do each of the many tasks and motions that are expected of altar boys.

It was pressing on his bedtime, but my son was alert, attentive, and cooperative, to a degree he rarely achieves in church.

Afterwards, we went out for milkshakes before we went home.

A week later, I'm still trying to recapture the feeling I felt when he first stepped from behind the curtain wearing that cassock. I think only a Catholic parent, maybe only a Catholic father, could quite feel that feeling. I'm looking forward to seeing him serve his first real mass. I expect that'll be a proud moment.

(A post to the Thoughts of a Regular Guy blog.)

One Week - One Thousand Dollars, Day Three

We've almost completed the third day our on-line fundraiser, and we've made good progress towards our goal of $1,000 raised for my campaign to unseat the Republican legislator who voted to protect abortion providers who harm women from malpractice.

But some of my fellow pro-lifers are waiting to see how things go, it seems, here it is again:

I'm looking for contributions of just $10. We're asking our on-line pro-life friends to help make a difference. And believe me, $10 right now can really make a difference. If you can't afford $10 comfortably, make it $5.

We're getting some positive attention, like this NY blogger who interviewed me over the weekend. He asked how people around the country could help my campaign, and here's what I told him:

Buy me a beer. Go to http://www.paulfor62.com, and contribute the price of a beer to my campaign. Do I seem like a guy you'd like to sit down over a beer with? Buy me a beer. Or two. Or a case. The point is, I'm a regular guy with no experience, no organization, no money, and no name ID and I'm up against a well-funded incumbent with the party organization on her side. I know that regular Joe's are hard-pressed, because I am one, and we don't have large amounts of cash to donate to far-away political longshots. But if anyone reading thinks, "I wouldn't mind having a beer and talking to this guy," then donate the price of a beer to my campaign. And tell your friends to do the same.

For those who have already contributed, you have my sincerest thanks. You really are making a difference in this campaign. But I still need more to be able to print some campaign materials for the upcoming events and door-to-door campaigning I have coming up.

So here's the donation button (if you can't see it, click the logo above to go to the campaign website and you'll see it there. Or send a check to: Committee to Elect Paul Mitchell, P.O. Box 153, Grayslake, IL 60030):

John Adams said that there are only two kinds of people of any worth in the world: those with the commitment, and those with the courage to require the commitment of others. I'm committed; are you?

Mitchell Signs ATR's Tax Pledge

For immediate release - 7/13/09

"State Rep Candidate Challenges Opponent To sign "Tax Pledge"

District 62 Illinois House candidate Paul Mitchell of Hainesville today met with conservative activist Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and signed the ATR's pledge to oppose and vote against tax increases.

Hundreds of state and federal legislators across the nation have signed this pledge, including 24 members of the Illinois House.

Norquist said that his organization has asked every legislator in the nation to take the pledge. "There is no one who hasn't been asked, repeatedly," Norquist said.

"Not only is Sandy Cole an extremist on abortion, but she's coy about raising taxes, too," Mitchell said. "She's voted for the spending packages that include the tax increases, while decrying anyone who points out that she's voted for tax increases. And she has repeatedly refused to promise not to do it again."

"I'm calling on Sandy Cole to sign the ATR's tax pledge," Mitchell said.

Paul Mitchell is seeking the Republican nomination for State Representative in the 62nd District, which includes all or parts of Gurnee, Grayslake, Hainesville, Lake Villa, Round Lake Beach, Third Lake, Wildwood, and other villages in central Lake County. His opponent is two-term incumbent Sandy Cole, a Republican.

More information:
Committee to Elect Paul Mitchell: http://www.Paulfor62.com
Americans for Tax Reform: http://www.atr.org

Media contact

One Week - One Thousand Dollars, Day Two

We've made an excellent beginning on reaching our goal of $1,000 raised for my campaign to unseat the Republican legislator who voted to repeal the parental notification law we have for minors seeking abortions in Illinois.

But there's still a long way to go to reach that goal, so for those of you who haven't contributed, here it is again:

I'm looking for contributions of just $10.

If you can't afford $10 comfortably, make it $5. If you can't afford that, send me a note and we'll add you to our prayer list. Seriously.

We're asking our on-line pro-life friends to help make a difference. And believe me, $10 right now can really make a difference.

So here's the donation button (if you can't see it, click the logo above to go to the campaign website and you'll see it there. Or send a check to: Committee to Elect Paul Mitchell, P.O. Box 153, Grayslake, IL 60030):

I cannot do this alone, but with your help, we can make the world just a little better.

Pillars of Tyranny

Whenever freedom is lost, wherever tyranny is found, there are three accompanying factors: religious oppression, economic depression, and a culture of death.

Orwell's 1984 provides a vivid example of this principle. Religion in Oceania has been wholly abolished, the people live in government-induced squalor, and the state routinely comes between children and their parents, and is working on preventing marriage altogether.

But there are ample historical examples as well.

Consider China: Not much in the way of freedom there. But also for the bulk of the people, there is a lifestyle of crushing poverty, far greater than anything that would be tolerated anywhere in the U.S. Too, religious leaders and foreign missionaries are forced to carry out their work in secret, lest discovery by the state should lead to their incarceration. And the culture of death there has been carried to the extent that the government has imposed a "One Child Policy," under which couples must be licensed to have more than one child. State-mandated abortions and sterilizations are alarmingly commonplace, and executed criminals, including political prisoners, routinely have their bodies broken up for transplant parts without their consent.

Try to imagine if any one of those factors were to change. If China allowed its religious leaders freedom to preach their various faiths, how long would the dictatorship last? Not long.

If free markets were allowed to flourish and bring prosperity to the masses, how long would the political oppression continue? Not long.

And if the people were allowed to raise their families as they saw fit, and if their culture acknowledged the inherent dignity and right to life of the human being, does anyone imagine that the state could maintain their grip in other areas?

In China, widespread poverty, religious oppression, and the culture of death are the mainstays of the communist system.

An even more extreme example: in the antebellum south, slaves were kept in miserable living conditions. In most states, it was illegal for them even to learn to read the bible; there was little or no organized religious ministry to them. And their marriages were not acknowledged by either the state or their owners. Couples could be -- and often were -- sold apart, and children could be taken from their parents. Economic depression, religious oppression, and disregard for the dignity of human life were all key to this system.

Now let's consider a counterexample: Following the French and Indian War, the British government adopted a policy of increased taxation on their American colonies in an effort to make the colonies pay for the cost of the war Britain had fought to defend them.

But the American colonists had a thriving free-market economy. Many of the colonists had become rich, or at least very comfortable (by contemporary standards), and most of the rest had high hopes of doing likewise. The nation was founded on religious freedom, and religious observance was (and remains today) at a greater level than virtually anywhere in the civilized world. There was a rich variety of religious expression, and even religious minorities enjoyed freedom and tolerance unheard of anywhere else. And with only three million people to populate such a vast land area, large families were the rule, not the exception (Benjamin Franklin, for example, was the fifteenth of his father's seventeen children).

There was never a possibility that such a people would tolerate anything that might approach oppression. Under the circumstances, the American Revolution was inevitable.

Now let us consider the situation in the United States today. Increasing public debt and public budget deficits, and increased taxes, together with the government's proposals for increased services such as universal healthcare, are causing reasonable people great alarm as they contemplate the future of the American economy, and their prospects for economic liberty.

At the same time, with the current economic downturn, increasing numbers are looking to the government for assistance in difficult times, which tends to exacerbate the underlying problem.

Too, abortion is deemed a "right" in the U.S., unlike virtually anywhere else in the world, and the current administration seems determined to defend that "right" at home, and extend it abroad. Euthanasia is a quietly growing trend, and the government is now adopting a policy to fund research on cells derived from the destruction of human embryos. There is, effectively, no right to life for the unborn, the infirm, the elderly, or the disabled, beyond what their immediate families are prepared to defend.

And the drive towards gay "marriage" has already led to efforts to muzzle the church, such as the recent efforts in Connecticut to pass laws regulating the management of Catholic parishes, and requiring the Church to register as a lobbying organization, lawsuits against religious organizations and individuals who preferred not to provide support to gay "marriage" services, and the anti-Catholic resolutions passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors a fews years ago.

For conservatives today, it is not enough to stand for lower taxes and a strong national defense, laudable as these positions may be.

Wherever tyranny is found, it is accompanied by religious oppression, economic depression, and a culture of death. And wherever these elements are waxing, political freedom will be waning.

The Republican Party must be unwavering in its commitment not only to strong defense and free markets, but also to religious freedom, and to fostering a culture of life. America must have a culture of life, a culture of liberty, and a culture of prosperity. And none of these will survive without both of the others.

One Week - One Thousand Dollars

Announcing: an on-line fundraiser

The goal: raise $1,000 for my campaign for state representative in one week.

The method: an appeal to the readers of my blog, my followers on Twitter, and my friends on Facebook. You all know what I am trying to do. I cannot do it alone. I believe that this effort is worthwhile, but the effort will fail without your support.

I'm asking for a donation of a mere $10.00. If you can't afford $10, then leave $5. If you can't afford $5, then we'll say a prayer for you.

So just click the Donation button below, and make a donation.

My opponent was the swing vote in committee on the Illinois FOCA bill. When that bill went to the house floor, the entire pro-life movement in Illinois went on red-alert. There were demonstrations, videos, town meetings, prayer vigils, letter-writing campaigns, phone campaigns, and all the rest. The bill, which initially had much support in the House and many co-sponsors, lost support until it was determined that it would not be called for a vote.

How much easier would it have been for us all to have defeated it in committee, with a Republican representative who votes with the pro-life GOP platform?

$10 is a small enough contribution. But if it's too much, leave $5.

If half the people who have told me that they wished they lived in the district in order to vote for me were to contribute, this would be a piece of cake. Well, don't let not living in the district stop you. My opponent gets large amounts in contributions from out of the district, and even out of state.

Many hands make light work. I need your help, even if it's just a little.

If you're not comfortable using Paypal, mail a check to: Committee to Elect Paul Mitchell, P.O. Box 153, Grayslake, IL 60030. (But email me to let me know it's coming.)

We have complained that the Republican Party is not a pro-life party. We have complained about RINOs. We have lamented pro-abortion Catholic politicians. This is a chance to address all of those things. I cannot do it alone. But we can do it together.

The Target Of Abortion

The blogosphere is abuzz with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's remarks to the New York Times Magazine about what legalized abortion was really supposed to achieve:

Q: If you were a lawyer again, what would you want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don’t know why this hasn’t been said more often.

Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.

But if you think that's despicable, look at this:


You can by the DVD here.

Thoughts On Caritas In Veritatis

I have not yet read the Holy Father's new Encylical Letter, and so I will spare you my comments about others' commentaries.

Later when I have read it, I will also spare you my comments on it; it is not my place to instruct you on what the Holy Father has taught, nor to critique it, nor to tell you what it really means.

I will do my best instead to learn what Pope Benedict is trying to teach, and to understand it in its intended context.

Almost Versatile

Regular Guy Speaks Up

For Immediate Release - 7/6/2009

“Overtaxing the people is immoral” says Lake County Man

Paul Mitchell, of Hainesville, a candidate for the Republican nomination for State Representative in the 62nd District, spoke before an estimated 200 people this past Independence Day at the Palatine Tea Party about the importance of morality in government.

Quoting John Adams famous remark that “Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other,” Mitchell told the cheering crowd, “I say, taxing the people into destitution is immoral!” Mitchell went on to stress the importance of morality as an element of the conservative agenda. He told the crowd that they must work for a culture of life, a culture of liberty, and a culture of prosperity.

Mitchell told the crowd, gathered under rainy skies for the demonstration, that they must find conservative candidates to support, even if that meant running for office themselves, as he is doing.

Later, Mitchell explained that he is running against two-term Republican Representative Sandy Cole of Grayslake, whom he describes as “a social liberal”, noting that she had this session had voted in committee for an extremely pro-abortion bill, which later died in the House.

“That bill,” explained Mitchell, “would have repealed Illinois’ parental notification law on abortion, it would have mandated sex education beginning in kindergarten, and it would have protected abortionists who harm women from malpractice suits, among other bad points. Whether you count yourself as pro-life or pro-choice, that bill was pro-abortion, and extremely so. I don’t believe that Lake County voters want a pro-abortion extremist representing them in Springfield.”

A spokesman for his campaign said, “Paul Mitchell is a regular guy who is stepping out of his comfort zone to offer an alternative to the arrogance of the entrenched liberals on both sides of the aisle. Paul is “change you can believe in”; changing from a culture of death to a culture of life; from a culture of crushing taxation on the middle class and the poor to a culture of keeping what you earn; from a culture of oppression to a culture of liberty. Three things that always accompany tyranny, he says, are economic depression, a culture of death, and religious oppression, and where we find one of these, the others will be advancing.”

We are experiencing that in Illinois, says Mitchell, but it is not too late to turn it around.

Visit his website at http://paulfor62.com
For more on the Palatine Tea Party, see http://www.teapartypalatine.com

For media inquiries, contact: caoilfhionn1@gmail.com
Photos available on request

Christian Faith A Barrier To Public Office?

Ah, the intolerance of the tolerant:

The sermon sounds like a campaign speech, fitting because De Jesus, one of Chicago's most influential Latino pastors, is making a controversial leap into politics as the choice of outgoing Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) to be his replacement on the City Council.

But, in a complicated blending of morality and politics, the pastor's possible appointment has drawn protests from gay activists who object to other rhetoric used in De Jesus' church that they say is not as uplifting -- messages equating homosexuality with drug addiction and other social ills.

The activists call De Jesus "homophobic." They worry that his appointment would give him the ability to control funds for agencies that serve gay clients and a platform to shape broader debates such as same-sex marriage.

De Jesus says that he has never preached hatred of gay people and that his church's opposition to homosexuality is rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

The pastor's supporters, including some gay residents, say De Jesus' record of community service should trump any concerns about his religious views. His massive Assemblies of God church, in the ward's Humboldt Park stronghold, offers outreach to gang members, the homeless and residents in need.

You know, when religious conservatives see religious liberals treated like this by their own Democrat brethren, it rather confirms our opinion that the Democratic party is the party of the godless.

Fr. Z: We'll Keep Up The Abortion Fight, Thank You

Catholic priest and world's greatest and most popular Catholic blogger Fr. John Zuhlsdorf takes "progressive Catholics" to task at What Does The Prayer Really Say? An excerpt:

QUAERUNTUR: When was the last time you saw a “consistent life ethics” Catholic instead of simply assuring you that, yes, they too oppose abortion, actually speak out loudly against abortion? Do you know any “consistent life ethic” Catholics who seriously weigh a candidate’s position on abortion when deciding how to vote in an election?

No. For progressive Catholics it’s okay, even respectable, not to get upset about abortion to the point of voting against legislators who support it. Abortion is the issue that gets left off of “peace and justice” agendas. Progressivist Catholics associate abortion with sexual ethics, not with human life ethics. They complain that pro-lifers do not care about the other “life issues” such as capital punishment, war, poverty and health care. Never mind that no one really knows what pro-life Catholics think about these issues! But “peace and justice” Catholics only mention abortion when they are clucking their tongues at the pro-life movement.

I suspect that behind this “peace and justice” Catholic vs. pro-life Catholic tension is the divide between Democrat and Republican Catholics. I’m not saying that all pro-life Catholics vote for Republicans. I know a few who don’t. But let’s be honest, it’s hard to find pro-life Democrats holding public office. Progressivist Catholics know this too. Their loyalty to the aims and leadership of the Democrat party accounts for part of their opposition to the rhetoric of pro-life Catholics.

How To Coerce Your Girlfriend Into A "Choice"

The pro-aborts have neither any shame, nor any sense of irony. Creative Minority Report brings us another example of how "choice" just means abortion.

The Next Declaration

Our secret agent Ori Pomerantz found this text of a declaration, planned for July 4th in a few years:

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 2012

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for the enlightened elites to dissolve the archaic bonds which have connected them with the benighted reactionaries, and to assume among the citizens of the world, the rightful station to which their progressive agenda entitle them, a decent respect to the hope of teaching the rest of the world how to behave requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these social constructs to be self-evident, at least today and to the limited extent that anything is real, that all people are created by evolution to be equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are livelihood, medical care, and access to abortion on demand. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men and women, deriving their just powers from the obvious rightness of taxing one portion of the population to bribe another. That whenever any from of government does not provide enough of these ends, it is the right of those of us who know better to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to ensure that wealth shall be redistributed and that a significant portion thereof will be paid as a fee to the distributors themselves. Back in the mists of history our ignorant foreparents thought that prudence dictated that governments long established shall not be changed for light causes. However, today we understand social dynamics a lot better and can design a much better government than those superstitious, ignorant twits. Besides, recent history was full of injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny and not letting us manage society as it should be managed. To prove this, we shall submit the following claims about the electorate that benight us until this time, facts being no more than social constructs anyway.

They have refused to vote for laws, the most wholesome and necessary, for the public reparation of harms committed by some people's ancestors against the ancestors of other people. Both criminals and victims are long dead, but their descendants should pay – that will teach them a lesson, not to be born to the wrong families.

They have attempted to keep an antiquated constitution, written by slave holders and aristocrats, whose function is to limit the ability of government to fix all problems, real and imagined, for the good of all, or at least those of us who are smart enough to run said government.

They have insisted that the first amendment, the inalienable right to free speech, is limited in application and does not include the right to publicly burn flags or march naked in the streets. At the same time they have insisted that the second amendment, the archaic and wholly imaginary right to keep and bear arms, applies to anything beyond single shot muskets used by a militia authorized by a state government as envisioned by the slave holders and aristocrats.

They have kept, in times to peace, a large military presence in multiple foreign countries supposedly to make us safer. How being hated by half the world for removing their traditional tyrants and forcing them into a democratic system of government makes us safer we do not understand. It is self evident that the world would have been a safer place had our militaries left Europe in East Asia at the end of WWII, as they had prior to that at the end of WWI.

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by media. The journalists of said media being trustworthy and honest reporters of truth, as opposed to the great unwashed bloggers.

We therefore, the progressive enlightened people of the United States of America, do, in the name and by the authority of all that we judge to be right and noble, proclaim that we are, and by right out to be, free and independent of the archaic traditionalists who have barred social progress until this date. We should have the full power to levy taxes, provide benefits, abrogate contracts, burden commerce, and do all other acts and things which governments may of right do, which means everything we feel like. And for the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the successful track record of government managed societies, we mutually pledge to each other our peoples' lives, their fortunes, and whatever shreds of honor we have left in anybody's estimation. [Emphasis added.]

Steyn On Palin

Makes sense to me (H/T: Cold Fury):

In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".

Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.

Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?

How I Spent The Fourth Of July

Cao's Blog covers my latest campaign appearance, in which regular readers can clearly see the difference in eloquence between writing and speaking off-the-cuff.

Independence Day

I won't have an Independence Day post tomorrow; it's looking like a busy day; not that today wasn't.

As I write this, the Extraordinary Boy, the Beauty Girl and I are watching 1776 on the other laptop (available for instant viewing on Netflix). It's my favorite patriotic movie. My bloggin' buddy Donald McLeary agrees, and fills out a whole top-ten list of patriotic movies.

My old buddy, Darius, offers a reflection on the complaints against the British Crown to be found in the Declaration, and wonders if some of them might be valid against the current administration.

Typically, over at Vox Nova, there's a post, as there is coincident with every patriotic holiday, warning us not to be too enthusiastic in our patriotism. Perhaps while they worry about the mote of patriotism in our eyes, they might take notice of the beam of Obamolotry in their own.

Finally, I offer my first attempt at video blogging: This is me, reading the Declaration of Independence:

Pro-Abort Obama Pushes Abortion Worldwide

I wonder if the new Ambassador to Malta will be representing administration policy in that Catholic country? Including this policy (H/T: Blowing San #1)?

At United Nations headquarters this week, the Obama administration continued its push for ever increasing access to legal abortion around the world. The Obama team has introduced language that has thrown a high level negotiation into a roil. The US proposal calls for “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health services including universal access to family planning.” The document under consideration will culminate in the 2009 Annual Ministerial Review, which convenes next week in Geneva.

The sticking point for many delegations and what has driven apart the usual solid European bloc is the use of the word “services” in the context of “reproductive health.” Way back in 2001 during negotiations related to the ten year review of the Child Convention, a Canadian delegate blurted out “of course everyone knows ‘services’ means abortion.” Ever since, the word “services” has been a topic of hot debate.

So controversial is the topic of “services” in the context of “reproductive health” that the usually impenetrable negotiating bloc of the 27 member European Union has imploded with Malta, Poland and Ireland splitting from their allies and joining the Holy See in opposing the measure.

In addition to the word "services," delegates are also concerned with attempts to link “sexual and reproductive health” to “universal access,” something the UN has never agreed to and what would amount to a major gain for pro-abortion forces. There have been numerous attempts at the UN to insert language on "universal access to sexual and reproductive health services." In 2005 at the Commission on Population and Development, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) joined with pro-abortion lobby groups to call for "universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and programmes." They were defeated in large part by the Bush-appointed US delegates who insisted that none of the terms related to reproductive health be interpreted to include abortion.

In recent weeks the new US administration has interpreted "reproductive health" to include abortion. In April, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a US House subcommittee, “We [the Obama administration] happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.” In this statement, Clinton also contradicted the agreement reached at the Cairo Confernence which said that abortion can never be used as a part of family planning. This was a document that Clinton helped to negotiate.

This is more of the Obama pro-abortion agenda, and it goes forward with the continued support of the boys at Vox Nova, Ambassador Kmiec, and the rest of the Catholic left.

Why Homeschool, Part 28

I'm not sure this isn't a felony (H/T: Blowing San #1):

ELK GROVE, Calif. (AP) - A Northern California elementary school teacher sent her students home for the summer with a video of class memories, only the DVD included six seconds of her having sex on a couch.

Officials at the Elk Grove Unified School District asked families of the teacher's 24 students to get rid of the DVD after the unintended clip was found spliced in a scene where children were sharing stories in class.

"Just destroy them," said spokeswoman Torrey Johnson.

Johnson said the teacher, whose name isn't being released, sent the DVD home with her students from Isabelle Jackson Elementary on the last day of class Friday. She learned of the mistake after a parent called her. She then called all the parents to ask them to destroy the DVD.

Isn't distributing pornography to minors a felony?

A Republic, If They Can Keep It

Democracy in Iraq

Thanks to us, the people of Iraq now have a chance at a self-sustaining democracy (H/T: Phillips Philes):

American troops have now begun the first phase of withdrawing from Iraq and, under the US-Iraqi status of forces agreement, will be completely out by the end of 2011.

The Iraq War has been one giant roller coaster ride:

We executed a brilliant invasion and toppled their brutal dictator in a matter of days. (Cheers.)

Saddam Hussein was hunted down, tried and hanged. (Applause. )

Yet no sooner had President Bush declared, "mission accomplished" than the insurgency began. (Oops. )

Our occupation turned into a disaster of mismanagement, and large sections of the country succumbed to Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias. Al Qaeda gained a foothold and looked to make Iraq the base for operations throughout the Middle East. (Teeth gnashing, doom and gloom.)

In spite of calls for immediate withdrawal, President Bush doubled down with the surge, replaced our military leaders, increased our troop strength and changed the rules of engagement. It was a huge gamble, but it led to one of the greatest turnarounds in recent military history. (New round of applause.)

As a result, we're now leaving Iraq with our heads held high, not with our tail between our legs. We're leaving behind an Iraqi government that, despite all its shortcomings, has a decent chance of success. We're turning security over to an Iraqi army that is multi-ethnic and finally able to stand on its own.

Enormous problems remain in Iraq, but they will be for Iraqis to solve. They still have to sort out who gets what of their oil wealth. They have to share power between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. They have to maintain order and prevent insurgencies from sprouting up and foreign fighters from entering. They have to hold their neighbors at bay. Only time will tell if the Iraqis succeed, but at least now they have a chance -- and a good one -- to become the first self-sustaining democracy in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world.

A Much-Needed Laugh

Another Poll

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Wallace has a poll up asking what's the most important issue facing our country. Scroll down to register your opinion.

Liberals Hound Palin From Office

(H/T: Gateway Pundit via Cold Fury) From KTUU:

Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor's Picnic at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.

There was no immediate word as to why she will resign, though speculation has been rampant that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Palin made the announcement flanked by Parnell and most, if not all, of her cabinet.

Parnell ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Don Young in the Republican primary last year.

The stunning announcement by Palin opens the floodgates for the 2010 gubernatorial race. Speculation that Palin might not seek re-election had fueled further conjecture of who might run.

Gateway Pundit reports that:

... she was spending 80% of her time defending herself from the state-run press and bogus ethics complaints. She had been doing this for months and wanted to spend more time helping her state but there was no way she could effectively govern when she had to constantly defend herself.

** The governor has won 15 different bogus ethics complaints.
** The state of Alaska has spent $2 million defending the governor.
** It cost those liberals nothing to file the bogus complaints.
** Fighting the complaints has left her $500,000 in debt.

All I can say is, if this is the way that politics is to be conducted going forward, let the liberals beware.