Quote of the week…

“The lack of symmetry between the risks taken by Arabs and by Israelis is one result of a different view of the sanctity of human life. The Jewish faith was the first religion to preach this sanctity and to magnify the value of each individual human being in the eyes of his Creator – hence, equally, in other human beings. This is the main reason that Mosaic law differs so markedly in humanity and reason from all the other fiercely retributive codes of the ancient Near East. The value placed on human life by Jews has steadily increased over the centuries, as a response to persecution and, above all, to the Nazi attempt at extermination of the entire people. Israel itself was created as a refuge and fortress in which Jewish lives would be safe from annihilation. It is thus the physical embodiment of the principle that individual life is sacred.” –Paul Johnson

On cross-examination…

“Terrorism isn’t an ‘ism’ like communism or fascism. It is a tactic. Declaring war on a tactic makes sense only if you are willing to follow such convictions wherever they take you. But if terrorism becomes just another irrelevant ‘label’ whenever your convictions become inconvenient, you’re going to get yourself into trouble with the people who took you seriously.” –Jonah Goldberg

Open Query…

“Why can’t Americans recognize a threat unless it comes with a bomb? Why is hijacking an airliner worse than hijacking our language, culture and territory? When will Americans wake up and realize what it will mean to be submerged in a sea of ‘protected minorities’ who have been taught to see us as hegemonic oppressors?” –Paul Craig Roberts

The BIG lie…

“There is no link between homosexuality and child molestation.” –Marianne Duddy, executive director of Dignity/USA, a Catholic homosexual advocacy group. (For more on this controversy, see “Faith Matters….”)

News from the Swamp…

In the Executive Branch, President Bush celebrated Earth Day Monday at snowy upstate New York’s Adirondack Park, touting again his “Clear Skies Initiative” for voluntary pollution emissions credit swaps for power producers, under a nationwide “cap” for sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and mercury. Memo to Mr. Bush: You really will never satisfy the Greens – not even if you talk up “blue skies” or “clear skies” until you are red in the face.

In the House of Commons, the vote was 405-9 on the Barbara Jordan Immigration Reform and Accountability Act (H.R. 3231), which replaces the Immigration and Naturalization Service with two new organizations that split apart the major INS functions of border enforcement and new citizen services. The bill, sponsored by James Sensenbrenner, creates within the Justice Department an “Agency for Immigration Affairs” headed by the Associate Attorney General for Immigration Affairs, and within the new agency the Bureau of Immigration Services and Adjudications and the Bureau of Immigration Enforcement. And not a moment too soon…. Sensenbrenner earlier noted that 13 of the 19 Jihadi terrorists from 9-11 had entered the United States legally on tourist, business or student visas, although four had illegally overstayed their visits, remaining in the United States after their visas had expired.

The House passed the “Child Custody Protection Act,” 260-161. Sociocrats hark to a “slippery slope” argument that the legislation mounts an attack on “reproductive rights,” but in reality this bill affirms the importance of parental authority over a teenage child contemplating an abortion.

In the House of Lords, the Senate passed out of committee the so-called “Employment Non-Discrimination Act,” sending it to the upper chamber floor for a vote. ENDA requires employers to take notice of workers’ “sexual orientation” so as to not give notice to homosexuals, or otherwise discriminate against them. Teddy Kennedy (D-WallyWorld), the bill’s sponsor, protested there is “irrefutable and compelling evidence of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and we must respond.” Should this legislation get through the Senate and House, even organizations holding that homosexuality is inappropriate to their workplace (oh, say, like the BSA and maybe the Catholic Church) – as well as those with First Amendment-protected beliefs that homosexual impulses are immoral – would be prohibited from freely acting in contravention of the act.

Publisher’s Note: The Federalist’s longtime friend and mentor, conservative bulldog Jesse Helms, had open heart surgery Thursday, and we ask our readers to join our prayers for his healing and recovery.

Judicial Benchmarks…

In the halls of justice on the right, the Supreme Court agreed to review the question of whether the anti-racketeering RICO measures have been appropriately applied to Operation Rescue and other pro-life protectors.

In the halls of injustice on the left, in a 6-3 vote, the Supremes ruled that the government does not have to reimburse landowners when restrictions are placed on their use of private property. The national government already “owns” or “controls” millions of acres within the several states, despite the fact that the Constitution makes no allowance for such ownership, much less any allowance to control land owned by private citizens. Laws exist requiring government compensation for land seized out of necessity, but to effectively seize land by regulatory control, so as to avoid the necessity of compensation, sprints across constitutional boundaries.

Memo to the Supremes: As the author of our Constitution, James Madison, noted, “[G]overnment is instituted, and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property….”

And in Left Coast courts, the California Supremes misfired this week, ruling 6-1 that cities and counties may refuse to host gun shows on their public grounds and facilities. Rightly dissenting Justice Janice Rogers Brown declared such a local government decision “exceeds its regulatory authority,” and Second Amendment supporters have further raised the federal objection that such bans violate First Amendment guarantees of free speech. Stay tuned – a 9th Circuit Court panel has once already overturned a local gun show ban as improperly restricting protected commercial speech.

From the “Clinton Presidue” Files….

And in malingering effluent from the “Most Ethical Administration,” court documents made public this week reveal what most of us already knew – the Clintonistas were behind politically chosen tax audits. Senior Internal Revenue Service official Paul Breslan told conservative group Judicial Watch, “What do you expect when you sue the president?” with six witnesses in the room. Unfortunately, according to Judicial Watch, such practices continue; an IRS agent appeared again on the organization’s doorstep after its successful suit forcing release of documents from Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force.

On Wednesday, the DNC launched its “Every Vote Counts” campaign to register millions of voters who could not otherwise name the nation’s capitol. The Sociocrats lured nescient masses to register by inviting them to “a star-studded concert at the historic Apollo Theater in New York City featuring Tony Bennett, k.d. lang, Bebe Winans, Ruben Blades, emcees Chris Tucker & Cicely Tyson, and special guest President Bill Clinton,” according to a DNC press release.

The Commissars…

While the 9-11 attack has certainly flushed out many Leftists and delineated between anti-American activists and patriots, it has also made for strange bedfellows. Disparate rivals from the Right and Left joined forces briefly this week. Friend of The Federalist Rep. Bob Barr and Demo Rep. Jerrold Nadler along with the NRA, ACLU and Eagle Forum, called for a congressional review of privacy issues important to all Americans. “From medical records to surveillance cameras, and from government snooping on the Internet to recent calls for a national ID, we are seeing firsthand, each day, the importance of guarding our right to privacy,” Mr. Barr said. “All Americans deserve to know how new rules or regulations passed by the government will affect their right to privacy.” Mr. Nadler added, “It is important that the individual liberties of our citizens are not sacrificed to the war on terrorism – we can have both privacy and security.”

Regarding the redistribution of your income…

Needed changes may be on the way for the INS, but about that IRS… The National Taxpayers Union announced this week that from 1997 to 1999, the IRS paid out “$2 billion in erroneous Earned Income Credit payments to ‘non-work’ Social Security number holders, most of whom are in America illegally.” That is redistribution of your income par excellence!

From the department of military readiness…

The USS Cole returned to her homeport, a year and a half after Jihadi terrorists, in an act of war, bombed the vessel and killed 17 of her sailors.

From the department of military correctness…

You will recall The Federalist has reported on Lt. Col. Martha McSally, the Air Force officer suing the Defense Department and Mr. Rumsfeld over the policy of strongly recommending head-to-toe covering abayas for military women detailed to Islamic countries. She is continuing her suit, saying she will resist if sent back to Saudi Arabia, “I would not wear the abaya. I would choose to not wear it and see what happens.”

From the states…

About those beleaguered Right persons out on the Left Coast, one of our best allies is under assault to preserve in office California Left Gov. Gray Davis. Steve Frank, former head of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, is a longtime effective laborer for conservative political advance, and that of course is why the Leftmedia perceive him as a threat. It’s also why he’s a good friend of The Federalist. “Critics worry that Frank’s presence on the campaign team could undercut Simon’s efforts to attract moderate voters in his race against Democrat Gray Davis,” the San Francisco Chronicle blared in a Sunday hit piece on the Bill Simon gubernatorial campaign. Frank responded to The Federalist, “They prefer to make me an issue, rather than talk about the Davis $22 billion budget deficit.”

In Kansas, Gov. Bill Graves announced his intent to veto the “Choose Life” license plate bill, commenting that he doesn’t believe car tags should be used for editorial comment.

Over the objections of one Cleveland Democrat, the Ohio State Senate approved a bill that would allow students to take advantage of a moment of silence, which the governor has already promised to sign if it passes State House muster. Opponents of the bill argued that the government shouldn’t allow students any particular opportunity to pray in school at all.

In business news…

Calling it a “jarring blow to the American psyche,” pollster Peter Hart described the effects of the moral and ethical lapses of businesses like Enron and Arthur Andersen, taken together with the scandal swamping the Catholic Church: “Each of these institutions that really represented the pinnacle of what we thought were our standards are suddenly being eroded.”

The “Non Compos Mentis” Department…

In West Chester, Pennsylvania, a federal judge ordered a Ten Commandments plaque on the façade of the Chester County Courthouse covered, ruling that its presence was tantamount to a civil endorsement of a particular religion. When workers attempted to cover the plaque, four protestors situated themselves in front of it, refusing to move. Police removed the four; none will face charges. This supposed First Amendment issue was raised by the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, an atheist group, and supported by the ACLU.

Court Jesters…

Sometimes snakes can eat their own tails! Attorney Paul Rein, who sued Clint Eastwood for deficient accommodations at his Carmel hotel (as defined by the"Americans With Disabilities Act"), was himself sued Tuesday. George Louie, executive director of Oakland-based Americans with Disabilities Advocates, filed federal suit alleging Rein’s office bathroom is not wheelchair friendly.

Culture comment…

The Raleigh, North Carolina, Triangle United Way is stripping member agency status (and hence funding) from the region’s Occoneechee Council of Boy Scouts of America, over the council’s refusal to guarantee the inclusion of homosexual Scout applicants. This is the latest BSA council affected by United Way cutouts, though this instance marks a striking new distinction. Instead of cutting funding based on BSA’s ban on homosexual Scout leaders, the decision to stiff the Scouts is based ostensibly on a refusal to include homosexuals as Scouts. In other words, supporting homosexual leadership of young boys does not resonate as well as it did prior to the homosexual pedophilia crisis in the Catholic Church. So the focus is now shifting to the inclusion of homosexual Scout applicants.

Faith Matters…

Wednesday concluded a two-day meeting at the Vatican, following a papal summons to the Cardinals to discuss the phenomenon of child sex abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II strongly condemned the sexual predators, saying in summation: “People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young. [Sexual molestation is] by every standard, wrong, and is rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God.”

The 12 American Cardinals, seemingly undeterred by the Holy Father’s decree, issued a joint statement offering a differentiation between priests characterized by “serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors” and one-time offenders considered “not notorious.” This initial policy statement (to be reviewed by the conference of U.S. bishops in June) stands in stark contrast to the Pope’s apparent admonition to implement a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual predators in the priesthood.

The Cardinals also noted a peculiar distinction: “Almost all the cases involved adolescents and therefore were not cases of true pedophilia.” What place does this comment have in a statement presumably outlining the Catholic hierarchy’s renewed commitment to weed out predatory homosexuals? Should one presume that the homosexual predation on adolescent youth is less sinful than homosexual predation on prepubescent youth?

This apparent corruption in the church – from the initial revelations to the statement issued by the Cardinals – illustrates the dangers inherent to hierarchical institutions where those endowed with power disassociate with those they are charged to serve. (Sound familiar?) Indicative of the disconnect between Cardinals and laity is the absence of any hierarchical call for the resignation of Boston’s Bernard Cardinal Law, acknowledged to have covered up the predatory actions of homosexual priests in his archdiocese by transferring them to new posts – and new victims. Ironically, Cardinal Law himself may be transferred to a new post in the Vatican before his scheduled deposition in a suit against the Boston archdiocese.

While the discussion at the Vatican emphasized the need for laity involvement in adjudicating these matters in the Church, the Cardinals’ statement offered no such involvement. The Federalist has been careful to recognize this corruption as predominantly limited to the church hierarchy and certainly not a reflection of Catholic laity. The Roman Catholics among our Editorial Board members stand united with millions of Catholics and Protestants alike in their outrage with the Catholic hierarchy’s continued lack or clarity and resolve to eradicate predatory homosexuality within the priesthood.

On the frontiers of science…

Just in time for Earth Day, a new order of insect has been discovered. (No, it isn’t a new Swamp nightcrawler – that left town over a year back….) The three known paperclip-sized insects, discovered by Danish and German researchers, have been placed in the new category “mantophasmatodea.” (Try saying that three times fast!)

On the frontiers of junk science…

Another Earth Day note: “Until federal regulators are forced to use sound science in the pursuit of species preservation, myopic mandates like the ESA [Endangered Species Act] will continue to make suckers of us all.” –Charles Rousseaux

Around the world…

While the world’s media have swallowed whole the massacre stories of the Palestinian Authority’s propaganda machine, it seems that a number of real Israeli soldiers have taken another approach. One group of soldiers in Tulkarm took up a collection among themselves for a Palestinian family whose home they had damaged. In Bethlehem, another group of IDF reservists passed around the turban for a Palestinian family after they had occupied the family’s home for 48 hours. In Bethlehem as well as Ramallah, soldiers have insisted on mopping the floors of Palestinian homes they have occupied before leaving, and chocolate bars for children have practically become standard issue equipment for the nonfiction version of the IDF soldier serving in the Palestinian territories. (Moreover, the Israeli government has announced charges against four IDF members alleged to have looted from Palestinian families. The rule of law can sort these disputes out much better than murderous counterstrikes ever could.)

Plus ça change…. In France’s presidential balloting over the weekend, Jean-Marie Le Pen took 17 percent of the votes, to survive into a general election race against current French President Jacques Chirac. Le Pen is derided as a bigot – nationalistic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic – but he wasn’t the recent French author of the description of Israel as a “s—-y little country.” That was France’s ambassador to London, from the “respected” French establishment. What will be refreshing is that the political debate, rather than being “All Left All The Time,” should at least touch on some conservative issues, although Monsieur Le President Chirac has vowed to never debate Le Pen at all: “In belonging to the French nation we are all united by our rejection of extremism, of racism, of anti-Semitism and of xenophobia. We all reject the simplistic brutal solutions that will always lead one day to the violence of the state. …In the face of intolerance and hate, no dealing is possible, no compromise is possible, no debate is possible. …France is confronted with a grave situation. What is at stake is its soul, its cohesion, its role in Europe and the world. …Europe is peace, Europe is democracy, Europe is liberty, Europe is prosperity.”

“Difficult as it may be to imagine a French national leader as arrogant, many voters nevertheless imagine they are, and gave the rest of us a good horse laugh,” was the dry remark of conservative analyst Wesley Pruden.

(When Le Pen says heads will roll if he is elected, he really means it – he intends to bring back capital sentencing and the guillotine.)

In less laughable European news, German authorities pronounced satisfaction at rounding up a Jihadi terror cell of 11 suspects believed mainly involved in support operations of providing documents, money and travel arrangements.

And last…

We are not making this stuff up…. Saddam Hussein has written a novel – his second, in fact – and it debuts today as a stage production in the Iraqi National Theater. Published anonymously as “A novel by its author,” Zabibah wal Malik (Zabibah and the King) is a romantic tragedy set during the 1991 U.S. invasion of Iraq. You can make up your own comment here!