Quote of the week…

“If a terrorist is breaking into the cockpit door and you shoot him with a firearm, that’s pretty conclusive. The gun in the cockpit is going to be used only when there are determined terrorist hijackers trying to get into the cockpit. You have two alternatives. Option A: The terrorists break through the door and crash the plane into the ground, killing everybody. Or Option B: Anything short of Option A has to be better.” –Air Line Pilots Association spokesman John Mazor

On cross-examination…

“The United States does more to defend the borders of Kosovo and Bosnia than it does to secure its own border with Mexico. How long can a country portrayed by its own educators as a bastion of white racism continue to bomb brown-skinned Muslims in a war on terror? We are told that the war on terror will last for years, but where is the belief system to sustain it? Will multiculturally indoctrinated youth kill and die for racist, sexist, hegemonic power?” –Paul Craig Roberts

Open Query…

“President George Bush has turned the Republican Party into an auxiliary of The National Council of La Raza. The Democrats, who view immigrants (the poorer and more ignorant, the better) as their natural constituency, love it. Still, poll after poll shows substantial majorities deeply troubled by the alien-ation of America. Will it take the rise of an American Le Pen to wake up Washington to our legitimate concerns? After Sept. 11, don’t count on Americans to be patient forever.” –Don Feder

The BIG lie…

“We’ve got to play by the rules we have now…. I’m not going to tie one or both arms behind my back and expect to compete effectively with my Republican colleagues.” –Senate Demo Leader Tom Daschle, on why he is pulling in campaign bucks hand over fist, despite railing against the “corruption” or “appearance” of corruption in political fund-raising. Follow the money! The Demos sure do!

And the Demos are applying much of that graft for an ad campaign claiming George Bush broke his promise to balance the budget and pay down the debt. Conspicuously absent in this BIG lie’s assertion that somehow President Bush’s tax cut is responsible for the reversal of federal revenue fortunes is any mention of budget issues related to 9-11 – the economic collapse it precipitated and the cost of our war against Jihadistan.

News from the Swamp…

Team Bush took a couple of positions with the UN this week – one good and one bad. The good: In an excellent move back rightward this week, administration representatives negotiating in preparation for the upcoming UN Child Summit switched sides to oppose broadening the definition of “family” to include unmarried and homosexual partners, as “the family, in its various forms.” (An anonymous U.S. delegate explained the prior bad positioning: “Obviously we feel this more reflects the families of today, which are headed by single parents and extended families.”) The bad: The U.S. delegation to the UN Economic and Social Council was silent in a 29-17 vote to refuse reinstating “nongovernmental organization” approval to the International Lesbian and Gay Association, as ILGA has not yet proved it has cut ties to pedophile groups including the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

(And in a UN footnote, the U.S. was voted back on the UN’s Human Rights Commission – right along with Red China, so that means a whole lot – NOT!)

In the House of Commons, speaking of the “good, bad and ugly,” a couple of legislative proposals surfaced for dealing with security vulnerabilities acknowledged after 9-11 – one good and one bad enough to qualify as ugly! The good: arming airline pilots. Florida Republican Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, introduced a bill requiring a rapid deployment program to qualify and deputize volunteer pilots within 90 days of enactment. “This is something that we feel desperately needs to be done,” said Capt. Steve Luckey, commercial pilot for Northwest Airlines and chairman of the National Security Committee for the Air Line Pilots Association. Transportation Secretary “Underperformin’” Norman Mineta has led the opposition, however: “I’ve expressed a personal opinion on this. I don’t feel that we should have lethal weapons in the cockpit.”

The ugly, from two Virginians: Demo Rep. Jim Moran (AKA “Moron” around our shop) and Republican Rep. Tom Davis introduced legislation to standardize all state-issued driver’s licenses, and to require those licenses to carry a computer chip and hold a unique personal identifier. The bill further sets aside $315 million in “federal” funds for linking state computer systems to share information on the mandated licenses. Quick, somebody explicate the concept of “federalism” to these guys! Demanding states bow to a nationalized ID card is completely contrary to the Constitution! (And if that is not ugly enough, the bill stipulates the driver’s license must provide space for consumer information lots of companies are panting to get.)

In the House of Lords, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch decided to join up with the Leftist death dealers by supporting “therapeutic” cloning research but offering what therefore constitutes token opposition to “reproductive” cloning to birth new human embryos, saying, “We must craft a law to make sure that human beings are not cloned. At the same time, we must not stand in the way of scientific advances that hold the promise of treatments and cures.” Hatch now stands against the better Senate legislation shepherded by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and favored by President Bush. Risibly, Hatch made up his mind with the realization that human life “requires and begins in a mother’s nurturing womb,” not a petri dish. Family Research Council’s Ken Connor rightly deemed that logic “empty sophistry,” and National Right to Life’s Douglas Johnson rebutted Hatch’s illogic, “This bill does not prohibit the creation of cloned humans; it allows human cloning but then requires the death of each cloned human embryo.” (Hatch is a former campaign client of White House political adviser Karl Rove – and we think Mr. Bush had better dispatch Rove for a chat with his old associate!)

Judicial Benchmarks…

In the halls of justice on the right, a former California high school valedictorian settled his lawsuit against his old school for $59,000. In 1999, Oroville High School barred Jason Niemeyer from delivering a graduation speech mentioning Jesus Christ, or a revision that was merely “religious,” and then barred him from the ceremony entirely – so he sued for violation of his First Amendment rights. (The school decided to settle when the case wasn’t thrown out but was about to go to the jury.)

Elsewhere in right court reasoning, the Supremes handed down a 5-4 decision against the Americans with Disabilities Act on behalf of the rights of employers. The suit charged that the ADA gives “physically challenged” employees exemptions when qualifying for seniority. The court disagreed, “We can find nothing in the [ADA] that suggests Congress intended to undermine seniority systems.”

In the halls of injustice on the left, just before fishing season was to open Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler gave the thumbs down to New England fishermen, issuing more onerous than expected restrictions to protect depleted cod, haddock and other groundfish. Environmentalists had filed the suit charging the National Marine Fisheries Service had not adequately prevented overfishing. Let’s see – the fish or the fisherman! A decision that really ought to be thrown back, we think!

Elsewhere in the Leftjudiciary, Clinton appointee U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff demanded the DOJ show evidence of the constitutionality of the death penalty within two weeks before he renders a ruling that capital punishment is in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s “due process” clause. Somebody forward a copy of the Bill of Rights over to Mr. Rakoff – one that also includes the Tenth Amendment.

From the Left…

From the “Clinton Presidue” Files, oily Slick is back in the news. Off the Leftcoast, is Red pals in the People’s Republic of North Korea requested that Clinton mediate their relations with the U.S. (No “Axis” too evil for Bill, apparently!)

Back home, the boy president’s $200 million presidential library is hurting for cash, but the former First Ego is not. His latest folly is conspiring with NBC to launch his own Leftist propaganda “talk show” – for $50 million a year. (That should take care of the library problem – with enough left over to buy a few corndogs and cigars!) Clinton now aspires to be the best black yada yada host since Oprah. Regarding his qualifications, Clinton told a Harlem crowd, “I gave the State of the Union, and they didn’t even have a teleprompter. I had to stand up there and fake it for 15 minutes before 100 million people. Some people think I faked it for eight years before 100 million people.” (Make that 275 million.)

Speaking of his blackness, DePaul University Professor Michael Eric Dyson railed at our “first black president” at a fund-raiser over the weekend for having “exploited black sentiment because he knew the rituals of black culture … like no other president before him.”

The Commissars…

Appearing at the National Press Club this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson demurred answering questions about privacy intrusions involving sharing of medical records without patients’ explicit consent. And for good reason! Privacy advocates have challenged the Bush administration over HHS plans to hold over (and actually worsen) Clinton era regulations allowing health care providers to use or disclose medical records for purposes of treatment, payment, or “health care operations.” The proposed changes treat medical information not as patient property but as regulated data belonging to the “health care system”; patients might inspect their records, make corrections and learn about disclosures.

Regarding the redistribution of your income…

Congress doesn’t want you to know exactly how they are shipping out your money! Nor how they vote your bucks out of your pockets! The House moved up – and passed by voice vote only – the reauthorization of U.S. tax dollars to the Export-Import Bank. This “lender” is notorious for funneling your money to such grateful recipients as Red China and Enron Corporation.

From the department of military readiness…

May is “Military Appreciation Month,” which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described rightly as “a chance for all Americans to recognize the sacrifice that our men and women in uniform are making to defend this country. In time of war, needless to say, we are particularly grateful for their dedication and for their selfless service.”

From the department of military correctness…

The House Armed Services Committee Wednesday held firm for exemptions from environmental laws that hamper armed forces training, thereby damaging military readiness. The proposed measure permits military bases with a natural resources management plan exemption from Endangered Species Act habitat protections, and removes penalties for accidental killings of migratory birds. California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter put the debate in context: “We are trying to take care of a very important endangered species, and that’s the American fighting man or woman. Our ability to train people well is in jeopardy.”

From the states…

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura shuttered the governor’s mansion Tuesday, and laid off most of its staff. (The 20-room English Tudor official residence would cost around $375,000 to run in the next fiscal year.) The former wrestler is locked in a budget grapple with the state legislature over how to close a $2 billion deficit. The legislators passed a budget over Ventura’s veto, and we suspect they will leave his mansion in the dark!

On the Left Coast, President Bush dropped by to help Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon raise some money – around $4.5 million this time out. The Federalist has been urging Mr. Bush to offer more than lukewarm support to Mr. Simon, and we are gratified the president has followed our counsel! But this is none too soon, as sitting Demo Gov. Gray Davis this week rolled out his plans for reparations payments to descendants of former slaves. At a joint appearance with shakedown-meister Je$$e Ja¢k$on, Davis touted his signature charging the California Department of Insurance to demand insurance companies release documents listing slaves and former slaveholders. (The list was published Wednesday.)

Memo to Gray: Polish up your state history; California was always a “free” state.

And the Illinois State Rifle Association is warning police officers that they may be targets … of other police officers. How so? The Chicago Anti-Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit may raid the homes of police department employees, ISRA alerts, under a recent department directive advising “CPD (Chicago Police Department) employees to dispose of many of their personally owned firearms by May 1, 2002 or face the consequences. …[Firearms subject to the disposal order include a previously published list of so-called ‘assault weapons’ as well as many of the rifles typically used to hunt deer and other game in the state.” And in the Windy City, the source of these anti-Second Amendment emanations, Mayor Richard Daley, threatened pro-gun group Concealed Carry Inc. for its offer of a free gun to anyone demonstrating good reason for ownership: “If you can just give guns out and someone goes out, injures or kills somebody, you better have a good lawyer because they’re going to come right after you. And you better believe the corporation counsel and every lawyer in Chicago will go after them, and the victim’s family will go after them, too.”

In economic news…

Thomas Sowell says, “An economic forecaster once pointed out that, in ancient times, predictions were based on reading the entrails of sheep. He added, ‘– and it still takes guts to make forecasts’.”

In business news…

The latest target of Greenmail is Staples, the office supply chain. Econuts are applying political pressure to force Staples into abandoning “old growth” trees as paper product sources.

Court Jesters…

And just what makes for legal standing? Maybe just being able to stand erect? Harvard Professor Larry Tribe is now publicizing his view that the Constitution actually covers the rights of such “nonhuman persons” as chimpanzees because “nowhere does it state that only humans are covered.” Hey, we’ve held the view that a “right” is a “just claim” – and therefore the rights-bearer must have capability to express that claim. But what do we know – we’re only human constitutional constructionists….

Culture comment…

On the heels of the high profile crisis in the Catholic Church, homosexual activists are rallying all their Leftmedia resources to make sure there is no stated or implied suggestion of a correlation between so-called “gays” and pedophilia or pederasty. However, as with the homosexual assault on the Boy Scouts of America, The Federalist is calling these clerical sodomites what they are – homosexual predators. While we do not conclude that all homosexuals abuse children and adolescents in their charge, we do conclude that almost all assaults on male children are committed by homosexuals.

Typical of the obfuscation of facts in defense of homosexuals, clinical psychologist Gary Schoener, who treats cleric child molesters, reports, “There are far more heterosexual cases than homosexual.” Of course, there are far more heterosexuals than there are homosexuals (just 2% of the population according to the CDC).

And what are the facts? Current research conducted by psychologist Eugene Abel finds that homosexual predators “sexually molest young boys with an incidence that is occurring five times greater than the molestation of girls,” and that non-incarcerated homosexual child molesters “admitted from 23.4 to 281.7 acts per offender.”

Dr. Judith Reisman says, “The rate of homosexual versus heterosexual child sexual abuse is staggering. Abel’s data of 150.2 boys abused per male homosexual offender finds no equal in heterosexual [assaults on girls].” But you won’t read or hear the words “homosexual” used by the Leftmedia in connection with these cases because, as Dr. Reisman notes, “The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association recently boasted that although homosexuals are less than 2% of the population, 75% of the people who decide the content of the front page of the New York Times are homosexual.”

A comprehensive study in “Psychological Reports” concluded, after reviewing 19 studies and peer-reviewed reports, “Scientific studies confirm a strong pedophilic predisposition among homosexuals.” And: “Overwhelming evidence supports the belief that homosexuality is a sexual deviancy often accompanied by disorders that have dire consequences for our culture,” writes Steve Baldwin in a new study, “Child Molestation and the Homosexual Movement.” “It is difficult to convey the dark side of the homosexual culture without appearing harsh. However, it is time to acknowledge that homosexual behavior threatens the foundation of Western civilization – the nuclear family.”

A friend of The Federalist, American Spectator’s Bob Tyrrell, writes, “I have to conclude that the Boy Scouts of America are vindicated.” We second that, Bob! Meanwhile, those advocating homosexual predation on children, and their Leftmedia promoters, are still on the loose!

Larry Kramer, founder of the homosexual activist group ACT-UP, writes, “In those instances where children do have sex with their homosexual elders, be they teachers or anyone else, I submit that often, very often, the child desires the activity, and perhaps even solicits it.” The Journal of Homosexuality, edited by San Francisco State University professor John DeCecco, recently published a special double-issue entitled, “Male Intergenerational Intimacy,” advocating “man-boy” sexual relationships and suggesting that parents should treat pedophiles and pederasts “not as a rival or competitor…but as a partner in the boy’s upbringing, someone to be welcomed into their home.”

According to Judith Levine’s new book, “Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex,” sex between children and adults is beneficial: “Sex is not harmful to children. It is a vehicle to self-knowledge, love, healing, creativity, adventure, and intense feelings of aliveness. There are many ways even the smallest children can partake of it.” And directly targeting children, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national organization of homosexual K-12 educators and students, has joined ranks with Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to promote the teaching of “homosexual normalcy” in government schools.

Faith Matters…

Regarding homosexual predators, Boston’s Bernard Cardinal Law is scheduled to be deposed on June 5 in connection with his “protection” of homosexual pedophile, Rev. Paul Shanley, who was arrested in California Thursday. Sources confirm that Law will be reassigned to the Vatican prior to deposition, with indications that the Vatican will then not permit one of its Cardinals to be subjected to legal deposition or further civil action. The state is under firm obligation to prosecute clergy who are accused of civil crimes, including those like Law, who showed complicity toward such acts. The office of a senior authority such as Cardinal Law – does not shield him from responsibility – though the arrogance shown by Law would imply his views to the contrary. Should the Vatican circumvent this process by “promoting” Law to a post at the Vatican, the implication is that the Church does not hold its officers to the highest moral standards – at a time when the Church needs to demonstrate it does hold them accountable.

Around the world…

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf submitted his continuation in office to voter referendum – and was given overwhelming approval for five more years. Although democratic parties boycotted the election, over 98% of voters favored Musharraf. Despite the fact that Musharraf entered the Pakistani presidency through a 1999 military coup, he has since demonstrated some commitment to his pledges to restoring democratic practice and rooting out corruption. Chief among his achievements has been siding with the United States in the war against Jihadi terrorists that began in neighboring Afghanistan – despite substantial Pakistani support for Islamic extremism. Of course, Rangers and Marines were planning to visit Pakistan’s mountainous border with Pakistan – invitation or not!

And last…

An appeals court in Britain has upheld a travel ban on Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in place since 1986. The British government considers Farrakhan a potential menace to religious and race relations in the country … they may be on to something.