Citizen Tom

H/T to A Catholic Notebook.   Soutenus posted the video below here.

The video dates from 9/21/57.  Mike Wallace conducts an interview with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.  In the interview we have an extraordinary juxtaposition.

• On behalf of Phillip Morris, Wallace advertises cigarettes, which are now notorious for killing adults.
• Sanger pleads for birth control, which now even receives government funding — much like the funding tobacco use to get.
  

What the interview does not entirely make clear is exactly what kind of birth control Sanger wanted.   Apparently, Sanger never advocated abortion.   She advocated contraceptive devices.  Nonetheless, the organization she founded is now gun-ho for abortions.

As a result of the controversy she stirred up, a fair amount of what is either mythology or not mythology surrounds Sanger.

• This National Review article, A Dark Past, for example portrays Sanger as a diabolical, racist figure.  This National Right to Life article stresses Sanger’s efforts in eugenics.
  
• On the other hand, other websites depict Sanger more favorably.  Sanger’s  Wikipedia biography, for example, is sympathetic.  This Planned Parenthood website portrays Sanger as an admirable heroine.
  

Was Sanger a diabolical figure or a heroine?  I do not know.  All I know is that her legacy, Planned Parenthood, does not speak well of her.

One thing we have to learn from the study of historical figures such as Margaret Sanger is that they were not that much different from most of us.  Whether you approve Sanger or not, what is obvious is that she worked hard and risked much for the cause she adopted as her own.  For example, she obviously found the interview with Wallace trying, and he most certainly did his best to put her on he spot.  Yet she gamely did her best.

So what was the problem with Sanger?  While it is not our place to judge Sanger, we do have to live with what she helped to set in motion. Those who adopted her cause as their own have succeeded in legalizing abortion as birth control.  Sanger’s followers insist the rest of us treat abortions as an entirely moral and even worthy of great respect.   With religious fervor, they demand we participate in the sacrifice to their god of “reason” by paying for abortions with our taxes.   They so insist on the right to their own choice they would leave no one else with a choice.

Cartoon from here.

Cartoon from here.

Taxes cannot be avoided.  Every time we buy something, we pay a portion of the purchase price in taxes.  Attend a park, and there is an entrance fee.  If you own a house, you will pay a property tax.  Even before you get your paycheck, your government has already taken its cut.

By what right does government tax us?  Until government clearly abuses this right, we rarely give government’s right to tax us much thought.   Yet it is becoming more and more likely that we can expect government to abuse its right to tax us.  In the last election, most voted for a president and a political party that favors more taxes and an expansion of government power.  Whenever government expands its powers, its increases in powers must inevitably come at the expense of individual rights.

The most sacred right is the right to life.  History shows that it is all too common for government to threaten this right.  In the past, governments killed in warfare and in the brutal suppression of enemies of the sovereign.  In the 20th Century, totalitarian regimes systematically murdered millions in concentration camps.  Yet worst is perhaps being done and contemplated even as you read.

Using the absurd pretension that abortion is medicinal and that euthanasia is the kindness that ends all pain, various groups would have government pay for these “services” on the behalf of taxpayers.  In fact, government already pays for abortion “services”.  That includes the Commonwealth of Virginia. Does that fact offend you?  Then read on.

As we prepare for another General Assembly session, we know the opposition we will face — and we know that the most well funded and organized opposition will be that of Planned Parenthood.

This national political behemoth had an income in Fiscal Year 2006 of more than $1 billion. Incredibly, nearly one-third of that income comes from the taxpayers of America. In its last annual report Planned Parenthood reported over $330 million in government — taxpayer — grants.

What is this money being used for?

While Planned Parenthood would like us to believe that its all for health care, nothing could be further from the truth.

Planned Parenthood is the largest private provider of abortion in the United States, performing more than one quarter of all abortions. As the national abortion rate has gradually declined in recent years, Planned Parenthood’s abortion number continues to grow by double digits. Nearly $100 million of their income is from abortion. But by counting other services that are done along with an abortion, such as a pregnancy test and contraception, as separate services, Planned Parenthood is able to downplay the fact that abortion is its number one medical service, and their number one goal.

(Continued here)

When is taxation robbery?  Government robs us when it does not use our money to protect the rights of the People.  How can babies threaten the rights of anyone?  Does the People need to be protected from those who are sick and ill?  Then why does our government need to pay for the extermination of the unborn and the very ill?

TwoConservative has a post that discusses a problem that arises from trying to abort the preborn with Downs syndrome (see here).

I heard the following on Rush Limbaugh.  However, the way I got the text was in an email from Delegate Bob Marshall.  Since Marshall actually does not send out that many emails, it seems apparent this caller on the Rush Limbaugh show got to him.

Below is the transcript of a dad with a Down Syndrome child ttelling Rush Limbaugh listeners of his Sept. 9 meeting with Gov. Sarah Palin in Pennsylvania (and link for pictures).  Delegate Bob Marshall

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?

CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?

RUSH: How about that?

CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: ‘We Love Kids with Down Syndrome.’ So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that –

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?

CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them –

RUSH: Oh, cool!

CALLER: My wife was hold ing our daughter.

RUSH: Very, very, very cool.

CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s awesome,’ because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that’s really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, ‘Hey, can you come with us?’ I was like, ‘Do we have a choice?’

RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn’t have worried. It’s not the Clinton administration.

CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they’re all standing there. We’re in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, ‘May I hold your daughter?’ and our daughter Chloe, who’s five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I’d love to send you maybe when I’m done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who’s nine, he thanked her.

RUSH: This is amazing.

CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.

RUSH: You know what? I want to p ut you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.

CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.

RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?

CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.

RUSH: That’s right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we’ll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.

CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.

RUSH: Oh, no, no. It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You’re doing the Lord’s work.

CALLER: Well, we’re very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they’re angels.

RUSH: That’s the thing. There’s always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here’s the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: That’s what she is.

RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I’m going to put you on hold.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.

Pictures at:  http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_090908/content/01125113.guest.html 
 

Here in this excerpt from the March 16th edition of the Cuccinelli Compass, Senator Ken Cuccinelli provides the scoop. He explains how the Democrats managed to fund Planned Parenthood in spite of Senator Chuck Colgan’s adamant opposition (sarcasm intended).

March 16, 2008

Dear Fellow Republican:

Alright, proving once again why anyone Republican that wants to know why things happen the way they do in Virginia government must subscribe to The Compass… in this issue you will read the real reason why the Planned Parenthood defunding amendment was not in the conference committee report on the budget (the conference committee report is the last version of the budget that we vote on, and it cannot be amended, i.e., it’s a straight up or down vote).

Looks can be deceiving. in fact, often times, that’s exactly what some people want in Richmond.

Intro to Budget Conferences

In the House of Delegates, the Speaker appoints the House conferees for every single bill. In the Senate, the chairman of the relevant committee picks the conferees. That means that Chuck Colgan, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, appoints the Senate conferees on the budget.

The rules for all conference committees require that a majority of the conferees from EACH body, i.e., a majority of House conferees and a majority of Senate conferees, must agree on any aspect of a bill before it can be included in the final conference committee report. The “final conference committee report” is the final version of the bill that will be voted on, up or down, without any amendments allowed.

And Now to Our Story.

Here is what the PP amendment process looked like to everyone on the outside:

On Thursday, February 27^th, when the House budget was on the Senate floor, I distributed my PP amendment to all of the members. That set off a 4 and a half hour set of maneuvers between me and the Democrats in which they tried several different ways to avoid a vote on the amendment altogether. The Dems could not stop us procedurally, so we voted and got the amendment agreed to due to Democrat Senator Chuck Colgan crossing over and voting with the unified bloc of Republicans, thereby achieving a 20-20 tie, with the Lt. Gov. supporting the Republicans to prevail 21-20.

That same night, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman – the same Sen. Chuck Colgan – appointed the Senate conferees on the budget bill. He named himself and fellow Dem Senators Howell, Houck and Saslaw, as well as Republicans Stosch and Wampler. Nothing here looks terribly out of the ordinary.

So, when the budget conference report emerged, not only was the PP amendment gone, but the two House amendments that addressed abortion were also stripped out. i.e., we got nothing.

Many people were shocked that when, for the first time, we got the Senate to agree to a pro-life budget amendment, there was nothing at all in the final budget.

The blame was cast in two primary places: 1) with Senate conferees Saslaw, Houck and Howell, who were reportedly ready to shut down Virginia government rather than let any pro-life budget amendments get out, no matter how small, and 2) with the House conferees for not fighting hard enough for the amendments.

This is exactly who the Senate Democrats want you to blame, but it is not exactly accurate.

.The Rest of the Story

I’ll summarize it for you: Chuck Colgan killed the PP amendment. Wait a minute Ken, a few paragraphs ago you told us that he was the crossover vote needed to pass the amendment?!? Ahhhh, now you’re beginning to see the game.

We have to go back to January for the beginning of the story.

In January, anticipating a challenging negotiation, the Speaker and Sen. Colgan publicly identified who the budget conferees would be, so that they could start their negotiations early. Sen. Colgan announced on the Senate floor his intention to appoint himself and Democrat Senators Howell and Houck, as well as Republican Senators Stosch and Wampler to the conference committee. Herein lies the rub.

Did you notice anything about that list? It does NOT include Sen. Dick Saslaw. One of the most pro-abortion Senators in the legislature.

So, let’s jump forward to February 27^th again.

After Sen. Colgan voted for the PP amendment, that same night he made his official appointments to the budget conference committee and he added Dick Saslaw!

If you click here, you can see the history of HB 30, the budget bill. Scroll to the bottom to see my PP amendment (on 2/27/08) and then – on the same day – the conferee appointments on the same day, but after the amendment passed.

Let me be very clear about the significance of this: Sen. Colgan knew that Dick Saslaw, along with Senators Houck and Howell, would fight to the end against the PP amendment in conference. Read again: HE KNEW when he made the appointments that those three would block the PP amendment being in the final budget – that’s THE REASON he appointed Sen. Saslaw.

Now, as you might imagine, Chuck Colgan was taking tremendous heat in his caucus for his unwillingness to oppose the PP amendment and he has gotten a lot of credit among pro-lifers for joining us on this amendment, but as you can see, he was playing both sides of the issue. For the more public aspect of the contest – voting for the PP amendment – he was with us; however, to take the heat off in his own caucus, in the maneuvers nobody sees (except readers of The Compass.) – appointing conferees to the budget – he cut us off at the knees.

And now you know the rest of THAT story.