Red, White, and Blue in the Face!

and are in such fear of losing their opportunity to “transform America” that the Democrat leadership in the House and Senate have managed to pull yet more legislative coup d’etats.

Campaign Finance Disclosure –  The Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, otherwise known as H.R. 5175 was passed late Thursday afternoon. What can I say about this one! The Progressives in the administration have been salivating at the prospect of putting a muzzle on their political opponents. The Supreme Court decision that corporations have a right to give money to election campaigns definitely put a burr under the progressive donkey’s saddle and had to be dealt with. In fear of losing their political majority and thus endangering the progressive agenda, Dems have voted to apply pressure on political opponents by requiring them to disclose all of their campaign contributors. In order to get the bill passed some conservative Dems had to be placated by amending the bill to eliminate disclosure requirements for organizations that have more than 1 million members, have been in existence for more than 10 years, have members in all 50 states and raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations.

Then, while the rest of America slept (many of us fitfully)

Finance reform – the House and Senate Democrats worked through the night to reach agreement on Finance Reform legislation (loving called the Dodd-Frank bill). Given the progressive bent of Obama’s administration and it’s tight-fisted control over the Democratic members of our legislative branch this bodes no good for the United States.

In a quote reminiscent of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments on the TARP bill, Rep. Chris Dodd said

“No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done.”

So now the Progressive movement in America has their finger firmly on the pulse of the economy and if this Progressive movement remains true to the Progressive principles we are in  for an economic gutting. As they ram “redistribution of wealth” down our throats Obama’s administration and his minions in the Democratic party are effectively putting a knife to our economic throat and saying “you’ll do it our way”. It’s difficult to believe but the Democratic Party has been completely and effectively hijacked by the Progressive minority (yes, I still believe that the majority of Dems are liberal but not progressive, they’ve just proven themselves to be primarily spineless).

Read more @ The Lonely Conservative

Today, Hearst News Service officially confirmed that Helen Thomas, their White House correspondent, is “retiring”.

Ms. Thomas, though a respected journalist for decades, managed to bring her reputation crashing down around her ears when she responded to a request for “any comments on Israel”. Helen responded “Tell ‘em to get the hell out of Palestine”. When asked where they should go she said they should go back to Poland, Germany, and the United States (in other words the old “go back where you came from” line).

I remember as a boy living in North Carolina –  not the deep South nonetheless I recall hearing adults say within my hearing that those “_______s should go back to Africa where they came from”. My parents both born and raised in the South did their best to counteract what their children heard about race and about religion. We Catholics weren’t well liked and were definitely a minority — John Kennedy’s bid for president really brought out the worst in folks regarding their anti-Catholicism down there. I remember kids I didn’t even know (and how did they know I was Catholic?) coming up to me in the lunchroom to say their parents were worried that if Kennedy was elected he’d bring the Pope over to run the country or that we’d all be forced to worship idols. Nevertheless, I was astonished at the coldhearted behavior many of my fellow school students reflected (no doubt learned from their parents and others in their families).

Despite the lessons of history ignorance still abounds. Kennedy was elected and my fellow Americans weren’t forced to convert, worship idols, or swear an oath of fealty to the Pope in Rome. So too, the Civil Rights act was passed without causing the country to fall into the trauma predicted by the nay sayer’s.

The history of the Jewish people in the Middle East is as old as any other people there. To deny that you may as well also be a holocaust denier!  The Israelis have every right to defend themselves and to maintain security for their country. How can we expect mutual respect and tolerance from Israel’s neighbors who have NEVER afforded the Israelis that respect and tolerance. For decades the Israelis had no objection to Arabs living, working, and prospering in Israel. Somehow though this wasn’t enough. The anti-Semitic voices never quieted, never stopped and the Israelis have done their best to defend themselves against almost constant threats and attacks.

Yes, Helen Thomas apologized but read the apology

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians, they do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Can that day come when ignorance and racism are steadfast bedfellows throughout most of the planet? Can respect and tolerance ever come to the fore when there are people willing to believe and speak aloud what Helen Thomas couldn’t keep herself from blurting out in public? Perhaps there should be a U.N. sponsored nation created for bigots and racists and they should be forced to get the hell out and move there.

God help us.

(1 Corinthians 13:13) And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

How to be charitable toward Ms. Pelosi is becoming more of a dilemma. By now the news has made the rounds of the usual blogs and internet spots that Madam Speaker is, once more, laying out her faith for all to see and hear. I will say that her latest statement is simply nonsense.

CNS News: At a May 6 Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill, the speaker said: “They ask me all the time, ‘What is your favorite this? What is your favorite that? What is your favorite that?’ And one time, ‘What is your favorite word?’ And I said, ‘My favorite word? That is really easy. My favorite word is the Word, is the Word. And that is everything. It says it all for us. And you know the biblical reference, you know the Gospel reference of the Word.”

“And that Word,” Pelosi said, “is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word. The Word. Isn’t it a beautiful word when you think of it? It just covers everything. The Word.

“Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means: ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.’ And that’s the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again. So, we have to make sure we’re prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise, as to how we have measured up.”

“Fill it in with anything you want”? For a charitable point of view you can always read what The Anchoress has to say (and she says it well).

Pelosi simply defies explanation. On the one hand she’s a devout Catholic but on the other hand believes that women “have the right to choose” (that choice of course is to kill an unborn child by procuring its abortion). Nowhere to my recollection does Catholic teaching allow for this and it doesn’t make a difference how devout your faith! The closest thing I can find in Church teaching is:

 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2267)

This paragraph of course addresses the death penalty –  not abortion. Abortion is dealt with in a different tone:

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2271)

and

Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” “by the very commission of the offense,” and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.(Catechism of the Catholic Church 2272)

and

From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a “criminal” practice (GS 27 § 3), gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2322)

Oh, there was a small nugget of sense in what Speaker Pelosi said . . . “So, we have to make sure we’re prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise, as to how we have measured up.”

In all things charity except towards the unborn child I guess.