Quote of the week…

“No nation can be totally secure or more secure unless we’re well protected, and unless our borders are well screened. We must know who’s coming into our country and why they’re coming. We must know what our visitors are doing, and when they leave. That’s important for us to know; the knowledge is necessary to make our homeland more secure.” –President George W. Bush, this week signing the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act. (The bill: provides for 400 more Immigration and Naturalization investigators and inspectors processing the 500 million people that cross U.S. borders each year; hikes pay for border patrol agents; creates a database of suspected terrorists accessible at every entry point; provides for machine readable biometric information on entry visas; and bans without special exemption entry from terror-sponsoring nations.)

Open Query…

“When people talk about a ‘peace process,’ they are usually talking about something that matches their preconception that negotiations end wars. But, if we are really interested in peace, then we have to look at the hard evidence of what has in fact led to peace. What ended the Cold War with the Soviet Union? Was it all the ‘summit meetings’ that took place for decades on end, while the Soviets sponsored wars of aggression around the world? Or was it Ronald Reagan’s much-lamented ‘arms race’ of the 1980s that put the Soviet economy under more strain than it could handle?” –Thomas Sowell

News from the Swamp…

In the Executive Branch, in a ceremony honoring free market advocate Dr. Milton Friedman, the president noted, “Milton Friedman has shown us that when government attempts to substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the results are usually disastrous….” Then, without missing a beat, he set aside his rhetorical devotion to free markets and signed a “farm bill” providing billions of dollars in new subsidies for bread-basket states – $83 billion more over ten years than the cost of the current programs.

Clearly, the strategic cost of regaining Senate control is getting higher by the minute!

In the House of Commons, pro-family proponents of the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution introduced the measure Wednesday; the text, written by Professors Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law School and Robert George of Princeton University is simply this: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.” While The Federalist is reluctant to resort to amending the Constitution, we support this one. We believe advocates of this amendment are correct in asserting that, absent a constitutional amendment, Leftist and activist judges would otherwise faultily attempt to overturn “natural law” by over-interpretation of “equal protection” and “full faith and credit” arguments to redefine homosexual couplings as the possible legal equivalent of marriage.

The House Appropriations Committee passed a $30 billion emergency spending bill to authorize additional money for post-9/11 response and reconstruction efforts. Late last week, the committee voted 32 to 31 to unfreeze $34 million previously slated for the UN’s international “family planning” program, which the Bush administration had frozen out of concern the spending pays for abortions – and tacked the amendment onto the supplemental appropriations bill. (The bill had also included money for the Crusader howitzer.) Both objectionable attempts to override White House discretion on the issues were stripped from the bill that eventually passed.

Footnote: Demo Rep. James McDermott finally acknowledged leaking to the media a recording of a phone call between Rep. John Boehner and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, violating federal wiretapping laws against disclosing information obtained by illegally intercepting a “wire, oral or electronic communication.” McDermott claims that release was an exercise of his First Amendment rights.

Speaking of “free speech,” Rep. Walter Jones introduced the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act in an effort to overturn restrictions on political speech from the pulpit. In committee testimony, Rev. D. James Kennedy quoted Chief Justice Rehnquist on the dubiousness of the “wall of separation” mantra: “The ‘wall of separation between church and State’ is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging.”

In the House of Lords, not much other than trying to find out “what President Bush knew and when he knew it.”

And a final note from the Capitol Hill: Nancy Reagan returned to Washington and accepted a well-deserved recognition for herself and former President Ronald Reagan, receiving the Congressional Gold Medal, the “highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions.” President Bush noted: “His name will always stand for courage and consistency, for patriotism and resolve, and for humor and optimism. … He would look at the spirit and sacrifice of the firefighters, police officers, men and women of our military, average Americans, [since 9-11] and he’d be proud. He wouldn’t be surprised. He knew the courage and decency and generosity at the heart of this country, because he shared it and he embodied it.”

Indeed, and our grateful prayers and warm wishes are with Nancy and our beloved mentor Ronald Reagan – for the service they devoted to our nation.

Judicial Benchmarks…

In the halls of injustice on the left, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 5-4, that the University of Michigan’s law school admission policies factoring in race are permissible. Judge Danny Boggs and three colleagues dissented boldly, “This case involves a straightforward instance of racial discrimination by a state institution. Other than in the highly charged context of discrimination in educational decisions in favor of ‘underrepresented minorities,’ the constitutional justifications offered for this practice would not pass even the slightest scrutiny.” Now, the matter is on to the Supremes!

The BIG lie…

“We know it’s the Republicans’ strategy to use the war for political gain, but I would hope that even the most cynical partisan operative would have cowered at the notion of exploiting the Sept. 11 tragedy in this way.” –Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, on Republicans giving supporters several photos of President Bush at critical junctures in his young presidency – including one of him on Air Force One in conversation with Dick Cheney on 9-11. McAuliffe referred to the photos use as “incredibly disrespectful to the families of the thousands of Americans who lost their lives just hours before this photo was taken.” Of course, this criticism was timed to coincide with the political “revelation” that the president knew about the 9-11 attack in advance. (Perhaps McAuliffe would have deemed the photos acceptable if exchanged for $50-grand from a Buddhist temple.)

From the Left…

More effluent from “Most Ethical Administration” this week: Bill Clinton did some plowing for Albert Gore this week. “He hasn’t told me yet whether he’s going to run,” said Clinton. “If he does, of course, at the outset he would be the frontrunner, but I think he recognizes that under these circumstances, like every other Democrat, he’ll have to make his case, but obviously he’s got a lot of friends around America and a lot of people that know we won the popular vote last time and a lot of people think we won the vote in Florida last time. I’m one of them.” Clinton speculated that Hillary will run in ‘04 – but on the bottom of the Sociocrat ticket. (That would be the friendliest Democrat ticket since Kennedy-Johnson!)

Regarding the redistribution of your income…

Last week, we noted that the “black hole” in the President’s homeland security budget was aviation security, where some of the measures serve no reasonable purpose and others are open invitations for pork-barrel spending. This week, Congress is contemplating doubling passenger “fees” for airport security. Currently, federal taxes on alcohol are 11%, on cigarettes, 18%, and on an average airplane ticket – 26%. The taxes on the first two are designed to discourage their use. You may draw your own conclusion about the consumer impact of taxes on the latter.

From the department of military readiness…

Saturday is Armed Forces Day, that day first set aside in 1949 by President Harry Truman to recognize the unification of the Armed Forces under the Department of Defense and to acknowledge the extraordinary dedication of Americans in uniform standing ready in harm’s way at home and around the world. In the words of President Dwight Eisenhower, “It is fitting and proper that we devote one day each year to paying special tribute to those whose constancy and courage constitute one of the bulwarks guarding the freedom of this nation and the peace of the free world.” To all our fellow patriots in uniform, we offer our heartfelt gratitude for your sacrifice and prayers for your safety!

From the states…

California is sinking! Not from an earthquake slipping the Left Coast into the sea; we only mean that the formerly Golden State in now awash in red ink. Demo Gov. Gray Davis Tuesday blamed the sour economy for a $23.6 billion “shortfall” in state income tax collections. Davis admitted that upper bracket Californios and flagging Silicon Valley dot-commers hadn’t paid as much into state coffers as expected – which makes likely some program cuts and increases in such other taxes as vehicle registration fees and tobacco levies. A scant two months ago, Davis had promised, “I want to give you every assurance that taxes will not be increased…. If individuals have to tighten their belts…the government has to find a way to tighten its belt.”

But Gov. Davis is caught up in other financial ledger-demain. Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Association, reports that in a meeting in the governor’s private Capitol office, and at a school district office two weeks later, Davis said, “I need $1 million from you guys [at CTA].” And there are further embarrassing revelations about a no-bid state contract awarded to software purveyor Oracle, right about the same time (a year ago) Oracle gave a hefty $25,000 campaign donation to Gov. Davis.

People’s Republic of Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening halted all state executions – including one corrections officials were scheduled to carry out next week – that of Wesley Eugene Baker – until a study of whether the death penalty has been applied fairly is completed and analyzed. Baker was convicted of shooting and killing Jane Tyson and stealing her purse, as she and two of her grandchildren were getting into her Buick, on June 6, 1991, at a mall near her Catonsville home. Her ATM card and the gun used to shoot her were found in Baker’s car after he was pursued from the scene. Of course, the moratorium was issued in the interest of recruiting black voters for goob candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Tennessee now leads the nation in the issuance of handgun “concealed carry” permits. According to the latest stats, 2.6 of every 100 Tennessee residents have completed the state’s comparatively rigorous training requirements for such permits. Despite complaints from “concealed carry” critics, crimes involving the use of a handgun by permit holders are very rare among – and, notably, crimes involving the use of handguns by criminals are also down.

In business news…

AOL Timer Warner posted its biggest quarterly loss in the history of the company, pushing its stock price down to $17 per share. (AOL has, on more than one occasion, blacklisted The Federalist, preventing our 20,000 AOL readers from receiving their posts.) The loss is the largest of an industry-wide media flatline on profits, seconded by CBS’s $1.1 billion loss.

The “Non Compos Mentis” Department…

Wednesday’s Chronicle noted the latest “zero tolerance” example from government schools: Seven fourth-graders at Dry Creek Elementary School (Centennial, Colorado) were suspended for playing a game of soldiers and aliens and pointing their fingers like firearms during the mock battles. School Principal Darci Mickle defended the decision, saying, “'No tolerance’ means more than just a warning, because that would mean tolerance.”

A few other examples of this idiocy from around the nation: Four kindergarten students playing cops-and-robbers were given three-day suspensions; an 8-year-old boy was suspended for three days after pointing a chicken finger at a teacher and saying, “Pow, pow, pow”; two second-graders playing cops-and-robbers were charged with making terrorist threats.

Court Jesters…

Eleven Mexicans died attempting to illegally enter the U.S., and it’s the U.S. government’s fault. At least that’s the claim in a suit brought against the U.S. by the families of the deceased border jumpers. According to the group’s attorneys, the government is at fault for refusing to supply water: “It would have cost the government nothing to put water stations in, as it had done in other locations.” The plaintiffs seek $3.75 million for each of the deceased illegals.

Culture comment…

The results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, released this week, showed little or no improvement in student knowledge. Testing stats show that less than 50% of high school seniors could detail historical events such as the Monroe Doctrine, Nat Turner’s rebellion and the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Faith Matters…

Concerning the current scandal over homosexual pedophilia and pederasty in the Catholic Church, Charles Colson recently commented, “George Orwell, of 1984 fame, once wrote that he lived in an age when stating the obvious was the first duty of intelligent men. We live in such an age. We must … state the obvious: that homosexuality, not celibacy, is the problem in the Catholic Church. And we state it even when the media insists on ignoring it, for we must not allow their cluelessness to become ours.” Father Donald B. Cozzens, author of “The Changing Face of the Priesthood,” is just as willing to state the obvious: “The real problem the Catholic Church faces [is the] disproportionate number of gay men that populate our seminaries. I think we have to ask the question: Why are 90 to 95%, and some estimates say as high as 98% of the victims of clergy acting out against teen-agers, boys? Why isn’t there … a higher percentage of teen-age girls?” Bishop Wilton Gregory, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, has indicated that the time has come to address this real root of the problem – the toleration of homosexuality in Catholic seminaries. While theological liberals in the Church have questioned priestly celibacy for decades, the Church’s position on vows of celibacy became a prominent question in the 1970’s as the declining number of men seeking admittance to the priesthood and monastic orders became a serious issue for the survival of a vibrant Catholic Church. While this crisis of numbers did not change the Church’s position on celibacy, it did invite relaxed standards of admission and greater toleration in U.S. Catholic seminaries – you guessed it – especially regarding the admission of homosexuals pursuing the priesthood. So it would seem that there is a correlation between homosexuality and the problems of priestly pedophilia and pederasty, but it is a problem of the Catholic Church’s own making. Regardless of the position one chooses to take on priestly celibacy, a connection with homosexual behavior simply does not exist.

On the frontiers of science…

A group of real scientists spoke out Monday, debunking hysterical claims that “global warming” will soon ruin the planet. University of Virginia Professor S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist, summed up: “The balance of evidence suggests that there has been no appreciable warming since 1940. This would indicate that the human effects on climate must be quite small. The sun is responsible for most, and perhaps all of the short-term climate changes we observe.” And about those “greenhouse gases,” geologist Dr. Ulrich Berner added, “The climate of the past has varied under natural conditions without the influence of humans. There are numerous temperature changes which are not mimicked by the CO2 concentration. Carbon dioxide doesn’t police climatic changes. Climatic changes have always occurred and will for the future always occur.” A timely assessment, as you will recall from last week’s reporting that California’s Left Coast Assembly is seriously considering legislation to heavily reduce automobile emissions of carbon dioxide under the incorrect view that this will stave off global climate change. And, no doubt, such a bad California law would soon migrate to pollute the rest of our country.

Around the world…

The Leftmedia made much ado over former President Jimmy Carter’s sojourn in Cuba – they love the color combination of Reds and pastel rhetoric. (Some around our editorial shop call this Carter’s “Habitat for Insanity” tour.) In his televised speech to the Cuban people from Havana University, Carter attempted to split the difference between favoring tyranny and defending freedom. “Cuba has adopted a socialist government where one political party dominates and people are not permitted to organize any opposition movements. Your constitution recognizes freedom of speech and association, but other laws deny these freedoms to those who disagree with the government.” Notably, Mr. Carter criticized the U.S. on human rights and the trade embargo with Maximum Leader Fidel Castro’s island prison. And he further broke with U.S. interests by saying he saw no evidence of Cuban bioweapons development – a charge reiterated by the State Department last week.

Regarding Mr. Carter’s courting of Cuba’s Red tyrant, President Bush replied, “Fidel Castro is a dictator and he is repressive. And he ought to have free elections. And he ought to have a free press. And he ought to free his prisoners. And he ought to encourage free enterprise.” Ironically, Monday is Cuban Independence Day.

And last…

(Content warning from The Federalist Editor for Standards and Practices…) One might only speculate what Mr. Carter, former Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation in the world, had to say to Castro privately, but one would hope he did not share this passage from his recent book, “The Virtues of Aging”: “When I was married at the age of 22 and relishing an active sex life, I assumed that this was a pleasure that my middle-aged parents rarely, if ever, enjoyed. Now, well past 70, Rosalynn and I have learned to accommodate each other’s desires….” Well, you get the picture – and it ain’t pretty! Carter’s Mom, Miss Lillian, has taken a different approach to foreign diplomacy: “Sometimes, when I look at all my children, I say to myself, ‘Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin’.” We think she is on to something!