Doug Kmiec: Stand By Your Man

The Daily Beast is running a story about some of the prominent "conservatives" who crossed over to support Obama in 2008 (i.e. the "Obamacons"), noting that many of them are remaining steadfast in their support for The One. I find it interesting that, with one or two exceptions, most of the folks can no longer be described as "conservative" in their viewpoints, assuming they ever were actually conservatives (a number of them pan Romney, for example, for - of all things - being too conservative). But I'd like to focus in particular on one of the figures profiled in this story - our old "friend" Doug Kmiec.

When last we saw Kmiec, it was shortly after he had penned a break-up letter to his beloved over the HHS Mandate, but after Obama's feigned "compromise", he was taken strongly in the arms again of the The One, and he did not remember that he had ever felt the pain of betrayal and separation.

And, so, we fast-forward several months to today, and we find Kmiec quoted in the pages of The Daily Beast clarifying for us, in no uncertain terms, that he is firmly in the camp of the ObamaCaths - nay, the DemoCaths - for whom Catholic teaching is generally an afterthought in relation to the overall Democrat agenda, except insofar as said teaching can be twisted to push said agenda.

One of the most contentious ObamaCon arguments was offered by Douglas Kmiec, also a veteran of Reagan’s Office of Legal Counsel and a law professor at conservative Pepperdine University. Kmiec, who served as ambassador to Malta during the first two years of the Obama administration, tried to square his Obama endorsement with his devout Catholic beliefs and remains an unrepentant ObamaCon, even as Catholic leaders have proclaimed the president’s “war on religion.”

“I am strongly in the president’s camp, even as his opposition has been doing its darnedest to overstate a few concerns about the usual subjects,” [ED.: And what would those "concerns about the usual subjects" be, Dougie? Abortion? You mean to tell me that we shouldn't have concerns about the fact that Obama is the best friend the pro-abortion crowd ever had in the White House? And that we are "overstating" those concerns? Must I really list out all of the things he's done to promote abortion during his term, including nearly shutting down the government and putting our bond rating at risk just to maintain Planned Parenthood's place at the government trough? Just look at the festival celebration of all things abortion going on down in Charlotte right now. Yeah, Doug, we're "overstating" the concerns about "the usual subjects"] Kmiec wrote in an email. “Having served in Europe for the president, I know the very positive effect he has had on international relationships. His patience, discernment, and intelligence are much admired. Domestically, the president was handed the worst possible economic hand, and largely, though of course not perfectly, he has met the economic challenge [ED.: Really? How? I want specifics.] … This is supposed to be Mr. Romney’s area of strength, but so far, his ideas are either indecipherable or a rather lame trickle-down do-over.” [ED.: Hey, Doug, he had the same economic views 4 years ago. You remember? Back when YOU WERE A BIG ROMNEY BACKER? And, interestingly, "trickle-down" economics was how leftists used to deride the economic agenda of your former boss, Ronald Reagan. You remember, don't you, the economic agenda that led to a 20-year period of economic growth? Are you also going to renounce the Reagan legacy? So,in addition to abandoning conservative social principles (or at least putting them on the back burner), you're also abandoning conservative economic principles. Not really "conservative" then.]

“Yes, he could have handled the HHS contraceptive issue in a more accommodating and sensitive way to the formal teaching of my church, [ED.: He could have "handled the ... issue in a more accomodating and sensitive way"? Nice of you to thow us that bone, Dougie, even if it is more of an afterthought and not in strong enough language condemning the serious threat to religious freedom, especially considering that the Bishops have made this issue one of the utmost importance. But something about the way you couch your language leaves me wondering if you're not creating wiggle room for a "but" somewhere in there. When you say "the formal teaching of my church", I'm getting a sense of "This is really the Bishops' thing; individual Catholics differ on this stuff, and, certainly we don't believe that we can impose the teachings of "my faith" on others via public policy. But Obama could have been more sensitive to the Bishops who really do take this stuff seriously."] and he was again given some very poor advice on the scope of religious exemption [ED.: I love it. It's always someone else's fault - can't blame poor Barack for anything. "He was given bad advice." B.S.!!! Obama was well aware of the Church's position, especially after having it clarified for him by Cardinal Dolan, PRIOR to promulgating the HHS Mandate. And certainly, by the time it was issued and the subsequent firestorm over it had taken place, he was aware that a greater accomodation would be necessary to protect religious liberty. But what did he do? He retrenched. He doubled down on evil. He decided that he'd rather violate the 1st Amendment and religious freedom than do something to anger the core constituency of the Democrat Party - the sex-without-consequences crowd. And guess what? By sticking with Obama, you've sided with that crowd, too, rather than with the religious liberty interests of your Church and the nation as a whole as expressed in the Constitution.] that should have been provided an institution like his honorary alma mater, Notre Dame,” [ED.: Yeah, Obama the Domer. Right up there with Knute Rockne. Why, that makes him practically "Catholic" from an American point of view, so why not just make him the Pope of the U.S.A., deciding matters of religious doctrine for our Church? After all, he's more in tune with the socio-political sentiments of the laity than are those stodgy old all-male Bishops.]  Kmiec added. “Obviously, there is much to do in terms of tax reform and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but because that is so that is another basis for a second term.”

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

Look, Kmiec's continued support for Obama all comes down to one thing: P-R-I-D-E. Kmiec has become FAR too invested in Obama to abandon him now. Kmiec sacrificed friends, standing, and reputation in Catholic conservative circles in order to back The One in 2008, and he has stuck with him despite betrayal and abandonment because he has no where else to go. He could come to his senses and come back to the Catholic and conservative principles he's spent the last 4-and-a-half years betraying, and the Catholic conservative crowd would no doubt welcome him back. But he'd never be fully trusted again. His standing would be diminished, and he would be humbled, having to admit that he had made a mistake.

But, like most turncoats, Kmiec isn't altogether trusted by the lefty Catholics either. I mean, he still talks about abortion and marriage (although he gives them far less prominence than he once did, and makes them more of an afterthought - just a token mention to indicate that he's still in any way authentically "Catholic"), as if those things really matter when the REAL work of promoting the Democrat agenda ... errr ... "social justice" ... is where most of those folks are.   But that's the bed Kmiec has made for himself, so, he continues to lay down with Obama in it.


The Passion of the Kmiec - A Pro Ecclesia Timeline:

September 2012
Doug Kmiec: Stand By Your Man


February 2012
Doug Kmiec Back in Obama's Embrace
Doug Kmiec Thinks He's Breaking Up With Obama, But Obama Already Jilted Him First


September 2009
Kmiec Lies Again: "Obama Has Taken Some Steps Towards [Protecting Life], Perhaps Not as Fast as Some Would Like"


July 2009
"The Passion of the Kmiec" ... The Saga Continues


May 2009
Kmiec Tells Another Lie in Service of Obama
Robert P. George on "Obama and His Pro-Life Apologists"
Robert George vs Douglas Kmiec: How Should a Pro-Life Citizen Respond to Obama? [UPDATED]


April 2009
Cardinal Rigali Calls Out Kmiec on His ESCR Lies
A New Front in the Church's Civil War
Fr. Z Fisks Pathetic Sycophant Kmiec on Notre Dame's Obama Invite
Prof. George Schools Prof. Kmiec ... Again


March 2009
Scholar vs. Hack: Prof. George Schools Prof. Kmiec re: "Did Obama Allow Human Cloning?"
Kmiec Brushes Aside Another Non-Negotiable by Coming Out Against Prop 8


February 2009
Kmiec Calls Pope's Comments "Intrusive"
Catholic World Report: "Douglas Kmiec and His Misinformation Offensive for Barack Obama"


January 2009
Kmiec Claims He's In the Loop for Vatican Post
American Papist's Open Letter to Prof. Kmiec
Kmiec the Martyr
Prof. Kmiec Eulogizes Fr. Neuhaus in a Manner That is All About Prof. Kmiec and Justifying his Obama Vote [UPDATED]


December 2008
Prof. Bainbridge on Doug Kmiec and U.S. Diplomatic Relations with the Holy See


November 2008
Vatican Official Says Kmiec Will Not Become New Vatican Ambassador
The Kmiec Catholic Re-Education Camp
Former Student of Prof. Kmiec Calls Him Out on "Revealing His True Colors"
A Modern-Day "Vicar of Bray"
Douthat Smacks Kmiec
Amy's "Wrap-Up" of Pre-Election Abortion Coverage
Pathetic


October 2008
George Weigel on Kmiec's "Flawed Thinking"
Archbishop Chaput: Kmiec Doing a "Disservice to the Church"
Mainstream Media Compliant in Obama's "Faith Outreach" Pitch
Bill Donohue: "I'm Catholic, Staunchly Anti-Racist, and Support David Duke" [UPDATED]
Debate Over at Amy's: Should Catholics Work for Legal Restrictions on Abortion?
Deacon Fournier Puts Smack Down on Prof. Kmiec
Kmiec's Payoff? [UPDATED]


September 2008
The Obama-Kmiec Magical Mystery "Faith Tour"
Deacon Fournier: "Doug Kmiec’s ‘Can a Catholic Support Him?’ Asks the Wrong Question"
Ponnuru Raps Kmiec for Defending Obama's Born-Alive Vote
"Separate But Equal" Redux - Pro-Life Edition
Mark Stricherz: "Why the Democratic Abortion Strategy is Worse"
Whither the "Catholic Vote"? Some Interesting Posts at the Fidelis Blog


August 2008
Darwin Catholic: "Douglas Kmiec, Master of Dissembling" [UPDATED]
Prof. Rick Garnett on Kmiec's "Missing the Point"
A Former Student of Prof. Kmiec Speaks Out ...
Prof. Kmiec Shifts the Goalposts
Kmiec's "Bridge Too Far"? Obama's Attacks on Justice Thomas
Without Further Ado: Doug Kmiec on McCain v. Obama at Saddleback [UPDATED]
Paging Prof. Kmiec ...
Doug Kmiec Claims Democrats Making "Steps Toward Honoring Life" in Platform
Prof. Garnett Takes on Prof. Kmiec ... Again
Casey Jr. to Get Prime-Time Slot in Denver to Appease Catholics [UPDATED]


July 2008
Fr. Neuhaus Responds to Doug Kmiec
Deal Hudson's Open Letter to Doug Kmiec
National Catholic Register on Catholics, Kmiec, and Obama
Prof. Hadley Arkes: "Political Distraction Among the Catholics"


June 2008
Doug Kmiec - What He Said Then vs. What He Says Now Re: Constitutional Jurisprudence
What is the "Pro-Life Position" Regarding Abortion?
Traumatized
Unrequited Love
Doug Kmiec: "After Meeting with Barack" [UPDATED]
Cranky Conservative: "But At Least He Says It with a Smile"
Doug Kmiec Again Places Platitudes Above Policy [UPDATED]
Prof. Bainbridge on "Obama, Abortion, & Catholics"
Prof. Rick Garnett on Kmiec's Latest Nonsense
Deacon Keith Fournier: "Why I Disagree with Doug Kmiec, Once Again"
Give It a Rest Already, Prof. Kmiec!
Doug Kmiec's Newfound Celebrity Status Among Those on the Left
Doug Kmiec Soon To Be Sorely Disappointed
E.J. Dionne on Kmiec Being Denied Communion [UPDATED]


May 2008
Deal Hudson on Prof. Kmiec and Blurring the Lines Between "Pro-Choice" and Pro-Abortion
Did Doug Kmiec Just Now Catch On That Obama and NARAL Are Politically Conjoined? [UPDATED]
Deal Hudson on "How Obama's Catholics Will Dodge the Infanticide Question"
Kmiec's Dishonesty [UPDATED]
Catholic Teaching and Political Risk Taking: When Credit Isn't Given Where Credit is Due [UPDATED]


April 2008
Kmiec's Wishful Thinking on Obama and Abortion


March 2008
The Curt Jester: "Shameless Garment" [UPDATED]
So-Called "Catholic Reaganite" Doug Kmiec Endorses Obama [UPDATED]
No'bama for Me, Thanks"
Can a Catholic Vote for Obama?


February 2008
Obama's Pledge to Planned Parenthood: "I Will Not Yield"
"Why American Catholics are Supporting Barack Obama"
How the Catholic Left Will Tackle McCain
Why Does Kmiec Criticize McCain for Positions on Which He Gave Romney a Pass?
Deal Hudson on "Douglas Kmiec and the Lure of Obama"
Douglas W. Kmiec on "The Moral Duty to Inquire"
Professor Bainbridge: "Will Catholic Reaganites Go for Obama?"
Deal Hudson: "Preacher Man: Barack Obama and the the Gospel of Liberalism"
"Sorry, Doug Kmiec, But This Catholic Isn't Buying Obama"
Ramesh Ponnuru on Douglas Kmiec and "Catholic Reaganites for Obama" [UPDATED]
Romney Advisor Says Obama "a Natural for the Catholic Vote"

Virgil Goode: Mr. Independent

Yesterday, The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran the following opinion piece on my friend Virgil Goode, who is seeking the Constitution Party nomination for President:

Virgil Goode has run for office as a Democrat and as a Republican. Partisanship never has defined his career. He is a true independent. Goode is his own man, which may help to explain why in 2008 he lost his seat in the U.S. House.

For many years Goode represented a Southside district in the state Senate. He promoted rural interests. When the parties split 20-20 in the chamber, he compelled his reluctant party colleagues to share power with Republicans. The Democrats did not embrace power-sharing because they believed in comity. Goode gave them no choice. He also once challenged Chuck Robb in a primary for U.S. Senate.

Goode won election to the 5th House District as a Democrat. Later he became an independent before joining the GOP.

Goode now is seeking the Constitution Party's nomination for president. He concedes his election is unlikely, yet he has points he wants to make. The Constitution Party embraced a Tea Party agenda before the movement's birth. "To thine own self be true," advises Polonius in "Hamlet." Virgil Goode has not strayed.

(emphasis added)

The Atlantic also has a good piece on Virgil: "Virgil Goode: This Is What a Third-Party Candidate Looks Like".

... But it's that mix of social conservatism with economic populism that doesn't get much a hearing as it should, based on Americans' political views. As my colleague Ron Brownstein noted in his column last week "each side's electoral coalition is now bound together far more by shared cultural values than by common economic interests."

That means Republicans, increasingly dependent on the support of blue-collar voters, are campaigning on cuts to popular entitlement programs that may rankle some of the GOP rank-and-file. And it means that Democrats can't effectively win over these voters with populist appeals because the party's views on litmus test cultural issues, like immigration and abortion, are well out of step with their personal beliefs.

That's why former Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode's third-party presidential candidacy should be receiving more attention. The Democrat-turned-Republican congressman is campaigning on a platform of reducing immigration (legal and illegal), protecting Social Security and Medicare and balancing the budget immediately.

Goode, by virtue of his relative anonymity and likely lack of funding, probably won't get much traction -- even if he emerges with the Constitution Party nomination. But he's the prototype of a third-party candidate that would have the potential to get support from a swath of voters who would see both President Obama and Mitt Romney as elites disconnected from the concerns of working-class Americans. Americans Elect isn't jumping to his side, but he's the type of candidate whose positions could resonate with a significant minority of voters.

The media tend to think that the impetus for third-party candidates comes from Americans who are just plain sick of politics-as-usual and want a truth-teller to come in and shake things up. Hence, the regular Bloomberg boomlet in certain circles. In reality, the greatest demand for a third-party candidate would come from the voters whose views are most out of line with the political establishment and most newspaper editorial boards.

(emphasis added)

My Comments:
Some background on the candidate: Virgil is 65 years old, although he looks and seems younger than that. He served in the Virginia Senate for 24 years, from 1972 to 1996. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 and served for 12 years until 2008, when his seat was targeted by national Democrats because Charlottesville was part of his district.

(Incidentally, Tom Perriello, the ObamaCath co-founder of Soros-backed Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, who defeated Virgil in 2008 thanks to Soros and the Democrats' focus on the 5th District seat, himself went down to defeat in 2010 - in no small part for selling out his Catholic faith in service of Obama and ObamaCare.)

Virgil is a solid conservative of a definite Southern populist bent. He was a Democrat for most of his political career, but like so many conservative Demcorats, left the party as the party lurched leftward. He was one of only 5 Democrats in the House who voted to impeach Clinton (again, remember that C'ville was part of his district, so that was something of an act of political courage). He then became an independent caucusing with the Republicans in the late 90s, and eventually became a Republican during the early Bush years.

As for policy, he is solidly conservative, especially on the issues that matter most to me. NOTE: Just as I disagree with Rick Santorum, who I am currently supporting, on his harsh immigration rhetoric, neither am I in agreement with Virgil on immigration - and Virgil is far more belligerant on the topic than Santorum has been. That said, his views on immigration are not disqualifying for me, and I could gladly cast a ballot for Virgil Goode based on his record and his views on other issues of importance to me. Virgil's views on the issues can be read on his campaign website.

A personal note on former Congressman Goode: Virgil was of immense help to me when I was Mayor of Columbia, Virginia, in my work on Columbia's revitalization plan. He took a personal interest in the town, and actually made a public appearance at a town festival to promote the revitalization process. Note that this was a town of only 50 people whose electoral value was probably close to zero compared to other localities in Virgil's district such as Charlottesville.

Rick Santorum's Economic Freedom Agenda

Rick Santorum writes in today's Wall Street Journal:

... my opponent in the Republican primaries, Mitt Romney, had a last-minute conversion. Attempting to distract from his record of tax and fee increases as governor of Massachusetts, poor job creation, and aggressive pursuit of earmarks, he now says he wants to follow my lead and lower individual as well as corporate marginal tax rates.

It's a good start. But it doesn't go nearly far enough. He says his proposed tax cuts would be revenue neutral and, borrowing the language of Occupy Wall Street, promises the top 1% will pay for the cuts. No pro-growth tax policy there, just more Obama-style class warfare.

By contrast, in my first 100 days as president, I'll submit to Congress and work to pass a comprehensive pro-growth and pro-family Economic Freedom Agenda. Here are 10 of its main initiatives:

• Unleash America's energy. I'll approve the Keystone Pipeline for jobs and energy security, and sign an order on day one unleashing America's domestic energy production, allowing states to choose where they want to explore for oil and natural gas and to set their own regulations for hydrofracking.

• Stop job-killing regulation. All Obama administration regulations that have an economic burden over $100 million will be repealed, including the Environmental Protection Agency rule on CO2 emissions that's already shut down six power plants. I'll review all regulations, making sure they use sound science and cost benefit analysis.

• A pro-growth, pro-family tax policy. I'll submit to Congress comprehensive tax policies to strengthen opportunity in our country, with only two income tax rates of 10% and 28%. To help families, I'll triple the personal deduction for children and eliminate the marriage tax penalty.

• Restore America's competitiveness. The corporate tax rate should be halved, to a flat rate of 17.5%. Corporations should be allowed to expense all business equipment and investment. Taxes on corporate earnings repatriated from overseas should be eliminated to bring home manufacturing. I'll take the lead on tort reform to lower costs to consumers.

• Rein in spending. I'll propose spending cuts of $5 trillion over five years, including cuts for the remainder of fiscal year 2013. I'll propose budgets that spend less money each year than prior years, and I'll reduce the nondefense-related federal work force by at least 10%, without replacing them with private contractors.

• Repeal and replace ObamaCare. I'll submit legislation to repeal ObamaCare, and on day one issue an executive order ending related regulatory obligations on the states. I'll work with Congress to replace ObamaCare with competitive insurance choices to improve quality and limit the costs of health care, while protecting those with uninsurable health conditions. In contrast, Gov. Romney signed into law RomneyCare, which provided the model for ObamaCare. Its best-known feature is its overreaching individual health-care mandate. But it shares over a dozen other similarities with ObamaCare and has given Massachusetts the highest health-care premiums in the nation, and longer waits for health care.

• Balance the budget. I'll submit to Congress a budget that will balance within four years and call on Congress to pass a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution which limits federal spending to 18% of GDP...

[More]

"Rather Than Get All Searching About It ..."

I must agree with another commenter at The American Catholic who dubbed the following comment by my friend Darwin Catholic as the "money quote of the week":

... I’m all the more annoyed in that I bothered to read the thing ["Towards Reforming the International Financial & Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority"] and admit where I clearly didn’t see eye to eye with it. I suppose, if nothing else, it’s a good lesson that if something seems too silly or trivial to be “Church teaching” rather than getting all searching about it, one should assume that it in fact is.

(emphasis added)

Perry Stays on Message: Attacks President Zero on Jobs, Economy; Romney Detracts from Message by Attacking Perry and Texas on Jobs

Just another reason why I will NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EVER vote for that effete, liberal, establishmentarian, pro-abort, government-health-care-mandating piece of RINO $h!+, Mitt Romney.

The Debate Answer I Long to Hear

[Laughs good-naturedly in response to question] Well, I may not have served in the Obama Administration or appeared in the pages of Vogue magazine, but I don't think those are necessarily valid measures of "sophistication" or "intelligence", either. [Looks gravely into the camera] Look, it's not a matter of "believes" or "doesn't believe" in a scientific theory that, quite honestly, a whole lot of people are skeptical about, and rightly so, given the fact that the earth has heated and cooled all on its own - without any help from humans - for millenia. What this is about is that, in one of the worst economies in our nation's history, with millions of folks unemployed and struggling to make ends meet, it just doesn't make sense to implement the sort of policy schemes supported by Ambassador Huntsman and President Obama that will devastate our already fragile economy, throw even more people out of work, and raise the costs of heating and cooling our homes and driving our cars beyond what people can afford.

So, the question is not whether I quote/unquote "believe" in science the way some folks around here seem to treat it like some sort of religion, but rather why Ambassador Huntsman and President Obama and those like them, who seek to impose their catastrophic tax and cap regulatory schemes that will only further devastate our economy, seem so unconcerned about the working families of this country on whom their policies will most heavily fall. I'm for putting America BACK to work, not breaking our backs economically to futher some environmentalist dogma.

When President Obama Rated His First Term Thus Far as a "Solid B+" ...

... he was apparently referring to America's bond rating under his leadership.

Romney: ‘‘I’m Also Unemployed’’

Mitt Romney is "unemployed" and his sons "served their country", not by joining the military, but by working on his 2008 campaign.

Good grief. Someone needs to save the Republicans from themselves before they actually nominate this out-of-touch, politically tone deaf maroon.

Malthusian Nonsense Alert: "The Earth Is Full"

How long before China's chief cheerleader in the West, the New York Times' Thomas Friedman, calls for a U.N.-mandated 1-child policy for the entire world?

... “In China’s thousands of years of civilization, the conflict between humankind and nature has never been as serious as it is today,” China’s environment minister, Zhou Shengxian, said recently. “The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the worsening ecological environment have become bottlenecks and grave impediments to the nation’s economic and social development.” What China’s minister is telling us, says Gilding, is that “the Earth is full. We are now using so many resources and putting out so much waste into the Earth that we have reached some kind of limit, given current technologies. The economy is going to have to get smaller in terms of physical impact.”

We will not change systems, though, without a crisis. But don’t worry, we’re getting there.

We’re currently caught in two loops: One is that more population growth and more global warming together are pushing up food prices; rising food prices cause political instability in the Middle East, which leads to higher oil prices, which leads to higher food prices, which leads to more instability. At the same time, improved productivity means fewer people are needed in every factory to produce more stuff. So if we want to have more jobs, we need more factories. More factories making more stuff make more global warming, and that is where the two loops meet...

[More]

Heck, for all I know, given Friedman's crush on all things ChiCom, he's probably already suggested a U.N.-mandated 1-child policy.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Hypocritical Malthusian Nonsense: Father of 5, Ted Turner, Wants U.N. to Institute World-Wide 1-Child Policy

Man vs. Nature: the Inhuman Agenda Behind the Fight Against “Climate Change”

What the One-Child Policy Has Wrought

Baby-Hating Malthusian Nonsense Goes Mainstream at Copenhagen

China Begins to "Figure it Out" on Demographics

Obama Culture of Death Update™: President's "Science Czar" Supports Forced Population Control Measures [UPDATED]

UK Government Official Says Having More Than 2 Children "Irresponsible"; Catholics Respond

Rich Leonardi on the "Obnoxiousness" of the Concept of "Carbon Footprints"

Malthusian Nonsense Alert: "Save the Planet — Have Fewer Kids"

Deacon Fournier Reviews Population Controllers

Malthusian Nonsense Alert: Babies a Drag on the Economy, Report Says

Darwin Catholic: "Want Sustainable? Try a Family"

Malthusian Nonsense in the Extreme: "When Should You Die?"

Population Control Movement is "Number One Violator of Human Rights," Author Claims

USAToday Columnist: Religion is Killing the Planet

The Pitter-Patter of Carbon Footprints ...

Cardinal Pell Criticizes Australian Medical Ass'n for Publishing Letter Advocating Carbon Tax on Children

Professor Solves Global Warming: Let’s Tax Reproduction

Global Alarming Update: Focus on So-Called "Carbon Footprint" Anti-Family

Malthusian Nonsense from "Global Warming" Alarmists

Cardinal Pell on Global Warming Alarmists: "Scaremongers" and "Zealots"

Look on the Bright Side, Cleveland ...

... at least you're not Detroit.

Joe Hargrave on "Catholic Distributarianism"

Definitely read this very interesting and enlightening post by Joe Hargrave on whether Distributism and libertarianism are compatible. Here's an excerpt:

... Though I will be branded by some as a heretic for arguing this, the labor theory of property developed by Locke and accepted by most libertarians is not essentially different than Leo’s own treatment of property in Rerum Novarum. Let us compare, bearing in mind that they don’t proceed in exactly the same manner, but make all of the same points in their arguments...

(Hat tip: The American Catholic)

The ‘‘Austrian’’ vs. ‘‘Distributist’’ Debate Among Catholics

A very interesting guest post at The American Catholic.

"Recovery Summer" is Obama's Version of "Mission Accomplished" [UPDATED]

In every day parlance among us yokels, it's called counting your eggs before they've hatched. In political terms, it could be dismissed as "Oops", except for the fact that the repercussions are so far reaching. Jake Tapper reports:

... Asked to what degree he regrets his administration's decision to call this Recovery Summer, the president stammered then said, “I don't regret the notion that we are moving forward, but because of the steps that we've taken. And I'm going to have a press conference next week, where, after you guys are able to hear where we're at, we'll be able to answer some specific questions.”

He emphasized: “the key point I'm making right now is that the economy is moving in a positive direction, jobs are being created; they're just not being created as fast as they need to, given the big hole that we experienced…We're moving in the right direction. We just have to speed it up.”

And, so, what exactly do we have to show for all those hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars spent on Porkulus ... err ... I mean ... the "stimulus package" and all the mountains of debt that threaten to bury our children and our children's children alive?

The unemployment rate went up slightly in August to 9.6%, over the July rate of 9.5%, and overall the economy shed 54,000 jobs, according to the latest report from the BLS. Private sector growth slowed from in July, dropping from an adjusted gain of 107,000 to 67,000, while the government terminated 131,000 jobs:

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000) in August, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Government employment fell, as 114,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000).

The news didn’t get any better on the long-term front, either — and has remained little changed between Recovery Summer and last summer’s meltdown...

[More]

Looks like the only change you can really believe in is located between the cushions of your couch.


UPDATE (7 September)
So...how was YOUR summer?

President Clings to "Bitter Clinger" Meme

From the PostPartisan blog at The Washington Post:

... I thought President Obama struck the wrong note in answer to a question about the rally from Brian Williams of NBC News.

The president started off okay, acknowledging that “Mr. Beck and the rest of those folks were exercising their rights under our Constitution exactly as they should.”

But then he fell back on an abstract analysis eerily reminiscent of his notorious “cling to guns or religion” riff from campaign 2008:

I -- I do think that it's important for us to recognize that right now, the country's going through a very difficult time, as a consequence of years of neglect in a whole range of areas. Our schools not working the way they need to, so we've slipped in terms of the number of college graduates, you know?

A financial system that was not, you know, operating in a way that maintained integrity and assured that the people who were investing or who were buying a home or were using a credit card weren't getting in some way cheated. We had a health-care system that was broken and that was bankrupting families and businesses. All those issues are big, tough, difficult issues. And those are just our domestic issues. That's before we get to policy issues in two wars. And a continuing battle against terrorists who want to do us harm. So, given all those anxieties -- and given the fact that, you know, in none of these situations are you going to be fix things overnight. It's not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That's been true throughout our history.

That’s a pretty confident analysis from someone who admitted that he did not even watch the rally on TV. I’m not sure exactly how I would feel if the president labeled me an anxious member of a “certain” subculture manipulated -- “stirred up” -- by “somebody like a Mr. Beck.” But I am sure I wouldn’t feel respected.

[...]

This was such a silly political unforced error that I have to assume Obama committed it out of sincere belief...

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Obama Delegate Admits the Obvious: "Bitter" Was Indeed a Big Deal

What Obama Really Meant Was "They're Nuts"

Obama Disses Blue Collar Voters Again: Says They "Cling to Guns or Religion" Because They Are "Bitter" [UPDATED]

Algore Offers Words of Encouragement to College Graduates

So uplifting.

Democrat Mickey Kaus Asks "What's Texas's Secret?"

Ohio and Michigan, pay attention to this one:

Why is the state of Texas doing relatively well in this recession--losing jobs later, and recovering jobs earlier--than California is? ... Texas has a relatively low rate of unionization--about a third of California's. That means a) fewer rigidities in the labor market, allowing it to adjust to the market more quickly--tiny quick wage cuts for a lot of people, for eample, mean employers don't have to lay people off as quickly b) fewer rigidities in organization structure--they don't have UAW-style work rules at Dell; and c) the absence of the public sector union "death-grip on state and local government" and politics and finances, which has helped produce near-bankruptcy at the state level (and actual bankruptcy in Vallejo). ... When Texas creates green jobs, maybe it's not just a power play by the union representing DWP workers to grab another stream of taxpayer funding, or by the Teamsters to monopolize employment at the port of LA. Maybe they are actual green jobs! ...

___________________________

Outgoing SEIU union President Andy Stern tells WaPo's Ezra Klein that unions are

the greatest middle-class, job-creating mechanism that we have ever had in America that doesn't cost tax payers a dime.

Needless to say, under Klein's probing questioning Stern had to admit the idiocy of his remark. ... Oh wait. This is Ezra Klein we are talking about. There was no probing questioning. It was left to Klein's colleague Charles Lane to show the idiocy of Stern's remark:

Really? Aren’t unions the main defenders of the Davis-Bacon Act, a certifiable waster of tax dollars and destroyer of jobs? Unions share the blame for the downfall of General Motors and Chrysler, too, don’t they? Last I checked, their bailouts had cost taxpayers more than a dime.

I have also heard that the untouchable pensions and other benefits of public sector unions, including Stern’s SEIU, are pushing California into fiscal and economic disaster. I’m just back from Los Angeles, where the mayor, trying to close a $400 million-plus budget gap, has announced layoffs and service cuts, which can only be avoided if city employee unions accept wage cuts and contribute more to their own pensions. So far, the unions say no. Their counterproposal calls on the city to raise dog license fees and pass out more parking tickets, among other gimmicks and stopgaps.

Not to mention the more basic point that when GM's unions won wage increases, back in the 1960s and 1970s when the industry had the closed, oligopoly structure unions prefer, it was GM's customers who paid the resulting increased prices. And GM's customers were by and large poorer than GM's workers. The fact that they suffered the loss as consumers and not "tax payers" may not have been much consolation.

Stern's soundbite is the sort of BS a leader can only get away with when he is surrounded by yes-men (and yes-journalists). Otherwise somebody would have called him on it long before his "exit interview." ... This insularity helps explain why Stern was such a stunningly ineffective spokesman for his pet let-unions-avoid-the-secret-ballot ("card check") plan, which even Klein admits is now dead --though, of course, Barbara Boxer is still a "strong supporter." ...

Regular Guy Paul on the Link Between Fiscal and Social Conservatism

(Hat tip: The Cranky Conservative)

From a speech delivered by our old friend Regular Guy Paul last Saturday:

... Imagine if you will a society that embraced abortion, euthanasia, easy divorce and gay marriage, and that denigrated family life and religious faith. Could such a society, placing personal pleasure above family responsibility, ever show enough self-reliance to adopt fiscally conservative policies geared towards smaller government and lower taxes? I have a pretty good imagination, but I can’t imagine that. Could such a society find among its numbers enough young men with the courage and spirit of self-sacrifice to maintain its ability to defend its borders and its interests? I don’t believe so.

Likewise, would a people who turn first to government for the answer to every problem be likely to show the sense of responsibility necessary to defend life and family? I seriously doubt it.

I could go on in this vein, but I think you see my point. Our conservatism can be comprehensive, or it can be incomplete. And if incomplete, then it will be unstable and unworkable in the long run...

[Read the whole thing]

The Cranky Con expands on the Regular Guy's thesis:

... This is a great summation of the nexus between social and fiscal conservatism. I would also remind folks of how often “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” politicos wind up sticking to their guns on the latter but not so much on the former – see Schwarzenegger, Arnold.

Palin Pwns Schwartzenegger on Climate Change

After Arnold Schwartzenegger's bizarre attack on Sarah Palin over her climate change stance (he implied that she is a so-called "denier" when the exact opposite is the case), Sarah Palin responded with a Facebook post revealing that she has more stones than California's girly man governor could ever dream of having:

Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation’s only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can’t primarily blame man’s activities for those changes. And while I did look for practical responses to those changes, what I didn’t do was hamstring Alaska’s job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act “greener than thou” when talking to reporters.

- Sarah Palin

(Hat tip: Ed Morrissey)

Charlie Crist Caught Lying About Support for Porkulus: Exposed by Rolling Stone

Ed Morrissey reports:

... Dickinson posted the transcript of that question and answer yesterday at Rolling Stone:

Rolling Stone: Just a final question: Had you been in the Senate, would you have voted with the other Republicans for the stimulus package?

Crist: Absolutely.

Why did Dickinson decide to post this? He objected to Crist’s “going wobbly” on Porkulus, but it goes beyond wobbliness. Crist attempted to tell CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he never endorsed it at all:

“I didn’t endorse it, I didn’t even have a vote on the darn thing.”

That’s not wobbliness, it’s a flat-out lie, as Dickinson’s transcript makes clear. Crist was busy helping Obama promote the bill in Florida, after all, while it was still politically popular. Its failure has made it toxic to Crist, but rather than admit that he was wrong for backing it, he’d rather try to rewrite history instead. Dickinson just reminds us that Crist’s support for this was not nebulous at all, but absolute.

(emphasis in original)

My Comments:
Can you say U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio?

HotAir's Strange Assessment of the Virginia GOP Electoral Juggernaut [UPDATED]

Leave it to a God-hating, anti-Catholic, self-described "squishy on abortion" libertine like "Allahpundit" to view the results of yesterday's elections and come away with this ludicrous reality-impaired assessment:

One interesting footnote to this race in case you haven’t followed it is that Deeds did his level best to paint the Republican as a hard-right culture warrior while McDonnell, wisely, ran on jobs. Just one more bit of evidence that fiscal conservatism, not social conservatism, is the GOP’s path going forward.

Please.

Yes, Governor-elect Bob McDonnell is a fiscal conservative and certainly ran as one during his campaign. But he's also a hard-core social conservative, too, and virtually everybody in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and anyone outside of Virginia who was paying attention to the race, knows it. McDonnell's opponent, Creigh Deeds, and Deeds' cheerleading section at The Washington Post saw to that, making McDonnell's social conservatism - highlighting a dissertation McDonnell wrote in 1989 as a 34-year-old grad student that was critical of mothers working outside the home, argued for preserving the “traditional family” structure, and concluded that “every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators” - one of the most prominent issues in the campaign. McDonnell didn't need to highlight his social conservative bona fides (although his views on those issues are every bit as prominently displayed on his campaign website as are his fiscal and economic policy positions) because his opponent was doing that for him.

In addition, Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli is also a hard-core social conservative. And everybody in Virginia knows that, as well.

That fact didn't seem to hurt either McDonnell or Cuccinelli - both devout pro-life Catholics - one bit (and certainly helped them among the significant base of voters for whom such issues are of primary importance), as evidenced by their winning their races by over 15 percentage points each.

If anything, yesterday's results show that the key for the GOP to remain unified and win elections is to run as BOTH a fiscally AND a socially conservative party.

And just in case it wasn't completely obvious that social/cultural issues aren't losing issues, check out the results of the gay marriage referendum in Maine. Voters in Maine - that's MAINE, mind you; home to Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe - voted yesterday to repeal the state's recently enacted same-sex "marriage" law.

Yeah, "Allahpundit", whatever.


UPDATE
Deal Hudson highlights the genuine social conservative bona fides of yesterday's electoral victors:

... It's important, as well, that the GOP notes the kind of candidates who won in New Jersey and Virginia -- pro-life, pro-family, and aligned with religious conservative groups, both Catholic and Evangelical.

Bob McDonnell, the new governor of Virgina, is a bona fide religious conservative among Republicans, and a practicing Catholic who attended Notre Dame and who maintains strong ties to Evangelicals as a result of his Master's degree from Regent University.

The attempt of his Democratic opponent, Creigh Deeds, to smear McDonnell based upon his Regent's Master's thesis not only fell flat, it turned around and bit Deeds.

The new Virginia attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, has been a Catholic pro-life GOP activist in northern Virginia for many years. His election is the product of Cuccinelli's decades-long effort of building a religious conservative coalition to back his candidacy. That coalition undoubtedly helped both McDonnell and Bill Bolling, the new Lieutenant Governor.

[More]

UPDATE #2
Bill Donohue of The Catholic Leagues says that last night was a "Big Night for Catholic Values".


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Virginia Democrat Stakes Gubernatorial Campaign on Killing Babies [UPDATED]

Pot ... Kettle