Imaginary "culture of corruption" v. actual culture of death

By Michael Gaynor

These days, desperate Dem leaders are plotting to retake control of Congress and the White House.

Not by peddling their usual snake oil, but by persuading enough voters that the Republicans really are corrupt, incompetent political hacks who deliberately deceived not only most Congressional Democrats, but trusting Americans across the nation, in order to rush to invade Iraq when it was unnecessary (since Saddam had reformed, sworn off his weapons of mass destruction, stopped brutalizing Iraqis and having his military fire at the Coalition planes patrolling the no-fly zones, fully cooperated with inspections and all seventeen United Nations resolutions addressed to him and, in any case, had been rendered harmless by self-enforcing economic sanctions that were universally respected instead of enthusiastically evaded?).

As for hurricanes, which used to be referred to as acts of God before the United States Supreme Court ordered Ten Commandments displays removed from Kentucky courthouses just before the last (and perhaps worst) hurricane season, why they (and global warming, of course) are President Bush's fault,

Dems declaim.

And the perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage from the hurricanes of 2005 (especially Katrina) were the fault of President Bush and his former FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, instead of Louisiana Governor Kathleen "I need 24 hours to think about ceding control of hurricane response to the feds" Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Ray "I won't take President Bush's advice to order a timely mandatory evacuation and when I finally do order one, 'll keep all the city's buses parked instead of using them to get people without their own vehicles to safety and then demand that buses around the country be commandeered and sent to New Orleans to help" Nagin, and Louisiana's long history of corruption, incompetence, unpreparedness and Democrat control since Reconstruction. (Since Reconstruction, Democrats held the governorship except for one term by Republican Buddy Roemer, both United States Senate seats until Republican David Vitter was elected in 2004 and the New Orleans mayoralty without exception.)

Raymond Arroyo, the Eternal Word Television Network's News Director, host of its "The World Over" and a New Orleans native, defly demonstrated the falsity of the dastardly Dem claim in this earnest excerpt from his article, "Katrina's Message of Hope"
(http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/arroyo200511230843.asp):

"When my wife and I moved back to New Orleans five years ago, so the children could be closer to their grand parents and great grandparents a friend offered this cautionary welcome: 'We have termites, the ground is sinking, the crime is horrible, and a good sized hurricane could wash us away at any moment,' she said laughingly. 'Ain't it grand? This is truly the life of abandonment, honey! We are in God's hands here.' And so we were."

And, according to the refrain of Dems who claim to feel people's pain, President Bush is to blame for the rise in gasoline prices and the declines in the stock markets and consumer confidence following the horrendous hurricanes (but, not to be credited for the subsequent fall in gasoline prices well below pre-Katrina levels and the rapid recoveries and advances in consumer confidence and stock values).

Well, at least the Dem bosses have a plan! It would be too much to hope for them to tell the truth AND have a plan. Their specialties are obstruction (blocking Social Security reform, use of Anwar to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, strict constructionist judges if feasible, and, of course, constitutional amendments to protect preborn babies and traditional marriage and to permit voluntary nondenominational prayer in public schools) and obfuscation (which they have elevated to an art form, as recently demonstrated by their sudden invocation of a Senate rule to force a secret session designed to suggest that Republicans were engaged in a coverup just before the last Election Day.

Which is why they can't be trusted to guide the American nation.

On September 27, 2005, Nasty Nancy Pelosi, the top Dem in the House of Representatives, celebrated the eleventh anniversary of the Republicans' hugely successfully "Contract with America" by charging: ""Every day we see a culture of corruption, incompetence, and cronyism in Washington, D.C."

On November 29, 2005, the Bush Justice Department dealt with corruption by Randy "Duke" Cunningham, an ace Navy fighter pilot in Vietnam who downed five enemy aircraft and survived being shot down by a surface-to-air missile to become a Republican Congressman. The Congressman admitted taking millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for funneling government business to defense contractors, pled guilty to federal charges and resigned from Congress. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud and tax evasion.

Nasty Nancy views this development as evidence of a culture of corruption attributable to Republicans generally instead of a personal tragedy. And probably does not appreciate the irony of her insistence that the honorable military service of Democrat Congressman John Murtha immunizes him from suspicion concerning his dramatic, but dastardly, call for the rapid withdrawal of American troops from Iraq (to a place nearby) was anything but a principled decision, that is, not a part of the Democrats' plan to undermine the Bush administration in order to recapture control of Congress and the White House as soon as possible, regardless of the horrendous consequences that the siren call for the return of American troops would have for America and the rest of the free world (including Iraq), both in the near and long term.

What is evident is that any allegations against Republicans are rigorusly investigated. And Dem leaders pretend that investigation is tantamount to proof of guilt.

Tom DeLay, the former Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, stepped down as Leader under Republican House Rules (he would not have had to under Democrat House Rules) because he was indicted (by a rabidly partisan Texas Democrat prosecutor adept at grand jury shopping and eager to prosecute prominent Republicans (like Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson) and conservative Democrats in Texas. Let's wait to see what happens with this political prosecution (or should I say political persecution?).

Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader, has been investigated for a stock sale. But it does not appear that he did anything wrong.

And the lengthy investigation of the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA connection led to a single indictment, of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, not for anything done before the investigation, but for alleged failure to cooperate with the investigation. And the subsequent disclosure by Bob Woodward, most notably for his Watergate reporting, that he had been told about the connection long before Mr. Libby allegedly mentioned it to a reporter, and that the disclosure did not appear to be a part of a vendetta, suggests that Mr. Libby eventually will be vindicated and classified as victim rather than villain.

What is undeniable is that the Democrat Party in general and Nasty Nancy in particular are integral parts of the culture of death involving so-called "legal" abortion. And what is especially egregious is that Dem leaders like Nasty Nasty and Senators John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin, to name four, pretend to be faithful Catholics instead of revolting renegades who put perceived political advantage, whether real or imagined, above the basic tenets of the Roman Catholic faith.

Which takes me to a wonderful newspapers advertisement published in The Washington Times on November 14, 2005 at the behest of the American Life League and intended to inspire the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to focus on the enforcement of canon law against such notorious renegades, whose notorious support of abortion as a civil "right" is precisely the kind of obstinate persistence in manifestly grave sin that Canon 915 was adopted to prevent public scandal and perverse political abuse of the Holy Eucharist.

The advertisement begins: "JUST IMAGINE IF OUR POLICE ENFORCED CRIMINAL LAW THE WAY OUR BISHOPS ENFORCE CANON LAW." It is followed by a city street scene with lots of chalk outlines of imaginary dead bodies."

Under "ABORTION IS HOMICIDE," the ad states:

"Imagine that on 272 policeman in your city, fewer than 5% pledged to use every legal means to prevent murder. You know what would happen. The homicide rate would soar, as soon as the bad guys knew that the good guys weren't going to stop them.

"The same thing applies to the Catholic Church. Of the 272 bishops in the United States, only 13 have pledged to use the full force of Canon Law to rebuke those who publicly promote grave sin such as abortion....

"It's scandalous that fewer than 5% of America's Catholic bishops care enough about the homicide rate of preborn babies to enforce this law in their dioceses.

"Each day of the bishops' annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the bad guys will allow the killing of another 3,300 preborn babies. And they won't stop until the good guys decide to do the right thing."

The advertisement urged all Catholic bishops to enforce canon law and to rebuke persons who publicly support the heinous act of abortion. "Surgical abortion in the United States has claimed more than 46 million victims to date."

Canon 915 is mandatory, not optional, and clear, not vague. It states in pertinent part: "Those who obstinately persist...in manifestly grave sin are not to be admitted to ion." Anyone who reads "are not to be admitted" as "are to be admitted" should not be distributing Communion.

"The conference agenda includes a statement presenting Catholic teaching on the death penalty; but we are saddened to note the absence of any scheduled discussion of abortion," said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League. While the bishops cannot change the laws that permit abortion on demand, they can certainly address the damage done by those Catholics who publicly support the killing of innocent children."

THAT is true!

American Life League's Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church continues to actively expose the scandal of pro-abortion Catholic public figures and will continue the campaign until all U.S. bishops uphold Church teachings. "The Catholic bishops are bound, by their vocation, to teach and defend the faith," said Brown. "This campaign is about defending the Catholic faith and saving babies. The bottom line is, you cannot be both Catholic and pro-abortion."

THAT is true too!

"It is up to the shepherds of the Catholic Church to do all they can to prevent this atrocity from taking even more lives. As the bishops meet for their fall conference, we pray that they will discuss the enormous scandal caused by pro-abortion Catholics and resolve to put an end to this problem by enforcing the laws of the Church."

The first sentence is true, but the prayer was denied.

The Communion abuse problem was not on the bishops' agenda and, although it apparently was discussed, it was not remedied with the unanimity and severity required. Instead, the bishops focused on the death penalty as the abomination that must be ended forthwith.

There have been about a thousand (1,000) abortions since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States. And there have been about 46,000,000 abortions since the United States Supreme Court transformed abortion from a crime to a constitutional right in 1973. Simply by reading it into the Constitution. The Founders and Framers never envisioned abortion as a constitutional right, of course. The word is not mentioned in the original Constitution, the Bill of Rights or any of the other constitutional amendments (including the Fourteenth Amendment, which restricts state action). Before the Civil War, the American Medical Association condemned abortion unless it was necessary to save the mother's life. By 1875, every state prohibited abortion. Abortion became a constitutional right because a United States Supreme Court majority said so, not because the Constitution was duly amended to create such a right.

The Dems need to reevaluate. Until they do, for a return to power, they must wait.

© Michael Gaynor