DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Toilet arsonist reward not to be sniffed at
A US firm is offering a major reward as they hunt an arsonist who has attacked a host of portable toilets across San Francisco
President Barack Obama's budget would generate unsustainably large deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to new estimates released Friday... The [CBO] figures predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the administration predicted in its budget just last month.
Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.
Obama's mentor Frank Marshall Davis -- the veiled figure known only as "Frank" in Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from my Father -- was openly sympathetic to Communists. His affiliations with a variety of hard left groups were open. At that time, the Communist Party had tens of thousands of members, some of them clandestine Soviet officials who had penetrated government and industry. It received covert subsidies from the Soviet Union itself. In 1949, Davis himself predicted the collapse of Capitalism:
Bill Ayers, who worked closely with Barack Obama on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund, wrote an eerily similar missive in 2008. It plainly predicts the death of Capitalism:Wright views the United States as a criminal nation... Implicitly drawing on Marxist "dependency theory," Wright blames Africa's troubles on capitalist exploitation by the West, and also on inadequate American aid: "Some analysts would go so far as to even call what [the United States, the G-8, and multinational corporations] are doing [in Africa] genocide!"
According to Wright, America's alleged genocide in Africa, as well as its treatment of "Africans in the Western diaspora," both leads to and flows from a single underlying truth: "White supremacy is the bed rock of the philosophical, ideological and theological foundations of this country." So for Wright, it's really not a question of correcting America in the spirit of a loving patriot. America, to Wright, is a kind of alien formation, scarcely less of a "cage" for "Africans in the Western Diaspora" than it was during the days of slavery: "...White supremacy undergirds the thought, the ideology, the theol-ogy, the sociology, the legal structure, the educational system, the healthcare system, and the entire reality of the United States of America.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, 'This is not just.'
VULNERABLE patients with learning disabilities have died because of neglect in NHS hospitals, an official report is expected to say this week.THIS IS WHAT OBAMA THINKS WE SHOULD EMULATE. WHAT AN IDIOT.
The report by the parliamentary and health service ombudsman will find widespread failures by doctors and nurses to care properly for people who are mentally handicapped.
The inquiry began after a report by the charity Mencap, Death by Indifference, found six patients had died through neglect while in NHS care.
... A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: “Preventable deaths of people with learning disabilities are absolutely unacceptable. We are now taking action that will lead to people with learning disabilities getting equal access to healthcare”.
PROSECUTORS have charged a man and his two sons for the premeditated murder of his 19-year-old daughter on Saturday, in the latest honour killing to take place in this conservative desert kingdom.RELIGION OF PEACE = MURDERING YOUR OWN DAUGHTER "for leaving the house in make up and talking to a strange man".
The man and his two sons are charged with beating to death the daughter for leaving the house in make up and talking to a strange man, according to prosecutor Salah al-Taleb's indictment sheet.
Situation in some parts of Macedonia is critical over heavy snowfalls that continue for more 30 hours, FOCUS News Agency reporter informed. The new snow blanket in Mavrovo Municiplaity reaches up to 1 meter.BULGARIA:
Snow-drifts in some parts are more than 1,5m deep. Road Skopje - Ohrid in the region of Tetovo was closed for all motor vehicles on Friday. Today the section is open just for cars but traffic is much hampered.
Kyustendil. 40 settlements in Kyustendil district left without power supply over the heavy snowfall that continues for more than 30 hours, Civil Protection service informed FOCUS – Kyustendil radio.EITHER GORE IS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE, OR IT'S JUST MORE PROOF THAT THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF EUROPE'S COLDEST SNOWIEST WINTERS EVER... AND THAT AGW = BS.
According to information of the service there are broken tree-branches and fallen trees in the town of Kyustendil, as a break-down emergency brigade is removing them.
IF MANSON HAD BEEN AROUND 1550 YEARS AGO,
The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.THIS IS COMMUNISM.
ב בֶּן-אָדָם, שִׂים פָּנֶיךָ אֶל-גּוֹג אֶרֶץ הַמָּגוֹג--נְשִׂיא, רֹאשׁ מֶשֶׁךְ וְתֻבָל; וְהִנָּבֵא, עָלָיו. 2
'Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
ג וְאָמַרְתָּ, כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה: הִנְנִי אֵלֶיךָ, גּוֹג--נְשִׂיא, רֹאשׁ מֶשֶׁךְ וְתֻבָל.
3 and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal;
The name Obama appears in this line Ezekiel 38:2-3 starting from the word Nassi, which in Biblical Hebrew means king-prince-leader, and is the modern Hebrew word for President.
On the א of the first נשיא (President), every 7 letters spell out the name Obama in Hebrew:
א ויהי דבר-יהוה, אלי לאמר. ב בן-אדם, שים פניך אל-גוג ארץ המגוג--נשיא, ראש משך ותבל; והנבא, עליו. ג ואמרת, כה אמר אדני יהוה: הנני אליך, גוג--נשיא, ראש משך ותבל. ד ושובבתיך, ונתתי חחים בלחייך; והוצאתי אותך ואת-כל-חילך סוסים ופרשים, לבשי מכלול כלם--קהל רב צנה ומגן, תפשי חרבות
Barack Obama's optimistic campaign rhetoric has crashed headlong into the stark reality of governing.CRASHED. THE PROBLEM IS: HE'S TAKING US DOWN WITH HIM!
In office two months, he has backpedaled on an array of issues, gingerly shifting positions as circumstances dictate while ducking for political cover to avoid undercutting his credibility and authority.
That's happened on the Iraq troop withdrawal timeline, on lobbyists in his administration and on money for lawmakers' pet projects.
OBAMA IS ALREADY THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed overtures from President Barack Obama on Saturday, saying Tehran does not see any change in U.S. policy under its new administration.SO.... ALL THAT TALK FROM OBAMA ABOUT DIPLOMACY WITH IRAN - IT WAS A TOTAL FUCKING WASTE OF TIME.
Khamenei was responding to a video message Obama released Friday in which he reached out to Iran on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian new year, and expressed hopes for an improvement in nearly 30 years of strained relations.
Khamenei holds the last word on major policy decisions, and how Iran ultimately responds to any concrete U.S. effort to engage the country will depend largely on his say.
California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.I THINK THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE UTTERLY CONFUSED NATURE OF THE LEFT AND THEIR IMAGINARY BOGEYMEN:
Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on a parcel of 500,000 desert acres, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Friday such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public.
Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.
Hamas: We may be forced to kidnap more Israeli soldiers
In June 2006, Hamas kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit because Israel refused to open the border crossing to the Gaza Strip, and now that Israel is refusing to release Palestinians in Israeli jails as part of a prisoner swap deal, the organization may have to resort to more kidnappings in order to get what it wants, Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told an Australian paper in a report published on Friday.
"The Israelis just don't learn. When they refuse to release Palestinians, it forces the Palestinians to resort to other means to gain their release - and inevitably this includes the capture of more Israeli soldiers," Mashaal said during an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
OBAMA'S MOUTH ROLLS A GUTTER BALL
IN A NON-TELEPROMPTERED MOMENT ON LENO, OBAMA DISSED THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS AND KIDS LIKE TRIS PALIN.
WHAT A MORON AND A LOW-LIFE AND A PIECE OF SHIT.
MORE HERE.
WASHINGTON -- Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.(Crossposted to Always On Watch)
[...]
Cowen stopped and looked back at the president to say, "That's your speech."
Obama laughed and returned to the podium...
Obama is a good politician, but when it comes to the real world of business and economics, he doesn’t know much, and that which he knows is mostly wrong.AND WE'RE ALL GONNA PAY THE PRICE.
President Barack Obama has told Jay Leno he was stunned when he learned of the bonuses that bailed-out insurance giant AIG was paying its employees.THE ITTY-BITTY PROBLEM WITH OBAMA CLAIMING HE WAS STUNNED IS THE FACT THAT THESE BONUSES WERE IN THE STIMULUS BILL HE SIGNED INTO LAW.
Obama told "The Tonight Show" host the payments raise moral end ethical problems — and the administration's going to do everything it can to get them back.
OBAMA WAITED 5 DAYS TO SIGN IT - IN DENVER.(IsraelNN.com) A decision by the Palestinian Authority Health Minister to cut off medical benefits at Israeli hospitals has cost the life of at least one little girl, and it is not clear how many more will follow.Does he blame Israel too? I hope not, but that aside, what this shows is how Shari'a can end up ruining many things for those who live under its sick mentality. This also alludes to how medication under their system is abysmal. How can anyone expect to get good medical treatment living in a hellhole like that?
Following the recent counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead against Gaza terrorists, PA minister Fathi Abu Moughli decided in January to stop covering Israeli hospital expenses of PA residents who cross the security barrier to receive treatment.
As a result, strokes have gone untreated and life-saving chemotherapy, radiotherapy and bone marrow transplants for cancer patients have been put off indefinitely.
Six-year-old Asil Manasra died. The Palestinian Authority child had for eight months been receiving intensive treatment at an Israeli hospital for complications arising from tuberculosis. One week after the PA Health Ministry forced her family to stop the visits, the little girl struggled for breath no more.
Asil first became ill after receiving a TB vaccination as a six-month-old infant. During the following four years, her father, Jamal Manasra told the Associated Press that said she was subsequently misdiagnosed by two PA hospitals. The child became sicker and sicker with severe stiffness, high fever, and then acquiring liver and lung infections. Only as a five-year-old did Asil win a referral to Hadassah, where the race for time began, as the disease had overwhelmed most of her body, necessitating intensive, constant treatments.
The PA Health Ministry decision ended the race in February, cutting off payments for the life-saving treatments. The little girl spent the last week of her life in a hospital in Bethlehem, where medication was administered per the advice of her doctor at Hadassah.
"I blame everyone. Should children die because of political decisions?" Asil's father asked the AP reporter in anguish. "How can you stop treatment? When a child is so sick that she is going to die, is there something more important than that?"
Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.What makes this especially galling, of course, is not only Frank’s own culpability in the financial crisis — which he’s now going to “fix,” you’ll be glad to know — but the imperiousness he displays here and in his statements about asserting the feds’ “ownership rights” over AIG. What a wretch.
Obama Received a $101,332 Bonus from AIGSenator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.
The A.I.G. Financial Products affiliate of A.I.G. gave out $136,928, the most of any AIG affiliate, in the 2008 cycle. I would note that A.I.G.’s financial products division is the unit that wrote trillions of dollars’ worth of credit-default swaps and “misjudged” the risk.
The Washington Post reports a “mob effect” at A.I.G financial products division:
“A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn’t show up at all.”
With the anger and rage that is being exhibited against A.I.G., perhaps the bonuses Obama received from A.I.G. explain Obama’s A.I.G crocodile tears.
Now that the Wall street Journal has revealed that A.I.G. paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, it’s time to ask if recipients of A.I.G. “bonuses,” including President Obama, will give what now ought to be taxpayer money back?
President Obama's climate plan could cost industry close to $2 trillion, nearly three times the White House's initial estimate of the so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation, according to Senate staffers who were briefed by the White House.THAT'S $366 BILLION MORE/YEAR WE'RE ALL GONNA HAVE TO FORK OVER SO THE LEFT-WING FEAR-MONGERING AGW-CARBON FETISHISTS CAN FEEL GOOD.
A top economic aide to Mr. Obama told a group of Senate staffers last month that the president's climate-change plan would surely raise more than the $646 billion over eight years the White House had estimated publicly, according to multiple a number of staffers who attended the briefing Feb. 26.
"We all looked at each other like, 'Wow, that's a big number,'" said a top Republican staffer who attended the meeting along with between 50 and 60 other Democratic and Republican congressional aides.
The plan seeks to reduce pollution by setting a limit on carbon emissions and allowing businesses and groups to buy allowances, although exact details have not been released.
At the meeting, Jason Furman, a top Obama staffer, estimated that the president's cap-and-trade program could cost up to three times as much as the administration's early estimate of $646 billion over eight years. A study of an earlier cap-and-trade bill co-sponsored by Mr. Obama when he was a senator estimated the cost could top $366 billion a year by 2015.
After provoking Mexico into a trade war, the Obama administration apparently has set its sights on the entire world. Steven Chu won a Nobel Prize for his work on energy, but shows himself as completely clueless on trade and diplomacy. Yesterday, Chu threatened to set off a global trade war over carbon tariffs:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday advocated adjusting trade duties as a “weapon” to protect U.S. manufacturing, just a day after one of China’s top climate envoys warned of a trade war if developed countries impose tariffs on carbon-intensive imports.Mr. Chu, speaking before a House science panel, said establishing a carbon tariff would help “level the playing field” if other countries haven’t imposed greenhouse-gas-reduction mandates similar to the one President Barack Obama plans to implement over the next couple of years. It is the first time the Obama administration has made public its view on the issue.
OBAMA WILL DESTROY THE USA - IF WE LET HIM.
WE MUST STOP HIM.
CAN WE - HE HAS CONGRESS AND THE MSM?
YES, WE CAN!
I go back to Art Laffer’s four prosperity killers:WE WILL RECOVER UNTIL AROUND JANUARY - THEN DIP RIGHT BACK INTO ANOTHER RECESSION BECAUSE OF OBAMA - UNLESS THE GOP IS LEADING IN THE POLLS FOR 2010.
- inflation,
- higher tax rates,
- re-regulation,
- and trade protectionism.
[UNDER OBAMA] You can put a check mark next to each box.
... economic policies appear to be moving in the wrong direction. We will get an economic recovery. And there’s a pretty good short-term stock market rally in the cards. But you just have to wonder where all this is leading.
... we should stabilize the dollar, slash the corporate tax rate, and declare a two-year capital-gains tax holiday.
Instead, top marginal tax rates are going up and the dollar’s going down. It can’t be a good thing.
Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.OBAMA IS THE MOST LEFT-WING PRESIDENT EVER: EVEN CARTER WAS TO MUCH OF A PRUDE TO DO THIS.
That would be a departure from the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state's law.
...Advocates and government officials had been waiting since President Barack Obama was sworn into office for a clear signal on what the new president's drug policy would be toward medical marijuana. As a candidate, he repeatedly promised a change in policy in situations in which state laws allow the use of medical marijuana.
AIG Vice Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer Robert G. Krebs suggested that Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Charles Grassley (D-IA) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) take a "Japanese approach" toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by resigning or killing themselves.
Krebs noted that Frank, Dodd, Maxine Waters (D-CA) and a host of other Democrats were largely responsible for the entire mortgage meltdown through their decade-long fight against regulation of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the offi cials said.RUSSIA JUST ANNOUNCED THEY'RE GONNA BE EXPANDING THEIR DEFENSE BUDGETS.
More cuts are planned for later this year after a review that could lead to reductions in programs such as aircraft carriers and nuclear arms, the officials said.
As a former CIA director with strong Republican credentials, Gates is prepared to use his credibility to help Obama overcome the expected outcry from conservatives.... "There are so many people employed in the industry and they are spread across the country," William S. Cohen, former Republican senator from Maine who was Defense secretary in the Clinton administration, said in an interview. "Even though members of Congress may say, 'It's great that you are recommending the termination of X, Y, and Z,' they will also say 'that means 4,000 jobs in my state. Frankly, I can't go along with that.' "
Major weapons cuts could be an even tougher sell now, he added. "When you start talking about an economy that is in a state of considerable turmoil it becomes even more difficult," Cohen said.
Uzi Arad, who is expected to serve as national security adviser in the next Israeli government, has been barred from entering the United States...OBAMA CAN FIX THIS AND SEE TO IT ARAD GETS A VISA. WILL HE!? I DOUBT IT.
Mr. Arad, a former member and director of intelligence for the Mossad, Israel's spy service, is mentioned in the indictment of Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst who pleaded guilty in 2005 to providing classified information about Iran in a conversation with two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The choice of Mr. Arad for national security adviser has been reported in the Israeli press and was confirmed by sources close to Mr. Netanyahu, who has been tasked with forming the next government.
Mr. Arad acknowledged to The Washington Times that he has not been able to obtain a visa to come to the United States but said the Israeli government is trying to change that....
Israeli and U.S. officials said Mr. Arad has been denied a U.S. visa since June 2007 under section 212 3(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This gives consular officers and the Justice Department authority to bar people who may seek "to violate any law of the United States relating to espionage or sabotage" from entering the country.
A new report has assessed that Israel could use ballistic missiles to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, rather than air power. The report also warns that such action could trigger a response that would escalate to include the use of WMDs.PREDICTION: MAY 14TH, 2010.... IT'S A NEW MOON....
Abdullah Toukan of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) wrote that Israel's use of Jericho III missiles to strike Iran's nuclear sites "could look much more feasible than using combat aircraft," because of the lower political and operational risks Israel would face in such an attack, since Iran still lacks an adequate missile defense system.
Toukan estimated Israel would need about 40 Jericho IIIs for the initial volley...
... According to the 114-page report released Monday, based on publicly available information, Israel would have a major advantage in its air capabilities, since "what is known about the Iranian air defense system clearly shows how it has become largely obsolescent."
...Last week, the Republican pulled off something equally dramatic: winning a seat on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors that had been occupied by a Democrat....On to 2010 and 2012.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Monday said that while Israel was interested in exhausting diplomatic options against Iran's nuclear program, the army must nevertheless prepare itself for a military attack.THE CHANCES DIPLOMACY WILL WORK ARE NIL.
Ashkenazi, who is currently visiting the United States, has decided to cut short his trip in order to take part in a special cabinet session on negotiations for a deal to release abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
During a visit to Washington, D.C., Ashkenazi met with Dennis Ross, the designated U.S. envoy to the Persian Gulf, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the Iranian issue.The IDF chief told Ross that Israel would not tolerate a nuclear Iran.
He said that a diplomatic approach to Iran's contentious nuclear program must be taken first, but said Israel must also prepare for other possibilities.
Ashkenazi also met during his trip with General James Jones, national security adviser to President Barack Obama, to discuss other Middle East issues.
THEN, THE SH*T WILL HIT THE FAN: LifeNews has more info on the new Terri Schiavo documentary:
A new documentary about the life and death of Terri Schiavo presents facts that the mainstream media distorted. Schiavo was killed in a painful starvation and dehydration euthanasia death over the course of nearly two weeks when her former husband won a court order to kill her.
Though the media maintained the disabled woman was in a persistent vegetative state experts say she was in a minimally conscious state and her family indicated she repeatedly interacted with them.
Now, Franklin Springs Family Media has put out a newly-released documentary called The Terri Schiavo Story that it says provides previously unexplored facts of the case through in-depth interviews with participants in the saga.
History shows that the stock market usually hits bottom before the economy does.THAT MEANS THAT STOCKS CRASHED DEEPER ON PREVIOUS RECESSIONS.
In October, Warren E. Buffett, one of the world’s most successful investors, said he was buying American stocks because they usually rise “well before either sentiment or the economy.” But even he acknowledged not having “the faintest idea” what would happen in the next month or year.
Since then, stocks have dropped by another 20 percent, and with the market at levels last seen in 1997, stocks are cheap by historical standards. The price-to-earnings ratio — which investors use to gauge how much they are paying for each dollar of corporate profit — is around 13, about 20 percent lower than the average of the last 130 years.
... “All the indicators suggest you should be buying and not selling,” he said.
Still, Mr. Napier acknowledged that stocks, while cheap, could fall further. Measured by their 10-year price-to-earnings ratio, stocks were a lot less expensive in the early 1980s, when the ratio fell to less than seven, and in the 1930s, when it was below six.
As you know, I am blessed to know and be connected to two great religions, sharing Judaism and Catholicism from my maternal Grandmother and paternal Grandmother, respectively. My sense of connection to both runs within me, and I know your beliefs run deep within you. I am writing to you today to tell you about a sermon delivered today by our Priest. He has all but named the president as the anti-Christ. Whatever your beliefs, this is significant, for I think he is correct. Biblical references aside, the Democrats and through their agents in government are attacking the very fundamental principles of America.Specifically cited today was the recent attempt by the Connecticut state legislature to force the Catholic Church to be re-organized. See the attached article.
Although the bill was been "put aside", there will be other attempts by the democrats at every level of government to silence dissent. What is the next step after silencing religion, the freedom of speech, and right to bear arms, to gather?
Please share this with others, we need alert those who are asleep, we must keep alert and raise a loud voice of discontent, or our last stop will be into the showers, following a train ride. We can't afford to be a Chamberlain, we need to be Jeffersonian.
Conn. Legislature Moves to Regulate Catholic Church in Suspected "Payback" for Marriage Stance
The Connecticut Judiciary committee Thursday proposed a bill stripping Roman Catholic bishops of their authority to govern fiscal and administrative diocesan affairs - an unprecedented attempt to regulate the Catholic Church, that critics are calling "payback" for the Church's efforts to prevent the legalization of same-sex "marriage" in the state.
The explicit intent of S.B. 1098 is, "To revise the corporate governance provisions applicable to the Roman Catholic Church and provide for the investigation of the misappropriation of funds by religious corporations."
Referring specifically to structures of the Roman Catholic Church, the bill states: "The corporation shall have a board of directors consisting of not less than seven nor more than thirteen lay members. The archbishop or bishop of the diocese or his designee shall serve as an ex-officio member of the board of directors without the right to vote."
According to the bill, members of the board are to be elected from among the congregation, and the authority of the bishop and pastor limited to "matters pertaining exclusively to religious tenets and practices."
(To view the legislation, go to: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/TOB/S/2009SB-01098-R00-SB.htm)Andrew McDonald and Michael Lawlor, co-chairs of the Judiciary committee, say the bill was proposed as a response to an incident in which a priest was convicted of stealing 1.4 million dollars from a parish in Darien...
Lawlor, in an email posted by American Papist blogger Thomas Peters, justified the bill by claiming it changed "current state statutes governing Roman Catholic corporations" as "suggested by parishioners who were the victims of theft of their funds in several parishes, who felt existing laws 'prevented them from dealing with the misuse and theft of funds.'"
"I agree with you that the whole notion of having a statute governing the church seems like an intrusion on the separation of church and state, but the current law does that already," Lawlor wrote, who emphasized that corporate law "probably should make sure there cannot be deception of parishioners."
...Many have raised concerns of the bill's constitutionality. Attorney Philip Lacovara, a Bridgeport Catholic, told the committee: "In more than forty years as a constitutional law teacher and practitioner, I cannot recall a single piece of proposed legislation at any level of government that more patently runs afoul of [the First Amendment]" than the bill in question. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops general counsel Anthony Picarello also expressed shock at legislation "so blatantly unconstitutional," according to the National Catholic Register.The Knights of Columbus, the Family Institute of Connecticut, and Connecticut Catholic Conference as well as individual bishops are calling on Catholics and non-Catholics alike to intercept the bill, which is being denounced as a dire and unprecedented threat to religious groups' right to self-government.
Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut explained the need for an interfaith presence at the Wednesday hearing. "As Ben Franklin told the Founders while they were signing the Declaration of Independence, 'either we hang together or we will all hang separately,'" said Wolfgang. "Legislators need to understand that this bill is an attack on everyone's religious liberty."
..."Our church in the state of Connecticut is facing an unprecedented intrusion by the state legislature into its own internal affairs," Bridgeport's Bishop William Lori told parishioners Friday. "If this bill were to be enacted, your bishop would have virtually no real relationship with the 87 parishes.
"You have to understand how radically this departs from the teaching of the Church and the discipline of the Church, and how gravely unconstitutional it is for a state to move in and try to reorganize the internal structure of the Church. It is a violation, a grave violation of religious liberty."
Lori scoffed at the notion that the state, which now has a billion-dollar deficit, proposed the bill out of a need for greater regulation of Church finances.
"This bill was dropped into the hopper the day before the same-sex 'marriage' bill was to be heard," said Lori. "This is a thinly-veiled attempt to silence the Church on important issues of the day - but especially with regard to marriage."
Both committee co-chairs McDonald and Lawler are outspoken same-sex "marriage" advocates, and have been critical of the Catholic Church's opposition to laws dismantling the legal definition of marriage.
"The real purpose of this bill is payback to the bishops and pastors of the Roman Catholic Church in Connecticut for opposing gay marriage," State Sen. Michael McLachlan of Danbury wrote in his blog...
